Great North Mountain: Big Schloss and Little Schloss – Booster shots to become available – Governor Abbott and Texas school districts – The sad case of the Daniel family – An anti-vaxxer recants – Evening statistics
I led a hike yesterday for the Vigorous Hikers, going along an 18-mile loop in the Great North Mountain area that included views from the rock formations known as Big Schloss and Little Schloss, both of which resemble battlements. The forecast included some rain in the afternoon, but the area where we roamed remained dry. And happily, the torrid temperatures of the preceding week have moderated. It was quite humid, of course, but the temperature was never more than 80 degrees at the most. Not many people attended, on account of the uncertain weather and the long drive; it is approximately a two-hour trip from our usual departure point in Centreville to the parking area. The sky was overcast, but not to a degree to interfere with the splendid views to be seen from both. The two “castles” are on opposite sides of the valley that encompasses the Stony Creek watershed, well under 2 miles apart as the crow flies, but requiring about 9 miles of walking along trails to reach one from the other. Little Schloss, which we visited first, actually has the more challenging climb of the two, for the spur trail leading up to it ends at a point about 70 feet below the summit, and going up to the top is rather a scramble. Big Schloss is the more frequently visited of the two, since it can be reached relatively easily coming from the opposite direction of the Wolf Gap recreation area. Even though we saw no one else on any other part of the hike, we did encounter three or four people at its summit. Under these circumstances it gives an added zest to the view from Big Schloss to espy Little Schloss across the valley. Even though I have done this hike more than once, when I gaze upon the high ridges and trace the length of the route I have just traversed along both sides of the valley I find myself exclaiming, “Did I really do that?” We maintained a fairly brisk pace, starting close to 9:00 and finishing between 3:30 and 3:45, pausing for lunch where Sandstone Spring crosses the Mill Mountain Trail and on both of the castles to take in the views.
Coming down from the mountains I returned with reluctance to the concerns of daily life, with the ever-increasing spread of the virus taking pre-eminence. The CDC has recommended that vaccinated people get a booster shot eight months after receiving their second dose, and the Biden administration has announced that boosters will be available for distribution starting on September 20th. There are differing opinions as to how necessary they are. The WHO has said that current data does not confirm a need for booster shots and European Union officials say that they are not distributing them to the general population, although they are making them available to seniors and to immuno-compromised people. However, the CDC has some justification for being more cautious than either of these agencies. The U.S. is regrettably now the world leader again both in rate of new infections and rate of new deaths. The increase for today accounts for over 22% of new infections and 10% of new deaths globally.
Yet another politician who has done his best to thwart efforts to contain the virus has become infected: Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, who has forbidden all school districts in the state to impose a mask mandate. It is to be noted that he is not an anti-vaxxer – having received a vaccine himself in 2020, well before they became available to the general public – and that his case is not serious. In all fairness, he is showing some prudence by isolating himself in the governor’s mansion and receiving antibody treatment. The announcement that he became infected occurred just a day after he posted a picture of himself on the Internet, not wearing a mask while speaking indoors near Dallas to a group of Republicans, most of whom were likewise unmasked.
For that matter, Texas school districts are openly defying the ban he has striven to impose. The superintendents in Dallas and Austin have issued a mask mandate for all schools in their districts, and health authorities for the city of San Antonio and of Bexar County health authority have followed suit for their schools. One school district has come up with a novel method for defying Abbott’s ban on a mask mandate. The Paris Independent School District, which contains about 4,000 students, has made facemasks a part of the schools’ dress code.
An unvaccinated couple in Georgia has fallen to COVID, although in this case their resistance to the vaccines is sadly understandable. All members of the family contracted the disease in June, and Martin and Trina Daniel died within hours of each other, leaving behind two teen-aged children. Martin Daniel was a chemist and, as his nephew explained afterwards, trusted vaccines that had had a long history of effectivity, such as the polio vaccine. But he was wary of the COVID vaccines, feeling that they had been developed too hastily. It is true that their development was accelerated, but the technology have been prepared for over the course of several years and when the pandemic began government funding for completing it was contributed to an unprecedented degree. However, Daniel had an additional reason for mistrusting vaccines in general: the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, which charted the progression of syphilis in black men who were unaware of that they carried the disease, who never gave consent for being subject to experimentation, and who were not provided with treatment, even though penicillin became available in 1943 for combatting it. Daniel was not alone in looking upon vaccines with mistrust for this reason: the amount of vaccinated African-Americans lags behind the amount of vaccinated whites by 11 percentage points. The Daniels had actually become reconciled to the idea of vaccinated and they were scheduled to receive vaccines in mid-July; but they contracted the disease in late June and it quickly spiraled out of control by July 4th. Martin Daniel died on July 6th and Trina’s death followed just hours later. Miles and Marina Daniel, the two children, came down with milder cases and were battling the disease at the time of their parents’ death. They were released from the hospital on July 7th, but had to quarantine for two weeks – a severe restriction under any circumstances, but doubly so when coping with the loss of both parents in rapid succession. They are now planning to get vaccinated, not trusting to the antibodies alone that they acquired through surviving a bout of the disease.
Other skeptics are being swayed by the influx of new cases and deaths. Roger West, of Callahan, FL, was a vehement anti-vaxxer who repeatedly, as co-owner of the Westside Journal weekly newspaper, issued opinion columns to discourage his readers from getting the vaccines. “I do not trust the Federal Government,” he wrote recently. “I do not trust Dr. Fauci, I do not trust the medical profession, nor the pharmaceutical giants.” But shortly afterwards three of his friends came down with the virus and one of them died. At that point West’s mother and other relatives urged him to get vaccinated, and he decided to follow their advice.
Yesterday’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 209,326,903; # of deaths worldwide: 4,393,412; # of cases U.S.: 37,886,998; # of deaths; U.S.: 640,073.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 210,075,393; # of deaths worldwide: 4,405,342; # of cases U.S.: 38,065,433; # of deaths; U.S.: 641,306. Today’s death toll was over 1,000. We have slipped in the ranking of nations by COVID mortality rate, now occupying the 20th instead of the 21st place.