Mike Pence besieged again – American vaccinations – International travel – Evening statistics
Mike Pence was roundly booed today at a so-called “Christian” conference (specifically, the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference in Kissimmee, FL) because he did not undermine the process that ratified Biden’s victory on January 6th (and indeed he never had the legal power to do so, even in the unlikely event that he wished for it). He was saluted with such epithets as “traitor” and “Judas” and “King of the Jews” – no, wait, that last one was shouted at a different event. It’s not that I regard Pence as another Christ figure, surely I cannot be the only one who believes that the members of this crowd are spiritual descendants of those who cried out “Give us Barabbas!” on a certain occasion in the 1st century AD.
Americans have received about three hundred million vaccination shots within the past five months that Biden has been in office. The pace of vaccinations is still slowing, notably in the Southern states, and the fraction of adults who have received at least one dose will probably be about 67% on July 4th at this rate, rather than the 70% Biden had targeted. Still, over 55% of all adults have been fully vaccinated. The figures for seniors are especially encouraging: 77% are fully vaccinated and over 87% have received more than one dose. The most vulnerable segment of the population might therefore be said to be well-protected. Both Biden and Harris are vigorously campaigning for more people to receive their doses. Those who receive only one dose are much more likely than those who are fully vaccinated to contract the so-called Delta variant, which the CDC describes as a “variant of concern” and which accounts for 99% of new cases in the U.K.
The U.S., as well as Albania, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Macau, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Serbia, and Taiwan, has been added to a so-called “white list” of countries whose residents may travel to nations in the European Union, provided that they are vaccinated. This does not mean, of course, that international travel will return to normal in the near future. There are several dozen countries that the CDC rates as “Level 4,” in which COVID is so virulent that travel to them should be avoided by the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. Countries such as Belgium, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Sweden are included in this category; so, interestingly, is North Korea, even though it officially has no recorded COVID cases. Clearly the CDC does not place much credence on such claims. France, where a group of us had originally planned to visit in September is now in the “Level 3” category, acceptable for traveling among vaccinated visitors but not recommended for unvaccinated ones. The trip was canceled on account of the uncertainty as to whether or not travelers would have to spend time in quarantine after deplaning. It now appears that we could have undertaken the trip after all, but I am just as well satisfied to defer international travel until the situation settles down there a bit and the number of people vaccinated in European and Asian countries increases.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 178,584,785; # of deaths worldwide: 3,866,607; # of cases U.S.: 34,392,666; # of deaths; U.S.: 616,904.