Restrictions continue to diminish – The July 4 vaccine goal – Increased risk for anti-vaxxers – The Democratic nomination for New York mayor – An unusual radio interview – A last-minute wedding – Evening statistics
More adjustments in the guidelines provided by the CDC were announced today. Vaccinated people are not expected to get tested or to quarantine under most circumstances. There are exceptions: 1) those who display symptoms of COVID, such as fever, coughing, and fatigue; 2) those who work in facilities that potentially may have a greater concentration of disease, such as hospitals, homeless shelters, prisons, etc.; 3) those who are returning from international travel. Even these recommendations may be relaxed in the near future. There is a considerable amount of unnecessary testing going about at the moment, since the symptoms for COVID to a great degree overlap with those of the common cold.
Nearly seven-eighths of all seniors have received one dose and 75% are fully vaccinated. For adults over 18, the figures are 63% who have received one dose and 52% who are fully vaccinated. We still need to see about 18 million people receive a first dose to meet Biden’s goal of 70% of the adult population having at least one dose by July 4th. Various corporations are providing encouragement to take the vaccine doses. Childcare chains BrightHorizons, KinderCare, and Learning Care Group, as well as about 500 YMCA outlets in 28 states, are supplying provide free service while parents get vaccinated. Younger people, who are less vulnerable to the virus – although they can still transmit it to others readily enough – have shown less eagerness to get vaccinated than other segments of the population. They have therefore been given an incentive that hardly any American college student can resist: namely, free beer. Anheuser-Busch declared on Wednesday morning that it would buy beer for all Americans of legal drinking age if Biden’s goal for Independence Day was met. Regrettably (for I greatly prefer wine to beer) none of the major wineries have followed this example.
The results of the vaccines have already been felt. COVID cases have fallen by 45% over the past two weeks. Hospitalizations have gone down by 72% and deaths by 44%. The goal of 70% of adults receiving their first shot by July should be feasible; the 70% mark has already been reached in twelve states. It would require about 550,000 people getting a first shot each day between now and July 4th. Before Memorial Day, the average was over 700,000 daily, although the vaccination rate is falling.
Even if we fulfill that goal it means, of course, that 30% of the adult population will still be unvaccinated, and several variants a good deal more contagious than the original are now spreading throughout the world. The unvaccinated will be at greater risk as the restrictions ease and facemasks and social distancing are no longer enforced, and most of the COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths in future will, in all probability, come from this group. The anti-vaxxers may appear to have undergone a more severe fate than mere folly warrants. I leave them to all of the pity that others may bestow upon them.
The debate for the Democratic candidacy of New York City mayor was long and bitter; but on one point most of the contenders were in firm agreement. Of the eight striving to be nominated, seven emphatically declared that they do not want Bill DeBlasio, the current mayor, to endorse them. Only Andrew Yang expressed any willingness to receive an endorsement if offered, and it did not appear to be a matter of great concern to him whether he was endorsed or not, since he continually assailed DeBlasio during the debate, accusing him of squandering the relief money that the city received for COVID relief and paving the way for massive deficits. DeBlasio responded to this unenthusiastic response to his endorsement by saying “It just proves they’re politicians now.” What he meant, poor man, who can say? Can anyone who is not a politician run in an election for mayor of the largest city in the country?
Louise Fischer of Radio 4 went to extraordinary lengths yesterday to deliver all the news that is fit to print . . . or to be heard, at any rate. In reporting on Swingland, a sex club in Copenhagen that had recently re-opened after COVID-related restrictions were lifted, she was propositioned by one of the men she was interviewing – and she accepted. According to her, the offer was made tactfully and she did not feel pressured in any way. “I don’t have a boyfriend,” she added; “that definitely made it a lot easier.” Radio listeners that morning were greeted by the sounds of her ecstatic moans and of bodies slapping together as she conducted on-the-record intercourse. Her relatives do not appear to be unduly upset by her initiative. “My mother just thinks it’s funny and laughs,” she said, “my father thought it was really cool.” Radio subscribers seem have agreed; the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Tina Kragelund, Radio 4’s head of news, said that the station approved of the move – not surprisingly, since the ratings spiked after this journalistic coup. “I just think it’s cool when the reporters try to make the stories in a different way,” she explained.
From this rather ludicrous story I move on to one that is both sad and grotesque. In Uttar Pradesh a woman named Surabhi and man named Mangesh Kumar were getting married and in the midst of the the jaimala (the ritual of exchanging of garlands by the bride and the groom in a Hindu wedding), when Surabhi collapsed as she suffered a heart attack. A doctor was called in, but she died within minutes. However, the relatives of both the groom and the bride decided that a wedding ceremony must not go to waste; so they produced Surabhi’s younger sister Nisha as a substitute. The couple were married after Surabhi’s body had been removed. It made no difference to Mangesh Kumar, apparently; about 90% of marriages in India are arranged (and for that matter, about 55% of marriages are arranged worldwide) and since all of the appropriate financial negotiations had already been made, the identity of the actual woman he was to marry was a secondary consideration. The only dissentient voice came from Saurabh, brother to both Surabhi and Nisha. “It was a bizarre situation,” he said, “as the wedding of my younger sister was being solemnized while the body of my dead sister was lying in another room.”
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 172,882,944; # of deaths worldwide: 3,716,227; # of cases U.S.: 34,173,426; # of deaths; U.S.: 611,572.