The pandemic is ending but not yet over – Increase in travel – Mask policies – How masks have controlled other viruses – Hiking in Shenandoah National Park – Response to the kidnapping of Roman Protasevich – Diminution of COVID cases in India – Evening statistics
We may be approaching the end of the pandemic, but we are not at that point yet. When I visited a grocery store recently I saw a notice at its front door indicating that facemasks were required only for the non-vaccinated, but not many of the vaccinated customers were taking advantage of the permission to go unmasked. Yesterday the trip that a group of us had planned to hike the French Alps in September had to be canceled. Currently Americans are restricted from going to France and while in all probability such restrictions will be lifted by September, it’s impossible to be certain. For the present travel within the country appears much less uncertain that international travel. We will be going instead to the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho – not a bad substitute by any means, as I have long wanted to visit that area.
In any case, travel is definitely on the increase. The TSA screened more than 1.9 million airplane passengers yesterday, the largest amount since the pandemic began to affect the travel industry in March, 2020. It is not quite the normal amount one would expect at this time of year. In 2019, the number of travelers on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend was over 2.5 million. But it is a dramatic increase all the same: from March 17 to October 18 last year, the TSA screened fewer than 1 million passengers daily. Undoubtedly the lifting of restrictions, at any rate against vaccinated passengers, has contributed to this result. Vaccinated passengers may now travel throughout the US without getting tested for the disease before or after plane, train, and bus trips.
There is no consistency in the mask policies over the various states. Twenty-one states have no mask requirement at all. Ten, as well as Washington DC, have mask requirements for unvaccinated people only. The remaining nineteen have mask requirements for both unvaccinated and vaccinated alike; Maryland and Virginia are among these. Masks are required for everyone in public transportation vehicles, health care facilities, congregate settings, and K-12 public schools. It certainly is no great hardship to put on a mask for any of these, and common prudence suggests that it is advisable. Even though the numbers are declining, we are still getting well over 10,000 new cases every day and several hundred deaths. The CDC at this point recommends that unvaccinated people continue to wear masks and maintain social distancing; but, short of issuing a vaccine passport after the second dose and requiring all vaccinated people to carry it wherever they go, I don’t see any way of enforcing such measures.
I certainly don’t intend to jettison my facemasks, even when the pandemic officially is declared to be at an end. It appears that they are very effective in reducing one’s chances of getting infected with other viruses besides COVID, such as colds or the flu. For instance, the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, normally causes 60,000 children under the age of five annually to be hospitalized. This past year the RSV cases were all but non-existent. I will probably continue to wear them during the winter months, at any rate when I’m indoors at public facilities.
One does not ordinarily feel the need for gloves in this area during Memorial Day weekend, but they certainly would have made today’s hike somewhat more comfortable. I hiked with AD and RH in Shenandoah National Park, where the temperatures at times fell well below 50 degrees; and while it is true we had no rain, the weather was very damp. The hike was a circuit from Elkwallow Wayside, taking the Appalachian Trail northwards, followed by the Piney Branch, Sugarloaf, Tuscarora, Trace, Matthews Arm, Weddlewood, Heiskall Hollow, and Elkwallow Trails. We had to modify the original route, which turned from Heiskall Hollow down to the Knob Mountain and the Knob Mountain Cutoff Trails, because that would have involved going down to Jeremy’s Run. The rain that lasted all night previously has undoubtedly filled the stream to overflowing, and it was best not to chance crossing it. AD was rather apologetic about this modification, which reduced mileage and elevation gain slightly; but the total distance was 11½ miles and the elevation gain was 2300 feet – which is a respectable amount of exertion. The air was overladen with fog, which naturally obscured any views from overlooks. But hiking in the mist has pleasures of its own. The surrounding trees and vegetation, when swathed in bands of low-lying cloud, acquire an other-worldly appearance, and at times under such conditions one feels that one is wandering through a dream.
The Biden administration has responded to the kidnapping of Roman Protasevich by issuing a travel advisory urging U.S. citizens not to travel to Belarus. It plans to re-impose sanctions on nine Belarusian state-owned enterprises, beginning on June 3rd, and to develop increased sanctions against Belarus’s government, among other actions. In addition, the 2019 agreement that allowed US and Belarusian carriers to use each other’s airspace has been suspended. Other nations from the EU have imposed flight bans on Belarusian airspace and are planning to impose sanctions on key sectors of the Belarusian economy, including its potash and oil products.
The number of daily new cases is declining in India; for the past two days it was less than 200,000, the lowest amount since mid-April. It is difficult, of course, to know how much reliance may be placed on that figure. It is possible, indeed overwhelmingly probable, that many new infections are not being reported, due to lack of dependable testing in the countryside. But at any rate there is an encouraging reduction in infection among the urban population.
Yesterday’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 170,113,201; # of deaths worldwide: 3,536,895; # of cases U.S.: 34,022,079; # of deaths; U.S.: 608,946. Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 170,606,970; # of deaths worldwide: 3,547,757; # of cases U.S.: 34,034,505; # of deaths; U.S.: 609,416.