Just when it looked like the U.S. would win the battle against COVID-19, along came the much more contagious Delta variant to cause a spike infections.
The sad thing is the Delta surge coincided with a drop in the vaccination rate that left the country, as of this writing, at only about the half the eligible population being fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That enabled the now dominant Delta variant to increase the number of sick and dying. On Aug. 6, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, 1,173 U.S residents died of COVID-19, the first time the center reported more than 1,000 daily deaths since late spring. More troubling, that same date, new cases hit 254,981 far above the new case numbers in the 10s of thousands in June and July.
Since deaths lag new cases by a couple of weeks, that spells trouble. By the time you read this, we’ll know whether that horrible outcome happened or not. (The U.K. and India experienced surges in Delta cases only to have them diminish mysteriously. One possible explanation is that over 90 percent of British adults had COVID-19 antibodies, Politico reported Aug. 6.)
If the worst happens in the U.S., it didn’t have to happen. The United States has plenty enough very effective and safe vaccines to immunize everyone over the age of 12. Yet about a third of those people haven’t received a dose, for one reason or another. Unfortunately, people with the Delta variant can infect an estimated six to nine people, compared with two to three from the original COVID-19 strain. That pushes the threshold for herd immunity to 90 percent or beyond.
In the absence of such a high level of immunization, many jurisdictions have reinstated mask mandates. For instance, effective July 29, Kentucky requires face coverings inside federal buildings. They include indoor venues at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, where the Utility Expo is scheduled for late September.
Despite the Delta threat, there have been some promising developments. By early August, according to the New York Times, over 80 percent of Americans age 65 to 74 were fully vaccinated. It seems counterintuitive considering that age group would lean conservative politically, a demographic that has been portrayed as vaccine hesitant and even anti-vaccination. Perhaps while the anti-vax crowd has been making all this noise, a lot of people just quietly went ahead and did the sensible thing.
The other telling point is that less than half of the 18-39 age group aren’t fully vaccinated. That’s a demographic that leans left and shouldn’t, one would think, be particularly anti-vax. Other things are going on, and all sorts of excuses have been proffered. Younger people don’t see COVID-19 as particularly deadly. They’re also poorer than those rich baby boomers and can’t afford to book time off their jobs to get the vaccine. Or they’d prefer to spend their precious time with their families.
People need to get their priorities straight. What could be more important than setting aside time to help combat the biggest health emergency in a century?
Answer: not many things.
A lot has been written about how to gently coax the anti-vaxxers into changing their minds. These all involve exhaustive empathy and psychological strategies that even the experts extolling them admit might not work, and if they do work will take a lot of time and energy.
Here’s the thing: Time is of the essence.
We need to change the message.
Your role in preventing COVID-19 was never about protecting healthy young people. It was always about protecting vulnerable elderly people and those with underlying health conditions like compromised immune systems, diabetes or cancer.
That means making sacrifices small ones like wearing a mask indoors to prevent you from inadvertently spreading the disease to your grandparents, your neighbors, and your friends.
We get it a lot of people don’t like government. But most people like their grandparents and their neighbors. They surely like their friends. If your friends told you take your shoes off before entering their houses, you do it. You don’t make a fuss about it.
People routinely carry baggies to pick up after their dogs not because they enjoy it but because it’s the socially acceptable thing to do.
Right now, the most neighborly and friendly thing anyone can do is get their COVID-19 vaccines, which are modern medical achievements, by the way. And the sooner that happens, the sooner we can finally bring this pandemic to heel.
