Americans Fucked Again By COVID This Thanksgiving
Remember back in January, when everyone thought their Thanksgivings would be “normal” again? (Hell, people thought the same about 4th of July, and that led to the deadly COVID surge in August.) Thanks to waning vaccine efficacy (the vaccine is apparently only good for about six months?) and about 1/3 of Americans who still refuse to get the jab, we’re still fucked, and we will continue to be fucked until an effective treatment for the virus is developed. Via NYT:
As Americans travel this week to meet far-flung relatives for Thanksgiving dinner, new virus cases are rising once more, especially in the Upper Midwest and Northeast.
Federal medical teams have been dispatched to Minnesota to help at overwhelmed hospitals. Michigan is enduring its worst case surge yet, with daily caseloads doubling since the start of November. Even New England, where vaccination rates are high, is struggling, with Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire trying to contain major outbreaks.
Nationally, case levels remain well below those seen in early September, when summer infections peaked, and are below those seen last Thanksgiving. But conditions are worsening rapidly, and this will not be the post-pandemic Thanksgiving that Americans had hoped for. More than 90,000 cases are being reported each day, comparable to early August, and more than 30 states are seeing sustained upticks in infections. In the hardest-hit places, hospitalizations are already climbing.
[…]
Infection levels are also persistently high across much of the West, including in Arizona and New Mexico, where hospitalizations are rising, and in Alaska and Wyoming, which have started to improve after enduring major outbreaks. But case rates in California are relatively low, as they also are in the South, the region hit hardest over the summer.
[…]
Michigan health officials issued a holiday mask advisory on Friday — recommending that people wear a mask at indoor gatherings regardless of their vaccination status — to blunt both Covid-19 and a rising flu outbreak. Vermont officials suggested that unvaccinated children wear a mask if celebrating with their grandparents. And in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul, while acknowledging that “no one wants to hear this again,” suggested that people avoid indoor spaces and large gatherings to curb transmission.
“We all went through this anxiety a year ago,” said Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, whose state has seen new cases increase more than 50 percent in the last two weeks. “We thought that was the last time. We declared, ‘By this time next year, I’m sure we’ll be fine. We’ll have that vaccine.’ And because there are still holdouts, we cannot declare that it’s going to be completely safe.”
[New York Times: As Thanksgiving Approaches, U.S. Virus Cases Tick Upward Once More]
