Oh no, not this again!

As Delta dawns

The Delta variant of Covid now has new cases in Missouri rising, to the highest point since early February. Arkansas is rising, to the highest point since early March. Utah has joined in and is up to its highest point in 6 weeks. And a single spike this week suggests Alabama and Texas may have begun a fresh rise too. Maybe Florida, as well.

The major health organizations say getting both shots is critical because very few of those are dying or even being hospitalized. And a look at the least double vaccinated states shows these 17 under 40%: (I bolded the ones with current rises)

MS 29%
AL 32%
AR, WY 33%
LA, TN 34%
GA, ID 35%
UT, WV 36%
SC, OK 37%
NC, MO, ND 38%
AZ, IN 39%

By contrast, the best double vaccinated states are these 17:

VT 64%
MA, ME 60%
CT 59%
RI 57%
NJ 55% (the densest population in the country)
NH, MD 54%
WA 53%
NY, NM 52%
DC, HI, OR 51%
VA, MN, CO 50%

This makes it clear states with low vaccination rates are the most vulnerable to contracting the new Delta variant of Covid. Only TX is (barely) in the middle third of the states, at 40% double vaccinated, and its rise needs to be confirmed with an additional rise in the week ahead.

For single doses, VT (73%), MA and HI (69%), CT (66%) ME (65%), NJ and RI (64%), PA (62%), NM (61%), WA, MD and DC (60%) are the top dozen.

Now some GOP governors are trying to showcase breakthrough cases (way less than 1% of people vaccinated) to indicate that vaccines are not foolproof. Well, duh. The testing done before the vaccines were in use indicated 4%-5% could still catch the virus after being vaccinated, so way less than 1% getting infected is really exceptional. The vaccines reduced the pandemic spread all this year and saved tens of thousands of lives, at least.

Covid killed more Americans than WW2, Korea, Vietnam and all the wars of the 21st century COMBINED. It killed approximately 620,000 US residents, second only to the 1918 flu pandemic which killed approximately 675,000. Covid has killed approximately the same as our worst war, the Civil War. When all the counting is done and covid is reduced to a level like the world accomplished with the flu, it’s likely to be the second deadliest event in this country’s history, only behind that 1918 flu.

Had scientists not gotten us the vaccines so quickly, it would have been the deadliest.

One hundred years of extra science and tech breakthroughs and this is the best we can do? Science didn’t fall short. Politicians who politicized every facet of this pandemic, who resisted tests, masks, distancing measures, business closures, criticized any scientist whose early best guesses were off, pushed fake treatments or cures because of unproven hearsay, they bear the greatest responsibility for this high covid death total. If it can ever be demonstrated that covid originated from a lab leak in China, those who caused the leak would bear more responsibility for the initial outbreak.

And the same politicians who politicized covid responses are now helping spread public resistance to getting the vaccines. Even though vaccines help keep flu cases down, eliminated smallpox, have largely eliminated major polio and diphtheria outbreaks and are commonly utilized to prevent tetanus, suddenly have become suspect? Why?

Mostly because - for sociopolitical reasons - this country has done a terrible job teaching our kids about science, just like the piss poor job it’s done providing factual information about our racial history and the history of our wars.

Not enough people trust our scientists or history teachers and texts. Because politicians, from school board members up through the last president, don’t want to admit that American leaders have ever been wrong.

Some will point out that some state governors resisted lockdown measures utilized effectively by others and didn’t fare so badly. And it’s true: a large, thinly populated state with few or no cities above medium size were mostly well-distanced to begin with. And due to limited travelers passing through places like the Dakotas or Wyoming, there was also less initial exposure to people with covid.

Other factors that contributed to the spread were poor safety measures utilized in essential industries like food production, where crowded meatpacking plants or crowded housing for migrant fieldworkers caused outbreaks in smaller cities and towns.

It’s not exactly rocket surgery to point out that specific populations in this country have legitimate reasons to trust medical science coupled to government agencies. Native Americans, Black Americans and members of the military have been exposed to secret experiments that proved deadly before.

But when anti-science religious clergy and game-playing politicians spread unfounded rumors and outright hoaxes to hoodwink more people - solely to feather their own nests - these terrible covid casualties and new rises mean they are trafficking in human deaths.

Facts matter. Real math exists, real sciences benefit us where applied to ameliorative ends and real history is critical to get us all to the truths that can help us avoid past mistakes.

The odds weigh heavily towards the successful histories of most vaccines we’ve ever developed. Nobody should expect all scientists to be 100% perfect. Few occupations that I’m aware of are capable of getting it right 95% of the time, which is what most vaccine scientists here and abroad have achieved.

People take greater risks when they overeat, or smoke, or use poor hand and kitchen sanitation, or drive a car. So vaccine resistance, for most, reflects a level of poor education or susceptibility to sales pitches by people who definitely don’t care about the best interests of the public at all. And most of those snake-oil sellers? Why, they’ve gone ahead and gotten vaccinated while telling you there was no need to.

I challenge them to prove - with real evidence - that I’m wrong.

Please get vaccinated if you really want to win the war against covid and save your family as well.