It appears that mask wearing maybe the overall best dense against rising Delta Virus infections….
In some places they never went away….
Across the country officials are going for weekly vaccine testing routines for those who refuse to get shots…….
Revising a decision made just two months ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that people vaccinated against the coronavirus should resume wearing masks in public indoor spaces in parts of the country where the virus is surging.
C.D.C. officials also called for universal masking for teachers, staff, students and visitors in schools, regardless of vaccination status and community transmission of the virus. With additional precautions, schools nonetheless should return to in-person learning in the fall.
The recommendations are another baleful twist in the course of America’s pandemic, a war-weary concession that the virus is outstripping vaccination efforts. The agency’s move follows rising case counts in states like Florida and Missouri, as well as growing reports of breakthrough infections of the more contagious Delta variant among people who are fully immunized.
“The Delta variant is showing every day its willingness to outsmart us,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the C.D.C., said at a news briefing on Tuesday….
President Biden, in what would be a significant shift in approach, is considering requiring all civilian federal employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or be forced to submit to regular testing, social distancing, mask requirements and restrictions on most travel, officials said on Tuesday.
White House officials said they would reveal more about the president’s plans later this week. Mr. Biden said he would deliver a speech on Thursday about “the next steps in our effort to get more Americans vaccinated.”
The deliberations reflect growing concern among top federal health officials about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, which poses a special threat to children, older Americans and those with weakened immune systems, including cancer patients. But that concern, officials said, must be balanced against the threat of a backlash that could drive opposition to vaccination….
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The officials said that there was no consideration of simply firing federal employees who refuse to get vaccinated, but that the government could add burdens or restrictions — like extensive testing or a ban on all but essential travel — for those who do not willingly get the protections. They said there was evidence that making life inconvenient for those who refuse the vaccine works reasonably well to increase inoculation rates…
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At the White House, staff members were instructed to start wearing masks indoors again.
Around the country, mayors, chief executives, hospital administrators and college presidents are requiring vaccinations, even for those who have refused to voluntarily roll up their sleeves. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state’s 246,000 employees would have to be vaccinated by Aug. 2 or would be tested at least once a week.
But such a move is politically fraught. On Capitol Hill, three Republicans — Senators Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — said Mr. Biden would have to offer more scientific evidence before requiring vaccination.
Mr. Cassidy, a medical doctor, was the most charitable, saying that imposing requirements such as mask wearing and social distancing in lieu of vaccination would be “consistent with what hospitals do with other types of vaccines.” But Mr. Grassley and Mr. Lankford balked.
“This is America,” Mr. Grassley said. “You can’t force people to get vaccinated.”…..
I have made my position on mask mandates for the vaccinated clear. The CDC cannot set policy as we should know. This will be up to local jurisdictions and there will be a lot of political pressure involved. I am glad that where I live, the spread does not qualify per the CDC for needing to wear a mask.
This is a political black eye for Biden, whether deserved or not. He went all in on saying that vaccinated people could unmask. The issue of the virus was consistently the one issue where his approval ratings were the highest, and now it looks like they failed to deliver on what he said.
The claim that he will mandate the vaccine for federal employees clearly comes with caveats. Just read the piece. If people are not vaccinated, they will have to be tested and nobody is about to get fired as claimed here. They would just be prevented from all but essential travel, etc. Fine. Any fantasy people have about the government forcefully sticking a needle into anyone’s arm is just not going to happen.
Still, it is clearly a dumb decision to choose not to do so voluntarily.
Masks will once again be universally required on the House side of the Capitol amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, the Capitol physician announced late Tuesday night.
The resumption of the House mask mandate — just over a month after it was lifted — comes after new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier Tuesday recommending that vaccinated people should wear masks in high-risk areas.
“To be clear, for meetings in an enclosed US House of Representatives controlled space, masks are REQUIRED,” a memo from the Capitol physician, Brian Monahan, states….
More…
One thing I haven’t heard discussed is the effect of high heat on rising cases. Much (though not all) of the region’s with big COVID spikes are seeing 90 to 100 degree temps over the last few weeks. Driving people indoors where the unvaxxed are sitting ducks to the virus.
It gives me hope that by September when temps drop and people are outside more we will see a drop in cases. Of course higher rates of vaccination–which I believe we will see with more employer mandates becoming a norm–will be the main factor.
from what I heard, cases are expected to continue to increase – reaching a peak in October.
The fall will bring more people back inside ….
Virus’s normally do better in cold weather
Good News?
This is a puzzler. Coronavirus cases are plummeting in Britain. They had been expected to soar. The scientists are not sure why they haven’t.
The daily number of new infections recorded in the United Kingdom fell for seven days in a row before a slight uptick on Wednesday, when the country reported 27,734 cases. That’s still almost half of where the caseload was a week ago.
The trajectory of the virus in the U.K. is something the world is watching closely and anxiously, as a test of how the delta variant behaves in a society with relatively high vaccination rates….
More…
Question mark? Obviously it is good news.
Yes….
Hopefully for America also….