Around here our morale received a boost on Sunday with a new report that the "jetpack man" has reappeared over L.A.'s skies. He certainly represents one of the more intriguing mysteries of these times.
Then, on Monday, The Onion reported that frogs have a five-million-year plan to move up the food chain, and we smiled again.
However, our smiles faded as the news broke last night that we now have a new indoors mask mandate for the Bay Area due to the pandemic's resurgence. That, in turn, intensifies the moral dilemma for those of us who are vaccinated, as well as new dangers, which I neglected to mention yesterday, for those who are immunocompromised.
The bottom line of this whole situation is more people need to get vaccinated -- for *all* of our sakes and there can be no debate about that. The time for procrastination is over.
In that context, I do see reports here and there that some of the unvaccinated are finally getting the message, but our common fate requires them to move faster. Anything anybody from a TikTok star to a neighbor to a distant relative can do to get shots in arms right now matters. Bribes are fine.
Meanwhile, it is downright painful to witness the awkward communication debates inside the U.S. government, particularly at the C.D.C., where officials admit they have lost control of the message.
In fact, the message has been deeply compromised since the beginning when the Trump administration branded Covid as a "fake virus," blamed it on China, and carried out a brazen anti-mask policy at its campaign rallies and other super spreader events.
By politicizing the pandemic, Trump guaranteed that the country would split into warring camps, which was already a major problem before Covid. But at the inception of the crisis, an opportunity existed to create a united front in an attempt to defeat the virus without dividing the population into mutually exclusive tribes.
Because when it comes to survival we are all in the same tribe.
Alas, that opportunity to unify was missed and history will judge Trump harshly as a result. But waiting for the historians' verdict is the least of our problems right now. Right now we desperately need to support any initiative that convinces unvaccinated people to take the shot.
This battle is going to be fought person by person across the country and around the world. May reason prevail.
BTW, after much consideration and listening to all the objections anyone has offered, I remain convinced that I was correct yesterday to say let the chips fall where they may.
People who are immunocompromised need to take special precautions and isolate from the rest of us. That is important. We need to do our best to ensure that they are protected from Covid as well as other threats.
But we also critically need to resume our lives.
Our children need to go to school. Our babies need to see faces unmasked to read emotions. Our elderly with short life expectancies deserve to fully enjoy their time left, not cower in fear.
Small businesses need to be open to survive. People need to socialize to live to their fullest potential. People need jobs and people need to meet each other to fall in love and create new families.
Life beckons.
It is time, therefore, to denounce in no uncertain terms the minority who are causing this entire problem. It is not up to us to save them. They have to learn to save themselves.
Let's get them vaccinated!
***
THE HEADLINES:
* The Big Money Behind the Big Lie -- Trump's attacks on democracy are being promoted by rich conservative groups that are determined to win at all costs (New Yorker)
* A Brain Drain Among Government Scientists Bogs Down Biden’s Climate Ambitions -- Hundreds of scientists and policy experts left the government during the Trump administration. The jobs remain unfilled nearly six months into President Biden’s term, slowing his climate agenda. (NYT)
* Climate change is endangering sacred land. For these Native women, it threatens ‘everything we are.’ (WP)
* Delta spreads 'like wildfire' as doctors study whether it makes patients sicker (Reuters)
* An English castle stood for centuries. Climate change is prompting its collapse. (WP)
* 70 percent of U.S. adults have gotten at least one shot, hitting Biden vaccine goal a month late -- The news came as the highly contagious delta variant is driving a coronavirus surge, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reporting more than 100,000 daily cases. (WP)
* Less than 1% of fully vaccinated people experience a breakthrough Covid-19 infection, analysis finds (CNN)
* A New Surge at a Santa Monica I.C.U. -- They thought the worst of the pandemic was behind them. Then a new wave of cases arrived at the I.C.U. at Providence Saint John’s Health Center. (NYT)
* Businesses scramble to respond to delta variant, shifting health guidance (WP)
* Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber ripped Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as the “pied piper” of COVID-19 who is “leading everybody off a cliff.” He spoke as Florida recorded 21,863 cases in a single day, the most ever, and its highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in more than a year, at 10,207 people. [HuffPost]
* Unvaxxed, Unmasked and Putting Our Kids at Risk -- Yes, this is a rant against irrationality and vaccines. (Guest Essay/NYT)
* Thousands Protest France’s Vaccine Pass for a Third Week (AP)
* GOP lawmaker who once spurned masks urges people to take covid-19 seriously after eight-month illness (WP)
* According to The San Francisco Chronicle, millennials are driving the latest coronavirus surge. (SFC)
* Where a Vast Global Vaccination Program Went Wrong -- After months of struggle, the U.N.-backed Covax alliance will soon have many more doses, promising relief for vaccine shortages in poorer countries. But it faces a deepening crisis: difficulties getting shots into arms as the Delta variant spreads. (NYT)
* ‘I should have gotten the damn vaccine,’ woman says fiance texted before he died of covid-19 (WP)
* U.S. labor revival in doubt as Delta raises worries about 'back to school' (Reuters)
* Privacy is a fiction in the Internet age. A priest’s case proves it. (Editorial Board/WP)
* New York Is Pushing Homeless People Off the Streets. Where Will They Go? -- Cleanup crews are clearing encampments, but advocates say the sweeps just move people from one place to another and fail to address the housing crisis. (NYT)
* U.S. expands Afghan refugee program as Taliban violence rises (AP)
* California's New Animal Welfare Law Could Mean The End Of Bacon (NPR)
* Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is almost broke and Trump doesn’t seem to care all that much, sources have told The New York Times. Giuliani, with his law license suspended in New York and Washington, is struggling under a mountain of legal fees as he attempts to fend off a major federal investigation and answer a $1.3 billion lawsuit. Trump isn't pitching in a dime. (HuffPost)
* Families urge using new DNA tech to ID Pearl Harbor unknowns (AP)
* Uber, Lyft seen boosted by return of riders, but driver shortage, stubborn virus cloud outlook (Reuters)
* Theranos Patients: The Emerging Wild Card in the Trial of Elizabeth Holmes (WSJ)
* With Undersea Robots, an Air Force Navigator Lost Since 1967 Is Found -- A recovery mission off Vietnam’s coast showed how advances in technology have given new reach to the Pentagon’s search for American war dead. (NYT)
* World’s Frogs Unveil 5-Million-Year Plan To Move Up Food Chain (The Onion)
***
Divisionary (Do the Right Thing)
Do it all the time, do it all the time
Make yourself right, never mind 'em
Don't you know you're not the only one suffering
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