Mullings



Mullings

An American Cyber-Column

Mask Up

Vax Up

Friday August 6, 2021

• The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is killing people. Not in the numbers of the pre-vaccine days of 2020, but infections and deaths are, without question, on the rise.

• If you have not been vaccinated, it may not be too late, but it might be.

• Both the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines require two injections. Moderna needs 28 days between doses. Pfizer, 21 days.

• Both require an additional two weeks after the second shot for the vaccine to fully take effect.

• That means, if you get the Moderna vaccine today, you would want to get your second shot on September 3. But, you would still not be fully protected until two weeks after that, September 17.

• That’s Week 2 of the NFL season.

• The Pfizer vaccine gets you to your protective goal line about a week earlier (September 10) because you only have to wait 21 days between shots.

• As the old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

• The next best thing – and this is not an either/or – is wearing a mask.

• According to “The CDC found that community masking leads to fewer diagnosed cases and reduces the likelihood of contracting the virus by over 70% in high-risk areas.”

• At some point in this pandemic, not wearing a mask became a statement of political independence. I’m not sure why that happened, but it happened an it is not getting any better.

• The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who is a hairball in the belly of the body politic, has decided to climb over the dead bodies in his state’s COVID wards enroute the Republican nomination for President.

• Interesting political gambit.

• DeSantis is anti-mask. Virulently anti-mask. He doesn’t want any school administrator, any mayor, or any other official ordering anyone to wear a mask. On the vaccine front, DeSantis, in a press release from his official office, wrote: “In Florida, your personal choice regarding vaccinations will be protected and no business or government entity will be able to deny you services based on your decision.”

• With that in mind, Fox13 TV pointed out that the Florida Hospital Association reported that on Tuesday this week,

“10,389 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 -- the second day in a row that the number was over 10,000 and the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic.” The CEO of the association said, “50% of the people hospitalized are between ages 25 and 55.

• The CEO also pointed out that “96% of people hospitalized were unvaccinated.”

• Their personal decision.

• Further on the DeSantis Roadshow to Eternity, the Wall Street Journal reported,

“Florida’s seven-day average for newly reported deaths is 61 a day, according to the CDC. That number is less than a third of the state’s peak average for new deaths, hit one year ago, but is also up from daily averages in the 20s as recently as mid-July. 

• Sixty one a day doesn’t sound like a lot of people? Think about how quickly Florida's economy would crater if 61 people a day were dying, after having been eaten by a shark..

• A particularly worrisome aspect of the Delta Variant is its effect on younger people. For starters, north of 80 percent of Floridians over 65 have been vaccinated. But, the Miami Herald is reporting

“the number of new cases among Floridians under 12 during the week ending July 29 — 10,785 cases — was more than the total number of cases for all age groups just six weeks earlier.”

• Children under 12 are not able to get a vaccination for COVID-19 just yet, but they are able to wear a mask.

• When I was in the hospital earlier this year, I got caught in a bureaucratic hedgerow because the hospital was in D.C. and my home was in Virginia. Back in March the shortage of vaccines was still pretty severe.

• After some consideration, the administrators of the vaccination program decided they hadn’t spent all that time, talent, and resources keeping me alive only to have me get sneezed on by some COVID-positive engineering student crossing the street as I left to go home.

• I’m fully vaccinated, and I wear a mask any time I’m indoors.

• My decision.

• See you next week.

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