Here’s the latest:
Cases are spiking in Michigan, placing the state among the worst of the nation’s hot zones. Michigan needs to “shut things down” rather than try to lean more heavily on vaccines, said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a White House briefing Monday. Hard-hit regions should also rely on contact tracing and additional testing, she said.
“If we try to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we will be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work,” Walensky warned. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) had asked the White House at the end of last month to flood more vaccine to hotspots.
Elsewhere, some U.S. politicians have begun to boast that their communities are nearing herd immunity. This weekend, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) told the hosts of “Fox News Sunday” that it is a “whole lot more difficult” for the virus to spread to people in that state. Vaccination data show otherwise.
Scientists do not have a firm threshold for when herd immunity will be reached – but infectious-disease specialists were confident that Texas, where 19 percent of people are fully vaccinated, isn’t there yet.
Other important news
Nearly 100 days after being closed, pubs and other nonessential shops in Britain reopened to great fanfare – including outdoor pints in the snow.
The Supreme Court, citing the First Amendment, ruled that California’s attendance limit for at-home religious gatherings violated constitutional rights.
China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are not highly effective, a Chinese government official said Saturday. He suggested the dosage or number of shots may need to increase.
An ambitious study of how the virus spreads, involving vaccinated and unvaccinated students at 20 colleges, will help answer questions such as: When can we stop wearing masks?
I think that’s the big question for all of us who are trying to do the right thing and not expose ourselves or others to the virus. I’m not throwing away my masks. I plan to wear one on the airplane from now on, knowing that I often catch a cold when I travel and I think this might help me avoid getting one and spreading one. (I also tend to let my mouth open when I sleep sitting up and it’s hugely embarrassing so wearing a mask solves that little problem… 🙂