Afghan civilians are not the only ones in harm’s way this morning (The Guardian):
The US could soon see Covid-19 cases return to 200,000 a day, a level not seen since among the pandemic’s worst days in January and February, the director of the National Institutes of Health warned on Sunday.
While the US currently is seeing an average of about 129,000 new infections a day – a 700% increase from the beginning of July – that number could jump in the next couple of weeks, Dr Francis Collins said on Fox News Sunday.
“I will be surprised if we don’t cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks, and that’s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again,” Collins said.
Collins pleaded anew for unvaccinated Americans to get their shots, calling them “sitting ducks” for a Delta variant that is ravaging the country and showing little sign of letting up.
Courtesy of sitting ducks aiding and abetting the Covid pandemic in killing tens of thousands more, the already vaccinated soon will be lining up for a booster shot (New York Times):
The Biden administration has decided that most Americans should get a coronavirus booster vaccination eight months after they received their second shot, and could begin offering third shots as early as mid-September, according to administration officials familiar with the discussions.
Officials are planning to announce the decision as early as this week. Their goal is to let Americans who received the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines know now that they will need additional protection against the Delta variant that is causing caseloads to surge across much of the nation. The new policy will depend on the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of additional shots.
Officials said they expect that recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was authorized as a one-dose regimen, will also require an additional dose. But they are waiting for the results of that firm’s two-dose clinical trial, expected later this month.
The first shots will go to nursing home residents, health care workers and emergency workers, the Times reports. But also to those already immunocompromised. My friend Laura (a cancer survivor and new executive director for Health Care Voter) is one of them:
Another friend “in the business” agrees that booster shots will be necessary:
Thanks, refusenik assholes. The Australian Government Department of Health wants a word with you.
The ad was just controversial. The disease is deadly.