Another week down, friends and neighbors. Despite another week of the planet telling us to piss off if we can’t act right, we’re still here. I don’t know what to think about that, though.
We’re supposed to be getting another weekend of rotten weather here in the South, but other places are experiencing what we’re almost used to. Like New York City last week, Detroit experienced massive flooding this week. The Motor City’s had its share of flooded suburbs, dangerous highways, and damage to the city’s tourist destinations. Best I can tell, though, the damage hasn’t killed anyone, which is something to be thankful for.
Unfortunately, folks over in Europe haven’t been as lucky. They’re seeing historic levels of flooding, to the point certain places have gotten a month’s worth of rain in one day. Germany’s getting the worst of it. Beyond the damage to the land and businesses – and believe me, some of the pictures are hard to wrap your head around – over 1,300 people are missing and 120 have been confirmed dead.
And it’s not over for them. There’s more rain coming for the rest of Europe, with Belgium and the Netherlands particularly being worried about what’s next. Officials are blaming climate change, which is more than we can do.
Moving on – and speaking of dangers we’ll do absolutely nothing about – health officials are sounding the alarm on the Delta variant of COVID-19 in a big way. Los Angeles, for example, all of the sudden reinstated their lockdown rules for residents. That means masks and social distancing and limiting the number of folks that can gather in one spot. As of right now, I’m not seeing any similar action in other parts of the country and I’m not taking any odds on that one.
One of the reasons we’re seeing a surge in COVID cases – and we are seeing a surge in COVID cases, don’t doubt that – is due to far too many folks avoided getting the vaccines for whatever dumbass reason. President Joe Biden set a goal of 70% of the country vaccinated by July 4 and we missed that by a few percentiles. Now, the reason that was the number is that that was the lower threshold for “herd immunity.”
A lot of people seem to have trouble understanding what herd immunity actually means and we’re too goddamn arrogant to take any education on it. That means admitting we might have been wrong. Anyhow, what herd immunity means is that enough of the population – or “herd” – is vaccinated against the virus that it can’t get enough of a toehold to evolve into something that isn’t affected by the vaccine and is generally nastier than the initial booger.
And that’s what’s hanging us up. Because too many of us are worried about Bill Gates tracking us via aborted babies or whatever the hell, we didn’t meet herd immunity so the COVID-19 virus mutated. This is the mutation that originated in India, admittedly, but we could’ve protected ourselves. The most significant issue about the Delta variant is that unlike the initial blast of coronavirus, it’s a danger to kids.
While plenty of children under 12 caught the first blast and some died from it, the Delta variant is thought to be particularly dangerous for young ‘uns. Here in Mississippi, for example, never topped 34% vaccinated, we’re particularly vulnerable, with a pretty sharpish jump in reported cases. Right now, seven kids across the state are in intensive care units across the state and two are said to be “fighting for their lives” on ventilators
We’re still looking at a “normal” school year come Fall, though, which sort of hinges on us doing better with the whole vaccination thing. Yeah, good luck with that. Mississippi seems to take pride in being as belligerently, defiantly stupid as we can be.
Have a nice weekend, y’all.
Dear Y'all 