Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Watching The Waves

 Fascinating animation of the waves of Covid washing over the country. You can see that first wave hitting NYC and the Northeast, plus the Navajo reservation. Then there is a Southern surge in the summer of 2020, as people went inside for air conditioning. Next up is the Northern Plains surge in October, which prefaces the nationwide surge of December 2020 through early February 2021.

There was a localized surge in NYC and especially Michigan in April of 2021, then the vaccines roll out. By July there are a few clusters seemingly focused on Branson and Lake of the Ozarks, but the country seems past it.  Remember that? By late summer, the South and Pacific Northwest are peaking.

The thing that keeps me up at night is whether we will be able to prevent a Delta wave as the Northeast returns to schools and goes inside for the winter. How close are we to herd immunity? In Connecticut, about 75% have received at least the first dose and 67% are fully vaccinated. How many of the 25% are kids ineligible to be vaccinated? How many of the adults have some form of acquired immunity? All of our students, faculty and staff are vaccinated, but then so was I before I got Delta.

If the Winter Wave never happens, that will be huge for the country.

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