Update: Vaccine Supplies, Ant-Vaxxers, School Reopening & Fake Masks
Here are some updates on recent Corona-zona posts.
Vaccine Supplies
Last Sunday, I noted the increasing pace of vaccinations here in State 48. According to Bloomberg, the U.S. is delivering about 1.6 million doses a week. Johnson & Johnson does not have as much inventory as anticipated. Nonetheless, the pace should start picking up. Manufacturers have promised enough doses by the end of June to vaccinate all Americans.
Of course, manufacturers delivering doses is only the first step. They have to make their way to the states. It seems that the recent cold weather has delayed some of the shipments to Arizona.
Who Gets Shots?
There have been many reports about minority groups not getting vaccinated at the same rate as the majority group. As noted in last Sunday's by-the-numbers report, this is true in Arizona, where blacks and Latinos are getting vaccinated at about a quarter the rate that their share of the population would suggest. On the other hand, the Navajo Nation is beating the state overall.
Meanwhile in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is accused of playing political games with the vaccine. Officials set up a special pop-up clinic in a high income retirement community and limited it to residents of two zip codes that are predominantly white and affluent. A county commissioner is taking the fall, while saying she did exactly what DeSantis wanted. So who knows what that means. DeSantis is such an upstanding guy. He wouldn't do something like play political games with the pandemic, would he?
Anticipated Anti-Vaxxer Protest Didn't Materialize
I can find no evidence that the second anti-vaxxer protest at Dodger Stadium, which had been rumored for last weekend, actually took place. Maybe they came to their senses? Nah!
School Reopening
Dr. Anthony Fauci is wading into the school reopening controversy. He said of course we should prioritize getting teachers vaccinated, but it's not practical to vaccinate all teachers before schools reopen. I'm not sure why that's the case given news above about increasing vaccine supplies.
Last month I questioned whether we could take seriously the CDC's conclusion that schools could safely reopen. That's because the opinion came while the agency was under the Trump administration, which was known to inject their political considerations into CDC policymaking.
However, they kept giving the same advice once they were under new leadership. They also just released new guidance for reopenings. Critics are complaining that the plan would still leave almost all schools at least partially shut down.
Meanwhile, some school board members disparaged parents by saying "they want their babysitters back." It was not well received. Oops!
More Fake Mask Raids
A couple days ago I relayed news of big problems with counterfeit N95 masks. DHS continues with raids. They have seized over 11 million fakes so far. They say to expect more raids in the coming weeks, and criminal charges to follow.
