Are You Ready for the Hot Vax Summer?

Yesterday I heard—on some media source—the phrase "hot vax summer." I had no idea what this meant, so I looked it up. 

Turns out it is a pop culture reference to people who've been vaccinated, have had unwanted hair removed, and are ready for some fun. Such people refer to themselves as "vaxxed and waxed." Apparently, this has been declared the official meme/theme of summer 2021 by whomever decides these things. 

One Twitter user tweeted "This lady on the plane said 'vaxxed and waxed, baby, I'm ready for some action on this trip.' and that should be everybody's vibe this summer."  Another tweeted "We’re both vaxed and waxed... and ready to have sax".

Frankly I'm shocked that I did not know about this sooner! As everybody knows, not only do I have my finger on the pulse of the pandemic but I am also fount of knowledge about all aspects of popular culture.

Apparently, not everyone gets the meme. Neil Irwin of the NYT has a column interpreting the phrase as referring to economic performance. He frets that it might be more of a lukewarm vax summer.   

Meanwhile there are those diehards who can't be vaxxed and waxed because they refuse to be vaxxed. Recent research shows that those digging in their heels view their COVIDiocy as central to their social identity. Hopefully this means they won't have any fun this summer.

Those who are vaxxed and waxed notwithstanding, if nothing changes we will come nowhere near President Biden's goal of having 70% of the population with at least one shot by July 4. Vaccination rates are falling nationwide. The number having received at least one shot is at 63%, up by just 1% over a week. 

Arizona is now in 36th place in percent fully vaccinated, one place lower than when I checked a couple weeks ago.  At least we're not Mississippi, which is below Arizona by 10% and sits at the bottom of the list.

Image by flaviasaad0 from Pixabay 

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