{"id":204708,"date":"2021-06-15T17:05:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T17:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=fa2af136f5be764ec2814777553ad201"},"modified":"2021-06-15T17:05:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T17:05:04","slug":"vaccine-refusal-in-trump-country-makes-it-a-sitting-duck-for-covid-delta-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/15\/vaccine-refusal-in-trump-country-makes-it-a-sitting-duck-for-covid-delta-variant\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaccine Refusal in Trump Country Makes It a Sitting Duck for COVID Delta Variant"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Anti-vaxxers<\/a>

Great Britain had great plans for June 21. English citizens had been calling it \u201cFreedom Day,\u201d the day that nation\u2019s COVID restrictions would be lifted after the pandemic\u2019s long siege. A well-managed vaccine rollout has more than half the population fully inoculated, and everything appeared to be moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Upon the emergence of the COVID-19 variant dubbed \u201cDelta,\u201d however, the U.K.\u2019s plans have changed. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has delayed \u201cFreedom Day\u201d for another four weeks, with a potential for more if the variant is not better contained. <\/p>\n

The Delta variant of COVID first emerged from the coronavirus wave that subsumed much of India earlier this spring. Reports strongly suggest that it is far more contagious than the original version of the virus, and is doing more damage to those who become infected. It took four weeks<\/a> for Delta to become the dominant COVID strain in Great Britain, and at present it has spread to more than 60 countries<\/a> worldwide.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is one of them. At present, the Delta variant represents approximately 10 percent of all new infections here, and that rate is doubling every two weeks. \u201cDr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday that a coronavirus<\/span> strain known as the Delta variant<\/span> is likely to become the dominant source of new infections in the U.S.,\u201d reports<\/a> CNN<\/em>, \u201cand could lead to new outbreaks in the fall, with unvaccinated Americans being most at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were almost 13,000 new cases of COVID diagnosed yesterday, and 145 recorded deaths. While these numbers represent an astonishing decrease from the horrific toll the nation endured last winter, the number of new daily infections remains simply unacceptable in a country so flush with vaccines that medical experts fear whole batches will go bad for lack of use.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, almost 44 percent of the U.S. population over 12 years old has received both doses of the vaccine, and 52.5 percent has received one. Children under 12 remain completely unvaccinated. In a nation of 328 million people, slightly more than 174 million have gotten at least one dose. This, for lack of a better phrase, is a dramatic chink in our COVID armor, especially in the face of an exceptionally virulent variant like Delta.<\/p>\n

As with all things these days, the question of \u201cwhy?\u201d boils down to the deliberately deluded garbage politics of the right. A Washington Post<\/em> analysis<\/a> shows COVID rates plummeting in states with high numbers of vaccinated people, and rising in states with fewer vaccinated people. This is simple math, really, but disquieting to confront in the face of the highly contagious Delta variant.<\/p>\n

So where are the politics? Where they always are: in the states. \u201cThe top 22 states (including D.C.) with the highest adult vaccination rates all went to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election,\u201d reports<\/a> NPR<\/em>. \u201cSome of the least vaccinated states are the most pro-Trump. Trump won 17 of the 18 states with the lowest adult vaccination rates.\u201d<\/p>\n