The delta variant, which every scientist knew would become the dominant strain, to the point where one would likely have a hard time find a “used” bargain COVID, is not at all your last year’s COVID. It is far more contagious, it gets people sicker, more easily, and that includes a shocking number of adults and now, children. Of course, this is bad news in more ways than one.

First the reality in numbers and then the political reality:

The Delta variant, which is rapidly spreading among mostly the unvaccinated portion of the U.S. population, has caused hospitalizations to spike in recent weeks, driving up the number of pediatric hospitalizations to 1,902 on Saturday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Children currently make up about 2.4% of the nation’s COVID-19 hospitalizations. Kids under 12 are not eligible to receive the vaccine, leaving them more vulnerable to infection from the new, highly transmissible variant.

The good news is that kids are still more resilient against the disease when compared to adults, this was certainly never a guarantee. The flu hits young kids and babies as hard as our elderly population. But the Delta variant unquestionably hits kids much harder than the original COVID. The same is true for young adults.

Had all these characteristics hit last summer, there is no question that adults, ever-protective of children, would have demanded longer shutdowns, masks, and more action, likely more money. Trump wouldn’t have been able to bullshit his way out of that one. We almost literally put an entire generation – our best generation, the elderly, most at risk, by not doing everything.

Now we have a different disease happening this summer and the people who have refused to use the vaccine have had a certain arrogance (Marjorie Taylor-Greene, “We all die sometime”) that has already set in. Joe Biden had promised us a normal Fourth of July and by all indications, we would’ve had it. But too many are too stupid, that’s the reality. Now they are the ones occupying ICUs across the country. There is literally no area of the country that has a decent buffer zone in ICU beds, that part hits all of us. Try having a heart attack right now, as someone certainly is. We are bursting at capacity. The only thing keeping the death numbers from skyrocketing is the fact that our treatments are much better, people in the ICU and on ventilators are more likely than not going to make it. Last year it was a celebration to get someone off a vent.

We have what seems like an insignificant problem too. Those of us who had the Pfizer shot – what had been the gold standard – now face 42% less protection than Moderna against the delta variant. That does not mean only 42% are protected. It is simply 42% behind Moderna. But, thankfully even those of us that got breakthrough cases of the delta variant – including me – got through a very tough ten days without breathing problems, just weird sickness problems. But we don’t end up in the hospitals.

Some of us are thanking God we don’t have to make fake I.D.s for our kids, the ones that say they are 12 and over. Those with children who are 11, maybe 10, must be looking for a workaround.

But last summer’s “success” – only really old people died after all (this is the attitude of those not taking this seriously) – is now our worst enemy. Football season is about to start, for real, at least for now, and it’s worst in the worst part of the country. Do you think DeSantis is going to hold people out of football stadiums?

School starts very early in the south, too hot to do anything else. Our kids have started. By September 1st, the stats regarding kids will be coming in and kids from the north will be looking at school. Either schools will require vaccinations or they will shut down, and right now it looks more like the latter. For those of us who are vaccinated, and especially those of us vaccinated and having just had it, it is almost a non-issue in our lives. For those of us with young teens who are vaccinated, same thing.

This is a disease of the unvaccinated. It is not last year’s COVID. Fewer people are dying only because we have the best doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists on earth. But our medical infrastructure is about to break. It already has in Mississippi and it’s coming to your state soon or it is already there. It is in Idaho.

Until the anti-vaxers pull their heads out of their MAGAs, this is how it will be for another year. COVID is here to stay, it will be like the flu. Fewer people will die because either people will get it and develop immunity, get boosters, or have already died. But we are not doing what we should and we’re going to pay for it.

Thank God that Joe Biden is president. That is the political reality.

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