We’ve been lulled into thinking that life under COVID has become a tale of two cities; that we inhabit the safe haven of the vaccinated. The death and despair of unvaccinated nations we have so far flatly refused to help, is like a horror film on Netflix you can switch off anytime you like.
Except we were wrong: we aren’t safe.
In a report published Friday, the CDC now say fully-vaccinated people can carry and spread a viral load equal to the unvaccinated. So I can still infect my two-year old grandson and unvaccinated daughter despite doing everything I possibly can to avoid becoming infectable.
This is awful news, but should surprise nobody. A month ago, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the CDC, said of the Delta variant, “It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career.”
Delta is getting smarter.
So what can we do except go back to basics — social distancing, face masks, hand cleaner — even though we know Delta gets around it all. What else can I do? My daughter’s failure to get vaccinated makes ME a risk to her and my grandson.
It’s 4am and in a few hours we’ll learn whether there’s to be a repeat of the so-called ‘Freedom’ protests that shut down Sydney last weekend. Expect a no-holds-barred response from the 1,000+ police itching to deploy. Protestors, come get some, because the cops are absolutely panting.
This is the wrong city for more protests right now. Sydney is the canary in the coal-mine. Our state political leaders went soft and late when we needed hard and fast. We haven’t had an uncontained outbreak in Australia yet.
The next 48 hours will show us if Sydney is it.
San Francisco is 77% vaccinated, the “safest” big city in the United States. Yet in just one hospital alone, COVID cases went from zero in June to 40 in July, with 15 in intensive care, five of who were fully-vaccinated.
Likewise, the CDC describe an outbreak in Provincetown, Mass., that exploded to 469 cases — three-quarters of whom were fully immunized — following 4th of July celebrations. It took a week to notice infections rising, but by two weeks the infection rate had gone from zero per 100,000 to 177.
Translate that to Sydney where our immunization rate is far less, and the rate of infection means 11,062 new cases per day. THAT’s what an outbreak looks like. Bringing thousands of police and protesters together in the city today would be an act of absolute criminal bastardry.
Eleven thousand cases per day. Imagine that.
Our Premier already has that panicked look in her eye, and we only have 187 cases admitted to hospital: 58 in intensive care, 24 on ventilation, meaning probably a dozen imminent deaths. How many of those were vaccinated, I wonder?
If the government suppresses anything, it will be that number.
Just getting on with it? You mean it as in — become infected, kill your sister — it? Smells like freedom to me, you fuckwit.
I can clean my hands until my skin falls off, but Delta might still come home with me on my shirt, on my shoes, in my hair. It’s not my fault that my family aren’t fully-vaccinated yet. I may yet bring the virus home from work.
And this is only Delta, a virus that’s already outsmarted some of our brightest medical minds. At this rate, the Omega variant might end life on earth.
