The United States is back up to around 380 COVID-19 deaths a day, with hospitalizations averaging 7,300 a day over a week
Meagan Flynn, The Washington Post: Public health collides with politics as latest wave of mask wars take off
Twenty months into the pandemic, the latest wave of the face-mask culture war is in full swing. Parents are protesting in school board meetings from Virginia Beach to Stafford County, Va., demanding their children be allowed to attend school maskless.
In Congress, Republicans are revolting, defiant after the Capitol Hill physician again required masks on the floor. It's just a snapshot of the political climate state and local officials must contend with as the delta variant drives coronavirus caseloads and they consider whether to reimpose restrictions.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser reinstated an indoor mask mandate last week for everyone, vaccinated or not. But Virginia and Maryland governors Ralph Northam, D, and Larry Hogan, R, did not follow. Hogan has left decisions to local officials, who have already started to put mask mandates back in place as cases surge.
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WNU Editor: What does not help is the mix messaging from our health care specialists .... Fauci flip-flops yet again! White House COVID tsar warns booster shots for the elderly are now on the horizon less than a month after saying fully vaccinated Americans wouldn't need them (Daily Mail).
Update #1: The U.S. is definitely in a new wave .... U.S. City With 2.4 Million Population Has Just Six ICU Beds Left (Bloomberg)
Update #2: Hmmmm .... quite a different story in Sweden .... Sweden: Despite Variants, No Lockdowns, No Daily Covid Deaths (Michael Fumento, The American Institute for Economic Research).
