Most people can be divided into two groups, those who see the glass as half-full and those who see the glass as half-empty.
If you are in the former group, you may be cheered by the knowledge that Chicago, which lags behind the rest of the State of Illinois in terms of COVID-19 vaccine compliance, is at least ahead of the national averages for vaccination according to the most recent data posted by the Mayo Clinic:
As of yesterday, July 30, according to the Mayo Clinic, 49.7% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, while 57.6% of the nation's population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The question always arises, when looking at data like this, whether we are talking about the vaccine-eligible population, namely, those aged 12 and up, or the entire population, from diapers to Depends. This graphic, from the same Mayo Clinic page linked above, suggests they may be talking about the population as a whole, not just those who are old enough to receive the vaccines:
So I think, but do not warrant, that the Mayo Clinic vaccination figures are directly comparable to the City of Chicago numbers, inasmuch as the City's COVID-19 Dashboard Information Page says "Citywide values are for the total population of Chicago." Here is the City of Chicago COVID-19 Dashboard for July 31:
See? The City's latest fully vaccinated rate (52.2%) compares favorably with the national rate of 49.7%. And Chicago's partially vaccinated rate (58.5%) bests the national single dose rate of 57.6%.
And did you notice the positivity rate of 3.1% on the City site? This compares quite favorably indeed with the national positive rate as reported by the Mayo Clinic:
According to the Mayo Clinic, the average positive test rate is 12.01% as of July 29.
So there is some happy talk for the glass-half-full folks to share.
But statewide compliance is still ahead of Chicago. The Illinois Department of Public Health, in a July 30 release, advises that more than 58% of Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated, while over 74% have received at least one dose.
Chicago's hesitancy is dragging the Illinois vaccination numbers down.
On the other hand, the "preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from July 23-29, 2021 is 4.0%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from July 23-29, 2021 is 4.7%." For now, at least, the bug appears to be spreading faster outside Chicago than in. But in a couple of weeks we ought to be able catch up: Thanks, Lollapalooza.
But if the current Chicago numbers seem to provide thin gruel for the glass-half-empty folks, they can surely take encouragement from comparisons between this week's numbers and the numbers earlier this month.
To wit, the July 24 Chicago COVID-19 Dashboard:
And the July 17 Dashboard:
And, finally, the July 10 Dashboard:
Daily average cases keep creeping up... 41... 70... 130... 206. At the current rate of increase, these numbers can get scary big really fast.
What we're not tracking, apparently, are breakthrough infections -- vaccinated persons coming down with one of the new, more virulent, or at least more contagious, strain of the COVID-19 virus. We are told at the highest levels that we now have "a pandemic of the unvaccinated." But it may not be only the unvaccinated who are at risk of contracting or spreading the disease.
In a July 31 interview with Alexander Nazaryan of Yahoo!News, Dr. Leana Wen, author of Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health, noted that the United States has failed to track most 'breakthrough' infections -- vaccinated people who come down with COVID-19 anyway:
We have a serious data problem in the U.S. for unclear reasons. The CDC, back in May, stopped collecting data on mild breakthrough infections. They announced that they were only going to be collecting data on severe breakthroughs, meaning severe enough to cause hospitalizations or deaths. Now I really do not think that this was the right decision at all. We need to understand, what is the likelihood — period — of breakthrough infections?
Are we talking a one-in-a-hundred chance or one-in-two chance? We literally do not know.
I hate to quite put it in this way, but in a way, this is not dissimilar to what happened under the Trump administration, when the mantra seemed to be, ‘If you don't test, it's not there.’ Well, if you don't test, if you don’t track, the infections are still there. We just don’t know about it.
Anecdotal evidence is starting to accumulate that breakthrough infections are increasing. A fully-vaccinated Miami businesswoman's breakthrough infection made the Miami Herald recently. And the deaths of a "dozen high-risk Missouri residents who were vaccinated against COVID-19" was just reported in the Kansas City Star.
Missouri and Florida are at the crest of the wave of this latest resurgance. We here in Illinois are supposed to look down our blue noses at them in smug superiority. But, even so, you can see where this is going: This disease has been spread, right from the outset, by asymptomatic carriers. A lot of unvaccinated persons---back when there were no vaccines---spread the virus never knowing they'd been afflicted. Now, it turns out, according to this July 30 AP article by Lindsey Tanner, Mike Stobbe, and Philip Marceloi, the CDC has determined that vaccinated people can unwittingly spread the new Delta COVID-19 variant. We may not know we have the Delta variant -- it may not make us sick (because the vaccine works, darn it!) -- but we may be part of the ever-growing problem, making unvaccinated people (and perhaps even some of our vaccinated brothers and sisters) sick.
It doesn't have to be this way. If more people would just get vaccinated... but, in the meantime, mask mandates are coming back. For all of us.
Yes... there are plenty of facts available for the glass-half-empty folks, too.
Of course, most of the people coming here to FWIW are lawyers. Lawyers may belong to neither the glass-half-full nor the glass-half-empty camp.
A lot of lawyers, by habit and instinct and training, are typically much more concerned with whether the glass is sufficiently shatterproof, or safely situated on an adequate support. And, wait, when was that glass last washed? Has the liquid within been tested for purity or potabiility? We lawyers may never quite get to formulating an opinion about the actual level of liquid contained in the cylinder....
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The rush to return to normal is fueling this nightmare as well as the lack of vaccinated people. Delta is deadly even to some vaccinated persons, but we're busy holding festivals and baseball games like the threat is over with. Even the legal profession is not immune, as increased in-court/in-person work is occurring or scheduled in some jurisdictions. Meanwhile, some businesses are suggesting mask wearing instead of keeping it mandatory. We'll be dealing with Covid even longer this way. Time for someone to mandate vaccinations, masking, and other precautions rather than mere suggestions. We do it for other communicable diseases in childhood, and some adult settings. I understand some are waiting for the FDA to give full approval for the inevitable legal arguments, but the situation is beyond ridiculous at this point. Can you imagine our country acting like this during WWII?? "you can't ration my gas or food; I've got rights! You can't make me observe blackout regulations!" Unbelievable what fools so many have become.
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