Corona Log Entry July 9, 2021

Corona Log Entry- July 9^th, 2021

       It is cloudy and cool here in Western New York. Hurricane Elsa had just dumped massive amounts of rain on Florida and along the eastern Unites States. We had heavy rain yesterday as well.

        I hadn’t planned on making any more Corona Entries, but the virus is again raising its ugly head. A. variant of the strain, named “The Delta variant” is rampaging across the U.S and indeed the world. Medical professionals say that this newer viral strain is 60 % more contagious than the original Covid-19 virus. It is wreaking havoc upon those who, for one reason or another, chose not to be vaccinated. The CDC says that 99% of the Covid-19 deaths, in the last few months, are people who went unvaccinated. Why they were not, is a mystery.

      Across the planet, whole populations are literally begging for the vaccines. Here in the U.S., where the serum is in abundant supply, a huge number of our population remains unvaccinated. Citing, health, religious and political rationales, they remain as sheep in a field, waiting for the viral monster to devour them. Whole sections of the American South and Midwest are only at the 35% level of populations vaccinated.

      We have just passed the Fourth of July holiday. Millions of Americans took to the skies and roads to visit their long unseen friends and families. It was a time of lightness and glee. No one really expected the viral monster to return. We thought that, as a nation, we had the rascal on the run. The price of course is larger numbers of the Covid-19 -19 infections and deaths, all from the new Delta Strain. Vaccine makers at Moderna are already trying to see if they can either come up with a booster shot to fight the new strain, or determine if indeed their original vaccines will keep the newer virus at Bay. 

      All of Africa is in dire straits, as is South America. Even the wealthier countries like New Zealand and Japan are under siege with only 35-40% of their populations vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. Our Border with Canada is still closed for the last sixteen months. It looks like it will remain that away in spite of considerable pressures from business and residential groups, on both sides of the border.

      In Japan, the Olympic games have just decided to ban all spectators from the Olympic Games, the first time something like this has ever happened. Fear of contagion, from visiting athletes and families, is driving the decision. In the United States, we are all just getting ready to attend Baseball games and other mass spectator sports. Now, who knows what will happen?

     Financially, the stock markets had a brief covid-inspired panic. But, by the next day, the market rallied to previous levels. The Covid-19 virus  has so far not affected the money stream. Gasoline prices, at the pump, continue to rise. They are now at the $3.19 level per gallon for regular. Gasoline prices are a function of market manipulation, by the suppliers, rather than any medically influenced shortage.

     In Washington D.C. the Congress is haggling with the President over the final terms of yet another stimulus bill. This one would be around one Trillion dollars and targeted to physical infra structure projects like roads, bridges, airports and tele-communication capabilities. No one is yet talking about how we pay for all of this.

As a backdrop, President Biden announced the final withdrawal of American and allied troops from Afghanistan, after twenty long years. The opposition Taliban are encroaching on Kabul. Biden’s rationale is that we had trained and equipped over 300,000 Afghan forces to defend themselves. It is now up to the Afghani’s to determine their own future. While most of us agree with the sentiment, it does bring to mind the memories of the U.S. withdrawal from South Viet Nam. The Vietnamese government soon collapsed after America had left. Time will tell with Afghanistan.

      In general, baseball games go on. The Tampa Bay Lightning has just won the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row. People are looking forward to the opening of theaters and at home gatherings of family and friends. And now, the specter of the Delta Virus hangs over us a virus-weary population like a Damaclean Sword.

      We may yet have to hunker down a bit longer, go back to wearing face masks in public and keep our social distancing, to meet this new medical challenge. But, we will get thought this new scourge, like we did for the last 18 months of the pandemic, one day at a time.

                                    -30-

                                (781 words)

                            Joseph Xavier Martin