Hits and Misses
Many Americans are scrambling to receive a coronavirus vaccine, and, as of now, demand is far outstripping supply. With so many people in this country concerned that they won’t get a vaccine for weeks or months, who has the time or inclination to worry about how many people are being vaccinated in, say, Guinea, Haiti or Tajikistan? Actually, Americans should be worried, along with the residents of other wealthier nations. So far, the vaccination rates in poorer countries have been painfully slow, according to many news reports, and the longer COVID-19 stays around, the greater the likelihood that mutations will develop that will be more contagious or will evade the vaccine. The COVID-19 pandemic will not be over until it’s over in every corner of the world.
It’s been clear for months that wearing one face mask is a good thing, since it protects people around the person wearing it from any aerosols they might be emitting. Now, some studies are suggesting that wearing two masks is even better than one. According to a study in the journal Matter, wearing two masks could increase protection from virus particles anywhere from 50 to 75%. Plus, you achieve a more snug fit wearing a cloth mask over a loose-fitting surgical mask. Luminaries like poet Amanda Gorman and incoming U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have been seen double-masking. We all should follow their example.
Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature have been at loggerheads frequently since Wolf became governor in 2015, and the coronavirus pandemic has not been a spur to greater comity. Republicans have largely recoiled at the restrictions that the Wolf administration has imposed to battle COVID-19, and now they are attempting to diminish his authority via the state constitution. In recent days, both the state House and Senate have approved measures that would limit a governor’s emergency orders to just 21 days, and have the Legislature approve any extensions. It will likely be put to voters on the May primary ballot. Resolving this dispute by a constitutional amendment seems short-sighted. One day, the virus will be gone, and so will the legislators in Harrisburg. Would today’s Republicans want a GOP governor in the future to be similarly impeded by a Democratic-majority Legislature in the face of an emergency? It could happen.
If you’ve been on social media in the last week, you’ve undoubtedly seen the bumper crop of memes featuring a mitten-wearing, crotchety-looking U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at last week’s inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris. The memes put Sanders outside restaurants, bookstores and movie theaters, with the cast of “The Golden Girls” and on the cover of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” to cite just a few examples. The senator decided to put the ubiquity of the photo to good use. His campaign team put it on a sweatshirt and, so far, $1.8 million has been raised for charities due to the sale of the shirts. Proceeds are going to senior centers, Meals on Wheels programs and Community Action agencies in Vermont. Little did Sanders ever imagine that his mittens and grumpy mien would inject so much humor into otherwise grim times and help others, too.