So today we learned according to a study published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that vaccine effectiveness against Covid-19 infection dropped from 91% to 66% once the Delta variant accounted for the majority of circulating virus.

With this information being released today, who in their right mind would think the pandemic would be over within the next four months? Christ, some states are just getting ramped back up (Massachusetts, I’m looking at you).

I think Fauci was being conservative when he urged the public to get vaccinated and said if the “overwhelming majority” of the population does so the US could have the pandemic “under control” by spring of 2022. At least he said “could”. And define “under control”. That could be anything from actually having an ICU bed available for a child in Texas to Florida only having 42,000 cases in one day instead of 42,143. At least he sounded realistic when he also said “there was no guarantee”. I actually believe the pandemic will last a lot longer than the spring of 2022. Vaccinated or not.

Something Fauci isn’t remembering: this is a *worldwide* issue, not just one in the United States. I actually would not be surprised to be wearing masks for the next five to ten years. Meanwhile, we keep playing with the vaccine and new variants come along. A booster here. A booster there.

We may decide it’s time to vaccinate the under 12 crowd. Many parents won’t do it for one reason or another, mainly because the FDA only just officially made the vaccine “valid” for the 16+ crowd yesterday. That doesn’t even include the 12-15 crowd. And when and if the FDA does approve it “officially” for that crowd? And what happens when the boosters wear off? We don’t even know how long they will last.

We’re still dealing with those who won’t or can’t get vaccinated. Even if you make them. Which really you can’t. You can deny them this, that and the other thing. As if that is really going to make a difference. But you can’t make them get something they either just cannot get or don’t want to get.

What bothers me more than people who can’t or won’t get vaccinated is what we do know and what we don’t know.

Everyone keeps harking on how well the vaccines work, they prevent people from getting really sick, being hospitalized and dying. That’s great, except for the vaccinated people who have gotten really sick, have been hospitalized and have died. Yes, I know the percentages are lower than those of the unvaccinated. But it’s like playing the lottery and winning every time. Eventually your luck is going to run out. What we don’t know is when that will be and what we will do then. Do we really have time to keep playing with a vaccine and yelling at unvaccinated people who have no intention of getting vaccinated when we should really be focusing on what’s coming down the pike?