50.1%

The United States has now, as of this past weekend, vaccinated 50.1 percent of its citizens against COVID - a bare majority.

Fifty percent plus one-tenth may be enough to win an election, but it's not enough to stop the spread of the delta corona.  It does, however, mean that more Americans are protected against getting sick from COVID, even though it doesn't prevent someone from getting the SARS CoV-2 virus entirely.  With Delta surging in most parts of the country, it means that the Biden administration and private businesses have to step up their efforts to get a majority of the remaining 49.9 percent of Americans vaccinated.  

That looks like it's going to happen.  The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may be just a few weeks away from full FDA approval, which will allow more companies to mandate vaccines for its workers.  Trump's former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci - who famously served in that post a shorter time than William Henry Harrison served as President in 1841 - has already mandated them for employees of his hedge fund.  And President Biden has already moved to require federal workers to get the shot.  What's the difference between a requirement and a mandate, you ask?  A mandate means you have to get the shot or else.  A requirement leaves you the option to get tested regularly.  Either way, this should help prevent further mutations of the virus that could lead to a highly infectious SARS CoV-2 superbug that no virus known to humankind can stop.

Trump's former FDA director, Scott Gottlieb - who left his post in 2019, before the pandemic began - thinks the Delta variant (sounds like I'm talking about a hot-hatch version of a Lancia, no?) will peak early this fall, not because vaccination rates will shoot through the roof as they did this past spring (though that could still happen), but because there are so many unreported Delta cases that there are more infected people than we think and there won't be many more Americans to get infected either way.  It's going to take a combination of vaccination, care for those unfortunate enough to get sick, and strict COVID protocols to get through  this wave.  Me, I'm staying home.  This past weekend, I missed a local jazz-festival event near where I live, but with the spread of the virus possible even in crowded outdoor events like this one, I'm sort of glad I didn't go.  I can wait for the next festival in 2022.