Boost THIS!

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention just authorized COVID booster shots for all adults in an effort to end the pandemic sooner rather than later.  But I fear it will end later.

Here's the deal, folks.  Yes, COVID boosters will provide extra protection for longer than the original two-dose vaccinations, as the two-dose regimen wanes after six to eight months, and boosters can only be a good thing.  But meanwhile, 41 percent of Americans remain unvaccinated and, while the initial-dose rate has picked up in recent days thanks to COVID vaccinations for children, the full-vaccination rate has gone from increasing 0.1 percent a day to 0.1 percent every three or four days. Meanwhile, after dropping to 60,000 new cases a day in late October, the seven-day average for new cases is rising again, as it is in Europe, and Florida has actually enacted legislation to prevent county and municipal governments and private businesses from requiring vaccines and face coverings.  And speaking of the latter, part of the reason we have to keep wearing "FCs" in the other 49 states is because of a lack of testing, combined with the government's failure to trace infection chains.  And, as always, we don't know how many people have recovered from COVID or how many people have it now.  

And what good are boosters if we can't give everyone their first two doses?

And yet, former FDA director Scott Gottlieb - who accurately predicted the current spike in vases - thinks we'll be out of pandemic mode after the first of the year.  I hope he's right.  I don't want to live in a world where face coverings are as much a permanent and essential part of our wardrobe as undershorts.   That, to me, would be utter dystopia.  To think . . . a child born today might have to ask his or her parents, "Mommy, Daddy . . . What's a smile?" 😮 

As if we'll have any reason to give one. 😢