Andrew Harnik / AP
President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room at the White House, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, in Washington. Biden is announcing sweeping new federal vaccine requirements affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant.
Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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Fueled by the anti-vax death cult, COVID-19 is on pace to kill 45,000 Americans every month — think of a community slightly smaller than Carson City being wiped out every 30 days. Our nation needed firm action to quell the delta outbreak and get our recovery back on track.
President Joe Biden provided that leadership Thursday with his six-point plan to halt the outbreak by breaking a logjam in the nation’s stubbornly weak vaccination rate. The goal: Compel millions of unvaccinated Americans to get their shots, and stop spreading the virus to each other and to their vaccinated peers via breakthrough infections.
Biden’s strategy is a responsible and reasonable response to the recent wildfire-like spread of the delta variant, and it promises to be effective in protecting Americans from becoming seriously ill or dying from COVID. It includes:
• Requiring vaccinations or regular COVID testing in the 2.1 million-strong federal workforce, and for private-sector businesses employing at least 100 workers.
• Accelerating production of rapid COVID tests, with a goal of sending 25 million free tests to health clinics across the country.
• Increasing availability of new doctor-recommended medicines to aid COVID-19 patients.
All told, the plan would cover 100 million Americans.
It’s unfortunate that the situation has come to this. The ideal response to COVID would have been for Americans to follow the example of the Greatest Generation and take a one-for-all approach by volunteering for vaccinations and helping each other tackle the crisis.
Instead, though, thanks to a drumbeat of political propaganda and misinformation from extremist right-wing leaders and media, eagerly consumed by the gullible among us, the delta variant has spread to the point where it’s killing an average of 1,500 Americans per day. And that’s an average — on Thursday the death toll crept over 3,200. That’s more American lives lost than at Pearl Harbor, or the Sept. 11 attack.
The situation is critical in Nevada too. The state recorded 1,452 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, the highest daily total in seven months.
We’re not even protecting our children, due to the large number of people eschewing shots. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that American kids now make up 26.9% of new cases nationwide.
Then there’s another source of deep concern: the spread of the new mu variant of the virus. Health officials say this variant is poised to crowd out delta as the dominant strain, and last week it was reported that 40 cases of it have already turned up in Nevada.
Vaccinations are the most effective tool to stop delta and nip the mu variant. Period. Otherwise, look for the mu variant to take off, followed by other mutations, more infections, more deaths and an endless delay in life returning to anything resembling normal.
This catastrophe is being driven by unvaccinated adults.
Vaccinated Americans who suffer breakthrough cases generally are not experiencing severe illnesses, while unvaccinated individuals are clogging hospitals across the country.
This comes despite the government giving full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with approvals of the other vaccines expected soon. The vaccines are a safe, effective way to guard against infection of COVID-19.
But with no end in sight to vaccine resistance and the delta outbreak, something had to be done to get more Americans to roll up their sleeves and get their shots.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said.
Sadly, but predictably, some Americans are already threatening to quit their jobs rather than submit to being vaccinated. They’d rather be unemployed than protect themselves, their loved ones, their neighbors, their children and everyone around them from a disease that is killing people by the tens of thousands per month.
Meanwhile, mask and vaccine mandates have become so fanatically politicized by the right that mobs are turning out to scream and shout against them. Or worse — Clark County school board president Linda Cavazos reported getting death threats and other appalling messages after the board voted 5-1 last week to authorize Superintendent Jesus Jara to negotiate a vaccine mandate with teachers unions.
Cavazos says she and the board are sticking with their decision and will go about their work, which is admirable. Meanwhile, those making threats should be identified and dealt with legally. There’s no place in our society for such thuggishness.
Against this mania — and the staggering death toll in recent weeks — Biden did the correct thing in pushing more Americans toward becoming vaccinated.
