Morning Reads – June 24, 2021

Nice collection of MRs, thank you.
The lack of a vaccine mandate for universities is something I have to personally deal with as well, as teaching indoors with unvaccinated and unmasked students raises risks of exposure and transmission, and I have a young child at home. (Who probably won’t see the chance at being vaccinated until late Fall at best, assuming clinical trial success.)
What’s odd to me is, that at this point, the two main subpopulations that are at risk of contracting any transmitted illness are unvaccinated adults and unvaccinated children. Adults can make their minds up for themselves, sure. But… kids can’t.
Firstly, university students are barely adults, and to some varying extent, still mostly kids. Many would skip the measles shot too if they could. Some are more on point than others, and much depends on your family and community in terms of norms and implementation.
But now there is literally just one bidirectional line of high-risk transmissibility between unvaccinated adults and children. So, not requiring vaccines where possible is, in effect, a policy which fails to protect children.
Earlier in the pandemic, there were cries to protect the elderly or immuno-compromised. Those cries apparently fell on deaf ears of over half of GA’s population. (current figures have vaccination rates around 40%)
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/3d8eea39f5c1443db1743a4cb8948a9c

Now, the timeless question must be asked: Who will actually stand up to protect the children? Or, in Hollywood terms: Think of the children!
Oh, you’re pro-life, you say? Then take a shot in the arm with a one in a million risk so a child doesn’t have to take a more substantial lifelong risk. Stand up and make a policy that can explicitly protect vulnerable children. There have been rising numbers of issues with covid and children, and don’t think the virus and variants are gonna sleep on adapting.
Are there no policymakers with the courage or sense to require vaccines where they can– in higher risk environments— for even the sake of vulnerable children?
Such weak leadership, afraid of offending the safe space of the politically, emotionally misguided. Their safe emotional space means a literal dangerous space for others- mostly, for the vulnerable children.
Well, my prediction is that policies will probably change school-by-school as Fall progresses, as the first waves of transmission may hit with the mix of variants and cooling weather, but I don’t wish that on anybody. I wish we didn’t even need a policy that works now, before we even allow illness even an opportunity at a foothold.
But I am not that naive, so encourage the politically weak to use simple reasoning, and back up their alleged care of children with the invocation of the need to protect the lives and health of children, and require vaccine mandates – or mask mandates- at universities or other public facilities– where they can.