With the number of coronavirus infections rising from San Diego California to Tokyo Japan, you might say President Biden and other federal, state and local government leaders have an Olympic size challenge on their hands.
At a time when most people in most states have had at least one vaccination shot and with many millions of vaccinated Americans having already returned to normal activity, what do they say to get more of the unvaccinated vaccinated as the cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise to highs not seen for several months?
According to a breakdown of the latest stats by the San Diego Union Tribune, new infections, case ratees and positive test rates are now at levels that would put our county into the purple tier. Remember that? It was the most restrictive of those color-coded COVD tiers that went away in mid-June.
This new surge of the coronavirus also comes at a time when some schools already have reopened and others will re-open over the next few weeks, with a vaccine for kids under the age of 12 not yet approved.
There are now signs of more concern among some hesitant government leaders to push harder to get people vaccinated, including some leading Republicans in Congress and even some of conservative talk show voices. Their message now is one that urges Americans to get vaccinated.
None of us wants to go backwards when it comes to the fight against this now year and a half long pandemic. We all want it to be over. But it could linger for some time yet unless more shots get into more arms.
(Photo Getty Images)