Vaccine mandates lead the way
The novel coronavirus has gotten old, and the vaccines, having been around for nearly half the pandemic, are approaching middle age. Perhaps that’s why we hear so much about the relatively new delta variant, as if everything going on right now comes down to a trendy viral sensation.
But the fact is that familiar truths are driving the latest surge of infections and hospitalizations in California and across the country. Since Gov. Gavin Newsom announced California’s grand reopening on June 15, unvaccinated people have been gathering in bars, restaurants, gyms, churches and offices, often without masks, and getting sick as a result — just as they would have from boring old coronavirus 1.0.
Granted, the emergence of a viral variant that is believed to be more transmissible doesn’t help. Nor do the vaccines — or any vaccine — prevent every infection and illness.
But against delta and other variants alike, the vaccines are extraordinarily effective in preventing the spread of the virus and particularly its worst effects, hence the declining correlation between infections and hospitalizations in highly vaccinated places like San Francisco.
Provided we don’t plan on returning to another old pattern, hunkering down indefinitely in our homes, widespread vaccination still provides the surest escape from further needless suffering.
It therefore comes as a relief that state and local officials have finally come around to requiring vaccination as a precondition of high-risk gathering indoors.
San Francisco, which has repeatedly led the way on appropriate pandemic precautions, did so again Thursday by requiring full vaccination to enter bars, restaurants, gyms and other demonstrably risky indoor settings. It was the first major U.S. city to do so, though New York plans to require at least partial vaccination and smaller cities such as Palm Springs have adopted similar policies.
The day before, shortly after San Francisco school officials rightly followed the city and state in requiring vaccination or regular testing of public employees, Newsom wisely imposed the requirement statewide.
Lest anyone make the mistake of assuming that such measures are now universally recognized as “simply common sense,” as San Francisco Health Director Grant Colfax put it, most of the top candidates to replace Newsom if he is recalled quickly registered their irresponsible opposition to his order.
This, outrageously, is from politicians who claim to want to keep schools and the rest of society as open as possible.
As Mayor London Breed noted Thursday, “Vaccines are our way out of this pandemic. They’re how we can live our lives together, safely.” With no shortage of opportunists pandering to selfishness, ignorance and apathy, we need more leaders with the courage to put a stop to the needless endangerment of our health and lives.