The county of San Diego delivered some promising, if not hopeful, news this week—vaccination rates against COVID-19 in San Diego are high.
A reported 88% of the eligible population, people age 12 and older, has received at least one dose of the elixir of health. Seventy-eight percent have had both shots and are fully vaccinated.
If these were school grades these would be in the C-plus to B-plus range. A note from Sister Sternbritches would accompany the report card telling us there is room for improvement and we can do better.
Compared to Los Angeles County, San Diego’s performance is significantly superior given that 77 percent of their eligible population has been inoculated with one dose of the vaccine while only 69 percent have received both shots.
LA may be ahead of San Diego in the NL West standings, but we’re ahead for now in the statistics that really matter.
County health officials also reminded us that booster shots are available for eligible recipients, news that comes as we learn that immunity conferred by vaccines wanes over time.
Also take into consideration that vaccines for children under 12 years old are closer now than any time since this pandemic began.
If you also factor in that globally COVID-19 cases and deaths have been trending down for the last two or three weeks you might be tempted to start icing the champagne and refining the guest list for the PANDEMIC’S OVER!! party you’re planning.
It’s all good news but let’s proceed with caution this time.
It was in early summer when we put on our dancing shoes and shuffled in jubilation after California lifted pandemic mitigation mandates and many of us carried on as if life was finally back to normal.
Then the Delta variant came along and pulled the plug. Cases shot up and some masking requirements were reinstated. Death tolls reminded us the pandemic was not done with us.
Undoubtedly the news lately is good. But as Sister Sternbritches would say: We can do better. Let’s get as close as we can to 100% vaccination rate before and after vaccines are available to everyone, behaving cautiously until then in the knowledge that variants can easily undo the hard work and sacrifices we’ve made to this point.
