This weekend, the country is facing a surge of covid cases. Early reports indicate that the increasing number of cases is not leading to a rise in hospitalizations.
The U.S. reported nearly 140,000 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, marking the third day in a row daily cases have exceeded 100,000, according to an NBC News tally.Nationwide, cases have climbed by roughly 58 percent over the past two weeks as the omicron coronavirus subvariant BA.2 and an offshoot of that strain, called BA.2.12.1, continue to spread.The last time confirmed cases exceeded 100,000 was in mid-February, when the winter surge, fueled by the original omicron variant, BA.1, began to subside.However, in the Northeast, where the vast majority of cases are being reported, the rate of hospitalizations and deaths aren’t as high as expected, a senior administration official told NBC News earlier this week.
This is as I projected based on past histories of coronavirus infections: There will be waves of infections until population immunity builds up and the virus joins the others in the standard cold suite of pathogens.
Furthermore, as I have noted in my coverage of the Gridiron Dinner and White House Correspondents Dinner, leading politicians and celebrities who have been vaccinated and boosted have come down with covid.
Furthermore, earlier this year, Gen. Mark Milley (Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff) and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin both came down with covid . . . despite being vaccinated.
Given that the illness is usually mild in the young and healthy, the failure of the vaccines to protect from infection, and the increase in political tensions across the globe, you might think that destroying the careers of promising young officers before they launched would be….unwise.
However, different choices are made when virtual signaling is more important than strategic military planning.
Four Air Force Academy cadets may not graduate or be commissioned as military officers this month, and could be forced to pay back thousands in tuition, after they refused to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, Air Force officials said.The Air Force Academy is the only military academy so far to announce penalties for a failure to get vaccinated. The Army and Navy said their seniors are not being barred from this month’s graduation over their vaccination status.Air Force Academy spokesman Lt. Col. Brian Maguire said the graduation is two weeks away and that the cadets still have time to “weigh their options.” There are also two juniors, one sophomore and six freshmen at the academy to have refused the COVID vaccine.Last year, the Pentagon announced a vaccine mandate for service members, including for those at military academies. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the vaccine is crucial to the military’s health and readiness.
The four cadets all applied for religious exemptions to refuse the vaccine, but their applications had been denied. Advocates for the college seniors say they should be allowed to refuse the vaccine on religious grounds.
Former Colorado State Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt, for example, labeled the unnamed students ‘evangelical Christian cadets, who are pro-life, and they object to the fact that the vaccines were tested on aborted fetal stem cell lines.’Because of their objection to abortion, their conscience will not let them … inject this particular drug into their own bodies,’ he told the Gazette.’That’s why they won’t take the vaccine,’ he continued. ‘It’s not because they hate all vaccines.’Klingenschmitt has now planned a rally outside of the Air Force Academy north of Colorado Springs, saying: ‘There’s only one person who can change his mind right now, and that is the superintendent, three-star Gen. Richard Clark.’Our protest is to plea with him personally, “Sir, please keep your oath. Please let the cadets graduate. Defend their religious freedom.”
I argue that the vaccines are, at best, useless . . . especially for young, healthy adults and because the variants are no more hazardous than bad flu in the worst-case scenario. Therefore, the decision for this vaccination should be based on the individual’s preference.
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