I hope that all my readers are healthy and safe, regardless of where you are living.
The rate at which the virus is spreading is continuing to slow down. This mirrors what we’ve been seeing across the United States, where the spread of the Delta variant has slowed down. What this also means is that we continue to have a good percentage of ICU beds available in the New York City area (steadily at or near 40% of beds available).
Even though the spread of Delta has slowed down, there continues to be parts of the United States where the pandemic situation is quite serious. I think of those in Idaho, where fewer than half of the people in that state are vaccinated and nearly 9 in 10 ICU beds filled.[1] I think of places like the Metropolitan Houston Area in Texas, where over 9 in 10 ICU beds are filled.[2] The worst of the Delta variant may be behind many of us in many ways, but we are still facing the consequences of the variant (and low vaccination rates in many areas that allowed it to thrive).
What continues to grab headlines in New York City, when it comes to the virus, is the battle over vaccine mandates. I talked in my post last week about the debate over said mandates among all New York City employees. As of the time of my writing this post, we appear on course for the mandate to start in the coming days. There are protests over the mandates, yet I continue to remain hopeful that when all is set and done, people will choose their paychecks over all else. That is certainly what Mayor Bill de Blasio is betting on. And if the bet goes wrong, we could be in for a turbulent time with staffing shortages in New York City agencies that serve some of the most vulnerable populations, such as the homeless, those having fires, and those in jail.
That’s pretty much it for me, for now. I’m very much interested in hearing how others are going along!
[1] https://covidactnow.org/us/idaho-id/?s=24761391
[2] https://covidactnow.org/us/metro/houston-the-woodlands-sugar-land_tx/?s=24761391
Blind Injustice 
In my province (British Columbia), health care workers had to be vaccinated by October 26 or be put on unpaid leave. As of that date, there were 4000 who remained unvaccinated, and 2000 more who had received only a single dose. It boggles my mind that so many people working in health care are so ignorant.
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It boggles my mind too. What boggles me even more about people in health care being so ignorant was that so many in health care were the ones who faced the brunt of the pandemic.
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