Since I'm in a wealthy vaccine-producing country, every conversation I have these days is about vaccines - who's how far along, side effects, when they'll be fully covered, travel, what to do about those unwilling to vaccinate, what life will look like when and where "herd immunity" is reached. (I realize I've posted about it only once in over a month - for my vaccination!) The US government's pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has added anxieties (for one of my students, who'd taken it two days before the announcement, it was occasion for terror), but one feels on a road to recovery. Not so other parts of the world, many of which are suffering from new waves and new variants, vaccine shortages, exhaustion and protest. It seems naive to suppose the US, too, won't be hit by a new wave... Indeed, as hospitals reach capacity across the land, the situation remains perilous here, too. NYC, over the latest hump, remains at "very high risk" of exposure.
