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Earlier in the coronavirus pandemic, it was thought that a threshold of natural and vaccine-acquired immunity, say 70 percent, would leave the virus little room to grow. President Biden set a goal of 70 percent of Americans getting at least one shot by July 4. The hope was that once the nation reached herd immunity, the virus would die out. Thanks to the delta variant, it is time to reconsider. The country will fall short of Mr. Biden’s goal by Independence Day. But more importantly, the current level of vaccine immunity is insufficient to end the pandemic in the United States. Since it began, SARS-CoV-2 has evolved to become far more contagious. The goal posts must move when the virus moves. The higher the contagion, the larger share of the population must be immune; for example, measles, which is even more contagious than the coronavirus, requires about 94 percent to be immune to stop the virus from spreading. To really end the pandemic, a chunk of the unvaccinated in the United States must gain immunity, and the best way is through vaccines. (6/23)

How do we prevent a pandemic like this from happening again? As we start to tackle that question, inevitably part of it will involve looking back at the mistakes that were made with COVID-19, and rightly so. But it’s also important to learn from the things we got right, because this pandemic could have been worse, much worse. So, if we want to ensure that this is the last pandemic to cause devastation on this scale, then not only do we need to build on these successes, but the time to do that is now. (Seth Berkley, 6/23)

It finally feels like the United States is turning a corner on COVID-19. Vaccines are widely available, new cases are dropping and restrictions are starting to lift. But we’re also realizing that we’ve barely begun to reckon with the emotional impact of this crisis. An estimated 5 million Americans have lost loved ones. Devastating new surges in Africa, India and Latin America are a constant reminder that the virus is still a threat. And for many of us, the prospect of returning to “normal” is more daunting than exciting –  nearly half of Americans say they’re uncomfortable with the idea of going back to living life as they did before the pandemic. We’re weary of our present reality, but many of us are not energized for what comes next, either.  (Sheryl Sandberg and Dr. Adrienne Boissy, 6/23)

I woke myself up the other morning counting out loud. Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine. Thirty. Rhythmic, staccato counting, the familiar cycle of CPR. Even though I was home in my own bed, it didn’t stop me from worrying about the patient I’d abandoned in my dream. I make my living as a travel nurse. Though my home is in Montana, I spent most of the pandemic working on Covid-19 units in Arizona, including the winter and spring of 2021 when the state’s surge was overwhelming its health care system. (Karla Theilen, 6/24)