We were so close. Vaccines are available and free to the public, and we have an administration in The White House that started taking this pandemic seriously as they listen to the science and the health professionals.
In April, President Joe Biden spoke about how the Fourth of July was going to be our country’s “target date to get life in America closer to normal and to begin to celebrate our independence from the virus together with our friends and loved ones.”
Now about a month after the July 4 holiday, unfortunately there is no celebration to be had because we are not free from this virus. Far too many are believing the conspiracy theories that the vaccines are not effective or that they were created to track us or that COVID-19 isn’t even real. Whether vaccinated or not, people have started to leave their masks at home, gather in larger crowds and social distancing has become a thing of the past.
Photos from this year’s Lollapalooza, a music festival in Chicago, are equal parts terrifying and infuriating. Thousands of people unmasked, crammed together like sardines for three days. A photo making its way around social media during the weekend showed a sea of thousands with a single masked person visible among all of them.
The unvaccinated have ignored science and common sense and the vaccinated have gotten complacent. This combined with the more contagious Delta variant has led Florida to have the highest number of positive COVID cases since the start of the pandemic.
My roommate is a nurse at AdventHealth and I can’t tell you how sad and depressing it is to see him come home after each shift and hearing that they are overrun with COVID patients, nearly all of them unvaccinated. He’s being asked to come in on his days off, work longer hours and cancel vacation time that he and other health care workers were starting to be able to request after more than a year of not being able to do so. They were starting to see that light at the end of the tunnel and now because far too many are refusing to do their part, they are back to far too many hours working in the hospital and far too few beds for the sick.
What makes this worse than last year though is the patients are coming in younger and sicker than before. The days of this being a virus that predominantly impacts older adults and those with compromised immune systems are gone.
And as if blind to what is happening in his state, Gov. Ron DeSantis is doubling down on his refusal to help Floridians by not declaring a state of emergency, issuing mask mandates or even letting local officials make decisions that would be best for their cities and counties. Students and teachers are heading back to the classroom this month, some in a matter of days, and instead of DeSantis thinking about the safety of the students, teachers and faculties, he is refusing to enact mask mandates at schools, leaving it up to parents to decide what is best for their kids. Unless the parent is an epidemiologist then leaving the decision to them is the most irresponsible decision this governor has ever made, and based on DeSantis’ track record that is saying a lot.
On a positive note, the fear of a more aggressive and deadly variant has caused the vaccination rates to rise over the last week with first doses up 46% across the 10 states – Florida included – with the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases. Also, some companies are pushing back against DeSantis’ ignorance by issuing mask mandates of their own. If you want to visit Disney, regardless if you are vaccinated or not, you better bring a mask with you.
It’s time for everyone to stop whining and just do your part to help end this pandemic. No matter how inconvenient you feel wearing a mask is, it is not worse than ending up on a ventilator in a hospital bed. But don’t take my word for it, in this issue we bring you information from professionals whose job it is to know the facts and keep the public safe.
In Arts and Entertainment, we chat with openly gay performer Todrick Hall about his latest album, “Femuline.” We also get the scoop on all the celebrities, cosplayers, gamers, comic creators and more coming to MegaCon Orlando.
In news, we chat with Se7enbites owner and “Guy’s Grocery Games” winner Trina Gregory-Propst, Parliament House announces it’s reopening in Downtown Orlando and Orlando Police arrest two armed robbers who were targeting LGBTQ victims.
