Sorry there wasnât a Saturday Soother this week. Instead of writing for you, Wrongo and Ms. Right went to an outdoor concert at New Jerseyâs PNC Arts Center. Itâs an outdoor amphitheater that seats about 7,000, with lawn seating for maybe another 10,000.
Very few people wore masks, but NJ doesnât require masking at outdoor venues. And they didnât check for vaccine cards. Will the show we saw become a super-spreader event? Letâs hope not.
The 2021 summer concert season has seen conflict over masking and vaccination requirements. With the spread of the Delta variant, a loose consensus has taken shape. Starting in October, fans must provide proof of vaccination, or a negative test at most venues. Some venues and artists already insist on them.
But the decision process is complex. States like NJ have a say, and so do the artists. Live Nation and AEG Presents, the two global companies that dominate the concert business, have each announced that, by October, most venues and festivals they control in the US will require vaccinations or negative tests for entry.
We all need think about our personal response to seeing concerts in light of this from Fortune:
âIn short: There is now mounting evidence that mRNA-based vaccines such as Pfizerâs and Modernaâs lose potency over time and especially against the Delta variant, and that the Pfizer vaccineâs efficacy drop is significantly more dramatic.
More: (emphasis by Wrongo)
â…discouraging new research from the Mayo Clinic forced investors to question how long the Pfizer vaccine remains effective at preventing coronavirus infections and protecting those who are vaccinated from getting sick with a Delta variant case. Pfizerâs shot may be significantly less effective than Modernaâs against breakthrough infections (42% efficacy for Pfizer/BioNTech versus 76% for Moderna), according to the data…â
The Mayo Clinic study, which hasnât been peer-reviewed, noted that between January and July, Modernaâs jab was 86% effective at preventing infection, while Pfizerâs was 76% effective. But for the month of July alone, those numbers fell to 76% for Moderna and 42% for Pfizer. Researchers observed similar drops for the Pfizer shot outside of Minnesota in states with high COVID counts such as Florida.
If this trend holds true in peer-reviewed research, public health officials, drugmakers and medical institutions will have to rethink their approach to fighting the Delta variant. In fact, we may need to think carefully about how we will live if Covid becomes endemic.
The good news is that for now, if you are vaccinated but infected, you probably wonât need hospitalization, and you most likely wonât die. The bad news is you wonât know youâre infected until symptoms set in, meaning you can still spread the virus to anyone you meet.
Do the world a favor. Wear a mask. On to cartoons.
The race that never ends:
Opposition to basic safety will literally be the death of us:
One way to get school kids masked up:
One way to convince the vaccine hesitant:
New Census worries GOP:
DC has wrong priority for infrastructure:
