* While vaccination hesitancy collides with common sense and the common good, it’s not a new, nor uniquely American, phenomenon. In 2019, the World Health Organization declared that vaccine hesitancy was one of the 10 threats to global health.
* It’s official: According to the CDC, the omicron variant is now dominant—accounting for 73 percent of new infections last week.
* The number of active-duty U.S. military personnel declining to be vaccinated by their deadlines: nearly 40,000. What’s confounding is how active-duty members of the military decline—defiantly—a common-good, public-health order in a culture built on following orders.
* “We really need to flood the system with testing. We need to have tests available for anyone who wants them, particularly when we’re in a situation right now where people are going to be gathering.”–Dr. Anthony Fauci.
* U.S school closings: 646 this week; 356 last week.
* In Florida, 7.3 million people remain unvaccinated. That includes the immuno-compromised and children under age 5. That’s about a third of the population.