We really did think that we were through this thing. Americans, by and large, felt as though they had no more COVID left. It was going the way of the dodo.
This was because, for some time, that appeared to be exactly what was transpiring. The original version of that wretched plague from the Far East was waning here in the United States, with the projected rollout of the vaccines seemingly set to put the final nails in COVID’s coffin.
But those vaccine numbers fell short, and by such a margin that herd immunity became a loftier goal. Now we’re dealing with a delta variant of the original virus, mutating and spreading within the unvaccinated population to such a degree that health officials are warning Americans to return to some of their earlier precautions.
Even the corporate knuckleheads are getting in on the action these days.
McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N) on Monday confirmed that all its customers and staff will need to start wearing masks again inside its U.S. restaurants in areas with high or substantial transmission, regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not.
The resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the United States due to the Delta variant and the new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that requires fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks have led companies to change their plans on vaccinations and masking.
This wasn’t terribly surprising.
Last week, major companies including Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) and Facebook Inc (FB.O) said all their U.S. employees must get vaccinated to step into offices.
The decision will undoubtedly irk the conservative American public, who’ve long considered the idea of wearing a mask to be an offense to the bodily sovereignty granted us by the Constitution of these United States.
