See update at end of story
In Seattle, a science-oriented city where I lived before becoming New To Las Vegas and which I visited earlier this month, COVID-19 and its vaccination are taken quite seriously. More than 70% of the adults are fully vaccinated. Mask-wearing is embraced. As a result, infection rates are way down, notwithstanding the various variants.
It’s quite a contrast with Las Vegas, a doctor-deficient area where in my view folks still are not taking the pandemic with very much respect. The fully vaccinated rate in Clark County, where Las Vegas sits, is only 41% and folks in my presence give nonsensical reasons why they don’t plan to get the shots. People here were chucking masks even before federal authorities eased the rules. So, as they quote the odds in the many sports books here, the betting line that the person next to me in a store is un-vaccinated is -150, meaning an odds-on favorite of 60%.
On Friday, state authorities reported a whopping 792 new coronavirus cases in Clark County, the largest daily number in months. I say whopping because that was 5.2% of all new cases reported in the entire country, even though Clark County has just 0.7% of the country’s population. The Clark County death count was down to 3 from the usual 7, but that still was still 1.0% of all the deaths in the country. or 42% above the current national per-capita rate.
Because of this, I think next year’s governor’s race in Nevada is going to see the pandemic and the local response as a major issue. It probably shouldn’t be. But we live in super-political times. And pandemic response also may be the best issue that out-of-power Republicans in Nevada have, especially if they can muddle the record a la The Big Lie technique employed by Donald J. Trump. Continue reading
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