Justice Amy Coney Barrett turns away objections to a vaccine mandate

From New York Times Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak:

The Supreme Court allowed Indiana University on Thursday to require students to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Eight students had sued the university, saying the requirement violated their constitutional rights to “bodily integrity, autonomy and medical choice.” But they conceded that exemptions to the requirement — for religious, ethical and medical reasons — “virtually guaranteed” that anyone who sought an exemption would be granted one.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who oversees the federal appeals court in question, turned down the students’ request for emergency relief without comment, which is the court’s custom in ruling on emergency applications. She acted on her own, without referring the application to the full court, and she did not ask the university for a response. Both of those moves were indications that the application was not on solid legal footing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/us/supreme-court-indiana-university-covid-vaccine-mandate.html

Twenty years

A month from today:  the twentieth anniversary of the September 11th catastrophe.

July of 1951

The link, below, is to a post on this blog from ten years ago.

The post (to which I made a few changes, before including the link, here) concerned, in part, two recordings from July, 1951 (one by Louis Armstrong, and one by the George Siravo Orchestra); it also concerned a weekly television show from 1951 starring bandleader Freddy Martin, The Freddy Martin Show (also known as The Hazel Bishop Show, after its lipstick sponsor). The program--on which my mother was a regular guest--aired on NBC from July to November of 1951.  I wrote about the program in my book about early TV.

There are a couple of references, in the original post, to "sixty years ago":  "sixty years ago this month," and "sixty years ago this week."

The passage of time most certainly startles;  those references, if written today, would read "seventy years ago."  My mother's first appearance on Freddy Martin's program--a show which in addition to Martin and his orchestra starred singer Merv Griffin, pianist Murray Arnold, and the vocal group The Martin Men--took place seventy years ago today.

https://andrewleefielding.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-1951.html

Happy July 4th

A version of the following post--which includes links to two renditions of "America the Beautiful"--originally appeared in this space two years ago, on July 4th:

The first performance of the song, below, is by Frank Sinatra, accompanied by a chorus, though I don't know the year of the recording.  I enjoy this version of the song a lot.  

It was not uncommon for Mr. Sinatra to change certain lyrics, and there is one alteration, near the start of the song. The phrase "above the fruited plain" becomes, in Sinatra's hands, "above thy fruited plain."  I don't recall ever hearing another singer make this particular change--yet coming from Sinatra, it sounds interesting, and pleasantly distinctive.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0xC9xFuBvo

The second version of the song is by Ray Charles, from a 1972 telecast of The Dick Cavett Show.  Mr. Charles's performance--vocally, and on the piano--is beautiful.  There are unseen supporting musicians--including a lovely organ accompaniment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8EVgBg

Good wishes for Juneteenth

 

600,000 deaths

On Wednesday, the United States passed 600,000 deaths, due to COVID-19.  There have been 33 1/2 million cases of COVID, in the U.S., since the pandemic began.

There have been, worldwide, more than 3,800,000 COVID-related deaths--and close to 177 million cases.

While the crisis is by no means over--and, indeed, one hopes there will be a change of heart, on the part of those who have declined getting vaccinated--the numbers of U.S. deaths and cases, each day, have, fortunately, dropped significantly. 

The New York Times notes:  "The United States has been averaging fewer than 15,000 cases a day since early June, the lowest totals since testing became widely available."

The Times also notes:  "Around 350 deaths are being reported each day, the fewest since March 2020."

Yet despite the improving statistics, there is much cause for continuing concern. 

There is, for example, this sobering story about vaccinations, from today's USA Today: "Falling rates of COVID-19 across the United States mask a harsh reality – the overwhelming majority of those getting sick and being hospitalized today are unvaccinated, while vaccinated patients are becoming rare."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/06/16/majority-covid-19-hospital-patients-us-now-unvaccinated-younger/7684857002/

Dr. Ashish K. Jha, Dean at the Brown University School of Public Health, writes about the dangers of the "delta variant," and the matter of vaccinations, in The Washington Post.  His essay, which appeared on the Post's website this evening, includes the following:

"In India, the delta variant flattened the health-care system and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. In Britain, it has quickly become the dominant strain and has caused the number of daily infections to triple in just the past month. And it has arrived here. As of Wednesday, the delta variant accounts for 10 percent of U.S. infections and is doubling its share of new cases every two weeks. At this rate, delta will become our dominant strain in the next month to six weeks."

He continues: "For partly vaccinated Americans — those who have had just one shot of Pfizer or Moderna — the delta variant’s tendency to escape an immune response is a problem. While a single shot of these vaccines previously offered 80 to 85 percent protection (and two shots offered 95 percent), a single shot of Pfizer is only 33 percent effective against the delta variant. Thankfully, fully vaccinated individuals — that is, with two shots — get almost 90 percent protection. We don’t know how much immunity gained from prior infections alone will protect people, but it may not be enough."

Dr. Jha writes: "We are entering a time when being unvaccinated is going to become exceedingly more dangerous. Society is open. Distancing is a thing of the past, and mask-wearing is declining. All of the public health protections that kept unvaccinated people safe are disappearing, but the delta variant is gaining momentum."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/16/delta-variant-ashish-jha-us-vaccines/

George Floyd

You think about the killing of George Floyd, a year ago today--and it remains breathtaking, and heartbreaking: the tragedy and sadness of it, the terrible cruelty of it.  Mr. Floyd's killing remains (and will always remain) a deeply sickening event in America's history.