Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing coming out of their respective conventions: Almost no one cares about Covid anymore.
Infections are running rampant after the Democratic confab in Chicago, with staffers on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, reporters and other convention-goers all stricken — and in at least one case claiming the positive test was “worth it.” Cases also cropped up after the Republican National Convention in July.
“Voters do not like it being brought up at all,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign, who marveled at the near-total absence of masks at a Democratic convention where roughly 20,000 people crammed into Chicago’s United Center for a week. “They want to get over it.”
But “if it continues to worsen,” Bartlett said, “both parties will be forced to address it.”
The rhetorical vacuum around Covid comes even as cases have surged over the summer, hospitalizing thousands and killing nearly 700 people in one week in late July.
Interesting. Well, I’m glad you don’t have anti-vaxxers, because they are alive and well here, even in a pretty progressive city like mine.
The elderly have almost certainly gotten every booster available to them, understandably, and I’m not so sure about the young. A confounding factor is that most of my friends work at least somewhat remotely, and so only the people who have to see other people in person are masked up.
I have heard the same about the new strains (i.e. more contagious but less serious), but the two people I know who have contracted it this year have both been on their ass for at least a day or two. Add on top of that that we still don’t fully understand Long Covid…
Dominant strains may also be different depending on country, and especially if you are on another continent.
But there can also be big differences in how big the original infection was. A bigger infection gives the immune system less time to respond, before the virus has infected your entire system.