Editorial: Miami Beach, college students, spring break and how not to wrap up a pandemic

Baltimore Sun Editorial Board, The Baltimore Sun
·4 min read

Thousands of Maryland college students returned to class on Monday after a brief mid-semester respite. Some schools skipped spring break entirely, while others have breaks scheduled for later in the season. Goucher College doesn’t begin its brief spring “pause” until this weekend, and Johns Hopkins University has scattered individual days off through April. Whatever the schedule, it’s probably safe to assume that some of the more adventurous of the undergraduate set either has made, or is planning to make, the trek to Florida or a similar clime. We have no problem with that, we all need a getaway now and again.

We do have a problem, however, with young adults treating their deserved vacations like a rock concert gone bad and failing to maintain social distance or wear masks, like occurred in Miami Beach over the weekend, leading to an emergency curfew and police intervention to try to disperse the massive crowds. Now, those in attendance are likely getting tested (if they are back on campus) or not (if they just moved back in with Mom and Dad). In either case, they may well have dragged home an unwelcome souvenir, a little COVID-19, to finish out the spring term.

This was all so predictable, beginning with the choice by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to not only lift restrictions, but prevent local governments from imposing mask mandates. If anyone was chomping at the bit for the pandemic to be over (beyond Florida businesses that profit off spring break), it’s 18-to-22-year-olds, who already feel invulnerable and are looking for a good time. Expecting them to dutifully pick up a mask from a roving public beach mask ambassador and to keep far away from fellow vacationers without requiring it, is like expecting cats to voluntarily agree not to jump up on the counter or knock over standing objects. Sure, you can train them, but you are fighting a powerful instinct. Better to limit opportunities to make bad choices.

The problem here is not just spring break. And it’s not just Gov. DeSantis (although how anyone can claim Florida has outperformed other states during the pandemic when it’s already surpassed 2 million cases, has a 6% weekly positivity rate and now leads the nation’s surge in variant cases with rising numbers in both the British and Brazilian strains, is mind-boggling). No, the underlying issue continues to be the public’s COVID-19 fatigue and the desire to let our collective guard down as the nation makes progress in vaccinations. Florida spring break is just the most visible sign of this concerning trend.

As Dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health experts have stated repeatedly: This is not let the moment to lift vital safety measures. The U.S. recently hit the 100 million mark in total vaccinations administered. That’s great. It’s ahead of the 100 vaccinations in 100 days schedule President Joe Biden set. As of this past weekend, an estimated 41 million Americans are now regarded as fully vaccinated, which is a lot, but in a nation of 328 million, it’s not close to herd immunity, generally acknowledged to be between 70% and 90%. That achievement is probably months away, particularly if certain individuals resist getting their shots (and polls suggest as many as 31% have expressed qualms).

It is all very well to relax certain restrictions where appropriate. As teachers are vaccinated and schools move ahead with responsible reopening plans, in-person instruction is sensible, particularly given its own public health benefits. But lifting mask restrictions isn’t — despite the claim that individuals can make responsible choices. It sends a spring break-like message that the pandemic is no longer a serious threat when it is. Just ask the colleagues, friends and families of the 26 Maryland residents who died from the coronavirus on Saturday alone. Or perhaps those of the 8,000 Marylanders who lost their own battles with COVID-19 during the past year. It’s not over until it’s over.

That’s not a fun message. That’s not a good time to think about. It’s not a party on the beach and it’s definitely not the return to normal that all of us crave. But this is a serious business. The B.1.1.7 variant first spotted in the United Kingdom is believed to be both more deadly and more contagious than the original strain of COVID-19. The good news, as Dr. Fauci revealed on Friday, is that vaccination appears to effictive against it. The bad news is that we haven’t all gotten our vaccinations yet. Sorry, but the moment to celebrate the end of the pandemic has not yet arrived.

___

Recommended Stories

  • Dear Pandemic Baby: Our Versions Of Normal Life Are Not The Same

    You were born into a world of masks. In fact, when you looked at my face for the first time as the doctor placed you on my chest, I was wearing a mask.

  • A Message to Spring Breakers: Stop Choosing Parties During the Pandemic. It's Downright Disrespectful

    You learn as a kid that if something is deemed wrong, you probably shouldn't do it. But the more you're denied it, the more (oh, the more) you want it.

  • Australia floods: Western Sydney 'greatest concern' as more rain falls

    Thousands have been evacuated but more heavy rain is set to come, peaking on Tuesday.

  • England slaps 5,000 pound fine on most travel abroad

    LONDON (Reuters) -Fines of 5,000 pounds ($6,900) will be introduced for people from England who try to travel abroad before the end of June in a tightening of the country's border controls. Health minister Matt Hancock said the government's original plan to review international travel in April and possibly permit it from May 17 still stood but the travel fines were included in legislation in case that would not be possible. The question of whether people can travel abroad without specific reasons such as work or education will still be addressed by the government's travel review which is due to report on April 12, said Hancock.

  • Russia and China push for U.N summit, lash out at West

    MOSCOW/BEIJING (Reuters) -Russia and China said on Tuesday they wanted a summit of permanent members of the U.N. Security Council amid what they called heightened political turbulence, with Moscow saying they believed the United States was acting in a destructive way. The two allies, whose relations with the West are under increasing strain, made the call for a U.N. summit in a joint statement after talks between the two countries' foreign ministers. "At a time of increasing global political turbulence, a summit of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council is particularly necessary to establish direct dialogue about ways to resolve humankind's common problems in the interests of maintaining global stability," the statement, published on the Russian foreign ministry's website, said.

  • 'Sad day for Boulder': Gunman kills 10 at Colorado supermarket, including police officer, in second US mass shooting in a week

    The police officer who died was identified as Eric Talley, 51, an 11-year veteran who responded to the King Soopers during the shooting.

  • Mexican cartel leader’s body left wrapped in plastic on park bench

    The corpse was found shortly after ‘El Cholo’ appeared on video surrounded by heavily armed men

  • People in Colorado supermarket flee shooting scene

    Authorities in Colorado responded to a shooting at a supermarket Monday. Law enforcement vehicles and officers, including SWAT teams, massed outside the store in Boulder. Officers helped some people out of the store to safety. (March 22)

  • U.S. health officials say AstraZeneca may have skewed vaccine 'efficacy data' with 'outdated information'

    In an unusual statement issued after midnight on Tuesday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said an independent monitoring board overseeing AstraZeneca's U.S. COVID-19 vaccine trial told the NIAID and the drugmaker late Monday "it was concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial." The NIAID, a unit of the National Institutes of Health, is led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden's top medical adviser. AstraZeneca reported early Monday that its vaccine had proved to be 79 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 in a large U.S. trial, 100 percent effective against serious illness or hospitalization, and carried no increased risk of blood clots. The results were seen as a shot in the arm for the beleaguered vaccine. But the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) "expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data," the NIAID said. The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will ultimately conduct a thorough review of the data before approving AstraZeneca's vaccine for use in the U.S., the agency said, but AstraZeneca should "work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible." The DSMB's analysis of AstraZeneca's U.S.-based trial was "delayed several times because the board had to ask AstraZeneca for revised reports from those handling trial data on behalf of the company," The New York Times reports, citing a person familiar with the matter. Friction between a safety monitoring board and a study sponsor is "highly irregular," and the NIAID's post-midnight statement is "so, so troubling," clinical trials expert Dr. Eric Topol told the Times. "I've never seen anything like this." AstraZeneca had yet to respond to the statement early Tuesday. More stories from theweek.comA jump in Social Security benefitsSidney Powell seeks to dismiss Dominion lawsuit, argues 'no reasonable person' would mistake her claims for 'fact'What the woke revolution is — and isn't

  • Mayor Walsh eager to continue fight for working people as US Secretary of Labor

    Walsh says he will resign as mayor Boston and feels confident that city government will move forward very smoothly.

  • Pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell moves to dismiss Dominion defamation suit

    Sidney Powell, the pro-Trump lawyer who spread baseless claims of election fraud, moved Monday to dismiss Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against her.What she's saying: Powell argues in her motion that "no reasonable person" would conclude that her accusations of Dominion's election-rigging scheme "were truly statements of fact." Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeShe claims that Dominion conducted a "well-orchestrated public relations campaign to save their business" and that allegations against her are "sparse."Her legal team also requested that the case be moved from D.C. to Texas if it isn't tossed out.The big picture: Dominion sued Powell for $1.3 billion in January over her conspiracy theories, one of which alleged without evidence that Dominion was part of a massive international communist plot to rig the election. Over 4,000 lawyers have signed an open letter calling on "bar disciplinary authorities" to investigate Powell's behavior.Read the full motion, via BuzzFeed News: Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • Sidney Powell's defense lawyers say her conspiracy theories about Dominion were way too outlandish to be taken seriously

    Sidney Powell pushed a bizarre conspiracy theory that Dominion had secret ties to Venezuala and rigged the 2020 election against Donald Trump.

  • Vaccines don't cause blood clots, but younger women have a higher risk of clots in general. Here's what that means for you.

    Addressing AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot, the EMA said it was probing the higher rate of clots in young women, but it's likely to do with birth control.

  • 'Radicalized by hate': Suspect in officer Sicknick assault jailed pending trial, new Capitol riot videos show chemical spray

    "We have created a culture radicalized by hate," the judge said in the Capitol riot case of George Tanios. Officer Brian Sicknick was injured and later died.

  • Airlines axe summer flights as minister says European countries may face 'red list' ban

    British Airways and other airlines are axing summer holiday flights as a health minister raised the prospect that European countries could face a "red list" travel ban. On Monday, BA confirmed that, in the past week, it has cancelled summer flights across Europe and on UK domestic routes, including in July and August, amid fears there may be only be a handful of countries on the "green list" when foreign travel is due to resume from May 17. Lord Bethell, a health minister, told the Lords that surging Covid rates in European states, with up to 10 per cent linked to new variants, could require drastic measures. "We are all aware that the possibility lies that we will have to 'red list' all of our European neighbours," he said. "But that would be done with huge regret, because we are a trading nation, we do work in partnership with other countries. We depend on other countries for essential supplies, not only medicines, but food and others." It came as millions were wiped off the share price of airlines and travel firms following Ben Wallace's warning that it was "premature" and "risky" for people to book summer holidays now as the Defence Secretary refused to rule out a possible extension of the travel ban.

  • The pandemic may have made lower-end apartments more expensive

    Rent in high-income neighborhoods in many major American cities has gone down during the pandemic, but lower-income neighborhoods have seen hikes, Catherine Rampell writes in The Washington Post. In San Francisco, for example, rents are dropping across the board, though the fall has been most significant for what are considered high-end rentals. In other cities, like New York or Washington, D.C., lower-end rentals have held steady, while higher-end prices have dropped. In her analysis, Rampell zeroed in on Chicago, where rents are increasing in lower-income areas, despite a fall in their higher-income counterparts. Here are rents for Chicago neighborhoods. Rental buildings in ritzier areas -- where higher-income people had been living, & lately cleared out -- are indeed offering great deals. Buildings in lower-income (and often majority non-white) neighborhoods have hiked rents pic.twitter.com/yy6RgYOToL — Catherine Rampell (@crampell) March 22, 2021 There are likely a few reasons behind the discrepancy, Rampell writes. People who could afford higher rents before the pandemic have, more generally, been able to work from home and subsequently migrated to the suburbs, leaving their city apartments vacant, which "placed downward pressure on rents." But not everyone who moved left their cities. Some folks instead chose to "move down the housing ladder to save money," which added to a pre-existing logjam for affordable housing. A "surge in demand for lower-price-point homes ended up bidding those rents higher," Rampell writes. Rampell suggests the increases may also be an unintended consequence of the federal eviction moratorium, which may have led landlords to raise rents for some tenants in the hopes of offsetting the losses stemming from others falling behind on their payments. Lower-income tenants also just have less leverage than high-income tenants. "They don't have money to move elsewhere, and landlords know they have them over a barrel," said Sandy Rollins, executive director of the Texas Tenants' Union. Read more at The Washington Post. More stories from theweek.comA jump in Social Security benefitsSidney Powell seeks to dismiss Dominion lawsuit, argues 'no reasonable person' would mistake her claims for 'fact'What the woke revolution is — and isn't

  • EU, China impose tit-for-tat sanctions over Xinjiang

    The European Union imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials on Monday (March 22) for human rights abuses in Xinjiang.It's the bloc's first sanctions against Beijing since it imposed an arms embargo in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy crackdown, which is still in place.Those targeted with these sanctions include Chen Mingguo, the director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau. In its Official Journal, the EU accused Chen of "arbitrary detentions and degrading treatment inflicted upon Uighurs and people from other Muslim ethnic minorities, as well as systematic violations of their freedom of religion or belief."China blacklisted 10 EU individuals and four entities on Monday in response to the sanctions.Saying that they were among those who "severely harm China's sovereignty and interests and maliciously spread lies and disinformation".Activists and U.N. rights experts say at least 1 million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang.The activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labor, and sterilizations. China denies any human rights abuses and says the camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.The sanctions are mainly symbolic, but they mark a significant hardening in the EU's policy towards China.China is the EU's second-largest trading partner after the United States. Brussels has long regarded it as a benign trading partner. But now views it as a systematic abuser of basic rights and freedoms and is deeply worried about the fate of the Uighurs. Britain, Canada, and the United States have also expressed serious concerns.

  • Steve Harvey says he ‘can’t find nothing wrong’ with Michael B. Jordan

    In a recent appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Steve Harvey says he “can’t find anything wrong” with Michael B. Jordan, who is currently dating his stepdaughter, Lori Harvey. Jordan and Lori have been going steady for a few months now. After confirming their relationship on Instagram this January, Jordan and Lori have been sharing their love with the world, frequently posting on social media, giving fans and the public glimpses into their relationship.

  • West sanctions China over Xinjiang abuses, Beijing hits back at EU

    The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials on Monday for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the first such coordinated Western action against Beijing under new U.S. President Joe Biden. Beijing hit back immediately with punitive measures against the EU that appeared broader, including European lawmakers, diplomats, institutes and families, and banning their businesses from trading with China.

  • Death sentence could be reimposed for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

    The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment.