New York Times. June 25, 2021. Coronavirus stuff.

June 25, 2021

An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment.

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The New York Times

By Jonathan Wolfe

Israel will reinstate an indoor mask mandate next week as the Delta variant spreads, Haaretz reports. Across Africa, the Delta variant is driving a third wave of the virus, experts say. Doctors in Indonesia were vaccinated with Sinovac. Some still died. Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker.

A look back

As we head into this summer weekend, let’s pause a moment to take stock of how far the U.S. has come. While many of us are busy planning vacations, reconnecting with family, or even making new friends, it can be easy to forget that this moment didn’t always feel guaranteed.

For a reminder, I dug into our archive of reader responses from the early days of the pandemic to see how much things have changed.

The comments were collected from March 2020, when we still knew very little about the virus. Some people still didn’t believe the threat was real. “If the C.D.C. says there have been between 29,000 and 59,000 seasonal flu deaths in the USA this year, and coronavirus has killed (only) around 1,700 people, then what’s the big hype?” one reader asked.

But in the days the followed, readers’ worries poured in. You reported wiping down mail and shopping carts, avoiding public spaces and frantically cleaning every surface in your homes.

“Convinced that general recommendations to washing hands and not touching the face are inadequate, we wash our faces with soap more than once a day — with emphasis on applying soap on eyelids (eyes shut, of course) as well as inside nostrils (using little finger) and around our lips,” wrote Basil R. Bhan, from Schenectady, N.Y.

I had forgotten about the obsessive need many of us had to touch base with friends and family, until I came across a comment from Melissa M. Weiksnar from Buffalo, N.Y.

“Another phenomenon of these days — has anyone coined “check-in fatigue”?” she wrote. “Loving everyone checking in on each other, but sometimes an emoji(s) or just-a-few-words reply may need to suffice for an otherwise longer response — and that’s OK!”

Within days, we began receiving comments from people like Cesar Chavez, who continued to work in New York, even as it shut down. “I am one of those considered essential, I come every day to my job wondering if today will be my last,” he wrote. (In a recent follow-up email, he said his family avoided infection, and he was glad to see New York finally reawaken. “We might get slapped down but we get up like an old prize fighter that never heard the bell.”)

Other readers began pandemic projects, or rearranged their homes, or enjoyed home-cooked meals. But in the solitude of lockdown, it didn’t take long for things to get a little weird.

“After dyeing my own hair, I’ve also seriously considered giving my dog a red mohawk,” Audrey Cho wrote from Mill Valley, Calif.

It took a few days for us to get our first report of an illness from a reader, but on March 29, Thomas “T.J.” Aitken told us about his wife, Sarah.

“I posted a string of photos and documentation on Facebook as my wife got sick,” he wrote. “The fear in the responses was palpable.” (T.J. told me this week that he and his wife, who are over 65, both had Covid, and still have mild lung issues, but they have been vaccinated.)

In the months that followed, we would receive many more reports of illness and many deaths. More than 10,000 of you also shared your moments of joy, as well as of frustration, anger, resignation and more recently — hope.

We’d like to say thank you for sharing your stories with us over the past 15 months. And whether you’re in lockdown, self-isolation or beginning to emerge from the stress of the pandemic — please, keep us posted.

Worries about Delta Plus

Even as the Delta variant takes hold across the world, virologists are starting to worry about an even newer and potentially more virulent version of the coronavirus, known as Delta Plus.

Delta Plus is a sub-lineage of the highly contagious Delta variant that has spread rapidly through India, Britain, the United States and other countries. But the new variant carries a spike protein mutation that is also found in the Beta variant, first identified in South Africa, which virologists say could make it more transmissible.

Officials are particularly concerned that Delta Plus could usher in another surge of the virus in India, which is just beginning to emerge from a devastating second wave.

Because this particular variant has been discovered only recently, scientists have limited information about it. But they have begun to speculate about its ability to spread.

“It is most likely capable of dodging immunities,” said Shahid Jameel, a virologist and director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University in Sonipat, India. “That is because it carries all symptoms of the original Delta variant and also from its partner Beta variant.”

Vaccine rollouts

A Pfizer official in Israel said that the company’s vaccine is effective against the Delta variant, Reuters reports. Louisiana, where the inoculation rate lags significantly behind the national average, is among the latest states to open a cash lottery for those who get shots. Some Olympians from Britain say they don’t want vaccines. In Los Angeles, 99.8 percent of the Covid deaths in the last six months were among unvaccinated people, KTLA reports. The Supreme Leader of Iran got his first dose of a homegrown coronavirus shot, Reuters reports.

See how the vaccine rollout is going in your county and state.

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What else we’re following

Zeynep Tufekci, a contributing opinion writer for The Times, took a deep dive into what we know about the origins of the pandemic.

The Atlantic argues that while the mRNA vaccines are exceptional, the shot from Novavax may be even better. On Saturday, Celebrity Cruises will be the first cruise line to resume sailing from a U.S. port. The Wall Street Journal explains why vaccinated athletes are testing positive. A writer for The Times eulogizes the “walktail,” which is once again illegal in New York City.

What you’re doing

I went to an acoustic music camp the second week of June. Most everyone had been vaccinated, and on the last night of the camp, at the big finale music jam, we were all singing together at the top of our lungs. There was so much dopamine being generated in that room, with no fear of infection. I realized I had not done that for 19 months. I came home on a high and with gratefulness for the vaccine. Life is almost feeling normal. — Bess Crider, Waynesville, N.C.