Whoopee... NOT
The word came from the governor's office today -- the state will lift all covid restrictions starting July 1st, because we're "close enough" to the 60% vaccination rate that the Governor said was our goal.
BUT! The overall vax rate for the state is 59.4%. The southeast quadrant of the state has a much lower rate; Lea County specifically (mine) has barely hit 35% vaxed. Those who are not vaxed are supposed to continue wearing their masks, but let's get real... do we really think that people who [a] claimed their rights were infringed upon by being asked to wear masks, and [b] refuse to get vaxed, will be responsible about wearing masks around other people? You get two guesses, and the first one doesn't count.
I want actions -- or non-actions -- to have consequences, dammit! People in your county won't get vaccinated? Fine, you continue to live with restrictions on group-size, and occupancy capacity in buildings continue to be limited.
What I'm afraid of, of course, is that we will see the consequences of their non-actions -- a spike of cases of the Delta variant in this area in 6 to 8 weeks, just in time for school to start.
I just flail at the continued stupidity. The past two weeks, people who got their second shot, or the single shot of J&J, immediately got $100 -- and that still wasn't enough to increase the numbers substantially. New Mexico has instituted a 'vaccination lottery' -- and New Mexicans do love to play lottery -- 4 people per week (1 from each region of the state) will win $250,000 for the next 5 weeks, and one person at the end will win $5,000,000. The odds are so much better than playing Powerball or MegaMillions... but that's still not enough to bring more people out to be vaxed.
I'm feeling mean -- I really, really hope that all of the winners are early-vaxers, who got it before there was a financial incentive. And yeah, I'm entered. Wasn't planning to, but NM Department of Health sent a text, all I had to do was accept it to be entered, so why not?
And that's all; just had to vent a little.
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