• Case numbers are climbing rapidly in the United States, though they remain well below peak levels. Hospitalizations and deaths are also increasing, but at a slower pace.
• As the Delta variant has spread, infection levels have soared in parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida. Many counties with the highest case and hospitalization rates have struggled to get people vaccinated.
• Reports of new cases are rising in all 50 states, though infection levels remain quite low in much of the Northeast and Upper Midwest.
• Vaccines are widely available and effective against the Delta variant, but fewer than half of Americans are fully vaccinated. About 520,000 shots are being administered each day, about the same rate as in early January, when supply was scarce.
• Masks are again required indoors in Los Angeles County, where reports of new cases have soared to more than 1,400 a day, an eightfold increase in one month.

• “The delta variant doesn't care what you think. Cases have been rising again in a number of countries, including in the United States, driven in part by the particularly contagious new delta variant. While some of these new infections have occurred in fully-vaccinated people, the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated. More vaccinations means fewer deaths, and fewer deaths is good.
• Measures like this seem to work. Within twenty-four hours of Macron's announcement, more than two million French people scrambled to make vaccine appointments. Philosophical debates about liberty and risk come back to earth fast when you can't enjoy a nice verre de Beaujolais.
• You don't have a right to a baguette or vodka tonic anyway. While constitutional rights and protections vary widely around the globe, we are unaware of any constitution in the world that guarantees a right to dine out, see a movie, or hop the TGV to Nice. While many constitutions bar discrimination on certain bases – such as race or religion – it's up to courts to decide whether Covid vaccine objectors are, as a group, entitled to those protections and if so, whether that applies to private businesses. (Note that a U.S. Federal judge ruled this week that a state university – that is a government-funded one – had the right to require vaccinations among its students.)

• “Bakers aren't policemen. It's not the job of a maître d, garcon de café, movie ticket puncher, or brasserie bouncer to ensure compliance with rules of this kind... or to handle potentially violent reactions from would-be patrons who object.
• Let businesses mind their own business. The pandemic has clobbered the owners and employees of nightclubs, restaurants, stores, museums, and theaters particularly hard. As they try to climb back from that, let them decide what risks they want to take. Some businesses may very well wish to require proof of immunity or mask-wearing. Others may not. But they, like their customers, know best what level of risk is appropriate for them.
• Don't coerce people to do things to their bodies. Despite the efficacy of the vaccines, many people do not want to take them at least until the shots have moved beyond "emergency authorization" stage. While it's true that no one has a right to a movie theater or a bar, restrictions on such common diversions and activities amounts to coercion. So long as everyone who wants a COVID vaccine can get one, leave the rest of us to make our own choices – you are safe, right?
• Privacy concerns, anyone? The EU Green pass is based on a centralized, government-administered database. Every time we are checked, the government will – in principle -- have information about our movements. While the EU has stringent privacy protection laws, it's still unnerving to know that authorities would have this level of insight into our movements.”