EDITORIAL: County shouldn’t back off plan to ease virus mandates
Clark County officials have said they’ll further relax virus restrictions on June 1 if 60 percent of eligible residents have received at least one COVID shot by the end of May. With new vaccination counts waning, however, local health officials worry whether they’ll reach that goal.
But barely missing the benchmark shouldn’t result in further punishment for Southern Nevadans longing for normalcy, especially as pandemic metrics continue to improve dramatically here and throughout the country.
As of Friday, about 919,000 county residents had received one dose of COVID vaccine, constituting about 50 percent of those 16 and older. To hit 60 percent by May 31, that figure must reach 1.098 million. Over the seven days ending May 5, Clark County health professionals administered about 54,000 first shots. If that number drops significantly through the rest of the month, they’ll come up short.
“Unfortunately, what we have seen in the past three weeks is a decline in the demand for the vaccine,” said Dr. Fermin Leguen, chief health officer for the Southern Nevada Health District.
Health officials indeed face challenges maintaining steady vaccination progress. But the county should move forward with its plan to continue easing COVID mandates regardless of whether we reach an arbitrary shot count by an arbitrary date — particularly when it appears we will be extremely close to the target, one way or the other. That would be in keeping with what is going on in the rest of the country and reflect the updated science.
For instance, The New York Times reported this week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has greatly overestimated the risk of catching the virus outdoors, leading to overly strict behavorial guidelines. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden said the agency will more aggressively re-evaluate its advice, particularly when it comes to those who have been vaccinated.
That can’t happen soon enough. The CDC’s consistently hyper-conservative approach brings its own set of problems. So does the fact the Dr. Anthony Fauci and president — who have both been vaccinated — continue to double-mask for the cameras when they appear in small indoor gatherings at which everyone else has also been inoculated.
“I think the concern is that by being overly cautious the signal is going out to the public that there isn’t necessarily a light at the end of the tunnel,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said this week.
There is indeed a light — a bright light. The vaccines are exceedingly safe and they work brilliantly. Clark County officials must continue to transmit that hopeful message to the reluctant. And all evidence indicates that they can safely give the green light for less social distancing and full capacity in the next few weeks — whether or not we attain some magic threshold.