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As the delta variants spread, and as the number of vaccinations continues to rise, a new Covid stance is evolving: Namely, we should not look too closely at the new situation for fear of being spooked by high case numbers. (Tyler Cowen, 8/10)

There was the muscled firefighter who said he was afraid of needles. And the newly pregnant patient who had worried that the vaccine would make her infertile. And the young man who had partied hard at a weekend bachelor getaway, then lied about his vaccination status to the check-in nurse when he turned up at the hospital. Welcome to the new Pandemic of the Unvaccinated: the patients we love to hate. (Mark Morocco, 8/12)

Is it a quick-pick lotto ticket — 70, 80, 85, 90 — or just the ever-changing goal posts on the population percentage necessary to reach herd immunity against Covid-19? From the pandemic's beginning to today, there has been a seemingly endless discussion by epidemiologists, virologists and pundits predicting various vaccination thresholds to eradicate or at least contain the virus. (Dr. Kevin Tracey, 8/11)

As COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths rise again across the country, there rests, on the tips of many vaccinated Americans’ tongues, an exasperated rant waiting to be set free. It’s a rant those who have followed the rules, the science and common sense wish to direct at those willfully refusing the safe and effective coronavirus vaccines that can largely halt the aforementioned infections, hospitalizations and deaths. (Rex Huppke, 8/12)

I got my first polio vaccine in the early 1960s. It came in a sugar cube. Like millions of baby boomers, I lined up for the dose at a local clinic, with my parents and hundreds of other kids. We didn’t know what polio was. We knew polio was sometimes called “infantile paralysis,” which would have been scary if we’d known what “infantile” meant. We collected dimes in a special card at school, to help pay for research into the disease. That was about it. (Dave Helling, 8/12)

Unvaccinated children will soon be starting school during what might be the most dangerous moment in the pandemic for them. In the week ending Aug. 5, more than 93,000 children tested positive for the coronavirus, a nearly 400 percent increase from just three weeks earlier, due in large part to the extremely contagious delta variant. Though most infected children experience mild symptoms, reports abound of previously healthy kids becoming critically ill. Every day, more than 200 children under the age of 18 are hospitalized in the United States because of covid-19. (Leana S. Wen, 8/11)

Some of the most humbling moments for physicians like me are when we become health care users rather than providers. Earlier this month, more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, I was shocked to find that it took me nearly four hours to locate testing for my 10-month-old daughter. (Dr. Scott Hadland, 8/12)

A year and a half into the pandemic, Texas is running out of hospital beds. The Texas Tribune reported Tuesday that nearly 10,000 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care units, some in areas where hospitals are close to capacity. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order asking hospitals to delay elective procedures and authorizing local facilities to seek out-of-state medical staff to help with the coronavirus surge, which is approaching levels not seen since winter. Despite the desperate situation, Texas’s case rate is not even the worst in the nation—Louisiana and Florida have more cases per capita. (Adam Serwer, 8/12)