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People are free to make all the bad choices they want when it comes to themselves, but not when they put others in danger and incur costs that we all must pay. This is where we find ourselves today with the COVID-19 vaccine. Until now, the default has been to err on the side of liberty, allowing individuals a maximum of free choice and personal responsibility. But as the pandemic has evolved, this model is no longer viable. With the highly infectious delta variant surging, the unvaccinated are posing direct risks to the health and well-being of the immunocompromised, the frail and the elderly, and especially young children, who cannot yet be vaccinated. The ethical challenge is crystal clear: The actions – or, in this case, the inactions – of the unvaccinated pose clear risks for society writ large. As the old saying goes: Your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins. (Richard Florida and Arthur Caplan, 8/2)

Over a choppy phone call to the remote Nicobar archipelago, I told Indigenous leader Ayesha Majid that my friends in Delhi were dropping like flies. A horrific second wave of COVID-19 was ravaging India; crematoria were running out of wood and graveyards were running out of space. “Brother, how did this happen?” she asked in disbelief. Earlier this year, COVID resurged in India with a vengeance. For a week in May, the country contributed over half of the daily COVID cases reported globally. COVID deaths in urban India are now abating, but people in rural India have been dying in droves. (Ajay Saini, 7/31)

Among the many crises Americans now confront is one of trust. And thanks to the polarization of our politics and the politicization of our pandemic, that crisis is about to worsen. One of the hot spots will be university campuses. As we write, the fourth wave of the pandemic is already rolling across Texas. Rather than seeking to stem its rise, Gov. Greg Abbott has instead strengthened it. This will be the inevitable result of his executive orders preventing state agencies and entities, including state universities, from requiring employees and students to show vaccination passports and wear masks. Abbott declared that these are matters of personal, not institutional, responsibility. (Robert Zaretsky and George M. Alliger, 8/1)

A “concerned Canadian” wrote to me the other day, “dumbfounded,” he said, to read that so many Missourians are rejecting a lifesaving vaccine even amid this dangerous new wave of COVID-19. He said, as some health experts have, that refusing to get vaccinated is like deciding to stay on board the world’s most famous sinking ship: “Yes, Titanic passengers had every right to stay aboard, but none chose to do so. Why? Because the freaking thing was sinking! Put on a lifejacket (mask) and get into a lifeboat (vaccination). Unlike on the Titanic, there is enough lifesaving equipment for everybody. Otherwise, you will end up in some cemetery like Rose and Jack.” (Melinda Henneberger, 8/2)

For days now, vaccinated Americans have been trying to come to terms with the new advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the rapidly spreading Delta variant and a spike of Covid cases in states with high populations of unvaccinated people. Officials encouraged everyone in high-risk areas to start wearing masks in public indoor spaces again and recommended that all teachers and students wear masks in schools. It’s difficult not to be angry at the irresponsible behavior of those who got us here. For parents with children with health problems or who are too young to be vaccinated (or both), it’s doubly infuriating. (Jessica Valenti, 8/1)

P­­­ay people to get vaccinated, no matter whether that is unfair to those who didn’t receive checks for jabs. Require them to do so as a condition of going to work or enrolling in school. Do whatever it takes — and, recent weeks have shown, it is going to take steps like these — to get the pandemic under control. Those of us who have behaved responsibly — wearing masks and, since the vaccines became available, getting our shots — cannot be held hostage by those who can’t be bothered to do the same, or who are too deluded by misinformation to understand what is so clearly in their own interest. (Ruth Marcus, 7/30)

Something very strange has been happening in Missouri: A hospital in the state, Ozarks Healthcare, had to create a “private setting” for patients afraid of being seen getting vaccinated against COVID-19. In a video produced by the hospital, the physician Priscilla Frase says, “Several people come in to get vaccinated who have tried to sort of disguise their appearance and even went so far as to say, ‘Please, please, please don’t let anybody know that I got this vaccine.’” Although they want to protect themselves from the coronavirus and its variants, these patients are desperate to ensure that their vaccine-skeptical friends and family never find out what they have done. (Brooke Harrington, 8/1)

We know a couple of things about Cole Beasley, the former Dallas Cowboy turned Buffalo Bill. One, he’s terrific at making catches over the middle in tough situations. Two, he is not a doctor or scientist. When it comes to who we get our information from, we should always consider the source. And the best sources of information — the doctors, scientists and institutions we trust with our public health every day — have made it clear that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing the disease. (8/2)