Pandemic’s epicenter shifts west to Central Europe, stabs into Low Countries; Children in the vanguard as vaccines keep overall death toll steady.

(Originally published Nov. 19 in “What in the World“) Covid infections in Germany are touching new records as the winter surge sweeps across Europe, shifting the epicenter of the pandemic from Eastern to Central Europe. In response, Germany is imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated in areas where Covid hospitalizations exceed 3 per 100,000—a threshold that already applies to 13 of the nation’s 16 states. More European nations are joining Germany in reimposing restrictions on gathering and movement to stave off the onslaught, including now Greece and the Netherlands. Two states in Austria are going so far as to impose general lockdowns on top of the nationwide lockdown for the unvaccinated.

But the weak link remains unvaccinated children, who as one Dutch immunologist warned, “are little virus factories and infect each other as well as adults.” Yet adults would rather take the risk that keep the ankle biters at home. While the U.S. has started vaccinated children 5-12, Europe hasn’t yet approved vaccines for use in children.

There is, however, some encourging evidence emerging that the Delta substrain becoming dominant in the U.K. may be less likely than Delta to cause symptoms, meaning it is less virulent. Combined with vaccines, that will hopefully keep the death toll from climbing along with the infection rate. Countering this hopeful news, however, is evidence that Covid and influenza can infect a person simultaneously. Yet another study of Americans who have recovered from Covid suggests that some may lose their sense of smell for six months or longer, perhaps even permanently.

As the U.S. succumbs to Europe’s surge with a resurgence of its own, U.S. regulators are looking to approve by the weekend boosters for anyone who has been vaccinated at least six months ago. And the U.S. Army has warned unvaccinated members of the National Guard that they might not be able to keep their vulnerability to Covid and their uniforms.

This could be an important development as the Guard is a well-known haven for politically right-leaning white males indulging in martial fantasies. Forcing them to choose between QAnon-inspired conspiracy theories about vaccines and their ability to play soldier at taxpayers’ expense is a smart way to gain leverage over America’s population of committed gun nuts.