America’s Pandemic Star Loses Some Luster
Vermont’s COVID-19 surge could point the way toward an uncertain endemic future.
Is Vermont the envy of America no more? The state long hailed for its pandemic response is experiencing one of the most intense COVID-19 surges in the country. Cases are twice as high as they’ve been at any other point. Hospitalizations are up sharply as well, confounding hopes that Vermont’s best-in-the-nation vaccination rate would protect its people from the Delta wave.
The resurgence of the coronavirus—cases are rising again nationally after a sustained decline—has demoralized much of the country, but nowhere is that frustration more keenly felt than in the state that seemed to be doing everything right. “What we’re feeling right now is a collective sense of disappointment and sadness,” Rebecca
