Is the third time the charm?

Last week, Mayor LaToya Cantrell imposed a modified Phase I of Governor Edwards’ Roadmap to a Resilient Louisiana Plan for a “third time,” Cantrell stressed at a press conference.

The Roadmap is a reopening plan for Louisiana implemented in 2020 to return to normalcy in phases. The program uses masks, social distancing, hand washing, and limitations on gatherings to stop the coronavirus from spreading, killing people, and overwhelming Louisiana’s hospitals.

The plan was working until it wasn’t.

Daily cases and deaths were down in Louisiana, and Cantrell’s administration’s modified phases worked to slow the spread. At one point, the city’s positivity rate fell to three percent. Despite lower-than-ever positivity rates, the town remained in imminent danger of a viral spike. That happened.

Now New Orleans’ positivity rate is 10 percent which means if you are in a group of 10, at least one person has the coronavirus. Only 44 percent of the New Orleans population is vaccinated. So that’s a big problem.

Cantrell’s modified phases worked until anti-vaxxers, and vaccine-hesitant people created a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” which threw a monkey wrench in the state’s COVID recovery plan. Hospitals are overflowing, and people are dying. Last week, New Orleans experienced 78 new cases, three deaths, and 50 hospitalizations daily.

Although this isn’t a total lockdown, it feels like a semi-lockdown. For the next three weeks, bars can only serve people at sidewalk venues or provide curbside service. Restaurants and other outlets are limited to a 20 percent capacity at indoor activities, and tables can seat six people, all from the same family. Masks and social distancing are still mandatory.

Public schools are scheduled to reopen between September 15 thru September 22. We’ll see if that holds.

If the unvaccinated continue to refuse the shot and are willing to defy logic and expert health and die, we will never return to normal. These people are the reason we’re collectively going through hell and must continue wearing masks. This static state is their fault.

What if anti-vaxxers and vaccine-hesitant people have to pay their hospital and medical bills? Would that encourage like-minded individuals to get the vaccine? Accountability measures are needed to curb the contrarians among us. They should have to pay to play for endangering the lives of others.

This article originally published in the September 20, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.