August 2021

The Delta variant, flagged as a concern in the spring, dominates August. Cases climb through the month, and hospitals in the American South are the hardest hit. Florida breaks its own record for new infections on August 1, and by mid-month Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi report ICUs at or near capacity. By August 26 more than 100,000 Americans are hospitalized with COVID-19, a level not seen since the January peak.

Anthony Fauci opens the month telling ABC and the Wall Street Journal that “things are going to get worse.” Officials and major outlets settle on a single phrase repeated across the month: this is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” The slogan spreads faster than the data behind it.

A steady run of breakthrough cases complicates that message. Senator Lindsey Graham, several New York Yankees, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott all test positive after being vaccinated. On August 6 the CDC director confirms that fully vaccinated people who get infected can transmit the virus, and Johns Hopkins reports the vaccinated can carry high viral loads. Officials shift their emphasis to protection against severe outcomes rather than against infection, a narrowing from the earlier promise that the shots would stop spread.

The numbers underpinning the “unvaccinated” framing rest on shaky reporting. ProPublica notes on August 20 that the CDC decided back in May to count breakthrough infections only when they led to hospitalization or death, leaving the country without a clear picture of how often the vaccinated were getting sick even as officials cited breakthrough rates to reassure the public.

Having reversed its own guidance in late July, the CDC now urges vaccinated Americans in high-transmission areas to mask indoors again and recommends universal masking in schools. Newspapers describe the resulting “whiplash,” a New York Times opinion piece asks the agency to “stop confusing the public,” and the Wall Street Journal runs “The Case Against Masks for Children,” questioning whether the evidence supported masking the young.

Masks in schools become the fight of the month. Governors Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas move to bar mandates, arguing the decision belongs to parents rather than districts. Broward County, Dallas, and other districts defy them, and courts issue back-and-forth rulings; a Florida judge throws out DeSantis’s order on August 27. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson says signing his own ban “was an error.” By month’s end the U.S. Department of Education opens investigations into mask-mandate bans in five states.

Vaccine mandates expand quickly. The Pentagon announces on August 9 that shots will be required for the military and orders troops to begin on August 25. The Biden administration moves to require vaccination for nursing home staff and federal health workers, United Airlines mandates it for employees, Delta imposes a $200 monthly surcharge on the unvaccinated, CNN fires three staff for coming to work unvaccinated, and New York City requires shots for public school teachers. The cost shows up alongside the policy: Texas hospitals report a staffing crisis driven by burnout, and one New York Times account finds hospital workers among those refusing the shot even under threat of losing their jobs.

On August 23 the FDA grants full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first COVID shot to move beyond emergency authorization. Coverage frames the approval largely as a compliance lever, with CNN reporting that it opens “the door to more vaccine mandates” and other outlets treating it as a way to pressure the hesitant rather than as new safety information.

Boosters dominate the vaccine debate, and the timeline unsettles earlier assurances. The World Health Organization calls on August 4 for a moratorium on third doses through September, citing the many people abroad still waiting for a first shot; major nations announce booster plans anyway. A third dose is authorized for the immunocompromised on August 13, and on August 18 the administration says boosters will roll out in September, eight months after the second dose. Fauci, who had earlier suggested boosters would not be needed, now says he cannot rule out indefinite ones. The WHO’s Africa director says the plans “make a mockery of vaccine equity.”

Much of the booster case rests on Israel, one of the most vaccinated countries on earth, which reports a sharp surge in August despite its early rollout. NPR walks through what the Israeli data suggest about waning protection. The same figures that officials use to justify third doses also raise a harder question about how durable two doses ever were.

Ivermectin becomes a flashpoint. Mississippi asks residents to stop dosing themselves with the livestock formulation, and on August 24 the FDA posts “You are not a horse.” The framing draws later criticism for glossing over the fact that ivermectin is a long-approved human medicine whose developers shared a Nobel Prize, and for treating a genuine dosing-safety warning as an occasion for mockery of anyone interested in the drug.

Efforts to police vaccine messaging escalate. The New York Times reports that authorities are recruiting an “influencer army” to counter vaccine claims. Twitter suspends Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and permanently bans writer Alex Berenson, YouTube suspends Senator Rand Paul, and Meta says it removed thousands of accounts. Several conservative radio hosts who had opposed the vaccine, among them Dick Farrel and Phil Valentine, die of COVID and receive wide coverage, while The Atlantic runs “Vaccine Refusers Don’t Get to Dictate Terms Anymore.”

The virus’s origins resurface. A Biden-ordered intelligence review, delivered late in the month, is reported as inconclusive: agencies rule out a bioweapon but cannot say whether the virus emerged naturally or leaked from a lab without more cooperation from China. Republicans keep pressing on gain-of-function research funded through Fauci’s institute.

Abroad, more than 200,000 people protest France’s health pass, and Australia arrests demonstrators as lockdowns tighten. The Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota draws hundreds of thousands and is later linked to roughly 100 cases, a figure smaller than pre-rally warnings implied. Donald Trump is booed at an Alabama rally for telling supporters to take the shot, and Pope Francis calls getting vaccinated “an act of love.” In New York, incoming Governor Kathy Hochul adds about 12,000 deaths to the state’s published tally on her first day, a reminder of how much the official count had understated.

Key Dates and Stories:

• August 1: Florida breaks record for new coronavirus cases as surge rips through state, Washington Post
• August 4: WHO calls for moratorium on COVID-19 booster jabs
• August 6: Fully vaccinated people who get a breakthrough infection can transmit the virus, CDC chief says, CNN
• August 9: COVID vaccines to be required for military under new U.S. plan
• August 13: Fauci says he cannot rule out indefinite COVID booster shots, Daily Mail
• August 18: U.S. to begin offering booster shots in September, eight months after second dose
• August 20: The CDC only tracks a fraction of breakthrough COVID-19 infections, even as cases surge, ProPublica
• August 20: Highly vaccinated Israel is seeing a dramatic surge in new COVID cases, NPR
• August 23: U.S. regulators give full approval to Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, opening door to more mandates, CNN
• August 24: ‘You are not a horse’: FDA tells Americans to stop taking dewormer for Covid, The Guardian
• August 25: New York governor adds 12,000 deaths to publicized COVID tally, PBS
• August 27: Florida judge throws out Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order prohibiting school mask mandates, NPR
• August 27: COVID-19’s origins still uncertain, U.S. intelligence agencies conclude