In Vaccinated Americans Why Infections Are Rising

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Two and a half million service workers were at the center of the outbreak as it ravaged New York City’s economy. SPECIAL SECTION

Beating Heart of City in a Pandemic

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Shukri Mubarez, bodega owner David Santiago, delivery worker

Esther Gonzalez, construction worker Elise Kellman, Walgreens employee

Peter Hu, laundromat owner Olivia Richards, owner of a nail salon

EDGEWATER, Md. — In agrainy video chat, Zak shared thelatest from his embattled provincein Afghanistan, an update as grimas it was commonplace. “The Tal-iban left a note at my house lastnight. They said, ‘Surrender to-night or we will kill you,’” he re-counted in a tone more resignedthan terrified.

Maj. Thomas Schueman shiftedin his chair in a cafe 7,000 milesaway as Zak described the spiral-ing violence in the country wherethey had served together as a pla-toon commander and his invalu-able interpreter.

The men fought in the 2010 bat-tle for Sangin, one of the deadliestcampaigns of the 20-year Afghanwar, and later worked in Kabul ad-vising the Army. “It was very dan-gerous,” said Zak, who requestedthat he be identified by only hisnickname because he feared forhis safety. “But, you know, Amer-ica came to help us and workedside by side with us for buildingour country and bring peace anddemocracy. You never know whatlife is going to bring you.”

Zak, who spent three yearsworking for the military, was as-sured that a U.S. visa would be hisreward after risking his life to as-sist coalition forces. But even withMajor Schueman’s help with ap-plications, and calls, letters andpleading on his behalf, Zak haswaited six years for approval.

“I will keep working this for youevery day and every night untilwe get this taken care of,” insistedMajor Schueman, a Marine in-fantry officer now attending theNaval War College in Rhode Is-

Veterans FeelUrgency to Aid

Afghan Allies

On a Mission to BringWar Partners to U.S.

By JENNIFER STEINHAUERand JOHN ISMAY

Continued on Page A9

As the Delta variant spreadsamong the unvaccinated, manyfully vaccinated people are alsobeginning to worry. Is it time tomask up again?

While there’s no one-size-fits-allanswer, most experts agree thatmasks remain a wise precautionin certain settings for the vacci-nated and unvaccinated. How of-ten you use a mask will depend onyour personal health toleranceand risk, the infection and vacci-nation rates in your area, and whoyou’re spending time with.

The bottom line is this: While

being fully vaccinated protectsagainst serious illness and hospi-talization from Covid-19, no vac-cine offers 100 percent protection.As long as large numbers of peo-ple remain unvaccinated and con-tinue to spread coronavirus, vac-cinated people will be exposed tothe Delta variant, and a small per-centage of them will develop so-called breakthrough infections.Here are answers to commonquestions about how you can pro-tect yourself and lower your riskof a breakthrough infection.

Time for Inoculated to ReturnTo Mask Wearing? It Depends.

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Continued on Page A15

VILNIUS, Lithuania — She hasmet Chancellor Angela Merkel ofGermany, and President Emman-uel Macron of France. Just thisweek, she was feted in Washing-ton, where she was received bySecretary of State AntonyBlinken.

But while Svetlana Tikhanov-skaya, the unlikely pro-democra-cy leader from Belarus, may havelittle trouble getting a meeting,her high-flying company only un-derscores her predicament.

It’s been almost a year sinceMs. Tikhanovskaya was forced toflee Belarus after claiming victoryin presidential elections. Now the

challenge she faces is how tomaintain influence in Belarusfrom abroad. The support of West-ern leaders may help, but goesonly so far.

Still, the meetings are part ofMs. Tikhanovskaya’s strategy tobuild a broad Western phalanxagainst the Belarus dictator, Alex-ander Lukashenko, who has lim-ited her ability to challenge himinside the country, where her re-

turn would mean certain impris-onment.

Only months ago, hundreds ofthousands of protesters took tothe streets to demand that Mr. Lu-kashenko resign. It was a raredemocratic outburst in an easternEuropean country — outside theEuropean Union and NATO —that has carefully tried to maneu-ver between Russia and the West,but has turned to Moscow as a pri-mary source of support.

But now opposition figures aredisappearing into prisons, andprotests are dwindling.

“Now it’s impossible to fightopenly,” Ms. Tikhanovskaya said.“It’s difficult to ask people to goout for demonstrations because of

Exiled Belarus Leader Looks West for SupportBy VALERIE HOPKINS Challenging a Dictator

as the Opposition atHome Is Muzzled

Continued on Page A7

Terrified passengers trapped inflooded subway cars in Zheng-zhou, China. Water cascadingdown stairways into the LondonUnderground. A woman wadingthrough murky, waist-deep waterto reach a New York City subwayplatform.

Subway systems around theworld are struggling to adapt to anera of extreme weather broughton by climate change. Their de-signs, many based on the expecta-tions of another era, are beingoverwhelmed, and investments inupgrades could be squeezed by adrop in ridership brought on bythe pandemic.

“It’s scary,” said Sarah Kauf-man, associate director of theRudin Center for Transportationat New York University. “Thechallenge is, how can we get readyfor the next storm, which was sup-posed to be 100 years away, butcould happen tomorrow?”

Public transportation plays acritical role in reducing travel bycar in big cities, thus reining in theemissions from automobiles thatcontribute to global warming. If

Climate CrisisTurns SubwaysTo Flood Zones

By HIROKO TABUCHI and JOHN SCHWARTZ

Continued on Page A8

A wedding in Oklahoma leads to15 vaccinated guests becoming in-fected with the coronavirus. Rau-cous Fourth of July celebrationsdisperse the virus from Province-town, Mass., to dozens of placesacross the country, sometimescarried by fully vaccinated cele-brants.

As the Delta variant surgesacross the nation, reports of infec-tions in vaccinated people havebecome increasingly frequent —including, most recently, among atleast six Texas Democrats, aWhite House aide and an aide toSpeaker Nancy Pelosi.

The highly contagious variant,combined with a lagging vaccina-tion campaign and the near ab-sence of preventive restrictions, isfueling a rapid rise in cases in allstates, and hospitalizations innearly all of them. It now accountsfor about 83 percent of infectionsdiagnosed in the United States.

But as worrying as the trend

may seem, breakthrough infec-tions — those occurring in vacci-nated people — are still relativelyuncommon, experts said, andthose that cause serious illness,hospitalization or death evenmore so. More than 97 percent ofpeople hospitalized for Covid-19are unvaccinated.

“The takeaway message re-mains, if you’re vaccinated, youare protected,” said Dr. CelineGounder, an infectious diseasespecialist at Bellevue HospitalCenter in New York. “You are notgoing to end up with severe dis-ease, hospitalization or death.”

Reports of breakthrough infec-tions should not be taken to mean

Why Infections Are RisingIn Vaccinated Americans

Shield Against Virus Works, but It Can

Be Permeated

By APOORVA MANDAVILLI

Vaccines are still effective atpreventing serious illness.

JAMES ESTRIN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A14

WASHINGTON — The directorof the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention warned on Thurs-day that the United States was“not out of the woods yet” on thepandemic and was once again at a“pivotal point” as the highly infec-tious Delta variant ripped throughunvaccinated communities.

Just weeks after President Bi-den threw a Fourth of July partyon the South Lawn of the WhiteHouse to declare independencefrom the virus, the director, Dr. Ro-chelle P. Walensky, called the nowdominant variant “one of the mostinfectious respiratory viruses”known to scientists.

The renewed sense of urgencyinside the administration wasaimed at tens of millions of peoplewho have not yet been vaccinatedand therefore are most likely to beinfected and become sick. Hergrim message came at a time ofgrowing anxiety and confusion,especially among parents ofyoung children who are still not el-igible to take the shot. And it un-derscored how quickly the pan-demic’s latest surge had unsettledAmericans who had begun to be-lieve that the worst was over,sending politicians and publichealth officials scrambling to re-calibrate their responses.

“This is like the moment in thehorror movie when you think thehorror is over and the credits areabout to roll,” said RepresentativeJamie Raskin, Democrat of Mary-land. “And it all starts back upagain.”

The choice by millions to rejectthe vaccine has had the conse-quences that public health offi-cials predicted: The number ofnew cases in the country has shotup almost 250 percent since thebeginning of the month, with anaverage of more than 41,000 infec-tions being diagnosed each dayduring the past week — up from12,000.

The disease caused by the virusis claiming about 250 lives eachday — many fewer than duringthe peaks last year, but still 42 per-cent higher than two weeks ago.More than 97 percent of those hos-pitalized are unvaccinated, Dr.Walensky said last week.

The public health crisis is par-

U.S. ‘Not Out of theWoods Yet,’ Says

C.D.C.’s Chief

This article is by Michael D.Shear, Jonathan Weisman andSheryl Gay Stolberg.

Continued on Page A14

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Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 59,128 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2021

Today, sunshine and some clouds,relatively low humidity, high 82. To-night, clear skies, low 68. Tomorrow,mostly sunny, moderate warmth,high 82. Weather map, Page B12.

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