Boolmberg: America is again one of the worst hotspots for coronavirus infection on Earth. Covid-19 patients are dying in U.S. hospitals at levels not seen since February—and the numbers are expected to keep climbing. In Alabama, the entire state is out of intensive care beds. Florida, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas’s ICUs are at 90% capacity. Complicating the fight, a new study showed vaccines are less effective against the now-dominant delta variant, and lose effectiveness over time. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has condemned President Joe Biden’s plan to dole out boosters to U.S. adults when much of the world has yet to get one shot. —Margaret Sutherlin

Back from Costco (COSTnew all time high today), hardly anyone is wearing a mask. Some people are wearing one but around the chin – very helpful.  At Starbuck’s some 50 people sitting around, close together– not one mask in sight.