Capitol View for November 22

Good morning, and welcome to Thanksgiving week.

As of Friday booster shots are available to all adults in Minnesota and around the country. The concern is for breakthrough COVID-19 cases. MPR’s Catharine Richert has the story : Breakthrough cases — contracting COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated — are still unlikely; about 2 percent of Minnesotans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 experience them, and far less than 1 percent of those people are hospitalized or die. But as more people are vaccinated and immunity wanes against the contagious delta variant, breakthrough cases are becoming more common. According to the latest data, about 40 percent of current COVID-19 cases are breakthrough cases. "These vaccines are remarkable, but they're not perfect,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “If they were perfect, we wouldn't have any breakthrough cases. And what we're learning about these vaccines is that booster doses are going to be very important to continuing to provide that protection that we first had after we got those first doses.”

The bigger concern remains those who haven’t had their first shot.John Reinan of the Star Tribune reported from Wadena, where the vaccination rate is low: “It's political. You're not going to convert anyone at this point," said Brittney Ewert, owner of a downtown hair salon. "A lot of the rural people are very stubborn. They don't like being told what to do." The mother of one of her clients died of COVID, she said. Ewert, 33, is unvaccinated and had COVID a month ago. She said it felt like "a little more than typical" cold, and she stayed home from the salon for 10 days. She said she's happy to mask up if a client requests it, but on Thursday last week only one person out of six in the salon — a client — was wearing a mask. Just down the block, Ron Greiman shakes his head at the situation. Greiman, 71, owns a printing and sign shop. He's had two vaccinations and just got a booster shot last week. Several of his employees are unvaccinated, and one just tested positive for COVID. The father of one of Greiman's friends died of COVID three weeks ago. "I don't understand it," he said. "It's not a political thing. It's not a Biden or Trump thing. It's a medical disaster."

Parts of Europe are locking down again because of COVID-19 and some people don’t like it.The Associated Press reports : Tens of thousands of protesters, many from far-right groups, marched through Vienna on Saturday after the Austrian government announced a nationwide lockdown beginning Monday to contain skyrocketing coronavirus infections. Demonstrations against virus restrictions also took place in Switzerland, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands on Saturday, a day after Dutch police opened fire on protesters and seven people were injured in rioting that erupted in Rotterdam. Protesters rallied against coronavirus restrictions and mandatory COVID-19 passes needed in many European countries to enter restaurants, Christmas markets or sports events, as well as mandatory vaccinations.

The traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season kicks off this week. Despite worker shortages and supply chain problems, some retailers are optimistic about strong sales over the next month. MPR’s Mark Zdechlik reported: COVID-19 kept many people out of stores last year. But there are already signs shoppers are back this year, in part because of concerns stores may be low on merchandise. "Overall retailers are pretty optimistic about this holiday season," said Bruce Nustad, president of the Minnesota Retailers Association, "And one of the reasons is last year we saw a lot of online shopping and curbside and that worked out great. I think retailers are thinking they're going to see a good return to stores this holiday season.” Nustad said he believes a lack of inventory will likely not be a major problem as supply chain backups are easing. Why is it easing? “They're actually now getting stuff that they ordered back in May, June, July,” Nustad said. “You know, you may order something in May, June, July and thought you're going to get it in July, August, September, October. Now, it turns out you're actually getting some of that product in October, November, December.”