Navajo Nation Exceeds February Vaccination Goal

Above, Red Rock Navajo Casino near Gallup, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Last week, while driving to Gallup, I saw police and security vehicles with their light bars on and many people in the parking lot of Fire Rock Casino. 

Fire Rock Casino has been closed since the pandemic started last year.

As I drove closer, there were tables and tents set up with people on foot and in vehicles lined up. 

This was a mass inoculation of members of the Navajo Nation of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to the article below from the Arizona Public Media, mass vaccinations in different locations in and around the Navajo Nation are paying off. During the height of the pandemic, the virus hit the Navajo Nation hard and many Navajos came down with the virus that caused many deaths, most of which hit the tribal elders hard.

Arizona Public Media reported:

The Navajo Nation exceeded its goal to administer 100,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of February. Now it's aiming for 120,000 by the end of the month.

Tribal officials reported Thursday that 104,974 doses had been administered. Since then, they have continued to advertise vaccination events across the reservation that is the size of West Virginia.

Dr. Chris Percy, the Community Health Director of the Northern Navajo Medical Center, was helping with the vaccine rollout at Shiprock High School Saturday in Shiprock, New Mexico. He said 84% of elders over the age of 65 have been vaccinated, along with 37% of people over the age of 16. The Navajo Department of Health reports it's vaccinating people in Phase 1B now.

"We're really excited so many people have come out and got it. Many, many of our families have been affected by COVID," Percy said. "We've lost so many people, and so many people have suffered all year, and now we can finally do something about it."

This is good news for the Navajo Nation as well as the counties surrounding it in the Four Corners region, including New Mexico's McKinley County, where I reside. 

To read more, go here.

CDs In Decline, Vinyl Records On The Rise

Above, an original Thunderball soundtrack album from 1965. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There is one trend in the music industry that I am pleased to see.

And that is the growth of vinyl records. The old analog records have been making a comeback for several years while CDs have been declining and music streaming has been growing.

Above, James Bond soundtrack 45 rpm singles. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Even in Japan, the growth of vinyl has prompted Tower Records in Tokyo's Shinjuku section to dedicate a floor to vinyl records.

News On Japan reported:

Tower Records opened Tower Vinyl on the 10th floor of its Shinjuku store on March 21. The space, once reserved for pop-up events, now houses 70,000 records, according to the company, with more than half being secondhand.

In the U.S., vinyl pressing companies are starting up (along with older pressing companies) and are struggling to meet the rising demand.

According to Arizona Public Media:

Last year, digital music hit a milestone. For the first time ever, it accounted for more than half of global music sales. Music streaming revenues rose more than 40 percent, while sales of physical recordings continued to sink. 

Yet a company in Northern Virginia has just started pressing vinyl records. 

Tucked away in an industrial park in Alexandria, Furnace Record Pressing is the country’s newest record manufacturing facility — and a seemingly batty business idea, if you haven’t paid attention to deeper trends in the music industry lately. 

Despite the overall downturn in physical recordings like CDs, vinyl sales have been on the rise for a decade now, as younger people have begun to discover the richer sound and collectable nature of old-fashioned records. But as the vinyl frenzy caught on, soaring demand quickly created a problem, says Furnace’s owner, Eric Astor. The world’s remaining pressing facilities couldn’t keep up with the crush of new business.

 To read more, go here.