Jose Luis Magana / AFP via Getty Images Most Americans can celebrate Independence Day this year with a new appreciation of what it means to be free. Roughly half the nation has now been fully vaccinated and participation is higher among older, more vulnerable adults. The several vaccines are exceeding expectations for effectiveness, even against variants of the virus. More and more of us are returning to at least a semblance of our prior lives. Much of the nation's urban population was in varying degrees of lockdown. The number of newly reported cases spiked to a new daily record in the week before the holiday.