Early in 2020, the world urgently needed to raise its sense of alarm around Covid-19.
But for the vaccinated parts of the planet, Covid is no longer a horseman of the apocalypse. Instead, it is gradually becoming “just a virus” trib.al/QvxD2SE
In Singapore, where 81% are fully immunized, the Ministry of Health has started prioritizing data on hospitalizations rather than infections.
Israel is riding out a surge in new Covid cases without returning to lockdowns for the vaccinated trib.al/jAnL73X
The calls from some quarters to stop publishing daily Covid case totals may be premature for a disease that’s still killing thousands of people a day trib.al/jAnL73X
🦠 At some point, when Covid has passed from its current pandemic status to the endemic situation, we’re likely to be as vague on daily or even annual case numbers as we are in the case of influenza trib.al/jAnL73X
It’s hard to believe that an infection that’s killed more than 4.5 million people could be thought of in such a routine way.
But viruses throughout history have flipped between endemic and pandemic status with remarkable frequency trib.al/jAnL73X
The “Russian Flu” pandemic, which circled the world in the late 1970s, appears to have been an unremarkable seasonal flu strain from the 1940s and 1950s, possibly released to the world anew via a laboratory accident trib.al/jAnL73X
Yellow fever, which shaped the history of the Americas for four centuries, has now largely vanished from urban areas of the western hemisphere, while remaining a devastating infection in sub-Saharan Africa trib.al/jAnL73X
A coronavirus strain called HCoV-OC43 might have been responsible for an 1889 outbreak also known as the Russian Flu.
That particular strain now crops up as one of the main causes of the common cold that doctors safely dismiss trib.al/jAnL73X
We’re not at that stage yet.
We must keep treating Covid-19 with respect, at least until everyone has had the chance to be vaccinated and we have a clearer sense of how long protection against severe infection persists trib.al/jAnL73X
Covid will always be with us — but in a milder, less troubling form.
After the trauma of the past two years, it’s hard to believe that we’ll ever look upon that prospect with a sense of equanimity — but that’s what must ultimately happen trib.al/jAnL73X
The moment we’ve beaten Covid won’t be when we eradicate it from the human population.
It will be when we’ve reached a level of vaccinated and natural immunity where we no longer have reason to fear it trib.al/jAnL73X
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Never ones to miss a chance to cry “hardship,” upper-middle-class, well-educated young Americans are getting in on the Chinese “lie flat” social protest movement, claiming they, too, are burned out and quitting their jobs to do nothing trib.al/e5rjiys
It started among Chinese factory workers burned out from grueling 12-hour, six-day work weeks, and the unrelenting pressure to climb the economic ladder.
So some Chinese millennials formed a movement to opt out of work and the pressures of society trib.al/e5rjiys
What this trend will mean for China is unclear, but Americans who choose to lay down in lieu of work may end up worse off than they think trib.al/e5rjiys
On Labor Day, 7.5 million Americans lost their federal unemployment benefits, and another 3 million unemployed lost the $300 bonus that had been in place since March.
That’s a lot of people with no immediate way to support themselves and their families trib.al/pK04k9j
What would Franklin Roosevelt — who put America to work during the Great Depression — make of the way Washington has responded to this economic crisis? twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…
The New Deal’s attack on the Great Depression had four main components:
💵Temporary direct relief for the impoverished
🔐A stronger social safety net
🇺🇸An expanded regulatory state
💼Jobs for the legions of unemployed trib.al/pK04k9j
18-year-old Emma Raducanu is taking the tennis world by storm.
Her victory in the U.S. Open turned her into one of those athletes who you can’t help but watch and want to know more, or even pick up a racquet trib.al/VKDcbjm
How big is this win? @ThereseRaphael1 asked Michel Masquelier, former chairman of IMG Media.
“It’s as good as it gets,” he says. “Tennis is an individual sport, so any individual who shines on that stage is instantly recognizable” trib.al/VKDcbjm
Alongside her championship title, Raducanu has other force multipliers for propelling celebrity and commercial success. There’s her international reputation:
🇨🇳Chinese mother
🇷🇴Romanian father
🇬🇧Raised in Britain
🇺🇸Shot to fame in the U.S. trib.al/VKDcbjm
When Americans began emerging from their homes after the first wave of Covid in spring 2020, many apparently headed straight to their local boat dealers.
Spending on pleasure boats shot up to 20% above the pre-pandemic pace in May 2020 trib.al/xHmYB8x
At a time when crowded indoor spaces can pose deadly risks, small boats are great places to be.
The remote-work arrangements also made it easier for affluent white-collar workers to locate themselves within convenient distance of a body of water trib.al/RiRZvDB
With so many other things that have boomed during the pandemic, one does have to wonder how long this elevated demand for boats will last.
Here’s spending on pleasure boats going back to 1959, adjusted for inflation: trib.al/RiRZvDB
When we talk about workers going back to their offices, the goal for most is to return to the normal routines of life.
🍼 But for parents who had their first child during the past 18 months, the return is uncharted territory trib.al/a3jKClJ
New parents are figuring out for the first time how to manage:
🚍 Commuting
⏰ Long hours away from home
🍼 Parenting small children
All their experience thus far has been in a work-from-home pandemic world trib.al/Rnd0dVG
Data serves mostly to confirm that American work culture isn't particularly family-friendly, generally leaving mothers as the caretakers-of-last-resort in times of need trib.al/Rnd0dVG