“Let’s get Americans vaccinated, let’s get this done, and then we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s the goal,” Kessler added. “I would hope today we can send a very loud, clear signal to our fellow citizens who I mean, many understandably have questions, may be sitting on the fence.”
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After a pandemic pause, Michelin will resume awarding stars to restaurants
A common refrain when describing the gradual return to pre-pandemic normalcy is that “nature is healing.” One sign that things are getting back to the way they were: You’ll soon be seeing stars again — at least of the Michelin variety.
The venerable dining guide of more than a century had taken a break from awarding its coveted stars last fall as covid hit the hospitality industry. Restaurants reeled as cities and states shut down indoor dining or limited dine-in capacity. Many shifted to takeout only, while others closed.
But Michelin on Wednesday announced it would resume operations, and in the coming weeks it will announce starred restaurants in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., and designate others in those cities as its Bib Gourmand picks, a list deemed by the guide’s inspectors to be good values, and “Plates,” a sort of entry-level distinction.
Dance companies are finding their footing on streaming services
Most of the performances we’ve seen the past year have existed between the four corners of a laptop or a television screen. Live entertainment has been essentially nonexistent, arts organizations have taken pay cuts, venues are strapped for cash and some underfunded troupes may never recover. Yet somehow, despite the continued strain and strife, many dance companies have successfully adapted to the evolving digital stage — reimagining Nutcracker seasons, digitizing never-before-seen archival videos and launching their own streaming services.
These digital offerings are just a smattering of what’s available online for dance lovers over the next few weeks. Though mostly free, some streaming services require a subscription, but they all aim to re-create the magic of a dance performance across a digital stage.
Under pressure from the pandemic, Jordan’s sinking economy becomes another forum for discontent
PETRA, Jordan — The ancient city of Petra is empty. Donkeys and camels outnumbered people on a warm April morning. Fewer than a dozen tourists gazed upon the Treasury, a 128-foot structure carved into sandstone.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Petra drew thousands of visitors a day. But the global lockdowns and travel disruptions have ravaged Jordan’s critical tourism industry — often referred to as “the oil of Jordan” — causing ripples of frustration and anger among Jordanians whose entire livelihoods depend on the kingdom’s influx of visitors.
Growing economic malaise, a bloated public sector and rising unemployment pose some of the biggest challenges for King Abdullah II and serve as rallying points for critics, including some who have called for the king to be replaced by his half brother, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein.
Internal tensions surged into the open earlier this month as Abdullah ordered Hamzah and others detained.
She wore her wedding dress to get vaccinated after the actual ceremony was canceled
After more than a year of wearing stretchy pants and hoodies on repeat, the prospect of putting on a dress — much less a formal gown — seemed very far away to Sarah Studley.
But when it came time for her long-awaited coronavirus vaccine appointment, the Baltimore woman decided that the momentous occasion was worthy of a momentous outfit. So she slipped into her unused wedding reception dress.
“I hadn’t gotten gussied up in the past year, so I wanted to take this moment to celebrate for myself,” Studley, 39, said.
She entered the M&T Bank Stadium mass vaccination site in Baltimore on Sunday wearing her retro, white, A-line satin dress with polka-dot tulle. She paired it with peep-toe pumps.
It’s the outfit she would have worn to her wedding reception, she said, had it not been canceled because of the pandemic.
Here’s how travelers can find vaccines on the road
Since Dec. 14, 2020, the U.S. government has been engaged in one of the most ambitious public-health initiatives. Immunizing a population of 328 million is a herculean task, but it was buoyed — at the onset, at least — by a clear objective: Vaccinate front-line workers along with high-risk and elderly populations. With more than 195 million doses administered, that initial mission is considered widely complete, and more than 30 states have opened up eligibility to all adults. Now is when the real heavy lifting begins.
While many of us are eager to learn how a general rollout will work, for one specific community, it’s more a question of where. “Digital nomads” are professionals who leverage telecommuting to remain in a perpetually remote state, devoid of a home base. The lifestyle has actually grown throughout the pandemic, leaving a large number of wanderers wondering if they will find a way to get their shot.
If you’re living on the road, or are just temporarily relocated, you might have questions. We’ve got answers from medical experts and travelers living the experience themselves.
Here’s why you shouldn’t skip your second dose of the coronavirus vaccine
More than 100 million people in the United States have taken one of the coronavirus vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on track to more than meet President Biden’s goal of 200 million inoculations during his first 100 days in office.
But some people have not shown up for the second shot of the messenger-RNA vaccines, which require two doses to achieve the strongest and longest-lasting immunity.
Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-diseases expert, recently expressed concern that although a single dose is proven to be up to 80 percent effective, “it is somewhat of a tenuous 80 percent.”
It is not yet known how long the antibodies from a single dose will last because that data was not included in the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials. But health experts say it is clear that people who get a single shot and stop there will not get the full protective benefit of the vaccine.
A guide to navigating vaccine etiquette
For the past year, the coronavirus pandemic has defined our daily life, determining how we learn, work, eat, travel and socialize. But those parameters are changing, as millions of vaccinated Americans mingle with the millions waiting for their turn and the millions who remain reluctant to get the shots. That means the rules of etiquette are changing, as well.
Six months ago, when the pandemic had transformed from novelty to new reality and it seemed time to codify how to trudge through life in a mannerly fashion, The Washington Post turned to several personal advice and etiquette experts for guidance on issues of the time: how to greet people, respond to invitations, tip delivery drivers, etc. Now the vaccines have brought a whole new set of sticky situations to negotiate (politely) until the time when we hopefully reach herd immunity.
“We’re really talking about how we can all help each other to move forward,” says Steven Petrow, a journalist and contributing columnist to The Post who has written five books on etiquette. “It’s about we and not me, which is fundamentally what etiquette is about.”
In raucous exchange, Rep. Jordan asks Fauci: ‘When do Americans get their freedom back?’
In a raucous exchange, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) hammered Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, on when Americans will see pandemic-related restrictions lifted.
“When do Americans get their freedom back?” Jordan asked.
Fauci began to respond that that will happen “when we get the level of infection in this country low enough.”
“What is low enough? Give me a number,” Jordan interjected, later asking: “What measure, what standard, what objective outcome do we have to reach before Americans get their liberty and freedoms back?”
“My message, Congressman Jordan, is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can to get the level of infection low that it is no longer a threat — that is when,” Fauci said.
He added: “You’re indicating liberty and freedom — I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to the hospital.”
Jordan pointed to restrictions, including curbed attendance in places of worship, over the past year.
“We’re not talking about liberties, we’re talking about a pandemic that has killed 560,000 Americans,” Fauci said.
“I don’t disagree with that and I understand how serious that is,” Jordan said. “But I also said it’s pretty serious when businesses have been shut down, people can’t go to church, people can’t assemble in their own homes with their friends, with their families, people can’t go to a loved one’s funeral.”
In response to later questions from Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) about what behavior will lead to the end of the pandemic, Fauci said: “When the vaccine protection takes over, then you could have a gradual diminution of those types of guideline restrictions, which everyone would like to get rid of, not only Congressman Jordan.”
Later in the hearing, Jordan again asked Fauci for a “specific measurement that will have to be attained.”
“If I have a number, it would have to be my best estimate and that would be that the number of infections per day are well below 10,000 per day. At that point and up to that point, there would be a gradual pulling back of some of the restrictions you’re talking about,” Fauci said.
He later said projections suggest that the “overwhelming majority” of people in the country may be vaccinated sometime in the beginning to middle of the summer.
“The reason I can’t give you a precise number, because I’m not 100 percent sure how many people will want to be vaccinated,” Fauci added.
Spring wave of coronavirus crashes across 38 states as hospitalizations increase
The coronavirus pandemic in America has turned into a patchwork of regional hot spots, with some states hammered by a surge of infections and hospitalizations even as others have seen the crisis begin to ease. The spring wave of the pandemic has driven hospitalizations above 47,000, the highest since March 4.
Thirty-eight states have reported an increase during the past week in the number of people hospitalized with covid-19, the illness caused by the virus, according to a Washington Post analysis of data provided by the Department of Health and Human Services.
But the national statistics fail to capture the intensity of the coronavirus emergency in the hot spots. Michigan reported more than 10,000 new infections on Tuesday alone. The state on Wednesday reported an average of 46 deaths a day, up from 16 a day a month earlier.
Top federal covid adviser says ‘nothing should detract’ from Americans getting vaccinated
A top science adviser for the Biden administration’s pandemic response sought to reinforce faith in the nation’s vaccination campaign on Thursday amid the pause in use of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.
“Nothing should detract from the fact that Americans need to get vaccinated and that we have vaccines available today that meet our high standards for safety and effectiveness,” David Kessler, the Biden administration’s chief science officer for covid response, told lawmakers during a House subcommittee hearing.
He said he wanted to “help ease the minds of those who are considering getting vaccinated.”
“We are in a strong position with respect to vaccines and over the next several weeks, supply is going to continue to increase,” Kessler said.
He said the United States is set to soon release up to 28 million vaccine doses a week.
Kessler pointed to the need to combat vaccine hesitancy with transparency about the vaccines.
“The most important way to help people overcome their concerns about vaccines is to be transparent with them, about the safety, about these products,” Kessler said.
Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the chair of the House subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, posed a question to Kessler about whether lawmakers can “lead by example and restore the House to regular order by getting vaccinated.”
“Mr. Chairman, you just said it more eloquently than I could ever say. Let’s get Americans vaccinated, let’s get this done,” Kessler said, “and then we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s the goal.”
Google donating funds for 250,000 vaccine doses in push to help low-income countries
Google will donate money for 250,000 coronavirus vaccine doses as part of a push to get private companies to help pay for inoculations in low-income countries, the company said Thursday in a blog post.
The money is going to Gavi, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded organization that has coordinated vaccination campaigns for years and is helping run Covax, the international program to get vaccine to countries that can’t compete on price with rich nations such as the United States.
Google also said it would give $2.5 million to organizations running pop-up vaccination clinics to serve Black, Latino and rural populations in the United States, and $250 million in free Google ads to groups that are trying to raise awareness about the benefits of coronavirus vaccine.
Google has trumpeted changes it has made to its search tools to surface reliable information about the pandemic. It has also worked to make sure vaccination sites show up in Google Maps. At the same time, the company’s YouTube video service has been criticized for allowing misinformation about the pandemic and vaccines to spread.
Corporate money would add to the commitments from governments to fund Covax, including $4 billion promised in March by the Biden administration. But money alone cannot fix the problems many countries face in getting people vaccinated.
Rich countries able to outbid others have taken nearly all of the early production of vaccine doses. The United States has fully vaccinated more than 20 percent of its population, while dozens of countries, including South Africa, Bangladesh and Thailand, have yet to vaccinate 1 percent, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Even when vaccine doses arrive, public health officials in low-income countries often don’t have the resources to distribute them quickly.
The longer it takes for the entire world to get the virus under control, the higher the chances of new variants emerging that are resistant to current vaccines.
By the end of July, the U.S. will have 300 million extra vaccine doses. What about the rest of the world?
The United States is on track to have gathered an oversupply of hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses as soon as July, even while many countries in the developing world will have to wait years to vaccinate a majority of their populations, according to a report by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.
The new estimates, included in the paper alongside recommendations, come as the Biden administration faces mounting pressure to facilitate equitable vaccine distribution around the world. The United States has pledged money to the global immunization effort, but has resisted calls to share vaccine technology or donate surplus doses.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a fundraising event for Covax, a World Health Organization-backed push to distribute coronavirus vaccines, particularly to low- and middle-income countries, calling on other countries to do more.
Weekly jobless claims fall to lowest level of the pandemic
Americans filed 576,000 initial jobless claims last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, falling to their lowest level since March 2020.
The figure is a 193,000 drop from last week’s surprise spike, suggesting the recovery is trudging onward even as unemployment remains elevated.
Economists had projected about 710,000 fresh claims for the week ending April 10. The week before, some 719,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits. Though initial jobless claims, a marker for layoffs, remain near historic highs, weekly counts had been trending downward since the beginning of 2021 and in mid-March hit their lowest level since the pandemic began.
The pandemic’s disruption has created inescapable financial strain for many Americans. Nearly 40 percent of them have postponed major financial decisions, from buying cars or houses to getting married or having children, due to the coronavirus crisis, according to a survey last week from Bankrate.com. Among younger people ages 18 to 34, 59 percent said they had delayed a financial milestone.
Brazil takes on the pandemic with a Chinese vaccine even the Chinese have doubts about
RIO DE JANEIRO — The news received scant notice in the mainstream media, but it quickly gained a foothold in Brazil’s vast right-wing digital landscape: The vaccine on which Brazil had gone all-in was a disappointment even to the country that had created it.
A top Chinese health official had said the country was considering changes to its vaccines to “solve the problem that the efficacy … is not high.” And in Brazil, in alternative media, a narrative formed: The country was stuck with a second-tier vaccine.
“I always said this vaccine was water with sugar,” one Brazilian commented beneath a story in conservative media.
Now there is fear that the seemingly offhand — and quickly censored — comment by George Gao, the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, could further complicate Brazil’s bewildered campaign to vaccinate its population. The very people most likely to get their news from right-wing media are those already more hesitant to get the vaccine.