Please wear a mask (or even two). Wash your hands. Stay at home if you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT

KCET: One Day at a Time … A Comprehensive COVID-19 Timeline. “This timeline puts into perspective the significance COVID-19 has had on us, the struggles we face to contend with a pandemic and perhaps illuminates what we want in a better future.”

UPDATES

New York Times: ‘I’d Much Rather Be in Florida’. “To call what is happening in Florida an actual boom is a stretch. Though the state was fully reopened by late September, its tourism-dependent economy remains hobbled. A $2.7 billion budget deficit will need an injection of federal stimulus money. Orange County, where Orlando is, saw the lowest tourist development tax collections for any January since 2002. Yet in a country just coming out of the morose grip of coronavirus lockdowns, Florida feels unmistakably hot. (And not just because of global warming.)”

The Guardian: ‘Covid is taking over’: Brazil plunges into deadliest chapter of its epidemic. “At the end of last year Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro – a Donald Trump-worshiping populist who has gleefully sabotaged Covid containment efforts – declared his country had reached ‘the tail end’ of what was already one of the world’s worst outbreaks. Bolsonaro was wrong. Three months later Latin America’s largest nation has lost almost 100,000 more lives – taking its total death toll to more than 275,000, second only to the US – and been plunged into the deadliest chapter of its 13-month epidemic.”

Reuters: India reports biggest daily jump in COVID-19 infections this year. “India reported the year’s biggest daily increase in COVID-19 cases on Sunday, with 25,320 new infections, a day ahead of a lockdown in the western state of Maharashtra, the epicentre of the renewed surge. The just was the biggest since Dec. 16, according to federal health data. India is the third-most affected country globally with 11.36 million cases, behind the United States and Brazil.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

US99: Pared-down funerals may become the norm after the pandemic, industry official concedes. “The pandemic has forced so many changes in the ways families grieve that some funeral homes are in financial straits, and the future of the industry could be changed forever, an official says. So many traditions associated with mourning the dead are gone, at least for now.”

BBC: Pregnancy in lockdown: The babies born into a pandemic. “Bristol-based portrait photographer Nina Raingold met five mothers who have experienced the challenges of giving birth during Covid restrictions in the UK.”

Vogue: How Do We Come to Terms with the Indelible Loss of the Last Year?. “Can this new obsession with one’s mortality be undone? Can one will oneself back to normal? How does my mother erase the last year of dead friends and the anxiety of imminent demise? Does she pretend she didn’t have to lock herself away for a year? Or will the scars of a year of death be unerasable?”

MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION

AP: Nurses fight conspiracy theories along with coronavirus. “Bogus claims about the virus, masks and vaccines have exploded since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic a year ago. Journalists, public health officials and tech companies have tried to push back against the falsehoods, but much of the job of correcting misinformation has fallen to the world’s front-line medical workers.”

HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

ABC News: Hunt for vaccine slots often leads through scheduling maze. “The road to a COVID-19 shot often leads through a maze of scheduling systems: Some vaccine seekers spend days or weeks trying to book online appointments. Those who get a coveted slot can still be stymied by pages of forms or websites that slow to a crawl and crash.”

CBS: U.S. reaches COVID-19 vaccine milestone of 100 million shots. “The U.S. has now administered over 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine — 101.1 million, to be precise — according to figures posted Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That equates to more than 35 million Americans fully vaccinated — 10.5% of the total U.S. population. Nearly 66 million, or almost 20% of the total population, have gotten at least one dose. Nearly one-third of Americans age 65 and older are fully vaccinated.”

NBC Washington: Almost 40% of DC’s Shots Have Gone to Non-Residents. “The News4 I-Team has been tracking the data and found despite older and medically vulnerable residents being eligible for several weeks, 39.9% of the doses administered in the District have still gone to people who don’t live there. By comparison, only 2.5% of Virginia’s vaccine doses are listed as having gone to out-of-state residents. An additional 7% were missing residency information.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

UPROXX: Wells Fargo Said It Would Take Them A Couple Days Longer Than Most To Get The Stimulus Checks Out, And People Were Furious. “Last week, after two weeks of congressional back-and-forth, President Joe Biden was finally able to sign into law his first major piece of legislation since taking office: the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan. It was the most sweeping progressive piece of legislation since the FDR era, at a time of similar economic need. Not only did the bill get approved — with no thanks to Republicans — but the $1400 promised every eligible American would be released quickly, over the weekend…that is, unless your bank is Wells Fargo.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

BBC: Covid-19: Ireland suspends use of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. “The use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been suspended in the Republic of Ireland. The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommended the move following reports of serious blood clotting events in adults in Norway.”

STATE / LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Bradenton Herald: Federal complaint accuses DeSantis, Lakewood Ranch vaccination site of discrimination. “Last month, a three-day event was held by the state at the Premier Sports Complex that only gave appointments to residents who live in two of Manatee County’s wealthiest ZIP codes, in Lakewood Ranch. The chosen ZIP codes had been impacted less than other parts of the county, according to the state’s own COVID-19 data. According to the complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the site inappropriately gave a wealthy developer who contributes to the governor’s campaign limited access to the vaccine. Matthew Issman, a retired law enforcement officer, filed the complaint on Feb. 18.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

New York Times: Aruká Juma, Last Man of His Tribe, Is Dead. “Aruká Juma saw his Amazon tribe dwindle to just a handful of individuals during his lifetime. Numbering an estimated 15,000 in the 18th century, disease and successive massacres by rubber tappers, loggers and miners ravaged his people. An estimated 100 remained in 1943; a massacre in 1964 left only six, including him.”

Washington Post: Here are the people who love wearing masks. And not just because they want to avoid covid-19.. “A year into the pandemic, a lot has changed. And we’re reminded of that every time we go outside (if we go outside). Masks have joined the traditional don’t-leave-home-without-them trifecta of keys, wallets and phones — and they are here to stay. There are folks who hate them, who can’t breathe through them, or who think they’re a sign of political oppression. But for others, the widespread use of masks has made the past year one of liberation.”

Berkshire Eagle: After receiving second dose, Yo-Yo Ma transforms waiting period into performance at Pittsfield vax clinic. “Yo-Yo Ma took a seat along the wall of the observation area, masked and socially distanced away from the others. He went on to pass 15 minutes in observation playing cello for an applauding audience, in what [Richard] Hall called a ‘very special’ concert that capped the day’s vaccination event.”

NBC San Diego: Serving Seniors Looks Back On Difficult Year, 1.7 Million Meals Delivered. “Since the coronavirus pandemic forced Serving Seniors to shut down one of its core services to impoverished San Diego County seniors, the nonprofit has pivoted to a different model and served more than 1.7 million meals to 5,467 clients.”

K-12 EDUCATION

NPR: As Many Parents Fret Over Remote Learning, Some Find Their Kids Are Thriving. “Bobby has ADHD and sometimes gets seizures. (NPR isn’t using last names to protect students’ privacy.) This means that the 11-year-old often needs to take breaks from class, whether it is because of a seizure or just because he wants to walk around the room to get some of his energy out. Even though he already had some accommodations when school was in-person, online learning makes it easier for him to accommodate his own needs.”

HIGHER EDUCATION

AP: The Latest: All Duke University undergrads must quarantine. “Duke University issued a quarantine order for all of its undergraduates effective Saturday night due to a coronavirus outbreak caused by students who attended recruitment parties, the school said.”

HEALTH

CNBC: 82% of fathers say they could have used more emotional support during pandemic — 68% of mothers say the same: study. “Parents could use some extra support during the pandemic, both emotional and logistical. But fathers are significantly more likely to say they need emotional support throughout the pandemic than mothers, according to a new survey from the American Psychological Association.”

CNN: A year into the pandemic, it’s time to take stock of our mental health. “We’ve lost so much in this year of devastation, so many of the normal markers of life we typically take for granted. We’ve missed graduations, holidays, sports seasons, plays, weddings, funerals, hugging, spontaneity and just connecting face to face with friends and family. Many of us have lost people we love. Meanwhile, negativity and judgment run high, with most every issue being politicized, down to the wearing of masks. As a result, people feel disconnected and isolated. More of my clients report experiencing a higher sense of self-doubt than ever before. Many of us feel a degree of hopelessness and despair we could not have imagined a year ago.”

CNBC: Covid variant first found in the U.K. appears to be 64% more deadly than earlier strains, study finds. “The highly contagious coronavirus variant first identified in the U.K. is associated with a 64% higher risk of dying from Covid-19 than earlier strains, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal. Researchers at the University of Exeter and the University of Bristol analyzed data from more than 100,000 patients in the U.K. between Oct. 1 and Jan. 28. They compared death rates among people infected with B.1.1.7, the variant first found in the U.K., and those infected with other previously circulating strains.”

TECHNOLOGY

PubMed: Don’t put all social network sites in one basket: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and their relations with well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The present research examined the relationships between well-being-satisfaction with life, negative affect, positive affect-and using actively or passively various SNSs-Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok-during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, two mediators were tested: social support and upward social comparison.”

Wired: Social Media Reminds Us of the Year That Wasn’t. “For the past seven days, my timelines—and presumably timelines everywhere—have been filled with people’s remembrances of where they were when, say, they heard the NBA was shutting down, or that travel was becoming increasingly dangerous. There’s even a new Twitter feed devoted to this: @YearCovid, which is dedicated to ‘livetweeting the covid pandemic as it happened on this date in 2020.’ Following the account means getting semi-frequent reminders of what the news stories and social media reactions were on any given day in 2020. If you were starting to feel like there weren’t enough reminders of how much you life has changed, this feed will solve that.”

CNN: How a year of living almost exclusively online made the internet weird again. “After several years of concerning headlines about misinformation, election meddling, filter bubbles, online harassment and more, there are flickers of a more carefree — and weird — internet. At times it felt like a throwback to a more innocent web, when Dancing Baby filled our inboxes, Second Life took on a life of its own and Rickrolling was an ever-lingering threat. And all it took was a devastating pandemic that forced many in the United States and around the world to live their lives almost exclusively online for much of the past year.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

Colorado Sun: Colorado man accused of refusing to wear mask, then urinating on Denver-bound flight. “A Colorado man accused of disrupting an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Denver by refusing to wear a mask and then standing up and urinating in the cabin faces a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew and attendants that carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine.”

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