Pandemic, Week 51 ( Same Old, Same Old)

The Senate passed its $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, after a nine-hour delay in order to negotiate a compromise with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), to reduce unemployment benefits' size and duration. No republicans voted for the bill. The relief bill did not include a $15 minimum wage, after eight Democrats voted to exclude it from the package, including Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), who punctuated her vote with a thumbs down signal, having previously advocated for a $15 minimum wage back in 2014. President Biden announced that having reached an agreement with Merck to help Johnson & Johnson produce its one shot vaccine, the U.S. is now on track to have vaccine supply for every adult in the America by the end of May. Meanwhile, Texas and Mississippi announced they were ending statewide mask mandates and fully reopening, generating criticism from health experts. The Senate held hearings on the January 6th attack on the Capitol; the rumored March 4th attack on the Capitol to re-install the previous president didn't occur. Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy was found guilty of bribing a magistrate. Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced they would cease publishing six of the author's early works, due to their negative depiction of Asian- and African-Americans. This sparked cries of "cancel culture" culminating in Minority leader Kevin McCarthy posting a video of himself reading, Green Eggs and Ham, which is not one of the books the Seuss estate decided to stop publishing. 

The world reached 117.1 million COVID cases and 2.6 million deaths this week. The U.S. accounted for 29.7 million of these cases and 537,000 deaths. The U.S. is now administering 2 million shots a day with 16.7 percent of the population having received at least one dose and 8.6 percent having been fully vaccinated. Mom Mom got her first vaccine dose this week. So did Dolly Parton, who helped fund development of the Moderna vaccine and posted a PSA to encourage others to get theirs, including a parody of her song, Jolene, 

Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine,
I'm begging of you please don't hesitate
Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine,
'cause once you're dead then that's a bit too late 

For us it was mostly a normal week. Grandpa Fawcett flew for the first time in over a year as he headed off to Texas to visit Jacqui. Work on the backyard recommenced with the hope that they'll soon finish our decks and we'll be able to enjoy the great outdoors as the weather warms up. The Capitol is still surrounded by barbed wire and the National Guard. DCPS held its spring conferences this week, during which we discussed the possibility of Owen returning to school one afternoon a week for in-person cello instruction. We're still mulling it over.

But mostly, we just reminisced about what the world was like a year ago before it all changed, and whether it would be changing back anytime soon.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)