Pandemic, Week 52 (525,600 minutes = 546,600 deaths)

This week President Biden signed the COVID stimulus bill into law, which includes $1,400 payments to individuals, extension of jobless benefits, and a child tax credit estimated to reduce child poverty by half. Household have already begun receiving payments through direct deposit (things move a lot faster when you don't insist on branding government disbursements). A majority of New York state's legislator and its two Senators have called for Governor Andrew Cuomo to step down in light of multiple sexual harassment claims. The city of Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to George Floyd's family to settle their wrongful death claim. Oprah Winfrey's interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle which discussed treatment of the couple and their child by the British Royal family, including questions regarding their son's skin color, was broadcast this week. The Queen responded that the issues raised were concerning, but would be addressed by the family privately.

The Pandemic turned one year old this week, which the President commemorated by addressing the nation. The total number of cases this week reached 120.0 million with 2.7 million deaths worldwide. The U.S. accounted for 30.0 million cases and 547,000 deaths. More than 101.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in the U.S. to 19.9 percent of the total population. 10.3 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. Yo-Yo Ma received his second dose and then promptly performed for others waiting at the vaccination cite. 

This week we mostly focused on having the work completed for the deck (with a few more punch list items for this week) and actually getting to use it (and gather with family) as the temperatures hit 70 degrees (and then went down to 50 – good thing I got a Solo Stove for Christmas). We also got in some walks, a bike ride and even a protest (#Don'tFenceDC). But we also marked the anniversary of quarantine by remembering the last things we did before it hit. For Nora it was the DC Honor Chorus concert; for Owen it was his final interview for high school and his friend Adam's 14th birthday dinner. We couldn't really do much about Nora's memory, but Owen got to have a socially distant meet-up for Adam's 15th birthday, and on Monday he finally gets to set foot in his high school (for three hours of cello instruction in the middle of the day), which makes us hope things might get back to normal soon.

Just not soon enough...

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