Pandemic, Week 54 (Spring Awakenings)

 

This week, a mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, CO killed 10 people. The gunman purchased a Rugar AR-556 pistol six days before the shooting, just four days after a judge ordered Boulder's assault weapons ban lifted.  Later in the week, two more people were killed and eight injured after a shooting in Virginia Beach. Former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was confirmed as the Secretary of Labor. President Biden held his first press conference. The outer fencing surrounding the Capitol was removed (though there's still fencing on the grounds). The House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on DC Statehood, with anti-statehood members arguing that DC should not be a state because it lacks car dealerships (it actually has some), mines, an airport and a landfill. Meanwhile, Georgia enacted new voting restrictions which include giving the state's legislature more control over county election boards, adding voter ID requirements for absentee ballots and criminalizing handing out water and food to citizens waiting in line for hours to vote. A container ship has been lodged in the Suez Canal since Tuesday, blocking one of the world's biggest trade channels and costing an estimated $14 million in revenue per day. Comedian Jensen Karp and Cinnamon Toast Crunch are locked in a PR battle over whether a box of cereal contained shrimp tails or crystallized cinnamon-sugar.

The world reached 127.4 million COVID cases and 2.8 million deaths this week; the U.S. accounted for 30.9 million cases and 562,000 deaths. 91.7 million or 28 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the vaccine (including Aunt Katherine – who had to explore Maryland's panhandle in order to get it) with 50.1 million or 15 percent of the country being fully vaccinated. Having already reached his goal of 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office 59 days in, President Biden has raised the goal to 200 million vaccinations by the 100 day deadline. Allen and I are scheduled to receive our first doses next week.

For us, this week signaled the start of Spring, complete with cherry blossoms, some lovely meals outside, socially-distant playdates for Nora and her friends, and the purchase of National's tickets for Allen and Owen, who if everything goes as planned, will actually attend a baseball game in-person next month.

Hopefully.

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