Pandemic, Week 84 (Note - We Don't Really Have a Podcast)

This week Donald Trump filed suit in District court against the January 6th Select Committee and the National Archives to block release of White House records related to the insurrection.  Republican's used the filibuster to block the Freedom to Vote Act. The Supreme Court granted an expedited review of the Texas Abortion Law, but refused to block the law in the meantime, despite Justice Sotomayor's dissent. Seventeen members of a Christian aid group are being held hostage by a gang in Haiti that's demanding a ransom of $1 million per person. Netflix employees walked off the job on Wednesday in protest of its treatment of non-binary and trans employees related to the release of Dave Chappelle's new special, The Closer. Former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and Secretary of State Colin Powell died of complications from COVID-19.

The world reached 244.0 million COVID cases and 5.0 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 46.3 million cases and 756,000 deaths. 220 million Americans (66 percent) have received at least one COVID vaccine dose and 190 million (57 percent) are fully vaccinated. The FDA announced that the benefits outweigh the risks for the Pfizer vaccine in children age 5-11; the CDC will meet on November 2nd-3rd to make recommendations on how the shots should be administered to younger children.

We had a quiet week. The kids returned to their activities and school, including homework assignments which required some questionable assistance from their father. Allen and I had work (which for Allen involved meeting with China about climate and admiring the proofs of his new joint article in Science). We watched Dune (Part 1) with the Telfair-Chas and finally finished Thor: The Dark World at home. We started decorating for Halloween (and had fun with gourds), though are holding off on carving  jack-o-latterns for now lest the squirrels get them (Nora went rogue and carved one at a friends). Owen grilled porkchops for the first time, resulting in three generations of carnivores overseeing the cooking of protein over fire. And finally, after being thwarted by a sick postal employee in October 2019 and then the Pandemic, we submitted the paperwork for the kids' new passports in anticipation of a planned trip to Italy this summer which meant both kids were subjected to a portrait session with Allen which was fun for all.

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