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This is a surreal moment in the pandemic, brimming with hope and fear.
Here in the US, we are in the last leg of a marathon – vaccines are here, and appointments for those vaccines are growing in abundance. People are planning the moments that they have put off for a year or more. The finish line is in sight.
At the same time, our will to go all the way crashed into a wall. Restrictions are being lifted while cases are still high, causing case counts to skyrocket. Hospitals are filling up again. The tests have diminished, leaving us with incomplete information as new variants are imposed.
“We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential from where we are and so many reasons for hope,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference this week. “But right now, I’m scared.”
It’s the juxtaposition of pandemic exhaustion and vaccine euphoria that can make the next few months the most heartbreaking, as many people continue to fall ill and some die tragically.
In STATISTICS This week, reporter Andrew Joseph writes about the particular agony families go through as some members get vaccinated at the same time as their loved ones die from COVID-19. “[A]As the weeks go by, ”writes Joseph,“ some deaths will feel more and more like they didn’t happen if vaccine campaigns were moving a little faster, if we could contain the bumps in the spread for a little longer. time, if we could reduce the transmission a little more. “
The past year was plagued with deaths that didn’t have to happen. Earlier this week, Deborah Birx, a former coronavirus coordinator under the Trump Administration, said in a CNN interview that hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US could have been prevented if the government had acted more quickly. But even after all those lessons and all those unnecessary deaths, the death toll continues to grow, slower than before, but it has nowhere to go but up.
Meanwhile, in stark contrast to our national pain, there is relief and joy that millions of people get vaccinated every day.
It feels like we live in a permanent state of contradiction. Yesterday, the CDC was easing travel guidelines for fully vaccinated people, while CDC Director Walensky continued to urge people to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel. Texas and Mississippi are lifting the masks mandates and California is easing restrictions, while President Biden repeatedly warns that the fight is not over yet.
We wait awkwardly in this liminal space, caught between two possible ways the next few months might unfold before we finally cross the finish line. Will we go through it radiant, with our friends and family by our side? Or will the heavens roar open, drenching us and knocking some people off course before they can get to the end?
“You look out the front window and it’s raining,” said Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The Washington Post, “But from the back window, it’s sunny. And your house is literally on the cusp of the storm and you don’t know which way it will go: stormy or is it going to be sunny? That’s where we are in COVID. “
This is what happened this week.
Investigate
COVID showed how testing of new drugs could be faster and better
Drug trials are often expensive, lengthy and inaccessible, but the pandemic has shown that this is not the case. have be any of those things. Here’s an interesting interview on how they might change in the future. (Claudia Wallis /American scientist)
COVID-19 vaccine ‘passports’ are not exactly like yellow fever certifications
Many different groups are looking for ways that people can show whether they are vaccinated or not. But these ‘vaccine passports’ can be an ethical nightmare. For more information on vaccine passports, see this Cabling history. (Nicole Wetsman /The Verge)
Developing
Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Said To Powerfully Protect Teens
Early trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children ages 12-15 have shown the vaccine to be very protective and safe. (Apoorva Mandivalli /The New York Times)
Errors ruin 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine
A mix-up at a vaccine production factory ruined 15 million doses of the vaccine in a single shot. Doses will not be distributed. (Nicole Wetsman /The edge)
Keeping covid vaccines cold is not easy. These ideas could help.
Many vaccines must be kept cold to maintain their potency. It’s a complicated process now, but in the future, there may be some better options. (Wudan Yan /MIT technical review)
Perspectives
Amelia ran out of her family’s car and catapulted into her grandfather’s arms. Henry followed him, a new monster truck in his backpack, waiting to swoop across his grandparents’ floor. Jackie grabbed him so tightly that he almost pulled him out of his red Crocs. How big it had grown. She was crying.
—Evan Allen recounts the emotional reunion of a family to The Boston Globe.
More than numbers
To the people who have received the 628 million doses of vaccines distributed so far, thank you.
For the more than 129,998,978 people worldwide who have tested positive, may your road to recovery be smooth.
To the families and friends of the 2,832,850 people who have died worldwide, 553,946 of those living in the US, their loved ones have not been forgotten.
Stay safe, everyone.
