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It’s Monday of a holiday week. In most years on this day, you’ll hear a familiar broadcast trope about how high or low gas prices are.
As of Friday, the national average was about $ 2.21 a gallon, according to AAA. But even those low prices don’t seem to be enough to entice people to travel on vacation during a pandemic.
AAA estimates that 34 million fewer people plan to travel this year compared to Christmas week 2019.
According to AAA’s Jeanette McGee, “what that ultimately means is 3 out of 4 Americans will stay home.”
McGee added that many of the people who said they were planning long trips during this vacation could cancel their plans in the next few days.
That’s what happened in November, he said. “For Thanksgiving, we had forecast a decrease of at least 10% and as we review and finalize our data, it looks more like a decrease of 15% to 20%.”
And that’s despite low gas prices, which have been depressed in part because gas demand has been low since the start of the pandemic.
Patrick De Haan, head of oil analysis at the GasBuddy website, said that “in a typical year where revenue is coming in at a normal rate, having a lower gas bill would certainly be helpful and a windfall for customers. consumers”.
But, in the face of the challenges of COVID-19, cheap gas prices have not been a great incentive to travel this year.
“Now, under such economic duress, most consumers are probably not realizing the savings. Or the savings will go to more important things like keeping a roof over your head, ”De Haan said.
He also said that while optimism about the next vaccine has raised the cost of filling his tank slightly in recent weeks, on this Christmas day, prices are likely to be at their lowest levels since 2015.
What essential workers should be prioritized for vaccines?
Americans have begun receiving doses of the first COVID-19 vaccine. Frontline healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities will be the first to receive vaccinations, according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Essential workers will be considered next, but with limited doses of vaccines and many workers considered essential, the maneuver has already begun on which should go to the front of the line: meatpacking workers, pilots, bankers and ride-sharing drivers between they. . CDC will continue to consider how best to distribute the vaccine, but ultimately, it is up to each state to decide who will get vaccinated and when.
Could patents relax help poorer countries get vaccines faster?
The world’s poorest countries may not be able to receive any vaccines until 2024, according to one estimate. To deliver vaccines to the world’s poor sooner than that, some global health activists want to waive intellectual property protections on vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics. India, South Africa and Kenya have called on the World Trade Organization to allow pharmaceutical plants in the developing world to make patented drugs without having to worry about the lawsuits. The United States, Britain and the European Union have repeatedly rejected the proposal at the WTO.
The Pfizer vaccine must be kept in extreme cold at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. And keeping it so cold requires dry ice. Where does that dry ice come from?
Also, is there enough for everyone? And how much is it going to cost? The demand for dry ice is about to increase and a lot of industries are worried. Now, dry ice sells for between $ 1 and $ 3 a pound. While the vaccine takes precedence, smaller businesses and nonessential industries may end up losing.
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