We passed a milestone yesterday, and it's not a good one. The official world count of infections was 300,000,000 in early January 2022, and 400,000,000 in early February. Yesterday, April 12, total infections passed the half billion mark, 500,000,000 for those who like to see digits rather than letters. As we all know by now, the true number is more than a bit larger. That undercount is only going to get worse as countries, including the US, scale back testing. An epidemiologist formerly at CDC and now at the University of Washington notes, "That's dangerous. If you don't test, then you don't know what variants you have." Elaborating, he notes, "What's happening globally and in the US is that people basically gave up. They just want to go back to normal life." With restrictions eased and the BA.2 subvariant out there and testing decreasing, there will be lots more cases detected and, regrettably, lots more cases missed.
As pandemic restrictions are eased and people go out more frequently, pedestrian fatalities are on the rise. Comparing incidents occurring between January and June 2021 with those occurring between January and June 2020, pedestrian fatalities were up 17 percent nationally. The biggest state increase was in Maine, with 2021 up 200 percent over 2020. In the opposite direction, Nebraska was down 67 percent. Only 10 other states showed any sort of decrease: Hawaii, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Kansas.
POTUS has announced that the federal state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic will last at least another 90 days. The CDC plans to extend the federal transportation mask mandate for 15 additional days, until May 3. Given the mask mandates coming back, this is probably a good idea. Yes, it will make some people angry, but they were probably already that way. Catching a possible surge before it starts is the only way to avoid it.
More companies are instituting hybrid working arrangements in which employees shuttle between a home office and a "real" one. The effect on a city's economic climate may be significant. The average New York City office worker before the pandemic spent $13,700 connected with their time in the office--commuting, eating lunch, dry cleaning, and more. Under new arrangements, that amount is projected to go down by $6,730. Some companies are adding incentives to get employees to sign on to an RTO or return to office. The company for which Son #1 works closed their physical office at the start of the pandemic and has no plans to reopen it. Most of the staff already was working remotely.
A couple of quick ones: Australian citizens and permanent residents may now go to New Zealand. New Zealand has abandoned its mask mandate in many settings and is encouraging some businesses to return to the office. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife have been fined in connection with the parties they hosted or allowed to be held at their residence during the lockdown period. On a more serious note, 200,000 US children may have lost a parent to covid. In many cases, grandparents have stepped in to fill the gap in some cases abandoning their plans for retirement.
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