New York Cloned from RHXJ7UBMOG 1

12 Exciting and Affordable Activities to Experience in New York City this May

Steffen — Fri, 03 May 2024 11:14:53 +0000

May is finally here, bringing with it longer days, warmer weather, and a plethora of exciting opportunities to explore the lively city of New York without overspending.

1. Revel in a Nature Walk at Central Park

Central Park flourishes in May, providing various themed self-guided tours. Whether you’re a nature enthusiast or a history buff, there’s a tour tailored to your interests. Additionally, consider joining one of the many budget-friendly guided tours and activities to meet like-minded individuals and delve deeper into the park’s beauty.

2. Enjoy Cinco de Mayo Festivities

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a variety of events happening throughout the city. From brunch specials to street festivals, New York City offers a lively celebration to honor Mexico’s rich heritage. Explore options like Time Out Market, Hoboken’s block party, Stone Street’s festival, or the Seaport’s Pier 17 for a truly memorable experience.

My tip: check out our guide to Cinco de Mayo in NYC

3. Dive into the Kentucky Derby Extravaganza

Gear up for a weekend of extravagant hats and thrilling horse races as the Kentucky Derby coincides with Cinco de Mayo. Various locations across the city, such as Williamsburg bar Pete’s Candy Store and ART Soho, offer unique experiences to immerse yourself in the Derby spirit. Don’t miss out on the chance to be part of the excitement!

4. Enjoy Asian Comedy at its Best

Experience the vibrant Asian Comedy Fest, featuring talented comics and performers at Sugar Mouse in the East Village. With a lineup of renowned comedians and performers, this event promises laughter and entertainment while supporting the nonprofit organization Welcome to Chinatown.

5. Join the Mayday Festival of Resistance

Celebrate International Workers’ Day with a free concert and party at Bushwick’s Maria Hernandez Park. Engage in a day filled with music, art, and community to advocate for global justice and equality. Embrace the spirit of solidarity and make a difference in your community.

6. Immerse Yourself in the Japan Parade

Witness the cultural richness of the Japan Parade, showcasing the bond between New York City and Japan. Enjoy the vibrant parade along Central Park West and indulge in the street fair to savor Japanese delicacies and immerse yourself in the festive atmosphere.

7. Prioritize Self-Care at the Sound Mind Music Festival

Kick off the summer festival season with a rejuvenating music-filled day at the Sound Mind Music Festival for Mental Health in Bushwick. Experience healing through music, art, and wellness activities while enjoying performances by talented artists. Don’t miss this opportunity to nourish your mind and soul.

8. Celebrate Spring at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Experience the essence of spring at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Spring Festival on Pier 5. Engage in kite-making workshops, live music, and public art exhibits amidst the picturesque backdrop of the park. Embrace the beauty of the season and create lasting memories in this vibrant setting.

9. Enjoy Live Music in Greenwich Village

Explore the eclectic music scene of Greenwich Village with free live shows at venues like Groove. Immerse yourself in the rich musical heritage of the area and enjoy performances without the burden of hefty cover charges. Relish the intimate setting and discover new talents in this iconic neighborhood.

10. Indulge in Visual Arts and Film at Satellite Tribeca

Immerse yourself in a cultural extravaganza at Satellite Tribeca, featuring dance, visual art, film screenings, and captivating performances. Discover a diverse array of artistic expressions and immerse yourself in the creative energy of Tribeca. Don’t miss this opportunity to witness the fusion of art forms in a captivating setting.

11. Gallery Hop on a Thursday Evening

Embark on a gallery-hopping adventure in Chelsea or Tribeca on Thursday evenings, exploring the vibrant art scene of New York. Discover new exhibitions, mingle with fellow art enthusiasts, and enjoy complimentary drinks at gallery openings. Unleash your inner art aficionado and immerse yourself in the dynamic world of contemporary art.

12. Celebrate Lenape Cultural Heritage

Join the Lunaapeew/Lenape community and The Museum of the City of New York in celebrating the cultural heritage of the First People of the NYC region. Engage in live performances, arts and crafts activities, and storytelling to honor the resilience and legacy of the Lenape community. Immerse yourself in a rich cultural experience that highlights the vibrant history of New York City.

Embark on a memorable journey through New York City this May, embracing a blend of cultural experiences and exciting events that showcase the city’s diversity and liveliness. Explore, participate, and create lasting memories in the heart of the Big Apple.

Der Beitrag 12 Exciting and Affordable Activities to Experience in New York City this May erschien zuerst auf Loving New York.

Non stop flights from Athens to NEW YORK from €352 (summer too)

Admin — Fri, 03 May 2024 06:55:53 +0000

Non-stop flights from Athens to NEW YORK from €352 round-trip by Norse! Find cheap flights to New York, the USA from Greece and book your ticket at the best price! Flights cost from €352 both ways.

New York City is the most populous city in the United States. It is probably one of the most popular, if not the most popular place to visit in all of the United States. Since so many wonderful films have been shot in New York City, this bustling city is a dream destination for so many people around the world. Because it’s always fun to visit the location of your favourite movie! Spend a few days there and explore its iconic sights such as the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Empire State Building, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Centre, One World Trade Centre, 5th Avenue and many more. Are you visiting NYC anytime soon? Check out our article about the Best Places to Visit in New York City for some travel inspiration!

The United States of America is one of the largest countries in the world. It is located in North America and consists of 50 states. The sheer size and diversity of the U.S. make it a great travel destination. There is everything for everyone in the U.S. Some of the world’s most beautiful natural wonders, great beaches, islands, vibrant cities and renowned national parks and trails. As the United States of America is very rich in sights and landmarks, it’s not too easy to choose only a few. To make this task easier, in this article we will focus on the East Coast only. Here is a list of some of the best places to visit on the East Coast of the USA.

Route:

Athens – New York – Athens

Travel dates:

May – June 2024 / October 2024

Some examples:

31 May – 10 Jun €357
4 – 11 Jun €357
5 – 15 Jun €352
6 – 15 Jun €352
6 – 17 Jun €352
11 – 18 Jun €358
3 – 11 Oct €356
3 – 13 Oct €358
10 – 18 Oct €382

Where to book?

Visit SKYSCANNER

Baggage policy:

Hand baggage 40x30x15 cm is included!

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Keep following TravelFree.info blog and LIKE our Facebook page, Twitter page, Telegram

!! IMPORTANT !! We have created a Facebook group to get only the hottest travel deals and error fares. Join now! After that, you are welcome to discuss topics about travelling!

Do not miss the next TRAVEL DEAL! SIGN UP HERE and get exclusive travel offers to your email box.

Accommodation:

Agoda is transforming travel for millions of customers across the globe. Part of Booking Holdings, Agoda is one of the world’s largest online travel accommodation platforms with a network of over 2,000,000 vacation rentals and hotels worldwide.

Cancelled or delayed flight?

If your flight is cancelled or delayed by 3+ hours, you may get a refund of up to €600. Check it out at SkyCop.

Tours and excursions:

Do not have time to think about accommodation and tours, but have you heard about Tourradar? Multi-day tours to every part of the world, for example, Safaris, Treks, Coach trips, Cruises, White Water Rafting, Mountain Biking, Sailing, Kayaking, Overland Trips and many more.

Have a look at Trip Advisor as well when planning your holiday to find out what’s hot and what’s not when it comes to all the local attractions.

Car rental:

You can find the best car rental prices at AutoEurope.com.

For over 60 years, Auto Europe has been a leader in worldwide car rental services and helped over 10 million travellers find the best options when travelling abroad. Through long-term relationships with top suppliers, for example, Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Europcar, National, Budget, Dollar, Buchbinder and Peugeot AutoEurope offer travellers the best rates at 20,000 pickup locations in over 180 countries worldwide.

Insurance:

Worldwide travel medical insurance for Nomads. Only from $37 / 4 weeks worldwide, affordable travel medical insurance for anyone, especially for long-term travellers and digital nomads.

Save money with a Free Debit card:

Free Debit card by Revolut, N26, Monese or Transferwise, etc. with no fees? Sounds too good to be true, but believe it or not, this exists already for years. This should help protect your pocket. All these cards are great choices for international travellers, get your FREE card: https://travelfree.info/best-free-debit-cards-for-travellers/

CURVE. Manage all of your bank accounts from one smart card using an app. Make your first transaction, after that you can enjoy £5 absolutely free with the Curve discount when you sign up to Curve. Do not miss a great opportunity!

Delivery

Wolt – is an online food ordering and delivery service that takes orders via a mobile app. It was founded in 2014 in Helsinki. Wolt allows any restaurant to sign up as a merchant, mediating the order from the customer, taking care of the delivery and automatic payment by credit card. Get a 15 EUR free coupon for the sign-up.

Learn new skills

Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes for creative and curious people, on topics, for example, Design, Business, Photography, Tech, and More. It’s an online, subscription-based e-learning community platform. Get SkillShare Free Premium Membership for 2 months.

The post Non stop flights from Athens to NEW YORK from €352 (summer too) appeared first on TravelFree.

Blues BBQ Festival 2024 in NYC

Steffen — Wed, 01 May 2024 20:29:31 +0000

One of the most popular free summer festivals in New York City is the Blues BBQ Festival at Pier 76 in Hudson River Park. What could be better than listening to live blues while eating delicious BBQ from the best BBQ spots in the city?

When will the Blues BBQ Festival take place?

In 2024, the Blues BBQ Festival took place on Saturday, August 10 (from 1 pm to 8 pm). This year’s exact date is yet to be announced.

Where will the Blues BBQ Festival take place?

On the stage of Pier 76 in Hudson River Park ( 37th Street elevation) not far from Hudson Yards.

Impressions of the Blues BBQ Festival

What blues bands and artists will be performing?

Main Stage:

2:00 PM: Alexis P. Suter
3:30 PM: Blackcat Zydeco featuring Dwight Carrier
4:45 PM: Sheryl Youngblood
6:15 PM: Joe Louis Walker
7:45 PM: Altered Five Blues Band

Second Stage:

1:30 PM: Phil Young & his House of Blues
3:00 PM: Tina Fabrique with the Phil Young Blues Experience
4:30 PM: Charlie Burnham
5:45 PM: Beareather Reddy
7:15 PM: Gordon Lockwood

Which BBQ restaurants were featured at the Blues BBQ Festival?

In all, you’ll have more than 10 BBQ restaurants, breweries and wineries to choose from for your drinks and food. Included are some of our absolute favorites like Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and Bark BBQ. Other BBQ spots include Big Papa Smokem Gourmet BBQ as well as Kimchi Smoke Barbeque. There will also be vegan options.

Der Beitrag Blues BBQ Festival 2024 in NYC erschien zuerst auf Loving New York.

The 1964 New York World’s Fair Opened 60 Years Ago This Month: You Can Still Attend The Fair to This Very Day

Jonathan Spira — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 19:39:53 +0000

Were one to walk down the straight avenues of today’s Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York, it would be impossible not to come across major artifacts from the park’s previous life, that of the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair as well as the 1939-1940 World’s Fair before it.

Sixty years ago this month, the World’s Fair took place in the borough of Queens, New York, in Flushing Meadows. What’s left is not a mere time capsule, but a living breathing 2024 World’s Fair experience, yours for the taking.

It’s not unusual for a single significant piece of architecture to remain after a world’s fair, to wit, one only has to look at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Space Needle in Seattle, and the Atomium in Brussels – all icons from world’s fairs past.

Someday, however, the park may be viewed by future generations as a more modern-day Stonehenge, but for now, the 1964 New York World’s Fair is by and large still there. One might have to close one’s eyes to imagine the international pavilions and the smell of the new-to-the-United-States Belgian waffles but a present-day excursion to the fair site is still an extremely rewarding one.

The Unisphere, a spherical stainless steel representation of Earth in Flushing Meadow built for the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens

For starters, the two most iconic pieces of architecture remain in place, if not fully intact.

The New York State Pavilion, whose concrete towers and cable structures look straight out of a sci-fi film, was popular with visitors. They would ascend to the two observation decks of the pavilion and enjoy a 360° view of the fair below them. The Pavilion’s main exhibition space dazzled and delighted fairgoers with the world’s largest suspension roof and a 567-panel terrazzo road map of the Empire State. Today, our visit will have to be confined to looking up and imagining throngs of people.

Meant to symbolize the dawn of the Space Age, the Unisphere, a colossal, 12-story-high, stainless-steel model of the Earth, erected on the Perisphere site, which was a tremendous spherical structure, 180’ (55 m) in diameter, that originally in 1939 connected to the 610-foot (190-meter) spire-shaped Trylon by what was at the time the world’s longest escalator.

Glimmering in the park’s orbital center, the Unisphere looks hyperfuturistic in the daylight, but it’s simply stunning when illuminated at night. During the fair, dramatic lighting at night gave the effect of sunrise moving over the surface of the globe.

The Queens Theater’s circular pavilion

Next to the Unisphere was the Theaterama, now the Queens Theater, designed by Philip Johnson. The theater was originally decorated with the artwork of Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana. The audience stood and viewed a cycloramic travelog of New York State projected on screens lining the inside of the circular room.

The Theaterama was converted into a multipurpose legitimate theater in the 1970s, with the addition of a stage, public restrooms, lobby, and dressing rooms.

The Queens Theater currently offers cabaret, concerts, Broadway revivals, new productions, and film festivals. In the period 2008 through 2008, a circular pavilion was added to the theater to serve as a reception hall. The pavilion is quite dramatic at twilight and after dark when the sunset-colored, invert dome appears to hover and flow in the dark.

Another rather visible remnant is what is now called Terrace on the Park. Now a banquet hall where you can host your Bar Mitzvah or wedding reception and enjoy 360° views of the park and city, it was built as the fair’s heliport south of the Hall of Science. The bulk of the building is suspended in the air by four supports.

Prior to its rebirth as a catering establishment (my brother Greg’s Bar Mitzvah reception was held there as was at least one friend’s wedding), the Beatles’ helicopter landed there prior to its 1965 Shea Stadium concert and the venue was used for Park concessions upon the dedication of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in 1967.

The cast of ‘That Golden Girls Show – A Puppet Parody’ at the Queens Theatre

One thing the visitor won’t want to miss is Meadow Lake.

Meadow Lake has a boat house that remains from the 1939 World’s Fair and rental boats are available for rowing and paddle boating. Meadow Lake is also the site of rowing activities for non-profit Row New York, with teams practicing on the lake for much of the year.

Finally, Meadow Lake also hosts the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, and teams from New York practice in Meadow Lake during the summer months.

A bit off the beaten path is the World’s Fair Marina, built for the fair but still in use today. It remains one of the largest public recreational boating facilities on the eastern seaboard and is located on Flushing Bay just south of New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

The Rocket Thrower statue, a divine depiction of a man launching a rocket from one hand and reaching for the stars with the other

There’s also the Rocket Thrower statue, a divine depiction of a man launching a rocket from one hand and reaching for the stars with the other. Yet just a few hundred feet from these popular attractions, hidden in a grove of maple trees, is a different kind of monument: a 16’ (4.9 m) Roman limestone column. Called the Column of Jerash, at nearly 2,000 years old it’s the second-oldest monument in New York, after Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park.

It was one of many columns erected for a temple in 120 B.C.E. in the Roman city of Jerash and King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan presented it to the City of New York as a gift.

The New York City Building, now the Queens Museum, was the City’s official pavilion during both the 1939-40 and 1964-65 World’s Fairs. From 1946 until 1950, the New York City Building served as the headquarters of the United Nations General Assembly. The museum has in its holdings over 10,000 objects related to the two fairs held outside its doors and 900 of those objects are on display.

Perhaps the crown jewel in the museum’s holdings is the Panorama of the City of New York, a 9,335-square-foot (867.2 square-meter) urban model that includes every single building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs. Millions of people paid $0.10 for a nine-minute simulated helicopter ride over the city, narrated by Lowell Thomas. The model has been updated multiple times since the closing of the fair.

The New York State Pavilion’s two observation towers

Also in the Queens Museum is a scale model of the 1964 New York World’s Fair site. That model shows all the buildings and pavilions of the time, and is located in a separate area devoted to World’s Fair exhibits.

The Hall of Science was built for the 1964 fair and, at its time of opening, was one of the few science museums in existence. It remained open to the public after the fair ended. Immediately outside the Hall of Science is Rocket Park, home to two towering metal structures, relics of the fair’s United States Space Park and of the space age. The Titan-Gemini, which stands 110’ (33.5 m) high and has an aluminum alloy exterion, while the Gemini capsule is a fiberglass model that was used at the start of the U.S. space program for testing purposes. Meanwhile, the Atlas-Mercury, which is stainless steel, stands 102’ high (31.1 m) and is the same model that launched John Glenn into space in 1963.

Both were installed by NASA for the fair.

The year 1964 would be the 300th anniversary of the City of New York, dated to the time where the English took over the city from the Dutch, and renamed what had previously been New Amsterdam and, by holding the fair on the same site as the 1939 World’s Fair, many of that fair’s remaining buildings could be reused, it was reasoned.

The New York City Building, now the Queens Museum

Although the federal commission selected New York City to be the site of the 1964 World’s Fair, in part because it could then reuse multiple buildings from 1939 including the City of New York Pavilion, right at the center of the World’s Fair grounds, the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions had three objections to New York’s proposal, including the World’s Fair Corporation’s plans to do away with the custom of giving each country the first 5,000 square feet (465 square meters) of exhibit space at no charge. The corporation planned to run the fair for two seasons, even though most world’s fairs were just one. Finally, it was customary that a country could only host one world’s fair in a decade and Seattle had already been selected to host the 1962 World’s Fair, the Century 21 Exposition, which is what gave the city its iconic Space Needle.

The site in Flushing Meadows was originally a natural wetland that straddled the Flushing River. Flushing had been a Dutch settlement named after the city of Vlissingen and the wetlands had earlier been converted into the Corona Ash Dumps, which were featured prominently in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” as the “Valley of the Ashes.” After the 1939-1940 fair, the site was used as a city park.

Then New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. commissioned Frederick Pittera, an experienced producer of such fairs, to prepare the first feasibility studies for the 1964-1965 fair and he was soon joined by architect Victor Gruen, an Austria emigrant who left his homeland shortly after the Anschluß and he may very well have been the most influential commercial architect of the 20th century given that he invented the modern shopping mall with his design of the Southdale Mall in Edina, Minnesota.

Paddle boats awaiting park visitors

The fair’s organizers then went on to hire American urban planner Robert Moses, known both as a master builder and power broker since his 1924 appointment as chairman of the State Council of Parks and president of the Long Island State Park Commission. At one point, Moses held 12 governmental titles at the same time and built Jones Beach State Park, the most-visited public beach in the country, and was responsible for the New York State Parkway System, the Triborough Bridge Authority, which gave me control over bridges and tunnels in New York City, as well as the tolls collected from them, and multiple major highways including the Cross Bronx and the Long Island Expressway.

The bureau, of course, failed to give the New York World’s Fair the green light but Robert Moses went ahead with the fair anyway, as was his custom. President John F. Kennedy broke ground for the fair in 1962.

When it opened on April 22, 1964, the fair covered 646 acres (2.61 square kilometers) and held over 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants representing 80 nations, 24 states, and 45 corporations with numerous exhibits and attractions, some of which remain standing to the present day.

The New York World’s Fair’s theme was “Peace Through Understanding,” dedicated to “Man’s Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe,” a theme illustrated by the Unisphere, which served as the basis of the fair’s logo and identity.

Snickers the Wonderdog, accompanied by a friend, explores the grounds of the 1964 New York World’s Fair

The fair is considered to have been a major showcase of mid-twentieth-century American culture and technology, and many of the pavilions were built in a mid-century modern style that was heavily influenced by Googie architecture, the futurist architectural style that had been influenced by the Space Age, Atomic Age, jet aircraft, and the evolution of modern automobile design.

Some pavilions were explicitly shaped like the products they were promoting or a company’s corporate logo, such as the US Royal tire-shaped Ferris wheel, Sinclair ‘s Dinoland which included multiple dinosaurs including its signature Brontosaurus in what was a misguided attempt to play on the now largely discredited link between the formation of petroleum deposits and the time of dinosaurs, and Johnson Wax’s corporate logo. Other notable buildings included the oblate-spheroid shaped IBM pavilion and the General Electric circular dome-shaped carousel of progress.

Children enjoying a fall leaf pavilion on the former fairgrounds

The Underground World Home was designed to represent a bunker one might wish to have in the Cold War period. The home was a complete three-bedroom house, located completely below ground level. It was presented as the forerunner of future dwellings that offer advantages including more control over air, climate, and noise than conventional houses, as well as protection from such hazards as fire and radiation fallout, something of great concern at the time of the fair.

Popular exhibitions included General Motors’ “Futurama I” that portrayed the world of 2064, AT&T’s new and working Picturephone, IBM’s presentation of basic computers, the New York State Pavilion, The Ford Motor Company Pavilion, designed by Walt Disney to design a “unique and memorable entertainment adventure,” the Magic Skyway ride. Guests sat in Ford convertibles and traveled through a Disney-designed show.

Disney also offered the “It’s a Small World” ride-through attraction, presented by Pepsi-Cola and UNICEF and President Abraham Lincoln made his Audio-Animatronics debut in “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” in the State of Illinois pavilion.

The New York State Pavilion up close.

Other fair favorites included as the Vatican Pavilion, which featured Michelangelo’s Madonna della Pietà. Today, a small plaza and exedra mark this pavilion’s location,a section of a mock Belgian village that included the “Bel-Jam Brussels Waffle,” and the 7-Up International Sandwich Garden that featured complimentary 7-Up and a menu with culinary specialties from 16 countries.

The garden’s dining pods featured furnishings designed by the futuristic Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, known for the TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport and his timeless Tulip Armchair among other creations, and were enclosed by twenty-four futuristic fiberglass domes that were topped by a commandin

Flights from Paris to New York for €262

Admin — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 17:55:26 +0000

Cheap flights from Paris to NEW YORK from €262 round-trip by Fly Play! Find the cheapest flights to New York, the USA from France and book your ticket at the best price! Tickets will cost from €262 both ways!

Planning a trip to NYC, and wondering what are the best places to visit in New York City? New York City is the most populous city in the United States. It is probably one of the most popular, if not the most popular place to visit in all of the United States. Since so many wonderful films have been shot in New York City, this bustling city is a dream destination for so many people around the world. Because it’s always fun to visit the location of your favourite movie! Spend a few days there and explore its iconic sights such as the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Empire State Building, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Centre, One World Trade Centre, 5th Avenue and many more. Are you visiting NYC anytime soon? Check out our article for some travel inspiration!

Route:

Paris – New York – Paris

Travel dates:

November 2024 – February 2025

Some examples:

5 – 19 Nov
12 – 19 Nov
21 – 28 Nov
26 Nov – 3 Dec
16 – 26 Jan
14 – 23 Feb

Where to book?

Visit SKYSCANNER

Baggage policy:

Hand baggage (42x32x25 cm) is included!

Keep following TravelFree.info blog and LIKE our Facebook page, Twitter page.

!! IMPORTANT !! We have created a Facebook group to get only the hottest travel deals and error fares. Join now! After that, you are welcome to discuss topics about travelling!

Do not miss the next TRAVEL DEAL! SIGN UP HERE and get exclusive travel offers to your email box.

Accommodation:

Cancelled or delayed flight?

If your flight is cancelled or delayed by 3+ hours, you may get a refund of up to €600. Check it out at SkyCop.

Tours and excursions:

Have a look at Trip Advisor as well when planning your holiday to find out what’s hot and what’s not when it comes to all the local attractions.

Car rental:

You can find the best car rental prices at AutoEurope.com.

Insurance:

Worldwide travel medical insurance for Nomads. Only from $37 / 4 weeks worldwide, affordable travel medical insurance for anyone, especially for long-term travellers and digital nomads.

Save money with a Free Debit card:

Delivery

Learn new skills

The post Flights from Paris to New York for €262 appeared first on TravelFree.

Flights from Copenhagen to NEW YORK, USA from €269

Admin — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 17:20:49 +0000

Cheap flights from Copenhagen, Denmark to New York from €269 round-trip by Play. Find the cheapest flights to New York, the USA and book your ticket at the best price! Tickets to New York cost from €269 both ways.

Travel dates:

May 2024 / September 2024 – January 2025

Route:

Copenhagen – New York – Copenhagen

Some examples:

19 – 26 May €275
23 May – 6 Jun €269
19 – 27 Sep €293
17 – 28 Oct €279
16 – 25 Nov €285
5 – 14 Dec €285
14 – 22 Jan €271

Where to buy?

Visit SKYSCANNER

Baggage policy:

Hand baggage (42x32x25 cm) is included!

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Keep following TravelFree.info blog and LIKE our Facebook page, Twitter page, Telegram

!! IMPORTANT !! We have created a Facebook group to get only the hottest travel deals and error fares. Join now! After that, you are welcome to discuss topics about travelling!

Do not miss the next TRAVEL DEAL! SIGN UP HERE and get exclusive travel offers to your email box.

Accommodation:

Cancelled or delayed flight?

If your flight is cancelled or delayed by 3+ hours, you may get a refund of up to €600. Check it out at SkyCop.

Tours and excursions:

Have a look at Trip Advisor as well when planning your holiday to find out what’s hot and what’s not when it comes to all the local attractions.

Car rental:

You can find the best car rental prices at AutoEurope.com.

Insurance:

Worldwide travel medical insurance for Nomads. Only from $37 / 4 weeks worldwide, affordable travel medical insurance for anyone, especially for long-term travellers and digital nomads.

Save money with a Free Debit card:

Delivery

Learn new skills

The post Flights from Copenhagen to NEW YORK, USA from €269 appeared first on TravelFree.

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 22: Children’s Young Nose Cells May Fight Off Covid, Pandemic Didn’t Significantly Delay Child Development

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Kiosk no. 2 British red telephone boxes or booths in Covent Garden, desgined by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1926

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,504th day as well as Earth Day and the first night of Passover

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection that was first held in 1970. The official theme for Earth Day this year is “Planet vs. Plastics,” its organizers said.

Meanwhile, Passover is a joyous celebration of the Exodus, the story of how the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt and left for the promised land, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”

In news we cover today, a U.K. study shows that increased drinking in the early years of the pandemic resulted in 2,500 additional deaths, the pandemic may not have delayed young children’s development, and the nose cells in children appear to be better suited than those in adults in warding off Covid.

Where Has All the Data Gone?

We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, pandemic data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid case data on a global scale.

We are developing potential new and authoritative sources that we will present once they have been properly vetted, so stay tuned to this space. In the meantime, our Long Covid and pandemic coverage will remain much the same.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 22, 2020, researchers said they found that nine people who were sitting near one another at a restaurant in China were infected by the novel coronavirus and that it likely spread with the help of the restaurant’s air-conditioning system. The findings were published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases earlier this month and they have severe implications for the restaurant and hotel industries.

The first known death from the novel coronavirus was in early February, shifting the timeline in the United States. Officials in Santa Clara County, California, announced that two residents there died of the virus in early and mid-February.

As the death toll there passed the 15,000 mark, officials in New York City introduced measures to protect tenants, small businesses, essential workers and the homeless. Meanwhile the mayor’s announcement that, despite the outbreak, the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks celebration would take place, was greeted with fireworks.

A steep drop in oil prices amidst the pandemic along with a worldwide oil glut is poised to create economic and political instability.

Meanwhile, mayors of large cities are opposing plans by the governors of their states to reopen businesses. In Georgia, Savanna Mayor Van Johnson called the plan “reckless, premature, and dangerous.”

In addition, officials in Germany announced the start of the country’s first clinical vaccine trials for the novel coronavirus.

Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe as of that date stood at 2.6 million, of which 713,802 had recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 182,113.

UNITED STATES

A new study from Johns Hopkins University that the coronavirus pandemic did not delay child development nearly as much as had been believed in children aged 5 and under.

The study, which analyzed data from 50,000 children using the Ages and Stages Questionaire-3, found only slight declines in communication, problem-solving, and personal-social skills, with no significant change in motor skills.

GLOBAL NEWS

A new study found that children are less likely than adults to develop severe cases of Covid. This is because the cells in their noses are better at fighting off the virus, the study, entitled “Age-Specific Nasal Epithelial Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection” which was published in the journal Nature on April 15 of this year, suggests.

Lab tests show aging adult nose cells contain 100 times more virus in the first few days after an infection. The researchers’ discovery could serve to explain why older adults suffer far worse from Covid while children are very rarely very ill.

The study was led by researchers at University College in London.

The U.K. Office for National Statistics reported that alcohol killed a record number of people in the country in 2022. Compared with statistics from 2019, before the start of the pandemic, nearly 2,500 more people died from drinking. The ONS also said that the pandemic caused already heavy drinkers to increase their intakes even more.

Also in the United Kingdom, far too many pupils who lost the habit of regularly attending school during pandemic closures are now taking it out on their teachers after being forced to return to classrooms. The number of suspensions there reached a record high with 263,904 suspensions in the spring term during the 2022/23 versus 201,090 during the same period in the previous school year, the country’s Department for Education said.

There were also 3,039 permanent expulsions, a year-over-year increase from 2,179.

New SARS-CoV-2 cases in Bangkok surged this week after Songkran, the country’s Department of Disease Control reported on Sunday. The number of new inpatient cases was 1,004, a daily average of 143 new cases. There were also three deaths from Covid.

Health authorities said that virtually all cases were from the JN.1 sublineage of omicron. JN.1 is currently the dominant sublineage in the United States. The symptoms associated with the JN.1 strain are quite flu-like, which may have stopped people from getting tested for SARS-CoV-2 and isolating themselves.

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

TRULY FRIGHTENING PUBLIC-HEALTH SCENARIOS

Rat urine is not exactly a discussion topic for the dinner table, but leptospirosis, a life-threatening bacterial infection typically spread through rat urine, sickened a record number of people in New York City last year, according to a report issued by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Based on current figures, it appears that the number of patients diagnosed with leptospirosis will reach another all-time high in 2024.

Starting with the year 2001 and ending with the year 2020, there was an average of three cases per year. In 2023, there were 24 such cases.

People infected with leptospirosis may experience a wide range of symptoms, including fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and cough. However, if the condition is left untreated, it can cause kidney failure, liver damage, jaundice, hemorrhage, conjunctival suffusion, respiratory distress, and death.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, also known as prion diseases, are a group of progressive, incurable, and fatal conditions that are associated with prions. The conditions can affect the brain and central nervous system of many animals including humans, cattle, and sheep.

Now it appears that the condition can be zoonotically transmitted to humans from deer: A new study reports on two cases of prion disease in deer hunters that could have been caused after the victims ate the meat of their kills.

The study, entitled “Two Hunters from the Same Lodge Afflicted with Sporadic CJD: Is Chronic Wasting Disease to Blame?” and published in the journal Neurology, examines the case of a 72-year-old man who consulted with various physicians after he began to rapidly experience confusion and aggression sometime in 2022. Although he received treatment for his symptoms, which included seizures, his condition deteriorated quickly and he died one month later. An autopsy later determined that he had developed a sporadic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the most common prion disease in humans.

This case is made far more remarkable after researchers learnt that a friend of the man who was a member of the same hunting lodge and recently died of CJD and had also eaten venison from the same deer population.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

In the United States, in the week ending April 13, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.4%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.1% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.4%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -19.9%.

The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 6,604, a figure that is down 13.8 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.0%, a figure that is down 9.1% in the same period.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at press time, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 2,510 doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 32.7% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.

Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

Finally, as of April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.

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Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 21: Cases Surge in Bangkok, ‘The Invisible Enemy,’ Pupils Lost the ‘School’ Habit During Lockdowns

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Tourists in Rome, Italy

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,502nd day.

In news we cover today, new SARS-CoV-2 cases are surging in Bangkok, Trump suspended legal immigration four years ago to fight an “invisible enemy,” and some pupils have apparently lost the habit of going to school thanks to lengthy school closures.

Where Has All the Data Gone?

We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more and more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, pandemic data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid case data on a global scale.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 21, 2020, then President Trump announced he would suspend legal immigration for an unspecified period of time, saying he was taking the drastic move “in light of the Invisible Enemy.

The day before, U.S crude futures for May 2020 plummeted to -$37, the lowest price in history. The almost 300% decline came as plunging demand pushed storage facilities to their limits. The downturn then spread to other oil markets the following day.

In Europe, countries including Austria, Denmark, and Germany began to cautiously relax some restrictions, including the reopening of smaller shops with the proviso that social-distancing be observed, not knowing that the worst was yet to come. In Italy, however, Italy, then Prime Minister Conte refused to bow to business pressure and extended the restrictions there until at least May 3, as the country struggled to fully contain the spread of the virus.

Finally, as of this date, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 2.5 million, of which 659,595 had recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 171,812.

GLOBAL NEWS

In the United Kingdom, far too many pupils who lost the habit of regularly attending school during pandemic closures are now taking it out on their teachers after being forced to return to classrooms. The number of suspensions there reached a record high with 263,904 suspensions in the spring term during the 2022/23 versus 201,090 during the same period in the period school year, the country’s Department for Education said.

There were also 3,039 permanent exclusions, a year-over-year increase from 2,179.

New SARS-CoV-2 cases in Bangkok surged this week after Songkran, the country’s Department of Disease Control reported on Sunday.

The number of new inpatient cases was 1,004, a daily average of 143 new cases. There were also three deaths from Covid.

Drugmaker Moderna said Moderna it would not proceed with plans to build a vaccine manufacturing site in Kenya following a steep drop in demand for its coronavirus vaccines.

The biotech company said it has not received any vaccine orders destined for Africa since 2022 and noted that it had taken over $1 billion in losses and write-downs related to the cancellation of previous orders from the continent.

A Dutch man who had SARS-CoV-2 for at least 613 days died at the age of 72.

Researchers at the Centre for Experimental and Molecular Medicine at the Amsterdam University Medical Center in the Netherlands said in a report released on April 18, 2024 the man had “the longest SARS-CoV-2 infection duration to date, although several cases of hundreds of days have been previously recorded.”

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

TRULY FRIGHTENING PUBLIC-HEALTH SCENARIOS

Starting with the year 2001 and ending with the year 2020, there was an average of three cases per year. In 2023, there were 24 such cases.

Now it appears that the condition can be zoonotically transmitted to humans from deer.

A new study reports on two cases of prion disease in deer hunters that could have been caused after the victims ate the meat of their kills.

EARTH SCIENCE

A new study reports that nearly half of China’s major cities are sinking.

The study, published in the journal Science, found 45% of China’s urban areas are sinking over 3 millimeters per year, while 16% are sinking over 10 millimeters per year. The researchers used satellite data from 2015 to 2022 and said the cause of the sinking was partly due to the weight of buildings and groundwater extraction.

The Middle Kingdom has a long history of having to deal with subsiding land: Both Shanghai and Tianjin showed evidence of sinking back in the 1920s. Shanghai has sunk more than 10’ (3 m) over the past century.

The cities facing the most subsidence are Beijing, Changchun, Fuzhou, Harbin, and Tianjin, among others.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Tuesday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 2,238 doses are now administered each day.

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

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Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Tomorrow is the Start of Passover. Here’s What’s Open and What’s Closed

Paul Riegler — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Tomorrow, at sundown, marks the start of the first day of Passover, the holiday that marks the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.

Passover is a joyous celebration of the Exodus, the story of how the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt and left for the promised land, “a land flowing with milk and honey,” as recalled in the bible, specifically in Shemot, or Exodus, Chapter 13, Verse 5.

The commemoration of Passover comes from Exodus Chapter 13, Verse 8: “And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, “Because of this, the Lord did [this] for me when I went out of Egypt.”

Today Passover is celebrated with a festive holiday meal the first two nights known as a Seder. Seder is the Hebrew word for “order” and a Seder follows a particular order that includes reciting a set order of psalms and prayers and the scripted retelling of the story of the Exodus, as well as the consumption of matzoh, or unleavened bread, in commemoration of how the Israelites left Egypt without having sufficient time to allow their bread to rise.

Just as is the case with Good Friday and Easter, Passover is not observed as a federal or state holiday: relatively few offices close and most people simply go to work. Similar to members of other faiths, Jews have a variety of observance levels: Some observe the Sabbath and holidays to a minimal extent and some adhere fully, which means that all forms of vehicular travel, writing, direct use of electrical devices, telephones, smartphones, and computers including social media, texting, and e-mail are prohibited. On holidays such as Passover, these restrictions are in place on the first two and last two days of the festival and non-essential work is prohibited on the intermediate four days.

Here’s what you need to know about what’s open for business and operating in the United States – and what isn’t – on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

GOVERNMENT OFFICES All Federal government offices are open on those days, as will be almost all city and state offices and courthouses.

POST OFFICE The Post Office is open. Mail will be delivered.

PACKAGE DELIVERY SERVICES UPS and FedEx will deliver packages on those days as usual.

BANKS Financial institutions will be open, except for those operated by religious owners. In some cases, they will shut down their automated teller machines as well.

SCHOOLS Some are closed for Passover and spring recess from April 22 through April 30, including the country’s largest school district, the New York City Board of Education. Some colleges and universities may also be closed.

FINANCIAL MARKETS The nation’s stock and bond markets will be open on those days. Some brokerages operated by religious owners may, however, be closed.

TRANSPORTATION Most local transportation systems, such as buses, subways, and commuter rail systems, will operate on normal schedules although some systems may operate additional trains Monday afternoon to accommodate travelers and commuters leaving early for the first Seder.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

InterContinental Hotels Group Launches Apple AirPlay at 60 Properties Across North America

Kurt Stolz — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The InterContinental New York Times Square now offers guests access to Apple AirPlay.

Calling it “a first in the hospitality business,” Apple and InterContinental Hotels Group announced that, as of Friday, over 60 of the hotelier’s properties in North America have placed LG flatscreen televisions that support Apple AirPlay in their respective guest rooms.

Apple first announced its plan to bring AirPlay to hotels at its 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference.

Hotel guests at these properties – which include Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Hotel Indigo, Candlewood Suites, and InterContinental properties – can use an iPhone or iPad with iOS 17 or higher to stream television programs, movies, photos, and presentations, as well as playlists from Apple Music, games on Apple Arcade, or workouts on Apple Fitness+ to the guest room’s LG TV.

LG is the world’s first hotel TV manufacturer to support AirPlay capabilities.

Accessing the new functionality is simple and involves scanning a QR code on the television screen with the iOS device. The feature creates a secure channel between the two devices that is only accessible to the iPhone user and connectivity between the two devices is permanently deleted upon checkout.

To use, a compatible iPhone or iPad running iOS 17.3 or iPadOS 17.3 or later is required.

Hotels participating in the initial launch include the InterContinental New York Times Square; the Hotel Indigo NYC Downtown-Wall Street; the InterContinental The Clement Monterey, in California; the Crowne Plaza Kearney in Nebraska; the InterContinental Buckhead in Atlanta; and the Holiday Inn and Suites Ottawa Kanata.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 19: Man Dies After 613 Days With Covid, U.S. States Need No Longer Post SARS-CoV-2 Hospitalization Data

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Street scene: A sign for a hotel in the West Village in Manhattan

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,500th day.

In news we cover today, U.S. states are no longer required to post Covid hospitalization data after the end of April, a Dutch man died after setting a record for having the longest lasting SARS-CoV-2 case on record, and the disappearance of new pandemic-related data continues.

WHERE HAS ALL THE DATA GONE?

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 19, 2020, health officials in the United States reported that some Covid-19 patients were also experiencing kidney failure as a result of contracting the virus, leading to a shortage of dialysis machines, fluids, and supplies.

Then President Donald Trump called people who were protesting their states’ social distancing rules – which are in keeping with federal recommendations – “great people.”

Trump was asked if he was worried that his tweets about “liberating” Kentucky, Michigan, and Virginia might in any way helping to incite potential violence, as some governors had received death threats, and responded: “I’ve seen the people. I’ve seen interviews of the people. These are great people,” adding that they have cabin fever and they want their lives back.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced that nursing homes would be required to report to patients, their families and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) when any coronavirus cases arise.

In Washington, D.C., then Vice President Mike Pence said that the White House task force overseeing the coronavirus pandemic believed that several large metro areas were stabilizing in terms of Covid cases.

“The New York metro area, including New Jersey, New York, Long Island, Connecticut, and Rhode Island all appear to be past their peak,” Pence said at a White House briefing. “The Detroit metro area also appears to be past its peak and is stable, New Orleans metro area actually is the most stable of all areas where we had a major metropolitan outbreak. The Denver metro area is [also] stable.”

In Afghanistan, dozens of staffers in the country’s presidential palace tested positive for the novel coronavirus, sending President Ashraf Ghani into isolation. Despite a national lockdown and ban on gatherings of more than five people, tens of thousands of people attended a funeral service for a Bangladeshi politician, gathering in the town of Sarail without facemasks or other protective gear.

In China, amidst accusations that the country has underreported the number of novel coronavirus infections, the government launched a testing program with an eye towards capturing the true scale of the outbreak there. The serological survey involved blood tests from sample groups to see if they would generate antibodies to fight the virus, a sign that they had had Covid-19.

Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood on that date at 2.37 million, of which 612,415 have recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 163,673.

With close to 80,000 fatalities, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom continued to account for 49% of the global death toll.

In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases was 742,732, while the death toll stands at 39,660, roughly 5.25%.

Put differently, Belgium had the highest number of deaths per million members of the population, 490, followed by Andorra with 466, and Spain at 437. Italy, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Switzerland had 391, 302, 237, 215 and 160 deaths per million respectively, while China, Germany, and the United States reported three, 54, and 120 deaths per million respectively.

LONG COVID

A recently published study in the journal Clinics suggests that HDL-C and ferritin are linked to an increased severity in Long Covid and may be markers for same.

The study, entitled “Reduced HDL-Cholesterol in Long Covid-19: A Key Metabolic Risk Factor Tied to Disease Severity,” examined health data from 88 patients across varying degrees of initial disease severity ranging from mild to moderate to severe) compared to a control group comprising 29 healthy individuals. HDL-C and ferritin emerged as leading predictors of disease severity.

UNITED STATES

The federal regulation that requires hospitals to report weekly Covid-19 hospitalizations will end after April 30, contributing even further to a data void for pandemic researchers.

California said on Thursday that it will stop posting weekly Covid hospitalization figures and other states are likely to follow.

California officials said they will continue to track SARS-CoV-2 test positivity and deaths and post that information on the dashboard, “at least in the short term,” state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said on Tuesday at a briefing with the California Medical Association.

GLOBAL

A Dutch man who had SARS-CoV-2 for at least 613 days died at the age of 72.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

=======================================

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 18: ‘Whoever Saves a Single Life is Considered to Have Saved the Whole World’

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The author in a selfie from two days ago.

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now a special pandemic report on its 1,499th day.

THE LEDE

‘Whoever Saves a Single Life is Considered to Have Saved the Whole World’

On Tuesday, I wrote that we had been forced to discontinue updates of our Global Daily Statistics data. On Wednesday, I took a mental health day.

Now it’s Thursday and I’m back but I wanted to reflect on the change and provide a path forward… perhaps for all of us.

I began my career as a Covid and then Long Covid researcher quite by accident. As many of you know, I’m an historian by training and my dissertation was “Religious Freedom in the Habsburg Hereditary Lands During the Enlightenment,” written at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München. I somehow morphed into a management consultant due to the poor timing of my birth, leaving me ready to seek a tenure track position at a prestigious university in Central European history. Except, as my advisor put it, everyone in those positions was young and healthy, although he helpfully pointed out that arsenic could help open one or two spots up if need be. I do hope he said that in jest.

Then I went on to serve as the chief analyst at a think tank studying the problem of Information Overload, where I gained some small degree of fame – or perhaps infamy, as opinions differ – having been the first person to monetize the cost of Information Overload. Do this for over a dozen years and you’ll get overloaded too. We then pivoted (as people are wont to say) into the content biz, even having a very modest online magazine focusing on travel and lifestyle. That was great until early 2020 and I needn’t explain to this audience why.

When I look back, I can find small bits and pieces I wrote about a mysterious virus in Wuhan in late 2019 but it was in early 2020 when headlines became more along the lines of, “World Global Air Cancels 2.5 Million Flights” than anything else so I began to study exactly what was happening in a more quantitative manner and realized that what was being published wasn’t intelligible by non-epidemiologists. I therefore began obsessively compiling hundreds of various statistics and distilling them into a few dozen indicators that I felt worthy of publication, at first under a pseudonym since it wasn’t really my regular gig.

Soon it became my regular gig and began to assume far greater import than I had imagined, both to thousands of readers as well as to myself. Admittedly I got one thing wrong: I figured it would be my gig for maybe three months at the most. And boy, was I wrong.

Einstein famously commented that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I’m not sure what I expected each morning upon awakening but the complexity of making sense of it all had become an obsession and it fulfilled a need for readers across the globe. Some e-mailed me asking what they could do and I felt powerless to even offer a response better than, “I really do not know, I’m so sorry.”

At first, I cried as I incremented up the death toll from under a dozen across the globe to a few hundred and then thousands. The patient count zoomed up even higher of course. I wondered who they were, and I volunteered to become vice president of Project Wingman USA, an initiative that opened lounges for frontline workers at multiple hospitals in New York City. We staffed those lounges with furloughed flight attendants and obtained donations of food that was a vast improvement over standard hospital cafeteria fare. The flight attendants were there not only for preparing coffee or tea but a friendly face to talk to, a shoulder to lean on.

As more and more people read the Brief, we covered stories ranging from the horrors of reading of cities with bodies being left on sidewalks to hospital morgues in New York City running out of space and having to bring in refrigerated trucks as the pandemic overwhelmed the network of organizations to deal with the dead. We covered news of the first inoculations against Covid-19 and a promise that the mysterious virus would be vanquished by the Fourth of July.

That prognostication was about as off as mine concerning this being a three-month gig.

Going back to the discontinuation of Covid data sources en masse, I did feel as if the tap had been suddenly shut off, leaving me a worker without tools, but there’s still a wealth of news on Covid and Long Covid to report, even as we look at the pandemic through a rear-view mirror in many cases.

Yes, data reporting has sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid Covid case data on a global scale, and I hope that the number of cases and especially of deaths never returns to the heights we saw in my and your lifetimes.

However, the virus gave me a gift of sorts. Long Covid sucks big time, it’s robbed me of much energy and took away almost a year of my life before I managed to diagnose myself. While I at first began to give up hope and fall apart, I realized that wasn’t at all going to have a happy ending. Even though I despaired, I never stopped researching what was going on in my body, even when doctors shrugged more parts of their bodies than just their shoulders. But once I pinned the tail on the Long Covid donkey, I had at least a goal, perhaps a Herculean one, but a goal nonetheless, namely to find ways of ridding myself of the scourge.

I haven’t yet completely accomplished this but the success I have enjoyed so far in uncovering appropriate therapies that have given me at least a 70% semblance of my life back, I realized why I was here, and it was a phrase I had grown up with, namely תִּיקּוּן עוֹלָם. Tikkun Olam means “repairing [and improving] the world,” and if an historian whose only medical training was being part of a family with a serious hereditary chronic disease could figure out what to do for Long Covid before most physicians, I had an obligation to open up a dialogue with other Long Covid patients in that vein.

We learn in the Talmud, specifically Sanhedrin 37A: “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.”

That’s what led me to create the Center for Long Covid Research. With that came the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line: The HOPELINE, which stands for “Helping Others Through Peer Counseling and Education,” because we Long Covid patients, as a cohort, aren’t ones to gather in support groups in synagogue and church basements. We also created the Long Covid Art Project, using the National AIDS Quilt as inspiration, which we will launch in May, asking Long Covid patients to use art (a painting, drawing, photograph, musical composition, or other form of expression) to promulgate that individual’s feelings about having the condition.

My typical response is that my drawing would resemble Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” or Macaulay Culkin’s now famous face and scream in the movie “Home Alone.”

There continue to be at least 250,000 new Covid cases reported each week across the globe and many more go unreported. In addition, while the global death toll has been on the decline over the past three months, the previous 28-day death toll has ranged between 4,000 and 5,000.

As I noted on Tuesday, we are developing potential new and authoritative sources that we will present once they have been properly vetted, so stay tuned to this space. In the meantime, our Long Covid and pandemic coverage will remain much the same and we will return with our normal programming tomorrow.

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The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 16: RFK Jr. Non-Scientist Running Mate Calls for Moderna Vaccine Recall, California Hospitalizations, Deaths Hit Nadir

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

A Western Gull near Monterey Bay in California

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,497th day.

In news we cover today, RFK Jr.’s non-scientist running mate is calling for a recall of Moderna coronavirus vaccines, California is reporting all-time lows in Covid hospitalizations and deaths, and congenital syphilis rose dramatically in New York State during the early years of the pandemic.

THE LEDE

Where Has All the Data Gone?

We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more and more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid Covid case data on a global scale.

The Brief began to report global daily statistics in January 2020 in much the same format as it was prepared in the final report. The Brief along with the Center for Long Covid Research appears to be the last independent source to compile such data as other august data sources including Johns Hopkins ended most of its pandemic reporting in 2022 and some sections in March 2023 while the New York Times ceased offering pandemic data at the end of March 2023.

We recognize that such data has been crucial to understanding the spread and impact of Covid and trends in Long Covid but as people’s memories recede with a rear-view mirror view, it is reported by government sources less often if reported at all.

There continue to be at least 250,000 new Covid cases reported each week across the globe and many more go unreported. In addition, while the global death toll has been on the decline, over the past three months, the previous 28-day death toll ranged between 4,000 to 5,000.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 16, 2020, Japan announced a nationwide state of emergency and called for increased measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus as a weeklong holiday period called Golden Week, which is a popular travel period, approached.

Great Britain extended its lockdown by three weeks. “The government has decided that the current measures must remain in place for at least the next three weeks,” said Dominic Raab, the country’s foreign secretary at the time.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would extend the state’s shutdown to May 15, in coordination with neighboring states. “What happens after then? I don’t know,” he said.

The number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood on this day in 2020 at 2.12 million, of which 535,513 have recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief at the time. The death toll stood at 141,971.

Put differently, Spain had 409 deaths per million members of the population while Italy had 358. Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland had 419, 263, 193, and 148 deaths per million respectively, while China, Germany, and the United States had reported two, 46, and 101 deaths per million respectively.

LONG COVID

A recently published study in the journal Clinics suggests that HDL-C and ferritin are linked to an increased severity in Long Covid and may be markers for same.

UNITED STATES

If you were hoping for a reduction in vaccine mis-information, don’t look at the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His running mate, Nicole Shanahan, whose most notable activity to date was marrying and then divorcing Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Shanahan has expressed support for Kennedy’s anti-vaccine advocacy while insisting she is not anti-vax herself.

That hasn’t stopped her from sowing doubt about some vaccines, however. In a social media post made on Tuesday, Shanahan, who has no background in medicine or science, opined about pined about the “devastating reality” of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine.

“It is not a safe vaccine, and must be recalled immediately. Many people are suffering who took it,” she wrote.

Health officials in California reported record lows in Covid hospitalization and death figures.

Hospitalizations due to Covid-19 were approximately 7 patients per 100,000 residents in early January, and have fallen to a historic low of 1.5 per 100,000 by March 30.

Congenital syphilis in New York rose by 24% in the first months of the coronavirus pandemic. The disease continues to increase faster than any other sexually transmitted infection in the state, a new report from the New York State health department said.

The number of congenital syphilis cases is now 75% higher than five years ago.

Congenital syphilis is a disease that occurs when a mother with syphilis passes the infection on to her baby during pregnancy.

The findings suggest dwindling prevention efforts and public health workforce shortages that began at the height of the pandemic.

A new study found that rural SARS-CoV-2 patients were 22% likelier to die after a hospital stay than their urban counterparts.

The study, conducted by the Mayo Clinic, found that such disparities persisted even after the rollout of coronavirus vaccines in early 2021.

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

A not-yet-published study by researchers at UCLA and Lehigh University found that nursing homes hide on average 62.9% of profits by engaging in related party transactions. They tend to pay inflated fees to related parties, primarily for real estate and management services.

In “Tunneling and Hidden Profits in Health Care,” the authors, economists Ashvin Gandhi and Andrew Olenski, present a credible explanation as to why nursing homes always appear to be on the brink of bankruptcy but continue to stay in operation. Nursing home operators are protesting the Biden administration’s proposed bare-minimum staffing standards, saying they can’t possibly afford to do this, yet the care homes owned by private-equity companies nonetheless are able to enrich their masters.

The study is based on 24 years of nursing homes’ Medicaid cost reports in Illinois, which requires facilities to submit detailed information, including mandatory reporting of information about related parties.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

In the United States, in the week ending April 6, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 12 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.4%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.4% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.5%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -14.8%.

The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 7,318, a figure that is down 9.8% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.1%, a figure that is down 8.3% in the same period.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

GLOBAL DAILY STATISTICS

Note to readers: As of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more and more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, even with data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid Covid case data on a global scale.

There continue to be at least 250,000 new Covid cases reported each week across the globe and many more go unreported. In addition, while the global death toll has been on the decline, over the past three months, the previous 28-day death toll ranged between 4,000 to 5,000.

As of the final report in this section, the world has recorded 704.75 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of less than 0.01 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.62 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of less than 0.01 million in the same period.

The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls as well as the occasional downward or upward adjustment as corrections to case figures warrant.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Tuesday at press time is 22,123,398, a figure that is unchanged in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,088,604, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,794, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 19 months.

Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Tuesday, recorded 111.82 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.22 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.04 million, and the world’s fourth highest death toll, 533,570.

The last data made available by Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service in July 2022 showed that the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic in the country was 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat has not released any additional data on the death toll in Russia since then.

Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.83 million total cases.

Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 711,380, has recorded 38.74 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.

The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 34.57 million cases, as number six; Japan, with 33.8 million cases placing it in the number seven slot; and Italy, with 26.72 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.91 million, and Russia, with 24.12 million, as nine and ten respectively.

=======================================

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Hilton Takes Control of NoMad Hotels. Global Expansion Planned

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Hilton Worldwide will expand the NoMad Hotels brand from beyond its London presence to major markets across the globe under an agreement with the Sydell Group, which owns the brand, for the hotelier to acquire a majority controlling interest in the company.

The news comes on the heels of news of Hilton’s planned acquisition of the Graduate Hotels brand and its partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

The brand has its origins with the NoMad hotel in the NoMad district of Manhattan that opened in 2012 and closed permanently in 2021, victim of the pandemic. The term “NoMad” is short for “North of Madison Square Park” and is a neighborhood centered on the Madison Square Park Historic District in Manhattan.

“Adding NoMad to our growing brand portfolio will create new offerings for guests seeking unique luxury experiences in some of the world’s most desirable locations,” said Chris Silcock, the executive who has responsibility for Hilton’s global brands and commercial services.

The original NoMad was an integrated hotel and restaurant, with the latter helmed by chef Daniel Humm and restaurateur Will Guidara of Eleven Madison Park. After other locations opened in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the original NoMad was sometimes referred to as the NoMad New York.

The addition of the NoMad brand marks Hilton’s entrance into the luxury lifestyle category and the company plans to have as many as 100 NoMad properties open eventually.

Andrew Zoler, the founder of Sydell, will continue to be responsible for design, branding, and management of the NoMad brand while Hilton will take responsible for all development. In addition, NoMad will be fully integrated into Hilton’s operations including the Hilton Honors guest loyalty program.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Weekend News Brief – April 14: HDL-C and Ferritin May Predict Long Covid Disease Severity, Australian Covid Deaths Hit New Low

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

A shop in Manhattan’s West Village which offers kick-ass vegetables

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,494th day.

In news we cover today, in a new study, HDL-C and ferritin emerged as leading predictors of Long Covid severity, Australia reported a record low for pandemic deaths, and a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention killed off a widespread right-wing conspiracy theory that attempted to link mRNA vaccines with sudden cardiac death.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 14, 2020, then President Donald Trump halted the United States’ funding of the World Health Organization. Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro, who is currently in prison serving a four-month sentence for failing to comply with two Congressional subpoenas issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, defended the Trump administration’s reasoning for the move in a statement: “The World Health Organization is a single failure during this epidemic. They basically hid information from the public, they failed to call this a pandemic long after others had rightfully done so. There is blood on their hands.”

In Hawaii, Honolulu’s mayor announced that the city would require people to don facial coverings when visiting essential businesses. Mayor Kirk Caldwell said the new requirement would apply to businesses like grocery stores.

Calling the coronavirus pandemic the “Great Lockdown,” the International Monetary Fund said that the global economy faced its worst downturn since the Great Depression as a result of the impact of the novel coronavirus that included national lockdowns and shuttered workplaces and factories around the world.

Meanwhile, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker praised Trump for saying during previous day’s White House press briefing that it was up to the states to decide when to reopen their economies.

“Well, it’s a good thing that the president finally recognized that it’s the Constitution that authorizes the governors to have the power to reopen their states” he said, adding that then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo “had it right when he said that the president is not a king,.”

Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe was nearing the two million mark at 1.95 million, of which 460,163 have recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief on that day. The death toll stood at 121,787.

Put differently, as of this date in 2020, Spain had 386 deaths per million members of the population while Italy had 338. Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland had had 359, 229, 172, and 134 deaths per million respectively, while China, Germany, and the United States had reported two, 38, and 78 deaths per million respectively.

LONG COVID

A recently published study in the journal Clinics suggests that HDL-C and ferritin are linked to an increased severity in Long Covid and may be markers for same.

UNITED STATES

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new study that showed no link between coronavirus mRNA vaccines such as those from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech and cardiac arrest in young people.

The findings put to rest a popular right-wing vaccine conspiracy theory.

The study, entitled “Assessment of Risk for Sudden Cardiac Death Among Adolescents and Young Adults After Receipt of COVID-19 Vaccine – Oregon, June 2021–December 2022” and published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, focuses on people who got an mRNA coronavirus vaccine and died within 100 days of being inoculated. Out of 40 deaths that occurred among people who got an mRNA Covid vaccine, three occurred within that time frame and none of the death certificates attributed the fatalities to the vaccine.

GLOBAL

Health officials in Australia said that the country had recorded the lowest seven-day Covid death rate in more than two years, with a rolling 7-day average of zero deaths in the period ending March 6, 2024.

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

The elimination of measles is under “renewed threat” in the United States, the CDC said in a warning issued Friday.

While the United States recorded an average of five cases in the first quarter of each year in the period 2020 through 2023, the tally for the first quarter of 2024 was 97, the agency said.

Measles is a highly contagious virus that is easily preventable by vaccine. It has been considered eliminated in the country since the year 2000, although there are still occasional outbreaks.

GLOBAL STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, April 14.

As of Sunday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.75 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of less than 0.01 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.62 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.01 million in the same period.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday at press time is 22,123,398, a decrease of 4,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,088,604, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,785, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 19 months.

Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded 111.82 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.22 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.04 million, and the world’s fourth highest death toll, 533,570.

Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.83 million total cases.

Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 711,380, has recorded 38.74 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 5,894 doses are now administered each day.

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.

Finally, as of April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.

Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Hilton, Avis Budget Shine in Massive Study on Discrimination in Hiring

Anna Breuer — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The Millenium Hilton in New York City

The travel industry, while not perfect, shines in many areas, and some companies in the industry shine in their non-discriminatory hiring practices, according to the results of a massive audit study released last week.

Hiring practices for entry-level positions at Hilton Worldwide, the seventh-largest hotel group by number of locations, was one of several companies in the travel industry that showed no racial bias in the study, entitled “A Discrimination Report Card,” released by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Another in the group with the smallest difference in a company’s responses to job applications by race was Avis Budget Group, a car rental agency holding company that is one of the three big rental car holding companies in the United States.

Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, and Hertz, the largest rental car company in the United States, also fared reasonably well in the findings.

While the results of the audit study were originally released several years ago, the names of the companies included in the survey were first revealed this past Monday.

The new study comes 21 years after two economists at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, published a seminal paper that analyzed racial discrimination in the labor market by sending fictitious resumes in response to help-wanted adverts in local newspapers in Boston and Chicago.

Their seminal study, entitled “Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal,” revealed that the non-existent applicants Emily and Greg et al received 50% more invitations to job interviews than did Lakisha and Jamal and their ilk.

In 2021, Chicago economist Evan Rose, working with Patrick Kline and Christopher Walters, expanded on this research on a massive scale.

They sent a total of 80,000 resumes in response to 10,000 job posts at 97 companies in the period 2019 through 2021, applying for entry-level positions that didn’t require a university degree or substantial work experience. The researchers not only tested race and gender but added other characteristics protected by law, such as sexual orientation and age.

However, some companies displayed no preference one way or the other in how they treated applicants, be they presumed to be white or black.

Companies which were subject to regulatory scrutiny, such as federal contractors, as well as companies with a centralized employee recruitment team as well as organizations with a diverse workgroup of job recruiters displayed little if any discrimination in hiring.

In addition, the more profitable a company was, the less biased it tended to be, a finding in line with a long-held economic theory posited by late American economist Gary Becker, a Nobel prize winner who was considered to have been a leader in the third generation of the Chicago school of economics, a neoclassical school of economic thought, that held that discrimination is simply bad for business.

Of equal significance are the study’s findings that having a chief diversity officer, offering diversity training, or having a diverse board of directors showed no correlation with decreased discrimination in hiring on an entry-level basis.

On average, the researchers found that large U.S. employers contacted the presumed white applicants 9.5% more often than the those presumed to be black, but this did vary greatly by industry and company size, among other factors.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Delta Inaugurates New Thrice-Weekly Munich-New York Service

Kurt Stolz — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Delta Purser Kathleen Hall on a Munich flight from Atlanta

Delta Air Lines launched non-stop thrice-weekly service linking New York City with Munich on Tuesday.

The carrier will operate the service using Boeing 767-300ER aircraft with 26 Delta One lie-flat seats that are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration. The Delta One seats extend to an 81” bed and are 21” in width. The aircraft has 18 seats in the Delta Premium Select premium economy section arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration, and 30 seats arranged in a 2-3-2 configuration in Delta Comfort Plus, the airline’s premium economy-lite cabin.

Flights between the two cities will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Flights depart New York City at 6:15 p.m. local time and arrive in Munich the following morning at 8:25 a.m.

Delta last introduced new service to Munich in 2016, with the addition of flights between Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and Flughafen Munich in May of that year.

The Atlanta-based carrier already operates multiple flights to Germany from its hub in New York City including non-stop service to Berlin, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart. In addition, the airline already operates non-stop service from Atlanta to Munich as well as the aforementioned Detroit-Munich service.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Why the Floppy Disk Won’t Die: San Francisco’s Muni Metro Streetcar Lines Need Them, That’s Why

Paul Riegler — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

If the term “sneakernet” means something to you, then you’re probably old enough to have used floppy disks at work and you probably assumed that they were relegated to the scrap heap of tech history ages ago and were certainly not being used to run mission-critical systems.

Of course, you’d be wrong.

[Editor’s note: A sneakernet, for the uninitiated, was an informal term for the transfer of information by bringing a floppy disk with said information to the user who wanted it. The term is a play on words for Internet and Ethernet, where the transport mechanism is the sneakers (or other types of footwear) worn by the person carrying the floppy.]

Of course, it’s fine to wax nostalgic about early tech, be it how AOL said “You have mail” in the early 1990s and the first Macintosh computers started up by speaking to the user, saying “Welcome to Macintosh and Good Morning” (or whatever the time of day was, or even the sound of ringing of an actual bell inside an older landline telephone set. However, what if I told you that the transaction to purchase the MetroCard you got a few weeks ago to ride the New York City subway was made possible by computers running IBM’s OS/2 operating system, an OS introduced 36 years ago and last updated 22 years ago. Perhaps you know of the plight of the Secret Service’s not-so-very-secret 1980s IBM mainframe that, when information was last made public about its performance ten years ago, ran with a 68% performance reliability rating. Another report termed the mainframe system “fragile,” yet it keeps on ticking, well, 68% of the time, almost as well as a Timex watch.

The humble 5¼” floppy disk and the floppy disk drive were invented at IBM in 1967 by Alan Shugart, who later went on to form two highly successful disk drive companies, the second being Seagate Technology, a company that, along with competitor Western Digital, dominates the hard disk drive market. It wasn’t a terribly hard sell to convince companies – and later computer hobbyists – to switch to the floppy disk versus far less reliable magnetic tape or punch cards. Indeed, at its height, billions were sold each year and one of the first municipal agencies to adopt the floppy disk was the predecessor of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

It’s this very 5¼” flexible disk comprised of a magnetic storage medium that continues clinging to life like the Compact Cassette, shellac 78 rpm records, the modem, telecopiers (aka fax machines), overhead projectors, pay phones, pagers, and manual typewriters.

Along comes news that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which runs the city’s Muni Metro light rail, runs on floppy disks.

Put differently, a major public transit agency in Silicon Valley operates its computers using an almost half-century old storage medium, the floppy disk.

The Muni Metro is one of perhaps ten surviving first-generation streetcar systems in North America, having begun operation in 1912. The system now sees over 24 million boardings each year.

It’s just “one system” the SFMTA’s Mariana Maguire, the agency’s public information officer, told a local news station.

It is just one system but it’s a fairly major one, it’s automatic train control system, the one that controls the trains inside the subway. Every morning, SFMTA staff members must run programs from floppies to tell the trains how to perform their jobs.

The SFMTA is, of course, very eager to upgrade. Very eager. The equivalent of the grim reaper for tech, the Computer History Museum is at least metaphorically if not actually knocking on their door seeking a donation of the current system.

In order to do that, the agency just needs six to ten years and as much as $250 million. In the interim, agency officials likely being careful not to offend the gods of tech who protect floppy disks from data degradation.

While the floppy disk itself may eventually become extinct, it won’t disappear from the tech scene or contemporary culture. After all, it is used by billions of people in tens of thousands of software programs that use icons that look like floppy disks in a form of skeuomorphic design. But someday, a little boy will discover one of the 3.5” floppies in a drawer at home somewhere and come breathlessly running into the living room: “Dad, when did you 3D print this save button?”

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 12: No Link Found Between mRNA Vaccines and SCD, Sanders’ $10B Moonshot Bill for Long Covid

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Tulips at the 2024 Tulpenfest in Amsterdam

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,492nd day.

In news we cover today, a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention killed off a widespread right-wing conspiracy theory that attempted to link mRNA vaccines with sudden cardiac death, Senator Bernie Sanders released a draft of his planned $10 billion Long Covid research legislation for discussion, and Paxlovid may not be as effective as originally thought in fending off symptoms in lower risk individuals.

TULPENFEST – AMSTERDAM’S TULIP FESTIVAL

Tulips are considered a harbinger of spring, and Amsterdam’s Tulpenfest, or tulip festival, is in full bloom, just as tulips across the Northern Hemisphere are starting to appear, ready to show their brilliant colors to all who take a moment to stop and smell the, ahem, tulips.

Or, as mathematics professor and musical satirist Tom Lehrer put it…

Spring is here
A-suh-puh-ring is here
Life is skittles and life is beer
I think the loveliest time
Of the year is the spring
I do, don’t you?
‘Course you do

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 12, 2020, the figures relating to the global coronavirus pandemic were indeed grim.

Covid had infected 1.7 million people and killed over than 110,000 across the globe. The United States had as of this date more than half a million cases and New York state alone had more cases than any other country. In addition, as of the prior day, the United States led the world in Covid deaths and that unfortunate leadership position remains unchanged four years later.

Also as of a report released on this date, 18% of the New York Police Department’s 6,522 uniformed members were out sick, most with Covid. Some 2,344 uniformed members and 489 civilian members gad tested positive for coronavirus, the report said.

Finally, the Chinese government tightened its grip on the publication of pandemic-related research papers.

China imposed restrictions on academic research on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, according to a central government directive and online notices published by two Chinese universities. The new policy required all academic papers on Covid-19 to be subject to extra vetting before being submitted for publication. Studies on the origin of the virus were to receive extra scrutiny and had to be approved by central government officials, the directives, which were removed from the two sites within a day of publication, said.

LONG COVID

Senator Bernie Sanders unveiled a draft of his long-awaited Long Covid ‘moonshot’ bill to direct $10 billion to address the devastating condition.

The move comes after his heavily covered Senate hearing in January on Long Covid, which included moving testimony from individuals and members of Congress who either have Long Covid or who have a family member who has the condition.

Sanders, who is the chairman of the Senate health committee, is now seeking feedback from the Long Covid community on the proposal. Once passed, the legislation would appropriate $10 billion in mandatory funding for the National Institutes of Health over the next decade to bolster its response to the condition through several new initiatives. However, the reactions to Sanders’ draft reveal significant and enduring divisions among Long Covid advocacy groups.

UNITED STATES

The findings put to rest a popular right-wing vaccine conspiracy theory.

A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the antiviral Paxlovid may not be as effective at fending off SARS-CoV-2 symptoms in some people as scientists had previously hoped. Researchers at Pfizer, which had developed Paxlovid, assessed participants enrolled in a phase 2-3 trial and found that both vaccinated people with a high underlying risk for severe infection and unvaccinated people with a low risk for severe infection experienced symptoms for roughly the same duration regardless of whether they took Paxlovid.

However, the study confirms that the antiviral is still quite effective in older or immunocompromised people who are at a high risk of hospitalization from SARS-CoV-2.

GLOBAL STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Friday, April 12.

As of Friday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.75 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of less than 0.01 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.62 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.01 million in the same period.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Friday at press time is 22,123,398, a decrease of 4,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,088,604, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,785, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 19 months.

Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Friday, recorded 111.82 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.22 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.04 million, and the world’s fourth highest death toll, 533,570.

Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.83 million total cases.

Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 711,380, has recorded 38.74 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Friday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 5,896 doses are now administered each day.

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.

Finally, as of March 31, 2024, only the following countries and territories have not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever:

Antarctica

British Antarctic Territory

Peter Island

Overseas

Bouvet Island

Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Prince Edward Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Airlines Seek Extension to Minimum Flight Requirements Waiver at New York Area Airports

Paul Riegler — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Delta and American aircraft waiting to take off at JFK in the rain

Major U.S. airlines want the federal government to extend a waiver pertaining to minimum flight requirements at New York City airports. The move comes as the current shortage of air-traffic controllers continues to cause congestion in the air and delays on the ground.

Airlines for America, an industry trade group representing major U.S. carriers, said in a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration that its members, which include American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines, want the current deadline to be extended for another year.

Currently, given the understaffing at air-traffic control centers, airlines are currently not able to operate with full efficiency in New York City airspace.

Under minimum flight requirements, airlines can lose their takeoff and landing slots at congested airports such as LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International if they are not kept in use 80% of the time.

The current waiver expires in October. It allows an airline to eliminate some flights without the risk of losing some of its slots.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 10: Covid Can Linger in Your Body Long After Symptoms Abate, U.K. Test to Treat Program Shuts Down

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

16Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,491st day.

In news we cover today, a new study shows that SARS-CoV-2 can linger in a patient’s blood for many months, the U.K. Test to Treat program is closing, and the U.S. Department of Justice continues to catch pandemic fraudsters.

THE LEDE

Didier Raoult’s Now Discredited Research Advocating for Hydroxychloroquine Four Years Ago. Trump Touted It. Thousands Died From It..

It was perhaps not wise for Didier Raoult, a French microbiologist, to become the authoritative face of using chloroquine or its variant hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19. Both drugs have been discredited as a treatment for SARS-CoV-2.

Raoult, a tropical disease specialist, is the former head of the IHU Mediterranee research hospital.

Hydroxychloroquine gained prominence in the spring of 2020, just about four years ago, in part due to now-discredited research by Raoult and because then-President Donald Trump promoted hydroxychloroquine as a kind of “miracle drug,” who said: What do you have to lose? Take it.”

It turned out that the answer was, quite a bit.

In August 2020, we noted that the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in its Covid-19 treatment guidelines, strengthened its stance against the use of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19, telling physicians not to use it to combat Covid.

In May 2023, we reported that French physicians’ bodies writing in Le Monde called on public health authorities to punish Raoult for what it terms “the largest ‘unauthorised’ clinical trial ever seen” into the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat SARS-CoV-2.

Raoult and his subordinates engaged in “systematic prescription of medications as varied as hydroxychloroquine, zinc, ivermectin and azithromycin to patients suffering from Covid-19… without a solid pharmacological basis and lacking any proof of their effectiveness,” a group of 16 research bodies wrote in the op-ed piece.

Meanwhile, in July 2023, we reported that Raoult was facing allegations for a pattern of unauthorized experiments on homeless people.

Raoult and colleagues had violated the nation’s 1988 Huriet Law that established rights for participants in biomedical research trials. Researchers cited in the press argued that Raoult’s team had conducted unauthorized studies while collecting blood samples from homeless people in the 1990s.

Raoult’s advocacy of hydroxychloroquine eventually led to a reconsideration of his research broadly, to his professional detriment. Sadly, this was too little and too late.

A study released in January 2024 showed that some 17,000 Covid patients died after taking the drug during the initial wave of SARS-CoV-2 cases.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 10, 2020, there was disagreement between then President Donald Trump and then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as to whether, as the former president stated, the number of hospital beds in use on that date across the state had been “substantially reduced.”

That’s not what Cuomo said nor is it what the actual numbers reflect. Cuomo did say that the change in ICU admissions was “a negative number” today, noting it was the the first time the figure declined albeit slightly since the coronavirus pandemic started.

In his televised briefing that day, a program which had become a staple of morning television programming, Cuomo said the state is only in the “first wave” of the pandemic, and people “must be prepared.”

Meanwhile, then U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent his third night in intensive care, while the country is preparing to determine whether an extension of the lockdown is necessary.

As of this date, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe was 1.54 million, of which 340,452 have recovered, based on data compiled and reported by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 89,957.

LONG COVID

SARS-CoV-2 can persist for months, or even years, in the human body after infection. A paper published on April 8 in the journal The Lancet strongly suggests that the virus has that capability.

The study, Plasma-Based Antigen Persistence in the Post-Ccute Phase of Covid-19 and led by researchers at the University of California San Francisco and Harvard University, gives credence to the belief that the virus can linger in tissue and organs, even after the patient has recovered from acute infection.

The researchers analyzed blood samples from 171 adults who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. They found that one-quarter of those had Covid proteins in their blood for up to one year after their initial infection.

The data brings greater confidence to the theory of viral persistence and the findings may be helpful in more rapidly developing tests and treatments for Long Covid.

UNITED STATES

The Department of Justice said Wednesday that, over the past three years, its Covid-19 Enforcement Task Force has charged over 3,500 people with federal crimes and recovered more than $1.4 billion in fraudulently obtained pandemic relief funds. It has also reached over 400 civil settlements and judgments.

The White House used the announcement as a platform from which to propose legislation that would provide more funding for anti-fraud enforcement and extend the statute of limitations on such crimes. The legislation would also work on government databases to improve detection of potential fraudsters before payments are made.

The number of SARS-CoV-2 cases is relatively stable, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only two states posted increases in weekly cases figures, while figures were relatively stable in 19 states. Some 29 states reported either a decline or a likely decline, the agency said.

GLOBAL NEWS

In the United Kingdom, the home so-called Test to Treat program is shutting down on April 16, leaving disabled and vulnerable Covid-19 patients without suitable options for accessing timely diagnosis and care.

The program had allowed people to enroll and receive Pfizer’s Covid-19 and Flu Home Test. If they were symptomatic and had a positive test, they could receive free telehealth services.

GLOBAL STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, April 10.

As of Wednesday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.74 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.01 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.6 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.02 million in the same period.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Wednesday at press time is 22,132,228, a decrease of 1,800 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,097,436, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,792, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 19 months.

Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Wednesday, recorded 111.81 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.22 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.04 million, and the world’s fourth highest death toll, 533,568.

Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.83 million total cases.

Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 711,380, has recorded 38.74 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

In the United States, in the week ending March 23, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 1 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 4.0%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.6% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.6%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -21.1%.

The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 9,345, a figure that is down 13.9% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.5%, a figure that is down 16.7% in the same period.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Wednesday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 3,962 doses are now administered each day.

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.

Finally, as of March 31, 2024, only the following countries and territories have not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever:

Antarctica

British Antarctic Territory

Peter Island

Overseas

Bouvet Island

Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Prince Edward Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 9: U.S. Has Arrested 3,500 and Recovered $1.4 Billion in Pandemic Relief Fraud in Past 3 Years, School Absenteeism

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The American cars of Cuba

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,490th day as well as the day of the Great North American Total Solar Eclipse.

In news we cover today, the U.S. Department of Justice continues to catch their man, the number of people who go to bed hungry in New York is increasing, school absenteeism in Central New York is also up, and the number of new and active Covid cases in the United States and across the globe shows that the pandemic is far from over.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 9, 2020, the World Health Organization said that coronavirus cases in Europe were doubling every three to four days, just as health officials in New York City reported 7,521 new coronavirus cases and 518 new deaths, bringing the city’s total to 87,725 cases and 4,778 deaths.

China, which for the first several years was known to present severe undercounts of cases and deaths, reported 42 new confirmed cases and one new death. This data raised the national total to 81,907 cases and 3,336 deaths, according to the country’s National Health Commission.

Cuba, a country where most people rely heavily on public transportation, announced the suspension of all public transit to stop the virus from spreading across the island, officials announced. This move included all buses, taxis, and other types of public transit, said Cuban Transportation Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila on state-run television.

In New Mexico, then Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a press conference that she was “disturbed” by the images being posted on social media showing gatherings of large groups of people despite the state order requiring social distancing. She showed the press and public a photograph of her mother, who is in an assisted living facility in Albuquerque and pointedly said that she was one of the vulnerable people who could be endangered by the failure of others to social distance.

Finally, in news that truly shows the severity off the first several months of the pandemic in New York State, then Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order that allowed licensed funeral directors from around the country to practice in New York. The move that will make it easier for funeral homes to request assistance from out-of-state funeral directors to deal with the high number of coronavirus deaths in the Empire State.

LONG COVID

A new study published by researchers at Imperial College in London and at other U.K. universities suggests that patients with Long Covid have evidence of ongoing inflammation in their blood.

The findings show that long covid has a true biological basis and isn’t a figment of people’s imaginations.

Put differently, it suggests that specific inflammatory pathways related to tissue damage are associated with subtypes of Long Covid. The researchers believe that these pathways be targets for drugs and the findings clue us in to biomarkers that could lead to diagnoses.

The study, which was published in the journal nature immunology, looked at bloodwork from 657 patients, of which 426 had at least one Long Covid symptom.

UNITED STATES

The Department of Justice said Tuesday that, over the past three years, its Covid-19 Enforcement Task Force has charged over 3,500 people with federal crimes and recovered more than $1.4 billion in fraudulently obtained pandemic relief funds. It has also reached over 400 civil settlements and judgments.

The White House used the announcement as a platform from which to propose legislation that would provide more funding for anti-fraud enforcement and extend the statute of limitations on such crimes. The legislation would also work to improve government databases to improve detection of potential fraudsters before payments are made.

SARS-CoV-2 continues to cause high rates of absenteeism in New York State schools. In Central New York, according to data from the New York State Education Department, 8,652 students in Syracuse were absent at least 10% of the time in the 2022-23 school year, a figure equivalent to 51% of students. Statewide, about 26% of students were chronically absent.

Data from the New York Health Foundation shows that one in ten New Yorkers didn’t have enough food to eat within the previous week, a phenomenon referred to as food insufficiency. That term is considered a greater issue than food insecurity, which describes people who struggle to afford healthy meals over a year-long period.

The number of people who fall into the food insufficiency category was up by 60,000 people in 2023, compared to the previous year.

GLOBAL NEWS

Whooping cough is back. Pertussis, a Victorian-era ailment that all but disappeared in the first four years of the pandemic, is back, perhaps under the theory that, once you remove one cough from the picture, another quickly takes its seat at the table. Case figures have been spiking in recent weeks and they are seeing record numbers of cases in Czechia, along with sharp rises in Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

GLOBAL STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, April 9.

As of Tuesday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.73 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.04 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.58 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.02 million in the same period.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Tuesday at press time is 22,134,029, an increase of 12,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,099,228, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,801, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 19 months.

Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Tuesday, recorded 111.80 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.22 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.04 million, and the world’s fourth highest death toll, 533,565.

Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.83 million total cases.

Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 711,380, has recorded 38.74 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.

Finally, as of March 31, 2024, only the following countries and territories have not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever:

Antarctica

British Antarctic Territory

Peter Island

Overseas

Bouvet Island

Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Prince Edward Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

The 1964 New York World’s Fair Opened 60 Years Ago This Month: You Can Still Attend The Fair to This Very Day

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The Unisphere, a spherical stainless steel representation of Earth in Flushing Meadow built for the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens

For starters, the two most iconic pieces of architecture remain in place, if not fully intact.

The Queens Theater’s circular pavilion

The Theaterama was converted into a multipurpose legitimate theater in the 1970s, with the addition of a stage, public restrooms, lobby, and dressing rooms.

The cast of ‘That Golden Girls Show – A Puppet Parody’ at the Queens Theatre

One thing the visitor won’t want to miss is Meadow Lake.

Finally, Meadow Lake also hosts the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, and teams from New York practice in Meadow Lake during the summer months.

The Rocket Thrower statue, a divine depiction of a man launching a rocket from one hand and reaching for the stars with the other

It was one of many columns erected for a temple in 120 B.C.E. in the Roman city of Jerash and King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan presented it to the City of New York as a gift.

The New York State Pavilion’s two observation towers

Both were installed by NASA for the fair.

The New York City Building, now the Queens Museum

Paddle boats awaiting park visitors

Snickers the Wonderdog, accompanied by a friend, explores the grounds of the 1964 New York World’s Fair

Children enjoying a fall leaf pavilion on the former fairgrounds

The New York State Pavilion up close.

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 29: ‘FLiRT’ Variants of Virus Pose New Problem, May Brings Change in Hospital Admissions Reporting

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

A glass of refreshing, pasteurized milk

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,510th day.

In news we cover today, a new Covid variant is in town and it means business, Dr. Anthony Fauci will publicly give testimony in front of Congress in June, and U.S. hospitals will no longer have to report admissions data to the federal government on patients with respiratory conditions.

THE LEDE

Should We Worry About Bird Flu in Our Milk? The Answer is No, But You Should Worry About Drinking Raw Milk

While headlines such as “Bird Flu Found in Grocery Store Milk” are meant to shock, it appears extraordinarily unlikely that a consumer of pasteurized milk would contract the virus at the present time and there is no cause for alarm, except out of an abundance of caution.

However, there is one change in milk consumption some people might want to make.

Raw milk.

Given that dangerous pathogens including E.coli and Salmonella can be transmitted in raw milk, drinking unpasteurized milk has always been a bad idea. However, the risk associated with raw milk is at an entirely new and greater level of risk than ever before.

This is because the H5N1 virus crossed over to cows some time ago and the virus has been circulating in dairy cows for months now. While the concentrations of the virus in pasteurized milk are negligible, that is not at all the case with raw milk. Were a raw-milk fan to imbibe milk from an infected cow, things won’t turn out rosy, for sure, even if the milk cow is named Rosie.

Humans have been drinking the milk of other mammals following the domestication of animals during the Neolithic Revolution, which, if you don’t have a Ph.D. in history, was about 11,700 years ago. It was only 160 years ago in 1864 that French scientist Louis Pasteur discovered the process we now call pasteurization. M Pasteur discovered that heating beer and wine was enough to kill most of the bacteria that could cause the product to spoil, and this was achieved by eliminating pathogenic microbes and lowering microbial numbers to prolong the quality of the beverage.

In case I haven’t scared any raw milk consumers enough, the following is a list of pathogenic bacteria that raw milk can contain and I needn’t identify the consequences of any of these infections: tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, Listeria, and streptococcal.

The CDC puts it in much clearer terms: “Raw milk – and products made from it –can make you and your loved ones sick.”

In the United States, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that only one human case of the virus has been reported and that individual had been working closely with cattle known to have the H5N1 virus. His symptoms were mild and primarily limited to conjunctivitis. Two years earlier, another American contracted the virus, but this person was presumed to have worked directly with poultry as no cattle-borne infections had been reported at the time.

Because an infection can occur when droplets or small aerosol particles of the active virus in the air are breathed in, “or possibly when a person touches something contaminated by [the virus] and then touches their mouth, eyes or nose,” a person would have to be in direct contact with cattle, poultry, or other birds with H5N1.

As a result, the people who have to be the most cautious are those who work with infected cattle.

It’s important to remember that viruses can become more infectious, just as we’ve learnt with SARS-CoV-2 and its host of variants.

Any questions?

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 29, 2020, New York City was still the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States and the number of deaths from the novel coronavirus hit a somber milestone, having surpassed the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War in the period 1955 to 1975.

The U.S. Commerce Department said that the U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate in the first quarter. The decline was its biggest contraction since the 2008 financial crisis.

In technology, Apple said that its Apple Maps would displays nearby Covid-19 testing locations in the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the number of total deaths in seven states hit hard by the virus was 50% higher than normal over the period March 8 through April 11. The states include Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York.

Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.17 million, of which 976,685 had recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 219,620.

UNITED STATES

As pointed out many times in this space, the fat lady has yet to sing with respect to the pandemic and the brief vacation most of the world seems to be enjoying from SARS-CoV-2 may soon come to an end.

A new family of SARS-CoV-2 variants, which carry the nickname “FLiRT,” has begun to spread nationwide. FLiRT is short for their mutations, one of which includes the letters “F” and “L,” and another that includes the letters “R” and “T.”

They are distant relations of the omicron variant and they stem from JN.1, the sublineage behind the surge in cases this past winter.

One FLiRT variant in particular has made its presence known, namely KP.2, which accounted for about 25% of new sequenced cases during the two weeks ending April 27, according to data from the CDC. There are others, but they have not become terribly widespread in the United States, yet.

It’s too soon to determine whether FLiRT variants will bring about a major surge in cases. It could be a wave, or it could be a wavelet.

Starting on Wednesday, another mandate from the beginning of the pandemic will expire. Starting Wednesday, the first of May, hospitals will no longer have to report data on admissions, occupancy, or other indicators of possible healthcare system stress from respiratory conditions.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who 18 months ago retired at the age of 82 as the president’s chief medical advisor and as director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, agreed to publicly testify in Congress on Covid origins and early pandemic policies.

Fauci, who helped steer both the Trump and Biden administrations’ efforts to combat SARS-CoV-2, will appear on June 3 in front of the House Oversight select subcommittee. Congressmen on the committee are expected to press him on the still-unknown origins of the pandemic as well as the nation’s response.

It marks the first time infectious-disease doctor Anthony S. Fauci will publicly face Congress since leaving government.

GLOBAL NEWS

Astra Zeneca, which is currently involved in a class-action suit over claims its vaccine caused death and serious injury in dozens of cases, said that its vaccines could cause blood clots in very rare instances.

In a filing made to a British High Court in February that was reported by The Telegraph, the pharmaceutical house said that its coronavirus vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause” thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, also referred to as TTS. TTS is a condition that causes blood clots along with a low blood platelet count.

The company said that “the causal mechanism is not known.”

“Further,” the company continued in the filing, “TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine). Causation in any individual case will be a matter for expert evidence.”

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

In the United States, in the week ending April 20, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 26 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.0%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.4% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.4%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -17.9%.

The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 5,615, a figure that is down 14.4 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.9%, a figure that is down 10% in the same period.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

Where Has All the Data Gone?

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Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Delta Air Lines Aircraft Loses Emergency Slide After Takeoff, Officials Say

Paul Riegler — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

A Delta 767 at JFK

A Boeing 767 aircraft owned and operated by Delta Air Lines and bound for California lost one of its emergency slides shortly after takeoff on Friday.

The incident prompted the crew to return to New York as a precaution.

Delta Flight 520 had departed John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York at 8:02 a.m. local time, after having left the gate 15 minutes late at 7:30 a.m. and was headed to Los Angeles, when its flight crew discovered an issue related to the plane’s right wing emergency exit slide. Other crew members had noticed an unusual sound near the wing, the airline said.

The pilots declared an emergency to air-traffic controllers and the flight returned to JFK, landing at 8:35 a.m., roughly 32 minutes after it had departed. It reached the gate without incident at 8:45 am.

After the aircraft was on the ground, it became clear that the emergency slide had “separated” from the plane, the airline said in a statement. The Boeing 767-300 was removed from service and Delta said that it would “thoroughly evaluate the aircraft.”

“Delta flight crews enacted their extensive training and followed procedures to return to JFK,” the carrier said in a statement provided to Frequent Business Traveler and The Travelist. Delta said it would “fully cooperate” with retrieval efforts and investigations.

At press time, it was not clear what had caused the slide to detach or where it had landed.

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that it would investigate the incident.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 26: WHO Issues New Vaccine Formulation Guidance, Covid Patient’s Unusual Symptoms Save Her Life

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The set of the recent Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company”

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,507th day. On this day in 1970, the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company” opened on Broadway. The original 1970 production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards and won six.

“Company” was one of the first book musicals to deal with contemporary themes such as dating, marriage, and divorce and it is also a notable example of a concept musical that lacks a linear plot. Instead, in a series of vignettes, the musical follows Bobby, a bachelor portrayed by Dean Jones, as he interacts with his married friends who throw him a 35th birthday party. In the brilliant 2021 revival, the central character was played by Katrina Lenk, albeit as “Bobbie.”

In news we cover today, the World Health Organization issued new guidelines for the next coronavirus vaccine, likely to be made available this fall; a Covid patient’s unusual symptoms that resulted in her hospitalization saved her life in the end, and the WHO expanded its definition of an airborne pathogen.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 26, 2020, the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus crossed the three million mark, as the known death toll surpassed 200,000.

The Centers for Disease Control, which had just three symptoms on its “Symptoms of Coronavirus” list, added six additional ones. The additional symptoms include chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and a loss of taste or smell and were added as researchers’ understanding of the disease evolves.

The CDC’s original list included fever, cough, and shortness of breath.

The number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.02 million, of which 888,543 have recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 207,933.

LONG COVID

Two million people across England and Scotland are currently suffering from Long Covid, of whom 381,000 have had their day-to-day activities limited significantly, according to an official study published on Thursday.

Britain’s Office for National Statistics said 3.3% of people surveyed between February 6 and March 7 reported having Covid symptoms that had lasted more than four weeks since an initial infection and were not explained by another medical condition.

The data showed that 9.1% of those who were not working or looking for work reported Long Covid symptoms, nearly triple the rate among the population as a whole.

UNITED STATES

Four years ago, Vicki Dennis was hospitalized after developing unusual symptoms following a SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2020. She presented with itchy skin, yellowing skin, and dark urine. Once in hospital, she was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis and told she would need a liver transplant within five years.

Dennis, who was 27 at the time, just received a live liver transplant from a friend, Zoë Johnson, who turned out to be a perfect match. In December 2023 at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, a large section of Johnson’s liver was removed robotically, to minimize the size of the scar, and placed into Dennis. The liver, of course, is the only human body organ that can regenerate itself so both the donor and recipient should eventually have normal size livers.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was subpoenaed last month, has agreed to testify to Congress about a controversial nursing home policy during the early years of the pandemic that forbade nursing homes from rejecting a patient solely on the basis of a SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis.

In Brooklyn, Green-Wood Cemetery unveiled a pandemic memorial. The 200’ (61 m) memorial offers a space for remembrance and will be on display through June 3.

GLOBAL NEWS

The World Health Organization issued an advisory about the next iteration of vaccines to combat Covid. The WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Covid-19 Vaccine Composition said that vaccine makers should use a monovalent JN.1 lineage as the antigen in forthcoming formulations, given that SARS-CoV-2 is currently expected to evolve from that variant.

The WHO also issued a new report in which it sought to clarify what counts as a pathogen that can spread through the air. The WHO loosened the definition of airborne pathogens – which include SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and measles – to include when respiratory droplets spread through the air and when they land on a person, regardless of the size of the droplet.

The move was taken to cut down on the confusion around how to “describe the transmission of pathogens through the air that can potentially cause infection in humans,” it said.

According to the new report, the phrase “transmission through the air” can be used to describe when infectious respiratory particles become airborne and spread, and the subcategories of “airborne transmission” and “direct deposition” can both fall under this blanket phrase.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

Where Has All the Data Gone?

=======================================

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Hyatt Adds 700 Mr and Mrs Smith Hotels to Guest Loyalty Program Offerings

Kurt Stolz — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

A public space at the Grand Hyatt In New York City

Hyatt Hotels, which in 2023 acquired Mr & Mrs Smith, a hotel booking platform, announced that 700 Mr & Mrs Smith hotels were now available through the World of Hyatt guest-loyalty program platform.

Mr and Mrs Smith features what Hyatt termed a “carefully curated” group of 1,500 properties in 20 countries.

The news comes on the heels of an announcement that Hilton Worldwide and Small Luxury Hotels of the World formed a new partnership added hundreds of hotels to the hotelier’s Hilton Honors guest-loyalty program platform.

The addition of the properties will give Hyatt loyalty program members multiple new travel opportunities, “from cozying up in a secluded treehouse in the Arctic Circle, reigning over an English country manor, glamping under starry desert skies, or going wild in a jungle villa perched above Pacific waters.”

Hyatt had a similar but now defunct partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World that began in August 2018.

The 700 properties from Mr and Mrs Smith represent the first batch of hotels to become available this way and will add countries previously not bookable via World of Hyatt including Namibia, Fiji, and the British Virgin Islands.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

‘Stereophonic,’ ‘Dead Outlaw,’ ‘The Connector’ Lead 2024 Outer Critics Circle Nominations

Anna Breuer — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The 2024 Outer Critics Circle award nominations were announced Tuesday, and for the first time ever, the event took place at the Museum of Broadway.

The nominees were announced by the stars of the Stephen Sondheim musical, “Merrily We Roll Along,” Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez.

“Stereophonic,” a new play that follows a fictional 1970s rock band on the cusp of superstardom as they struggle through recording their new album, led in garnering the most nominations of any Broadway production including Outstanding New Broadway Play and Outstanding Featured Performer in a New Broadway Play.

The stars of the Stephen Sondheim musical, “Merrily We Roll Along,” Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and Daniel Radcliffe, who announced the nominees

“Dead Outlaw,” an off-Broadway musical inspired by the life of American outlaw Elmer J. McCurdy, received nine nominations, while “The Connector,” an off-Broadway play that follows the rise and fall of an ambitious journalist, Ethan Dobson, and the career of an assistant copy editor, Robin Martinez, at the vaunted fictional magazine, The Connector, received seven.

Productions nominated for Outstanding Revival of a Musical include “Cabaret,” “Here Lies Love,” “I Can Get It for You Wholesale,” “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” and “The Who’s Tommy,” while those nominated for Outstanding Revival of a Play include “An Enemy of the People,” “Appropriate,” “Doubt: A Parable,” “Mary Jane,” “Philadelphia, Here I Come!”, and “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch.”

The original 1966 set from “Cabaret” in the Museum of Broadway

Winners will be announced on May 13, 2024, and the awards will be presented on May 23 at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

The Outer Critics Circle is an organization of writers covering New York theater for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media beyond Broadway.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

‘Freak April Weather’: Winds Could Cause Drivers to Lose Control of Their Cars, Skies Turn Orange, Finland Turns White

Paul Riegler — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Orange-tined extreme smoke haze from Canadian wildfires as visible in New York City in June 2023

Mother Nature seemed to be having a moment at the start of the week.

On Monday, the National Weather Service issued wind advisories for seven states in the northern United States, warning motorists that the wind could be so severe that they may lose control of their vehicles.

“Sudden wind gusts can cause drivers to lose control, especially in lightweight or high profile vehicles. Strong winds can cause blowing dust, reduced visibility, and flying debris,” the NWS said in a special weather statement. “Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution.”

The seven states were Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Meanwhile, across the Pond, the skies of Athens turned orange as a yellow-orange haze of dust from the Sahara desert blanketed parts of Greece.

While the weather event created spectacular scenes, it also prompted public health authorities to issue health warnings, especially for people with respiratory issues.

Greek Meteorologist Kostas Lagouvardos said that Athens looked like “a colony of Mars (sic)” in a statement posted on social media.

A low-pressure system over northern Africa swept dust over Cyprus several times in mid-April, “darkening skies and reducing air quality,” the he National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on Tuesday.

An image from NASA’s Terra satellite showed “a shroud of tan” over Cyprus on Monday. Dust was expected to continue to cross the Mediterranean, impacting both Cyprus and Greece over the next several days, the space agency said.

Just as Greece and Cyprus were turning orange, Finland turned white thanks to ”Huippu huhtikuun sää,” or “Freak April weather.”

Heavy snow there brought public transport to a standstill across many parts of the country, public broadcaster Yleisradio Oy reported.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 23: FDA Finds Traces of H5N1 Avian Flu in Milk, Trump’s ‘Bleach’ Moment

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

A spray bottle of Lysol disinfectant

English Language Day celebrates the most spoken language in the world, with an estimated 1.456 billion speakers.

In news we cover today, today marks the fourth anniversary of then President Trump’s infamous “bleach” moment, the U.S. FDA said it had found traces of H5N1 Avian Flu in milk in grocery stores, and a U.K. study shows that increased drinking in the early years of the pandemic resulted in 2,500 additional deaths.

THE LEDE

It’s Been Exactly Four Years Since the President of the United States Suggested Injected Humans With ‘Disinfectant’

Today is the fourth anniversary of then President Trump’s viral bleach moment, as it’s sometimes referred to, a moment I’m quite sure that the former president would rather most people forget.

Trumps’ remarks came after a Department of Homeland Security presentation on early research suggesting that the coronavirus might be decontaminated in sunlight.

U.S. President Joseph Biden took the opportunity to poke fun at the former president over his infamous suggestion – delivered at a White House briefing – that SARS-CoV-2 could be treated with an “injection” of disinfectant.

“Don’t inject bleach. And don’t vote for the guy who told you to inject bleach,” Biden said in a social media post.

In case you don’t recall this, let’s look at the instant replay: Trump, while discussing the effects of light and humidity on how the virus spreads, claimed that his health advisers were going to “test” whether “very powerful light” could be brought “inside the body” to kill Covid.. Without missing a beat, he then continued: “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. … It would be interesting to check that.”

As Trump’s contentions went viral, the maker of disinfectants Lysol and Dettol were forced to issue a statement warning that “under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body.”

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 23, 2020, the United Kingdom’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said at the daily Downing Street briefing that the country will have to rely on social distancing measures until there is a vaccine or a treatment for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Whitty’s counterpart in the United States, CDC Director Robert Redfield, had to walk back a statement he made to the Washington Post.

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield was quoted as saying.

Speaking at the White House the following day, Redfield clarified that the second wave “could be more difficult, more complicated” and not “worse.”

A study of New York State’s largest healthcare system, Northwell Health, that was released on this date showed that approximately 25% of coronavirus patients who needed ventilators to help them breathe died within the first few weeks of treatment.

The study also found that the novel coronavirus appeared to be causing sudden strokes in adults in their 30s and 40s, who did not have any comorbidities.

In South America, demonstrators took to the streets of Bogota, protesting over what they said is a lack of support from the government during the country’s lockdown.

In China, many Wuhan residents said they believed there could be a second wave in the epicenter of the outbreak, now that the city is returning to normal life. History later proved they were correct.

Finally, seven additional big cats at New York’s Bronx Zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, the non-profit organization that runs the zoo, bringing. the total to eight big cats including four tigers, three African lions, and a Malayan tiger, among others.

UNITED STATES

A new study from Johns Hopkins University that the coronavirus pandemic did not delay child development nearly as much as had been believed in children aged 5 and under.

GLOBAL NEWS

The study, led by researchers at University College in London, showed that aging adult nose cells contain 100 times more virus in the first few days after an infection. The researchers’ discovery could serve to explain why older adults suffer far worse from Covid while children are very rarely very ill.

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it had detected viral particles of H5N1 avian influenza in milk purchased at grocery stores, but the agency says it still believes that the milk is safe to drink.

The agency further stated that it believes the viral particles were detected by highly sensitive lab tests and are likely to have been remnants of viruses killed during the pasteurization process. It said that it does not think it is likely that the particles would able to infect people but it is conducting additional tests to be completely sure.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

Where Has All the Data Gone?

=======================================

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Theater Review: ‘Five,’ The Parody Musical… Or The Five Angry Women of Donald Trump

Blaise Buckley — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

King Henry VIII may have had six wives (divorced, beheaded, died, … well you know what happened), but former President Donald Trump has five angry women.

That cohort is the basis of the musical “Five,“ a show that wants to Make America Funny Again, something we can abbreviate as MAFA. Sounds catchy, no? Perhaps on red baseball caps?

The comedy musical revue puts the spotlight on five of the women in the life of former President Donald Trump, namely Ivana (Anyae Anasia, the first wife, divorced); Marla (Gabriella Joy Rodriguez, the second wife, divorced); Melania (jaime Lyn Beatty, the current and long suffering third wife who was quite happy to remain back in New York City while her newly elected husband moved to Washington); Stormy Daniels (Gabi Garcia, the porn star mistress who is at the center of a case in which Trump is charged with 34 felony counts); and Ivanka (Hannah Bonnett, daddy’s little girl and self-proclaimed JAP, or Jewish American Princess).

“Five” of course is a parody of the hit musical “Six,” which presents the six wives of Henry VIII in the style of a pop concert slash singing competition. Each of the wives – Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr – takes a turn at telling her story in the competition to determine who suffered the most while married to the king. (Hint: since several were beheaded, they might have a leg, or head, up in winning).

The premise of “Five” follows the story arch of “Six”, had “Six” taken place today on Long Island: They show up at Ronkonkoma’s public access TV station studio for a debate – on a patriotically designed red, white, and blue set by David Goldstein – to decide who had it the worst with the Donald, with the audience to vote.

As in “Six,” the five women introduce themselves through biographical pop songs and explain the goal of the evening before bursting into song.

These include Ivana’s “You Veel Always Love Me” from Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and Marla’s “Un-popular” from “Wicked”’s “Popular.” Melania’s “Everything Was Better with Potato” is clearly from “A Chorus Line”’s “Everything Was Beautiful at the Ballet”; Stormy’s “Storm’s Comin’ In” borrows heavily from “Paint Your Wagon”‘s “There’s a Coach Comin’ In”; and Ivanka’s “Kiss Me Daddy One More Time” is a parody of “Hit Me Baby One More Time” from Britney Spears’ “Once Upon a One More Time.”

Each woman managed to maintain her own signature style in Florence D’Lee’s excellent character-capturing costumes.

To see how well the parody works, there was even a test case in the audience, the Republican couple in front of us that evening. They raised their hands when one of the wives asked at the beginning if any Republicans were present and they were told they could stay anyway since they had already paid for their tickets.

They stormed off mid-show yelling “this is horrible,” cementing the thought in my mind that they, too, were part of the cast. Either that, or they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into.

The mostly fast-paced show was directed and choreographed by Jen Wineman, and the writing team of Shimmy Braun and Moshiel Newman Daphna ( book and lyrics) and Billy Reece (music) has truly created a parody worth seeing.

Along the way, some truly amusing surprises pop up, but we’ll avoid any spoilers, including what a possible unnamed former secretary of state and presidential candidate who truly is Trump’s nemesis (in addition to judges, prosecutors, and the women of “Five”).

The show has only been extended to April 21, so you should run and catch it in case it’s not extended further, unless you’re a card-carrying and hat-wearing MAGA member, of course.

THE DETAILS

Five
Limited engagement through April 21, 2024
Theater 555
555 West 42nd Str.
New York, N.Y. 10036
www.fivethemusical.com

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 2: Bird Flu Has Circulated in Cows For Months, Banning Smartphones in Schools Leads to Improved Mental Health

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The statue “Unsolicited Advice” by G. Seward Johnson Jr. on Main Street in Stamford, Ct.

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,513th day.

In news we cover today, students became far more dependent on their smartphones during the first years of the pandemic, the FDA qualified the Apple Watch AFib history feature under its Medical Device Development Tools, and the avian flu virus has been circulating in cows for far longer than had been thought to be the case.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On May 2, 2020, over than 500 people gathered at the California Capitol in Sacramento to protest Governor Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order.

“The majority of the demonstrators were not wearing face masks or physically distancing and at one point a group of them locked hands,” the California Highway Patrol said in a statement. “In so doing, they were jeopardizing the health and safety of themselves as well as our officers and onlookers during this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.”

Police arrested 32 for failing to comply with the lawful orders to disperse along with health and safety violations, the CHP said.

An emergency proclamation issued on May 1, 2020 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, requiring the use of face masks in stores and restaurants was amended Friday after several reports of threats of violence, Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle said in a statement.

“In the short time beginning on May 1, 2020, that face coverings have been required for entry into stores/restaurants, store employees have been threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse,” McNickle said in the statement. “In addition, there has been one threat of violence using a firearm. This has occurred in three short hours and in the face of clear medical evidence that face coverings helps contain the spread of COVID-19.”

Similar to what was the case in other states, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order today that extends existing safety measures to protect consumers and employees at grocery stores and pharmacies and the order was to remain in place until at least May 29.

The guidelines included: 1.) Customers were required to wear a face covering when entering a grocery store or pharmacy; 2.) Grocery stores and pharmacies were required to allocate at least two hours per week for vulnerable populations to shop safely; and 3.) If an employee were to test positive for coronavirus, the business was required to notify other employees

Finally, the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds honored frontline health care workers and first responders battling coronavirus with flyover flights over Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, just as there were at least 1,126,521 coronavirus cases in the United States and at least 66,051 deaths attributed to the virus.

TODAY’S PANDEMIC NEWS

UNITED STATES

In Connecticut, Raymond Dolphin , a middle school principal in Manchester took the steps to focus his pupils on their studies while also improving their mental health. What he did was simple: he banned the use of smartphones at school. The move came because students had become much more attached to their phones during the isolation they faced in the first years of the coronavirus pandemic.

The school now requires pupils to place their phone in a Yondr pouch, a patented neoprene case that students aren’t able to open while on school grounds. The reports are promising from parents, teachers, and even the pupils themselves. Students are reporting to parents and teachers that they are making more friends and parents are reporting an improvement in their children’s studies, grades, and mental health.

A fraud investigator for the New York City Department of Homeless Services stole personal information from homeless people and sold the data to another person who then fraudulently used the victims’ identities and filed for special pandemic unemployment benefits in New Jersey.

Olabanji Otufale, a Brooklyn resident, was charged with having accessed names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and photos of more than ten city homeless, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday.

According to court filings, he then sold that info to New Jersey resident Mark Lazarre, who is the one who filed the unemployment benefits claims.

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the avian flu virus circulated in cows for four months before the outbreak was confirmed. It appears that the spread in cattle started from a single spillover event from birds in the Texas panhandle that may have taken place in early December last year.

The Apple Watch AFib history feature was qualified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under its Medical Device Development Tools program, the first digital health technology feature of its kind to do so.

The watch has supported the feature, which allows users diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, to view an estimate of how frequently their heart is in this type of irregular rhythm.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

Where Has All the Data Gone?

=======================================

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 1: Fraud Investigator Charged with Covid Fraud, N.Y.C. Saw Sustained Increase in Subway Assaults After Pandemic Declaration

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Stockholm, the capital of Sweden and most populous area of Scandinavia

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,512th day.

In news we cover today, a New York City fraud investigator was himself charged with fraud, also in New York City, an increase in subway attacks has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had an accident with some facts in the company of Bill Maher.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On May 1, 2020, the World Health Organization said that it still considers the coronavirus pandemic a public health emergency of international concern, the agency’s highest level of alarm for the world.

“Covid-19 pandemic is not finished,” committee member Dr. Didier Houssin said during a media briefing.

In the U.S. aviation sector, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Frontier Airlines separately announced that they would henceforth require their passengers to don face masks. The move came two days after JetBlue Airways began to require masks.

In the United Kingdom, Matt Hancock, the country’s Health Secretary, announced on Friday that the country had hit an ambitious coronavirus testing target that it had set itself at the beginning of the mont of 100,000 tests per day. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s national medical director of NHS England said that the country has made great progress in lowering the transmission rate.

“We have begun to get on top of this virus,” said Stephen Powis.

In Sweden, a then pop-up restaurant, Bord For En, which means “Table for One” in English, opened specifically to offer solo dining at tables for one. The restaurant, which remained open until August 1, 2020, offered a three-course meal and did not allow spectators.

In Germany, Lufthansa said it would reduce its fleet by around 100 aircraft, a move that left the German airline with 10,000 excess staff. Heathrow Airport expansion plans – which included a third runway – would be delayed by at least two years because of the effect coronavirus is having on the aviation sector, the airport said

In Washington, D.C., then President Donald Trump contradicted a rare on-the-record statement from his own intelligence community and claimed that he has seen evidence that gives him a “high degree of confidence” the novel coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but declined to provide details to back up his assertion.

Finally, United States had as of this day at least 1,069,664 cases of coronavirus and 63,006 related deaths, according to data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief at the time.

THE LEDE

Got Milk? FDA Says Pasteurized Milk is Safe and Vaccines for Humans Could Easily Be Deployed Against H5N1

One day in 1993, Jeff Goodby of Goodby Silverstein & Partners jotted down a tagline, namely “Got milk.” Then he added a question mark. And for the next two decades, the “Got Milk?” campaign by the milk industry – along with its catchy slogan – became as ubiquitous as Nike’s declaration that athletes “Just Do It.”

The headlines of recent days have caused many to think twice about milk given the presence of small amounts of the H5N1 virus in grocery store milk.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that new bird flu test results show that the milk supply in the country is safe. Tests of milk and other dairy products acquired from grocery stores show that pasteurization kills the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu that is spreading.

Now government officials are preparing for a potential scenario where H5N1 transfers zoonotically from cattle or poultry to a human being. Two vaccines are ready to be deployed should the strain of bird flu circulating in dairy cows begin spreading easily to people.

The virus has been found in at least 36 herds across nine states. This has raised concerns that the virus will mutate in order to make it easier to spill over into humans.

Federal officials said Wednesday that they could begin shipping vaccine doses widely within weeks if need be. Both vaccine candidates are already in the nation’s stockpile, albeit in limited quantities.

Studies “suggest that the vaccines will offer good cross-protection against cattle outbreak viruses,” Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on the call Wednesday.

Got questions?

UNITED STATES

A fraud investigator for the New York City Department of Homeless Services stole personal information from homeless people and sold the data to another person who then stole the victims’ identities and filed for special pandemic unemployment benefits in New Jersey.

Olabanji Otufale, a Brooklyn resident, was charged with having accessed names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and photos of more than ten city homeless people, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday.

According to court filings, he then sold that info to New Jersey resident Mark Lazarre, who is the one who filed the unemployment benefits claims.

In New York City following the pandemic declaration in March 2020, there was an 84% increase in the rate of complaints to the New York Police Department Transit Bureau per rider, including a 99% increase in the rate of complaints for assault and a 125% increase in the rate of complaints for harassment. The figures align with news media reports of an uptick in subway-related crime and rates have not returned to pre-pandemic levels despite the new subway safety plan.

Television host Bill Maher took putative presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out to the woodshed over his, and his running mate’s, continual anti-vaccine misinformation campaign. Maher has spoken out in favor of Kennedy up until now but a question he asked the candidate brought out the Dilbert in Kennedy, who famously said, “Studies have shown that accurate numbers aren’t any more useful than the ones you make up.”

“Your vice presidential pick wants to recall the Moderna vaccine, that’s the one I got,” said Maher, as the audience laughed loudly. “Do you agree with that? Recall it?” “I think those vaccines need to, we need to have again true double-blind placebo controlled trials on that,” RFK JR responded. “There is 25% of Americans who believe that they know somebody who was killed by a Covid vaccine.” “Killed?” Maher replied, somewhat incredulously. “Killed. 25% of Americans. 52% of Americans believe that the vaccines are causing injuries, including death. 52%,” the candidate somewhat incomprehensively stated.

Kennedy went on to say that “I think that [if] people want vaccines, they should be able to get it, I’m not anti-vaccine.” “Well, people think you are,” Maher replied.

GLOBAL NEWS

Zhang Yongzhen, the first scientist to publish a sequence of Covid-19 in China, staged a sit-in protest outside his laboratory after authorities there locked him out of the facility. The move is the latest in a series of setbacks and demotions he and his staff have faced since the virologist first published the sequence in January 2020 without obtaining state approval.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

Where Has All the Data Gone?

=======================================

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Great Moments in Travel History – May 2024

Jesse Sokolow — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

May, the fifth month in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars is typically the epitome of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and of autumn in the Southern. May Day, typically celebrated on May 1, is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival that celebrates the season. It is also a public holiday in many countries, in most cases referred to as Labour Day or International Workers’ Day, and intended to commemorate the1886 Haymarket riot in Chicago.

May is unusual in that, in any given year, no month starts on and ends on the same day of the week as May. It is the only month with these properties.

In Germany and Austria, the maypole, or Maibaum – a decorated tree or tree trunk erected on the first day of the month – is a tradition that dates back to the 16th century.

The month is celebrated in the hit Broadway show “Camelot” as well:

“Tra la, it’s May, the lusty Month of May,” the words of Lerner and Lowe go in the story based on the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the round table.

May is unusual in that, in any given year, no month starts on and ends on the same day of the week as May. It is the only month with these properties.

Late May is the unofficial start of the summer travel season, which in the United States runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekends. The extent of the summer travel season in 2020 is somewhat up in the air, however, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s what happened in Mays past.

On May 16, 1863, the Excelsior Hotel Ernst opened its doors in Cologne, Germany, directly across from the Cologne Cathedral or Kölner Dom. A regular guest for several decades in the latter part of the 20th century was FBT Editorial Director Jonathan Spira’s father, S. F. Spira, the founder and CEO of Spiratone. The hotel celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2013.

Harriet Quimby, the first woman to receive a pilot’s license (on August 2, 1911) in the United States, was born on May 1, 1875.

The Chicago World’s Fair opened on May 1, 1893. The fair transformed the landscape of the city and introduced the now ubiquitous Ferris Wheel to the world.

The Palace Hotel Luzern in Luzerne, Switzerland, opened its doors on May 7, 1906. The hotel, which featured amenities rare at the time of its opening, such as en-suite bathrooms, is still in operation today.

On May 9, 1912, Lieutenant Charles Samson launched his seaplane from the deck of a moving battleship, thereby giving birth to the aircraft carrier.

Wilbur Wright died from typhoid fever at age 45 on May 30, 1912. His brother Orville lived to be 76, passing away on January 30, 1948.

The Regent Palace Hotel opened on May 16, 1915 in London, England. With 1,028 guestrooms, the hotel offered the largest number of rooms of any such establishment in Europe at the time of its opening. It was demolished in 2010.

On May 9, 1917, William Boeing changed the name of Pacific Aero Products to the Boeing Airplane Co.

Bader Field in Atlantic City, New Jersey, became the first municipal airport in the U.S. on May 3, 1918.

Mills Field Municipal Airport opened on May 7, 1927. It became San Francisco International Airport in 1931.

Charles Lindberg completed the first solo transatlantic flight on May 21, 1927 in his Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis. He flew from Roosevelt Field in New York to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers), in 33 hours and 29 minutes, making him the first person in history to be in New York one day and Paris the next.

Ellen Church, a registered nurse, joined the crew of Boeing Air Transport’s Model 80A headed to San Francisco on May 15, 1930. She was the first female flight attendant in history. Boeing Air Transport was the forerunner of United Airlines.

The Hindenburg disaster took place on May 6, 1937. Thirty-six people perished when the German airship LZ 129 Hindenburg was destroyed by fire while attempting to dock at the Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, New Jersey.

Eastern Air Lines Flight 605 crashed near Bainbridge, Maryland, on May 30, 1947, en route from Newark, New Jersey, to Miami, Florida. At the time, it was the deadliest aviation disaster in United States history with all 53 passengers and crew onboard the plane perishing in the crash.

On May 4, 1949, a plane carrying players on Italy’s Torino A.C. football (soccer) team crashed near Turin, Italy. All 31 passengers, including 18 team members, were killed in what became known as the Superga air disaster.

A Douglas DC-7C took off from Long Beach Municipal Airport in California on May 21, 1957, for a record non-stop trans-continental and trans-Atlantic flight that retraced part of the route flown by Charles Lindbergh in 1927. The aircraft flew 6,148 miles (9,894 kilometers) to Paris in 21 hours and 52 minutes, 12 hours less than it took Lindbergh to fly nearly 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) across the Atlantic.

On May 30, 1958, the Douglas DC-8 made its maiden flight. The aircraft was the first of the DC line to be equipped with jet engines. The four-engine jet set world records in speed, altitude, distance, and payload.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 crashed on May 20, 1965, while attempting to land at Cairo International Airport in Egypt. Although six passengers were thrown clear of the wreckage, the remaining 121 people onboard the Boeing 720 died in the crash, making it the deadliest incident involving a 720 aircraft.

At the Paris Air Show on May 29, 1969, French transport minister Jean Chamant signed an agreement with German economics minister Karl Schiller, officially launching the Airbus A300, the world’s first twin-engine wide-body passenger jet.

American Airlines Flight 191 crashed near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on May 25, 1979. All 271 passengers and crew, as well as two people on the ground, were killed. Prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the crash was the deadliest commercial aircraft incident in United States history.

American Airlines launched its loyalty program, AAdvantage, on May 1, 1981. AAdvantage was the second airline loyalty program in the world, after Texas International Airlines’ program, and is the world’s oldest and largest frequent flyer program, believed to have over 100 million members.

The Shigaraki train disaster occurred on May 14, 1991 when a Shigaraki Kōgen Railway train collided head-on with a West Japan Railway Company train in Shigaraki, Japan, killing 42 and injuring 614 others.

On May 26, 1991, Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, crashed shortly after takeoff from Bangkok, Thailand. All 223 passengers and crew aboard the plane lost their lives, making it the deadliest aviation accident involving a 767 aircraft.

The first Boeing 777 was delivered to launch customer United Airlines on May 17, 1995. The aircraft was placed into service in June of that year.

On May 30, 1995, the Boeing 777 became the first airplane in aviation history to earn U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly extended-range twin-engine operations, or ETOPS, upon entering service.

Star Alliance, the oldest of the three current airline alliances, was founded on May 14, 1997, by Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International, Air Canada, Lufthansa, and United Airlines. Star Alliance is the world’s largest global airline alliance with a current roster of 27 member carriers.

American Airlines placed an order for 20 Boeing 757-200s on May 2, 2000. The order brought the total orders for 757s from operators around the world to 1,009.

On May 16, 2001, Boeing delivered the first 737-900 to launch customer Alaska Airlines. The model is the longest 737 variant to date.

With the delivery of a 737-800 to ATA Airlines on May 14, 2004, only six years after delivery of the first model, Boeing’s Next-Generation 737 family reached 1,500 aircraft delivered in a shorter time than any other commercial airplane family.

On May 23, 2006, Boeing delivered the last two of the 156 Boeing 717 airplanes ever to be produced to Midwest Airlines and AirTran Airways. This marked the end of its commercial airplane production in Southern California, which had been started by Donald Douglas in the 1920s.

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Review: ‘The Great Gatsby’ at the Broadway Theatre. A Gatsby Without the ‘Great’

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The reader might be surprised to learn that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby,” considered a literary masterpiece and contender for the Great American Novel, was a commercial failure when it was first published, back in 1925. It might be equally surprising to learn that the work entered the public domain on January 1, 2021, leading to what one could call a Great Gatsby Glut.

The story, which depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway’s interactions with the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and the latter’s obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan, who conveniently resides a stone’s throw away. “Gatsby, “ incidentally, was inspired by Fitzgerald’s youthful dalliance with socialite and heiress Ginvera King, who inspired numerous characters in his works. Notably, King’s father told him that “poor boys shouldn’t marry rich girls” and that may have led to the socio-economic ascent of social climber Jay Gatsby, a character inspired by a neighbor and veteran of the Great War, Max Gerlach.

Gerlach was a former bootlegger who, like Gatsby, fostered outlandish myths about himself, threw lavish parties, flaunted his nouveau riche status, claimed an Oxford education, and threw around the moniker “old sport.”

In “Gatsby,” Fitzgerald captures a distinct change in the American character, namely that merely being oneself wouldn’t suffice.

The waves of the bay and the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock that Gatsby watches from across the water.

Late last year, I attended Immersive Everywhere’s production of “The Great Gatsby,” the longest running immersive production in the United Kingdom. If anyone knows how to throw a party, it’s Jay Gatsby and attending the performance was like attending a party with a personal invitation from Mr. Gatsby himself.

It was therefore with great expectations (lower case, with nothing to do with Dickens) that I entered the Broadway theater to see a musical theater adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” with a book by Kait Kerrigan (making her Broadway debut), music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Nathan Tysen, both of recent “Paradise Square” fame. Once seated, I marveled at the waves of the bay and the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, that Gatsby (Jeremy Jordan) watches from across the water.

[Editor’s Note: There is a second high-profile “Gatsby” musical in the wings, which will likely play on Broadway sooner rather than later. “Gatsby,“ directed by Rachel Chavkin with a book by Martyna Majok and a score by Florence Welch (of “Florence and the Machine”) and Thomas Bartlett, opens in Cambridge, Massachusetts, next month.]

I liked the set by Paul Tate dePoo III. I liked the fireworks. I very much liked the sound effect of a golf ball that traveled through the theater.

But then I grew confused. Why, for example, is Nick Gatsby’s tenant? Why is Jordan written as more comic relief than cold WASP? Why, in heavens name, is the ever- and over-confident Jay Gatsby a basket case on stage at certain points?

Costumes by Linda Cho (Daisy’s in particular, as the men mostly looked like penguins) were stupendous and I wanted to run up to the stage and drive away with one of the autos in the show – Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce and Tom’s unbranded but gorgeous blue coupe (with Fitzgerald likely having chosen blue as representative of Tom’s belief in his own superiority as a blue blood) – but I nonetheless found the production unsatisfying. Did Kerrigan even read “Gatsby” in high school, I kept wondering.

Ultimately, as the euphoric songs and dancing (dance numbers including some pretty good tap dancing were choreographed by Dominique Kelley) continued, I recalled that “The Great Gatsby” (the novel) is, above all, a tragedy. The songs, which incidentally are largely pleasant but forgettable, fail to take into consideration that “Gatsby” takes place during the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, and instead rely on a more generic Broadway sound.

By the second act, a good deal of the Gatsby mystique was gone and the feel-good anodyne song-and-dance numbers were just that.

Eva Noblezada’s Daisy Fay Buchanan is at her best with her cousin, Nick Carraway (portrayed splendidly by Noah J. Ricketts), a Yale alumnus from the Midwest who just served in the army in the war, while John Zdrojeski plays Tom Buchanan, a Yale football player who knows Nick and has a “cruel body” with “enormous power” whose mental and physical hardness result in a brutish personality.

For me, the moment I came to truly recognize all of the show’s failings was when we first met Tom’s working-class girlfriend, Myrtle Wilson (Sara Chase), who is married to George (Paul Whitty), who owns a filling station in the Valley of Ashes (today’s Flushing Meadows Park and the site of two World’s Fairs). The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the poverty and hopelessness, yet Kerrigan gives short shrift to the setting and to uses it merely as a backdrop to this relationship. As a result, it comes off as ancillary to the action on stage as opposed to serving as a sharp critique of the wealthy, old-money class in 1920s New York. Nick uses it to reveal Tom’s ugliest behavior as well as the cruelty of class divisions in the decade.

Jay Gatsby was known for giving his guests a good time at his fabulous, over-the-top parties. Indeed, what made him as well-known as he became were the lavish spectacles he called parties he would throw every weekend at his mansion, leaving people longing to be invited and the musical seems intent on giving theatergoers that kind of good time, the life-changing ending be damned.

When Nick finally summarizes his experience in the novel’s last line – “’So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” – the meaning of his words is likely lost to the casual observer as they are waiting for the final dance spectacle to begin.

THE DETAILS

The Great Gatsby
Broadway Theatre
1681 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10019
Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes
www.broadwaygatsby.com

(Photos: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 30: RFK Jr.’s Dilbertian Statistics Moment, Chinese Scientist First to Publish Covid Sequence Locked Out of Lab

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:13:52 +0000

The Münchner Oktoberfest Musikanten performing in the Festzelt Tradition at Oktoberfest

Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,511th day.

In news we cover today, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had an accident with some facts in the company of Bill Maher, a new Covid variant is in town and it means business, and the virologist who first published the sequence for Covid-19 has been locked out of his laboratory in China.

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 30, 2020, in a first, service on the New York City subway system, one of the only 24-hour systems in the world, will be halted each day between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. in order to disinfect every train in the system.

Early results of a U.S. trial showed that treatment with remdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug manufactured by Gilead Science, can speed recovery in Covid-19 patients.

In Munich, officials announced the cancellation of the 2020 Oktoberfest, and in Russia, officials announced that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin had contracted Covid.

In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed stands at 1.08 million, while the death toll stands at 62,535, roughly 5.75%, while the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.28 million, of which 1.03 million had recovered, based on data compiled the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 231,576.

UNITED STATES

Television host Bill Maher took putative presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out to the woodshed over his and his running mate’s continual anti-vaccine misinformation campaign. Maher has spoken out in favor of Kennedy up until now but a question he asked the candidate brought out the Dilbert in Kennedy, who famously said, “Studies have shown that accurate numbers aren’t any more useful than the ones you make up.”

Kennedy went on to say that “I think that [if] people want vaccines, they should be able to get it, I’m not anti-vaccine.” “Well people think you are,” Maher replied.

A new family of SARS-CoV-2 variants, which carry the nickname “FLiRT,” has begun to spread nationwide. FLiRT is short for their mutations, one of which includes the letters “F” and “L,” and another that includes the letters “R” and “T.”

They are distant relations of the omicron variant and they stem from JN.1, the sublineage behind the surge in cases this past winter.

It’s too soon to determine whether FLiRT variants will bring about a major surge in cases. It could be a wave, or it could be a ripple.

GLOBAL NEWS

Zhang Yongzhen, the first scientist to publish a sequence of Covid-19 in China, staged a sit-in protest outside his laboratory after authorities there locked him out of the facility. The move is the latest in a series of setbacks and demotions he and his staff have faced since the virologist first published the sequence in January 2020 without obtaining state approval.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number

Where Has All the Data Gone?

=======================================

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.

The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org

If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.

☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Cruise ‘contrarian’ Viking valued at $11.2bn with US IPO

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Shares rise on New York Stock Exchange debut

Brilliant Lady to launch from New York in September 2025

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Virgin Voyages’ fourth ship to offer North American itineraries

12 natural wine bars in Los Angeles for a taste of California

Marie-Eve — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 01:42:48 +0000

In a state known for its audacious take on new world winemaking, a cadre of vintners is rewriting the script. They’ve swapped out the heavy-handed techniques for a more laissez-faire approach, allowing the grapes to express themselves without the customary winemaker meddling. The result? A fresh wave of natural wines that are quietly turning heads in some of Los Angeles’ most dynamic bars. Join me as we navigate the best natural wine bars in Los Angeles, where the pours are unconventional and the atmosphere is easygoing. Here’s to discovering the essence of California in a glass, one natural wine bar at a time.

Bar Bandini

Echo Park

I had to start with my favorite, right? Located on the edge of Silver Lake and Echo Park, aka cool people central even by LA standards, Bar Bandini has to be one of the most unique wine bars in Los Angeles. And why is that? Because it offers an extensive selection of almost exclusively California wines, most of which are served… on tap! The dimly lit, sexy, sparsely decorated space is inviting and cozy, especially when wine expert Josh is behind the bar striking up a conversation.

There isn’t much in the way of food, here, though; but the snacks, however spare, are all excellent quality.

Esters Wine Shop & Bar

Santa Monica

Housed in a heritage building, Esters offers a sophisticated yet approachable wine experience. With a curated selection of 250 bottled and 20 by-the-glass wines, categorized by taste rather than region, Esters simplifies the decision-making process. While the pricing is on the higher side, the investment ensures a refined experience guided by expert sommeliers.

Sundays feature a rotating flight of four wines for those looking to expand their wine knowledge.

Tilda

Echo Park

While we can’t guarantee a Swinton sighting at this particular Tilda, what we can assure you is an unforgettable experience. Founded by Echo Park locals, this all-natural wine bar showcases California producers and a delectable menu of small plates (don’t miss the trout dip). Positioned at the crossroads of a restaurant, wine bar, and wine shop, their all-terracotta aesthetic adds a unique charm.

If fortune smiles, nab a spot on their charming sidewalk terrace and soak in the local scene. Your time here? Absolutely worth it. And don’t forget to check out their beautifully designed tote bags – a charming keepsake to bring a piece of the experience home with you.

Tabula Rasa Bar

Hollywood

“This looks like a great place for a date,” I said as I walked into this all brick, cozy, candlelit, record player grooving space right in Thai Town. Very LA with a little New York flair. At Tabula Rasa, expect a fantastic wine list of both classic and groundbreaking winemakers, as well as a rotation of fresh small plates to share. The small back patio is a great place to enjoy the fresh air on a warm summer night.

Covell

Loz Feliz

Step into Los Angeles’ original natural wine haven nestled in the heart of Los Feliz—a hotspot for the effortlessly cool. Embracing “flea market chic,” the ambiance at Covell is a polished yet rustic blend, illuminated by waxy candles and serenaded by a low-fi soundtrack, evoking an intimate gathering. The wine list spans the color spectrum, offering gems by the glass. For an adventurous twist, cozy up to the bar and request an off-menu surprise from the bartender—an experience bound to etch a lasting impression.

Dudley Market

Venice

Quality eateries and watering holes down in Venice are a fairly recent plot twist. Dudley Market is one of them, a wine and oyster bar hybrid within sight of the beach (and even further from the rather unsightly Venice skatepark crowd). Their specialty? Sustainable seafood, sourced daily by the staff on the restaurant’s own fishing boat. As the sun sets over the ocean and the day comes to a close, it’s a wonderful place to be, with a crisp local orange wine in hand, on the sprawling terrace.

Service is nonchalant at best, with waiters seemingly more interested in getting their friends in than actually serving wine. But hey, it’s LA.

Ronan

Hollywood

Now, I know Ronan isn’t strictly a wine bar—it’s a pizzeria. But let me tell you, they’ve mastered the art of pairing absolutely fabulous wines with equally fabulous food, and it’d be criminal to overlook them on this list. Whether you’re sinking your teeth into a slice or savoring a sip, Ronan’s got your back with fantastic recommendations, often from independent California producers with a strong ethos.

And here’s a pro tip: If you’re all about the vino, mark your calendar for their weekly “Women in Wine Wednesdays” where bottles from female winemakers are a steal at 30% off.

Other interesting natural wine bars in Los Angeles

The post 12 natural wine bars in Los Angeles for a taste of California appeared first on To Europe And Beyond.

The Ultimate Iceland Itinerary: 7 Days in Paradise

Norbert Figueroa — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 18:38:29 +0000

Iceland is easily one of the most captivating destinations ever, and it’s the type of place that will have you coming back more than once. And if you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a perfectly curated 7-day Iceland itinerary.

A place that’s definitely not shy to show off its natural beauty while demonstrating an untamed attitude towards the elements, Iceland is a powerhouse. One of the best ways to experience it all is on a road trip around the country.

But how do you spend a week in Iceland and see everything?

To some, it’s impossible, and to others, it’s an easy adventure. With this Iceland trip itinerary, you’re in excellent hands, and you can rest assured that you won’t miss a beat as you explore this majestic country. From seeing the northern lights to diving into the famous Blue Lagoon, visiting Iceland is unlike anything else.

So let’s get going, then.

How to Get to Iceland

Now, before getting to what you’ll be doing on your road trip, getting to Iceland will be the very first entry in your to-do list. Luckily, getting there isn’t difficult at all and is super easy if you’re traveling from Europe or North America.

If you’re coming from Europe, you’ll find that most major cities, such as London, Milan, Amsterdam, and Paris, all have direct flights to Iceland.

However, if you’re flying from the United States, direct flights are only available from Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Washington DC, New York, Newark, Providence, and Boston. If you are flying from Canada, Icelandair operates one daily non-stop flight from Vancouver and Toronto.

I usually find the cheapest flights when using Skyscanner and Kayak.

Traveling Around Iceland

While there is more than one way to travel around Iceland, such as a guided tour, the best way to go about an Iceland trip is by renting a car. For the best car rental prices, I recommend checking DiscoverCars.com and RentalCars.com.

Renting a car will give you the right amount of flexibility and freedom to go, do, and see whatever you want.

Driving in Iceland is widely considered a must-do experience, and if you’re looking for an adventure, it’s the perfect way to tackle one week in Iceland.

Having said that, visiting Iceland on a road trip might not be for everyone, and in that case, you should consider joining organized tours or, better yet, multi-day tours. This is ideal if you want some structure to your trip without worrying about road trip logistics.

But don’t worry, I also got you covered. Throughout the itinerary, I also recommend a series of day tours you can do from Reykjavik to see most, if not all, of the most beautiful and essential sights.

When to Visit Iceland

Finally, you’ll need to decide when to visit Iceland; for most, this is one of the most challenging parts of planning their road trip.

It’s important to know that Iceland is very much dictated by its seasons, and choosing the wrong one can make your trip less than memorable. Spring (March to Early June) and fall (Late August to October) are not necessarily the best times to travel to the country, as weather patterns are highly unpredictable, but they are also not the worst either.

I’ve traveled to Iceland several times during August and September and have had a great time there. Just a bit more of a moody weather, but that’s typical Iceland!

Summer, particularly from the last week of June to the second week of August, is the best time to visit Iceland, as the weather is mild and sunny. Remember that most people visit Iceland during the summer months, so expect a lot more crowds and higher prices.

If you want to see the northern lights, the best time to visit Iceland is during winter (November to March). But these months also feature some of the country’s harshest and heaviest snows and winds yearly. I’ve had luck seeing the northern lights as early as September, but you have better chances of seeing them deeper into the winter.

7 Days in Iceland | The Perfect Iceland Road Trip

It’s time to head out on what is going to be the best road trip you’ve ever been on. From the highlights of Iceland’s southern coast to the standout attractions of the country’s interior, let’s get going on this ultimate Iceland travel itinerary.

Day 1 – Keflavik, Blue Lagoon & Reykjavik

Regardless of where you’re traveling from, your trip to Iceland will begin with your arrival at Keflavik International Airport (KEF), about an hour from the capital city of Reykjavik.

Before heading for the welcoming arms of your hotel room, take a slight detour to the world-famous Blue Lagoon. It’s luckily not far from the airport, and if you haven’t rented a car yet, there are shuttle services that run from there to the city center.

The Blue Lagoon is one of those places you’ll either love or loathe. This geothermal hot spring is hands down one of the most popular attractions in the country and a definite must for any worthwhile trip to Iceland. Remember that with this popularity comes large crowds, so it’s essential to book your entry ticket in advance.

When you’ve had your fill of the famous hot spring, make your way to Reykjavik, roughly 45 minutes away. Sitting on the south-western side of the country, it’s ideally located to use as a base for venturing out into the rest of Iceland. After checking in to your hotel, spend the rest of your first day in Iceland roaming the city streets.

While there is abundant culture, cuisine, and history to discover in the city, time is not your friend. To see some of the most striking urban scenes and some amazing scenery, visit Reykjavik harbor and its waterfront as part of a walking tour. If you’re after a whale-watching tour, they depart from the port.

If you’re not keen on a walking tour of the city, there are at least some sights and attractions you should add to your one-week itinerary, including the iconic Hallgrímskirkja Church, which is the tallest of its kind in the entire country, and it’s open to the public every day.

Also, visit the Harpa Concert Hall and the Sun Voyager sculpture, and walk along Laugavegur Street, which is the main commercial and pedestrian street in the city.

As the day draws to a close, it’s time to dive into the foodie scene of Reykjavik, and a lot is waiting. You can either participate in a Reykjavik food tour, ensuring you don’t miss any Icelandic delicacy, or head to popular spots like Bastard Brew & Food or BrewDog in the downtown area for a more casual meal.

Day 2 – Wander the Snaefellsnes Peninsula

On the second day of your Iceland road trip, you’ll head out of Reykjavik bright and early to one of the world’s most stunning and renowned landscapes in the country. Easily accessible from the capital city lies the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, which is roughly a 2:30-hour drive away.

If you’ve rented a car, this day trip will be easy, but if you didn’t opt for a rental, you can always experience the peninsula on this day tour from Reykjavik.

Heading out into the peninsula, your first pitstop should be the Snaefellsjokull National Park. A standout attraction, this vast national park has it all, from idyllic coves to a dramatic black sand beach.

Of course, the star of the show, and where you should take as many photos as possible, is the Snaefellsjӧkull glacier.

Other highlights to look out for include the Saxholl Crater, the Rauðfeldsgjá Gorge (bring water shoes!), Gatklettur, and the famous black sand beaches of Djúpalónssandur.

After leaving the park, visit the Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall, one of the world’s most photographed and famous waterfalls, so don’t miss the chance for an epic selfie or two.

And, of course, don’t miss including the iconic Kirkjufell mountain behind it. This unique mountain with a cylindrical shape is also a popular spot for seeing the northern lights. Trust me, from experience, the northern lights seen from here look incredible!

Additionally, depending on how much time and energy you have, you can also hike to the top of Kirkjufell. But, be aware that this is a challenging hike that will take at least three hours, but the views from up there are incredible!

After you’re done with the peninsula, head to Borgarnes to spend the night there. Borgarnes is a scenic town located just before entering the peninsula, and as one of the bigger towns around, there are plenty of accommodation options.

If you’re looking for some relaxation, remember that most places like this have a public swimming pool with geothermal water. They’re a great alternative to the Blue Lagoon, which is often crowded and expensive.

Day 3 – The Golden Circle

As one of the most popular destinations in Iceland, second only to the Blue Lagoon, the Golden Circle might be exceptionally touristy, but it’s worth it. Start day three of this Iceland road trip itinerary with a traditional Icelandic breakfast, and prepare for an incredible day.

It’s not hard to understand why the Golden Circle is such a show-stopping attraction when you think of all the natural landmarks it features. Combined with its proximity to Reykjavik and the abundance of Golden Circle tours departing from the city daily, it’s impossible not to love it.

Considering you can tackle the Golden Circle on a day tour from the capital, you can also spend the night in the circle. The Ion Adventure Hotel is a fantastic choice.

There aren’t many stops on this Iceland itinerary that can be considered non-negotiable, except for one – Thingvellir National Park. Make this the first target for the day and get here earlier rather than later. The national park has dozens of waterfalls, old churches, and Icelandic ruins.

And, of course, it’s also the only place on Earth where you can walk and snorkel between two different tectonic plates – the mid-Atlantic rifts. In theory, you are between two continents!

While Thingvellir National Park showcases gorgeous landscapes and numerous hiking trails, you can also try snorkeling in the Silfra. After all the driving, being able to head underwater might be precisely what you need. To make it even more convenient, book this Silfra snorkel tour. If you’re a diver, you can do this tour instead.

Note: If you decide to dive or snorkel, consider that it will take half of your day, which means you won’t be able to explore some of the other Golden Circle areas unless you’re fine having a really long day.

An easy addition to your week in Iceland itinerary is your next stop after Thingvellir National Park, the Geysir Geothermal Area. The region surrounding Geysir brims with restaurants, tourist shops, and, of course, a namesake Geysir.

Parking is free of charge, and finding a spot should be easy. After parking, head for the Geysir view area, where you’ll witness an eruption of water sprays and steam every few minutes.

After Geysir, head to your next landmark – Gullfoss Waterfall.

Nothing can quite prepare you for the scenery at Gullfoss Waterfall, and, unsurprisingly, it’s one of the world’s most famous waterfalls. Beyond its sheer size, the chance of spotting a 360° rainbow courtesy of the water spray resting over the golden-hued rock formations is incredible during the summer months.

Don’t call it a day before visiting some of the other famed locations along the Golden Circle. Visit Kerid Crater, where you can walk the loop around the edge or descend into the volcanic crater as part of a hiking trail. Remember that you’ll need to pay $2 for parking here (roughly 400 ISK), but it’s a great detour after the Gullfoss Waterfall.

There are also some geothermal hot springs that you can add to your Iceland road trip itinerary, the two most noteworthy being Secret Lagoon and Laugarvatn Fontana. And if you have a sweet tooth, grab some ice cream from Efstidalur, a sustainable dairy farm close to He

A detailed 21-day Japan itinerary

Marie-Eve — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 21:08:00 +0000

When travel is concerned, I firmly believe that you should always, always stay in a place at least as long as it took to get there—especially when that place is halfway across the world. You’ve got to make it worth your while! With that in mind and with 19 hours of transit ahead of me, I set out to put together my three-week Japan itinerary which, as a first timer in the land of the rising sun, would take me to all the main sights.

From Edo-era castles to metropolises, from shogun villages to iconic volcanoes, and from tranquil temples to surprising wildlife, here’s what I did in the space of three weeks.

TOKYO // 4 days

Sensōji Temple

Sensōji market

Crossing Shibuya

Crossing River Sumida

With most flights landing into Narita airport, it only made sense to spend a little time in the Japanese capital; plus, it’s the kind of mega city you’ve just got to be in to fully grasp its tremendous size and significance. Nevertheless, I was hesitant about spending too much time in Tokyo, however fascinating it may be, as I wanted to cover as much ground as possible.

Regardless of how much or how little time I was in Tokyo for, I simply would not forego drinks at New York Bar atop the iconic Park Hyatt: totally worth the expense, the best possible way to conclude (or begin!) this epic Japanese odyssey. This is where they filmed Lost in Translation.

Useful tip: if you’re budget-strapped, skip the prohibitively expensive observation deck fees and go to Sky Tree East Tower instead where you get can to the 31st floor free of charge; not quite as high, but still impressive (see city view photo above).

Where I stayed in Tokyo

Millennium Mitsui Garden Hotel Tokyo

Tokyo guided tours & day trips:

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japan travel tips

Everything you need to know about the Japan Rail Pass

NIKKO // 1 day

Nikko Temple

The small city of Nikko is located in a mountainous area north of Tokyo called the Tochigi Prefecture, and is home to some of the most famous and esteemed shrines in the country: UNESCO World Heritage Site of Toshogu Shrine, erected in 1617 to commemorate the founding ruler of the Tokugawa shogunate and ultimate feudal military government, Tokugawa Ieyasu. It’s a stretch on any typical Japan Itinerary but it’s well worth the trip.

Here, you will find luxuriant woodlands with rows and rows of stone lanterns, occasionally dotted with vermillion gates. A truly spiritual and grandiose place and one of the most popular day trips from Tokyo, although it is possible to stay overnight.

Where I stayed in Nikko

Okunoin Hotel Tokugawa

Day trips to Nikko

Morning hike and birdwatching around Nikko Toshogu Shrine

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Japan travel tips

First time in Japan: 11 things that surprised me

MOUNT FUJI // 1 day

Fuji-san

Located right outside Tokyo, the majestic mountain is one of the most popular day trip destinations in the area. Rightfully so; the stratovolcano is Japan’s highest peak at 12,389 feet tall as well as both a Special Place of Scenic Beauty (a great page to bookmark if you want to hit Japan’s prettiest sights, by the way) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The easiest and most cost-efficient way to admire Fujisan is by sitting on the right-hand side of the shinkansen travelling between Tokyo and Kyoto. The mountain majestically soars into the picture about 45 minutes into the journey.

Day trips to Mount Fuji

Many tour operators offer day trips to the sacred mountain; should you wish to travel to Mount Fuji independently, note that hiking trails are only officially open in July and August. You can also book this VIP experience in Mount Fuji with local priests.

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kyoto travel tips

Things to do in Kyoto: highlights for first-time visitors

KYOTO // 5 days

New York City, a vibrant metropolis known for its fashion and diverse culture, is also a goldmine for thrift lovers. Whether you’re a vintage lover, an eco-conscious shopper, or just on the hunt for a unique piece, NYC’s thrift shops have something for everyone. Explore some of the best thrift shops in New York City, each with its own unique charm and one-of-a-kind finds.

Artists & Fleas

Neighborhood: Various Locations including Williamsburg and Chelsea

Artists & Fleas is a vibrant marketplace that brings together artisans and vintage enthusiasts. With locations in Williamsburg and Chelsea, this isn’t your typical thrift store. It’s a community where local artists, designers, and vintage curators come together to showcase their creations. Expect to find a mix of handmade jewelry, vintage clothing, and unique arts and crafts that reflect the diverse and creative spirit of New York City.

East Village Vintage Collective

Neighborhood: East Village

Nestled in the heart of the East Village, this is a haven for vintage lovers. The store is known for its carefully curated collection of non-gender-specific vintage clothing and accessories from the 1960s to the 1990s spread over two floors. The friendly staff and the store’s commitment to sustainability make it a favorite among locals. You can find everything from retro tees and classic denim to vintage dresses and one-of-a-kind statement pieces. In fact, many NYC-based television stylists and costume designers shop here for various productions!

One thing to note is that in-store prices are even lower than online because they don’t have to include shipping.

Thrift NYC 84th Street

Neighborhood: Upper East Side

Thrift NYC 84th Street is a hidden gem on the Upper East Side. This thrift store offers a wide range of clothing, accessories and home goods at affordable prices. Known for its organized layout and quality selection, it’s a great spot for those looking to find designer pieces without the designer price tag. The shop’s wares are sourced from a mix of donations and the owner’s weekend visits to estate sales and flea markets.

The store also gives back to the community by donating proceeds to local charities.

Awoke Vintage

Neighborhood: Williamsburg and greenpoint

Awoke Vintage’s three locations across Brooklyn are a must-visit for any thrift shop aficionado. This store offers an eclectic mix of vintage and contemporary secondhand clothing, with an expertise in vintage denim. The prices range from $5-per-item bins to curated designer pieces.

Take your eco-conscious journey a tad further by getting their Insta-famous bubblegum pink totebag to carry your purchases! Definitely one of the top finds as far as best thrift shops in New York City are concerned.

Stella Dallas Living

Neighborhood: Williamsburg

Located in Williamsburg, Stella Dallas Living is known for its exceptional collection of vintage home goods and textiles. From antique linens and lace to vintage kitchenware and décor, this store is perfect for those looking to invest in quality vintage piece and add charm to their homes.

Plus, there’s a shop dop to welcome you in.

Brooklyn Flea

Neighborhood: DUMBO

Located in the quaint neighborhood of DUMBO, the Brooklyn Flea is more than just a thrift shop – it’s an experience. This outdoor market, open on weekends, features a wide variety of vendors selling vintage clothing, furniture, antiques and handmade goods. The stunning backdrop of the Manhattan skyline adds to the allure, making it a popular destination for locals and tourists alike.

Front General Store

Neighborhood: DUMBO

Front General Store, also in DUMBO, is a well-curated store known for its eclectic mix of local brands and restored vintage treasures. The store’s selection ranges from classic Americana to rare Japanese pieces, and from fine jewelry to quirky trinkets. This isn’t the kind of store where you walk out with a haul, but rather with a piece (maybe two, tops!) that you’ll keep in your life forever.

Thea Grant

Neighborhood: DUMBO

Welcome to what is perhaps the most intensely curated and best thrift shops in New York City! This is a boutique that stands out for its exquisite collection of vintage jewelry and accessories. Specializing in pieces from the Victorian era to the 1980s, this shop is a haven for those seeking unique and elegant jewelry. Thea Grant also offers custom design services, allowing customers to create their own one-of-a-kind pieces.

The post Discover the best thrift shops in New York City appeared first on To Europe And Beyond.

The 25 Best 4th of July Cruises in NYC 2024 – The Ultimate Guide

Steffen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:11:17 +0000

If you’re spending the 4th of July in New York, a fireworks cruise may be the best way to celebrate it. NYC’s 4th of July cruises guarantee you a relaxed evening with unobstructed views of the fireworks. No need to go through the hassle of securing a spot in the crowded areas.

Are you in a hurry? Here you can

The TOP 13 Things to Do on Father’s Day in NYC in 2024

Steffen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:11:17 +0000

With all New York City has to offer, there’s no better way to celebrate the father in your life than by treating him to a day dedicated to Dad in NYC!

What is Father’s Day?

Father’s Day is an annual American holiday celebrating fathers, fathering, and fatherhood. Proposed in 1909 as a companion holiday to Mother’s Day, it took more than 50 years for it to become officially recognized when it was first the subject of a presidential proclamation by Lyndon Johnson in 1966 and then signed into law as a permanent national holiday by Richard Nixon in 1972.

Since the mid-1980s, it has been widely accepted and embraced to the point that it was even called a “Second Christmas for all the men’s gift-oriented industries.”

Beyond giving gifts, it’s an opportunity to spend time with the father or father figure in our lives, share in some of his favorite activities, and spend time together.

When is Father’s Day 2024?

Father’s Day is commemorated each year on the third Sunday of June. In 2024, Father’s Day will be held on Sunday, June 16th.

Where to Take Your Dad on Father’s Day In New York

Here are some of our favorite ideas that are sure to please dads of all ages!

01

Invite your Dad to dinner with a view

Building in Financial District
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Invite your dad for dinner in a very special atmosphere! One World Trade Center has a special offer for Father’s Day: a delicious 2-course menu and a free drink for every dad! You can choose one of four different dishes for each of the starters and main courses. Admission to the One World Observatory is included in the ticket price.

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02

Get Active!

Pier in Dumbo

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Take your dad out for a kayak ride on the Hudson River for a fresh take on New York. Great for a first-time lesson or a seasoned paddler, this is a whole new way to see the city. Plus, it’s perfect for the summer weather!

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03

Enjoy one of the best views of Lower Manhattan!

Cruise in Lower Manhattan
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The Honorable William Wall, affectionately called “Willy Wall”, is the floating clubhouse of the Manhattan Yacht Club. The clubhouse is anchored in New York Harbor north of Ellis Island from May to October. What is so special about it? It’s definitely an insider’s spot, which not only gives you a great view of Ellis Island and of course the Statue of Liberty – you can also enjoy the sunset from here.

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04

Get Hands On!

Museum in Upper West Side

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For dads of youngsters, spending the morning at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan can be an interactive way to bond. And isn’t that what Father’s Day is all about?

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05

Go for the Green!

Pier in Tribeca

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Nothing says dad like a little bit of golf time. This mini golf course at Pier 25 in Hudson River Park is a great way to hit the links without leaving the city. And the best part? You’re looking at the skyline of Lower Manhattan with the One World Trade Center towering over everything.

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06

Go Wild!

Other Attraction in Bronx

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How To Celebrate Mother’s Day in NYC

Steffen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:11:17 +0000

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, so now is the time to begin thinking of how you’ll celebrate that remarkable woman in your life. Regardless if you live in New York City or are just visiting over the holiday, fun is never too far away.

When is Mother’s Day 2024?

From recreational activities and dinner cruises to world-class dining, New York City has it all! And while your mother should be celebrated all year, Sunday, May 12, 2024, is the perfect opportunity to celebrate her! Here are our top picks for things to do for Mother’s Day in NYC.

What To Do For Mother’s Day in NYC

01

Sail on an NYC Cruise

Cruise in Chelsea
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What better way to spend Mother’s Day in NYC than sailing around the Harbor? She’ll know you put in the effort with a lazy afternoon brunch cruise or dinner and a show aboard a luxury yacht dipping under the horizon past the Statue of Liberty.

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02

Let Her Shop 'Til She Drops

Other Shopping in Midtown Manhattan

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This is an excellent option for a mother-daughter day, as there’s nothing better to bond over than shopping! From Bloomingdales and Barneys to Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, spend the day browsing NYC’s most luxurious stores and see what their spring collections have to offer.

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03

Go To A Ball Game

Sport Events in Concourse

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Is your mom a sports fan? Take her out to a ball game; just don’t forget the peanuts and crackerjack! Ball games can be great places to spend quality time, so she’ll enjoy herself and never forget the day. And with baseball season finally, in swing, the New York Yankees will be at home playing the Texas Rangers all weekend.

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04

Enjoy breathtaking views of New York

Other Attraction in Dumbo
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The only problem with this beautiful view of the NYC skyline? It just happens to be interrupted by NYC’s only rooftop vineyard!

Located in Brooklyn, Rooftop Reds is actually the world’s first commercially viable urban rooftop vineyard. That means in addition to getting a wide-open view of the NYC skyline, you’re also supporting one of the most innovative wine projects in NYC.

And what would a glass of wine be without a great pairing? Rooftop Reds has this covered with a wide selection of gourmet cheeses to start the meal, then a partnership with nearby pizzeria Il Porto. If you’ve got a bold wine, pair it with Al Diavolo Pizza for a spice-forward blend.

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05

Smell the Flowers

Park in Flushing

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Head on over to the Queens Botanical Garden to check out their floral patch. This gives you a unique opportunity to view custom garden and floral installations. Not only are you immersed in the environment, but it’s an excellent place to capture beautiful photos. Your mom can even take home her very own pot of flowers and a grab-and-go floral-themed craft kit. Book your tickets in advance.

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06

Spend the day at Little Island

Other Attraction in Meatpacking District

Shakespeare in the Park 2024 – The Complete Guide

Steffen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:11:17 +0000

In the summer there are not only great free concerts or cinema events in the parks of New York. For theater lovers, the Free Shakespeare in the Park event is a perfect option! Plays by William Shakespeare are shown open air in the middle of Central Park at the Delacorte Theater. You should not miss this event in New York!

The event is very popular with New Yorkers and tourists, so it’s hard to get tickets – even though Shakespeare in the Park is free. Here you can find out all the important information about Shakespeare in the Park and how to get your tickets.

Changes for Shakespeare in the Park 2024

This year, Shakespeare in the Park will not take place at the Delacorte Theater, as the theater is currently undergoing the largest renovation in its 62-year history. The reopening is planned for summer 2025.

As a replacement, the Public Theater, under the direction of Oskar Eustis and Patrick Willingham, is offering the free “GO PUBLIC!” program. This festival includes free Shakespeare performances in all five boroughs as well as other summer programs. “GO PUBLIC!” presents The Mobile Unit’s lighthearted, bilingual musical adaptation of “The Comedy of Errors” and also features the acclaimed 2019 production of “Much Ado About Nothing” on screens across the city.

In addition, there are further opportunities to experience the performances at home. The Comedy of Errors will be performed in collaboration with Bryant Park in all boroughs, including Hudson Yards and in front of the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

What is Shakespeare in the Park?

The Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park is a summer theater event in New York that features plays by William Shakespeare on the open-air stage of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. These outdoor events have been around for more than 60 years; Joseph Papp created them in 1962.

Shakespeare in the Park is a free event!

The free performances are very popular with New Yorkers during the summer. In the past, celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Philip Seymour Hoffman, George C. Scott and Denzel Washington have participated in the events.

The Delacorte Theater in Central Park

Where do I find Shakespeare in the Park?

Shakespeare in the Park is shown at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The theater is located quite centrally in the park near Turtle Pond. The Museum of Natural History is also nearby.

You can take the B or C subway lines to the 81 Street-Museum of Natural History Station or take the line 6 to the 77 Street station and then walk to the Delacorte Theater.

What is being performed?

Last year there was only one play: Hamlet was performed on the open-air stage. It was directed by Kenny Leon and the main role was played by Ato Blankson-Wood.

When does Shakespeare in the Park take place in 2024?

Usually Shakespeare in the Park takes place from June to August.

Where can I get tickets?

Although this event is free, you will need tickets for the performances.
There is a fixed amount of tickets that will be given out for the event. So the sooner you take care of the tickets, the higher the probability that you will get some.

You have several options to get tickets for Shakespeare in the Park:

1. In Central Park at the Delacorte Theater

On the day of the show, tickets will be distributed starting at 12 p.m. in front of the Delacorte Theater. The motto is: first come, first serve! So you should get there VERY EARLY because tickets are extremely popular!
Before you get in line, you must register for a Public Theater Patron ID.

2. The digital lottery

On each day of a performance, tickets will be given away randomly through the TodayTix app. You can enter the lottery for one or two tickets between midnight and noon each day. If you win, you will be notified by 3 p.m. and then have 30 minutes to confirm your tickets on the app. You can then pick up your tickets at the Delacorte Theater between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Make sure to be on time or your tickets will be reassigned!

3. In-person lottery at the Public Theater

Every show day there is an in-person lottery at the Public Theater in Downtown Manhattan. You can register from 11am and the winners will be drawn at 12pm. If you win, you will receive two vouchers that you can exchange for tickets at the Delacorte Theater between 5:30 and 7:30 pm. Again, be on time or tickets will be passed on!

4. The standby line

Every performance night there is a standby line for tickets that were won in the lottery and not picked up. With a lot of luck you can get your tickets. The number of tickets varies and there is a maximum of two tickets per person! Make sure you get your place in the queue in time. For this option you also have to register for a Public Theater ID in advance.

When is the best time to go?

If you have the opportunity, choose an event in the first week. The demand will be higher after that, when the first reviews are published.

Another possibility for higher ticket chances are days for which bad weather is predicted. The Public Theater doesn’t like to cancel performances, that’s why shows take place even in light drizzle. If it rains harder, performances may be interrupted. Pack a rain jacket or take a rain poncho, as umbrellas are not allowed.
Important to know: You cannot exchange tickets for events on rainy days.

Der Beitrag Shakespeare in the Park 2024 – The Complete Guide erschien zuerst auf Loving New York.

New York Deals

Steffen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:11:17 +0000

On this page you will find the latest offers and deals around New York. I myself am always on the lookout for discount offers or cheap hotels and flights – we show you our results on this page!

Current offers on the New York City Passes

If you don’t know them yet, check them out here (you’ll save a lot of money on 100+ attractions in NYC):

New York Pass: Save up to 37%

With the most popular day-based pass, you can now save an additional 10% with my discount code “LOVINGNYP10”.

Attention: this is only valid until 5 May 2024!

To the New York Pass deal

Explorer Pass: save up to 34%

This pass is my favourite of the attraction-based passes for New York because, compared to the FLEX Pass, it also includes the Statue of Liberty.

Code GO5LOVING

To the Explorer Pass offer

DAY Pass: save up to 30%

I also have a discount code for the provider SightseeingPass. Visit 100% attractions, 4 observation decks and more!

Code LNYOffer

Sightseeing DAY Pass

FLEX Pass: save up to 30%

The FLEX Pass is the alternative to the Explorer Pass and is a great way to save on sightseeing in the city.

Code LNYOffer

Sightseeing FLEX Pass

Cheap hotels in New York

I’m often asked which hotels I can recommend without breaking the travel budget. Here they are, my low budget favourites in New York – they are centrally located, good and cheap by New York standards. I’ve stayed in almost all of them myself and can only recommend them to you!

Budget hotels in Midtown Manhattan

Leo House *** (at the Flatiron Building)
YOTEL Hotel **** (in Times Square & with roof terrace)
POD 51 *** (the last two hotels show that good design and fair prices are not mutually exclusive)

Favourable hotels in Lower Manhattan

The Cloud One New York-Downtown **** (at the 9/11 Memorial)
Madison LES Hotel ***
The Ridge Hotel *** (with roof terrace)
Wall Street Inn ***
Eurostars Wall Street ****

My tip: you can even cancel these hotels at very short notice free of charge!

Deals on travel equipment and accessories

I love the suitcases from Horizn – I even had mine labelled with Loving New York! Here you can get 50% off on many of the great suitcases and travel bags.

Der Beitrag New York Deals erschien zuerst auf Loving New York.

Frieze Art Fair New York

Steffen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:11:17 +0000

For art enthusiasts, one of the best things to do in spring in NYC is attending Frieze New York. It’s hosted on The Shed at Hudson Yards and features works from over 1,000 artists and 200 international galleries.

There are many other fun things to do at the festival as well, such as sitting in on one of the famous panel discussions, soaking in the breathtaking views of The Vessel, and most importantly – immersing yourself in many imaginative outdoor and indoor projects.

Photo by Casey Kelbaugh. Courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh/Frieze

Impressions of the Frieze Art Fair in New York

When is the next Frieze Art Fair in New York?

The next Frieze Art Fair in New York will take place from May 1 to 5, 2024.

Where will the art exhibition be held in New York?

This year the Frieze Art Fair will be held in the beautiful and really impressive The Shed in Hudson Yards.

What can you do after the visit?

I love walking from Hudson Yards towards Chelsea with its Gallery District and Meatpacking District. The most beautiful way to do this is to walk along the High Line!

Der Beitrag Frieze Art Fair New York erschien zuerst auf Loving New York.

The 50 Best Things To Do In New York In July 2024

Steffen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:11:17 +0000

July is among the hottest months in New York City meaning that walking through the large concrete jungle can become very hot and sticky. A great alternative is to use NYC’s many bike paths along the East or Hudson Rivers where you will always be greeted by a small breeze. However, New York City in July is absolutely beautiful and is a great time to see the city alive and in its full glory.

Check out our list of favorite concerts, events, and other things to do in NYC in July. And don’t forget to read our complete guide to Summer in NYC here.

If you are looking for a shortcut: These are the

12 Exciting and Affordable Activities to Experience in New York City this May

Steffen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:11:17 +0000

May is finally here, bringing with it longer days, warmer weather, and a plethora of exciting opportunities to explore the lively city of New York without overspending.

1. Revel in a Nature Walk at Central Park

2. Enjoy Cinco de Mayo Festivities

My tip: check out our guide to Cinco de Mayo in NYC

3. Dive into the Kentucky Derby Extravaganza

4. Enjoy Asian Comedy at its Best

5. Join the Mayday Festival of Resistance

6. Immerse Yourself in the Japan Parade

7. Prioritize Self-Care at the Sound Mind Music Festival

8. Celebrate Spring at Brooklyn Bridge Park

9. Enjoy Live Music in Greenwich Village

10. Indulge in Visual Arts and Film at Satellite Tribeca

11. Gallery Hop on a Thursday Evening

12. Celebrate Lenape Cultural Heritage

Der Beitrag 12 Exciting and Affordable Activities to Experience in New York City this May erschien zuerst auf Loving New York.