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Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 6: New Vaccine Could Protect Against Future Coronaviruses, White House Vaccine Campaign Saved 50,000 Lives

Jonathan Spira — Mon, 06 May 2024 21:59:43 +0000

A patient registering for Covid-19 testing at LaGuardia Airport in N.Y.

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 1,517th day.

In news we cover today, a public awareness campaign created by the Biden White House in 2021 saved over 50,000 lives, a new vaccine developed at the University of Cambridge can protect against future coronaviruses, and, four years ago to this day, then President Trump publicly blamed China for the pandemic, which he termed “the worst attack we’ve ever had on our country.”

TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY

On May 6, 2020, the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “[]There can be no going back to business as usual” even when pandemic ends.”

In the United Kingdom, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that his government would end its stay-at-home advice as part of the plan to gradually ease pandemic restrictions. The prime minister informed members of parliament earlier in the day of his plans.

In Washington, D.C. then President Trump said that China could have stopped the global coronavirus pandemic, and called the spread of the virus “the worst attack we’ve ever had on our country.”

Speaking from the Oval Office, the president went on to say, “This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center. There’s never been an attack like this.”

Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.76 million, of which 1.26 million hadrecovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 259,496. In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases was 1.24 million, while the death toll stood at 72,381.

LONG COVID

At the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, which is taking place this weekend in New York City, there were two sessions focused on Long Covid. The first, entitled Assessment and Management of Long Covid in the Outpatient Setting: Clinical Recommendations From the APA Council on Consult-Liaison Psychiatry, the presenters covered a wide range of topics including education on the various neuropsychiatric presentations psychiatrists may see in an outpatient setting and recommended screening tools and interventions. They also reviewed figures and tables on screeners and treatments for each cluster of symptoms.

The second session, Long Covid and Longer Term Effects of Covid 19 : What Every Psychiatrist Should Know, will take place on Monday and is an interactive and interdisciplinary panel session that will attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the biopsychosocial aspects of Long Covid.

UNITED STATES

A new study found that a 2021 public awareness campaign launched by the Biden Administration in 2021 succeeded in saving more than 50,000 lives.

The study, published in the Journal of Health Communications, examined the April 2021 “We Can Do This” campaign designed to increase public confidence in coronavirus vaccines. The study also found that the campaign prevented hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and millions of additional SARS-CoV-2 cases, which also saved the United States hundreds of billions of dollars in less than one year.

As reported in our Pandemic Statistics section in this issue, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that just 5,098 individuals were hospitalized in the United States due to the SARS-CoV-2 in the week ending April 27, the most recent data available. That figure is far below the 150,650 who were hospitalized the week of January 15, 2022 during the peak of the omicron wave.

Razer, the company that sold a supposed N95 equivalent face mask in 2001 called the Zephyr, was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to pay customers over $1 million in refunds for falsely advertising its garish, bizarre-looking mask, as well as $100,000 in fines and penalties.

While the company advertised the Zephyr masks as N95-grade, it never submitted them for testing to the FDA or National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the masks were never certified as N95.

GLOBAL PANDEMIC NEWS

Scientists at Cambridge University have created a vaccine that has the potential to protect against a broad range of coronaviruses, including varieties that haven’t yet been discovered or don’t even exist yet.

The new vaccine i spart of a shift towards what virologists term “proactive vaccinology,” whereby vaccines are designed and readied for manufacture before a major virus emerges. It works by training the body’s immune system to target proteins that are shared across many different types of coronaviruses and works by attaching harmless proteins from these different coronaviruses to minuscule nanoparticles that are then injected to prime the body’s defenses to fight an invading virus.

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

In California, Long Beach health officials declared a tuberculosis outbreak to be a public health emergency last week. The move came after one person died
and nine others were hospitalized due to the tuberculosis outbreak. The spread appears to have been contained to one single-room occupancy hotel.

A total of 14 people have thus far tested positive for TB, nine of which who have been hospitalized. An additional 170 are believed to have been exposed to the virus. Dr. Anissa Davis, the city’s health officer, said that the health department is working to stop the disease from spreading.

Tuberculosis, also known colloquially as the “white death” as well as “TB” and historically as consumption, is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. TB spreads through the air and particles are inhaled, but it takes long-term exposure to contract the virus. Symptoms can include a chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, chills, night sweats, and weight loss.

In Indonesia, Rakus had a facial wound and used Fibraurea tinctoria, also known as Akar Kuning, a plant with known medical properties, to help heal the wound. There’s nothing unusual about that except Rakus is a wild orangutang.

A paper published in the journal Scientific Reports last week indicates that Rakus knew exactly what he was doing and this appears to be the first report of an animal applying a plant known for healing properties to a wound in order to heal it.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

In the United States, in the week ending April 27, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on May 3 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.0%, a figure that is unchanged from the previous 7-day period, 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 0.3%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -11%.

The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 5,098, a figure that is down 11.1 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.8%, a figure that is essentially unchanged from the previous 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 5,644 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.

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.

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

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)

Global Weather Forecast: Four Inch ‘Giant Hail,’ Long Range Tornadoes, and ‘Most Extreme Event’ in Climate History

Paul Riegler — Mon, 06 May 2024 16:54:09 +0000

Light rain near Times Square at night in New York City

Across the globe, this week’s weather forecasts are largely for severe and extreme weather, meaning it’s business as usual following a month that had been the world’s hottest April, making it the 11th straight record month.

The most severe weather has been in Brazil, where at least 57 people are dead, and hundreds more missing as heavy rain and flooding lashes the country.

Muddy brown waters have risen as high as rooftops in some areas of the country after days of non-stop rain. Rescue teams have had to turn to inflatable rafts on roads that had turned to rivers.

Meanwhile, South and Southeast Asia have already faced scorching hot temperatures

“Thousands of records are being brutalized all over Asia, which is by far the most extreme event in world climatic history,” weather historianMaximiliano Herrera said in a social media post last week.

Just days ago, authorities in Thailand said the heat index Thursday was an “extremely dangerous” 125.6° F (52° C) while in Vietnam, where temperatures passed the 111° F (44° C) mark, the national weather agency warned of the risk of forest fires, dehydration, and heat stroke.

In the United States, the already storm-ravaged Plains will see another outbreak of severe weather, including strong and long-track tornadoes.

“Numerous severe thunderstorms are likely to produce multiple intense, long-track tornadoes, very large to giant hail [2” to 4” (5 cm to 10 cm) in diameter], and damaging winds this afternoon into tonight across parts of the southern/central Plains,” the National Weather Service said in a statement issued Monday morning. “A High Risk (Level 5/5) has been issued. Be prepared to take action quickly if warnings are issued for your area.”

The severe weather in the Americas and Asia comes days after Central Europe saw towns and cities in the Benelux region and western Germany experience heavy rain and flooding as well as multiple hail storms. The weather on the Continent will be calmer this week.

Expect showers across much of Central Europe including in Austria and Hungary, while turning heavier in Switzerland. The forecast calls for unsettled and wet weather across Denmark and the Low Countries. Elsewhere, there will be heavy rain and showers in the Baltic States, and showers in Finland.

In the British Isles, some sun is predicted but heavy showers will develop across most of the United Kingdom today. Several more severe and slow-moving storm systems will bring the odd rumble of thunder.

In the Northeast United States, a high pressure system will shift out to the Atlantic Ocean and as a cold front approaches from the west and passes through Monday night. Weak high pressure returns Tuesday before the front returns as a warm front on Wednesday.

Patchy fog is expected in the region except along the oceanfront and fog may return in the evening before temperatures warm up, with a high Tuesday of 75° F (24° C) along with mostly sunny skies.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Coronavirus Weekend News Brief – May 5: Covid Hospitalizations Hit Record Low, TB Outbreak Causes Public Health Emergency

Jonathan Spira — Sun, 05 May 2024 20:17:45 +0000

The show floor of the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association

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 1,516th day.

In news we cover today, Covid hospitalizations in the United States are at an all-time low, two sessions at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association are tackling Long Covid, and a TB outbreak in Long Beach caused health officials there to declare a public health emergency.

TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY

On May 5, 2020, as the global death toll passed the 250,000 mark, doctors in France said they believed a patient had had the novel Coronavirus in late December 2019 after retesting samples taken at the time. The patient had been originally diagnosed with a case of pneumonia and the diagnosis had been made days before China reported what was then an unknown ailment to the World Health Organization and a month before the virus was originally believed to have emerged in France.

States were beginning to reopen their economies, although the number of cases in the United States was at the timeincreasing daily by 2 to 4%, and the death toll had stubbornly remained over 1,000 for more than a month.

In the United States, pharmaceutical firm Pfizer said it has begun a human trial of a coronavirus vaccine.

The city of Stillwater, Oklahoma, had to walk back a rule that required patrons of shops and restaurants to wear masks after receiving multiple calls reporting threats of violence against restaurant and shop employees trying to enforce the rule, and Hawaii – rather optimistically – said it planned to brand itself as “the safest place on earth” when tourism would restart later in 2020. The state has had a very small number of cases of the novel coronavirus up until this point compared to other states in the union and also a very low fatality rate, however that changed dramatically in the months ahead.

Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.69 million, of which 1.22 million hadrecovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief at the time. The death toll stood at 255,138. In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases stood at 1.22 million, while the death toll stood at 70,727.

LONG COVID

UNITED STATES

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

In California, Long Beach health officials declared a tuberculosis outbreak to be a public health emergency last week. The move came after one person diedand nine others were hospitalized due to the tuberculosis outbreak. The spread appears to have been contained to one single-room occupancy hotel.

A total of 14 people have thus far tested positive for TB, and nine of which who have been hospitalized. An additional 170 are believed to have been exposed to the virus. Dr. Anissa Davis, the city’s health officer, said that the health department is working to stop the disease from spreading.

In Indonesia, Rakus had a facial wound and used Fibraurea tinctoria, also known as Akar Kuning, a plant with known medical properties, to help heal it. There’s nothing unusual about that except Rakus is a wild orangutang.

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?

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

Hal Abrahamson 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)

41 Interesting Unknown Vacation Spots in the USA

Amanda OBrien — Sun, 05 May 2024 08:33:00 +0000

Ready to ditch the crowds, go off the beaten track, and explore some of the best unknown vacation spots in the United States? Then you’ve hit the jackpot! From oddly shaped rocks and mysterious ice caves to rugged shores and quaint villages, these least-visited places in the US are certainly worth a visit.

Unlike the most visited places in the United States, these hidden gems offer you a chance to escape the snaking long queues at attractions and astronomical hotel prices. You’ll also get to uncover underrated state parks, towns, and alpine lakes that you never knew existed in the US.

In this guide, I unpack some of the best-hidden vacation spots in the US and why you should visit them. So stick around if secret small towns, unspoiled beaches, and otherworldly landscapes are your idea of a great vacation.

41 Best Unknown Vacation Spots in the United States

Be it uncrowded ski slopes to spend your next winter vacation or a sunny, sandy beach to get your tan on, these unknown vacation spots in the US have got you covered.

1. Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Photo by Steven Van Elk on Unsplash

Popularly known as the gateway to one of the best national parks on the East Coast, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg is a quaint mountain town waiting to be explored. This city may have a famous neighbor, but there’s much about it that’s been relatively hidden.

For starters, Gatlinburg is one of the most romantic getaways in the southeast, and it’s easy to see why. An aerial cable car ride from downtown gives you sweeping views of the national park, and at the top, you arrive at an all-season recreational and amusement park with lots to do.

Gatlinburg offers some quirky activities you’d love doing with your spouse too, like Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum, a treasure trove of over-the-top displays. While you’re here, take on some of the town’s many hiking trails, zip line rides, and whitewater rafting opportunities.

You can then top it all off with a walk across the Gatlinburg SkyBridge.

2. Stowe, Vermont

Photo by Jeffrey Clayton on Unsplash

When you think of Vermont, what comes to mind first? Is it the world-class ski slopes blanketed with powdery white snow or the scenic rolling mountains dotted with vibrant fall foliage? Well, in Stowe, you get the best of both worlds.

As one of the snowiest cities in the US, Stowe is undeniably a haven for ski lovers, but the town also offers a laid-back countryside experience that you might not be aware of. Smugglers’ Notch State Park offers several hiking trails that lead to serene waterfalls like Bingham Falls, while the Stowe Scenic Auto Road takes you through fascinating dense forests.

Stowe is also a great vacation destination if you appreciate the mastery of craft beverages. The Alchemist Brewery offers guided tours of its brewing facilities and taproom, and the seasonal beer garden is an excellent place to have a cold pint.

3. Door County, Wisconsin

Image by chopstyx on Pixabay

Tucked in a peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan, one of the largest lakes in the United States, Door County is one of Wisconsin’s best-kept secrets.

Its lengthy shoreline, white-washed lighthouses, and a myriad of state parks have earned Door County the title of “Cape Cod of the Midwest”, and I couldn’t agree more.

You’ll have plenty to explore in Door County. From local shops selling artisanal goods to fruit picking at the orchards and going on sea kayaking tours in the caves along the craggy shores, you certainly won’t be bored here.

If you’re in search of tranquillity, look no further than Peninsula State Park, where you’ll find the white-sand Nicolet Beach to swim, bask in the sun, or kayak surrounded by a lush forest.

4. St. Augustine, Florida

Image by Arvid Olson on Pixabay

Located on the northeast coast of Florida, about 45 minutes south of Jacksonville, St. Augustine is the self-declared “oldest city in the United States”, but it’s perhaps one you’ve never heard of. The coastal city is best known for its colonial Spanish architecture, spooky ghost tours, and stunning Atlantic Ocean beaches.

You can easily explore St. Augustine’s top attractions with a hop-on hop-off trolley tour. Along the way, you’ll get a chance to marvel at one of the most historical places in Florida, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, the fortified Castillo de San Marcos, and so much more.

St. Augustine is also where you’ll find one of the best castles in Florida, Casa Monica, where you can marvel at the Spanish Revival and Moorish architecture that set this city apart. If you’re a history buff, consider exploring Potter’s Wax Museum and the gruesome Medieval Torture Museum.

You might enjoy reading my article on the best zoos in the United States.

5. Jekyll Island, Georgia

Photo by Philip Arambula on Unsplash

Here’s a question for you: What do Native Americans, English and French settlers, Spanish Missionaries, and wealthy individuals like J.P. Morgan all have in common? They’ve all been residents of Jekyll Island.

Today, this gorgeous island prides itself on being one of the most preserved areas in the United States. Jekyll Island is characterised by white-sand beaches and bare trees on the shores of Driftwood Beach – a stop worth adding to your itinerary when driving from New York to Florida.

Other exciting things you can get up to in Jekyll Island include taking a dolphin spotting tour and meeting adorable aquatic critters at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. If you’d like to learn more about the island’s heritage, visit the Jekyll Island Historic District to admire local attractions like the Faith Chapel.

6. Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

A beautiful arch – looks like Utah!

If rugged landscapes with red and pink slot canyons, natural arches, and swirling, stripped rock formations are your idea of a perfect vacation, the Valley of Fire State Park is just up your alley.

Located about a 47-minute drive from Sin City, this recreation area is one of the most recommended day tours from Las Vegas.

So, what’s in store for you at Valley of Fire State Park? Numerous hiking trails take you around the Aztec Sandstone formations, scenic drives give you the best vantage points, and ancient petroglyphs take you back in time. I loved my visit to this beautiful national park.

Another must-see in Valley of Fire State Park is the area’s most notable residents – bighorn sheep. Other species of wildlife can be spotted here as well, like coyotes, white-tailed antelope squirrels, and desert tortoises.

7. The Finger Lakes, New York

Photo by Ty Finck on Unsplash

Speckled with breathtaking scenery, tumbling waterfalls, charming wineries, and craft breweries, the Finger Lakes Region of New York is an excellent place for a secluded vacation. Made up of a collection of long, narrow-sized lakes, this region boasts some fascinating gorges, natural pools, and state parks nearby.

The Finger Lakes are among the most beautiful lakes in the United States. They offer you a plethora of outdoor activities along their tributaries, like hiking in the Watkins Glen and Taughannock Falls state parks.

For a bit of indoor fun, head down to the Finger Lakes’ one-of-a-kind museums, like the Corning Museum of Glass, for a lesson in the world of historical glass. If you’re dying for a drink, you’ll be happy to know that the Finger Lakes is home to over 80 breweries to grab a cold pint.

8. Moloka‘i, Hawaii

Photo by Troy Squillaci on Pexels

It’s hard to think that there are any unknown vacation spots in Hawaii, but trust me, there are, and one of them is the lush island of Moloka’i. Located about 76 nautical kilometres from Honolulu, the island is home to the Kalaupapa National Historical Park, a formerly isolated community with a dark history.

You’ll have tons of outdoor adventures below the towering cliff of Moloka’i, from taking leisurely strolls along the vast white-sand beaches to cooling off at waterfalls like the Moa’ula Falls.

Scenic helicopter tours and sunset cruises are also great activities to do, and if you’d like to learn more about the leper colony that existed here, visit the Molokai Museum & Cultural Center.

9. Smith Rock State Park, Oregon

33 Most Visited Places in the United States That Might Surprise You

Amanda OBrien — Sat, 04 May 2024 20:29:00 +0000

It’s no secret that the United States is packed with popular places. From coast to coast, you’ll find a wide variety of sites brimming with excitement. Most of them are world-famous, meaning you’ve probably heard of them before, but you might find a few unfamiliar.

From tourist attractions and historical buildings to US national parks and famous destinations, this roundup of the most visited places in the United States has a little bit of everything.

33 Most Visited Places in the United States

It’s time to take a tour of the most popular places people pay a visit to in the US. How many have you already been to?

1. Times Square, New York

Image from James Ting on Unsplash

Times Square in NYC is one of the most visited destinations in the US -– as well as the whole world. This commercial junction connects Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street (one of the most famous streets in New York) — other very popular areas in the city. It’s an entertainment hub stuffed full of shops, eateries, and theatres.

Times Square is well known for its towering buildings lined with billboards; they illuminate the whole area and dazzle at night. It’s one of the most energetic and beautiful places in NYC.

You might enjoy reading my posts about the Warmest US States in Winter, Warm Places to visit in January in the USA, Warm Winter Getaways in the USA, Most Shark Infested Beaches in the USA, World Heritage Sites in the US, Sunny Places to Visit in the USA ,Snowiest Cities in the United States and tourist attractions on the drive from New York to Florida.

2. Central Park, New York

Image from michal dziekonski on Unsplash

You can’t visit the Big Apple and not see Central Park. This sprawling green space is synonymous with the city, and it’s been that way for a long time. It’s one of the most historical places in NYC. The park opened in 1858, and it’s been attracting outdoor enthusiasts ever since.

The park is bigger than the principality of Monaco. It’s dotted with attractions and facilities. With lakes, ponds, statues, monuments, carriage rides, and thousands of benches, it provides the full park experience. Grab a coffee from a nearby cafe and enjoy a leisurely walk through one of the world’s most famous parks.

3. Niagara Falls, New York

Image from Mohan Nannapaneni on Pexels

Niagara Falls is the name of a city and a vast waterfall that straddles the border of New York state and Canada. It’s one of the most popular cascades in the world, attracting millions of visitors each year.

There are lots of fun ways to explore this outdoor area. If you visit Niagara Falls State Park, you can see the Observation Tower and view the 3 other waterfalls in that area: American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and a section of Horseshoe Falls. There are also trails you can take to different viewpoints. Don’t miss my complete article on how to see Niagara Falls from the United States side.

Tip: To see the falls up close, take a Maid of Mist boat tour.

4. Washington Union Station, Washington D.C.

Image from Caleb Fisher on Unsplash

Washington Union Station is a popular train station and transportation hub located in Washington, D.C. It opened in 1908 and featured elegant architecture with gleaming marble and soaring ceilings.

This building had to undergo major restorations in the 1980s, but the original character of the station was preserved. It’s worth checking out for the architecture and design alone, but if that’s not something you fancy, you can visit countless shops and eateries too.

5. National Mall and Memorial Park, Washington, D.C

Image from Paula Nardini on Pexels

National Mall and Memorial Parks contain many Washington D.C. landmarks. Some of the most popular include the Washington Monument, the World War One Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site.

These attractions represent some of the United States’ most significant events and people. They honour the bravery and sacrifices of those who have served their country. It’s one of the best places to learn about America.

6. White House, Washington D.C.

Image from Aaron Kittredge on Pexels

The White House is one of the world’s most famous landmarks. Located in the nation’s capital, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s the official workplace and residence of the president of the US. It has housed every single commander-in-chief since John Adams took office in 1800.

The construction of this grand building lasted from 1792 to 1800. Although, over the years, it’s gone through quite a few refurbishing and expansion projects.

Fun Fact: The White House contains 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, and 8 staircases.

7. Grand Canyon, Arizona

Image from Ignacio Palés on Pexels

Arizona’s Grand Canyon is one of the most mesmerising products of Mother Nature. This natural formation shows off millions of years of geological history. This Arizona landmark is enormous in scale; it’s even bigger than the entire state of Rhode Island.

Pict

29 Most Beautiful Lakes in the USA You’ll Love

Amanda OBrien — Sat, 04 May 2024 12:22:00 +0000

The United States is home to a whopping three million lakes. So chances are pretty high that you’re no more than a full tank of gas away from a pristine natural wonder.

Granted, the U.S. is often hailed for its spectacular landscapes, from striking red canyons in Utah to the alpine glaciers of Alaska. The most beautiful lakes in the United States offer something quite extraordinary.

Finding these marvellous lakes may be pretty challenging. And that’s why I’ve done all the work for you. With my insights and tips about these stunning lakes, you’ll be visiting some of the most beautiful states in the U.S. and their picturesque lakes in no time.

29 Most Beautiful Lakes in the United States

Ranging from blackwater estuaries surrounded by snow-capped mountains to turquoise lagoons tucked into lush forests, the United States boasts incredible lakes you should see.

With this extensive list of the most stunning lakes in the United States, you can turn a boring weekend into a fun adventure. This includes scenic hiking, camping, swimming, or just admiring the wonder of nature.

So without further ado, let’s dive into this list of 29 stunning lakes in the U.S. that you’ll love.

1. Lake Powell, Utah and Arizona

horseshoe bend

One of the largest man-made lakes in the U.S., this striking natural beauty flows between gorgeous red-orange sandstone cliffs between Utah and Arizona. While the damming of Glen Canyon led to the formation of this lake, the Colorado River made it what it is today.

glen canyon dam

Water sports, fishing, hiking, and the red-sand beaches are some activities that attract millions of visitors to this lake in Arizona each year.

2. Lake George, New York

lake-george

Image by Joel Rollins from Pixabay

Lake George should quickly spring to mind when you think of upstate New York. Nicknamed the “Queen of American Lakes”, this clear-water lake is famous for its lakeside luxe resorts, fine dining, and shopping opportunities.

Spanning over 45 square miles, Lake George sits comfortably in the vast Adirondack Mountain range, which has attracted many visitors to northeastern New York for centuries.

3. Lake Tahoe, California and Nevada

lake-tahoe

Photo by Tim Peterson on Unsplash

Sitting along the California-Nevada border and surrounded by the scenic snow-capped Sierra Nevada peaks, Lake Tahoe is one of the prettiest lakes in the United States.

This gorgeous alpine lake boasts a 75-feet average clarity, which may have you thinking you’re somewhere in the Caribbean.

Lake Tahoe is a year-round destination offering sparkling blue waters for swimming or paddle boarding in summer. And plenty of ski resorts and surrounding national parks for a winter holiday.

4. Lake Havasu, Arizona

lake-havasu

Image by Eric Simon from Pixabay

Arizona landmarks like Lake Havasu often go under the radar. But this pristine turquoise lake is easily one of the most beautiful in the U.S.

Not only does it feature stunning vistas of blue waterfalls against green vegetation and striking red cliffs, but the lake is also famous for its massive London Bridge (a historical point of interest in its own right).

Visitors often enjoy boating, fishing, and wildlife spotting around the lake.

5. Crater Lake, Oregon

crater-lake

Photo by Jeff Hopper on Unsplash

Arguably the most stunning lake in the United States, Crater Lake in Oregon was uniquely formed by the eruption of Mount Mazama nearly 8,000 years ago.

Today, America’s deepest lake, Crater Lake, is cut off from incoming rivers, only getting filled by rain and snowmelt — keeping it clear all year round.

And the wonders don’t end there. For dramatic effect, Crater Lake hosts the lush Wizard Island and the “Old Man”, a 30-foot mountain hemlock log floating in the lake for over a hundred years.

6. Hanging Lake, Colorado

hanging-lake

Photo by Steve O on Unsplash

Straddling the edges of the Glenwood Canyon Cliffs, Colorado’s Hanging Lake is a spectacular hidden gem. This aquamarine lake is fed by a series of waterfalls and is surrounded by towering forested peaks.

While swimming is not permitted, the payoff is one of Colorado’s most famous hikes. A short detour along the Hanging Lake Trail will lead you to the water-sluiced Spouting Rock, which offers sweaty hikers a great place to cool off.

7. Diablo Lake, Washington

diablo-lake

Photo by Margo Schmiederer from Pexels

Tucked between the rugged terrains and snowy peaks of North Cascades National Park, Diablo Lake offers deep turquoise waters with stunning green backdrops.

The seven-mile trail to Diablo Lake is filled with plunging gorges, switchbacks, and a 600-foot suspension bridge, making it quite challenging. But onc

The 42 Best Things To Do In NYC In May 2024

Steffen — Sat, 04 May 2024 03:45:00 +0000

There are so many things to do in NYC in May! It’s a great time of year to visit – everything is blooming, the sun is shining, and the first outdoor events & concerts make their appearance. Spring in NYC is in full effect, while summer in New York is just around the corner. Below is a list of our favorite things to do in NYC in May to inspire you for your trip and make sure that you won’t be running out of unique and fun things to do!

May is one of the nicest months to visit NYC as temperatures are mild and spring is in full swing. It doesn’t get too hot throughout the day or too cold in the evenings making it the perfect weather for exploring the city and possibly even having brunch outside. If you are looking for the perfect month to discover NYC’s famous neighborhoods or experience some outdoor events in the Big Apple, May in NYC is definitely a good choice.

If you are looking for a shortcut: These are the

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 3: Diabetes Drug May Prevent Long Covid, Louisiana Woman Stole $440K in Pandemic Relief Funds

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 03 May 2024 20:42:27 +0000

Saint Louis Cathedral at Jackson Square, New Orleans

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 1,514th day.

In news we cover today, a Louisiana woman defrauded the U.S. government of $440,000 in pandemic relief funds, researchers found that a common diabetes drug will lower the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in a patient and could reduce likelihood of onset of Long Covid, and students became much more dependent on their smartphones during the first years of the pandemic.

TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY

On May 3, 2020, an Oxford scientist who was working on a vaccine for the novel coronavirus said that Covid-19 shots would be like flu shots: A person would need to get one every year.

The Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, said she found the at Michigan’s state Capitol last week “devastatingly worrisome” given the lack of social-distancing precautions taken.

Officials in New York State said that schools would remain closed for the remainder of the academic year amidst the coronavirus outbreak. Then Governor Andrew Cuomo said in his morning briefing that it would not be possible to reopen them “in a way that would keep our children and students and educators safe.”

Meanwhile, Macy’s, one of the largest department store chains in the United States, said it planned to reopen all of its 775 stores, which would include Bloomingdale’s stores and the company’s flagship store on Herald Square in Manhattan, by the end of June 2020.

The number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.5 million, of which 1.15 million had recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 246,950.

LONG COVID

A study from researchers at the University of Minnesota reported that the common diabetes drug metformin may decrease the likelihood of the onset of Long Covid and will decrease the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the body, thereby decreasing some symptoms. Further, metformin will help reduce the risk of rebound symptoms, provided it is given early in the course of non-severe illness.

The study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Disease, comprised testing metformin against a placebo in 999 adults infected with Covid-19 during the omicron wave. More than 50% of the study enrollees were vaccinated. The participants in the study represented a standard- risk population.

UNITED STATES

A Baton Rouge, Louisiana, woman defrauded the U.S. government of $440,000 in pandemic relief funds and made extravagant purchases including a Range Rover, the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Middle District Court said Friday.

Linda Gurvin submitted six fraudulent applications seeking more than $1 million in federal loans under the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster loan program and made fraudulent applications in the names of two new entities, namely a non-profit foundation and a church, that she formed for this specific purpose.

Gurvin was convicted on wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions and sentenced to three years in federal prison in the courtroom of Chief Judge Shelly Dick, who also sentenced her to pay more than $496,000 in restitution to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Dick further ordered her to forfeit an additional $447,600 in proceeds from her offenses.

The fraudster’s life before the pandemic appears to be a mystery. Her LinkedIn page is blank and only one connection is listed while her Facebook page appears to have been scrubbed of any photographs of postings made after 2016.

In Connecticut, Raymond Dolphin, a middle school principal in Manchester took 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.

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.

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?

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

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)

Fiery Crash Close I-95 in Connecticut, Highway Will Be Shut Down for Days

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 03 May 2024 18:03:15 +0000

A section of I-95 in Connecticut near the Harvard Avenue exit in Old Greenwich

A section of Interstate 95 in Connecticut – a portion of the main artery along the East Coast of the United States from Maine to South – will remain closed for several days after a tanker containing thousands of gallons of fuel ignited an intense fire that damaged an overpass that crosses over the highway, state officials said.

I-95 is one of America’s busiest highways and the accident disrupted a crucial motor link between New England and New York City.

The crash took place on Thursday at 5:30 a.m. It occurred on the southbound side of the interstate in Norwalk, between Exits 15 and 14, under an overpass. It involved two tractor-trailer trucks, one carrying fuel, and one automobile, and did not result in any serious injuries. The resultant fire damaged the overpass so badly that it needed to be demolished. Engineers found the overpass “to be incredibly unstable.”

“The heat from the burning fuel compromised some of the bridge, so that bridge is going to have to come down,” said Governor Ned Lamont, referring to the now-compromised overpass.

The situation caused on Friday a nightmarish commute. Social media channels and local television news stations showed footage of clogged exit ramps and congested alternative roadways, and local officials were telling drivers may want to add an hour or more to their journeys due to the disruption.

The closure affected. Norwalk Public Schools, which canceled all classes on Friday. However, school officials said that some after-school activities, including prom, would move forward as planned. Public schools in Stamford and Darien began classes on a two-hour delay.

As of Saturday morning, progress was being made, but the damage is so extensive that the cost to repair and reopen could exceed $20 million. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal promised federal funds would cover the tab.

The crash is the second within the period of a year to result in the closure of a major section of I-95. Last year, in June, a tanker carrying gasoline in northeast Philadelphia crashed, causing a portion of the highway to collapse.

A tanker driver was on an offramp of I-95 North when a crash or other incident sparked a fire below the highway exit, which ran overhead. The tanker, which was believed to have been carrying gasoline as its cargo, caught fire and the resultant inferno caused that section of the roadbed to collapse.

That closure was originally expected to take months to repair but the highway reopened in less than two weeks.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

New York’s Five Boro Bike Tour Returns This Weekend, Along With Bridge, Tunnel, and Street Closures

Anna Breuer — Fri, 03 May 2024 16:38:49 +0000

A variable message sign on the Throgs Neck Bridge advising of the upcoming Five Boro Bike Tour

Sunday is the annual Five Boro Bike Tour in New York City and the city’s Department of Transportation is urging motorists to take public transportation or alternate roads to avoid bridge and road closures.

“Motorists are strongly advised to take mass transit or seek alternative routes farther from the tour route,” the agency said in a statement.

Organized by Bike New York, the tour is a charity even to fund Bike New York’s education programs.

The 40-mile (64-kilometer) tour takes place on the first Sunday in May each year and has over 32,000 riders on average.

The tour’s route takes the riders through all five of New York City’s boroughs and across five major bridges.

The route begins in Lower Manhattan, heads north via Sixth Avenue, through the interior of Central Park, continues through Harlem and then into the Bronx via the Madison Avenue Bridge. Re-entering Manhattan, the tour travels south along the East River on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt East River Drive. The route crosses the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, into Queens before heading south across the Pulaski Bridge via the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway into Brooklyn, continuing over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island.

The entire route, including bridges and expressways, which normally prohibit cyclists, is closed to automobile traffic for the ride.

The event began on June 12, 1977, as the Five Boro Challenge with about 250 participants on an 80-mile (130 km) course. Mayor Ed Koch championed the idea of a city-wide bike tour and the following year the route was shortened. Citibank became the sponsor in 1979 but withdrew in 1990. TD Bank purchased the naming rights in 1992.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

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.

The 33 Best Summer Events in NYC: A Comprehensive Guide

Steffen — Fri, 03 May 2024 07:20:24 +0000

New York City is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and with good reason! There is always something to do in this vibrant city. Whether you’re a culture vulture or a party animal, there’s something for everyone. In this comprehensive guide, we will list some of the best summer events in NYC.

From Broadway shows and outdoor concerts to food festivals and art exhibitions, we have got you covered! So mark your calendars and get ready for an unforgettable summer in New York City!

33 Amazing Summer Events in NYC This Year

01

My Favorite Food Event in Summer: Smorgasburg In Williamsburg

Food Market in Williamsburg

Add to myNY added

Smorgasburg is a foodie paradise. This open-air market features over 100 different food vendors, selling everything from traditional dishes to innovative fusion cuisine. So whether you’re in the mood for some Korean tacos or a classic burger, you’ll find it all at Smorgasburg. And if you get there early enough, you’ll be able to score a seat to enjoy the view of the skyline of Manhattan.

see Website Read more
02

Gay Pride Week & Christopher Street Parade

Parade in Greenwich Village

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The New York Gay Pride is one of the oldest parades for gays from all over the world. The beautiful Greenwich Village has been hosting it every year since 1970. Especially Christopher Street is colorfully decorated and you can find the famous rainbow flags everywhere. Also the global company Google decorates its outer facade at this time and shows tolerance. The parade taking place at the end of June is one of the biggest parades in New York. It leads along 5th Avenue to Greenwich Street.

Read more
03

Summer Stage Festival: One Of the Best Summer Events in Central Park

Other Events in Midtown Manhattan
Our Highlight

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At this event you can visit over 100 concerts & shows for free in many parks all over New York. It’s one of the most popular summer events in New York and a MUST DO for locals. If you’re in New York this summer, be sure to check out one of the shows!

My tip: Here you find the 15 best things to do in summer in Central Park.

see Website Read more
04

An Impressive Summer Event in NYC: Watch Fireworks On The 4th Of July

Cruise in Lower East Side

Add to myNY added

What’s more American than watching fireworks on the Fourth of July? New York City is the perfect place to celebrate Independence Day. The best spot to watch the fireworks show is from one of the city’s many parks, such as Berry Park, Dumbo Park, East River State Park, South Street Seaport, or 50Star Fireshow in Jersey. Make sure to arrive early to get a good spot, and don’t forget to pack a picnic!

My tip: this is the complete guide to 4th of July in NYC, here you find the best 4th of July cruises, and everything you need to know about the 4th of July fireworks this year.

See ticket
05

Jazz Age Lawn Party

Other Art & Culture in Governors Island
Add to myNY added

This lively, colorful, and family-oriented event features performances from an orchestra specializing in Hot Jazz of the 1920s, a dance troupe that channels the Roaring ‘20s, vaudeville spectacles, and more. And because it’s prohibition-themed, you know there’s always a great lineup of summer cocktails and drinks.

When?
- June 8, 2024 (Saturday)
- June 9, 2024 (Sunday)
- August 10, 2024 (Saturday)
- August 11, 2024 (Sunday)
See ticket
06

Summer Solstice Festival & Celebration (June 2024)

Other Events in Long Island 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 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!

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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.

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 — Thu, 02 May 2024 21:49:19 +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.

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

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)

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

Thu, 02 May 2024 06:04:21 +0000

Shares rise on New York Stock Exchange debut

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 — Wed, 01 May 2024 20:50:50 +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)

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.

Brilliant Lady to launch from New York in September 2025

Wed, 01 May 2024 17:48:58 +0000

Virgin Voyages’ fourth ship to offer North American itineraries

Great Moments in Travel History – May 2024

Jesse Sokolow — Wed, 01 May 2024 04:01:22 +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.

Click here to continue to Page 2 – Pandemic Decimates Travel Industry

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

Jonathan Spira — Wed, 01 May 2024 01:44:23 +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 — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 22:41:17 +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.

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 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 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)

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

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

Jonathan Spira — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 21:59:34 +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.

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

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)

The TOP 13 Things to Do on Father’s Day in NYC in 2024

Steffen — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:29:52 +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 — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 13:25:31 +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

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

Paul Riegler — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 04:01:47 +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)

Summer Stage Festival 2024

Steffen — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 12:18:33 +0000

At this event you can visit over 100 concerts & shows for free in many parks all over New York. It’s one of the most popular summer events in New York and a MUST DO for locals. If you’re in New York this summer, be sure to check out one of the shows!

Every year we eagerly await the schedule of events from the SummerStage Festival in New York. If you don’t know about SummerStage Festival, it’s one of the most popular summer events in New York and a magnet for locals (and part of the Free Concerts in the Parks series). If you’re in New York this summer, be sure to check out one of the concerts!

The most famous park in New York – Central Park – will also be the park with the most events this year. There’s guaranteed to be something for everyone at SummerStage Festival, with a portfolio ranging from classical concerts at The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series to funk, jazz, soul, hip-hop, and R’n’B.

This is the schedule for the Summer Stage Festival 2024:

Summer Stage Festival Line-Up May 2024

Fri, May 17, 2024 – 5:00 PM JAMES ARTHUR – Benefit Concert

Summer Stage Festival Line-Up June 2024

Sat, Jun 1, 2024 – 6:00 PM Opening Night: ANDRA DAY / IN ASSOCIATION WITH BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL – FREE Show
Sat, Jun 8, 2024 – 5:00 PM KES / PRODUCED BY LIVE NATION – Sold Out
Thu, Jun 13, 2024 – 5:00 PM KIM GORDON, SUN RA ARKESTRA | SLAUSON MALONE 1 – FREE Show
Sat, Jun 15, 2024 – 4:00 PM THE AUSSIE BBQ: JEBEDIAH | LAST DINOSAURS | NORTHEAST PARTY HOUSE | SHEPPARD | SYCCO | THELMA PLUM / IN ASSOCIATION WITH SOUNDS AUSTRALIA AND THE AMERICAN AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION – FREE Show
Sun, Jun 16, 2024 – 6:00 PM CORINNE BAILEY RAE | DIXSON / IN ASSOCIATION WITH BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL – FREE Show
Tue, Jun 18, 2024 – 7:00 PM THE METROPOLITAN OPERA SUMMER RECITAL: FEAT. LEAH HAWKINS | MARIO CHANG | MICHAEL SUMUEL – FREE Show
Wed, Jun 19, 2024 – 5:00 PM MASEGO / JORDAN WARD – Benefit Concert
Sat, Jun 22, 2024 – 5:00 PM THE YUSSEF DAYES EXPERIENCE | ANEESA STRINGS | DANA AND ALDEN / IN ASSOCIATION WITH BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL – FREE Show
Sun, Jun 23, 2024 – 6:30 PM T-PAIN’S MANSION IN WISCANSIN TOUR / PRODUCED BY LIVE NATION – Benefit Concert
Wed, Jun 26, 2024 – 6:00 PM CAIFANES / CAFE TACVBA – Benefit Concert
Thu, Jun 27, 2024 – 5:00 PM ETHEL CAIN WITH SPECIAL GUEST TEETHE / PRODUCED BY LIVE NATION – Sold Out
Fri, Jun 28, 2024 – 5:30 PM UTOPIA PRIDE: ABOVE & BEYOND WITH SPENCER BROWN / PRODUCED BY JAKE RESNICOW – Benefit Concert
Sat, Jun 29, 2024 – 5:00 PM PRIDE DISCO WITH TRIXIE MATTELL | AMANDA LEPORE | JESS KING / PRODUCED BY JAKE RESNICOW – Benefit Concert
Sun, Jun 30, 2024 – 3:00 PM DREAMLAND PRIDE / PRODUCED BY JAKE RESNICOW – Benefit Concert

Summer Stage Festival Line-Up July 2024

Mon, Jul 1, 2024 – 5:00 PM MADISON CUNNINGHAM | LA LOM | JOHN-ROBERT CORRENTE: BEATRIZ MIRA & TIAGO BARREIROS – FREE Show
Sun, Jul 7, 2024 – 5:00 PM EZRA COLLECTIVE | CELESTE | DA CHICK DJ / IN ASSOCIATION WITH BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL – FREE Show
Wed, Jul 10, 2024 – 6:00 PM LAMC & LATIN GRAMMY 25TH ANNIVERSARY: FONSECA | ISRAEL FERNANDEZ | BRUSES – FREE Show
Thu, Jul 11, 2024 – 5:00 PM COUNTING CROWS – Benefit Concert
Sat, Jul 13, 2024 – 5:00 PM LAMC: BRESH – FREE Show
Sun, Jul 14, 2024 – 5:00 PM BASTILLE DAY: IAM | MAGIC SYSTEM | THE AVENER | LAURIE DARMON | FEMI THE SCORPION / IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF FRANCE – FREE Show
Wed, Jul 17, 2024 – 5:00 PM THE SAW DOCTORS | THE CORONAS / PRODUCED BY LIVE NATION – Benefit Concert
Sun, Jul 21, 2024 – 6:00 PM PROYECTO UNO | MILLY QUEZADA | DJ MIGUELITO & EXCARLET MOLINA / IN ASSOCIATION WITH 97.9 LA MEGA – FREE Show
Wed, Jul 24, 2024 – 5:00 PM AROOJ AFTAB | SID SRIRAM | EMEL – FREE Show
Sat, Jul 27, 2024 – 3:00 PM PIANO PEOPLE IN THE PARK WITH SCORPION KINGS | DBN GOGO | KELVIN MOMO | DJ MOMA | DJ TUNEZ / PRODUCED BY LIVE NATION – Benefit Concert
Sun, Jul 28, 2024 – 5:00 PM CATALAN SOUNDS ON TOUR: SIDONIE | BALKAN PARADISE ORCHESTRA | LAU NOAH | DJ TURMIX | IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE INSTITUT RAMON LLULL – FREE Show
Wed, Jul 31, 2024 – 6:00 PM ELEVATION WORSHIP: PRAISE PARTY! / PRODUCED BY PREMIER PRODUCTIONS – Benefit Concert

Summer Stage Festival Line-Up August 2024

Thu, Aug 1, 2024 – 5:00 PM BLUE NOTE PRESENTS: ROBERT GLASPER FEATURING YEBBA – Benefit Concert
Sat, Aug 3, 2024 – 5:00 PM THE ORIGINALS – FREE Show
Sun, Aug 4, 2024 – 5:00 PM GALACTIC FEAT. IRMA THOMAS | THE RUMBLE FEAT. CHIEF JOSEPH BOUDREAUX JR – FREE Show
Wed, Aug 7, 2024 – 6:00 PM ARTISTS TBA – FREE Show
Thu, Aug 8, 2024 – 6:30 PM DAVID CROSS AND HIS SUPER PALS FEAT. BOB ODENKIRK | SARAH SILVERMAN | FRED ARMISEN | SEAN PATTON | ZACK ZUCKER & more / PRODUCED BY LIVE NATION – Benefit Concert
Sat, Aug 10, 2024 – 5:00 PM VP RECORDS 45TH ANNIVERSARY – FREE Show
Sat, Aug 17, 2024 – 5:00 PM PALMWINE NYC: SHOW DEM CAMP FEAT. THE CAVEMEN AND FRIENDS / IN ASSOCIATION WITH MOVE FORWARD MUSIC – FREE Show
Sun, Aug 18, 2024 – 6:00 PM FUNK FLEX BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH SLICK RICK | DANA DANE | DOUG E. FRESH | DJ MASEO & more – FREE Show
Wed, Aug 21, 2024 – 5:00 PM THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM | JOYCE MANOR | PINKSHIFT / PRODUCED BY LIVE NATION – Benefit Concert
Thu, Aug 22, 2024 – 5:00 PM BRAZILIAN DAY: ALCIONE | LARISSA LUZ | DJ MALFEITONA | FILM SCREENING: GERSON KING COMBO / IN ASSOCIATION WITH 28TH INFFINITO BRAZILIAN FILM FESTIVAL – FREE Show
Fri, Aug 23, 2024 – 5:00 PM HIP HOP IS THE LOML TOUR: THE ROOTS | JUNGLE BROTHERS | DIGABLE PLANETS / PRODUCED BY LIVE NATION – Benefit Concert
Tue, Aug 27, 2024 – 5:00 PM SNAIL MAIL | TIM HEIDECKER | FENNE LILY – FREE Show

Summer Stage Festival Line-Up September 2024

Mon, Sep 9, 2024 – 6:00 PM WNYC AND FRIENDS CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION – FREE Show

Summer Stage Festival Line-Up October 2024

Thu, Oct 3, 2024 – 5:00 PM BRITTANY HOWARD | MICHAEL KIWANUKA w/ YASMIN WILLIAMS – Benefit Concert

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

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 21:44:35 +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 — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 23:29:04 +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 — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 19:08:38 +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)

Shakespeare in the Park 2024 – The Complete Guide

Steffen — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 09:45:55 +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 — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 02:00:22 +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.

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

Paul Riegler — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 15:21:08 +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)

Frieze Art Fair New York

Steffen — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 08:50:20 +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.

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

Jonathan Spira — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 22:03:14 +0000

A spray bottle of Lysol disinfectant

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 English Language Day.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Jonathan Spira — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 22:41:29 +0000

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

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?

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.

GLOBAL NEWS

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.

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

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)

The Best 4th Of July Events in NYC 2024

Steffen — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 10:54:29 +0000

Are you looking for what to do to celebrate the 4th of July in New York? You’re in luck because NYC is one of the best cities to celebrate Independence Day. In addition to making your list of museums, bars, and restaurants to visit on the 4th of July in NYC, there are several events you can only experience on this holiday weekend.

Independence Day takes place on Thursday, July 4th, 2024, giving travelers to New York the whole weekend to take in New York before the big day.

To help you make the most of your time, we are highlighting the best and the biggest 4th of July events NYC has to offer on the 4th of July weekend. From family-friendly cruises and fireworks to hot dog-eating contests and lobster, you’re sure to have a spectacular weekend.

Must-See 4th of July Events NYC

01

Macy’s 4th Of July Fireworks

Other Events in Midtown Manhattan
Our Highlight
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If there’s one fireworks show to see when you visit New York City, it’s the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks show. One of the most iconic fireworks displays in the United States, this is sure to be one of the highlights of your trip.

On 4th of July, beginning just after 9pm, the skies over New York City’s Hudson River light up with a colorful, coordinated display. Sponsored by Macy’s, there are more than 60,000 shells launched off between four and six barges. For over 25 minutes, you’ll enjoy a celebration of America’s Independence Day. Not to be missed is the New York Fire Department’s contribution, as they shoot red, clear, and blue water 300 feet into the air from the fire boats they have stationed in the river, too.

When do the fireworks start?
- From 9:25 pm
Where does it take place?
- Hudson River, at Piers 62/63
Where is the best place to see the fireworks?
- Hudson River Park
- Hoboken, New Jersey
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02

Take Part In A Party Fireworks Cruise

Cruise in Financial District

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Experience an unforgettable July 4th celebration with exclusive front-row views of the spectacular NYC fireworks display, set against the iconic backdrop of the New York City skyline. Delight your palate with a gourmet dinner buffet featuring an array of delectable options while sipping on beverages from the premium open bar. Groove to the rhythm of live music and entertainment provided by a talented DJ, ensuring an evening filled with excitement and memories to cherish.

My tip: These are the best 4th of July Cruises 2024!

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03

Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Championship

Other Events in Coney Island & Brighton Beach

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For another 4th of July New York event that’s just as iconic as the fireworks show, come by Coney Island’s 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. Taking place at noon on July 4th, 2023, Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest pits the world’s greatest competitive eaters against each other in one of the most well-known contests.

Officially sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating, this event is often witnessed by thousands of people. The current record for the event is 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes, held by Joey Chestnut. Will you be there to see the record get broken?

This free event is open to the public and takes place at Maimonides Park, at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

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04

Coney Island 4th of July Fireworks

Other Events in Coney Island & Brighton Beach

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The Coney Island Fireworks is a free event open to the public and held at the Riegelmann Boardwalk right on Coney Island Beach in Brooklyn.

After the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Championship, stick around to see Coney Island’s spectacular display of fireworks. Visible from the boardwalk, this show generally starts at 10pm and lasts about fifteen minutes.
05

Observe Fireworks From New York City’s Most Impressive Buildings

Building in Financial District
Our Highlight

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In the past, New York’s most impressive and iconic buildings put up quite a show. At the 4th of July Parties at One World Observatory, visitors had a chance to enjoy a great view of the city, enjoy drinks and bites, and an almost eye-level view of fireworks.

Similarly, the Empire State Buildings had its own unique 4th of July NYC celebrations. With a party split between the 80th floor and the observation deck on the 86th floor for the Macy’s fireworks, this was one of the most impressive ways to see the Macy’s fireworks display.

We are still waiting on official words for the 2024 events, so keep your eye on this link for the official announcement by the Empire State Building and on this one for One World Observatory.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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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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 — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 17:07:39 +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)

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

Blaise Buckley — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 03:44:06 +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)

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

Kurt Stolz — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 03:35:40 +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, 19 Apr 2024 21:25:33 +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?

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 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.

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.”

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 8,385 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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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 — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 22:54:46 +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 — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 21:31:44 +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 — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 16:18:40 +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 — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 20:07:46 +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 — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 17:35:05 +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 — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 23:55:36 +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 — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 17:04:30 +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)

New York Cloned from CKJJVZN2N5 1

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 6: New Vaccine Could Protect Against Future Coronaviruses, White House Vaccine Campaign Saved 50,000 Lives

TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY

LONG COVID

UNITED STATES

GLOBAL PANDEMIC NEWS

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

Global Weather Forecast: Four Inch ‘Giant Hail,’ Long Range Tornadoes, and ‘Most Extreme Event’ in Climate History

Coronavirus Weekend News Brief – May 5: Covid Hospitalizations Hit Record Low, TB Outbreak Causes Public Health Emergency

LONG COVID

UNITED STATES

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

41 Interesting Unknown Vacation Spots in the USA

41 Best Unknown Vacation Spots in the United States

1. Gatlinburg, Tennessee

2. Stowe, Vermont

3. Door County, Wisconsin

4. St. Augustine, Florida

5. Jekyll Island, Georgia

6. Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

7. The Finger Lakes, New York

8. Moloka‘i, Hawaii

9. Smith Rock State Park, Oregon

NEW YORK

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33 Most Visited Places in the United States That Might Surprise You

33 Most Visited Places in the United States

1. Times Square, New York

2. Central Park, New York

3. Niagara Falls, New York

4. Washington Union Station, Washington D.C.

5. National Mall and Memorial Park, Washington, D.C

6. White House, Washington D.C.

7. Grand Canyon, Arizona

29 Most Beautiful Lakes in the USA You’ll Love

29 Most Beautiful Lakes in the United States

1. Lake Powell, Utah and Arizona

2. Lake George, New York

3. Lake Tahoe, California and Nevada

4. Lake Havasu, Arizona

5. Crater Lake, Oregon

6. Hanging Lake, Colorado

7. Diablo Lake, Washington

The 42 Best Things To Do In NYC In May 2024

Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 3: Diabetes Drug May Prevent Long Covid, Louisiana Woman Stole $440K in Pandemic Relief Funds

TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY

LONG COVID

UNITED STATES

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

Fiery Crash Close I-95 in Connecticut, Highway Will Be Shut Down for Days

New York’s Five Boro Bike Tour Returns This Weekend, Along With Bridge, Tunnel, and Street Closures

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

1. Revel in a Nature Walk at Central Park

2. Enjoy Cinco de Mayo Festivities

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

The 33 Best Summer Events in NYC: A Comprehensive Guide

33 Amazing Summer Events in NYC This Year