Forbes - Two Deaths Every Minute

Plus: Lockdown in China once again as Covid-19 flares

Is 2021 over yet? It’s been a rough start to the New Year. Yesterday marked the deadliest day of the pandemic so far in the United States, with 4,000 recorded deaths due to Covid-19. This week in total, roughly two Americans died every minute from Covid-19. It’s a hard statistic to process, especially to those of us who thought things were looking up after FDA emergency authorizations of two vaccines. But a slow rollout has stopped many doses of the vaccines from getting to people in the first place. Today, President-elect Biden announced that he will be speeding vaccine distribution as soon as he gets into office. Instead of holding some doses of vaccines in reserve so that people can be sure to get their second dose on time, his administration will be releasing all the available doses of vaccines. It’s unclear so far whether or not this is a good strategy. On the one hand, more vaccines sounds like great news. On the other hand, it won’t solve state distribution problems and it could mean that some second doses of the shots are delayed, going against FDA guidelines.

Business

10.7 million Americans are still unemployed, and job losses were worse than expected last month. 

Despite bad jobs data, stocks continue to gain as investors look forward to Biden’s new stimulus plan. 

Science & Health

Pfizer and BioNTech released a preliminary paper today showing that their Covid-19 vaccine seems to work against at least some of the mutations of the new virus variants. 

Here’s how nurses are stepping up to prevent suicide among their colleagues during an exhausting and depressing year.

On The Upside

Science Music Videos: Need a little levity before the weekend? Here are the 10 best science parody music videos of the past decade.