Vox Sentences - Planning for the new normal

The White House announced a new, four-pronged approach to Covid-19; Russia's war on Ukraine could drive some countries to famine.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes

“Covid-19 need no longer control our lives”

Jim Lo Scalzo/Getty Images

• The White House has outlined an updated approach to the Covid-19 pandemic, almost exactly two years after the virus reached the US, causing mass economic shutdowns, lockdowns, hospital overcrowding, and nearly 1 million deaths to date in the US alone. President Joe Biden unveiled the plan on Wednesday, following his State of the Union address. [The White House]
• The National Covid-19 Preparedness Plan hinges on four components: testing to treat Covid-19, preparing for new variants, increasing global vaccination, and preventing economic and educational shutdowns. The White House’s new direction aims to adjust to a “new normal,” viewing Covid-19 as a background reality of life rather an overarching international crisis, as it’s been for the past two years. [The Hill / Peter Sullivan]
• “We’ve reached a new moment in the fight against Covid-19 where severe cases are down to a level not seen since July of last year,” Biden said during Tuesday’s State of the Union address. However, he stressed that although the new plan is aimed at making the crisis less acute, “we never will just accept living with Covid-19, we’ll continue to combat the virus, as we do other diseases.” [Reuters]
• The new plan will expand access to Covid-19 oral antiviral treatments such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid, distributing the treatment to pharmacies along with rapid tests so that people can start treatment immediately after testing positive. More than 1 million doses of the treatment will be made available this month, with more coming in April. [Axios / Caitlin Owens]
• All the new initiatives will require new funding from Congress, which will go toward increasing vaccine manufacturing capability; replenishing the national stockpile of tests, masks, and antiviral pills; and increasing monitoring capabilities to detect variants. [Al Jazeera]

The Ukraine conflict could make famine in the Middle East and North Africa worse

• Russia's war against Ukraine is driving up the price of wheat, a major export from both nations, raising prices and threatening to exacerbate famine conditions in Yemen and other areas of the Middle East. “Hunger rates are rising significantly globally, and one of the largest drivers of hunger is man-made conflict,” Steve Taravella, senior spokesperson at the World Food Programme, said. [Vox / Siobhan McDonough and Youyou Zhou] 
• Russia and Ukraine account for about 29 percent of the world’s wheat exports; with the conflict threatening to cause a flour shortage, some people in Yemen, a country already ravaged by seven years of civil war and gripped by famine and inflation, have been loading up on the staple. A shortfall in donations has caused the WFP to cut rations for millions of hungry people already. [Reuters]
• Other nations in the Middle East and North Africa stand to be hard-hit, too; Egypt relies on Russian and Ukrainian crops for 85 percent of its wheat imports. Tunisia, Lebanon, Turkey, and Sudan are likely to face shortages and inflation, as well. [Al Jazeera / Paul Benjamin Osterlund]
• Some experts estimate that the world could lose the 13 percent of corn supply and 12 percent of wheat supply that comes from Ukraine due to the conflict, pushing countries that rely on staples from this region to the brink. Crops aren’t the only problem, though; Russia and Belarus are leading suppliers of fertilizer, and sanctions against Russia are driving up fuel prices. [NYT /  Michael J. Puma and Megan Konar]

Texas’s Department of Family and Protective Services has begun investigating the parents of trans children in the state — starting with an agency employee who has a 16-year-old trans child. [NYT / J. David Goodman and Amanda Morris]

• Texas Gov. Greb Abbott won the Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday; his Democratic challenger will be former US Rep. Beto O’Rourke. [NPR / Alana Wise]
• The United Nations voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to censure Russia for invading Ukraine, and to demand Russia remove its troops. [Reuters / Humeyra Pamuk and Jonathan Landay]
• Hong Kong braces for a possible lockdown amid a precipitous rise in Covid-19 cases — and confusing reports from both politicians and the media regarding the city’s new testing mandate. [Bloomberg / Annie Lee and Michelle Fay Cortez]

“We are terrified for Mary’s health and well-being, and for our family. Not providing Mary with the medically necessary health care that she needs is not an option for us.”

[The parents of a trans teenager in Texas, in a lawsuit challenging the state’s investigation into the parents following a director from Gov. Greg Abbott to consider some medical treatments for trans kids as abuse]

Our bodies constantly take in information from the environment and stitch it into an impression of the world. But how? Why? And why do our senses sometimes fail us? In our six-part series Making Sense, Unexplainable will tackle these questions. New episodes publish every Wednesday through April 6, 2022. Up first: How much of what we hear is made up by our brains? [Spotify]

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