Friday. Next stop, the weekend. Happy birthday to Pete Shelley, Don Kirshner and Thornton Wilder.
Bill Forry was hoping that the Dorchester Day parade could be a cathartic get-back-to-normal celebration. Nope. Cancelled.
The food supply chain is more complicated than people think and as it becomes stressed the outcomes may not be what we expected. Take beef for example. In normal circumstances the best cuts go to restaurants but now they’re all mostly closed. So although consumers in supermarkets may still be buying beef, “all of a sudden 23 percent of the animal isn’t being bought,” an industry salesman told the Washington Post. And it’s the most lucrative 23 percent so there’s an economic impact. Add to this a smaller workforce and reduced capacity as workers in the large processing plants become infected, and that impact is magnified. Since this is happening across the food sector, expect to see changes coming in what’s available in your supermarket.
Where are we on a vaccine and immunity? It’s complicated but here’s a good overview.
From a story in the Times: It’s counterintuitive, but people with asthma are apparently not more likely to die from Covid-19. Data from New York show risk factors ranked in order: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, dementia and atrial fibrillation. Despite being a respiratory condition, asthma is underrepresented. A broader review by The Lancet found the same thing. There are still many things we don’t know about this disease.
And if you’re curious about what the next versions of the iPhone will look like, here you go.