Yes, The COVID “Baby Bust” Is Real Unless You’re Rich Refinery29 3/3/2021 Natalie Gontcharova
The “baby boom” predicted at the beginning of the pandemic is now widely acknowledged to have been a baby bust. Though there was an assumption that people would take the opportunity to procreate while stuck at home, instead states have reported large declines in birth rates for December 2020, nine months after lockdowns began in March.
This shouldn’t come as such a surprise. As long ago as June 2020, the Brookings Institution predicted that there would be up to half a million fewer babies born in 2021 than in 2019 (3.3 vs. 3.8 million) due to the economic recession resulting from the pandemic. (They recently announced they believe that prediction is still on track.) They based this expectation on fertility trends during past cataclysmic events like the 1918 Spanish Flu and the 2008 recession; after the latter, the birth rate decreased by 9%. This would
A CGI view of the proposed development (Photo: Brent Council) Plans for almost 700 homes at an industrial estate have been given the go-ahead – despite fears over the impact of the scheme on the surrounding area. Brent Council’s planning committee approved the proposals at Abbey Manufacturing Estate in Alperton at a meeting yesterday evening (Wednesday, February 10). Developers intend to provide 684 new homes across six blocks – the highest of which is 16 storeys high – and a small row of terraced houses, as well as some commercial space. However, several people living close to the site criticised the plans, suggesting they will have a detrimental impact on their lives.
Jacqui Malins. Photo: Zach Polis.
CANBERRA has always been a poetic city, but a new festival puts that into upper case with the new “Poetic City Festival”.
The event is the brainchild of Jacqui Malins, familiar to readers as the director of Mother Tongue Multilingual Poetry, who says the city will come alive to the sight and sounds of versifying in performances, installations and events around town in March and April.
A highlight will be an outdoor poetry cinema running over two nights where short poetry videos will be screened and poets paid a fee of $50 for selected videos.
Then in “Haiku 4 You”, local haikus with an urban-flavoured slant will appear around the city on tear-off-strip posters for passers-by to take away.
Trump issues commendations to Operation Warp Speed members, including Fauci, Birx
By Catherine Park
Gen. Lloyd Austin says COVID-19 is the greatest threat America faces today
Addressing the Senate Armed Services Committee, Austin, who served 41 years in the Army, vowed to surround himself with qualified civilians and include them in policy decisions.
WASHINGTON - On his last day in office, President Donald Trump issued commendations to a number people for their contributions to Operation Warp Speed, a White House effort to distribute 300 million doses of a viable COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021, which by Jan. 19 had not been met.
A few names on the list of commendations stood out, particularly Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, both of whom were key members of the White House coronavirus task force in its early days, before having their public-facing roles diminished when the task force ceased providing regular briefings.
Moderna’s covid-19 vaccine could widen immunization effort
A Food and Drug Administration vaccine-advisory panel voted in favor of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for broad distribution, clearing the way for the FDA to grant an emergency-use authorization for the second vaccine in the US
(Photo: AFP)
Peter Loftus
, The Wall Street Journal
The vaccine can be more easily shipped and handled than Pfizer’s, helping smaller hospitals and rural areas overcome logistical hurdles
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Health officials across the US are counting on the arrival of a second Covid-19 vaccine to boost scarce supplies and sidestep logistical issues encountered by the first vaccine, which began distribution this week.