The Advocate on the historic pace of the coronavirus vaccine development process:
The pandemic is still raging, but now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine and doses are being administered, there is hope that we are nearing the end.
The coronavirus has killed far too many people. It has destroyed too many livelihoods. But by the summer we may be mostly done with it. People who believe in a higher power should pray and give thanks.
We are living through something historic this year, and in Louisiana we’ve felt the brutal wave of history in personal and private ways. New Orleans was of course an early hotspot, with the extra irony that Mardi Gras, that most joyous time, was likely a cause of extra suffering. This spring, our small towns watched helpless as the virus crept in. Soon a friend was infected, then another, then it was in the local old folks’ home.
Our opinion: Why canceling Mardi Gras 2021 is the right thing to do
The Courier
Thibodaux Mayor Tommy Eschete last week canceled the city s Mardi Gras parades for 2021 to limit the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus. Officials should do the same in the rest of Lafourche and Terrebonne.
With more than 30 parades combined, the two parishes host the largest Mardi Gras celebration in the U.S. outside New Orleans, so canceling is a tough decision. But it is the right one.
Putting tens of thousands of people in the streets over two weeks of parades greatly increases the airborne spread of the coronavirus, not just among spectators but among krewe members. Mardi Gras, with its drinking, crowded streets and paradegoers jostling for beads and other trinkets, is not conducive to wearing COVID face masks or staying six feet away from others. It s a giant party, which is one reason so many people enjoy the celebration. It s hard to imagine any scenario that could take the party out
Wendy Goldberg, associate director of the New Orleans Jewish Community Center on St. Charles Avenue, runs through bubbles to hand off a goody bag to a car that just passed her on Sunday, December 13, 2020. This year, the JCC invited the community to its Dreidels & Doughnuts Drive-Thru Chanukah Celebration. The pop-up style holiday event helped the community celebrate the season safely from the coronavirus. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER