Weekly COVID Speed Round
Image: CDC
🦠 An estimated 73% of Americans now have some immunity to omicron, according to a new model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which said that number could rise to 80% by mid-March.
- “I am optimistic even if we have a surge in summer, cases will go up, but hospitalizations and deaths will not,” Ali Mokdad, a UDub professor who works on the model, told the AP.
- Nationwide, the US is averaging ~120,000 new cases per day, a 68% drop over the past two weeks (graphic above☝️).
- The daily death rate has fallen 14.5% over the past week, per CDC data, though it still remains above Delta peaks at ~2,000 deaths per day.
- Over the past week, governors in 11 states plus DC announced the end of statewide masking policies and other Covid restrictions.
- Texas’ attorney general sued the CDC on Wednesday over its mask mandate for US airports, airplanes, and other transit modes; the agency’s order is set to expire March 18, but has been previously extended multiple times.
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Recent U.S. stories
U.S.
| February 16, 2022Facts du Jour
🏈📺 Super good ratings… More than 100 million Americans watched Super Bowl LVI on live TV this past Sunday. Across all of NBC’s platforms – including streaming service Peacock – the game drew 112.3 million viewers, good for the most-watched Super Bowl since 2015.
🎤 We don’t talk about Encanto… The Disney film’s soundtrack is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the fourth straight week and fifth week overall. It also has five individual songs in the Top 40, including We Don’t Talk About Bruno at No. 1 for the third week.
📝 The Great Application… Americans filed 5.4 million applications to start new companies in 2021, according to census data. That’s a 53% jump from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
- Roughly one-third of the applications were classified as "high-propensity,” meaning they're new businesses that are likely to create additional jobs.
🥉🍿 On the podium… Spiderman: No Way Home officially passed Avatar to become the third-biggest movie ever at the domestic box office – not accounting for inflation – after earning $1 million on Monday.
- The Sony/Marvel collab has now grossed $760.9 million since launching exclusively in theaters in December. That’s over three times as much as the next highest-grossing movie of the pandemic era, Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($224 million).
💰 Charity case… According to new securities filings, Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated $5.7 billion in company stock to charity last November, making him one of 2021’s top philanthropists next to Bill and Melinda Gates.
- The donation took place amidst a larger series of stock sales by Musk, who sold $16+ billion worth of Tesla shares in the final two months of last year. In December, Musk estimated he would pay $11+ billion in 2021 taxes.
U.S.
| February 15, 2022Avocad–NOOO!
🙅♀️🥑 The US suspended all avocado imports from Mexico “until further notice” after a Department of Agriculture safety inspector received a threatening phone call over the weekend.
U.S.
| February 14, 2022The Week Ahead
Monday:
Tuesday: Original date for MLB pitchers and catchers to report to spring training; the ongoing lockout is now threatening to push back Opening Day (March 31)
Wednesday: Fed publishes minutes from its latest meeting
Thursday:
Friday:
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