A Case Of The Mondays

Coronavirus by the Numbers

The world surpassed 50M confirmed cases over the weekend (now 50.7M) with 1.26M confirmed deaths. In the U.S.:

• There are almost 57k Americans hospitalized with the coronavirus according to the COVID Tracking Project, the country’s highest level since late July.

UAE Overhauls Personal Restrictions

The UAE made changes to the country’s long-held Islamic personal laws on Saturday. The new regulations, which are effective immediately, allow unmarried couples to live in the same household, loosen restrictions on alcohol consumption, and criminalize ‘honor killings’ (when someone kills a relative they suspect had brought shame to their family).

🎤 ❓ 📺 Alex Trebek, the long-standing host of Jeopardy!, passed away yesterday at 80 following a nearly two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Trebek hosted Jeopardy! since 1984, appearing on more than 8,200 episodes across 37 seasons.

Jobs Update

💼 The U.S. labor market added 638k jobs in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Friday, the sixth straight month of job gains. Private-sector employers added 906k jobs last month, while the public sector lost 268k jobs with the release of temporary census workers from government payrolls.

Fridays are for the FDA... 

💊 On Friday, an independent advisory panel convened by the FDA decided not to endorse Biogen's aducanumab, an experimental drug used to treat Alzheimer's (but it's still possible for the drug to be approved by the FDA ahead of a March 2021 deadline). The decision came after FDA staff appeared to give a positive review of the drug on Wednesday, causing Biogen's stock to surge 44%.

💉 Also on Friday, the FDA authorized the first serology test able to detect the presence of neutralizing antibodies caused by a past coronavirus infection, issuing emergency use authorization to GenScript USA. Previous tests could only detect binding antibodies. (Neutralizing vs. Binding Antibodies: What’s the Difference?)

And Saturday...

🏈 No. 4 Notre Dame upset No. 1 Clemson 47-40 in double overtime Saturday night, ending Clemson’s 36-game regular season winning streak dating back to 2017. (Video highlights)

🥇 Alabama was ranked No. 1 in this Sunday’s Associated Press poll, setting an all-time record for consecutive seasons with at least one week on top of the rankings (13).

🦸The Hero's Journey

In July of 2016, at just 21 weeks pregnant, Val Ray of Bend, OR, was informed by her doctors that she was at risk of miscarrying at any moment. As a result, the expectant mother was forced to spend 20 days in a hospital bed with her head lower than her feet. Despite Val’s efforts to delay the birth, her baby, Logan, was born at just 23 weeks, weighing only 1.5 pounds and experiencing a host of health issues.

Wanting to document the life of his newborn son, Logan’s father, Rob, periodically took photos of the preemie next to a 12-inch tall Superman action figure that was as big as the baby throughout his six-month stay at the hospital. This year, the tough little boy – who is now completely healthy – celebrated his fourth birthday by taking a picture with the same Superman toy, showing off how much he has grown.

💍 🐈 Smitten Kittens

Anna Hosey, a 26-year-old from Chicago, first encountered Adam Lawrence, a 29-year-old from London, in October 2019 when she came across a photo that the Brit had posted of himself holding his cat in a Facebook group called “This Cat Is Chonky.” When Anna left a comment saying that she thought Adam was cute, the earnest Englishman reached out to his admirer and asked if she wanted to talk on the phone.

The call lasted five hours.

After two months of messaging back and forth, Adam flew to America to meet Anna, and the two began a long-distance relationship. This July, when British pandemic restrictions on international travel were lifted, Anna traveled to London to visit her boyfriend, moving in with him for the remainder of lockdown. Last month, Adam proposed to Anna – one year after the lovebirds’ chance encounter online.

🌰 🐕 Green Day

On October 9th, Cristian Malloci, a farmer on Sardinia's Mediterranean island, noticed something peculiar about a litter of puppies birthed by one of his eight dogs, a white mixed-breed named Spelacchia (which means “mangy” in Italian). The farmer was shocked to find that, although four of the five puppies sported white coats like their mother, one of the newborn canines was born with green fur. (Video)

As soon as the peculiarly-pigmented puppy was born, Cristian decided to name it Pistachio, hoping that its unusual color – which can represent hope and good luck – is an omen of good fortune in an otherwise stressful year. The phenomenon of a dog being born with green fur, which will fade with time, is believed to occur when a pale-colored puppy makes contact with a green pigment called biliverdin in the womb.

Fun fact: Biliverdin is the pigment that causes bruises to turn green as they heal.