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Good morning and welcome to Monday. On today’s docket:
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✈️ Unruly passenger incidents are on the rise.
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💉Inside a fully-vaccinated COVID outbreak in Massachusetts.
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⏰💎 A (possible) scientific breakthrough involving “time crystals”… Marvel, meet real-life.
Let’s do this.
⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.15 minutes to read. (With the 360° view: +2.77 minutes.)
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👇📰 Quick Bits
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🦠 Delta Variant Case Study
Image: Imilian
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🎁 DONUT Headline: The CDC published data from a Delta variant case study in July where nearly three-quarters of COVID-19 cases were among fully vaccinated people. Roughly 1% of all cases in the study resulted in hospitalization, with zero reported deaths.
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The CDC on Friday said its new masking guidance - which recommends vaccinated individuals to mask up indoors in areas of high transmission - was based in part on data from a case study of a COVID-19 outbreak on Cape Cod last month.
🔢 By the numbers... The agency found ~74% of the 469 cases associated with large gatherings from July 3 to 17 were among fully vaccinated people. The Delta variant was identified in 90% of the cases.
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Five people ended up requiring hospitalization - four vaccinated, one not - and there were zero reported deaths as of July 27.
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The CDC's report said 127 vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant appeared to carry as much virus as 84 unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people (meaning they are likely just as contagious).
Note: The study didn't differentiate between those who received a full regimen of Pfizer or Moderna's vaccines vs. Johnson & Johnson's single-dose, the latter of which may be less-effective against the Delta variant.
🔭 Zoom out...
From the Right: WSJ
From the Left: CNBC
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✈️ Surely, You Can’t Be Serious?
Image: YouTube
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🎁 DONUT Headline: As air travel picks back up, so have incidents of unruly passengers, which are at a record-high pace due in large part to complaints over mask mandates.
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A national survey of nearly 5,000 flight attendants released Thursday by the Association of Flight Attendants found that over 85 percent of all respondents had dealt with unruly passengers as air travel picked up in the first half of 2021.
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“Incidents of unruly passengers on aircraft are up so high that if they continue at this rate, we may see more incidents in this one year alone than we've seen in the entire history of aviation,” Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told reporters on a call Thursday.
🔢 By the numbers… Fifty-eight percent said they’ve had to deal with at least five incidents, while 17% said they experienced a physical incident.
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Enforcing mask mandates and dealing with drunk passengers were the number one and two causes, respectively.
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Shoving, kicking seats, throwing trash, defiling the restroom, and following staff off planes were also cited.
🔭 Zoom out… As a whole, these events are infrequent – 3,615 reported incidents vs. 45,000 daily flights pre-pandemic – but they’re a lot higher than they used to be. The FAA has initiated 610 investigations this year, nearly double the amount in 2019 and 2020 combined.
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Fines or penalties were levied in 95 incidents, the largest being $52,500 for a man who tried to open the cockpit door and then struck a flight attendant twice - once after breaking free of plastic handcuffs - on a Delta Air Lines flight in December. Imagine being on that flight.
👁️ Looking ahead... The FAA is still enforcing its zero-tolerance policy for in-flight disruptions, which could lead to fines in the tens of thousands and up to 20 years in prison.
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Air travel is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels according to TSA numbers; more than six million passed through checkpoints over the past three days.
+All this to say: If you’re flying soon, give your flight attendants a break. They deserve it – and they didn’t make the rules.
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🍩 DONUT Holes…
Vic Mensa joins Grandson on stage at Lollapalooza; Source: Rolling Stone
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☝️ Lollapalooza took place in Chicago over the weekend – see a Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4 recap; rapper DaBaby was cut from the festival's closing lineup on Sunday following remarks he made last week at Rolling Loud.
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🇪🇺 Amazon received a record ~$886M fine from EU regulators for violating the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
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🇲🇲 Myanmar's military leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing declared himself the country's prime minister on Sunday; said he plans to stay in power for two years during an extended state of emergency until elections are held in 2023. (Background on the recent coup in Myanmar.)
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⏰❄️ Researchers using Google's quantum computer may have created a genuine "time crystal" – a structure in which atoms and molecules are arranged in a pattern that repeats not only in space, but also in time. (Here's what one looks like.)
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💰 Square agreed to an all-stock deal worth ~$29 billion to acquire the aptly named "buy now, pay later" provider Afterpay.
🏊⚽ Olympic Roundup 🏃♂️🥇
+Medals: The U.S. leads the overall medal count, while China has the most gold medals.
+Bonus: The Olympics' best TikToks.
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🔥 The Hot Corner
💬 Heard Through the Grapevine… Flashback to 2016. Tesla’s Model 3 is coming soon, but the auto manufacturer is in serious financial trouble. Apple CEO Tim Cook calls up Elon Musk...
Cook: Hey Elon, Apple would like to buy your company.
Musk: I’m interested. But with one condition – I’m CEO.
Cook: Sure! When Apple bought Beats in 2014, we kept on founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.
Musk: No, Apple. CEO of Apple.
Cook: F*** you. (Hangs up.)
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The above is paraphrased from an LA Times review for an upcoming book by the WSJ’s Tim Higgins titled 'Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk and the Bet of the Century.'
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Musk and Apple both denied that the two CEOs have ever spoken.
🔢 Stat of the Day... Lottery officials say a woman in Germany carried a winning ticket in her purse for weeks without realizing it was worth ~$39 million.
📖 Worth Your Time… Hou Yifan and the Wait for Chess’s First Woman World Champion
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
🏘️ The Rent Is Now Due
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Image: CNBC
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🎁 DONUT Headline: The CDC's eviction moratorium expired on Saturday after the Supreme Court ruled it couldn't be extended for a fourth time without new legislation from Congress.
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An 11-month federal ban on evictions expired on Saturday.
📜 Background... The CDC temporarily halted evictions across the country last September, saying the move was "an effective public health measure utilized to prevent the spread of communicable disease" during the pandemic.
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The agency extended the moratorium three times before the Supreme Court in June signaled the CDC's eviction ban was unlawful (but allowed it to continue for one final month).
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The Court's ruling said congressional legislation would be needed to further extend the eviction moratorium. Congress adjourned for its annual August recess this past weekend without voting on any such proposal.
Proponents of the eviction ban say it helped prevent further virus spread by keeping people from being put out on the streets or into shelters. Many have expressed disappointment with Congress for letting it lapse.
✋ Yes, but... Landlords are against any extension of the eviction ban. They have also called on Congress to speed up the distribution of $47 billion in rental assistance in the $1.9 trillion spending package signed in March.
👁️ Looking ahead... Roughly 11 million Americans are currently behind on rent and could be at risk of eviction, according to CNBC.
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Roughly 3.6 million Americans said they face eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey released in early July.
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📅🔭 The Week Ahead...
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Monday: Test-or-vaccine mandates begin for public workers in CA & NYC
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Tuesday: House special election primary in Cleveland; Boeing & NASA launch uncrewed test flight of Starliner to the ISS
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Wednesday: National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
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Thursday: Iran inaugurates new president; NFL preseason begins with Hall of Fame game
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Friday: July jobs report
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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🌊 Surf and Rescue
Image: SERVITA
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🎁 DONUT Headline: A college student in the UK designed a life saving drone system that can fly over hazardous waters to help people who are at risk of drowning stay afloat (Baywatch, meet Blade Runner).
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While on a beach trip with his family in 2017, Dominic Leatherland witnessed two off-duty lifeguards struggle through rough surf to rescue a teenager who had been pulled out to sea.
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As he watched the daring operation, he considered how much easier it would be if the rescue workers could simply fly over the tumultuous waves.
In his final year as a Product Design and Technology student at Loughborough University, Dominic pursued his idea and found that, although using drones to perform beach rescues had been prototyped, existing designs relied on bulky commercial drones that were difficult to transport and deploy.
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So Dominic created “SERVITA,” a small, compact drone equipped with a GPS and live-feed camera that can fly over hazardous waters and deploy an inflatable buoyancy aid to imperiled swimmers.
Keep reading.
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🤗 Daily Dose of Positive
👵 Ninety Years Young
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Image: Melissa Denny Photography
A family in North Carolina threw their beloved grandma - known as “G-Ma” - an incredible princess-themed 90th birthday party earlier this summer.
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The party was planned by G-Ma’s granddaughter Stephanie. "I had seen people on the internet do photoshoots for first birthdays, and even 30th birthdays so I thought why not do one for her 90th?" she told Metro UK.
The pretty princess party also featured a throne, crown, tutu, cake, balloons, biscuits in the shape of G-Ma’s face, and a custom t-shirt for the nonagenarian.
Keep reading.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
👀 Sneak Peak
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Where would you be most likely to see a "widow's peak"?
A) On top of a mountain
B) Inside the home of a woman who lost her spouse
C) On a human head
D) At a sand dune
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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Simply:
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💡 Dose of Knowledge Answer
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C) On a human head
A "widow's peak" refers to when a person's hairline comes together in a downward V-shape at the center of their forehead.
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Widow's peaks are sometimes used to illustrate basic human genetics, though there's not been enough research to definitively conclude the condition is the result of a single dominant gene.
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
–Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018), American science-fiction author
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