There may be light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic, but one piece of the virus will live on. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who became the public face of the governments coronavirus response with daily press conferences and media interviews, on Tuesday donated his personal model of the SARS-CoV-2 virion to the Smithsonians National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The model will be housed within the national medicine and science collections. The museum is currently collecting and documenting pieces of the pandemic for a future exhibit In Sickness and In Health. The exhibit will explore and display more than 200 years of medicine in the United States, including COVID-19. Fauci has used the blue and pink spikey ball as an educational tool over the past 13 months to explain COVID-19 in briefings to members of Congress, journalists, and the public. The model was made with a 3D printer and shows the various components of the complete, infectious form of the virus including
Many residents of Jackson, Miss., remain without running water three weeks after a winter storm hit the city. The water outages in Jackson began Feb. 15 as a winter storm swept across the state. The storm brought devastating, bitter cold to the South and hit the regions critical infrastructure hard-- highlighting major vulnerabilities in the areas power grid and water system. Some water treatment plants in the city couldnt operate in the freezing temperatures that lingered for days. Because plants were shut down for so long, water pressure in the city dropped. As of March 3, service had been restored in some areas, but a boil water notice remained in effect for many residents, according to city officials. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said March 1 in a Twitter post that the city has made some strides restoring water service, but more work needs to be done. But the timeline of when full water service could be restored is unclear. Jackson Public Works Director Charles Williams
For the first time since a late fall spike of COVID-19 infections, San Francisco will allow indoor dining and, gyms, movie theaters and museums to open to the public Wednesday morning. Mayor London Breed and Grant Colfax, San Francisco Director of Health, announced the easing of coronavirus restrictions Tuesday. The changes will allow many businesses that were forced to shut last fall to reopen at some capacity, a news release said . Thanks to everyone in our City acting responsibly and doing their part, we can take another step towards reopening and beginning our recovery, Breed said. This year has been incredibly hard on our residents and small businesses, so every step forward is critical to making sure they can survive this pandemic. Many regular, daily activities suspended during the pandemic will resume Wednesday, albeit with social distancing restrictions. Indoor dining at restaurants, bars and coffee shops will be limited to groups from the same household with a cap of four
Just in time for pothole season, the latest report card on the nations infrastructure shows that the needs are great but funding is lacking. Many of the countrys roads, bridges, airports, dams, levees and water systems are aging and in poor to mediocre condition. And theyre in need of a major federal investment to keep from getting worse and to withstand the harsh effects of a changing climate, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. The group gives the nations infrastructure in general a grade of C-minus on its quadrennial infrastructure report card, up from a D-minus four years ago. ASCE says the U.S. made some modest and incremental improvements in some infrastructure categories, including railroads, drinking water systems and inland waterways and ports. But 11 of the 17 infrastructure categories evaluated are graded in the D range, and as last months power and water failures due to brutal winter storms and extreme cold show, many infrastructure systems are
For the first time in nearly three decades, the state of Georgia voted to put a Democrat in the White House. Then it added two U.S. senators from the Democratic Party. And one person central to turning Georgia blue is the voting rights activist and former state legislator Stacey Abrams. Abrams tells All Things Considered that the Democratic swing was extraordinary, but not wholly surprising, adding that the numbers had been moving in our favor in recent years. The 2020 election had historic turnout, but for Abrams, the fight to secure voting rights is just beginning. On Monday, the Georgia House of Representatives passed legislation that would restrict early and absentee voting . And 42 other states are also considering bills that would make it harder to vote. Last year, Abrams helped to make a documentary about voter suppression , in the past and present. Now, All In: The Fight for Democracy has been shortlisted for an Oscar. Here are excerpts from the interview. According to
Were excited to honor extraordinary nurses in our area who go above and beyond to deliver compassionate care. In unprecedented times and with the added strain of COVID-19, this year we celebrate nurses who put others first and have made