Link Log Roundup for May 15, 2020
In this edition: a decline in distancing, hot spots, strange new worlds, an inability to focus, mixed messages, concentration fatigue, Marion County, race and immobility, making or breaking cities, and a Grubhub scam.
Your daily look at links I’ve saved to my Link Log (RSS) over the course of each day but didn’t necessarily address or highlight here on the blog. These are the links I logged yesterday, and not necessarily links to things published yesterday.
Social Distancing Eases as Some States Lift Restrictions
Fifty-eight percent of U.S. adults report they are completely (17%) or mostly (41%) isolating themselves, continuing a decline from a high of 75% the week of March 30-April 5, and back to the level seen before most states had implemented stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Where U.S. coronavirus cases are on the rise
Nationally, new cases of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, are down 11% in the last week, according to the Reuters analysis. However, hot spots are emerging in some southern and western states, while the Northeast has seen new infections plunge.
’Star Trek’ Pike and Spock Series Set at CBS All Access
The streamer has handed out a straight-to-series order for Star Trek: Discovery spinoff Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The drama will see Anson Mount, Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn reprise their respective Discovery roles as Capt. Christopher Pike, Spock and Number One as the series explores the years the former manned the helm of the Enterprise. The show follows the trio in the decade before Capt. Kirk boarded the Enterprise as they explore new worlds around the galaxy.
Why can’t we focus during this pandemic?
All over the world, people are trying to overcome one of the few universal problems this pandemic has brought on: that it feels near-impossible to stay focused on anything. Whether it’s work or study, or even pleasurable things like reading, gaming or chatting, everything suddenly feels like a battle against your attention span to concentrate on what was once simply routine.
Public Discord Grows Amid Lockdowns and Mixed Virus Messages
At issue is a high-stakes scientific question: How quickly will the virus spread if restrictions are lifted? Most experts warn that doing so could lead to a resurgence of cases unless there is a robust program to test, trace, and isolate infected people. But there are political questions at play, too — about the economic and social costs of lockdowns, and about the civil liberties implications of policies that restrict movement for weeks or months on end.
Zoom fatigue is something the deaf community knows very well
“Zoom fatigue” is also about the feeling of always having to be “on.” The endless video calls for work or leisure are exhausting. It’s similar to—but not nearly the same as—how deaf and hard of hearing individuals never stop working in processing sounds, despite the barriers, and translating what they mean throughout each day.
Supply shortages, delayed response preceded Marion County coronavirus outbreak: report
Constrained by limited testing capacity, limited staffing and sometimes days-long delays in getting results back, health officials reacted as new cases were reported, but did little to proactively ensure some of the county’s most vulnerable residents were armed with information to protect themselves and their families.
Opinion | What Black America Knows About Quarantine
Lately, the coronavirus has got me thinking a lot about the racial dynamics of containment. Under the quarantine, much has been made of Americans’ regulated lack of mobility. But our cities have long kept their black residents contained and at the margins. Populations trapped in place are easier to price-gouge and police. Capitalism and immobility work hand in hand.
A Make-or-Break Moment for Cities
Banking and housing are two other areas where federal policy may be necessary not simply to help cities recover economically, but to shape the right kind of recovery. One can imagine that the COVID-19 pandemic will leave a cityscape of closed businesses and empty storefronts and people who can no longer afford housing. Federal intervention could help ensure that large corporations and real-estate conglomerates don’t swoop in to fill every available void. In fact, the pandemic presents an opportunity to rewrite banking policies so that they reward small rather than big, and to initiate housing programs that expand opportunities for working- and middle-class people, reversing some of the trends that have made it harder for people to afford the neighborhoods they live in.
Customers trying to avoid online delivery platforms like Grubhub by calling restaurants directly might be dialing phone numbers generated and advertised by those very platforms — for which restaurants are charged fees that can sometimes exceed the income the order generates. Restaurant owners and the New York City Council say the practice is further squeezing businesses already stretched thin by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns.