Thursday, December 23rd, 2021
Holiday Travel Boom, Covid Pill OKed & Most-Visited Website
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by Schwab.com/plan and Ritual.com/newsworthy
Story Summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want to peruse the latest happenings...
TSA Busiest Travel Day
The winter holiday travel season has officially arrived. AAA says more than 109 million Americans are expected to travel between today and January 2nd, almost a 34% increase from last year. If you’re flying, a TSA spokesperson says the two busiest days for air travel are going to be today and Monday, January 3rd. However, the vast majority of people plan on taking road trips. So if you’re hitting the road, INRIX Analytics says the best way to avoid traffic is to leave early or late, like after 7 pm, since most people drive in the middle of the day.
Read More: WSJ, FOX Business, Today, USA Today, AAA, TSA
Omicron in Every State
The omicron variant of Covid-19 has now been reported in every state in the U.S. That milestone came just 22 days after the very first American case was detected. But, there are now signs this omicron wave could go away just as quickly as it got here. At least, that’s what health experts have seen in South Africa. Remember, South Africa was the first place to identify the new variant just last month. Now, the country’s top infectious disease scientist says it’s already past its peak. So, that expert says he expects every country to follow the same quick pattern.
Read More: CNN, WaPo, Reuters, Forbes, CDC
More Studies About Omicron Severity
Two more studies out of the UK found omicron is much less likely to put you in the hospital than other versions of Covid-19. But, these studies are based on early numbers, and other studies have shown the opposite. So, the World Health Organization says it's still too soon to draw any definite conclusions. However, some American scientists say they have reason to be cautiously optimistic.
Read More: BBC, Politico, AP, WSJ
FDA Authorizes Pfizer Covid Pill
The FDA gave the green light to Pfizer's antiviral pills specifically meant to treat the coronavirus. Researchers expect the pills to work against the omicron variant, too. But, not everyone who tests positive will get this treatment. The FDA's authorization lets doctors prescribe it to people who are high-risk soon after they develop symptoms. It’s also only for those who are 12 and older. The pills are taken over five days, and Pfizer says it will have enough for more than 250,000 Americans to take by next month. The U.S. government has already paid for 10 million courses of treatment by the end of next year.
Read More: NPR, WSJ, CNBC, Reuters, WaPo, FDA
Consumer Confidence Rises
Pandemic or not, the U.S. economy seems to be on the upswing. Consumer confidence improved this month with a Conference Board survey showing Americans plan to buy a house and other big-ticket items, like cars, appliances, or vacations, over the next six months. They also didn’t seem as worried about inflation as they did just a month ago. But, Conference Board says it’s still not clear what will happen in 2022. It’ll depend on inflation and a possible winter surge of Covid-19. Of course, there also won’t be the current boost from holiday spending.
Read More: Reuters, AP, The Hill, Fox Business, Conference Board
Home Sales Up Again
The National Association of Realtors reported that last month, homes sold at the fastest pace in nearly a year. Existing home sales are now on track for their strongest year since 2006. As CNBC reports, sales are likely going up because of a strong job market and concerns that mortgage rates might get higher next year. Already, the Federal Reserve has said it has interest rate hikes planned as a way to combat inflation.
Read More: Fox Business, CNBC, WSJ, Forbes, NAR
Pause on Student Loan Payments Extended
The federal government is extending the pause on federal student loan repayments until May 1st, and interest rates will stay at 0% during that time. The Department of Education first paused student loan payments in March 2020 when the pandemic first started. That pause was later extended through January 2022. Now, it’ll last another three months. Some Democratic lawmakers have been pushing for this, though critics say the move puts more burden on taxpayers.
Read More: AP, CNN, WaPo, WSJ, White House
1887 Time Capsule Opened
This week, historians opened a time capsule from more than 130 years ago. It was found last week in the pedestal of a Confederate statue that was recently taken down in Richmond, Virginia. Historians didn’t find anything exceptionally valuable, but they got a few books, a coin, and a cloth envelope. Inside that envelope, experts found what looks like a piece of paper and a picture of a man with a mustache. Experts are now going to work to preserve the items.
Read More: Richmond Times-Dispatch, WaPo, CNN, AP
Gifts Arriving on Time
Despite warnings in the fall about supply chain issues causing delayed deliveries, most people are getting their gifts on time. It could be that so many people listened to the warnings and shopped early and in person. Also, a lot of retailers and delivery companies worked hard to get the packages to where they needed to go. One software company tracking deliveries says nearly all packages delivered by UPS, FedEx, and the Postal Service have arrived on time or with minimal delays, meaning just a few hours late.
Read More: WaPo, NY Times, Fox Business, WSJ, Reuters
More Events Postponed
A few more big events have been either pushed back or canceled because of Covid-19. Fox canceled its ‘New Year’s Eve Toast and Roast’ that was supposed to be hosted by ‘Community’ stars Joel McHale and Ken Jeong. Awards season is also starting to get impacted. The Critics Choice Awards got pushed back. It was originally scheduled for January 9th. Now, the date is TBD. One of the events around the Oscars, the Governors Awards, was also postponed. There, Samuel L. Jackson and Danny Glover were set to get honorary Academy Awards.
Read More: Variety, USA Today, LA Times, CNN
Another AWS Outage
For the third time this month, Amazon’s Web Services business suffered a significant outage.
It caused problems yesterday for some people using the popular work messaging app Slack, the Epic Games store, and more. Amazon blamed the issue on a power outage at a data center.
After 12 hours of issues, Amazon has now marked the problem resolved. Remember, AWS had two outages earlier this month that impacted even more platforms, like Netflix and Disney+. This week’s outages seemed less widespread.
Read more: The Verge, Gizmodo, WSJ, WaPo, AWS
TikTok Most Visited Website
Cloud services company Cloudflare says TikTok dethroned Google as the most visited place on the internet in 2021. To be clear, that includes all Google-based sites, like Google maps, photos, and more. The video-sharing app TikTok took off during the pandemic, first with teenagers and their dance videos. Now, it’s widely used for everything from recipes, to home improvement hacks, to parenting tips and more. Earlier this year, TikTok said it has one billion monthly active users.
Read more: WSJ, Pymnts, The Independent, Quartz, Cloudflare
Thing to Know Thursday: Kids Shifting from Traditional Sports
It looks like the days of traditional sports may be on the way out for kids. Now more than ever, those born between 1997 and 2012 are turning toward Xboxes and PlayStations. The New York Times says even before the pandemic, in 2018, participation in traditional sports was down, with just 38% of kids ages 6 to 12 playing team sports regularly. That’s down from 45 percent a decade earlier. There is still a lot of debate about how good it is for kids to spend so much time in front of screens. However, health experts say it’s okay in moderation.
Read more: NY Times, LinkedIn, AAP, APA