Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed

The Atlantic: Why COVID-19 Cases Are Falling So Fast
One month ago, the CDC published the results of more than 20 pandemic forecasting models. Most projected that COVID-19 cases would continue to grow through February, or at least plateau. Instead, COVID-19 is in retreat in America. New daily cases have plunged, and hospitalizations are down almost 50 percent in the past month. This is not an artifact of infrequent testing, since the share of regional daily tests that are coming back positive has declined even more than the number of cases. Some pandemic statistics are foggy, but the current decline of COVID-19 is crystal clear. What’s behind the change? Americans’ good behavior in the past month has tag-teamed with (mostly) warming weather across the Northern Hemisphere to slow the pandemic’s growth; at the same time, partial immunity and vaccines have reduced the number of viable bodies that would allow the coronavirus to thrive. But the full story is a bit more complex. (Thompson, 2/17)

Los Angeles Times: Hollywood Forever Crematorium Takes On COVID-19 Death Surge 
Diego Pablo had trained the young man in the craft of burning human bodies down to ash. Inside the crematorium, 44-year-old Pablo watched as his protege prepared to push the rose-covered cardboard coffin into the furnace’s yawning mouth. “What’s next?” Pablo asked, a gentle reminder to the 23-year-old — who towered over him — that something was missing. (Mejia, 2/12)

The Atlantic: The Virus Is Evolving. But So Are Your Antibodies
To locate some of the world’s most superpowered cells, look no further than the human immune system. The mission of these hometown heroes is threefold: Memorize the features of dangerous microbes that breach the body’s barriers. Launch an attack to bring them to heel. Then squirrel away intel to quash future assaults. The immune system is comprehensive, capable of dueling with just about every microbe it meets. It’s archival, ace at memorizing the details of its victories and defeats. It might be complicated, but it is also, simply put, cool as hell. (Wu, 2/12)

The New York Times: Potential For New Coronaviruses May Be Greater Than Known 
As the coronavirus continues to evolve, the scientific and public health focus has been on new variants in which a few mutations make the virus more infectious, or even, it may be, more deadly. These changes in the virus are all what scientists call point mutations, the substitution of one tiny bit of genetic code for another. Coronaviruses, as a group, are not known to mutate rapidly, but the pandemic caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 means that millions and millions of people are infected by billions and billions of viral particles, offering countless chances for change. (Gorman, 2/16)

The New York Times: Piecing Together The Next Pandemic 
Covid-19 arrived in Cambodia a year ago, on Jan. 23, when a Chinese national flew in from Wuhan, the city where the illness was first detected, and soon fell sick with a fever. A P.C.R. test to detect the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, came back positive. With that news, the disease had officially pierced the borders of another nation. For Cambodia, a developing country with a rudimentary health care system and multiple direct flights from Wuhan, the new disease seemed to present an especially high risk. (Zeeberg, 2/16)

Politico: Welcome To Recovery Lab: Health 
The Covid-19 pandemic is a crisis with no parallel in America for a century: a deadly global contagion combined with a deep economic downturn that has caused massive shocks throughout our society and economy. Our health care system has struggled with the volume of patients and the unprecedented challenge of vaccinating the entire population. Millions of jobs have ceased to exist and others have been completely restructured. Schools and universities have reconfigured curricula and schedules. Technology has become even more integral to how we shop, work and learn, making the digital divide wider than ever. Daily life has been completely altered, and it’s a good bet that our economy will never be the same. (Reynolds, 2/18)

Bloomberg: Pfizer Herd Immunity Study Stymied By Iceland’s Wins Over Covid
A push by Iceland to get Pfizer Inc.’s backing for a nationwide study on the ability of vaccines to quickly create herd immunity has run into an unexpected snag. The tiny island nation has done too good a job keeping Covid-19 in check. Before Christmas, Kari Stefansson, the head of Iceland-based deCode Genetics, and Thorolfur Gudnason, the country’s chief epidemiologist, reached out to Pfizer executives. Their pitch: If Iceland could quickly get 500,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech SE vaccine, the country could inoculate about 70% of its population by the end of March, creating the basis of a real-life study on whether herd immunity can be achieved as a result. (Brown and Sigurdardottir, 2/15)

The New York Times: W.H.O. Researcher Seeking Coronavirus Origins On His Trip To China
Peter Daszak, a member of the W.H.O. team and the president of EcoHealth Alliance in New York, is primarily concerned with the animal origins of the virus. A specialist in animal diseases and their spread to humans, Dr. Daszak has worked with the Wuhan Virology Institute, a collaboration that last year prompted the Trump administration to cancel a grant to his organization. In an interview after his return to New York, he said that the visit had provided some new clues, which all of the scientists, Chinese and international, agreed most likely pointed to an animal origin within China or Southeast Asia. (Gorman, 2/14)

Philadelphia Inquirer: NFL COVID-19 Data Helped CDC Coronavirus Research
There was plenty of uncertainty along the way, but the NFL season ended last Sunday without a hitch. In a season defined by the obstacles brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, it wasn’t always easy to see the league making it to the finish line in Tampa for Super Bowl LV. There were outbreaks, postponed games, and moments where the league’s interest in player safety was questioned, but the league announced last week the overall positivity rate among players and staff members was .08% and the NFL’s research on the virus was used by the government’s health agencies. (Smith, 2/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid Vaccines For The Tokyo Olympics Have Become A Political Issue 
The International Olympic Committee has a complicated view of whether athletes should be vaccinated for this summer’s Tokyo Games. The IOC won’t require Covid-19 vaccines for competition, and doesn’t want athletes to cut the line. But it’s also directed national Olympic committees to try to get shots for their athletes. The conflicting signals show what a touchy topic the vaccine has become ahead of Tokyo. Even discussing shots for athletes can provoke hostility as a slow vaccine rollout proceeds around the world among countries eager to turn the tide of deaths, case numbers and economic downturn. Yet sports officials in dominant Olympic nations say they’re pursuing the IOC’s request anyway. (Bachman and Radnofsky, 2/14)

Also —

The New York Times: Meet The Women Who Become Surrogates In NY
In 1995, Lisa Wippler, having recently retired from the Marines, moved with her husband and two young sons to Oceanside, Calif., and was contemplating her next chapter in life. The answer came while lying in bed one night, reading an article about infertility. “I had no idea how many couples out there needed help,” she said. Inspired, she sought out a local support group for women who had served as surrogates to help those who can’t have children on their own start families. “It was this amazing circle of women,” said Ms. Wippler, who is now 49. “All talking about their journeys and their stories.” (Dodge, 2/15)

The Washington Post: Restaurants Throw Away A Lot Of Food. These Volunteers Pick It Up First And Take It To People Who Are Hungry.
Abigail Goody’s 8-month-old daughter, Sailor, picked up the coronavirus in January from her day-care center in Woodbridge, Va. Goody, 29, and her husband, Bobby Hawkes, 28, a self-employed remodeling contractor, soon had covid-19, too. They all had relatively mild symptoms, said Goody, but the couple quickly realized they had a looming problem. “We had about a week’s worth of food in the fridge,” said Goody, who works as a hairstylist at a salon that is now closed. “I was thinking of things I’d have to do to stretch our meals.” (Free, 2/12)

The Washington Post: Bill Gates Is Fighting Climate Change And Covid Conspiracy Theories. He’s Also ‘Experiencing The Greatest Pushback Ever In My Life.’ 
Bill Gates, 65, is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and self-described technologist. He co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with childhood friend Paul Allen and turned it into one of the largest companies in the world. With his wife, Melinda, he now co-chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on global health and development, and on education in the United States. One of the largest private charitable organizations in the world, their foundation has given out more than $50 billion in grants in 135 countries. Gates is also involved in a number of private-sector ventures to encourage innovation in the fields of health and climate change. Released this month, his book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” details his own exploration of the causes and effects of climate change. In it, Gates offers a framework for avoiding climate catastrophe by attaining what he deems the necessary goal of moving from 51 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions released each year to net zero by 2050. Noting that the world “has never done anything quite this big,” Gates argues that breakthrough technologies must play a critical role in getting there. (Ottesen, 2/16)