Weekly Review

It was reported that an increasing number of Indian patients who have survived COVID-19 develop mucormycosis, also known as black fungus, a rare condition that is fatal in 50 percent of cases.¹ Pfizer, which will generate an estimated $26 billion in revenue from its vaccine this year and whose veterinarian CEO told shareholders that he expected “durable demand” to continue indefinitely, opposed the World Trade Organization’s plan to waive intellectual-property protections for manufacturing coronavirus vaccines, as did the European Union.^{2 3} In the United States, local officials have begun turning down hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses because demand has declined, and a new study estimated that the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has reached 900,000 people, a number that is 57 percent higher than the official count.^{4 5} South Carolina’s legislature approved death by firing squad as a legal means of capital punishment, and evidence showed that the DNA of an Arkansas man who maintained his innocence before his execution in 2017 did not match genetic material from the crime scene.^{6 7} “Every time we see a story that is the worst we’ve seen, another one comes along,” said an activist in San Francisco’s Chinese community after a man stabbed two Asian women in front of a flower stall in the city’s downtown, and in Piedmont, California, a school began and then ended a support group for white students to process the trial of Derek Chauvin.^{8 9} Atlanta reinstated the police officer charged with murdering Rayshard Brooks, a black man, in the parking lot of a Wendy’s last June, finding that the officer’s firing “seemed rushed” and violated his right to due process.¹⁰ “The sexual nature of this organ is irrelevant,” said a Canadian judge who ruled that an officer had acted lawfully when he grabbed and twisted a man’s genitals to garner compliance in an arrest.¹¹

France and England sent warships to the island of Jersey after French fishers blocked a port to protest new Brexit regulations, and after a church warden with the keys to a polling location overslept, residents of Oxford, England, cast votes for local elections in the trunk of a car.^{12 13 14} “What’s happened now is they can see we did get Brexit done,” said Boris Johnson in response to the Conservative Party’s winning seats across the United Kingdom.¹⁵ Arizona’s secretary of state criticized a Republican effort to overturn the presidential election by recounting ballots; among the concerns she cited were partisan tabulators, such as one man who was photographed at the January 6 Capitol riot, and untrained observers looking for traces of bamboo in an effort to uncloak fraudulent ballots shipped from Asia.¹⁶ In Virginia, vote counting in Republican primary elections was delayed for hours after a housekeeper delivered coffee to a room where ballots were stored overnight.¹⁷ “I just wanted to fit in with the circus that is this process,” said an observer who was dressed as a circus ringmaster with a top hat and red satin tails. “This is emblematic of what is happening to our Country. The whole world is laughing at us,” wrote Donald Trump in response to news that Medina Spirit, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, had been given performance-enhancing drugs.¹⁸ “It was like kind of a cancel culture kind of a thing,” said Medina Spirit’s trainer after the positive drug test.¹⁹ “I’m so uninterested in that,” said Zoom CEO Eric Yuan while discussing his Zoom fatigue.²⁰ Huawei’s CEO, whose daughter was arrested in Canada after U.S. authorities discovered a PowerPoint presentation that revealed the company’s violations of sanctions against Iran, instructed his employees to meet in person instead of emailing and to use fewer adjectives in written materials.^{21 22}

West Midlands Trains received criticism after it emailed a phishing test to its employees in which they were praised for their hard work during the pandemic and informed they would receive a one-time payment once they clicked a link contained in the message.²³ Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts endorsed the Nebraska Beef Passport, and more than 45,000 people applied to cull bison herds in the Grand Canyon National Park.^{24 25} In Nashville, Tennessee, a man was arrested outside Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse after swinging his colostomy bag at police officers.²⁶ The DWI Dude, a Texas lawyer who specialized in defending those charged with drunk driving, was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for defrauding Colombian cocaine traffickers.²⁷ “We live in a country with the greatest system of justice in the world,” said the acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Texas. A new book argues that famed scam artist Frank Abagnale Jr. lied about his time as a hoaxer.²⁸ —Cameron French