Tracking Covid at U.S. Colleges and Universities
By The New York Times
Updated Oct. 8, 2020
Thousands of new coronavirus cases continue to emerge on college campuses. A New York Times survey of more than 1,700 American colleges and universities — including every four-year public institution and every private college that competes in N.C.A.A. sports — has revealed more than cases and at least deaths since the pandemic began.
Most of the cases have been announced since students returned to campus for the fall term. Most of the deaths were reported in the spring and involved college employees, not students. But at least two students — Jamain Stephens, a football player at California University of Pennsylvania, and Chad Dorrill, a sophomore at Appalachian State — have died in recent weeks after contracting the virus.
More than 45 colleges have reported at least 1,000 cases over the course of the pandemic, and more than 300 colleges have reported more than 100 cases. Around the country, some of the metro areas with the most cases per capita in recent days — including Boone, N.C.; Tuscaloosa, Ala.; and Provo, Utah — have sizable outbreaks at universities. Read full text
How the death of business travel will change your next vacation
BY BRUCE WALLIN
Published Oct. 1, 2020
If you ever brought your spouse with you to a conference in Las Vegas, tacked on a weekend in the Keys after a site visit in Miami, or took in the Christmas markets in Salzburg following a meeting in Munich, you were part of a burgeoning trend in travel: the bleisure trip.
A loosely defined category where business and leisure converge, bleisure typically refers to a person vacationing at a destination before or after visiting for a work-related purpose. A 2016 survey by Expedia Group Media Solutions found that bleisure travelers worldwide turned 43 percent of their business trips into vacations. That figure increased to 60 percent by 2018, with an average extension of close to three nights. Younger professionals were particularly fond of the practice: In 2019, a National Car Rental survey reported that 90 percent of millennial business travelers added leisure components to their trips.
Then came 2020, the year that business travel died. The COVID-induced collapse of corporate travel has also killed bleisure—and it could have a lasting influence on how we travel for pleasure. Where we take our vacations, how we get there, when we go, how long we stay, and even how our trips impact the environment are all changing. And though prompted by the pandemic, many of the shifts can be traced to the inextricable link between business and leisure travel. Read full text
Dozens of COVID-19 vaccines are in development. Here are the ones to follow
BY AMY MCKEEVER
Published Oct. 13, 2020
More than 150 coronavirus vaccines are in development across the world—and hopes are high to bring one to market in record time to ease the global crisis. Several efforts are underway to help make that possible, including the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, which has pledged $10 billion and aims to develop and deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by January 2021. The World Health Organization is also coordinating global efforts to develop a vaccine, with an eye toward delivering two billion doses by the end of 2021.
It can typically take 10 to 15 years to bring a vaccine to market; the fastest-ever—the vaccine for mumps—required four years in the 1960s. Vaccines go through a three-stage clinical trial process before they are sent to regulatory agencies for approval—which can be a lengthy process itself.
Even after a vaccine is approved, it faces potential roadblocks when it comes to scaling up production and distribution, which also includes deciding which populations should get it first—and at what cost. Many vaccines also stay in what’s called phase four, a perpetual stage of regular study. (Here's how we'll know when a COVID-19 vaccine is ready.) Read full text