Author: THEJOHNANTONIOBLOG

If you’re reading this article, you can remember what it was like to be alive in 2020 — all too well, most likely. And while you may not want to relive it, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy — a new book by renowned economic historian Adam Tooze about the year that was —…

Roughly a quarter of the more than 100,000 Afghans evacuated from Kabul in August have already arrived at American military bases for further processing, awaiting their opportunity to start a new life in the US. But amid a nationwide affordable housing crisis, finding them a place to call home is proving a major obstacle. There…

Covid-19 is upending our lives and forcing us to make complex decisions with little information and conflicting guidance from authorities. Summer, typically the season of staying up late and popsicles in the park, offers no escape. Many of us are already turning to the fall, and the fate of schools. What will we do with…

Covid-19 testing in the US improved dramatically over the first half of 2020, but things now appear to be breaking down once more as coronavirus cases rise and outstrip capacity — to the point that the mayor of a major American city can’t get testing quickly enough to potentially avoid spreading the virus. “We FINALLY…

A heat wave is baking much of the United States this week, with some of the highest temperatures forecasted in Southwestern states battling some of the most troubling coronavirus outbreaks in the country. Arizona, for instance, is currently suffering from one of the worst outbreaks of Covid-19 with the highest daily reported cases per capita…

Many schools across the US gambled on offering in-person classes in early August, even as their states were still battling uncontrolled spread of Covid-19. In some of those schools, it hasn’t gone well. In Georgia’s Cherokee County School District, for example, there have been at least 80 positive cases since August 3, and more than…

In the past half-century, the global production of meat has undergone a seismic shift. While meat was once mostly raised on small farms, today almost all the meat we eat comes from industrialized “factory” farms, known as “concentrated animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs. More than 90 percent of the world’s meat supply comes from CAFOs….

For months now, it’s been widely accepted that many people infected with the novel coronavirus experience few if any symptoms but can still potentially spread the virus to others. Exactly how many of these people without symptoms are “silent spreaders” has been a mystery. Despite the mystery, the public health message has been clear: We…

Scientists at Oxford University in the United Kingdom this week reported that a trial of the drug dexamethasone shows it may be the first treatment demonstrated to save the lives of Covid-19 patients. Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid typically used to treat inflammation. It’s cheap, as little as $1 per dose. It’s also been around since…

Most people who get the coronavirus will fully recover and go right back to their lives. But the latest research suggests that at least 10 percent have long-term symptoms, even after their body has apparently cleared the virus. The condition, known as “long Covid,” has emerged as a scary feature of the pandemic — a…