Ben Palmer's reads
She went up in space in September 2019, and came down to Earth amid a pandemic. On Sept. 25, 2019, astronaut Jessica Meir started her first-ever mission to space. When she returned to Earth in April 2020, she landed in the middle of the global coronavirus pandemic. Writing for The Face, Alexandra Jones details Meir's experience in space and what it was like for her to come back home amid the public health crisis.
The NFL saw a lot of injuries on Sunday. Is it because of the coronavirus? On Sunday, the National Football League (NFL) saw a large number of its players go down with injuries—and America's coronavirus epidemic could be to blame, Tom Goldman reports for NPR. The NFL's regular season started on time, but due to the epidemic, the league had canceled organized practices before the start of teams' training camps and its normal pre-season games. Evidence has shown that athletes who have extended down time could be more prone to injury, Goldman reports. For example, JC Tretter, a player for the Cleveland Browns and president of the NFL Players' Union, said that, following a player lockout in 2011, the NFL saw player injuries increase by 25%.
José Vasquez's reads
What happened to the field hospitals China built to treat Covid-19 patients? In February, China constructed two field hospitals—one called Huoshenshan, or "Fire God Mountain," and another called Leishenshan or "Thunder God Mountain"—in less than two weeks to treat and isolate the country's influx of Covid-19 patients, Joanne Lu writes for NPR's "Goats and Soda." After treating thousands of patients at the two field hospitals, Chinese officials "retired" the facilities, Lu writes, but they have no plans of demolishing them yet. According to Lu, China could choose to reactivate the hospitals if the country sees another surge in new coronavirus cases.
How Pinterest is stamping out vaccine misinformation. Writing for STAT News, Erin Brodwin explains the tactics Pinterest uses to enforce "a zero-tolerance vaccine misinformation policy." According to Brodwin, Pinterest's multifaceted approach to combatting false vaccine-related information involves anticipation, flexibility, a team of moderators, and suspensions. For example, before the release of the "Plandemic" conspiracy film regarding the global coronavirus pandemic, Pinterest's moderators proactively scrubbed the website of false information associated with the movie.