Essential workers risk their lives for low pay | Morning Newsletter
Plus, how long does immunity last after a coronavirus infection?
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Happy belated Mother’s Day. Did you know that a Philly woman is a big part of why we celebrate it? I didn’t until I read this story from my colleague Patricia Madej.
As far as stay-at-home orders are concerned, Philly’s will continue until at least early next month, while New Jersey hopes to reopen beaches by Memorial Day.
— Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Throughout Philadelphia, the workers deemed “essential” are the ones hustling to keep the city going. From ringing up and bagging groceries to guarding prisons and driving buses, these essential workers have continued to work for weeks as the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic grows.
Though they are told they’re essential, many of the workers are women and people of color earning low and working-class wages, raising questions about whether the people keeping our society afloat right now are being paid enough.
Predicting how long and how strong someone’s immune system’s response is to either an infection or vaccine is anything but straightforward. That’s another complication that goes along with the accelerated timetable for making a coronavirus vaccine.
There are also questions about coronavirus antibody tests, which might not be ideal for determining who can go back to living as they were before the pandemic. Those tests are now easy to get, but it’s hard to be sure what, exactly, you’re getting. For example, they don’t indicate the level of antibodies or, in many cases, the type.
Egg farmer Josh Zimmerman was facing disaster. About a month ago, his Pennsylvania bulk-egg processer ran out of storage for liquefied eggs, which had filled food-storage tankers to the point that processers shut off the supply.
He faced a choice: euthanize part of his 80,000-hen flock or find a new market for his eggs. Then, Zimmerman connected with Timi Bauscher, who runs Nesting Box Farm Market and Creamery about 20 minutes from Zimmerman’s farm in Berks County. And after Facebook and Instagram posts went viral, they were off.
What you need to know today
Nursing homes are treating coronavirus patients with the unproven drug that President Donald Trump has touted. And sometimes, it’s without patients’ consent.
Some of rural Pennsylvania has already started reopening. Here’s what that looks like.
When incarcerated people are released from jail because of the pandemic, where are they going?
Other states have coronavirus data that are more reliable and more robust than Pennsylvania’s.
Pennsylvania workers with preexisting health conditions are fearful of having to return to work. Is it worth risking their lives to avoid losing their jobs?
If you need support right now, you can find free and low-cost therapy.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and City Council President Darrell Clarke are silent on whether the city should apologize for the deadly MOVE bombing. Former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., who authorized the bombing, publicly apologized for his role and called for an official one from the city. The 35th anniversary of the event is Wednesday.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
Enjoy those walks — safely. Thanks for sharing, @insta__pang.
Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!
That’s interesting
📸There was a Mother’s Day car parade at Brightview Devon Senior Living in Wayne.
🛒If you’ve finished your two-week food supply, you need to restock it. Now.
🌇Philly-area college students owe rent for their now-empty apartments. And there’s not much help they can get.
😷When will it be safe to visit nursing homes?
🍎Philly’s star educators, the 60 winners of the 2020 Lindback Foundation Distinguished Teaching prizes, share what it’s been like to teach through the coronavirus.
🎸April was the first month that Inquirer music writer Dan DeLuca didn’t go see live music since he was 16.
🔮What do you want to leave behind when we emerge from sheltering-in-place?
Opinions
“And for the first time in a long time, it was easier to believe that as much and as quickly as the world around us is changing, some things that count have not. Brotherly love continues.” — writes columnist Helen Ubiñas about attending a social-distancing awards ceremony that reminded her how much she misses Philly.
Mother’s Day should be both a reminder of the strength of women and the inequality that still exists, writes Lynn H. Yeakel, the president of Vision 2020 and director of the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership at Drexel University’s College of Medicine
Just when Natalie Jesionka, the founder of learning platform Global Elective, was starting to get used to motherhood, the coronavirus pandemic hit. She writes about what that’s been like.
What we’re reading
The Philadelphia Tribune highlights a first-generation Haitian American entrepreneur who is balancing running her businesses with leading volunteer efforts to make face masks for high-risk populations.
New York magazine’s Grub Street wonders what will happen if the only restaurants left are chains.
The Economist’s 1843 magazine has a story about whether we can ever truly escape from the overload of information we have at our fingertips.
Your Daily Dose of | Ice sculptures
Typically, Peter Slavin makes 30 to 40 ice sculptures a week for public and private events. He owns Ice Sculpture Philly, but with everything shut down, Slavin is doing guerrilla ice sculpture street art to brighten Philly’s streets.