Superman to the vaccine rescue | Morning Newsletter
And, love him. Loathe him. Scott Perry is a rising star.
The Morning Newsletter
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Good morning from The Inquirer newsroom.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in the Super Bowl last night. Congratulations as (almost) always to Tom Brady.
We’ll have 2018 forever. And Kevin Hart’s apology. And this showdown with a pole. Did you catch Four Seasons Total Landscaping in a Super Bowl commercial? Talk about a spot.
First: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman holding a cooler full of precious doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the rescue.
Then: Love him. Loathe him. Scott Perry is a “rising star.” What does he represent? The answer depends on whom you ask.
And: “We are not ready to go into unsafe buildings.” That’s what thousands of Philly teachers said about why they intended to not show up to work today. Then the city reversed its position.
📝 What did you think of this morning newsletter edition?
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— Ashley Hoffman (@_ashleyhoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Not all heroes wear capes. This one does. A Montco pharmacist faced the test of his career yesterday when he pulled off a COVID-19 vaccination operation in 36 hours.
He had applied to distribute vaccines, but he didn’t know he would get the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna doses so suddenly on Friday, thrusting him into the kind of swift action one associates with heroes in capes. He dressed appropriately, showing up to the Skippack firehouse in his now trademark superhero costume.
He had reinforcements, rolling deep with 100 volunteers to vaccinate the people who were first to sign up, all in the high-priority 1A group. Outside, people waited in line in the snow at a distance from one another, thrilled over the team’s heroics.
Scott Perry has been spreading baseless election fraud claims for some time now. But since the revelation that the central Pennsylvania representative was a central figure in the failed last-ditch effort hatched to overturn Donald Trump’s election loss to Biden in Georgia, it’s never been the same.
Perry confirmed he was the one who introduced Trump to the Department of Justice’s Jeffrey Clark, who recently resigned. That introduction handed Trump his own evangelist in the highest law enforcement agency in the country. Perry’s involvement after the introduction remains unclear.
Now, detractors gather to protest for “Fire Perry Fridays.” His backers say that his star is on the rise. His supporters look at him as one of the few people in their corner in the fight against an obviously legitimate election. What’s more, they want him to aim for higher office. The fact that he beat his opponent in the congressional race shows one thing: The stark divide over him is the stark divide over politics in Pennsylvania.
Reporter Julia Terruso has the story on where Perry is sitting in Pennsylvania right now.
Where can you get a vaccine in the Philly area if you’re eligible? Use our lookup tool and find out.
Here are the updated coronavirus case numbers as COVID-19 continues to spread across the region.
Philly will open six mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics and doses are also coming to city pharmacies.
We may have answered your coronavirus question already in our FAQ.
What you need to know today
The city reversed its decision on teachers returning to school today.
It’s going to snow again later this week. Weather-wise, this week’s going to be a mixed bag.
Survivors of gun violence are begging for the help they need. We’re talking about a bill that could make their lives easier.
Experts spent countless hours creating an organized vaccination rollout that would very slowly, gradually increase eligibility for doses as the making of the vaccine ramped up. Then things got wild as pressure mounted.
The seemingly endless fight over fracking in the Delaware River basin will finally come to an end in a Scranton courtroom.
A Philly cop was charged with a DUI after crashing into a house, injuring two occupants. “A family should always feel safe in their home, and yet the actions of this individual shattered that reality,” Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.
In 2013, she survived being trapped under rubble for 13 hours after a Salvation Army building in Center City collapsed. Then she needed to have both legs amputated. On Friday, she died of COVID-19.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
Round 2, here we go now. Thanks for sharing @d_smoove.
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
🌨️ Are you handling the snow like a good neighbor? Mess around with this snow behavior quiz and find out.
🕺 Penn State students are going to try to recapture the energy of the 46-hour dance marathon known as THON as they dance individually at home.
🎭 The “ghost light” in Philly that stays on in many theaters to give people behind the curtain enough light to stay safe takes on a whole new hopeful meaning in the pandemic.
😷 SEPTA is reminding bare-faced passengers of mandatory mask-wearing instead of fining them. Here’s how it’s going so far.
Opinions
“Who, if anyone, in Pennsylvania or South Jersey, has come up with a pragmatic plan to tackle three of the biggest barriers to reopening that private schools have largely figured out? I’d love to know.” — columnist Maria Panaritis asks who is tackling the question of how to actually safely reopen Philly’s public schools.
Back off Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and allow her to find footing in her new city, considering that she took on the role during one of the worst years in modern history, columnist Jenice Armstrong writes.
Tom Wolf’s bold proposals alone won’t cut it. He’ll need to be bold in getting it all done, writes the Inquirer Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
The Wall Street Journal reports on how this pandemic may become an endemic like the flu and HIV. While the vaccine will be highly effective at preventing the severe disease, people are planning for a long haul when we’ll still need masks and testing.
Your Daily Dose of | Push
A high-scoring Philly teen won a $200,000 college scholarship, and a support system designed for gifted students from low-income backgrounds made the college prep opportunities possible.