September 26, 2021

A study reported by Reuters claims the pandemic cut global life expectancy by more than at any point since the Second World War, with the largest drops among men in the United States. The figure is striking, though such estimates lean heavily on how deaths are attributed and on projections that later years can revise.

The mask conversation keeps escalating without a clear stopping point. The New York Times runs an opinion piece under the headline that masks work and readers should choose a high-quality one, while a European lab certifies an Israeli fabric mask as 99.95 percent effective against Delta. The advice that a cloth covering would suffice has given way to calls for medical-grade protection, an inflation of the standard that officials rarely acknowledge.

Coverage also sorts the reluctant into familiar boxes. USA Today examines Americans who call the vaccine the “mark of the beast,” and Forbes writes up a Daily Show segment mocking attendees of anti-mask and anti-vaccine rallies. The framing treats hesitancy as a spectacle to be ridiculed rather than a set of concerns to be answered.