Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, but today’s forecast looks incredible. Expect highs in the mid 70s from this morning straight through until this evening. Saturday looks equally incredibly, but we might see some rain move in on Sunday. Get your rides, runs, rolls, or walks in tomorrow!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 579 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 27 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 62 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 30, Henrico: 17, and Richmond: 15). Since this pandemic began, 1,302 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 619. Alright, dang, we have a lot of coronanews to get through this morning—and none of it is directly related to vaccines! First, here are this week’s stacked graph of new reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, plus the combined graph of the regional seven-day average of new reported cases. Both graphs, in all ways, show big, good drops across the board. I’m sure these graphs, or ones just like them, are why the governor will loosen a bunch of restrictions on gatherings beginning tomorrow, May 15th. Did you want to hang out with 1,000 people in a 2,000-capacity room? Tomorrow you can!
And maybe soon, depending on your vaccination status, you can even hang out with those 1,000 people in a room while not wearing a mask. Yesterday, the CDC announced a major change in their mask-wearing guidance for folks who have been fully vaccinated: “You can resume activities without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.” There are a few caveats—like while traveling, riding transit, or in a healthcare setting—but, basically, if you’re fulling vaccinated CDC says you can go maskless wherever, whenever. If we’re getting pedantic about it, it does sound like the Governor’s current mask-related Executive Order supersedes this guidance, meaning you are still requried to mask-up while indoors in Virginia. But I’m sure the Gov’s legislative brains are quickly throwing together a new update to that EO given this tweet from him last night: “Virginia will continue to follow CDC guidelines as we have done throughout this pandemic. We are reviewing the new mask and distancing recommendations and will update our guidance accordingly.” I have a lot of questions! What does the lack of distance requirements mean for schools—or really any event with an indoor capacity cap? What about people who can’t get vaccinated—which until yesterday included every American under the age of 16? How will “fully vaccinated” be verified or enforced? Check out this ominous quote about the Governor of Oregon in the New York Times: “Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon emphasized that the state would not be operating on an honor system. She said that the health department would soon provide fresh guidance for businesses, employers and others ‘to allow the option of lifting mask and physical distancing requirements after verifying vaccination status.’” At it’s core, I think “the vaccines are so good that if you’re fully vaccinated you can live your life” is true, backed-by-science, and strong messaging. I still have lots of questions around the edges, though. If you’ve been waiting, now is as good of a time as any to visit vax.rchd.com or vaccines.gov and schedule an appointment to get vaccinated.
Ali Rockett at the Richmond Times-Dispatch was on hand yesterday when the Mayor and City Council held a combined press conference—a real rarity these days!—to declare gun violence a public health crisis. It sounds like a resolution declaring exactly that will get introduced at an upcoming Council meeting. While resolutions like this are, of course, non-binding, they do give public health officials and organizations some firmer ground to stand on when asking for money, support, or better legislation.
What’s the CRB Task Force been up to over the past couple of months as they work to put together Richmond’s first attempt at a Civilian Review Board? Well, if you’re the type of person who listens to public meetings for fun (high five!) you can now listen to recordings of all their meetings dating back to April 6th. Someone do this and then report back!
The RTD’s Wayne Epps has a nice story about Angelo Washington, a local mountain biker who competes nationally at some of the highest amateur levels. I can definitely empathize with being suddenly sucked into biking—although not downhill mountain bike racing, way too intense for my old bones! You can find Washington at Riverrock this weekend, riding, teaching, and shredding trails.
Eileen Mellon at Richmond Magazine reports that Africanne on Main will move from its 2nd Street location to the old Pit & The Peel spot at 1102 W. Main Street. First, the story behind Africanne on Main is fascinating. Second, her move deep into VCU sounds brilliant: “...one of the things I’ve been contemplating doing is taking the restaurant to 70% vegetarian and I know the VCU students have a huge community for vegans and vegetarians.” Third, if you haven’t been yet, you need to put it on your list! Finally, I’m inspired by Chef MaMusu, who knows what she wants to accomplish and can see how those things will play out—and even end—over the next couple of years.
This morning's longread
The Gatekeepers Who Get to Decide What Food Is “Disgusting”
This piece about “disgusting” food took me on a journey!
The Museum of Failure was a resounding commercial success, attracting visitors from across the world and attention from the Times, the Washington Post, and National Geographic. By 2018, though, West was on to his next project, after reading an article about how reducing beef consumption could slow climate change. The piece explained that a dire problem could be eased by a simple solution—eating insects, a good source of protein—but that the First World had rejected this idea out of disgust. West realized that if the experience of failure had expedited human innovation, then the experience of disgust was potentially holding us back. Could that aversion be challenged or changed? “I just wanted to know, Why is it that even talking about eating certain things makes my skin crawl?” he told me, animatedly, over Zoom.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.
