Good morning, RVA! It's 67 °F, and you should expect highs in the mid 70s and a chance of rain throughout today. We may even see some severe weather this afternoon or evening. Keep an ear out!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths as: 243, 41, and 15.3, respectively. VDH reports a seven-day average of 32.9 new cases in and around Richmond (Richmond: 4.9; Henrico: 12.3, and Chesterfield: 15.7). Since this pandemic began, 1,329 people have died in the Richmond region. 42.8%, 53.3%, and 49.8% of the population in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Because I can't not look at the number every day, 67.3% of adults in Virginia have received at least one dose of the vaccine. The New York Times can't not look at these numbers either and has put together this fascinating table of "How long it would take each state to reach 70 percent of adults with one dose at the current vaccination pace." Virginia: 13 days (which puts us four days past my estimate of June 12th). Alabama and Mississippi: More than a year. 40 states (plus D.C. and Puerto Rico) have not yet hit Biden's 70% goal, and out of the ten that are projected to take the longest to get there, six are in the South and eight have Republican governors. The 12 states that have already hit the goal: California, Maryland, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Vermont (just four Republican governors).
Also in vaccine world, Ian M. Stewart at VPM has some details on the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts' pivot away from large, stationary vaccination events toward smaller, mobile events. As a person involved in this pivot, I, of course, think it's a smart move! Go to where the people are! To keep a nice balance, though, the Health District will maintain a few stable walk-up vaccination events, like the one at George Wythe High School, throughout the summer.
VPM's Lyndon German has a really nice story about what Studio Two Three did over the last 18 months to support our community during both the pandemic and the George Floyd protests. I love that we've finally got just enough distance from last year that we can start to reflect on these small, wonderful stories of Richmonders doing Richmond things. I hope to read a million more of these in the coming weeks and months.
Related to my ongoing thread about if and how things change as we emerge from the pandemic, the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Gregory J. Gilligan reports on Kings Dominion's challenge in finding enough workers to open for a full season. As a result, KD has upped wages from $9.25 per hour to $13 per hour, which is a pretty dramatic 40% increase. I kind of hate the term "labor shortage," because it makes it seem like folks who need jobs were snapped out of existence by Thanos, when what's really happening is people are no longer willing to work hard jobs—across many sectors—while making an unlivable wage. What I want to i know now is if $13 per hour is enough and if these wage increases will stick around past this transitional year.
Michael Schwartz at Richmond BizSense has the list of local companies on the Fortune 500 list. You'll, of course, recognize all of the companies on this list—either as massive employers or as sponsors of literally every event in town.
I'll link to this Graham Moomaw piece in the Virginia Mercury about the state of right-to-work repeal in Virginia mostly because it's an important thing to know about...but also because the pic of McAuliffe at the top is great and just asking to be memed.
It's Thursday and that means the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts are hosting a free COVID-19 community testing event at the East Henrico Health Department (1400 N Laburnum Ave) from 2:00–4:00 PM. Just walk on up and get tested—no insurance required.
This morning's longread
The internet is flat.
I'm really interested in this idea of Twitter having a main character each day (and the goal is to never be it). I've got a couple more articles in this space queued up, and they make me feel like we should just shut it all down.
All of these questions reflect the nuances of a situation. And all of these questions are also irrelevant, because the ecosystem in which the broader conversation is conducted flattens them all into nothingness. She is either a KKK queen or an unfairly maligned cancel culture victim or some complicated muddled mix of the two, which isn’t interesting enough to hold a headline and so is usually discarded in favor of one of the binary options. And so Kemper becomes the momentary main character of Twitter. Within minutes, it ends up not being about Kemper at all. She’s just the latest place filler in peoples’ larger cultural war.
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