Pandemic Reality Check... Things Are Trending In the Wrong Way Again

The Daily Dive

Pandemic reality check… we are getting further away from the end than we should be. To be clear, it is nowhere near as bad as it was at the height of the pandemic, but once again numbers are trending in the wrong way. Infections are going up, hospitalizations and deaths are going up, and in some places like L.A. County, mask restrictions are being re-imposed. Joel Achenbach, science reporter at the Washington post, joins us for more.

Next, Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin are set to take off to the edge of space. While this is a similar mission to the one that Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic carried out, the four passengers of Blue Origin will be taking off in a rocket straight up into the air and fall back down in a capsule after floating in microgravity. Morgan Brennan, co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, joins us for the next entry into space tourism.

Finally, 18-year-old Kara Eaker is the first U.S. athlete to test positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Tokyo for the Olympic Games. She is an alternate for Team USA Gymnastics and has been taken to a hotel to quarantine until she tests negative. While vaccination rates are low in Japan, about 85% of the delegations are expected to be vaccinated. Tina Reed, healthcare editor and author of VITALS at Axios, joins us for this early test to Olympic Covid protocols.

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