To gather or not to gather amid omicron, a history lesson on mistletoe: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: To gather or not to gather amid omicron
Christmas is three days away. Should you cancel your plans? Plus, education reporter Erin Richards fills us in on the latest school shifts back to virtual learning, the NHL and NBA take different approaches on handling new COVID cases, editor Jay Cannon gives us a history lesson on mistletoe and SpaceX blasts off a rocket full of Christmas dinner and gifts.
Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more Paste BN podcasts right here.
Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson. And this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 22nd of December 2021. Today, what to do for the holidays with omicron surging, plus schools are again going virtual, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- South Africa has seen a notable drop in COVID-19 cases in recent days. The omicron variant was initially detected there last month.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin again blamed the west for recent tensions yesterday and demanded guarantees that NATO will not expand toward the east. Tensions are high over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine.
- And President Joe Biden will get tested again today for COVID-19. He was in close contact with a White House aide who tested positive on Monday.
President Joe Biden spoke to Americans yesterday about the fight against the omicron variant of COVID-19 and a recent surge of virus cases around the country. He continued to stress the importance of vaccines and booster shots, and he also addressed what health experts say the US has been lacking throughout the pandemic, testing.
Joe Biden:
As omicron spreads easily, especially among the unvaccinated, it's critically important that we know who's infected. That means we need more testing. And on that score, we're now where we should be. Yes, we have over 20,000 free testing sites. Starting this week, the federal government will set up emergency testing sites and areas that need additional testing capacity. Before Christmas, the first several of these federal testing sites will be up and running in New York City, with many more to come. This free testing has helped reduce the waiting lines, the time you have to stand there, and sometimes its hours. We're going to continue to add federal testing sites where needed so that if you want an immediate test, there'll be a place where you can go get it.
We also need to do better with at-home testing. So I'm announcing today, the federal government will purchase one half billion, that's not million, billion with a B, additional at-home rapid tests. Deliveries starting in January. We'll be getting these tests to Americans for free, and we'll have websites where you can get them delivered to your home. We have arranged for it to be easier for you to find a free COVID testing site near you on Google. Just enter "COVID tests near me" in the Google search bar, and you can find a number of different locations nearby where you can get tested.
Taylor Wilson:
But those at home tests won't be available before many Americans travel this week and next for Christmas and New Year's. Still, Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday that Americans don't need to cancel plans to spend time with family and friends as long as everyone is both vaccinated and boosted. That means an additional dose on top of the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccination, or a third dose for those who have received two doses of Pfizer or Moderna. It's still not clear exactly how severe omicron is compared to other variants of COVID-19. There's a growing narrative that it is more infectious, but less dangerous, though Dr. Laolu Fayanju, a regional medical director in Cleveland, this week cited a study from London that shows no evidence that's the case.
If you are gathering for the holidays, health experts say it's a good idea to get tested even if you don't have any symptoms. If you've had close contact with COVID-19 and are not vaccinated, you should quarantine for 14 days. Though, the CDC says that fully vaccinated people do not need to quarantine after close contact, unless they have symptoms. Regardless of vaccination status, health officials say you should not gather for the holidays if you test positive. For a full list of COVID dos and don'ts this holiday season, check out a link in today's episode description.
With the latest COVID-19 surge, there are new concerns about schools around the country. And as educational reporter Erin Richards tells us, many are again, preparing to return to virtual classrooms.
Erin Richards:
Schools have definitely seen an uptick in cases. It's not completely unusual. There's been plenty of delta cases in schools also from that variant. But we're at the early stages, right? So a lot of schools are already at the point of breaking for the holidays, or they're going for a couple of days this week, or they would have under a normal calendar.
So a couple of things are happening. Some schools are fully shutting down in anticipation of either the virus or staff fatigue. So some districts have just mid-year added two extra vacation days to the calendar. It's pretty unusual for schools. Other schools are basically turning certain classrooms or individual schools in that district into virtual learning days a couple of days before the holiday. And one big district, Prince George's County in Maryland, has actually taken the entire district virtual and has already announced several weeks of virtual learning in January. So we already know that about 136,000 kids in that district are not going to have any contact with their classroom for the next month.
What is going to happen when schools are scheduled to come back either January 3rd or January 5th? I think a lot of districts are going to spend this next week evaluating the situation with the spread of omicron. I think that there's a strong likelihood that schools may start the new year remote, but there is an even stronger advocacy push by both health experts and academic experts to really keep schools open. Kids don't get as sick as adults with this. The risks of being out of school and missing academics and missing social and emotional support time are often seen as greater and more harmful to kids than going to school with the small risk of a virus circulating. That is going to be something that plays out both among parent perceptions and opinion, and it's, once again, going to put school boards and superintendents in a really tough spot of trying to call the shots on what's safest for their community.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find more of Erin's work on Twitter @emrichards.
The NHL is starting its Christmas break earlier than expected because of a slew of COVID cases around the hockey league. Some teams have already been sidelined on and off for weeks due to positive tests, and the league will not resume games now until December 27th. Yesterday had 10 games originally on the docket, but only one ended up being played. Meanwhile, the NBA does not plan on pausing the season, despite tons of individual game postponements there as well. More than 70 players have entered health and safety protocols in the league this month alone. December has become something of a marquee month for The Basketball Association, with five highly promoted nationally televised games scheduled for Christmas Day.
Well, everyone knows what we're supposed to do when standing underneath it, but how did it become tradition to kiss under mistletoe? Editor, Jay Cannon gives us a history lesson.
Jay Cannon:
This kind of just stemmed from a general curiosity, I guess, like this is one of those traditions where we kind of grew up knowing what you're supposed to do under the mistletoe at Christmastime and all that. But it's one of those things where maybe we don't really question it. But it's actually, I guess, the roots can be traced back to, I mean, about 2000 years ago. The history can be maybe a little vague or spotty at times just because it's so dang old. But this is something that has been used as a symbol of either fertility or love in various civilizations dating back to the ancient Romans, the Celtic Druids, and then it takes another stop in Norse mythology actually too. So it didn't actually become a Christmas gathering type thing until more recent centuries. But I mean, this is something that people have associated with romance, love and fertility for just about 2000 years, it seems like.
But yeah, like I said, it didn't actually become a Christmas thing until, maybe the late 1700s is when we see it mentioned in various poems and songs and things like that in England, and then came over to the US about that time or shortly after. So it's definitely an old history, but something that you see every holiday season here in America.
Taylor Wilson:
To read Jay's full story, find a link in today's episode description.
SpaceX has an un-crewed Dragon capsule en route to the International Space Station this morning. On board, some 6,500 pounds of cargo and science experiments, plus turkey, green beans, smoked seafood, fruitcake, and Christmas gifts for the crew. This morning, successful liftoff caps off a busy year for Florida's Space Coast, with 31 launches matching the 2020 number. SpaceX and United Launch Alliance had been hoping to push that number closer to 40, but the need for liquid oxygen to treat coronavirus patients slowed things down, among other issues. That material is used as rocket propellant. Today's capsule will spend about a month docked at the ISS before returning to earth with waste and science experiments.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us on whatever your favorite podcast app is, including Spotify and Apple Podcast. Thanks as always to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show. And I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from Paste BN.