#5SmartReads - April 21, 2022

Hitha on vaccines in children under 5, the show I can't wait to watch, and Wordle's most powerful fan

April 21, 2022

This week’s #5SmartReads is sponsored by Felix Gray.

I’m choosing to feel all the joy with this news, and I’m optimistic that authorization will be granted for a few reasons:

  • Despite Moderna announcing the successful meeting of their endpoints in their press release a month ago, there may have been some back and forth between them and FDA to go deeper in the data to make sure that the immune response was sufficient against the Omicron variant and its sublineages. As the vaccines were developed against the original and alpha variants, ensuring that the ones being authorized are effective against the current variant is critical (this is purely my speculation)

  • If FDA authorizes the vaccine and the CDC gives it a positive recommendation, our youngest kids could be getting vaccinated by the end of May (!!!)

Now, none of this is certain and I won’t be fully celebrating until the authorization is granted - but this is very, very promising news.

Other than having a phenomenal cast, I knew nothing about ROAR. After reading this piece, I’ve downloaded all the episodes to watch during next week’s flights - and I cannot wait.

And I plan to start with “The Woman Who Returned Her Husband,” starring Meera Syal (who I’ve loved since her Goodness Gracious Me days).

Ishani Nath’s analysis is so smart. Go take her words for it, and let me know if you add Roar to your own watch queue.

In order to meet our goals for renewable energy and more sustainable transportation, we need to scale up battery storage and manufacturing.

How does the USA fare on battery manufacturing? Not great - but a lot is happening to change that.

"It's a bit inspiring, provocative and scary. If you look at the entirety of our supply chain ... all the way back to the mines ... today what we have installed represents well under 10% of what we will need as a planet. Meaning greater than 90% of that supply chain does not yet exist. So we have an opportunity as a planet to decide where that goes, and how it’s built."

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Did I steal the Vice President’s Wordle starting word and start playing Spelling Bee again after reading this? Yes.

Our family’s Wordle group chat is still going strong, and reading about someone else’s Wordle habit is deeply comforting. I just found this interview to be joyful, and we can all use some joy right now.

In “I love my hometown so much and please stop judging us by our sports fans” news, I give you this latest installment:

“SEPTA's solution is to pair its transit officers with civilian social workers. In a pilot project started last fall called Serving a Vulnerable Entity (SAVE), police and "outreach specialists" — social workers — patrol trains together, looking for the people they call "vulnerables" and offering them services.”

Now, this program has just been launched and what defines success will change as times change, and after we have enough time to evaluate the results. But I’m hopeful that we see more partnerships between law enforcement and social services to reimagine public safety.

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