SWC’s Fast Five

The world continues to learn about COVID-19 on the fly as cases surge, death counts rise, schools debate how to reopen and we all have less change in our pockets. And in non-pandemic news, environment 2, oil and gas, 0.

So, here’s this week’s Fast Five:

1 Oil, gas, not in the pipeline.

For the first time a major, in-service oil pipeline is forced to shutter by court order. The district court ruling against the Dakota Access pipeline follows the scuttling a day earlier of Dominion Energy Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline.

2 W.H.O. knows? 200+ Scientists in 30+ countries say it doesn’t as they report implications of virus airborne particles lingering.

The World Health Organization is finally acknowledging that COVID-19 might be spread in the air under certain conditions after long dismissing the possibility. More than 200 researchers appealed for national and international authorities to adopt more stringent protective measures.

3 COVID-19 daily death count climbs, reversing trend.

After declining since mid-April, more than 800 have died each of three days the week of July 6, a three-day total 56 percent higher than during the same time the previous week. Epidemiologists say the surge of new cases since mid-June was so large that it would eventually lead to more deaths – in a typical case, a patient dies three to five weeks after getting infected.

4 Reopening schools – discuss!

Yes, the administration is putting pressure on schools everywhere to open for in-person education in the fall but what is the right, safe, healthy thing to do?

5 Shortchanged.

Retailers around the country are asking customers for exact change as they deal with a nationwide shortage of coins due, in part, to reduced production capacity, supply chain disruption and unusual circulation patterns in recent months for U.S. coin.