SWC’s Fast Five

There’s heartening news of a small vaccine trial result which we hope props us up as evictions get ready to surge, COVID-19 unemployment assistance ends and small businesses close forever by the tens of thousands. Even honey bees have turned mean.

So, here’s this week’s Fast Five:

1 Down and possibly out.

Eviction protection programs created in response to the pandemic are expiring across the country. In this NBC News report, about 28 million people across the country are facing uncertain housing as states lift temporary eviction moratoriums while an estimated 30 million unemployed workers lose their $600 per week unemployment assistance also set to expire.

2 First COVID-19 vaccine tested in US poised for final testing.

Tested on just 45 volunteers back in March, the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. increased their immune systems the way scientists hoped. A 30,000-person study to prove if the vaccine really is strong enough to protect against the coronavirus will get underway by the end of July.

3 Small business owners are giving up.

Researchers at Harvard estimated that nearly 110,000 small businesses across the country decided to shut permanently between early March and early May, saying it could take up to a year before government officials know the true toll the pandemic is taking on small business.

4 Special K: The predicted new shape of the COVID-19 economic recovery.

Called K-shaped because for some its been a sharp rebound while for others its been a continuing decline, highlighting the divergent experiences of the businesses that are alternately inoculated from the pandemic and those that have succumbed to it.

5Hot and bothered, thirsty honey bees close national park campgrounds.

Not killer bees. Not murder hornets. These darlings of pollination are getting aggressive where it is hot, dry and their natural water sources have evaporated.