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Orthogonality
Title: Orthogonality
Subject: Linear algebra, Projection (linear algebra), Inner product space, Orthogonalization, Kernel (linear algebra)
Collection: Abstract Algebra, Factoring, Linear Algebra
The line segments AB and CD are orthogonal to each other.
In mathematics, orthogonality is the relation of two lines at right angles to one another (perpendicularity), and the generalization of this relation into n dimensions; and to a variety of mathematical relations thought of as describing non-overlapping, uncorrelated, or independent objects of some kind.
The concept of orthogonality has been broadly generalized in mathematics, science, and engineering, especially since the beginning of the 16th century. Much of it has involved the concepts of mathematical functions, calculus, and linear algebra.
Definitions 2.1
Euclidean vector spaces 2.2
Orthogonal functions 2.3
Examples 2.4
Orthogonal polynomials 2.4.1
Orthogonal states in quantum mechanics 2.4.2
Statistics, econometrics, and economics 6
Combinatorics 8
System reliability 10
Neuroscience 11
Other examples 13
The word comes from the Greek ὀρθός (orthos), meaning "straight", and γωνία (gonia), meaning "angle". The ancient Greek ὀρθογώνιον orthogōnion (< ὀρθός orthos 'upright'[1] + γωνία gōnia 'angle'[2]) and classical Latin orthogonium originally denoted a rectangle.[3] Later, they came to mean a right triangle. In the 12th century, the post-classical Latin word orthogonalis came to mean a right angle or something related to a right angle.[4]
Orthogonality and rotation of coordinate systems compared between left: Euclidean space through circular angle φ, right: in Minkowski spacetime through hyperbolic angle φ (red lines labelled c denote the worldlines of a light signal, a vector is orthogonal to itself if it lies on this line).[5]
In geometry, two Euclidean vectors are orthogonal if they are perpendicular, i.e., they form a right angle.
Curves or functions in the plane are orthogonal at an intersection if their tangent lines are perpendicular at that point.
Two vectors, x and y, in an inner product space, V, are orthogonal if their inner product \langle x, y \rangle is zero.[6] This relationship is denoted x \, \bot \, y.
Two vector subspaces, A and B, of an inner product space, V, are called orthogonal subspaces if each vector in A is orthogonal to each vector in B. The largest subspace of V that is orthogonal to a given subspace is its orthogonal complement.
A linear transformation, T : V → V, is called an orthogonal linear transformation if it preserves the inner product, and thus the angle between and the lengths of vectors. That is, for all pairs of vectors x and y in the inner product space V, \langle Tx, Ty \rangle = \langle x, y \rangle.
A term rewriting system is said to be orthogonal if it is left-linear and is non-ambiguous. Orthogonal term rewriting systems are confluent.
A set of vectors is called pairwise orthogonal if each pairing of them is orthogonal. Such a set is called an orthogonal set. Nonzero pairwise orthogonal vectors are always linearly independent.
In certain cases, the word normal is used to mean orthogonal, particularly in the geometric sense as in the normal to a surface. For example, the y-axis is normal to the curve y = x2 at the origin. However, normal may also refer to the magnitude of a vector. In particular, a set is called orthonormal (orthogonal plus normal) if it is an orthogonal set of unit vectors. As a result, use of the term normal to mean "orthogonal" is often avoided. The word "normal" also has a different meaning in probability and statistics.
A vector space with a bilinear form generalizes the case of an inner product. When the bilinear form applied to two vectors results in zero, then they are orthogonal. The case of a pseudo-Euclidean plane uses the term hyperbolic orthogonality. In the diagram, axes x′ and t′ are hyperbolic-orthogonal for any given φ.
Euclidean vector spaces
In 2-D or higher-dimensional Euclidean space, two vectors are orthogonal if and only if their dot product is zero, i.e. they make an angle of 90°, or π/2 radians.[7] Hence orthogonality of vectors is an extension of the concept of perpendicular vectors into higher-dimensional spaces.
In terms of Euclidean subspaces, the "orthogonal complement" of a line is the plane perpendicular to it, and vice-versa.[8]
Note however that there is no correspondence with regards to perpendicular planes, because vectors in subspaces start from the origin (by the definition of a vector subspace).
In four-dimensional Euclidean space, the orthogonal complement of a line is a hyperplane and vice versa, and that of a plane is a plane.[8]
Orthogonal functions
By using integral calculus, it is common to use the following to define the inner product of two functions f and g:
\langle f, g\rangle_w = \int_a^b f(x)g(x)w(x)\,dx.
Here we introduce a nonnegative weight function w(x) in the definition of this inner product. In simple cases, w(x) = 1, exactly.
We say that these functions are orthogonal if that inner product is zero:
\int_a^b f(x)g(x)w(x)\,dx = 0.
We write the norms with respect to this inner product and the weight function as
\|f\|_w = \sqrt{\langle f, f\rangle_w}
The members of a set of functions { fi : i = 1, 2, 3, ... } are:
orthogonal on the closed interval [a, b] if
\langle f_i, f_j \rangle=\int_a^b f_i(x) f_j(x) w(x)\,dx=\|f_i\|^2\delta_{i,j}=\|f_j\|^2\delta_{i,j}
orthonormal on the interval [a, b] if
\langle f_i, f_j \rangle=\int_a^b f_i(x) f_j(x) w(x)\,dx=\delta_{i,j}
\delta_{i,j}=\left\{\begin{matrix}1 & \mathrm{if}\ i=j \\ 0 & \mathrm{if}\ i\neq j\end{matrix}\right.
is the "Kronecker delta" function. In other words, any two of them are orthogonal, and the norm of each is 1 in the case of the orthonormal sequence. See in particular the orthogonal polynomials.
The vectors (1, 3, 2)T, (3, −1, 0)T, (1, 3, −5)T are orthogonal to each other, since (1)(3) + (3)(−1) + (2)(0) = 0, (3)(1) + (−1)(3) + (0)(−5) = 0, and (1)(1) + (3)(3) + (2)(−5) = 0.
The vectors (1, 0, 1, 0, ...)T and (0, 1, 0, 1, ...)T are orthogonal to each other. The dot product of these vectors is 0. We can then make the generalization to consider the vectors in Z2n:
\mathbf{v}_k = \sum_{i=0\atop ai+k < n}^{n/a} \mathbf{e}_i
for some positive integer a, and for 1 ≤ k ≤ a − 1, these vectors are orthogonal, for example (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0)T, (0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1)T, (0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0)T are orthogonal.
The functions 2t + 3 and 45t2 +9 t − 17 are orthogonal with respect to a unit weight function on the interval from −1 to 1:
\int_{-1}^1 \left(2t+3\right)\left(45t^2+9t-17\right)\,dt = 0
The functions 1, sin(nx), cos(nx) : n = 1, 2, 3, ... are orthogonal with respect to Riemann integration on the intervals [0, 2π], [-π, π], or any other closed interval of length 2π. This fact is a central one in Fourier series.
Orthogonal polynomials
Various polynomial sequences named for mathematicians of the past are sequences of orthogonal polynomials. In particular:
The Hermite polynomials are orthogonal with respect to the Gaussian distribution with zero mean value.
The Legendre polynomials are orthogonal with respect to the uniform distribution on the interval [−1, 1].
The Laguerre polynomials are orthogonal with respect to the exponential distribution. Somewhat more general Laguerre polynomial sequences are orthogonal with respect to gamma distributions.
The Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind are orthogonal with respect to the measure 1/\sqrt{1-x^2}.
The Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind are orthogonal with respect to the Wigner semicircle distribution.
Orthogonal states in quantum mechanics
In quantum mechanics, two eigenstates of a Hermitian operator, \psi_m and \psi_n , are orthogonal if they correspond to different eigenvalues. This means, in Dirac notation, that \langle \psi_m | \psi_n \rangle = 0 unless \psi_m and \psi_n correspond to the same eigenvalue. This follows from the fact that Schrödinger's equation is a Sturm–Liouville equation (in Schrödinger's formulation) or that observables are given by hermitian operators (in Heisenberg's formulation).
In art, the perspective (imaginary) lines pointing to the vanishing point are referred to as "orthogonal lines".
The term "orthogonal line" often has a quite different meaning in the literature of modern art criticism. Many works by painters such as Piet Mondrian and Burgoyne Diller are noted for their exclusive use of "orthogonal lines" — not, however, with reference to perspective, but rather referring to lines that are straight and exclusively horizontal or vertical, forming right angles where they intersect. For example, an essay at the Web site of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum states that "Mondrian ....dedicated his entire oeuvre to the investigation of the balance between orthogonal lines and primary colours." [1]
Orthogonality in programming language design is the ability to use various language features in arbitrary combinations with consistent results.[9] This usage was introduced by van Wijngaarden in the design of Algol 68:
The number of independent primitive concepts has been minimized in order that the language be easy to describe, to learn, and to implement. On the other hand, these concepts have been applied "orthogonally" in order to maximize the expressive power of the language while trying to avoid deleterious superfluities.[10]
Orthogonality is a system design property which guarantees that modifying the technical effect produced by a component of a system neither creates nor propagates side effects to other components of the system. Typically this is achieved through the separation of concerns and encapsulation, and it is essential for feasible and compact designs of complex systems. The emergent behavior of a system consisting of components should be controlled strictly by formal definitions of its logic and not by side effects resulting from poor integration, i.e., non-orthogonal design of modules and interfaces. Orthogonality reduces testing and development time because it is easier to verify designs that neither cause side effects nor depend on them.
An instruction set is said to be orthogonal if it lacks redundancy (i.e., there is only a single instruction that can be used to accomplish a given task)[11] and is designed such that instructions can use any register in any addressing mode. This terminology results from considering an instruction as a vector whose components are the instruction fields. One field identifies the registers to be operated upon and another specifies the addressing mode. An orthogonal instruction set uniquely encodes all combinations of registers and addressing modes.
In communications, multiple-access schemes are orthogonal when an ideal receiver can completely reject arbitrarily strong unwanted signals from the desired signal using different basis functions. One such scheme is TDMA, where the orthogonal basis functions are nonoverlapping rectangular pulses ("time slots").
Another scheme is orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), which refers to the use, by a single transmitter, of a set of frequency multiplexed signals with the exact minimum frequency spacing needed to make them orthogonal so that they do not interfere with each other. Well known examples include (a, g, and n) versions of 802.11 Wi-Fi; WiMAX; ITU-T G.hn, DVB-T, the terrestrial digital TV broadcast system used in most of the world outside North America; and DMT (Discrete Multi Tone), the standard form of ADSL.
In OFDM, the subcarrier frequencies are chosen so that the subcarriers are orthogonal to each other, meaning that crosstalk between the subchannels is eliminated and intercarrier guard bands are not required. This greatly simplifies the design of both the transmitter and the receiver. In conventional FDM, a separate filter for each subchannel is required.
Statistics, econometrics, and economics
When performing statistical analysis, independent variables that affect a particular dependent variable are said to be orthogonal if they are uncorrelated,[12] since the covariance forms an inner product. In this case the same results are obtained for the effect of any of the independent variables upon the dependent variable, regardless of whether one models the effects of the variables individually with simple regression or simultaneously with multiple regression. If correlation is present, the factors are not orthogonal and different results are obtained by the two methods. This usage arises from the fact that if centered by subtracting the expected value (the mean), uncorrelated variables are orthogonal in the geometric sense discussed above, both as observed data (i.e., vectors) and as random variables (i.e., density functions). One econometric formalism that is alternative to the maximum likelihood framework, the Generalized Method of Moments, relies on orthogonality conditions. In particular, the Ordinary Least Squares estimator may be easily derived from an orthogonality condition between the explanatory variables and model residuals.
In taxonomy, an orthogonal classification is one in which no item is a member of more than one group, that is, the classifications are mutually exclusive.
In combinatorics, two n×n Latin squares are said to be orthogonal if their superimposition yields all possible n2 combinations of entries.[13]
In protection is a strategy allowing the deprotection of functional groups independently of each other. In supramolecular chemistry the notion of orthogonality refers to the possibility of two or more supramolecular, often non-covalent, interactions being compatible; reversibly forming without interference from the other.
In the field of system reliability orthogonal redundancy is that form of redundancy where the form of backup device or method is completely different from the prone to error device or method. The failure mode of an orthogonally redundant back-up device or method does not intersect with and is completely different from the failure mode of the device or method in need of redundancy to safeguard the total system against catastrophic failure.
In neuroscience, a sensory map in the brain which has overlapping stimulus coding (e.g. location and quality) is called an orthogonal map.
In board games such as chess which feature a grid of squares, 'orthogonal' is commonly used to mean "in the same row/'rank' or column/'file'". In this context 'orthogonal' and 'diagonal' are considered opposites.[14]
Vinyl records from the 1960s encoded both the left and right stereo channels in a single groove. By making the groove a 90-degree cut into the vinyl, variation in one wall was independent of variations in the other wall. The cartridge senses the resultant motion of the stylus following the groove in two orthogonal directions: 45 degrees from vertical to either side.[15]
Imaginary number
Isogonal
Isogonal trajectory
Orthogonal complement
Orthogonal matrix
Orthogonalization
Gram–Schmidt process
Orthonormal basis
Orthonormality
Pan-orthogonality occurs in coquaternions
Surface normal
^ Liddell and Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon ὀρθόςs.v.
^ Liddell and Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon γονίαs.v.
^ Liddell and Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon ὀρθογώνιονs.v.
^ Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, September 2004, s.v. orthogonal
^ J.A. Wheeler, C. Misner, K.S. Thorne (1973). Gravitation. W.H. Freeman & Co. p. 58.
^ "Wolfram MathWorld".
^ Trefethen, Lloyd N. & Bau, David (1997). Numerical linear algebra. SIAM. p. 13.
^ a b R. Penrose (2007).
^ Michael L. Scott, Programming Language Pragmatics, p. 228
^ 1968, Adriaan van Wijngaarden et al., Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 68, section 0.1.2, Orthogonal design
^ Null, Linda & Lobur, Julia (2006). The essentials of computer organization and architecture (2nd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 257.
^ Athanasios Papoulis, S. Unnikrishna Pillai (2002). Probability, Random Variables and Stochastic Processes. McGraw-Hill. p. 211.
^ Hedayat, A. et al (1999). Orthogonal arrays: theory and applications. Springer. p. 168.
^ "chessvariants.org chess glossary".
^ For an illustration, see YouTube.
Chapter 4 – Compactness and Orthogonality in The Art of Unix Programming
Vector projection
Linear span
Linear map
Linear projection
Linear independence
Linear combination
Column space
Row space
Dual space
Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
Least squares regressions
Outer product
Inner product space
Invertible
Cramer's rule
Gaussian elimination
Numerical stability
Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS)
Comparison of linear algebra libraries
Comparison of numerical analysis software
Abstract algebra
Statistics, Functional analysis, Mathematics, Quantum mechanics, Computer science
Medicine, Statistics, Logic, Mathematics, Physics
Probability theory, Regression analysis, Mathematics, Observational study, Calculus
Psychiatry, Computer science, Genetics, Molecular biology, Computational neuroscience
Projection (linear algebra)
Linear algebra, Hilbert space, Numerical linear algebra, Functional analysis, Geometry
Hilbert space, Linear algebra, Angle, Physics, Quantum mechanics
Linear algebra, Parallel computing, Orthogonality, Orthogonal vector, Span (linear algebra)
Kernel (linear algebra)
Linear algebra, Vector space, System of linear equations, Cryptography, Numerical linear algebra


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Digital Poster Contest 2022
This form is to be used as the cover sheet for the submission for the Key Club International poster contest completed during the 2021-2022 Key Club year. Completed form must be submitted along with the poster by January 21, 2022 at the Georgia Key Club Service & Leadership Conference. A club may submit one digital submission.
Digital Poster
All Key Clubs in the Georgia District that are in good standing are eligible for this award.
The poster should be designed to recruit new members for Key Club, and should not bear the name of any school, community, or district.
Entries in this category may include materials produced with electronic
means, such as cameras and computer software. The poster dimensions should be 18 inches by 24 inches, with the actual height and width not varying more than one-half inch for the prescribed contest dimensions. The poster should not measure more than one-eighth inch in thickness.
Posters will be judged according to the following criteria:
Originality/Creativity - 25 points
Effectiveness for member recruitment - 25 points
Appearance and artistic expression - 50 points
All decisions made by the judges are final.
All entries must be submitted by March 5, 2021.
The club that wins first place must complete the cover sheet and follow the rules of Key Club International as outlined by the International Guidebook in order to enter for the International contest.
Name of person completing this form *
Key Club: *
(The name of your school)
Contact E-mail *
School Address *
Poster Information Information
Name of Key Club artist that produced poster *
Description of poster *
Digital Poster Dropbox
Submit your digital poster here as a pdf file. Cancel of
By submitting my digital signature below, I certify that all of the information submitted with this application is accurate and that a Key Club member (or members) prepared the application and the information submitted is accurate. *

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Glad you asked 🙂 Take a look at this, this is based on the latest projections from the Home Price Expectations Survey. If someone bought a house this past January at $ 250,000, based on those 100-plus experts that are surveyed for the Home Price Expectations Survey, that is how much that house would increase in value over the next five years. And that's what makes owning a house so valuable to a family's net worth. In only five years that family will have an additional net worth of $ 50,000. That is amazing!
Here is the forecasted change in Price for the next year. This is really good news for sellers. For buyers it means that the price for houses will continue to go up. This is because there is a pent up buyer demand and not enough people selling their houses. So for first time home buyers this is the time to buy, waiting doesn't make sense because interest rates are low and home prices will go up.
A lot of home owners may not know just how much equity they have gained since last year. Take a look at the numbers below, in MN the average equity from last year til now is $ 11,000.
As if that wasn't already great news for home owners, it gets better. Here in MN 83.3% of home owners have significant equity. What does that mean, significant equity? Everything over 20% is considered significant equity and more then 83% of Minnesota home owners have this equity. Another thing to consider is that there is a group of people who have no mortgage at all and they are not included in the numbers below. Do you know what your equity is?
Check out the number below, Minnesota home owners gained equity even from the first quarter, 78.7 %, to the second quarter, 83.3%, this year..
The interest rate is still very low, which means if you as a home owner, have a low interest rate and you are worried about the interest rate in case you are selling, don't worry, it is still very low even lower than it was in January this year.
If you are considering waiting, you may want to take a look at the prediction of where interest rates will go in the future. It will go up and that means you will get less house in the future than you can today.
This is the time to buy because rates came down a little and are still holding for now.
Another thing to consider is, that right now buyer traffic is just a little bit lower than it was in the summer. That is another reason why it is a great time for especially first time home buyers to buy now. There are not as many multiple offers to contend with as there will in just a few short months again. In the summer I have seen and experienced multiple offer situations where people were bidding $ 20,000 and $ 30,000 over list price with no contingencies and still lost out. It will be tough again come spring and summer.


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The Moderna headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.Credit…Cody O'Loughlin for The New York Times
The drugmaker Moderna said it would apply on Monday to the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its coronavirus vaccine for emergency use.
The first injections may be given as early as Dec. 21 if the process goes smoothly and approval is granted, Stéphane Bancel, the company's chief executive, said in an interview.
Moderna's application is based on data that it also announced on Monday, showing that its vaccine is 94.1 percent effective, and that its study of 30,000 people has met the scientific criteria needed to determine whether the vaccine works. The finding from the complete set of data is in line with an analysis of earlier data released on Nov. 16 that found the vaccine to be 94.5 percent effective.
The new data also showed that the vaccine was 100 percent effective at preventing severe disease from the coronavirus. The product was developed in collaboration with government researchers from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Mr. Bancel said the company was "on track" to produce 20 million doses by the end of December, and 500 million to a billion in 2021. Each person requires two doses, administered a month apart, so 20 million doses will be enough for 10 million people.
Shares of Moderna surged nearly 18 percent, to $149.50, by early afternoon, after the company's announcement Monday.
Moderna is the second vaccine maker to apply for emergency use authorization; Pfizer submitted its application on Nov. 20. Pfizer has said it can produce up to 50 million doses this year, with about half going to the United States. Its vaccine also requires two doses per person.
Speaking on "CBS This Morning" on Monday, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, reiterated that distribution would begin quickly after the expected approvals of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
"We could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into people's arms before Christmas," he said.
Asked about the role of states in the distribution process, Mr. Azar said that doses would be shipped out through normal vaccine distribution systems, and governors would be "like air traffic controllers" determining which hospitals or pharmacies receive shipments. While governors will determine which groups are prioritized, he said he hoped that they would follow the federal recommendations. He added that he would speak to governors on Monday afternoon with Vice President Mike Pence.
The first shots of the two vaccines are likely to go to certain groups, including health care workers; essential workers like police officers; people in other critical industries; and employees and residents in nursing homes. On Tuesday, a panel of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet to determine how to allocate initial supplies of vaccine.
Mr. Azar said that C.D.C. experts will base their recommendations on the latest data on virus cases around the country.
But generally, "Be thinking people in nursing homes, the most vulnerable, be thinking health care workers who are on the front lines," he said.
The White House moved quickly on Monday to take credit for the Moderna vaccine's development.
"President Trump's Operation Warp Speed is rapidly advancing on a trajectory of success to save millions of American lives — five times faster than any other vaccine in history," Michael Bars, a spokesman for President Trump, said in an emailed statement.
The hopeful news arrives at a particularly grim moment in the U.S. health crisis. Virus cases have surged and overwhelmed hospitals in some regions, and health officials have warned that the numbers may grow even worse in the coming weeks because of Thanksgiving travel and gatherings. In November alone, there have been more than four million new cases and 25,500 deaths.
More than 70 vaccines are being developed around the world, including 11 that, like Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines, are in large-scale trials to gauge effectiveness.
Moderna's application for emergency use authorization will include data from its Phase 3 study of 30,000 people. F.D.A. scientists will examine the information, and the application is likely to undergo a final review on Dec. 17 by a panel of expert advisers to the agency, Mr. Bancel said, adding that he expected the advisers to make a decision within 24 to 72 hours. The F.D.A. usually follows the recommendations of its advisory panels.
Officials at Operation Warp Speed, the government's program to accelerate vaccine development, have said vaccinations could begin within 24 hours after the F.D.A. grants authorization.
Mr. Bancel said that Moderna had not yet begun shipping vaccines across the country, and would not do so until the emergency authorization is granted.
The government has arranged to buy vaccines from both Moderna and Pfizer and to provide it to the public free of charge. Moderna has received a commitment of $955 million from the U.S. government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for research and development of its vaccine, and the United States has committed up to $1.525 billion to buy 100 million doses.
The federal government will also begin a publicity campaign to encourage vaccinations, with ads on radio this week and on TV soon, he said.
In response to a question about how officials can guard against people using money or connections to jump the proverbial line, Mr. Azar vowed to "call out any inequities or injustices that we see."
Thanksgiving travelers at LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday.Credit…Jonah Markowitz for The New York Times
While many in the United States celebrated a muted Thanksgiving over Zoom, millions of people traveled instead, rejecting the advice of public officials.
According to Transportation Safety Administration data, about 800,000 to one million people passed through T.S.A. checkpoints each day in the days before and after the holiday — far lower than the same period last year, but likely far higher than epidemiologists had hoped to see.
A United Airlines spokeswoman, Annabelle Cottee, said the week of Thanksgiving was "the busiest since March" for the carrier.
Americans also took to the roads. AAA predicted significant declines in bus, train and cruise travel, but predicted only a modest drop in car travel.
For several days leading up to Thanksgiving, as case numbers and hospitalizations across the country grew exponentially, political leaders and medical experts warned of the dangers of compounding the virus spread by being with others. In November alone, there have been more than 4.1 million cases and more than 25,500 deaths.
There were 91,635 current hospitalizations as of Nov. 28, according to the Covid Tracking Project, almost twice as many as there were on Nov. 1, and triple the number on Oct. 1.
Aware of the emotional resonance of the holiday, experts tried to thread a narrative from these numbers that would convince people of the danger. Their warnings were direct — sometimes stern, sometimes impassioned pleas.
"Keep the gatherings, the indoor gatherings as small as you possibly can," Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said on "Good Morning America" last week. By making that sacrifice, he said, "you're going to prevent people from getting infected."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was also urging people not to travel. "All Americans want to do what they can to protect their loved ones," Dr. Henry Walke, a Covid-19 incident manager at the C.D.C., said at a news briefing.
And though it would have been unrealistic to expect a public that is restive from months of restrictions to universally abide by such recommendations, the aftermath of those decisions will begin to unfold in the weeks ahead.
Dr. Fauci, during an appearance on the Sunday news program "This Week," said the best course for Thanksgiving travelers might be "to quarantine yourself for a period of time."
Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that travelers "have to assume that you were exposed and you became infected and you really need to get tested in the next week." She urged that travelers avoid anyone in their family over 65 or with underlying illnesses.
That guidance comes as the C.D.C. is considering shortening the recommended isolation period for infected people. And while it is too early to know if holiday travel will affect the virus's spread, new research suggests that people are most infectious about two days before symptoms begin and for five days afterward, meaning this week will likely be crucial in containment.
On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City urged residents who had ignored official guidance and attended Thanksgiving gatherings to get tested.
In anticipation of a renewed demand, the city has opened 25 new testing locations in the last week. It will also now post online the wait times at its testing sites, which had seen growing lines as New Yorkers scrambled to get tests before their holiday plans.
The city's seven-day average positive test rate was at 4.03 percent, Mr. de Blasio said, but he warned that the data may be skewed because fewer tests were conducted during Thanksgiving weekend.
"Some of our numbers may be skewed by that," he said.
The U.S. map shows a country where almost every region is a hot spot. States that were once spared, like Montana and Wyoming, have reported record deaths and infections, while states that were pummeled in the first wave are straining anew.
On Sunday, California became the first state to report more than 100,000 cases in a week, according to a New York Times database.
And in New Jersey, hospitalizations have increased 60 percent in the last two weeks and deaths have increased by 78 percent. Over three days in November, the positivity rate in Newark, the largest city in the state, was 19 percent.
"We begged people to have a somber, respectful, small Thanksgiving," Gov. Philip D. Murphy said on Fox News Sunday. "And I want to give a shout out to New Jerseyans because I think overwhelmingly that's what happened, but there's a lot of fatigue out there."
Mr. Murphy called the next few months "the fight of our lives," while also citing the progress of vaccines and noting that there was "light at the end of the tunnel."
And there was something to celebrate on Sunday in New York City, at least for some parents, when Mr. de Blasio announced that he would reopen the city's public elementary schools, abruptly shifting policy after an outcry from critics who questioned why gyms and bars remained open while schools were shut.
"We lived this nightmare, we learned from this nightmare, we are going to correct for the lessons we learned during this nightmare," Mr. Cuomo said.Credit…Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, via Associated Press
As he warned that New York State had entered a new phase in fighting the spread of coronavirus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Monday a new series of emergency measures to combat rising hospitalizations and case numbers statewide.
Among other steps, Mr. Cuomo urged hospitals to identify retired nurses and doctors in case of staff shortages, develop emergency field plans and prepare to add 50 percent of bed capacity. In Erie County in western New York, all elective surgeries will be stopped on Friday and similar protocols could be enacted in other areas of the state.
"It's a new phase in the war against Covid," Mr. Cuomo said at his news conference in New York City. "It's a war in terms of preparation and mobilization."
The number of New Yorkers hospitalized with the virus has more than tripled over November, from 1,125 on Nov. 1 to 3,532 on Sunday, he said.
"We are not going to live through the nightmare of overwhelmed hospitals again," he says. "If a hospital does get overwhelmed there will be a state investigation."
Mr. Cuomo has warned that the holidays and indoor social gatherings during the winter season could trigger a further resurgence of the virus. Still, instead of regional or statewide shutdowns, Mr. Cuomo had opted for a "micro-cluster" approach to targeting communities where rates of positive test results are particularly high.
On Monday, the governor said new metrics — including hospitalization rates, death rates and available hospital beds — would be used to determine lockdown levels under the state's color-coded restriction system. Mr. Cuomo also called on hospital networks across the state to better prepare for a surge in patients than they did in the spring, and plan to spread patients out between individual sites.
"We lived this nightmare, we learned from this nightmare, we are going to correct for the lessons we learned during this nightmare," he said.
GLOBAL ROUNDUP
A Christmas tree was illuminated as the traditional Christmas market had been cancelled at the Old Town Square in Prague on Saturday.Credit…David W Cerny/Reuters
The traditional Christmas markets that dot European cities, drawing thousands of festive revelers into plazas to enjoy mulled wine, colorful lights and public art, have largely been canceled this year.
But on Advent Sunday, the official start of the holiday season, celebrations continued in different forms. In partially locked-down Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, the mayor, Matus Vallo, led viewers of a Facebook livestream on a walk through the city's historic center.
Wearing a cheerful Christmas sweater, Mr. Vallo met musicians and artists along the way, received soothing words from a local priest, eyed winter-themed paintings from art galleries and lit up a Christmas tree in the main square.
"We know what the situation is, but we decided that we won't let Advent be ruined anyway," he said to the camera.
Locals and visitors in Bratislava will still be able to gawk at the Christmas lights on a stroll, but officials wanted to avoid the large holiday crowds. Moving traditional events online was part of that effort; a series of holiday concerts and events will be streamed throughout December.
It's just one of several creative solutions as markets were canceled across the continent. In Landshut, Germany, visitors must experience the Christmas markets as a drive-through, according to Agence France-Presse. They can observe the spectacle from inside their cars as mask-wearing employees hand them menus offering typical treats like roasted chestnuts and gingerbread hearts.
And in the United States, New York City will require reservations to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, in a bid to fight the holiday crowds that usually pack the surrounding plazas and sidewalks. The city will keep the viewing time to 5 minutes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Groups will be limited to four people.
Still, the mayor, who has expressed concern that cases of the virus could surge during the holiday, encouraged people to watch the annual tree-lighting ceremony — scheduled for Wednesday — at home instead of flocking to Midtown Manhattan. "Please, if you can make a decision to watch it on TV, that's so much better," he said.
Hong Kong will limit gatherings in public to two people, including two per table at restaurants, as it battles a surge in cases. Playgrounds, swimming pools and karaoke rooms will close, while gyms will remain open but be limited to two mask-wearing participants, the city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, said at a news conference on Monday. Hong Kong has reported an average of 85 new daily cases in the past week, far above the near-zero tallies it had reported after a summer surge.
Italy approved a stimulus package worth $9.6 billion, or 8 billion euros, on Sunday to support struggling businesses. The deal will postpone or suspend tax deadlines for some businesses, subsidize amateur sports associations and send checks of 1,000 euros to seasonal workers in the tourism, spa and entertainment industries. Italy is currently under a nationwide 10 p.m. curfew with bars and restaurants closing at 6 p.m., and some regions have further restrictions.
In Russia, a hospital near Moscow reported on Monday that it had administered the first known batch of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine to civilians. The Domodedovo Central City Hospital confirmed in a phone interview that the vaccine had been delivered and that the first shipment available for general use had already run out. Russia's government backed efforts to develop a vaccine before other countries has been widely criticized for cutting corners. The rush to deliver a vaccine to the general public has also been spurred by the growing number of new cases and deaths in the country, with the total number of cases in Russia nearing 2.3 million.
Kim Jong-un met with government officials on Sunday, seen in this photo provided by the North Korean government.Credit…Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service, via Associated Press
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un "harshly criticized" his government agencies for mishandling the economy, the country's state media reported on Monday, as new data revealed just how much the pandemic had slashed the country's already dwindling trade with China.
Signs had already emerged earlier this month that North Korea's economic trouble was deepening, driven by long-standing international sanctions and the impact of the pandemic. According to customs data released by Beijing last week, North Korea's imports from China from January to October plummeted by 76 percent to $487 million, while its exports shrank 74 percent to $45 million in the same period.
China is North Korea's only major trading partner, accounting for more than 90 percent of its external trade. In October, the North's import from China amounted to a mere $253,000, nearly a 99-percent drop from the previous month. South Korean officials and analysts have warned that a sharp decline in imports from China in recent months could drive up domestic prices in the North.
The Chinese government only records official trade and does not cover smuggling that takes place across the borders between the two neighbors. Still, the figures provided fresh evidence that the coronavirus was squeezing the North Korean economy more effectively than international sanctions ever have.
During a meeting of the Workers' Party that Mr. Kim presided over on Sunday, the government agencies responsible for the economy were harshly criticized for "failing to provide scientific guidance" and "failing to overcome subjectivism and formalism in their work," the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
But this was not the first time Mr. Kim has admitted to his country's deepening economic woes, acknowledging in August that his five-year plan for economic growth had failed. Mr. Kim all but sealed North Korea's borders with China earlier this year over fears of the potentially catastrophic consequences the pandemic could inflict on the country's poor health system.
North Korea insists that it has registered no coronavirus cases, but outside experts remain skeptical.
Delivery drivers have been essential to feeding New York, but they say work conditions have gotten worse.Credit…Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times
With New York City's unemployment rate at 13.2 percent, many people have turned to working for food delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub, which have seen huge demand from customers.
While delivery drivers have been essential to feeding New Yorkers and keeping them safe, their working conditions, already precarious before the pandemic, have gotten worse.
Even as the food delivery companies have seen sales surge, the workers' pay has remained erratic. Because the drivers are independent workers, they are not entitled to a minimum wage, overtime or any other benefits, like health insurance. Undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible for unemployment or federal coronavirus assistance, make up the bulk of the work force in New York.
The added competition from the surge in new workers has compounded the financial challenges. Advocacy groups estimate that there were roughly 50,000 delivery workers before the pandemic — a number they say has grown exponentially. Uber alone said it had added 36,000 couriers in New York since March.
DoorDash and Uber said they had provided extra help to delivery drivers during the pandemic, including offering sick pay to those who were infected. DoorDash, the nation's largest food delivery app, said it provided access to low-cost telemedicine appointments.
DoorDash also said it had changed its pay model, which came under fire last year after it was revealed that tips were being used to subsidize its payments to workers. The company recently reached a $2.5 million settlement with prosecutors in Washington, D.C., after being accused of misleading consumers over how it tipped its workers.
Drivers for food delivery apps are typically paid per delivery depending on the estimated duration and distance of a trip, plus tips. The work can be convenient for people supplementing a main source of income, but a struggle for those who depend on it as a primary job, advocates for the workers said.
A volunteer receiving the Oxford coronavirus vaccine. Misinformation about vaccines has been spreading, often by accident, on TikTok. So those who know better are making TikTok videos that try to spread the facts.Credit…Andrew Testa for The New York Times
While some in the creative community on TikTok joke about the coronavirus vaccine or tease people who are part of the anti-vaccine movement, scientists and coronavirus vaccine participants are hoping to be a source to fight misinformation on the app.
In February, a scientist who goes by Dr. Noc on TikTok started noticing a need for science-based videos about the coronavirus that his expertise in working to develop an antibody treatment for Covid-19 could help provide.
He has since posted many videos addressing the coronavirus, including updates on vaccines, mink infected with the coronavirus and how some people with the virus can lose their sense of taste and smell. The videos, he said, have left him vulnerable to harassment from people against vaccines and masks.
Lately, Dr. Noc has found himself answering questions reflecting the fears and misconceptions about coronavirus vaccines that are sometimes perpetuated on the platform by jokes about side effects or forays into fictional narrative, like a sci-fi scenario in which the government kills those who refuse a vaccine.
"While people may appreciate them, they're not going to go viral," he said about his videos. "It's a game of catch-up."
So, no, nanoparticles can't send people's biometric data to a cloud, as he has posted, and no, mRNA can't change people's D.N.A.
Vaccine trial participants have also been describing their experiences and answering questions about the process for viewers.
Ashley Locke, 29, from Nashville, said she posted about her experience as a participant in AstraZeneca's trial to document a journey in her life, but didn't expect the more than two million views it has gotten, or the thousands of questions and comments.
Since that post, she's been creating videos and answering questions from her comment section about side effects and wearing masks after being a part of the trial. She even brought in a friend, also a part of a trial, to talk.
But with all that, she said, she isn't always successful in demystifying the vaccine.
"There are some people that are really out there that are convinced that it's a microchip," she said. "They're a little too far gone to convince."
The University of Sydney. The Australian education sector is set to lose billions of dollars if the country's borders do not reopen before the end of 2021.Credit…Paul Miller/Australian Associated Press, via Associated Press
A cohort of 63 international students on Monday arrived in Australia under a pilot program that allows them to resume their studies, even as the country's borders remain closed because of the pandemic.
The students, the first group of international students allowed in since March, arrived at Darwin International Airport in the Northern Territory from Singapore. They are from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia.
All of them tested negative for the coronavirus 72 hours before boarding the charter flight. They will be required to quarantine at a former workers' camp outside the city of Darwin for 14 days before being allowed to re-enter the campus at Charles Darwin University.
The education sector, crucial to the Australian economy, is set to lose billions of dollars if the country's borders do not reopen before the end of 2021. According to research from Victoria University, the loss of international students is also affecting the makeup of Australia's cities.
In September, Charles Darwin University made a deal with the state and the federal government that would enable students to return from overseas to study. The success of the program could influence whether more international students can return to study in other states, including South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.
Speaking to the local news media, the students — some of who had become stranded while visiting family overseas — said they felt lucky to return to Australia, which is beginning to reopen as states eliminate, or come close to eliminating, the spread of the coronavirus.
Xitao Jiang, a 23-year-old student from China returning to Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday that was "very lucky" to have the opportunity to return to the country and study at the university in Darwin.
People walk passed closed shops on London's normally bustling Oxford Street earlier this month.Credit…Andrew Testa for The New York Times
By the end of the third week of England's second national lockdown, which began early this month in a bid to stem a second wave of coronavirus infections, the number of new cases has fallen 30 percent, according to new data.
Some parts of northern England, which had been hit particularly hard by the new outbreak, experienced an even greater drop, the latest interim findings from Imperial College London's React study showed.
But Matt Hancock, the British health secretary, warned that the data, while promising, showed the country could not "take our foot off the pedal just yet," according to the BBC. In a post on Twitter late Sunday, Mr. Hancock cautioned that "we mustn't waste our progress now we can see light at the end of the tunnel" with mass testing and promising coronavirus vaccine candidates on the horizon.
England's current lockdown is set to end just after midnight Wednesday. But the lifting of restrictions will be different across the country, as regions move into one of three tiers based on their current rate of infection. Britain is still grappling with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in Europe and its deepest recession on record, with experts warning that the knock-on effects of the pandemic could last for years.
A first grade teacher at Lawrenceburg Public School in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Between in-person and remote teaching, some educators said their workloads had doubled.Credit…Brett Carlsen for The New York Times
All through the fall, teachers have been at the center of vehement debates over whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction — often vilified for challenging it, sometimes praised for trying to make it work.
But these debates have often missed just how thoroughly the coronavirus has upended learning in the 130,000 schools in the United States, and glossed over how emotionally and physically draining pandemic teaching has become.
In more than a dozen interviews with The New York Times, educators described the immense challenges, and exhaustion, they have faced. Some recounted whiplash experiences of having their schools abruptly open and close, sometimes more than once.
Others described the stress of having to lead back-to-back group video lessons for remote learners, even as they continued to teach students in person in their classrooms. Some educators said their workloads had doubled.
Many teachers said they had also become impromptu social workers for their students, directing them to food banks, acting as grief counselors for those who had family members die of Covid-19 and helping pupils work through their anxiety, depression and isolation. Often, the teachers said, their concern for their students came at a cost to themselves.
"Teachers are not OK right now," said Evin Shinn, a literacy coach at a public middle school in Seattle, noting that many teachers were putting students' pandemic needs above their own well-being.
Experts and teachers' unions are warning of a looming burnout crisis among educators that could lead to a wave of retirements, undermining the fitful effort to resume normal public schooling. In a recent survey by the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers' union, 28 percent of educators said the coronavirus had made them more likely to leave teaching or retire early.
Those We've Lost
Iris Meda, 70, a retired nurse, wanted to help in the fight against the coronavirus, so she began teaching nursing skills to high school students. But she came down with Covid-19 and died on Nov. 14.Credit…Selene Meda-Schlamel
Iris Meda, 70, didn't feel right sitting on the sidelines when the pandemic hit. She'd been retired only a few months, and still had a lifetime of nursing experience in hospitals, prisons, schools and long-term care facilities to share.
So she went back to work in August, teaching nursing skills to high school students through Collin College, north of Dallas. But within weeks, she had come down with Covid-19 herself. After nearly a month in the hospital, most of it on a ventilator, she died on Nov. 14.
Her daughter, Selene Meda-Schlamel, said her mother was exposed to the virus on Oct. 2 while teaching a laboratory class, despite the precautions she was taking.
"I wasn't worried, because I knew she was wearing an N95, and that she was some distance from the students," Ms. Meda-Schlamel recalled, in an interview.
"I said to myself, 'If something happens to her, it happens to her doing something she loves, fulfilling her calling and benefiting the world,'" she said. "But that's a very different outlook from, 'My best friend is gone, my kids don't have a grandmother. Everything that we planned on doing will never occur.'"
Ms. Meda grew up in New York, the oldest of nine siblings, and was a natural caretaker from childhood, her daughter said. She married at 20, expecting to be a stay-at-home mother, but at her husband's urging, she went back to school and earned a nursing degree from City College.
"She had a very personal touch," Ms. Meda-Schlamel said. "You never felt like she was rushing you."
Ms. Meda worked as a nurse at the jail on Rikers Island before moving to Texas in 1993, where she spent the rest of her career before retiring in January. When she took up teaching, she wanted to pass along to her students the kind of encouragement she had gotten to pursue an education. After class, she often returned home "lit up" from the thrill she got from teaching, her daughter said.
When her Covid-19 symptoms worsened in mid-October and she began struggling to breathe, Ms. Meda called her daughter for a ride to the hospital. Ms. Meda-Schlamel recalled that in the car, her mother handed her an envelope containing her medical documents and a handwritten card that she forgot about in the hectic days that followed.
When she finally opened it, she said, she found a note her mother had written after their phone call, telling her how proud she was of her and what a wonderful life she had before her. And two signed checks fell out, meant to help her daughter cover the hospital bills. On one, the amount was left blank.
"That was kind of symbolic of how she was as a person," Ms. Meda-Schlamel said. "She was always giving people blank checks, blank emotional checks: 'Whatever you need from me, if I have it, I'll provide it.'"
Philip Gill with his daughters Grace, 12, Lydia, 6, and Isla, 2. Mr. Gill, who coaches a girls soccer team, started a petition calling for equal treatment of boys and girls teams during lockdown.Credit…Mary Turner for The New York Times
When Lisa Bloor heard that her daughter Abby's elite-level soccer club was being shut down in England's latest coronavirus lockdown, she faced a tough problem: how to explain that boys at the same level were allowed to keep playing.
"How do I tell my daughter it's because she's a girl?" Ms. Bloor asked. "It's disheartening. There's no logic in it at all."
As the coronavirus has upended lives across the world, women have found themselves disproportionately affected, whether by taking on the often invisible labor of an outsize share in household duties, caring for children and relatives or finding the hard-fought gains they made in the workplace in past years almost entirely wiped out.
In early November, after Britain's government reluctantly admitted the need for a second lockdown of all but England's most essential services to stop the number of Covid-19 cases spiraling out of control, the restrictions — and exceptions to the rules — laid bare yet another gender gap: the one between women and men's sports.
When the British government granted "elite sport" special dispensations for the duration of a four-week lockdown, the top six tiers of men's soccer could carry on training and competing. But only the top two women's soccer leagues were permitted to continue.
The Football Association, which governs the sport in England, ruled that the men's F.A. Cup tournament would not stop, but postponed the women's F.A. Cup until the national lockdown lifts in early December.
Nowhere was the gender divide more transparent than in the decision surrounding the soccer clubs' academies, which sharpen the skills of the most promising school-age players and prepare them to turn professional.
Boys' training at more than 80 English Football League and Premier League clubs' academies could remain open under "elite" protocols, but the F.A. decided that girls' academies at clubs such as Everton — where Abby Clarke, Ms. Bloor's 16-year-old daughter, trains at least four times a week as part of the development squad — were "nonelite" and would have to suspend all activity throughout the lockdown.
Posted in Travel news | Tagged COVID19, Live, news, Updates
Positive news on Covid vaccine fuels new enthusiasm for travel: Travel Weekly
Posted on November 29, 2020 | by traveldealsjunction | Leave a Comment on Positive news on Covid vaccine fuels new enthusiasm for travel: Travel Weekly
Good news about Covid-19 vaccines has been on the uptick this month, and with it, a bump in inquiries to travel agencies about what these medical advances might mean for travel in 2021.
The calls don't always lead to bookings, advisors said, and although the good news is tempered in part by spiking cases around the country, consumer response to the vaccine news appears to both reflect high levels of pent-up demand and herald the nascent return of broad consumer confidence to travel.
On Nov. 9, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that preliminary data indicates their vaccine is more than 90% effective. A week later, Moderna on Nov. 16 said preliminary analysis found its vaccine was more than 94.5% effective. And just before Thanksgiving, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford said preliminary data found their vaccine up to 90% effective.
"Within an hour of Pfizer announcing their vaccine, we started getting calls," said Helen Papa, owner of TBH Travel in Dix Hills, N.Y. "Within an hour. It was amazing."
Cruise lines also saw some positive effects attributable to vaccine news. During Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings' most recent financial earnings call, the day after Pfizer's news, president and CEO Frank Del Rio said bookings in the previous 24 hours were "pretty good; better than the previous four or five Mondays."
"And that's, I think, attributable to the vaccine news," he said. "We did not have any particular promotion or did any outsized marketing."
Similarly, Royal Caribbean Group chairman Richard Fain addressed the question of positive news about vaccines during Travel Weekly's CruiseWorld, which was held virtually earlier this month.
"I don't think it will surprise anybody that when the news is scary, people tend to go back into their cocoons," Fain said. "As the news gets to be more positive they come out. What's encouraging is how quickly it responds."
After both the Pfizer and Moderna news broke, Skyscanner found that searches for travel from the U.S. to Mexico surpassed their weekly volume from last year, up 10%. Skyscanner attributed that increase to the vaccine news, as well.
Helen Papa
For Papa, some of the inquiries she received at TBH have turned into bookings. Clients are "cautiously optimistic," she said.
On the other side of the country from Papa, Coastline Travel Advisors in Garden Grove, Calif., also received a number of emails and calls from clients following vaccine announcements, according to president Jay Johnson.
While there has been a general sense of optimism and more confidence in travel's return by next summer, he said, the influx of inquiries has not yet resulted in new business.
"There is without a doubt a huge amount of pent-up demand to travel in 2021," Johnson said. "All we need now is confirmation that the vaccines work and a lowering of cases. Then, we'll be off and running."
Joshua Bush
Avenue Two Travel in Villanova, Pa., saw an uptick in both calls and bookings as a result of the positive vaccine news, but that was tempered by the rising number of cases around the country, said CEO Joshua Bush.
Avenue Two has seen steady, week-over-week increases in travel since mid-August, thanks to domestic travel and clients dreaming about 2021 travel, Bush said. In addition to closer-in domestic bookings, Avenue Two has even been booking things like world cruise segments and expedition trips. Overall, business is down about 70% year over year, but better than the 95 to 97% it was down when the pandemic first hit.
The week before Pfizer had announced its vaccine's effectiveness, business was "absolutely dead," which Bush attributed to the unsettled U.S. presidential election.
But the week of Nov. 16, Bush said, "with the election result [more widely accepted] and the vaccine … we are on track for our best week this year since Covid." Those bookings were for both the holiday season and 2021 as travelers are getting more optimistic about a vaccine.
At the same time, the good news is offset by the surge in cases and deaths around the world, especially in the U.S.
"We're hitting milestone death numbers," Bush said. "We're hitting milestone cases on individual days. That is really kind of tamping down the news that there's light at the end of the tunnel. We're definitely in this still."
In some places, though, travelers have shown less concern about traveling during the pandemic, and the news of the vaccines was akin to a nonevent. Jeanne Polocheck, owner of Well Traveled Texan in Houston, said her Texas-based clients largely kept traveling during the pandemic. Things had initially slowed early this year, but by Memorial Day clients were out and about again, a trend that has continued. Domestic spots and Mexico have been popular.
She didn't even get one phone call from a client about vaccines.
A potential stumbling block to the recovery of travel is the resistance among some people to being vaccinated. A Gallup poll conducted between Oct. 19 and Nov. 1, before the vaccine trial results were announced, indicated 58% of adult respondents were willing to get a vaccination, a rise from 50% in September.
Lingering and significant reluctance to be vaccinated will likely present hurdles to overcome with regard to travel in the future, said Ensemble Travel Group CEO David Harris.
He pointed to the flu vaccine: It's been available for decades, but a portion of the population skips it each year.
However, he is more hopeful about a Covid vaccine, given how serious the impact of the virus has been. While a vaccine will never be 100% effective, it could go a long way to the resumption of travel, he said, by giving confidence to governments to relax requirements for quarantines and other deterrents to travel.
"Those should, in theory, be relaxed if you get traction from an effective vaccine," he said.
Johanna Jainchill contributed to this report.
Posted in Travel news | Tagged Covid, enthusiasm, fuels, news, Positive, travel, vaccine, Weekly


In Fall of 2017, PS 56 initiated a "World Language Spanish" program. Through this academic approach, our students are exposed to the general education curriculum, while simultaneously obtaining foundational Spanish language instruction with the ultimate goal of Spanish language proficiency.
Research has shown, that language instruction, especially in early childhood, benefits student brain development and educational outcomes for years to come in all academic areas.
Within the initial stages of the program, our students will be receiving the majority of their instruction in English, especially in the core areas, such as reading, writing and mathematics. However, the instructors will be teaching basic Spanish vocabulary, numbers, colors, and songs over the course of the primary grades. As students' progress through the grades of our program, we will increase the percentage of instruction taking place in Spanish to encourage greater command of the language and to develop full bilingual students with command of both English and Spanish by the time they leave PS 56. They will develop conversation and writing skills in the 2nd language, listen to instruction in Spanish, and respond to the teacher and their peers in their new language.


In the past couple of weeks we've been learning how to use Illustrator to transform basic shapes into logos. Last week we took some basic shapes and learned how to create logos by aligning, rotating and scaling them in Adobe Illustrator.
Now we'll take it a step further and explore ways to combine them into logos that are more complex, but still stunningly simple.
Take a look at these logos and see if you can work out how they are created. Again, if you're not quite clear, keep looking and thinking and see if you have a "lightbulb" moment.
The first logo is created in Illustrator from four rectangles. You'd create one tall rectangle, rotate it slightly, then duplicate it two more times to create three slightly offset, rotated "pillars". You'd then create a much larger fourth rectangle that overlaps the bottom of the previous three. Using Illustrator's Shape Builder Tool you'd then cut the bottoms of the rectangles off to finish the logo. Watch the first video for full details on how to create this logo in Illustrator.
The second logo is created from five circles, all the same size. The trick is that the fifth circle is used as something like a "cookie cutter" to define the edge of the logo. Again, the Shape Builder Tool is used to delete the shapes that aren't required. In this logo in particular you might notice how perfect this looks, and of course this is only possible because of the accuracy techniques you learnt when creating last week's logos. Watch the second video for full details on how to create this logo in Illustrator.
As you can probably see, the final logo is mainly created from text, with a rotated rectangle cut out of it. There is a technical trick here in that the text needs to be "outlined" so that its shape no longer defined by a font, and becomes a graphic, made from anchor points. Watch the third video for full details on how to create this logo in Illustrator.
Firstly, sign up for our masterclass next week where you'll learn how to create much more complex logos. Bring your ideas and questions!
In this 3 week mini series we're going to be looking at transforming basic shapes in Illustrator.
You might well ask why that's worth doing. But if you look at a lot of the best logos around (like Audi, HSBC, Citroen and Google) consist of little more than basic geometric shapes that have been transformed in some way.
If you're interested in developing your design skills (especially logo design), the more you know about working with basic shapes, the better.
Here are some examples of logos that have been created in Illustrator using geometric shapes.
Over the next couple of weeks you'll learn how to make all these logos in Illustrator, using nothing more than simple geometric shapes like circles, squares and triangles, or text.
But before you start to use Illustrator, first look around and notice all the logos you can that use basic shapes. Some of them will be extremely obvious, but others less so, as the shapes will have been combined, or transformed in some way.
For example, the logo above on the left is clearly made from circles.
Keep your eyes open, and next week you'll get start to create them with Illustrator.