Fact-Checking the President, Monkey Vaccines, and the Rise of the ‘Walktail Party’
A handful of stories about the coronavirus we’re reading today
Published in
2 min readMay 21, 2020
- In the middle of the World Health Organization’s annual assembly on Monday, President Donald Trump sent the WHO’s director-general a letter threatening to leave and halt funding to the agency, pending the results of his administration’s investigation of what he called the agency’s “failed response” to Covid-19. The letter details his gripes with the WHO’s response, which NPR fact-checked with experts who said that most of the points he raised are factually incorrect.
- Perhaps the biggest unknown about Covid-19 is whether people who recover from it are immune, and if so, for how long? Encouraging news comes by way of nine macaque monkeys at Harvard University who were deliberately infected with the coronavirus and then, after recovering, were infected a second time — but didn’t get sick. As MIT Technology Review reports, a handful of DNA vaccines tested on the monkeys conferred some protection, too.
- Referencing the 1997 film Gattaca, which depicted a world where your biology determines your place in society, is a recurring trope in science journalism, but it’s perhaps never been as relevant as it is now that we’re seriously talking about immunity passports — certificates issued only to people who have antibodies to Covid-19. “Imagine a world where your ability to get a job, housing, or a loan depends on passing a blood…
