Links for you. Science:

The Origins of SARS-CoV-2: A Critical Review
Relative Humidity Predicts Day-to-Day Variations in COVID-19 Cases in the City of Buenos Aires
Israeli data: How can efficacy vs. severe disease be strong when 60% of hospitalized are vaccinated? (must-read)
U.S. officials’ decision on Covid-19 booster shots baffles — and upsets — some scientists
NIH study shows no significant benefit of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 outpatients with early symptoms

Other:

As Families Look To The Start Of School, COVID Cases Are At Levels We Haven’t Seen Since April (D.C. focused)
DOES THE MEDIA REMEMBER HOW TO SCOLD REPUBLICANS?
Clintonism’s Zombie: Making sense of Josh Gottheimer’s attempts to sabotage the Democratic agenda
To vaccinate more Americans, lean into outbreaks
He Ain’t Perfect, But Certainly An Improvement
Want a better-paying job? Valencia tries to transform Orlando’s low-wage landscape
Saying Crazy Apocalyptic Sh*t All the Time Has Consequences
Lying Ghouls
And They Arrived At That Conclusion All By Themselves
Action star Shinichi ‘Sonny’ Chiba dies at 82 from COVID-19 complications
‘I’m begging you. … Take that shot.’ As covid-19 surges in unvaccinated Alabama, the intimate conversations between doctors and patients have taken on a new urgency
I Spent 5 Months Trying to Coax a Cat From My Ceiling. The whole time, I misunderstood what was keeping her up there.
I Should Have Listened to My Dad About Afghanistan. I thought 20 years ago that the U.S. had a moral duty to rebuild the country after routing the Taliban. He knew that there’s nothing moral about chasing phantoms.
Cori Bush tests the bounds of what an activist turned lawmaker can accomplish
How To Talk To Your Anti-Vax MAGA Relatives
GOP governors find new ways to make the pandemic worse
Bitter Pill
We Failed Afghanistan, Not the Other Way Around. MSNBC rails against the “fantastically corrupt elite” on the ground that ruined the Afghan mission, but the real corruption was our own (“Our presence may begin under the auspices of such [noble] excuses, but what happens almost every time is that the missions assume bureaucratic lives of their own, and contracting becomes an end in itself.”)
Temperatures in D.C.’s Heat Islands, Can Register Ten to Twenty Degrees Hotter Than in Leafy Neighborhoods
Delayed Wuhan Report Adds Crucial Detail to Covid Origin Puzzle
Asymmetries
Why the debate on Afghanistan is so distorted
The $26 an Hour Minimum Wage
House Democrats Just Got Serious About Reining in the Supreme Court