WTF Just Happened Today

Monday, March 8, 2021

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1/ The Senate passed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. The American Rescue Plan includes $1,400 stimulus checks for hundreds of millions of Americans, $300-per-week jobless benefits until early September, a child allowance of up to $3,600 for one year, $350 billion for state aid, $34 billion to expand Affordable Care Act subsidies, and $14 billion for vaccine distribution. “I promised the American people help was on the way,” Biden said. “Today, I can say we’ve taken one more giant step of delivering on that promise.” The final vote was 50-49 along party lines. The legislation will have to be passed by the House again before Biden can sign it into law, because the Senate made changes to its version. The Senate bill limited the number of people receiving direct payments, capping them at $80,000 in income for individuals and $160,000 for couples. It also reduced the jobless benefit to $300 from $400 in the House bill. The House plans to pass the relief bill as soon as Tuesday, putting Biden on track to sign his first major legislative accomplishment into law by the end of the week. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, meanwhile, said that the Treasury Department was still “working on” the exact timeline of the stimulus check rollout, but that the White House expected “a large number of Americans to receive relief by the end of the month.” (NBC News / New York Times / Washington Post / ABC News / CNBC / Washington Post)

• ???? Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

• Global: Total confirmed cases: ~117,061,000; deaths: ~2,598,000

• U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~29,034,000; deaths: ~526,000; fully vaccinated: ~9.4%; partially vaccinated: ~18.1%

• Source: Johns Hopkins University / Washington Post

• More than one in five adults have now received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, and just over one in ten have received two doses. The U.S. administered 5.3 million vaccines over the weekend, and is now administering more than 2 million shots a day on average. New coronavirus cases in the U.S., meanwhile, posted the slowest weekly increase since the pandemic began almost a year ago. (CNBC / Bloomberg)

• Dr. Anthony Fauci said the number of vaccine doses available will sharply rise in the coming weeks following federal approval of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot. (CBS News)

2/ New CDC guidance says that people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can safely visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors w...

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