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the-kings-of-games · 4 years ago

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SFW alphabet template: Kizunashipping

(slight NSFW, oops)

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

They're very affectionate with each other, but it doesn't necessarily stands out. They like to do a lot of things quiet and/or privately. Like leaning against each other every chance they get, and always having to hold each other when sharing a bed.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

It started when they were kids! Jack and Yūsei met each other first at Martha's orphanage and got close because they were both duelists and also had these rare, one-of-a-kind Synchros, and they felt that connection right when they found out about each other's dragon. Crow came a little bit after, and Jack picked picked him out for being so small, to which the bird said the equivalent of, "I'm seven, not a baby. Go away." Yūsei decided right then he liked Crow and asked to duel, and Crow was also really good too. The three of them stuck together like glue after that.

Individually, all three of them would make really good friends, though Jack might be a little more high matainence; however, like Yūsei and Crow, he highly values his friends and is grateful to them for being his life. Kizuna is very protective and supportive, and they only want to see their friends to be happy. They'd do anything they can to help.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

All three of them love to cuddle. Whenever one of them feels like cuddling, he'd just come into another's room, and space would be made for him on the bed. (This in particular when it comes to nightmares.) Words don't even need to be exchanged, this is a habit they developed while growing up. They shared the bed together a lot when they were with Martha.

Jack likes to be the one holding the others when cuddling because it tells him that he has them again and that they're there. Crow and Yūsei are smaller than him, so he can reach his arms over the both of them at the same time if he wants. He also likes it when either one of them are on him because he likes feeling their weight. Crow, on the other hand, likes being held and pressing his face against his brother's body, whether it's his shoulder or chest. He also likes to hold to, gripping a shirt or a tank top. He likes being able to take in his friend's scent. Yūsei is fine with anything as long as everyone's comfortable because he just likes being together. His only thing is probably that he enjoys naked cuddling a lot.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

The way they settle down post-series is that Yūsei buys a big house and invites Akiza and the twins to live with him, and Crow and Jack come home in-between tournaments, trips, and competitions as pro leaguers. They all have their own rooms, and Kizuna share beds whenever they feel like it. Everyone has a fair amount to chores to do and picks up after themselves, but he'll out each other if needed. There's less to do when more people are home.

During their time in Poppo Time, Jack takes care of cleaning upstairs (past the garage) and laundry; Crow with bookkeeping, shopping, and cooking; and Yūsei with cleaning the garage, keeping track of inventory, and keeping Missus Zora happy. When Bruno moves in, he takes over inventory and some of the cleaning and cooking.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

They die. The foundation of their relationship isn't romance or lust; it's family and friendship. Even if they stop sleeping together, or if time and space are wedged between them, they'll always still be each other's friend and brother. They'll still stick together. Their love for each other doesn't run out, it's just a part of who they are and who they are together. They're together because they want to be; if someone wants to leave, he can, but he won't.

F = Fiancé(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

They already are very committed and dedicated to each other, so marriage isn't exactly the next big step. It's not necessary for them. After Neo Domino and the Satellite are finally one again, Jack suggests they go into their records and have them officially recognized as adopted brothers, so that covers the family-only restrictions that some places may have. ("That's the first good idea you've made in, like, forever. Who are you, and what have you done to Jack?" —Crow)

If they ever do something like a wedding, it'd be a small and another excuse to have everyone come over and hang out. (Not they need one.)

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

They all can be gentle; they adore gentle. Physically, they do things like hold hands, cuddle, and linger in their touches. Crow likes to gives kisses and loves all forms of I love you. Yūsei looks adoring eyes. Jack is the most verbal of the three and quote passages he'd read (in the original language too). Emotionally, they're there for each other and can read each other pretty easily. They know a lot of each other's habit and how they think.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

They love to hug. As mentioned before, Jack loves to hold his brothers, so when he has the chance, he pulls Crow or Yūsei onto his lap and wraps an arm around their waist. Yūsei comes up from behind when Jack or Crow and wrap his arms too, pressing his cheek on their back. Crow's hugs are more of nurturing because he cradles you to his chest, his arms over your shoulders.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

Well, they met as kids at Martha's orphanage and got close almost immediately. I'm going to say that it took a bit of time, maybe a year or so, because that was how long it took for Kizuna to acknowledge each other as family and to finally voice it. Yūsei said it first, when another orphan asked why he was so close to Jack and Crow. He replied, "Because we're best friends. They're like my brother and sister." (My 5D's Crow is afab and masculine leaning genderfluid, he didn't do he/him until age 10 so he was their sister the first three years they met.) Yūsei was a bit surprised when he said that, and he told Jack and Crow about it later.

"That's fine with me," Jack said. "I think of us as family too."

And Crow, overwhelmed with joy, was the first one to say it. "I love you. You make me forget what it's like to be alone," she told Jack and Yūsei right there and then, trying not to cry. "I've always wanted a family."

Since then, Crow loves saying I love you, and he's the one of the three who says it the most in those exact words. Yūsei and Jack have other ways of expressing their I love you; Jack quotes passages and says things that shows how much he loves, and Yūsei tells through his eyes and expressions.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

They're not exactly in an exclusive relationship. If they have someone else they're interested it, it's fine; again, the foundation of their relationship isn't found in romance or lust, it's family and friendship. They stay together because they want to be together, and whoever they bring into their lives won't upset the others. It's not as of they're replacing each other by having more people in their lives. Their worlds will always cross each other anyway.

Really, it's only really Crow who does things with other people. If he likes you, he'll ask to kiss you. (And he's a great kisser too. He's kissed many people.) If he wants to go any further, he will.

(There is a small amount of jealousy only when they see someone is hitting on one of them, especially Jack. He just doesn't like seeing people trying to suck up to his brothers with the intention of getting something out of them.)

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Jack's kisses are the one that last the longest that it's borderline making out. He doesn't want to let go sometimes, and he sinks into the moment pretty easily. He likes to kiss lips and shoulders, and likes to be kissed on the chin, cheeks, and arms.

Crow's kisses are plenty, little pecks and butterflies because he's playful. He's the least patient so he always wants to put in another kiss before you have to go or he does. He likes to kiss faces, and likes to be kissed on the back of his neck and breast.

Yūsei's kisses are light and lingering, like a ghost passing by. He is persistent but stays long enough that when he pulls away, it's like he's still there. He likes to kiss lips, inner arms and thighs, and backs, and likes to be kissed on the hands and forehead.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

They're really good around kids. They learned a lot while growing up at the orphanage because they took care of the younger kids and Martha taught them everything she knew. They see kids like younger brothers and sisters, so they are very much big brother figures. They each have their own way of wowing and entertaining kids, and they'd throw themselves in front of a train if it meant protecting a kid. Kizuna thinks every kid should be smiling and happy.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Jack's usually up at the same time every morning. (He likes routine.) But it doesn't necessarily means he gets out of bed soon after. No, the morning he wakes up after sharing the bed for the night, Jack likes to stay and watch his brothers continue to sleep. He fixes the blanket and pillows if they're out of place. Next would be Crow some time later, and he sees Jack is awake so he turns to him for a morning kiss. (Their breath might be terrible, but they don't notice.) Their kiss is soft and slow, reaching a natural pace. The little noises they make is enough to wake Yūsei up, and he pulls closer, waiting his turn.

When they are satisfied, they finally leave the bed.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Sometimes, it's quiet; sometimes, it's lively. Sometimes, they're together; sometimes, they spend it alone. It's based on their mood.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Again, they met as kids, so they kind of told each other everything, mostly in the passing; however, they end up keeping their biggest insecurities from each other, like Crow only finding out about Yūsei's wish that he was never born in his duel against Roman (canon), or Crow keeping the fact that he felt so left behind when Jack and Yūsei left Satellite for the first time. I suppose it's because they try not to burden each other while saying they'd help shoulder anything the other is carrying.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

Crow and Jack and rule each other up easily, and they argue together the most. Yūsei is harder to piss off, but he does get exasperated by his brothers fighting. (Pissing him off requires being a little shit that knows his weak points, and Crow is that kind of brother.)

When it comes to other people, they are bit more patient. Crow doesn't take shit lying down, but if he knows it's his fault, he'll accept the consequences. Jack is a bit more stubborn and kind acts like he can get a free pass when it comes to faux pas. Yūsei, again, it difficult to piss off, that is unless someone is hurting/insult his friends and cards. Despite his "calm and mature" nature, he's the one who holds grudges the worst.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about [each other]? Do they remember every little detail [ ] mention[ed] in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

Jack remembers dates the best because he does best with time management and likes these kind of details. Crow remembers what they need and should have. Yūsei remembers things he'd observed and heard. Collectively, they all good at remembering, amongst other things, each other's likes and dislikes, embarrassing childhood stories, habits.

The reason they don't forget much about each other is because they grew up together, so all of this is second nature.

R = Remember (What is [one of] their favorite moment[s] in [their] relationship?)

For Crow, it's the time they first kissed. Some boy came up to her and kissed her on the lips, and so she punched him and gave him a black eye. It really upset her because kissing someone on the lips meant you liked them and wanted to have a family together. She did not want that boy. Jack said, "It doesn't have to count if your don't want it to." Hearing that, Crow decided she wanted one that counted, and Jack and Yūsei gave in quickly to cheer her up. She had them kiss too.

For Jack, it's when they finally came back together again, after he made the mistake of leaving everything he knew and loved behind for fame and glory. Majestic Star Dragon saved them from falling to their deaths and carried them back home to Satellite, and they made their dream of uniting with City come true. And Crow and Yūsei forgave him.

For Yūsei, it's the time he and Jack first met Crow because the look on Jack's face was so funny. Not many of the other kids could confront Jack back then with his mildly inflated ego and his great dueling skills, so it was a good idea to befriend the one kid who didn't tolerate being pushed around, even if you're better than her at something. Yūsei thinks he made a good choice that day.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect [each other]? How would they like to be protected?)

They're pretty protective of each other, a lot of their protectiveness is shown through support. They just don't let one brother face the consequences on his own, even if it is his fault. They refuse to let each other be treated badly too; however, they understand that sometimes, one of them must face the issue head-on, but the other two will always be right behind him.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Not much; it's enough to just stay home and relax in each other's presence. They'll go out too, but those are mostly impromptu or spur of the moment. They don't have to have reasons to put in effort. Dates are important (birthdays, visits, etc.), but anniversaries not so much. They've been together since they were kids so a lot of things are hard to pinpoint. Gifts are more because they thought of each other and less because they have an obligation to fulfill.

Nobody is allowed to slack off on everyday tasks because Martha raised them right.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Yūsei easily loses track of time and assumes he'll catch himself the next time. (He doesn't.) Jack spends like he's still being sponsored by companies. Crow tells Akiza things that should be kept in the bedroom. Yūsei sweats a lot, and grease and oil don't make it better. ("Take a shower!" —Jack) Jack spends way too much time in the bathroom. Crow sometimes forget to add spices when cooking.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Not really. Crow has a lot of confidence in himself, Yūsei doesn't care about what people think, and Jack knows he looks great.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without [each other]?)

A little, yeah. They'd miss each other very much when they're apart and wish they were together again constantly. Yūsei gets really good at waiting for Jack and Crow to come home.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

(Slightly NSFW, I don't know how to follow rules.) After their daughter, Sky (my Kizuna OC baby), Jack and Yūsei kind of has an impregnation kink (because Sky is beautiful and who would say not to more baby birds running around? Not those two). They might tease Crow about it when things get hot and heavy, and Crow calls them perverted for it. Jack wants a boy next so he can have both a princess and a prince, and he hopes that if they do have another kid, it'll look like Yūsei next. Yūsei is fine with whatever, he likes taking care of kids and a pregnant Crow.

Crow says if he gets pregnant again, he'll castrated the both of them. ("Listen, labor hurt more than real battle damage, and it lasted for tweleve hours. If you want any kid, you carry it." —Crow)

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

They wouldn't like someone who actively hates/dislike children, or someone who tries to take advantage of others, especially those who should be helped and protected. They wouldn't like anyone who don't respect or treat their cards well (especially Yūsei).

Jack wouldn't like it if Crow stopped nagging him or if Yūsei got hurt. Yūsei wouldn't like it if Jack decided to cut ties again or if Crow stopped saying I love you. Crow wouldn't like it if ether Jack or Yūsei stopped loving him entirely.

Z = Zzz (What [are some] sleep habits of theirs?)

Crow likes being in the middle and to cocoon in blankets. Jack produces heat the most so he doesn't really use a blanket. Yūsei mumbles in his sleep. They also end up right next to each other no matter how much space they put between each other beforehand. Crow likes to hugs pillows too. Instead of counting Scapegoats, Jack likes to count the circles he caresses into his brother's skin. Yūsei is always the last one to fall asleep for one reason or another.

#yugioh #yugioh 5ds #crow hogan #yusei fudo #jack atlas #kizunashipping #kingcrabshipping #squabbleshipping #markedshipping #i love this ship so much #doing these things really helps me flush out the ship and the characters #practice practice practice #Flame muses

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/covid-19-news-live-updates-on-the-virus-vaccines-and-variants/

Covid-19 News: Live Updates on the Virus, Vaccines and Variants

Here’s what you need to know:

A mass vaccination site last week in Midland, Texas.Credit…Eli Hartman/Odessa American, via Associated Press

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci expressed optimism on Sunday that vaccination sites around the country would quickly recover from delays in coronavirus vaccine inoculations caused by weather-related shipping delays last week, and administer all six million missed doses while still ramping up the number of new appointments.

“We can play pretty good catch-up,” Dr. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for Covid-19, said on the NBC show “Meet the Press,” noting that two million of the delayed doses had already been shipped. “When you just, you know, put the foot to the accelerator and really push, we’ll get it up to where we need to be by the middle of the week.”

The rate of vaccinations in the United States, which had been accelerating after a chaotic start, fell last week after a winter storm blew through much of the country. About 1.52 million vaccine doses were being administered per day, according to a New York Times database. Although that is still above President Biden’s target, it was the lowest rate since Feb. 8.

The country has been racing to vaccinate as many people as possible before more contagious and possibly deadlier variants of the coronavirus become dominant, and the figure had been well above the president’s goal of 1.5 million doses for several days. It peaked at 1.7 million on Feb. 16 before a brutal winter storm hit states from coast to coast. The bad weather delayed shipments of vaccine supplies from two hubs: a FedEx center in Memphis and a UPS site in Louisville, Ky.

More than 2,000 vaccine sites were in areas with power outages, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Many were not only forced to close but left relying on generators to keep doses at the ultracold temperatures they require to prevent them from spoiling.

Texas, where the frigid storm left millions without power and water for a time, has reopened inoculation sites. The state has been assigned almost 600,000 first doses of the vaccine for the coming week, according to the state health department, up from about 400,000 first doses for the week of Feb. 15.

The doses that were supposed to be delivered last week are still waiting to be shipped to Texas from out-of-state warehouses, state health officials said. The missed doses are expected to be delivered in the first half of this week.

On Sunday, Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, said on “Face the Nation” on CBS that vaccinations had resumed there and that a FEMA site would open Monday with the potential to administer shots to 6,000 people a day for the next six to eight weeks. He estimated the city could vaccinate more than 100,000 people in the coming week. “The people are resilient,” he said. “I’m very proud of the people in the city of Houston, how they have come together.”

In Dallas, a major vaccination hub at Fair Park reopened Sunday, but sites in Austin remain closed. The mayor of neighboring Fort Worth, Betsy Price, also appeared on “Face the Nation,” and said that vaccinations would resume in her city on Monday or Tuesday.

Last week’s bottlenecks and delays came just as states have broadened vaccine access to more groups, despite a limited supply that is not growing enough to keep up.

New York City said on Saturday that it had fewer than 1,000 first Covid-19 doses on hand because of the weather-related shipment delays. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that New York City had delayed scheduling up to 35,000 first dose appointments because of the shortage.

At the same time, New York State is still scheduling appointments for new mass vaccination sites opening in Brooklyn and Queens on Wednesday in partnership with FEMA.

The new sites, at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and York College in Queens, are open to residents of only select ZIP codes and are intended to increase low vaccination rates in communities of color. Data released on Tuesday showed drastic disparities between vaccination rates in whiter areas of New York City compared with predominantly Black neighborhoods.

United States › United StatesOn Feb. 20 14-day change New cases 69,740 –44% New deaths 1,831 –35%

World › WorldOn Feb. 20 14-day change New cases 348,034 –22% New deaths 8,409 –25%

U.S. vaccinations ›

“We are in a race right now — between our ability to vaccinate and these variants which are actively trying to proliferate,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said on Sunday.Credit…James Estrin/The New York Times

A person from a suburb east of New York City has been confirmed as the first New York resident to have been infected by a more contagious variant of the coronavirus that emerged in South Africa, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday.

Few other details were offered about the case, including specifically when it was confirmed or whether the individual who was infected, a resident of Nassau County on Long Island, had recently traveled. It was not the first case of the South Africa variant to be found in New York; Mr. Cuomo announced last Monday that the variant had been detected in a man from Connecticut who was hospitalized in New York City.

The variant, known as B.1.351, was originally identified in South Africa in December, and has since been found in dozens of other countries and at least nine states, including California, Texas and Virginia. The variant carries mutations that help it latch on more tightly to human cells and that may help the virus evade some antibodies.

Its emergence in New York, which officials had warned was inevitable, underscored the dangers posed by new variants that may be more infectious or resistant to vaccines, particularly as the state’s vaccination effort continues to be hampered by a limited supply of doses.

“We are in a race right now — between our ability to vaccinate and these variants which are actively trying to proliferate — and we will only win that race if we stay smart and disciplined,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement on Sunday.

Two weeks ago, South Africa halted the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine after evidence emerged that it did not protect participants in a clinical trial from mild or moderate illness caused by the variant.

Scientists in South Africa have also said that the immunity acquired by people infected by earlier versions of the coronavirus did not appear to protect them from mild or moderate cases when reinfected by the South Africa variant.

The Food and Drug Administration is working on a plan to update vaccines if the variant surges in the United States.

But Mr. Cuomo on Sunday also offered reason for optimism, noting that the statewide rate of positive test results was less than 3 percent for the first time since November. He said that hospitalizations also continued to decline statewide.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci on “Meet the Press,” today.Credit…NBC News

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for Covid-19, said on Sunday that Americans may still be wearing masks outside their homes a year from now, even as he predicted the country would return to “a significant degree of normality” by fall.

“I want it to keep going down to a baseline that’s so low there is virtually no threat,” Dr. Fauci said on the CNN program “State of the Union,” referring to the number of cases nationally that would make him comfortable enough to stop recommending universal masking. “If you combine getting most of the people in the country vaccinated with getting the level of virus in the community very, very low, then I believe you’re going to be able to say, for the most part, we don’t necessarily have to wear masks.”

Dr. Fauci appeared on a series of TV news programs on Sunday morning, where he was quizzed on the dangers of variants of the coronavirus, the schedule of the nation’s vaccine rollout and when vaccination would allow more students to return to schools.

On this last question, Dr. Fauci said on “Fox News Sunday” that he hoped high school students, far fewer of whom have gone back to classrooms compared with younger children, would be eligible for vaccination in the fall.

“That’s why we are pushing on those studies, to get them vaccinated,” he said of teenagers, who are currently the subject of clinical trials by Pfizer and Moderna. “That will likely occur in the fall; I can’t say it’s going to be on day one of when school starts in the fall term.”

Vaccinations for younger children, however, “likely will not be before the beginning of the first quarter of 2022,” Dr. Fauci said.

On the hotly debated question of whether people should wait longer than the recommended three or four weeks to get a booster vaccine, or even skip the second dose, Dr. Fauci said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” that it was prudent for people to stick to the prescribed schedule.

“There are enough unknowns in that, particularly the durability of the protection,” he said.

He added that while that new data suggesting people who have had Covid could get enough protection from one dose was “really quite impressive,” it might be complicated to document who has had the virus.

He also addressed the subject of the mutated variant of the coronavirus identified in South Africa. In clinical trials involving the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in that country, patients who were inoculated were not protected from mild or moderate illness caused by the variant, known as B. 1.351. Dr. Fauci said on “Fox News Sunday” that while it is still rare in the United States, “if it becomes more dominant, we may need a version of the vaccine that’s effective specifically against” it.

With the United States expected to surpass 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the coming days, Dr. Fauci told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” that “we haven’t seen anything even close to this for well over 100 years,” since the 1918 influenza pandemic, adding, “People will be talking about this decades and decades and decades from now.”

Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, said on Sunday that foreign governments may now have to wait for their supplies.Credit…Atul Loke for The New York Times

The chief executive of the Indian pharmaceutical giant that dozens of countries are counting on to supply them with Covid-19 vaccines said on Sunday that their deliveries might be delayed because it had been “directed” to fill domestic needs ahead of export orders.

“Dear countries & governments,” the executive, Adar Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India, wrote in a tweet in which he warned of delays. “I humbly request you to please be patient,” he wrote, adding that his company had been directed to prioritize “the huge needs of India and along with that balance the needs of the rest of the world. We are trying our best.”

He did not say who had issued the directive, and the Serum Institute did not immediately return requests for comment.

India produces three-fifths of the world’s supply of all kinds of vaccines, and the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has launched one of the world’s largest and most ambitious vaccination campaigns, aiming to inoculated India’s 1.3 billion people.

But even though the country already operates a huge immunization program, administering about 390 million shots against ailments like measles and tuberculosis in an average year, India is struggling to get Covid inoculations to the population. Less than 1 percent of Indians have been inoculated since mid-January. The pandemic has caused at least 10.9 million known coronavirus infections in India so far, more than in any other country except the United States.

The country’s regulators have approved two vaccines: one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and produced by the Serum Institute, and another — still in trials — developed by the National Institute of Virology with Bharat Biotech, a local pharmaceutical company that will make the doses.

The Serum Institute will also make doses of a vaccine developed by Novovax once it is approved.

Besides helping supply India and other clients, the company is expected to produce hundreds of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and more than a billion Novovax vaccines to be distributed through the global vaccination initiative Covax, which aims to ensure that 92 low- and middle-income countries receive vaccines at the same time as the world’s 98 richer countries. Covax did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Mr. Poonawalla’s alert that foreign countries would have to wait for vaccines.

Many developing countries want the AstraZeneca vaccine because it is much less expensive and much easier to store and transport than other Covid vaccines now in use. That also makes it suitable for India’s vast vaccination campaign, which must reach from the towering Himalayan mountains to South India’s dense jungles.

The Indian government has increasingly used the country’s vaccine manufacturing capacity as a currency for its international diplomacy, in competition with China, which has made doling out shots a central plank of its foreign relations. Last week, for example, India promised to donate 200,000 vaccine doses for United Nations peacekeepers around the world.

Thousands of U.S. flags at the National Mall in January, as part of a memorial paying tribute to Americans who have died from the coronavirus.Credit…Carlos Barria/Reuters

One year ago, when the coronavirus spread to the United States, few public health experts predicted its death toll would climb to such a terrible height.

At a White House briefing on March 31, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top infectious-disease expert in the country, and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, who was coordinating the coronavirus response at the time, announced a stunning projection: Even with strict stay-at-home orders, the virus might kill as many as 240,000 Americans.

Less than a year later, the virus has killed more than twice that number. A nation numbed by misery and loss is confronting a number that still has the power to shock: 500,000.

No other country has counted so many deaths during the pandemic. More Americans have perished from Covid-19 than they did on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.

The milestone comes at a hopeful moment: New virus cases are down sharply, deaths are slowing and vaccines are steadily being administered.

But there is concern that new, more contagious variants of the virus could quickly undo the nation’s progress and lead to another spike. It will still take months to vaccinate the American public, and it may be months before the pandemic is contained.

The virus has reached every corner of America, devastating dense cities and rural counties alike. By now, about one in 670 Americans has died of it.

In New York City, more than 28,000 people have died of the virus — or one in 295 people. In Los Angeles County, which has lost nearly 20,000 people to Covid-19, about one in 500 people has died of the virus. In Lamb County, Texas, where 13,000 people live scattered on a sprawling expanse of 1,000 square miles, one in 163 people has died of the virus.

As the United States approaches the loss of half a million people to Covid-19, there are few events in history that adequately compare.

The 1918 influenza pandemic is estimated to have killed about 675,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when the country’s population was a third of what it is now. But it also happened at a time when influenza vaccines, antibiotics, mechanical ventilation and other medical tools did not exist yet.

Deaths from Covid-19 in the United States came faster as the pandemic went on. The first known death occurred in February, and by May 27, 100,000 people had died. It took four months for the nation to log another 100,000 deaths; the next, about three months; the next, just five weeks.

Though daily deaths are now slowing, about 1,900 deaths in America are being reported each day. As of Saturday evening, the toll had reached 497,221.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent global health research center at the University of Washington, has projected that the nation could reach more than 614,000 deaths by June 1. Factors like how well people adhere to guidelines like mask-wearing and social distancing, plus the speed of vaccinations, could affect that estimate.

A Chinese official bidding farewell on Feb. 9 to two members of the World Health Organization team that visited Wuhan, China, to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus. Credit…Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Biden’s national security adviser on Sunday urged the World Health Organization to dig deeper and China to release raw data on the origins of the Covid-19 virus, casting doubt on a completeness of coming report from the health organization.

“The only way to have a scientifically based investigation is to have access to all the data,” Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said on “Face the Nation” on CBS, calling for “a credible, open, transparent international investigation led by the World Health Organization.”

The W.H.O. sent a team of investigators, mostly scientists, to China for four weeks over January and February to investigate the origins of the virus. The team said after returning to the United States that Chinese scientists refused to give them access to patient records and other critical data. The investigators are already working on a preliminary report, but Mr. Sullivan said more research was needed. “The W.H.O. still has more work to do to get to the bottom of exactly where this virus emerged,” he said.

Toward the end of the show on which Mr. Sullivan aired his concerns, Matthew Pottinger, President Trump’s former deputy national security adviser, made an appearance in which he continued to advance a discredited theory promoted by the previous administration and challenged by many scientists: that Covid-19 was the product of secret Chinese military experimentation in a lab in Wuhan, China.

While acknowledging some of the Trump administration’s “grave missteps,” such as not advising the America public soon enough to wear masks and not doing enough collection and analysis about the how the virus was spreading and evolving genetically, Mr. Pottinger said China misled U.S. public health experts by not disclosing that the virus could spread silently, carried by people who did not show symptoms.

“We were waiting to be fed information when the nature of that regime meant that we were not going to get that information,” Mr. Pottinger said. “They had a strong incentive to mislead their own public and the rest of the world about the nature of this virus.”

During his appearance, Mr. Sullivan lamented a decision by the Trump administration to dismantle a special White House office that the Obama administration set up inside the National Security Council to detect and address pandemics. And Mr. Pottinger said that, based on the Covid-19 experience, the Centers for Disease Control should establish “a new super body for pandemic preparedness and response,” with the person in charge attached to the White House.

Both men said that the U.S. intelligence community should have played a greater role in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr. Sullivan said the Biden administration would be increasing “its tools, its resources, its practices to focus on detecting, preventing and responding to pandemics.”

Mr. Pottinger, a former Marine intelligence officer who resigned from the Trump administration after Trump supporters invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, said, “I don’t think that the intelligence community is going to be able to do more than that critical role of collecting and analyzing the information.”

A traveler receiving a rapid test for the coronavirus at the Czech-German border.Credit…Matthias Rietschel/Reuters

As new variants of the coronavirus spread rapidly, a number of European countries are moving to reintroduce border controls, chipping away at what was once the world’s largest area of free movement.

Fearing the highly contagious and possibly more lethal new variants first identified in Britain and South Africa, both Germany and Belgium introduced new border restrictions this week, adding to steps taken by other countries.

The European Union sees free movement as a fundamental pillar of the continent’s deepening integration, but after a decade in which first terrorism and then the migration crisis tested that commitment, countries’ easy resort to border controls is placing it under new pressure.

The European Commission, the E.U. executive branch, has tried to pull countries back from limiting free movement since last March, after most imposed restrictions at the onset of the crisis.

“Last spring we had 17 different member states that had introduced border measures and the lessons we learned at the time is that it did not stop the virus but it disrupted incredibly the single market and caused enormous problems,” the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, told the news media last week. “The virus taught us that closing borders does not stop it.”

But Ms. von der Leyen’s remarks triggered a pushback from Germany.

“We are fighting the mutated virus on the border with the Czech Republic and Austria,” the German interior minister, Horst Seehofer, told the tabloid newspaper Bild. The commission “should support us and not put spokespeople in our wheels with cheap advice,” he snapped.

One factor that may help keep borders open is the vast and instant economic impact now felt from even minor closures.

Since Sunday, the only people allowed to enter Germany from the Czech Republic or the Tyrol region of Austria, where instances of the coronavirus variant that originated in Britain are rising, are those who are German, living in Germany, carrying freight or working in essential jobs in Germany. All have to register and show a negative coronavirus test result before entry.

But thousands of people in Austria and the Czech Republic commute daily to jobs in Germany, and after the new checks came into force, long lines began to form. By the end of the week, business groups were writing desperate letters asking Germany to ease or lift the restrictions.

Credit…The New York Times

From afar, the graphic on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times looks like a blur of gray, a cloudy gradient that slowly descends into a block of solid ink. Up close, it shows something much darker: close to 500,000 individual dots, each representing a life lost in the United States to the coronavirus.

Half of the front page was dedicated to the graphic. The prominent real estate conveyed the significance of this moment in the pandemic and the totality of the devastation.

Lazaro Gamio and Lauren Leatherby, both graphics editors at The Times, plotted out the points so they stretched chronologically down a long scroll, from the first reported U.S. death nearly a year ago to the current toll of often thousands of casualties per day.

The front page has been used to visualize the breadth of the pandemic before. When Covid deaths in the United States reached 100,000 last May, the page was filled with names of those who died. And as that number approached 200,000, the lead photograph on the page showed the yard of an artist in Texas, who filled his lawn with a small flag for every life lost to the virus in his state.

But unlike the previous approaches, Sunday’s graphic depicts all of the fatalities. “I think part of this technique, which is good, is that it overwhelms you — because it should,” Mr. Gamio said.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Graphics desk has been working on what editors internally call “the State of the Virus,” an effort to provide visuals that capture the defining moments of this story. The goal of this particular visualization was to add context to a fluctuating death count: April 2020 felt like “the sky was falling,” Mr. Gamio said, but this winter has been markedly worse.

“There is just a certain numbness, I think, that is normal human nature when this has been going on for so long, but we’ve tried to just keep reminding people of what’s still going on,” Ms. Leatherby said. “And I think something striking about this particular piece that we were trying to drive home is just the sheer speed at which it was all happening.”

Municipal workers disinfecting surfaces on a street in Damascus, Syria, last month. The country has yet to begin a Covid-19 vaccine rollout.Credit…Youssef Badawi/EPA, via Shutterstock

When a young Israeli woman was released from detention in Syria this week, after having been arrested for crossing illegally into Syria, the official story was that she had been the beneficiary of a straightforward prisoner swap. In return for her freedom, the Israeli government announced, she had been exchanged for two Syrian shepherds captured by the Israelis.

But if this deal between two enemy states, which have never shared diplomatic relations, sounded too swift and easy, it was. In secret, Israel had in fact also agreed to a far more contentious ransom: the financing of an undisclosed number of Covid-19 vaccines for Syria, according to an official familiar with the content of the negotiations.

Under the deal, Israel will pay Russia, which mediated it, to send Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the official said. Israel has given at least one vaccine shot to nearly half its population of 9.2 million, while Syria — now entering its 11th year of civil war — has yet to begin its vaccine rollout.

The Israeli government declined to comment on the vaccine aspect of the deal, while a Syrian state-controlled news outlet, the Syrian Arab News Agency, denied that vaccines were part of the arrangement. Asked about the vaccines in a television interview on Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel evaded the question, saying only that no Israeli vaccines were being sent to Syria.

The deal constitutes a rare moment of uneasy cooperation between two states that have fought several wars and still contest the sovereignty of a tract of land, the Golan Heights, that Israel captured from Syria in 1967.

It also highlights how vaccines are increasingly a feature of international diplomacy. And it reflects a vast and growing disparity between wealthy states, like Israel, that have made considerable headway with coronavirus vaccines and may soon return to some kind of normality — and poor ones, like Syria, that have not.

President Joe Biden touring the Pfizer manufacturing site in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Friday.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

The House version of President Biden’s coronavirus relief plan would add $1.9 trillion to the federal budget deficit over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office estimated this weekend.

That figure is in line with Mr. Biden’s calls for a $1.9 trillion package, and it reflects Democrats’ determination to hold the line on the president’s calls to “go big” on stimulus despite pressure from Republicans and some liberal economists to scale back the plan, warning of possible inflation stemming from increased federal borrowing.

The legislation would fund measures to combat the pandemic, provide billions of dollars for schools and small businesses, temporarily bolster unemployment benefits, aid state and local governments, and deliver a round of $1,400 direct payments to individuals.

Most of the money is projected to hit the economy over the next year. The budget office estimated that about $1.6 trillion in new spending would occur this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and in the 2022 fiscal year, which begins in October.

The rest of the money will be spent more gradually, the budget office said. Much of the delayed spending comes in the category of education.

Crescent Street, known for its nightlife in Canada, was quiet last month on the first night after a curfew was imposed by the Quebec government to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.Credit…Christinne Muschi/Reuters

Canadians might be known internationally as nice, apologetic and fair-minded. But a very different Canadian persona has been exposed by a year of pandemic: one that shames people for contracting and potentially spreading the virus.

People are calling out not just authority figures like politicians and doctors for breaking the rules, but also their own relatives and neighbors.

Snitch lines set up across Canada have been flooded with tips about people suspected of breaking quarantine, businesses flouting public health restrictions, and out-of-towners siders with unfamiliar license plates who are seen in town and might be bringing the virus with them.

Facebook groups are full of stories of people being labeled potential vectors and are then refused service, disinvited from family gatherings, and reported to the police and public health authorities.

Experts worry that fear of being treated that way may be driving cases underground, delaying reports of Covid-19 symptoms and making people avoid getting tested.

“This is impacting our ability to contain the virus,” said Dr. Ryan Sommers, one of eight public health doctors in Nova Scotia who published a letter beseeching residents in the small Atlantic province to stop shaming one another.

Nova Scotia has one of the lowest coronavirus rates in the country, with just 12 active cases as of Feb. 16. But Dr. Sommers said vigilance has turned into hypervigilance. .

“We want to create a social norm where people will be supportive and caring and compassionate,” Dr. Sommers said. “Social media can be more virulent than the virus itself.”

In the country’s four eastern provinces, which have enforced self-isolation rules for anyone entering the region, the shaming is not just online, said Robert Huish, an associate professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, who is conducting a study of coronavirus stigma. It’s intimate, particularly in small communities, where “community cohesion quickly flips to become community surveillance.”

Some say the fear of stigma has become worse than the fear of contracting the virus.

Historically, stigma and shaming have faithfully trailed pandemics, said David Barnes, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the history of infectious diseases and epidemics. During the plague years in Europe, Jewish people were made into convenient scapegoats. When cholera afflicted Britain in the 19th century, working-class Irish people were blamed, Mr. Barnes said.

Most recently, gay men and Haitians were stigmatized during the AIDS epidemic in the United States.

“We make ourselves feel safer and superior by associating disease with people who are not like us, do things we don’t do or come from places unlike our place,” Mr. Barnes said. “We shouldn’t be surprised.”

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Australia Begins Covid-19 Vaccination Campaign

Australia began vaccinating its population against Covid-19 on Sunday. Jane Malysiak, 84, a resident of a nursing home in Sydney, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison were among the first to receive a vaccine.

[laughing] “Twenty-five years.” “Oh.” “There you go.” [speaking quietly] “There we go.” [clapping] “What we’re demonstrating today is our confidence. I am supremely confident in the expert process that has been led to get us to this day. So from tomorrow, tens of thousands of Australians over the course of the next week can confidently come forward from those key priority groups that have been defined, to ensure that we move into this next phase of how we’ve been preparing and dealing with Covid-19.” “Well done, P.M.” “Put that there, thank you. Well done.” “Just roll up your —.” “Thank you.” “Great, that‘s all done.” “Thank you.” “Thank you.” “He’s doing the same.” “That was excellent, you had a good nail.” “Oh, good.” “Terrific. All done.” “Terrific.”

Australia began vaccinating its population against the coronavirus on Sunday, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and 19 other people getting shots a day after hundreds gathered nationwide to protest the vaccine rollout.

The first Australian to be vaccinated was Jane Malysiak, 84, who lives in a Sydney nursing home. She was followed by a number of quarantine and health care workers; the country’s chief health officer, Paul Kelly; and Mr. Morrison.

When asked by the person administering his vaccine whether he had any questions, Mr. Morrison replied, “No, I’m ready to go, just like the country.”

Australia, a country of about 25 million, aims to have four million people vaccinated by the end of next month. Prioritized groups are receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, though Australia has also approved the vaccine from Oxford University-AstraZeneca, which is being manufactured domestically. The vaccines are being distributed for free and taking them is not compulsory, although employers in some high-risk industries may be able to compel workers to vaccinate.

The event in Sydney was intended to build confidence ahead of the country’s official vaccine rollout on Monday, and it came a day after anti-vaccine protests took place in most major Australian cities.

In Melbourne, the police clashed with protesters and used pepper spray, according to the local news media. The police said they had arrested 20 people on charges including breaching public health orders and resisting arrest. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation estimated that the protest drew about 500 people.

Protests in other cities were largely peaceful. In Sydney, the police said more than 400 people protested, while in Brisbane, the ABC estimated there were over 1,000. Protesters chanted “Freedom!” and “My body, my choice.”

New Zealand officially began its own vaccine rollout over the weekend, also using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Both countries have recorded relatively few coronavirus cases and deaths, reporting zero locally acquired infections in the 24 hours before vaccinations began.

A wedding at the Empire State Building in New York this month.Credit…Brittainy Newman/Associated Press

Weddings have always been emotional, but adding personal boundaries around safety and health, confusing government guidelines and the finer points of air filtration systems to the mix has pushed families and wedding planners to the edge.

Adept at negotiating fraught moments and achieving the impossible, wedding professionals are now also acting as health, infrastructure and grief experts. They face states, counties and cities with shifting and often senseless hodgepodges of guidelines and restrictions, or, sometimes, no rules at all.

“Everybody in the wedding industry is more confused than ever,” said Sonal Shah, who owns an event consulting company in New York. “One person in our office is dedicated to researching C.D.C. guidelines.”

In Texas, now gripped by a severe storm that forced power outages and water shortages, all venues can currently be filled to 75 percent capacity — but, as with a number of states, churches are exempt from that rule.

In North Dakota, an executive order ended capacity limits on weddings in mid-January, but state guidelines still offer numerous suggestions, such as limiting guest lists to 1,000 people in venues that can hold 2,000.

In New York, for now, weddings are capped at 50 people — indoors or outdoors. Religious ceremonies have to limit attendees to 50 percent of the venue’s capacity.

The Michigan guidelines are nearly impenetrable, but seem to indicate that no more than 10 people from no more than two households can gather indoors, and 25 people can gather outside, as long as there are no more than 20 people within 1,000 square feet — unless there is fixed seating, in which case a maximum of 25 people can gather, as long as attendance is limited to 20 percent of seating capacity of the outdoor area. Got that?

Regulations can also change unexpectedly, a challenge for events that are planned months in advance. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, suggested in December that weddings be pushed to June or July of 2021 at the earliest.

But as vaccinations and hope spread across the United States, the race to schedule weddings is back on.

An industry market report — which vividly showed the suffering finances of the wedding industry in 2020 — predicts that there will be a significant increase in wedding revenue this year.

#covid #World

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