This week, as coronavirus cases in the United States set records, Pfizer announced that its vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective. While that’s welcome news, Aaron E. Carroll and Nicholas Bagley caution that winter is coming — and we must remain vigilant. And, as Arthur Allen points out, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the vaccine.
What is patently clear, however, is that the virus will continue to affect our lives — and our work — until the pandemic ends. Women’s work has already been disproportionately impacted. “If the coronavirus has taught us anything, it is that what has traditionally been women’s work — caring, cleaning, the provision of food — can no longer be taken for granted,” because this is precisely what we have come to rely on most during the pandemic, Anna Louie Sussman writes. In her essay, Anna explains how New Zealand is fighting for an alternative approach to closing the gender pay gap by carefully considering how much work is really worth. If successful, it will prove that this seemingly intractable problem can be solved — if we have the will.
— Jennifer Brown The New York Times