by Andrew Fierro

The first case of P.1., a new Coronavirus variant, which is also known as the “Brazilian” variant, has been confirmed in San Bernardino, California by the California Department of Health. The new variants of COVID-19 are creating growing uncertainty amongst people everywhere, specifically in regards to whether the new vaccinations are protective against new variants.

On March 13th, the California Department of Health alerted the county that there was a positive testing for the P.1. variant that was found on March 2nd. The man who had contracted the new variant is in his mid 40’s and has since been isolating at home. 

This is not the only appearance of the P.1 variant inside the United States, however, as it has also been seen in the states of Arizona and Massachusetts. The variant was first detected inside four travelers coming from Brazil, who were tested at the Haneda Airport in Japan. However, it was first reported in the United States at the end of January.

Although the variant currently seems as if it is not any worse than the original coronavirus variant, it is more contagious and dangerous in the sense that if it’s being spread, it can spread faster than the original COVID-19, potentially boosting up numbers in California just as they begin to go down. According to the CDC, the emergence of this P.1. variant may raise concerns for potential of an increase in transmissibility or propensity for SARS-CoV-2 reinfection of individuals due to the 2 mutations that the variant possesses. 

The variant was detected in some samples from the Amazonas state in Brazil back in mid-December. The researchers said that they detected the variant in 42% of the samples that they were able to test. It has also now been confirmed in some recent tests in Japan from people who were visiting the Manaus inside the Amazonas. Though the exact date of the variant appearance is not known, through the genome-surveillance samples inside the Manaus between March to November, there had been no signs of the variant. 

Reasons for why the variant is dangerous is firstly because of its spike mutation that makes it more infectious. Another mutation that is inside the variant is the N501Y, which is also known as “Nelly” and has been speedily spreading across the UK. The variant is possibly more than 50% more transmissible than other past variants that have made their way around the world. This is the main cause for concern for scientists and other global health officials.

Not only is it more transmissible, it also has a variant called the “escape mutation”, which according to lab experiments in South Africa, found that this mutation has helped the coronavirus escape from different protective antibodies that were in place due to earlier infections. This means that it makes it possible for someone who had already been infected with an earlier version of the coronavirus variant to become re-infected with the new variant.

Though this mutation does allow it to re-infect individuals already having been infected with earlier variants, there is no evidence to suggest that the already currently available vaccines will not work against this variant and other variants with the same or similar mutations. There will be updates to vaccines as times goes on, more variants are detected and more information is found. 

As of now there has yet to be a more mass spread of the variant inside the U.S., with the only real outbreak happening in Brazil and single cases found in other countries around the world.

by Jackson Smith

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has struck communities around the world, the various effects of the shutdown and restrictions on crime have been overlooked. The results paint a complex picture dependent on region and crime severity. 

As a whole, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, crime has decreased due to peer groups seldom meeting in order to stay safe from the virus. However, it appears that minor offenders have been put in situations where crime against intimate partners such as battery, violence and homicide is likely. 

In European countries, intentional homicide is down almost 25%. However, this is only true when a country is in lockdown, and almost immediately when these restrictions are relaxed, the rates of homicide move right back up to the normal amounts, which is, of course, very interesting. 

Out of the countries that were studied, countries in Latin America saw a much smaller change in the rate of violent crimes. 

The difference between the European and Latin American countries’ violent crime rates could be due to the different amount of restrictions that respective governments imposed, pre-existing socioeconomic conditions and a different pattern in the type of these crimes in the two, as Latin American homicide was mainly due to organized crime where European homicide was more closely related to more personal reasons. 

According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the property crime rate has been down about 50% since the start of the pandemic. Although it is something to be proud of, the longer term effects of Covid may have the opposite effect that the initial hit had. 

As COVID-19 continues to affect societies worldwide, the increase in unemployment could have a continued larger impact on groups that cannot afford to be out of work. If unemployment continues to be a problem for vulnerable groups, then that could produce a rise in property crime or other crime rates.

Restrictive measures due to COVID-19 also help draw back on opportunities for people to commit street crime. On top of that, stay-at-home orders would reduce criminals breaking into private homes. Social distancing measures and the closure of meeting places will also reduce interpersonal violence and public crimes.

There are two theories for how people will react. One is the opportunity theory, which is basically that since people have less of an opportunity to commit crime, they will subsequently commit less crime. The other theory is that strain theory, where the socioeconomic strains on people will push them to commit crime, which may be much more prevalent – and relevant – during the pandemic shutdowns. 

Whether the Opportunity Theory or the Strain Theory are more prominent depends on outside factors, such as what the restrictions are, the support that governments give to their people to overcome the challenges of such a difficult time and pre-existing situations that could push a person toward either theory.

A significant part of the overall reduction of crime is related to the drop of minor crimes that were committed as groups. These crimes were typically done by younger offenders, so the temporary removal of the often forced peer groups that younger people were put into would naturally due to pandemic shutdowns and restrictions removed many individuals from convening as groups and committing crimes as they’d usually do pre-COVID

In the two hotspots of homicide in the United States, Philadelphia and Chicago, homicide rates have either stagnated or increased since the start of COVID-19. However, interpersonal violence has increased because of the government mandated home confinements. Thus, for already violent places, the pandemic could keep violent crime stagnated at best and be harmful at its worst. 

However, due to vaccine rollouts, life may be going back to normal sooner rather than later. Whatever effect going back to normal means on crime rates remains to be seen. 

by Andrew Fierro

As California enters the red tier, reopening is staring to occur, beginning with major league baseball teams opening at limited capacity and theme parks also opening at 15% capacity. 

Beginning on April 1st, state officials will start to allow civilians to attend major league baseball games and theme parks, such as Disneyland, at a limited capacity. Due to the fact that California has entered the red tier, in the coronavirus threat level tier list, theme parks are able to allow 15% capacity to people inside the state. Only people inside the state are going to be allowed to buy tickets to these theme parks. 

Though it isn’t only theme parks and baseball games that are going to allow more people to attend, there are other places in California that are reopening as well including different restaurants, retail stores and malls. 

Now once the red tier has been reached and holds steady for two weeks, gyms will be able to reach 10% capacity and museums will be able to be at 25% capacity. Indoor dining will become an option as well though as seen in San Francisco, they may wait out on the opening of indoor dining  until the orange tier is reached. 

Another place that will be reopening in the near future is movie theaters. As plans roll out for how reopening will work, movie theaters in Los Angeles and the rest of California will begin to reopen at a limited capacity allowing movies that were delayed to finally be able to release now to the public through movie theaters. Though there is already an option for some movie theaters for people to rent out the theater to watch a past film with a limited amount of people.

Though California is reopening there are going to be places that are more cautious than others, especially certain restaurants. Some restaurants will be more keen on reopening faster and immediately once the restrictions are lifted while others may wait and make sure that the numbers don’t spike right away so that when they reopen they know they are reopening for good. 

Even though Disneyland will begin to reopen, there will still be vaccinations being distributed inside the toy story lot serving as a very large point of distribution for Southern California. As of mid February Disneyland had already distributed over 100,000 vaccinations proving to be a very efficient site for California residents. 

Though stadiums will be reopening it will only be at 15% capacity in California and will have to wear masks at all times and the only people allowed to attend these games will be in state residents. In Disneyland and other theme parks there will be absolutely no indoor dining and a mask mandate will be enforced, with even the indoor rides having certain restrictions in place.

As California lowers tiers and enters the least restrictive tier of the yellow tier there will still only be 35% capacity allowed with the restrictions of only in-state residents able to attend still being in place. Even as there are other stadiums around the U.S. reopening including The Texas Rangers who are going to be reopening at 100% capacity for their first home game on April 5th.

Although it seems California is far off from reopening, places including MLB parks to full capacity as the state has just entered the red tier and still needs to show that it is stable in the red tier for even those restrictions to loosen.

by Joshua Hernandez, Editor-In-Chief

The first major piece of legislation for the Biden administration comes with a hefty price tag of $1.9 Trillion and has garnered bipartisan public support and minimal praise from Republicans in Congress. Despite opposition to the American Rescue Plan, the bill features heavy COVID-19 relief that would provide stability for American workers and families.

On Saturday, March 6th, the Senate passed the American Rescue Plan in a razor thin party line vote of 50-49. While the Biden administration’s first landmark piece of legislation has received bipartisan public support according to various polls, Senate Republicans were vocal about their opposition to the legislation, hence the close vote. 

Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) was the lone Senator to not vote, as he was attending to family matters back home. However, even if Senator Sullivan would have presumably voted against the American Rescue Plan, it would’ve passed anyway since Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris would’ve held the tie breaking vote. 

Despite looming threats from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), who planned to vote against the bill had changes not been made to the original bill passed by the House of Representatives, Democrats were able to work with the two Senators to make changes to the bill and secure the votes of the “blue dog” moderates in Manchin and Sinema. 

The American Rescue Plan officially passed the House of Representatives again today after a new vote, due to the bill being changed from its original form. In and of itself, the American Rescue Plan includes $1,400 stimulus check payments to individuals making up to $75,000 per year and a massive $350 billion in aid to both state and local governments across the country. Moreover, the Plan allocates $14 billion in funds for vaccine distributions, another huge point of advocacy for President Biden since the start of his presidency. 

The Plan also includes $300 in weekly unemployment benefits that will run through September of this year. In the original bill passed by the House of Representatives, the weekly unemployment benefits would have been $400, however, the aforementioned opposition by Senator Joe Manchin forced Democrats to amend the figure. Finally, the Plan includes a child allowance of up to $3,600 for every family across the nation.

A notable change in the new version of the American Rescue Plan is the elimination of a provision that would have gradually increased the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. It was removed after a controversial decision by the Senate Parliamentarian and vocal bipartisan opposition. 

According to various White House sources, there is a growing belief within the Biden Administration that the American Rescue Plan would cut child poverty in half, making it one of the most ambitious efforts to cut poverty in the past few decades. In addition to including increases in subsidies for child care, the bill features a broadening of eligibility under the Affordable Care Act and a wide expansion of rental assistance and food stamps.

Other overlooked aspects of the bill are that it would allocate a whopping $12 billion to nutrition assistance programs and money that would aid in reopening businesses nationwide; $45 billion in rental, utility, and mortgage assistance, $30 billion for transit agencies; millions of dollars more for small business and live venues; and large federal subsidies and protections for individuals to keep the health care they received from their places of employment if they had lost their jobs during the pandemic. 

According to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, once President Biden signs the American Rescue Plan into law, Americans nationwide should expect their stimulus checks towards the end of this month.