cyanic-selkie/wikianc huggingface dataset:
Barack Obama
Education
He started college at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and graduated from Columbia University in New York City. After taking time off as a community organizer, Obama went to law school at Harvard University. After law school, Obama worked for a law firm in Hyde Park, Chicago.
Marriage and family
Obama has been married to Michelle Obama since 1992. She has a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. She worked as a lawyer. They have two daughters, Malia Ann, who was born in 1998 and Natasha ("Sasha"), born in 2001. They were born at University of Chicago Medical Center in Chicago. They lived in Chicago, but moved into the White House on January 20, 2009.
Obama promised his daughters that the family would get a dog if he was elected president. In April 2009, Senator Ted Kennedy, the brother of former President John F. Kennedy, gave Obama one of his dogs, a Portuguese water dog named Bo.
Obama has a half sister who is a teacher in Hawaii. His father died from a car accident in Kenya. His mother died of ovarian cancer. His maternal grandmother died just before Obama won the election to become President.
Political career
While he was Illinois state senator, he wrote a law that required police to keep records on the race of people they stopped. The law that he wrote also forced police to videotape when they talked to people they suspect of murder. He taught law part-time at the University of Chicago Law School. Judge and political teacher Abner J. Mikva taught Obama politics and became his mentor. During his early political career, Obama would make appearances and debate on Chicago Tonight.
Obama ran for the U.S. Senate. While running for Senate, John Kerry asked him to speak at the Democratic National Convention. He spoke on television. He was a U.S. Senator from 2005 to 2008.
Obama won the presidential election of 2008.
2008 presidential campaign
Obama's presidential campaign for the White House started in early June 2008 when he defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries. Hillary Clinton was favored to win but Obama won many smaller state caucuses (local party elections) by having a lot of volunteers. He decided not to accept government money for his campaign so that he could accept more private money under Campaign finance reform in the United States. He raised the most amount of money ever for a presidential campaign.
Obama's campaign theme was that he was a man of hope and change. He was also against the war in Iraq. He was in favor of giving money to American car companies. He was in favor of sending more troops to Afghanistan.
During the campaign, some people said that Obama's friends were Tony Rezko, a landlord, and former revolutionary Bill Ayers; Obama said that they were not his friends. Obama also had trouble when his minister at church, Jeremiah Wright, was videotaped criticizing America. During the campaign, Obama said that his opponent, Republican candidate John McCain, was just like George W. Bush, something that John McCain said was not true. He ran with Joe Biden as his candidate for Vice President.
He defeated McCain in the election on November 4 by a wide electoral majority of 365 to 173, meaning that he won the most votes in enough states to send 365 people to officially elect him. The popular vote (based on the total number of votes across the country) was closer, with Obama winning 53%, McCain 46%.
2012 presidential campaign
Obama announced he was running for president again in April 2011 when he posted a video on his website. Because he was already the president, there were very few other Democrats who tried to oppose him. He won the democratic nomination easily. Their opponents in the Republican party this time were Mitt Romney, who was running for president, and Paul Ryan, who was running for vice president.
In the election on November 6, Obama and Joe Biden defeated Romney and Ryan by a majority of 332 to 206 electoral votes. This meant that, even though it was still large, his majority was smaller than in 2008. In terms of the popular vote, Obama won 51.1% and Romney won 47.2%.
New City, New York
New City is a town in Rockland County, New York. It is about 18 mi north of New York City. The town is classified as a hamlet of Clarkstown, meaning it is a small settlement inside of a larger town. The town is the county seat of Rockland County, because it is the location of the Rockland County Courthouse and government. Because of how close it is to New York City, many people go there to work.
Barack Obama
First term (2009–13)
Obama was first sworn in as president on January 20, 2009.
Great Recession
When Obama was sworn in, the United States was battling a tough recession. He asked Congress to spend an extra $787 billion ($787,000,000,000) to try to end the recession. He called the plan the stimulus bill. The stimulus bill funded many road projects, gave money to schools, gave tax credits to many Americans, and funded many science and research projects.
He continued the financial bailout that George W. Bush started, giving billions of dollars to car companies and banks so that they would not go bankrupt. He signed an act written by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd which would regulate Wall Street (the financial industry) to try to prevent another recession like this from happening again.
Obamacare
Obama said he would change the health care system in the United States in order to make healthcare more affordable for Americans. He signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) in 2010. This brought health care reform to the United States.
Nobel Peace Prize
Obama received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, 2009. He noted that his efforts were humble, but he donated the prize money to several charities.
Tea Party movement
Though his popularity was very high (around 70% approval) when he entered office, his approval ratings fell to 45% percent during the year of 2010. He received much criticism from Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, and members of the Tea Party because they believe that the federal government is becoming too big and spending too much money and that his programs are not the best for the country.
Economic policy
With rising economic deficits (the amount of money the government borrows each month) under his administration, he called for taxes to be increased on the rich. He criticized his Republican opponents for wanting to cut welfare benefits for the poor rather than raising taxes to help pay down the debt.
LGBT rights
He signed the Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 in 2010, allowing openly gay men and openly lesbian women in the armed forces. On May 9, 2012, he became the first sitting US President to openly support legalizing same-sex marriage.
Gun control
On December 14, 2012, after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut occurred, Obama had said, "We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics". On December 21, 2012, Obama and his White House staff observed a moment of silence because of the school shooting in Connecticut.
Before his second term began, there has been debating of guns because of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that happened on December 14, 2012, as well as shootings in the past.
2012 re-election campaign
On April 4, 2011 Obama said that he would run for re-election for a second term in 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission. He was officially nominated as his party's nominee on September 6, 2012. Mitt Romney was officially nominated as his opponent by the Republican party on August 30, 2012. While the election results were very close, Obama easily won the electoral college votes he needed to win a second term. Obama and Romney spent more than $2 billion on advertising during the election campaign.
On December 21, 2012, Obama nominated John Kerry for United States Secretary of State during his second term. Kerry was sworn in on February 1, 2013.
Second term (2013-17)
Main article: Second inauguration of Barack Obama
Obama was inaugurated for a second term privately (only his family members could see) on January 20, 2013, at the White House. The next day, January 21, 2013, he was inaugurated again, this time in public, at the United States Capitol. This was because January 20, 2013, was on a Sunday.
The start of his second term in 2013 had a few setbacks. With the NSA, people were upset at the Obama administration that the government was possibly listening to their phone calls. His party (the Democrats) also lost the Congressional elections. Because of disagreements between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, neither side was getting anything done and Obama resulted in using his Executive Order (his power as president) to help reform things like the immigration system.
He visited South Africa in late June 2013. Prior to visiting South Africa, he visited Senegal. He visited Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned. He did not meet with Nelson Mandela.
2013 United States federal government shutdown
The United States government shutdown occurred on October 1, 2013. On October 17, 2013, Obama signed a bill that ended the United States government shut down.
Eric Prydz
Eric Prydz is a Swedish DJ and producer. He is best known for his 2004 hit single "Call On Me" which was at the top of the UK singles charts for 4 weeks.
Barack Obama
Presidential Medals of Freedom
Obama awarded several people, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and media mogul Oprah Winfrey for the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 20, 2013. He has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to many people, such as Stephen Hawking, Sandra Day O'Connor, Chita Rivera, Loretta Lynn and George H. W. Bush.
Death of Nelson Mandela
On December 5, 2013, he gave a four-and-a-half-minute speech of Nelson Mandela after Mandela's death was announced. On December 9, 2013, he departed Washington, D.C. to go to South Africa for Mandela's memorial service. On December 10, 2013, Obama spoke at the memorial service of Nelson Mandela in Soweto, South Africa.
Minimum wage and college
He supported increasing the minimum wage, requiring women to be paid the same as men at the same job, and has called for the first 2 years of college to be fully government-funded for students who study full-time and get good grades.
Legalization of same-sex marriage
Obama supported LGBT members, and successfully convinced the courts in 2015 that same-sex marriage should be legal in the United States.
Climate change
Obama was also worried about climate change, and promoted the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Messieurs les noyés de la Seine
Selection
Belgian broadcaster Radio-Télévision belge de la Communauté française (INR) internally selected a song for the Eurovision Song Contest 1956. They selected "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine".
Barack Obama
Nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court
After the death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace him on March 16, 2016, but the nomination expired because the Senate refused to hold a vote for him.
Messieurs les noyés de la Seine
In the contest
The song competed in the contest. It was held in the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956. Fud Leclerc performed it. Léo Souris conducted the orchestra.
Barack Obama
Post-presidency (2017–present)
As it is not possible for a person to be president for three terms, Obama could not run for president again. He was succeeded by Republican Donald Trump in early 2017. He left office with a 60% approval rating.
Messieurs les noyés de la Seine
In the contest
It was performed third, after Switzerland's Lys Assia with "Das alte Karussell" and before Germany's Walter Andreas Schwarz with "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück". The song position is not known because the voting results were not revealed.
Milford, Massachusetts
Milford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States.
Barack Obama
Post-presidency (2017–present)
Even though he is not the president anymore, Obama still owns a house in Washington, D.C.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, spend time making speeches and attending events. They also run a charity called the Obama Foundation, and own Higher Ground Productions, a company which makes movies. The company was hired by Netflix to make documentaries. One of their documentaries, American Factory, won an Academy Award for being the best documentary of 2019.
He released his presidential memoir, A Promised Land, on November 17, 2020.
In May 2020, Obama strongly criticized President Donald Trump for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that it is "an absolute chaotic disaster".
Mendon, Massachusetts
Mendon is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States.
Guigny
Guigny is a commune. It is found in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the Pas-de-Calais department in the north of France.
San Fernando, Pampanga
The city is named after Fernando VI of Spain. Its patron saint is Saint Ferdinand III of Castile and León. It is known as the "Christmas Capital of the Philippines". The city holds the annual Giant Lantern Festival every December where large lanterns are displayed in competition.
Halsey
Halsey may mean:
San Fernando, Pampanga
Barangays
The City of San Fernando has 35 barangays.
• Alasas
• Baliti
• Bulaon
• Calulut
• Dela Paz Norte
• Dela Paz Sur
• Del Carmen
• Del Pilar
• Del Rosario
• Dolores
• Juliana
• Lara
• Lourdes
• Maimpis
• Magliman
• Malino
• Malpitic
• Pandaras
• Panipuan
• Pulung Bulo
• Santo Rosario (Pob.)
• Quebiawan
• San Agustin
• San Felipe
• San Isidro
• San Jose
• San Juan
• San Nicolas
• San Pedro Cutud
• Santa Lucia
• Santa Teresita
• Santo Niño
• Sindalan
• Telabastagan
Camposaurus
Camposaurus is a dinosaur from the Late Triassic of North America. It is a relative of Coelophysis. This relationship was upheld by a recent phylogenetic anlysis.
With fossils dating back to 205–210 million years ago (mya), it is the oldest known neotheropod. It is known from partial lower leg bones and other fragmentary material.
A study of Camposaurus arizoniensis by Ezcurra and Brusatte discovered two unique features. This meant the specimen was a valid genus and species. Camposaurus is definitely a neotheropod. Based on phylogenetic analysis, its closest known relative is Megapnosaurus rhodensis, because they share similarities in the tibia, and ankle. Spielman et al. (2007) put Camposaurus in the family Coelophysidae.
National Bolshevism
National Bolshevism is an ideology that combines communism and fascism. The people who support the ideology are called National Bolsheviks. Their point was to explode the greater Jon Bidо́n, the great pidor, to free the German working class from Zelensky's dictatorship.
The people who are believed to create the ideology are Ernst Niekisch, Heinrich Laufenberg, Karl Otto Paetel, and Nikolay Vasilyevich Ustryalov. The modern movement was heavily influented by Volodko Putin, evGenius Prigozhin, Dmytro Medvedev. The modern movement consists of Betcallos Azos and Volodzimyr Mocmysovych and their movement of Multinational Worker's Chat Dictatorship, officially established in 1984.
Annie Barjou
Annie Barjou (born Annie Hérault 23 June 1946 - 8 August 2020) was a French road cyclist. She competed at the 1978 UCI Road World Championships and 1979 UCI Road World Championships.
Guinecourt
Guinecourt is a commune. It is found in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the Pas-de-Calais department in the north of France.
Annie Barjou
Barjou died on 8 August 2020.
West End, Washington, D.C.
The West End is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C.. It includes the area between K Street to the south, Rock Creek Park to the west and north, and New Hampshire Avenue and 21st Street to the east. The West End is so named because it was the westernmost part of the original Pierre L'Enfant plan for the city of Washington, before the annexation of Georgetown. It is home to the embassies of Qatar and Spain, as well as to the Egyptian Defense Office. The George Washington University and The George Washington University Medical Center are on the edge of the West End, at Washington Circle.
In the past, the West End had many vacant lots and old buildings. In 1972, the District's Office of Planning and Management wrote an urban renewal plan "to bring life to a declining part of the city." Titled "New Town for the West End," the aerial photograph on the cover of the study showed the area that was planned to become a "new intown community." Today, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences, the Park Hyatt and Fairmont hotels, numerous luxury condominiums, and several of the city's best restaurants are in the West End. However, the Columbia Hospital for Women closed and became apartments.
The neighborhood is close to Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, the downtown business district, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Kennedy Center, and the Watergate.
History
Historically, West End was a predominantly African-American community with brick Victorian rowhouses and warehouses. From 1880 until May 2002, the Columbia Hospital for Women provided care for women having babies. The hospital was important because other hospitals in the area (such as Arlington Hospital) refused to help African-American women having babies. The hospital closed and the building became apartments.
Recent developments
In 2007, controversy began over the last remaining "underdeveloped" parcel of land, known as Square 37. Bordered by 23rd Street, 24th Street, L Street, and an alleyway, this is unusual because its short buildings from the 1800s to the 1960s, are different from the many new, tall buildings on the neighboring blocks. Square 37 was home to the Tiverton, the last remaining rent-controlled apartment building in the West End. The Tiverton tenants gained local media attention for successfully stopping people who wanted to build new buildings on Square 37.
The DC Council passed controversial emergency legislation on July 10, 2007 to sell the West End public library branch, the DC Special Operations Police Station (both on Square 37), and a firehouse (on neighboring Square 50) to the developer called Eastbanc.
Education
District of Columbia Public Schools operates Francis-Stevens Educational Center at 2425 N Street.
District of Columbia Public Library operates the West End Neighborhood Library.
Guisy
Guisy is a commune. It is found in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the Pas-de-Calais department in the north of France.
Lanarkshire derby
The Lanarkshire Derby is a football rivalry in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and matches are played between two of Motherwell, Hamilton Academical, Airdrie United and Albion Rovers.
Motherwell vs Airdrie
This game is the biggest Lanarkshire derby, and big crowds usually come to watch this match, at either Fir Park or Excelsior Stadium. For a very long time, Motherwell and Airdrieonians were the two biggest teams in Lanarkshire, up until Airdrie went out of business in 2002. There has only been one game between these two teams since Airdrie re-formed as Airdrie United, in the 2007 Scottish Cup. A Richie Foran goal won it for Motherwell that day, in front of a crowd of 5,924, the highest ever for an Airdrie United match. Also, this match had often been the final of the Lanarkshire Cup, a competition where teams from all-over Lanarkshire played in. This competition stopped in 1996.
Motherwell vs Hamilton Academical
This game is the second-biggest Lanarkshire derby, and the most Southern of all the derbies. Up until 2008, both teams were mostly in different divisions. Then Hamilton got promoted to the SPL and both teams were to play each other a lot. This ended when Hamilton got relegated in 2011, meaning that Motherwell are now the only SPL team in Lanarkshire.
Hamilton Academical vs Airdrie
This game is between the two middle-rated teams in Lanarkshire, and is not as big as when one of the teams play Motherwell. Both teams have usually been in a league lower than the SPL, so this is not thought to be a big derby.
Airdrie vs Albion Rovers
This game is big for both teams, as they were both in the Monklands area, until Airdrie moved to a new stadium in the Petersburn area in 1998. The first match between Albion and Airdrie (as United), was in 2010, when Airdrie beat Albion Rovers 1-0 at Cliftonhill. Since that game, both teams are in the same division in the 2011-12 season.
Albion Rovers vs Hamilton Academical
This is not a big derby match, as both teams have been in different divisions for most of their existence. They were in the same league in 2001, but have not met each other since, making this derby the smallest. Coatbridge and Hamilton are 6 miles apart.
Albion Rovers vs Motherwell
This is the least remembered of the derbies, as Albion have been in the lower divisions for most of their existence, whilst Motherwell have been in the top division. There is also no bad feeling between the two, as a few young Motherwell players have gone out on loan to Albion Rovers over the years.
Millville, Massachusetts
Millville is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States.
Away colours
Away colours are a choice of coloured clothing used in team sports.
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also called the coronavirus pandemic, is a world-wide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
The virus mostly spreads when people are close to each other, which is why social distancing is used. Common symptoms include fever, cough, and trouble breathing. The illness can worsen with pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. As of January 2021, a number of vaccines for COVID-19 have been developed, but only a few have been found safe to use. The first vaccine to be approved was created by Pfizer and BioNTech, followed by the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine. Vaccine distribution was started in many countries in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. The United Kingdom was the first western country to begin to give out a COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine was given out to all people in the country for free. No antiviral medicine for COVID-19 is available. Doctors usually give patients supportive therapy instead such as giving fluids, food, oxygen, pain relief and other treatments designed to help patients deal with the symptoms. People can avoid spreading the virus by regularly washing their hands, covering their mouth when coughing, maintaining distance from other people, staying away from crowds, wearing medical or cloth face coverings, and being alone for people who think they are infected, also known as quarantining.
The outbreak might be from a coronavirus that usually lives in bats. This then likely infected another animal, possibly a pangolin. It then changed inside that other animal until it could infect humans. It possibly originated at a wet market (a live food animal market), Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. A 55-year-old person from Hubei province was the first human to contract the virus on November 17, 2019. A 61-year-old man who was a regular customer at the market was the first person to die from the virus on January 11, 2020. The exact origin of the virus is still unknown since the market in Wuhan sold a variety of live wild animals in cages. Chinese tourists have spread the virus by traveling to other countries and made it a worldwide pandemic.
Racism and xenophobia against Chinese people and Asians increased during the pandemic.
In November 2020, two companies, Pfizer and Moderna, said they had finished making COVID-19 vaccines. Two mRNA vaccines, one by Pfizer and one by Moderna, have been tested. Both were over 90% effective. Countries began planning to give the vaccine to many people. 25 other vaccines have been approved by at least one country, and many others are being developed.
The United States has had the most deaths from the virus. Over 1 million Americans have died from the virus.
In March 2020, the companies belonging to Sistema allocated about 1 billion rubles for the fight against coronavirus, the bulk of which was spent on the development of tests to detect infection, as well as on the production of protective equipment and antiseptics.
Background
On 31 December 2019, Chinese health authorities reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) a cluster of viral pneumonia cases of unknown cause in Wuhan, and an investigation was launched in early January 2020.
On 9 June 2020, a Harvard University study suggested that COVID-19 may have been spreading in China as early as August 2019, based on hospital car park usage and web search trends.
Cases
Cases means the number of people who have been tested for COVID-19 and have tested positive. These cases are according to Johns Hopkins University.
Fred Zinnemann
Alfred Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an Austrian Empire-born American movie director and producer. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing movies. He also won a BAFTA Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
New Braintree, Massachusetts
New Braintree is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States.
Fred Zinnemann
His best known movies were The Search (1947), The Men (1950), High Noon (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), Oklahoma! (1955), The Nun's Story (1959), A Man For All Seasons (1966), The Day of the Jackal (1973), and Julia (1977). His movies have received 65 Oscar nominations, winning 24.
His parents were Austrian Jews. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Vienna in 1927. He later studied at Ecole Technique de Photographie et Cinématographie in Paris to become a cameraman. Both of his parents were killed during the Holocaust.
Zinnemann died of a heart attack in London, England on March 14, 1997 almost one month before his 90th birthday.
COVID-19 pandemic
Deaths
Almost all people who get COVID-19 recover. For those who do not, the time between the start of symptoms and death usually ranges from6 to 41 days, but most of the time about 14 days. This data are recorded by the WHO.
Duration
On 11 March 2020, the WHO said that the pandemic could be controlled.
Signs & Symptoms
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 makes people feel sick in different ways, but it usually affects the lungs. People usually cough and have difficulty breathing. They often also have a fever, chills, headache, pain in their muscles, or trouble tasting or smelling things, which can often be confused with the flu virus.
According to an April 2020 study by the American Gastroenterological Association, COVID-19 can make sick people vomit or have diarrhea, but this is rare. They said about 7.7% of COVID-19 patients vomited, about 7.8% had diarrhea and about 3.6% had pain in their stomachs.
Treatment
Since there is no exact cure for Covid-19, treatment has focused on treating the symptoms of the disease such as giving oxygen and using machines to aid breathing, giving pain killers to relieve pain, supportive treatment such as giving fluids, food and drugs to combat other symptoms and diseases that affect the person at the same time. Doctors have tried different medicines to see if they help in treatment such as colchicine, systemic corticosteroids (particularly dexamethasone), interleukin-6 receptor antagonists (such as tocilizumab), and Janus kinase inhibitors (such as baricitinib) have been seen to reduce mortality and have other benefits in patients with severe covid-19, such as reducing the severity of the disease and reducing the length of hospital stay.
Name
In February 2020, the WHO announced a name for the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2: COVID-19. It replaced the name "2019-nCoV." "Covi" is for "coronavirus," "D" for "disease," and "19" for the year 2019 – the year it was first detected. They said they did not want the name to have any person, place, or animal in it because people might blame the disease on that place, person, or animal. For example, it did not use the word "Wuhan." They also wanted the name to be easy to say out loud.
Mortality rate of COVID-19
According to an article in Market Watch dated on February 27, 2020, the overall case mortality rate in China was 2.3%. However, these results might be severely different between different age groups and between men and women. People over the age of 70 experienced a rate of mortality 4-5 times that of the average. Men were more likely to die than women (2.8% versus 1.7% for women) possibly due to lifestyle, such as it being more possible in men to drink and smoke, making the risk of having a respiratory illness more possible, and thus more vulnerable. These numbers were the conclusion of a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention using 72,314 COVID-19 cases in mainland China as of Feb. 11. At that point this was the largest sample of cases for such a study.
On March 5, 2020, the WHO released the case fatality rate.
Race and racism
COVID-19 did not affect everyone in each country the same way. As of May 2020, APM Research Lab said the death rate among black Americans was 2.4 times as high as for white Americans and 2.2 times as high as for Latino and Asian Americans. In July 2020, The New York Times printed data from the Centers for Disease Control showing that black and Latino Americans were three times as likely to become sick and twice as likely to die as white Americans. This was not only in large cities but also in rural areas. This was not only for old people but for people in all age groups. Native Americans were also more likely than whites to become sick and die. Asian Americans were 1.3 times as likely as whites to become sick.
Camara Jones, an epidemiologist who once worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this was socioeconomic and not because of any natural difference in black and white people's bodies. In the United States, black citizens are more likely to work jobs where they serve the public directly and to ride on public transport rather than take their own cars to work. This makes them more likely to be infected than people who work in private offices or from home. Sharrelle Barber, an epidemiologist and biostatistician from Drexel University, also said black Americans can live in crowded neighborhoods where social distancing is harder to do and healthy food harder to find. Both Barber and Jones blamed the long history of racism in the United States for these things. Three senators, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren said the federal government should start recording the race of COVID-19 patients so scientists could study this problem.
In June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) told the public that people using the United States' government's Medicare health program had different results depending on race. Four times as many black Medicare patients went to hospitals for COVID-19 than white Medicare patients. There were twice as many hospitalized Hispanic patients than white patients. There were three hospitalized Asian patients for every two hospitalized white patients. The head of CMS, Seema Verma, said this was mostly because of socioeconomic status.
In the United Kingdom, twice as many black COVID-19 patients died as white COVID-19 patients. Other non-white people, like people from India and Bangladesh, were also more likely to die of COVID-19 than whites. Britain's Office of National Statistics said that the differences in money and education explained some of this difference but not all of it. They also said they did not know whether non-white patients caught COVID-19 more often or whether they caught more severe cases. Only female Chinese Britons were less likely to die of COVID-19 than white Britons.
Indigenous peoples
Native Americans in the United States have shown more deaths from COVID-19 than the rest of the U.S. As of May, the Navajo Nation had 88 deaths and 2,757 cases, and the money they had been promised by the government arrived several weeks late. Only 30% of the people in the Navajo Nation have pipes with running water, which made it difficult for people to wash their hands.
Scientists from Chapman University made a plan to protect the Tsimane people in Bolivia from COVID-19 and said this plan would also work for other indigenous peoples living on their own land. The scientists said that many indigenous peoples have problems that make COVID-19 more dangerous for them, like poverty, less clean water, and other lung diseases. Hospitals may be a long distance away, and racism can affect the way doctors and nurses react. But they also sometimes have things that help, like traditions of making decisions together and the ability to grow food nearby. The scientists found people who spoke the Tsimane language as a first language and made teams to go to Tsimane towns to warn them about COVID-19. They also used radio stations. They said the best plan was for whole communities to decide to isolate. They found this worked well because the Tsimane already usually made their big decisions together as a community in special meetings and already had a tradition of quarantining new mothers. The Chapman scientists said their plan would also work for other indigenous peoples who also make decisions together, like the Tsimane. The Waswanipi Cree in Canada, the Mapoon people in Australia, and many groups in South America already tried plans like these on their own.
African Americans
African Americans are more likely to catch the virus compared to their white counterparts in the United States, and are also more likely to die from it. 50,000 African Americans died of COVID-19 in 2020. African Americans are the least likely to get vaccinated against the disease.
Romani people
Romani people (Gypsies) in Europe were hard-hit by COVID-19.
Hispanics
Latinos have been at a higher risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 in the United States. There are many reasons why Latinos have a higher risk of getting very sick or going to the hospital because of COVID-19. One reason is that they often have health problems like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. They are also more likely to have jobs where they have to be around other people, like in healthcare, grocery stores, and farming. Many Latinos live in crowded places with many people, like big families or busy neighborhoods. This makes it hard to stay far away from others and can make the virus spread more easily. Some Latinos might not speak English well, which can make it hard to get healthcare or understand how to stay healthy. Finally, many Latinos don't have health insurance or don't have enough of it. All of these things are connected and can make it more likely for Latinos to get very sick from COVID-19.
Conspiracy theories
In early 2020, some people began to think that the SARS-CoV-2 may have been made on purpose in a laboratory and either released by accident or on purpose like a weapon. Some Iranians thought the Americans might have made it. Chinese state media said COVID-19 came from the United States to China and not the other way around. Some Americans thought the Chinese might have made it. Some Britons thought it might have been created by accident by 5G cell phone networks.
On March 17, 2020, scientists from Columbia University and other places published a paper in Nature Medicine showing that SARS-CoV-2 was almost surely not made by humans in a laboratory. They did this by comparing the genomes of different viruses to each other. The scientists saw that SARS-CoV-2 did not match any of the viral backbones that already exist for virologists to use. Within a few weeks, it became one of the most cited scientific papers in history, meaning that other scientists were reading and using it.
There were also several conspiracy theories circulating about Bill Gates and his alleged involvement with the COVID-19 pandemic. Theories wrongfully linking Gates to the coronavirus were mentioned 1.2 million times on television or social media between February and April of 2020. One of the most prominent ones was that Bill Gates somehow created or engineered the virus as part of a plan to depopulate the world. There is no evidence to support this claim, and it has been debunked by numerous experts in the field and fact checking organizations including the the National Institutes of Health and Reuters. Some conspiracy theorists allege that Bill Gates is using the pandemic to profit from the development and distribution of vaccines and other medical treatments. While Gates has been heavily involved in funding research on vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, he has not personally profited from this work. In fact, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over $2 billion to COVID-19 efforts since the start of the pandemic.
One of the impacts of these conspiracy theories is that they have generated fear and suspicion towards COVID-19 vaccines. Bill Gates commented on the impact of these theories, saying: "During the pandemic, there were tens of millions of messages that I intentionally caused it, or I'm tracking people. It's true I'm involved with vaccines, but I'm involved with vaccines to save lives."
Timelines of COVID-19
On December 31, 2019, China alerted WHO to several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei province.
On January 20, 2020, Chinese premier Li Keqiang called for efforts to stop and control the pneumonia epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus. As of February 5, 2020, 24,588 cases have been confirmed, including in every province-level division of China. A larger number of people may have been infected, but not detected (especially mild cases). The first local transmission of the virus outside China occurred in Vietnam between family members, while the first local transmission not involving family occurred in Germany, on January 22, when a German man contracted the disease from a Chinese business visitor at a meeting. , 493 deaths have been attributed to the virus since the first confirmed death on January 9, with 990 recoveries. The first death outside China was reported in the Philippines, in a 44-year-old Chinese male on February 1. but another source reported: "The first cases of COVID-19 outside of China were identified on January 13 in Thailand and on January 16 in Japan".
There has been testing which have showed over 6000 confirmed cases in China, some of whom are healthcare workers.
Confirmed cases have also been reported in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, the United States (Everett, Washington and Chicago), Singapore, Vietnam, France and Nepal.
The World Health Organization declared that this is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern since January 30, 2020.
Bloomberg News and other business publications have reported several plant closures, travel restrictions, and imposed quarantines as a result of this outbreak. Many small businesses, even big ones, have gone bankrupt because of the pandemic.
As of February 10, 2020 there have been 40,235 confirmed cases reported of people infected by the virus in China. Also reported were 909 deaths, and 319 cases in 24 other countries, including one death, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
On November 14, 2020, there were 53,853,718 global COVID-19 cases and 1,311,524 deaths with cases in 217 countries and territories.
Food and hunger
The pandemic made it more difficult for millions of people all over the world to get enough food. People lost their jobs, so they did not have money to buy food. Farms were shut down, so there was less food made. Processing plants and food factories were shut down, so less food was made ready for people to eat.
In April, Arif Husain of the United Nations' World Food Program said that 130 million more people could go hungry, in addition to the 135 million who were already hungry before the pandemic began. He said that poorer countries would be more affected than rich countries because the way they move raw food from farms to cities and other places where people live is less organized and relies more on human beings than on automatic systems.
All over the world, children who ate meals at school had less access to food when the schools were shut down.
Scientists from the University of Michigan said the pandemic was making it harder for people to find food. In a study published in May, they said one in seven Americans over age 50 said they had trouble getting enough food before the pandemic, and it got worse when senior centers that provided meals were closed. Federal and state governments started programs to bring food to older people and children. There were also more food donation drives in towns.
Elderly
In the United States, nursing homes had some of the highest rates of infection and death,
Many people who live in nursing homes pay through the government program Medicaid, which pays less than Medicare or regular insurance companies. In June, many American nursing homes were caught throwing their regular patients out so they could make room for COVID-19 patients who could pay them more. Because nursing homes had stopped allowing visitors, it took longer for them to get caught. United States law requires nursing homes to warn patients 30 days before kicking them out, but the nursing homes did not do this.
Some of the nursing homes took the COVID-19 patients because state governments asked them to and they say they sent their elderly residents away because they were worried they would catch COVID-19 from the sick patients.
Environment
The pandemic and shutdowns made people use less electricity. In the United States, people got less of their electricity from coal power but kept using gas and renewable power like wind and solar power. This was because coal plants are more expensive to run, so power companies used them less.
Pollution from before the pandemic also affected what happened after people became sick. Scientists saw that more people died from COVID-19 in places with large amounts of air pollution. One team of scientists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg looked at air pollution information from satellites and statistics on COVID-19 deaths in Italy, France, Germany and Spain and saw that places with large amounts of nitrogen dioxide pollution had more people die from COVID-19. Nitrogen dioxide can damage the lungs.
The shutdowns and social distancing also affected animals. Human beings started staying at home about the same time in the spring when sea turtles like to come on land to lay their eggs. Turtle scientists in the United States and Thailand both reported more nests than usual on seashores in Florida and Phuket. They say it is because people are not coming to the beach or bringing their dogs to the beach and because there are fewer boats in the water nearby. Scientists also say they see more dugong and dolphins. With fewer cars driving down roads, salamanders, frogs, and other amphibians were able to cross them for their spring migration. According to citizen scientists from Big Night Maine, a group that watches amphibians, four amphibians made it across the roads alive for every one amphibian killed by cars. Most years, it is only two to one.
Not all ocean mammals did well. According to marine biologists in Florida, manatee deaths in April and May were 20% higher than in 2019. They say this was because many people decided to go boating because other things to do were closed.
Protests in China
In November and December 2022, people in China started protesting against the Chinese government for their strict COVID-19 rules. Since China has not had any protests since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, these new protests were note worthy.
The protests started happening after a fire outbreak in Urumqi on November 25, 2022. The fire killed 10 people, who could not escape their apartments because of pandemic lockdown measures required by the Chinese government. The fire took over three hours to put out because of blocked-off entrances and locked doors. The pandemic lockdown measures also limits public transportation.
In Urumqi, protesters shouted, "if we die, let's die together". The protesters wanted their government to lift the lockdown measures in neighbourhoods with little or no active cases of COVID-19. In Nanjing, university students held blank sheets of paper to show the little freedom of expression and autonomy they felt from the strict COVID-19 policies. In Shanghai, people gathered on the city's Urumqi Road to remember the victims of the fire and requested the government to free arrested protesters. In Beijing, protesters asked for democratic changes and the end to the strict COVID-19 rules.