Making Daylight Saving Time Permanent Would Be a Form of Coronavirus Stimulus
A depressing tweet came across my timeline this morning (hardly an unusual circumstance these days, I know): “Sunset on Thursday in NYC is at 7:00pm,” said New York Metro Weather, a site for local meteorology nerds. “This is the last time the sun will set at 7:00pm or later until March 13, 2021.”
Ugh.
Here in the New York metro area, the last few weeks have felt as close to “normal” as ever since the pandemic began—in no small part because we’ve been able to safely enjoy our parks, beaches and other outdoor spaces. But as the sun begins to set earlier, enjoying the outdoors when it’s still light outside will become much harder, especially on weekdays. And it will get harder still at 2 a.m. on Nov. 1, when daylight saving time ends and the world darkens even earlier. That’s bad news from a public health perspective, as sunlight is linked to all sorts of physical and mental benefits, all of which have become even more important during the pandemic.
You can’t fight astrophysics; the Earth’s tilt means the northern hemisphere gets less daylight for a good portion of the year, a time period we call winter. What we can do, as former U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, writes in TIME, is to make daylight saving time permanent. The move would effectively shift our sun-lit hours later in the day, resulting in darker mornings but sunnier evenings all year long.
Hatch writes:
“... On November 1, we will move our clocks back one hour to reflect U.S. standard time. The result will be painfully short days, with the sun setting in many states before 5 p.m. Each year, we see higher rates of depression associated with less exposure to sunlight; higher energy consumption across the country; higher traffic fatalities with more Americans driving in the dark; higher incidence of crime; and a steep decline in retail sales with fewer consumers willing to shop at night.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we observe a time change that ultimately hurts small businesses and makes life more difficult for individuals struggling with anxiety and depression? Our economy is on the ropes, and the number of Americans reporting mental illness has reached record levels. So why would we change our clocks this November knowing it will only make the situation worse?”
There are good arguments against permanent DST; for one, it would mean waking up and commuting in darker winter mornings. To me, that’s a small price to pay to enjoy a little more sunlight after work—I’d rather have the sunshine when I’ve got the day behind me. Still, Americans are split on the issue (because what aren’t Americans split on these days?)—according to a 2019 Associated Press-NORC Center poll, about 40% want year-round standard time, about 30% want permanent DST, and the rest are okay with switching back and forth as we currently do. A handful of states have proposed permanent DST, but state measures require Congressional approval—and it’s better handled at the federal level anyway, to avoid a confusing patchwork of different times across state borders. As Hatch writes, it’s up to Congress to pass a national DST bill. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has supported the idea in the past, would likely sign such a measure.
It’s possible, however, that the pandemic has changed some Americans' thinking on DST. There are certainly bigger issues on our national plate than an extra hour of daylight. But it seems like an obvious win as we move to what may be a particularly gloomy winter as the pandemic rages on while the sun sets a little earlier every day.
More than 28.9 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 5:45 a.m. EDT today, and more than 922,000 people have died. Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
On Sept. 13, there were 143,808 new cases and 2,506 new deaths confirmed globally. Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here is every country with over 350,000 confirmed cases to date ("per cap" is number per 100,000 people):
The pandemic and subsequent business shutdowns led to “unprecedented” drops in GDP among most G20 countries during the second quarter of 2020, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development announced today. Only China recorded notable growth (11.5%) because of the “earlier onset of the pandemic in this country and subsequent recovery,” as the OECD puts it. The largest falloffs happened in India (-25.2%), the U.K. (-20.4%) and Mexico (-17.1%).
Health officials in India—which is on track to outpace the U.S. as the world’s worst-hit country—may approve a vaccine on an emergency basis, according to Reuters. “If there is a consensus we may go ahead with it, especially in the case of senior citizens and people working in high-risk settings,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told the news agency; he added that approval would only come if officials were convinced a vaccine was safe. India has reported more than 4.7 million cases and nearly 80,000 deaths, but those figures are likely an undercount.
Austria is entering the second wave of the pandemic, chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Twitter today. While the country was recording just dozens of daily new cases throughout most of the summer, it’s now adding approximately 500 each day. Other European countries, including the U.K. and the Czech Republic, are also experiencing alarming new outbreaks.
Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, is out of the hospital today after recovering from a bout with the virus, Reuters reports. “I said to myself, with satisfaction, ‘you have got away with it again,’” the 83-year-old politician told reporters. Berlusconi is one of several current or former world leaders who have been diagnosed with the disease during the pandemic—U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also contracted the virus.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded more than 6.5 million coronavirus cases as of 5:45 a.m. EDT today. More than 194,000 people have died. Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
On Sept. 13, there were 34,450 new cases and 378 new deaths confirmed in the U.S. Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
While many states are loosening their coronavirus-related restrictions—New Jersey, where I live, recently greenlit indoor dining at reduced capacity—Dr. Anthony Fauci, the foremost U.S. expert on the virus, has been making the rounds over the past few days cautioning that the situation could worsen over the fall and winter, especially as people spend more time indoors, where the contagion can spread more easily. “We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter, because it’s not going to be easy,” Fauci recently said during a Harvard Medical School panel. In other recent appearances, he disagreed with President Trump’s assessment that the country is entering the final phase of the pandemic, and predicted that we won’t return to “a degree of normality” until late next year.
Americans could start receiving doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine before year’s end, CEO Albert Bourla said on CBS’ Face the Nation yesterday. However, that timeline is dependent on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the pharmaceutical giant’s product. Bourla said the company’s Phase 3 testing data should be available by the end of October, and the firm is preparing to manufacture “hundreds of thousands of doses.” Still, that’s a fraction of the number that will ultimately be needed across the U.S., and the first doses of any vaccine will likely go to medical workers, the elderly, and other at-risk groups.
When and if Los Angeles public schools welcome students back for in-person education this year, parents will find new information on the district’s website: coronavirus infection information “broken down by school, grade and by the small ‘cohorts’ of students who will spend the day together once campuses are able to reopen,” the Los Angeles Timesreports. The dashboard, which is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s massive testing and tracing undertaking, stands in marked contrast to the approach of school districts in places like Florida, where some parents are having trouble getting information about the virus situation at their children’s schools.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of September 14, 1 a.m. eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
How Flu Shots Can Help in the Fight Against Covid-19
Here’s some free advice: get a flu shot this year (I’m getting mine Friday). COVID-19 isn’t going away any time soon, and experts are worried about a “twin pandemic” of the coronavirus and influenza that could overwhelm hospitals, the New York Times reports. Read more here.
It’s Not Time to Let Our Guard Down
While there are some positive signs in the data across the U.S., we could still be in for a rough fall and winter, Vox reports. In part, that’s because several states are relaxing their rules just as school starts back up and the weather cools, leading more people inside—a combination that raises the risk of viral spread. Read more here.
We Can’t Prevent Winter. But We Can Learn to Love it
Speaking of cooling weather: in normal times, many people prefer to stay indoors once the mercury starts dropping. But getting fresh air and sunlight is good for our physical and mental health, and prolonged time in indoor public spaces is a big risk during the pandemic. One solution, via National Geographic: learning to love outdoor wintertime activities like the Norwegians do—as they say, there’s no bad weather, only bad clothing. (My advice? There’s never a bad time to try pond hockey.) Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Alex Fitzpatrick and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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