College classes, at their best, prepare young people for adult life—teaching them how to work, think, and become productive members of society. During the COVID-19 pandemic, life at any age has increasingly meant coping with the constant risk and presence of death. In 2020, U.S. life expectancy dropped 1.8 years, with death rates rising for every age group over the age of 15. Even among college students, this has led to a surge of grief; according to a study published in OMEGA–Journal of Death and Dying , 1 in 10 undergrad and grad-school respondents said they’d lost a loved one to the virus, and 26% had lost someone to other causes during the pandemic.
It’s no wonder, then, that college courses examining death are experiencing an increase in interest, and have taken on a deep meaning for many students, as my colleague Melissa Chan writes. Before the pandemic, such classes enticed curious students with unusual field trips to watch autopsies and explore cemeteries. Now, the classes have become “more of a mental health necessity,” Melissa writes. “When I first realized that college classes on death and dying in the U.S. have grown in popularity during the pandemic, I initially wondered whether it was due to morbid curiosity,” she told me. “It was incredibly heartbreaking to find out it was because of overwhelming grief.” For many, these classes have become a safe place to process and talk about grief. All 330 students who have taken Kean University’s Death in Perspective class, for instance, either lost a loved one to COVID-19, know someone who has, nearly lost someone, or nearly died from the disease themselves.
As Melissa writes, these classes fill an important need, especially as the pandemic has cut many students off from on-campus support services, and private therapy can be expensive. Death classes can also provide students with unique opportunities, including a chance to think deeply about death, and an outlet to talk with peers about their feelings. Daniela Derius-Rodriguez, who lost two relatives to the virus, said her course at Kean helped her learn that grief is an inevitable part of love: “When it does come to us, we need to learn how to handle it.”
More than 427 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 5.9 million people have died. On Feb. 22, there were more than 1.8 million new cases and 14,171 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 5.5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 78.6 million coronavirus cases as of 12 a.m. E.T. today. More than 939,000 people have died. On Feb. 22, there were 99,820 new cases and 2,297 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Feb. 23, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
As the global Omicron surge continues to subside, European governments are lifting restrictions intended to limit the spread of COVID-19. On Tuesday, the European Council issued a non-binding recommendation that member states should lift testing and quarantine requirements for vaccinated travelers starting March 1. Individual countries have also started to roll back restrictions. Poland, for instance, is dropping most mandates, including a 50% capacity cap in restaurants and malls and on public transportation, and will allow government workers to return to the office, the Associated Press reports. Ireland announced yesterday that all mask mandates will end on February 28, as well as protective measures in schools, such as social distancing.
Meanwhile, South Korea, which reported 171,448 cases yesterday—a single-day record, and up about 53,000 cases compared to the day before—announced plans to focus on testing and treating higher risk individuals and more severe cases in an effort to manage the health system’s capacity, an official told reporters yesterday, the New York Times reports. As Park Hyang, a senior health official, told reporters, “it is more important to stably manage the medical system’s capacity and minimize severe cases and deaths rather than the number of confirmed cases.” Plus, the country today approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The Association for Flight Attendants-C.W.A. yesterday urged the Biden Administration to extend in-flight mask mandates past March 18, when they are set to expire, arguing that the change would put medically vulnerable passengers and children under 5 (who can't get vaccinated) in danger. However, a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement to the New York Times that the mandate is still on track to end next month.
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. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Tara Law and edited by Angela Haupt.
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