COVID-19 New Corona: 2021-04-18

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Twitter Censors Over 50 Tweets On Request Of Indian Govt, Most Criticising Handling Of Covid-19 Crisis: Reports

New Delhi: Popular microblogging platform Twitter has reportedly censored 52 tweets after receiving requests from the central government. Most of them are said to be the ones critical of India’s handling of the recent Covid-19 crisis. These removed tweets include posts by politicians, actors, directors and journalists. ALSO READ |<a style="color: #e03e2d;" href="https://ift.tt/3dOuBhh"> 'Grossly Inadequate': Parliamentary Panel Flagged Concerns Of Oxygen, Hospital Bed Shortage In Nov 2020 To Centre</a> According to recent media reports, Twitter has removed 52 tweets - many of which were about the shortage of medicines, beds, mass cremations, and the crowds at Kumbh Mela amid the second wave of Coronavirus pandemic.  These tweets are blocked for viewing in India but are visible to users outside the country. A Twitter user publicly shared a notice he received from the platform's legal team. [tw]https://twitter.com/FriedrichPieter/status/1385699960310673414[/tw] While several media reports have been written about this development, the first report in this regard was filed by MediaNama which also reached out to Twitter for a response. “When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law. If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only. In all cases, we notify the account holder directly so they’re aware that we’ve received a legal order pertaining to the account,” MediaNama quoted the Twitter Spokesperson as saying. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is yet to present a public statement on this issue.

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'Second Covid Storm Has Shaken The Country': PM Modi On Mann Ki Baat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio programme today. The address comes in the backdrop of India crossing grim milestones daily by registering a record number of a daily surge in Covid cases in the world. The second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic has crippled every state and the country is gasping for breath facing the acute shortage of oxygen. PM Modi said, "After successfully tackling the first wave of COVID19, the country's morale was high but this storm has shaken the country. To tackle this wave of COVID, I have held meetings with experts from many fields like pharma industry, oxygen production, etc." <a title="Also Read|Twitter Censors Over 50 Tweets On Request Of Indian Govt, Most Criticising Handling Of Covid-19 Crisis: Reports" href="https://ift.tt/2QuePzc style="color: #e03e2d;">Also Read|Twitter Censors Over 50 Tweets On Request Of Indian Govt, Most Criticising Handling Of Covid-19 Crisis: Reports</a> PM Modi said that during this time of crisis the central government is taking important steps to help the state government and the oxygen manufacturers, medical staffs are working tirelessly to provide an adequate amount of Covid equipments in the country. PM Modi appealed to everyone appeal to seek information on COVID 19 through reliable sources only. PM said, "I am seeing many doctors have taken to social media to share information on COVID19 and are also offering consultations." PM Modi urged the citizens to get vaccinated as inoculation centre are now open for all adults. PM said that free vaccine has been provided to all the states by the centre and everyone should take advantage of that. PM Modi said, "I urge people to not fall prey to any rumour about vaccine. You all must be aware that Govt of India has sent free vaccine to all State Govts. All people above 45 yrs of age can benefit from this. From May 1st, vaccines will be available for every person above 18 years of age." PM Modi also said that the country's corporate sector can also participate in vaccine drive by getting their employees vaccinated. He also said that the Govt of India's free vaccination program will continue in the future too. So, states to ensure the benefits of this free vaccination program reaches as many people as possible. On Sunday, India reported another grim global record Sunday with 349,691 new daily infections over the past 24 hours. It also recorded a single-day toll of 2,767 fatalities.   

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ClassPass founder Payal Kadakia on how her Indian American heritage inspired her to create a $1 billion business

Bollywood Dance Group — Payal Kadakia launched ClassPass as a service to search for fitness options, but it has expanded into much more.
powerofforever/Getty Images

Payal Kadakia is an entrepreneur and founder of ClassPass, an app and subscription service for fitness classes.
Growing up she says she thought she had to separate and hide her dual identities - American and Indian.
She was inspired to create a space to celebrate both of her cultures, and it became a billion-dollar business.
See more stories on Insider's business page.

Payal Kadakia launched ClassPass in 2013 as a service to search for fitness options. Today, it's an international membership booking platform for classes and services, from Pilates to haircuts to, recently, Covid-19 vaccinations - and is valued at $1 billion. Prior to founding her company, Kadakia was a Bain & Company analyst with a passion for Indian folk dance, which she began practicing at age 3. Her parents immigrated in the late 1970s from Gujarat, India, raising her in a rich culture - though she felt ostracized from her broader community at times. The duality she cultivated and later broke away from shaped her entrepreneurial journey.

- As told to Christine Lagorio-Chafkin

I grew up in Randolph, New Jersey, where I was one of the only Indian girls. We were one of the only Indian families. People didn't understand who I was, or where I came from. I definitely got made fun of. People didn't want to be around the person who was different. When you're a kid, that makes a very big impression on you.

I had been bullied for so long I tried to hide my cultural heritage.

For example, I was a cheerleader. And I would have Friday night football games. There was a huge Indian festival called Navratri, which is my favorite festival of the year. The whole next town nearby would get together. And we would dance until two or three in the morning. I literally rushed from the football game and changed in my car into full-on Indian garb to go to the festival. This was the duality I lived with.

In a town down the road, there was another Indian community. There, I started doing Indian folk dance, and I found a group of people who were like me. I found a place in this community where I could connect with people because they looked like me and understood me. My cultural heritage had been so positive at home. Seeing how my mom and dad lived their lives, being in a country where they didn't always understand everything, had been inspirational. My mom never took the idea that she couldn't do something just because she didn't understand it. She worked the night shift, and my dad worked during the day, because they couldn't afford childcare. There was never a dead end.

When I went to college, a beautiful thing happened where I started really feeling OK in both skins.

I began seeing other people who were Indian - who kind of fit in. Dance was a huge part of it for me. It allowed me to care about who I was even more. I stopped feeling like I was different and started owning who I was.

I started a dance company called Sa Dance. I was inspired by watching Alvin Ailey, one of the greatest African-American dance companies in the world. I saw that the messages of your people can be represented through dance. Art is such a beautiful way of sharing messages of culture. Let me show you the beauty of it, the richness of it, how ancient it is, who my ancestors are. I started feeling like I was creating and leading and communicating about my culture. Dance became a vehicle for my coping.

When I started working on ClassPass, simply by building a company in fitness, I was in a roomful of men, most of the time.

Investors didn't really know what I was talking about. I was just so unique in so many of the rooms I was in. But I'm also 4-foot-11. I'm a very petite Indian woman. I didn't look like anyone I was ever in a room with. It took me three years to get my product right. When it worked, all of these investors and individuals who I had talked to in the previous three years were all of a sudden saying, "Hey, let me give you money!" And I'm thinking, "Why didn't you bet on me before?" That's the conversation that I sometimes have with myself about it: I didn't fit their mold.

One of the biggest reasons I became an entrepreneur is I felt like I never fit into those environments - even my job in corporate America. Part of it was my cultural background, part was because of my artistic background. I needed to create an environment where I knew I could be like all colors of who I am. We obviously see this problem in the female-male dynamic that's happening right now where capital is being deployed. But it's the same thing when it comes to messages of culture.

I remember needing to hide. I remember needing to hide dance, being scared of sharing that part of myself with people. I realized over time that it has made me only stronger in everything I do. But other people need to have that ability to be their whole selves as well. In the press, people who look like me are not always represented. I didn't see Indian people on the cover of magazines or on billboards. This is America, you know what I mean? We are a part of the population! And I think we're really proud of who we are, and we've accomplished a lot. I want people to know that.

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'Grossly Inadequate': Parliamentary Panel Flagged Concerns Of Oxygen, Hospital Bed Shortage In Nov 2020 To Centre

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel in November last year had advocated that the central government augment hospital beds and oxygen production. The suggestions came months before the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit India delivering a significant blow to the medical system. Chaired by Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health had advocated that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority take appropriate steps to cap the price of oxygen cylinders to ensure their availability and affordability. ALSO READ | <a style="color: #e03e2d;" href="https://ift.tt/3sPEmQD Shortage, Centre Hikes Allocation Of Remdesivir Injections To 19 States; Maharashtra Gets Maximum</a> "The Committee also recommends the government for encouraging adequate production of oxygen for ensuring its supply as per demand in the hospitals," stated the report submitted in parliament in November last year. The report emphasized that the total number of government hospital beds in the country was "grossly inadequate" keeping in view the Covid-19 situation. The panel noted that the efficacy of the containment plan against the Coronavirus pandemic was being further complicated by lack of hospital beds and inadequate ventilators "As the numbers of cases were on the rise, a frantic search for vacant hospital beds became quite harrowing. Instances of patients being turned away from overburdened hospitals due to lack of vacant beds became the new normal. The scenario of patients holding oxygen cylinders rushing from pillar to post in search of bed in AIIMS Patna is a testimony to the fact that tears apart humanity," it said. Expressing worry over the poor state of the healthcare system, the panel also recommended that the government increase its public health investment and take necessary steps to decentralise healthcare services/facilities in the country. ALSO READ | <a style="color: #e03e2d;" title="" href="https://ift.tt/2Qsudfi" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-toggle="tooltip" data-html="true" data-original-title="Story ID: 1454595" aria-describedby="tooltip879477">Delhi Lockdown Likely To Be Extended For Another Week As National Capital Gasps For Breath</a> The report stated that the Health and Family Welfare secretary had informed the committee on October 16, 2020 that the ministry had requested the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to fix the price of oxygen as non-invasive oxygen has been found to deliver good results. "The overall production in the country is roughly in the region of 6,900 metric tons every day. Out of 6,900 metric tons, the highest consumption of medical oxygen was reported in mid-September, in and around 24th or 25th September, when the consumption was almost 3,000 metric tons of oxygen a day," the report informed. "The committee agrees with the department that the pandemic has led to an unprecedented increase in the demand for non-invasive oxygen cylinders and instances of lack of oxygen cylinders in the hospitals had also been reported," it added. The report’s suggestions have come to light while several months later India is grappling with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, reporting over 3,00,000 daily new cases. Hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen, beds, and antiviral drugs so much so that hospitals in Delhi had to approach the High Court to have their grievances heard. (With Agency Inputs)

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Delhi Lockdown Likely To Be Extended For Another Week As National Capital Gasps For Breath

Though Maharashtra has been reporting the highest number of Covid cases in the country but Delhi is worst affected after acute shortage of oxygen and other medical facilities. The national capital is gasping for breath, pushing health services to the brink, the Delhi government will extend the lockdown in the national capital by at least one more week, senior government officials said on Saturday. According to a report by PTI, an order to extend the lockdown will be issued on Sunday by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA). <a title="Also Read|Amid Shortage, Centre Hikes Allocation Of Remdesivir Injections To 19 States; Maharashtra Gets Maximum" href="https://ift.tt/32JA822 Read|Amid Shortage, Centre Hikes Allocation Of Remdesivir Injections To 19 States; Maharashtra Gets Maximum</a> "The idea behind the brief lockdown was that it will control the cases and give time to boost the health infrastructure, but the situation has gone from bad to worse. In such a situation, extending the lockdown, by maybe another week, is a possible option," a source in the Delhi government said. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government on April 19 announced a six-day lockdown which came in force on April 26 (Monday) and it is now likely to be extended by another week, officials said. Meanwhile, the domestic traders body, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has also urged the Delhi government to further extend the lockdown beyond April 26 to bring the pandemic under control. In a letter to CM Kejriwal, CAIT said going by the current statistics, the situation is quite alarming in Delhi. “The CAIT has urged for extension of lockdown in Delhi beyond April 26… as and when the situation is improved, the lockdown can be lifted,” the confederation said in a statement. Meanwhile, a survey conducted by LocalCircles states that Delhi residents agree to extend lockdown for another week.  A total of 48 per cent of respondents asked the Kejriwal government to extend the shutdown by two more weeks, while 68 per cent of the respondents demanded an extension of lockdown by at least a week.  

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As India and other countries struggle to acquire enough COVID-19 vaccines for their populations, doses are sitting on shelves across the US

In some parts of the US, excess COVID-19 vaccines are sitting on shelves.
Countries like India, however, are struggling to get enough supplies to vaccinate their populations.
Global leaders are calling on the US to lift export bans to help with vaccine production abroad.
See more stories on Insider's business page.

As many countries across the world struggle to acquire enough COVID-19 vaccines for their population, doses in some parts of the US are sitting on shelves.

Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami said it would wind down vaccinations because of shrinking demand and excess vaccines. Doses also sat on shelves in North Carolina this month as vaccine efforts were paused due to spring break, The Washington Post reported.

India however, set a new global record of more than 330,000 new infections on Friday. As cases surge, the country is struggling to vaccinate its own population.

The country, which is the world's largest vaccine producer and gifted and sold tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to other countries as part of COVAX, the World Health Organization's global vaccine-sharing initiative has since paused its efforts in order to redirect production and vaccinate its own citizens.

India promised to send out 200 million doses for up to 92 countries but the pause could stall those efforts.

The disparity between the abundance in countries like the US and scarcity in others has promoted calls from global and national leaders to help bridge the vaccine access gap between rich and poor countries.

Some countries are calling on the US to change its policies and rethink intellectual property and trademark laws that dictate vaccine manufacturing, the Post reported.

"It's outrageous ethically, morally, scientifically," Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization, told the Post about global vaccine inequities.

The New York Times reported that President Joe Biden's administration is under international pressure to lift restrictions on the export of supplies that vaccine makers in India say are needed to expand production.

The current ban on exports falls under the Defense Production Act, which was invoked by former President Donald Trump and used by Biden to increase vaccine production in the US, the Times reported.

"What I will say broadly is that the United States first and foremost is engaged in an ambitious and effective and, so far, successful effort to vaccinate the American people. That campaign is well underway, and we're doing that for a couple of reasons," State Department spokesman Ned Price said about the ban in a press conference this week.

"Number one, we have a special responsibility to the American people. Number two, the American people, this country has been hit harder than any other country around the world - more than 550,000 deaths, tens of millions of infections in this country alone," he said.

Price said if the American public isn't vaccinated they run the risk of allowing for more mutations that could spread across the globe. However, India has also experienced a mutated variant, which in March was linked to between 15% and 20% of cases in the state of Maharashtra.

The variant, as well as several others found in the region, know no borders and as cases spread in India and deaths mount, it will become a global threat if left unchecked.

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Amid Shortage, Centre Hikes Allocation Of Remdesivir Injections To 19 States; Maharashtra Gets Maximum

While Covid cases in the country continue to surpass the world records, the nation gasps for breath amid an acute shortage of oxygen and antiviral drug Remdesivir which is used for the virus’s treatment. Keeping in view of the situation, the central government has increased the allocation of the injections to 19 States/UTs till April 30. <a href="https://ift.tt/32Io2Xf style="color: #e03e2d;">Also Read|TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee Accuses BJP Of Flouting EC's Norms, Claims 10,000 People Attended Mithun's Malda Rally</a> Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers D V Sadananda Gowda late on Saturday made the announcement and tweeted the latest list. [tw]https://twitter.com/DVSadanandGowda/status/1385993904055459840[/tw] According to the list shared by the Union Minister, Maharashtra-the worst affected state by the pandemic has got the highest share of 4,35,000 does as against the 2,69,200 vials earlier. It was followed by Gujarat with the second-highest allocation of 1,65,000 doses against the 1,63,500 earlier, Uttar Pradesh will now get 1,61,000 doses, up from 1,22,800 vials. Madhya Pradesh is being granted 95,000 doses now instead of the 92,400 vials and badly hit Delhi has been given around 10,000 extra vials to tide over the crunch. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray thanked Prime Minister Modi for approving the supply requested by the state government. Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Gowda for increasing the allocation of Remdesivir and oxygen to the State. [tw]https://twitter.com/BSYBJP/status/1385983384619425794[/tw] Several states and UTs have reported an acute shortage of Remdesivir and raised the issue with the Centre. The Centre had on Wednesday announced that the production capacity of Remdesivir injections is being ramped up from the current level of 38 lakh vials per month to 74 lakh vials per month. It also said that 20 additional manufacturing sites have been approved.

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Enrollment in California public schools declined by over 160,000 students amid the pandemic, new data show

New data show enrollment in California public schools for 2020-2021 declined by over 160,000.
The Los Angeles Times reported that it's the largest decline in the state in 20 years.
In addition to California, the pandemic has also affected enrollment in Iowa and Arizona.
See more stories on Insider's business page.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a major drop in student enrollment in public schools, new data from the California Department of Education show.

The number of students enrolled in California's public schools plummeted to 6,002,523 students in the 2020-2021 school year from 6,163,001 in the 2019-2020 school year. That's a decrease of 2.6%.

Public school officials expressed concern at the steep drop, but optimism that the numbers could rebound when schools fully reopen.

"While there are many reasons to stay optimistic that enrollment will rebound as conditions improve, allowing more schools to safely return to in-person instruction, we also must help schools identify opportunities to engage with families who either sought new options for their students during the pandemic or need additional resources and support to connect with school and succeed," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said in a press release.

Many schools across the country turned to remote learning last year, closing schools to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Since then, some schools have been slow to reopen, and others have pivoted to hybrid models. Around half of elementary schools were open for full in-person learning as of last month, according to the Associated Press.

Though student enrollment in California public schools had been declining for several years, this past year's plunge is a much larger decrease for California public schools than in previous years. The Los Angeles Times, reported that it's the largest drop for public school enrollment in the Golden State in two decades.

An analysis by the nonprofit organization EdSource, which focuses on California education, looked at California public school enrollment data since the 1999-2000 academic year. The nonprofit found that the last largest drop was between the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 academic year. Enrollment declined to 6,192,121 in 2009-2010 from 6,252,029 in 2008-2009 - a drop of 59,908.

The largest declines in enrollment by grade in the state occurred in kindergarten and sixth grade. The Los Angeles Times reported that the decline in kindergarten enrollment was over 60,000.

California isn't the only state reporting a drop in enrollment as the pandemic continues. Arizona enrollment data also shows a decline by 38,000 students from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021, as reported by a local ABC News station. KCCI, a news station in Des Moines, Iowa, reported that public school enrollment in Iowa dropped by almost 6,000 students from the year before. KCCI added that this is the first decline in enrollment for the state in a decade.

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How bots like 'TurboVax' boosted states in the rush to vaccinate America

vaccine bots — Vaccine bots on Twitter share news of available vaccination appointments.
Screenshots/Twitter

Twitter accounts sharing vaccination appointments have popped up across the US.
The accounts are bots run by software engineers who helped Americans find appointments.
Bots like TurboVax in New York City have courted thousands of followers.
See more stories on Insider's business page.

Kenneth Hsu's parents-in-law were desperate to find a vaccine appointment.

In February, both over the age of 70, the two met the requirements to get vaccinated in their home state New Jersey. They added their names to the state's waiting list. Then silence followed.

"They were getting nowhere," said Hsu, a 40-year-old software architect from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, a city about 50 miles north of Trenton.

Since he wasn't yet eligible to receive a vaccine, Hsu said he hadn't known just how hard it was for those who were to get an appointment.

He found Twitter accounts of real people finding and sharing new appointments and found Facebook groups of people sharing when and how they secured an appointment.

"But after a couple of days getting into it, I just realized that there's got to be a better way," he said.

So, he put his skills to work over a few weeks in early February and created a program that scrubbed various county and pharmacy websites to see when new vaccination appointments became available.

In the early days of the vaccine rollout, appointments often disappeared within minutes, he said.

But days after setting up the bot, Hsu had scored his mother and father-in-law appointments to get vaccinated.

"I realized that this is a tool, this is an effective tool that could be used by others as well," Hsu said. "So I packaged it together and started tweeting that information."

Hsu told Insider that pharmacies like Rite Aid and CVS said they weren't interested in working with him, but they didn't stop him either.

Neither pharmacy returned Insider's request for comment.

Hsu worked with New Jersey officials on its vaccine finder tool

Hsu, however, did collaborate with the New Jersey Office of Innovation to help it develop its vaccine finder tool, which is still in beta but allows New Jersey residents to sort through available appointments in the state. Some of the data used comes from Hsu's bot, and he maintains a list of appointments on his website.

Since Hsu's created the tool in February, more than 89,000 people have followed the account, which tweets updates several times an hour, alerting followers to which vaccines have become available, their location, and how many appointments remain, when applicable. Just after 1 p.m. last Tuesday, the bot shared that a mass vaccination site in Atlantic County added more than 12,200 Pfizer appointments.

While Hsu said he doesn't closely monitor the number of followers he's gained, he's had to adjust his bot to prevent it from sharing a very limited number of appointments at a particular location because it wouldn't be useful for the tens of thousands of people monitoring the account.

At the beginning of the year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered vaccination guidelines to states that gave a rough order of who should be first in line to receive one of the shots authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use last year.

But the rollout was left up to states to execute, leading to problems, especially early on. In Florida, for example, long lines formed outside hospitals, and some counties used the event managing platform Eventbrite for registrations, posing challenges to residents who weren't tech-savvy.

At the outset, Mississippi stopped taking requests for appointments the same day it began, and phone lines quickly became in Georgia, the Associated Press reported. Many of these problems drew criticism, though many of the kinks have become less prevalent as vaccine appointments become more available as vaccinations speed up.

"I feel like the overall state, and really the US government in general, were a little bit behind in terms of just understanding and utilizing technology," Hsu said.

"There's a lot of missed opportunities here," he added. "But then again, you know, this is one of those once in a - hopefully - once in a lifetime type of situations. Hopefully, there are lessons learned and best practices that are being developed from this, that if we do come across something like this, it won't happen again."

At the beginning of March in Kansas City, Missouri, 27-year-old Peter Carnesciali wondered how he could simplify the process of finding a vaccination appointment when it became eligible to receive a jab under the state's guidelines.

Like Hsu, Carnesciali, a software engineer, decided to create a bot to scrub for open appointments at pharmacies. At first, he set the bot up to text him when an appointment became available. Soon, his friends wanted in; and eventually, he recognized there was a larger need in the city to find appointments.

In March, he created the @kcvaccinewatch bot, which has so far gained more than 26,000 followers. The bot monitors local pharmacies in Kansas City for new vaccine appointment drops. Creating the bot took about a week of "intense" work, Carnesciali told Insider.

"If it finds any that it hasn't tweeted before, then it will send out a tweet about it," he said. "And then when they're all taken, they will send out another tweet saying that they're gone."

Bots have popped up across the US

The New Jersey and Kansas City bots are a part of a larger trend around similar tools that emerged on Twitter since January. Omar Darwish, a tech firm security engineer, created a number of vaccine bots in California cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles after he struggled to make an appointment for his grandmother in Texas, he told KRON4.

With more than 174,000 followers, the most popular vaccine bot on Twitter is TurboVax, created in January by New York City software engineer Huge Ma. Ma told The New York Times in February he developed the tool in less than two weeks for about $50.

"It's sort of become a challenge to myself, to prove what one person with time and a little motivation can do," Ma, 31, told the Times. "This wasn't a priority for governments, which was unfortunate. But everyone has a role to play in the pandemic, and I'm just doing the very little that I can to make it a little bit easier."

In April, Ma, who has been dubbed "VaxDaddy" was called to appear at a press conference with New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang. More than 20,000 people liked his tweet announcing his own vaccination.

It's not clear how many have used the tweets to schedule appointments, but dozens of people have thanked accounts, like those created by Hsu, Ma, and Carnesciali, for helping them get the vaccine.

"I hear it all the time," Carnesciali said. "People saying that they got theirs from it or that they got it for their whole family from the bot.

As more people become vaccinated, and fewer people search for appointments, Hsu said interest in these Twitter bots will likely wane, but he said that doesn't mean that these bots won't continue to be useful in the future.

Ma last week tweeted that traffic on the TurboVax website had dropped 70% from the week prior, a sign that the increased vaccine supply has tapered interest in finding an appointment in New York City.

"I'm exhausted! Looking forward to shutting the project down so I can live my life and pivot to influencing," he joked.

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Hawaii tourists are renting UHaul vans instead of rental cars due to a massive shortage sending prices up to $700 a day

A rental-car shortage is is currently rippling across the US.
Hot travel destinations like Hawaii and Florida are especially impacted by this shortage.
Some tourists traveling to Hawaii are now opting to rent U-Hauls instead.
See more stories on Insider's business page.

Hot travel destinations like Hawaii and Florida are facing a massive rental-car shortage that's causing outrageously high rental-car prices and fully booked fleets.

To avoid this shortage and inflated prices, experts are advising travelers to plan ahead. However, some tourists in Hawaii have found a savvier workaround to this rental-vehicle shortage: rent a U-Haul instead.

"We have seen a considerable uptick in U-Haul rentals from customers who are visiting the islands now," Kaleo Alau, the president of U-Haul Company in Hawaii, told Insider in an email statement. "We realize this demand is occurring when tourists are unable to secure a rental-car, or they learn that our rental fleet options are more affordable.

Most of these tourists are opting for U-Haul's less sizable vehicles, such as its pickup trucks or cargo vans, according to Alau. But now, unsurprisingly, some U-Haul locations have less equipment on hand to serve the locals.

"We are working everyday with our primary customer base - the islands' residential movers - to ensure we can still meet their transportation needs," Alau said.

Inflated prices in Hawaii and other markets

Two to three years ago, rental cars in Hawaii averaged at about $50 a day. Now, some rentals are going for over $500 a day, Jonathan Weinberg, the founder and CEO of AutoSlash, told Insider. Prices have even risen to $700 in some extreme cases, Chris Woronka, a senior hotel-and-leisure analyst at Deutsche Bank, told Insider.

Hawaii isn't the only state seeing this "car-rental apocalypse." Destinations like Florida, Phoenix, Arizona, and Puerto Rico are all running low on rental cars.

Travelers looking to book a rental-vehicle in these warm weathered locations a week in advance could see prices about five to 10 times the average, Weinberg said. Those who are planning ahead could still see up to triple the typical costs.

"People are quickly realizing that they need to take the cost of the rental car into account because it's no longer just an add-on," Weinberg said. "It could be the majority cost of your trip, so folks who are planning things last minute are unpleasantly surprised by it."

The cause for this shortage

This rental-car shortage is being caused by a "perfect storm," according to Woronka.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the US and travel halted around the world, several rental-car companies sold off chunks of their fleets to save money. But now, people are coming out of their over year-long coronavirus-induced travel hibernation, and are booking flights and "revenge vacations" again. As a result, demand for rental-vehicles are now clashing with the rental-car companies' diminished fleets.

However, these companies can't just buy their fleets back. Right now, used car prices are skyrocketing, and there's a lack of new cars d ue to the computer-chip shortage.

To alleviate this issue, car-rental company Enterprise is "working closely with our manufacturing partners since last summer to continue to add vehicles to our fleet to meet the ongoing increase in demand," the company told Insider in an email statement. It has also been moving vehicles from less frequented destinations to more popular travel hotspots, although this could create a "balancing act" problem, according to Woronka.

Hertz - another popular rental-car company - is also expecting "strong demand" through the summer, and is now seeing decreased availability in certain markets, Hertz told Insider in an email statement.

To combat this issue, travelers have started turning to alternatives, such as Turo, a car-sharing company, and now, U-Hauls.

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I flew on 7 US airlines and the best to fly during the pandemic is still abundantly clear. Here's which airline is handling 2021 the best.

American Airlines and United Airlines at LAX — American Airlines and United Airlines planes at Los Angeles International Airport.
Kit Leong/Shutterstock.com

Airlines are changing their pandemic-era health and safety as the pandemic enters its second year.
Middle seat blocking policies are largely a thing of the past and in-flight amenities are returning.
Delta Air Lines is still a pandemic winner due to its middle-seat blocking policy and heightened focus on safety.
See more stories on Insider's business page.

Airlines are on the road back to normal and the travel landscape this year is already proving to be a world away from last year, during the pandemic's peak.

Air traveler numbers in the US have skyrocketed to over one million passengers per day since March 11, according to the Transportation Security Administration, and more Americans will undoubtedly resume flying once they receive their vaccines now that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given the green light.

Flying now, in many ways, is just like it was before the pandemic. Masks are now mandated by federal law but most airlines that blocked middle seats in 2020 have no abandoned the practice while many are restoring amenities like the in-flight snack and drink service.

The summer of vaccinated travel is approaching and those expecting empty flights are going to be disappointed. Crowded flights are common and not all airlines are taking the same measures to keep flyers safe and healthy.

On recent trips in the first quarter of 2021, I set out to fly on as many different US airlines as possible to see how each was adapting to the extended duration of the pandemic.

From ultra-low-cost carriers to the largest airline in the US, here's how each ranked in the new year.

7. Frontier Airlines

Blocking middle seats or allowing free flight changes for crowded flights

Flying Frontier Airlines during pandemic — **Flying Frontier Airlines during the pandemic.**
**Thomas Pallini/Insider**

Frontier is not blocking middle seats or allowing free flight changes for crowded flights. Passengers that don't choose to pay for a seat have one randomly assigned and the airline doesn't appear to be prioritizing spacing.

I was assigned a seat in a crowded row, for example, when empty rows were available and many took it upon themselves to move rows.

Customer service agents at the airport may allow a free seat change but that all depends on the flight and the agent. Flight attendants aboard the aircraft also may allow a seat change but some prefer to wait until the aircraft is airborne.

Boarding

Frontier boards aircraft from the back to the front in an effort to ensure flyers in the back don't have to walk through a crowded plane. Passengers also must submit to a temperature check before stepping on the plane.

Onboard the aircraft

Mask-wearing policies were enforced but many passengers consistently disregarded the rule on a flight I took from Las Vegas to Seattle.

Frontier also does not offer an in-flight snack and beverage service during the pandemic. Bottles of water are available for purchase, however, for $2.99.

Deplaning

Flight attendants reminded passengers to keep their distance while deplaning but it was ultimately up to the passengers when they got up.

6. American Airlines

Blocking middle seats or allowing free flight changes for crowded flights

Flying on American Airlines during pandemic — **Flying on American Airlines during the pandemic.**
**Thomas Pallini/Insider**

American does not block any seats onboard its aircraft and instead gives flyers an option to change off a flight if it fills up, depending on availability on other flights. It's a nice gesture but I've found that this is rarely a dependable alternative since crowded flights are becoming more common and there's no guarantee an emptier flight will remain empty.

Boarding

American still uses its normal boarding procedure where passengers are assigned a group depending on their seat location. The front of the aircraft tends to fill up first, forcing passengers to walk through a crowded aircraft to get to their seats.

Basic economy passengers, regardless of where they are sitting, board in the very last group.

Onboard the aircraft

American offers a small in-flight service consisting of a bottle of water, sanitary wipe, and snack in a sealed bag. The offering is basic but more than nothing.

Deplaning

Flight attendants asked passengers to social distance during deplaning but it went largely unheeded.

5. Southwest Airlines

Blocking middle seats or allowing free flight changes for crowded flights

Flying on Southwest Airlines during pandemic — **Flying on Southwest Airlines during the pandemic.**
**Thomas Pallini/Insider**

Southwest no longer limits capacity onboard its aircraft and every seat can be sold. Passengers are also no longer notified of full flights, Travel Weekly reported.

Boarding

Southwest has reverted to its normal boarding process where flyers are assigned a boarding group and 30 passengers board at a time. Seats in the front of the plane typically fill up first and flyers head towards empty rows in the back.

Flyers can get in a better boarding group by checking in for their flight exactly 24 hours in advance and then head straight to the back of the plane to avoid other passengers.

Onboard the aircraft

Southwest offers a snack and beverage service on flights greater than 250 miles. On offer is ice water, Coke, Diet Coke, and 7Up, in addition to snack bags.

The low-cost airline was one of the airline airlines to offer this service at the beginning of the pandemic.

Deplaning

Flight attendants asked passengers to keep their distance while deplaning but the warning went unheeded.

4. Alaska Airlines

Blocking middle seats or allowing free flight changes for crowded flights

Flying on Alaska Airlines during pandemic — **Flying on Alaska Airlines during the pandemic.**
**Thomas Pallini/Insider**

Alaska no longer blocks middle seats after abandoning the practice in January and doesn't proactively offer flight changes for crowded flights. Middle seats are, however, blocked in the airline's new economy premium class that also includes complimentary alcohol and early boarding.

Boarding

Alaska still uses its normal boarding procedure where passengers are assigned a group depending on their seat location. The front of the aircraft tends to fill up first, forcing passengers to walk through a crowded aircraft to get to their seats.

Basic economy passengers, regardless of where they are sitting, board in the very last group.

Onboard the aircraft

Alaska offers an in-flight snack and drink service with a selection of soft drinks in miniature cans accompanied by a snack bag. A sanitary wipe is also included for good measure.

Deplaning

Flight attendants asked passengers to keep their distance while deplaning but the warning went unheeded.

3. JetBlue Airways

Blocking middle seats or allowing free flight changes for crowded flights

Flying on JetBlue Airways during pandemic — Flying on JetBlue Airways during the pandemic.
Thomas Pallini/Insider

JetBlue no longer blocks middle seats on its aircraft having abandoned the policy in October and doesn't proactively inform customers of crowded flights.

Boarding

JetBlue abandoned back-to-front in March and now uses its normal boarding procedure where passengers are assigned a group depending on their seat location. The front of the aircraft tends to fill up first, forcing passengers to walk through a crowded aircraft to get to their seats.

Some JetBlue hubs like New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport have automated boarding gates where flyers don't have to interact with a gate agent. Airports without the technology, however, operate in the traditional method.

Onboard the aircraft

JetBlue has resumed its in-flight snack and beverage with a choice of soft drinks in a miniature can, accompanied by a snack. Cookies, chips, Cheez-Its, and a granola bar are on offer.

Hand sanitizer and sanitary wipes are also available on request.

Deplaning

Flight attendants asked passengers to keep their distance while deplaning but the warning went unheeded.

2. United Airlines

Blocking middle seats or allowing free flight changes for crowded flights

**Flying on a United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9.**
**Thomas Pallini/Insider**

United does not block any seats onboard its aircraft and instead gives flyers an option to change off a flight if it fills up, depending on availability on other flights. It's a nice gesture but I've found that this is rarely a dependable alternative since crowded flights are becoming more common and there's no guarantee an emptier flight will stay empty.

Boarding

United boards aircraft from the back to the front in an effort to ensure flyers in the back don't have to walk through a crowded plane. First class flyers and elite status holders, however, could board at any time.

Airports have also been overhauled with new safety features and reminders to social distance can be found in the jetway.

Onboard the aircraft

Passengers were given a snack bag that included snacks, a napkin, a bottle of water, and sanitizing wipe. Sanitary wipes are also distributed during boarding.

Flight attendants also performed a beverage service with a standard selection of soft drinks.

Deplaning

Flight attendants asked passengers to keep their distance while deplaning but the warning went unheeded. Some United flights also deplane by rows but it's increasingly uncommon.

1. Delta Air Lines

Blocking middle seats or allowing free flight changes for crowded flights

Flying on Delta Air Lines during pandemic — **Flying on Delta Air Lines during the pandemic.**
**Thomas Pallini/Insider**

Delta is the last major US airline to keep middle seats and some aisle seats blocked. The policy is slated to end on May 1, however, when Delta will fill planes to capacity.

Blocking middle seats is a popular selling feature for those flying for the first time since the pandemic began and Delta kept it going the longest. I could always breathe easier when flying Delta knowing I wouldn't have a seat neighbor.

The airline has encroached on the policy, however, when needed to rebook passengers from canceled flights. But for the most part, it was a great strategy that made flying on Delta all the better during the pandemic.

Boarding

Delta boards aircraft from the back to the front in an effort to ensure flyers in the back don't have to walk through a crowded plane. First class flyers and Delta elite status holders, however, could board at any time.

Airports have also been overhauled with new safety features and reminders to social distance can be found in the jetway.

Onboard the aircraft

Delta was one of the only airlines offering an in-flight snack and beverage service at the beginning of the pandemic. A sealed plastic bag containing a bottle of water, snack, hand sanitizer packet, napkin, and placard outlining Delta's safety protocols is distributed to passengers.

Those in Delta Comfort+ or first class also have the option of complimentary beer or wine, and snack boxes are also available in premium cabins on certain flights, like those between Los Angeles and New York.

I was surprised that alcohol was on offer but there were no soft drinks to be found. Delta is improving the offering, however, and giving passengers more snack and drink options, including hot meals in first class on certain transcontinental flights.

Deplaning

Flight attendants asked passengers to keep their distance while deplaning but the warning went unheeded.

The Winner

**A Delta Air Lines Airbus A220.**
**Nicolas Economou/Shutterstock.com**

Delta is still the clear winner among the airlines I've flown in 2021.

The airline's middle seat blocking policy would be enough to earn the title but the airline has gone above and beyond including completely overhauling airports in its network to its new standards, as I saw in New York, Texas, Utah, and California. The measures that Delta is taking in the in-flight offering department are also a step in the right direction.

Although Delta is abandoning the seat-blocking policy in May, I'm confident that the airline will maintain a dedication to safety.

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