Hello, and happy Friday! This correspondence is coming to you on the fourth day of Ramadan. Being mindful of the holiday (and the decaffeination that comes with it), I’ll be keeping the next couple of correspondences pretty lite. For those of you observing, Ramadan Mubarak! I hope you all have an easy fast and a fulfilling month ahead 🌙
As for everyone else, I can confirm that your suspicions are correct: not even water.
What I’ve written
As the United States and Britain consider implementing domestic vaccine passports as a fast track back to normalcy, I wrote about why they aren’t worth the shortcut:
It splits society into the jabbed and the jabless, creating the perception that the vaccine is de facto compulsory and that those who refuse one will face social exclusion. That division, public-health experts warn, could entrench inequalities and dissuade vaccine-hesitant populations precisely when governments need to shore up their confidence. Perhaps most concerning, the proposal undermines the narrative that we are all in this together by creating a system that benefits those who are open to vaccination at the expense of those who have concerns. Keep reading here
What I’ve read
This fascinating long read on French tacos, which “are tacos like chicken fingers are fingers.” (New Yorker)
The precise genesis of the French tacos is the subject of competing folklores, but it’s commonly agreed that it was invented sometime around the turn of the twenty-first century in the snacks of the Rhône-Alpes region. “Snacks” are small independent restaurants offering a panoply of takeout and maybe a few tables: snack bars, basically. Typically, they sell kebabs, pizza, burgers, and, now, French tacos. The unifying concept is the lack of need for a fork.
This story on America’s vaccine nationalism, and why donating its surplus doses isn’t as easy as it sounds. (Vanity Fair)
The contracts the Trump administration signed with the vaccine manufacturers prohibit the U.S. from sharing its surplus doses with the rest of the world. … The clauses in question are designed to ensure that the manufacturers retain liability protection, but they have had the effect of projecting the Trump administration’s America First agenda into the Biden era. “That is what has completely and totally prohibited the U.S. from donating or reselling, because it would be in breach of contract,” said a senior administration official involved in the global planning effort. “It is a complete and total ban. Those legal parameters must change before we do anything to help the rest of the world.”
This piece on the century that defined the life of the late Prince Philip. (The Atlantic)
Philip was a man of his age. He was born into a world of deference and tradition that no longer exists: Greece has been a republic since 1973, while the heir to the Danish throne is married to an Australian marketing consultant. In 1937, the 16-year-old Philip walked through German streets for his sister’s funeral as onlookers gave Nazi salutes. His grandson Harry, meanwhile, married a biracial American actor, moved to California, and launched a podcast.
The 20th century was a hell of a ride, and one in which men’s expectations for their lives changed as dramatically as women’s. No one encapsulated that quite as strangely, or as remarkably, as a man who lived for nearly a century himself.
What I’m thinking about
America’s other pandemic, which is getting scarier by the day.
Until next time,
Yasmeen