good news only

your weekly positive spin

This week was a lot. After waiting in line in New York City’s hottest club, the regal covid test tents, I made it to the airport for my flight home to Montreal. I was nervous about flying during the Omicron spike, but thankfully the pilot came up with a creative way to break the tension and convince a large group of politically diverse individuals to make sure our flight didn’t turn into a super-spreader event.

This week's rough news doesn’t mean we can’t gather around some metaphorical plum pudding and indulge in all the good stuff that came our way too. Let’s end the week on a positive spin!

1 - Chileans to right-wing legacy: Adiosito!

Chile, a country that was once governed by a US-backed military dictatorship, just elected its first progressive president in a while, Gabriel Boric Fon. Fon’s election has left many hopeful that the South American country has decisively repudiated its  tragic past when socialist President Salvador Allende was assassinated and replaced with the brutal general, Augusto Pinochet. 

With his historic election, Boric Fon became the youngest president-elect in Chilean history and, according to my sources, the first world leader to openly come out as a Taylor Swift fan. It’s exactly what I would expect from a millennial world leader whose Wikipedia public domain image could have been a profile photo for a Lumberjack Dating app.

Source: Wikipedia

When he’s not listening to Folklore on repeat, Boric Fon is advocating for a political platform focussed on reducing inequality, increasing income distribution through higher taxes on the rich and promoting a green economy—which makes total sense because he’s an Aquarius. Side note: there’s a contentious debate amongst astrologists about whether 2020 or 2021 was the age of Aquarius, a time defined by revolution and hope. Thanks to Boric Fon's triumph, I think this means we have our answer. 

2 - Deaf contestant wins British "Dancing with the Stars"  

Rose Ayling-Ellis, the first deaf contestant on the UK version of Dancing with the Stars, Strictly Come Dancing, just made history by becoming the first deaf winner of the British dance competition series. The day before the finale she shared an enchanting video reel of all the deaf children who had messaged her saying they were rooting for her. 

Following their unprecedented win, ​​Ayling-Ellis’ dancing partner Giovanni Pernice announced that he would be including a British Sign Language interpreter on his upcoming tour to make it more accessible to the deaf community. I want to give a special shoutout to the American version of the show, which had its own disabled winner in 2016 when Nyle DiMarco charmed audiences and took the ultimate prize home. The show’s first deaf contestant Marlee Matlin shared her excitement in an Instagram post saying, “The whole world is SO proud of you.” 

Source: Marlee Matlin Instagram

I’m definitely not crying. Are you crying? We’re both not crying—right? 

3 - FDA approves amazing new at-home covid treatment

Didn’t think there was any positive covid news this week? Think again! As the Omicron wave descends upon us with increased deaths and hospitalizations, a new drug could offer some much needed relief. Paxlovid, a pill developed by Pfizer, could become the fastest and cheapest way to treat Covid-19, because its effectiveness is high and side-effects mild. The drug can even be taken at home! 

Paxlovid just got approved by the FDA and the United States has already ordered doses for 10 million people. Best of all, Paxlovid will be offered (at least for Americans) at no charge. According to the FDA, patients must take the drug within the first five days of being symptomatic. Doctors are hopeful it will reduce hospitalizations by 90%! Now if only Pfizer could come up with a pill that makes people stop trying to make cauliflower “waffles” happen.

4 - Woman scientist just saved millions of lives with new medical AI tech

Breast cancer survivor, MIT scientist and general badass Regina Barzilay has developed a new AI breast cancer risk model that could dramatically increase early detection and reduce overtreatment for breast cancer patients.

Finally a positive news story about algorithms!

Current models used by doctors to predict breast cancer are only 20 to 25 percent effective, but the algorithm crafted by Barzilay’s team is twice as reliable. While there are fears that AI technology could bake racial bias into its algorithms, the math models created by Barzilay’s team have been just as good at finding breast cancer in Black women, a group at much higher risk for dying of the disease. 

Currently, 42,000 women die of breast cancer in the United States yearly. Hopefully that number will start to shrink thanks to Barzilay’s achievement. The best part is, she’s not even done! Barzilay is even working on increasing access to “3-D mammograms,” the next best thing since 3D printed space pizza. It’s a newer and more advanced type of mammography that could be more reliable than a traditional mammogram. This is the kind of feel-good story that makes the “more women everywhere” argument really irrefutable at this point. 

You can read more about it in a fascinating article in the Washington Post.

Thanks for being here with me this week. I loved having you here. If you’re sick, I love you. If you’re isolating to avoid potentially infecting your loved ones, I love you. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not this year, or at all, I love you. See you next week!