Fauci says "full-blown" pandemic is almost over

[View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter]( February 9, 2022 Howdy. Back in college, I took a class with a literature professor heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud. I loved this professor, but I'll admit that he did have an occasionally startling tendency to read the [Oedipus complex]( into places where it simply didn't seem to exist, like, I don't know, Parisian architecture. Sometimes, I think about this professor when I hear Florida governor (and potential 2024 presidential contender) Ron DeSantis speak about "wokeness." DeSantis has a way of finding "wokeness" everywhere he looks, much in the way my professor was haunted by the Oedipus complex whenever he saw [this painting by Gustav Klimt](. Wokeness was originally a term meant to urge Black Americans to stay alert to racial injustices, but it's recently been co-opted by right-wingers like DeSantis, who basically use it as a catch-all to refer to things they don't like. (This is part of a disturbing trend. People appropriate the language of Black struggle [all the time](.) The looseness of the term led my colleague Abigail Weinberg to [compile a list]( of all the things that DeSantis considers "woke," and it's pretty hilarious. As Abigail put it, "at this hit rate, Ron DeSantis will have trouble defeating wokeness. To him, it seems to be nearly everything." Our efforts to catalog what DeSantis considers woke are ongoing. If you find another example, please email Abigail at [aweinberg@motherjones.com](. —Noah Y. Kim Advertisement [House Donations Ad]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [Fauci Says “Full-Blown” Pandemic Is Almost Over]( He also expressed optimism that Covid restrictions could soon be lifted. BY INAE OH [Trending] [It sure looks like a notorious prison tech giant is preparing to cash in on Pell Grants for prisoners]( BY MADISON PAULY [Here are the things Ron DeSantis thinks are "woke"]( BY ABIGAIL WEINBERG [How giving legal rights to an Indigenous food could stop a pipeline]( BY EAMON WHALEN [World leaders convene in France for a summit to save the oceans]( BY JON HENLEY Advertisement [House Donations Ad]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [More Immigrants Are Waiting in Legal Limbo Than Ever Before. Why Is It So Hard to Fix the Backlog in the Courts?]( New data shows a record 1.6 million cases in the immigration court pipeline. BY FERNANDA ECHAVARRI [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755