This History Today series aims to document what life is like in this period of history. I update whenever I feel like it.

Aspects of daily life:

• It’s been a week since the election. The Associated Press has called the election for Joe Biden as the President-Elect. But the votes have not been certified yet. There’s about 76 million votes for Biden and 71 million for Trump, both of those are records.
• There’s a lot of talk about voter/election fraud, mostly from the Republican party. Trump has declared himself the winner. His Twitter is full of links to articles about instances of fraud and declarations that he actually won. It seems to me to be inconsistent with American ideals about free elections. I think they should double-check (which the certifying process does), but he shouldn’t insist there’s fraud just because he lost.
• The proof that has been cited by Trump and right wing media don’t hold up. I found two clips of poll workers filling in ballots, but these instances have been explained as duplicating ballots that are ruined by counting machines (which are marked as duplicates and not double counted).
• News about a vaccine showing promising results for a trial done by Pfizer (90% effectiveness). I hope it’s good. Trump had awarded a contract to Pfizer for $1.9 billion to get 100 million doses by December. If the quickness of this vaccine is because of the contract from Trump, he should be recognized for that. However, I don’t think it erases things he has said and done (or not done).
• I’m overwhelmed by my school and am tired everyday. I shouldn’t do so much school, but I have such a drive to overachieve that I can hardly like myself when I’m not working at 100% (meaning no relaxation).
• I want quarantine to end. So bad.