An employee with the McKesson Corporation scans a box of the Johnson and Johnson COVID vaccine as she fills an order at their shipping facility on March 1, 2021 in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. Credit: pool / Getty images

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An employee with the McKesson Corporation scans a box of the Johnson and Johnson COVID vaccine as she fills an order at their shipping facility on March 1, 2021 in Shepherdsville, Kentucky.
An employee with the McKesson Corporation scans a box of the Johnson and Johnson COVID vaccine as she fills an order at their shipping facility on March 1, 2021 in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. pool / Getty images

Good morning, Portland! And welcome to another Tuesday, another March, another dance through the simulacrum of life in a pandemic. On a totally unrelated note, here’s another to-go cocktail recommendation for you.

Anyway, here are the headlines.

• Oregon is getting a shipment of 34,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine this week! “We believe this vaccine is effective against the virus,” said an OHA official. “A one-dose regimen will allow us to vaccinate more Oregonians more quickly.”

• Speaking of vaccines: Merck, one of Johnson & Johnson’s top rivals, has agreed to help with production of the J&J vaccine—potentially doubling its rate of production. The unusual deal was brokered by the Biden administration. Just look at what we can accomplish when we ignore the arbitrary restraints of ego and capitalism!

• Sending love to the Alabama Amazon warehouse workers:

• Oregon’s Rep. Kurt Schrader was one of only two House Democrats to vote against President Joe Biden’s COVID relief package last week. KGW asked Schrader to explain himself, and he answered that he didn’t support the inclusion of a minimum wage raise in the bill, and that he resented not being allowed to give his input on the bill.

• If new legislation passed in the Oregon Legislature this year, human compositing—as an alternative to burial or cremation—could become legal in the state. We’d be just the second state to allow human compositing, after officials in Washington legalized it last year.

• 🌊🔌:

• Biden issued new sanctions against Russia this morning, as a response to the Russian government’s poisoning of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. The European Union unveiled similar sanctions against Russia today as well.

• A legal case that could soon be heading to the Supreme Court has the potential to make affirmative action illegal. The case, Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, pits white and Asian students against Black and brown applicants, and claims that Harvard’s affirmative action policies are discriminatory against Asian people.

• Three women have now accused New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, both in the workplace and in social settings. Some New York Democrats are now calling on Cuomo to resign.

• We’ll wrap up today with a kitten, pictured next to Mountain Dew for scale:

Blair Stenvick is a former news reporter and culture writer for the Portland Mercury.