Bloomberg Weekend Reading

Patience is wearing thin with the millions of people who refuse to get vaccinated against Covid-19, as hospitals everywhere buckle under the weight of admissions. There’s a growing campaign to isolate the anti-vax crowd as antisocial outliers. In France, which suffered Europe’s highest tally of new infections, President Emmanuel Macron appears to be gambling on a strategy he says is designed to “piss off” people who’ve not been vaccinated. Even Britain’s Boris Johnson has changed tack, tearing into what he called the “nonsense” that anti-vaxxers spout online. In Canada, Quebec residents will need a vaccine passport to buy marijuana or alcohol. But the highest-profile casualty, in what may have been a ploy to avoid inoculation, appears to be tennis star Novak Djokovic, who’s paying the price for trying to bypass Australia’s strict quarantine rules.

What you’ll want to read this weekend

The U.S. jobs market rebounded strongly last year. In December alone, about 4.5 million workers quit their jobs in a display of confidence that they can find better work and more money elsewhere. But the hiring pool is shrinking as birth rates and migration slow.

Marking the one-year anniversary of American democracy’s darkest day, President Joe Biden blamed his predecessor for the deadly Capitol insurrection. Donald Trump may have decided not to stage his Jan. 6 press conference, but his disregard for the facts has pushed Americans even further apart, Bloomberg Opinion’s Timothy O’Brien writes.

The fanatics who piled into meme coins such as Shiba Inu are experiencing severe pain in this year’s retreat, while billionaire Mike Novogratz says he’s waiting awhile longer before piling back into crypto. As for Matt Damon’s widely panned advert for Crypto.com, that’s about as cringeworthy as you can get, Lionel Laurent writes for Bloomberg Opinion.

Photographer: NurPhoto/NurPhoto

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of defrauding investors, but the startup culture of hype over reality remains intact. If there’s a lesson from her downfall, it’s arguable that few are actually learning from it.

If travel gets back on the agenda this year, here are the 25 most exciting destinations, from Alaska to Zambia. For a dose of exclusivity in New York City, this backroom omakase restaurant will seat just 16 people—a week. If Covid keeps you closer to home, an automobile that changes color or a V10 supercar may tickle your fancy.

Only 16 people will eat at the burnished Mappa burl counter of Kappo Sono weekly.

Photographer: Christian Rodriguez for Bloomberg Pursuits

What you’ll need to know next week

  • U.S.-Russia security talks may ease tensions over Ukraine.
  • Data may show U.S. inflation is running near a 40-year high.
  • Wall Street earnings will confirm 2021 was a banner year.
  • TSMC’s earnings will address the outlook for the chip crunch.
  • Fed Chair Powell appears before Senate panel in second term bid.

What you’ll want to read in Businessweek

The Lost Girls of the Coronavirus Pandemic

The pandemic is erasing decades of progress in young women’s health, education and independence across many developing nations. Kenya, like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has been spared the worst of the virus, but its cautious measures have hit women harder than men, and girls harder than boys.

Kids at Project Elimu in Nairobi.

Photographer: Nichole Sobecki