2021 Doomsday Clock stuck at 100 seconds to midnight – a "historic wake-up call"
By Sophie Lewis
January 27, 2021 / 6:54 PM
/ CBS News
"Leaders and citizens of the world. This is your COVID wake-up call: It is 100 seconds to midnight."
That's the warning scientists gave on Wednesday morning, as they announced that the 2021 Doomsday clock — a visual depiction of perceived threats facing the planet — is holding at a record-close 100 seconds to midnight.
In 2020, the hands of the clock moved from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds — the closest it's ever been to symbolic doom. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Wednesday that it's staying at that same spot in the annual update, calling the COVID-19 pandemic a "wake-up call."