Post by mhbruin on Jun 7, 2021 8:40:48 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 303 Million Shots
Coming TOMORROW: Half of eligible people fully vaccinated
CALIFORNIA
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Tweak Mor Bigots
Burger King is making a statement during pride month: It's trying to get a leg up in the chicken sandwich wars by taking a not-so-subtle dig at rival Chick-fil-A's fraught history with the LGBTQ+ community.
The fast-food chain tweeted last week that it would donate 40 cents to the Human Rights Campaign for every Ch'King chicken sandwich sold in June. The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.
Burger King added it will make those donations "even on Sunday," tweeting the eyes emoji. Chick-fil-A, because of its devout Christian ownership, closes its restaurants on Sundays.
-----------------
Manchin has One Fan
I Imagine Most Racists Love Him Too.
-----------------
McConnell Must Love Manchin
Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Monday said that Sen. Joe Manchin “has become the new Mitch McConnell,” denouncing the West Virginia Democrat for maintaining his support of the legislative filibuster while opposing his party’s expansive election and ethics reform bill.
In an interview on CNN, Bowman (D-N.Y.) invoked past comments by McConnell that cast the Republican Senate leader as a partisan obstructionist to the agendas of former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden.
“Now,” Bowman said, “Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do.”
Bowman asserted that Manchin “is not pushing us closer to bipartisanship. He is doing the work of the Republican Party by being an obstructionist, just like they’ve been since the beginning of Biden’s presidency.”
-----------------
We Beat Alpha, But What About Delta?
-----------------
Can Florida Be Fixed?
Former state representative Sean Shaw and 2018 Democratic candidate for attorney general is embarking on a major effort to increase access to the ballot: He and his organization, People Over Profits, are hoping to get three separate state constitutional amendments passed in 2022. Shaw said in an interview last week that the efforts could cost as much as $20 million combined.
“This is a monumental effort, but democracy is worth it,” he said.
The three separate amendments backed by Shaw would:
A Little Good News From Texas
-----------------
Competition for Louie Gohmert for Dumbest Member of Congress
-----------------
Pay Up Now, or Pay Up Later
The economies of rich countries will shrink by twice as much as they did in the Covid-19 crisis if they fail to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions, according to research.
The G7 countries – the world’s biggest industrialised economies – will lose 8.5% of GDP a year, or nearly $5tn wiped off their economies, within 30 years if temperatures rise by 2.6C, as they are likely to on the basis of government pledges and policies around the world, according to research from Oxfam and the Swiss Re Institute.
The economies of G7 nations contracted by about 4.2% on average in the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic losses from the climate crisis by 2050 would be roughly on the scale of suffering a similar crisis twice every year, according to the research. The UK’s economy would lose 6.5% a year by 2050 on current policies and projections, compared with 2.4% if the goals of the Paris climate agreement are met.
-----------------
Who Could Have Predicted the Pause Would Lead to This?
Safety concerns about Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine along with overall flagging demand for vaccinations have slowed its U.S. rollout to a crawl, leaving close to half of the 21 million doses produced for the United States sitting unused.
J&J’s vaccine was supposed to be an important tool for reaching rural areas and vaccine hesitant Americans because it requires only one shot and has less stringent storage requirements than the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc.
But Americans have largely eschewed it over the six weeks it has been back in use after a pause to study a rare safety issue, according to data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and interviews with health officials and pharmacists in eight states across the country.
Anyone With a Brain
-----------------
Would You Put Your Loved One In a Nursing Home with Unvaccinated Workers?
When 28 residents in two Rochester, New York, nursing homes tested positive for COVID-19 last month, officials there saw the unexpected outbreak as a stark reminder of the potency of the coronavirus vaccine.
While much of the country was lining up for shots, by early May, fewer than 45% of the staff across Rochester Regional Health's skilled nursing facilities was fully vaccinated.
Dr. Robert Mayo, chief medical officer of Rochester Regional Health, which operates six senior living facilities in upstate New York, said the outbreaks showed not just the power of the vaccine, but also the risk of forgoing it.
"It's an important message that we need to keep sharing, that the vaccine is working, and it's working among the most vulnerable patients," said Mayo, who noted that none of the vaccinated residents had symptoms.
Although COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes have decreased dramatically in the months since residents and staff were prioritized for vaccination, nationwide vaccination rates among nursing home staff are lagging -- and experts are concerned that's contributed to dozens of recent outbreaks in long-term care facilities.
-----------------
ICE Is Helping Put American Citizens in Foreign Jails
After two decades in the military, after earning two master’s degrees and navigating a successful career as a corporate coach, Victor Stemberger seemed ready for a peaceful retirement. But he had a new venture in the works.
Mr. Stemberger, of Virginia, had a $10 million inheritance waiting for him, according to men claiming to be affiliated with the Nigerian Ministry of Finance. Through a dizzying web of more than 160 emails over the course of a year, Mr. Stemberger, then 76, somehow grew convinced.
The final step to collect his millions was a good-will gesture: He needed to embark on a whirlwind tour to several countries, stopping first in São Paulo, Brazil, to pick up a small package of gifts for government officials.
With that parcel tucked away safely in his luggage, Mr. Stemberger got ready to board a flight to Spain, the next leg of his trip.
“Standard protocol for dealing with government officials in this part of the world,” Mr. Stemberger assured his son, Vic, in an email. “No contraband — be sure of that.”
The next day, Vic Stemberger received a text from a Spanish number: “Your father is in prison.”
International criminals have long set their sights on older Americans, deceiving them with promises of money or romance and setting them up to unwittingly carry luggage filled with drugs or other contraband, hoping they will not raise flags in customs.
But Mr. Stemberger’s case shines a discomfiting light on a little-known program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as Operation Cocoon, which is devised to disrupt international drug trafficking rings.
Under the program, ICE officials share information with foreign law enforcement agencies when they learn about potential smuggling. But critics say the program does not do enough to warn unwitting drug mules that they are being duped; instead, U.S. officials in some cases are delivering vulnerable older Americans straight into the hands of investigators in foreign countries, where they can be locked up for years.
“If somebody from the U.S. government showed up at my father’s house and spoke to my dad and said, ‘Hey, look, we have reason to believe you’re being scammed,’ there’s 100 percent no doubt he would have dropped it,” Vic Stemberger said.
His father has been in a Spanish prison since the police arrested him as he got off a plane in Madrid nearly two years ago and found more than five pounds of cocaine sewn into jackets in his luggage, according to court documents.
A Spanish court sentenced him last year to seven and a half years in prison.
-----------------
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People Fully Vaccinated | |
Jun 7 | 1,131,867 | 171,310,738 | 139,748,661 |
Jun 6 | 1,133,361 | 170,833,221 | 138,969,323 |
Jun 5 | 1,166,993 | 170,272,150 | 138,112,702 |
Jun 4 | 1,199,416 | 169,735,441 | 137,455,367 |
Jun 3 | 1,215,518 | 169,090,262 | 136,644,618 |
Jun 2 | 1,303,431 | 168,734,435 | 136,155,250 |
Jun 1 | 1,359,049 | 168,489,729 | 135,867,425 |
May 30 | 1,315,466 | 167,733,972 | 135,087,319 |
May 29 | 1,394,832 | 167,157,043 | 134,418,748 |
May 28 | 1,500,632 | 166,388,129 | 133,532,544 |
May 27 | 1,618,194 | 165,718,717 | 132,769,894 |
May 26 | 1,703,162 | 165,074,907 | 131,850,089 |
May 25 | 1,750,524 | 164,378,258 | 131,078,608 |
May 24 | 1,782,714 | 163,907,827 | 130,615,797 |
May 23 | 1,827,882 | 163,309,414 | 130,014,175 |
May 22 | 1,872,697 | 162,470,794 | 129,006,463 |
May 21 | 1,879,526 | 161,278,336 | 127,778,250 |
May 20 | 1,828,681 | 160,177,820 | 126,605,166 |
May 19 | 1,801,333 | 159,174,963 | 125,453,423 |
May 18 | 1,771,807 | 158,365,411 | 124,455,693 |
May 17 | 1,830,360 | 157,827,208 | 123,828,224 |
May 16 | 1,886,917 | 157,132,234 | 122,999,721 |
May 15 | 1,926,448 | 156,217,367 | 121,768,268 |
May 14 | 1,951,333 | 155,251,852 | 120,258,637 |
May 13 | 2,088,962 | 154,624,231 | 118,987,308 |
May 12 | 2,159,146 | 153,986,312 | 117,647,439 |
May 11 | 2,194,787 | 153,448,316 | 116,576,359 |
May 10 | 2,117,025 | 152,819,904 | 115,530,780 |
May 9 | 2,085,022 | 152,116,936 | 114,258,244 |
May 8 | 1,983,391 | 151,315,505 | 112,626,771 |
Feb 16 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 |
Coming TOMORROW: Half of eligible people fully vaccinated
At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | |
% of Total Population | 51.6% | 42.1% |
% of Population 12+ | 61.1% | 49.9% |
% of Population 18+ | 63.7% | 53.0% |
% of Population 65+ | 86.4% | 75.6% |
CALIFORNIA
7-Day Average Administered | |
Jun 7 | 182,811 |
Jun 6 | 183,406 |
Jun 5 | 179,462 |
Jun 4 | 165,253 |
Jun 3 | 165,225 |
Jun 2 | 170,223 |
Jun 1 | 179,213 |
May 30 | 173,351 |
May 29 | 193,204 |
May 28 | 213,796 |
May 27 | 230,733 |
May 26 | 244,708 |
May 25 | 258,249 |
May 24 | 268,071 |
May 23 | 276,166 |
May 22 | 285,578 |
May 21 | 293,987 |
May 20 | 281,184 |
May 19 | 278,632 |
May 18 | 269,324 |
May 17 | 271,943 |
May 16 | 286,457 |
May 15 | 279,347 |
May 14 | 278,877 |
May 13 | 298,328 |
May 12 | 306,629 |
May 11 | 309,119 |
May 10 | 292,285 |
May 9 | 286,170 |
May 8 | 277,007 |
Mar 1 | 214,579 |
-----------------
Tweak Mor Bigots
Burger King is making a statement during pride month: It's trying to get a leg up in the chicken sandwich wars by taking a not-so-subtle dig at rival Chick-fil-A's fraught history with the LGBTQ+ community.
The fast-food chain tweeted last week that it would donate 40 cents to the Human Rights Campaign for every Ch'King chicken sandwich sold in June. The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.
Burger King added it will make those donations "even on Sunday," tweeting the eyes emoji. Chick-fil-A, because of its devout Christian ownership, closes its restaurants on Sundays.
-----------------
Manchin has One Fan
I Imagine Most Racists Love Him Too.
-----------------
McConnell Must Love Manchin
Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Monday said that Sen. Joe Manchin “has become the new Mitch McConnell,” denouncing the West Virginia Democrat for maintaining his support of the legislative filibuster while opposing his party’s expansive election and ethics reform bill.
In an interview on CNN, Bowman (D-N.Y.) invoked past comments by McConnell that cast the Republican Senate leader as a partisan obstructionist to the agendas of former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden.
“Now,” Bowman said, “Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do.”
Bowman asserted that Manchin “is not pushing us closer to bipartisanship. He is doing the work of the Republican Party by being an obstructionist, just like they’ve been since the beginning of Biden’s presidency.”
-----------------
We Beat Alpha, But What About Delta?
-----------------
Can Florida Be Fixed?
Former state representative Sean Shaw and 2018 Democratic candidate for attorney general is embarking on a major effort to increase access to the ballot: He and his organization, People Over Profits, are hoping to get three separate state constitutional amendments passed in 2022. Shaw said in an interview last week that the efforts could cost as much as $20 million combined.
“This is a monumental effort, but democracy is worth it,” he said.
The three separate amendments backed by Shaw would:
- Automatically register any Floridian who’s renewing or updating their driver’s license. Voters would have to opt out of registering to vote instead of opting in.
- Allow Floridians to register to vote at polling places on Election Day or during early voting.
- Undo a provision passed by the Republican-led Florida Legislature in 2019 that required ex-felons hoping to register to vote to first pay off outstanding court fines, fees and restitution.
A Little Good News From Texas
-----------------
Competition for Louie Gohmert for Dumbest Member of Congress
-----------------
Pay Up Now, or Pay Up Later
The economies of rich countries will shrink by twice as much as they did in the Covid-19 crisis if they fail to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions, according to research.
The G7 countries – the world’s biggest industrialised economies – will lose 8.5% of GDP a year, or nearly $5tn wiped off their economies, within 30 years if temperatures rise by 2.6C, as they are likely to on the basis of government pledges and policies around the world, according to research from Oxfam and the Swiss Re Institute.
The economies of G7 nations contracted by about 4.2% on average in the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic losses from the climate crisis by 2050 would be roughly on the scale of suffering a similar crisis twice every year, according to the research. The UK’s economy would lose 6.5% a year by 2050 on current policies and projections, compared with 2.4% if the goals of the Paris climate agreement are met.
-----------------
Who Could Have Predicted the Pause Would Lead to This?
Safety concerns about Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine along with overall flagging demand for vaccinations have slowed its U.S. rollout to a crawl, leaving close to half of the 21 million doses produced for the United States sitting unused.
J&J’s vaccine was supposed to be an important tool for reaching rural areas and vaccine hesitant Americans because it requires only one shot and has less stringent storage requirements than the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc.
But Americans have largely eschewed it over the six weeks it has been back in use after a pause to study a rare safety issue, according to data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and interviews with health officials and pharmacists in eight states across the country.
Anyone With a Brain
-----------------
Would You Put Your Loved One In a Nursing Home with Unvaccinated Workers?
When 28 residents in two Rochester, New York, nursing homes tested positive for COVID-19 last month, officials there saw the unexpected outbreak as a stark reminder of the potency of the coronavirus vaccine.
While much of the country was lining up for shots, by early May, fewer than 45% of the staff across Rochester Regional Health's skilled nursing facilities was fully vaccinated.
Dr. Robert Mayo, chief medical officer of Rochester Regional Health, which operates six senior living facilities in upstate New York, said the outbreaks showed not just the power of the vaccine, but also the risk of forgoing it.
"It's an important message that we need to keep sharing, that the vaccine is working, and it's working among the most vulnerable patients," said Mayo, who noted that none of the vaccinated residents had symptoms.
Although COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes have decreased dramatically in the months since residents and staff were prioritized for vaccination, nationwide vaccination rates among nursing home staff are lagging -- and experts are concerned that's contributed to dozens of recent outbreaks in long-term care facilities.
-----------------
ICE Is Helping Put American Citizens in Foreign Jails
After two decades in the military, after earning two master’s degrees and navigating a successful career as a corporate coach, Victor Stemberger seemed ready for a peaceful retirement. But he had a new venture in the works.
Mr. Stemberger, of Virginia, had a $10 million inheritance waiting for him, according to men claiming to be affiliated with the Nigerian Ministry of Finance. Through a dizzying web of more than 160 emails over the course of a year, Mr. Stemberger, then 76, somehow grew convinced.
The final step to collect his millions was a good-will gesture: He needed to embark on a whirlwind tour to several countries, stopping first in São Paulo, Brazil, to pick up a small package of gifts for government officials.
With that parcel tucked away safely in his luggage, Mr. Stemberger got ready to board a flight to Spain, the next leg of his trip.
“Standard protocol for dealing with government officials in this part of the world,” Mr. Stemberger assured his son, Vic, in an email. “No contraband — be sure of that.”
The next day, Vic Stemberger received a text from a Spanish number: “Your father is in prison.”
International criminals have long set their sights on older Americans, deceiving them with promises of money or romance and setting them up to unwittingly carry luggage filled with drugs or other contraband, hoping they will not raise flags in customs.
But Mr. Stemberger’s case shines a discomfiting light on a little-known program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as Operation Cocoon, which is devised to disrupt international drug trafficking rings.
Under the program, ICE officials share information with foreign law enforcement agencies when they learn about potential smuggling. But critics say the program does not do enough to warn unwitting drug mules that they are being duped; instead, U.S. officials in some cases are delivering vulnerable older Americans straight into the hands of investigators in foreign countries, where they can be locked up for years.
“If somebody from the U.S. government showed up at my father’s house and spoke to my dad and said, ‘Hey, look, we have reason to believe you’re being scammed,’ there’s 100 percent no doubt he would have dropped it,” Vic Stemberger said.
His father has been in a Spanish prison since the police arrested him as he got off a plane in Madrid nearly two years ago and found more than five pounds of cocaine sewn into jackets in his luggage, according to court documents.
A Spanish court sentenced him last year to seven and a half years in prison.
-----------------