COVID-19 News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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U.S. warns against travel to Israel, Portugal and Spain as delta fuels outbreaks
Source: Washington Post

The United States is now warning against travel to Israel and several European countries as the more contagious delta variant fuels coronavirus outbreaks mostly among the unvaccinated.

The State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new travel advisories Monday for Israel, Cyprus, Portugal and Spain, as well as Kyrgyzstan, citing surging case numbers in all five countries.

The warnings came as the White House also said it had no plans to lift broad restrictions on visitors from Britain, Europe’s Schengen region and other nations such as Brazil, China, India and South Africa. Spain and Portugal have already reopened to U.S. travelers — and Canada said it would allow entry to vaccinated Americans beginning next month.

But, “given where we are today … with the delta variant, we will maintain existing travel restrictions at this point,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... t-updates/
weatheriscool
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CDC updates guidance, recommends vaccinated people wear masks indoors in certain areas
Source: CNN
(CNN) To prevent further spread of the Delta variant, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance on Tuesday to recommend that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors when in areas with "substantial" and "high" transmission of Covid-19, which includes nearly two-thirds of all US counties. New unpublished data showing that vaccinated people infected with the Delta coronavirus variant can have as much virus as those who are unvaccinated is the primary driver for the CDC's latest mask guidance change, a source involved with the decision process told CNN.

Overall, vaccinated people still play a small role in transmission and breakthrough infections are rare. In addition, the source noted two other factors that led to this decision: the prevalence of the Delta variant and low vaccine uptake. When the CDC previously revised its guidance on May 13 for vaccinated people to unmask, Delta only represented 1% of reported infections. Now, according to the CDC, it represents at least 83% of cases.

The source also noted that the country's overall level of vaccination is lower than what was initially expected and that most transmission is happening in areas with vaccination levels below 40% of the population. "When you get information about risks and how to mitigate risks, there's a public health obligation to let people know about it," a senior administration official said. The White House is hoping that the new guidance will give local officials "a lot of cover" to implement new mask mandates where appropriate.

Meanwhile, the guidance for unvaccinated people remains the same: continue masking until they are fully vaccinated.
Nearly half -- 46% -- of US counties currently have high transmission and 17% have "substantial" transmission, according to data from the CDC, as of Tuesday morning.In two states, Arkansas and Louisiana, every county is currently listed as having "high" levels of community transmission of Covid-19, according to CDC data. Several other states -- including Missouri, Mississippi and Alabama -- also have "high" transmission in nearly every county. In Florida, every county was listed with high transmission on Monday; as of Tuesday morning, one -- Glades County -- has substantial transmission.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/health/c ... index.html
weatheriscool
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Biden says White House exploring vaccine mandate for federal employees

Source: WaPo

President Biden said that the federal government was considering making vaccines mandatory for its workforce — what would be a significant escalation in push to expand vaccine coverage as the coronavirus surge from the Delta variant sends shockwaves through the country. “That’s under consideration right now,” he said in response to a reporter’s question at an appearance Tuesday. “If you’re not vaccinated, you’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were.”

There are at least 4 million federal employees, a figure that includes civilian workers, members of the military, and members of the U.S. Postal Service, according to recent estimates, making the government the country’s largest employer. It could not be learned if the discussions about vaccine requirements would also apply to members of the military. The news comes after weeks of waning vaccination rates, despite its wide availability and the swelling number of caseloads across the country.

Public health experts say they are extremely concerned by the sharp rise of cases from the Delta variant as the appetite for restrictions and closures from the pandemic have eased. Many workplaces such as private offices and federal agencies have begun to explore the process of reopening for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020, a process now thrown into peril by the new risk of the variant and the country’s large pockets of unvaccinated people.

Many companies have avoided vaccine mandates, opting instead for guidance urging or recommending the vaccine. But the tide may be turning. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs hospitals and clinics around the country, announced on Monday that it would mandate coronavirus vaccines for more than 100,000 frontline healthcare workers, making it the first federal agency to do so.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... employees/
weatheriscool
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really stupid

weatheriscool
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Scientist sounds alarm: COVID vaccines producing symptoms of Parkinson’s, other neurodegenerative disorders
July 22, 2021 (Children’s Health Defense) – As cases pile up (445 as of July 9) of the reportedly “rare” neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome in people who received a COVID vaccine — forcing the sluggish U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add a warning label to the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) shot — scientists are issuing urgent warnings about a possible tsunami of other types of neurological injuries.Immunologist J. Bart Classen, one-time National Institutes of Health (NIH) contract scientist and proprietor of Classen Immunotherapies, a Maryland biotechnology firm, published a paper in February outlining the potential for messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID vaccines to trigger development of prion diseases as well as other chronic diseases.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/scien ... -disorders

I honestly don't think the Johnson and johnson vaccine is a good choice. It is time to take this seriously.
Xyls
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Why are we posting LifeSiteNews? These are hardly people I would consider to have objective vaccine information. Either way J&J has already published the reports of Guillain-Barre and FDA added a warning on July 13th (see link below). It doesn't really matter anyways as most vaccines in NA are Modern/Pfizer. I would expect LifeSite to be a vaccine misinformation site based on previous reporting...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/12/health/j ... index.html
weatheriscool
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US on track to see 200K daily COVID-19 cases, former CDC director says
Source: The Hill
The U.S. is on track to see 200,000 daily COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks, the former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director told CNN.

"We're heading into a rough time. It's likely, if our trajectory is similar to that in the United Kingdom, that we could see as many as 200,000 cases a day," Tom Frieden said on Monday.

*snip*

The jump in cases is due to the delta variant that has swiftly made its way across the states and caused significant case increases in areas with many unvaccinated individuals.

The case count could quadruple in the next four to six weeks due to the variant, Frieden said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5 ... ector-says
weatheriscool
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Mitch McConnell to Run Ads Urging Vaccination
Source: Political Wire
“McConnell, who was vaccinated for COVID-19 in December and has been promoting vaccinations in public remarks ever since, plans to run 60-second radio ads on more than 100 Kentucky radio stations in the coming days promoting the vaccine with money from his re-election campaign.”

Said McConnell: “There is bad advice out there, you know. Apparently you see that all over the place: people practicing medicine without a license, giving bad advice. And that bad advice should be ignored.”
Read more: https://politicalwire.com/2021/07/28/mi ... ccination/


Reuters link: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mcconn ... 021-07-28/
McConnell aims to boost U.S. Republican vaccination rate by countering 'bad advice'
Many congressional Republicans have refused to say publicly whether they have been vaccinated, and some have attacked the shots as unnecessary or dangerous. This continues a pattern that began early in the pandemic when conservatives protested social-distancing restrictions meant to slow the virus' spread.
weatheriscool
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Covid: No quarantine for fully jabbed US and EU travellers to England
Source: BBC
People who are fully vaccinated from the EU and US will not need to quarantine when arriving in England, the BBC has been told. Currently, people who have been fully vaccinated in the UK do not have to isolate when travelling from countries on the amber list, except from France.

But that exemption did not apply to people vaccinated outside the UK. The government's Covid Operations committee met earlier and made the decision. More details will be released later on Wednesday. It is not yet known when the change will come in - and whether the other UK nations will adopt the rule change. Earlier, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said talks on travel were taking place between the four nations.

The travel industry had been pushing for the change in the rules so that people living abroad can more easily come to the UK for holidays or to visit loved ones. "At the moment we're in this slightly ridiculous situation where if I'm on a plane from Spain, because I'm lucky enough to have had two jabs, once we get to the UK I just wander off, no problem," said travel expert Simon Calder.

"But the person sitting next to me, who happens to have had their vaccinations in Spain, not in the UK, has to go and sit in a room for 10 days. Doesn't make sense."
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57999362
weatheriscool
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Orange County, Florida issues "state of emergency" as Delta variant cases rise.
Source: Business Insider

Orange County, FL is home to many theme parks such as Disney World, Universal, also the city of Orlando.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-v ... ncy-2021-7
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