Vaccinations are tapering off in the United States, with the nationwide average of daily shots dropping below 1 million last week. Cities, states and private organizations are offering an array of incentives to boost the numbers — including a free cannabis campaign promoted by Washington state.
Here are some significant developments:
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is weighing whether to fully reopen society as a new and highly infectious coronavirus variant surges. British scientists say the strain B. 1.617.2, originally discovered in India and known now as the Delta variant, is exploding.
- Several Republican governors, who are pushing to end enhanced unemployment benefits, have ties to companies that would benefit from the change, a Washington Post investigation found.
- World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on coronavirus vaccine manufacturers to give half their doses to Covax, the initiative to distribute vaccines equitably, as part of a push to inoculate 30 percent of the world’s population by Dec. 31.
- Norwegian Cruise Line plans to restart cruises for fully vaccinated passengers from Miami to the Caribbean and Bahamas from August, in possible violation of Florida state law banning businesses from requiring proof of vaccination.
- India reported 86,498 new infections on Tuesday, the first time in over 60 days it had registered fewer than 100,000 cases in a 24-hour period. Experts say that New Delhi’s case numbers are probably an undercount.
- The United States reported a seven-day rolling average of 15,589 new infections on Monday, down nearly 15 percent from the previous week. The number of hospitalizations, deaths and tests continued to fall.
Highly transmissible India variant makes up 6 percent of U.S. infections, White House says
The highly transmissible variant first identified in India accounts for 6 percent of coronavirus infections in the United States, the Biden administration said Tuesday, but vaccines appear to be highly effective against the version, which has quickly spread into Britain and beyond.
Anthony S. Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, revealed the extent of the variant’s push into the United States but said it appears to be slowed by both types of vaccines available — the mRNA and adenovirus-vectored types.
“It’s essentially taking over” in Britain, Fauci said at a news briefing. “We cannot let that happen in the United States, which is such a powerful argument” for vaccination, he added.
Fauci showed data from the British public health agency that two doses of the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca are 88 percent effective against the new variant. He said in an interview that the Pfizer data would be similar to data involving Moderna’s product, which also is an mRNA vaccine.
But one dose offers just 33 percent protection, the data shows, a reminder of how strongly the second shot boosts immunity to the virus, he said. With the United States in the midst of providing vaccines to adolescents and other people who have waited to get them, second doses are critical, he said.
Washington state promotes ‘joints for jabs’ to push residents to get their shots
Washington state residents can now get a free joint with their vaccine.
The state’s liquor and cannabis board announced on Monday that to encourage coronavirus vaccinations it will temporarily allow state-licensed cannabis retailers to provide a free joint to adults who get their first or second dose at a vaccine clinic at one of the locations.
It’s the latest in an ever-expanding list of incentives popping up across the county meant to push people to get their shots. “Joints for jabs” promotions have been around for months, with local cannabis activist groups and dispensaries offering joints to the vaccinated. Now, a state is promoting the program.
Washington’s “joints for jabs” program is running from June 7-12. Licensed cannabis retailers can provide one free pre-rolled joint to adults who get a first or second coronavirus vaccine dose at a participating vaccine clinic event at the retail location.
Washington’s program to push more shots in arms also comes amid a waning vaccination pace nationwide. The United States has recently averaged fewer than 1 million shots per day, a decline of more than two-thirds from a mid-April peak of more than 3.3 million doses per day, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.
Rise of Delta variant puts Boris Johnson in a tough spot as he weighs Britain’s reopening
In the next few days, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson must decide whether to fully reopen society as a new and highly infectious coronavirus variant surges.
Johnson will make this decision as British scientists — who are running one of the best genomic surveillance programs in the world — are telling him that the viral strain B. 1.617.2, originally discovered in India and known now as the Delta variant, is exploding — and that Britain could soon enter a dreaded third wave of infection.
The Delta variant is at least 40 percent more infectious, Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed Monday, and it is quickly becoming the dominant strain in Britain. It is outpacing an earlier variant, first discovered in southeastern England, that is now ubiquitous in Europe and the United States.
A judge’s momentous gun rights ruling comes with a side of coronavirus vaccine misinformation
The true extent of coronavirus vaccine misinformation is something that, like all misinformation, is difficult to gauge. Many Americans — particularly Republicans — are declining vaccination, but plenty of them are doing so because of a perceived lack of necessity. From there, various theories abound, including about what’s in the vaccines and potential side effects.
But when it comes to epitomizing how much such misinformation has penetrated our society, it’s difficult to do better than this: a federal judge inserting a baseless claim about vaccine deaths in a completely unrelated opinion.
“More people have died from the Covid-19 vaccine than mass shootings in California,” U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez wrote in a momentous ruling striking down an assault-weapons ban in California.
This is, to put it diplomatically, completely baseless. Such claims often come with citations to back them up, but Benitez offers none, probably because there isn’t one.
Analysis: Biden will likely miss his July 4 vaccination goal due to states that didn’t vote for him
The goal was ambitious but not complicated. Biden wanted at least 70 percent of American adults to have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by July 4, moving the country closer to the point at which the virus couldn’t spread easily.
It seems increasingly likely that we won’t hit that mark. And if we don’t, it will probably be because of states that voted against Biden in November.
For the first few months of the vaccine rollout, there wasn’t a big divide between Biden states and those that voted for former president Donald Trump in terms of the uptake of the coronavirus vaccine. During that period, most of the vaccine rollout was targeted at older Americans, a group that has been disproportionately affected by covid-19, the disease the virus causes.
But then things diverged, at about the time that use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was paused.
Nepal restarts coronavirus vaccinations after China donates doses
Nepal on Tuesday restarted vaccinating elderly residents after China donated 1 million coronavirus vaccine doses to the Himalayan nation’s struggling immunization campaign.
Nepalese officials had called on the international community to help secure vaccine doses amid a deadly surge in infections that is still ravaging the population. China stepped in to assist its neighbor following a call from Nepal’s president, the Associated Press reported. On Tuesday, authorities again began vaccinating residents aged 64 and older.
So far, Nepal has immunized less than 3 percent of its 30 million people, according to Our World in Data, which tracks publicly available figures. The country was hit by a wave of new cases that coincided with India’s devastating outbreak.
Nepal kept its border with India open as a stream of migrant workers returned home. And at the beginning of May, as much as 44 percent of coronavirus tests were coming back positive, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
At the same time India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, announced a ban on vaccine exports meeting skyrocketing demand at home.
Nepal was relying on vaccine doses manufactured in India to prop up its immunization drive.
The country was also included on a list of Asian nations the Biden administration said would receive vaccine doses from the United States. It was unclear, however, how many doses Nepal would receive.
Immigrant mothers had to help their children with remote learning in a language they hadn’t mastered
NEW YORK CITY — Trina Haque had always felt it: the glare from others, the slight change in tone in a conversation when it became clear that she couldn’t speak English fluently. But the pandemic brought it even closer to home: Her children told her she could be of no help with their remote learning because of the language barrier.
Haque, a Bangladeshi immigrant who has lived in New York City for 15 years, said although not speaking English was an underlying challenge before the pandemic, it was often mitigated by meeting with her children’s teachers in person.
Haque hasn’t been alone in this struggle during the pandemic. As stay-at-home orders pushed schools into the tricky-to-navigate territory of remote learning, many immigrant mothers say they felt the weight of it disproportionately.
Analysis: The world is reopening. But not all of us are ready for ‘normal.’
Pants with zippers, bras with hooks, small talk, traffic — and frantic “I’m running a little 8” voice texts while we’re stuck in that traffic — are back.
And I’m not ready.
Can I hit the snooze button on this whole return-to-normal thing?
In these weeks when our circadian rhythms tell us to begin the annual unclenching because summer is here, we’re not exhaling. We’re taking off in a sprint as airplane travel, sports, in-person meetings, concerts, shows, graduations and even a Donald Trump rally (limp as it was) all came roaring back this month.
Make it stop. Please?
“You know, I’m not really sure if I’m ready for post-pandemic life,” Jen Humston, 28, said after a busy weekend of graduations, lunches and Pride events in Fairborn, Ohio, that reminded her that life before the coronavirus wasn’t exactly normal, either.
WHO warns of ‘two-track pandemic,’ calls on vaccine makers to share doses with Covax
Coronavirus vaccine manufacturers should commit half of the doses they produce this year to Covax, the initiative to distribute vaccines more equitably worldwide, the head of the World Health Organization said Monday.
The call by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus comes amid a wider push by the agency to inoculate 30 percent of the global population by the end of the year.
In remarks to reporters at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Tedros urged manufacturers to give Covax “first right of refusal on new volume of vaccines, or to commit 50 percent of their volumes to Covax this year.”
“Sharing vaccines now is essential for ending the acute phase of the pandemic,” he said. “But it’s also clear that in an emergency, low-income countries cannot rely solely on imports of vaccines from wealthier nations.”
More than 2.1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered globally. But most of the shots have been distributed in North America and Europe, as well as in middle-income nations like China, India and Brazil, which have accelerated their inoculation programs in recent months.
Death rates have also plummeted in wealthier countries but rose last week in Africa, the Americas and the Western Pacific region, Tedros said.
“Globally, we continue to see encouraging signs in the trajectory of the pandemic. However, we still see a mixed picture around the world,” he said. “Increasingly, we see a two-track pandemic: many countries still face an extremely dangerous situation, while some of those with the highest vaccination rates are starting to talk about ending restrictions.”
Australian regulator warns mining billionaire against spreading vaccine misinformation
Australia’s medicine regulator has warned a billionaire politician against spreading misinformation after he allegedly endorsed radio advertisements that claimed hundreds of Australians died after receiving coronavirus vaccine shots.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration said Tuesday that it found only one case of a death related to inoculation. “Sadly, about 160,000 people die in Australia every year — almost 3,000 each week — and therefore it is quite expected that there have been some deaths reported within days or a few weeks of vaccination,” the agency said in a statement.
“Public figures have a responsibility to be factual and … not to undermine our health through spreading misleading information,” it added.
According to Radio Today, an Australian trade publication, ads were played across radio stations in the state of Queensland claiming that “the TGA reports that there’s been 210 deaths and over 24,000 adverse reactions after COVID vaccinations.” The advertisements ended with a line saying that they were authorized by Clive Palmer.
This isn’t the first time that Palmer, whose fortune is pegged by Forbes at around $3.8 billion, has made covid-related headlines. Last year, his foundation said it had donated 32.9 million doses of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug whose use against covid had been advocated by then-President Donald Trump, to the Australian government.
Studies have shown that the drug is not effective for early treatment of mild covid.
Australia has been a model of coronavirus containment, with just over 30,000 reported cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic started. While its vaccination program is accelerating, only just over 2 percent of its population has been fully inoculated.
India’s new daily coronavirus cases drop below 100,000 for the first time in two months
India on Tuesday recorded fewer than 100,000 new daily coronavirus cases for the first time in more than two months, as the worst of the country’s devastating outbreak appeared to finally be waning.
The Health Ministry reported 86,498 infections over the past 24 hours, along with 2,123 deaths. At its peak last month, the surge was infecting more than 400,000 people each day with over 4,000 deaths, a staggering number that many experts believe was still a vast undercount.
In total, India has logged more than 29 million coronavirus cases — second only to the United States, where overall infections top 33 million — and over 350,000 deaths.
Cases began surging in March amid complacency over the threat of the virus and a series of superspreader events, including religious festivals and massive political rallies.
As more-contagious variants tore through the population, critically ill patients overwhelmed hospitals, some of which faced shortages of oxygen and other supplies.
The recent decline in new cases across India, however, has prompted some states to loosen restrictions, including reopening markets and allowing public transport to operate at reduced capacity.
India’s vaccination campaign is forging ahead. But according to Health Ministry data, authorities have fully vaccinated only about 4 percent of the population of more than 1.3 billion people.
England could delay further reopening as coronavirus numbers spike
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could be forced to delay a plan to abolish most social distancing requirements in England on June 21 after a recent sharp rise in coronavirus cases, according to the Times of London.
Citing an anonymous government source, the Times reported that a delay of “between two weeks and a month” was likely after top health officials gave a ministerial briefing Monday that was described as “fairly grim.”
“They emphasised again that the vaccine did not provide 100 per cent protection and there were real concerns about the transmissibility of the new variants,” the source told the newspaper.
The British government had hoped to lift restrictions, including a ban on night clubs, and guidance to work from home and keep three feet apart in restaurants on June 21. Government ministers have refused to rule out a possible delay.
“It’s too early to say,” Environment Secretary George Eustice told Sky News on Tuesday, adding that while infections had “ticked up,” there has not been a corresponding rise in hospitalizations. He declined to characterize the situation as “grim.”
A public announcement is slated for next week, Eustice said. Many lawmakers in Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party have been pushing for social distancing curbs to be removed as soon as possible.
More than half of Britain’s population has been fully inoculated, giving it among the highest vaccination rates in the world. But on Monday, the country reported a seven-day rolling average of 5,020 new infections, or up nearly 40 percent from a week ago.
There is particular concern about the spread of the Delta variant that was first detected in India. There have been over 12,300 cases of the variant identified in Britain, leading to 126 hospitalizations, the Times said. Fears of the highly contagious variant led Britain to remove Portugal from its “green list” of destinations from which people could enter the country without quarantine — forcing a scramble of British holidaymakers to return home by early Tuesday to avoid quarantine.
Norwegian Cruise Line says vaccinated trips to go ahead despite Florida law
Florida-based Norwegian Cruise Line announced on Monday that it would be restarting its cruises from Miami with fully vaccinated passengers, setting up a possible showdown with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who signed a law barring businesses from imposing vaccine requirements for service.
Cruises, an integral part of the Florida economy, have been halted in the United States since March 2020 after they proved to be fertile breeding grounds for the coronavirus. Florida includes three of the world’s busiest cruise ports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set out recommendations for renewed cruising, including 98 percent coronavirus vaccination rates for crew and 95 percent for passengers — prompting cries of federal overreach from DeSantis, who has campaigned heavily against any kind of vaccination requirements for businesses.
DeSantis’s law, which goes into effect July 1, did not include any exemptions for the cruise industry and it is unclear how Norwegian can ensure all passengers are vaccinated without running afoul of the governor’s measures. In a statement, the cruise line said it was in contact with his office.
The Miami Herald slammed DeSantis’s law in an editorial, describing it as poorly considered and political with little thought about the jobs and livelihoods connected with the industry.
“Ron DeSantis’ ill-thought-out ban on vaccine passports is keeping Florida’s cruising industry in limbo, potentially costing the state tourist dollars and jobs,” stated the June 5 editorial. “But apparently that’s OK with DeSantis, as long as he scores political points with his GOP base.”
There are, however, signs of a behind-the-scenes deal that might exempt the cruise industry, on the grounds that passengers are no longer subject to state laws once they are on the ship.
“As soon as you pass through and step on the ship, you’re no longer considered to be local. You’re now in international waters,” Dondra Ritzenthaler, a senior executive at Celebrity Cruises, told travel agents in a call whose audio recording was obtained by Forbes.
Japan’s worries about pandemic Olympics ease — slightly — as vaccination rollout accelerates
As coronavirus cases climbed and a state of emergency covering much of the population was extended and expanded, Japanese public opinion turned against hosting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games this summer. But with case numbers having fallen sharply as an inoculation drive took off in recent weeks, public sentiment is starting to shift.
That’s according to a new poll carried out over the weekend by the Yomiuri newspaper, which found that 50 percent of Japanese people now think the Olympics should go ahead as planned; a month ago, only 39 percent of the public said the same. Fewer than half (48 percent) now think the Games, which start on July 23, should be canceled and 24 percent even say that a limited number of spectators should be allowed in sporting venues.
Tokyo has banned overseas spectators from attending the Games but has yet to make a decision on local audiences.
As of Sunday, about 10 percent of Japanese residents have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to Our World in Data, which tracks publicly available figures. While Asia’s second-largest economy is still a laggard compared to other developed countries, that’s about four times as many people as a month ago.
Japan reported a seven-day rolling average of 2,513 new infections on Sunday, or down from a high of around 6,400 in mid-May.
The same poll found that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s approval ratings have continued to plummet but it seems that more people are starting to believe his assertion that a “safe and secure” Olympics can be held.
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