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CoronavirusTennessee radio host doubted and mocked vaccines – now he has Covid
Phil Valentine’s family urges listeners to get the shot
Host sang ‘Vaxman’ Beatles parody and touted choice
Tennessee hospital grapples with Delta and vaccine hesitancy
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Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci got into a heated discussion with Republican Senator Rand Paul during a Senate hearing on the coronavirus. Paul pressed Fauci on previous comments made to the committee about funding for a lab in Wuhan, China, ‘You take an animal virus and you increase its transmissibility to humans, you’re saying that’s not ‘gain of function’?’ To which Fauci replied, ‘Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And, I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about’
‘If anybody is lying here, it is you’: Fauci turns tables on inquisitor Rand Paul More
US newsDelta variant accounts for 83% of new cases in US, CDC director saysA cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as new hotspots for Covid
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Maya YangTue 20 Jul 2021 15.43 EDTFirst published on Tue 20 Jul 2021 12.26 EDTThe highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 83% of all sequenced cases in the US, a top federal health official said on Tuesday.Fox News host Sean Hannity urges viewers to ‘take Covid seriously’Read more“This is a dramatic increase, up from 50% [in] the week of 4 July,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in Senate testimony.Walensky also said Covid fatalities had risen by nearly 48% over the past week to an average of 239 a day.“Each death is tragic and even more heartbreaking when we know that the majority of these deaths could be prevented with a simple, safe available vaccine,” she said.A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as the new hotspots for Covid-19.With less than half of the US population fully vaccinated, infection rates in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi are among the highest – with vaccination rates among the lowest.Alabama ranks lowest in vaccination rates, with only 42.4% of its adult population fully vaccinated. Vermont has the highest fully vaccinated adult population, at 77.3%.In the last two weeks, the rate of infection across the US has increased by 198%. States that had some of the highest increases in that period include Oklahoma, at 387%, and Louisiana and Mississippi at 376% and 308%.The national vaccination campaign has slowed down significantly. The US is administering 521,000 doses daily, a 85% decrease from a peak in April when 3.38m doses were administered every day.“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky said last week. “We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk. Communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well.”With the Biden administration having fallen short of its goal of administering at least one shot to 70% of adults by 4 July, the rapid transmission of the Delta variant poses a serious challenge to attempts to control the pandemic.In addition to prioritizing speed, the administration is focusing on distributing shots equitably to communities hardest hit.According to Jeff Zients, coordinator of the White House coronavirus team, the administration is working on outreach in communities with high vaccine hesitancy, as well as improving accessibility at doctors’ offices and workplaces.According to data from the New York Times, the most socially vulnerable counties have a lower average vaccination rate than the least vulnerable. The majority of the most disadvantaged counties are in the south.“The people who have not gotten vaccinated so far are a very diverse group,” said Dr David Dowdy, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.“It’s easy to portray it as … a political stripe, but vaccination rates are higher, for example, in those who are older, and that’s irrespective of political leaning.”The most vaccinated and least vulnerable counties are in the midwest and north-east.There also remains a divide on Capitol Hill surrounding the role that the National Institutes of Health played in funding controversial research in Wuhan, China.During the Senate hearing on Tuesday, Senator Rand Paul accused Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, of previously lying to Congress about his knowledge of how the Wuhan lab used the NIH funds. He cited an academic paper that purportedly shows the lab was conducting research to create “potential pandemic pathogens that exist only in the lab, not in nature”.Fauci vehemently denied the claims, saying: “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about,” before adding, “I totally resent the lie you are now propagating.” Fauci maintains that it is molecularly impossible that NIH-funded research was responsible for SARS-CoV-2.Overall, the US remains in significantly better shape than at all previous points of the pandemic, despite the national rise in infections. Death rates have remained near their lowest levels since last spring and hospitalization rates are much lower compared with last winter’s peak.TopicsUS newsCoronavirusVaccines and immunisationUS politicsBiden administrationnewsReuse this content More
TexasFive Texas Democrats who fled state in protest test positive for CovidState representative Gene Wu says they have ‘little to no symptoms, which is the point of the vaccine’ Vivian Ho and agenciesMon 19 Jul 2021 11.47 EDTTwo more Texas lawmakers who left their state to hobble efforts to pass voting restrictions have tested positive for the coronavirus, raising to five the number of infected people in the delegation.‘I think it kicked ass’: how Texas Democrats fought for voting rights by fleeing the stateRead moreState representative Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio said in a statement he had tested positive.“I am quarantining until I test negative, and I am grateful to be only experiencing extremely mild symptoms,” he said.“When my Texas House Democratic colleagues and I broke quorum to stop anti-voter legislation, we knew that tactic would come with real personal sacrifice.“Just as these new variants sweeping the country are more aggressive than ever, the wave of anti-voter legislation in this country is worse than we’ve seen in generations. That’s why, I will continue the fight for voting rights with every single fiber of my being.”A person familiar with the delegation told the Associated Press the number of infected members had risen to five. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter and requested anonymity.More than 50 Texas lawmakers traveled to Washington last Monday aboard a private charter flight. A caucus official has said all had been vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says “breakthrough” infections – vaccinated people becoming infected – are rare.After a photo showed the Democrats maskless on the plane, Republicans and others criticized the lawmakers for traveling without masks. But federal guidelines don’t require masks to be worn on private aircraft.“That is the beauty of being vaccinated,” said another state representative, Gene Wu. “Every single person who has tested positive so far have little to no symptoms, which is the point of the vaccine. If nothing else, we want this to be a reminder to all Americans: get your stupid shot now.”Kamala Harris, who met last week with members of the Texas delegation, went to Walter Reed military hospital on Sunday for a routine doctor’s appointment, a White House official said. No other information was released, and the White House did not respond to questions about Harris’ the vice-president’s visit.After some of the lawmakers tested positive for the virus, Harris’ spokesperson said Harris and her staff were not at risk of exposure because they were not in close contact with those who tested positive and added that the vice-president and her staff were fully vaccinated.The Democrats fled the state to deny the Republican-controlled legislature the necessary quorum to pass the voting laws.TopicsTexasCoronavirusUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
