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      ‘We take safety seriously’: Fauci says J&J vaccine pause should raise confidence

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      Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said on Sunday the recent pause on the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine should raise confidence in health agencies’ focus on vaccine safety, as the administration tries to curb deadly outbreaks across the US.The most dangerous outbreak is in Michigan, where more younger people are being hospitalized than at any point in the pandemic.“Something we need to pay attention to is that we’re having still about 50,000 new infections per day,” Dr Anthony Fauci told ABC’s This Week. “That’s a precarious level and we don’t want that to go up.”An independent government advisory panel on Friday voted in favor of resuming use of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine after it was put on pause to review cases of a blood clotting disorder in six women who received it. The vaccine will now include a warning on its label about the potential risk for rare blood clots and a fact sheet on potential side effects will be given to medical providers and vaccine recipients.Fauci said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were “the gold standard for both safety and the evaluation of [vaccine] efficacy”.“I think in the long run what we’re going to see – we’ll probably see it soon – is that people will realize that we take safety very seriously.”The risk of developing the clotting disorder after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is extremely low. The highest-risk group appears to be women aged 30 to 39, in which there have been 11.8 cases per million doses given. Among men and women 50 and older, there has been less than one case per million doses.“We’ve looked at it,” Fauci said. “Now let’s get back and get people vaccinated. And that’s what we’re going to be doing, get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can.”Fauci said he expected updated guidance on mask use for vaccinated people to be released soon. In the US, 28% adults are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.He said he was encouraged by the effectiveness of the vaccines available, but warned that the US has still not reined in Covid-19. More than 568,000 people have died from the virus in the US.Across the country, people in their 20s, 30s and 40s account for a growing share of hospitalizations. Michigan has confirmed 91,000 new cases in the past two weeks, more than in the two most populous states, California and Texas, combined.The seven-day average for Covid-19 hospitalizations last week was 38,550, according to the CDC. At the peak of the pandemic, in December and January, the highest such average was 123,907.The majority of the Michigan residents 65 and older have been vaccinated but that does not fully explain why cases have risen among those 60 and younger. Part of the change is being attributed to the B117 virus variant, which is more contagious and more deadly, and to an easing of restrictions on dining, crowds and mask wearing.Dr Mark Hamed, medical director in the emergency department at McKenzie Hospital in Sandusky, Michigan, said people may have been lulled into a false sense of security because the region was spared from rampant cases last year.Many people are still unvaccinated and the area “is being hit pretty hard”, Hamed told the Associated Press. “Our ER is absolutely swamped beyond belief.”On ABC, Fauci was asked to address those who are hesitant to be vaccinated, including the Wisconsin Republican senator Ron Johnson, who has no medical expertise or background but said this week there was no reason to “push” vaccines on the American people.“We have a highly efficacious and effective vaccine that’s really very, very safe,” Fauci said. “That is the reason why you want everyone to get vaccinated, so I don’t understand the argument.”Surveys have shown Republicans to be one of the most vaccine hesitant groups. Democrats (67%) are more likely than independents (47%) and Republicans (36%) to report getting a first dose, according to a Monmouth University poll in early April.Former president Donald Trump, who downplayed the severity of the pandemic throughout 2020, has encouraged people to get a vaccine.On Sunday the Republican senator Shelley Moore Capito, of West Virginia, encouraged people to get vaccinated and said of Johnson: “I definitely think that comments like that hurt. I believe that we should all have confidence that we should to not just protect ourselves, but our communities and our neighbors. We should get vaccinated.”West Virginia was an early national leader in the vaccine rollout and 28.8% of residents are now fully vaccinated.“We’re starting to find that we have more vaccine than we do have people who are willing to step forward,” Capito, who has been vaccinated, told CNN’s State of the Union. “So I’m trying to do whatever I can to say it’s safe, it’s reliable and it’s really about you and your neighbor.” More

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      in US Politics

      Biden gets serious about going green | First Thing

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      Good morning.The US will cut its carbon emissions by at least half by 2030, the White House has promised. The news comes before a two-day virtual White House climate summit, beginning today. The summit brings together 40 world leaders to discuss how to fulfil the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and speed up their plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions.But poorer countries have said they need the money to be able to make environmental change happen, and argue that richer countries, which have more capital and emit more carbon dioxide, should be putting their hands in their pockets. Poorer countries were promised $100bn a year in climate finance from 2020, but last year that was not met.
      The summit also marks the first meeting of Biden and China’s president, Xi Jinping. With their interests overlapping on climate, will it be a step in the right direction for their fraught relationship?
      Offering money is not the right approach to Brazil’s climate denial, two former Brazilian environment ministers argue. “Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is not the result of a lack of money,” they write, “but a consequence of the government’s deliberate failure of care.” They say giving Brazil money to stop chopping down the Amazon could funnel funds to the “very land-grabbers behind the destruction”.
      The justice department is going to investigate the Minneapolis police forceThe justice department will launch a sweeping investigation into policing practices in Minneapolis, it announced yesterday. The news came less than a day after a former police officer in the force was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, after kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest.
      What will the investigation look into? The attorney general, Merrick Garland, said the investigation would determine whether the force had “engaged in a pattern and practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing”. It will examine the use of force by officers, including during protests, potential discriminatory practices, and accountability.
      Biden briefed on the fatal police shooting of a 16-year-oldJoe Biden has been briefed on the fatal shooting of a black teenage girl by police in Ohio, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said. An officer shot dead 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant on Tuesday, just minutes before the jury convicted a former police officer of murdering George Floyd.Psaki said Ma’Khia’s death cast a shadow “just as America was hopeful of a step forward”, adding: “She was a child. We’re thinking of her friends and family, in the communities that are hurting and grieving her loss.”
      What do we know about Ma’Khia’s death? Police in Columbus, Ohio, were called to reports of someone being attacked. Bodycamera footage released by Columbus police shows Ma’Khia appearing to hold a knife and clashing with two people, before an officer shoots her four times and she falls to the ground. Authorities in the city said police intervened to save the life of another girl whom Bryant had closed in on.
      Columbus has one of the highest rates of fatal police shootings in the US, according to a recent study, but is by no means the only area grappling with issues around police conduct:
      In North Carolina, a sheriff’s deputy shot dead a black man while serving a search warrant, according to authorities. Andrew Brown was killed yesterday morning, apparently while driving away. Details about the warrant have not been released, but court records show Brown had a history of drug charges.
      A Virginia police officer has been sacked after the Guardian revealed he had donated to and expressed support for Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager accused of killing two people during a protest against police brutality last year.
      More than 200m coronavirus shots have been administered in the USThe US has administered 200m vaccine doses since Biden took office, achieving the goal he set for his first 100 days. He had initially promised 100m doses in his first 100 days, but doubled the goal after the program gained unexpected pace. As of this week, all US adults are eligible to a receive a vaccine.
      More than 80% of Americans over 65 will have had one dose by today, according to Biden. More than 50% of adults are at least partially vaccinated, with about 28m vaccine doses being administered each week.
      The president also announced a new federal programme to give workers paid leave to receive their vaccination, saying: “No working American should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they chose to fulfil their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated.”In other news …
      Biden is likely to formally recognise the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman empire during the first world war, according to officials. As a candidate, Biden promised this, but it could add to an already tense relationship with the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
      Four people have been killed in a car bomb at a hotel hosting a Chinese ambassador in Pakistan. A dozen others were wounded at the luxury hotel, but the ambassador was out for a meeting when the bomb exploded. The Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility.
      Stat of the day: in Corona, Queens, just 37% of residents have received their first Covid vaccine dose. In the wealthier Upper East Side, the figure is 64%. Why is the difference so stark?Corona, Queens, is home to many of New York’s undocumented migrants and essential workers. Last year, when the city was the centre of the global coronavirus outbreak, the neighbourhood was considered the “epicenter of the epicenter”. But now it has one of the lowest rates of vaccinations, 37% compared with 64% in the Upper East Side. Amanda Holpuch asks what coronavirus has shown us about inequality in the city.Don’t miss this: a globally unprecedented coronavirus surge is pushing India to the brinkA new increase in coronavirus in India is pushing hospitals to the brink of collapse. The unprecedented spread resulted in India recording 314,835 new cases over the previous 24 hours, the highest daily increase of any country during the pandemic. Rebecca Ratcliffe shares more information about this dire situationwhich, Peter Beaumont argues, serves as a warning to other countries.Last Thing: an Italian man managed to skip work for 15 years An Italian man been coined the “king of absentees” after skipping work for 15 years. The 67-year-old hospital employee in the Calabrian city of Catanzaro continued to take home a salary of €538,000 ($648,000), despite not having turned up to work since 2005. Now the holiday is over and he is facing charges of abuse of office, forgery, and aggravated extortion.Sign upSign up for the US morning briefingFirst Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you are not already signed up, subscribe now. More

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      in US Politics

      Why New York mayor is ‘second toughest job in US’

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      It was during the administration of Fiorello LaGuardia that the position of New York City mayor became known as the “second toughest job in America”.LaGuardia, New York’s 99th mayor and a man whose name now graces the city’s streets, parks, schools and an airport labeled one of the worst in the country, became regarded as one of the city’s greatest ever leaders, despite facing a collapsing economy, all-powerful crime mobs and civic unrest when he took office in January 1934.When New York City’s next mayor takes office, however, they will face problems on perhaps an even larger scale, with the Covid-19 pandemic having ravaged a city already beset by deep income inequality and facing a reckoning over racial discrimination in policing and governance. The job could prove, once again, to be second only in difficulty to being the occupant of the Oval Office. Despite the challenges, dozens of candidates are running in June’s Democratic mayoral primary – which, given New York City’s left-leaning political makeup, is likely to decide the city’s next leader.The most pressing issue will be leading New York City out of the pandemic. The city was one of the worst hit by Covid-19, and many residents are still haunted by the scenes of April 2020, when ambulance sirens were a near-constant sound as hundreds of people a day succumbed to the virus.In total, more than 32,000 people have died, and in the most densely populated city in the country, the need for a successful, continued rollout of vaccinations will be essential, as will guiding economic and emotional recovery.“In communities across the city Covid is related to severe job loss in industries and occupations. It’s been differentially hard on the everyday workers of the city as opposed to the professional workers. So there’s a lot to be done to heal and revitalize those communities,” John Mollenkopf, distinguished professor of political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, said.“All the candidates have lined up policy position papers on what they’ll do [regarding the recovery from the pandemic], but there’s also a kind of symbolic and emotional dimension to it – of going out to the communities and healing their pain, of inspiring them and giving them confidence in the future. That’ll be a very important thing the mayor will do.”The winner of a mayoral election is frequently a reaction to how voters feel about the incumbent – in this case the term-limited Bill de Blasio, whose popularity has waned dramatically since his election in 2013. This year, however, with Covid recovery dominating the election “that dynamic is a lot less at play”, said Neal Kwatra, a Democratic strategist who has been active in New York politics for years.A key issue for the incoming mayor will be schooling, Kwatra said – dealing with the lost year many children have experienced but also the struggle many New Yorkers have faced in balancing work and childcare.“Especially for working-class, middle-class, poor New Yorkers, for whom there is no choice, they have to go to work, they are frontline workers in many of these industries that are helping to bring the city back on its feet,” Kwatra said.“Figuring out how we get our schools open safely and securely for parents for teachers and for students is going to be an enormously important task for the next mayor.”As if wrestling with the 1,700 schools, and more than 1.1 million students, isn’t enough, the city’s next leader will need to breathe life back into a hospitality industry that has been decimated by the pandemic.“The job creation connected to those industries is enormous and significant, so I think part of what the next mayor is going to also have to do is figure out how to send a message to folks that New York is open for business, that New York is safe,” Kwatra said.Looming over any recovery is the racial inequality and police brutality that many New Yorkers or color have faced.In the summer of 2020 Black Lives Matter protests intensified the focus on racial issues, and the Democratic primary could yet yield only the city’s second non-white mayor. New York is still seeking its first non-male leader, with at least six women, two of them women of color, among the main contenders and a non-binary candidate also in the running.The demonstrations of 2020, which brought out tens of thousands of protesters in New York, means the winner of the mayoral race will be under pressure to reimagine law enforcement in New York.“I think it will be very high [on the next mayor’s agenda], but it also will depend on who is ultimately elected,” Kwatra said.There have been demands among the left to defund, either completely or partially, the police, and the next mayor will be expected to take a firm line with the New York police department, the largest force in the country which employs 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees.Some candidates have pledged to reform the NYPD, to various degrees. Dianne Morales a former public school teacher and non-profit executive, has arguably gone furthest. Her website has a section dedicated to “defund the police”, and if elected Morales would reallocate $3bn of the police’s budget to more socially minded services.“As Black men continue to be essentially executed by the state day in and day out in America, it’s impossible for that to not begin to more profoundly affect this mayoral race,” Kwatra said.Maya Wiley, a lawyer and civil rights executive with experience in New York City government, could lean on her experience as chair of the agency responsible for handling complaints about the New York police department. Eric Adams, the current borough president of Brooklyn, who joined the NYPD after being beaten by police aged 15 with the aim of changing the department “from within” has also pledged reform.Andrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur who ran for the US presidency in 2020, has drawn much of the early media attention in the mayoral race, but in recent weeks has also attracted scathing criticism from his rivals, who have attacked his commitment to the city and his governing experience.It is a point they are likely to continue making, as whoever wins will have a battle on their hands as they grapple with the city’s post-pandemic finances.Reuters reported that a net total of 70,000 people left New York City in 2020, but the data is less straightforward. According to location analytics company Unacast, 3.57 million people left the city between 1 January and 7 December , and “some 3.5 million people earning lower average incomes moved into the city during that same period”. Unacast claims that this resulted in a scarcely believable $34bn in lost revenue.As government income has dropped, fears have been raised that the situation could be as dire as that of the financial crisis the city faced in 1975. Back then the city nearly went bankrupt, and leaders attempted to rectify it by introducing swingeing budget cuts.Kimberly K Phillips-Fein, a professor of American history at New York University and author of Fear City: New York’s fiscal crisis and the rise of austerity politics, said the current situation does not rival the fiscal chaos of the 1970s, but said it was important any incoming mayor “recall the dangers of widespread service cuts as a way of addressing fiscal shortfalls”.“At this moment in particular, such cuts could be disastrous. We need more faith in our public sector, not less. We need a coherent plan for reopening schools safely, and a commitment to use resources to accomplish this; we need public health programs that we can trust to protect us,” Phillips-Fein said.“Should budget shortfalls emerge, the city should strive to find ways to address them without stark service cuts. In the 1970s these helped to accelerate political and economic polarization, and the same might well happen today.”The picture does at least look rosier than it did a few months ago, after New York agreed on a $212bn state budget in April. The budget, if signed by Andrew Cuomo, the state’s governor, will increase taxes on the wealthiest residents in New York City, and, Democratic lawmakers say, release money for schools, rent relief and childcare, but the next mayor will inevitably face tough decisions over spending.The mayor’s spending will be fraught with danger as they bid to rectify wealth disparity in the city. The Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York found that income inequality, even pre-pandemic, has grown over the past 10 years, and the issue of affordable housing has been highlighted by the fact that Covid-19 rates were particularly high in neighborhoods already suffering from soaring rents.Data from Streeteasy revealed traditionally lower-income areas like Elmhurst, Corona and Jackson Heights saw dramatic numbers of coronavirus cases, whereas wealthy neighborhoods like Battery Park City and the West Village saw the lowest numbers. In the last six years, according to Streeteasy, it is the former that were already struggling to cope with rising rent.“Between July 2014 and July 2020, rents in the zip codes that would be most affected by Covid-19 rose by 22%. That’s twice the rate of the city overall, where rents grew 11%. In what would turn out to be low-Covid-19 zip codes, rents rose by 10% in the same period,” Streeteasy said.Putting all these issues together, it is clear that the next mayor will have a daunting task ahead in terms of hauling New York City back on track. But as the city reports an encouraging vaccination rate, and as bars, restaurants and sporting venues begin to reopen, there are plenty of people who think reports of the city’s demise are exaggerated.“We’ll need a mayor that understands that the Covid crisis revealed in new ways the underlying class and status divisions in the city,” Mollenkopf said.“But New York is going to come back faster and better than the skeptics think. There’s a reason that the [population] concentration levels were as high as they have been in New York City – very good economic, social and political reasons. And the virus has given that a bruise but it hasn’t really changed anything.“So yes, it’s going to be a challenge. But it’s a great opportunity, also, for the next mayor.” More

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      in World Politics

      Bill Gates and the Zero-Sum Vaccination Game

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      The debate is raging once again about the true origin of COVID-19. Was it zoonotic, originating in a bat cave and then infecting exotic meat in Wuhan’s wet market as the majority of scientists claimed throughout 2020? At the approach of the November election, US President Donald Trump preferred to believe the pandemic was a plot to destroy his presidency conducted by a man he previously called an intimate “friend,” China’s President Xi Jinping. The virus was already spreading when Trump explained to World Economic Forum in Davos the nature of his relationship with Xi: “He’s for China, I’m for the US, but other than that, we love each other.”

      Four months later, Trump began contradicting scientists and blaming Xi’s China by claiming “that the virus originated in a laboratory and was accidentally released.” In September, he preferred to suggest to his voters that COVID-19 was the result of an Asian conspiracy designed to undermine his presidency. This sparked a wave of anti-Asian attacks in the US that have continued to this day.

      Prominent scientists today recognize that Trump’s initial assessment may have been right. Their colleagues who dismissed the idea of an accidental release of the virus from a Wuhan laboratory were either misled or disingenuously defensive of an equally unproven thesis. The scientists may have been impelled to reject the suspicion of a laboratory accident not only out of a lack of direct evidence, but also out of fear of the political blame game the president was beginning to exploit to distract attention from his own failure to respond appropriately to the crisis.

      Trump obviously preferred to see the war against a virus as a PR opportunity to bolster his image as a fearless leader. Allowing politicians to place blame on China, even for an accident, might have become as dangerous for the world as the virus itself, adding to the reigning misery rather than resolving the mystery of the origin of the disease.

      Wealth Inequality Breeds Health Inequality

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      Science itself and its public image have taken a hit from this ongoing catastrophe. The honored, if not revered Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted to prioritizing the distribution of masks among the medical community above the general public at a time when little was still known about how contagious COVID-19 was and how it spread. Political leaders across the globe, including Trump, all found themselves in a thankless position as they were required to demonstrate their leadership with insufficient knowledge of the nature of the challenge and a penury of material means to confront it.

      Many deserve to share the blame for a situation that, despite progress with vaccines, is still in many ways worsening. But, as Alexander Zaitchik exposes in an important article in The New Republic, the person perhaps most to blame for our global failure to respond effectively is neither a scientist nor a politician. His name is Bill Gates.

      Most rational people would reason that a global crisis requires a global response. Most realists recognize that in a civilization dominated by sovereign nation-states, summoning a unified response to any global crisis will never be easy. Humanity’s quasi-universal awareness of the problem of global warming over the decades demonstrates the difficulty of mobilizing humankind to implement even a minimalist response.

      In his article, “How Bill Gates Impeded Global Access to Covid Vaccines,” Zaitchik narrates a depressing story that began in February 2020, when the nature of the COVID-19 threat had become clear. In conformity with its mission, the World Health Organization (WHO) coordinated a “research and innovation forum to mobilize international action” aimed at combating the spreading epidemic. It sought to “maintain broad and open channels of communication, since collaboration and information-sharing minimize duplication and accelerate discovery.”

      Collaboration and sharing of science would be critical to any effective response. With most research publicly funded — a point Mariana Mazzucato made this week — it specifically recommended patent pooling. Zaitchik notes that optimism was still possible: “Battle-scarred veterans of the medicines-access and open-science movements hoped the immensity of the pandemic would override a global drug system based on proprietary science and market monopolies.”

      Today’s Daily Devil’s Dictionary definition:

      Proprietary science:

      An oxymoron to the extent that “science” simply means human knowledge and cannot be owned or commodified.

      Contextual Note

      The WHO was thus prepared to play the role assigned to its mission as stated in its constitution: “The health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security and is dependent upon the fullest co-operation of individuals and States.” Aware of the challenge lying ahead of them, the team began to prepare its campaign. Alas, it hadn’t counted on the intervention of the globe’s self-appointed Mr. World Health, Bill Gates, whose title derives from his contributing billions of dollars to the causes he believes in (the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $1.75 billion in the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine). Among them is the most sacred of all causes: intellectual property. 

      Embed from Getty Images

      Zaitchik describes in detail how Gates — a man with no skills in science, security or politics — has positioned himself to dictate to the world how contemporary science will affect every human being’s security. The key, following the logic of all capitalistic projects, is the management of scarcity. Without scarcity, industry cannot survive and prosper. Little does it matter that because of scarcity many humans simply will not survive.

      Before Gates’s intervention, the group sought “to create a voluntary intellectual property pool inside the WHO.” In so doing, they demonstrated their naivety: “That pharmaceutical companies and their allied governments would allow intellectual property concerns to slow things down — from research and development to manufacturing scale-up — does not seem to have occurred to them.” But that is exactly what happened, thanks to Gates’s overpowering voice (measured by billions of dollars rather than decibels) and his “reputation as a wise, beneficent, and prophetic leader.” When the dust cleared, what emerged was “a zero-sum vaccination battle that has left much of the world on the losing side.”

      Zaitchik documents the ensuing catastrophe due largely to “Gates’s dedication to monopoly medicine” and his “unwavering commitment to drug companies’ right to exclusive control over medical science and the markets for its products.” No one other than powerful governments can hope to compete with Gates’s cash reserves. But Gates’s own government, in Washington, DC, — whether under a Democrat or a Republican president — would never compete as a matter of principle. Competition is a private game. No other government in the world has the power to compete. The US government, like Gates himself, appears addicted to “politically constructed and politically imposed monopolies.”

      Historical Note

      The egregious oxymoron “proprietary science” would have seemed strange to the ears of anyone living before the industrial revolution. Were he alive today and imbued with modern economic culture, the 15th-century German printer, Johannes Gutenberg, would be claiming a percentage of every book, journal or magazine produced thanks to his invention of the printing press. Instead, Adolph II of Nassau, Archbishop of Maintz rewarded Gutenburg — the Bill Gates or Elon Musk of his day — for his innovation “with the title of ‘Gentleman of the Court’.” He also received “a court outfit, a stipend and two tonnes of grain and wine, tax-free.” The wine can be explained by the fact that Gutenberg’s inspiration for the printing press came from observing a wine press.

      Gates deserves to be similarly honored for his invention of MS-DOS. Rather than the billions extracted from the Earth’s entire population thanks to his skill at monopoly creation and predatory business practices, he should have received from the governor of the state of Washington an appropriate title (“Gentleman of the coding room”), a flashy suit of clothes with a matching raincoat (for Seattle weather), a generous stipend (a million of two per year would be appropriate) and maybe an unlimited supply of canned foods, since he is a believer in and expert practitioner of canned economic and scientific wisdom.

      As many of the rest of us queue up for one of the competing vaccines that promise to bail us all out — despite their disparities in performance adding to the confusion created by the incompetence of competitive governments — we should reflect on what all this tells us about an economic system whose vaunted efficiency Gates believes in and practices while using his money and clout to impose it on an unwilling world.

      *[In the age of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, another American wit, the journalist Ambrose Bierce, produced a series of satirical definitions of commonly used terms, throwing light on their hidden meanings in real discourse. Bierce eventually collected and published them as a book, The Devil’s Dictionary, in 1911. We have shamelessly appropriated his title in the interest of continuing his wholesome pedagogical effort to enlighten generations of readers of the news. Read more of The Daily Devil’s Dictionary on Fair Observer.]

      The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More

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      in US Politics

      Fauci: Republican vaccine deniers are hurting efforts to lift Covid restrictions

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      Republicans who refuse the Covid-19 vaccination are actively “working against” efforts to lift the very coronavirus restrictions they insist are an infringement of their civil liberties, Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s leading infectious disease expert, said on Sunday.Fauci’s comments came as the government announced that half of all adults in the US had received at least one Covid-19 shot, marking another milestone in the nation’s largest-ever vaccination campaign. Almost 130 million people 18 or older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, or 50.4% of the total adult population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported. Almost 84 million adults, or about 32.5% of the population, have been fully vaccinated.But Fauci, who was involved in a fiery exchange over the issue with the Republican congressman Jim Jordan on Thursday, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday he was frustrated by recent studies showing that up to 45% of Republicans would not take the vaccine.“The fact that one may not want to get vaccinated, in this case a disturbingly large proportion of Republicans, only actually works against where they want to be,” he said.“They want to be able to say these restrictions that are put on by public health recommendations are things that they’re very concerned about. But the way you get rid of those restrictions is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly and as efficiently as possible.“When that happens for absolutely certain you’re going to see the level of virus in the community go down and down and down to the point where you would not have to have those public health restrictions.”Fauci said the attitude displayed by the Republican vaccine deniers was “paradoxical”.“On the one hand they want to be relieved of the restrictions. On the other hand, they don’t want to get vaccinated, it just almost doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “This is a public health issue, it’s not a civil liberties issue.”Fauci clashed with Jordan, a congressman from Ohio, when the US’s top health officials testified before Congress on Thursday and Jordan asked Fauci when Americans “get their liberty and freedoms back”.“We’re not talking about liberties. We’re talking about a pandemic that has killed 560,000 Americans,” Fauci told the congressman.About one in four members of the House of Representatives had not been vaccinated by March, three months after shots were being made available. A list of those who are not vaccinated is not publicly available, but several Republican members of Congress have admitted they do not plan to get the jab.Fauci’s comments come amid a resurgence of Covid-19 across the US, with an 8% rise in new cases in the last two weeks even as the number of those vaccinated continues to grow.Fauci said the single shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the use of which was suspended in the US last week after reports of extremely rare and severe blood clots in six women, could be reinstated as early as Friday at a meeting of the CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP).“I doubt very seriously they’ll just cancel it,” he said in a later appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I do think that there will likely be some sort of warning or restriction or risk assessment. I don’t think [the advisory committee] is going to say, ‘everything’s fine,’ I think it’ll likely say, ‘OK, we’re going to use it, but be careful under these certain circumstances’.”He said that although the incidences of blood clots were rare, “you have six cases in close to seven million people,” he said, the temporary suspension of the J&J vaccine was necessary.“There’s a twofold reason for doing it, to pause and take a look in more detail about it, and to make sure that the physicians treat people appropriately,” he said.Meanwhile, the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, acknowledged on Sunday her state was at “a very serious moment” as new infections continued to rise, but she continued to resist growing pressure to reinstate restrictions she lifted in March.Michigan has become a new Covid-19 hotspot, with hospitalizations setting a new pandemic record last week and the state recording more than 2,200 cases of the B117 coronavirus variant, more than one-tenth the total for the entire US.“In the waning months I have been sued by my legislature, I have lost in a Republican controlled Supreme Court, and I don’t have all of the exact same tools,” Whitmer told MTP host Chuck Todd, who asked if she was backing away from a firmer stance.“Despite those things, we still have some of the strongest mitigation measures in the country, masked mandates, capacity limitations, working from home. We’re moving fast to get shots in arms, a million in two weeks, a million in just the last nine days. [But] I’m working with a smaller set of tools at my disposal.“We are at a very serious moment and that’s precisely why we’re going to keep following the science, imploring people to do the right things, keep our mitigations up and keep moving vaccines as quickly as we possibly can.”Globally, coronavirus deaths passed the grim milestone of three million on Saturday. Jeremy Farrar, director of the UK’s Wellcome Trust, warned that the true number of deaths was probably much higher.“Worryingly, this pandemic is still growing at an alarming rate. Hundreds of thousands are dying every month,” he said.The US leads the world in Covid-19 deaths with 566,937 deaths and almost 32m cases, more than twice as many as any other country according to the Johns Hopkins university of medicine on Sunday. More

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      in US Politics

      ‘Alarm is growing’: Michigan governor faces shutdown dilemma as Covid cases rise

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      The coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions that Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, enacted in March last year were among the nation’s toughest, and the governor’s leadership is thought to have saved lives. It also drew high marks from many in the state.The same approach proved effective last fall when the second wave hit. Now, as Michigan faces another surge of cases and hospitalizations, its worst yet, Whitmer has changed tack.Despite past success and growing calls for another lockdown from public health experts, and doctors managing hospitals with Covid patients, the governor is resisting further restrictions, and is instead largely relying on a vaccination rollout and a voluntary suspension of in-person dining services.Several factors are driving the new approach, experts say. Among them is a growing sense of pandemic fatigue, and sustained pressure from conservatives. Eroding support from independents and Whitmer’s looming 2022 re-election race have also played a role. Many of those bearing the economic brunt of her lockdowns are donors and influential business leaders, said Bill Ballenger, a Michigan political analyst, and the governor appears to have been “scared straight”.“I really do think the constant pressure over the last year is catching up, not just from the right and conservatives, but there are a growing number of people in the population, including independents and business persons who are Democrats, who are really angry at Whitmer,” Ballenger said.The pressure to remain open continues even as cases and hospitalizations rise, putting Whitmer in an exceedingly difficult position. The surge hit soon after she lifted restrictions in early March, and Michigan’s two-week per-capita caseload now leads the nation. The state reached a bleak mark on Tuesday when over 4,000 people were reported hospitalized – the highest daily total of the pandemic. A high number of cases from Covid variants is also fueling the surge.Among supporters strongly urging the governor to once again put restrictions in place are Dr Abdul El-Sayed, the former director of the Detroit health department. He noted that an increase in deaths has followed spikes in caseloads and hospitalizations, and said a new lockdown “would have a profound impact over the next couple weeks”.He said: “Governor Whitmer showed a tremendous level of leadership last spring and fall, and that came with a lot of political blowback from conservatives, but she did the right thing – evidence shows that she saved lives, and we need that leadership now.”Whitmer has largely pinned her hopes on the vaccine, but only 23% of the state is vaccinated, and it has been especially slow-moving in areas such as Detroit, where a high number of people with underlying conditions live. Whitmer has called on the federal government to send more vaccines.But that absence of a lockdown order has divided her supporters and administration. Last month, her former state health director, Robert Gordon, abruptly resigned over what many suspect was a disagreement with Whitmer over reopening the state as the new variant first spread.They also say it’s clear that the state’s vaccination plan is losing the race against the spread, and boosting the effort would not quell the surge quickly enough. It could take up to 57 days for the state to reach herd immunity, El-Sayed said.“It’s not a sensible approach and it’s not an evidence-based strategy, if you run the numbers,” he said. “It’s a convenient approach to call for something, but it doesn’t erase the need for a lockdown now.”That view was echoed by the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky. The Biden administration has so far declined to send Michigan additional vaccines as it sticks with its proportional distribution plan – another difficulty for Whitmer – but vaccinations alone may not be the answer to Michigan’s problems, said Walensky.“When you have an acute situation, an extraordinary number of cases like we have in Michigan, the answer is not necessarily to give vaccines,” Walensky said. “The answer to that is to really close things down, to go back to our basics, to go back to where we were last spring, last summer and to shut things down, to flatten the curve, to decrease contact with one another, to test … to contact trace.”Still, the urgency and pressure from Whitmer’s allies has not persuaded the governor, who at a recent press conference said fresh lockdowns would be less effective because people are tired of the pandemic and the rules.“It’s less of a policy problem that we have and more of a compliance and variant issue that we are confronting,” she said. “State policy alone won’t change the tide.”That frustration partly explains why Whitmer’s latest polling numbers have slipped, Ballenger said, though in mid-March a majority still approved of her pandemic handling. He also partly attributed the erosion of support to the governor no longer having Donald Trump as “a foil”. Trump was highly unpopular with Michigan Democrats and independents, and Ballenger said he believes that Trump’s misogynistic attacks on Whitmer shored up her support.“She was able to sustain a lot of the popularity simply because she was not Donald Trump and Trump wasn’t popular in Michigan,” Ballenger said. “She said, ‘I’m the anti-Trump and Trump is doing a lousy job of handling pandemic’, and that worked.”Meanwhile, recent polls show her in a dead heat with the former secretary of state Candace Miller, a potential challenger in 2022. The governor’s fear of angering business donors “is part of it”, Ballenger said, though he added “the tremendous anger out there” with the economic situation was probably driving her decisions.Abdul-Sayed conceded that “there’s no doubt that people are fatigued and tired” but said a majority of the state has supported lockdowns as the situations became more dire in the past.“People see cases rise every day and the alarm is growing, so the justification for the restrictions gets clearer every day,” he said. More

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      in US Politics

      Biden warns of further action ‘if Russia continues to interfere with our democracy’ – live

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      Key events

      Show

      5.03pm EDT
      17:03

      Biden on his conversation with Putin: ‘The conversation was candid and respectful’

      4.57pm EDT
      16:57

      Today so far

      4.17pm EDT
      16:17

      Third coronavirus vaccine dose likely needed within a year, Pfizer CEO says

      3.06pm EDT
      15:06

      US has ‘low to moderate confidence’ in reports of Russian bounty on US troops

      1.30pm EDT
      13:30

      Today so far

      1.00pm EDT
      13:00

      South Korean president to visit White House next month

      12.40pm EDT
      12:40

      Biden to deliver remarks on Russia this afternoon

      Live feed

      Show

      5.31pm EDT
      17:31

      Julian Borger

      One of the significant elements of today’s measures against Russia is the degree of detail the administration provided.
      Of particular note, the Treasury confirmed that Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian agent in Ukraine and a business associate of Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, had passed internal Trump campaign polling and strategic data he received from Manafort to Russian intelligence.
      On the other hand, the US caveated reports that emerged last year, that Russian intelligence was offering bounties to Taliban militants to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan. Officials said today that the US intelligence agencies only had “low to moderate confidence” in that report, as it depended on detainee accounts and the constraints of working in Afghanistan had made the reports harder to verify.
      The sanctions imposed on the Russian bond market have largely been met by shrugs from Russian observers, but the Biden administration is hopeful that they will have a negative multiplier effect, which can be ratcheted up further if Russia misbehaves further.
      “Judging from history, removing US investors as buyers in this market can create a broader chilling effect that raises Russia’s borrowing costs, along with capital flight and a weaker currency, and all of all of these forces have a material impact on Russia’s growth and inflation outcomes,” a senior US official told reporters.
      But the speed and magnitude of that negative feedback loop is a function of Russia’s choices.”
      In the background to this is a desire to establish clear signalling of consequences if Russia launches new military incursions into the Donbas region of western Ukraine. Intelligence chiefs briefed Congress today on the Russian military buildup, but said it was not possible to tell if it was a question of posturing or preparations for invasion.

      5.30pm EDT
      17:30

      Julian Borger

      Joe Biden’s remarks on Russia this evening sought to project the predictability of US responses in cases where it believed its sovereignty was under attack, while offering Vladimir Putin an off-ramp from escalation with a summit this summer, and a strategic dialogue to follow.
      The speech was aimed at addressing two of Putin’s perceptions of the West, that he could get away with disruptive tactics and that Russia was not being given proper respect on the world stage. Biden’s preamble dwelt on the issue of respect.
      “President Putin I have had a significant responsibility to steward that relationship. I take that responsibility very seriously as I’m sure he does Russia and Americans are both proud and patriotic people. And I believe the Russian people, like the American people, are invested in a peaceful and secure future of our world.”
      Biden stressed the calibrated nature of the US measures against Russia, and his hopes that he and Vladimir Putin, who he warned about the coming sanctions earlier in the week, would be able to stabilise the US-Russian relationship. But at the same time he warned against any Russian military moves in Ukraine.
      He said he had made clear US support for Ukrainian territorial integrity. “Now is the time to deescalate,” Biden said. “The way forward is through thoughtful dialogue and diplomatic process.”

      5.14pm EDT
      17:14

      In his speech, the president made no mention of the Kremlin’s persecution of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, in his speech.
      Navalny, jailed at a penal colony, has carried out a hunger strike and showed signs of a serious respiratory illness. After his personal doctor told journalists that the treatment Navalny was receiving in prison was inadequate and could be fatal, the doctor and reporters were arrested.
      The Biden administration had issued sanctions last month over the imprisonment of Navalny – but Biden did not give indication today if he discussed the case with Putin.

      5.06pm EDT
      17:06

      “If Russia continues to interfere with our democracy, I’m prepared to take further actions to respond. It is my responsibility as president of the United States to do so,” Biden said.
      But in aiming for de-escalation, he said that he is open to a summit with Putin in Europe this summer.

      5.03pm EDT
      17:03

      Biden on his conversation with Putin: ‘The conversation was candid and respectful’

      Biden said that while he has taken a number of new sanctions against Russia in response to the Kremlin’s interference in the US elections, he told Russian president Vladimir Putin he “could’ve gone further”.
      “I was clear with President Putin that we could’ve gone further. But I chose not to do so. I chose to be proportionate,” he said. But he wasn’t seeking to escalate tensions, Biden said. “We want a stable, predictable relationship.”
      “The conversation was candid and respectful,” he said.
      Read more:

      Updated
      at 5.18pm EDT

      4.57pm EDT
      16:57

      Today so far

      That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
      Here’s where the day stands so far:

      Joe Biden is now delivering remarks on Russia. The comments come hours after the Biden administration unveiled new sanctions against Russia, in response to the Kremlin’s hacking and election interference efforts. The sanctions include the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and penalties against six companies that support the Kremlin’s hacking operations.
      Dr Anthony Fauci sparred with a Republican congressman during this morning’s hearing before the House coronavirus crisis subcommittee. Congressman Jim Jordan repeatedly pressed Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser on when Americans’ “liberties” can be restored by ending coronavirus-related restrictions. Fauci replied that the level of coronavirus infections is still too high to drastically roll back restrictions. “I don’t look at this as a liberty thing,” Fauci told Jordan. “I look at this as a public health thing.”
      Pfizer’s CEO said people will “likely” need a third coronavirus vaccine dose within a year. In comments made for an event with CVS Health, CEO Albert Bourla also said that annual revaccinations may be likely. Dr David Kessler, the chief scientific officer for the coronavirus pandemic response, similarly said booster shots may be needed while testifying before the House subcommittee earlier today.
      Derek Chauvin said he will not testify in his own defense, as the former police officer faces murder charges over the killing of George Floyd. After Chauvin invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination this morning, his defense team rested its case.

      Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      4.34pm EDT
      16:34

      House minority leader Kevin McCarthy wished Mike Pence a speedy recovery, after the former vice-president’s office said he had a pacemaker implanted yesterday.
      “Wishing my friend @Mike_Pence a swift recovery. Judy and I are thinking of you as you overcome this challenge—you are in our prayers,” McCarthy said on Twitter.

      Kevin McCarthy
      (@GOPLeader)
      Wishing my friend @Mike_Pence a swift recovery. Judy and I are thinking of you as you overcome this challenge—you are in our prayers. https://t.co/UPt1Lwa8k0

      April 15, 2021

      Pence’s office put out a statement this afternoon saying he had exhibited symptoms associated with a slow heart rate over the past two weeks and underwent the medical procedure at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus in Falls Church, Virginia.
      The procedure went well, and Pence is expected to return to his normal activities in the coming days.

      4.17pm EDT
      16:17

      Third coronavirus vaccine dose likely needed within a year, Pfizer CEO says

      The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, has said people will “likely” need a third coronavirus vaccine dose within a year, with annual revaccinations also a possibility.
      “We need to see what would be the sequence, and for how often we need to do that, that remains to be seen,” Bourla told a CNBC reporter during an event with CVS Health. The CEO’s comments were released today, but they were filmed two weeks ago.
      Bourla added, “A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months and then from there, there will be an annual revaccination, but all of that needs to be confirmed. And again, the variants will play a key role.” More