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  1. #951
    Senior Member curiouscat's Avatar
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    On my cell.
    I guess the orange bully couldn't get the vaccine first (for himself or his country).
    I wonder sometimes if we get shafted from "work parties," because other countries can't stand our president?!
    https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/healt...tent=algorithm
    Quote Originally Posted by Boston Babe 73 View Post
    I don't have a thousand dollars hanging around to buy a fart in a jar lol.

  2. #952
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    https://www.radio.com/knx1070/news/n...ller-us-cities

    MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Arguments over mask requirements and other restrictions have turned ugly in recent days as the deadly coronavirus surge across the U.S. engulfs small and medium-size cities that once seemed safely removed from the outbreak.

    In Boise, Idaho, public health officials about to vote on a four-county mask mandate abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday evening because of fears for their safety amid anti-mask protests outside the building and at some of their homes.

    One health board member tearfully announced she had to rush home to be with her child because of the protesters, who were seen on video banging on buckets, blaring air horns and sirens, and blasting a sound clip of gunfire from the violence-drenched movie “Scarface" outside her front door.


    “I am sad. I am tired. I fear that, in my choosing to hold public office, my family has too often paid the price,” said the board member, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo. “I increasingly don’t recognize this place. There is an ugliness and cruelty in our national rhetoric that is reaching a fevered pitch here at home, and that should worry us all."

    Boise police said three arrest warrants were issued in connection with the demonstrations at board members' homes.

    In South Dakota, the mayor of Rapid City said City Council members were harassed and threatened over a proposed citywide mask mandate that failed this week even as intensive care units across the state filled with COVID-19 patients.


    The tensions are flaring amid an epic surge in U.S. deaths, hospitalizations and infections over the past several weeks.

    Deaths are running at more than 2,200 a day on average, all but matching the level seen during the last spring's peak in and around New York City. New cases per day have rocketed to more than 200,000 on average, and the number of patients in the hospital with COVID-19 stood at almost 105,000 on Tuesday, another all-time high.

    The grim figures led the usually stoic health director of the nation's most populated county to become emotional. Barbara Ferrer described “a devastating increase in deaths” in Los Angeles County, with the total hitting 8,075 on Wednesday.


    “Over 8,000 people who were beloved members of their families are not coming back,” Ferrer said, fighting back tears.

    Meanwhile, protesters in Montana’s Gallatin County have gathered for two consecutive weeks outside the Bozeman home of county health officer Matt Kelley to decry regulations, including a statewide mask mandate. They have carried signs reading, “We refuse to be your experiment” and “Oxygen is essential.”

    Last week, around 80 people lined Bozeman’s Main Street to support Kelley and other health officials.


    In Montana’s Flathead County, where officials recorded 17 coronavirus-related deaths over 18 days and resistance to masks runs strong, the interim public health officer is resigning when her contract is up at year's end, citing a lack of support from local authorities for measures to control the scourge.

    In Helena, Republicans who control both chambers of the Montana Legislature denied a request by Democratic lawmakers to require masks be worn inside the Capitol during the legislative session next month.

    In Missouri, Greene County officials recorded 51 COVID-19 deaths in the first eight days of December as hospitals overflow and hundreds of health care workers are quarantined. The area’s two major hospitals asked the city of Springfield, the county seat, to renew the city’s mask mandate before it expires in January. The county itself does not have a mask mandate, nor does the state.


    As the deaths pile up, Springfield Mortuary Services owner Brian Simmons is overseeing the embalming and cremation of COVID-19 victims as his own 48-year-old daughter battles the virus. She spent the past week hospitalized on a ventilator in one of the city’s overwhelmed hospitals.

    “You are just helpless,” he said. “There is nothing you can do about it. We haven’t seen her since she’s gone in."

    South Dakota has suffered through the country’s worst rate of COVID-19 deaths per capita over the last week, but Gov. Kristi Noem has been ardent in her opposition to mask mandates or other aggressive efforts to slow infections.


    That hands-off approach drew vocal support at Rapid City Council meetings, even as doctors warned that the only large hospital in the western half of the state is facing a crisis and patients are being flown out of the state. The meetings drew hours of testimony from people who said the dangers of the virus are overblown and that mask requirements violate their liberties.

    Dr. Stephen Neabore, who works in the biggest hospital system in the region, said he has been frustrated as he tries to persuade people to wear masks. After working in New York City and studying medicine in England, he said, he sees a distinct skepticism toward government around him.

    “I still see people out here that will tell me that they don’t believe it’s any worse than a common cold,” he said.


    The City Council in Palmer, Alaska, rejected a mask mandate Friday for the community of 7,300 residents about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Anchorage.

    Opponents questioned the effectiveness of masks, wondered why a mandate more common in larger communities was even being considered, and threatened to take their business online or to the neighboring city of Wasilla, which doesn’t have a mask order.

    Many implored the City Council not to follow the steps of “liberal” Anchorage in forcing residents to require face coverings.


    “We are not Anchorage and should not be treated as if we are,” Rhonda Hayhurst said in an email to the council. “I moved out here to get away from tyranny as being imposed by the Anchorage administration.”

    Coronavirus deaths also have been rising rapidly in rural parts of Iowa, where many people disdain masks. Among the hardest hit is O’Brien County, population 13,800, where 42 deaths have been blamed on the virus.

    Ty Rushing, who covers the region as managing editor of the Northwest Iowa Review, said obituaries in his newspaper have been piling up.


    “It’s sad to say, but I think people are just numb to it or they are sticking their head in the sand about it,” Rushing said.

    In Iowa’s Harrison County, 47 deaths have been attributed to the virus out of population of about 14,000. Most of the deaths have resulted from outbreaks at nursing homes in small towns like Dunlap.

    Dunlap City Clerk Meredith Van Houten said almost everyone in the town of about 950 people has a connection to those who have died. She said one was her old neighbor.


    “It’s a horrible time right now,” Van Houten said.

    ___

  3. #953
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    https://www.radio.com/knx1070/news/n...ller-us-cities

    MISSION, Kan. (AP) ? Arguments over mask requirements and other restrictions have turned ugly in recent days as the deadly coronavirus surge across the U.S. engulfs small and medium-size cities that once seemed safely removed from the outbreak.

    In Boise, Idaho, public health officials about to vote on a four-county mask mandate abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday evening because of fears for their safety amid anti-mask protests outside the building and at some of their homes.

    One health board member tearfully announced she had to rush home to be with her child because of the protesters, who were seen on video banging on buckets, blaring air horns and sirens, and blasting a sound clip of gunfire from the violence-drenched movie ?Scarface" outside her front door.


    ?I am sad. I am tired. I fear that, in my choosing to hold public office, my family has too often paid the price,? said the board member, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo. ?I increasingly don?t recognize this place. There is an ugliness and cruelty in our national rhetoric that is reaching a fevered pitch here at home, and that should worry us all."

    Boise police said three arrest warrants were issued in connection with the demonstrations at board members' homes.

    In South Dakota, the mayor of Rapid City said City Council members were harassed and threatened over a proposed citywide mask mandate that failed this week even as intensive care units across the state filled with COVID-19 patients.


    The tensions are flaring amid an epic surge in U.S. deaths, hospitalizations and infections over the past several weeks.

    Deaths are running at more than 2,200 a day on average, all but matching the level seen during the last spring's peak in and around New York City. New cases per day have rocketed to more than 200,000 on average, and the number of patients in the hospital with COVID-19 stood at almost 105,000 on Tuesday, another all-time high.

    The grim figures led the usually stoic health director of the nation's most populated county to become emotional. Barbara Ferrer described ?a devastating increase in deaths? in Los Angeles County, with the total hitting 8,075 on Wednesday.


    ?Over 8,000 people who were beloved members of their families are not coming back,? Ferrer said, fighting back tears.

    Meanwhile, protesters in Montana?s Gallatin County have gathered for two consecutive weeks outside the Bozeman home of county health officer Matt Kelley to decry regulations, including a statewide mask mandate. They have carried signs reading, ?We refuse to be your experiment? and ?Oxygen is essential.?

    Last week, around 80 people lined Bozeman?s Main Street to support Kelley and other health officials.


    In Montana?s Flathead County, where officials recorded 17 coronavirus-related deaths over 18 days and resistance to masks runs strong, the interim public health officer is resigning when her contract is up at year's end, citing a lack of support from local authorities for measures to control the scourge.

    In Helena, Republicans who control both chambers of the Montana Legislature denied a request by Democratic lawmakers to require masks be worn inside the Capitol during the legislative session next month.

    In Missouri, Greene County officials recorded 51 COVID-19 deaths in the first eight days of December as hospitals overflow and hundreds of health care workers are quarantined. The area?s two major hospitals asked the city of Springfield, the county seat, to renew the city?s mask mandate before it expires in January. The county itself does not have a mask mandate, nor does the state.


    As the deaths pile up, Springfield Mortuary Services owner Brian Simmons is overseeing the embalming and cremation of COVID-19 victims as his own 48-year-old daughter battles the virus. She spent the past week hospitalized on a ventilator in one of the city?s overwhelmed hospitals.

    ?You are just helpless,? he said. ?There is nothing you can do about it. We haven?t seen her since she?s gone in."

    South Dakota has suffered through the country?s worst rate of COVID-19 deaths per capita over the last week, but Gov. Kristi Noem has been ardent in her opposition to mask mandates or other aggressive efforts to slow infections.


    That hands-off approach drew vocal support at Rapid City Council meetings, even as doctors warned that the only large hospital in the western half of the state is facing a crisis and patients are being flown out of the state. The meetings drew hours of testimony from people who said the dangers of the virus are overblown and that mask requirements violate their liberties.

    Dr. Stephen Neabore, who works in the biggest hospital system in the region, said he has been frustrated as he tries to persuade people to wear masks. After working in New York City and studying medicine in England, he said, he sees a distinct skepticism toward government around him.

    ?I still see people out here that will tell me that they don?t believe it?s any worse than a common cold,? he said.


    The City Council in Palmer, Alaska, rejected a mask mandate Friday for the community of 7,300 residents about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Anchorage.

    Opponents questioned the effectiveness of masks, wondered why a mandate more common in larger communities was even being considered, and threatened to take their business online or to the neighboring city of Wasilla, which doesn?t have a mask order.

    Many implored the City Council not to follow the steps of ?liberal? Anchorage in forcing residents to require face coverings.


    ?We are not Anchorage and should not be treated as if we are,? Rhonda Hayhurst said in an email to the council. ?I moved out here to get away from tyranny as being imposed by the Anchorage administration.?

    Coronavirus deaths also have been rising rapidly in rural parts of Iowa, where many people disdain masks. Among the hardest hit is O?Brien County, population 13,800, where 42 deaths have been blamed on the virus.

    Ty Rushing, who covers the region as managing editor of the Northwest Iowa Review, said obituaries in his newspaper have been piling up.


    ?It?s sad to say, but I think people are just numb to it or they are sticking their head in the sand about it,? Rushing said.

    In Iowa?s Harrison County, 47 deaths have been attributed to the virus out of population of about 14,000. Most of the deaths have resulted from outbreaks at nursing homes in small towns like Dunlap.

    Dunlap City Clerk Meredith Van Houten said almost everyone in the town of about 950 people has a connection to those who have died. She said one was her old neighbor.


    ?It?s a horrible time right now,? Van Houten said.

    ___

  4. #954
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    https://www.tmj4.com/news/coronaviru...see-the-danger

    WISCONSIN — Dan trusts practically nothing the media and medical establishments say about the COVID-19 pandemic. He considers the threat overblown. And saying as much on Twitter has triggered some heated arguments.

    “You question anything, you get told you’re going to kill grandma or you’re doing something wrong, and you’re made to feel like you’re unpatriotic for not putting on a mask,” he told Wisconsin Watch.
    Dan of Muskego, Wisconsin, is an active voter who’s worked for the past several years at a restaurant. He requested that Wisconsin Watch omit his last name for fear of online harassment. He counts himself as one of the few people watching the “real world,” unlike those who “live in ignorance.”

    Believing that “both sides of the aisle are completely corrupt,” Dan characterizes COVID-19 stay-at-home measures as a deliberate attempt by Democratic politicians to “tank” the U.S. economy.

    “I feel like they’re trying to literally destroy businesses,” he said. “And that fits into what I believe is the greater agenda: When you hear the left talking about all the stimulus people need, it’s like they’re trying to get people dependent on government income.”

    He’s not alone in seeing stay-at-home orders and business restrictions as a coordinated assault on commerce rather than a last-resort measure to slow the spread of a highly infectious disease that has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives in the United States, including more than 3,700 in Wisconsin.


    Coronavirus skeptics have made themselves known in Wisconsin throughout the pandemic. In the spring, an estimated 1,500 protesters gathered at the Wisconsin State Capitol, demanding that the statewide COVID-19 lockdown be lifted. Others blame the wearing of masks — a key public health strategy — for causing rather than preventing infection.

    Over the summer, members of the Appleton City Council were forced to bat down unfounded rumors that contact tracers were surveilling residents, a narrative that picked up traction on the Facebook page Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine. And in an extreme example, staffers at the Milwaukee Health Department recently received death threats for enforcing COVID-19 orders, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

    Misinformation has been a destructive force working against the state’s coronavirus response, said Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality and safety officer with UW Health.

    “I don’t think any of us thought, when the pandemic started, that one of the biggest barriers we’d have to overcome would be misinformation from people who have no idea what they’re talking about getting a message out there that leads people to make decisions that are not in their best interest,” he said.

    Skeptics interviewed by Wisconsin Watch include people who embrace the increasingly popular QAnon conspiracy theory, are generally suspicious of vaccinations, consume nontraditional medical advice and value personal freedom above what they believe are exaggerated public health considerations. They also acknowledge that their beliefs have put them crossways at work and with family.

    Conspiratorial thinking is common during national crises, said Dietram Scheufele, a communications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies public attitudes and policy dynamics surrounding emerging science.

    “It’s partly human nature,” Scheufele said. “We’ve seen this again and again.”

    Evolving science feeds conspiracies

    What makes COVID-19 pandemic conspiracy theories different from those related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are the implications for public health and welfare.

    And unlike those earlier seismic events, “We didn’t have a U.S. government and a president who fed some of those conspiracy theories, who questioned our system of disseminating correct information,” Scheufele said.

    Another factor is that spreading COVID-19 disinformation can be lucrative.

    “Even 20 years ago, we didn’t have an information system … where the fiscal incentive, the monetary incentive, is to promote ideas like this,” said Scheufele, adding that “outrageous” content produces larger audiences “which means data — which means profit.”

    Scientists have been tasked with striking down misinformation on COVID-19 while their own understanding of the new coronavirus evolves in real time — leading to confusion, skepticism and even denial around the respiratory disease.

    danger.
    items.[0].image.alt
    Photo by: Will Cioci / Wisconsin Watch/Will Cioci
    Protesters are seen at a rally at the Wisconsin State Capitol on April 24, 2020. They were demanding an end to the wide-ranging shutdown of normal life and business in Wisconsin aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic. Weeks later, Gov. Tony Evers’ Safer at Home order was overturned by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Even as the state’s pandemic death toll surges, some Wisconsin residents believe the threat of COVID-19 is overblown, that masks are dangerous and restrictions to curb the disease are part of a plot to ruin the economy and make people dependent on the government.
    By: Howard Hardee / Wisconsin WatchPosted at 6:02 PM, Dec 09, 2020 and last updated 4:02 PM, Dec 09, 2020
    WISCONSIN — Dan trusts practically nothing the media and medical establishments say about the COVID-19 pandemic. He considers the threat overblown. And saying as much on Twitter has triggered some heated arguments.

    “You question anything, you get told you’re going to kill grandma or you’re doing something wrong, and you’re made to feel like you’re unpatriotic for not putting on a mask,” he told Wisconsin Watch.

    Recent Stories from tmj4.com

    Dan of Muskego, Wisconsin, is an active voter who’s worked for the past several years at a restaurant. He requested that Wisconsin Watch omit his last name for fear of online harassment. He counts himself as one of the few people watching the “real world,” unlike those who “live in ignorance.”

    Believing that “both sides of the aisle are completely corrupt,” Dan characterizes COVID-19 stay-at-home measures as a deliberate attempt by Democratic politicians to “tank” the U.S. economy.

    “I feel like they’re trying to literally destroy businesses,” he said. “And that fits into what I believe is the greater agenda: When you hear the left talking about all the stimulus people need, it’s like they’re trying to get people dependent on government income.”

    The Rebound Milwaukee: Resources For Getting Back To Normal
    We're Open: These Restaurants Are Still Offering Carryout And Delivery
    He’s not alone in seeing stay-at-home orders and business restrictions as a coordinated assault on commerce rather than a last-resort measure to slow the spread of a highly infectious disease that has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives in the United States, including more than 3,700 in Wisconsin.


    Coronavirus skeptics have made themselves known in Wisconsin throughout the pandemic. In the spring, an estimated 1,500 protesters gathered at the Wisconsin State Capitol, demanding that the statewide COVID-19 lockdown be lifted. Others blame the wearing of masks — a key public health strategy — for causing rather than preventing infection.

    Over the summer, members of the Appleton City Council were forced to bat down unfounded rumors that contact tracers were surveilling residents, a narrative that picked up traction on the Facebook page Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine. And in an extreme example, staffers at the Milwaukee Health Department recently received death threats for enforcing COVID-19 orders, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

    Misinformation has been a destructive force working against the state’s coronavirus response, said Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality and safety officer with UW Health.

    “I don’t think any of us thought, when the pandemic started, that one of the biggest barriers we’d have to overcome would be misinformation from people who have no idea what they’re talking about getting a message out there that leads people to make decisions that are not in their best interest,” he said.

    Skeptics interviewed by Wisconsin Watch include people who embrace the increasingly popular QAnon conspiracy theory, are generally suspicious of vaccinations, consume nontraditional medical advice and value personal freedom above what they believe are exaggerated public health considerations. They also acknowledge that their beliefs have put them crossways at work and with family.

    Conspiratorial thinking is common during national crises, said Dietram Scheufele, a communications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies public attitudes and policy dynamics surrounding emerging science.


    “It’s partly human nature,” Scheufele said. “We’ve seen this again and again.”

    Evolving science feeds conspiracies

    What makes COVID-19 pandemic conspiracy theories different from those related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are the implications for public health and welfare.

    And unlike those earlier seismic events, “We didn’t have a U.S. government and a president who fed some of those conspiracy theories, who questioned our system of disseminating correct information,” Scheufele said.

    Another factor is that spreading COVID-19 disinformation can be lucrative.


  5. #955
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    https://www.thedailybeast.com/joel-s...inia-farm-bash

    As many Americans responsibly don face masks, distance from their families, and await the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine, a group of 300 people sat tightly packed on hay bales Sunday at a Virginia farm to hear anti-vaccination activists and “ancestral health” experts offer up an alternate reality.

    The event was hosted by the Weston A. Price foundation—a nonprofit “dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism,” according to its website. It was held at the Swoope, Virginia-based Polyface Farm, owned by the infamous Joel Salatin, whose own website describes him as a “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer.”

    Time once called 63-year-old Salatin the “world’s most innovative farmer,” and he was profiled in Mother Jones this week, in a piece that dug into how Salatin became a “media darling.”

    The size of the gathering at Polyface Farms would be ripe for condemnation anywhere during a deadly pandemic, but it was especially stunning in Swoope, which The Staunton News Leader reported had a whopping 52 percent positivity rate on Wednesday.

    Swoope’s Augusta County—pop. 74,701—had a cumulative total of 938 confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, with 11 total deaths.

    In a handful of photos of the event, not a single one of the audience members appeared to be wearing a mask, and several attendees boasted about that fact online. That coronavirus skeptics or anti-vaxxers would hold such an event is not shocking but was especially remarkable as viable vaccine candidates get closer to distribution and a new administration prepares to battle a wave of disinformation.

    “It was a private event on private property. Folks weren’t forced to attend. It was voluntary,” Wendy Gray, a spokesperson for the farm, told the local newspaper. “They left the social distancing and the masks up to each individual.”

    No stranger to the spotlight, Salatin was featured in the hit documentary Food, Inc, and the best-selling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma before drawing headlines for proclaiming “I want coronavirus!” earlier this year.

    “I’ve been watching all the personal stories of the folks who have gotten it and the overwhelming testimony is pretty simple: a day of sniffles, another day of fatigue, then a couple of days of recovery, and life is back to normal,” Salatin wrote, misleadingly, on his personal website, Musings from the Lunatic Farmer.

    He did not lack company this weekend.

    Do you know something we should about the coronavirus, or how your local or federal government, school, or business is responding to it? Email Olivia.Messer@TheDailyBeast.com or securely at olivia.messer@protonmail.com from a non-work device.

    “I can’t imagine a better location, complete with hay bales and string lights, way more special than the originally intended hotel venue that canceled on them last minute!” one attendee, Emily Canterbury, posted on Instagram. (Canterbury did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast this week.) “What a joy it was to be surrounded by 300 mask free smiling faces!! As Joel said, ‘The governor can’t cross the bridge, because this is private property.’”

    That quote appeared to be an allusion to Gov. Ralph Northam’s state coronavirus restrictions, since even outdoor events were subject to a 250-person capacity restriction on Sunday. As of Monday, those rules were tightened even further.

    In a statement on Thursday, Dr. Laura Kornegay, director of the Central Shenandoah Health District, said the state health department was “currently considering enforcement options after having been made aware of an event which appears to have been in violation of the Governor’s executive order limiting entertainment and public amusement events to no more than 250 persons.” The order also includes requirements for social distancing and face coverings, Kornegay noted.

    According to several social media posts from the event, speakers included Del Bigtree, the chief executive officer of anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network; Mike Dickson, a former professional bodybuilder turned full-time farmer; Hilda Labrada Gore, an “ancestral health expert;” Sally Fallon Morell, author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats and The Contagion Myth, which her website claims was banned by Amazon; and Salatin himself.

    Both Salatin and Dickson declined to comment for this story.

    “I’ve reviewed numerous articles in your publication and realize it is highly prejudicial, which means you cannot be trusted with any comments,” Salatin said in an email to The Daily Beast on Wednesday. The remaining speakers, along with the Staunton-Augusta Health Department and a spokesperson for the Weston A. Price Foundation, did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.

    If social-media posts were any indication, the speakers had a more than receptive audience at their disposal.

    “Ecstatic that i was just at a superspreader event!” Labrada Gore posted on Instagram about the event. “Love. Love was what we spread.”

    Labrada Gore, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote that the gathering “was like a taste of heaven” and that “all of the speakers had a slightly different take on what may be causing the current health crisis.”

    “We are not victims,” Labrada Gore wrote. “We choose joy. We hug, smile, and connect with people in a way that is beautiful and healing. So, yes, LOVE is what we spread this weekend.”

  6. #956
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    https://www.capradio.org/articles/20...may-look-like/

    Sacramento-area state Sen. Dr Richard Pan says he's cautiously optimistic about a coronavirus vaccine arriving soon in California now that Britain has approved a vaccine from drugmaker Pfizer.

    "It's not a magic bullet," Pan said Wednesday on CapRadio's Insight. "We still need to do the masks and the distance and so forth, but it will get us to a place where we can reopen our schools, get our businesses open."

    On Monday Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state has 327,000 initial doses on the way. Pan, who is also a pediatrician, said California will need to prioritize getting the vaccine to high-risk populations.

    "The Latino population, the black population as well have higher death rates," Pan said. "The Pacific Islander population has experienced higher death rates, so it's important that we reach out to those communities."

    Pan said that the state will also need to work with trusted community leaders to distribute vaccines to those in communities who don’t live near pharmacies or hospitals. He also stressed that people ask doctors and medical care providers as many questions as possible to understand the inoculation as best as possible.


    Interview Highlights
    On getting people to trust the vaccine is safe and effective

    It’s so important that the FDA and the CDC (US. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) are very transparent about the vaccine, including the potential side effects of the vaccine. So, we have heard that some people will have symptoms like fevers and other types of symptoms. They’ll be temporary. There’s no long-term effect that we know about the vaccine, but it may have people not be able to work the next day.

    And since it’s a two-shot vaccine, we need to be sure people understand this so that if they have those symptoms for the first shot, that they’re not going to refuse the second one. The other thing is that it’s very important to combat misinformation or even disinformation from people who unfortunately make money or thrive on trying to discourage people against public health.

    I tell people it’s very important to ask questions. You have questions; please ask them, but also please listen to the answers … That’s how we’re going to build public confidence in the vaccine, but the vaccine certainly has to prove itself in terms of the data that’s out there and ensure people have confidence in this vaccine.

    On herd immunity and how it works

    Well, herd immunity — or as I like to call it, “community immunity” — is when you have a sufficient percentage of people who are immune, and therefore vaccinated against the disease, that the virus really has no place to go.

    Given how contagious the virus is and how effective the vaccine is, it means that we have enough people vaccinated, that [if] that virus infects someone [it] is unlikely to infect another person, and therefore protecting everyone in the community, even people who are not vaccinated.

    Many experts are saying probably around 70- to 80% of people getting vaccinated may start achieving this level of immunity. I would point out that we need to have 95% [of the population vaccinated against] measles, which is highly contagious, despite having a very effective vaccine.

    So we’re talking about 70%. We’re talking about a California which has 40 million people getting about 27 to 28 million people vaccinated to keep that level of immunity.


    On people who want to wait out the first rounds of vaccinations to gauge the effects

    First of all, the number of vaccines we’re going to get out, in the beginning, is hardly enough to get everyone vaccinated. So I would point out, one, Gov. [Gavin] Newsom announced we’re going to get over 300,000 doses of vaccines. That’s not even enough to cover all the health care workers who work in hospitals and who are the first priority people [to] get vaccines.

    So you have to double the number of doses [because the vaccine regimen requires two shots]. When I said 27 million people need to be vaccinated in California to get community immunity, you got to double that for the number of doses.


    On if the state or local providers and pharmacies will distribute the vaccine

    The state plan involves established providers because that’s where the level of trust is … We want to also be sure people have familiar settings to get the vaccine in as well. [At] the same time, we also have to look at different ways of getting people the vaccine where there are going to be populations that don’t have strong access to what we might consider more traditional places.

    One of the things that are going to be particularly important is that we prioritize getting the vaccine to populations which are highest at risk. We know essential workers are highest at risk. Then also, communities which traditionally have had lower access to health care are also higher risk as well.


    On vaccine distribution and racial equity

    When we talk about equity, we mean stepping back and recognizing those inherent disadvantages we’ve built into the [health care] system for some of these communities.

    Some of these communities already have poor access to health care because whether they have fewer practices located there, fewer pharmacies, other types of things.

    We also need to think that in those communities, where are the levels, communication, and trust built in those communities? And reaching out to those particular leaders. What’s the most effective strategy in order to both community about and to get people access to the vaccine so that everyone has truly equal access to the vaccine.


    On optimism about the vaccine and predicted outcomes

    I’m cautiously optimistic. I have tremendous faith in our community, certainly here in Sacramento and in California, so let’s see what the data is on the vaccine.

    It’s not a magic bullet ... we still need to do the masks and the distance and so forth, but it will get us to the place where we can reopen our schools, get our businesses open. Let’s all work to make that happen.

  7. #957
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    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/st...hursday-night/

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — The Greater Sacramento region fell below 15% ICU capacity on Wednesday, triggering a stay-at-home order to begin late Thursday night.

    According to the California COVID-19 website, the new restrictions will take effect at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. The order will remain in place for at least three weeks.

    A more detailed announcement from Sacramento County was expected later Wednesday.

    The Greater Sacramento region includes Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

    The San Joaquin Valley and Southern California regions are currently under regional stay-at-home orders, and some Bay Area counties have also adopted the guidelines.

    Sacramento County health officer warns ICU capacity could fall to 15% by end of the week
    What is and isn’t allowed under a regional stay-at-home order?
    Under a regional stay-at-home home order, Californians should stay at home as much as they can and not mix households – which helps prevent the spread of COVID-19.

    Critical infrastructure, when working remotely is not possible, can continue under the order.

    Schools, non-urgent medical visits and childcare services can also remain open.

    Some business may also remain open with additional restrictions, according to the state:

    Outdoor recreational facilities: Allow outdoor operation only for the purpose of facilitating physically distanced personal health and wellness through outdoor exercise, without any food, drink or alcohol sales. Additionally, overnight stays at campgrounds will not be permitted.
    Retail: Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity, and 35% of capacity for standalone grocery stores, with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
    Shopping centers: Allow indoor access at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
    Hotels and lodging: Allow for COVID-19 mitigation and containment measures, treatment measures, provide accommodation for essential workers, or providing housing solutions, including measures to protect homeless populations.
    Restaurants: Allow only for take out or delivery.
    Offices: Allow remote only except for critical infrastructure sectors where remote working is not possible.
    Places of worship and political expression: Allow outdoor activities only.
    Entertainment production: Industries, studios, and other related establishments such as establishments that provide content for professional broadcast can operate without live audiences.
    Tribal casinos are not impacted by the order.
    These businesses must close under the order:

    Indoor playgrounds
    Hair salons and barbershops
    Personal care services
    Museums, zoos, and aquariums
    Movie theaters (except drive-in)
    Wineries, bars, breweries, and distilleries
    Family entertainment centers
    Cardrooms and satellite wagering
    Limited services
    Live audience sports
    Amusement parks

    Update Sacramento Area has been hit by the Stay at home order.

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    First child in L.A. County dies from COVID-19-related MIS-C

    https://www.latimes.com/california/s...-mis-c-illness

    A child died this week from the coronavirus-linked multisystem inflammatory syndrome, known as MIS-C, the first such reported death in Los Angeles County. This also marks the county?s first COVID-19-related death of a child.

    The patient, who was at Children?s Hospital Los Angeles, had a ?complex, preexisting cardiac condition? and died from complications tied to MIS-C, public relations officer Lauren Song said in a statement Wednesday.

    The hospital did not provide further details because of patient privacy.

    At least 145 cases of MIS-C have been reported among children in California, according to the state?s Department of Public Health. The Los Angeles County death appears to be the first in California, although no deaths linked to the illness have been recorded on the state?s database. Two children between the ages of 5 and 17 have died from COVID-19, data show.

    A massive surge in coronavirus cases across the state has led to record numbers of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. And although health experts have yet to unlock the direct connection between the virus and MIS-C, what?s clear is that a spike in coronavirus infections is directly linked to an uptick in MIS-C cases, doctors told The Times.

    ?With the number of cases we?re seeing in Los Angeles now, I do expect to see more children with MIS-C coming into the hospital in the next few weeks,? said Dr. Jackie Szmuszkovicz, pediatric cardiologist at Children?s Hospital Los Angeles. ?We?re at a critical moment right now.?

    At least 43 children have been treated for MIS-C in Los Angeles County, including 32 at Children?s Hospital. According to the latest update from the county?s Department of Public Health, nearly 50% of the children hospitalized were treated in intensive care. Of those, 26% were under the age of 5, 37% were between 5 and 11, and 37% were ages 12 to 20.

    The syndrome is rare, but it can be serious ? and potentially deadly. Typically, children develop symptoms of MIS-C roughly two to four weeks after exposure to the coronavirus, which often goes undetected because most children are asymptomatic carriers. Symptoms include fever, pain in the abdomen and neck, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, bloodshot eyes and exhaustion. Doctors in California have reported some children arriving at hospitals in shock.

    Children in Latino and Black communities have been affected most by the disease, reports show. In L.A. County, Latino children account for 72% of the reported cases, according to data from the Health Department.

    Children who exhibit symptoms are typically diagnosed with MIS-C after testing positive for COVID-19 antibodies. Doctors are still trying to decipher potential long-term effects from the illness and do not know whether certain children are genetically predisposed.

    More than 1,280 children have developed MIS-C in the U.S., and at least 23 have died from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MIS-C is similar to Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory illness. Researchers think some children diagnosed with Kawasaki disease between January and May may have been infected with MIS-C instead.

    MIS-C has been diagnosed in patients less than a year old and up to age 20; the majority are 7 to 9 years old.

    Health experts say parents should call a doctor and seek help immediately if a child shows possible symptoms of the illness.

    ?Please do not delay in seeking care for your child if they are ill,? Szmuszkovicz said. ?Length of stay is going to be shorter if we can get inflammation under control earlier

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    https://www.kron4.com/health/coronav...-icu-capacity/

    SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) — Three hospitals in the South Bay have reached ICU capacity, according to the Santa Clara County Health Department.

    COVID surge: San Jose hospital runs out of ICU beds
    According to health officials, the following hospitals have reached capacity as of Wednesday, Dec. 9:

    Regional Medical Center (San Jose)
    O’Connor Hospital (San Jose)
    St Louise Hospital (Gilroy)
    403 people in Santa Clara County are hospitalized with the virus, including 10 kids.

    Additionally, 31 ICU beds are available in the entire county.

    ICU capacity throughout California is a cause for concern and the breaking point for leaders in issuing stricter rules during the pandemic.

    “If we continue the rate of transmission, we may see the worst case scenarios that were realized in Italy and New York and Texas and other countries,” Dr. Ahmad Kamal said.

    They are concerned hospitals won’t be able to treat all the people who need intensive care, whether it’s due to COVID-19 or other serious medical conditions.

    Hospital capacity across the county is at roughly 9.5 percent, well below the state’s 15-percent trigger for tighter controls.

    At regional, 66 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, straining resources but hospitals have long planned for such a surge.

    Sounding an optimistic note was Regional’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tarahnum Guller.

    “Patients, they recognize their symptoms sooner because there’s been so much conversation around it and they tend to come into the hospital sooner if they’re short of breath or have any other symptoms, and once they are here, we are well prepared. We know exactly what we did the last time, what we did right, what worked, what didn’t work, so we’re able to channel patients through that process,” Dr. Guller said.

    Some hospitals are using beds in post-acute units but colder weather may rule out the use of parking lot tents.

    If necessary, regional cold transfer patients to the good samaritan, it’s sister hospital.

    The worst case would see patients transferred out of the county. The sharp rise in

    hospitalizations have resulted, as predicted, from thanksgiving gatherings and the worst may be still to come, says Dr. Kamal.

    “There was a day not too long ago where we saw 1,450 new diagnoses so we may see up to 100 new cases a day hitting hospitals in the next couple of days, so we’re in the need of it, but it’s not over yet,” Dr. Kamal said.

    Bay Area family participates in Pfizer vaccine trial
    A South Bay family took part in the COVID-19 vaccine trials and is encouraging others to trust science and receive the vaccine when it is available.

    As part of the trials, the family says they didn’t know if they were given the actual Pfizer vaccine or a placebo.

    The Eisenmann family says they volunteered in the process to help people get back to their normal lives.

    Jeff Eisenman says he knows some people are skeptical about taking the vaccine but hopes people would be encouraged to take it by seeing him.

    Soon, millions of COVID-19 vaccines will begin to flow to states across the country, and into the arms of Americans looking to protect themselves from coronavirus.
    https://www.kron4.com/health/coronav...-health-order/


    SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) – As San Mateo County works to limit the spread of COVID-19, health officials released a new health advisory on Wednesday focusing on three main practices.

    The following practices are being enforced in the advisory:

    Always mask in public, particularly when talking.
    Insulate your household and any small, stable “Social Support Bubble” from the virus.
    Mask – Isolate – Quarantine – Test. Immediately for any symptoms, or after exposure.
    San Mateo County opts out of stay-at-home order
    “The surge of cases has been alarming, and we need to increase our response immediately. We recommend that community leaders, health care, and public health work together more than ever,” said Curtis Chan, MD, the county’s deputy health officer. “Community leaders have told us that people want to learn more about how transmission occurs. Clear information that the virus is transmitted by someone without having symptoms helps people plan their lives under pandemic rules and quickly respond if a household member develops symptoms.”

    The county is continuing to update these measues with guidance from the California Department of Public Health and the CDC.

    The county is urging residents to stop the spread of COVID-19 by not attending social gatherings, which is defined as bringing people from multiple different households together in the same space.

    “Much of the preventable transmission occurs because of social gatherings and within households, particularly from asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic individuals,” said Catherine Sallenave, MD, the County’s communicable disease controller. “Our case investigators and contact tracers are listening to the worsening stress and circumstances that families are experiencing and hearing the need for psychosocial support to increase their wellness and ability to function in these unprecedented times.”

    San Mateo County healthcare workers will get first vaccine doses
    Social-support bubbles, that were developed by behavioral health physicians, are one to two households coming together to provide necessary physical, emotional, and social support.

    As cases continue to rise, the county is discouraging social gatherings over the coming weeks and reminds residents who are experiencing symptoms to get tested and isolate.

    Residents without a health care provider should call 211 to be connected to San Mateo County’s system of support.

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    I saw a Santa today doing pictures with a mask. Sign of the sad times.

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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    I saw a Santa today doing pictures with a mask. Sign of the sad times.
    Expect your state to issue Stay at home orders soon given that here in California the Governor has issued a Stay at home order til 2021.

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    https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/...247239429.html

    Idaho’s Southwest District Health board invited speakers to brief them Tuesday morning on the COVID-19 situation — including a naturopath and a local doctor who shared false and unverified information about masks, vaccines and COVID-19 treatments.

    Following their remarks, doctors from around the Treasure Valley urged the board and the public to heed warnings about the coronavirus.

    Idaho is “a victim of a very sophisticated psy-ops, psychological warfare,” said Dr. Vicki Wooll, who shared conspiracy theories during her presentation. “It’s getting us through social media. We are not the enemy. The enemy is coming from without.”

    Wooll and a Meridian naturopath, Michael Karlfeldt, spoke to the board Tuesday morning for nearly an hour. They claimed that masks do not halt the spread of coronavirus and actually can harm the wearer — which is untrue — and questioned whether hospitals are being honest about Idaho’s COVID-19 surge, misunderstanding what “beds” are in terms of hospital capacity.

    A spokesperson for the health district said that board members invited the speakers but did not say which board members specifically invited each one.

    Wooll owns Eagle Creek Family Medicine. The practice’s website includes a coronavirus page that links to “health freedom” and anti-vaccination groups and videos. Wooll also spoke at an anti-mask rally before a Twin Falls City Council meeting that considered a mask mandate. The council later indefinitely tabled the measure without a vote.

    Among other things, Wooll claimed that 5G wireless internet may be tied to COVID-19 — a false theory that was spread on social media.

    Wooll also referenced a three-drug cocktail that was falsely claimed by a physician as being approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That physician, Vladimir Zelenko, later told the New York Times that he was “a clinician, not a researcher. ... I don’t understand fully the language of clinical research.”

    Karlfeldt, who is not licensed by the Idaho Naturopathic Medical Board, repeated disproven claims about masks. Among other things, he said there is no benefit to wearing masks in public and that masks are harmful, “increasing the concentration” of coronavirus particles.

    One problem, he said, is that people who handle their masks get their hands contaminated. That can be true, which is why public health campaigns have stressed the need for people to wash or sanitize their hands before and after touching their mask, and to launder reusable cloth masks and discard single-use masks.

    Karlfeldt has made a variety of other claims unproven by science, such as:

    that using “precise wavelengths of light needed to destroy bacteria and boost the immune system” can treat serious illnesses.
    that chronic Lyme disease is a disorder worsened by cellphones and wireless devices such as baby monitors.
    that his clinic’s “ozone sauna” can help to “inactivate viruses, bacteria, yeast, fungi, parasites and protozoa” in a person’s body. “Ozone bags can be filled and given via the intestines for colon or liver issues, inserted in the bladder while dealing with a UTI, or bagged around a wound to kill infection and promote healing,” the Karlfeldt Center’s website says.
    Two local St. Luke’s Health System physicians followed Wooll and Karlfeldt. They shared information about the virus that has been given to the public for several months. They explained to the board how vaccine trials work and what they’re seeing in the hospital.

    “I hear the passion in the voices of everybody speaking today,” said Dr. Sky Blue, a St. Luke’s infectious disease specialist. “And I’m here, I hope, for the same reason they are, because I care about my family, our neighbors and our state.”
    But Idaho is at a tipping point in the pandemic, he said.

    Communities that have mask mandates have an increase in use of masks, and that reduces infection rates, he said.

    “Experimental and epidemiological data support community masking to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2,” according to a scientific brief from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month. “The prevention benefit of masking is derived from the combination of source control and personal protection for the mask wearer.”

    Dr. Michaela Schulte of St. Luke’s Health System speaks to the board of Southwest District Health. The board met Tuesday morning to hear from the public, guest speakers and to receive a briefing on the COVID-19 situation in its region. Screen capture from YouTube
    Dr. Michaela Schulte, a hospital physician who also specializes in infectious disease, told the board what she sees when she goes to work.


    “We’re getting very close to a breaking point ... where we will no longer be able to provide the level of care we’re used to, for really anyone presenting to the hospital, regardless of the diagnosis,” she said.

    She explained that the widespread COVID-19 surge is hitting everywhere along the health care delivery system, causing bottlenecks.

    Patients who test positive but don’t need to be admitted, and patients who are ready to be discharged, are waiting in the hospital because other facilities such as long-term care or psychiatric centers cannot take them.

    She added that the novel virus is showing worrisome after-effects. Patients who had mild cases of COVID-19 are developing life-threatening blood clots, she said, echoing the concerns of health care providers around the world.

    “For those who grapple with whether or not they can trust the information we provide,” she said, “I’m asking you to recognize us as the professionals that we are, to listen to our experiences and perspectives, and to treat us with the same respect we (show) to those who seek our care.”

    As the public health board’s meeting went on, local health care organizations held one of their regularly scheduled media availabilities.

    They once again warned the public that COVID-19 is at a crisis point and is overwhelming hospitals.

    But first, one local health care leader started the meeting by scolding Southwest District Health’s board for inviting Wooll and Karlfeldt.

    “We’re sharing our time and our energy to get the word out. We’ve even been sharing videos of our staff, of sick and dying patients,” said Dr. James Souza of St. Luke’s Health System. “And when we have so many people sickened in our community right now, and we have people dying from this pandemic inside our buildings, right now, the notion that a public health district would give a platform to two known conspiracy theorists to share their non-patriotic narrative is unbelievable.”

    He said, “I’d like to know when we’re going to stop giving oxygen to those who are trying to say this is either a hoax or no big deal.”
    Ada and Canyon counties have a rate of active coronavirus cases that is eight to nine times as high as what is considered “severe COVID prevalence in the community,” said Dr. Steven Nemerson of Saint Alphonsus Health System.

    “Our ER visits are way up,” Nemerson said.

    Nemerson expects to see triple the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients over the next two months. By Christmas, he said, Saint Alphonsus predicts the number of hospitalizations to double.

  13. #963
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnLanders View Post
    Expect your state to issue Stay at home orders soon given that here in California the Governor has issued a Stay at home order til 2021.
    Um, you may not realize that I live in Florida. Ol Cheeto ass kissing DeSansBrains isn't issuing any kind of stay at home order, even if we all turn into zombies and start eating each other's brains.

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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    Um, you may not realize that I live in Florida. Ol Cheeto ass kissing DeSansBrains isn't issuing any kind of stay at home order, even if we all turn into zombies and start eating each other's brains.
    Shit my bad! its drink the Kool-aid cuz Trump said so country now.

  15. #965
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnLanders View Post
    Shit my bad! its drink the Kool-aid cuz Trump said so country now.
    Exactly. Florida has been this through the whole pandemic.

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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    Exactly. Florida has been this through the whole pandemic.
    Well, you're not alone... not that that's any comfort. South Dakota is pretty grim, we're sending patients out of the state for treatment, and losing ground all the time.

    Hell.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

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    Quote Originally Posted by puzzld View Post
    Well, you're not alone... not that that's any comfort. South Dakota is pretty grim, we're sending patients out of the state for treatment, and losing ground all the time.

    Hell.
    Your governor is another Cheeto ass kisser. They all have aspirations for higher office, and it's actually kind of funny that he's now fucking them over for 2024. I am convinced DeSansBrains was going to run in 2024...and now he has to stand in line behind Cheeto again.

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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    Your governor is another Cheeto ass kisser. They all have aspirations for higher office, and it's actually kind of funny that he's now fucking them over for 2024. I am convinced DeSansBrains was going to run in 2024...and now he has to stand in line behind Cheeto again.
    I know what the Republicans will run in 2022 and 2024 to get the anti-vax vote. Vaccines and COVID-19 are a Richard Pan, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra Conspiracy. These conspiracy theorists will show up in downtown Sacramento and rant about State Senator Richard Pan in a conspiracy to prevent him from being the Next US Senator from California or be a successor to Anthony Fauci just in case Fauci was deceased. Expect Richard Pan to be named in rants nationally not just here in California as the person who made pandemic prevention measures for California.






  19. #969
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    Your governor is another Cheeto ass kisser. They all have aspirations for higher office, and it's actually kind of funny that he's now fucking them over for 2024. I am convinced DeSansBrains was going to run in 2024...and now he has to stand in line behind Cheeto again.
    Yeah I think Covid Krustie is gunning for Pence's job. It, god help us, she were to get it, Trump would need to watch out because she'd sacrifice him in a heartbeat. Be injecting him with Pine-sol.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

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    https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/new...0-pm/19419179/

    By Matthew Burns, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor, & Joe Fisher, WRAL multimedia journalist

    RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper issued a new stay-at-home order on Tuesday to limit the spread of coronavirus, ordering most businesses to close at 10 p.m. each night, starting Friday.

    "We have to act now to save lives, safeguard our hospital capacity and preserve our economy," Cooper said during an afternoon news conference.

    The order will require all restaurants, bars, personal care businesses and most retailers to be closed between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations can remain open past 10 p.m. Alcohol sales for on-site consumption will have to end at 9 p.m.

    The stay-at-home order "means just what it says – people are to stay home during those hours," the governor said, noting that late-night gatherings have helped accelerate the spread of the virus in recent weeks.

    "It's pretty clear the later in the evening you go, the larger some of these gatherings can be at some of these businesses," he said. "What we're trying to do is to chip away at those times."

    Both the Wake County Sheriff’s Office and the Raleigh Police Department said they are prepared for additional calls dealing with violations of the order, but they said they will continue to warn and educate people before issuing citations.

    “I’m not going to sit here and tell you we are going to go out and just aggressively start looking for violations, but we are going to step it up," Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker said. "At the end of the day it’s about trying to save lives.”

    Raleigh Police Deputy Chief Todd Jordan said it would take a complaint or more information to lead to any violation.

    “We would not go out and start stopping vehicles or stopping individuals if they are walking up the street," he said. "We would need more information to want to conduct the stop and go down the path of any kind of enforcement.”

    North Carolina surpassed 400,000 total coronavirus cases during the pandemic on Tuesday, when another 4,670 infections were reported. The average number of new cases over the past week of 5,234 a day is at an all-time high.

    The daily averages for virus-related deaths and hospitalizations are also at records, with 46 deaths per day and 2,182 people being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals. Tuesday was the 12th straight day North Carolina set a new high in virus hospitalizations, at 2,373 people.

    North Carolina's color-coded county alert system to illustrate viral hotspots across the state now shows 48 of the 100 counties in the red zone, with critical spread of the virus, up from 20 just two weeks ago. Another 34 are considered orange, with substantial viral spread.

    Much of the Triangle is in the orange zone, although Johnston and Harnett counties are among those in the red zone. Orange County is one of the 18 counties still in the lowest-tier yellow zone, with significant spread.

    "The virus is upon us with a rapid viciousness like we haven’t seen before," Cooper said.

    Dr. Mandy Cohen called the sharp rise in cases shocking, noting North Carolina has topped 6,000 new cases twice in the past week, which is more than the population of Cooper's hometown of Nashville.

    "I'm very worried," Cohen said, adding that she expects the caseload to continue going up in the coming days, as the impact from people's recent Thanksgiving travel and gatherings becomes fully evident. "Don’t wait until your family member is in a hospital bed alone. We need to act now."

    Steve Lawler, president of the North Carolina Healthcare Association, applauded the new restrictions and urged people statewide to pitch in in the fight against the virus.

    "COVID-19 is in our communities, no matter where you live," Lawler said in a statement. "While recent news about vaccine development is encouraging, we don’t know exactly when a vaccine will be FDA-approved and widely available. We are asking everyone to do your part to care for the brave health care workers who are caring for COVID-19 patients and for all of you and your loved ones."

    Cooper's new executive order, which runs through Jan. 8, doesn't change the capacity limits already in place for various businesses or the 10- and 50-person limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings, respectively. It also keeps in place the requirement that people wear masks whenever they're around anyone who isn't part of their household.

    In other states, like California, restaurants have been required to shut dining rooms completely. Cooper said he hopes North Carolina doesn't have to take such steps and expressed confidence that the new stay-at-home order, together with existing rules, will help the state's pandemic trend lines.

    "​Let me be clear we will do more if our trends do not improve," he said. "That means additional actions involving indoor restaurant dining, entertainment facilities and shopping or retail capacity."
    Restaurants irked by curfew
    Restaurant owners said the new curfew already goes too far, once again hitting an industry that has sustained major hits during the pandemic.

    "It’s stupid, and it doesn’t make any sense," Rocky Mount restaurateur Lou Reda said. "All they are doing is punishing people."

    Business at Lou Reda's: An American Table at Tap@1918 is already down 50 percent, Reda said, and he’s not sure his businesses can survive any more restrictions.

    "To get us nine months in, give us a set of rules and now, all of the sudden, you are going to change those rules after we have figured out how to keep the doors open is going to shut down more businesses," he said. "There’s just no rhyme or reason to it."

    Copa: Restaurants 'unfairly singled out'
    Cantina 18: Key is to stay open
    Michael Thor, the owner of Whiskey Kitchen in Raleigh, said the new curfew will likely take another 10 percent off his business, which is already down 70 percent during the pandemic. The added restrictions are especially painful since neither state nor federal officials have any relief aid to offer him or his employees.

    “We should be shut down, but we cannot shut down unless there’s a plan as to how all of my employees are going to be able to maintain their livelihoods with a roof over their heads and food in their refrigerator," Thor said.

    Elizabeth Turnbull, the owner of Copa in Durham, said the restaurant industry has been "unfairly singled out" by government restrictions during the pandemic.

    "We've seen our numbers plummet in the last month, and this is just going to make it worse by making it less appealing and making it harder for people to come out to eat," Turnbull said. "People just don't feel safe, and they don't feel safe because their leaders are telling them not to do it."

    Even though Johnston County is in the red zone, Tom Kane, general manager of Cleveland Draft House in Clayton, said the curfew will only send his customers elsewhere.

    "When we shut down all the restaurants, the grocery stores became the restaurants, and there were hundreds of people inside grocery stores," kane said. "That’s a more challenging environment because people are touching and picking things up and putting them back down. I hope that [the governor] considers the people that are going to be affected by it."

    Lynn Minges, president and chief executive of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, said she appreciates Cooper's "measured approach," noting he could have shutter restaurant dining rooms altogether. Restaurants might need to start serving dinner earlier to accommodate holiday season crowds before the curfew, she said.

    "A 10 o'clock curfew, while certainly not the best news we've had today, is certainly something we're going to learn to live with," Minges said. "We're willing to step up and do whatever it takes to keep businesses open. We've come too far over the past eight months to turn back now."

    "We're just happy to be open," said Jason Smith, the owner of Cantina 18 in Raleigh. "We knew there would be more restrictions, but the key right now is staying open and keeping as many people employed as I can."
    Reda said he’s followed all state and local restrictions so far, but he's reached a breaking point.

    "They’re just too arbitrary and too restrictive," he said. "If it comes down to, do I [follow] the rules or do I feed my family, it’s a no-brainer."

    "We aren’t putting these orders out there to get anybody in trouble. We’re putting them out there to save lives," Cooper said.

    WRAL multimedia journalist Leslie Moreno contributed to this report.

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    https://www.wral.com/fda-committee-r...cine/19422680/

    By WRAL reporter Kasey Cunningham and PolitiFact reporter Paul Specht

    DURHAM, N.C. — A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Thursday evening recommended approval of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

    The vote capped an day-long meeting where FDA regulators interviewed Pfizer executives, as well as experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    In a 17-4 vote, the committee decided the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the potential risks to people aged 16 and older. Prior to the vote, some committee members sought to exclude 16-and17-year olds from the recommendation, citing a lack of data for that age group.

    Committee members urged vaccine distributors to be hyper-transparent about potential side effects of the vaccine they're hoping to distribute across the United States.

    Roughly 24 hours before the meeting, CNN reported that two vaccine recipients in the United Kingdom developed symptoms of anaphylactoid reaction after receiving the vaccine on Tuesday. Both had histories of allergic reactions, UK officials said.

    Responding to questions from committee members, Pfizer Senior Vice Presidents Kathrin Jansen and Bill Gruber said they're monitoring the situation. They said Pfizer trials showed no signals that the vaccine could trigger severe allergic reactions.

    They pointed to data showing the Pfizer vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95%, and said more than 43,400 people participated in the trial without suffering any major safety issues.

    A committee member said he didn't think the two UK cases were serious enough to halt the approval process. However, committee chairman Arnold Monto noted that some people will wait for updates on the UK cases before agreeing to take the vaccine.

    “Facts may be important but perception drives a lot of decisions," Monto said.

    FDA committee members on multiple occasions emphasized the importance of sharing information with the American public.

    During a public hearing, multiple health experts spoke in favor of approving the vaccine. At the same time, they expressed concern over a lack of information for some demographic groups.

    Angela Rasmussen, a virologist and research scientist at Columbia University, was one of several speakers to call for more information for how the vaccine affects Black people, Native Americans, pregnant women and the elderly.

    Still, some experts praised the drugmakers' development of the vaccine in record time.

    "The potential benefits of this vaccine outweigh the identified risks," said Rossi Hassad, a research and statistics professor at Mercy College who has expertise in Epidemiology.

    “I agree with the FDA reviewers that there is no evidence of a major safety signal,” said Peter Lurie, a former associate commissioner at the FDA.

    Once the FDA approves the Pfizer vaccine, Duke University Hospital is among the North Carolina facilities that will receive the first doses.

    The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services identified 11 hospitals across the state to receive the first shipments of the vaccine, which has already been approved in Canada and in the United Kingdom, where thousands have already been vaccinated.

    Thursday's hearing provided a glimpse into the challenges of distributing the vaccinations. The Pfizer vaccine needs to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures throughout the distribution process, and it can only be ordered in batches of 975 shots or more.

    "The vaccine characteristics of the Pfizer program are very different and unique compared to other vaccines we've seen before and they do impact distribution, site storage, as well as administration requirements," said Anita Patel, deputy incident manager for the CDC’s COVID-19 response.

    Those factors have posed some concerns for officials in rural parts of the country where large quantities aren't needed, she said. However, she said the federal and state officials are working with local communities and nursing homes to ensure effective distribution.

    People older than 65 are most at-risk for complications from the virus.

    Roughly one in 130 seniors who have contracted the virus have need hospitalization, a rate four times higher than the 18-to-49-year-old age group, Dr. Aron Hall, acting chief of the CDC’s respiratory viruses branch, told the committee.

    Timeline for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine

    On Thursday, an FDA advisory panel formally recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

    Before people can get the vaccine, the FDA still needs to give final approval, which is expected to happen within days.

    The FDA may grant emergency use authorization (EUA) on Saturday, although the announcement could be delayed to Sunday.

    Healthcare workers could start getting the vaccine in the U.S. as early as Monday.

    Once the vaccine is authorized, it will only be distributed to a select number of people in the U.S., including health workers and senior citizens. EUA isn't the same as full approval, which could take months.

    U.S. officials say it is possible the vaccine could be widely distributed in the spring.

    Next week, the FDA will conduct the same process for Moderna's coronavirus vaccine.

    Once the vaccine arrives at Duke, it will be stored properly and vaccination will begin immediately. Duke nurse Frank DeMarco said it's possible people will be vaccinated by Christmas.

    "If we are really, seriously going to break that back of this pandemic, this is the way to do it," DeMarco said. "So, I ask people to understand that. Before you make a decision, make an educated decision by talking to your primary care physicians."

    The number of COVID-19 infections in the United States could be two to seven times higher than reported to health authorities, Hall, the CDC official, told the FDA on Thursday.

    “One of every 2.5 hospitalized cases and one out of every 7.1 non-hospitalized cases may have been nationally reported," Hall said.

    DeMarco understands some people will have reservations but said many patients have taken part in the trials and doctors are confident in the vaccine and know from the studies it’s extremely effective.


    "People are going to be reluctant, people are going to be afraid or nervous about taking vaccine, that’s understandable," he said. "We have confidence in the studies and trials. We know it’s extremely effective."

    Those who work with and near COVID-19 patients and staff and residents of long-term care facilities are at the top of the state’s priority list for vaccines, so it could be months before the general public is able to get vaccinated.

    A spokesperson for WakeMed said the hospital system will receive the COVID-19 vaccine soon after Duke and the other priority hospitals.

    "WakeMed will receive the COVID-19 vaccine within days of the first 11 healthcare providers," officials explained.

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    https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtec...en-test-europe

    Roche has begun to roll out its high-throughput antigen test for COVID-19 across Europe, with plans to ramp up production to “a double-digit million number of tests per month” to help meet international demands by early next year.

    The company received a CE Mark for the automated laboratory diagnostic it first announced in mid-October, which is designed to relieve some of the burden on molecular-based tests that have served as the gold standard for detecting active coronavirus infections since the beginning of the pandemic.

    The Elecsys antigen test uses deep nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swab samples collected by healthcare professionals, similar to PCR diagnostics, and clinical studies have shown a 5.5% rate of false-negative results and a false-positive rate of 0.1%, according to Roche.

    “Healthcare systems remain under significant pressure to deliver robust testing options, with a sufficient number of tests available,” Roche Diagnostics CEO Thomas Schinecker said in a statement. “The launch of our high-throughput antigen test will provide additional testing capacity to reliably support healthcare systems in diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection, as a supplement to PCR testing.”

    RELATED: Roche says COVID-19 tests helped offset 2020 losses in routine health checks

    The test runs on the company’s cobase immunochemistry analyzers, at up to 300 tests per hour. The company has also filed the diagnostic for review with the FDA.

    Roche previously launched an antigen test designed to deliver individual results at the point of care within 15 minutes. In September, it outlined plans to begin shipping 40 million of those tests to Europe, before increasing production to about 80 million per month by the end of this year.

    The latest lab-based version, meanwhile, completes the set of Roche’s different types of coronavirus tests and their respective use cases: the company now offers PCR, antibody and antigen tests available for both high-throughput processing in a laboratory as well as near the patient with rapid, point-of-care results.

    RELATED: Roche to supply antibody tests to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine trial

    Earlier this month, Roche received an FDA authorization for a new, sensitive antibody test capable of measuring concentrations and gauging a person’s potential immunity to the novel coronavirus. The company also announced it would supply Moderna with the test, to help measure the success of its vaccine.

    https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotec...vid-19-vaccine

    Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline’s COVID-19 vaccine has failed to trigger the desired immune response in people aged 50 years and older, forcing the partners to rethink the antigen formulation. The setback is expected to delay the availability of the vaccine from mid-2021 to near the end of next year.

    Using an adjuvant from GSK, Sanofi developed a recombinant protein-based COVID-19 vaccine. The approach took longer than the creation of mRNA and viral vectored vaccines but offered potentially better results due to its combination of established vaccine technologies. That hypothesis took a hit Friday when Sanofi and GSK shared an update on the program.

    Interim data from a phase 1/2 trial showed the vaccine triggered immune responses in people aged 18 to 49 years that were comparable to those seen in convalescent COVID-19 patients. However, Sanofi and GSK saw “a low immune response” in older adults.

    Sanofi and GSK have identified an insufficient concentration of the antigen as the likely cause of the weak data. That thinking is supported by a recent challenge study of a new antigen formulation in nonhuman primates, which found the vaccine protected against lung pathology and supported viral clearance from the nasal passages and lungs in two to four days.

    The data encouraged Sanofi and GSK that their technologies can form the basis of an effective shot despite the shortcomings of the formulation tested in the phase 1/2. In light of the data, Sanofi and GSK are rethinking their strategy.

    Having planned to move the original formulation into phase 3 this month, the partners now expect to start a phase 2b of a new antigen formulation in February. The trial will compare the experimental prophylactic to an authorized COVID-19 vaccine. As a result of the delay, Sanofi and GSK have pushed back the targeted launch from mid-2021 to the fourth quarter of next year.

    Analysts at Jefferies said the delay may prove an opportunity to other companies. “This delay pushes the anticipated launch of Sanofi/GSK's vaccine further back in the pack of competitors. JNJ recently announced it expects to submit an EUA application for its single dose adenovirus vaccine in February 2021E. The delay also provides an opportunity for Novavax's protein vaccine NVX-CoV2373 as interim data from its UK Phase III trial are expected as early as 1Q21E, with these data expected to serve as the basis for licensure applications,” the analysts wrote.

    The news is a blow to the global response against the coronavirus. Sanofi and GSK planned to make up to 1 billion doses next year and were central to the vaccination programs of multiple countries. The European Commission secured up to 300 million doses of the vaccine. The U.S. has an initial agreement for 100 million doses, plus an option to buy up to 500 million more. The U.K. has lined up a deal for 60 million doses, and Canada has ordered 72 million shots.

    With Sanofi and GSK bringing their manufacturing might to bear on the projects, the partners could serve those Western markets and still have doses available for other regions. Sanofi and GSK agreed to provide 200 million doses to the COVAX Facility set up to facilitate equitable access to vaccines. As a candidate that is stable at temperatures used for routine vaccines, the vaccine is better suited for use in large parts of the world than prophylactics from Moderna and Pfizer.

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    https://fox40.com/news/california-co...-citys-mettle/


    LODI, Calif. (AP) — In San Joaquin County, part of California’s vast Central Valley that produces most of the country’s fruits and vegetables, the coronavirus is spreading like a weed and the hospitals are running out of beds for the sickest patients.

    San Joaquin is part of a 12-county region that on Friday had nearly 97% of its intensive care unit beds filled, the highest rate anywhere in California. And with cases continuing at an unprecedented rate, the death toll inevitably will grow, too.

    A new stay-at-home order was imposed this week but it’s anybody’s guess whether it will have the intended consequence of finally changing enough people’s behavior to slow infections as a vaccine is rolled out.

    “It’s been frustrating,” said Chuck Davis, CEO of data science company Bayesiant that tracks virus numbers for the county. “It’s like we see the train coming down the track and we’re telling people, and some people listen and get off the track and other people get on the track and start dancing.”

    The virus has found a foothold in Lodi, a city of 68,000 on the county’s northern rim. The birthplace of A&W Root Beer, Lodi is surrounded by vineyards that rely on Latino farmworkers.

    On School Street, the city’s picturesque retail and restaurant hub, sycamore leaves as big as your hand littered the sidewalk. In normal times, volunteers clear the leaves. But that stopped during the pandemic, and the leaves piled up, a subtle reminder of how things have changed.

    More stark reminders are at the local hospital, where a second intensive care unit was created to handle patients. A team of 17 nurses arrives Monday so the hospital can begin accepting patients from some of the county’s six other hospitals, all of which are at 100% capacity or more in ICU units.

    Dr. Patricia Iris, medical officer for Adventist Health Lodi Memorial, said during the first surge of cases this year 75% of patients were Latino. The hospital interviewed 30 Latino families to find out why, discovering they didn’t trust the hospital.

    Things improved after Adventist partnered with Spanish-language TV and radio stations to educate people about wearing masks and social distancing.

    But across the city, many residents still don’t follow the rules, Iris said.

    “People can’t help themselves. They want to be near family,” she said. “We don’t have the same culture and the rigidity around following the guidance here than, for example, San Francisco. We need to educate, educate, as much as we can so we can get some relief.”

    Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed a three-week stay-at-home order for the San Joaquin Valley. The order forced restaurants to only offer takeout and delivery, shuttered hair and nail salons, movie theaters and other businesses, and limited retailers to 20% capacity.

    Pat Patrick, president and CEO of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce, signed a letter to Newsom, urging him to let businesses stay open.

    “There’s just no rhyme or reason to some of these things and certainly no data,” he said.

    Lodi Junction, a sprawling thrift store, is following the rules, only allowing a maximum of 30 customers and requiring masks and distancing. More than a dozen people were sampling the wares on Wednesday — a box set of Anthony Robbins self-help books, a $150 flat screen TV with no remote — as Bruce Hornsby sang “that’s just the way it is” over the speakers.

    Roman Winter was browsing some shirts while wearing a mask. He’s a doctor of internal medicine at a Southern California hospital, but once worked in San Joaquin County and still has a house in Lodi. He was visiting for the first time in six months and thinks not much has changed.

    “It’s busier out there now than it was before the whole thing started,” he said. “It doesn’t seem that anybody cares.”

    But some things have changed on School Street, where most of the restaurants have closed their seating. Unable to eat inside, Ryan Breakfield and his girlfriend Erica Everett ate takeout in the bed of a pickup truck, calling it a “COVID date.”

    “It’s just really weird. That’s the best way to put it,” he said.

    Tucked between four restaurants is the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, where owner Jeanne Bria’s business model relies on diners walking past her temptations. But people aren’t thinking about dessert now when they walk to their cars with Styrofoam takeout containers. Bria said her business is down 60%.

    She wears a mask and only allows one person or party in her store at a time. She said most people follow the rules, but added: “I would say 95% of the people that come in want to complain about it.”

    “My problem is I don’t know who to believe,” she said. “You hear from different sources different information. And I almost think that the mental health and the frustration damage that’s being done is almost worse.”

    Across town, Denis Xenos knows exactly who he believes — and it isn’t Newsom. The owner of Denis’ Country Kitchen has kept his restaurant open for dine-in customers despite the mandate, posting on Facebook that he has converted into a “private club.” The membership fee is $1 per family.

    The stunt attracted the attention of the county public health department, which called Xenos and told him the district attorney has been notified. Xenos said nothing has happened yet, and he is “just trusting the Lord.”

    “I’m standing up for what our forefathers have died to give me,” Xenos said, adding he is not requiring masks. “We’re open, letting everybody choose what they want.”

    Others have accepted the rules as necessary. Tom Hoffman, owner of Heritage Oak Winery, canceled his wine tastings and other events for the next three weeks, even though the holiday season is when he makes the most money.

    Hoffman said he expects to survive the shutdown. But his business won’t be the same.

    “I don’t really look forward to standing in the tasting room with 14 people in there all breathing the same air. That doesn’t appeal to me anymore,” he said.

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    https://fox40.com/news/business/us-s...states-monday/


    WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine will begin arriving in states Monday morning, U.S. officials said Saturday, after the government gave the final go-ahead to the shots needed to end an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans.

    Trucks will roll out Sunday morning as shipping companies UPS and FedEx begin delivering Pfizer’s vaccine to nearly 150 locations, said Army Gen. Gustave F. Perna of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development program. Another 450 sites will get the vaccine Tuesday and Wednesday.

    The locations include hospitals and other sites able to meet the ultra-cold storage requirements for the vaccine. Within three weeks, vaccines should be delivered to local pharmacies and other locations, Perna said at a news conference.

    The vaccine was timed to arrive Monday morning so that health workers would be available to receive the shots and begin giving them, Perna said.

    It was unclear who would receive the first dose of the vaccine, though health workers and nursing home residents were the priority. Perna said that decision would be determined by health authorities.

    The announcement kicks off a massive logistical operation involving the federal and state governments, private companies and health care workers to quickly distribute limited vaccine supplies throughout the U.S.

    Initially, about 3 million shots are expected to shipped nationwide, according to officials with Operation Warp Speed. A similar amount is to be held in reserve for those recipients’ second dose.

    Initial shipments are expected to leave Pfizer’s manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, via truck and then be flown to regional hubs around the country.

    Adding to the distribution challenge is that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be stored and shipped at ultra-low temperatures of about 94 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Pfizer has developed shipping containers that use dry ice, and GPS-enabled sensors will allow the company to track each shipment and ensure it stays cold.

    The green light to begin vaccinations came late Friday after the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the vaccine. The signoff capped an unprecedented global race to speed vaccines through testing and review, chopping years off the normal development process.

    The FDA found the vaccine highly protective with no major safety issues. U.S. regulators worked for months to emphasize the rigor and independence of their review, but the Trump administration pressured the agency up until the final announcement. A top White House official even threatened to remove FDA chief Stephen Hahn if a ruling did not come before Saturday.

    Concerns that a shot was rushed out could undermine vaccination efforts in a country with deeply ingrained skepticism about vaccines. Hahn again emphasized his agency’s independence to reporters Saturday.

    “Science and data guided the FDA’s decision,” Hahn said. “We worked quickly because of the urgency of this pandemic, not because of any other external pressure.”

    While determined to be safe, regulators in the U.K. are investigating several severe allergic reactions. The FDA’s instructions tell providers not give it to those with a known history of severe allergic reactions to any of its ingredients.

    The FDA’s vaccine director, Dr. Peter Marks, said the agency will carefully track any reports of allergic reactions in the U.S.

    “I think we still need to learn more, and that’s why we’ll be taking precautions,” Marks said.

    The FDA next week will review a second vaccine from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health that appears about as protective as Pfizer’s shot. On Friday, the Trump administration announced it had purchased 100 million more doses of that vaccine on top of 100 million it previously ordered.

    The announcement came after revelations last week that the White House opted not to lock in an additional 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for delivery in the second quarter of 2021. The Trump administration contends the current orders plus those in the pipeline will be enough to accommodate any American who wants to be vaccinated by the end of the second quarter of 2021.

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