News 7/14/21 in News stories

BOSTON (CBS) – “It’s surprising you know?” Tufts Medical Center epidemiologist Shira Doron said. “It’s not what we’ve been seeing.”

She was referencing an outbreak of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated people following the Fourth of July holiday in Provincetown. Infection numbers among fully vaccinated individuals are in the two dozens, and growing.

“The delta variant is very contagious,” Dr. Doron explained. “We don’t know whether or not this is due to the delta variant yet but statistically the chances are that it is.”

In Massachusetts, there have been breakthrough COVID-19 cases in roughly 0.1% of the vaccinated population. In Provincetown, entire homes of visitors over the Fourth have tested positive, despite being fully vaccinated.

“I would never advise people to panic, but I think this is something we should look at. I don’t want to sweep it under the rug. I think this is going to be something that we learn from,” Dr. Doron said.

Lawmakers To Discuss ‘Nero’s Law’, Legislation Aimed At Protecting Injured K-9s

BOSTON (CBS) — A hearing is set for Wednesday on Beacon Hill to discuss a bill aimed at protecting K-9’s.

The bill, which has been dubbed “Nero’s Law”, was filed after the deadly shooting of Yarmouth Police Sergeant Sean Gannon. The 32-year-old Yarmouth police officer was killed while he and other officers were serving an arrest warrant at a Barnstable home.

His K-9, Nero, was also shot, but under state law, first responders could not treat Nero at the scene.

He had to be driven to a vet.

He did recover, but the bill would change the law to allow animals injured in the line of duty to receive on site medical care.

FBI failed to pursue sex-abuse allegations against ex-doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State, inspector general finds.

The FBI did not properly investigate the “extraordinarily serious” allegations that Larry Nassar was sexually abusing members of the U.S. gymnastics team, the Justice Department’s inspector general found. In the months before other law enforcement agencies pursued Nassar, additional gymnasts were abused. Furthermore, FBI officials gave misleading or false answers when confronted about those failures.

One top agent who did not act on the allegations was at the same time talking to the head of USA Gymnastics about pursuing a job with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

rogressives eventually rallied behind President Biden during the 2020 campaign as their best hope of beating Donald Trump. They stayed in line to pass his first coronavirus relief bill. They haven’t rebelled against any of his nominees. And so far, they haven’t deserted the White House in the fight over infrastructure.

But Democratic unity showed fissures yesterday after Biden’s thumping voting-rights speech, which left many progressives hungry for more action. As Republicans push coast-to-coast to adopt election restrictions, the left wants Biden to signal support for ending the filibuster or at least carving out an exception for Democratic voting proposals.

Biden needs Democrats to stay united if he is to have any hope of driving his agenda through the narrowly divided Congress.

Parts of South Africa’s vaccination program were temporarily halted following the country’s most violent protests in years. Only about 2.5 percent of the covid-ravaged nation’s population has been fully inoculated.

The city of Tokyo on Wednesday reported its highest number of coronavirus cases in nearly six months, just days ahead of the Olympic Games and about a week after authorities declared a state of emergency to stem the rising tide of infections.

The global number of new coronavirus cases rose by 10 percent over the past week, after more than two months of steady decline, the WHO said in an epidemiological update. While the number of deaths linked to covid-19 increased by 3 percent worldwide, the agency said, the Africa region recorded a 50 percent jump in new fatalities from the virus.

London’s transport authority will reportedly continue mandating face coverings aboard services such as the city’s subway system. England will lift virtually all remaining virus curbs on Monday.

Sydney extended its limited lockdown by at least another 14 days, after New South Wales state logged 97 new cases on Wednesday. Australia’s largest city has been under enhanced restrictions for about three weeks.

Some countries defend mixing vaccines after WHO suggests booster strategy is ‘chaotic’

Canadian and Thai health officials are defending the decision to mix different coronavirus vaccines after the World Health Organization’s chief scientist suggested this week that combining doses was potentially unsafe.

The WHO’s Soumya Swaminathan said in a briefing Monday that plans by some countries to administer booster shots signaled a “dangerous trend” that could lead to “a chaotic situation … if citizens start deciding when and who will be taking a second, a third and a fourth dose.”

“We are in a bit of a data-free, evidence-free zone as far as ‘mix-and-match,’ ” she said. She later clarified on Twitter that she was concerned about individuals, rather than public health agencies that she said would have better data, deciding to get a mixed cocktail of shots.

A top Thai virologist fired back Tuesday, however, saying authorities would forge ahead with plans to mix a first dose of the Sinovac vaccine with a second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot.

Canadian public health officials also defended their plan to offer messenger RNA vaccines as a second shot to people who received a first dose of the adenovirus-based Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. “We have taken some strong decisions that quite frankly, are bearing out,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Tuesday.

Today’s WTF

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) campaign is selling merchandise with the slogan “Don’t Fauci My Florida.” The state’s daily coronavirus case counts are roughly four times the national average.