Irving racked up 16 points and 11 assists in the Nets' 119-110 loss to the Charlotte Hornets at the Barclays Center.
His return to the hardwood in Brooklyn came after New York Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday he would allow New York-based professional athletes and performers to be exempt from the city's vaccine mandate for workers.
The policy kept Irving, a seven-time All-Star guard who chose not to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, from playing in 35 home games the Nets have played since the NBA season began in October. He has been playing with the team on the road.
"I don't take it for granted what happened tonight. It was historic and I'm grateful that I got a chance to be out there with my brothers and just leave it all out there," Irving said after the game.
The Nets have seven remaining games in the NBA regular season, five of which will be played at the Barclays Center. The team's next home game is Tuesday against the Detroit Pistons.
Adams said he expanded the vaccine exemption in part because the city's economy -- including vendors and businesses that surround the city's venues -- thrives best when all its stars attract people to those places. The city's multibillion-dollar tourism industry, he said, was still suffering from losses caused by the pandemic.
He also said he was doing it out of fairness -- to put New York City-based performers "on a level playing field" with visiting performers, who were already exempt from the mandate, and because the city is now a "low-risk (Covid-19) environment."
"We're not doing it because there are pressures to do it. We're doing it because the city has to function," Adams said Thursday.
The expansion of vaccine exemptions means all New York Yankees and Mets players can participate in their home openers next month regardless of their Covid-19 vaccination status.
Details about how many Yankees and Mets have not received a Covid-19 vaccine weren't immediately available.
At Thursday's news conference, Yankees president Randy Levine said a "few" of his team's players were unvaccinated.
"You're going to have to live with 'few,' and I can't give you individuals," Levine said, citing privacy laws and rules in Major League Baseball's operating agreement with players.
Mandate still applies to other city workers
The expanded vaccine exemption covers city-based singers and other entertainers, but the decision frustrated unions of other types of workers who argued the wider mandate isn't necessary and people fired for not adhering to it should be reinstated.
"If the mandate isn't necessary for famous people, then it's not necessary for the cops who are protecting our city in the middle of a crime crisis," said Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York. He noted the union has been "suing the city for months over its arbitrary and capricious vaccine mandate."
A United Federation of Teachers spokesperson also took issue with Adams' move.
"Vaccinations are a critical tool against the spread of Covid, and the city should not create exceptions to its vaccination requirements without compelling reasons," the UFT spokesperson said. "If the rules are going to be suspended, particularly for people with influence, then the UFT and other city unions are ready to discuss how exceptions could be applied to city workers."
The executive director of District Council 37, a union of public employees, said "thousands of city workers lost their jobs over the vaccine mandate."
"These are the same essential workers who kept the city going during the height of the pandemic. They deserve the respect and dignity of having their jobs back," the DC 37 official, Henry Garrido, said. "They deserve to be treated equally to their private sector counterparts. We demand that those who lost their job over the mandate be reinstated."
Adams said the city is not reviewing the cases of 1,400 municipal employees who were terminated for not getting vaccinated. The figure includes those who were hired following the mandates with the agreement of getting vaccinated, but ultimately chose not to.
He said officials would continue to promote Covid-19 vaccines, and he hoped the vaccination rates of all the city's sports teams would reach 100%.
"Kyrie ... get vaccinated. Nothing has changed," Adams said Thursday.
CNN's Jason Hanna, Kristina Sgueglia and Jack Bantock contributed to this report.
Rhode Island fell below 60 hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 last week for the first time since Aug. 4, 2021, as cases especially severe cases across the country continue to dwindle.
But some readers have noted that the percentage of residents getting a vaccine booster shot (39.4 percent on Friday) has not risen as rapidly as the number of original shots has.
So I was curious how Rhode Island compares to the rest of the country.
It turns out that every state is dealing with this challenge. But just like with overall vaccination rates, Rhode Island has among the best booster rates, according to The New York Times tracker.
Rhode Island ranks No. 3 in the country for boosted rates among residents 65 and older (76 percent) and ages 18 to 64 (44 percent). Vermont (80 percent for ages 65 and older, 48 percent ages 18 to 64) is ahead in both categories.
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Puerto Rico leads the 18 to 64 category, at 49 percent, and Minnesotas 78 percent rate for people over age 65 places it No. 2.
At the other end of the spectrum, North Carolina (34 percent) and New Hampshire (36 percent) have the lowest booster shot rates in the country for residents age 65 and older, and Alabama and North Carolina are tied at 15 percent for the lowest in the country among residents ages 18 to 64.
For residents below the age of 18, Puerto Rico (20 percent) and Vermont (14 percent) are the only states with double-digit boosted rates. Rhode Island is at 8 percent.
Rhode Island is still holding regular vaccination clinics in communities across the state, including today in Providence and Pawtucket. You can check the entire list of clinics here.
This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, data about the coronavirus in the state, and more. If youd like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @danmcgowan.
March 28, 2022
OSWEGO COUNTY The Oswego County Health Department announced that an additional 531 residents tested positive for COVID-19 from Monday, March 21 through Sunday, March 27. This includes results from lab-confirmed tests and at-home tests.
COVID-19 virus activity has increased in our county, said Oswego County Public Health Director Jiancheng Huang. The total new cases in the past seven days are more than the previous 14 days (March 7 to 20) all together.
He added, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Omicron BA.2 has become the dominant variant in the northeastern U.S., including New York State. According to a recent study on the vaccine and the Omicron variant (https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.13.22272308v1), it was reported that vaccine protection against COVID-19 hospitalization and death is strong and durable after the second dose, but it is more robust after a booster dose. We ask all eligible individuals to get vaccinated or boosted to help protect our more vulnerable populations.
The following report reflects data collected from Monday, March 21 through Sunday, March 27:
An additional 20 Oswego County residents were hospitalized due to COVID-19 between Sunday, March 20 and Saturday, March 26, according to the hospitalization report received by the Oswego County Health Department. New hospitalization numbers are not part of a running total of hospitalizations. For hospitalization details such as age groups and vaccination status, go to the Oswego County COVID-19 Dashboard at https://oswegogis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/3fd162cd12264b418dc03bdebd7f5300.
The Oswego County Health Department holds weekly COVID-19 vaccination clinics and vaccines are also available at local pharmacies and health care provider offices. Face masks are required at all clinics and at-home COVID-19 test kits will be distributed to those getting vaccinated at a County clinic while supplies last.
Go to health.oswegocounty.com/vaccines for a full list of upcoming clinics.
The Oswego County Office for the Aging can help people aged 60 and older who need help navigating the internet to make appointments. Call 315-349-3484.
Free transportation is provided to residents to go to COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites through a partnership between Oswego County and Oswego County Opportunities, Inc. Rides are available between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 315-598-1514 to schedule a ride in advance.
Oswego County Medical Director Christian Liepke, M.D. said, While vaccination continues to be our best defense against COVID-19, its also good to know that there are now medicines that have received emergency use authorization from the FDA and the CDC for the treatment of the virus. People who test positive for COVID-19 should contact their primary care provider right away to find out if they meet certain eligibility criteria to begin treatment.
Oswego County developed a portal for residents to report positive at-home COVID-19 test results, exposure to the virus and get the necessary isolation/quarantine paperwork for schools and employers. Go to https://health.oswegocounty.com/COVID-19 and click on the appropriate link.
Test results received from doctors offices, pharmacies and other testing sites DO NOT need to be self-reported. However, if isolation orders are needed for school, employers or other reasons, people can request these documents using the portals Report a Positive (Laboratory) Test option.
The health department encourages residents who test positive to immediately notify any close contacts. The close contact should then go to the States website at https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/new-york-state-contact-tracing to find out if they meet the criteria for quarantine. If they do, they should report the exposure on the County Health Departments online portal.
Residents are urged to continue taking precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 including:
For more information, go to the Oswego County Health Departments COVID-19 page at https://health.oswegocounty.com/COVID-19 or call its COVID-19 Hotline at 315-349-3330. Callers may need to leave a message and a staff member will return the call.
Residents should also contact their medical providers directly for personal medical advice about COVID-19 and vaccinations or booster shots.
For information about emotional supports, visit the Oswego County Department of Social Services Division of Mental Hygiene at www.oswegocounty.com/mentalhygiene.
Under New York State Public Health Law, the Oswego County Health Department is the local public health authority regarding the COVID-19 pandemic response within the County of Oswego. The Oswego County Health Department works closely with New York State Department of Health regarding COVID-19 monitoring, response, and reporting.
Just over two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, experts are still unraveling the mysterious impacts the coronavirus has on almost every part of the body from the heart, lungs, and brain to the eyes, skin, and reproductive organs.
While most studies on COVID-19s effect on fertility have focused on women, emerging research on men is starting to show that the infection may lead to a temporary dip in male fertility and sexual function.
A study published in November 2021 in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation found that men whod had COVID-19 were over 3 times more likely to experience erectile dysfunction than men whod not had COVID-19. Still, this accounted for less than 5 percent of people in the study whod been infected.
According to Kevin Chu, MD, an andrology fellow at the University of Miami, the discovery of the coronavirus in penile and testicular tissue raised questions that required answers.
Finding virus in this tissue is what first drove researchers to look at certain parts of the body that werent initially looked at, says Dr. Chu. There is still so much we dont know.
For astudy published in February 2022 in the journal Sexual Medicine, Chu and his coauthors hypothesized that because COVID-19 can result in the constriction of blood vessels around the heart, it might affect a mans ability to have an erection.
You need good blood flow into the penis to get good erections, and if thats impacted, that could cause erectile dysfunction, says Chu.
He and his team reviewed electronic medical records of millions of patients in the United States, identifying over 230,000 adult men who had COVID-19 and comparing them with a similar number of men who were not infected. Their conclusion: COVID-19 can be linked to erectile dysfunction.
According to Chu, experts should continue to review new data as it comes out.
Looking for associations is an important first step, but we need to then identify these cause-and-effect correlations, he says.
Its important to note that erections are not purely biological. They require psychosocial factors and that needs to be looked at, too, Chu says, explaining that the mental strain from being sick or even the stress of the pandemic might come into play.
Scientists have long documented the toll that stress takes on libido and sexual function, but the research on how pandemic-related stress is affecting peoples sex lives has produced mixed results.
A meta-analysis published in January 2022 in the journal BMC Public Health looked at 26 studies involving nearly 2,500 women and 3,800 men. Overall, the researchers found that there was an association between the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced sexual activity, especially in women, and that fear of contracting or transmitting COVID-19 had the greatest impact on the occurrence of sexual dysfunction.
But a small study published in February 2021 in the journal Sexual Medicine, which included 76 male cannabis users, found that the pandemic didnt appear to influence sexual function and actually increased sexual activity.
The research on how COVID-19 may impact male fertility is also new, but a growing body of evidence suggests it might have a negative effect, at least in the short term.
A study of 120 men published in February 2022 in the journal Fertility and Sterility found that 60 percent of those whod had COVID-19 experienced reduced sperm motility (referring to sperms ability to move) in the month following infection, even though the virus was not detected in the sperm itself.
Because the research is still new, its not clear how long this drop in fertility lasts, though the authors estimated around three months.
A separate study, published in January 2022 in the American Journal of Epidemiology, included more than 2,100 couples. Researchers found that while COVID-19 in women didnt appear to impair their ability to get pregnant, COVID-19 in men did seem to reduce fertility. Compared with males who did not have COVID-19 within the last 60 days, men who did were almost 20 percent less likely to conceive during that time frame.
We assume that the effects wont be permanent but we dont know that yet, says Chas Easley, PhD, an associate professor of environmental health science at the University of Georgia School of Public Health in Athens, who was not involved with the research.
According to Dr. Easley, all viruses target different receptors, or proteins, to gain entry into cells. The coronavirus behind COVID-19 targets two proteins: ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Easley and some other experts hypothesize that organs that contain both these proteins are particularly susceptible to infection by the COVID-19 virus. The testes, which are the organs responsible for making sperm, contain both.
Sertoli cells, a type of cell in the testes, also contain these proteins. These cells form a physical barrier that separates blood vessels from the testes, called the blood-testis barrier. When the virus latches onto these proteins, it disrupts the function of Sertoli cells in multiple ways.
If you screw up the Sertoli cells, you lose the ability to promote the spermiogenesis required to create real sperm, says Easley.
He advises people whove had COVID-19 and are having difficulty conceiving to consider testing to evaluate sperm count and sperm motility.
According to Easley, none of the COVID-19 vaccines reduce male fertility. The vaccine cant cause infertility but the virus can, he says.
The study published in January 2022 in the American Journal of Epidemiology found no difference in male or female fertility among uninfected people who were vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines compared with uninfected people who were not vaccinated.
The new study backs up prior research on mRNA vaccines. An investigation published in June 2021 in JAMA, which included 45 men who received two doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, found that the vaccine did not lower sperm counts. In fact, sperm counts increased, from a median count of 26 million per milliliter at baseline to 30 million per milliliter after the second shot.
According to Easley, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is an important way for men to protect their fertility.
"Even mild cases of COVID can lead to decreased sperm counts, lower sperm motility, and increased DNA fragmentation in sperm, and we predict that vaccines will prevent this damage," he says.
DENVER (KDVR) After weeks of declining COVID-19 cases in Colorado, several counties saw a rise in cases over the last seven days.
As of Monday, the states seven-day positivity rate was 3.33%, which is up from2.56% seven days ago. Positivity rate measures the amount of COVID positive tests to the total amount of tests taken.
Overall, 13 counties saw a decrease in COVID-19 positivity, 35 counties saw a rise, nine counties stayed the same, and seven counties administered fewer than 10 tests.
According to theColorado Department of Public Health and Environment, incidence are down slightly over the last week.
Heres a look atpositivity rates for every county over the last seven days:
According toJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the percent positive is exactly what it sounds like: the percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are actually positive, or: (positive tests)/(total tests) x 100%. The percent positive (sometimes called the percent positive rate or positivity rate) helps public health officials answer questions suchas:
The percent positive will be high if the number ofpositive testsis too high, or if the number oftotal testsis too low. A higher percent positive suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who havent been tested yet, Johns Hopkins shared.
At 16, ShaNiyah McGee could see her future clearly. She wanted to go to college to become a pediatrician and own a nail salon and somehow, some way, she wanted her younger siblings to come to a university with her.
Shes that kind of person, her grandmother, Laurena Ellis, said. She didnt have a bad bone in her body.
Laurena Ellis holds a photo of her granddaughter, ShaNiyah McGee, left, with her siblings when ShaNiyah was 15 years old. ShaNiyah was 16 and a junior at Berkner High School in Richardson when she died unexpectedly after contracting COVID-19 in September 2021. Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune
But unfortunately, none of this will come to pass. On Sept. 28 the day ShaNiyah emerged from her bedroom where she spent days recovering from COVID-19 to return to school she collapsed in her Dallas home and died, becoming one of over 100 Texas coronavirus fatalities under the age of 19.
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As the coronavirus pandemic moves into a third year, recent data provides a clearer picture of COVID-19s deadly impact in Texas. Today marks the one-year anniversary of when vaccines were widely available to anyone over the age of 16 and in that time, deaths have slowed considerably.
Vaccines became available to those older than 12 last May. Between then and January, COVID-19 killed about 29,000 Texans. About 82% of those deaths, including ShaNiyahs, were among people who had not been vaccinated.
Behind these figures are real families, broken by the deaths of loved ones lost too early to a disease that often infects several members of a family at once. ShaNiyahs mother, Felicia Boulden, eventually recovered only to arrange her oldest daughters funeral.
Ellis said her granddaughter ShaNiyah had planned to get the shots after she fully recovered from COVID-19. Now, everyone eligible in the family has received the vaccines. Ellis and Boulden have struggled to understand how Boulden lived but ShaNiyah died.
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We think she bargained with God to leave her mother for her sisters and her brother, Ellis said.
Jared Earles father, Brent Dean Earles, died from COVID-19 four days after his 65th birthday. Credit: Ben Torres for The Texas Tribune
Vaccination has dramatically changed the impact of the coronavirus, which first appeared in the United States in early 2020. Before vaccines were available to everyone a year ago, Texans 80 and older died most frequently from COVID-19.
But when the coronavirus delta variant hit last September, a high vaccine rate for older Texans protected them, while deaths among younger residents began rising. Adults in their 60s died more often than any other age group during the surge, followed by those in their 70s and those in their 50s.
Brent Earles, 65, of Dallas, was one of those Texans in January. He worked as a shopping mall Santa for years, hoisting children onto his lap and listening to their Christmas wishes.
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My mom commented that it was probably one of the happiest times that shes ever seen him was being Santa at this [last] event, but it is almost certainly where he contracted COVID, his son Jared Earles said.
On New Years Eve, doctors rushed an unvaccinated Brent Earles, as he struggled to breathe, into the intensive care unit, where he remained for a near monthlong fight against COVID-19.
On Jan. 25, he died four days after his 65th birthday, one of the nearly 2,000 Texans in their 60s who have died in the first two months of this year from the virus.
Its the natural order of things that at some point in your life, your parents die, Earles said. Certainly, I didnt want or expect it to be like this, so suddenly and so needlessly. My dad had a lot of living left and he had a lot more to give.
In the beginning, Earles family and doctors thought Brent would make it. He had battled with COVID-19 pneumonia in both lungs. Two weeks in the hospital stripped him of 20 pounds, but he had improved enough that doctors prepared to move him out of the ICU.
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In those early days at the hospital, Jared said, his father began to think seriously for the first time about getting the shots.
Brent had held concerns about the vaccines safety, which he and his son regularly discussed. His son wanted him to get vaccinated, but the older man refused. That seemed to be changing as Brent slowly regained his strength.
Jared Earles shows a photo of him and his father on his phone. Credit: Ben Torres for The Texas Tribune
On one hand, my dad is a number. To most people, hes just one of an unnecessarily large number. And he also fits in that unvaccinated camp, But, Jared Earles added, He was much more than a statistic to me.
As Brent was preparing to move out of the ICU, Brents mother, who was unvaccinated, died of COVID-19. Soon after, new scans revealed a severe regression in Brents lungs.
His lung scans kind of went from mostly clear to terrible, Jared said. [For] COVID cases, its a long, slow, arduous recovery, and setbacks are extremely fast and often fatal. And thats what happened.
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In Brents last moments, the father passed the torch to his son. Jared had moved back to Texas seven years ago to work with his father.
He told me that I had surpassed him, Jared said. And it was my time to continue on.
About two months have passed since the omicron surge, which took the lives of at least 6,000 Texans, and the state is seeing a relative respite from the pandemic as COVID-19 restrictions begin to lift.
Texas is now averaging about 60 deaths a day, down from over 200 daily deaths at the height of omicron. During the delta variant peak, there was an average of 300 deaths in one day.
While death rates have slowed, the United States is still on track to reach 1 million COVID-19 deaths in the coming weeks. Texas leads the nation with the second-highest number of COVID-19 deaths behind California, which records about 2,000 more deaths despite having 10 million more people. Overall, Texas has had 296 deaths per 100,000 residents since the pandemic began, ranking it roughly in the middle of all states.
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However, other variants will be coming. A mutation of omicron, called BA.2, is currently causing surges across Europe. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it is at least 50% more transmissible than its predecessor but does not appear to cause a deadlier illness. Federal data showed the new strain accounting for 1 in 4 new U.S. COVID-19 cases.
While Fauci is expecting an uptick in domestic cases, it is unclear if the increase will reflect the intense surges seen this past January and last September.
Rebecca Fischer, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, said Texans should keep their guard up.
Were doing OK right now, but this is the time to gain ground on the virus, Fischer said. By no means is this a time to act like the pandemic is over.
Despite the virus mutations, vaccines are still the best defense against COVID-19. Right now, the states fully vaccinated rate sits at just below 60%. Booster rates are even lower and now theres a second booster to be made available this month. Only 22% of Texans have received a booster shot. Increasing these rates will not only prevent death but will make the emergence and transmission of new variants more difficult.
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Fischer does believe there will come a time where the individual and public health measures will have largely suppressed the virus, and that time could be close, but only with significant investment in public health services.
Public health [experts] have been screaming this forever. But now, its becoming really apparent, Fischer said.
Earlier this month, Republican pushback prompted Congress to cut $15.6 billion for COVID-19 relief that would have paid for treatments, vaccines and testing. If Congress does not release additional funds, the money for COVID testing and treatment for Americas tens of millions of uninsured people could likely run out in April.
As global COVID-19 cases rise, Fischer said the United States must move aggressively before the wave hits here to combat future deaths.
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When I look at the numbers that 100 Texans a day are dying, I think the numbers are a little bit down now, but thats not OK. Its never been OK, Fischer said. Its never been OK to see those numbers and think that we dont need to do anything and its all OK and normal now.
Disclosure: Texas A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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Today, the White House begins a push to fight a resurgence of COVID-19 by encouraging building owners and managers to focus on what it calls the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will hold a 12:30 p.m. webinar Tuesday on the topic.
In short, the strategy encourages people to open windows and let air inside closed buildings, use air filtration systems like HEPA or MERV-13, and consider adding ultraviolet germicidal irradiation systems to HVAC units. The White House explains:
Research shows changing the air in a room multiple times an hour with filtered or clean outdoor air using a window fan, by using higher MERV filters in an Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, using portable air cleaning devices, and even just opening a window can reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission with studies showing five air changes an hour reduce transmission risk by 50 percent. And, improving indoor air has benefits beyond COVID-19: it will reduce the risk of getting the flu, a common cold, or other diseases spread by air, and lead to better overall health outcomes.
Some of these suggestions are easy and common-sense measures while others can be expensive and might be more suitable for new construction rather than retrofitting existing systems. Given all of the new home, apartment and condo construction going on, I wonder if builders are considering these ideas in their new units. I also wonder how much of an attraction these filtration measures would be for office space shoppers.
The American Rescue Plan includes billions of dollars to improve filtration. The White House says:
Federal funds and resources are available to support improvements in ventilation, filtration, and clean indoor air the American Rescue Plan has $122 billion for schools and $350 billion for state, local, and Tribal governments, which can support upgrades to their local businesses, nonprofits, community centers, and other commercial and public establishments. Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides billions of dollars to our communities to support peoples health and safety in new or upgraded airports, transportation hubs, low-income housing, schools, and other buildings.
Kaiser Health News found that thousands of schools across 44 states used federal recovery funds to install air filtration systems that use unproven technology. In fact, some of the units installed in public classrooms made air quality worse, pumping high levels of ozone into the buildings.
Because this one budget line item, HVAC filtration, involves so much money, and there is so much hype about unproven technology, it is worth journalists effort to track the spending. In Ohio, for example, the state is spending a half-billion dollars on filtration upgrades. The Dayton Daily News spent time with the workers who install the systems. Future Eds survey of 3,500 school systems, including charter schools, found HVAC upgrades were the single biggest category of intended spending of federal COVID-19 aid.
(FutureEd)
Future Ed reports:
More than half the districts and charters in the sample, 1,668, expect to spend money on school climate systems, and HVAC is a top-three priority in every region.
The spending averages out to about $401 per student across agencies choosing this option.
Such improvements are explicitly allowed in American Rescue Plan since they can not only prevent the spread of Covid, but can also guard against other airborne illnesses and provide a more comfortable climate for learning.
Under the current federal guidelines, all HVAC improvements must be completed by September 2024. So this work will take years to complete and journalists should start thinking about how they will track this massive spending for years to come.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki didnt make the trip to Europe because she tested positive just before Air Force One packed up to leave. Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the trip instead. And now, she has tested positive.
A man wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walks near a banner reminding the precautions against the coronavirus at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
It appears that the incredible COVID-19 run through South Korea may be on the decline. The New York Times reports, South Korea reported 187,213 new virus cases on Monday, about 100,000 fewer than the day before, and 287 virus-related deaths were reported, down sharply from last Thursdays record of 470. The death rate would certainly have been worse in a less inoculated country, but Korea vaccinated 87% of its population.
New cars are rolling off the assembly line ready to connect like a smartphone to a wireless provider. USA Today notes:
Last week, BMW launched the first 5G-equipped car the 2022 BMW iX xDrive50, powered by T-Mobiles new Magenta Drive service. The $20/month service provides high-speed connectivity to the car, both for calls and data services. In addition, it powers an internal Wi-Fi hotspot that can support up to 10 devices in and around the car.
In the future, your car may get software updates just like your phone and laptop do now right over the internet. USA Today reports:
During the pandemic, people became very accustomed to having high-speed Internet access for all their devices, and as we start to travel more, that need for high-speed access wherever people go will grow. In that light, T-Mobiles claim to offer 5G coverage on 92% of interstate highway miles across the U.S. makes the notion of a connected car more appealing than it may first appear.
But carmakers are not planning to build 5G connections into autonomous driving technology since signal dropouts are inevitable.
Los Angeles police say Chris Rock does not want to press charges against Will Smith. But It got me wondering if there is ever a defense for smacking another person who insults you or your loved one?
The Mattern Law Firm in Los Angeles explains that assault does not even have to include physical contact.
Put simply, battery involves intentional contact thats harmful, and assault requires no contact at all. Take this example. A person tries to punch someone but doesnt they could be charged with assault even if they missed. For it to also be battery, actual contact would have had to be made.
How Stuff Works took the question to Micah Schwartzbach, a California criminal defense lawyer, who said:
In general, you have to not be the aggressor and you have to reasonably believe that force is necessary to protect yourself from some imminent violence, says Schwartzbach. And on top of that, you have to use a proportionate amount of force.
There are some really important points for distinguishing between a legal and illegal punch.
No.1, you cant strike first. That would make you the aggressor. Its hard to argue self-defense when youre literally on the attack.
Second, you can only punch someone if theyve already taken a swing at you or if you believe youre about to be hit. Schwartzbach says that its also possible to claim self-defense if you punch your attacker while hes winding up to smack you, but youd need some fast hands.
And third, you cant escalate the fight. If the drunk guy at the bar doesnt like the way youre looking at his girlfriend (yes, another clich) and shoves you on the shoulder, youre not justified to break a bottle over his head. Youre probably not even justified to punch him. Or slap him.
But this incident at the Oscars involves movie stars, so lets explore the thems fightin words argument. Schwartzbach says that is a widely misunderstood defense for smacking somebody:
Even though fighting words arent protected as free speech, theyre still not a legal justification for violence. Schwartzbach says that even if someone threatens you and says theyre going to beat you up or kill you, the law doesnt give you the right to slug them.
Its one thing for it to be understandable that someone threatens to kill you and you punch them in the face, says Schwartzbach. But if theres no indication that the person was about to harm you in some way and you had time to go talk to the police, youre likely not going to have a legal defense.
Metro asked a therapist about the Oscar smackdown:
Relationship coach Liam Barnett agrees that you should stick up for your partner, but only after you have given them the opportunity to stick up for themselves first.
Reacting immediately could make them feel inferior and weak towards the person that is insulting them, says Liam.
If you notice that they need help, then you can interfere by drawing some boundaries. Make them notice the person whos insulting them that what theyre saying or doing is wrong.
How do strike the balance and give your partner the support they need without making the issue about you and your anger?
I think its reasonable to expect that a partner would support you during times of distress, says Naomi Segal, couples psychotherapist and founder of The Couple Consultancy.
What that support or sticking up for looks like, however, depends on what your partner needs in that moment. For some, this may be soothing after an incident, for others it may be for a partner to represent them at times when they feel unable to do it themselves.
Remember, even if there is no criminal charge, when a rich movie star hits you, a civil lawsuit may be an option. And the slap could still cost Will Smith his Oscar. The Academy has rescinded Oscars to other disgraced honorees.
Smith apologized to Rock, the Academy, the shows producers, the attendees, everyone watching around the world, the Williams Family and his King Richard Family on Monday night. Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive, he said. My behavior at last nights Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable.
A pedestrian carries an umbrella while walking on a path in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
In the last two decades, 26 people who have attempted to take their own life by leaping from the Golden Gate Bridge still showed signs of life when they were rescued from the water. 14 of them survived crashing into the water at 75 miles per hour. But why did some survive and others didnt?
The answer is emerging that the way that the MarinHealth Medical Center treated the survivors made a lifesaving difference. But even the physicians and medical workers doing the rescue work cannot pinpoint why more people survive now. Part of the answer is that the survival rate went up around the same time the medical center began staffing as a trauma center, which designates caseloads and staff level. Today, anyone who jumps from the bridge goes straight to MarinHealth. Before, they might have been transported further across the bay.
In the 85 years since the bridge opened, 1,800 people have died after jumping from it. Engineers are currently installing new netting to prevent people from jumping to their death.
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Screening CheckBeginning today the Daily Wellness Check has changed to the COVID Screening Check. Moving forward UC Riverside students, employees, and visitors are required to fill out the COVID Screening Check to report: A positive COVID-19 test result COVID-19 symptoms (symptoms from a known or chronic condition such as allergies, asthma, etc. are not considered COVID-19 symptoms for this report) Exposure to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 (exposure is defined as close contact with a known positive person for more than 15 minutes in a 24 hour period) Completion of your required COVID test
Anyone else coming to campus will not need to complete the COVID Screening Check, unless they meet the above criteria. All employees and students should continue to self-monitor for symptoms prior to coming to campus each day. For more information visit the Campus Return website.
COVID-19 Town HallA virtual town hall focusing on UCRs COVID-19 response and operations will take place on April 14 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Details on how to register for and participate in the meeting are coming soon.
Testing RequirementsAll UCR employees are expected to get tested for COVID-19 at least once a month. Testing expectations for all employees and students, including those who are not up to date on vaccinations, symptomatic, or exposed, are online on the testing page of the Campus Return website.
Notifications About Potential Workplace Exposures on CampusVisit the UCR COVID-19dashboardfor the latest information about locations on campus where COVID-19 positive individuals were present in the past 14 days. This dashboard is updated daily.
More InformationFor updates and the latest information for the UCR community about COVID-19 visit the Campus Return website.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 480.9 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 6.12 million. More than 11.17 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
An Israeli study has shown that senior citizens who received a second booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had a 78% lower mortality rate than those who had only received one.
COVID-19 infections continue to rise again in France, with the seven-day moving average of new cases at a six-week high of 110,874 on Friday.
German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has urged those aged over 60 with risk factors, such as high blood pressure or a weak heart, to get a second booster shot against COVID-19.
Australia is set to roll out a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines to it most vulnerable population from next month.
Poland will lift the requirement to wear masks in confined spaces, except for health care facilities, and remove quarantine rules for travellers and roommates of infected people, its Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on Thursday.
The European Medicines Agency has recommended the use of AstraZeneca's antibody drug for preventing COVID-19 infections.
The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic was reflected in a natural decrease last year in the population of nearly three-quarters of US counties versus the two previous years, the census bureau said on Thursday.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate will be lifted for professional athletes and performers.
New Zealand announced on Wednesday it would lift COVID-19 vaccine mandates for a number of sectors including teaching and police from 4 April.
An Italian study suggests that efficient ventilation systems can reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in schools by more than 80%.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.
Image: Our World in Data
The COVID Social Enterprise Action Agenda builds on the actions that its members have already taken and seeks to inspire new commitments. It outlines 25 concrete recommendations for five key stakeholder groups to support social entrepreneurs during COVID-19:
The Chinese financial hub of Shanghai has launched a two-stage lockdown of its 26 million people, with bridges and tunnels closed and highway traffic restricted in a bid to contain rising COVID-19 cases.
The lockdown, announced by Shanghai's city government on Sunday, will split the city in two roughly along the Huangpu River for nine days to allow for 'staggered' testing.
Wu Fan, a member of Shanghai's expert COVID team, told a briefing recent mass testing had found "large scale" infections throughout the city, triggering the stronger response.
"Containing the large scale outbreak in our city is very important because once infected people are put under control, we have blocked transmission," she said, adding that testing would be carried out until all risks were eliminated.
A record 3,450 asymptomatic COVID cases were reported in Shanghai on Sunday, accounting for nearly 70% of the nationwide total, along with 50 symptomatic cases, the city government said.
Singapore announced last week that it will lift quarantine requirements for all vaccinated travellers from April.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the financial hub will also drop requirements to wear masks outdoors and allow larger groups to gather.
"Our fight against COVID-19 has reached a major turning point," Lee said in a televised speech that was also streamed on Facebook. "We will be making a decisive move towards living with COVID-19."
Singapore began lifting quarantine restrictions for vaccinated travellers from certain countries in September, with 32 countries on the list before Thursday's extension to vaccinated visitors from any nation.
It joins a number of other Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea and Indonesia in easing restrictions and travel requirements.
Written by
Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
For kids with autism, getting the COVID-19 vaccine isn't as simple as a shot in the arm Detroit Free Press
