SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, 4 January 2022 (AP) – Puerto Rico on Tuesday imposed new measures to fight a surge in COVID-19 cases that has overwhelmed medical staff in the U.S. territory and led to temporary shortages of testing kits. All private businesses that cater to the public must close from midnight to 5 a.m., […]
By Will Sommer 7 January 2022 (The Daily Beast) – A leading QAnon promoter who urged both her followers and strangers she passed on the street not to take the COVID vaccine died Thursday of the coronavirus, making her just the latest vaccine opponent killed by the disease. Cirsten Weldon had amassed tens of thousands […]
By Raf Casert 6 January 2022 BRUSSELS (AP) – Europe’s sky is filling up with near-empty polluting planes that serve little other purpose than safeguarding airlines’ valuable time slots at some of the world’s most important airports. The highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19 has put many off flying, and because of it, getting people and goods […]
By Lila Seidman 4 January 2022 (Los Angeles Times) – One of Parsia Jahanbani’s biggest fears was realized when a man calling healthcare workers “murderers” attacked him and other staff members outside a mobile vaccine clinic in Tustin last week, he said. [For context, see Desdemona’s post, Covid and the war on medical expertise. –Des] […]
By Margaret Menge 1 January 2022 (The Center Square) – The head of Indianapolis-based insurance company OneAmerica said the death rate is up a stunning 40% from pre-pandemic levels among working-age people. “We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica,” […]
By Alexandra Villarreal 3 January 2022 (The Guardian) – Covid-19 cases in Florida have risen by 948% in just two weeks, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant drives a huge wave of infections and hospitalizations across the US. Even as Dr Anthony Fauci – Joe Biden’s top medical adviser – cautioned the public to look at hospitalizations and […]
By Evan Bush 2 January 2022 (NBC News) – Humans have infected wild deer with Covid-19 in a handful of U.S. states and there’s evidence the virus has been spreading between deer, according to recent studies, which outline findings that could complicate the path out of the pandemic. Scientists swabbed the nostrils of white-tailed deer […]
By Alicia Victoria Lozano 2 January 2022 (NBC News) – With at-home Covid-19 tests in high demand and their efficacy in question, health departments from California to Massachusetts are turning to sewage samples to get a better idea of how much the coronavirus is spreading through communities and what might be in store for health care […]
1 January 2022 (Desdemona Despair) – The year started with a fascist insurrection in the U.S. and ended with record COVID-19 case rates. In between, the forces of sedition and antiscience merged to form a monstrous alliance of violence, delusion, and ignorance amplified by social media and automation. The internet – once conceived as the […]
31 December 2021 (UNICEF) – As Filipino families gather this New Year’s Eve to welcome 2022, there are 846,000 children who need help after Typhoon Rai/Odette destroyed their homes. A more infectious strain of COVID-19 and continued heavy rainfall over typhoon-affected areas pose an additional danger and can further slow down aid efforts. Working with […]
