Evidence about efficacy of additional dose of vaccine is unclear as some raise moral argument
Many rich countries are considering offering people an additional coronavirus vaccine dose. But are these booster shots necessary?
Continue reading...Category Archives: US News
Coronavirus live news: Japan reports record cases ahead of Paralympics, New Zealand cluster grows
Critical care beds are reaching capacity in Japan while New Zealand is racing to contain a cluster in Auckland that has grown to 21
- Jabbed adults infected with Delta ‘can match virus levels of unvaccinated’
- Japan sees record number of Covid cases days before Paralympics begin
- Biden says Americans can get Covid booster shots starting next month
- New Zealand Covid outbreak linked to Sydney flight as Ardern widens vaccine rollout
An update on the British man sentenced to six weeks in prison in Singapore for refusing to wear a mask:
Benjamin Glynn, 40, was released today and will be deported, the country’s prison department said.
This is an interesting story by Edward Helmore about an Australian psychologist living in Canada who penned a book on pandemics just before Covid-19 hit.
Stephen Taylor’s book, The Psychology of Pandemics, was rejected by his publisher because “no one’s going to want to read it”.
Related: ‘No one wanted to read’ his book on pandemic psychology – then Covid hit
Continue reading...One airport, 1,300 snakes: San Francisco helps to save endangered species
A parcel of land owned by the international airport is home to the largest population of the San Francisco garter snake
Across from the San Francisco international airport, and past the bustling highway that hugs it, lies what appears to be an empty lot. But the 180-acre, airport-owned parcel of land, which sits beyond the tarmac, tucked against residential homes, isn’t quite empty. It’s home to roughly 1,300 snakes.
With brightly painted bands of blue, orange-red and black that line their slender bodies, the garter snakes, which can grow up to 3ft long, are considered among the most beautiful in the world. They are also among the most threatened.
Continue reading...‘No one wanted to read’ his book on pandemic psychology – then Covid hit
Australian psychologist Steven Taylor published what would turn out to be a prophetic book, and it has become like a Lonely Planet guide to the pandemic
In October 2019, a month or so before Covid-19 began to spread from the industrial Chinese city of Wuhan, Steven Taylor, an Australian psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, published what would turn out to be a remarkably prophetic book, The Psychology of Pandemics.
Even his publishers had doubts about its relevance and market potential. But in the 22 months since the book has become like a Lonely Planet guide to the pandemic, passed around and marked up like waypoints along a new and dreadful global health journey.
Continue reading...Grizzly Flats: the California town leveled by the Caldor fire – in pictures
Houses were reduced to piles of ash and cars to twisted metal as the blaze rushed through the El Dorado county town
Continue reading...US recommends Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccine boosters – live
- Officials recommend booster eight months after receiving second shot
- Full story: US to offer booster shots starting 20 September
- Research continues on boosters for Johnson & Johnson vaccine
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Joe Biden will host Israel’s new prime minister Naftali Bennett in Washington on August 26, the White House has just announced.
Students in Florida’s Broward County went back to school under a mask mandate today, even as their school board faced threats of severe penalties for defying Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
And school officials in Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties planned to address the public health measure later Wednesday, hoping to reduce infections in classrooms.
In Miami, Florida’s largest school district with 334,000 students, a task force of medical experts recommended students should be required to wear masks when they return to classrooms next week.
Continue reading...Prince Andrew a ‘person of interest’ in Epstein investigation
Source says investigators want to speak to Duke of York as part of their inquiry into possible co-conspirators
The Duke of York is considered a “person of interest” in the US investigation into disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, it has been claimed.
An unnamed source, said to be close to the inquiry, told the Reuters news agency that investigators viewed Prince Andrew as a “person of interest” over his friendship with Epstein as part of their investigation into possible co-conspirators.
Continue reading...‘A vocal group got its way’: Florida parents condemn schools’ lack of mask mandates
Amid powerful resistance to mandates from Florida’s governor and his supporters, some parents are frustrated that others are ignoring safety protocols
In Pinellas county, Florida, Maggie, a mother of three, is sending her kids to school every day with two or three extra masks even if, in her fourth grader’s class, only a third of the children are wearing them. Just two days into the new school year, she received a call from school officials saying there were already five known cases of students with Covid-19.
“Based on my kids’ school, and the number of parents that have chosen to not mask their kids, it looks like we’re in the minority,” said Maggie, who asked to be identified by just her first name. “I think the voices who are very anti-mask are very loud.”
Continue reading...Surging wildfire tears through northern California town and threatens others
Caldor fire explodes in size as Pacific Gas & Electric begins shutting off power to 51,000 customers
Critically dangerous fire weather was forecast across northern California from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday evening, threatening to intensify several large blazes and increasing the risk of new ones, as a small rural town in the Sierra Nevada was ravaged by a fire that grew with devastating speed.
The Caldor fire, which erupted over the weekend, exploded in size on Tuesday and ran through the town of Grizzly Flats, destroying many buildings and forcing residents to leave. Two were injured. Officials estimated that the blaze had blown through 30,000 acres – up from 6,500 acres reported by the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) earlier that day.
Continue reading...US says ‘we’re not taking their word for it’ on Taliban airport safety promise – video
White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the Biden administration does not have complete faith in the Taliban promise to offer a safe passage to Kabul's international airport after their takeover of the country. 'We're not trusting, we're not taking their word for it,' Psaki says. 'We are watching closely.' Asked what the consequences of breaking the promise could be, Psaki says: 'The consequences are the full weight and force of the United States military, and I think we've made that clear'
Continue reading...Texas governor Abbott, who fought mask mandates, tests positive for Covid
Greg Abbott, who was vaccinated in December, is at least the 11th governor to contract the virus
Texas governor Greg Abbott tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds.
Related: Texas officials ask US government for mortuary trucks as Covid cases rise
Continue reading...Biden’s speech on Afghanistan was resolute, but lacked contrition or humility
Analysis: The scenes of mayhem in Kabul have erupted in the public consciousness, and may damage the president’s reputation
It had just started raining at the White House on Monday when a group of reporters, the Guardian included, were summoned and led past a Secret Service agent, along a red carpet in a windowless corridor, up a staircase and into the elegantly appointed East Room.
Continue reading...After 20 years and $2tn spent in Afghanistan, what was it all for?
Analysis: The stunning US defeat has left Afghans and Americans distraught and confused but some gains may not be easily erased
On 1 October 2001, three weeks after the 9/11 attacks and six days before the bombing of Afghanistan began, there was a small protest march in Washington.
The marchers wore badges saying “Don’t Turn Tragedy into War” and “Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War”, and argued that war was not the inevitable response to the terrorist outrage.
Continue reading...‘There was never a good time’: was Biden’s Afghanistan speech fair or accurate?
Analysis: US president’s TV address blamed others for the Taliban takeover and tried to distance himself from past administrations
In a televised speech on Monday, Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan and his handling of a crisis that has seen the Taliban capture the country in a lightning offensive. Blaming Afghan politicians and the country’s security forces for the calamitous collapse, he also sought to distance himself from previous administrations. But how much of it was fair or even accurate?
Biden: We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11, 2001, and make sure al-Qaida could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that. We severely degraded al-Qaida in Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and we got him.
Continue reading...Footage shows low water mark at biggest US reservoir as shortage declared – video
Officials have declared a dire water shortage at Lake Mead, the US’s largest reservoir, triggering significant water cuts in Arizona and other western states.
The US Bureau of Reclamation’s first ever declaration of a 'tier 1' shortage represents an acknowledgment that after a 20-year drought, the reservoir that impounds the Colorado River at Hoover Dam has receded to its lowest levels since it was created in the 1930s
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: weekly deaths up by a third in England and Wales; Singapore prepares to reopen for business
Covid mentioned in 527 deaths last week compared to 404 the week before; Singapore experts say there may be hundreds of deaths each year from endemic Covid-19
- New Zealand reports first Covid-19 case in community since February
- No evidence Covid vaccine raises risk of miscarriage, MHRA says
- Texas mask mandate ban can stay as Covid court challenges proceed
- NSW Covid update: vaccination blitz targets south-west Sydney under-40s as state reports 452 new cases
The king of Malaysia has ruled out a new general election in the country, after the resignation of the government amid mounting anger over its handling of the pandemic, because of concerns over the spread of Covid.
Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s resignation yesterday after less than 18 months in office comes as Malaysia has one of the world’s highest infection and death rates per capita, with daily cases breaching 20,000 this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.
India has administered more than 8.8m doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the past 24 hours, government data showed, close to its all-time record and speeding up a campaign to inoculate all eligible adults by December.
India has undertaken one of the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drives and has so far administered 554m doses, giving at least one dose to about 46% of its estimated 944m adults. Only about 13% of the population have had the required two doses.
Chris Cuomo says he advised his brother Andrew but was never an adviser
- CNN host spoke to New York governor before his resignation
- ‘I can’t be objective when it comes to my family’
- Podcast: The fall of Andrew Cuomo
Speaking to camera on Monday night, the CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said he had never been an adviser to his brother, the disgraced New York governor Andrew Cuomo – but had given his brother advice.
Related: Chris Cuomo’s ethical troubles at CNN highlight rise of ‘info-tainment’
Continue reading...Is this the beginning of the end of the American gas station?
A movement in California seeks a moratorium on new pumps – and a transformation of the US transportation system
Emily Bit remembers a time when she didn’t feel the constant threat of climate change. Her family lives in American Canyon, in southern Napa county, California, a state now being hit by record high temperatures and devastating wildfires. “It didn’t used to be this bad,” she said.
These days her family has to evacuate their home every summer. Two of her friends lost their homes in Paradise, the town consumed by the 2018 Camp fire disaster, the deadliest in California history. Last year, a wildfire burned the nature reserve behind her local school until it was “entirely black. It was like something from a dystopian novel”.
Continue reading...Does Trump’s endorsement really carry the day in local elections?
Analysis: Trump thought he’d use the midterm primaries to punish his enemies and tighten his grip on the party. It’s not working out quite how he’d hoped
As the Republican party first began to prepare for the 2022 midterm elections it seemed like Donald Trump had it all figured out.
The former US president had an axe to grind with certain Republicans who had bucked him in the past and the upcoming party primaries were a place he could assert his still powerful influence and exact revenge on his perceived foes.
Continue reading...‘Masks work’: experts on how to navigate Delta when you’re vaccinated
The vast majority of those hospitalized are unvaccinated, but health experts say everyone should exercise caution
The Covid-19 vaccine was supposed to bring life back to normal. Then came the Delta variant.
Real-world data collection continues, but it’s clear that the vaccines do offer significant protection against becoming infected by Delta. They offer even greater protection against severe illness: Among states that are reporting breakthrough cases of Covid-19, fully vaccinated people made up no more than 5% of overall hospitalizations.
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