Vaccinated aides for both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and President Joe Biden reportedly tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday after attending a “rooftop reception” with lawmakers — specifically Texas Democrats, after more than 50 of them skipped town to avoid a quorum vote on an election integrity bill and several contracted COVID-19.
The apparent contradiction between high unemployment and a high number of companies struggling to find unskilled workers has opened a debate about whether a “true” labor shortage exists, and if so, why.
h/t Todd
The decision to enforce, or not enforce, a COVID-19 vaccination policy is negatively impacting some Toronto businesses.
“Knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11 where you claim that the NIH never funded gain of function research in Wuhan.” Paul asked Fauci.
“We’re focusing on our daily testing, following and going beyond CDC guidelines, social distancing, and wearing masks as much as possible,” she said in a statement. “We’re just not going to release daily counts.”
As many provincial governments rule out implementing vaccine passports, a number of businesses are taking matters into their own hands, setting out vaccine requirements for staff and customers. Some are even calling for more government mandates. True North’s Andrew Lawton says businesses should legally have the right to do what they want, just as consumers have the right to go elsewhere – no one should be cheering for a society stratified based on vaccination status as the pro-lockdown crowd is.
While many people have chosen to acquiesce to escalating restrictions on freedom, more and more people in the Western world are pushing back.
As more and more media types and Democrats push for new mask mandates in light of the spread of the delta variant, Biden’s chief medical advisor Dr Fauci is now calling for the masking in schools of everyone over the age of two regardless of vaccination status.
Fearmongering from journalists, scientists, and politicians did more harm than the virus.
The United States suffered through two lethal waves of contagion in the past year and a half. The first was a viral pandemic that killed about one in 500 Americans—typically, a person over 75 suffering from other serious conditions. The second, and far more catastrophic, was a moral panic that swept the nation’s guiding institutions.
Katie Hopkins has made a parting shot at Australian authorities, telling them they ‘cannot silence the truth’ after she was deported for ‘joking’ about breaching quarantine rules.
The former Apprentice star, 46, was today deported from Australia after mocking hotel quarantine rules and calling Covid lockdowns the ‘greatest hoax in human history.’
But in a huge backlash from Australians, the commentator had her ‘critical skills’ visa torn up by the federal government and was handed a $1,000 (£536) fine for answering the door of her room in quarantine naked and without a face mask in violation of quarantine rules.
Canada will start allowing fully-vaccinated U.S. visitors into the country on Aug. 9 for non-essential travel as the threat from the COVID-19 pandemic fades, Ottawa said on Monday.
Visitors from countries other than the United States who have been inoculated will be permitted to enter on Sept 7. The relaxation depends on Canada’s COVID-19 epidemiology remaining favourable, the government said in a statement.
The Australian government has cancelled Katie Hopkins’ visa and deported the far-right commentator after she boasted about breaching hotel quarantine conditions.
The cancellation was announced by the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, on Monday and followed a decision by Endemol Shine Australia to cancel her contract to appear on Seven Network’s Big Brother VIP. Hopkins was then deported from the country on a Monday afternoon flight.
Ontario is reporting 130 new COVID-19 cases today and no new deaths as the seven-day average continues to decline week-over-week.
Today’s case count is down from 146 on Sunday but up slightly from the 114 new infections confirmed one week ago.
Top Olympic sponsor Toyota pulls Games-related TV ads
TOKYO — Toyota won’t be airing any Olympic-themed advertisements on Japanese television during the Tokyo Games despite being one of the IOC’s top corporate sponsors.
The extraordinary decision by the country’s top automaker underlines how polarizing the Games have become in Japan as COVID-19 infections rise ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony.
“There are many issues with these Games that are proving difficult to be understood,” Toyota Chief Communications Officer Jun Nagata told reporters Monday.
I was looking forward to the Super Spreader event too.
Vaccine hesitancy is a big problem, according to the Biden administration. Less than half the public is fully vaccinated while about 56 percent have received at least one jab.
The goal of fully vaccinating the American public appears to have stalled. This should not surprise us. When the vaccines were first approved for emergency use back in December 2020, 40 percent of Americans expressed skepticism about the vaccine.
Trying to shame the holdouts has failed spectacularly. Insulting and degrading them as “morons” or “ignorant” has resulted in a vicious pushback and a hardening of positions on getting vaccinated.
