National News - Page 129

Biden ramps up vaccine diplomacy efforts as hopes rise that he’ll share surplus doses

By Kevin Liptak, Kylie Atwood and Priscilla Alvarez President Joe Biden, well on his way to reaching a new goal of vaccinating 200 million Americans by the end of April, is taking initial steps toward helping other nations ramp up shots, including by boosting global manufacturing and appointing a top global health expert who previously advocated for shipping vaccines from the United States’ surplus abroad. Diplomats view the developments as a sign Biden is moving toward sharing some of the hundreds of millions of doses the United States will have left over once every American is vaccinated. But the President

The fight to define infrastructure could change America

/

Analysis by Stephen Collinson The meaning of the word “infrastructure” suddenly depends on your politics. President Joe Biden is using a sleight of hand by crafting a bill that might be traditionally associated with repairs to potholed highways to instead be his latest effort to reshape the US economy and social safety net. His move encapsulates the White House’s own sense of momentum and explains why Republicans are lining up to block his ambitions before they change the character of the country. In one example, the President has stretched the definition of infrastructure to insert $400 billion in the bill

How one of Detroit’s churches is tackling vaccine hesitancy to help combat Michigan’s Covid-19 surge

/

By Sarah Jorgensen When Pastor Kenneth J. Flowers took to the pulpit on Easter Sunday, tapping a tambourine along with a choir singing “he got up,” the morning represented resurrection in more ways than one. “This time last year, we couldn’t come to the sanctuary,” he preached to his congregation at Detroit’s Greater New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church. “This time last year, we were dealing with coronavirus in the early stages. This time last year, I had to have Easter all by myself in my basement.” Flowers himself had Covid-19. His wife, Terri Flowers, was in the hospital with

Get fully vaccinated before resuming normal activities, health experts plead with Americans

/

By Madeline Holcombe With fears growing that the US may be facing a fourth surge of Covid-19 cases, health experts are pleading with Americans to keep taking precautions until they are fully vaccinated. “Please wait until you’re fully vaccinated before you’re traveling, before you’re engaging in high-risk activities,” said CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen. “No doubt when you become vaccinated, the activities that were once higher risk are now going to be lower risk and so just wait until then.” Wen said she worries the US is on the “precipice” of a fourth surge as data is showing that

Women are leading the way on biology’s frontier. Here’s how to open up all of science to them

/

Opinion by Brett Marie Sansbury and Natalia Rivera-Torres A decade ago, as undergraduate women pursuing degrees and futures in science, we were given regular signals that we were outsiders. From applying for research positions only to see that many of the most competitive labs were staffed largely by males to professors simply not engaging with us as they did our male peers, we learned quickly that science is too often unwelcoming to women. Perhaps this is why only three in 10 scientists worldwide are women, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. This is not only detrimental to women, but

A year after Breonna Taylor’s death, Kentucky lawmakers limit, but don’t ban, use of no-knock warrants

/

By Taylor Romine The Kentucky state legislature passed a bill on Tuesday setting restrictions on warrants authorizing entry without notice, more commonly known as no-knock warrants. The legislation comes a little more than a year after the death of Breonna Taylor, a Louisville EMT who was killed by police in March of 2020 after they executed a no-knock warrant. While there are conflicting reports between police and bystanders as to whether police announced themselves during the incident, her death spurred a national conversation about the use of this type of warrant. The legislation doesn’t outlaw no-knock warrants outright, as the

All 50 states now have expanded or will expand Covid vaccine eligibility to everyone 16 and up

/

By Jacqueline Howard All 50 states have announced when they plan to open up coronavirus vaccinations to everyone eligible under US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorizations — if they haven’t done so already. Arkansas is the latest state to announce plans to expand vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 and older, starting on Tuesday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced. A dozen other states already also have expanded coronavirus vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 and older. And several states that previously announced plans to open up vaccine eligibility by early May have changed their timelines to open up in late March

Biden administration launches $10 million ad campaign, leaders’ network to encourage vaccination

/

By Jeremy Diamond The Biden administration on Thursday unveiled a large-scale effort to encourage Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, rolling out its first national ad campaign and announcing a national network of community organizations, sports leagues and other leaders to boost confidence in the vaccines. The Department of Health and Human Services is spending $10 million to air four new TV ads this month, two administration officials told CNN, framing vaccination as a way for Americans to fight back against the pandemic and reclaim their lives with the slogan “We can do this.” One of the ads is

Quality issue at Baltimore vaccine plant delays some of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine

/

By Jen Christensen Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday it had found a quality problem at a Baltimore plant helping manufacture its single-dose coronavirus vaccine under contract. The New York Times reported Wednesday. that workers at Emergent BioSolutions, the Baltimore plant that has been making Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, accidentally mixed up some of the ingredients, ruining as many as 15 million potential doses of vaccine and delaying US Food and Drug Administration authorization of the plant. Emergent is also making the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has yet to be authorized for use in this country. Johnson & Johnson said

CDC director says Americans may soon return to everyday activities, but ‘we’re not quite there yet’

/

By Christina Maxouris, Jason Hanna and Steve Almasy Though many Americans are eager to return to normal after a year of living through the Covid-19 pandemic, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday reminded Americans that “we’re not quite there yet.” “We are so close — so very close to getting back to the everyday activities we all miss so much, but we’re not quite there yet,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a White House Covid-19 Response Team news conference. “This is a critical moment in our fight against the pandemic,” she

1 … 127 128 129 130 131