Tag Archives: coronavirus

Stranded Influencers Lose Jobs, Gain COVID Infections

iHeart Radio Canada reports: Some of the passengers of the now-infamous Sunwing “party plane” on Dec. 30 will be coming home to unhappy employers or worse, with at least two already fired. Frédérique Dumas-Joyal is one of them, losing her job of several years at Quebec’s financial markets authority, the AMF. “She was fired,” Sylvain Théberge, an AMF spokesperson, said …

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WaPo: Justices Appear Skeptical Of OSHA Vax Mandate

The Washington Post reports: Conservative Supreme Court justices on Friday appeared skeptical that the Biden administration has legal authority to impose a broad vaccination-or-testing requirement on large employers. They seemed more in agreement with private businesses and Republican-led states that such policies need to be approved by Congress or implemented by state governments than a federal agency — in this …

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PPP Fraudster Who Won Big On Tesla Stock Gets 4 Years

The Oregonian reports: An Oregon man who created several hundred employees out of thin air and then fraudulently obtained $3.4 million in COVID-19 relief funds has been sentenced to four years in prison. Andrew Aaron Lloyd invested his ill-gotten gains and won big — eventually purchasing more than 15,000 shares of Tesla stock and 25 rental properties in Oregon and …

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USPS Seeks Temporary Waiver On Vaccine Mandate

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. Postal Service has asked federal labor officials for a temporary waiver from President Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, setting up a showdown on pandemic safety measures between the president and one of the government’s largest agencies. In a letter dated Jan. 4 to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Deputy Postmaster General Douglas A. Tulino …

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CA Extends Indoor Mask Mandate Through Feb. 15th

Los Angeles’s ABC News affiliate reports: California’s indoor mask mandate has been extended one month, through at least Feb. 15, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced in a briefing Wednesday. The mandate went into effect on Dec. 15, 2021, and was set to expire Jan. 15, 2022. It requires that masks be worn in all indoor public …

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French President Wants To “Piss Off” The Unvaccinated

Reuters reports: The government on Wednesday defended President Emmanuel Macron’s use of a coarse insult in a stepped-up campaign against France’s unvaccinated, after the phrase drew condemnation from the opposition and mixed reactions from voters. Parliament suspended debate on a COVID-19 bill as opposition lawmakers demanded explanations from Macron, who earlier said he wanted to “piss off” unvaccinated people by …

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Chicago Schools Close After Teachers Refuse To Work

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Chicago Public Schools classes are canceled Wednesday as the Chicago Teachers Union voted to refuse in-person work, defying district plans because of post-holidays COVID-19 concerns. The cancellation came despite a last-minute proposal from city leaders that introduced improved testing and safety measures but wasn’t enough to avoid upending in-person schooling for about 290,000 students at non-charter …

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Biden Doubles US Order Of Pfizer COVID Treatment Pill

CBS News reports: President Biden announced on Tuesday that he’s directing his team to double the United States’ order of Pfizer antiviral pills from 10 million COVID-19 treatment courses to 20 million treatment courses, and the delivery will be accelerated from September to June. “We may need even more. That’s the estimate we need right now,” Mr. Biden said, noting …

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MD Gov Declares Emergency, Hospitals Overwhelmed

The Washington Post reports: Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Tuesday declared a 30-day state of emergency that mobilizes the National Guard to assist state and local health officers at coronavirus testing and vaccination sites and authorizes the state Department of Health to take steps to increase staffing at overwhelmed hospitals. Hogan predicted that Maryland will see its “most challenging” phase …

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Court Blocks Navy From Booting 35 Vaccine Refusers

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge in Texas has granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Navy from acting against 35 sailors for refusing on religious grounds to comply with an order to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The injunction is a new challenge to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to make vaccinations mandatory for all members of the military. The …

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US Sets Global Daily Record With Over 1M New Cases

Bloomberg News reports: More than 1 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday as a tsunami of omicron swamps every aspect of daily American life. The highly mutated variant drove U.S. cases to a record, the most — by a large margin — that any country has ever reported. Monday’s number is almost double the previous …

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Ontario Shutters Schools, Movie Theaters, Restaurants

Newsweek reports: Government officials on Monday announced new COVID-19 restrictions for Ontario after a record number of cases were reported in the province. Premier Doug Ford said all schools will be closed and students will move to online learning for the next couple of weeks. Also, indoor dining, movie theaters and gyms will be closed due to the increase in …

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NYC Mayor Eric Adams: “It’s Time To Live With COVID”

Mediaite reports: Newly-elected New York City Mayor Eric Adams confidently told viewers of Morning Joe that it is “time to live with Covid” Monday morning while discussing plans to keep the city open until the potentially deadly contagion eventually dissipates. “We have to live with covid and modify our behavior because if another variant comes out, what are we going …

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Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin Tests Positive For COVID

CNN reports: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has tested positive for Covid-19 and is exhibiting “mild” symptoms, according to a statement from him released by the Defense Department on Sunday. “I have informed my leadership team of my positive test result, as well as the President. My staff has begun contact tracing and testing of all those with whom I have …

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Fauci Hopes For Return To Normalcy By February, March

The New York Daily News reports: If more Americans get vaccinated and boosted, the U.S. just might return to a semblance of normalcy by February or March, the country’s top infectious disease expert said on Sunday. Hopefully, enough people get vaccinated “to the point that when omicron comes down to a low level, we keep it down at a low …

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New York Again Breaks Daily Record For New Cases

The New York Daily News reports: New York City hit yet another grim COVID-19 milestone on the last day of 2021, recording a single-day record of nearly 50,000 new cases on Dec. 31, according to state data released Saturday afternoon. City residents reported 49,724 positive tests Friday, making up the lion’s share of the state’s record-breaking case total of over …

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DeSantis Surfaces To Accept Church Group’s Award For Lack Of COVID Restrictions, Refuses To Take Questions

Miami’s ABC News affiliate reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke at a public event in South Florida on New Year’s Eve. It happened Friday night at Miami Baptist Church in West Kendall. DeSantis has not spoken recently about COVID-19 despite the record numbers of cases seen across the state. When approached by Local 10 News’ Amy Viteri, one of DeSantis’ …

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United, Spirit Bump Up Crew Pay Amid Cancellations

Reuters reports: United Airlines and Spirit Airlines are bumping up pay for on board staff as they scramble to keep schedules intact after U.S. airlines were hammered by a week of mass cancellations. While Spirit’s flight attendants are receiving double pay on any work through Jan. 4, according to their union, United is offering triple time for pilots who pick …

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New York Gov Extends Mask Mandate Through Feb 1st

The New York Daily News reports: As New York continues to ride a relentless COVID wave into the new year, Gov. Hochul on Friday extended a statewide mask mandate for businesses through at least the end of January and reported another day of record-breaking positivity numbers. At the close of a year of vaccine jabs and squashed dreams of post-pandemic …

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Texas Gov Asks Feds For Help In Adding Testing Sites

The Dallas Morning News reports: Gov. Greg Abbott is asking the federal government for help adding COVID-19 testing sites in some of Texas’ largest counties, including Dallas and Tarrant. His request came Friday as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads throughout the state and tests are in high demand. “Detecting COVID-19 and preventing COVID-related hospitalizations are critical to our fight …

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