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Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger said “you’re a schmuck” if you don’t wear a mask, just days after photos and video showed prominent Democrats — from Barack Obama to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) — partying indoors maskless. “You cannot go and not put the mask on because when you breathe, you can infect someone else. And you can infect someone that then gets sick and may die,” the Terminator star and former governor of California said during a discussion with CNN’s Bianna Golodryga and Alexander Vindman. “So this is why I think we all have to...

CDC has revised Florida's COVID-19 figures after the state Department of Health accused the agency of overcounting Sunday's totals The federal health agency reported a new record of more than 28,000 cases on Sunday Florida's DOH accused the CDC of combining multiple days' worth of data into one and that the true figure is really 15,000, which is an overcount of 15,000 The state reported 56,000 cases from Friday to Sunday and it is believed that the CDC split the total over two days - Saturday and Sunday - rather than three days The CDC's updated Covid numbers, reporting 19,000...

Biometrics in future of vaccine passports Any kind of document, especially a passport, needs to be built on a foundation that allows it to operate across borders and jurisdictions. Biometrics could be the easiest and fastest path to get started. It can add convenience and security, while identifying a person’s vaccination status easily. Modern biometric solutions have many different modalities at their disposal, from fingerprints and face to voice and iris recognition. The biometric modalities most likely to be used for vaccine passports, however, are anticipated to be face or voice recognition, as these can easily be performed on an...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy lashed out at anti-vaccination protesters during a speech announcing the state’s extension of the eviction moratorium. "You've lost your minds. You are the ultimate knuckleheads. And because of what you are saying and standing for, people are losing their life," Murphy said to a crowd of anti-vaccination protesters attempting to interrupt the event. The tense exchange came after Murphy encouraged those in attendance to get the coronavirus vaccine, saying the state was at "an inflection point in our fight, not just against the COVID pandemic, but also against the tremendous upheaval for thousands and thousands...

Trailblazing Asian American stage and television actor and singer Alvin Ing is the latest rare case of a 'breakthrough' Covid-19 death, meaning someone who had been previously vaccinated against the disease yet still fell victim to it. As reported by Deadline, Ing passed away Saturday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, of complications arising from Covid-19.

LONDON (AP) — Restaurants, ride-hailing apps and food delivery services are backing Britain’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, offering discounts and even free slices of pizza to persuade young people to roll up their sleeves and get the shot. The program, announced Sunday by the Department of Health and Social Care, is designed to boost the vaccination rate among adults under 30 as Britain races to inoculate as many people as possible before colder weather arrives. While more than 90% of adults in Britain have received at least one dose of vaccine, the rate for people between the ages of 18 and...

China is the only major economy in the world not to approve or distribute COVID-19 vaccines that use the mRNA technology proven to be one of the most effective tools in preventing the spread of COVID-19. But China’s mRNA stance may be changing. On Thursday, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported that Chinese regulators had completed a review of the COVID-19 jab developed by German mRNA vaccine maker BioNTech and distributed locally via China’s Fosun Pharma. Fosun is still awaiting final approval from regulators, but, once approved, Fosun could deploy the 100 million doses it acquired from BioNTech last December to...

Danny Meyer: If you want to be unvaccinated, 'you can dine somewhere else' The policy will go into effect September 7. "We are requiring all guests to show proof they are fully vaccinated," a pop-up notice on the website said, adding, "Our teams are required to be fully vaccinated as well." Guests will be asked to bring their "physical Covid-19 vaccine card, your New York State Excelsior Pass, your relevant state-provided vaccine pass, or a photo of your vaccination card to share upon arrival," according to the hospitality group's website.

The United States government is not planning to remove the current entry bn for travelers from the 26 Schengen Area Member States, Ireland, the UK, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil, at least for now. Sources within the White House have confirmed for Reuters that “at this point”, the US authorities do not intend to lift any of the entry restrictions for arrivals from the abovementioned due to the concerns raised from the spread of the Delta variant in these countries. Less than a week ago, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that the US President Joe Biden said during a news conference...

Dozens of fully vaccinated people in New Jersey have died of the Chinese coronavirus, according to the state’s Department of Health. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced Monday that vaccines in New Jersey were proving to be 99.9 percent effective in the Garden State, reporting 84 breakthrough hospitalizations and 31 deaths among the vaccinated. But this week, a state health official confirmed that 49 people who were fully vaccinated have died of the virus as of July 12. More than half of those had underlying health conditions, Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, told NJ.com. It remains...

BARCELONA — Last month, as Europe finally lifted COVID-19 restrictions, the mood was jubilant across the continent. Outdoor mask mandates and curfews were dropped, Americans were cleared to resume travel to tourist mainstays, and hopes rose that life would quickly return to normal. The swift spread of the Delta variant, however, has upended all of that wishful thinking and is offering a warning to the U.S. Fast becoming the dominant strain of COVID-19 across Europe, Delta is wreaking havoc in Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Spain alone reported nearly 44,000 cases on Tuesday, doubling the number recorded one week...

LOS ANGELES - With local COVID-19 infection numbers surging upward, topping 1,000 new cases for the fifth straight day, Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday lamented continued resistance to vaccines while health officials announced an outreach effort to bring shots to people's doors. The county reported 1,103 new COVID cases on Tuesday, lifting the cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 1,259,772. The county also reported 12 new fatalities due to the virus, increasing the death toll to 24,554.

Emmanuel Macron has been a little on the quiet side lately, but don’t worry, he’s been cooking up some classic end times fare for you. Today comes the news that France will now make mandatory the EU Digital Covid Certificate, known as the ‘health pass’, in all public venues. Blink your eyes and this will be common practice throughout the entire European Union, that’s how fast everything is moving. FROM VARIETY: The key measure announced by Emmanuel Macron will make the EU Digital Covid Certificate — commonly called “health pass” — mandatory in all cultural venues, including cinemas, theaters and...

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) published results of its U.S. phase 3 trials for its Covid-19 vaccine in mid-June, noting that the shot was over 90% effective overall and 100% effective against moderate and severe disease, roughly in line with Covid vaccine leaders such as Pfizer and Moderna. Although the shot is likely to hit the market only around Q4, almost ten months behind market leaders, considering that Emergency Use Authorizations are likely to be filed in the U.S., U.K., and Europe by the end of Q3, the emergence of concerning new coronavirus variants and a relatively slow pace of vaccination outside the...

The highly transmissible delta variant is now the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. As of July 3, the latest date for which data was available, the delta variant accounted for 51.7 percent of new Covid-19 cases that had been genetically sequenced in the country. Two weeks earlier, on June 19, the variant accounted for just over 30 percent of new cases. During a news briefing Tuesday, President Joe Biden cited the delta variant's rapid spread to urge people to get vaccinated, "especially young people who may have...

WELLINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - New Zealand is considering making masks compulsory at high alert levels as well as compulsory scanning of QR codes to boost contact tracing in efforts to reduce the risk of coronavirus spreading, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. New Zealand halted quarantine-free travel with neighbouring Australia last week as an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant triggered a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere. read more It also extended the COVID-19 alert level 2 in the capital Wellington until Tuesday, as authorities said there was still a risk that an Australian tourist...

The mainstream media is ignoring a man who publicly ridiculed individuals on Facebook for doubting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Virus (COVID-19) vaccine jabs. For his faith in the “vaccine,” he has now paid the ultimate price.Jason Bryan Maurer, a 45-year-old Ohio bartender, died. He had his first dose of Moderna mRNA on April 2nd at the Giant Eagle Pharmacy in Tallmadge, Ohio.He expected some adverse effects because “Dr. Fauci said yeah, the first shot is harsh.” He appeared to have experienced no difficulties until his second shot on April 30th.On May 3, 2021, he compared COVID-19 to AIDS...

The dangerous Delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading so quickly in the United States that it's likely the mutant strain will become predominant in the nation within weeks, according to federal health officials and a new analysis. At a White House briefing on COVID-19 on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said 20.6% of new cases in the U.S. are due to the Delta variant. And other scientists tracking the variant say it is on track to become the dominant virus variant in the U.S. "The Delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the...

Don’t think of this as a bad sign, it’s exactly what’s expected from an effective but imperfect jab. A MailOnline headline on 13 June read: “Study shows 29% of the 42 people who have died after catching the new strain had BOTH vaccinations.” In Public Health England’s technical briefing on 25 June, that figure had risen to 43% (50 of 117), with the majority (60%) having received at least one dose. It could sound worrying that the majority of people dying in England with the now-dominant Delta (B.1.617.2) variant have been vaccinated. Does this mean the vaccines are ineffective? Far...

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday it has approved a COVID-19 vaccine made by Sinovac Biotech for emergency use listing, paving the way for a second Chinese shot to be used in poor countries. A WHO emergency listing is a signal to national regulators of a product’s safety and efficacy and will allow the Sinovac shot to be included in COVAX, the global program providing vaccines mainly for poor countries, which faces major supply problems due to curbs on Indian exports. The WHO’s independent panel of experts said in a statement it recommended Sinovac’s vaccine for adults over...