It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Greta Thunberg perfectly trolls Trump on his last day in office by using his own words against him
Never let it be said that Greta Thunberg never misses her shot especially when she is making fun of Donald Trump.
The teenage climate change activist has a long-running feud with the ongoing president mostly due to their opposing takes on the climate crisis.
In the past the Trump had mocked Thunberg on Twitter, posting things such as “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” back in September 2019. At the time Thunberg briefly changed her Twitter bio to “A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.”
Unfortunately for Trump, lightning has struck twice, as Thunberg has returned to the well to mark Trump’s final departure from the White House. The president and first lady, Melania Trump left Washington DC on Wednesday morning by helicopter, as Trump has opted not to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony.
The sight of Trump leaving the White House for the last ever time was celebrated by many but perhaps none were as good at Thunberg who used Trump’s own words against him again. She tweeted, “He seems like a very happy old man looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”
Too bad Trump is no longer on Twitter as he won’t get to see or respond to this. Needless to say, the rest of Twitter enjoyed the activist taking another swipe at Trump on his way out of office.
Greta Thunberg Mocks Ted Cruz, Welcomes U.S. Return to 'Pittsburgh Agreement'
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has mocked Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) after he criticized President Joe Biden's decision to rejoin the Paris climate agreement.
"So happy that USA has finally rejoined the Pittsburgh Agreement. Welcome back!" Thunberg tweeted on Thursday in response to Cruz' comment, without mentioning him by name.
"By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he's more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh," Cruz tweeted on Wednesday.
"This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans."
Many other Twitter users found Cruz's phrasing odd, and suggested he believed the Paris agreement was written by the residents of the French capital or its local government, rather than being an international agreement signed by 189 countries.
Others pointed out that the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania had publicly backed the agreement in 2017 in response to former President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the accord.
By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh. This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans.— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 20, 2021
"As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future," Mayor Bill Peduto tweeted at the time.
Peduto, a Democrat, won election to a second term as mayor in 2017 and is due to remain in office until 2022. He highlighted the city's commitment to the Paris agreement again on Wednesday.
"Pittsburgh has exceeded our Paris commitments," Peduto said. "Recognized by @usmayors as National Environmental Initiative of 2020, we've met our 2030 goal of 100% renewable energy for city operations, ten years early. If we can do it in a city that is/was fueled by coal/nuclear, you can, too."
Thunberg, who has been a frequent target for criticism from some conservatives, also mocked Trump as he left the White House for the last time on Wednesday in a tweet that was a callback to a comment the former president made about her.
"He seems like a very happy old man looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!" Thunberg tweeted, including a photo of Trump raising a first while boarding Marine One on the White House lawn.
Biden issued 15 executive orders on Wednesday and more are expected today. In addition to rejoining the Paris climate agreement, the U.S. has rejoined the World Health Organization (WHO).
Ted Cruz criticised for claiming Biden’s Paris Agreement reversal will ‘harm livelihoods of Americans’
The US senator said the agreement ‘will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans’ / REUTERS
Ted Cruz has been criticised for calling out Joe Biden’s decision to reverse the US’s withdrawal from the 2016 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.
Following the inauguration on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Mr Biden issued 17 executive orders, undoing some of the policies enforced by predecessor Donald Trump, including the controversial decision to withdraw from the multilateral agreement.
The international treaty is considered the biggest global effort to curb climate change, which aims to limit global warming “well below” 2C compared to pre-industrial levels.
Mr Cruz, who supported Mr Trump’s claims that the election was “stolen” by the Democrats, tweeted: “By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburg
“This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans.”
The tweet from Mr Cruz ignited criticism for indicating that the resurgence of the deal will only benefit residents of the French capital despite it being a multinational treaty.
Among those calling out the Republican’s tweet was Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who sarcastically tweeted: “So happy that the USA has finally rejoined the Pittsburgh Agreement. Welcome back!”
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also responded to Mr Cruz’s tweet, saying: "Quick question: do you also believe the Geneva Convention was about the views of the citizens of Geneva?"
Mr Cruz’s comments come as Mr Biden continues to make a number of changes, including an increase in coronavirus measures to tackle the pandemic.
Coronavirus has claimed over 406,000 lives according to Johns Hopkins University, and it’s believed Mr Biden is set to sign 10 executive orders to combat the widespread growth of the virus.
Mr Biden's Covid-19 task force coordinator, Jeff Zients, told reporters that under Mr Trump there was no clear strategy at a federal level.
"As President Biden steps into office today, that all changes," he said.
The Trump administration was widely criticised for its approach to handling the pandemic.
"The American people deserve an urgent, robust and professional response to the growing public health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak," an introduction to the plan said.
Their aim is to give 100 million vaccine doses by the end of April and to safely reopen schools within 100 days.
Community facilities and stadiums will also become vaccine centres and there will be a mandate to ensure those on federal government property are social distancing and wearing masks.
TC Energy to cut 1,000 construction jobs, halt Keystone XL work
WINNIPEG, Manitoba/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - TC Energy Corp will eliminate more than 1,000 construction jobs in coming weeks and halt work on the Keystone XL oil pipeline after U.S. President Joe Biden revoked the project's presidential permit, the company said in an email to employees.
Calgary-based TC Energy confirmed the authenticity of the email, sent by KXL President Richard Prior on Wednesday and seen by Reuters.
Biden's decision to cancel the permit is likely to be the project's death knell, after more than a decade of legal battles and shifting fortunes based on who held office in the White House. Opponents of the line fought its construction for years, saying it was unnecessary and would hamper the U.S. transition to cleaner fuels.
Proponents of the line argued that it created several thousand good-paying jobs and that pipelines remain the safest ways to transport fuel, but many analysts thought the chances of its completion were slim.
"KXL never quite escaped the shadow of uncertainty in the eyes of many producers," said Thomas Liles, vice president for North American shale at Rystad Energy, in an email.
The United States imports more crude from Canada than any other nation, receiving roughly 3.8 million bpd in 2019, according to U.S. Energy Department figures.
The line, which would have carried 830,000 barrels of oil per day through the United States to Nebraska, was already well under construction in Canada.
Prior, in his email, said they will start to shut down construction at U.S. pump station sites and the Canadian portion of the project in coming weeks.
"I believe this will send a concerning signal to infrastructure developers that resonates far beyond our project and will stifle innovation for a practical transition towards sustainable energy," he said in the letter.
During the U.S. campaign, Biden had committed to canceling the project, which has been in development since 2008. Former President Donald Trump approved a permit for the line in 2017 shortly after taking office, but the line afterward faced numerous legal challenges that hampered construction.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Delay in Pfizer vaccine shipments frustrate Europe, Canada
APTOPIX Virus Outbreak Britain
People recieve their Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination inside Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Salisbury Cathedral opened its doors for the second time as a venue for the Sarum South Primary Care Network COVID-19 Local Vaccination Service. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) RAF CASERT Wed, January 20, 2021
BRUSSELS (AP) — Frustration is mounting from Europe to North America over reduced shipments of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine while the U.S. pharmaceutical company increases production capacity at its Belgian plant. Governments say it is costing critical time during the early stages of the rollout to care homes and hospital personnel.
Italy has threatened legal action. The leader of Canada's most populous province said Pfizer's chief executive should be chased “with a firecracker." A top European Union official icily invoked the principle of “pacta sunt servanda," a Latin phrase meaning "agreements must be kept."
The EU and many nations are under pressure for what is seen as the slow start to their vaccination campaigns compared to countries like Israel and the United Kingdom. Pfizer compounded the problem last Friday when it announced a temporary reduction in deliveries so it could upscale its Puurs, Belgium plant, which supplies all shots delivered outside the United States.
The delay, which the pharma giant said would last for a few weeks, affects not only the number of people who can get inoculated during that period but also throws off the careful choreography that governments mapped out to get elderly residents and caregivers the required two doses within a strict timetable of several weeks.
“It means huge complications for us,” Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said. Similar complaints could be heard in several other EU nations, from Denmark to Belgium.
“Indeed," added European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, “we were all surprised by the announcement of Pfizer-BioNTech to have a delay.”
The EU now expects Pfizer to deliver across the 27-nation bloc 92% of what was expected over this week and the next one. The missing 8% is expected to be recovered during the week of Feb. 15
Von der Leyen said the immediate challenge would be securing enough doses to make sure people who already had their first shot of Pfizer vaccine received their second jab within the recommended interval.
“It is of utmost importance that we get the doses that are fixed in the contract” the EU's executive commission negotiated on behalf of member nations, she said. Overall, the EU is slated to get up to 600 million doses from Pfizer.
A number of U.S. states also are reporting difficulty getting their hands on enough vaccines. The full explanation for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand was unclear, but last week the U.S. Health and Human Services Department suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way.
In Europe, the harsh criticism of Pfizer stands in sharp contrast to the accolades the company received last month for being exceptionally fast in producing a COVID-19 vaccine considered safe and effective. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first vaccine authorized for use in the U.K. the EU and the United States.
Pfizer told The Associated Press late Wednesday that any small step backwards taken now would result in a huge jump ahead later in the year. The company originally expected to produce 1.3 billion doses this year.
“We’ve explored innovative ways to increase the number of doses we’re able to supply this year, and we now believe that we can potentially deliver approximately 2 billion doses by the end of 2021," the company said in a statement.
But even if that point is understood, many officials in Europe said they were disappointed by what they saw as a lack of smooth communication.
“The problem lies mainly with Pfizer’s short notice announcement,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said. “That’s an upsetting issue.”
“I understand the reason that (plants) have to be converted in the short term to increase capacity in the medium and long term,” he said. “But it’s very unsatisfying that this was...communicated to us basically overnight.”
The urgency and anticipation to get the vaccines rolling in the 27-nation EU, where 400,000 people with the virus have died, is also matched in Canada, a nation of 37 million which has a pandemic death toll of over 18,000.
Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin, who is leading Canada’s logistical rollout and distribution of vaccines, said Pfizer deferred next week’s deliveries entirely and that there will be a significant decline in vaccine supplies over the next three weeks.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the shortfall is more than an annoying logistical inconvenience.
“I’m just angry at the situation, that other countries are getting it,” Ford said. He said if he were Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he’d be calling Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla every day and going at him “with a firecracker.”
"He wouldn’t know what hit him." Ford added. “I would not stop until we get these vaccines.”
The European Union is likely to pursue Pfizer with a different weapon but equal fervor. The 27 leaders have a video summit scheduled Thursday where the rollout of vaccines will be a key issue.
____
Rob Gillies in Toronto, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Sam Petrequin in Brussels, Karel Janicek in Prague and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.
Italy considers legal action over Pfizer vaccine delivery delays
The Pfizer logo is seen at their UK commercial headquarters in Walton Oaks Wed, January 20, 2021
ROME (Reuters) - Italy is considering legal action against Pfizer Inc after the U.S. drugmaker announced a further cut in coronavirus vaccine deliveries, the country's COVID-19 special commissioner Domenico Arcuri said.
Pfizer told Italy last week that it was cutting its deliveries by 29%. On Tuesday, Pfizer said it was not in the position to make up the 29% shortfall next week and that it was planning a further "slight reduction" in deliveries, Arcuri said.
"As a result, we discussed what action to take to protect Italian citizens and their health in all civil and criminal venues," Arcuri said in a statement late on Tuesday.
"It was unanimously decided that these actions will be taken starting in the next few days."
He did not elaborate.
A spokeswoman for Pfizer declined to comment on Wednesday about Italy's legal threat and criticism about delivery delays beyond its statement on Friday about supply cuts.
The drugmaker said last week it was temporarily slowing supplies of its coronavirus vaccine to Europe to make manufacturing changes that would boost output.
Pfizer, which is trying to deliver millions of doses at a breakneck pace to curb a pandemic that has already killed more than 2 million people worldwide, said the changes would "provide a significant increase in doses in late February and March".
According to an Italian source, Rome is now trying to assess whether Pfizer is acting under force majeure, or circumstances beyond its control.
If not, the drug group could be accused of breaching the contract it has signed with the European Union on state members' behalf, the source said.
One possibility could be for Rome to call on the European Union to present a lawsuit to a court in Belgium's capital, Brussels, the source said.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi in Milan and Domenico Lusi in Rome; additional reporting by Josephine Mason in London; Writing by Giselda Vagnoni; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Pfizer-BioNTech delaying vaccine deliveries to Canada due to production issues
OTTAWA — Only half of Canada's promised COVID-19 vaccine doses by Pfizer-BioNTech will arrive in the next month, federal officials revealed, blaming production issues in Belgium that will affect immediate vaccination plans.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Canada faces an "unfortunate" delay that is nonetheless expected to be made up by the end of March, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted most Canadians will still be vaccinated by the fall.
News of the Pfizer delay drew immediate concern from Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who said the province's strategy for the two-dose regime depends on steady shipments.
"We have been planning our vaccine rollout based on this schedule, including second dosages," said Moe, noting he expected 11,700 doses a week in February.
"If this has changed, they need to advise us immediately."
In British Columbia, where all available doses are being deployed as they arrive, Health Minister Adrian Dix said the delay will have "some significant effect" on when priority groups get their shot.
"Obviously, when you receive fewer doses you immunize fewer people," said Dix.
The delay could also affect the wait time between each shot of the two-dose regime, he said.
Although Pfizer-BioNTech suggests a second dose 21 days after the first, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said that could be extended to 35 days.
A spokeswoman for Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube said the temporary slowdown reinforced the province's decision to wait up to 90 days to administer the vaccine's second dose.
"The strategy remains the same: we must give a boost now and vaccinate as many vulnerable people and health workers as possible, as quickly as possible," said Marjaurie Cote-Boileau.
Alberta decided earlier this week to push back its second shots to 42 days. The province's health minister, Tyler Shandro, said Friday he had hoped to soon announce all seniors over 75 and Indigenous people over 65 would be eligible for the vaccine, but the delay makes that out of the question.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the province was evaluating the impact of the delay and "will adjust as necessary."
Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, who is leading the national vaccine distribution, said Pfizer's production delays would reduce deliveries by an average of 50 per cent over the coming weeks.
He said that won't be felt until after next week because Canada's upcoming shipment has already been prepared. But the final week of January will bring "about a quarter of what we expected."
"The numbers will pick right back up after that to about half of what we had expected (and) progressively grow into the rest of February," said Fortin.
"Pfizer is telling us it will impact us for four weeks."
According to the government's website, more than 200,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were expected in each of the next two weeks and 1.4 million doses were expected in February.
Trudeau said Ottawa was "working day in and day out to get vaccines delivered as quickly as possible" but acknowledged that Pfizer-BioNTech doses have been derailed in the short-term.
Trudeau said this is why Canada has one of the most diverse vaccine portfolios in the world, pointing to seven bilateral agreements he says ensure "flexibility when it comes to supply chains."
"I want to be very clear: this does not impact our goal to have enough vaccines available by September for every Canadian who wants one," Trudeau said from outside Rideau Cottage.
Anand said all countries that receive vaccines from Pfizer's European facility have been affected but that Canada has been assured it will receive four million doses by the end of March.
"This is unfortunate. However such delays and issues are to be expected when global supply chains are stretched well beyond their limits," Anand said at a news conference.
"It's not a stoppage."
Pfizer Canada spokeswoman Christina Antoniou said the production facility in Puurs, Belgium, is undergoing modifications in the coming weeks to increase the number of doses it can pump out.
Pfizer hopes to double its 2021 production to two billion doses.
“Pfizer Canada will continue to pursue its efforts in anticipation that by the end of March, we will be able to catch up to be on track for the total committed doses for Q1,” Antoniou said.
The news came as Ottawa released federal projections that suggested the pandemic may soon exceed levels seen in the first wave, rising to 19,630 cumulative deaths and 10,000 daily infections in a little over a week.
The modelling shows total cases could grow to nearly 796,630 from about 694,000, and that another 2,000 people could die by Jan. 24.
Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam urged sustained vigilance as a long-range forecast suggested rapid growth would continue without "quick, strong and sustained" measures.
Tam said that's especially so in national hot spots of Quebec and Ontario, where a steady increase in hospitalizations has strained the health system's ability to keep up with critical care demands. The post-holiday projections do not take into account Quebec's recently implemented four-week curfew or Ontario's new stay-at-home orders.
Tam emphasized the need to reduce community spread to help relieve some of the pressure on hospitals and long-term care homes.
"The vaccine alone is not going to make a dent in some of that," she said.
Ontario reported 100 deaths linked to COVID-19, although that took into account a difference in database reporting between one of its health units and the province.
The province's newly resolved tally added 46 deaths from Middlesex-London that occurred earlier in the pandemic.
Ontario also reported 2,998 new cases of COVID-19 with 800 of those new cases in Toronto, 618 in Peel Region and 250 in York Region.
Quebec reported 1,918 new COVID-19 cases and 62 more deaths, including nine that occurred in the past 24 hours.
Concern also remained in Atlantic Canada's hot spot of New Brunswick, which reported 25 new cases and remains at the province's second-highest pandemic alert level.
Saskatchewan, with the highest rate of active cases in the country with 329 per 100,000 people, reported another 382 infections and four deaths.
— By Cassandra Szklarski in Toronto with files from Catherine Levesque and Mia Rabson in Ottawa, Shawn Jeffords in Toronto, Stephanie Taylor in Regina, and Hina Alam in Vancouver.
Biden pick for DHS chief says he would not abolish ICE and CBP Tue, January 19, 2021, 11:55 AM
Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, said during his Senate confirmation hearing that he would execute Biden’s plan to stop building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mayorkas also said that CBP and ICE play “critical roles” in the federal government and that he wouldn’t abolish them.
Video Transcript
SENATOR RICK SCOTT: Thank you, [INAUDIBLE]. So with regard to the wall itself, would you tear down parts of the wall? Would you stop the construction that's going on? How would you deal with the existing plans with regard to the wall?
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Senator Scott, President-elect Biden has committed to stop construction of the border wall. It would be my responsibility to execute that on that commitment. And I have not looked at the question of what we do with respect to the wall that already has been built, and I look forward to studying that question, understanding the costs and benefits of doing so, being open and transparent with you and with all members of this committee, sharing my thoughts and considerations, and working cooperatively with you towards a solution.
SENATOR RICK SCOTT: Thank you, Mr. Mayorkas. We talked about this the other day. Could you repeat your position with regard to funding Border Patrol and ICE, and what do you think we should continue to fund them, or we should abolish them?
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Senator, US customs and Border Protection, US Customs And Immigration Enforcement play critical roles in the federal government, and I would not abolish them.
Israel is warning that a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is 'less effective than we hoped' against COVID-19, and it could be a blow to the US and UK strategies
Israel's coronavirus chief warned the first Pfizer vaccine dose seems "less effective" than expected.
This may worry the UK and US, which are prioritizing widespread first doses.
Israel has vaccinated a larger share of its population than any other country
The Israeli official leading the country's coronavirus response warned that it is seeing a smaller effect than it hoped after giving a dose of the vaccine.
The nation has had the world's fastest vaccine rollout, and as of January 19 had given a first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to 25.6% of its population, per Our World in Data.
But a note of caution came from Nachman Ash, Israel's coronavirus commissioner, who told Israel's Army Radio that a single dose appeared to be "less effective than we had thought," according to The Guardian.
The vaccine is designed to come in two shots, with the second dose given three weeks after the first in clinical trials. This is how Israel is distributing the vaccine.
Israeli Prime Minister Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gets his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine on January 9, 2021. MIRIAM ALSTER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
But the strategy raises concerns for the UK, which is prioritizing giving people the first dose of the vaccine.Â
This means delaying second doses by as much as 12 weeks so that as many people as possible can get their first dose one. The hope is that partial immunity among many people is better than fuller immunity for fewer people.
And it also could bring concerns for the US, where incoming president Joe Biden plans to release all available vaccine doses to maximise the number of people getting shots, which could result in delays to second doses even though the US plan is to give them all on schedule.
A patient is vaccinated in London, UK, on December 8. Jack Hill - Pool / Getty Images
Pfizer says that a single dose of its vaccine is about 52% effective, while getting a second dose makes it around 95% effective.
According to Israel, the single dose appears to only be around 33% effective, a significant loss.
Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government's chief scientific adviser, told the UK's Sky News that he will look "very carefully" at the level of protection that people are getting.
He did not say that the UK should change its strategy, but that the government would "just need to keep measuring the numbers" as the vaccine is given to people.
Medical assistant April Massaro gives a first dose of Pfizer BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine in California in December 2020. Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Vallance said this week that the real-world rate of effectiveness was always expected to be lower than that, but that he doesn't think it will be "as low" as what Israel has reported.
The first dose of the vaccine is not thought to offer any protection until around 10 days after getting the shot, and including those days when trying to figure out how effective the first dose is would drive the numbers down.
It is important to note that the UK is not only using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. It is also using the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine, where studies suggest that a spacing out doses could actually provide more protection.
Editorial: A single dose of COVID vaccine may help, but it's not sufficient
The Times Editorial Board
Tue, January 19, 2021
Residents line up Wednesday to receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in the Disneyland parking lot in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The all-important push to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19 faces a true dilemma: Two doses are required for the vaccines available right now. But because Americans — like people in many countries — would not refrain from holiday gatherings and keep their masks on, cases are surging higher than they’ve ever been. A single dose of vaccine would provide significant protection, but it’s not enough for long-term immunity.
The federal government had initially held back millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna-National Institutes of Health vaccines to ensure there were enough for second helpings for the initial recipients, who've mainly been healthcare workers and nursing home residents. But it abandoned that strategy in late December and plowed through the reserves, according to the Washington Post — though federal officials didn't share that fact with the states. Instead, they announced last week that they would release the national stockpile of COVID-19 vaccines so that more people could get a first dose, without revealing that the stockpile was empty.
This change of plan was based on officials’ belief that the drugmakers could produce enough vaccine for everyone to receive second doses as recommended, which would be three to four weeks after the first dose. (The vaccines range from fairly effective to very effective after a single shot, at least for a while, depending on which one is used.) It’s a reasonable gambit when so many are falling ill and dying, but it’s not without risks.
If states can't collect and distribute the second doses to their residents in time, we don't know what that might mean for the vaccines' effectiveness. None of the clinical trials included an extended time between doses; in other words, no one knows whether people would be as protected if they had to wait extra weeks for the second dose. Though more spread-out shots work for other viruses, these two vaccines use an entirely novel mechanism. Would the protection last long enough for the second dose and would the two together work as well? Quite possibly. Or not.
There are other concerns if the second doses don’t come through fast. One is that people will be less likely to show up for the follow-up if there’s a longer time period between shots.
“If people do not truly know how protective a vaccine is, there is the potential for harm because they may assume that they are fully protected when they are not, and accordingly, alter their behavior to take unnecessary risks,” the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement this month.
Another possibility: People's trust in the vaccine may erode. Many Americans are still reeling from revised and sometimes contradictory messages that came from federal authorities about masks and other pandemic-related issues; now the message on vaccination is changing as well.
The Pfizer vaccine, which hasn’t been tested for how well it works after just one dose, has been estimated to be a little more than 50% effective at that level — about the same level as many flu vaccines — though some people theorize its actual effectiveness would be much higher. The Moderna vaccine, using the same approach as Pfizer’s, is highly effective, about 85% to 90%, at one dose. Effectiveness is closer to 95% with both doses if they’re given within the recommended window.
Failure to get a second dose, or to get it within a reasonable time, raises another concern among health experts: If the vaccine is effective enough to keep a person from having symptoms but not effective enough to completely fight off the novel coronavirus, partly vaccinated people could act as the incubators for a mutated, vaccine-resistant virus.
Regardless, the current surge left health authorities without much choice. Using all those doses to give one shot to as many Americans as possible represents a real opportunity to save lives now and bring down COVID-19 infection rates for the population as a whole, versus theoretically causing problems down the line.
Getting the vaccines rolling out will require a faster, more effective procedure to distribute the shots than California and most other states have managed so far. But it also means better public education to avoid a situation in which millions of people are walking around only partly vaccinated. The second shot is crucial, and Americans will need to be reminded of this repeatedly.
The first real-world data showed the first dose led to a 33 per cent reduction in cases of coronavirus among people who were vaccinated between 14 and 21 days afterwards.
But that figure is far lower than that predicted by the joint committee on vaccines and immunisation (JCVI), which suggested a single dose would prevent 89 per cent of recipients from getting Covid-19 symptoms.
In a radio interview, Nachman Ash, Israel's vaccine tsar, said a single dose appeared "less effective than we had thought" and also lower than Pfizer had suggested, raising fears that giving only one dose will not be as protective as hoped.
Sir Patrick, the Government's chief scientific adviser, said experts would need to "keep measuring the numbers" but added that better immunity would build over time.
Speaking to Sky News, he said: "We need to look at this very carefully. What we know from clinical studies… is that if you take everything from day zero to day 28, then the overall figure is something like 50 per cent protection.
"But of course you don't expect any protection in the first days because your immune system hasn't had a chance to build up and some people may have been infected before they had the vaccine. If you take it from day 10 up to day 21 and beyond, it looks much more like the 89 per cent figure the JCVI gave."
However, Sir Patrick admitted the efficacy is unlikely to be as high as 89 per cent in practice because real-world rollouts of vaccines are often lower than trial results.
The Israeli data also showed that people who received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine had a six to 12-fold increase, meaning they had far better protection.
The UK Government has been criticised for making people wait up to 12 weeks for a second dose, and even Pfizer has warned that one dose efficacy is around 52 per cent.
British scientists called for Israeli scientists to publish their data so they could check the results.
Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "It is vital that advice and policy take into account the latest available data.
"However, the reports that have come from Israel are insufficient to provide any evidence that the current UK policy in regard to delaying the second dose of vaccines is in any way incorrect. The details of the different studies have only been released, it seems, at a press conference, the reasons for which are unclear.
"There is a need for at least a pre-print giving the detailed methods and data to understand and interpret these findings. It is not sensible to compare efficacy derived from an observational study of this type which is subject to many biases, with the efficacy derived from randomised trials."
Experts also warned that protection against picking up Covid may be less important than finding out whether it stops hospitalisation and deaths.
Although most trials were not powered to determine that, the early data suggests that some vaccines offer blanket protection against the kind of severe disease that leads to fatalities.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's departing
message to the US is that multiculturalism is
'not who America is'
NOPE THAT'S CANADA
John Haltiwanger Tue, January 19, 2021,
The outgoing secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on Tuesday decried multiculturalism as
un-American.
"Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker," he said.
Pompeo was excoriated on Twitter for his comments.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Chappell/AFP via Getty Images
On his last full day as the top US diplomat and just one day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deemed multiculturalism to be un-American.
"Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms - they're not who America is. They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker," Pompeo said in a tweet.
The US has an extraordinarily diverse population and generally celebrates the hodgepodge of cultures that have helped define it.
Many on Twitter took issue with Pompeo's words, given that multiculturalism is widely viewed as a central tenet of the US.
This is not the first time Pompeo has decried multiculturalism. In 2015, he cited a sermon before the Kansas Legislature that said: "'America had worshipped other Gods and called it multiculturalism. We'd endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.'"
Pompeo, who is thought to have ambitions of running for president in 2024, has been a controversial secretary of state.
In November, Pompeo became the first US diplomat to visit an Israeli settlement, shattering decades of American policy. His hawkish stance toward Iran helped fuel fears that the Trump administration might provoke a new conflict in the Middle East. The departing secretary of state also garnered a reputation as an antagonist of the media, once berating a veteran reporter for questioning him about Ukraine and asking her to point it out on a map.
Pompeo last week abruptly canceled a final trip to Europe because US allies were reportedly too embarrassed to meet with him following the Capitol siege, which was provoked by President Donald Trump.
Biden might succeed in legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants. Here’s why | Opinion
Andres Oppenheimer Wed, January 20, 2021
Under the immigration bill that President Joe Biden is expected to send to Congress, known as the U.S. Citizenship Act, undocumented immigrants would be given an eight-year path to citizenship if they pass background checks and prove they have paid taxes.
That would be anathema for Republican anti-immigration zealots. But here are the reasons why Biden may succeed:
First, Biden will enjoy a big advantage over former President Obama on immigration issues, because public opinion has changed in recent years. Polls show that most Americans may be ready for more pro-immigrant policies.
Perhaps it’s because Americans have grown tired of former President Trump’s and Fox News’ constant demonization of undocumented immigrants. Or maybe enough Americans have been shocked by the Trump administration’s cruelty when they saw pictures of immigrant children kept in cages or learned about the separation of babies from their migrant parents.
At least 34 percent of Americans believe immigration should be increased, and another 36 percent think it should be kept at current levels. That combined pro-immigration stand of 70 percent is larger than at any time since Gallup began asking this question in 1966, the poll shows.
Just in the past four years — during Trump’s term — pro-immigration sentiment in the country rose by 14 percentage points, the Pew study says.
“Trump’s nativism backfired with the majority of the public,” Frank Sharry, head of the America’s Voice pro-immigration advocacy group, told me. “There’s more political space and more political will to legislate and reform immigration policy now.”
Second, the Biden administration plans to use a new strategy to legalize undocumented residents, people familiar with the president’s plan tell me.
Instead of asking Congress to approve Biden’s immigration package as a stand-alone bill, the administration is likely to attach it to a larger COVID-19 or economic-stimulus legislative package.
The administration will argue that millions of undocumented workers — including first responders, hospital workers and waiters — are essential workers who are needed to fight the pandemic and to help revamp the economy.
An estimated 7 million of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country qualify as essential workers or are “DREAMers” — people who were brought to the country as infants by their undocumented parents — or have temporary protected status. Those 7 million would be the first group to be legalized.
Third, Biden will have a greater urgency to pass an immigration bill than Obama did, because he wants to mark a sharp contrast with the Trump administration’s brutality against immigrants.
Biden knows that immigration reform is a pending assignment for the Democrats, and that he may only have two years to get his plan passed by Congress.
Historically, the party that is in the White House tends to lose the midterm elections, so Biden could lose his congressional majority in 2022. For Biden, it will be now or, possibly, never.
It won’t be easy, but Biden may succeed in his plan to legalize many of the estimated 11 million undocumented residents. I’ll be rooting for it.
Don’t miss the “Oppenheimer Presenta” TV show at 8 p.m. E.T. Sunday on CNN en Español. Twitter: @oppenheimera
Biden Launches Effort To Undo Trump's Damage
On Immigration Rowaida Abdelaziz ·Reporter, HuffPost Wed, January 20, 2021,
After years of Donald Trump attacking immigrants, President Joe Biden is beginning his tenure by undoing many of the former president’s policies and overhauling the U.S. immigration system.
The Biden administration has what it calls a comprehensive approach to immigration. In his first few hours as president, Biden plans to propose a new bill that would include a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people in the country.
In addition, he issued immigration-related executive actions:
He ordered government to halt the construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and review whether contracts already issued for it could be diverted to other projects, as well as to end the national emergency declaration for the border. Trump used the declaration to justify taking money slated for other means to fund the wall.
He rescinded Trump’s travel ban, which primarily targeted Muslim-majority countries.
Biden launched an effort to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, which allows undocumented young people to remain in the U.S. and work legally. The program remains in effect in spite of Trump’s efforts to end it, but is still facing legal challenges.
Biden is also expected to take more actions on immigration:
Biden will reinstate deportation priorities undone by Trump, who encouraged immigration agents to pursue removal for all undocumented people rather than focusing first on criminals and repeat border-crossers.
Biden will reverse Trump’s effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census.
The onslaught of immigration reforms signals a new and welcomed era for immigrants, who were among Trump’s favorite scapegoats and targets. Immigration reform advocates and experts applauded Biden’s first-day plans for prioritizing immigration and quickly undoing the damage done by the previous president.
Biden’s ambitious legislative bill, which will be sent to Congress on Wednesday for review, details an eight-year roadmap to citizenship for current immigrants, including approximately 700,000 Dreamers and 400,000 immigrants living with Temporary Protected Status.
Members of those programs, as well as certain farm workers, would qualify for green cards immediately and be eligible for citizenship after three years. Other undocumented immigrants would be eligible for green cards after five years. In all cases, the immigrants would be subjected to background checks and required to pay taxes.
The plan would also reunite families, boost technology at the border, and increase the diversity visa program from 55,000 visas to 80,000 visas per year. Trump attempted to terminate the diversity visa program, as well as DACA and certain TPS programs.
The proposal would set up multiple processing centers abroad to identify and screen refugees, in addition to allotting $4 billion in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras over four years to address the root cause of migration.
If passed, Biden’s reforms would be the largest legislative overhaul of the U.S. immigration system since Republican President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980s.
However, it may be difficult to get them through Congress. The last immigration overhaul bill passed the Senate in a 68-32 vote in 2013, but the Democratic majority was larger at the time than the 50-50 split Biden will be dealing with. (Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, can cast a tie-breaking vote.)
However, it will be an easier lift in the House, where that 2013 bill never got a vote. Democrats control the lower chamber now and are likely to support a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
