USA
Justice Dept. says it’ll no longer seize reporters’ records
The Justice Department said Saturday that it no longer will secretly obtain reporters’ records during leak investigations, a policy shift that abandons a practice decried by news organizations and press freedom groups.
The reversal follows a pledge last month by President Joe Biden, who said it was “simply, simply wrong” to seize journalists’ records and that he would not permit the Justice Department to continue the practice. Though Biden’s comments in an interview were not immediately accompanied by any change in policy, a pair of statements from the White House and Justice Department on Saturday signaled an official turnabout from an investigative tactic that has persisted for years.
Read:Facebook suspends Trump for 2 years, then will reassess
Democratic and Republican administrations alike have used subpoenas and court orders to obtain journalists’ records in an effort to identify sources who have revealed classified information. But the practice had received renewed scrutiny over the past month as Justice Department officials alerted reporters at three news organizations — The Washington Post, CNN and The New York Times — that their phone records had been obtained in the final year of the Trump administration.
The latest revelation came Friday night when the Times reported the existence of a gag order that had barred the newspaper from revealing a secret court fight over efforts to obtain the email records of four reporters. That tussle had begun during the Trump administration but had persisted under the Biden Justice Department, which ultimately moved to withdraw the gag order.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday that no one at the White House was aware of the gag order until Friday night, but that more broadly, “the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the President’s policy direction to the Department.”
In a separate statement, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said that “in a change to its longstanding practice,” the department “will not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media doing their jobs.”
He added: “The department strongly values a free press, protecting First Amendment values, and is committed to taking all appropriate steps to ensure the independence of journalists.”
In ruling out “compulsory legal process” for reporters in leak investigations, the department also appeared to say that it would not force journalists to reveal in court the identity of their sources.
Bruce D. Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said he welcomed the Justice Department’s policy change but that serious unanswered questions remain about what happened in each of these cases.
Read:US to swiftly boost global vaccine sharing, Biden announces
“To ensure it does not happen again, we look forward to pursuing additional policy reforms with the Biden administration to further safeguard these essential rights,” he said in a statement.
The two newspapers whose reporters’ phone records had been secretly obtained also said more needed to be done.
“This is a welcome step to protecting the ability of the press to provide the public with essential information about what their government is doing,” New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in a statement. “However, there is significantly more that needs to be done and we are still awaiting an explanation on why the Department of Justice moved so aggressively to seize journalists’ records.”
Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee said the newspaper was calling on the Biden administration and Justice Department “to provide a full accounting of the chain of events in both administrations and to implement enduring protections to prevent any future recurrence.”
The Justice Department statement did not say whether it would still conduct aggressive leak investigations without obtaining reporters’ records. It also did not define who exactly would be counted as a member of the media for the purposes of the policy and how broadly the protection would apply.
Even so, it marked a startling reversal concerning a practice that has persisted across multiple presidential administrations. The Obama Justice Department, under then-Attorney General Eric Holder, alerted The Associated Press in 2013 that it had secretly obtained two months of phone records of reporters and editors in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering activities.
After blowback, Holder announced a revised set of guidelines for leak investigations, including requiring the authorization of the highest levels of the department before subpoenas for news media records could be issued.
But the department preserved its prerogative to seize journalists’ records, and the recent disclosures to the news media organizations show that the practice continued in the Trump Justice Department as part of multiple investigations.
Separately on Saturday, the Justice Department said it was withdrawing its subpoena that demanded USA Today provide information to identify readers of a story about a suspect in a child pornography case who fatally shot two FBI agents in February.
The subpoena was issued in April but came to light this past week when USA Today and its parent company Gannett filed documents in federal court asking a judge to quash it. The subpoena sought the IP addresses and mobile phone identification information of readers who clicked on the article for a period of about 35 minutes on the day after the shooting.
Read:US to impose tariffs over digital taxes, but action on hold for now
The government hadn’t provided details about the case or why it was specifically interested in the readers who clicked on the USA Today story during that brief period. Officials had only said the subpoena was connected to an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
But a federal prosecutor notified lawyers for USA Today on Saturday that the FBI was withdrawing its subpoena because authorities had been able to identify the subject of their investigation — described in an email as a “child sexual exploitation offender” — by “other means.” The prosecutor’s email was included in a court filing by Gannett.
Facebook suspends Trump for 2 years, then will reassess
Facebook announced Friday that former President Donald Trump’s accounts will be suspended for two years, freezing his presence on the social network until early 2023, following a finding that Trump stoked violence ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
At the end of the suspension, the company will assess whether Trump’s “risk to public safety” has subsided, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post. He said Facebook will take into account “external factors” such as instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest.
Facebook also announced that it would end a contentious policy that automatically exempted politicians from rules banning hate speech and abuse, and that it would stiffen penalties for public figures during times of civil unrest and violence.
READ: Online speech shield under fire as Trump Facebook ban stays
The former president called Facebook’s decision on the suspension “an insult.” The two-year ban replaced a previous ruling that ordered Trump to be suspended indefinitely.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!” Trump said in a news release.
Social platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become indispensable tools for politicians to get their messages out and to raise small-dollar donations. Without the megaphone of Twitter and the targeted fundraising appeals his campaign mastered on Facebook, Trump could be at a serious disadvantage relative to other politicians.
Trump has teased running for president again in 2024. His aides say that he has been working on launching his own social media platform to compete with those that have booted him, but one has yet to materialize. A blog he launched on his existing website earlier this year was shut down after less than a month. It attracted dismal traffic.
On Facebook, Trump’s suspension means that his account is essentially frozen. Others can read and comment on past posts, but Trump and other account handlers are unable to post new material. Twitter, by contrast, has permanently banned Trump from its service, and no trace of his account remains.
“What they’ve done here is shield themselves from potential presidential rage” with a reassessment of Trump’s account in two years, said Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor.
In a color-coded chart on its blog post, the company said public figures who violate its policies during times of crisis can be restricted from posting for a month (yellow) or as long as two years (red). Future violations, it said, will be met with “heightened penalties, up to and including permanent removal.”
READ: Facebook board’s Trump decision could have wider impacts
The policy that exempted politicians from rules on hate speech and abuse was once championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The company said it never applied the policy to Trump, but on Friday backtracked to say it did use it once, in 2019 for a video of a rally on his Facebook page.
The social media giant said it will still apply the “newsworthiness” exemption to certain posts it deems to be in the public interest, even if they violate Facebook rules. But it will no longer treat material posted by politicians any differently than other posts. In addition, Facebook said it will make public whenever it does apply the exemption to a post.
The announcements are in response to recommendations from the company’s quasi-independent oversight board. Last month, that panel upheld a decision by Facebook to keep Trump suspended, but the board said the company could not merely suspend him indefinitely. It gave the company six months to decide what to do with his accounts.
In its decision last month, the board agreed with Facebook that two of Trump’s Jan. 6 posts “severely violated” the content standards of both Facebook and Instagram.
“We love you. You’re very special,” Trump said to the rioters in the first post. In the second, he called them “great patriots” and told them to “remember this day forever.”
Those comments violated Facebook’s rules against praising or supporting people engaged in violence, the board said. Specifically, the board cited rules against “dangerous individuals and organizations” that prohibit anyone who proclaims a violent mission and ban posts that express support for those people or groups.
The two-year suspension is effective from Jan. 7, so Trump has 19 months to go.
A group calling itself the Real Facebook Oversight Board, which is critical of Facebook and its oversight panel, said in a statement Friday that the ban brings Trump back just in time for the 2024 presidential election and shows “no real strategy to address authoritarian leaders and extremist content, and no intention of taking serious action against disinformation and hate speech.”
Due to its sheer size and power, Facebook’s decision has broad implications for politicians and their constituencies around the globe. Chinmayi Arun, a fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, said it’s good that the company laid out a standard for when it will suspend political leaders and for how long.
“What’s tremendous is that Facebook took the oversight board’s recommendation to reevaluate the real-world context and the offline tensions, while deciding what to do with a politician’s online speech,” she said. But she remains concerned that suspensions cannot be reviewed unless Facebook asks.
READ: Trump goes after Pence, McConnell in speech to party donorsFor years, Facebook gave the former president special treatment and free reign to spread misinformation and threats on the platform. Outside critics and even Facebook’s own employees called for the company to remove Trump long before the Jan. 6 comments.
Last summer, for instance, Zuckerberg decided to leave up posts by Trump that suggested protesters in Minneapolis could be shot, using the words “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Trump’s comment evoked the civil-rights era by borrowing a phrase used in 1967 by Miami’s police chief to warn of an aggressive police response to unrest in Black neighborhoods.
While Facebook put labels on many of Trump’s election posts, he did not face penalties such as suspension for repeatedly and falsely claiming victory in 2020.
In Friday’s post, Clegg anticipated criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
“We know that any penalty we apply — or choose not to apply — will be controversial. There are many people who believe it was not appropriate for a private company like Facebook to suspend an outgoing President from its platform, and many others who believe Mr. Trump should have immediately been banned for life,” he wrote.
Facebook’s job, he said, is “to make a decision in as proportionate, fair and transparent a way as possible, in keeping with the instruction given to us by the Oversight Board.”
But by staying in the middle, some experts said Facebook had once again punted the decision instead of taking a firm stance.
“It’s the wait-and-see approach,” said Sarah Kreps, a Cornell professor and director of the Cornell Tech Policy Lab. “I think they’re hoping this can just resolve itself with him not being kind of an influential voice in politics anymore.”
Heart reaction probed as possible rare vaccine link in teens
Health authorities are trying to determine whether heart inflammation that can occur along with many types of infections could also be a rare side effect in teens and young adults after the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
An article on seven U.S. teen boys in several states, published online Friday in Pediatrics, is among the latest reports of heart inflammation discovered after COVID-19 vaccination, though a link to the vaccine has not been proven.
The boys, aged 14 to 19, received Pfizer shots in April or May and developed chest pain within a few days. Heart imaging tests showed a type of heart muscle inflammation called myocarditis.
Read:US to swiftly boost global vaccine sharing, Biden announces
None were critically ill. All were healthy enough to be sent home after two to six days in the hospital and are doing ’’doing pretty well,” said Dr. Preeti Jaggi, an Emory University infectious disease specialist who co-authored the report.
She said more follow-up is needed to determine how the seven fare but that it’s likely the heart changes were temporary.
Only one of the seven boys in the Pediatrics report had evidence of a possible previous COVID-19 infection and doctors determined none of them had a rare inflammatory condition linked with the coronavirus.
The cases echo reports from Israel in young men diagnosed after receiving Pfizer shots.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted doctors last month that it was monitoring a small number of reports of heart inflammation in teens and young adults after the mRNA vaccines, the kind made by Pfizer and Moderna.
Read:Vaccine maker Serum seeks indemnity protection in India
The CDC hasn’t determined if there’s really a link to the shots, and continues to urge that everyone 12 and older get vaccinated against COVID-19, which is far riskier than the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine is available to those as young as 12; the Moderna shot remains cleared only for adult use.
This kind of heart inflammation can be caused by a variety of infections, including a bout of COVID-19, as well as certain medications -- and there have been rare reports following other types of vaccinations.
Authorities will have to tease out whether cases following COVID-19 vaccination are occurring more often than that expected “background rate.”
For now, the CDC says most patients were male, reported symptoms after the second dose, and their symptoms rapidly improved.
“I think we’re in the waiting period where we need to see whether this is cause-and-effect or not,” said John Grabenstein of the Immunization Action Coalition, a former director of the Defense Department’s immunization program.
Read: Free beer, other new incentives for Biden’s ‘vaccine sprint’
A Pediatrics editorial noted that among U.S. children under age 18, there have been over 4 million COVID-19 cases, more than 15,000 hospitalizations and at least 300 deaths.
It said the heart inflammation cases warrant more investigation but added that ’’the benefits of vaccination against this deadly and highly transmissible disease clearly far outweigh any potential risks.”
Editorial co-author Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, head of an American Academy of Pediatrics infectious diseases committee, is involved in Pfizer vaccine studies, including a COVID-19 vaccine study in children.
US to swiftly boost global vaccine sharing, Biden announces
President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will swiftly donate an initial allotment of 25 million doses of surplus vaccine overseas through the United Nations-backed COVAX program, promising infusions for South and Central America, Asia, Africa and others at a time of glaring shortages abroad and more than ample supplies at home.
The doses mark a substantial — and immediate — boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries.
The announcement came just hours after World Health Organization officials in Africa made a new plea for vaccine sharing because of an alarming situation on the continent, where shipments have ground to “a near halt” while virus cases have spiked over the past two weeks.
Also read: US unveils strategy for global vaccine sharing with Bangladesh, India on list
Overall, the White House has announced plans to share 80 million doses globally by the end of June, most through COVAX. Officials say a quarter of the nation’s excess will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners.
Of the first 19 million donated through COVAX, approximately 6 million doses will go to South and Central America, 7 million to Asia and 5 million to Africa.
“As long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world, the American people will still be vulnerable,” Biden said in a statement. “And the United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home.”
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. “will retain the say” on where doses distributed through COVAX ultimately go.
But he also said: “We’re not seeking to extract concessions, we’re not extorting, we’re not imposing conditions the way that other countries who are providing doses are doing. ... These are doses that are being given, donated free and clear to these countries, for the sole purpose of improving the public health situation and helping end the pandemic.”
The remaining 6 million in the initial distribution of 25 million will be directed by the White House to U.S. allies and partners, including Mexico, Canada, South Korea, West Bank and Gaza, India, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as for United Nations frontline workers.
The White House did not say when the doses would begin shipping overseas, but press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration hoped to send them “as quickly as we can logistically get those out the door.”
Vice President Kamala Harris informed some U.S. partners they will begin receiving doses, in separate calls with Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador, President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago. Harris is to visit Guatemala and Mexico in the coming week.
Also read: COVAX Facility: Japan to provide 30mn vaccine doses to other countries
The long-awaited vaccine sharing plan comes as demand for shots in the U.S. has dropped significantly — more than 63% of adults have received at least one dose — and as global inequities in supply have become more pronounced.
Scores of countries have requested doses from the United States, but to date only Mexico and Canada have received a combined 4.5 million doses. The U.S. also has announced plans to share enough shots with South Korea to vaccinate its 550,000 troops who serve alongside American service members on the peninsula. White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said that 1 million Johnson & Johnson doses were being shipped to South Korea Thursday.
The U.S. has committed more than $4 billion to COVAX, but with vaccine supplies short — and wealthy nations locking up most of them — the greater need than funding has been immediate access to actual doses, to overcome what health officials have long decried as unequal access to the vaccines.
The U.S. action means “frontline workers and at-risk populations will receive potentially life-saving vaccinations” and bring the world “a step closer to ending the acute phase of the pandemic,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, which is leading the COVAX alliance.
However, Tom Hart the acting CEO of The ONE Campaign, said that while Thursday’s announcement was a “welcome step, the Biden administration needs to commit to sharing more doses.
“The world is looking to the U.S. for global leadership, and more ambition is needed,” he said.
Biden has committed to providing other nations with all 60 million U.S.-produced doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has yet to be authorized for use in America but is widely approved around the world. The AstraZeneca doses have been held up for export by a weeks-long safety review by the Food and Drug Administration, and without them Biden will be hard pressed to meet his sharing goal.
Also read: Free beer, other new incentives for Biden’s ‘vaccine sprint’
The White House says the initial 25 million doses announced Thursday will be shipped from existing federal stockpiles of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. More doses are expected to be made available to share in the months ahead.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that Harris had informed him before the White House announcement of the decision to send 1 million doses of the single jab Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “I expressed to her our appreciation in the name of the people of Mexico,” he wrote.
Guatemala’s Giammattei said Harris told him the U.S. government would send his country 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
As part of its purchase agreements with drug manufacturers, the U.S. controlled the initial production by its domestic manufacturers. Pfizer and Moderna are only now starting to export vaccines produced in the U.S. to overseas customers. The U.S. has hundreds of millions more doses on order, both of authorized and in-development vaccines.
The White House also announced that U.S. producers of vaccine materials and ingredients will no longer have to prioritize orders from three drugmakers working on COVID-19 shots that haven’t received U.S. approval — Sanofi, Novavax and AstraZeneca — clearing the way for more materials to be shipped overseas to help production there.
US to impose tariffs over digital taxes, but action on hold for now
The United States said Wednesday it will impose tariffs on six countries such as Britain and India over their taxes on U.S. tech companies, but noted that the action will be put on hold amid ongoing negotiations on international taxation.
The announcement from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative followed an investigation it started in June last year into the digital services taxes being considered or adopted by U.S. trading partners -- Austria, Brazil, Britain, the Czech Republic, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain and Turkey.
The United States sees such taxes as a concern as they could burden U.S. companies such as Apple Inc. and Google LLC.
In January this year, the USTR determined that the taxes adopted by Austria, Britain, India, Italy, Spain and Turkey discriminated against U.S. digital companies and were inconsistent with principles of international taxation.
"The final determination in those investigations is to impose additional tariffs on certain goods from these countries," the USTR said in its press release Wednesday.
Also read: Davos: Hopes for digital tax breakthrough between US, France
But the tariffs will be suspended for up to 180 days to provide additional time to complete the ongoing multilateral negotiations on international taxation at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and in the Group of 20 process.
"The United States is focused on finding a multilateral solution to a range of key issues related to international taxation, including our concerns with digital services taxes," USTR Katherine Tai was quoted as saying.
According to a USTR report released in January, Britain's digital services tax applies a 2 percent levy on the revenues of certain search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces.
The USTR said the system "unfairly" targets U.S. companies because it only pertains to the three specific categories in which U.S. firms are marketplace leaders.
India's digital services tax imposes a 2 percent levy on revenue generated from a broad range of digital services offered in the South Asian country. The taxes explicitly exempt Indian companies while targeting non-Indian firms, according to the USTR.
The USTR, meanwhile, has terminated the remaining four investigations involving Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union and Indonesia, saying that those jurisdictions had not implemented the digital services taxes under consideration.
Free beer, other new incentives for Biden’s ‘vaccine sprint’
Dangling everything from sports tickets to a free beer, President Joe Biden is looking for that extra something — anything — that will get people to roll up their sleeves for COVID-19 shots when the promise of a life-saving vaccine by itself hasn’t been enough.
Biden on Wednesday announced a “month of action” to urge more Americans to get vaccinated before the July 4 holiday, including an early summer sprint of incentives and a slew of new steps to ease barriers and make getting shots more appealing to those who haven’t received them. He is closing in on his goal of getting 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by Independence Day — essential to his aim of returning the nation to something approaching a pre-pandemic sense of normalcy this summer.
“The more people we get vaccinated, the more success we’re going to have in the fight against this virus,” Biden said from the White House. He predicted that with more vaccinations, America will soon experience “a summer of freedom, a summer of joy, a summer of get togethers and celebrations. An All-American summer.”
The Biden administration views June as “a critical month in our path to normal,” Courtney Rowe, the director of strategic communications and engagement for the White House COVID-19 response team, told the AP.
Read: Biden’s $6T budget: Social spending, taxes on business
Biden’s plan will continue to use public and private-sector partnerships, mirroring the “whole of government” effort he deployed to make vaccines more widely available after he took office. The president said he was “pulling out all the stops” to drive up the vaccination rate.
Among those efforts is a promotional giveaway announced Wednesday by Anheuser-Busch, saying it will “buy Americans 21+ a round of beer” once Biden’s 70% goal is met.
“Get a shot and have a beer,” Biden said, advertising the promotion even though he himself refrains from drinking alcohol.
Additionally, the White House is partnering with early childhood centers such as KinderCare, Learning Care Group, Bright Horizons and more than 500 YMCAs to provide free childcare coverage for Americans looking for shots or needing assistance while recovering from side effects.
The administration is also launching a new partnership to bring vaccine education and even doses to more than a thousand Black-owned barbershops and beauty salons, building on a successful pilot program in Maryland.
They’re the latest vaccine sweeteners, building on other incentives like cash giveaways, sports tickets and paid leave, to keep up the pace of vaccinations.
“The fact remains that despite all the progress, those who are unvaccinated still remain at risk of getting seriously ill or dying or spreading the disease to others,” said Rowe.
Read: Biden orders more intel investigation of COVID-19 origin
Aiming to make injections even more convenient, Biden is announcing that many pharmacies are extending their hours this month — and thousands will remain open overnight on Fridays. The White House is also stepping up its efforts to help employers run on-site vaccination clinics.
Biden will also announce that he is assigning Vice President Kamala Harris to lead a “We Can Do This” vaccination tour to encourage shots. It will include first lady Jill Biden, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Cabinet officials. Harris’ travel will be focused on the South, where vaccination rates are among the lowest in the country, while other officials will travel to areas of the Midwest with below average rates.
To date 62.9% of the adult U.S. population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 133.9 million are fully vaccinated. The rate of new vaccinations has slowed to an average below 555,000 per day, down from more than 800,000 when incentives like lotteries were announced, and down from a peak of nearly 2 million per day in early April when demand for shots was much higher.
The lengths to which the U.S. is resorting to convince Americans to take a shot stands in contrast to much of the world, where vaccines are far less plentiful. Facing a mounting U.S. surplus, the Biden administration is planning to begin sharing 80 million doses with the world this month.
“All over the world people are desperate to get a shot that every American can get at their neighborhood drugstore,” Biden said.
“Incentives can work, and I think the White House’s focus on making vaccination the easy and convenient choice is important,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician, public health professor at George Washington University and former Baltimore health commissioner.
“It’s the height of American exceptionalism that we are having to beg people to get a life-saving vaccine, when healthcare workers and vulnerable people around the world are dying because they can’t get access to it,” she added.
Read: Face to face: June summit for Biden, Putin as tensions rise
Thanks to the vaccinations, the rate of cases and deaths in the U.S. are at their lowest since the beginning of the pandemic last March, averaging under 16,000 new cases and under 400 deaths per day.
As part of the effort to drive Americans to get shots, the White House is borrowing some tools from political campaigns, including phone banks, door-knocking and texting. The administration says more than 1,000 such events will be held this weekend alone. Additionally, it is organizing competitions between cities and colleges to drive up vaccination rates.
Other new incentives include a $2 million commitment from DoorDash to provide gift cards to community health centers to be used to drive people to get vaccinated. CVS launched a sweepstakes with prizes including free cruises and Super Bowl tickets. Major League Baseball will host on-site vaccine clinics and ticket giveaways at games. And Kroger will give $1 million to a vaccinated person each week this month and dozens of people free groceries for the year.
The fine print on the Anheuser-Busch promotion reveals the benefits to the sponsoring company, which will collect consumer data and photos through its website to register for the $5 giveaway. The company says it will hand out credits to however many people qualify.
Mobile vaccination units hit tiny US towns to boost immunity
Pick-up truck drivers motor up to a white trailer in a parking lot on Fallon Paiute-Shoshone land in Nevada’s high desert and within a few moments they’re handed forms to sign, jabbed with coronavirus vaccine and sent on their way.
The pop-up clinic 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of Reno is one of 28 locations in the state where the Federal Emergency Management Agency has dispatched mobile vaccination units to ensure people in far-flung rural areas and one stop-light towns can get inoculated.
It’s one of the tactics health officials are using across the country to counter waning interest in vaccinations. In tiny towns, churches, ballparks, strip clubs and even marijuana dispensaries, officials are setting up shop and offering incentives to entice people as the nation struggles to reach herd immunity.
In Nevada, health officials acknowledge they’re unlikely to hit their initial goal of vaccinating 75% of the population believed necessary to reach herd immunity. Ironically, their push in northern Nevada is headquartered at the Reno Livestock Events Center, where 65-year-old Dan Lavely and others are showing up for shots.
Read: Who benefits? US debates fairest way to share spare vaccine
Lavely said he teared up while thanking the nurses who vaccinated him.
“I told them I was just so thankful that they were volunteering their time to help get us back to normal so I can go shop at the mall or go to the beach at Lake Tahoe,” said Lavely, who works at a big box store in neighboring Sparks. Waiting to get vaccinated had nothing to do with safety concerns or distrust of the government, he said.
“It was a scheduling deal. Plus, my middle name is procrastinator,” Lavely said.
Two FEMA mobile trailers have meandered through Nevada to towns without pharmacies, clinics or other vaccination sites, giving doctors, nurses and National Guardsmen a first-hand look at rural and tribal communities where finding vaccinations has been difficult for residents.
“That’s our philosophy: it doesn’t make any difference if there are two (people) nor 200,” said Peggy Franklin, a volunteer nurse who has traveled alongside a FEMA trailer to Fallon, Alamo, Panaca and other towns
To preserve the vaccine, the trailers are equipped with ultra-cold refrigerators powered by generators-on-wheels. On Monday, the two mobile clinics completed six-week loops through Nevada that included returning to finish two-shot regimens in the state that covers an area that would stretch from Boston to Baltimore and Buffalo, N.Y.
Initially, the goal was to vaccinate 250 people a day at each stop. But the numbers have varied, as vaccine supply has increased and demand has fallen.
“Just a month ago, people were still having a hard time finding vaccination sites. That’s really changed in the last three or four weeks and now we’re trying to find people that are more vaccine-hesitant,” said Marc Reynolds, a doctor from Fallon who has volunteered at the mobile clinic in his hometown and the state prison in Lovelock.
The clinics have delivered 7,600 shots during two tours of Nevada and have also been used in Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky and other states. Nevada Division of Emergency Management Chief Dave Fogerson said people in the remote communities of the state “probably would not have got it any other way.”
Gerlach, for example, is 100 miles (160 km) from the closest pharmacy in Reno-Sparks. With just 34 people, it was once home to a booming gypsum mine on the edge of the desert that hosts 80,000 visitors each year for the Burning Man Festival. The desolate landscape was featured in this year’s Academy Award-winning movie, “Nomadland.”
Nearly half of Nevada’s eligible population has had at least an initial vaccination against COVID-19. But rates have varied geographically.
Read:June’s Covid vaccine quota to be 120 million after 79 million in May
In Clark and Washoe counties, home to Las Vegas and Reno, respectively, about half of those eligible have gotten at least one dose, the state reported. The rate has been about half of that in Eureka and Elko counties, while Storey County has seen just a 15% rate.
As infection rates drop and the state moves further away from the height of the pandemic, officials acknowledge persuading the vaccine-hesitant to get shots won’t get easier. As a result, on the heels of the FEMA effort, officials have been preparing similar pop-up events in urban centers, suburban neighborhoods and unconventional venues ranging from a Las Vegas strip club to a Sparks truck stop along an interstate that runs to Utah.
“It’s important that the people running the vaccination events look like the community,” said Jeanne Freeman of Carson City Health and Human Services. “Comfort levels are important. Sometimes just being in a familiar location.”
Nevada has long struggled with some of the nation’s worst vaccination rates. It improved to fifth-worst last year with 42% of adults vaccinated against the flu, according to the CDC. Part of the current outreach effort targets the 340,000 people who got those flu shots but have not yet gotten a COVID-19 vaccination.
Nevada is refining its messaging based on a growing understanding of why some people remain reluctant to get shots. Much of the focus so far has been on cultural and historical barriers that make certain groups less open to vaccinations, but for many, it may come down to simple convenience.
“A lot of individuals are not opposed to getting vaccinated, it’s just not fitting well in their daily life,” said Karissa Loper, chief of Nevada’s Bureau of Child, Family and Community Wellness. “That’s truly what we’re moving to work on now with all of our partners, to do those mobile and pop-up clinics.”
Jackie Shelton, a vice president with the public relations firm that Nevada hired to help promote vaccine equity and outreach, said the latest ad campaign intends to “show people who look like you — peers who are getting the vaccine and why.”
“People don’t want to be told what to do but they love to see their friends and others talking about why they are doing it,” she said. “It’s all about empathy. And reminding people what they have missed during the pandemic and what they can get back.”
Future promotional ideas include raffles open to residents who are fully vaccinated by July 4. Colorado, Maryland, Ohio, New York and Oregon are among several states already enticing people with lottery prizes approaching $5 million.
Immunize Nevada is planning vaccination pop-ups at breweries, churches and parks — complete with swag like water bottles — and scheduling them to coincide with holidays such as Juneteenth to target specific populations.
In Reno, shots are offered at minor league baseball games, and the Medical Social Justice League at the University of Nevada’s School of Medicine was set to co-host a clinic Saturday at a Catholic church with a large Latino congregation.
Read: More states ease lingering virus rules as vaccine rates rise
“We need to meet them where they are and where they feel safe,” Diana Sande, spokeswoman for the university’s School of Community Health Sciences, said about outreach efforts to the Latino community.
Kyra Morgan, Nevada’s chief biostatistician, has suggested it may not be possible for the state to reach its initial goal of vaccinating 75% of the population.
Still, communities may be able to return to normalcy even if they don’t reach the threshold needed for herd immunity, added Dr. Nancy Diao, division director for epidemiology and public health preparedness in Washoe County.
“If we can reach a high enough population level, say maybe 60% or 70%, that might also just be good enough for our community to bring the numbers drastically down,” she said, “and we can have this virus live with us in an equilibrium like we do with so many other diseases.”
Who benefits? US debates fairest way to share spare vaccine
In April, the Biden administration announced plans to share millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world by the end of June. Five weeks later, nations around the globe are still waiting — with growing impatience — to learn where the vaccines will go and how they will be distributed.
To President Joe Biden, the doses represent a modern-day “arsenal of democracy,” serving as the ultimate carrot for America’s partners abroad, but also as a necessary tool for global health, capable of saving millions of lives and returning a semblance of normalcy to friends and foes alike.
The central question for Biden: What share of doses should be provided to those who need it most, and how many should be reserved for U.S. partners?
The answer, so far at least, appears to be that the administration will provide the bulk of the doses to COVAX, the U.N.-backed global vaccine sharing program meant to meet the needs of lower income countries. While the percentage is not yet finalized, it would mark a substantial — and immediate — boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries.
The Biden administration is considering reserving about a fourth of the doses for the U.S. to dispense directly to individual nations of its choice.
Read: Biden’s $6T budget: Social spending, taxes on business
The growing U.S. stockpile of COVID-19 vaccines is seen not only as a testament to American ingenuity, but also its global privilege.
More than 50% of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and more than 135 million are fully vaccinated, helping bring the rate of cases and deaths in the U.S. to the lowest level since the earliest days of the pandemic.
Scores of countries have requested doses from the United States, but to date only Mexico and Canada have received a combined 4.5 million doses. The U.S. also has announced plans to share enough shots with South Korea to vaccinate its 550,000 troops who serve alongside American service members on the peninsula.
The broader U.S. sharing plan is still being finalized, a White House official said, having been the subject of policy debate inside the White House and across the federal government, and also involving COVAX and other outside stakeholders like drug manufacturers and logistics experts.
“Our nation’s going to be the arsenal of vaccines for the rest of the world,” Biden said on May 17, when he announced the U.S. pledge to share more doses. He added that, compared to other countries like Russia and China that have sought to leverage their domestically produced doses, “we will not use our vaccines to secure favors from other countries.”
Still, the partnership with the South Korean military points to the ability of the U.S. to use its vaccine stockpile to benefit some of its better-off allies. It was not clear whether South Korea would pay for its doses from the U.S. Most of the other doses were expected to be donated.
Samantha Power, the new USAID administrator, provided the first indication of the likely allocation last week in testimony on Capitol Hill.
Read: Biden orders more intel investigation of COVID-19 origin
She told the Senate Appropriations Committee that “75% of the doses we share will likely be shared through COVAX. Twenty-five percent of whatever our excess supply is that we are donating will be reserved to be able to deploy bilaterally.”
Administration officials cautioned that Biden had not yet signed off on the precise split and that it could still change.. The White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans, said the administration would be working in coming days to synchronize its supplies with the global vaccine sharing organizations.
Biden has committed to providing other nations with all 60 million domestically produced doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. That vaccine has yet to be authorized for use in the U.S. but is widely approved around the world. The U.S.-produced doses will be available to ship as soon as they clear a safety review by the Food and Drug Administration.
The president also has promised to share 20 million doses from existing production of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine stocks. Even more doses are expected to be made available to share in the months ahead.
As part of its purchase agreements with drug manufacturers, the U.S. controlled the initial production by its domestic manufacturers. Pfizer and Moderna are only now starting to export vaccines produced in the U.S. to overseas customers. The U.S. has hundreds of millions more doses on order, both of authorized and in-development vaccines.
“It’s obviously challenging because so many countries face this need right now,” Power said, calling the decision of where to send doses “an urgent question.”
The decision, she continued, hinges on some combination of “the relationship we have with the countries, the public health and epidemiological scientific trajectory of the disease, and a sense of where the vaccines can do the most good, the infrastructure and readiness of countries to receive vaccines.”
The U.S. under Biden also has pledged $4 billion to COVAX, led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization, to help it procure and distribute vaccines. COVAX has committed to sharing the doses with more than 90 countries, including many with which the U.S. has tumultuous relations.
Read:Face to face: June summit for Biden, Putin as tensions rise
Leaving it to COVAX to decide how the bulk of the U.S.-provided doses are distributed is seen by the administration as the most equitable way to determine who benefits. It also could allow the U.S. to avoid any political fallout that might come from sharing the vaccine directly with adversaries.
“It’s not only a symbol of American values — it’s smart global health policy,” said Tom Hart, acting CEO of the ONE Campaign, which has pressed the Biden administration to move faster to develop its global sharing plan. “An outbreak in North Korea or Iran or somewhere else where we might have tensions, viruses travel no matter where they’re flourishing, and I don’t want a variant cooking up in some remote part of the world, anywhere in the world, which then might get around the current vaccines that we’ve got.”
Even if the bulk of the U.S.-shared doses are distributed through COVAX, Power told senators, “It will be very clear where those doses are coming from.”
“People will be very clear that these are American doses coming as a result of American ingenuity and the generosity of the American people,” she added.
Globally, more than 3.5 million people are confirmed to have died from the coronavirus. The U.S. has seen the largest confirmed loss of life from COVID-19, at more than 594,000 people.
More states ease lingering virus rules as vaccine rates rise
Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, more U.S. cities and states are shrugging off lingering COVID-19 restrictions as vaccination rates rise and the number of infections falls.
Massachusetts lifted a mask requirement Saturday, a day after New Jersey dropped its mandate. In New York City and Chicago, officials reopened public beaches, though winds and cool temperatures kept crowds away.
“Welcome back, Chicago,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a video announcement. “The lakefront is open.”
Chicago’s Navy Pier also reopened retail stores and restaurants, carnival rides, and tour boats and cruises after the pandemic forced monthslong closures at the busy tourist destination.
It’s one more sign of progress that reflects increasingly positive health data. On Saturday, Illinois’ Department of Public Health reported 802 new confirmed and probable infections, the second-lowest one-day total in the last six months.
For businesses nationwide, the improving outlook and long holiday weekend offered a chance to welcome customers back to in-person shopping.
Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, opened its doors to customers for the first time in nearly 14 months Friday. Masks are still required.
The business had switched to internet orders, sidewalk sales and virtual author events to survive the pandemic.
“We had to get creative, we had to pivot,” store manager Alex Brubaker said. “Our readers and our customers have been incredible. It’s a rainy weekend, but the bookstore is full.”
Read: European regulators OK Pfizer vaccine for children 12-15
Minnesota lifted all statewide coronavirus restrictions for bars and restaurants Friday, though local governments can maintain their own social distancing and mask rules.
About 50% of the U.S. population has now received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, according to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 40% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Vermont boasts the nation’s highest vaccination rate, with nearly 70% of its residents having received at least one dose. The governor is expected to drop all pandemic-related restrictions once 80% of Vermont’s eligible population has received at least one dose, a milestone the state expects to hit next week.
In neighboring Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker lifted a mask mandate effective Saturday, though face coverings are still required in certain places, including on public transportation. The state also still encourages unvaccinated people to wear masks in indoor or public areas.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park before the Red Sox played the Miami Marlins on the first day that Massachusetts dropped limits on crowd sizes. Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said about 24,000 tickets were sold.
“It’s such a bright moment right now,” Walensky told reporters, encouraging people to get vaccinated. “It’s been a really long year, and we’ve seen some really, really dark times. ... I’m thrilled we’re back where we are right now.”
According to Massachusetts officials, 78% of all adult residents have had at least one vaccine dose.
“New cases have dropped by 94% since they peaked in January,” Baker said Friday as he announced the end of the restrictions. “Hospitalizations are down by about 90% since their peak. This progress has made it possible for us to lift all remaining COVID restrictions across the commonwealth.”
Virginia relaxed its distancing and capacity restrictions on Friday. President Joe Biden celebrated the progress with a visit to a rock climbing gym in northern Virginia.
Millions of Americans planned to travel over the long weekend, and airports reported some of their highest traffic since the pandemic began.
Democrat-drawn legislative maps head to Pritzker for action
Democrat-drawn legislative district maps to govern elections in the Illinois General Assembly for the next decade won legislative approval Friday after a day of Republican acrimony and opposition from Democratic-leaning community groups who say they’ve been ignored and haven’t gotten clear answers about how the lines were drawn.
The next stop is the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who once promised to veto maps drawn by politicians.
The House voted 71-45 along party lines Friday night after 2 1/2 hours of debate to approve new district lines required after each decennial Census to reflect population shifts. It followed a similarly partisan Senate vote, 41-18, in favor of the maps drawn outside of the public eye but which Democrats contend were influenced by opinions voiced during 50 public hearings since April.
READ: Debate puts Biden's long legislative record in the hot seat
All eyes are now on Pritzker, who as a Democratic candidate for governor in 2018 promised to reject a political product, opting for an independent, nonpartisan commission to create the districts. But Pritzker this month backed away from the pledge, saying only that he would nix an “unfair” map. Even though this is the final week of the General Assembly’s spring session, Pritzker has not appeared publicly for days.
“Gov. Pritzker, speaking directly to you: Veto these maps, because as we proved today, they are (politically) drawn,” said Springfield Rep. Tim Butler, the House Redistricting Committee’s ranking Republican.
Republicans and grassroots activist groups have decried the process concluded without benefit of official U.S. Census numbers, which have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats contend they must be completed by June 25, which is simply the date on which they lose complete control of the work.
“The people deserve better than bad data, fake deadlines and sham hearings,” said Sen. Sue Rezin, a Morris Republican.
During hastily called final hearings of the Redistricting Committees in both House and Senate, Republicans slammed the House redistricting leader, Rep. Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez of Chicago, after she acknowledged she didn’t know until Thursday night all the sources of data that were used — six days after the first version of the map was sprung on the public.
Even then, she struggled to explain what numbers were mined or how, other than pointing to the Census’ American Community Survey, an ongoing review of changes occurring in communities, which critics maintain are not suitable for drawing lines. She added that input from 50 public hearings and “election results” were sources but was unable to elaborate, and repeatedly said she did not have a list of individuals who put lines on paper.
Despite the late notice of the hearings, representatives of several interest groups were able to tune in to complain about being left out.
“Until you send a message that inclusion counts, it’s just talk...,” Dilara Sayeed of the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition said via video conference. “We can’t move forward. We can’t have 10 more years of this.”
Political lines must be redrawn after each decennial Census to reflect changes in population and ensure protection of voters’ rights. They must be compact, contiguous, and of equal population, among other things.
READ: Democrats start reining in expectations for immigration bill
Critics wonder why the map can’t wait for release of official U.S. Census numbers, which won’t be available until late summer. A consultant who’s on contract with House and Senate Democrats for $200,000 says the ACS numbers from before the 2010 Census varied only slightly from the official count.
The constitution requires the Legislature — currently controlled by Democratic super-majorities — to produce a map by June 30. After that, the project goes to a bipartisan commission. Each time that’s occurred since 1980, the panel has deadlocked and the name of the partisan tie-breaker is drawn from a hat.
During House debate, several Republicans called out Democrats for previously espousing independent map-making, reading from news articles and newspaper endorsement questionnaires their pledges to take politics out of the process. Democratic Rep. Will Guzzardi cried foul, contending it’s not “inconsistent to say, ‘I believe the system should be different and nonetheless, I’m participating under the rules as they are today.’”
Virtually nothing was said about the cartography before the first map popped out late May 21. A revision appeared late Thursday which Hernandez maintained was “absolutely influenced” by public input. GOP Rep. Tom Demmer of Dixon claimed there was an “intentional effort” to withhold details from taxpayers, adding, “It makes a mockery of this process.”
Republicans also criticized the surprise remap produced this week of state Supreme Court districts, the first revision in 60 years. The GOP claims it’s because Democrats fear losing their majority on the high court. The House approved that map Friday afternoon.