Tag: pandemic

State Department urging Americans to leave India as COVID-19 cases surge

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The State Department is urging all Americans to leave India as the country grapples with a devastating wave of coronavirus cases that is pushing its health system to a breaking point.

In a level 4 travel alert, the highest level that can be issued by the State Department, the U.S. Embassy in India sounded the alarm over the availability of medical care and pressed Americans to take advantage of the daily flights that are available out of India back to the U.S.

“Access to all types of medical care is becoming severely limited in India due to the surge in Covid-19 cases. U.S. citizens who wish to depart India should take advantage of available commercial transportation options now. Direct flights between India and the United States are offered daily, with additional flight options available to U.S. citizens via transfers in Paris and Frankfurt,” the embassy said. Continue reading.

Michigan’s Covid Wards Are Filling Up With Younger Patients

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Even as vaccines roll out, more younger people in Michigan are being hospitalized than at any other point in the pandemic. And they’re coming in sicker.

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — At Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, in one of America’s worst coronavirus hot spots, entire units are still filled with Covid-19 patients. People weak with the virus still struggle to sit up in bed. And the phone still rings with pleas to transfer patients on the verge of death to units with higher-tech equipment.

But unlike previous surges, it now is younger and middle-aged adults — not their parents and grandparents — who are taking up many of Michigan’s hospital beds. A 37-year-old woman on a ventilator after giving birth. A 41-year-old father. A 55-year-old autoworker who has been sick for weeks.

“We’re getting to the point where we’re just so beat down,” said Alexandra Budnik, an intensive care nurse who works in a unit with lifesaving machines, or circuits, that are in short supply. “Every time we get a call or every time we hear that there’s another 40-year-old that we don’t have a circuit for — it’s just like, you know, we can’t save them all.” Continue reading.

Anti-vaxxers are wearing Yellow Stars of David to protest coronavirus vaccines: report

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Anti-vaccine protesters likening themselves to Jews during the holocaust were harshly criticized on Saturday.

Nazis required Jews to wear yellow Jewish stars and other holocaust badges to the lands they controlled during World War II.

Twitter user Chloe Adelstone posted a picture of a man in the United Kingdom misappropriating the symbol. She said, “I shouted at them and they gold me I was a Nazi for wearing a mask.”

How Covid Upended a Century of Patterns in U.S. Deaths

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The U.S. death rate in 2020 was the highest above normal since the early 1900s — even surpassing the calamity of the 1918 flu pandemic.

A surge in deaths from the Covid-19 pandemic created the largest gap between the actual and expected death rate in 2020 — what epidemiologists call “excess deaths,” or deaths above normal.

Aside from fatalities directly attributed to Covid-19, some excess deaths last year were most likely undercounts of the virus or misdiagnoses, or indirectly related to the pandemic otherwise. Preliminary federal data show that overdose deaths have also surged during the pandemic.

A New York Times analysis of U.S. death patterns for the past century shows how much 2020 deviated from the norm.

A shift in a downward trend

Since the 1918 pandemic, the country’s death rate has fallen steadily. But last year, the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted that trend, in spite of a century of improvements in medicine and public health. Continue reading.

CDC: Fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear masks outside

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Fully vaccinated people can venture outdoors without masks, according to updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued Tuesday.

The big picture: The guidelines come as more than nearly 29% of people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated and more than 42% have received at least one dose.

  • 15 governors so far have let their state orders requiring people to wear face coverings in public expire, according to U.S. News. Many cities and local jurisdictions have also begun to increase capacity at restaurants and businesses. Continue reading.

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson Criticizes ‘Big Push’ To Get Everyone Vaccinated

KEY FACTS

  • In an interview with conservative Wisconsin radio host Vicki McKenna, herself a vocal coronavirus vaccine skeptic, Johnson launched into a condemnation of “vaccine passports,” a credential that would allow businesses to verify vaccination status.
  • But Johnson also went a step further, declaring that he sees “no reason to be pushing vaccines on people,” arguing that their distribution should be “limited” to those most vulnerable to coronavirus, and asking, “If you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbor has one or not?”
  • Johnson said he is “getting highly suspicious” of the “big push to make sure everybody gets the vaccine,” not only stating it’s “not a fully approved vaccine” but also arguing that the fact it is 95% effective means only a limited number of people need to be vaccinated. Continue reading.

US prepares for vaccine tipping point

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The U.S. has surpassed President Biden‘s goal of administering 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses four months into its massive vaccination campaign, but experts say that was the easy part.

For months, supply has been so limited that states were restricting access to specific priority groups and many people who wanted a shot couldn’t get one. But now every person over the age of 16 is eligible, and more than half the country’s adult population has received at least one dose.

The nation is fast approaching the tipping point of vaccinations, where supply will outstrip demand. State and federal officials are going to need to find the best message and best method to get shots to the people who are either hesitant, unable or just indifferent. Continue reading.

100 Days, 200 Million Shots in Arms

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DFL Party celebrates President Biden’s ongoing success in the battle against 

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – This week, specifically Thursday, April 29th, will mark President Joe Biden’s 100th day in office. To commemorate this, the DFL Party will spend the week highlighting various accomplishments of the start of Biden’s presidency. Today, the party is highlighting Biden’s successful efforts at battling COVID-19.

When Joe Biden took office, he announced the ambitious goal of delivering 100 vaccine million shots in the arms of the American people by the 100th day of his presidency. Biden met that goal after just 58 days in office, so he increased it to 200 million. 

Last week, Biden exceeded that goal as well. As things stand, more than 200 million vaccine doses have been distributed across the U.S. and over half of all eligible Minnesotans and Americans overall have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Continue reading “100 Days, 200 Million Shots in Arms”

Vaccination slowdown could threaten recovery

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The slowdown in the daily pace of COVID-19 vaccinations has sparked concerns from health experts that it could slow the U.S. recovery from the pandemic.

As the Biden administration touted the accomplishment of administering 200 million vaccine doses, doubling the president’s goal of 100 million vaccines administered in his first 100 days in office, the country has seen a drop in the seven-day average of daily vaccinations following weeks of steady upticks.

The U.S. hit a peak in early April of getting 4.63 million COVID-19 vaccines into arms in a single day before Tuesday saw a total of 1.81 million doses administered, according to Our World in Data. Continue reading.

Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: April 23, 2021


This week, the entire world watched as Minnesota awaited the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, while mourning the death of Daunte Wright at the hands of law enforcement.

While the trial of Derek Chauvin ended in justice for George Floyd in the courtroom, we know that full justice won’t be achieved until all Minnesotans feel safe and the relationship between law enforcement and our communities heals.

The Governor will continue to work to pass police reform legislation in our state.

Continue reading “Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: April 23, 2021”