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US in mourning over 500,000 Covid deaths, UK sees hope
Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden ordered flags lowered to half mast Monday after the United States crossed the "heartbreaking" milestone of 500,000 Covid-19 deaths, while Britain eyed lifting lockdowns in the latest sign of global gains against the pandemic. "I know what it's like," an emotional Biden said in a national television address, referring to his own long history of family tragedies. "I ask all Americans to remember, remember those we lost and those they left behind," Biden said. "I also ask us to act, to remain vigilant, to say socially distant, to mask up, to get vaccinated."...
AFP
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US nears 500,000 Covid deaths
Washington (AFP) - The United States was on the brink Sunday of the grim milestone of 500,000 Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, as the nation's top virus expert warned a semblance of normalcy may not return until the end of the year. Signs of hope were emerging in the rollout of vaccines and the dropping off of a massive winter spike in infections, but the heavy toll continues to mount in a nation that has reported the most fatalities and cases in the world. "It's terrible. It is historic. We haven't seen anything even close to this for well over a hundred years, since the...
AFP
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Homeschooling taking off in US as pandemic shutters schools
Washington (AFP) - Faced with long school closures because of the coronavirus pandemic, many US parents have taken to homeschooling to ensure their children's education continues despite the massive disruptions of the past year. "It's all me: I make the lesson plan, execute the lesson plan, then do it again the next week," said Catherine Strokes, whose daughter's school shut last year because of the pandemic. Homeschooling "exploded" when the virus caused school closures across the country in March 2020, according to the National Home School Association, based in Colorado. The number of child...
AFP
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Amazon hits back in court against accusations of negligence amid pandemic
New York (AFP) - Amazon hit back at New York Attorney General Letitia James Friday, filing a lawsuit against the official who accused the e-commerce giant of negligence in protecting its employees from Covid-19. In an effort to thwart legal action against the company, Amazon asked the federal court to block James from taking steps to enforce federal workplace safety regulations. Amazon said in the complaint the demands and threat of a lawsuit were unreasonable "especially when the underlying facts show that Amazon has done an exemplary job responding to an unprecedented global pandemic." But ...
AFP
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Los Angeles forced to suspend vaccine centers over dire shortage
Los Angeles (AFP) - Facing a severe vaccine shortage, Los Angeles moved to temporarily close five major inoculation centers including its giant Dodger Stadium site Thursday, even as California this week topped the nation's pandemic death toll. "We're vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here in Los Angeles, and I'm very concerned right now," said Mayor Eric Garcetti, slamming the vaccine supply as "uneven... unpredictable and too often inequitable." Los Angeles received only 16,000 doses of vaccine this week, Garcetti said, despite having administered just over 13,000 doses pe...
AFP
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San Francisco sues its own school district to reopen classrooms
Los Angeles (AFP) - San Francisco is suing its own school district to reopen classrooms that have been closed for nearly 11 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the city announced Wednesday. The school district and its independently elected leaders have failed to put in place a reopening plan, as demanded by state law "to offer classroom-based instruction whenever possible," according to the suit filed in city court by San Francisco prosecutor Dennis Herrera. "Not a single San Francisco public school student has set foot in their classroom in 327 days," Herrera told a press conference. "More t...
AFP
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Prepare for the next pandemic like a 'war,' says Bill Gates
Los Angeles (AFP) - Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has warned that the world must prepare for the next pandemic as it would for war, including the investment of tens of billions of dollars each year, in a letter released Wednesday. "We can't afford to be caught flat-footed again," wrote the Microsoft co-founder and his wife Melinda in an annual missive. "The threat of the next pandemic will always be hanging over our heads -- unless the world takes steps to prevent it." To avoid future destruction on the scale of that caused by Covid-19, "pandemic preparedness must be taken as seriously...
AFP
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Los Angeles 'vaccine chasers' wait hours in hope of leftover doses
Los Angeles (AFP) - Young "vaccine chasers" with sleeping bags, warm hoodies and folding chairs are lining up for hours outside Los Angeles inoculation centers in the hope of obtaining coronavirus jabs from leftover vials that would otherwise end up in the trash. Los Angeles county, where Covid-19 cases have surged this winter, is currently only vaccinating frontline medical workers and people aged 65 and over. Even among those groups, appointments are extremely difficult to obtain, with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots in limited supply. But a small number of patients fail to show up as sche...
AFP
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Fauci says Biden goal of 100 million doses in 100 days 'can be done'
New York (AFP) - Joe Biden's goal of seeing 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine injected within his first 100 days in office is "absolutely" achievable, top US scientist Anthony Fauci said Sunday, days before he is to become the new president's chief advisor on Covid-19. "The feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear, there’s no doubt about it," Fauci, the best-known face of the government's fight against the deadly virus, told NBC's "Meet the Press." "That can be done," said Fauci, an infectious disease specialist who also has advised President Donald Trump. While US health authorities...
AFP
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Coffin stored in break room as Los Angeles funeral home overwhelmed
Los Angeles (AFP) - A corpse in the break room. Embalmed bodies in the garage. Boyd Funeral Home, a small family business in Los Angeles, is so overflowing with Covid-19 victims it has begun turning away customers for the first time in its history. "The weekend before I turned down 16 families that I couldn't do services for," said owner Candy Boyd. "It's sad. But that's pretty much how it is now." In the past two weeks, as coronavirus has slammed Los Angeles, some 80 percent of the deceased passing through her doors died from Covid. One-in-10 residents of the nation's second largest city ha...
AFP
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