Impossible Foods cuts prices for foodservice distributors, moving closer to parity with meat

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Impossible Foods is drawing closer to achieving price parity with the meats its products mimic with another round of wholesale price cuts.

CVS, Walgreens Covid vaccines in nursing homes: First round by Jan 25

  • CVS Health and Walgreens said they expect to complete the first round of Covid vaccinations in nursing homes and assisted living facilities by Jan. 25.
  • Vaccinating residents and staff at nursing homes and assisted living facilities is one of the first major steps in the nationwide rollout.
  • CVS said it has confronted a couple of challenges during the program, including lower-than-expected uptake in staff.
  • The vaccine rollout has been slower than federal officials anticipated, but CVS and Walgreens said their effort is ramping up quickly.

Source: CVS, Walgreens Covid vaccines in nursing homes: First round by Jan 25

Rioters storm Capitol after Trump urges action, halting declaration of Biden victory

Vice President Mike Pence was ushered out of the Senate as the U.S. Capitol Complex went into lockdown due to an external security threat, while Trump supporters rioted outside the building.

A member of the Senate told NBC News that Vice President Pence and Sen. Charles Grassley, the president pro-tem, have been taken to a secure location. The Senate doors are closed and locked, and senators have been told to stay away from the doors.

Lawmakers had just begun the procedural process of counting the Electoral College votes and formally declaring President-elect Joe Biden the winner.

Earlier, Trump, during a rally, encouraged thousands of his supporters to march to the Capitol to protest the confirmation of Biden’s victory.

The Cannon House Office Building and Madison Building were evacuated earlier in the day. Occupants that were evacuated from Cannon, on the House side of the Capitol, had been given clearance to re-enter the building.

Source: Rioters storm Capitol after Trump urges action, halting declaration of Biden victory

Daily COVID-19 cases in Japan top 6,000 for first time | The Japan Times

Japan’s daily coronavirus infections totaled 6,004 cases, topping 6,000 for the first time since the start of the outbreak last year, a Kyodo News tally based on official data showed Wednesday, just a day ahead of an expected state of emergency declaration for the Tokyo area.

The latest results, which far exceeded the previous record of 4,916 on Tuesday, came a day before Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is set to declare another state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures.

Source: Daily COVID-19 cases in Japan top 6,000 for first time | The Japan Times

Pandemic-Era Heroes: San Gabriel Valley’s Henry Miao donated thousands of masks to frontline workers

Pandemic-Era Heroes

  • Name: Henry Miao
  • Hometown: Walnut
  • Role: Owner of Henrial
  • Quote: “His distribution truly helped,” West Covina Mayor Letty Lopez-Viado said of Miao. “People couldn’t get one single mask. It bought time for others to make more masks. We were able to distribute to the community. Our city got masks when other cities didn’t have any.”

Latest installment in a series of stories about people who have made a big difference in the community during a time framed by the coronavirus pandemic


Henry Miao, who owns a clothing company called Henrial, donated 10,000 masks that were distributed to Emanate Health’s Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina in March.

A month later, he donated another 5,000 masks to the city of West Covina that were distributed to frontline healthcare workers in the community. Miao hasn’t stopped donating masks and essential equipment for those working on the front lines during the pandemic. His donations have gone to school districts, small businesses, nursing homes, workers at City Hall and people throughout the community.

Miao estimates that his company has donated more than a half million masks to West Covina and neighboring cities.

“His distribution truly helped,” West Covina Mayor Letty Lopez-Viado said. “People couldn’t get one single mask. It bought time for others to make more masks. We were able to distribute to the community. Our city got masks when other cities didn’t have any.”

He was recognized by the West Covina City Council in December for his efforts. Until the pandemic is over, Miao said he will continue to provide what he can to keep his community safe.

“When the coronavirus started, the people were very, very scared,” Miao said. “Now they seem more relaxed. They don’t know what happened. When I started the donations, no one can buy anything here from anywhere.”

Supplies were scarce at the beginning of the pandemic. Masks in particular were hard to find in March and April. Miao said he contacted then-Mayor Tony Wu and asked him if he needed masks. Wu accepted the offer, gratefully and happily.

Wu said Miao not only filled a need for masks and personal protective equipment, he provided child-sized masks for the community.

“I was amazed. Children sized masks are very difficult to get,” Wu said. “Adult size is easier. Children size, you need a special make. He provided 10,000, so we provided all this to the school districts. He’s a nice guy, very nice.”

Those donations turned into mask sales for his company. He estimates his company, which is based in Walnut, has sold between 60 million and 70 million masks during the pandemic.

Lopez-Viado said in times of need, for example, during a pandemic, people show their true colors. Instead of hoarding supplies or making it more difficult for people to have access to safety equipment, Miao made it easy.

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“He was very generous and to start the mask donation movement, I think that was the best thing,” Lopez-Viado said. “Any time there is a need and somebody is able to provide for that need that becomes the most important thing.”

Miao, 47, was born in China and moved to California eight years ago. For a time he worked in Europe and spent eight years, from 1989 to 1997, in Poland. He speaks five languages — English, Chinese, Polish, Russian and German — and has worked in the clothing business for nearly 30 years.

Lopez-Viado said because of Miao and his company, West Covina avoided a mask shortage when other cities across the country were struggling to provide members of their communities with basic equipment.

“For him to start the mask donation movement, that was the biggest thing because others followed,” Lopez-Viado said. “We didn’t have to have a shortage in our city.”

How Tibetan Monks Use Meditation to Raise Their Peripheral Body Temperature 16-17 Degrees | Open Culture

Benson’s research became a 20-year project of studying tummo and other advanced techniques while he also taught at the Harvard Medical School and served as president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston, where he believes the study of meditation can “uncover capacities that will help us to better treat stress-related illnesses.” The claims of monks who practice tummo have been substantiated in Benson’s work, showing, he says, “what advanced forms of meditation can do to help the mind control physical processes once thought to be uncontrollable.” Source: How Tibetan Monks Use Meditation to Raise Their Peripheral Body Temperature 16-17 Degrees | Open Culture

Russia vaccinates more than 1 million people against the coronavirus with ‘Sputnik V’ — Meduza – (just 134.4 million more to go)

More than one million people in Russia have been vaccinated against the coronavirus with “Sputnik V,” the vaccine’s developers announced on Twitter on Wednesday, January 6.

Source: Russia vaccinates more than 1 million people against the coronavirus with ‘Sputnik V’ — Meduza