Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

COVID: Germany cases hit record daily high | News | DW | 04.11.2021

Germany registered a record number of COVID-19 cases on Thursday, breaking a record set in December 2020. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s disease control agency, reported 33,949 new infections in a single day.

The news came a day after Health Minister Jens Spahn declared that Germany was living in a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” and that the fourth wave of the virus was “in full force” across the country.

Source: COVID: Germany cases hit record daily high | News | DW | 04.11.2021

Majority of Germans in favor of mandatory COVID vaccine | Germany | News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 04.11.2021

Most Germans believe all adults should be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a new survey has shown. This represents the first time that more than half of Germans surveyed want mandatory coronavirus vaccines. Source: Majority of Germans in favor of mandatory COVID vaccine | Germany | News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 04.11.2021

Opinion | Republicans Are Going to Use Dog Whistles. Democrats Can’t Just Ignore Them. – The New York Times

Instead of ignoring race while Republicans beat us silly with it, Democrats must confront it and explain that powerful elites and special interests use race as a tool of division to distract hard-working people of all races while they get robbed blind. Then pivot back to shared interests. The pivot is critical: Without it, Democrats are simply talking past voters, while Republicans play on their racial fears.

This strategy is known as the “race-class narrative,” pioneered by Prof. Ian Haney López of Berkeley, the author Heather McGhee and the messaging expert Anat Shenker-Osorio (whom we have worked with). To be clear, Democrats should not seek to impose a racial-justice frame; to the contrary, research found a focus on racial justice to be less persuasive than the race-class narrative. The strategy we suggest here is a middle way: It is more powerful than a racial-justice-only frame but also more powerful than a strategy that ignores race altogether. Race is the elephant in the room, and Democrats must stop fooling themselves into thinking that they can prevent it from becoming an issue.

Second, Democrats must put aside the false choice between the tactics of persuasion and mobilization and embrace them both. By confronting race as a tool of division, and then pivoting to shared interests, Democrats can offer an optimistic, inspiring and even patriotic vision. This is the approach that rocketed Barack Obama to the White House. As an African-American, Mr. Obama was never allowed to ignore race. Forced to confront it, Mr. Obama offered Americans a vision that mobilized a broad, diverse coalition — while also persuading white voters. In 2008, Mr. Obama won the highest share of the white vote since Bill Clinton in 1996.

Race has infused American history and politics since our founding. It threads through most aspects of daily life, and stirs up complicated feelings that Americans of all backgrounds find difficult to discuss. But Virginia showed that race is impossible to ignore.

The simple fact is that Republicans have long used race to achieve victory, and Democrats are fooling themselves if they think they can avoid it. Democrats have to get real about race, and forge a way to win.

How Tyson Foods Got 60,500 Workers to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine Quickly – The New York Times

Tyson’s announcement that it would require vaccinations across its corporate offices, packing houses and poultry plants, many of which are situated in the South and Midwest where resistance to the vaccines is high, was arguably the boldest mandate in the corporate world.

“We made the decision to do the mandate, fully understanding that we were putting our business at risk,” Tyson’s chief executive, Donnie King, said in an interview last week. “This was very painful to do.”

But it was also bad for business when Tyson had to shut facilities because of virus outbreaks. Since announcing the policy, roughly 60,500 employees have received the vaccine, and more than 96 percent of its work force is vaccinated.

Tyson’s experience shows how vaccine mandates in the workplace can be persuasive. It comes as the Biden administration set a Jan. 4 deadline requiring vaccines — or weekly testing — at companies with 100 or more workers.

Aaron Rodgers’ Covid-19 case is a failure of leadership that won’t be forgotten | NFL | The Guardian

Well, now it’s looking likely that Rodgers misled us all along. On Wednesday, the news broke that Rodgers tested positive for Covid-19 and will miss Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs because he is, indeed, not immunized with an actual Covid vaccine.

But the wounds cut much deeper than Rodgers missing four quarters of an NFL game. First off, there’s the simple selfish act of not getting a vaccine that protects yourself, your friends and your teammates. How can five million deaths worldwide, including more than 750,000 in the United States, not be enough to spook Rodgers into getting vaccinated? Keeping a dirty little secret like not being vaccinated from the public has exposed Rodgers as just another egotistical athlete who doesn’t think the rules (or science) apply to him. Per NFL Media, Rodgers had the nerve to ask the league and the NFLPA to grant him vaccinated status this summer because he had undergone treatment from his personal homeopathic doctor to raise his antibody levels.

Source: Aaron Rodgers’ Covid-19 case is a failure of leadership that won’t be forgotten | NFL | The Guardian

Blunder forces Texas to drop charges against migrants in border crackdown | The Texas Tribune

The migrants were arrested for trespassing, but court documents failed to specify what property they allegedly trespassed upon. It’s the latest misstep in implementation of Greg Abbott’s border initiative, which has seen frequent violations of state law and disregard for due process rights. Source: Blunder forces Texas to drop charges against migrants in border crackdown | The Texas Tribune

Texas voting law faces lawsuit from Justice Department | The Texas Tribune

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Texas over the state’s new voting law, arguing that the some measures passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature earlier this year would “disenfranchise eligible Texas citizens who seek to exercise their right to vote.” Source: Texas voting law faces lawsuit from Justice Department | The Texas Tribune

HPV vaccine: How it protects against cervical cancer and who can get it – BBC News

Studies have shown that the vaccine protects against HPV infection for at least 10 years, although experts expect protection to last much longer.

The first major study suggests it is very effective, cutting cases of cervical cancer by nearly 90%.

Published in the Lancet, it looked at what happened after the vaccine was introduced for girls in England in 2008.

Source: HPV vaccine: How it protects against cervical cancer and who can get it – BBC News

WHO grants emergency approval to India’s COVID-19 vaccine – UPI.com

“This emergency use listing expands the availability of vaccines, the most effective medical tools we have to end the pandemic,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant-director general for Access to Medicines and Health Products, said in a statement. “But we must keep up the pressure to meet the needs of all populations, giving priority to the at-risk groups who are still waiting for their first dose, before we can start declaring victory.”

The vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech, was found to have a 78% efficacy rate, the WHO said, adding its two doses are to be administered four weeks apart.

Source: WHO grants emergency approval to India’s COVID-19 vaccine – UPI.com

WHO says Europe, Central Asia again at ‘epicenter’ of COVID-19 crisis – UPI.com

Nearly 2 million new cases and 24,000 additional deaths were reported in the regions in the past week.

Europe now has 78 million total cases, which is more than in Southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, western Pacific and Africa combined.

Kluge said older people account for three-quarters of their coronavirus deaths, and noted that hospitalizations more than doubled in just one week. He added that another half-million patients in Europe and Central Asia could die by February if nothing changes, and that insufficient vaccination and lifting pandemic restrictions are chief contributing factors.

Source: WHO says Europe, Central Asia again at ‘epicenter’ of COVID-19 crisis – UPI.com