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For some, it may feel like the COVID-19 pandemic is already over. For others, it may feel like it will never end. We know from history that pandemics do have to end eventually, but when exactly will this one be over, and what does it take to finally get “back to normal?” The World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March of 2020. In his remarks on March 11, 2020, the WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable...

Manhattan is small, crowded, expensive, and stuffed with rats, cockroaches, and weirdos. There is rent control, which no one seems to mind, and then people exploiting loopholes in rent control, which no one minds except property owners, but since they are corporations everyone hates them even though nearly everyone in the city works for a corporation. If the economy in Manhattan plummets, the state will too, and that is why New York Governor and alleged creepy sexual predator Andrew Cuomo wants people to come back from the Hamptons and Florida and wherever and stop teleconferencing in. He urged private employers...

Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World in Orlando will be reinstating their indoor mask mandate on Friday, July 30, PEOPLE can confirm, requiring all guests and staff members to wear a facial covering while indoors. This rule will apply to all enclosed attractions, transportation systems (like shuttles, buses, monorails and the Disney Skyliner), stores, restaurants (when not actively eating or drinking) and more. It will also apply to everyone, whether they are vaccinated against COVID-19 or not.

​House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his Republican colleagues blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden on Thursday for putting the “country in crisis,” pointing to the influx of immigrants at the border, the conflicting guidelines over mask wearing, rising prices of consumer goods and the surging crime rates in American cities. “We have a country in crisis​,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said during a news conference with other Republican House members on Capitol Hill. [cut] Standing on the Capitol steps, McCarthy said you can see the Senate on the other side. “Not quite sure where the CDC got, but somewhere...

The top three finishers of each Olympic competition are awarded the gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively. While the name seems to imply it, Olympic gold medals are not 100% gold. At one time the prize given to the first-place finisher in each competition was solid gold, but now Olympic gold medals are made mostly from silver. For that matter, the second-place silver medals aren't always 100% silver either, though they do contain the same amount of silver as the gold medal. As for the third-place bronze medal, it is made of exactly what its name claims. The specific composition...

President Biden on Thursday called for state and local governments to make $100 payments to every newly vaccinated American as authorities race to stem the newest wave of Covid-19 cases. [snip] [snip] [snip]

Biden administration is not ruling out new lockdowns and school closures in the U.S., the experts at the CDC are in charge

The founder of Shake Shack, Danny Meyer, said his Union Square Hospitality Group will require indoor diners and drinkers at its restaurants to show that they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19. Employees will also have to get the vaccine, Meyer said, although he didn’t say whether they would be fired or be forced to wear masks. However, the policy will not be extended to Shake Shack, a hamburger fast-food restaurant that has a number of locations in the northeastern United States. The policy will be implemented at the Union Square Hospitality Group, which oversees Gramercy Tavern, Manhatta, and Union Square Cafe....

Galesburg, IL School District 205 Superintendent John Asplund sent this shocking email out to staff members announcing a new ID badge policy.School staff now have the option to change from the customary white ID badge to a yellow ID badge to indicate that they have received the covid vaccine. They are actually going to use Yellow Badges for identification.

Virginia Democrat gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe has a history of challenging elections with attacks he now claims are an abject assault on democracy.Virginia Democrat gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe has a history of challenging elections with attacks he now claims are an abject assault on democracy.While a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s challenges to the 2020 presidential contest, McAuliffe himself was at the forefront of allegations that the 2000 presidential election was stolen for George W. Bush. In a newly unearthed Feb. 4, 2001 interview on Meet the Press, the former Virginia governor was emphatic in challenging the legitimacy of...

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday he doubts there is a Plan B for immigration reform if attempts to include provisions through the budget process fail. "If we don't have reconciliation I'm not sure that there's a pathway forward," Menendez told immigration advocates on a call organized by the American Business Immigration Coalition. He added that any legislative avenue outside of reconciliation would need the support of at least 10 Republican senators, an unlikely prospect for an issue as politicized as immigration.

An 18-year-old woman was killed and a 19-year-old social media influencer was injured in a shooting at a movie theater outside Los Angeles, local ABC affiliate KABC reports. The shooting took place just before midnight Tuesday, July 27th, during a screening of The Forever Purge. The woman who was killed was identified as Rylee Goodrich, while the wounded man was Anthony Barajas, who goes by the username “itsanthonymichael,” and has almost one million followers on TikTok.

What the film ‘The Father’ tells us about Alzheimer’s disease The film “The Father” brings the issue of dementia to the forefront. This is a story about how a man, played by Anthony Hopkins, who refuses all assistance from his daughter, played by Olivia Colman, as he begins to suffer from the overwhelming and unnerving symptoms of dementia. As he tries to make sense of his ever-changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality. Watching the film gives viewers a close-up experience of what it’s like to be an...

Suddenly, the tide is beginning to shift toward employers and governments requiring people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. It’s based on the idea that something close to universal vaccination among Americans is the best and perhaps only path back to normal. It comes as about a third of Americans seem hard-set against vaccination and the vaccinated majority have begun expressing alarm that the unvaccinated are leaving the door open to new surges of infections, and possible return to new surges of sickness and disruption of things such as in-person school. A wave of major companies recently announced vaccination mandates for...

(President Trump's Operation Warp Speed Update) (Cases over 86K on this report, Higher than any single day of the Spring 2021 or Summer 2020 waves - Vaccinations higher up on today's daily report, for the second day - New Cases and Hospitalizations climbing quickly - Deaths only moderately) Administered: 344,071,595 (13,329,001 J&J) People Vaccinated, At Least One Dose: 189,945,907 Fully Vaccinated: 163,868,916

Mayor Muriel Bowser announced all Washington, D.C. residents over the age of two will be required to wear face masks indoors in D.C. regardless of vaccination status. The requirement will go into effect at 5 a.m. Saturday, according to Bowser's Thursday announcement. The city ended its mask requirement for vaccinated people in May, and all residents in June, after having one of the most strict mask mandates in the nation.

Israel will reportedly begin offering a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people ages 60 and older, weeks after it opened up the availability of a third jab to at-risk populations. The move, reported via Israeli TV and radio but not yet published on the Ministry of Health website, comes amid a rapid rise in the delta variant. Pfizer this week published data suggesting that a third dose of its vaccine would strongly boost protection against the delta variant. A preprint also suggested that efficacy dropped to about 84% about six months after the second dose. Boosters remain...

Magnetic field treatments gave a woman with hard-to-treat depression a new lease on life.Jenna Bierma thought she’d exhausted most options for managing her depression, which her sister also had before dying by suicide at age 24. "I've tried everything with depression. I’ve tried every medication, every treatment that's out there," Bierma said. Dr. Vidhya Selvaraj is a psychiatrist at Omaha Insomnia & Psychiatric Services who used magnetic fields to treat Bierma's depression. The process is known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. "They feel hopeless," Selvaraj said. "They lose interest in things they used to enjoy. they don't feel motivated....

Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it was now recommending masks for everyone – regardless of vaccine status – if they live in an area of high COVID transmission. The CDC changed another recommendation as well. Previously, the CDC said fully vaccinated people did not need to be tested if they were exposed to coronavirus unless they began exhibiting symptoms. Now, the guidance said vaccinated people should be tested 3-5 days after exposure even if they don’t show symptoms. “You should also wear a mask indoors in public for 14 days following exposure or until...

MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates are joining forces to give $40 million to projects focused on advancing gender equality in tech, higher education, minority communities and caregiving. Both Scott and French Gates have previously given to causes around gender equality.