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Criticism of a travel ban blocking Novak Djokovic from the upcoming Miami Open led to a return volley from the Joe Biden administration. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre fielded the serve from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has urged the Biden White House to rescind the prohibition of the top-ranked tennis player in the world from the South Florida tennis tourney. Djokovic has not been vaccinated against COVID-19, and DeSantis’ pleas to let the Serbian superstar into Florida for the tennis tourney were batted away unceremoniously by Jean-Pierre, as Fox News reports. “So, on a question regarding the vaccination requirement, I...

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate on large private businesses through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Thursday, but upheld a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mandate. The decision on the OSHA mandate was 6-3; the decision on the CMS mandate was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the court’s three Democratic appointees in upholding it. As Breitbart News reported last week, the Court had appeared skeptical of the mandates during oral arguments, especially the OSHA mandate, as Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar struggled to identify the statutory...

Distrust, misinformation and delays because of the holidays and bad weather have combined to produce what authorities say are alarmingly low COVID-19 vaccination rates in U.S. children ages 5 to 11. As of Tuesday, just over 17% were fully vaccinated, more than two months after shots became available to the age group. While Vermont is at 48%, California is just shy of 19% and Mississippi is at only 5%. The low rates are “very disturbing,” said Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director for the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “It’s just amazing.” Parents who hesitate...

The number of Americans hospitalized with Covid-19 has surpassed last winter’s peak, underscoring the severity of the threat the virus continues to pose as the extremely contagious Omicron variant tears through the United States. As of Sunday, 142,388 patients with the virus were hospitalized nationwide, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, surpassing the peak of 142,315 reported on Jan. 14 of last year. The seven-day average of daily hospitalizations was 132,086, an increase of 83 percent from two weeks ago. The Omicron wave has overwhelmed hospitals and depleted staff who were already worn out...

Numbers showing the majority of Alberta's COVID-19 hospital admissions are in vaccinated individuals don't tell the entire story, regardless of what some conspiracy theorists believe. Albertans with at least one shot took over more hospital beds than those without this week. But the raw numbers are incomplete, and a dive into the data shows being vaccinated may be more important now than ever before. As of Thursday, 217 unvaccinated Albertans were in hospital with COVID-19, compared to 282 patients with at least one shot. But almost 90 per cent of the province has one dose, which means the "rate per...

This was CNN cognitive dissonance on steroids -- with a booster shot of hypocrisy. Picture this. In its 7 am hour, New Day brought on CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner who called the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration a potential "superspreader" event that is "completely unnecessary" and "unwise." Reiner called omicron "the most contagious pathogen that any of us have ever seen," estimating the true number of daily infections at one million.But the very next hour of New Day contained a long, hyper-excited, promo for . . . CNN's Times Square New Year's Eve special! CNN entertainment correspondent...

As US regional health authorities reacted with alarm to a jump in child Covid infections that caused some school districts to announce returns to remote learning, a leading public health official questioned the need for schools to close, saying: “We know how to keep schools open, we know how to keep them safe.” Over the past three weeks, as Omicron-related cases soared in New York City and elsewhere, the number of children hospitalised in New York with Covid-19 quadrupled, the state health department said. The California state epidemiologist Dr Erica Pan wrote on Twitter: “Unfortunately New York is seeing an...

The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) warned Tuesday there is too much at stake to celebrate Christmas this year, cautioning it is better to either cancel or postpone the annual festivities than risk the death of a loved one. W.H.O. director-general and Ethiopian biologist Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva the “fastest way” to “get back to normal” is for people to cancel or delay Christmas events, the Daily Mail reports. Dr Ghebreyesu continued to say, “an event cancelled is better than a life cancelled. It’s better to cancel now and celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve...

The European office of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that Europe could hit over 2 million total COVID-19 deaths by March. The WHO said in a statement that the pandemic's cumulative death toll in the European region was projected to reach over 2.2 million by next spring, a number which would include 700,000 more deaths in the coming months. It added that the 53-country region had already surpassed 1.5 million deaths, and noted that COVID-19 is currently the leading cause of death in Europe and central Asia.

President Biden on Monday urged state and local officials to reconsider lifting their coronavirus restrictions and to reinstate mask mandates that have lapsed as the U.S. faces an increase in cases. "I'm reiterating my call for every governor, mayor and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate," Biden said at an event intended to highlight the rapid increase in vaccine eligibility. "Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down. Asked later if some states should pause reopening efforts, Biden said "yes."

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said the US reaching 200,000 coronavirus deaths is “very sobering, and in some respects, stunning,” while adding that Americans should trust medical experts despite at times conflicting signals from the highest levels of government. “The idea of 200,000 deaths is really very sobering, and in some respects, stunning,” the nation’s top infectious doctor told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta during the Citizen by CNN conference shortly before the US reached the grim milestone late Tuesday morning. “We do have within our capability — even before we get a vaccine, which we will get reasonably soon — we...