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Andrew Lloyd Webber Says CINDERELLA Will Not Open

Andrew Lloyd Webber announced today his new musical 'Cinderella' will not open due to complications with COVID-19

Andrew Lloyd Webber announced today his new musical 'Cinderella' will not open due to complications with COVID-19

Andrew Lloyd Webber announced today that his latest stage musical, Cinderella, will not open due to a cast member testing positive for COVID-19.

This past weekend, the production was forced to cancel both performances set to take place on July 17, 2021, due to “Covid related precautionary measures.”

In his statement released today, Andrew Lloyd Webber shared, “Today, on this ‘Freedom Day’, I have been forced to take the heart-breaking decision not to open my Cinderella.”

After mentioning rigorous testing utilized with the cast and crew, he (rather tastelessly) mentions that on Saturday “a member of our cast who has a cameo role” tested positive. Imagine how that makes that cast member feel – “It’s your fault and you don’t even have a big part!”

The statement continued, “My sadness for our cast and crew, our loyal audience and the industry I have been fighting for is impossible to put into words.”

On the show’s future, a spokesperson to BroadwayWorld: “It’s hard to see a route forward under the current rules, but we will do everything we can to come back.”

Thinking best thoughts for the entire cast, crew, and creative team.

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Provincetown Issues Mask Advisory After Surge In COVID Cases

(image via Provincetown Bears)

After seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases among vaccinated and unvaccinated people, officials in the gay summer vacation mecca Provincetown have issued a new mask-wearing advisory.

From the Boston Globe:

The town is advising people to wear masks indoors, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status, “where social distancing cannot be achieved.” The advisory also urges businesses to require customers show proof of vaccination when social distancing is not possible.

As of July 16, the town has reported 132 confirmed positive cases to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the advisory said. Of those cases, 89 are Massachusetts residents, 39 of whom live in Barnstable County.

The advisory was approved Monday morning during an emergency meeting with the town’s select board and board of health that was convened to discuss the rise in cases.

Many of the 132 cases were linked to events surrounding the 4th of July. Now that Bear Week just concluded, we might see another spike in the next 7-12 days.

Town Manager Alex Morse told the Globe that the town has among the highest vaccination rates in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country. As of Monday, 83.4 percent of adults in the state have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Philly Weatherman Shares Delta Variant Diagnosis Despite Vaccination

Philadelphia meterologist Adam Joseph
Philadelphia meterologist Adam Joseph
Philadelphia meteorologist Adam Joseph

Philadelphia meteorologist Adam Joseph has shared with his social media followers that after a year of doing “everything right” in regard to COVID-19 protocols, including getting himself and his husband vaccinated, several people in his household have become infected with the Delta variant after they allowed a family member to visit even though they weren’t vaccinated.

Now, Joseph, his husband, and two children (who aren’t eligible to be vaccinated), have tested positive for COVID and are quarantining at home.

While the children are on the road to recovery, Adam took to social media to encourage people to wear masks if they’re not vaccinated, stay away from children if you are unvaccinated (as children under twelve are not able to be vaccinated yet) and most of all, expressed the importance of vaccinations in general.

For information about the coronavirus or how to get vaccinated, click over to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

In related news, my friends Joe and Jim, located in Nashville, Tennessee, also shared this weekend that they have become ‘breakthough cases’ as well.

 

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U.S. Records Highest Number Of New COVID Cases In The World (Again)

New cases of COVID-19 spiked on July 17, 2021, as the Delta variant continues to spread in the U.S.
(screen capture via Johns Hopkins University)

Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 data tracking shows the United States had a massive spike of 79,310 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday.

On July 4, the number of new cases being reported had dropped to 3,491.

From The Daily Beast:

The number is the highest in the world, exceeding recorded totals from Indonesia (54,000), the United Kingdom (51,949), and Brazil (45,591), and doubling that of India (38,079).

The spiking case number matches the level hit in October 2020, a record at the time, though it would not remain so for long.

Despite the effectiveness of multiple vaccines against the virus, vaccine hesitancy is fueling “a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

The vast majority of all patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, according to the CDC.

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Arkansas Leads Nation In New COVID Cases As Vaccinations Decline

Y’all…please get vaccinated. I’m just saying.

From USA Today:

Cases of COVID-19 have doubled in the U.S. in the past two weeks, and Arkansas is becoming a case study in how low vaccination rates can fuel the spread of the virus.

Arkansas continues to be the nation’s top state for new cases per capita, and only 35% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus appears to be largely sparing vaccinated people from the most severe illness.

“Of all of our critically ill COVID positive patients at Baptist Health facilities, none have been fully vaccinated,” said Stephanie Whitaker, chief nursing executive for Baptist Health, a major healthcare provider in the state.

The state’s Department of Health said there are 240 COVID-19 patients in the state’s ICUs and 118 on ventilators. Only 4% of the state’s intensive care unit beds are available.

Cases of COVID-19 rose in all 50 states this week.

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Las Vegas: Face Masks Recommended For All In Public Spaces

Las Vegas health officials have recommended everyone (vaccinated or not) go back to wearing face masks when indoors.

Las Vegas health officials have recommended everyone (vaccinated or not) go back to wearing face masks when indoors.

And, we’re back to wearing face masks here in my town of Las Vegas, Nevada, thanks to rising cases and slowing vaccination rates.

From the Review-Journal:

The Southern Nevada Health District on Friday recommended that everyone — including those vaccinated against COVID-19 —again wear face masks in crowded indoor public settings such as grocery stores, malls and casinos.

The health district’s recommendation comes as COVID-19 test positivity rates, case counts and hospitalizations continue to increase in Southern Nevada, which has been designated as a “sustained hotspot” for the disease by the federal government.

In mid-May, Gov. Steve Sisolak dropped the mask mandate for those who were vaccinated, following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The mask requirement remained for unvaccinated people in most public indoor settings, but was largely unenforced and often ignored.

It’s worth noting the change is only a ‘recommendation’ at this time and not a mandate.

Los Angeles County reinstated its mask mandate beginning last night.

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Anti-Vax ER Nurse Dies Of COVID-19

A Louisiana nurse who railed against vaccinations for the coronavirus died on Saturday from COVID-19 complications

A Louisiana nurse who railed against vaccinations for the coronavirus died on Saturday from COVID-19 complications
A Louisiana nurse who had railed against vaccinations on her social media has reportedly died from COVID-19 complications.

From The Acadiana Advocate:

Olivia Guidry, a registered nurse in the emergency department, died Saturday after battling the virus for days in the hospital’s intensive care unit. Friends, who had been pleading for prayers for the young woman, expressed grief as the news of her death spread Saturday afternoon.

Guidry was diagnosed with COVID in early July, according to a social media post from her sister, Brittany Smith. She spiked a high fever and had a seizure, Smith wrote. She was placed in a medically induced coma on Thursday.

Louisiana has a vaccination rate of about 36%, below the national vaccination rate of nearly 50%.

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Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 4 Million Worldwide

The coronavirus death toll has now surpassed 4 million
(graphic via NY Times)

The coronavirus death toll has now surpassed over 4 million world wide even as the more contagious Delta variant continues to spread.

From the New York Times:

The world’s known coronavirus death toll passed four million on Thursday, a loss roughly equivalent to the population of Los Angeles, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

It took nine months for the virus to claim one million lives, and the pace has quickened since then. The second million were lost in three and a half months, the third in three months, and the fourth in about two and a half months. The number of daily reported deaths has declined recently.

Those are officially reported figures, which are widely believed to undercount pandemic-related deaths.

Read the full report here.

As the Delta variant continues to spread, vaccinations in the U.S. are seeing a clear decline. Health officials say 99% of the recent coronavirus death toll involves unvaccinated people.

More from CBS News:

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QAnon Rep Goes Back To Nazi-Era Terms Regarding COVID

QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)

QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)
QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)

From the Washington Post:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday used a Nazi-era comparison in opposing the Biden administration’s push to encourage all Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, calling the individuals leading those efforts “medical brown shirts.”

Members of the paramilitary organization that helped Hitler and the Nazi Party rise to power were known as “brownshirts.”

“Biden pushing a vaccine that is NOT FDA approved shows covid is a political tool used to control people,” Greene tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can’t force people to be part of the human experiment.”


For the record: all three coronavirus vaccines being administered in the U.S. were approved under the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization last winter.

It was just weeks ago that Greene visited the Holocaust Museum and apologized for earlier remarks comparing face-mask policies to the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with Star of David badges.

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Fauci: 99% Of Recent COVID Deaths Involved Unvaccinated People

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci (screen capture)

During an interview on NBC’s Meet The Press, Dr. Anthony Fauci said about 99.2% of recent COVID-19 deaths in the United States involved unvaccinated people.

“It’s really sad and tragic that most all of these are avoidable and preventable,” he added.

Fauci shared that it is frustrating when “you have a formidable enemy” in the coronavirus and “yet we do have a countermeasure that’s highly, highly effective. And that’s the reason why it’s all the more sad and all the more tragic why it isn’t being completely implemented in this country.”

The United States has registered over 605,000 deaths in the pandemic, the highest national toll in the world.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 157 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, representing 47.4% of the country’s total population. But vaccination rates remain low in many parts of the South and Midwest.

(source)