My home state of Nevada is not doing great in the COVID vaccination department. From Jennifer Solis at the Nevada Current:
Nevada has continued to report a slow rise in COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks as the positivity rate — or percentage of tests that came back positive — increased to 4.0%, from 3.9%.
The Department of Health and Human Services reported 447 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday — the highest daily number of cases in over a month.
Confirmed and suspected COVID-19 hospitalization cases rose to 281 on Wednesday, after falling as low as 178 on June 12.
Vaccination rates for Clark County are at about 42% — lower than the national average of 45% and significantly lower than Washoe County’s 54% vaccination rate.
By comparison, Los Angeles County in California, with a population five times as large as Clark County, boasts a 7-day average positivity rate of 0.8% and reported only 260 new cases and 230 hospitalizations on Wednesday. Los Angeles County also has a significantly higher vaccination rate of 58%, according to California data.
The state, meanwhile, is offering financial motivation to encourage people to get vaccinated. Nevada will distribute $5 million in cash prizes to residents who have been vaccinated at least once.
The Delta variant of the coronavirus now makes up 25% of all new cases in the U.S. Via NBC News:
The number of Covid-19 cases in the United States rose 10 percent this week as the highly contagious delta variant gained further ground, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
The country’s lagging vaccination rate coupled with the “hyper-transmissible delta variant” could account for the increase, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing.
The variant, which was first detected in India, now accounts for a quarter of all new cases, and has been detected in all 50 states. Its rapid spread is sure to make it the dominant U.S. strain within the coming weeks, she said.
Read the full report here. According to the CDC, 57.4 percent of U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated as of today.
The Delta variant is now responsible for about one in every four coronavirus infections in the U.S., according to CDC estimates. Here’s what scientists know (and what you should, too). https://t.co/CyfJUN507cpic.twitter.com/5j68aEqOZ9
Sydney will enter a hard two-week lockdown on Saturday night local time as authorities try to contain a fast-spreading outbreak of the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant in Australia’s largest city, the state leader said.
More than a million people in downtown Sydney and the city’s eastern suburbs were already under lockdown due to the outbreak, but health authorities said they needed to expand that after more Covid-19 cases were recorded, with exposure sites increasing beyond the initial areas of concern.
The curbs on Sydney, home to more than 5 million people, are the latest in a streak of short but hard lockdowns that have been imposed in Australia’s cities in recent months to fight small outbreaks of the coronavirus.
There were 38 cases of different COVID-19 variants reported by late Sunday, the first time in months that so many different regions in Australia had reported new infections on the same day. The government has received criticism for a slow rollout of COVID vaccinations. According to government statistics, only about 1.4 million full vaccinations have been administered in the country of 25 million people.
Sydney, Australia's largest city, entered a hard two-week Covid-19 lockdown on Saturday as authorities struggle to control a fast-spreading outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant. https://t.co/067104ESaQ
Millions of Sydney residents wake to the first full day of a two-week coronavirus lockdown, as Australia tries to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant https://t.co/z4QbStrrMkpic.twitter.com/SOBwkw2cRX
Some news items you might have missed: • TBT: As I get to spend more afternoons at the cement pond these days, I do miss my bestie Bruno (above) who always made the sunshine that much brighter. Not sad – happy he happened 🙂 • The Hill: A new study shows 52% percent of LGBTQ adults say that someone had threatened them with violence since they were age 18. Sixty-seven percent of LBQ cisgender women, 75 percent of GBQ cis men and 70 percent of transgender people said they had been bullied often or sometimes before age 18. • Pink News: The crowd erupted into cheers at Wednesday evening’s football match between Hungary and Germany when a supporter ran out onto the pitch with a Pride flag as the Hungarian national anthem played. https://www.instagram.com/p/CQgWxFmL0DZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link • USA Today: Missouri is becoming a cautionary COVID tale for the rest of the country: It is seeing an alarming rise in cases because of a combination of the fast-spreading delta variant and stubborn resistance among many people to getting vaccinated. Intensive care beds are filling up with surprisingly young, unvaccinated patients. • CNN: In the new book, Frankly We Did Win This Election, Michael Bender of the Wall Street Journal reports that Donald Trump would highlight videos that showed law enforcement getting physical with protesters and say, “That’s how you’re supposed to handle these people. Crack their skulls!” Trump also told his team that he wanted the military to go in and “beat the f–k out” of the civil rights protesters. • ABC News: President Biden and a bipartisan group of senators on Thursday announced they had reached a framework $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal after a White House meeting. Biden emphasized that it all comes “without raising a cent from earners below $400,000.” https://www.instagram.com/p/CQhQirxL22S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The results of a new study indicates some disconcerting long-term effects of COVID-19 on the brain. From the Washington Post:
The researchers from the U.K. Biobank scrutinized before-and-after brain scans from 782 people — half who had developed covid-19 and half who hadn’t. Those who had developed the illness experienced noteworthy tissue loss after infection in areas of the brain associated with the sense of taste and smell, the researchers said.
“It’s very concerning because it does suggest that the virus could be having a direct effect on certain portions of the brain,” said former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb.
“I think what it suggests is that the balance of the information that we’re accruing does indicate that covid is a disease that could create persistent symptoms,” he said. “So, this isn’t a benign disease. This is something you want to avoid. And the bottom line is, we have the tools to avoid it through vaccination.”
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as White House officials debated whether to bring infected Americans home for care, President Donald Trump suggested his own plan for where to send them, eager to suppress the numbers on U.S. soil.
“Don’t we have an island that we own?” the president reportedly asked those assembled in the Situation Room in February 2020, before the U.S. outbreak would explode. “What about Guantánamo?”
“We import goods,” Trump specified, lecturing his staff. “We are not going to import a virus.”
Aides were stunned, and when Trump brought it up a second time, they quickly scuttled the idea, worried about a backlash over quarantining American tourists on the same Caribbean base where the United States holds terrorism suspects.
The book is based on interviews with over 180 people including White House senior staff members and government health officials.
“Testing is killing me!” Trump reportedly exclaimed. “I’m going to lose the election because of testing! What idiot had the federal government do testing?”
According to Johns Hopkins University more than 600,000 people have died in the U.S. from the coronavirus. That’s nearly 1 out of every 550 Americans. From MSNBC:
It was exactly one year ago today when then-Vice President Mike Pence, in his capacity as the head of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on the federal response to the pandemic. The message was simple: Thanks to Donald Trump, Pence argued, “we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.”
The Indiana Republican proceeded to take a tragic-in-hindsight victory lap, dismissing “grim predictions of a second wave,” while insisting that the White House’s approach was “a success.” Pence even boasted at the time that “deaths are down to fewer than 750 a day.”
It came on the heels of Donald Trump assuring the public that he expected the overall U.S. death toll from the pandemic to “probably” be around 60,000.
In mid-April 2020, Trump’s benchmark for success was an overall domestic death toll below 240,000.
Breaking News: More than 600,000 people in the U.S. are known to have died of Covid-19, a once-unthinkable number, 10 times the death toll that Donald Trump once predicted as president. https://t.co/PPwJMig7bfpic.twitter.com/fXdGZYPy32
Today we passed a grim milestone: 600,000 lives lost from COVID-19. My heart goes out to all those who’ve lost a loved one. I know that black hole that seems to consume you, but a time will come when their memory brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eyes.
Over 600,000 people in the U.S. have died due to COVID-19. We pray for their loved ones, and we honor their memory. This incredible loss is felt deeply in our communities and across our country.
With 70 percent of adults in New York having received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Tuesday that effective immediately the state was ready to “return to life as we know it.” Nearly all restrictions on businesses and social gatherings have been eliminated, he announced at a news conference.
The changes, which will take effect immediately, mark yet another milestone in the economic recovery of a state that was once an epicenter of the pandemic, and are expected to bring back the type of scenes familiar to most New Yorkers in pre-pandemic times.
With the order, the state, in most cases, will end capacity limits and no longer require social distancing, disinfection protocols and health screenings, instead making it optional for businesses to impose such health precautions on their premises.
Today New York State reached our goal of 70% adult vaccination. That means we can return to life as we know it. Effective immediately, state-mandated COVID restrictions are lifted across commercial and social settings. pic.twitter.com/sMdqkSJ6h5
States with higher vaccination rates now have markedly fewer coronavirus cases, as infections are dropping in places where most residents have been immunized and are rising in many places people have not, a Washington Post analysis has found.
States with lower vaccination also have significantly higher hospitalization rates, The Post found. Poorly vaccinated communities have not been reporting catastrophic conditions. Instead, they are usually seeing new infections holding steady or increasing without overwhelming local hospitals.
As recently as 10 days ago, vaccination rates did not predict a difference in coronavirus cases, but immunization rates have diverged, and case counts in the highly vaccinated states are dropping quickly.
Coronavirus infections are dropping where people are vaccinated, rising where they are not, Post analysis finds https://t.co/670wqxqoxh
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 14, 2021
States are getting more and more creative in coming up with new incentives for folks to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The Washington state Liquor and Cannabis Board has its new promotion, “Joints for Jabs,” which will allow state-licensed cannabis retailers to give one free pre-rolled joint to customers 21 or older when they receive either a first or second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. ABC News reports the promotion will run through July 12.
Talk about going gangsta…
The board had previously authorized businesses with liquor licenses to offer a free wine, beer or cocktail to customers who could prove they’d been vaccinated through June 30.
Adults can claim a complimentary joint of marijuana in Washington state this week when they receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot. https://t.co/WsvrHIBNu7
But Washington isn’t the only state offering ‘puffs for pokes.’
An Arizona cannabis dispensary recently announced a similar program where you could get your free shot and receive a free pre-rolled joint and an edible cannabis gummy. The dispensary calls the program “Snax for Vaxx.”
Many states and businesses began incentivizing vaccinations when the demand began to slow in April.
That was when Krispy Kreme started giving out free donuts to those who got their shot.
Los Angeles County offered free Lakers season tickets, and the Hustler Club in Las Vegas ‘put some skin in the game’ by serving up free lap dances and bottle service.
West Virginia’s governor announced young folks between the ages of 16 to 35 would receive a $100 savings bond if they got vaccinated.
Ohio really upped the stakes when Gov. Mike DeWine announced a new lottery giving away $1 million each week for five weeks for those who received at least one dose of COVID vaccine. For winners under 18, the prize is a four year scholarship to an Ohio public university.
Jonathan Carlyle, an Amazon delivery driver from Toledo, is the second person to win $1 million in Ohio’s vaccine lottery. https://t.co/vGuoC1BYjO
Colorado is doing a similar program called “Colorado Comeback Cash” where one vaccinated resident will be chosen to win $1 million each week for five weeks.
Between May 25 and July 3, Maryland is giving away $2 million in daily $40,000 drawings.
In May, New York State launched the “Vax & Scratch” lottery program which offered $20 scratch-off lottery tickets with a chance to win a $5 million prize if they received a COVID vaccination.
Lottery officials in Kentucky gave away 225,000 free lottery tickets in May to residents who stepped up to get vaccinated.
On June 28 Oregon will give away $1 million to one lucky vaccinated winner plus one person from each of the state’s 36 counties will win $10,000.
If you get a vaccine you could soon be eligible for • free flights on United Airlines • free doughnuts at Krispy Kreme • a $1 million lottery prize in Ohio • $1.5 million in California • a fishing license in Maine • and hunting rifles in West Virginia
California is giving 10 lucky winners $1.5 million each on June 15, plus 30 more Californians could score $50,000 prizes.
Previously mentioned Washington state also has a $2 million lottery going on throughout June.
And don’t worry if you got your shot early. In most states, vaccinated residents are being entered automatically from states’ immunization databases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 64% of adults in the U.S. have received at least one dose of an approved vaccine. President Biden set a goal in early May to reach 70% by July 4.
Joints for Jabs, shots for shots, donuts for vaccine cards … Meet people where they're at, get ppl what they want and need, minimize the moralizing and applaud ppl getting protection from this very deadly and often debilitating COVID virus. https://t.co/9AHIWLwUPX
My home state of Nevada is not doing great in the COVID vaccination department. From Jennifer Solis at the Nevada Current: 
