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World

Canada to require COVID-19 vaccine for plane, train, ship travelers

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The Canadian government announced Friday that commercial airline travelers will soon need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The sweeping mandate, which also includes passengers on cruise ships and interprovincial trains, will go into effect “[a]s soon as possible in the fall and no later than the end of October,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement.

Alghabra added that those working in “the federally regulated air, rail, and marine transportation sectors” would face the same requirement, while other federal government employees would need to be vaccinated as early as the end of September.

The government also said it “expects” so-called Crown corporations — like the Bank of Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Canada Post — to mandate vaccinations for their employees and promised to “work with these employers to ensure this result.”

Canada’s federal government is the country’s largest employer, with more than 1.2 million workers.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said those who work in the federally run travel industries will also be required to get the COVID jab.
Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images

“After months and months of deploying these vaccines literally into millions of Canadian arms, we see how effective they are. We also see what other workplaces and other public service agencies around the world have done,” Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters. “It is very much a continuation of our government’s efforts to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to protect the health and safety of Canadians.”

Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with more than 81 percent of its population aged 12 and up having received at least one dose and 71.5 percent considered fully vaccinated, according to data from CTV News.

However, despite the success of Canada’s vaccine drive, Alghabra said there was room for improvement.

“We need to reach as many Canadians as we possibly can,” the minister said. Cases are starting to creep up again in what Canada’s top health official dubbed a fourth wave this week.

Canada opened its border to fully vaccinated Americans Monday, 17 months after the frontier was shut to non-essential travel in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and planned to reopen to visitors from around the world Sept. 7

By contrast, the Biden administration has said it will keep its side of the US-Canada border closed until at least Aug. 21.

Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, called the vaccine mandate “a welcome step forward in the evolving measures to protect the health and safety of airline employees, customers and all Canadians.”

More than 81 percent of Canadians 12 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.
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The Ottawa government’s announcement was made against the backdrop of election politics. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to call a snap election this weekend to be held Sept. 20 in an effort to strengthen his minority Liberal government.

A spokesperson for Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole told CTV News late Friday that while the party encourages every Canadian who is able to get vaccinated to do so they “support Canadians’ right to determine their own health choices.”

With Post wires

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Health

Neighbors’ Deaths From Covid-19 Have an Arkansas Town Reassessing Vaccines

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GREENWOOD, Arkansas—Michael Lejong fully intended to get vaccinated for Covid-19, his wife said, standing in the pavilion that the prominent architect designed for his hometown.

But he was relatively young, very healthy and not overly concerned about the virus. He wanted to get his shots separately from his wife, so he could care for her if she had adverse side effects. She got hers immediately in April and he put his off.

In late June, he began feeling sick and tested positive for Covid-19. A week of mild symptoms turned into extreme fatigue. On July 3, he was admitted to a nearby hospital with low oxygen levels; on the 15th, doctors put him on a ventilator. He died four days later.

The death of the 49-year-old Greenwood native, father of two, community leader, mountain biker and outdoorsman, has rattled this western Arkansas town, where it seems like nearly everyone knew Mr. Lejong. It comes amid a spate of other recent deaths and skyrocketing hospitalizations in a region where many are deeply skeptical of the Covid-19 vaccines, and doctors and political leaders are trying everything to persuade a reluctant populace to take them.

“It’s personal now because he knew so many people,” said his widow, Katie Lejong. “Before, it was happening somewhere else.”

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Health

Family turns funeral of unvaccinated Florida man into COVID awareness event

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The family of a Florida man who died of COVID-19 last month is turning his funeral into a pandemic vaccine and testing event to raise awareness of the deadly virus.

Marquis Davis, 28, died July 26 without fulfilling his last wish of getting a vaccine, according to a report. The business owner and father tested positive for COVID in late July and while he began to quarantine at home, he grew progressively worse, his wife told ABC News.

“He was losing his breath just by getting up. I was like, this is not normal, you need extra help,” said Charnese Davis, who took her husband to a local hospital where he was put on a ventilator.

Although he had been hesitant about the COVID vaccine, he told his wife that after he recuperated, he planned to get vaccinated, but it was too late, she said.

Charnese Davis said her husband Marquis planned to get vaccinated but it was too late.
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After his death, the family’s church, the Faith Temple Christian Center in Rockledge, asked if they could hold a COVID awareness event during his wake and funeral.

“Now we’re seeing things completely shift with this delta variant. [Marquis] was 28 years old, had the rest of his life in front of him, and because of COVID-19, specifically this delta variant, and he was not vaccinated, his life was cut short,” said Dr. R. Shaun Ferguson, the pastor of Faith Temple Christian Center. “Our position as a church is let’s get this cut. Let’s do this. I don’t want to see another person lose their life, period.”

Marquis Davis’ family turned his funeral into a pandemic vaccine and testing event to raise awareness of the deadly virus.
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Business

Bill Gates opens up about divorcing Melinda, ties to Jeffrey Epstein

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Bill Gates opened up about his recent divorce to Melinda French Gates in an interview on Wednesday and said his relationship to billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was a “mistake.”

The Microsoft founder told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that his split with Melinda was a “very sad milestone,” and a source of “personal sadness.”

Gates told the anchor that he and his ex-wife will continue their philanthropy work together, citing her “incredible strengths” in furthering the missions of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Melinda has said she will try to work with Bill on the foundation for at least two more years.

“I’ve always enjoyed our work together,” Gates told CNN. “You know the two of us can go out and work with leaders and help build the organization, so that would be definitely the best thing for the foundation.”

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates will continue to work together in philanthropy for at least another two years.
REUTERS

Gates also discussed his relationship with the late Epstein, which was reportedly a source of contention in his marriage.

“I had several dinners with him hoping that what he said about getting billions of philanthropy for global health through contacts he had might emerge,” Gates said. “When it looked like that wasn’t a real thing that relationship ended.”

“It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility,” the billionaire continued. “I made a mistake.”

Bill Gates with Jeffrey Epstein at Epstein’s Manhattan home.

Gates said he does have some regrets about reports of a toxic culture at Microsoft, including allegations he made unwanted advances on women at work, which he denies.

“At this time I need to go forward, my work is very important to me. Within the family, we’ll heal as best we can and learn from what’s happened,” Gates told CNN.

Gates, who has donated at least $1.75 billion to fight COVID-19, said he is pleased with the effectiveness and production of vaccinations but is alarmed by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

“We wanted to be nearer to the end than we are, but Delta is very bad news,” Gates said.

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US

Chicago vaccine mandate: Gov. Pritzker to announce statewide school mask requirement, following some businesses, sources say

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CHICAGO (WLS) — Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to announce a statewide school mask mandate Wednesday afternoon, as some Chicago businesses take vaccine and mask requirements into their own hands, sources say.

Pritzker’s decision is because of the rising number of cases of the delta variant, with a number of kids getting it, and all the “noise” about it, according to sources.

The differing approaches school districts are taking is also a factor, sources said.

It will apply to all public and private schools, K-12.

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike will be joining the governor at 2:30 p.m. at the Thompson Center.

Rebecca Fortner has two children in Villa Park’s School District 45. She said she’s relieved the governor is planning to mandate masks for all K through 12 students in the state.

“I wish he had done it sooner. I think a lot of us wished for that. I do worry about the enforcement of it,” she said.

Tuesday night in Villa Park there were heated words and tense moments.

The District 45 school board threatened to adjourn early after some in the audience refused to comply with the meeting’s mask requirement.

“It’s horrific that they’re injuring their own children with having to wear a mask. But even more horrific, you want to harm someone else’s child to have them have a mask on. That’s shame on you. Shame on you for doing that,” District 45 parent Bradley Donald said.

After a 45-minute delay, the meeting continued without mask enforcement. Later, there was an altercation in the hallway. One person was led away after appearing to suffer a panic attack.

Parent Tracey Gzamouranis worries it’s a sign of what’s to come when kids go back to school.

“Parents are gonna drop them off with no masks and tell them not to wear them and what did they see last night? They saw that it wasn’t enforced,” Gzamouranis said. “It’s a good thing. It needed to come from the top. It hadn’t. I’m glad it has now, but it almost seems as it’s a little late in our case. If it had been announced before last night, maybe all of it could have been avoided last night.

COVID vaccine Chicago: Business lead charge in requiring masks, shots

It used to be “no shirt, no shoes, no service,” but, with cases of COVID rising, some businesses are now saying “no shot, no service.”

Metro Chicago, a concert hall in Wrigleyville, just announced that anyone attending shows there will be required to show proof of vaccination, unlike Lollapalooza, which allowed unvaccinated people to enter by providing a current negative COVID test.

Metro also said patrons will be required to show a government-issued photo ID, and it’s recommended that everyone wear masks.

If you want to dine in restaurants and bars in NorthHalsted like D.S. Tequila Co. and Sidetrack, you better have proof of COVID vaccination, as it’s now required to get in.

More and more restaurants and nightclubs around the Chicago area are making that move as COVID cases once again surge, driven by the spread of the delta variant, especially in unvaccinated populations.

RELATED: Some Chicago restaurants requiring masks, COVID vaccinations as cases increase

The move to require masks and ask for vaccination status is supported by Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, even as she insisted the city has no plans yet to follow New York’s move to mandate proof of vaccination for all indoor dining and fitness centers.

“I want to thank them for doing that. It is clearly one of the most important things they can do for reducing the risk for everybody in the restaurant,” Arwady said.

The city is working on a way for people to digitally prove their vaccination status.

“We have a lot of people who lose their cards,” Arwady explained. “We want people where there are settings that are wanting to either mandate vaccines or be checking vaccines as folks are coming in. I want to make that as technologically easy as possible in a way that protects everybody’s privacy.”

The Illinois Restaurant Association hopes individual restaurants will be allowed to make their own decisions, and pointed out that restaurants operating at high capacity or that are in neighborhoods with lower vaccination rates would be catastrophically affected by a vaccine mandate.

“We’re still behind,” said Sam Sanchez. “Every time you open the door and you’re not operating at 100%, you’re losing money.”

Businesses see vaccine mandates as way to protect staff

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Entertainment

Jennifer Aniston cut ties with ‘a few people’ over COVID vaccine

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Jennifer Aniston is drawing a hard line between her and those who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19.

The “Friends” alum revealed to InStyle magazine that she has cut ties with “a few people” who won’t receive the jab.

“There’s still a large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don’t listen to the facts. It’s a real shame,” she said in her InStyle September cover interview.

“I’ve just lost a few people in my weekly routine who have refused or did not disclose [whether or not they had been vaccinated], and it was unfortunate.”

The Golden Globe winner, 52, said it’s a “moral and professional obligation to inform” people of the benefits of the vaccine but acknowledged people have their own beliefs.

Jennifer Aniston is taking a hard stance on the COVID-19 vaccine.FilmMagic

“It’s tricky because everyone is entitled to their own opinion — but a lot of opinions don’t feel based in anything except fear or propaganda,” she said.

Aniston has been vocal throughout the fight against coronavirus, urging her Instagram followers to “wear a damn mask.”

The “Friends” star has been a vocal advocate for masks and the vaccine throughout the pandemic.
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“I understand masks are inconvenient and uncomfortable. But don’t you feel that it’s worse that businesses are shutting down… jobs are being lost… health care workers are hitting absolute exhaustion,” she wrote alongside a selfie of her in a mask. “And so many lives have been taken by this virus because we aren’t doing enough.”

She also warned of the dangers of COVID by sharing a shocking photo of her friend Kevin in the hospital and intubated.

“We can’t be so naive to think we can outrun this…if we want this to end, and we do, right?” she wrote. “The one step we can take is PLEASE #wearadamnmask.”

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Business

Army gives Pfizer $3.5B to make 500M COVID vaccine doses

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The Pentagon announced Monday the US Army had awarded Pfizer a $3.5 billion contract to manufacture 500 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by the end of next year for distribution around the world.

The order matches the number of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses purchased by the US government under an agreement announced last year by the Trump administration. Last month, Pfizer announced that the latest batch of 200 million doses would be delivered between October of this year and April of 2022.

In June, Pfizer and Germany-based BioNTech announced that they would provide 500 million doses “at a not-for-profit price” to the feds for distribution to more than 100 countries around the world, most of them in Africa.

“Our partnership with the U.S. government will help bring hundreds of millions of doses of our vaccine to the poorest countries around the world as quickly as possible,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said at the time. “COVID-19 has impacted everyone, everywhere, and to win the battle against this pandemic, we must ensure expedited access to vaccines for all.”

The Pentagon announced that Pfizer has been given a $3.5 billion contract to produce 500 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)/File Photo

The two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is one of three approved on an emergency basis by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). With the number of COVID-19 cases surging due to the highly contagious Delta variant and the vaccination rate slowing to a crawl, the FDA announced last week it was reshuffling resources in an effort to grant full approval to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as quickly as possible.

“This will remove one more layer for the vaccine-hesitant,” FDA official Peter Marks told The Washington Post. “If all this does is get five to 10 million more people vaccinations down south, that will save lives.”

The 500 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed around the world.
Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Last month, a study funded by Public Health England and published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 88 percent effective at preventing severe illness from the Delta variant of COVID-19 and 93.7 percent effective at preventing severe illness from the original strain of the virus.

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US

COVID New York City Update: City issues ‘strong recommendation,’ stops short of mask mandate

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NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — For the first time, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recommended Monday vaccinated people wear a mask in crowded indoor settings, but he stopped short of making the new CDC masking guidance mandatory in the city.

“We want to strongly recommend that people wear a mask in indoor settings even if you’re vaccinated,” de Blasio said. “This is particularly true of course if you might be around anyone unvaccinated.”

The mayor’s focus remains on vaccines, and he announced a $1.3 million ad campaign to encourage parents to get their eligible school-age children, 12-17, vaccinated now so they’re fully protected by the time school starts Sept. 13.

“Vaccination, vaccination, vaccination, that’s the ballgame,” de Blasio said.

The recommendations come despite the fact that COVID cases have ticked up slightly in the city, to an average positivity rate of roughly 2.29 percent. Hospitalizations remain low.

On Friday, the mayor told CNN he wants the focus to remain on increasing vaccinations. Now, city run sites are offering a $100 incentive for people to get their first shot.

“The main event is vaccination,” de Blasio said. “Masks can be helpful. We’re going to delineate to New Yorkers the best way to use masks. They don’t change the basic reality. Vaccination does. So, what we want to make sure is that everything we do supports vaccination, focuses people on vaccination, doesn’t distract from vaccination, or undermine vaccination.”

The new recommendation comes after the CDC said the delta variant can spread even among vaccinated people, though among the small percentage of cases, symptoms tended to be mild. Almost all hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among the unvaccinated.

In July, Los Angeles imposed a new indoor mask mandate even for vaccinated people. New York City’s decision not to follow LA’s move puts the nation’s largest city in line with tri-state area governors.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut all continue to encourage mask usage, but do not require it.

ALSO READ | 10 people shot, 7 innocent bystanders, in ‘brazen, coordinated attack’ in Queens

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Health

‘Trading Spaces’ star Genevieve Gorder has COVID-19, is vaccinated

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Genevieve Gorder revealed she is currently battling COVID-19.

The 42-year-old interior designer shared that she was on “day 5” of the virus on social media, along with a selfie of herself in bed. Gorder added that she received a double dose of the Pfizer vaccine in March but still contracted the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

“As a kid with asthma, an adult with autoimmune, covid was not something I took lightly,” Gorder captioned her photo. “In fact, we were more careful than anyone I knew. But here I am after being double vacc’d in March (Pfizer).”

She added, “And guys, Delta is a b*#•h!”

The following day, Gorder, who has asthma and two autoimmune diseases, said that she was feeling “better” while sharing more details about how the virus is affecting her physically.

“Covid day 5,” Gorder, 42, captioned a recent photo on Instagram.
Instagram

“Nights are bad, lotta upper respiratory coughing,” Gorder, best known for being part of the “Trading Spaces” cast, said in an Instagram video.

“I’m constantly running at a 99.5-100 fever,” she added. “I have not had a lot of energy, but I know I’m gonna be okay.”

In both posts, Gorder urged her 177k followers to get the vaccine because she feels that being vaccinated saved her life — especially due to having a compromised immunity.

“I would be on that hospital table. I would be the one on a ventilator,” Gorder explained. “I would be the one you are praying about.”

Gorder is just one of a handful of celebs that have recently revealed they were vaccinated and battling COVID-19. Earlier this month, “Entourage” actor Kevin Connelly revealed he and his newborn daughter had been diagnosed with COVID-19.

“It’s hard when your kid is sick,” Connelly said during a recent podcast interview. “There’s really nothing you can do for her. She’s doing great, just the congestion part. But the fever’s down.”

A week before that, television personality Catt Sadler shared that she was fully vaccinated and had still managed to catch COVID-19.

“Delta is relentless and highly contagious and grabbed ahold of me even after getting vaccinated,” Sadler wrote.



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Business

Walmart forcing all workers to mask up, managers to get COVID vaccine

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Walmart is requiring workers in high risk areas to mask up — and will force all managers to get vaccinated by early October.

The mask mandate was announced Friday and immediately implemented. It applies to all store workers, regardless of vaccination status, in high risk COVID-19 counties, as determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new policy came three days after the CDC reversed its May mask guidance, calling on all people to wear face coverings indoors in the approximately two-thirds of the country where the deadly virus and its Delta variant are spreading rapidly.

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, had told vaccinated workers they could unmask in mid-May, after the CDC’s original edict.

Shoppers will be urged to wear masks in stores, but will not be forced to cover their faces, according to CNBC.

Company officials also said the retailer’s corporate staff and management-level employees must become inoculated against the virus by Oct. 4, according to a company memo obtained by the outlet.

“We want to get to a place where we can use our offices and be together safely,” Chief Executive Doug McMillon reportedly wrote. “It’s important for our business, our culture, our speed and our innovation.”

Previously, Walmart employees who were vaccinated could unmask.
Eduardo Munoz/File Photo/Reuters

The company also said it would now pay its store and warehouse staff $150 to get vaccinated — double the previous incentive, according to the report.

Walmart employs 2.3 million people around the world, 1.6 million of them in the US, according to the company.

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