Jason Robo, a 39-year-old comedian, lost his radio show after he hurled a racial ly charged comment at San Diego County Public Health Director Wilma Wooten, who is Black. "You should resign, [Nora] Vargas. I can't wait for your arteries to clog. They're not doing it fast enough. And Nathan [Fletcher], you should kill yourself, a dishonorable discharge would be you blowing your brains out. [Terra] Lawson-Remer, I like to call you a little monkey. I'd like to see you hang from a tree. And [Dr. Wilma] Wooten, you're a f**king Aunt Jemima," Robo said during a Tuesday meeting held by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors concerning the COVID vaccine mandate. The vice chairwoman and board supervisor at San Diego County, Nora Vargas, immediately interrupted Robo after he insulted Wooten and demanded that his microphone would be turned off. Lauren Schmitt, the news director at KMUD radio station, confirmed to Newsweek on Thursday that Robo lost his radio show in Humboldt County …
Without 100,000 Americans mobilized to trace coronavirus exposure, “we’re going to be in big trouble”
Health Johns Hopkins Public Health As states loosen up on social distancing rules, people aren't the only thing that will go back to work—so will the coronavirus. Dropping restrictions will allow the pathogen to move more freely through the population, possibly causing a second wave of illness that threatens to overwhelm hospital resources and drive death rates higher. The key to avoid lurching from one lockdown to another, experts say, is contact tracing. When a patient tests positive to COVID-19, health care workers would reach out to all the people who might have been exposed before the patient became ill and advise them to self-quarantine. The idea is to extinguish small pockets of new cases before they explode into big outbreaks like the ones that steamrolled New York City and New Orleans last month. Governors, in an effort to balance the need to let people go back to work and keep them safe from a pandemic virus that continues to circulate, have begun putting …
Prince Harry says resigning can help mental health—2 years after royal exit
Prince Harry says resignation can be a positive in jobs that do not "bring them joy"—after he quit his royal duties. The Duke of Sussex announced he was leaving the job he was born into almost two years ago in January 2020. Since then he has signed Netflix and Spotify deals, joined ethical bank Ethic and been named chief impact officer by career coaching app BetterUp. The prince was asked about "burnout and job resignations" in a Q&A with business magazine Fast Company . Prince Harry said: "I've actually discovered recently, courtesy of a chat with [BetterUp science board member] Adam Grant, that a lot of the job resignations you mention aren't all bad. In fact, it is a sign that with self-awareness comes the need for change. "Many people around the world have been stuck in jobs that didn't bring them joy, and now they're putting their mental health and happiness first. This is something to be celebrated." The comment comes after Prince Harry stepped back from his …
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New York governor warns health care system will be overwhelmed by coronavirus: “We have an impending catastrophe”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned that the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has the potential to overwhelm the health care system in the United States, and predicted the outbreak would cause an "impending catastrophe" while he called on the federal government to "step up" to help mitigate the problems. Schools, restaurants, bars and clubs have all been ordered closed in New York City, the largest metropolitan area in New York. The city and the state have both declared official states of emergency to deal with the outbreak, but Cuomo raised concerns in a Monday morning interview with CNN that the health care system in the U.S. does not have enough resources to deal with the threat from coronavirus. "We've been behind handling this disease since day one [in the U.S.]," Cuomo asserted. "We knew it was in China in November and then we look like we got caught by surprise and we're always playing catch-up," he said. "The coming crisis is overwhelming our health care …
UK Minister Asks Public to Take COVID Test Every Time They Leave Home
A ruling politician in Northern Britain has suggested that people should take a COVID test every time they leave home. John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister for Scotland and member of the Scottish National Party — which, ironically enough, campaigns to split Scotland away from the rest of the United Kingdom so the state could then be absorbed into a Federal Europe — has suggested that people should take a test for the Chinese Coronavirus every time they leave the house. The Minister suggested that the test should be taken if there is any chance of interactions with other members of the public from other households. “Personally, I am now doing a lateral flow test every day I am going out with the prospect of meeting other members of the public outside my household,” Swinney told the state-broadcaster BBC. “I would encourage others to do exactly the same.” While England has so far avoided the use of internal COVID passes, Scotland — whose health measures are partly …
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Democrat Oregon Gov. Brown Spotted Maskless as Health Officials Draft More ‘Permanent’ Mask Rules
Oregon’s Democrat Gov. Kate Brown (D) defied her own purported beliefs and was spotted maskless at a gala in Washington, DC, all while health officials in her own state work to craft more “permanent” mask rules for the public. On Saturday, Brown attended the 30th anniversary of the LGBTQ Victory Fund as a “featured guest.” Her name is also listed as a LGBTQ Victory Hall of Fame Inductee, and, indeed, Brown attended the gala and happily posed maskless alongside two other individuals: What does it mean when you match with the amazing utterly fabulous and indefatigable champions for equality and progress who are @KateBrownForOR and @davidmgins ? Thank you both for evening you do for advancing our communities! pic.twitter.com/LTweoiLrzI — Manilan Houle (@ManilanH) December 5, 2021 Brown has had one of the heaviest hands in terms of masking her state, as Oregon remained under an indoor mask mandate from May 2020 to June 2021. The maskless period was short-lived, as she …
Conservatism has wrecked this country – just as it was designed to
It isn’t often that life presents us with second chances. Whether it’s not breaking up with that girl who in hindsight you could have married, not flunking that crucial exam, or not crippling your country’s economy and health services with your mismanagement of a pandemic, there are lots of things we would do differently, given the chance. Well, Stacy married Craig, and you didn’t get into Oxford, but for one man, Boris Johnson , that second chance may have just presented itself. The omicron variant is here , but unlike its older cousin it hasn’t taken us by surprise. We haven’t been caught on the back foot this time; no, the omicron variant has announced its presence with all the fireworks and spectacle of an American gender reveal party. The conditions for this new variant to wreak havoc on the UK are close to perfect: it’s winter, right before Christmas, most places are open, and the anti-mask crowd have really stepped up their game in the past few months. But …
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A no-deal Brexit will leave vulnerable patients in danger
As the ninth and final round of future relationship negotiations draws to a close this week, we are now in the final three months of the Brexit transition period and less than 100 days before health services and industry, educators, researchers, public health and patients will be entering a new relationship with the EU or none at all. Irrespective of narratives from London and Brussels , this really needs to be a “smell the coffee” moment, as there is a very real danger that our most vulnerable patients (who rely on unhindered access to medicines and medical supplies) could be left in a Brexit transition to nowhere. Yes, Brexit fatigue is understandable, particularly when working flat out to meet the demands of Covid-19, but that fatigue is shared by the very people who will be charged with dealing with the implications of no deal come 1 January 2021. The health and care workforce has risen to immense challenges over the last six months and is set to face a …
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Twitter applies Trump fact-check standard to Chinese official who blamed pandemic on U.S. military
Twitter has added a fact-check warning to tweets promoting a conspiracy theory about the origins of the coronavirus which were sent by China's foreign ministry spokesperson. The retroactive decision comes a day after similar labels were placed on tweets sent by President Donald Trump, in response to queries from media organizations including Newsweek. Twitter said it had added labels to the tweets sent two months ago by spokesman Lijian Zhao who warned, "It might be U.S. army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan." Another tweet from him linked to an article claiming the virus originated in the United States. Under the tweets now there is a message directing readers to a page of tweets outlining the World Health Organization's research that the disease originated in animals. The New York Post broke the story, accusing Twitter of a double standard in its treatment of Zhao and Trump. In a statement to Newsweek Thursday, a Twitter spokesperson said: "The tweets in question …
Vaccine mandates “needed” but legal obstacles remain, former CDC director says
The United States needs a full vaccine mandate to be able to control its COVID-19 epidemic but legal obstacles may prevent that from happening, the former director of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention has told Newsweek. Asked whether the U.S. should impose vaccine mandates, Dr. Thomas Frieden, who was CDC director for eight years and is also the former commissioner of health for New York City, said the Joe Biden administration is already facing legal challenges for trying to impose mandatory vaccination for federal employees, and that the president hasn't been able to implement the mandate due to wrangling in court. Multiple states—including Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Ohio— have sued the Biden administration over the vaccine mandates. Whether a vaccine mandate in the United States is successful "remains to be seen," said Frieden, who is now CEO and president of the Resolve To Save Lives, an initiative of global public health organization Vital Strategies. …