Fauci says US must prepare for omicron variant: ‘Inevitably it will be here’ – ABC News
Fauci says US must prepare for omicron variant: ‘Inevitably it will be here’ – ABC News

While the new omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus has not yet been detected in the United States, it will “inevitably” arrive, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.

“We all know when you have a virus that has already gone to multiple countries, inevitably it will be here,” Fauci told ABC’s “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “The question is, will we be prepared for it?”

The omicron variant, named after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, was first detected last week in Botswana, officials said. Since then, cases of the new variant have been found in South Africa, Germany, Belgium and Hong Kong.

Pressed by Stephanopoulos on whether the omicron variant is as or more transmissible than the delta variant and other mutations that have swept the globe, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the White House chief medical adviser, said, “It appears to be.”

“It has a bunch of mutations,” Fauci said, including “a disturbingly large number of mutations in the spike protein, which is the business end of the virus.”

Fauci’s comments came one day before the United States plans to impose a travel ban on most travelers from eight southern African countries.

When asked by Stephanopoulos whether the travel ban will make a difference, Fauci said, “It will slow things down.”

“Travel bans, when you have a highly transmissible virus, never completely … prevent it from coming into the country. No way that’s going to happen,” Fauci said. “But what you can do is you can delay it enough to get us better prepared. And that’s the thing that people need to understand.”

He cautioned that traveling during the pandemic is “always risky,” but if Americans have to travel, he recommended they be vaccinated and to wear a mask on flights and in airports, which he described as “one of the most congregate settings you can imagine.”

The chief medical adviser said early signs “strongly suggest” that the variant may be more transmissible and might evade protections from monoclonal antibodies and “perhaps even antibodies that are induced by vaccine.”

In South Africa, cases of new COVID-19 infections have been heavily weighted toward the omicron variant, Fauci said, so, “you have to presume that it has a good degree of transmissibility advantage.”

However, Fauci noted that a relatively small proportion of the population of South Africa is vaccinated. According to Johns Hopkins University, just over 24% of people in South Africa is fully vaccinated, compared to 60% of the U.S. population.

“So, you’ve got to take that into the equation when you’re trying to figure out where this virus is really going and what its impact is going to be,” Fauci said.

Asked by Stephanopoulos if omicron causes more severe disease, Fauci said that currently remains a mystery.

He said U.S. scientists spoke to their counterparts in South Africa on Friday and plan to meet with them again later Sunday “to try and find out if the cases they have identified that clearly are caused by this variant, what is the level of severity in that.”

“Hopefully, it will be light,” Fauci said.

Stephanopoulos also pressed Fauci on how susceptible vaccinated people are to the new variant, asking what is known about how resistant omicron is to the currently available vaccines.

Fauci said studies and experiments are already underway to figure out how strong the vaccines are against omicron and estimated it will take about two weeks before scientists get the answers.

“The way you find that out is you get the virus and you put it either as a whole virus or as what we call a pseudovirus, and you take antibodies or serum from people who have been vaccinated, and you determine if those antibodies can neutralize the virus,” Fauci said.

The chief medical adviser said the best way for Americans to prepare for the omicron variant is to be vaccinated, to get a booster shot as soon as they are eligible, and to keep adhering to other protective recommendations such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

“We are on the lookout for this. The CDC has a good surveillance system,” Fauci said. “So, if and when — and it is going to be when — it comes here, hopefully, we will be ready for it by enhancing our capabilities via the vaccine, masking, all the things that we do and should be doing.”

When Stephanopoulos broached the possibility of returning to the lockdowns due to the new variant, Fauci said it’s “really too early to say.”

“We just really need to, as I’ve said so often, prepare for the worst,” Fauci said. “It may not be that we’re going to have to go the route that people are saying. We don’t know a lot about this virus. So, we want to prepare as best we can, but it may turn out that this preparation, although important, may not necessarily push us to the next level.”

He added, “Let’s see what the information that we’re getting in real-time tells us, and we’ll make decisions based on the science and the evidence, the way we always do.”

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fauci-us-prepare-omicron-variant-inevitably/story?id=81422342

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s accusers say she sexually exploited them. Here’s what her trial may reveal – USA TODAY
Ghislaine Maxwell’s accusers say she sexually exploited them. Here’s what her trial may reveal – USA TODAY

Opening arguments begin Monday in the federal sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is charged with helping her longtime companion, financier Jeffrey Epstein, recruit, groom and exploit girls as young as 14 years old for sexual abuse.

The alleged incidents ran from 1994 to 2004 in locations ranging from an Upper East Side residence in New York to an estate in Palm Beach, Florida, to a ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to a residence in London.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/11/28/ghislaine-maxwell-trial-sex-trafficking-jeffrey-epstein/8735384002/

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Smash-and-grab thieves attack stores around the country, California security guard shot dead as crime rages – Fox News
Smash-and-grab thieves attack stores around the country, California security guard shot dead as crime rages – Fox News
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Fox News Flash top headlines for November 27

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.

Smash-and-grab looters targeted stores across the country ahead of Thanksgiving and over Black Friday weekend, robbing stores of thousands of dollars in merchandise and even leaving one California security guard dead as he tried to protect a news crew that was reporting on the crimes. 

“We tried to stop them,” Home Depot employee Luis Romo told FOX 11 of a “flash mob” targeting the store in Lakewood, California, on Black Friday. “We closed the front entrance and they put their sledgehammers up and whoever got in the way, they were going to hurt them.”

The group of eight robbers stole hammers, crowbars and other tools, swiping about $400 worth of merchandise. Such tools have been used in other smash-and-grab robberies in the state, including in a Nordstrom in Walnut Creek, California, last week. 

LA THIEVES ATTACK SECURITY GUARD IN CALIFORNIA’S LATEST SMASH-AND-GRAB

The robbers reportedly fled in cars waiting in the parking lot. Police stopped a car with no plates later that night and detained four individuals who may be tied to the robbery. 

A group of five suspects stole about $25,000 in expensive purses from a Nordstrom store in the Westfield Topanga mall in Los Angeles on the eve of Thanksgiving. While a large group also entered a Bottega Veneta in the Beverly Grove section of Los Angeles on Friday and used a chemical agent against one person who tried to stop them as they stole high-end merchandise. 

By late Friday evening, the Los Angeles Police Department was on a citywide tactical alert. The alert has since been lifted. 

NEWSOM TELLS CALIFORNIA MAYORS TO ‘STEP UP’ AFTER MOB OF LOOTERS MAKE SIX-FIGURE NORDSTROM HEIST

A Los Angeles Police Officer Badge.
(iStock)

In Monterey, a group of about four people stole an estimated $30,000 worth of sunglasses from a Sunglass Hut. In San Francisco, thieves between the ages of 14 and 18 took more than $20,000 from an Apple store in broad daylight on Wednesday. 

The crimes have also poured into other areas in the country, including in Chicago where police say thieves threw a cinderblock through a Canada Goose store between midnight and 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving and took merchandise. Three other smash-and-grabs unfolded in the city, where thieves targeted a Foot Locker, a North Face store and a cell phone store. 

DOZENS OF SAN FRANCISCO AREA STORES, PHARMACIES HIT BY SMASH-AND-GRAB LOOTERS: ‘HURTS US ALL’

It is unclear if the robberies are connected or how much merchandise was stolen. Chicago police are investigating. 

In suburban Minneapolis, a large group of at least 30 people targeted a Best Buy in Burnsville, while a group of 10-12 people, including juveniles, targeted another Best Buy in Maplewood. No one has been arrested in connection to the incidents as of Saturday and there are no estimates on how much merchandise was stolen. 

“Across the board, retailers are getting more concerned with this growing trend. … It is definitely a tough problem to solve, given the organized nature and number of people involved in many of the incidents,” Chris Walton, a former Target executive who co-leads retail blog and podcast Omni Talk, said of the incidents, according to Star Tribune. 

The most tragic incident unfolded in California, when an Oakland security guard was fatally shot during an armed robbery while protecting a news crew covering a previous smash-and-grab theft.

SAN FRANCISCO GUARD, A FORMER COP, SHOT AND KILLED PROTECTING NEWS CREW COVERING A SMASH-AND-GRAB

This undated photo provided by the Town of Colma Police Department, in California, shows former Officer Kevin Nishita. Nishita, a retired police officer and armed guard who provided security for many reporters in the region, was shot in the abdomen during an attempted robbery of KRON-TV’s camera equipment in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021. The news crew was covering a recent smash-and-grab robbery of a clothing store. Parts of California have been struck by a rash of organized retail thefts in which bands of thieves break into high-end stores and snatch merchandise. (Brandon Vaccaro/Colma Police Department via AP) A security guard protecting a San Francisco television news crew was shot Wednesday during an attempted armed robbery, authorities said.  (KTVU)

“It is with the deepest sadness that I let you know security guard Kevin Nishita has passed away,” said Mark Neerman, vice president of news and news director at KPIX. “He died protecting one of our own, a colleague reporting on the very violence that took his life. I know you join me in sending condolences to his family and in sending thanks to Kevin for standing up for us all.”

He was shot in the abdomen during an attempted robbery of KRON-TV’s camera equipment on Wednesday and later died from his injuries.

3 SUSPECTS IN CUSTODY AFTER SMASH-AND-GRAB ROBBERY AT NORDSTROM STORE AT THE GROVE, LAPD SAYS

Nishita was a San Jose police officer from 2001-2012 and was working as an armed guard for Star Protection Agency at the time of his death. He leaves behind his wife, two children and three grandchildren. A reward of $32,500 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the killing. 

Smash-and-grab robberies have plagued California in the last week, with most of the incidents occurring in stores near San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

In Walnut Creek, which is located about 25 miles from SF, roughly 80 looters stormed a Nordstrom and took somewhere between $100,000 to $200,000 in merchandise, according to police. 

Mobs of thieves ransacked at least two dozen San Francisco area businesses over last weekend. 

“At least two dozen businesses were impacted,” Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told CBS SF. “Roving caravans of vehicles, targeting cannabis operations, retail shops, pharmacies, throughout the city of Oakland.”

The crimes also extended to San Jose, about 50 miles from San Francisco, where at least four people stole $40,000 from a Lululemon in an incident described by police as “organized robbery.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom has called on California mayors to “step up” and hold the mobs of shoplifters to “account” following the repeated crimes. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a news conference after receiving a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at Asian Health Services in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Also pictured are Assemblymember Mia Bonta, third from bottom right, Supervisor Wilma Chan and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, right. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) 

“I’m not the mayor of California, but I was a mayor, and I know when things like this happen, mayors have to step up,” Newsom said Monday at a vaccine clinic in the Mission District of San Francisco. “That’s not an indictment. That’s not a cheap shot.”

“These people need to be held to account,” Newsom added. “We need to investigate these crimes. We need to break up these crime rings. We need to make an example out of these folks.”

In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed announced that the city will limit car access ahead of holiday shopping season to the city’s popular shopping district, Union Square, in response to the mobs of thieves.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 17: San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks during a news conference outside of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital with essential workers to mark the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown on March 17, 2021 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco has some of the lowest number of coronavirus cases and death rates in the country with only 422 deaths in a city with a population near 900,000. 
(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Some police and retailers pointed to California’s Proposition 47 for the increase in crimes, which reduced shoplifting charges regarding the theft of $950 or less from felonies to misdemeanors. 

In 2018, state legislators passed a temporary law in response to complaints surrounding the law, which established a new crime of organized retail theft. A California Highway Patrol task force was also created to help assist areas with high instances of such crimes. The law expired at the start of this year, however, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

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“I think what happens now is there’s no accountability for it anymore, and the liability for the stores if they try to apprehend these guys. They just stand by and watch,” Steve Reed, a retired police officer and the former head of security at Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, told ABC 10. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/smash-and-grab-thieves-attack-stores-around-the-country-california-security-guard-shot-dead-as-crime-rages

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Fears of new omicron Covid variant prompts Israel to ban entry to foreigners – NBC News
Fears of new omicron Covid variant prompts Israel to ban entry to foreigners – NBC News
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Iran nuclear talks are restarting. Here’s what’s at stake – NPR
Iran nuclear talks are restarting. Here’s what’s at stake – NPR

Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi, left, and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian pictured meeting in Tehran, on Tuesday. Grossi pressed for greater access in the Islamic Republic ahead of diplomatic talks restarting over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

Vahid Salemi/AP


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Vahid Salemi/AP

Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi, left, and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian pictured meeting in Tehran, on Tuesday. Grossi pressed for greater access in the Islamic Republic ahead of diplomatic talks restarting over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

Vahid Salemi/AP

Talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal begin again Monday in Vienna. It’ll be the seventh round of meetings between the United States, Iran, European powers and China but the first in nearly six months.

And a lot has happened since the last round to raise the stakes for any deal.

To recap, the 2015 deal gave Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for limits on its nuclear program. President Trump abandoned the agreement in 2018, reimposing the sanctions the U.S. had lifted. Iran responded with a public, step-by-step ramping up of the machinery used to enrich uranium — the nuclear fuel needed for a bomb.

Iran and the U.S. — along with the other world powers involved in the deal — say they want to restore it. But they’ve been stuck on who takes the first steps.

Since the talks stalled, Iran has elected a new, hard-line president who’s heightened his country’s demands for any new agreement. And in the background, there’s been a series of attacks on Iran’s nuclear program, suspected to originate in Israel, including the assassination of a leading Iranian scientist a year ago. That raises the risk of conflict at the bargaining table.

Both the U.S. and Iran are out of compliance with the deal right now

The Trump administration argued that the agreement worked out by the Obama White House was too short — parts of it expire in 2025 — and should have required fundamental changes in Iran’s policies. When Trump reimposed sanctions, he cut off most of Iran’s oil sales. When other partners in the deal — the European Union, China, Russia — objected, the U.S. threatened that any company doing business with Iran would also be cut off from business with the U.S. Most of those sanctions are still in place and Iranians feel the economic pain. That’s leverage for Biden’s negotiators now.

In response to the U.S. exit, Iran methodically broke the deal’s limits — its conservative parliament even passed a law to require those breaches. The country has since stockpiled more enriched uranium than the deal allows. And it has enriched its supply well beyond the levels stipulated in the deal, that is, closer to the levels of enrichment needed for a weapon.

Back when the U.S. was in the deal and Iran was complying with it, analysts said its program was frozen and at least a year away from making enough enriched uranium needed for a bomb. Now, experts say it could be a month away if Iran wanted to go for it. (But making an actual bomb, testing it and loading it on missiles could take a year or two.) Perhaps most troubling, Iran has restricted access to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, an atomic watchdog that monitors its nuclear sites. They could be missing out on vital information.

To get back in the deal, the U.S. would need to unspool the complicated web of sanctions. Iran would have to open up again to inspectors, dismantle equipment, and ship out uranium or reduce its levels of enrichment. Either way, Iran has already learned more about how to make a nuclear weapon in the process.

Iran has new leadership sounding a harder bargaining position

Amid resentment over the country’s poor economy and disappointment in the collapse of the deal, Iranians elected President Ibrahim Raisi in June. He’s more of a hard-liner than his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, who had agreed to the deal in 2015. Raisi seems determined to show he can get a better deal for his people.

The man expected to lead the negotiations for Iran recently said these shouldn’t even be called, “nuclear talks.” He claims they’re about sanctions. “We do not have nuclear talks,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani told state media, “because the nuclear issue was fully agreed in 2015.”

Iranian officials say, basically, that since it was the U.S. that first broke the deal, it should be the U.S. that makes the first moves to get it going again by lifting all the sanctions. And, burned by Trump’s withdrawal, they say they want a guarantee the deal will remain in force even after the next U.S. presidential election — a promise probably not possible under the U.S. system.

The Biden administration wants a deal, but it won’t wait much longer

U.S. officials see the new posturing on the other side and say it’s up to Iran to prove it’s interested in a deal. Speaking to NPR last week, U.S. negotiator Robert Malley tempered expectations. “If [Iran is] dragging their feet at the negotiating table, accelerating their pace with their nuclear program, that will be their answer to whether they want to go back into the deal,” Malley said. “And it will be a negative one if that’s what they choose to do.”

He’s urged Iran to at least meet directly with the U.S., which it refuses. He and European leaders have called on Iran to stop breaking the terms of the deal. Malley told NPR that if Iran doesn’t return to the deal, the U.S. would need “other efforts, diplomatic and otherwise, to try to address Iran’s nuclear ambitions.” He said Iran’s nuclear advances could soon make it too late for a deal. “We don’t have much time before we have to conclude that Iran has chosen a different path,” he said.

At times, the U.S. has also raised the idea adding new conditions to the deal — including possibly extending the term of the agreement or trying to include limits on Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran says those are non-starters.

Supporters of a deal say it would curb Iran’s nukes. Opponents say it would let Iran skate on missiles and militants

Proponents of re-entering the deal say it keeps Iran from getting close to making a bomb. Even Trump’s defense secretary said Iran was in compliance back when the deal was in effect. Backers of an agreement say other issues with Iran — like its support for militants, human rights violations, threats against Israel and Saudi Arabia — can be managed separately and more easily if the country doesn’t pose a nuclear threat.

Opponents to the deal say the Iranian regime is shaky and hurting from the sanctions. They maintain Iran would make more concessions to get out of sanctions or could even eventually be brought down. Sanctions relief would give the Iranian government access to vast oil revenues it could use to destabilize the Mideast. Some Israeli officials suggest sabotage or even military strikes are preferable to keep Iran’s nuclear program from advancing.

But that’s seen as a risky approach that could lead to war. The Biden administration is looking to take Iran off the list of possible world flashpoints. And Iran wants to start doing business with the world. That might be enough to lead both countries to a new agreement, whether it’s a return to the old deal or some half-step toward easing tensions. The latter could mean a partial deal — lifting some U.S. sanctions in exchange for Iran scaling back some of the steps it’s taken.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/11/28/1058533008/iran-nuclear-deal-talks-us

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The Omicron variant is spreading across Europe with at least 13 cases identified in the Netherlands – CNN
The Omicron variant is spreading across Europe with at least 13 cases identified in the Netherlands – CNN

By Martin Goillandeau and Ivana Kottasová, CNN

Updated 9:57 AM ET, Sun November 28, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/28/world/coronavirus-omicron-variant-spreading-intl/index.html

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Fauci: US could face ‘fifth wave’ of Covid as Omicron variant nears – The Guardian
Fauci: US could face ‘fifth wave’ of Covid as Omicron variant nears – The Guardian

Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, has said the US has “the potential to go into a fifth wave” of coronavirus infections amid rising cases, stagnating vaccination rates, and underwhelming administration of boosters.

Fauci’s comments to CBS’s Face the Nation in an interview to be broadcast in full on Sunday, come as countries scramble to guard against the newly discovered Omicron variant, amid fears of heightened transmissibility and vaccine resistance.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said no Omicron cases have yet been discovered in the US. Fauci did not mention Omicron in his CBS interview, apparently filmed prior to news of the discovery. But on Saturday, he told NBC he “would not be surprised” if the variant were already in the US.

Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, another senior US government scientist, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins, said: “I think the main thing that has us focused on this, and it’s caused a lot of us to be sort of 24/7 on Zoom calls in the last four days, is that it has so many mutations.

“Omicron has more than 50 variants that make it different than the original virus, including more than 30 that are in the spike protein … those proteins that sit on the outside of the virus and enable it to get inside your cells … and of course that’s also what the antibodies are directed against.

“So the question is, will the antibodies generated by the vaccines that we have all had or should have had enable us to be protected against this virus?”

Collins also said he thought there was “good reasons to think it will probably be OK but we need to know the real answers to that and that’s going to take two or three weeks.”

On CBS, Fauci said any fifth wave of cases “will really be dependent upon what we do in the next few weeks to a couple of months”.

Fauci pointed to the number of unvaccinated Americans, and the fact that early vaccine recipients might now not be as protected as they once were.

“For example, we have now about 62 million people in the country who are eligible to be vaccinated, who have not yet gotten vaccinated,” Fauci said.

“Superimpose upon that the fact that, unquestionably, the people who got vaccinated six, seven, eight, nine, 10 months ago, we’re starting to see an understandable diminution in the level of immunity. It’s called waning immunity, and it was seen more emphatically in other countries before we saw it here.”

Fauci said an increase in immunization rates, and booster administration, might prevent another surge – but the US had to act aggressively and fast.

“So if we now do what I’m talking about in an intense way, we may be able to blunt that,” Fauci said. “If we don’t do it successfully, it is certainly conceivable and maybe likely that we will see another bit of a surge. How bad it gets is dependent upon us and how we mitigate.”

While more than 70% of US adults are fully vaccinated, the most recent CDC data indicated that cases had increased 16% over the prior week’s seven-day average. By Sunday there had been 48,202,506 cases in the US with 776, 537 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Fauci was also asked about Republican attacks on his reputation, over federal research prior to the coronavirus pandemic and about his role in the response under the Trump administration.

“Anybody who’s looking at this carefully realizes that there’s a distinct anti-science flavor to this,” he said. “They’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous. To me, that’s more dangerous than the slings and the arrows that get thrown at me.”

Asked if he thought attacks were meant to scapegoat him and deflect attention from Donald Trump’s failures, Fauci said: “You have to be asleep not to figure that one out.”

“I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives and they’re going to be lying,” he said.

Amid fears over the spread of the Omicron variant, Joe Biden said on Friday that the US would impose restrictions on air travel from South Africa and seven other countries, which go into effect on Monday.

Biden described the move as “as a precautionary measure until we have more information”.

Collins told CNN: “I know, America, you’re really tired of hearing these things, but the virus is not tired of us and it’s shape-shifting itself. If you imagine we’re on a racetrack here … it’s trying to catch up with us, and we have to use every kind of tool in our toolbox to keep that from getting into a situation that makes this worse.

“We can do this but we have to do it all together.”

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/28/us-covid-omicron-variant-fifth-wave-fauci

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s accusers say she sexually exploited them. Here’s what her trial may reveal – USA TODAY
Ghislaine Maxwell’s accusers say she sexually exploited them. Here’s what her trial may reveal – USA TODAY

Opening arguments begin Monday in the federal sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is charged with helping her long-time companion, financier Jeffrey Epstein, recruit, groom and exploit girls as young as 14 years old for sexual abuse.

The alleged incidents ran from 1994 to 2004, in locations ranging from an Upper East Side residence in New York to an estate in Palm Beach, Florida, to a ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to a residence in London.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/11/28/ghislaine-maxwell-trial-sex-trafficking-jeffrey-epstein/8735384002/

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Magnitude 7.5 earthquake hits Peru’s remote northern Amazon region – Reuters
Magnitude 7.5 earthquake hits Peru’s remote northern Amazon region – Reuters

Nov 28 (Reuters) – An 7.5 magnitude earthquake shook the remote Amazon region of northern Peru early on Sunday and was felt as far as Lima in the center of the country and southern Ecuador, causing damage to homes near the epicenter with no casualties reported.

The seismological center of the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP) said the earthquake had a depth of 131 kilometers (81 miles) and that the epicenter was 98 kilometers from the town of Santa Maria de Nieva in the province of Condorcanqui.

The quake was felt throughout central and northern Peru. Some residents left their homes as a precaution, according to local radio and television reports.

No damage was reported to the 1,100-kilometer oil pipeline of state-owned Petroperu that crosses the Peruvian Amazon region to the Pacific coast in the north.

Walter Culqui, mayor of the town of Jalca Grande in Chachapoyas province, said several houses had been damaged, leaving three non-serious injuries. Part of the church tower in the area collapsed, he said.

In neighboring Ecuador, the quake was felt in 19 of 24 provinces, with damage to some homes but no injuries reported, according to the National Service for Risk and Emergency Management of Ecuador.

Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute (Indeci) said in a statement that in the Amazon districts of Valera, San Jeronimo and Leimebamba the earthquake “has caused damage to an as yet undetermined number of homes.”

Through social networks, electricity cuts were reported in several locations in jungle areas. Local TV images showed stretches of roads blocked by huge rocks and dirt that had been knocked loose.

The U.S. warning system said there was no tsunami warning after the earthquake.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/magnitude-73-earthquake-strikes-northern-peru-emsc-2021-11-28/

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Covid-19 in China: Country Risks Huge Outbreak on US-Style Reopening – Bloomberg
Covid-19 in China: Country Risks Huge Outbreak on US-Style Reopening – Bloomberg

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Source Article from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-28/china-faces-colossal-outbreak-on-u-s-style-reopening-study

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‘Flash mob’ thieves target U.S. retail stores on Black Friday – Reuters
‘Flash mob’ thieves target U.S. retail stores on Black Friday – Reuters

LOS ANGELES, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Black Friday shoppers weren’t the only ones out hunting for bargains on the day after Thanksgiving. Thieves were busy as well.

Police in Los Angeles and cities elsewhere across the country spent much of their holiday weekend patrols looking for suspects in a spate of “flash mob” robberies on Friday, part of a surging U.S. crime trend in which groups of thieves swarm a store, ransack the shelves and flee.

Authorities also have used the term “smash-and-grab” to describe the trend.

At least two such robberies were reported on Saturday by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. A local television station, KCAL-TV, counted a total of six smash-and-grab heists on the city’s west side alone on Friday.

In one incident, a group of eight men entered a Home Depot outlet at a shopping mall in Lakewood, south of downtown Los Angeles, walked directly to the tool aisle and snatched a bunch of hammers, sledgehammers and crowbars valued at about $400 before making their getaway, the sheriff’s office said.

According to L.A. television station KTTV, the Home Depot robbery on Friday night involved up to 20 suspects who pulled up to the store in as many as 10 cars and donned ski masks before raiding the tool aisle.

Shoppers wait in line for stores to open as Black Friday sales begin at The Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass in Simpsonville, Kentucky, U.S., November 26, 2021. REUTERS/Jon Cherry

“We tried to stop them,” store employee Luis Romo told KTTV. “We closed the front entrance, and they put their sledgehammers up and whoever got in the way, they were going to hurt them.”

The Los Angeles City News Service said four suspects in that robbery were arrested on Saturday by Beverly Hills police.

In a similar incident Friday afternoon, a group of 10 men or more invaded a store in the city’s Fairfax district and started grabbing merchandise without paying for it, pushing employees out of the way before fleeing the scene, according to LAPD.

Police are investigating possible ties between that incident and a flurry of other robberies and retail thefts on Friday and earlier in the week, including two smash-and-grabs reported on Wednesday, an LAPD spokesperson said.

The rash of retail crime prompted the LAPD to place its officers on a citywide tactical alert on Friday afternoon.

Mass robberies also were reported on Friday at two Best Buy electronics stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, one of them involving as many as 30 suspects, while a spree of pre-dawn retail burglaries were under investigation in Chicago.

In one of the biggest flash-mob robberies reported on the West Coast in recent days, police in the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek were seeking about 80 suspects who swarmed and ransacked a department store last Saturday. read more

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/flash-mob-thieves-target-us-retail-stores-black-friday-2021-11-27/

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New coronavirus variant Omicron keeps spreading, Australia detects cases – Reuters
New coronavirus variant Omicron keeps spreading, Australia detects cases – Reuters

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) – The new Omicron coronavirus variant kept spreading around the world on Sunday, with two cases detected in Australia, even as more countries tried to seal themselves off by imposing travel restrictions.

Health officials in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, said two passengers who arrived in Sydney from southern Africa on Saturday evening had tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Both people were asymptomatic, fully vaccinated and in quarantine, NSW Health said. Another 12 passengers from southern Africa were also in 14 days of hotel quarantine, while around 260 other passengers and aircrew have been directed to isolate. read more

The Australian cases were the latest indication that the variant may prove hard to contain. First discovered in South Africa, it has since been detected in Britain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.

Austria was investigating a suspected case on Sunday and in France Health Minister Olivier Veran said the new variant was probably already circulating there.

The discovery of Omicron, dubbed a “variant of concern” last week by the World Health Organization, has sparked worries around the world that it could resist vaccinations and prolong the nearly two-year COVID-19 pandemic.

Omicron is potentially more contagious than previous variants, although experts do not know yet if it will cause more or less severe COVID-19 compared to other strains.

Countries have imposed a wave of travel bans or curbs on southern Africa. Financial markets dived on Friday as investors worried that the variant could stall a global recovery. Oil prices tumbled by about $10 a barrel.

On Sunday, most Gulf stock markets fell sharply in early trade, with the Saudi index suffering its biggest single-day fall in nearly two years. read more

In the most far-reaching effort to keep the variant at bay, Israel announced late on Saturday it would ban the entry of all foreigners and reintroduce counter-terrorism phone-tracking technology to contain the spread of the variant.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the ban, pending government approval, would last 14 days. Officials hope that within that period there will be more information on how effective vaccines are against Omicron. read more

Many countries have imposed or are planning restrictions on travel from southern Africa. The South African government denounced this on Saturday as unfair and potentially harmful to its economy – saying it is being punished for its scientific ability to identify coronavirus variants early.

Mounted police patrol through the city centre, as the state of New South Wales surpasses the 90 percent double-dose coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination target for its population aged 16 and over, in Sydney, Australia, November 9, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

In Britain, where two linked cases of Omicron identified on Saturday were connected to travel to southern Africa, the government announced measures to try to contain the spread, including stricter testing rules for people arriving in the country and requiring mask wearing in some settings.

British health minister Sajid Javid said on Sunday he expected to receive advice imminently on whether the government can broaden a programme of providing booster shots to fully vaccinated people, to try to weaken the impact of the variant. read more

The German state of Bavaria also announced two confirmed cases of the variant on Saturday. In Italy, the National Health Institute said a case of the new variant had been detected in Milan in a person coming from Mozambique.

Zhong Nanshan, a Chinese respiratory disease expert, said it could take some time to reach a conclusion on the harmfulness of the new variant, state television reported on Sunday.

VACCINE DISPARITIES

Although epidemiologists say travel curbs may be too late to stop Omicron from circulating, many countries – including the United States, Brazil, Canada, European Union nations, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand – have announced travel bans or restrictions on southern Africa.

More countries imposed such curbs on Sunday, including Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

Mexico’s deputy health secretary, Hugo Lopez Gatell, said travel restrictions are of little use in response to the new variant, calling measures taken by some countries “disproportionate”.

“It has not been shown to be more virulent or to evade the immune response induced by vaccines. They affect the economy and well-being of people,” he said in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Omicron has emerged as many countries in Europe are already battling a surge in COVID-19 infections, with some reintroducing restrictions on social activity to try to stop the spread.

The new variant has also thrown a spotlight on huge disparities in vaccination rates around the globe. Even as many developed countries are giving third-dose boosters, less than 7% of people in low-income countries have received their first COVID-19 shot, according to medical and human rights groups.

Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Vaccine Alliance that with the WHO co-leads the COVAX initiative to push for equitable distribution of vaccines, said this was essential to ward off the emergence of more coronavirus variants.

“While we still need to know more about Omicron, we do know that as long as large portions of the world’s population are unvaccinated, variants will continue to appear, and the pandemic will continue to be prolonged,” he said in a statement to Reuters on Saturday.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/new-coronavirus-variant-omicron-keeps-spreading-australia-detects-cases-2021-11-28/

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Covid: Israel to impose travel ban for foreigners over new variant – BBC News
Covid: Israel to impose travel ban for foreigners over new variant – BBC News

Israel has confirmed more than 1.3 million Covid infections since the start of the pandemic, with over 8,100 deaths, according to America’s Johns Hopkins university.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59448547

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Wisconsin senators ask lawmakers to not politicize Waukesha attack – New York Post
Wisconsin senators ask lawmakers to not politicize Waukesha attack – New York Post

Wisconsin’s two US senators came together from across the aisle to call for an end to bipartisan bickering in the wake of the Waukesha Christmas parade attack.

Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D) and Ron Johnson (R) issued a rare joint statement Saturday calling on outside groups and individuals to “cease and desist” using the SUV ambush that killed six people and injured more than five dozen “for their own political purposes.”

The statement didn’t call out any specific outside groups or individuals.

Local officials’ “top priority is to begin the healing process within Waukesha by providing comfort and support to surviving family members of the deceased, and those injured both in body and spirit,” the senators wrote.

“They must also conduct a thorough investigation and afford the accused full due process. These will not be easy tasks, and will be made even more difficult if conducted within a politically charged atmosphere.”

Darrell Brooks, 39, allegedly used his Ford Escape to blow past police barricades and plow into a group of revelers at the Milwaukee-area city’s annual Christmas parade.

Darrell Brooks was charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide after he allegedly drove through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin on Nov. 21, 2021.
Getty Images

The career criminal — who had called for violence against white people and expressed his admiration of Adolf Hitler’s mass murder of Jews — had been released from jail after allegedly running over his girlfriend with the SUV earlier that month.

Days before the statement, Johnson blasted Democrats for rhetoric and policies that led to the massacre, in his opinion.

“When you look the other way, when you almost encourage lawlessness — just like, let’s face it, you have political figures during the summer riots of 2020 encouraging people to donate to the bail fund so you can bail these people out … When you encourage lawlessness, you’re going to get more of it,” Johnson said on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday.

At least six people died and dozens were injured after Brooks plowed his SUV into the parade.
JESUS OCHOA via REUTERS

“It becomes more and more violent. It starts spilling over from crime-ridden, generally Democrat-governed cities into the surrounding areas,” the senator added. “I think that’s probably what we witnessed here in Waukesha.”

His comments were echoed on the program the next day by Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who blamed Democratic “funding far-left, radical DAs and prosecutors” for the disaster.

“I’m not that conspiratorial,” the congressman added, “But it is pretty obvious that there’s people like George Soros who are funding these far-left, radical DAs and prosecutors around the country, which means millions of dollars.”

A memorial is placed along Main Street in downtown Waukesha, Wisc.
Getty Images

A day after the attack, fellow Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia took to Twitter to rhetorically ask if “mainstream media, Democrats, and even the President of the United States” incited the mass murder.

Former President Donald Trump called Brooks a “rough cookie” on Fox News Tuesday, but told host Sean Hannity he took solace in the fact the suspected killer — an aspiring musician who once rapped “f–k Donald Trump” — was not a supporter of his.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/11/28/wisconsin-senators-tammy-baldwin-ron-johnson-ask-lawmakers-to-not-politicize-waukesha-attack/

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Vaccine makers race to stay ahead of new COVID-19 variants – NPR
Vaccine makers race to stay ahead of new COVID-19 variants – NPR

A gas station attendant stands next to a newspaper headline in Pretoria, South Africa, on Saturday. The new omicron variant has spread from South Africa to parts of Europe, and as far as Hong Kong.

Denis Farrell/AP


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Denis Farrell/AP

A gas station attendant stands next to a newspaper headline in Pretoria, South Africa, on Saturday. The new omicron variant has spread from South Africa to parts of Europe, and as far as Hong Kong.

Denis Farrell/AP

A new strain of COVID-19 first discovered in South Africa was declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization on Friday. Here’s how the pharmaceutical industry plans to address the latest coronavirus curve ball.

Vaccine makers are already pivoting their efforts to combat the new variant: testing higher doses of booster shots, designing new boosters that anticipate strain mutations, and developing omicron-specific boosters.

In a statement sent to NPR, Moderna said it has been working on a comprehensive strategy to predict variants of concern since the beginning of 2021. One approach is to double the current booster from 50 to 100 micrograms. Secondly, the vaccine maker has been studying two booster vaccines that are designed to anticipate mutations like those found in the omicron variant. The company also said it will ramp up efforts to make a booster candidate that specifically targets omicron.

“From the beginning, we have said that as we seek to defeat the pandemic, it is imperative that we are proactive as the virus evolves,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel. “The mutations in the Omicron variant are concerning and for several days, we have been moving as fast as possible to execute our strategy to address this variant.”

Pfizer and BioNTech told Reuters that it expects more data about the omicron variant to be collected within two weeks. That information will help determine whether or not they need to modify their current vaccine. Pfizer and BioNTech said that a vaccine tailored for the omicron variant, if needed, could be ready to ship in approximately 100 days.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement sent to NPR that it too is already testing its vaccine’s efficacy against the new variant.

The omicron variant was first reported to the WHO on Nov. 24, the WHO said. Preliminary evidence indicates the variant poses an increased risk for reinfection due to the large number of mutations. Until recently, cases across South Africa have predominantly been from the delta variant, an earlier strain that has pushed health care systems to the max since early summer. But omicron infections have been on the rise in recent weeks, the WHO reported.

More concerning, omicron cases have emerged across the globe. Al Jazeera reported that cases have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong.

News of the rapidly spreading variant led to a new set of air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries, implemented by President Joe Biden, that go into effect Monday. The president made the announcement the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

Unlike last year, when millions of people traveled against the advice of health experts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, more or less condoned Thanksgiving get-togethers for vaccinated Americans. And, according to an American Automobile Association travel forecast, over 53 million people were expected to travel for Thanksgiving — an 18% jump compared to last year — including more than 4 million by air.

As of Friday, the CDC said that no cases of the omicron variant had been identified in the United States. However, Fauci said on Saturday that he would not be surprised if the variant is already here.

“We have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you’re already having travel-related cases that they’ve noted in Israel and Belgium and other places … it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over,” he said in an interview on the Today show.

As Americans prepare to transition from one busy holiday to the next, the CDC is predicting that coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths will increase over the next four weeks. More than 776,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19 to date, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker, and the country is projected to surpass 800,000 deaths by Christmas.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/11/27/1059534796/covid-19-vaccine-makers-combat-omicron-variant

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A small-town mom wanted to help her community. And then the community took aim at her child – CNN
A small-town mom wanted to help her community. And then the community took aim at her child – CNN

By Evan McMorris-Santoro and Yon Pomrenze, CNN

Updated 4:02 AM ET, Sun November 28, 2021

Hastings, Minnesota (CNN)Kelsey and Chris Waits moved to Hastings, Minnesota, to build a dream home for themselves and their two children.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/28/us/minnesota-school-board-transgender-hate/index.html

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    China study warns of ‘colossal’ COVID outbreak if it opens up like U.S., France – Reuters
    China study warns of ‘colossal’ COVID outbreak if it opens up like U.S., France – Reuters

    BEIJING, Nov 28 (Reuters) – China could face more than 630,000 COVID-19 infections a day if it dropped its zero-tolerance policies by lifting travel curbs, according to a study by Peking University mathematicians.

    In the report published in China CDC Weekly by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the mathematicians said China could not afford to lift travel restrictions without more efficient vaccinations or specific treatments.

    Using data for August from the United States, Britain, Spain, France and Israel, the mathematicians assessed the potential results if China adopted the same pandemic control tactics as those countries.

    China’s daily new cases would reach at least 637,155 if it adopted the United States’ pandemic strategy, the report said.

    And daily cases would hit 275,793 if China took the same approach as Britain and 454,198 if it imitated France, it said.

    “The estimates revealed the real possibility of a colossal outbreak which would almost certainly induce an unaffordable burden on the medical system,” the report said.

    “Our findings have raised a clear warning that, for the time being, we are not ready to embrace ‘open-up’ strategies resting solely on the hypothesis of herd immunity induced by vaccination advocated by certain western countries.”

    The mathematicians cautioned that their estimates were based on basic arithmetic calculations and that more sophisticated models were needed to study the evolution of the pandemic if travel restrictions were lifted.

    China has maintained a zero-tolerance policy towards COVID-19, saying the importance of containing local cases when they are found outweighs the disruptions caused by efforts to trace, isolate and treat the infected.

    China reported 23 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Nov. 27, down from 25 a day earlier, its health authority said on Sunday.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday designated a new COVID-19 variant detected in South Africa with a large number of mutations as being “of concern”, prompting some countries to impose travel curbs. read more

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

    Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-study-warns-colossal-covid-outbreak-if-it-opens-up-like-us-france-2021-11-28/

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    Three dead, four others injured in Nashville apartment shooting – The Tennessean
    Three dead, four others injured in Nashville apartment shooting – The Tennessean

    Nashville police Homicide Unit detectives are investigating the motive behind a Thanksgiving weekend shooting that left six members of the same family shot, two of them fatally.

    In all, seven people were shot after gunfire broke out just after 9:45 p.m. Friday inside the family’s home on the 2800 block of Torbett Street near 28th Avenue North, the Metro Nashville Police Department reported.

    Three people died in the shooting including teen brothers Tavarius Sherrell, 15, and Zacquez Sherrell, 18.

    Wounded were their 40-year-old mother, two of their sisters, ages 16 and 20, and their 13-year-old brother. On Saturday, police said, they were expected to survive.

    A third person, a 29-year-old man identified by police as Christian Akail Johnson, also died in the shooting.

    Police said he is believed to be one of two suspects who entered the home and that robbery is being considered a motive in the gunfire.

    According to the victims, Johnson and another unidentified person, knocked on the door and entered the apartment armed before shots rang out. The series of events following their entry remains under investigation, police said.  

    Police spokeswoman Kris Mumford said the three people fatally shot were pronounced dead at the scene.

    The other four people who suffered gunshot wounds were taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to be treated for non life-threatening injuries, Mumford said.

    Source Article from https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2021/11/27/three-men-dead-four-others-injured-nashville-apartment-shooting/8776237002/

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    Omicron variant symptoms ‘unusual but mild’, says South African doctor – New York Post
    Omicron variant symptoms ‘unusual but mild’, says South African doctor – New York Post

    The South African doctor who first sounded the alarm on the Omicron variant of the coronavirus said that its symptoms are “unusual but mild” in healthy patients — but she’s worried the strain could cause complications in the elderly and unvaccinated.

    Dr. Angelique Coetzee, a practicing doctor for 30 years who chairs the South African Medical Association (SAMA), said she believed she had found a new strain of the virus after COVID-19 patients at her private practice in Pretoria exhibited strange symptoms.

    “Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before,” Coetzee told The Telegraph.

    She called South Africa’s vaccine advisory committee on Nov. 18 after a family of four all tested positive for the virus with symptoms that included extreme fatigue.

    So far, she’s had two dozen patients who tested positive and showed symptoms of the new variant, mostly young men. About half of the patients were unvaccinated, she said. None of those infected lost their sense of smell or taste.

    Dr. Angelique Coetzee sounded the alarm on the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in South Africa.
    SAMA

    “It presents mild disease with symptoms being sore muscles and tiredness for a day or two not feeling well,” Coetzee told the paper. “So far, we have detected that those infected do not suffer the loss of taste or smell. They might have a slight cough. There are no prominent symptoms. Of those infected some are currently being treated at home.”

    She described one “very interesting case” involving a 6-year-old girl.

    She had “a temperature and a very high pulse rate, and I wondered if I should admit her. But when I followed up two days later, she was so much better,” she said.

    Coetzee emphasized that all of her patients had been healthy, and expressed worry that elderly or unvaccinated patients could be hit by the omicron much harder –especially those with comorbidities such as diabetes or heart disease.

    “What we have to worry about now is that when older, unvaccinated people are infected with the new variant, and if they are not vaccinated, we are going to see many people with a severe [form of the] disease,” she said.

    The World Health Organization officially named the virus on Friday, skipping two letters of the Greek alphabet and choosing “Omicron.”

    There have been no confirmed cases of the new variant in the United States yet, but officials believe it may already be here. Two cases have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, which joined the US and European Union in issuing travel restrictions.

    On Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and put a temporary halt on all elective surgeries in anticipation of hospitalizations.

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/11/27/omicron-variant-symptoms-unusual-but-mild-says-south-african-doctor/

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    Dozens on S Africa flights test positive for COVID in Netherlands – Aljazeera.com
    Dozens on S Africa flights test positive for COVID in Netherlands – Aljazeera.com

    Dutch health authorities say they have detected 61 COVID-19 cases among people who flew in from South Africa and say they believe some of the infections are of the new omicron variant.

    In a statement on Saturday, the Dutch Health Authority (GDD) said that the cases were discovered among 624 passengers who arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on two flights on Friday.

    That was before the Dutch government restricted air traffic from southern Africa due to concerns over the variant.

    “We know that 61 of the results were positive and 531 [were] negative,” the GDD said.

    A spokesman for the National Institute for Public Health (RVIM) meanwhile said the agency was “almost certain” that the cases were of the new variant, but said further testing was needed to be absolutely sure.

    The results are expected to be made public on Sunday.

    Those who tested positive are now being kept in isolation at a hotel near the airport.

    A spokesperson for KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France, said the passengers on the flight had either tested negative or shown proof of vaccination before getting on planes in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

    “It goes too far to say we are surprised” by the high number of cases, a KLM spokesperson said. “But we don’t have an explanation.”

    The spokesperson said it was possible many of the positive cases were among vaccinated people, or that an unusual number of people developed infections after having tested negative.

    Dutch health authorities were seeking to contact some 5,000 other passengers who have travelled from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia or Zimbabwe since Monday to urge them to take a COVID-19 test as soon as possible.

    ‘It’s a little scary’

    Paula Zimmerman, a Dutch photographer who returned from a family visit in South Africa on Friday morning, said the situation for the passengers on the planes was chaotic, as they were kept waiting on the tarmac and in the terminal for hours.

    Zimmerman was told she had tested negative at 4 am, almost 18 hours after landing in Amsterdam. But she then found out she was standing right next to a man who discovered he had tested positive.

    “It was really weird. There was no coordination. There were too few people and there really wasn’t anybody who took control.”

    Having spent hours on a flight that likely had many infected passengers made Zimmerman anxious for the days to come, she said.

    “I’ve been told that they expect that a lot more people will test positive after five days. It’s a little scary, the idea that you’ve been in a plane with a lot of people who tested positive.”

    New York Times global health reporter Stephanie Nolen also tweeted her ordeal at what she called “Dystopia Central Airline Hallway”.

    She described how passengers, including babies and toddlers, were crammed together waiting to get tested, while “still 30 percent of people are wearing no mask or only over mouth”.

    Dutch citizens are still allowed to return home from southern Africa, while European Union citizens are allowed entry in transit to their home countries.

    Medical staff, airline crews and people with pressing needs are also still allowed to travel. KLM will continue flights to the region, but all travellers must now test negative before departure and then quarantine for at least five days upon arrival in the Netherlands.

    The new variant has been detected as many European countries grapple with a surge in coronavirus cases.

    The Dutch government on Friday announced the nighttime closure of bars, restaurants and most stores, as it tries to curb a record-breaking wave of COVID-19 cases that is swamping its healthcare system.

    Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/28/dozens-on-s-africa-flights-test-positive-for-covid-in-netherlands

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    Biden spotted in Nantucket shopping indoors without a mask despite sign mandating them – Fox News
    Biden spotted in Nantucket shopping indoors without a mask despite sign mandating them – Fox News
    Video

    President Biden spotted shopping inside without a mask on

    President Biden can be seen inside shopping with his mask down, he is seen through the front which has a sign showing that they require face covering.

    President Joe Biden was spotted shopping inside a store over the weekend without wearing a mask which he has repeatedly urged Americans to wear.

    The president was seen inside Murray’s Toggery Shop on the island of Nantucket Saturday with his mask around his neck and not covering his mouth despite a visible sign outside the door instructing patrons to wear a mask.

    Biden spotted without mask in store that requires masks
    (Pool)

    NINE OF 10 MOST POPULAR GOVERNORS ARE REPUBLICANS, BIDEN LESS POPULAR THAN LEAST POPULAR GOVERNOR

    According to the White House press pool, Biden walked out of the shop at 4:45 p.m. with his mask down and drinking what appeared to be a milkshake. 

    The president ignored a question on what more needs to be done to stop the rising omicron variant as he walked down the street to another store. 

    Nantucket, where Biden is spending his Thanksgiving holiday, re-instituted an indoor mask mandate earlier this month.

    ISRAEL TO CLOSE BORDER, AIRPORTS TO NON-CITIZEN INTERNATIONAL TRAVELERS FOR 14 DAYS DUE TO OMICRON VARIANT

    President Joe Biden removes his face mask as he arrives to speak about COVID-19 vaccinations, from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 18, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

    Biden has been criticized several times for not following local mask mandates while urging Americans to wear a mask including at an upscale Washington, D.C. restaurant in October where he was spotted walking through the eatery without a mask. 

    In November, Biden was seen mingling with members of the public without a mask before putting it on for a photo-op.

    CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-spotted-in-nantucket-shopping-indoors-without-a-mask-despite-sign-mandating-them

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