Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
Watch President Biden, Vice President Harris and former President Barack Obama deliver remarks on the Patient Protection Act and lowering healtcare costs for families. President Biden also announced additional actions to save families hundreds of dollars a month on their healthcare expenses.
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“Transplant recipients, cancer patients and millions of other Americans with risk factors feel ignored and abandoned as their neighbors, and their government, seek a return to normal,” Amanda Morris and Maggie Astor write.
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“Despite being widely seen as mild, the omicron coronavirus variant has been brutal on children and adolescents—particularly babies and toddlers, who are still ineligible for vaccination,” Beth Mole writes.
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The President spoke on December 21st, 2021, from the East Room of the White House to lay out what the administration is doing to fight COVID-19 and the omicron variant.
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“High-quality respirators such as N95s and KN95s are now widely available and provide the best protection against COVID, according to experts. Why aren’t more people wearing them?” Tanya Lewis asks.
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“The burden of this pandemic now rests on the shoulders of the unvaccinated,” writes Anita Sircar. “On those who are eligible to get vaccinated, but choose not to, a decision they defend by declaring, ‘vaccination is a deeply personal choice.’ But perhaps never in history has anyone’s personal choice impacted the world as a whole as it does right now.”
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“The United States remains among nations with the highest rate of new Covid-19 cases, driven mostly by a surge in the South, where many states are lagging in getting people vaccinated against the coronavirus,” Aya Elamroussi reports.
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“People who once rejected the vaccine or simply waited too long are now grappling with the consequences, often in raw, public way,” The New York Times’ Jack Healy reports.
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Jamie Swift, a registered nurse who oversees infection prevention at Johnston Memorial Hospital, a rural healthcare provider in The Old Dominion, is very familiar with covidiots. In her community, they’re everywhere.
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The Washington Post has published a discomforting report about America’s ineffective response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, which details the resistance to mask wearing and physical distancing in many parts of the country.
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An enthusiastic Donald Trump backer who trusted Trump and Pence instead of public health experts and lost family members as a result has a warning for people who still think like he once did.
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It’s the summer of COVID-19. BuzzFeed wonders: “How safe is it to take a trip? And what summer activities are less risky than others?”
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Erin S. Bromage, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, has published an informative primer on which environments the novel coronavirus is most easily transmitted in, which also discusses how people can minimize getting sick.
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During a COVID-19 update press conference, Governor Jay Inslee offered a scathing response to Republican legal attacks: “Anyone can file a lawsuit, and anyone has.”
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“Isolation can be toxic. Let’s increase physical distance, but stay connected,: writes Dr. Kenneth E. Miller.
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“[T]he Pavlovian urge to win the short-term news cycle, own the libs and defend the economic interests of corporate America and Trump’s re-election are combining with the predilection for conspiracy-minded thinking on the right.”
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“I am going to ask that all of our parishes in western Washington, in the Archdiocese of Seattle, effective today, suspend the celebration publicly of the Eucharist,” Archbishop Etienne said.
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“A president who is at his strongest politically when he has a human target to attack has found it harder to confront a growing outbreak that has rattled the country,” The New York Times assesses.
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Read a transcript of Governor Jay Inslee’s appearance on one of the nation’s major Sunday morning talk shows.
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“No doubt canceling SXSW was a tough call for the city,” data scientist Spencer Fox writes. “But public health concerns must take priority.”
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As coronavirus spreads to the United States, John Oliver discusses what’s being done to fight the illness, what’s gone wrong, and how to stay safe.
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