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Pope Francis said on Wednesday he was puzzled why so many people, including some cardinals in Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, have refused to get inoculated against Covid-19.
"It is a bit strange because humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines," he said aboard the plane returning from Slovakia, responding to a question from a reporter about the reasons for vaccine hesitancy.
"As children (we were vaccinated) for measles, polio. All the children were vaccinated and no one said anything," he said.
Francis, who has been vaccinated against Covid, has often urged others to get inoculated for the common good. Read More
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Public transport will be suspended this weekend to prevent protesters travelling to Melbourne's CBD for an anti-lockdown rally.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton has announced public transport to and from the city will shut down from 8am to 2pm on Saturday, the day of a worldwide series of "freedom" rallies.
Buses will be directed to bypass the city, trams stopped before returning to their junctions and trains turned back.
While acknowledging the move will inconvenience some, Mr Patton said it was designed to avoid a repeat of the violent scenes in last month's anti-lockdown protest and a potential COVID-19 super-spreader event.
"This is a significant step for us," he told reporters on Wednesday. Read More
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SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon Attorney General Rosenblum and 23 other attorneys general have filed an amicus brief in support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s challenge to the Texas ban on abortions after six weeks, calling the new law "unequivocally unconstitutional."
The brief, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, supports US DOJ’s motion for a preliminary injunction to put a stop to the new law immediately.
By banning nearly all pre-viability abortions within Texas, the law, Senate Bill 8 violates nearly 50 years of Supreme Court precedent affirming the constitutional right to an abortion, the attorneys general stated.
The Texas legislature sought to circumvent other Supreme Court rulings by giving enforcement authority to private individuals instead of the government in an “unprecedented attack on our constitutional order” and the rule of law, the brief claims.
“This anti-abortion law is unequivocally unconstitutional. By turning private citizens into ‘bounty hunters’ targeting anyone, including medical professionals, who assists someone in obtaining an abortion, Texas is ignoring well-established legal rights and federal law. It is shocking that Texas would seek to skirt the constitution so blatantly, ” said Attorney General Rosenblum. “We are at a crucial moment in the fight to keep abortion accessible, safe and legal. As Oregon’s attorney general, I am glad to be able to join this national fight for bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom.” Read More
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The positive COVID-19 positive test rate should be 5-8% to drop hospitalizations; C.O.'s rate is closer to 20%
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Eighteen months ago, Oregon announced its first case of COVID-19. Since then, the state has had more than 300,000 cases and nearly 3,500 COVID-19 related deaths, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
St. Charles Health System in Bend has been setting records in the past week with the number of COVID-19 patients, peaking so far at 98 on Monday.
"We're pretty full in the ICU," said Dr. Doug Merrill, chief Medical officer for St. Charles Health System. "I was just going to check -- I think we have one bed available right now."
Deschutes County has reported about 16,000 cases and 98 deaths. Crook County has had about 2,000 and 33 deaths. Jefferson County has reported about 3,000 cases and 45 deaths.
The latest COVID-19 forecast from Oregon Health and Science University shows Central Oregon at an alarming positivity rate. The most recent numbers, from last week, show Deschutes County had a positive test rate of about 18 percent. Crook County was near 15 percent and Jefferson County was at 12 percent -- a number experts say should be closer to six percent, if the hospital population is going to decline. Read More
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The Biden administration this week signaled that it is eyeing a United Nations small arms treaty that critics claim will lead to an international gun registration plan — including for individual American gun owners.
Two years after former President Donald Trump withdrew from it, a top arms diplomat at the State Department told the global body that the current administration is swinging behind the Arms Trade Treaty.
“I have come from Washington, D.C., this week to take the floor on the agenda item Treaty Universalization to underscore the continuing commitment of the United States to responsible international trade in conventional arms,” William Malzahn said at the 7th Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty. Read More
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Employees have long been forced to negotiate their salaries in the dark.
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) September 14, 2021
But that's changing, thanks to a nationwide wave of "pay transparency" laws. https://t.co/ye02TcmlJi pic.twitter.com/QPi9x9M0OL
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Pfizer's Covid vaccine could be rolled out to babies as young as six months in the US this winter, under plans being drawn up by the pharmaceutical giant.
In a move likely to cause international controversy, the company intends to apply for authorisation to immunise American infants within the next two months.
Frank D'Amelio, chief financial officer at Pfizer, told an industry conference yesterday that the firm plans to 'go file' by November, the Financial Times reports.
'We would expect to have... data for children between the ages of six months and five years old that we would file with the FDA,' D'Amelio said at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference. 'I'll call it in the weeks shortly thereafter the filing of the data for the five- to 11-year-olds.'
Pfizer was already planning to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the jabs to be given in children aged five to 11 by October.
But the latest comments confirm the firm's intention to work its way down much younger age groups. They will be given a lower dose than adults.
Pfizer's jab, made alongside German partner BioNTech, is already approved for over-12s in Britain. Read More
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host a closed-door meeting of world leaders at the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York on Monday to boost climate commitments.
The roundtable comes less than six weeks before a major UN climate meeting, COP26, in Glasgow, aimed at ensuring the world meets its goal of holding century-end warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
A senior UN official said Wednesday that over the past two years, leaders had conducted climate discussions at the G7 and G20, but there had not been a forum for leading economies to speak with the hardest-hit countries.
Asked why the meeting was closed-door, he said: "It's not intended in any fashion to be a meeting in the shadows," but a way to facilitate frank dialogue "rather than pre-prepared statements or reverting to established positions." Read More
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