New York Times: ‘Long Covid’ patients will be covered by federal disability law, Biden says.. “Americans suffering from ‘long Covid’ — a term referring to new or ongoing health problems from a coronavirus infection that occurred weeks or months ago — will have access to the benefits and protection provided under federal disability law, President Biden said on Monday.”
ABC News: Provincetown implements indoor mask mandate after COVID-19 cluster grows to 551 cases. “Sixty-nine percent of confirmed cases among Massachusetts residents have occurred in individuals who were fully vaccinated, officials confirmed, and those infected have been found to be predominantly symptomatic. In addition, officials reported that 88% of the cases are among males, and the median age of those testing positive is 39.”
Tubefilter: YouTube Removes Videos From Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro For Spreading COVID Misinformation. “Reuters notes that Bolsonaro has been outspoken against lockdowns, vaccines, masks, and has promoted unscientific treatments on his YouTube channel, where he hosts weekly addresses. These streams — which are also distributed on Facebook — see the far-right figure taking questions from viewers and deriding his enemies alongside appearances from ministers and music.”
Washington Post: As coronavirus surges, GOP lawmakers are moving to limit public health powers . “In some states, anger at perceived overreach by health officials has prompted legislative attempts to limit their authority, including new state laws that prevent the closure of businesses or allow lawmakers to rescind mask mandates. Some state courts have reined in the emergency and regulatory powers governors have wielded against the virus. And in its recent rulings and analysis, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its willingness to limit disease mitigation in the name of religious freedom.”
BBC: Covid-19: Recent claims about cremations and vaccines fact-checked. “Throughout the pandemic, statistics have been used in misleading and false claims about the impact of Covid-19 and the use of vaccines. Here are four recent claims we’ve fact-checked.”
Advocate: COVID ‘Cluster’ Hits Provincetown, Affecting Vaccinated, Unvaccinated. “The Cape Cod beach town has seen a rise of COVID cases since the July 4 holiday weekend, with 132 confirmed cases reported to the state department of health as of last Friday, according to The Boston Globe. Eighty-nine of those positive cases were among Massachusetts residents, while the others affected people living outside the state or nation. Surprisingly, the COVID diagnoses affected both the unvaccinated and vaccinated.”
Reuters: South Korea reports record daily infections as Delta variant drives surge. “South Korea reported a daily record of 1,784 coronavirus cases for Tuesday, breaking a mark set last week, as the authorities struggled to get on top of a surge in outbreaks linked to the Delta variant.”
New York Times: Scarred by Covid, Survivors and Victims’ Families Aim to Be a Political Force. “New grass-roots groups are learning how to lobby for things like mental health and disability benefits, research on ‘long haulers,’ an investigation of the pandemic and a day to honor the dead.”
CNBC: Dr. Scott Gottlieb urges social media platforms to curb Covid vaccine misinformation. “Social media companies are falling short of their responsibility to regulate the spread of Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on their platforms, Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Monday on CNBC.”
Fast Company: Delta variant update: New CDC map shows most vulnerable U.S. areas with low vaccination rates. “Earlier this month, the delta variant of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, became dominant in the United States with just over 50% of all new COVID-19 cases being caused by it. Now the latest data shows that a full 83% of new cases are from the delta variant, reports NBC News. This is cause for concern as the delta variant is much more transmissible than previous variants.”
San Francisco Chronicle: If you’re fully vaccinated, what’s your risk of ‘long COVID’ as delta variant spreads?. “Most COVID-19 vaccines are proving very effective at protecting against severe illness and hospitalization from the delta variant, but breakthrough cases do occur — and some experts have said that the potential for lingering health problems known as ‘long COVID’ gives them pause.”
BBC: The YouTubers who blew the whistle on an anti-vax plot. “A mysterious marketing agency secretly offered to pay social media stars to spread disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines. Their plan failed when the influencers went public about the attempt to recruit them.”
NPR: The Delta Variant Will Drive A Steep Rise In U.S. COVID Deaths, A New Model Shows. “The current COVID-19 surge in the U.S. — fueled by the highly contagious delta variant — will steadily accelerate through the summer and fall, peaking in mid-October, with daily deaths more than triple what they are now. That’s according to new projections released Wednesday from the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, a consortium of researchers working in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help the agency track the course of the pandemic.”
Poynter: Governments created an informational black hole for Indigenous communities and COVID-19. “We may never know how many American Indians or Alaska Natives died of COVID-19. The Indian Health Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is not keeping track. The Centers for Disease Control cannot tell us. And some state health authorities will not disclose that data, despite multiple public records requests, even though it would shed light on the pandemic’s death toll in Indian Country.”
Politico: GOP sees widening rift over promoting Covid shots. “While top Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey pleaded with people to get vaccinated, others downplayed the threat of a Covid-19 resurgence — wary of angering a GOP base that views the sputtering vaccination effort as a political blow to President Joe Biden. A news conference with Republican doctors in Congress, ostensibly to discuss the Delta variant, instead turned into a forum for the lawmakers to repeat unverified claims that the virus escaped from a lab in China, and to bash Democrats for not thoroughly investigating Covid’s origins.”
