Month: July 2021

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revised its guidance on mask wearing. In a reversal of its earlier position, on Tuesday the agency recommended that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors, if they live in areas with significant or high spread. Many public health experts had been urging the agency to change its policy for weeks, arguing that fully vaccinated people should wear masks in indoor settings, especially in areas where transmission of the virus is high.

Acknowledging that people are “tired and frustrated,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said, ‘this was not a decision that was taken lightly.” New data shows that while vaccinated people account for a very small amount of risk, in rare cases they can get infected and spread the virus to others. The CDC’s change in position comes as the highly transmissible delta variant is causing a surge in cases around the country, and multiple cities have reinstated indoor mask mandates, including in Los Angeles County and St. Louis.  Walensky said, “the delta variant is showing every day its willingness to outsmart us.”   In addition, the agency also recommended that all teachers, staff and students of K-12 schools wear masks, even if they are vaccinated. Children remain unprotected against the virus, as the vaccines are not authorized for children under 12 and many teenagers have yet to be vaccinated.

In May, the CDC announced it was safe for fully vaccinated people to stop masking in most settings. The hope was that dropping the mask mandate would encourage more people to get vaccinated.  But just three months later, about 30% of adults in the U.S. haven’t been vaccinated, with polls indicating that up to 80% of unvaccinated adults are unlikely to change their minds.

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On Tuesday, the Capitol police officers who were injured while fighting off rioters during the Jan. 6 attack described to the House select committee what it was like on the front lines. The hearing was the first for the committee, which was formed to probe the attack by radical supporters of former President Donald Trump, who were attempting to disrupt the official certification of Joe Biden as president.

The officers spoke about the physical and psychological injuries they sustained and detailed the types of attacks they and their fellow officers suffered. Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell said he was beaten with a flagpole and soaked with chemical spray while defending the Capitol. As a result of his injuries, he said had surgery on his right foot, would need surgery on his left shoulder, and will need further rehab for possibly more than a year.

D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone said he was “tortured” on January 6, dragged alone into the crowd, tased and beaten with fists and metal objects. The attack rendered him unconscious and that he suffered a mild heart attack and a brain injury. Fanone said he feared for his life and pleaded with the mob, telling them, “I have kids.” He said he heard the crowd chant, “Kill him with his own gun,” and said, “I can still hear those words in my head today.”

Capitol Police Private First Class Harry Dunn, who also testified Tuesday, said he was assaulted and called racial slurs during the mob attack. Dunn said that during the siege, while in conversation with a rioter, he volunteered that he’d voted for Joe Biden. A crowd of about 20 people then surrounded him, screaming and calling him the n-word.

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The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs announced on Monday that it will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare personnel. The VA secretary said in an announcement the mandate applies to Title 38 VA healthcare personnel, such as physicians, nurses, dentists and chiropractors, “who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit VHA facilities or provide direct care to those VA serves.” The mandate gives each of them up to eight weeks to become fully vaccinated. It’s the first such mandate at a federal agency in the United States.

The announcement comes on the same day over 50 major healthcare groups advocated for employers mandating COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers. Both moves come after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky comes recently warned that COVID-19 was becoming “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” The CDC chief explained that there was a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths due to the Delta variant, especially among the unvaccinated population.

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President Joe Biden said at the White House on Monday alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi that the United States’ combat mission in Iraq will be over by the end of this year. Biden told reporters in the Oval Office the U.S. focus in Iraq will shift to an advisory one before 2021 is over, saying, “I think things are going well. Our role in Iraq will be to be available to continue to train, to assist to help, and to deal with ISIS as it arrives. But we’re not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission.”

Biden’s announcement came as al-Kahdhimi visited the White House to talk about the continued presence of U.S. troops in the country, and possibly changing their role. The U.S. military presence in Iraq, which dates to former President George W. Bush, hit a crossroads in January 2020 when a U.S. airstrike killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of that country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, while he was in Iraq.