American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
The Delta coronavirus variant surging across the United States appears to cause more severe illness and spread as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal document from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The document -- a slide presentation -- outlines unpublished data that shows fully vaccinated people might spread the Delta variant at the same rate as unvaccinated people.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky confirmed the authenticity of the document, which was first reported by The Washington Post.
"I think people need to understand that we're not crying wolf here. This is serious," she told CNN.
"It's one of the most transmissible viruses we know about. Measles, chickenpox, this -- they're all up there."
The CDC is scheduled to publish data Friday that will back Walensky's controversial decision to change guidance for fully vaccinated people. She said Tuesday the CDC was recommending that even fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in places where transmission of the virus is sustained or high.
And she said everyone in schools -- students, staff and visitors -- should wear masks at all times.
"The measures we need to get this under control -- they're extreme. The measures you need are extreme," Walensky told CNN.
She said the data in the report did not surprise her. "It was the synthesis of the data all in one place that was sobering," she said.
The CDC presentation says the Delta variant is about as transmissible as chickenpox, with each infected person, on average, infecting eight or nine others. The original lineage was about as transmissible as the common cold, with each infected person passing the virus to about two other people on average.
That infectivity is known as R0.
"When you think about diseases that have an R0 of eight or nine -- there aren't that many," Walensky told CNN.
And if vaccinated people get infected anyway, they have as much virus in their bodies as unvaccinated people. That means they're as likely to infect someone else as unvaccinated people who get infected.
"The bottom line was that, in contrast to the other variants, vaccinated people, even if they didn't get sick, got infected and shed virus at similar levels as unvaccinated people who got infected," Dr. Walter Orenstein, who heads the Emory Vaccine Center and who viewed the documents, told CNN.
But vaccinated people are safer, the document indicates.
"Vaccines prevent more than 90% of severe disease, but may be less effective at preventing infection or transmission," it reads. "Therefore, more breakthrough and more community spread despite vaccination."
It says vaccines reduce the risk of severe disease or death 10-fold and reduce the risk of infection three-fold.
The presentation also cites three reports that indicate the Delta variant -- originally known as B.1.617.2 -- might cause more severe disease.
The CDC, the document advises, should "acknowledge the war has changed." It recommends vaccine mandates and universal mask requirements.
The virus is once against surging across the U.S. -- especially in areas where fewer people are vaccinated.
The U.S. averaged more than 66,900 new daily cases over the last week -- an average that's generally risen since the country hit a 2021 low of 11,299 daily cases on June 22, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
"The number of cases we have now is higher than any number we had on any given day last summer," Walensky told CNN.
As of Wednesday, cases have risen in all but one state in the past seven days compared with the week before, according to Johns Hopkins.
"The one thing I will say is I've been heartened in the past couple of days to see more people taking action in response to the fact that it's bad -- more organizations, businesses, states, localities taking the action that's needed to get us out of this," Walensky said.
The CDC document walks through new "communication challenges" as a result of breakthrough infections, along with the need to retool public health messaging to highlight vaccination as the best defense against the Delta variant.
The agency should "improve (the) public's understanding of breakthrough infections" and "improve communications around individual risk among vaccinated," it says.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a number of new steps his administration will take to try to get more Americans vaccinated, including requiring that all federal employees must attest to being vaccinated against COVID-19 or face strict protocols.
"This is an American tragedy. People are dying -- and will die -- who don't have to die. If you're out there unvaccinated, you don't have to die," Biden said during remarks at the White House. "Read the news. You'll see stories of unvaccinated patients in hospitals, as they're lying in bed dying from COVID-19, they're asking, 'Doc, can I get the vaccine?' The doctors have to say, 'Sorry, it's too late.' "
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
Bayer announced Thursday it is recalling two lots of its hydraSense Baby Nasal Care Easydose due to a potential contamination.
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.