Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
With the latest COVID-19 surge upending American life yet again, an official rollout of booster doses could begin within weeks, pending FDA authorization. And it's likely that three doses of the vaccine are needed for full protection, Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
He cited two Israeli-based studies that showed a decrease in infections among people who got a third or booster shot.
There was good reason to believe that a third dose "will actually be durable, and if it is durable, then you're going to have very likely a three-dose regimen being the routine regimen," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a briefing Thursday.
It's ultimately up to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to decide whether Americans should get three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, Fauci said. The agency is considering the question later this month after Moderna and Pfizer both applied for FDA authorization for a third dose either six months or eight months after getting the second dose.
The recommendation for the booster doses will likely lead to availability for a broad portion of the population, and doses could begin rolling out as early as the week of September 20, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Thursday.
Additional doses were granted emergency use authorization by the FDA this month for those who are immunocompromised.
Even though the doses are not yet available to the public, local health departments nationwide have seen a recent surge in calls from people wanting to make appointments, according to the National Association of County and City Health Departments.
While the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster plan remains on track for the week of September 20, according to a source familiar with the discussion, it may take a few weeks longer to move forward with Moderna's boosters.
There have been internal conversations within the Biden administration about scaling back the ambitious booster plan laid out by top federal health officials last month as the calendar nears September 20, when officials initially said boosters could be available for people who had either mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
A person familiar with the matter told CNN there was a meeting between top federal health officials and White House staff on Thursday in which officials warned that more time may be needed before enough data is available to recommend boosters for all adults. Federal health officials relayed that Moderna's submission was "found inadequate and needs strengthened data" from the company, a source said.
The company announced on Twitter Friday that it has completed submission of its data on booster doses to the FDA. The agency is already evaluating data submitted by Pfizer/BioNTech for approval of a booster dose.
For now, the emphasis remains on increasing vaccination rates among the U.S. population to help overcome the pandemic.
Roughly 62.2% of the U.S. population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and about 52.9% is fully vaccinated, CDC data shows.
Of the 10 states with the worst COVID-19 case rates over the past week, seven of them also had among the 10 best vaccination rates, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And in states with lower vaccination rates, more children went to the hospital and emergency room, according to a new CDC study.
The research, published Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Report, found hospitalizations and emergency room visits for children with COVID-19 increased from June to August. And in the two-week period in mid-to-late August, ER visits were 3.4 times higher in the states with the lowest vaccination rates while hospitalizations were 3.7 times higher than in states with the highest vaccination rates. The states with the lowest vaccination coverage were in the South.
The risk of COVID-19 spread at schools and campuses remains critical, and recent research demonstrates how unmasked behavior among the unvaccinated can lead to outbreaks.
A study published Thursday described a COVID-19 outbreak among more than 150 students at a Chicago university after many unvaccinated students traveled during spring break, despite university policies that advised against it.
To prevent similar outbreaks, some universities have instituted mandates to attend classes in-person.
Virginia Tech disenrolled 134 students for failing to comply with the university's requirement that students be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and "did not submit vaccination documentation or receive a medical or religious exemption," according to a statement on Monday.
The University of Virginia has also disenrolled more than 200 students for failing to comply with their vaccine mandate, according to a statement last month.
Vaccinations in teens and adults can not only stave off infections at schools but can also protect children under 12 who are ineligible for the vaccine.
"Communities with high vaccination coverage are seeing lower pediatric cases and hospitalizations," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.
Along with vaccinations, mask-wearing is also beneficial to curbing Covid-19 spread, evidence shows.
The state of New York will require weekly COVID-19 testing for teachers and other school employees, with an opt-out for those who are vaccinated, and will continue its mask mandate for everybody in a school building, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday.
In Florida, districts will be able to institute mask mandates following a judge signing a written order Thursday that ruled against Gov. Ron DeSantis' ban on such mandates in schools. DeSantis said he will appeal.
A new coronavirus variant designated as Mu by the World Health Organization is being monitored as a "variant of interest," but federal health officials say they don't consider it immediately dangerous.
On Tuesday, WHO designated the B.1.621 variant as a "variant of interest" because it carries mutations that could help it partially evade vaccines and treatments such as monoclonal antibodies. WHO named it Mu under its system to designate important variants using the Greek alphabet.
"This variant has a constellation of mutations that suggests that it would evade certain antibodies," Fauci said Thursday of Mu. "Not only monoclonal antibodies, but vaccine and convalescent serum-induced antibodies. But there isn't a lot of clinical data to suggest that -- it is mostly laboratory, in vitro, data.
"Not to downplay it -- we take it very seriously. But remember, even when you have variants that do diminish somewhat the efficacy of vaccines, the vaccines still are quite effective against variants of that type. Bottom line, we're paying attention to it. We take everything like that seriously. But we don't consider it an immediate threat right now," he said.
The Delta variant still accounts for more than 99% of COVID-19 cases diagnosed and sequenced in the U.S., Walensky said Thursday, while Mu is rare.
"We are watching it carefully," she said.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.