TYB
DENVER (AP) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Polis and his partner, Marlon Reis, both have COVID-19 and are asymptomatic, the governor said in a statement Saturday night.
Polis had started quarantining Wednesday after he said he was exposed to the virus. Polis had tweeted late Wednesday that he tested negative the night after learning of his exposure but would be retested.
The state has been hit with a substantial spike in COVID-19 cases. One in 41 residents are believed to be contagious.
“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, no one is immune from this virus," Polis said in his statement. "Now is the time to be more cautious than ever before. There is more of the virus circulating across the country, including in Colorado, now than there even was in the spring.”
He said he will continue to serve the state while isolating himself. He urged residents to wear masks and keep 6 feet (1.8 meters) apart in public.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
https://www.stltoday.com/article_8f7f6e42-a66c-5306-b0cd-5f06b2769844.html
Dear Polis,
If masks work and social distancing works then how did you and your partner catch the rona?
Sincerely,
Annoyed by the bullshit anon.
NAIROBI, Kenya – The U.S. Embassy in Eritrea says six explosions were heard Saturday night in the capital, Asmara.It follows an embassy report of another “loud noise, possibly an explosion” in the city on Friday, nearly two weeks after the government of neighboring Ethiopia’s defiant Tigray region confirmed firing missiles at the city during its war with Ethiopian federal forces.
The latest explosions came just hours after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory in his government’s fighting against forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which runs the northern Tigray region bordering Eritrea. The army said it was in “full control” of the regional capital, Mekele, but the government said TPLF leaders remain on the run.
The TPLF leader earlier this month asserted that Eritrean forces were involved in the fighting in Tigray at the invitation of Ethiopia’s government, something Addis Ababa has repeatedly denied. Fears have grown that 96,000 Eritrean refugees in camps just over the border in Ethiopia are at risk.
The U.S. has accused the TPLF of seeking to “internationalize” the deadly conflict in which humanitarians say several hundred people have been killed, including civilians.
The U.S. Embassy statement overnight advises American citizens to exercise caution and be aware “of the ongoing conflict in the Tigray region.” It also advises citizens to "monitor local news” in a country regarded by watchdogs as being highly repressive and having no independent media.
The fighting has threatened to destabilize Ethiopia, which has been described as the linchpin of the strategic Horn of Africa, and its neighbors. Food, fuel, cash and medical supplies have run desperately low. Nearly 1 million people have been displaced, including more than 40,000 who fled into Sudan. Camps home to 96,000 Eritrean refugees in northern Tigray have been in the line of fire.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-reports-explosions-heard-eritreas-capital-74445227
Pope installs new cardinals, including first African-AmericanVATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Saturday installed 13 new cardinals, including the first African-American to hold the high rank, further expanding the pontiff’s impact on the group that will one day elect his successor.
The cardinals were installed in a ceremony, known as a consistory, that was markedly slimmed down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead of the usual thousands, only 10 guests per cardinal were allowed in St. Peter’s Basilica as the pope gave the men their ring and traditional red hat, known as a biretta.
Nine of the 13 are under 80 and eligible under Church law to enter a secret conclave to choose the next pope from among themselves after Francis dies or resigns.
It was Francis’ seventh consistory since his election in 2013. He has now appointed 57% of the 128 cardinal electors, most of whom share his vision of a more inclusive and outward-looking Church.
Thus far, he has appointed 18 cardinals from mostly far-flung countries that never had one, nearly all of them from the developing world. In Saturday’s consistory, Brunei and Rwanda got their first cardinals.
While Europe still has the largest share of cardinal electors, with 41%, it is down from 52% in 2013 when Francis became the first Latin-American pope.
With each consistory, Francis has increased the chances that his successor will be another non-European, having beefed up the Church in places where it is either a tiny minority or where it is growing faster than in the stagnant West.
The nine new electors come from Italy, Malta, Rwanda, the United States, the Philippines, Chile, Brunei and Mexico.
In his homily, Francis told the men to keep their eyes on God, avoid all forms of corruption, and not succumb to a “worldly spirit” that can accompany the prestige and power of their new rank.
Wilton Gregory, the 72-year-old archbishop of Washington, D.C, becomes the first African-American cardinal at a time the United States is examining race relations after a spate of police killings of unarmed Black people.
Everyone in the basilica except the pope wore a mask. Each new cardinal removed theirs when they knelt before him to be invested, except Gregory, who kept it on.
Gregory made headlines in June when he blasted President Donald Trump’s visit to a Catholic shrine in Washington, after police and soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear protesters so Trump could be photographed in front of a historic Washington church holding a Bible.
Gregory said he found it “baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated”.
Catholic conservatives condemned Gregory and sided with Trump.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Gregory said he wanted to find common ground with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden despite disagreements on issues such as abortion.
Gregory was one of a handful of new cardinals who were quarantined for about 10 days in their rooms in the Vatican guest house where the pope also lives. Cardinals from Brunei and the Philippines could not travel and will receive their ring and hat from a papal delegate.
Four non-electors over 80 were given the honour after a long service to the Church. The most prominent is Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, an Italian-American who has worked around the world and is one of the Church’s top experts on immigration.
The new cardinals later paid a courtesy visit to 93-year-old former Pope Benedict XVI, who lives on the Vatican grounds.
https://www.reuters.com/article/pope-cardinals-idUSKBN28904D
Covid-19 Vaccine Plans Must Prioritize People With Learning Disabilities
Earlier this month, stark data emerged on the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on individuals with learning disabilities.
The news was not wholly unexpected but confirmed the worst fears of many organizations, family carers and health professionals supporting individuals with learning disabilities – that this silent killer has wrought a vastly disproportionate toll upon one of the most vulnerable segments of the population.
According to a report published by Public Health England earlier in November based on the early months of the pandemic, people with learning disabilities are over six times more likely to die from Covid-19 than the general population.
Furthermore, young people with learning disabilities aged 18-34 are a staggering thirty times more likely to die from Covid-19 than their neurotypical peers.
Yet, in this helter-skelter year, where we appear to have become almost inured to heart-breaking news, the conversation seems to have moved on already.
The announcement to allow families in the U.K. to meet for a few days over the festive period and the new year promising an incoming U.S. administration determined to tackle the pandemic through science and rationalism, rather than using it as a political football, have all offered hope.
That aside, the single largest factor over the past month pointing to some light at the end of the tunnel has to be the announcement of positive data from, not one, but three coronavirus vaccine trials.
Individuals with learning disabilities to be de-prioritized in Covid vaccine roll- out
According to interim advice from the U.K.’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), young adults with learning disabilities are only sixth on the priority list for receiving a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available.
While it is comprehensible on some level to see this, nevertheless, vulnerable segment of the population, ranked behind older adults in care homes and those aged over 80, adults with learning disabilities have also, shockingly, been identified as a lower priority than healthy adults aged over 65.
This will give rise to the preposterous scenario whereby a fit, sprightly 65-year-old, who is also entirely capable of following and understanding social distancing guidelines, is given priority over a severely intellectually challenged adult with co-morbidities.
The outrage felt by family members and groups representing individuals with learning disabilities is palpable, and Simone Aspis, director of Changing Perspectives, an organization advocating for social justice for disabled people, pulled no punches in her analysis of what she feels is happening.
“People with learning difficulties are bottom of the queue for vaccination, for testing, for healthcare… for education support,” said Aspis in an interview earlier this month with Disability News Service.
Before further positing, “Is there not a clear message there that [there is] a social eugenics program going on here?”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gusalexiou/2020/11/29/covid-19-vaccine-plans-must-prioritize-people-with-learning-disabilities/?sh=4ba0b0714d47
Very well put, ty 07