CDC vaccination data may overestimate first doses, underestimate boosters
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which millions of Americans rely on for information on vaccination rates, recently acknowledged its data might overestimate the number of people who have received first doses while underestimating the number who have received boosters. The acknowledgment was easy to miss, tucked into footnotes at the bottom of the vaccination tracking page on the CDC website. It said that, in light of the possible error, the agency would cap its estimates of vaccination rates at 95%. Previously, it had capped its estimates at 99.9% and, for example, showed a 99.9% national vaccination rate for people 65 and older, which experts said was clearly inaccurate.
Echoes of Trump at a rally for France’s far-right upstart
The speech, riddled with attacks on the news media, elites and immigrants, with a fiery orator whipping up thousands of flag-waving supporters, was reminiscent of a Donald Trump campaign stop from years past. But the scene was in France, last weekend, where Éric Zemmour, a polarizing far-right polemicist who has scrambled French politics, launched his presidential campaign with a rally in front of thousands of ardent supporters. Anti-racism activists were attacked in the sort of brawl rarely seen at French political events. Four months before France’s presidential election, President Emmanuel Macron is still ahead in the polls. But the rally offered a glimpse of where the election could head.
Mother of missing journalist meets with top Biden official
The mother of Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria in 2012, met at the White House with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday after criticizing the Biden administration for being a “hurdle” to the release of her son. White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the meeting between Debra Tice and Sullivan and said the administration was doing everything it could to free Tice. She declined to provide an update on his case. ”I can’t give you an assessment. Obviously we’re going to do everything we can,” Psaki said. “It’s our standard practice not to share any specific details about any potential meetings or specific cases out of respect for the families, and to preserve confidentiality.”
As vaccines trickle into Africa, Zambia’s challenges highlight other obstacles
For months, the biggest challenge to vaccinating Africans against COVID, and protecting both the continent and the world from the emergence of dangerous variants, has been supply: A continent of about 1.4 billion people has received just 404 million doses of vaccine, and only 7.8% of the population is fully vaccinated. But as supply has begun to sputter into something like a more reliable flow, other daunting obstacles are coming into focus. All of them are on view at and around Ngwerere, Zambia. So far, 7% of Zambians have been vaccinated against COVID, according to Dr. Andrew Silumesii, director of public health for Zambia’s health ministry.
First fires, then floods: climate extremes batter Australia
Two years ago, the fields outside Christina Southwell’s home near the cotton capital of Australia looked like a dusty, brown desert as drought-fueled wildfires burned to the north and south. Last week, after record-breaking rains, muddy floodwaters surrounded her, along with the stench of rotting crops. Life on the land has always been hard in Australia, but the past few years have delivered one extreme after another, demanding new levels of resilience and pointing to the rising costs of a warming planet. The results are already visible in government budgets. The cost of climate disasters in Australia has more than doubled since the 1970s.
Ex-Sen. Perdue sues over ballots from 2020 Georgia election
Republican candidate for Georgia governor David Perdue filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to inspect absentee ballots in Fulton County, repeating some of the same unproven allegations as in a lawsuit dismissed two months ago. Perdue’s complaint, filed four days after he launched his campaign, revives a series of failed lawsuits by supporters of former President Donald Trump searching for fraud in last year’s election. Perdue has put false claims of election fraud at the center of his campaign against incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The former U.S. senator said he wouldn’t have certified the election results and wanted a special legislative session to delve into conspiracy theories about the outcome. State election officials have said there’s no indication of fraud after three ballot counts and multiple investigations. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump by about 12,000 votes in Georgia.
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