Biden sets May 1 target to have all adults vaccine-eligible
WASHINGTON — One year after the nation was brought to a near-standstill by the coronavirus, President Joe Biden used his first prime-time address Thursday night to announce his plan to make all adults vaccine-eligible by May 1 and “begin to mark our independence from this virus” by the Fourth of July. He offered Americans fresh hope and appealed anew for their help.
Speaking in the White House East Room, Biden announced moves to speed vaccinations, including lifting eligibility qualifications, deploying an additional 4,000 active-duty troops to support vaccination efforts and allowing more people — such as medical students, veterinarians and dentists — to deliver shots.
He is also directing more doses toward some 950 community health centers and up to 20,000 retail pharmacies, to make it easier for people to get vaccinated closer to their homes.
His aim: let Americans gather at least in small groups for July Fourth and “make this Independence Day truly special.”
Biden was marking one year since the onset of the pandemic that has killed more than 530,000 Americans and disrupted the lives of countless more.
Resignation demands grow as police get Cuomo groping report
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s grip on power appeared increasingly threatened Thursday as a majority of state legislators called for his resignation, Democrats launched an impeachment investigation and police in the state capital said they stood ready to investigate a groping allegation.
The firestorm around the Democrat grew a day after the Times Union of Albany reported that an unidentified aide had claimed Cuomo reached under her shirt and fondled her at his official residence late last year.
The woman hasn’t filed a criminal complaint, but a lawyer for the governor said Thursday that the state had reported the allegation to the Albany Police Department after the woman involved declined to do so herself.
“In this case the person is represented by counsel and when counsel confirmed the client did not want to make a report, the state notified the police department and gave them the attorney’s information,” said Beth Garvey, the governor’s acting counsel.
An Albany Police Department spokesperson, Steve Smith, didn’t immediately return a message from The Associated Press, but told The New York Times police had reached out to a representative for the woman.
UN chief blasts vaccine nationalism, hoarding, side deals
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief criticized the “many examples of vaccine nationalism and vaccine hoarding” as well as side deals with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers that undermine access to all people in the world.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement marking one year since the U.N. World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic that “the global vaccination campaign represents the greatest moral test of our times.”
Ensuring that all people are vaccinated — and “many low-income countries have not yet received a single dose” — is essential to restart the global economy “and help the world move from locking down societies to locking down the virus,” he said.
Guterres reiterated his call for COVID-19 vaccines to be seen as “a global public good.”
“The world needs to unite to produce and distribute sufficient vaccines for all, which means at least doubling manufacturing capacity around the world,” he said. “That effort must start now.”
Carlson, Times tussle over online harassment of journalist
NEW YORK — Tucker Carlson’s belittling of a reporter for The New York Times this week for publicly discussing how she had been harassed reveals both a toxic online culture and bad blood between the newspaper and Fox News Channel and its most popular personality.
The targeting of reporter Taylor Lorenz started a day after the International Women’s Media Foundation announced that it was starting a new resource center for journalists subject to online abuse.
Lorenz, a technology reporter who covers internet culture for the Times, on Tuesday had tweeted her followers to consider supporting women who were enduring online harassment.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that the harassment and smear campaign I’ve had to endure over the past year has destroyed my life,” she tweeted. “No one should have to go through this. The scope of attack has been unimaginable. It has taken everything from me.”
Carlson pointed out the tweet that night on his show, which usually reaches between 3 million to 4 million viewers each weeknight. He cited her as a privileged person claiming victimhood.
From wire sources
