Biden administration urges caution as BA.5 COVID variant surges
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is warning Americans to take the latest COVID-19 variant, BA.5, more seriously, but its stated strategy, released Tuesday, is to keep doing more of the same — encouraging masking, testing and getting vaccinated against COVID-19 when applicable.
The BA.5 variant now makes up more than half of all cases in the United States, and the BA.4 variant makes up roughly 20%. The two new omicron subvariants are much more transmissible than earlier omicron subvariants, and, unlike prior variants, can evade natural immunity.
Scientists do not yet know about the clinical severity of BA.4 and BA.5 compared to omicron strains, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said during a briefing Tuesday. But they do know it’s much more transmissible. Even those previously infected by other omicron subvariants do not have much protection against these new variants.
The good news is that current antivirals also work to treat these subvariants. COVID-19 vaccines also work to prevent infection in these variants as much as they do for other omicron subvariants.
—CQ-Roll Call
First lady Jill Biden apologizes for comparing Hispanics to tacos during Texas visit
WASHINGTON — First lady Jill Biden apologized Tuesday for comparing the diversity of Hispanics to that of breakfast tacos, a comment that drew widespread ridicule, and not just from Republicans eager to embarrass the White House.
“The diversity of this community – distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio – is your strength,” she said Monday at a conference of UnidosUS, a major gathering of Latino advocates and leaders. “And yet, it’s when you speak with one voice – unidos – that you find your power.”
Unlike some of her husband’s most cringeworthy bloopers, the taco comment was scripted – included in the prepared text released by her office before she began speaking at the Grand Hyatt Riverwalk.
The Republican pile-on was relentless. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican whose father emigrated from Cuba, retweeted a video clip of Biden’s comment with three taco emojis and the quip: “Personally, I’m a chorizo, egg & cheese.”
—The Dallas Morning News
An Idaho Republican blocked voters on Facebook. Now they’re suing
BOISE, Idaho — Five Idaho residents have sued state Rep. Chad Christensen after the Iona Republican blocked them from viewing his Facebook page.
Gregory Graf, Marguerite Shaw, Suellen Carman, Steven Thyberg and Carolyn Dessin filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Idaho. Shaw, Carman and Dessin live in Christensen’s legislative district. The Idaho Press first reported the lawsuit last week.
“It’s not OK for state representatives to be blocking Idaho voters from a public forum,” Graf told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “And that goes for any representative, not just Rep. Christensen.”
It’s not the first case to assert a U.S. public official violated the First Amendment by blocking critics on social media. But the question remains unsettled, and the Idaho case has the potential to further clarify the boundaries of speech protections in digital spaces.
—The Idaho Statesman
Director Paul Haggis admits to 'errors in judgment' in Italian sex abuse case
Director Paul Haggis is speaking out amid his ongoing sexual abuse case in Italy as prosecutors there are trying to put him back under house arrest.
Noting an "absence of constricting violent behavior," a judge in the Italian city of Brindisi last week released the "Crash" director from a 16-day detention at his hotel, where Haggis had been for a film festival. The two-time Oscar winner recently gave a sprawling interview to the Italian publication La Repubblica, asserting his innocence and discussing the professional fallout from the allegations made against him in the U.S. and abroad.
"Being accused of sexual violence, something that I did not do, was devastating and something I hope no innocent person will ever experience," Haggis said in a translated interview, which the Italian outlet published Tuesday.
The 69-year-old also admitted to making mistakes from which the allegations stem. According to Italian media, a 30-year-old Englishwoman who knew Haggis before going to the film festival alleged that he forced her to have sex with him over two days at a bed-and-breakfast in Puglia and then dropped her off at a nearby airport while she was in a state of confusion.
—Los Angeles Times
