Omicron’s mutations impaired vaccine effectiveness, CDC says
Almost 40% of people hospitalized in the U.S. with the COVID-19 subvariant that circulated this spring were vaccinated and boosted, highlighting how new strains have mutated to more readily escape the immunity offered by current shots.
The findings from scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention underscore the importance of having COVID-19 shots that are better at targeting omicron subvariants.
From the end of March through May, when the omicron BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 subvariants were dominant in the U.S., weekly hospitalization rates increased for all adults — with those over 65 hit the hardest. Even so, the total number of hospitalizations remained much lower than when the delta variant was rampant last fall.
The overall number of hospitalizations is an important point, said Abraar Karan, an infectious disease doctor at Stanford University.
—Bloomberg News
Judge rejects ‘false’ damage claims from Texas church, hundreds of others in Surfside case
MIAMI — Last month, a self-described Texas minister claimed members of his church owned six units at the Surfside condominium building that collapsed and that they had died in the tragedy. He wanted to collect $3.1 million in damages for their loss.
But the pastor of Baptist Faith Church in Dallas didn’t even show up for a critical Miami-Dade court hearing Wednesday on his claim, noting he could not attend because he “underwent life-threatening surgery.”
“He’s on life support,” a church representative emailed a court-appointed attorney, who has been coordinating the damage claims for the Champlain Towers South class-action case brought by the relatives of 98 people who died in the collapse last year. “Other pastors are on a tight schedule. ... If the court wishes to disallow or deny the (church’s) legal settlement, go ahead. ... You don’t need to reply.”
In short order Wednesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman rejected the church’s damage claim — along with more than 450 others — after the attorney processing them found they were “fraudulent” and recommended that the judge toss them out.
—Miami Herald
Angry Megyn Kelly drops F-bomb on retiring Dr. Fauci
Conservative broadcaster Megyn Kelly worked blue while talking about retiring National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci on her Wednesday podcast.
The former Fox News star began her “Megyn Kelly Show” tirade by tearing into the nation’s foremost authority on immunology she blames for lockdowns meant to control the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million people in the U.S. and more than 6 million worldwide since 2020.
She started by playing video of the 81-year-old immunologist suggesting his messaging during the pandemic may have appealed to Americans who value science and prioritize “people caring about people.” Kelly interpreted his comments as arrogant, mocked him with titles like “Mr. Truthful” and “Mr. Integrity, and blasted “his mandatory beloved vaccines.”
Becoming increasingly incensed while playing sound bites supportive of her narrative that Fauci had misled the nation while serving two presidents during an international health crisis, Kelly offered a scenario in which the Republican Party wins a majority in the House of Representatives and compels him to return to Washington, D.C., for questioning.
—New York Daily News
A soldier's tale: Russian serviceman's scathing memoir depicts a senseless war
BERLIN — A Russian soldier's searing firsthand account of the Ukraine invasion — depicting ordinary foot soldiers exploited as cannon fodder by inept commanders and a cynical Kremlin leadership — is drawing decidedly mixed reviews from inside and outside the battle zone.
For many outside observers, the ex-serviceman's 141-page memoir, posted by him online in early August, offers a rare inside glimpse of Moscow's brutal yet bungled attempt to subdue a smaller and less powerful neighbor.
But six months into a devastating war, some Ukrainians believe that widespread Western media attention to the veteran ex-paratrooper's journal unfairly lionizes a willing tool of the Russian military machine, who should share in the accountability for wartime atrocities.
Moscow has maintained an icy public silence over the claims made by former soldier Pavel Filatyev, who managed to flee Russia earlier this month after self-publishing his explosive story on VKontakte, a Russian-language platform similar to Facebook.
—Los Angeles Times
