Monday, March 1, 2021

And another day game changers, tensions, headaches, proposals, elections bills, accusations, adoptions, and engine fires comes to a close:

“People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy.” -- Bob Hope

Deaths

US: 527,226 (+1450)

World: 2,550,192 (+6907)

Cases

US: 29,314,254 (+58,910)

World: 114,991,089 (+304,156)

Why Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine is a game changer. One big reason to be excited about the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine for Covid-19, which was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration over the weekend for emergency use in the US: Unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines already in use, it requires only one shot for full protection. That’s a big deal...But in many ways, that’s looking at the wrong number. The vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing people from getting sick with symptoms is arguably much less important than the vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization and death. And there is the promising news: In trials, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine brings both of those down to zero. It squashes the biggest thing that made Covid-19 so threatening to people: its ability to kill.

Tensions over vaccine equity pit rural against urban America. The U.S. vaccine campaign has heightened tensions between rural and urban America, where from Oregon to Tennessee to upstate New York complaints are surfacing of a real — or perceived — inequity in vaccine allocation.

The biggest vaccine headache is still ahead of us. A recent Kaiser poll showed growing acceptance of the vaccine, but still found 15% of Americans who said they would never get vaccinated and 7% who would only get the vaccine if required to for school or work.

Elizabeth Warren proposes wealth tax on 'ultra-millionaires'. About 100,000 American families would be subject to the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, which would raise around $3 trillion over a decade, according to an analysis provided by the lawmakers who sponsored the bill.

Warren's wealth tax would cost 100 richest Americans $78 billion. A new wealth tax proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other progressives on Monday would result in the 100 richest Americans paying over $78 billion in taxes annually, according to analysis by Bloomberg News. -- And they wouldn’t even notice.

GOP-led Georgia House passes sweeping elections bill that would limit voting access. The Georgia House of Representatives on Monday passed Republican-backed legislation that seeks to place limitations on access to absentee and early voting in the state, among other restrictions. -- Republicans sure try to not make voting easier on people.

Third woman accuses Cuomo of unwanted sexual advances.

Women allege sexual misconduct against North Carolina GOP lawmaker as his biography is under new scrutiny. Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn is facing allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct by several women who say he put them in uncomfortable situations when he was a college student, with the former classmates detailing to CNN on Monday how the rising star of the conservative right would use "fun" drives as a way to make unwanted advances on them.

Largest Protestant adoption agency in US opens to LGBTQ parents.

US probing engine fires in nearly 1.9M Toyota RAV4 SUVs. — Model years are 2013-2018.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.