Tag: pandemic

The pandemic could continue for seven years under current vaccination rate

It’ll be a long, seven years before the COVID-19 pandemic is over worldwide, if vaccine distribution continues at its current rate, a calculation from Bloomberg shows. 

The media outlet, which said it built the “biggest database” of COVID-19 inoculations given across the globe, crunched the numbers and found it could take most of a decade to reach herd immunity if distribution doesn’t ramp up for two-dose vaccines. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci has said 70-85 percent of the population will need the vaccine in order to achieve herd immunity and while the US is on track to reach that goal by the New Year in 2022, it could take countries like Canada ten years at their current pace. 

Keep reading

Justices: California can’t enforce indoor church service ban

The Supreme Court is telling California that it can’t bar indoor church services because of the coronavirus pandemic, but it can keep for now a ban on singing and chanting indoors.

The high court issued orders late Friday in two cases where churches had sued over coronavirus-related restrictions in the state. The high court said that for now, California can’t ban indoor worship as it had in almost all of the state because virus cases are high.

The justices said the state can cap indoor services at 25% of a building’s capacity. The justices also declined to stop California from enforcing a ban put in place last summer on indoor singing and chanting. California had put the restrictions in place because the virus is more easily transmitted indoors and singing releases tiny droplets that can carry the disease.

Keep reading

Walgreens, CVS beef up protections against threat of ‘bot’ attacks on vaccine program

For over a decade, the retail industry has battled so-called “scalper bots,” programmed to cut digital lines and snap up limited-supply products within milliseconds of their release, that are resold at significant mark-ups.

The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the problem because the boom in online shopping expanded scalpers’ sights to new categories from fitness equipment to essential goods like toilet paper and detergents. In Britain, scalpers using bots have also snatched online grocery delivery slots reserved for at-risk senior citizens.

The Joe Biden administration said this week that it will soon start distributing about 1 million doses per week directly to about 6,500 pharmacies in the first phase of a federal program that aims to expand access to vaccines.

Security companies that track this activity now warn that U.S. retailers and pharmacies enlisted to play a big role in COVID-19 vaccine dissemination could be the next target of bot attacks as they begin distributing as early as Feb. 11.

These fears stem from problems retailers have faced this past holiday shopping season, when the latest PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox consoles were nearly impossible to find because scalpers attacked major retailers.

Keep reading