California Gov Lifts COVID Stay-At-Home Order; Dr. Fauci Worries Jabs Won't Stop Mutant Strains: Live Updates

Summary:

• California Gov is lifting stay at home orders
• Dr. Fauci criticizes US COVID approach, worries vaccines wont’
  stop mutations
• US cases, deaths, hospitalizations decline
• Biden signs COVID travel bans
• BoJo approves border crackdown
• South Africa approves AZ vaccine for vaccinations
• Macron expected to announce 3rd French lockdown
• Oxford plans first trial of new COVID drug

* * *

It’s already mid-morning on Monday and it’s already turning out
to be an interesting week for COVID-19 news. Following a WEF panel
earlier this morning where Dr. Fauci heaped blame for any failures
in fighting COVID on President Trump, California Gov Gavin Newsom
on Monday said he plans to lift some regional stay at home
orders.

Newsom is expected on Monday to lift regional coronavirus
stay-at-home orders across California, a change that could allow
restaurants and gyms in many counties to reopen outdoor dining and
any other services.

All counties would return to the colored tier system that
assigns local risk levels based on case numbers and rates of
positive COVID cases. Most counties will go into the
“widespread” risk tier, which permits hair salons to offer
limited services indoors but restricts many other nonessential
businesses . The change is expected to take effect immediately
after Newsom’s announcement.

It’s not yet clear whether the decision will lead to easing of
stay-at-home rules in Los Angeles County, which has become a
national hotbed of the coronavirus, with hospitals overwhelmed by
patients. In less than one month, more than�5K people have died of
COVID-19 in the county alone.

In the US, cases, hospitalizations and new deaths have been
falling across the board.

Last week, Dr. Fauci led the US delegation back to the WHO like
a conquering hero, announcing that under the Biden Administration,
the US would cooperate with the organization’s plan to distribute
vaccine doses globally, while halting President Trump’s attempt to
leave the UN-funded NGO.

Well, on Monday, Dr. Fauci joined a panel led by Bloomberg News
CEO John Micklethwaite and a handful of other experts at the
(virtual) WEF to discuss the global response to the COVID pandemic
one year after the virus came bursting out of Wuhan, infecting the
rest of the world.

Oddly, the WEF decided to name its panel “the Great Reset”, as
if the same people weren’t still running the global response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. But the subtext was clear: With President Trump
gone, the world can get back to the fundamentals of battling
COVID-19.

really can’t make this up
pic.twitter.com/3sUCb10Qgx

— zerohedge (@zerohedge)
January 25, 2021

In the latest attempt to slander President Trump, the good
doctor said during Monday’s forum that the US’s response to
COVID-19 didn’t have a “science” focus, which “cost it dearly”, Dr.
Fauci said, in the latest attempt to insinuate that President Trump
– and Trump alone – is responsible for the 400K+ confirmed COVID
deaths.

Fauci complained that the Trump administration had “a
considerable amount of mixed messaging on what needed to be done
from top down.” Like when Dr. Fauci first told people not to wear
masks, before changing his mind? Or when he opposed travel bans,
before changing his mind on that also?

Or, how about more recently, when he flip-flopped for banning

travelers from South Africa?

When it comes to the South African strain, Dr. Fauci warned that
the decline in vaccine efficacy could pose serious problems in the
future.

He then blamed the fact that these public health issues had
become “politically charged”. When public health issues become
politically charged, like wearing a mask or not becomes a political
statement, “you can’t imagine how destructive it is to any
unified health message,” Dr. Fauci said.

The Pandemic “shed a very bright light†on America’s
weaknesses, he added, without going into too much details.

Moving on, Dr. Fauci said he was worried about what might happen
if people start to delay the second dose of their COVID vaccines,
with Dr. Fauci insisting that the vaccines won’t achieve full
efficacy without both doses.

Readers can watch the entire panel
below:

Looking ahead, Dr. Fauci said the big question looking forward
is figuring out whether the vaccines that have been developed in
the West will be effective in stopping mutated versions of the
vaccine. But the most important thing is that patients receive both
doses of the vaccine, since full efficacy won’t kick in until the
booster dose has been delivered.

Here’s some more COVID news for overnight and Monday
morning:

US President Biden will sign an order on Monday to ban entry to
most non-US citizens who have travelled to UK, Ireland, Brazil and
South Africa. It was also reported that the CDC will sign an order
requiring mask use on all flights, trains and ride-sharing
vehicles, while it will not grant waivers for airlines seeking
exemptions from COVID-19 testing requirements for all international
flights. (Newswires)

Pfizer (PFE) will ship fewer COVID-19 vaccine vials to account
for ‘extra’ doses in each vial and will account a 6th dose in
each vial towards its prior commitment of supplying 200mln doses by
end-July after it received FDA approval to change the vaccine’s
formal authorization language to acknowledge an additional dose for
a total 6 doses per vial. (New York Times)

UK PM Johnson is to approve a new border crackdown on Tuesday
which could ban entry into the UK for nationals of COVID-19
hotpots, while there are also proposals for those arriving from
hotspots including British citizens to be escorted to isolation
hotels upon arrival where they will need to quarantine at their own
expense.

Oxford University researchers are planning the first, large
high-quality trial of ivermectin which is a low-cost drug that
claimed to reduce deaths by 80% among patients in hospitals,
although other scientists were sceptical of the data which was from
a combination of 11 prior trials and said that more results would
be required before it could be considered as a treatment. (The
Times)

French President Macron may announce a 3rd national lockdown on
Wednesday night which could take effect from the end of the week
and last at least 3 weeks, amid concerns of a new wave of COVID-19
infections driven by the UK variant. (Journal du Dimanche)

* * *
In other news, while the world frets about the South African COVID
variat, the country’s health regulators have just approved
AstraZeneca’s vaccine for use in the country, marking the first
vaccine approved in South Africa.