Covid-19

New York is to stage a ticker-tape parade to pay homage to essential workers who have distinguished themselves during the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday.

In grand New York City tradition, the procession will roll out at the south end of Broadway in Manhattan, also known as the Canyon of Heroes, on July 7.

On Monday, The Washington Post reported that a federal judge in South Dakota is accusing members of the U.S. marshals Service of "kidnapping" after an incident that stemmed from the marshals refusal to disclose whether marshals had been vaccinated for COVID-19.

"U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann, who sits in Aberdeen, tore into the U.S. Marshals Service for nearly an hour over their reaction to his decision at a hearing last month to question the deputy marshal in attendance about whether she had been vaccinated," reported Devlin Barrett. "The deputy marshal, according to the judge, refused to answer the question, at which point he ordered her out of his courtroom. The marshals, in turn, took three of the defendants scheduled for hearings that day out of the courthouse. That infuriated the judge, who describes that act as a 'kidnapping' that obstructed the work of the court."

Speaking to former acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Andy Slavitt, "The View" hosts took serious issues with Republicans who are now at work to bring down Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Joy Behar named Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR) who have all demanded that Fauci resign after his emails were released showing he doubted COVID-19 was leaked from a lab. COVID-19 hasn't been proven to have been leaked from a lab.

This week, a group of people testified at various public meetings in opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine, but one group stood out: those who believe that the vaccine has magnetized them. This hasn't made them super-human, they can't walk into a bank and have a pile of change come flying at them and they were still able to get out of their cars to attend the meeting. Still, an earnest woman wanted to know why a key was sticking to her chest. She had issues getting it to stick anywhere else, however.

"Um, sure, I can explain what this is," Oliver volunteered. "Very basically, public education is horribly underfunded and scientific literacy is nowhere near what it should be in this country. It creates a vacuum of trust in legitimate research. Meanwhile, people tend to try and seek out the minimum amount of information that lets them keep believing what they already believe. In your case, that you're privy to secret knowledge about a government conspiracy to magnetize the people of Ohio. All of that is probably why you felt confident enough to trust some bullsh*t you read online so much that you're willing to look like a complete assh*le in front of all of those people." Indeed, the world.

The US Food and Drug Administration said Friday it had told Johnson & Johnson that millions of doses of Covid vaccine produced at a troubled plant can't be used because of possible contamination issues.

In a statement, the FDA said "several" batches of vaccine manufactured at the Emergent BioSolutions facility in the city of Baltimore are not suitable for use. Each batch is known to correspond to several million doses.

YouTube has suspended Sen. Ron Johnson for seven days over two videos he uploaded of hearings from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on early experimental treatments of COVID-19, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, Fox News reports.

"YouTube's ongoing COVID censorship proves they have accumulated too much unaccountable power," Johnson told Fox News.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have been fully vaccinated will now be allowed to go maskless, even on the House floor, the Attending Physician of the United States Congress has declared.

Masks for the vaccinated will be considered "voluntary," according to Bloomberg Government reporter Emily Wilkins, and Bloomberg News' Erik Wasson, who adds that unvaccinated members will still be required to wear masks.

Goldman Sachs has ordered US employees to report their vaccination status as the investment bank orchestrates a return to the office, according to a staff memo reviewed Thursday by AFP.

"Registering your vaccination status allows us to plan for a safer return to the office for all of our people as we continue to abide by local public health measures," said the message, which was sent to all Goldman employees who had not yet reported whether they have been innoculated against Covid-19.

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Jobless Texans who refuse work offers because they feel like the job isn't safe during the pandemic won't be able to receive unemployment benefits as of June 26, the Texas Workforce Commission announced this week.