Covid-19

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan and Ayman Mohyeldin attacked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for going nuts over a fictional character getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Sesame Street" participated in a children's Q&A with host Erin Hill over the weekend and it triggered Cruz, who has come out against vaccine mandates. Many Republicans, in fact, have opposed vaccine mandates, but Big Bird, who is described as a "six-year-old walking, talking yellow bird with long orange legs, standing 8 feet 2 inches," wasn't advocating vaccine mandates. He was helping children understand that shots can be scary.

Fox News hosts Rachel Campos-Duffy, Pete Hegseth and Will Cain expressed outrage on Sunday because some children are required to wear masks at school.

"They've been hurting the little guy from day one on this pandemic," Campus-Duffy said of Democrats. "Another example of that, by the way, is with the mask mandates."

What if a simple pill could help heal from Covid-19?

US pharma giants Merck and Pfizer have announced encouraging results for oral drugs, while an anti-depressant has also shown promise in what could open up a new chapter in the fight against the pandemic.

On Friday's edition of CNN's "The Lead," anchor Jake Tapper tore into Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers for his incoherent, defiant speech attacking critics of his refusal to get vaccinated in discussion with USA TODAY sports columnist Christine Brennan.

"Rodgers is now admitting he has not been vaccinated against coronavirus after contracting the virus earlier this week," said Tapper. "But instead of admitting he had misled the public to believe he'd been vaccinated, Rodgers is blaming the 'woke mob' for how he's being treated. Perhaps creating a new definition for the term 'cheesehead.'"

An employee at a Navy nuclear submarine facility has been suspended after threatening to use "lethal force" against COVID-19 restrictions.

"Not sure who needs to hear this, but lethal force is justified when defending one's life, liberty, or property," engineering technician Tyler Miller wrote Oct. 13 on the "Liberty, At All Hazards" Facebook page he operates. "PSA - COVID mandates are threatening your life, liberty and property."

A prominent French infectious disease doctor on Friday faced a disciplinary hearing for his controversial recommendations on Covid-19 that won him global fame at the height of the pandemic.

Didier Raoult championed the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment at a time when the method was also being touted without evidence by former US Donald Trump and his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro.

Pfizer said Friday that a clinical trial of its pill to treat Covid-19 had shown it is highly effective.

Pfizer's is the second anti-Covid pill after that of Merck, which is actually an influenza medicine rebranded to fight the coronavirus. Pfizer's has been created specifically to fight Covid.

Kansas State University has simplified its religious exemption form, based on new guidance from the federal government, for employees who don't want to get a required COVID-19 vaccine.

The change follows criticism leveled by lawmakers on a “government overreach" committee who complained about the university's approach to “playing God" and interrogating employees for their sincerely held religious beliefs.

A citizen journalist jailed for her coverage of China's initial response to Covid in Wuhan is close to death after going on hunger strike, her family said, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for her immediate release.

Zhang Zhan, 38, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the chaos at the pandemic's epicenter, questioning authorities' handling of the outbreak in her smartphone videos.

A reporter's dog received a COVID-19 vaccine waiver during a Nashville TV station's investigation of a Tennessee doctor who's selling the documents through a website.

Dr. Robert Coble is offering "handwritten medical waivers personally reviewed and signed by a licensed physician" through a company called MedChoice LLC, based in Hendersonville, according to the report from Channel 5's Jennifer Kraus.

Twitter suspended Newsmax's White House correspondent Emerald Robinson after she posted a ridiculous claim suggesting vaccines contain a Satanic tracker. Newsmax followed suit, benching Robinson while it reviews her tweets, several of which Twitter took down for violating its rules, and another it slapped a "misleading" warning label on.

Now Robinson has posted a lengthy defense on Substack, the popular newsletter platform, in which she spins conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, rather than admit she was wrong.

The fallout from a racist rant during a San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting has apparently cost comedian Jason Robo a weekly radio gig in northern California.

KMUD news director Lauren Schmitt said "immediate action is being taken" after Robo made "several deplorable statements," the Times of San Diego reports.