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 Cheney's ousting signals the GOP has moved on from the beacon-of-
freedom ideals that dominated the party for decades
 Analysis: Cheney shames colleagues who purged her for disloyalty to
Trump
 Analysis: This line from Cheney's speech will haunt Republicans
 House Republicans oust Liz Cheney out of leadership post over feud
with Trump
 Analysis: How you know Republicans are embarrassed about their
move on Liz Cheney
 Ellen DeGeneres plans to end her talk show in 2022
 Gas stations in the Southeast run out of gas as people buy fuel in panic
 Biden admin officials privately frustrated with Colonial Pipeline's weak
security ahead of attack
 Michael Jordan shares final text messages he exchanged with Kobe
Bryant
 Analysis: Time is running out for China to prepare its economy for a
'great demographic unknown'
 Former acting defense secretary invokes Kent State massacre in
defending decision not to send military to Capitol on January 6
 Attorney General Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas
tout anti-domestic terror efforts
 The B.1.617 variant is now in 44 countries. We don't yet know what that
means for the global pandemic
 US teens may not have long wait times for vaccinations
 Differences between elimination, eradication and herd immunity -- and
what it means for Covid
 More GOP states drop federal pandemic unemployment benefits early
 Colt Brennan, former star quarterback at the University of Hawaii, dies
at 37
 An Australian destroyer arrived in San Diego with 2 dead endangered
whales stuck to its hull
 48 killed in Gaza, 5 killed in Israel as UN warns conflict could turn into
'full-scale war'
 Tensions between Israel and Palestinians are sky-high. Here's what you
need to know
 Analysis: Israel holds all the cards in Jerusalem, yet the city has never
been more divided
 Israeli and Palestinian violence pulls US focus back to Middle East,
despite Biden's plans
 A tiger seen roaming a Houston yard is nowhere to be found 3 days
later. A 'Tiger King' star says she's extremely worried
 Opinion: What has come out against Matt Gaetz paints a bleak picture
 Dua Lipa's Brit Awards outfits channel UK pop icons
 'Legends of the Hidden Temple' is getting a reboot for adults
 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2021 inductees are....
 Andra Day lost 40 pounds to play Billie Holiday -- but she didn't feel any
prettier
 'Bachelorette's' Kaitlyn Bristowe engaged to Jason Tartick
 The Arizona legislature is coming for my voting rights. How I plan to
stop them
 AZ governor signs bill that would stop some voters from automatically
receiving mail-in ballots
 Republicans take aim at Senate voting rights bill
 Judge's ruling allows for longer sentence for Derek Chauvin in murder of
George Floyd
 A man is arrested on a murder charge in the disappearance of a 2-year-
old boy in Las Vegas
 Attorneys for Andrew Brown's family will continue to petition for release
of all videos of fatal shooting
 Colorado Springs shooter was upset that he wasn't invited to the family
gathering where he killed six people, police chief says
 Māori leader removed from New Zealand parliament after performing
haka dance
 Designs unveiled for the world's largest single-domed greenhouse
 A monstrous-looking fish normally found thousands of feet deep in the
ocean washed up on a California beach
 Just about everything is getting more expensive in the United States
 Transgender woman sues District of Columbia after Department of
Corrections houses her in a men's unit
 Authorities are searching for a missing 7-year-old who disappeared on a
Texas beach
 Ransomware group follows through on threat to release personnel files
of DC police officers
 March weather in May sees Southeast shiver with record cold not seen
in over a century
 Chick-fil-A is facing a sauce shortage
 People are shopping at department stores again. But don't call it a
comeback
 Investors may have misjudged the recovery summer
 US home prices are still going up almost everywhere
 Struggling restaurant owners pin their hopes on a new recovery fund
 Opinion: Biden's big edge over Trump
 Love Lake: Heart-shaped lagoons link up in Dubai desert
 Secret Service recovers $2 billion in fraudulently obtained Covid-19
relief funds
 Biden administration winds down Trump's pandemic food box program
 Biden announces third slate of judicial nominees
 Congressional leaders to meet with Biden for tfirst time in crucial week
for infrastructure plan
 Judge dismisses NRA's bankruptcy petition, allowing New York attorney
general lawsuit to move forward
 Eritrean troops disguised as Ethiopian military are blocking critical aid in
Tigray
 Cameroon jails two transgender women for 'attempted homosexuality'
 NATO exercises sweep Europe amid Russian escalation, rising
tensions between Moscow and US
 Colombian protest leader Lucas Villa, who was shot eight times, dies
 'Lost' microbes found in ancient poop could relieve chronic illness
 Perseverance rover is ready to unlock the history of Mars
 A school reopening success story
 Biden's plan for childcare doesn't go far enough
 Lifesaving tips on reopening the US
 Who Florida's voting law really disenfranchises
 The problem with Gov. Larry Hogan's pardon for lynching victims
 Covid vaccines do not harm placenta, contrary to social media
misinformation, study finds

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Michael Jordan shares final text messages he

exchanged with Kobe Bryant
By Ben Morse, CNN

Updated: Wed, 12 May 2021 14:42:35 GMT

Source: CNN

NBA legend Michael Jordan has shared his final text conversation with the
late, great Kobe Bryant.

Jordan, who will induct Bryant into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Fame on Saturday, shared the messages with ESPN which dated back to
December 8, 2019 -- 49 days before his death.

In the messages -- which Jordan admits he can't bring himself to delete --

Bryant praised Jordan's Cincoro Tequila, a bottle of which was sent to Bryant
at the launch.

"This tequila is awesome," the former Los Angeles Laker texted.

READ: 'What are you doing here?' Lorna Falconer says she's faced racism
and sexism in English football

After enquiring about how coaching his daughter, Gigi, was going, Bryant
complained to Jordan -- his former mentor and friend -- about a game he was
at.

"Hey, coach, I'm sitting on the bench right now, and we're blowing this team
out. 45-8."

And that was Bryant in a nutshell, according to the six-time NBA champion.

"I just love that text," Jordan told ESPN, "because it shows Kobe's competitive
nature."

Bryant and Gigi were among nine people killed on January 26, 2020 when a
helicopter crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, California.
Jordan spoke emotionally for more than 11 minutes at Bryant's memorial in
Los Angeles, describing him as a little brother.

"When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died, and as I look at this arena and
across the globe, a piece of you died," he said.

"I promise you, from this day forward, I will live with the memories of knowing
that I had a little brother that I tried to help in every way I could. Please rest in
peace, little brother."

Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, features, and videos

Bryant's family selected Jordan to present him at the May 15 ceremony at the
Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut, according to a statement from the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The five-time NBA champion and fourth highest all-time leading scorer in NBA
history was elected into the Hall of Fame last April in his first year of eligibility.

The enshrinement ceremony for Bryant and the Hall of Fame Class of 2020,
which includes players Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and 10-time WNBA All-
Star Tamika Catchings, was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The B.1.617 variant is now in 44 countries. We don't

yet know what that means for the global pandemic
By Kara Fox, CNN

Updated: Wed, 12 May 2021 13:19:31 GMT

Source: CNN

A Covid-19 variant first identified in India has now spread to 44 countries

worldwide, threatening to undermine global progress in containing the
pandemic. The B.1.617 variant appears to be fueling India's crippling second
wave, which killed a record 4,205 people on Wednesday alone. But in
February, it seemed like India had gotten a handle on the pandemic, with daily
cases falling nearly 90% from the peak of its first wave. So how did this
variant get so out of control?

The Indian strain was classified as a "variant of concern" by the World Health
Organization (WHO) on Monday, meaning that it may show, among other
indicators, to be more transmissible, cause more severe disease, fail to
respond to treatment, evade immune response or fail to be diagnosed by
standard tests.

There are questions about what role the variant has played in India's
resurgence of cases and deaths, the WHO said Wednesday, explaining that
several other contributing factors -- such as religious and political mass
gatherings -- have likely also contributed.

The WHO assessment will come as no surprise to critics of Prime Minister

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), who have come under increasing fire after holding multiple election
rallies drawing thousands and giving the go-ahead for the largest religious
pilgrimage on Earth last month -- even as experts warned it could cause a
deadly surge. The WHO said that the "exact contributions of each of these
factors on increased transmission in India are not well understood."
Meanwhile, India's surge has devastated major cities, with hospitals running
out of oxygen and medicine. And the nightmare seems inescapable, with
devastating scenes now plaguing the entire nation. Across rural states and
far-flung villages, doctors and clinics are in short supply -- leaving India's
poorest to fight for their lives without access to care.

While India makes up 95% of cases and 93% of deaths in Southeast Asia,
and 50% of global cases and 30% of global deaths, concerning trends have
also been noted in neighboring countries.

The B.1.617 variant has also spread far beyond India's borders. The United
Kingdom -- which is slated to make its "single biggest step" towards normality
by dropping most pandemic restrictions next Monday -- has reported the
largest number of cases of the strain outside of India, the WHO said. When
asked about the variant, England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said
Monday that "we don't know if this is going to cause significant problems in
the autumn." Meanwhile, in the United States -- where B.1.617 is also present
-- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still classifying it
as a "variant of interest," but noted that this classification could escalate or
deescalate based on scientific evidence.

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.

Q: Will the Covid vaccine protect me against the B.1.617 variant?

A: So far, it is too early to tell. However, a batch of new studies published last
week show how well coronavirus vaccines work against other worrying
variants -- with one indicating that a booster dose can help them work even
better. And at least one of the studies also demonstrated that being fully
vaccinated matters. Read more here.

Send your questions here. Are you a health care worker fighting Covid-19?
Message us on WhatsApp about the challenges you're facing: +1 347-322-
0415.

WHAT'S IMPORTANT TODAY

Russia and China find common ground in vaccine diplomacy

China and Russia's international vaccine goals are increasingly aligned, as

they assist developing countries neglected by their traditional Western
partners who have been accused of hoarding shots, Ben Westcott writes.

Chinese companies have made agreements over the past month to

manufacture more than 260 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine,
which has been approved for use in more than 60 countries -- many of which
are developing nations. As hundreds of millions of doses of the Russian shot
are distributed, they will carry the label: "Made in China."

But there is also a darker side to this cooperation, with recent Russian
disinformation efforts attempting to undermine confidence in US and UK
vaccines. China has done the same, with state-run media hyping up reports of
deaths from US and European-made vaccines. Bobo Lo, an expert on China-
Russia relations and former diplomat said while it was hard to know if the
closeness would remain in the long term, for now both China and Russia's
leaders are being brought together by the growing Western opposition to their
governments.

US officials are rallying teens to get vaccinated before variants spread

As children in the United States as young as 12 are now eligible to get

vaccinated, health experts are shifting their messaging to encourage this new
demographic to take up the shot. That's in part because the US Food and
Drug Administration's decision on Monday to expand authorization of the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to adolescents from 12-15 comes as public health
officials are urging Americans to get inoculated before variants resistant to
vaccinations spread, and potentially cause another surge. Already, more than
72% of coronavirus genetic sequences in the United States are the B.1.1.7
variant first identified in the United Kingdom -- one that is known to be more
transmissible than its predecessor, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said
Tuesday.

To get adolescents and their parents onboard, primary care providers,

pediatricians and family medicine physicians talking with parents and the kids
will be critical, said Dr. Nirav Shah, president of the Association of State and
Territorial Health Officials. "Here we have to speak not only to the patient, the
adolescent, but also their parents and guardians to make the case
simultaneously to both."

How does "cautious hugging" work?

Hurrah! Some of us can hug each other again. In the United Kingdom,
residents will get the green light to resume "cautious hugging" next week. And
in America, that time has already come for many. But what does this
milestone mean? A cautious hug is one that's outdoors, without face-to-face
contact, and that doesn't last very long, two US physicians told CNN. Anyone
who's unvaccinated should use caution when hugging someone else, and
should wear a mask while doing it, they said.

Kids who aren't eligible for the vaccine yet (and are short enough) can hug
their vaccinated loved ones around the waist, though they should skip the
slobbery kisses. Keeping their face away from the face of the person they're
hugging is key here, said Vanderbilt University infectious diseases professor
Dr. William Schaffner. While unvaccinated teens probably won't want to
crouch down to hug anyone, they should keep a mask on while they hug and
tilt their face away from the person they're hugging, Schaffner added.

Fully vaccinated people who've missed physical touch are in luck: They can
hug each other with abandon, the experts said. "Fully vaccinated people can
hug one another without restriction, including indoors, without masks," Dr.
Leana Wen, visiting professor of health policy and management at the George
Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health said. Wen
added that goes for all vaccinated people, too. And if you're not ready to hug
anyone yet, that's OK, too. Cuddling up to someone you love was unthinkable
even a few months ago, and it's a dramatic change from the way we've been
living since March 2020. Wen advises to take post-vaccine life at your own
speed.

ON OUR RADAR

Climbers on Mount Everest have been asked to return oxygen canisters on

the mountain as Nepal's Covid-19 cases spike. Some hospitals in Kathmandu
have been forced to turn patients away, with doctors raising the alarm on a
"crisis of oxygen." After Shahnawaz Shaikh's best friend's sister, who was six
months pregnant, died from Covid last May at the gates of an overwhelmed
hospital in Mumbai, he sold his car to give free oxygen to coronavirus
patients. Now he runs 24/7 operation with a team of 20 volunteers to help
others in need. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's former Prime Minister is back in the
hospital with a Covid-related illness, just weeks after being discharged. The
84-year-old president of the Forza Italia party contracted the virus in
September last year. Pope Francis held his first public audience in six months
on Wednesday, telling a crowd of around 300 people gathered outside the
Vatican that he was happy to see them "face to face." The pope did not wear
a mask and stopped to talk, shake hands and sign autographs with the crowd,
who all wore masks and had their temperatures taken. The island of Capri is
hoping to lure tourists back with the promise that it's "Covid-free." The Italian
paradise has stepped up its vaccination campaign ahead of the summer
season -- inoculating 80% of its population so far -- in hopes that it can bring
holidaymakers back after the tourist sector marked a 70% drop in turnover last
year.

TODAY'S TOP TIP

Here's how you can avoid Covid-19 inside your house of worship

Many churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship have

continued to offer virtual or outdoor services. But if you do attend in-person
services inside, both vaccinated and unvaccinated people still need to follow
public health guidance.

So, it's best to mask up, stay at least six feet away from people who don't live
in your household, and avoid poorly ventilated spaces. Try to sit near an open
window or door, or choose a service in which people tend to sing less. You
can also ask your house of worship if it's regularly cleaning frequently touched
surfaces like pews, pens or offering plates -- and of course, you can BYOS
(bring your own sanitizer) too.

Houses of worship can also use stationary collection boxes for offerings
instead of passing a basket, or accept contributions online. If food is offered at
or after services, choose pre-packaged foods instead of buffet or potluck
meals, if possible.

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This is how officials are trying to rally teens to get

Covid-19 vaccinations
By Madeline Holcombe, CNN

Updated: Wed, 12 May 2021 06:29:55 GMT

Source: CNN

With a new demographic now eligible for Covid-19 vaccines, public health
officials hoping to fight variants will have to adjust their strategy to convince 12
to 15-year-olds and their parents to sign up for inoculations.

"Here we have to speak not only to the patient, the adolescent, but also their
parents and guardians to make the case simultaneously to both," Dr. Nirav
Shah, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials,
said Tuesday. "It's just an added nuance, it's not any more difficult, it's just
something we've got to think through and get right."

Health experts expressed excitement at the US Food and Drug

Administration's decision Monday to expand the emergency use authorization
(EUA) of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to adolescents as young as 12.

To get adolescents and their parents onboard, primary care providers,

pediatricians and family medicine physicians who are speaking with parents
and the kids will be critical. Shah said.

The expansion comes as public health officials are urging Americans to be

inoculated before variants resistant to vaccinations spread and cause another
surge later in the year.

Already, more than 72% of coronavirus genetic sequences in the US are the
B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom -- one that is known to be
more transmissible than its predecessor, the director of the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in an interview
released Tuesday.

She also made an appeal to mothers to get families vaccinated.

"Mother to mother, I am asking you to do everything you can to vaccinate
those people who are eligible in your household -- yourself, as well as your
children," Walensky said in an event hosted by Scary Mommy. "Moms are
great at getting things done. That's what we do."

'I can go out more instead of just staying home and doing nothing'

Although the FDA has approved the EUA, the CDC still has to officially
recommend the vaccine for those as young as 12 before vaccinations are
supposed to begin.

The CDC's adviser, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

(ACIP), is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting to discuss and vote on it
Wednesday. That advice then goes to Walensky, who is very likely to give the
go-ahead within hours.

However, some locations began vaccinating the young teens on Tuesday.

The shots are somewhat premature, as doctors are technically not supposed
to start administering the vaccine to this age group until the CDC recommends
they do so.

However, doctors already have the vaccine on hand, and the CDC's approval
is a foregone conclusion. This is an area of medical practice regulated by
states, but because the vaccine is already authorized and in offices, there is
little to stop medical professionals from exercising their own judgment.

Jacob Laney, 14, was in line at a Decatur, Georgia, vaccine site early
Tuesday in hopes of getting the vaccine early.

"My friend got Covid and it looked really bad, and I just did not want to get it,"
he told CNN. Once he gets both doses of Pfizer's two-dose vaccine, "I think I'll
be less scared of getting it and less scared of having issues with Covid-19,"
he said.

Cameron Carrion, a 14-year-old whose mother watched CNN's interview with

Jacob and then drove to the same vaccine site, said he felt good about getting
the shot.

"I feel like it's better that I got it because I can go out more instead of just
staying home and doing nothing," he said.
And for states that have not jumped ahead on immunizations, adolescents still
may not have long to wait.

California will offer the coronavirus vaccine to children as young as 12 years

old starting Thursday, expanding access to about 2.1 million additional
residents, health officials said Tuesday.

Appointments to receive the vaccine will be available through California's

MyTurn website starting Thursday morning. The state is working to enroll
more providers and clinics to administer the vaccine to younger people,
California Department of Public Health Epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said.

Current vaccines are still protective, CDC says

As officials consider the possibility of booster shots, Walensky emphasized

that plans are a precaution and that current vaccines are still protective.

"The first thing I want people to realize, and I think hasn't been clear, is we are
talking boosters -- but right now if you have two doses of the vaccine and the
mRNA vaccines, you're protected. You don't need to wait for a booster. You're
protected," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CNBC on Friday. "What
we are talking about is thinking ahead."

Vaccine makers are already testing the effects of booster shots, and the
federal government is starting to plan for possible programs to deliver booster
doses of coronavirus vaccine -- but these are just-in-case scenarios,
Walensky said.

"What happens if, in a year from now or 18 months from now, your immunity
wanes? That's really our job, is to hope for the best and plan for what might
happen if we need further boosters in the future, the way we get flu vaccine
boosters every year," she said.

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The differences between elimination, eradication and

herd immunity -- and what it means for Covid-19
By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN

Updated: Wed, 12 May 2021 12:45:18 GMT

Source: CNN

After more than a year of politicized science and amid a wave of vaccine
hesitancy, the long war against Covid-19 stands at a critical stage.

Hope for an eradication akin to smallpox -- or even a polio- or measles-style

elimination -- is a towering aspiration. Herd immunity, meanwhile, is a moving
target that requires a lot of things to go right -- and stay right, experts say.
People will need to trust science, put their communities over personal comfort
and realize that pathogens have no respect for state or national borders.

How previous disease fights have played out -- from measles in the United
States to anthrax in Kenya to the global defeat of smallpox -- offers lessons
for how humanity might overcome the latest scourge. Some variables --
variants, for instance -- are largely out of people's control, but so many other
proven measures are fully within their power.

"If we had done a better job of social distancing and continued it rigorously
through the time that the vaccine became available, I think -- not think, I know
-- we would've seen fewer cases and death, but that takes an enormous
amount of discipline," said Dr. Howard Markel, director of the University of
Michigan's Center for the History of Medicine.

Eradication, elimination or herd immunity?

With the coronavirus endgame in mind, let's first take a look at the words
infectious disease warriors use to describe their successes.

Herd immunity requires a certain percentage of people to be infected or

vaccinated to stop the spread, but experts say it depends on the herd, or
community, as well as its density, the number of susceptible people and other
factors. No one knows the percentage until a community reaches it. It differs
among diseases. With Covid-19, it will likely hinge on continued vaccinations.
"I think we are going to be seeing (Covid-19) or its cousins or variants for
years to come," Markel told CNN, predicting it might require annual
vaccinations, like with influenza, where vaccinations are reengineered to
adapt to changes in the virus.

Eradication is the unicorn of infectious disease. Markel calls it "exquisitely

rare." It's been achieved only twice: with rinderpest, which sickens cloven-
hoofed animals like cattle and buffalo, and with smallpox.

Elimination is more common. It's when cases are reduced to zero or near zero
in a specific area, owing to continual efforts to prevent transmission. In the
United States, examples include measles, rubella and diphtheria -- all of which
were largely stamped out by vaccination.

The key word is largely. Measles demonstrates the tentative nature of

elimination if control measures aren't maintained.

The United States declared measles eliminated in 2000, but cases continue to
pop up, ranging from 55 in 2012 to 1,282 in 2019, according to the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latter tally included the
largest US outbreaks since 1992, all of them linked to travel-related cases that
reached at-risk populations and spread within "underimmunized close-knit
communities."

Thus, Markel and other experts frown on words like elimination and
eradication, even if they're the industry standard.

"Elimination, for me, is not precise enough a word," he said, adding he prefers
"'eliminate by vaccine' or 'suppression by vaccine' because we know the
measles virus does circulate. It's out there somewhere."

The battle to vanquish smallpox

"I always have second thoughts about those words also," said Dr. Bill Foege,
the epidemiologist credited with instituting the tactics integral to ending
smallpox worldwide (it is the disease that was eradicated, he emphasizes; the
virus still lives in American and Russian labs).

Comparing diseases, responses and outcomes across locales isn't always

helpful, but strategies used in the smallpox fight, which came to a successful
end in 1980, can be applied to Covid-19, he told CNN.
"It's different, but from the beginning my suggestion (for Covid-19) has been
that if you combine vaccination with contact tracing you could do it in such a
way that you might well achieve success," said Foege, who led the CDC from
1977 to 1983. "One thing we have not done very well is contact tracing and
the use of vaccine as a tool."

In 1966, health authorities believed 80% of a population needed to be

inoculated to wipe out smallpox in an area -- similar to numbers tossed around
with Covid-19 -- but in Nigeria, doctors had nowhere near that supply of
vaccine, nor was it expected to arrive with any haste, Foege told CNN.

When cases were confirmed in a village in eastern Nigeria, Foege and his
cohorts went on the attack. They examined maps and coordinated with
missionaries via ham radio to identify cases, which they then isolated. They
tapped their limited vaccine stock to inoculate those who might have been
exposed, then denizens of villages where their contacts and relatives lived, as
well as the markets villagers frequented -- a process known as ring
vaccination, where doctors cut off spread by monitoring and vaccinating a
"ring" around infected patients.

Within weeks, they'd snuffed out the disease with what Foege estimates was
a 7% vaccination rate. Meanwhile, a city in eastern Nigeria boasting a 96%
vaccination rate was still experiencing outbreaks, he said.

"We showed you didn't need Step One in the (World Health Organization)
strategy, which was mass vaccination," Foege said. "We showed you can go
right for the outbreaks. ... This idea of herd immunity -- you hear it used all the
time now in print, on TV -- people don't understand what they're talking about."

Ring vaccination and the surveillance/containment strategy Foege and his

team employed became the standard for fighting smallpox, which killed
hundreds of millions of people in the 20th century alone. To those who say
contact tracing in the United States is too arduous, Foege isn't hearing it.

When Foege and his team arrived in India in 1973, the nation had the bulk of
the world's smallpox cases. The following year was even deadlier. It took nine
months to assimilate surveillance/containment techniques to Indian
conditions, and by the time they were ready to launch their assault, there were
48,000 cases.
A year later, there were zero, with no smartphones or computers in the field,
so Foege doesn't believe it when he hears some political and public health
leaders in the technology-drenched United States say it can't be done now.

"I just don't buy it," he said. "They don't have the courage to do it."

'There was not a combined national commitment'

Several hurdles prevented a smooth US Covid-19 response, including

federalism, politics, scientific advice "colored with partisanship" and "toxic
nonsense," such as the notion that the country could achieve herd immunity
by letting enough healthy people get sick, said William Hanage, an associate
professor of epidemiology at Harvard. Many Covid-19 outbreaks were entirely
avoidable, especially the ones that occurred after we began to understand the
virus, he said.

"Unfortunately, as soon as a president -- either the current one or the previous

-- says something, large portions of the country will sort themselves into
camps and disagree," he told CNN. "That sort of partisanship is a real struggle
to overcome."

Covid-19 preyed on shortcomings in the American health care system,

including varying levels of quality and access. Hospitalized Americans had to
navigate a variety of government and commercial insurance and prescription
plans. Medical centers had to compete for resources, including personal
protective equipment.

Incoherency reigned in a federal system that leaves health care to the states,
which operate under different rules and reporting methods and contain
numerous (sometimes at-odds) local and regional health agencies, Hanage
said.

"There was not a combined national commitment to handling this," he said.

Another factor seldom raised "is not part of health care, per se, but a huge
part of public health": the lack of paid sick leave across industries, especially
in low-wage jobs, which forced people to choose between quarantining or
paychecks, he said.

"We talk about the clever things that we can do," he said, "but we haven't
done the really simple things."
How other nations have reined in disease

Resolve to Save Lives, headed by former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, is a
public health initiative of the nonprofit, Vital Strategies. It recently detailed how
Covid-19 success stories in countries with a fraction of the United States'
resources did not come without some discomfort.

Still vigilant from the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, Vietnam tapped the military
to help with contact tracing, quarantined those who'd come in contact with
infected people, reinforced mask and distancing policies and delivered free
Covid-19-related health care.

Mongolia and Senegal took similar measures, with Senegal adding a robust
education campaign -- but there was blowback. Protests erupted in both
countries. Still, the results are hard to debate, judging from Johns Hopkins
University's numbers:

• Mongolia (population 3.2 million) has had about 46,000 cases and 184
deaths.

• Senegal (population 16 million) has had about 41,000 cases and 1,120
deaths.

• Vietnam (population 103 million) has had about 3,600 cases and 35 deaths.

These examples show how outbreaks can be reined in without reaching the
incredible milestones of elimination, eradication or herd immunity. Frieden's
initiative also dives into past case studies to detail what it calls "epidemics that
didn't happen," demonstrating how successful responses differ from one
country and disease to the next:

• Brazil, which eliminated urban yellow fever in 1942, staved off an uptick of
more than 2,000 cases between 2016 and 2018, despite a depleted vaccine
stockpile. It ramped up vaccine production, administered partial doses to
provide short-term immunity (and stretch supply) and prioritized surveillance
of animal outbreaks. In 2019, it reported 85 cases.

• When the Democratic Republic of Congo declared an Ebola outbreak in

2018, Uganda enacted emergency protocols, testing everyone entering the
country and opening treatment and rapid-testing facilities along the DRC
border. While the DRC suffered the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever,
almost 3,500 cases, only five cases were recorded in Uganda.
• In August 2019, a herder and two students in Narok, Kenya, fell ill from
anthrax, which primarily affects animals but can infect humans who come in
contact with infected animals or inhale spores. A Red Cross volunteer texted
the country's surveillance system. Within days, almost 25,000 cows and
sheep were vaccinated. Health experts took to the radiowaves, met with
farmers to build trust and instructed teachers how to screen children. Only one
death was recorded.

• When monkeypox reappeared in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom state in 2017, teams

trained doctors in sample collection and provided education to reduce stigma.
Patients were directed to an infectious disease hospital, while residents were
warned to avoid contact with animals and self-quarantine while samples were
collected. The outbreak was contained within a month.

Like diseases, solutions must be 'global and local'

None of these four illnesses is prevalent in Western nations, of course, but it's
important to remember viruses don't honor political borders, nor do they care if
governments consider animal and human health separate disciplines.

They do, however, thrive on apathy and unpreparedness, and Foege believes
thinking narrowly costs more lives, he said. New infections -- be they
monkeypox or hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola -- pop up about once a year, and
with each outbreak, leaders vow to strengthen investment and infrastructure,
but as infections diminish, so does their enthusiasm.

Effective solutions require broad approaches, he said. Two-thirds of new

infections are zoonotic, so scientists should be studying animal and human
health hand in hand, Foege said. They must also think globally, which with a
virus as transmissible as Covid-19, means wealthier nations sharing the
vaccine.

"I'm concerned we are very late coming to that conclusion," he said. "When
people ask, 'When will the US get back to normal?' I just tell them, 'When
Mozambique gets back to normal.'"

There's no place on Earth that isn't local and global, said Foege, who has
joined fights against polio, guinea worm disease and river blindness, and
headed the CDC when it set its sights on eliminating measles.
"This is global and local, and that's the way we have to be thinking. You can't
be a nationalist," he said before aptly paraphrasing Albert Einstein:
"Nationalism is an infantile disease; it's the measles of mankind."

The University of Michigan's Markel, who chronicled in The New Yorker last
month how trust in science had taken a serious hit since the advent of the
polio vaccine in the 1950s, said the United States and other countries could
eliminate or "very nicely suppress" Covid-19 but it would require people
around the globe to place their faith in doctors and line up for the vaccine.

Markel understands why politicians would steer clear of mandatory

vaccinations, but as a public health expert, he'd like to see them. Many
experts describe worldwide vaccination as some sort of moon shot, he said,
but the moon shot was developing and manufacturing safe and effective
vaccines in record time.

"The moon shot happened. We're on the moon," he said. "I'm a vaccine man.
If you counted up all the lives that have been saved and all the disease
prevented over the last 100 years, you're talking the top 9 out of 10 greatest
hits of medicine."

With widespread vaccinations across all eligible ages, regional elimination of

Covid-19 is on the table, Harvard's Hanage said, pointing to how New Zealand
and Australia eliminated it with minimal immunity. Any solution, he said, would
have to overcome the United States' politics and its "balkanized" health care
system -- while aggressively tackling any reintroductions to keep those
outbreaks small.

It will require commitment, discipline and unity -- the latter being of chief
importance in an age too often marred by provincialism.

"Even with a coherent response, it's hard work," he said. "You're only as
strong as the weakest link, especially if you're trying to drive anything like
eradication or elimination."

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