Below The Fold: The news that do not make the headlines but is important. By PL Hade.
- NJ is expanding vaccine eligibility. Starting March 15th, the following essential workers are eligible:
- Pre-K to 12 educators & support staff
- Child care workers
- Transportation workers
- Some tips on scheduling appointments:
- Get on every list you can. The NJ main scheduling site doesn’t do you much good but get on that one also.
- CVS seems to open appointments around 12pm. Rite Aid appears to open them about 11:45 pm. Follow @C19VaxxUpdates on Twitter.
- Many counties and mega-sites have posted specific hours you can schedule. (For example, Passaic county is every other Thursday between 12-4) Have your browser open and all your information saved so you can just plop it in before the appointments open.)
- The Atlantic City mega-site has a lottery based system. You can get on the wait list up to an hour before they open appointments. Once they open them you will be assigned a random number that is your place in the virtual line. They also post the number of slots available. (If you’re #15,000 and there are 3,000 slots you might as well do something else.) The Meadowlands mega-site seems to open appointments around 12am.
- For all residents ages 75 and over, NJ is:
- Actively conducting outreach over the phone and scheduling appointments to ensure greater direct access
- Increasing allocations to mega-sites specifically for these seniors
- U.S. Attorney Durham Announces Departure from Office: he will remain as Special Counsel in the (Trump version) of the Russian probe.https://www.justice.gov/…/us-attorney-durham-announces…
- DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the Biden administration’s task force for reuniting migrant families separated by the Trump administration will allow separated families the option of being reunified either in U.S. or their country of origin. “Michelle Brané will serve as the Task Force’s Executive Director. Most recently, she served as the senior director of the Migrant Rights and Justice program at the Women’s Refugee Commission. Prior to that, Michelle also held positions at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, with human rights organizations in India, and as a human rights officer in Bosnia with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.”https://www.dhs.gov/…/dhs-secretary-mayorkas-announces…
- CPAC stage resembled a known SS Nazi insignia
- Hyatt defended hosting CPAC whose stage was in the shape of an SS Nazi Insignia which is used by American Neo-Nazis as being “inclusive.”
- The organizers denied the stage had deliberately been designed in the Rune shape. (Apparently it was just a coincidence.)https://slate.com/…/cpac-organizer-denies-stage-nazi…
- The NJ right wing groups are devolving. This week’s conspiracy theories are: (1) Joe Biden is senile and Jill Biden is running the country. They claim this was proven when VP Harris having to remind him to pick up his mask after he finished a speech; (2) a testing method for COVID-19 was patented by Richard Rothschild in 2015 and 2017; (3) They claim Dr. Biden was in Mexico helping “illegals” instead of helping Texas after the storm. They’re using a picture of Jill Biden at a Mexican refugee camp from 2019 to “prove” that, and (4) the total number of deaths in the US in 2020 were about the same as the total number of deaths in each of the last ten years. (5) Covid isn’t bad. The vaccine is bad. They believe all of that. They live in New Jersey.
- Two samples from one of the GOP NJ groups –. “Does anyone know of businesses in New Jersey or PA that don’t enforce masks? I’m willing to drive to support any business who doesn’t! The only one I know of is Birchwood Farm in PA.”
- “urgent apparently leaders must establish the safe requirement safe objective security constitution performance winning agenda capitalism economy remote circumstances, since there’s misunderstanding of torture principal requirement wrong instructions for objective requires immediate gratification capitalism requirement safe objective safe requirement! this must be made clear to leaders since not legislation although accepted as progressive changed requirement of low standard in possession former administration still wrong methods old country misunderstanding has been surrender accepted although remains wrong requirement torture principal remote circumstances .. apparently intelligence leadership must state the requirement capitalism as safe objective safe requirement !”
- Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to jail for corruption. Sarkozy, who was president of France from 2007-2012, has been given a three-year sentence for corruption. He is unlikely to physically serve any time in jail, with two years suspended, and the option to serve one year under house arrest.
- Covid19
516,678 Americans have died of Covid19
- NJ: 2668 new positives, Rate of Transmission 0.94. (It’s ticking up.)
- Counties with the highest positives: Bergen 319, Hudson 254, Essex 253, Monmouth 249, Middlesex 205
- J&J vaccine could be a ‘game changer.’ Here’s why a third option matters.https://www.nbcnews.com/…/jj-vaccine-game-changer…
- All our recent progress with Covid-19 could be wiped out by variants, CDC director says. ‘Please stay strong’ https://www.cnn.com/…/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html