Naomi Wolf, former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said the United States is becoming a “totalitarian state” due to COVID-19 lockdown orders.
Wolf, who aided Clinton during his second reelection bid, told Fox News on Monday night that the nation is “moving into a coup situation, a police state” as a result of lockdowns.
“That is not a partisan thing,” Wolf told the network. “That transcends everything that you and I might disagree or agree on. That should bring together left and right to protect our Constitution.”
Fauci: US Political Divide Contributed to ‘Stunning’ COVID-19 Death Toll
Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested Monday that the “intense divisiveness” in U.S. politics likely contributed to the nation’s COVID-19 death toll, which surpassed 500,000 late Monday.
The United States surpassed half a million CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus-related deaths on Monday, according to government data collated by Johns Hopkins University—in a grim milestone that marks almost a year since the outbreak first reached the United States.
Blinken Urges China to Come Clean on Pandemic
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized China for its continued failure to be transparent about COVID-19, in a recent interview with BBC World News.
“It requires countries to be transparent; it requires them to share information; it requires them to give access to international experts at the beginning of an outbreak—things that, unfortunately, we haven’t seen from China,” Blinken said.
J&J Projects Having COVID-19 Vaccine Doses for 20 Million Americans by End of March
A COVID-19 vaccine being considered by drug regulators could help quickly boost the number of Americans getting shots against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Johnson & Johnson is prepared to tell members of Congress on Tuesday that it expects to have more than 20 million doses ready by the end of March to protect against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus.
2 Mutated Variants of Virus Detected in India
India’s government claimed that it had found two mutated variants of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus on Tuesday.
The variants N440K and E484K have been detected in three states Maharashtra, Kerala, and Telangana.
“The genome sequencing of positive patients have confirmed two variants which are detected with a larger number mutations than the one dominating the country,” said the head of the National Task Force on COVID-19.
US Deaths Fall for Third Week as Cases See Steep Drop
Deaths from the CCP virus in the United States fell for a third straight week last week, as cases and hospitalizations both showed steep drops.
The positive trends come as the U.S. death toll from the pandemic hit 500,000, though health experts have warned about a possible resurgence in cases due to new and more contagious variants of the CCP virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.
Germany Extends Border Checks to Battle Variants
Germany is extending strict checks on its borders with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol province until March 3.
The checks were introduced on Feb. 14 in a bid to reduce the spread of more contagious CCP virus variants that have taken hold in those areas. Germany is limiting entry to its own citizens and residents, truck drivers, health workers, and a few others including cross-border commuters working in “systemically relevant sectors.” All have to show a negative COVID-19 test.
California Passes Bill Approving $600 Stimulus Payments for 5.7 Million People
California lawmakers on Monday passed a bill that would send $600 payments to nearly six million people, with Gov. Gavin Newsom expected to sign it into law soon.
The payments are part of a $7.6 billion COVID-19 relief package the state Legislature overwhelmingly approved, with the backing of Newsom, a Democrat. Top lawmakers and the governor unveiled the package last week after hammering key details out in negotiations.
Pfizer to Ship 13 Million Vaccine Doses per Week to US by Mid-March
Pfizer Inc expects to deliver more than 13 million doses of its CCP virus vaccine per week to the United States by the middle of March, more than doubling its shipments from early February, a top Pfizer executive said in prepared testimony ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing.
Pfizer is on track to deliver 120 million doses of its two-dose regimen by the end of March, said John Young, Pfizer’s chief business officer. The company is also prepared to provide a total of 300 million shots to the United States by the end of July and has raised global production expectations for 2021 to at least 2 billion doses, he said.
Isabel van Brugen, Jack Phillips, Frank Fang, Zachary Stieber, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.
