The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday "there will be no nationwide mandate" for the COVID-19 vaccine, clarifying comments she made about the administration looking into such a mandate.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky clarified remarks she made during an interview on Fox News when she told host Bret Baier that the Biden administration was "looking into" a federal vaccine mandate after being asked if she supported such a step.

Earlier on Friday, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters “a national vaccine requirement is not under consideration at this time.”

“You know, that's something that I think the administration was looking into. It's something that I think we're looking to see approval of from the vaccine,” Walensky said on Fox.

A summer of freedom from lockdowns and face coverings is being punctuated by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warnings to wear masks again. And officials in some states hardest hit by the Delta variant can already predict the public’s response.

Health experts and local leaders in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Washington state told POLITICO they expect the latest warnings and recommendations will be brushed off by a crisis-weary public that’s been whipsawed for a year and a half by sometimes conflicting federal orders and scientific evidence.

“The messaging is complex. The masks came down and people don’t want to wear them again,” said Tom Frieden, who was CDC director in the Obama administration.

The Biden administration might be in a stronger position had the CDC this spring not told vaccinated Americans that it was safe to remove their masks. Instead, the turnabout is providing fodder for critics and conspiracy theorists who say they’re proof that vaccines are overrated and that the government is winging it.

The Biden administration on Friday resumed fast-track deportation flights to Central America following another spike in families crossing the border into the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

The administration announced plans to resume the expedited removals on Monday, responding to building pressure on the White House to increase enforcement at the Southern border as the Covid Delta variant spreads in Texas and across the U.S.

“Families apprehended by Customs and Border Protection were removed via U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Air Operations to their home countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras,” a statement from the Department of Homeland Security said. “The expedited removal process is a lawful means to securely manage our border, and it is a step toward our broader aim to realize safe and orderly immigration processing.”

The Biden administration has continued to use the public health order, known as Title 42, which was invoked by former President Donald Trump at the start of the pandemic to expel migrants without allowing them to seek asylum. Biden has declined to use Title 42 to deport minors crossing into the U.S.

Susan Wright’s campaign had reasons to feel good Tuesday morning, coming off a tele-rally with former President Donald Trump the night before and armed with internal polling showing she had a comfortable lead over her fellow Republican opponent. But anxiety set in as the day went on and her campaign saw higher-than-expected turnout. Then, a couple hours before polls closed, her consultant, Matt Langston, got a call.

It was from a campaign worker at a polling place, and they said the kinds of voters who were showing up had “definitely changed.” How do you know that? Langston asked.

“Because they’re all wearing masks,” the worker replied.

FReepers, if you do not have ivermectin, get some while you can.

I heard radio guy Mike Gallagher say that his doctor put him on weekly Ivermectin...I wonder how many doctors are going this route. The horse medication is sold out at my local Tractor Supply!

Ivermectin on top of the D,C,Zimc. If you’re over 65 and have underlying conditions it’s tougher

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3978780/posts

Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19

There seems to be a growing interest in a drug called ivermectin to treat humans with COVID-19. Ivermectin is often used in the U.S. to treat or prevent parasites in animals. The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19

Londoners Were Promised a Hill With a View. They Got a Pile of Scaffolding.

LONDON — Advance publicity for the Marble Arch Mound — London’s newest visitor attraction — suggested that an Arcadian landscape would be created in the middle of the city, with spectacular views over Hyde Park.

A huge artificial hill, over 80 feet high, would rise at one end of Oxford Street, London’s busiest shopping district. Costing around 2 million pounds, or about $2.7 million, design renderings suggested that it would be covered in lush trees and that visitors would be able to climb to the top — and “feel a light breeze” against their skin.

The hill was part of a £150 million plan by Westminster Council to lure visitors back into the center of the city after the pandemic. In May, Time Out, London’s main listings magazine, described it as “visually arresting/bonkers.”

The reality has turned out to be somewhat different. Since opening on Monday, the mound has been widely mocked online as more of a folly than a dream — a pile of blocky scaffolding covered in patches of vegetation that look in danger of slipping off, and that it isn’t even high enough to look over the trees into Hyde Park.

“It’s a monstrosity,” said Carol Orr, 55, a tourist from Glasgow visiting the mound on Wednesday, who decided not to even attempt a climb.

“You can’t see anything up there,” said Robby Walsh, who had climbed to the top, only to get a view of a Hard Rock Cafe and nearby buildings.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/world/europe/london-mound-design-coronavirus.html