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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Dec 7, 2020
December 7, 2020
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Over in Russia, they're already passing out COVID vaccinations to people, using the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine. There are some 70 clinics across the city who are doling out shots to high-risk groups. The scientists who developed the vaccine claim it's 95% effective and causes no major side effects --but it's still undergoing mass testing.
And if you're afraid of catching coronavirus, be glad you're not behind bars. CNN reports that California state prisons have recorded more than four-thousand active cases among inmates and another 1,430 among staff. Turns out that's around 20-percent of the inmate population.
Meanwhile, the latest from Dr. ANTHONY FAUCI is that we Americans probably won't be getting a coronavirus vaccine until April --and that's after health care workers, the elderly and people with chronic health conditions get their first. Fauci says health care workers and the most at risk could begin receiving injections later this month provided the FDA grants an emergency use authorization.
And for everybody who's hoping that a safe vaccine will end COVID things once and for all, "Black Panther" actress LETITIA WRIGHT is apparently on the other side. A new video that she posted questions whether people taking the vaccines would have to "hope it doesn't make extra limbs grow." She later tweeted that she wasn't against vaccines but it was important to "ask questions."
Wright's initial post, which was retweeted more than 3,000 times, featured a link to the video but both her account has been deleted as well as the video. In fact, YouTube says it's already removed 200,000 dangerous or misleading videos about the virus since February.
Finally, a good story --Variety reports Warner Brothers and DC Films are making a movie based on the DC Comics’ character “Plastic Man” -- but making it "a female-led action-adventure." Does this mean that Plastic Man will actually be "Plastic Woman" or "Plastic Girl" in the movie? We won't know for a while. The original "Plastic Man" comic had a criminal who was exposed to an unknown chemical liquid that gave his body the properties of rubber, allowing him to stretch, bounce and mold himself into any shape. And thanks to a monk who tended to him while he recovered, he turned to law and order, and began capturing criminals as (wait for it...) Plastic Man.
Sorry to hear actor DAVID LANDER, who played "Squiggy" on the ABC sitcom "Laverne & Shirley," passed away last Friday night due to complications related to multiple sclerosis at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 73. Both he and MICHAEL McKEAN, who played Lenny on the show, met when they attended Carnegie Mellon University.
Female superheroes are the new thing! Variety reports AVA DuVERNAY is putting together a new DC Comics show for the CW Network with a female superhero, adapted from the DC Comic, "Naomi." The girl --a teenager who attends high school in the Northwest-- is able to travel through the multiverse, which is over 200 universes (of which we live in just one)! No word on the show's star, yet. FYI: DuVernay directed a couple of movies you might have seen --"Selma" and "A Wrinkle in Time"-- as well as several documentaries, including one about JOHN LEGEND.
I did not shoot the Sheriff... but I did run over the deputy: DANIEL PRESTI, the owner of a Staten Island bar called Mac's Pub, hit a sheriff’s deputy while attempting to evade arrest for serving bar customers in defiance of coronavirus restrictions. Presti blacked out the pub's windows so you couldn't see inside, and would lead customers into a building next door, where officials said alcohol and food was being served with no masks. And even though his liquor license had been revoked, the bar was charging $40 as a mandatory "donation" and then served dinner and alcohol for free. Presti was arrested, booked at the 122nd precinct and then released.
British tabloids are saying QUEEN ELIZABETH and her husband, PRINCE PHILIP, may be among first British citizens to get UK’s COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer. That would make sense, since the Queen is 94 and her husband is 99 years old. Royal aides also said she's getting the shot to quell the anti-vaccination movement there as well. The royal family has already seen its share of coronavirus --PRINCE CHARLES, who's 72-years-old and heir to the throne, and her grandson, PRINCE WILLIAM, have already had coronavirus infections.
If you missed it, Apple and Google have apps that will tell you if you've been near somebody with the coronavirus. Sixteen states along with Washington D.C. and Guam have already pushed out the apps, which use bluetooth technology to let you know if somebody with the coronavirus has been within six feet of you for at least 15 minutes. How does the phone know? Turns out that when somebody tests positive for the virus, the state health workers verify the diagnosis, and apparently upload it to the person's wireless phone number. How is that possible? Both Apple and Android put the software on your phone back in April. (For instance, in Apple, in the iOS 13.5 update. Look for "Exposure notifications" in your settings)!
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