South Carolina detects first US cases of coronavirus strain first seen in South Africa. By Michael Nedelman, CNN

 Jan 28, 2021

(CNN) - South Carolina officials have announced the United States' first two confirmed cases of a more contagious coronavirus strain first spotted in South Africa.

There is no known travel history or connection between the cases, both adults, according to a release Thursday from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. 

One case was confirmed to the department late yesterday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the other was identified by the state's public health laboratory while testing samples over the past several days.

CDC said in a statement it was aware of the cases, noting "we have no evidence that infections by this variant cause more severe disease." The agency said it would continue working with labs around the country to genetically sequence samples of the virus.

The variant  -- also known as B.1.351 -- has raised concerns over being more transmissible than other versions of the virus, and potentially evading the immune protection offered by antibodies. Experts say they believe vaccines will still be effective against the variant.

"The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in our state is an important reminder to all South Carolinians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over," Dr. Brannon Traxler, the health department's interim public health director, said in a statement Thursday.

The variant has been detected in over 30 other countries, according to the World Health Organization.

White House staff welcomes new first family: 'The residence has life again'

White House staff welcomes new first family: 'The residence has life again'

By Kate Bennett, CNN

(CNN) - The new President and first lady settled in at the White House this weekend, and did so with extended Biden family members. 

"The residence has life in it again," a White House source told CNN of the energy inside. "It's the honeymoon period where everything feels new." 

There were nighttime movie binges in the White House movie theater, complete with snacks from the White House kitchen cooks, many of the Bidens' five older grandchildren piling into the seats to watch, said another source familiar with the activities. The increased activity was met with pandemic precautions, including mask wearing.

On Sunday, the first dogs arrived from Delaware, where they had been waiting until things were unpacked and settled enough to allow a comfortable entry for the two German Shepherds at their new pad. 

"Champ is enjoying his new dog bed by fireplace and Major loved running around the South Lawn," the White House said a press release early Monday morning. Champ lived at the vice president's residence during the Biden's time there, and Major was adopted by the family in 2018 from a Delaware pet rescue.

Sunday saw a church-and-bagel run by the President, son Hunter and granddaughters Finnegan and Maisy. The narrow streets of Georgetown were clogged with motorcade vehicles while Hunter ran to grab bagels from Call Your Mother, a popular deli. (The choice of stop was tinged with a shmear of swamp: one of Call Your Mother's owners and investors is Jeff Zients, Biden's Covid "czar." According to the Washingtonian, much of the recipe-testing for the deli's first location was done in Zients' kitchen.) 

Biden's visit to a DC dining establishment on Day 5 of his presidency already ties him with the number of local restaurants former President Donald Trump visited. In his four years in Washington, Trump seldom ate out and when he did, only did so at one place -- the steakhouse at the Trump hotel.

Yet all of the new people in the White House residence meant more stringent Covid-19 precautions, a stark reminder of the pandemic amid a week of celebratory events. 

"The family was good about it," said the White House source of adherence to mask-wearing and being socially distant from staffers. 

"Every employee is masked especially when near the family," added a longtime residence staff member who said the Biden family does remove their masks once on the second floor of their private quarters. The staff member told CNN that the majority of the residence workers -- including ushers, butlers, housekeepers and cooks -- have had at least the first round of Covid-19 vaccination and several have received both shots.

The White House did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment on the staff vaccinations.

The residence staff is operating "as usual," said the first White House source, noting the departure of chief usher and Trump hire, Timothy Harleth, which occurred on Inauguration Day. The move was initiated by a senior Biden administration official prior to the first family's arrival at the White House. White House residence staff typically stay on in their roles through different administrations, politically unaffiliated with presidents and first ladies. But Harleth was hired by Melania Trump in 2017 from Trump's Washington hotel, where he was a manager. In recent weeks, he had made a play to stay in the Biden White House, say several sources, to no avail.

"He was not particularly well-liked," said a former White House official of Harleth's reputation inside the White House, adding there was friction between Harleth and Trump's social secretary. 

The chief usher's office is currently being operated by Katie Hinson, who was deputy chief usher under Trump, until the first lady installs her choice to fill the role of chief.

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Moderna expects vaccine will be protective against variants, but will test boosters to improve immunity By Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield, CNN Updated Jan 25, 2021

Moderna expects vaccine will be protective against variants, but will test boosters to improve immunity

By Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield, CNN

Updated Jan 25, 2021

(CNN) - The Moderna Covid-19 vaccine created antibodies that neutralized coronavirus variants first found in the United Kingdom and South Africa, the company said in a news release on Monday.

But there are concerns that the vaccine may have a somewhat decreased efficacy against the strain first spotted in South Africa, and Moderna is working on a booster aimed at fighting it.

Two doses of the vaccine are "expected to be protective against emerging strains detected to date," according to the release.  

The company's study showed that the variant first found in the UK had "no significant impact" on the vaccine's effectiveness.  

But in the press release, Moderna noted that "a six-fold reduction in neutralizing titers was observed with (the variant discovered in South Africa) relative to prior variants."  

The company said the vaccine was still expected to be effective.  

"Despite this reduction, neutralizing titer levels with (the variant discovered in South Africa) remain above levels that are expected to be protective," according to the press release.  

David Montefiori, a virologist at Duke University Medical Center, said while he's "cautiously optimistic" Moderna's vaccine will work well against this strain, he's still not sure.  

"The efficacy might be reduced somewhat, but it may still be very effective," he said. "Hopefully the vaccine will still be 70-80% effective." 

The variant first identified in the UK has appeared in more than 45 other countries, including 195 cases in the US.  

The variant first identified in South Africa has appeared in more than 20 other countries. No cases have been identified in the US, but experts say it's likely there are cases and US surveillance, which has been widely criticized, has not yet found them.

Vaccine maker to test booster shots

Moderna will test whether an additional booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine can help protect against emerging variants of the coronavirus, the company said Monday.

The company said that while two doses of its vaccine are expected to be protective against emerging strains detected to date, it expects another dose will be able to boost the vaccine's neutralizing ability.

The company also said it is developing a new Covid-19 booster vaccine to protect against a variant of the coronavirus first spotted in South Africa. The company plans to first test the vaccine in the lab and in a small, Phase 1 clinical trial in the US. 

"Out of an abundance of caution and leveraging the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are advancing an emerging variant booster candidate against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa into the clinic to determine if it will be more effective to boost titers against this and potentially future variants," Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel said. 

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Falwell Tries to Defend Trump Racism, With Secret Videos Showing 'Fine People' Marching with Nazis in Charlotte

During an interview on ABC’s This Week, host Martha Raddatz asked Falwell, one of Trump’s top surrogates, to explain the president’s remarks.

By David Edwards / Raw Story

August 20, 2017, 12:04 PM GMT

• Jerry Falwell Jr. on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s recent controversial remarks that “good” and “fine” people were marching with Nazis and white supremacists at a pro-Confederate rally in Charlottesville.
  During an interview on ABC’s This Week, host Martha Raddatz asked Falwell, one of Trump’s top surrogates, to explain the president’s remarks.
  “He has inside information that I don’t have,” Falwell opined. “I don’t know if there were historical purists there who were trying to preserve some statues. I don’t know. But he had information I didn’t have.”
  “What made you think he knew that?” Raddatz wondered.
  “I think he saw videos of who was there. I think he was talking about what he had seen, information that he had that I don’t have,” Falwell insisted. “All I know is it was pure evil. The media has tried to paint this as Republican versus Democrat, black versus white, Jew versus gentile, but it’s just pure evil versus good.”
  “I’m still intrigued by your idea that Donald Trump somehow knows there were some good people there,” she added.
  “I don’t know that to be the fact,” Falwell admitted. “I just know that it’s totally true what you just said, there’s no good KKK, there’s no good white supremacist.”
  Watch the video below.
  
  

Trump's Lavish Travel Costs Have Left the Secret Service Too 'Tapped Out' to Pay Its Agents

Trump's weekend jaunts to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster are decimating the agency's budget.

By Brad Reed / Raw Story

August 21, 2017, 5:21 AM GMT

• President Donald Trump’s frequent trips to his own properties have severely strained the Secret Service’s budget, to the point where the agency no longer has enough money to pay its agents.
  USA Today reports that “the Secret Service can no longer afford to pay hundreds of agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission – in large part due to the sheer size of President Trump’s family and efforts necessary to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast.”
  Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles tells USA Today that more than 1,000 of his agents have already hit federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances, as they have had to expend significantly more time and resources protecting assorted Trump properties.
  In addition to protecting Trump during his weekend jaunts to Mar-a-Lago and his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the Secret Service also must protect the Trump children during their overseas business trips.
  “The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law,” Alles explains to USA Today. “I can’t change that. I have no flexibility.”
  Ailes says that he is in negotiations with Congress to raise the total cap for compensation to ensure that more agents get paid for their work — but he says that raising the total compensation cap from $160,000 to $187,000 would still leave more than 100 agents without the proper pay for the work they’ve put in to protecting the president.
  “Normally, we are not this tapped out,” says Alles.
  Read the whole report at this link.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment:

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

This Vice News Documentary from Charlottesville Is Horrifying

By Jack Holmes

Aug 15, 2017

Hundreds of white supremacists marched with torches in an American city Friday night. They arrived the next day brandishing weapons and armor. One white supremacist allegedly murdered an anti-racist protester in the street with his car and injured several others. This is what really happened when you peel back all the rhetoric flying in the aftermath, and after you tune out the first reprehensible response from the President of the United States, and his subsequent update to it that was two days late and a dollar short.

Vice News, to the outlet's immense credit, was on the ground to document the events in Charlottesville this weekend. Reporter Elle Reeve even embedded, for a time, with white supremacist leader Chris Cantwell. What she found speaks for itself, but keep an eye out for the little things. Like, say, how many guns these white supremacists have.

 The question before us is obvious. Is this the country we've built for ourselves? And can we allow it to continue this way?