#insurance cover against coronavirus

[covid-safer-hotties]

Coronavirus vaccines, once free, are now pricey for uninsured people - Published Sept 3, 2024

As updated coronavirus vaccines hit U.S. pharmacy shelves, adults without health insurance are discovering the shots are no longer free, instead costing up to $200.

The federal Bridge Access Program covering the cost of coronavirus vaccines for uninsured and underinsured people ran out of funding. Now, Americans with low incomes are weighing whether they can afford to shore up immunity against an unpredictable virus that is no longer a public health emergency but continues to cause long-term complications and hospitalizations and kill tens of thousands of people a year.

The program’s elimination marks the latest tear in a safety net that once ensured people could protect themselves against the coronavirus regardless of their financial situation. Health experts worry that the paltry 22 percent rate of adults staying up-to-date on vaccines will erode further. And they fear that the roughly 25 million people without health insurance in the nation will be especially vulnerable to covid because they tend to be in poorer health and avoid medical care when sick.

Nicole Savant, a 33-year-old part-time paralegal and dog walker, lost her Medicaid benefits last year when her income rose. She wants the latest shot because she knows people who died of covid before the vaccines became available and because she faces a higher risk of severe disease being overweight.

She was floored when she was quoted $201.99 at an appointment to receive the vaccine at a St. Louis-area CVS. She wasn’t sure if she even had that much money in her bank account.

“I have so little money, and I have other needs as well, like monthly medications,” said Savant, who doubts she will get the vaccine if she has to pay out of pocket. “I would hope for the best, which I really don’t want to do.”

At least 34 million doses of last year’s vaccine were administered to adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 1.5 million were funded through the Bridge Access Program, which was originally set to end this December, allowing vaccinations ahead of the usual winter wave.

But it expired ahead of schedule because Congress rescinded $6.1 billion in coronavirus emergency spending authority as part of a deal to avert a government shutdown. Congress also declined to fund the Biden administration’s proposal for a Vaccines for Adults program that could provide routine immunizations, including for the coronavirus, for free, similar to an existing Vaccines for Children program.

Private insurers, along with the Medicare and Medicaid government programs, are required to pay for coronavirus vaccines. The Bridge Access Program offered a backup option for people encountering insurance snags.

The CDC said it identified an additional $62 million to buy coronavirus vaccines targeting the latest variants for distribution through state and local health agencies — which local officials say is a sliver of the overall need. CDC spokeswoman Jasmine Reed said the partnership with state and local officials can provide shots to 1 million insured and underinsured Americans.

Raynard Washington, who leads the Mecklenburg County health department in North Carolina, said it’s difficult for financially strapped health agencies to tap their own funds for coronavirus vaccines. Under CDC contracts, health officials spend $78 a dose for the vaccine from the drug company Moderna and pay $100 for the version from Pfizer-BioNTech, compared with $15 to $20 for flu shots.

Washington, who also leads the Big Cities Health Coalition, an organization representing metropolitan health departments, said vaccine manufacturers should charge health departments less to help vaccinate more people without insurance.

“What’s at stake is we are reverting back to a system where a person’s financial ability to be able to pay will determine their ability to be healthy,” Washington said.

Pfizer and Moderna said their vaccines would be available through patient assistance programs that offer free vaccines, but spokespeople did not offer details on the scope and eligibility of those programs. Novavax, whose vaccine was approved by regulators last week, said it does not have a patient assistance program for the upcoming fall season. Moderna and Novavax did not respond to questions about the rate they charge health officials. Pfizer defended its pricing practices.

“Pfizer has priced the vaccine to ensure the price is consistent with the value delivered and with the goal of uninterrupted access for every American,” the company said in a statement provided by spokesman Kit Longley.

Community health centers that often provide low-cost care to uninsured people administered 24 million shots when the federal government provided them, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. Now, the facilities will have to scale back those programs and rely on local health officials for vaccines, some of whom would have little to share, said Luis Padilla, the association’s chief health officer.

“This country doesn’t provide enough for public health infrastructure and resources,” Padilla said.

The approval of updated coronavirus vaccines on Aug. 22 sent some Americans dashing to get shots before the end of the month. The CDC webpage about the Bridge Access Program, until Friday, said it ended in August without making clear it funded only the previous vaccines, which could no longer be administered after the new shots were authorized.

Adrianna Ruiz, 32, and their girlfriend showed up Wednesday to a CVS appointment in Atlanta hoping to get vaccinated before a Labor Day weekend cross-country road trip to California to help a friend with cancer move their belongings.

Ruiz lost insurance after getting laid off from a nonprofit job in July but believed the vaccine would be free based on the CDC website. But a CVS employee confirmed the program was no longer in effect. Ruiz gets about $300 in weekly unemployment benefits.

“If I want to eat and pay bills, then I can’t afford to pay $200,” Ruiz said.

Instead of getting new shots, Ruiz looked up options to enroll in subsidized insurance plans during the road trip. And the precautions they are embracing on the journey, including taking a PCR test before embarking, wearing N95 respiratory masks at gas stations and packing lunches to eat on picnic blankets in parks, have become more urgent.

Shannon Donnell, a critical care nurse in New York, plans to eat the out-of-pocket costs of an updated coronavirus vaccine. She works on contract without health benefits and said the plans she qualified for through the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace were too costly with $500 monthly premiums and a $5,000 deductible.

She believes in the urgency of vaccines after watching covid patients die while she worked in Manhattan during the devastating surge in spring 2020 and later cared for unvaccinated patients struggling to breathe in a Texas covid intensive care unit right as the shots arrived. Coronavirus patients no longer flood the intensive care units where she now works, but when they arrive, they are often immunocompromised or unvaccinated.

“It feels like health-care workers are still being left to fend for ourselves in many ways,” Donnell, 48, said. “No one is stepping up to say, ‘Hey, I’ll cover that for you’ before you go into your shift of covering covid patients.”

The Bridge Access Program also extended an opportunity for free coronavirus vaccines to international visitors and undocumented immigrants, who have limited health insurance options.

Vasu, a 56-year-old undocumented and uninsured immigrant in Chicago, hoped to get vaccinated again after hearing about friends getting sick, including one in his 30s whose symptoms lasted for months, and after the outbreak at the Democratic National Convention. A friend offered to pay for her vaccine when Vasu lamented in a Facebook message that the end of the Bridge Access Program left her “screwed.”

“We are talking about a large group of people who are going to lose access or are too nervous about accessing vaccines,” said Vasu, who spoke on the condition she be identified only by a middle name to avoid the scrutiny of immigration authorities. “The government keeps saying it’s your responsibility to be vaccinated. But you are not making it easy.”

The changing landscape for the coronavirus vaccine stands in stark contrast to 2021 and 2022 when free shots were widely distributed. But the urgency of vaccination has subsided as the virus’s toll lessens now that nearly every American has built up immunity from previous infections or shots and hospitals are no longer overwhelmed. People 65 and older, who are at the highest risk of severe illness and death, qualify for free vaccines through Medicare.

Still, health officials recommend young and middle-aged adults receive updated coronavirus vaccines because most Americans have risk factors for complications and because the vaccine reduces the threat of the lingering debilitating symptoms of long covid.

Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs at the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said the success of the early distribution of coronavirus vaccines “showed us what can be done when you make vaccines accessible and easy to get.”

“But that shifted now,” she added. “We are back to the traditional health-care system we’ve had, and the struggles we’ve had in that health-care system.”

[warningsine]

Government regulators seized and sold off First Republic Bank on Monday, making it the third bank to fail this year after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed in March.

The three banks held a total of $532 billion in assets. That’s more than the $526 billion, when adjusted for inflation, held by the 25 banks that collapsed in 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis.

The implosion of Washington Mutual that year, as well as the investment banks Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, was followed by failures throughout the banking system. From 2008 to 2015, more than 500 federally insured banks failed.

Most were small or midsize regional banks and were absorbed into other institutions, a common outcome for banks that have been put under government control. Washington Mutual, which was heavily involved in risky mortgages and became the largest bank to fail in U.S. history, was sold to JPMorgan Chase.

In recent years, fewer banks have gone under, thanks in part to stricter regulations that were put in place in the wake of the financial crisis. Before Silicon Valley Bank, the last bank to fail was in late 2020, as the coronavirus was ravaging the country.

The collapse of Silicon Valley and Signature Bank in March led to fears of fallout for the broader industry. Higher interest rates have eroded the value of assets on banks’ balance sheets, stressing the financial system and making it harder for banks to pay back depositors if they decided to withdraw their money.

First Republic received a temporary $30 billion infusion from the nation’s biggest banks in March as a way to restore clients’ confidence. But customers pulled a staggering $102 billion in customer deposits over the first quarter of this year, according to the bank’s quarterly earnings report filed on Monday.

By the close of trading on Friday, the company’s stock price had dropped more than 75 percent this week.

Similar to Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic had many start-up industry clients, and many of its accounts held more than $250,000, the amount covered by federal insurance.

The regulations put in place for the nation’s biggest banks after the financial crisis include stringent capital requirements, which means they must have a certain amount of reserves for moments of crisis, as well as stipulations about how diversified their businesses must be.

But midsize banks like First Republic, Silicon Valley and Signature do not have the same regulatory oversight. In 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed a law that lessened scrutiny for many regional banks. Silicon Valley Bank’s chief executive, Greg Becker, was a strong supporter of the move. Among other things, the law changed requirements for the amount of cash that these banks had to keep on their balance sheets to protect against shocks.

In a review of the Fed’s oversight of Silicon Valley Bank released on Friday, Michael S. Barr, the central bank’s vice chair for supervision, said the Fed would “re-evaluate” its rules for banks that were similar in size to Silicon Valley Bank.

Mr. Barr called the bank’s failure a “textbook case of mismanagement.” But he faulted Fed supervisors, too, for not understanding the extent of the bank’s vulnerabilities, and for failing to take decisive action when they did identify problems.

He also noted the real threat of contagion from Silicon Valley Bank. “A firm’s distress may have systemic consequences through contagion — where concerns about one firm spread to other firms — even if the firm is not extremely large, highly connected to other financial counterparties, or involved in critical financial services,” he wrote.

[decentralvaccine]

Covid 19 Vaccines Are Expensive For The Uninsured

As updated coronavirus vaccines hit U.S. pharmacy shelves, adults without health insurance are discovering the shots are no longer free, instead costing up to $200.

The federal Bridge Access Program covering the cost of coronavirus vaccines for uninsured and underinsured people ran out of funding. Now, Americans with low incomes are weighing whether they can afford to shore up immunity against an unpredictable virus that is no longer a public health emergency but continues to cause long-term complications and hospitalizations and kill tens of thousands of people a year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/09/03/covid-vaccine-bridge-access-program-expires-cdc/

[albaalexa]

Healthy Aging: Using Medicare To Embrace Preventive Care

As we age, maintaining good health becomes increasingly important, and preventive care plays a crucial role in this process. Medicare, the federal health insurance program for individuals 65 and older, offers a wide range of preventive services designed to help seniors manage their health proactively. 

Here’s how you can use Medicare to embrace preventive care and promote healthy aging.

Understanding Medicare’s Preventive Services

Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) covers a variety of preventive services at no cost to beneficiaries if the healthcare provider accepts Medicare assignment. These services include screenings, vaccinations, and counseling aimed at early detection and prevention of diseases.

Annual Wellness Visit

One of the most beneficial preventive services offered by Medicare is the Annual Wellness Visit. This yearly appointment with your healthcare provider is an opportunity to develop or update a personalized prevention plan. During the visit, your provider will assess your health risks and discuss your medical history, including a review of your current medications and health conditions. They may also perform routine measurements like height, weight, and blood pressure, and provide personalized health advice.

Screenings and Early Detection

Medicare covers a wide range of screenings that are crucial for early detection and management of health conditions:

Cardiovascular Disease Screenings: Tests to check cholesterol and other blood fat levels.

Diabetes Screenings: For those at risk, Medicare covers screenings to detect diabetes early.

Cancer Screenings: This includes mammograms, Pap tests, colorectal cancer screenings (such as colonoscopies), and prostate cancer screenings.

Bone Mass Measurements: To detect osteoporosis in individuals at risk.

Depression Screenings: Important for mental health, especially as it can affect physical health.

Early detection through these screenings can lead to timely treatment, better outcomes, and lower healthcare costs in the long run.

Vaccinations

Preventive vaccinations covered by Medicare include:

Flu Shots: Annual flu shots are crucial for older adults, who are at higher risk of complications from the flu.

Pneumococcal Vaccines: Protects against pneumonia, which can be severe in seniors.

Hepatitis B Shots: For those at medium or high risk.

COVID-19 Vaccines: To protect against the coronavirus, including updated boosters.

These vaccinations are critical in preventing diseases that can have severe impacts on older adults.

Behavioral Counseling and Support

Medicare also covers various counseling services that support healthy lifestyle choices:

Smoking Cessation Counseling: For those who smoke, Medicare covers counseling to help them quit.

Obesity Screening and Counseling: To help manage weight and associated health risks.

Nutrition Therapy Services: For those with diabetes or kidney disease, Medicare covers medical nutrition therapy services.

Chronic Disease Management

For individuals with chronic conditions, Medicare offers chronic care management services. These services include comprehensive care planning and coordination with your healthcare providers to manage your conditions effectively. This proactive approach helps in maintaining a better quality of life and preventing complications.

Staying Informed

To make the most of these preventive services, it’s essential to stay informed about what Medicare covers and how to access these benefits. Reviewing the “Medicare & You” handbook annually, visiting the official Medicare website, and discussing with your healthcare provider can help you stay up-to-date with available services.

Conclusion

Embracing preventive care through Medicare Open Enrollment is a key strategy for healthy aging. By taking advantage of annual wellness visits, screenings, vaccinations, and counseling services, seniors can proactively manage their health, detect issues early, and maintain a high quality of life. Medicare’s comprehensive preventive services provide the tools necessary to support a healthier, more active aging process, ensuring that seniors can enjoy their golden years with vitality and well-being.

[paybimainsurance]

Coronavirus Health Insurance

Coronavirus Health Insurance is a personalized policy of health insurance designed especially to offer coverage against the cost incurred in the treatment of COVID-19. This plan covers your hospitalization expenses if you are admitted to a hospital because of Covid-19. Covid-19 outbreak took place in 2019 in Wuhan, China and impacted the lives of millions of people across the globe. Declared as Pandemic, Corona Virus or COVID-19 took the lives of many people.

Considering the serious condition and the rising number of cases, the IRDAI or the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority in India asked insurance companies in India to design health plans to allow protection against costs related to the Covid-19 disease.

Health Insurance Plans for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in India are:

·Corona Kavach Policy for Covid-19

·Corona Rakshak Insurance Plan

·Coronavirus Group Health Insurance

Benefits of Covid-19 insurance plans are:

·Covid 19 insurance covers hospitalization including pre and post hospitalization costs.

·The premium payment of covid-19 plans are very cost-effective.

·Being short-term policies, you don't have to pay the premiums of the health insurance for lifelong.

·Coronavirus insurance also offers regular health protection along with allowing protection for coronavirus.

·Also, in case a claim is made for your Coronavirus health insurance policy during the policy term, it will not impact the No Claim Bonus of your existing health plan.

[danishkhan786]

Health Insurance Thailand

Health Insurance Thailand

AA Protection Representatives is controlled by a devoted group with numerous years experience in the protection field in Thailand and abroad. Our clients stretch out all through Thailand and the world and reach from families to global companies. Our maxim is....if it tends to be safeguarded - we will protect it!

hailand is its very own account. In Thailand, they do things their as own would prefer. What's more, we don't imply that the Thai like a white bread roll with frozen yogurt. Thailand has its own traditions and propensities, in day to day existence and with regards to protection. The manual for Thailand is some of the time challenging to decipher. Then it is useful that we have proactively gone through and read up it for you.

Stand by me', is the title of a spirit exemplary. We are autonomous, yet some of the time, particularly with regards to Thailand protections, we want others. A specialist with mastery we can trust. We have been giving that trust to private clients and organizations in Thailand for over 15 years now. Furthermore, assuming it ultimately depends on us, to you as well!

Thailand is a delightful country, with decent individuals and a food that is (or alternately is simply) among the best on the planet. You might have moved to Thailand for work or retirement some time back and are currently gesturing yes since you concur with us totally.

It might likewise be that you are intending to get back to Thailand as quickly as time permits to at last see your family, accomplice or companions once more, or to satisfy that long-esteemed dream: to move to Thailand just on the grounds that the sun sparkles so frequently, for work, since you have worked adequately long or to totally completely change you.

You presumably realize that moving is a significant occasion, particularly assuming your new home is on the opposite side of the world. You should pick another spot to live, you could need to find a school for the kids, you should battle through a pile of visa desk work, track down a dependable bank and perhaps you have proactively begun to become familiar with some Thai.

Obviously, you might likewise want to have a decent reasonable Thailand health care coverage. This is conceivable (ask our clients), yet there are a couple of things you ought to be aware. Protection here could work uniquely in contrast to you are utilized to. This applies to Thailand medical coverage for expats and retired folks, for new occupants and for the people who have been living in Thailand for quite a while. Since circumstances and protections change, particularly now the world needs to live with Coronavirus. For instance, since Coronavirus, Thailand has forced extraordinary protection necessities on voyagers who need to come to Thailand.

TRAVEL TO THAILAND INSURANCE

Venturing out to Thailand? A movement protection will get you covered! While a movement protection can't forestall catastrophes or setbacks to occur, it can chop down the weight of unforeseen costs that emerge previously or while voyaging. Travel protections in everyday cover for:

Inclusion for clinical costs of sickness/mishap injury

Incidental Passing

Crisis Clinical Clearing and Bringing home

Bringing home of mortal remaining parts to nation of home

Trip Abrogation or Deferment

Travel and Stuff Deferral

Public Risk

And then some

We might want to acquaint with you the Luma Thailand Pass, ACS Globe Voyager, AXA Sawasdee and ACS Globe Accomplice Plan.

Condo Insurance

You are the glad proprietor of a townhouse, quite possibly of your most important resource. To assist with safeguarding it against fire, burglary and other covered reasons for misfortune, it is critical to as needs be take out a condo strategy that covers your own property and insides of your apartment suite unit. As a rule, the actual development is guaranteed through the strategy of the Juristic Individual, for example the townhouse affiliation. Despite the fact that the apartment suite affiliation has their own inclusion, these strategies for the most part won't cover you in the event of constrained passage, water spillage and obligation security for substantial injury or property harm to other people. In these cases, a Townhouse Protection proves to be useful!

BUSINESS INSURANCE

You own a business in Thailand and need to ensure your business is sufficiently covered from misfortunes that might happen during your ordinary course of business. Maintaining a business takes time, exertion and devotion and to help you zeroing in on maintaining your business, we can assist you with finding the business cover you want. AA Protection Dealers gives business protection to Little and Medium Endeavors inside many enterprises: from recreation to retail and from assembling organizations to eatery foundations.

More information : - https://www.aainsure.net/

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[globalchief]

8 Ways How You Can Boost Your Immunity and Healthy in this Winter

As temperatures plunge and the days develop more limited, the colder time of year season can turn into a hotbed of cold and seasonal infections. The uplifting news? There are a few basic precaution estimates you can take to help your safe framework, fight off infection, and remain solid — even through the coldest months of the year.

Clean up

Make a propensity for cleaning up each opportunity you get back home or utilize the restroom, and when each feast. Utilize warm water and cleanser and scour your hands for something like 20 seconds. Do whatever it takes not to contact your face when you’re outside.

Wear a cover

Without an immunization accessible to the overall population, at this moment, wearing a cover and complying to social separating rules is our best insurance against Coronavirus. These safeguards as well as being watchful about cleaning up, can likewise help safeguard against the normal cold and occasional influenza.

Have your yearly influenza chance

“With in excess of 40,000 passings from flu consistently, having this season’s virus chance is a superb defensive measure,” says CityMD Clinical Chief for Manhattan Dr. Janette Nesheiwat. “This season, it’s Coronavirus going around, yet additionally numerous other infections like flu and rhinovirus,” she says. “The last thing you need is to have two simultaneously, which copies your gamble of difficulties.”

Extreme confusions from flu can likewise happen for those with heart or lung infection, diabetes, or pregnancy, as well as individuals north of 65. It’s critical to have another influenza chance consistently with the goal that your insusceptible framework is adjusted to the most recent strains.

Get sufficient rest

Getting sufficient rest is basic for keeping your invulnerable framework solid and sound since your body recovers when you rest, says Dr. Nesheiwat. Go for the gold seven to eight hours of shuteye an evening and follow great rest cleanliness, including keeping blue light-emanating gadgets out of the room.

Read More @ https://globalchiefinsights.com/boost-your-immunity-and-healthy/

Drink up

Water carries out two significant roles in your body: it conveys oxygen to your cells and flushes microscopic organisms and disease causing poisons from them. Keep your body very much hydrated by drinking 8-10 glasses water everyday. In the meantime, attempt to restrict your liquor utilization and abstain from smoking, as the two exercises can dry out your body.

Get dynamic

Go for the gold 30 minutes per day of moderate activity, such as strolling, climbing, or yoga. By supporting your blood stream, exercise can assist with empowering the creation of white platelets, which shield your body from infection.

Eat a reasonable, nutrient filled diet

Food varieties that are high in L-ascorbic acid and cell reinforcements have resistant supporting properties as well as the capacity to battle illness causing free extremists and irritation inside your body. Stay away from southern style or handled food sources high in sugar and fat. All things being equal, pick bright foods grown from the ground as well as intense superfoods like blueberries and pomegranates.

“Concentrates on show echinacea, garlic, and green tea can assist with forestalling a straightforward cold, yet they will do nothing for you once you as of now have it,” says Culmination Wellbeing allergist/immunologist Dr. Neil Minikes. “At the point when I become ill, I go after a bowl of sustaining, mineral-rich chicken soup to encourage me.”

Think about taking enhancements

A multi-nutrient can be extremely useful for helping the invulnerable framework all year, says Dr. Minikes, however he adds that the people who are as of now following an even eating regimen may not require it. Expanded utilization of zinc has been displayed to help in fending off respiratory infections, while added nutrients C, D, and B12 might be advantageous “assuming that you’re feeling sick,” he says. “A great deal of promoting has been utilized to push supplements without a ton of science to back up their cases. Be that as it may, vitamin D, which we really want a greater amount of in the colder time of year as we get diminished openness to daylight, has been displayed to influence the safe framework in a positive manner.”

[tomorrowusa]

It’s bad enough that anti-vaxxers are overcrowding hospitals when they come down with COVID-19 which could have been prevented or mitigated with a free vaccination.

Now the idiots are putting further strain on hospitals and medical professionals by overdosing on livestock dewormer.

Emergency Room patients in Oklahoma suffering from heart attacks, gunshot wounds, and highway injuries now have to compete with MAGA zombies who had foolishly been gorging themselves on Ivermectin.

“The [emergency rooms] are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated.

“Ambulances are stuck at the hospital waiting for a bed to open so they can take the patient in and they don’t have any, that’s it. If there’s no ambulance to take the call, there’s no ambulance to come to the call.”

McElyea told the Tulsa World a colleague was forced to send one severely ill Covid patient to a hospital in South Dakota, three states away to the north.

“They had sat in a small hospital needing to be in an [intensive care unit] for several days, and that was the closest ICU that was available,” he said.

The article didn’t specify the location in South Dakota, but the nearest city there to Tulsa is Yankton. That’s 560 miles/901 km.

An 8.5 hour ambulance ride while on a ventilator doesn’t sound pleasant. A direct route by air, presuming one is available, would still be 489 miles/787 km.

According to Johns Hopkins University, in the past week Oklahoma has recorded more than 18,400 cases and 189 deaths. The same source puts the death toll in Oklahoma over 8,000, out of more than 647,000 across the US.

The vast majority of US hospitalisations and deaths are among unvaccinated people. Amid opposition to vaccines and public health mandates stoked by Republican politicians, conservative media and disinformation on social media, many have turned to ivermectin.

It doesn’t help that misinformation spreaders like Joe Rogan are making things worse. 

This week, the influential podcaster Joe Rogan, who has been dismissive of vaccines, announced he had tested positive for Covid and was taking ivermectin.

It’s better to listen to reputable medical professionals than to moronic anti-science blowhards when it comes to matters of public health. Seriously, do you want to risk blindness because Tucker Carlson or Joe Rogan are encouraging you to take Ivermectin?

The American Medical Association appealed for an “immediate end” to the drug’s use, outside studies seeking to determine if the drug has any use against Covid-19, with federal and state regulators tracking side effects and hospital admissions.

A panel from the National Institutes of Health found “insufficient evidence” for or against using the drug for Covid-19.

In Oklahoma, McElyea said: “Some people taking inappropriate doses have actually put themselves in worse conditions than if they’d caught Covid. The scariest one that I’ve heard of and seen is people coming in with vision loss.

“You have to ask yourself, ‘If I take this medicine, what am I going to do if something bad happens?’ What’s your next step, what’s your back-up plan?”

Show some horse sense and get vaccinated. It’s a lot safer than quack medicines. And the free vaccination is enormously cheaper than an ambulance ride (not covered by insurance) to a hospital three states away.

Find COVID-19 Vaccines Near You

[reading-writing-revolution]

Heather Cox Richardson

September 27, 2021 (Monday)

Today, the Senate considered a bill to fund the government until December and to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans joined together to filibuster it.

Such a move is extraordinary. Not only did the Republicans vote against a measure that would keep the government operating and keep it from defaulting on its debt—debt incurred before Biden took office—but they actually filibustered it, meaning it could not pass with a simple majority vote. The Republicans will demand 60 votes to pass the measure in the hope of forcing Democrats to pass it themselves, alone, under the system of budget reconciliation.

This is an astonishing position. The Republicans are taking the country hostage to undercut the Democrats. If Congress does not fund the government by Thursday, the government will shut down. And if the country goes into default sometime in mid-October, the results will be catastrophic.

We are in this position now because Congress last December funded the government through this September 30 as part of a huge bill. The new fiscal year starts on October 1, and if the government is not funded, it will have to shut down, ending all federal activities that are not considered imperative. This year, such activities would include a wide range of programs enacted to combat the economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Republicans have said they are willing to pass a stand-alone funding bill. That is, they are willing to continue to spend money going forward, even though to do so at the rate they want means raising the debt ceiling. Indeed, Senators Bill Cassidy, (R-LA), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Richard Shelby (R-AL) joined McConnell today to try to pass a new funding bill that would provide disaster relief to Louisiana and Alabama in the wake of Hurricane Ida and fund the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). They complained that “disaster assistance is long overdue” and that “it’s critical” to extend flood insurance “so homeowners are covered come the next storm.”

But while willing to add to the debt, they refuse either to raise taxes or to raise or suspend the debt ceiling that would enable the government to pay for it.

The debt ceiling is the amount of money Congress authorizes the government to borrow. Congress started authorizing a general amount of debt during World War I to give the government more flexibility in borrowing by simply agreeing to an upper limit rather than by specifying different issues of debt, as it had always done before. That debt limit is not connected directly to any individual bill, and it is not an appropriation for any specific program. Nowadays, it simply enables the government to borrow money to pay for programs in laws already passed. If the debt ceiling is not raised when necessary, the government will default on its debts, creating a financial catastrophe.

So, while a measure to fund the government is forward looking, enabling the government to spend money, a measure to raise the debt ceiling is backward looking. It enables the government to pay the bills it has already run up.

Not funding the government means it will have to shut down; not paying our debts means catastrophe. Both of these measures will hobble the economic recovery underway; refusing to manage the debt ceiling will collapse the economy altogether and crash our international standing just as President Biden is trying to reassert the strength of democracy on the world stage.

Led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republicans are trying to tie the debt ceiling to the idea that Democrats are big spenders. They are determined to stop the passage of Biden’s signature infrastructure packages, both on the table this week: a smaller bipartisan package that funds road and bridge repair as well as the spread of broadband into rural areas, and a larger package that funds child care and elder care infrastructure, as well as measures to combat climate change, over the next ten years.

Both infrastructure measures are popular, and if they become laws, they will reverse the process of dismantling the active New Deal government in which Republicans have engaged since 1981. The Republicans are determined to prevent at least Biden’s larger package from passing. Killing it will keep in place their efforts to whittle the government down even further, while it will also destroy Biden’s signature legislative effort.

But the Republican link of the debt ceiling to Biden’s infrastructure package is disingenuous.

Raising the debt ceiling will enable the government to pay for debts it has already incurred. The Republicans themselves voted three times during Trump’s presidency to raise that ceiling, while they added $7.8 trillion to the national debt, bringing it to its current level of $28 trillion. Further, Biden has vowed to pay for his new package in part by restoring some—not all—of the corporate taxes and taxes on our wealthiest citizens that the Republicans slashed in 2017.

This, Republicans utterly reject.

McConnell maintains that he does not want the U.S. to default on its debt; he just wants to force the Democrats to shoulder the responsibility for handling it, enabling Republicans to paint them as spendthrifts.

It is an extraordinary abdication of responsibility, driving the U.S. toward a disastrous fiscal cliff in order to gain partisan advantage. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns that a default “could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil. Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.” Financial services firm Moody's Analytics warned that a default would cost up to 6 million jobs, create an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth.

The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt. Today Senate Republicans voted to make that happen.

In 1866, the year after the Civil War ended, Congress dealt with a similar challenge to the national debt. Democrats eager to undermine the United States wanted to protect the debt the Confederates had run up to rebel against the government, while demanding that the debt the United States had incurred to fight that war be renegotiated. Recognizing the ultimate power of financing to determine the fate of the nation, the Republicans in charge of the federal government settled the issue of the debts assumed by the two sides by writing their terms into the Fourteenth Amendment.

To pull the financial rug out from under former Confederates so they could not raise money to go back to war, the Republicans wrote in the fourth section of the amendment that “all…debts, obligations, and claims” of the former Confederacy “shall be held illegal and void.”

And, to keep the Democrats from destroying the government, the Republicans wrote into the Fourteenth Amendment that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law…, shall not be questioned.”

The Democrats will likely split today’s measure in two so they can fund the government ahead of Thursday’s deadline and focus on the infrastructure bills also on the table this week. They will deal with the debt ceiling themselves, later.

[96thdayofrage]

Rural Americans are dying of Covid at more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts — a divide that health experts say is likely to widen as access to medical care shrinks for a population that tends to be older, sicker, heavier, poorer, and less vaccinated.

While the initial surge of Covid-19 deaths skipped over much of rural America — where roughly 15 percent of Americans live — nonmetropolitan mortality rates quickly started to outpace those of metropolitan areas as the virus spread nationwide before vaccinations became available, according to data from the Rural Policy Research Institute.

Since the pandemic began, about 1 in 434 rural Americans have died of Covid, compared with roughly 1 in 513 urban Americans, the institute’s data show. And though vaccines have reduced overall Covid death rates since the winter peak, rural mortality rates are now more than double urban rates — and accelerating quickly.

In rural northeastern Texas, Titus Regional Medical Center CEO Terry Scoggin is grappling with a 39 percent vaccination rate in his community. Eleven patients died of Covid in the first half of September at his hospital in Mount Pleasant, population 16,000. Typically, three or four non-hospice patients die there in an entire month.

“We don’t see death like that,” Scoggin said. “You usually don’t see your friends and neighbors die.”

Part of the problem is that Covid incidence rates in September were roughly 54 percent higher in rural areas than elsewhere, said Fred Ullrich, a University of Iowa College of Public Health research analyst who coauthored the institute’s report. He said the analysis compared the rates of nonmetropolitan, or rural, areas and metropolitan, or urban, areas. In 39 states, he added, rural counties had higher rates of Covid than their urban counterparts.

“There is a national disconnect between perception and reality when it comes to Covid in rural America,” said Alan Morgan, head of the National Rural Health Association. “We’ve turned many rural communities into kill boxes. And there’s no movement towards addressing what we’re seeing in many of these communities, either among the public or among governing officials.”

Still, the high incidence of cases and low vaccination rates don’t fully capture why mortality rates are so much higher in rural areas than elsewhere. Academics and officials alike describe rural Americans’ greater rates of poor health and their limited options for medical care as a deadly combination. The pressures of the pandemic have compounded the problem by deepening staffing shortages at hospitals, creating a cycle of worsening access to care.

It’s the latest example of the deadly coronavirus wreaking more havoc in some communities than others. Covid has also killed Native American, Black, and Hispanic people at disproportionately high rates.

Vaccinations are the most effective way to prevent Covid infections from turning deadly. Roughly 41 percent of rural America was vaccinated as of Sept. 23, compared with about 53 percent of urban America, according to an analysis by the Daily Yonder, a newsroom covering rural America. Limited supplies and low access made shots hard to get in far-flung regions at first, but officials and academics now blame vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, and politics for the low vaccination rates.

In hard-hit southwestern Missouri, for example, 26 percent of Newton County’s residents were fully vaccinated as of Sept. 27. The health department has held raffles and vaccine clinics, advertised in the local newspaper, and even driven the vaccine to those lacking transportation in remote areas, according to department administrator Larry Bergner. But he said interest in the shots typically increases only after someone dies or gets seriously ill within a hesitant person’s social circle.

Additionally, the overload of Covid patients in hospitals has undermined a basic tenet of rural healthcare infrastructure: the capability to transfer patients out of rural hospitals to higher levels of specialty care at regional or urban health centers.

“We literally have email Listservs of rural chief nursing officers or rural CEOs sending up an SOS to the group, saying, ‘We’ve called 60 or 70 hospitals and can’t get this heart attack or stroke patient or surgical patient out, and they’re going to get septic and die if it goes on much longer,’ ” said John Henderson, president and CEO of the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals.

Morgan said he can’t count how many people have talked to him about the transfer problem. “It’s crazy, just crazy. It’s unacceptable,” he said. “From what I’m seeing, that mortality gap is accelerating.”

Access to medical care has long bedeviled swaths of rural America — since 2005, 181 rural hospitals have closed. A 2020 Kaiser Health News analysis found that more than half of U.S. counties, many of them largely rural, don’t have a hospital with intensive care unit beds.

Pre-pandemic, rural Americans had 20 percent higher overall death rates than those who live in urban areas, due to their lower rates of insurance, higher rates of poverty, and more limited access to healthcare, according to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

In southeastern Missouri’s Ripley County, the local hospital closed in 2018. As of Sept. 27, only 24 percent of residents were fully vaccinated against Covid. Due to a recent crush of cases, Covid patients are getting sent home from emergency rooms in surrounding counties if they’re not “severely bad,” health department director Tammy Cosgrove said.

The nursing shortage hitting the country is particularly dire in rural areas, which have less money than large hospitals to pay the exorbitant fees travel nursing agencies are demanding. And as nursing temp agencies offer hospital staffers more cash to join their teams, many rural nurses are jumping ship. One of Scoggin’s nurses told him she had to take a travel job — she could pay off all her debt in three months with that kind of money.

And then there’s the burnout of working for over a year and a half through the pandemic. Audrey Snyder, the immediate past president of the Rural Nurse Organization, said she’s lost count of how many nurses have told her they’re quitting. Those resignations feed into a relentless cycle: As travel nurse companies attract more nurses, the nurses left behind shouldering their work become more burned out — and eventually quit. While this is true at hospitals of all types, the effects in hard-to-staff rural hospitals can be especially dire.

Rural health officials fear the staffing shortages could be exacerbated by vaccination mandates promised by President Biden, which they say could cause a wave of resignations the hospitals cannot afford. About half of Scoggin’s staff, for example, is unvaccinated.

Snyder warned that nursing shortages and their high associated costs will become unsustainable for rural hospitals operating on razor-thin margins. She predicted a new wave of rural hospital closures will further drive up the dire mortality numbers.

Staffing shortages already limit how many beds hospitals can use, Scoggin said. He estimated that most hospitals in Texas, including his own, are operating at roughly two-thirds of their bed capacity. His emergency room is so swamped, he’s had to send a few patients home to be monitored daily by an ambulance team.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * * LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 10, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Unbelievably, it was only a week ago—last Sunday—that we learned Trump had called Georgia’s Secretary of State and pressured him to change the results of the 2020 election. Trump demanded that Brad Raffensperger “find” the 11,780 votes Trump needed to win Georgia. The news of the attempt to get an election official to overrule the will of the people was astonishing: at the time, it was the worst domestic attack on our democracy ever, coming, as it did, from a sitting president.

At the time.

Over the past several days, the picture of what happened on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, has become clearer, and it’s bad. While Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser gave a press conference Wednesday night, there has been not a single official briefing from the White House, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, or Capitol Police.

The federal government has gone dark.

What we do know is that on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, egged on by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Alabama Representative Mo Brooks, Don Jr., and especially Trump himself, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol just as Congress was meeting in joint session to confirm Democrat Joe Biden as our new president. They overpowered the Capitol Police—perhaps with the help of some of the officers—breached the doors, and smashed their way through the historic building, shouting for Vice President Mike Pence—whom Trump insisted was at fault for not overturning the count-- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and “traitors” who were counting the electoral votes for Biden. While many of the early pictures from inside the Capitol showed rioters gawking like tourists, ones released this weekend showed violent thugs, carrying plastic handcuffs and seeming to have information about where to find specific members of Congress. They breached the Senate chamber at 2:16, just a minute after the senators made it out.

The Capitol Police got the lawmakers to safety, but were not in control of the building. Lawmakers huddled quietly behind barricaded doors waiting for police that took hours to come. When they did arrive, they cleared the area and regained control of the Capitol. After janitors had cleaned the building, lawmakers counted the electoral votes that established Democrats Biden and Kamala Harris as the next president and vice president of the USA.

As videos have emerged and timelines been established, it has become apparent we came perilously close to seeing our elected representatives taken hostage or even executed on the makeshift gallows the rioters set up outside the building.

But here’s the thing: these were not outside insurgents; they were supporters of the Republican president. Trump enflamed the insurgents but he did not create them: years of demonizing Democrats and suggesting they must not be allowed to govern did that. As NPR reporter Kirk Siegler noted, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, infamous for years of standoffs with the federal government, wrote on Facebook that Trump “pointed towards Congress and nodded his head… [and said] go get the job done.” Republicans are now caught in a vise of their own making. They have to stand either with their own voters or with democracy.

The night of the attack, more than 100 Republican members of the House of Representatives and several senators, led by Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), continued to endorse Trump’s lies by voting to reject the electoral votes for Biden in key states. The next day, Trump’s supporters tried to argue that the rioters were “Antifa,” despite their Trump garb and the fact Trump invited them, incited them, urged them to go to the Capitol, and after the riot told them he loved them. (An AP investigation establishes that they were right-wing agitators.) When that didn’t take, supporters tried “whataboutism,” comparing the Black Lives Matter protests of this summer to the storming of the Capitol.

They are trying to rewrite the history of this week to downplay that we have suffered an attempted coup that killed at least five people, and that the people behind it are still in the highest levels of our government.

The realization that we are in the midst of a coup, abetted by Trump’s use of social media, prompted Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to ban Trump permanently, and to take down QAnon accounts. That, not the Capitol attack and the murder of a police officer, has created outrage among Trump, who is allegedly “ballistic,” and Trump supporters. Republican lawmakers spent the weekend noting how many followers they were losing as Twitter took down QAnon, Nazi, and fake accounts. (Trump opponents noted that this was not actually a good thing to call attention to.) Parler has lost almost all of its supporting businesses and might go out of business itself.

Democrats are appalled by what Trump has wrought, and they are joined by plenty of Republicans. In the National Review, for example, Ed Whelan called the Capitol attack “an outrage that ought to have every genuinely patriotic American seething with anger.” He blamed Trump for inciting the attack, and said that “impeachment and conviction of Trump is an appropriate, and probably a necessary, response.”

In a powerful video, former Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger called the Capitol attack the American equivalent to Kristallnacht, which marked the beginning of German Nazis’ systemic destruction of the Jews. To puncture the idea that the sort of behavior on display on Wednesday was manly, Schwarzenegger told the private story of his abuse at the hands of his father, who had been swept up in the Nazi movement in Austria, and celebrated the sword from his starring role in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian as a symbol not of toxic masculinity but of democracy, tempered by adversity. He called on all Americans to rally around Biden and to work to make his administration a success.

White House appointees’ resignations show which way the wind is blowing. Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney took to Fox News Sunday to say he had no idea that people might actually do something like attack the Capitol. “People took him literally,” Mulvaney told MSNBC. “I never thought I’d see that.”

Similarly, the rioters themselves, once found and arrested, are either apologizing and saying they were swept up in the moment, or denying they were part of the mob. One man apologized for his “indiscretion.”

Both Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, and health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield have suspended their donations to lawmakers who voted against the counting of Biden’s electoral votes late Wednesday or early Thursday morning. The anti-Trump Lincoln Project has promised to target companies that donate to any lawmakers who voted against the counting of the electoral votes. Hitting closer to Trump, Stripe, the vendor that handles online credit card payments for Trump’s campaign, has announced it will no longer handle his account. And tonight, the Professional Golfers Association of America Board of Directors took the 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump Bedminster, his New Jersey club.

At the end of last week, Democratic leaders set out a three-part plan to punish the president for inciting an insurrection. They gave Pence an option to begin the process of invoking the 25th Amendment, which, considering the president had tried to get him killed, was not necessarily a long shot. Pence refused. They gave McConnell the weekend to convince Trump to resign. Trump refused. They announced that, if both of those things failed, they would begin impeachment proceedings on Monday.

McConnell promptly noted that the Senate could not take up such a proceeding until the day before Biden’s inauguration at the earliest. He is bargaining. It is possible to hold an impeachment trial even after a president is out of office, but he knows that Biden does not want the beginning of his term crowded with more Trump business, especially as coronavirus is raging and Biden wants to get it under control. McConnell doesn’t want Republicans to have to vote either for or against the president because such a vote will slice the Republicans in two and make it clear that some of them stand for insurrection. In the Senate, only Republicans Mitt Romney (R-UT), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Pat Toomey (R-PA) have endorsed impeachment.

McConnell is hoping Pelosi will blink and the moment will pass.

She will not, and it will not. She notes, correctly, that the president is “an imminent threat” to “our Constitution and our Democracy,” and she is trying to give the Republicans cover to do the right thing. Tonight, she announced that the House tomorrow will begin proceedings on a resolution by Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) calling on Pence to mobilize the Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment within 24 hours. If he declines, the House will turn to impeachment. She has asked for unanimous consent for the resolution to enable the Republicans to avoid a vote. If they refuse, the measure will go forward the next day anyway.

She also fired a shot across the bow of Republican lawmakers by asking her colleagues for their views on the third section of the 14th Amendment, the one that prohibits anyone who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” from serving in Congress.

As I watch Republican lawmakers try to slip away from the crisis they have made, I think of Black Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, armed only with a nightstick, luring the insurgents in the wrong direction to buy the time Senators needed to escape with their lives.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[jellybeanforest-a-go-go]

Okay, so, I just saw this post about how shelter-in-place/quarantine measures for the coronavirus are test runs for authoritarian dictatorship because it punishes people who step outside their homes, suspends freedom of assembly (for social distancing purposes), promotes censorship of the internet (to combat misinformation), and paves the way for mandatory vaccination/medical treatment programs. They also define the quarantine as “extrajudicial, indefinite detention,” and the classification of activities as essential or nonessential as the very definition of totalitarianism. I saw this post, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart:

WTF, guys.

Seriously, WTF.

Look, maybe you feel better thinking that someone has control of this situation enough that this entire pandemic was orchestrated to herd in the sheeple or whatnot, but I promise you, the people who want this to be over as soon as possible are also the people in charge. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t say they are okay with some of us dying if it meant everyone got back to work and the economy got back on track, then having to backtrack because saying that they are okay with millions dying so they can make a few bucks makes them look bad.

Because I don’t know how to tell you this, but you should care about other people. Social distancing works; shelter-in-place works, but in order for this to work, everyone has to do it so they can stop spreading this damn thing. And if we don’t do this now, significantly more people are going to die. All these people having parties and purposely breaking quarantine rules are not rebels, they are plague-enthusiasts. I mean, come on. Have a little perspective. Is the ability to go out and have a drink at a bar worth someone’s life? I think it’s pretty clear that if the rich and influential could order us all back to work, damn the consequences for the working class, then they would do it, because the pandemic has exposed a lot of societal problems they would rather have us stay complacent to, especially in the US. Namely:

(1) The true essential workers, the backbone of the economy, are first responders, service industry people (like grocery store workers, delivery people, plumbers, electricians, cleaners, etc), and people who produce food and essential products (like farmers and factory workers), not C-level executives. The true essential workers are needed and powerful and should definitely be paid more. 

(2) Everyone should be entitled to Paid Sick Leave.

(3) The importance of Universal Healthcare. Maybe it’s not so great to have healthcare benefits attached so strongly to employment, especially in times like this where the health of every individual is important to the health of the community as a whole. And while we’re on it, why are so many essential workers not given health insurance? If they get sick because of their job, shouldn’t it stand to reason that they should be covered? 

(4) And on that note, Universal Basic Income is not such a bad idea. If everyone had a base income, maybe we wouldn’t have so many people on the verge of homelessness worried about how they are going to pay rent or mortgage or buy food when they can’t work. I mean, evictions are suspended for now, but for people who owe back rent... even when this is over, how are they going to pay 2-5 months of back rent when they just got their jobs back? And that one-time $1200 stimulus the government promised a while back? That’s not going to cover the necessities for several months of stay-in-place. All this creates a restless populace, and when you have a large segment of the population that is hungry, angry, and hopeless... that never goes well for the ruling class.

(5) Misinformation is deadly. I thought we learned this four years ago and many times since then with all the anti-vax fear-based propaganda that keeps causing localized outbreaks of diseases like measles and whooping cough that should have been eradicated by vaccination. You aren’t special or smarter than everyone else by believing in conspiracy theories and not getting vaccinated. You are leaving you and your family permanently vulnerable to disease that could disable or kill you and others. You think that the people that propagate this anti-vax nonsense don’t have skin in the game? That they aren’t making money from their bogus essential oil cures, “natural” detoxes, or (even worse) fake autism “treatments” like MMS that injure and/or traumatize autistic children? If so, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.

Anyways, this virus is not a conspiracy by the powers-that-be because it works against their interests, and they all desperately want to convince us to go out there and risk exposure and death so their bottom line doesn’t suffer. They would love it if people thought this was some kind of authoritarian test-run or some other bullshit because it makes the average Joe underestimate the pandemic and want to go back to work, revitalize the economy, make them some money, and stop asking questions about the glaring issues with late-stage capitalism this pandemic has brought to light. And if some of us have to die to accomplish this, then so what?

Stop playing into their narrative.

[altumvidetur]

Haikyuu!! Fic Recs (BokuAka)

Fic Recs Masterpost

So, I was thinking about the coronavirus pandemic and what I could do to help people out. I’m isolated because I’m at higher risk, so I can’t really offer to go out for my elderly neighbors or my family… but I thought I could try to help keep people entertained.

Because I don’t have an AO3 account right now, I’ve been compiling fic recs for my own amusement for a year or so. And I thought – maybe that’s the time to share these with everyone? So everyone will have plenty of things to read while they have to stay at home, or even to escape anxiety a little bit if you’re forced to go out.

Of course, these cater to my own tastes, so you may find stuff you don’t like around here. I never include works in progress. The Mature and Explicit works will be in italic. I ask you to READ THE WORK’S TAGS before continuing, so you won’t find anything that makes you uncomfortable.

I’ve decided to split it in a series of posts, starting with my OTPs. This time it’s BokuAka’s turn!

cookies and cream, by norio

Some people might tell Akaashi that he couldn't bake his worries away.

But some people haven't dated Bokuto Koutarou.

dozens of red roses, by norio

“And what’s the boyfriend getting for Bokuto’s birthday?” Kuroo asked, mirthful grin on his face.

“Oh,” Akaashi said, distracted by the magazine. “The next time he visits the dentist, I’ll pay for half what the insurance doesn’t cover.”

The silence dropped around the store like a chilling and killing frost.

i put my hand out, unfolded, into the sunlight, by carafin

In which Bokuto Kotarou is woefully inept at conveying his feelings, and Akaashi Keiji has a sort-of superpower. Sort of.

-

Next to him, Komi is chewing his cupcake dutifully, albeit with obvious effort. Washio has assumed a completely neutral expression on his face, although Akaashi thinks that his eyes might be watering. Sarukui, having seemingly demolished the entire thing out of sheer willpower alone, looks like he deeply regrets every single choice that has led to this precise moment in his life.

‘It isn’t too bad, huh?’ Bokuto says, grinning. ‘I made them in our school colours, so they’re like, marbled black and white chocolate swirls! Do you guys want more?’

Sarukui looks like he might pass out at the thought alone. Komi pauses mid-chew to shake his head weakly.

‘I’ll have more,’ Akaashi says, to the general astonishment of everyone.

better than spy films, by dalyeau

Akaashi knocks Bokuto out and Bokuto falls in love. Kuroo laughs about it.

Maybe We’re Airborne, Baby, by fathomfive

Realizing he's got it bad for his setter is the easy part. But getting his feelings across might be Bokuto's biggest endeavor yet, not counting his literature final or putting out the flames on that birthday cake he tried to bake for Akaashi last year, or—or a lot of things, actually.

But the point still stands. Reaching out to Akaashi is a leap in the dark, and Bokuto wants it more than he's ever wanted anything. He's an expert at seizing his perfect moment, at bringing victory home against the odds. So he's got this, right? It's gonna go great, right? Right?

(After all, it's what you attempt with your own two hands that matters.)

heavy heart, a love apart, by drifloon

(802): Our sex has gotten so much better since we broke up.

Character Development, by silvercistern

"That’s some kinda gratitude. What happened to my painfully polite little brother? I get the ideal guy to take you to prom, and you act like he's not even here!"

"I doubt I’d let him take me to the hospital if I were bleeding to death."

Keiji needs a date. Bokuto needs dating lessons. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

prepare for rain, by norio

“First you must make a delicious bowl of tea; lay the charcoal so the water boils; arrange the flowers as they are in the field; in the summer suggest coolness, in the winter, warmth; do everything ahead of time; prepare for rain; and give those with whom you find yourself every consideration.”

- Sen no Rikyu

cracks in the pavement will lead you home, by deusreks

Bokuto often thinks about Akaashi, especially when he’s running. It’s like his legs know where they’re supposed to take him. He grows into a habit of running a lot, just to keep that feeling going. Cracks and holes in the pavement aren’t fun to jump over if the final reward isn’t seeing Akaashi’s face.

An alternate universe with a little bit of magic and a lot of growing up.

il mio ragazzo falso, by Karasuno Volleygays

With his grandparents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary looming fast and large, Akaashi finds himself urged to bring a date and not quite to the point where his family knows that said date will not be of the female variety.

At some point, he has to decide which will be the least frightening prospect — braving coming out to his family or endure Operation: Find Keiji A Girlfriend 2k15.

And why is the only person he can think of to drag along to this thing his overly-spirited volleyball captain?

#someonepleasesaveakaashi

right in the head, by Mysecretfanmoments

That was the other thing: when Keiji had said he wanted to make his way home, Bokuto had agreed—as if it didn’t matter where they went. He hadn’t said "we should look for a community" or "there’s probably nothing there anymore".

He’d just asked which way.

((the bokuaka zombie au literally no one asked for))

how to become a birder, by norio

“Since I’m Bokuto,” Bokuto said, giving an unnecessarily meaningful look, “You know what I want, right? It’ll be easy! You take pictures of me, I turn them in, my professor says I’m the smartest genius, I graduate, I go play pro, I win the Olympics.”

The World’s Best Kept Secret, by kythen

The struggles of keeping a relationship a secret (when it really isn't a secret at all).

third wheel, by arsenicjay

"So you and Bokuto, huh?"

Akaashi's attention snaps back to Kuroo and he gives the other boy a blank stare. "What about us?"

Or, Kuroo figures out that Bokuto is interested in Akaashi long before Bokuto does himself and being the kind friend that he is, tries to help them along.

cherished, by gabstar

Bokuto tends to panic when Akaashi expresses discomfort or concern. Akaashi didn't need that. Akaashi was better off handling this alone.

((In which Bokuto's love sick, Akaashi's sick-sick, and together they feel a little better))

Kissing Ace, by Karasuno Volleygays

It happens right after training camp.

Akaashi Keiji has a secret he has guarded since he was a child. He won’t go so far as to call it a fear, but more of an aspect of himself of which he is horribly mortified. No one on the team knows about it, and Akaashi does his best to keep it that way. But years of dodging hugs and casual contact come to naught in the blink of an eye and the swipe of a hand.

legs killed the owl, by dalyeau

He's not smiling anymore an hour later, after he's fucked up four perfect spikes that Akaashi tossed carefully for him because he's too distracted by the lean, elegant line of Akaashi's legs, kneepads dark against the white of Fukurodani's gym.

tea-stained polaroids, by dalyeau

“I'm gonna date that,” Bokuto declares solemnly, and Kuroo throws a plastic spoon at his head. 

owls, by ThinkingCAPSLOCK

It was no secret that Bokuto genuinely loved owls, considering his locker was full of them, but Akaashi kept his own like of the animal very low key.

How Bokuto found out otherwise, he didn't know.

all lost souls, by norio

Not again, Akaashi thought. But he had never seen this sight before.

run rabbit run, by norio

Rule #1: Don't hurt Akaashi. Rule #2: Don't taint Akaashi. Rule #3: Don't involve Akaashi. Rule #4: Don't damage Akaashi. Rule #5 (optional): Try not to destroy yourself.

gwah, bam and swoosh, by dalyeau

When Bokuto meets Kageyama the first thing he thinks is, No five year old should be able to scowl like that.

Or be that tall.

Then, Shit, his dad is really hot.

Spoiled, by gabstar

Akaashi desperately needs a new mattress and he drags his loyal, loving, and very loud boyfriend with him.

omam verse, by shionsheart

Though some may believe they're monsters, those closest to them know they're just men learning how to love in this world of magic, demons, and faeries.

i’ll return home one day, by awkwardedgeworth

"Bro," He asks Kuroo out of the blue one day when they're toweling their hair dry, "What if Sawamura is halfway across the world and he only comes home seven times a year for around four days each?"

"I would consider every moment a blessing. You got it bad for Akaashi already?"

"I just wish you would introduce us sooner."

Or, wherein Akaashi is a world famous violinist, Kuroo introduces him to future Olympian-to-be Bokuto Koutarou. And Bokuto pines. A lot.

morning owls, by norio

Most of the time, if Bokuto woke up first, he would shake Akaashi awake. Sometimes he would bake sloppy pancakes for breakfast in bed, and sometimes he would sit on Akaashi's waist.

And sometimes he did not.

Insomniac Olympics, by Aetherdrive

Akaashi never thought he could inspire anyone, let alone an artist -- and then he met Bokuto.

counterclockwise, by miiniwa

How they had gone from point a to point b in such a short amount of time, he doesn't know. But as he dwells on it, he realizes that he doesn't exactly mind.

if kisses were fishes, then i’d be an ocean, by norio

Akaashi needs a fake date partner, so he grabs the first person he sees.

the way you look at me, by ThinkingCAPSLOCK

Bokuto sees him every day, every commute, at the final train. The stranger he only knows as Train Guy. Wrapped in coats, mystery, and distance - that is, until Bokuto breaks their familiar silence. He struggles with the hardest part of befriending someone he thinks he already knows: taking a step back to reevaluate all his assumptions.

He finds the easiest part is getting to learn about Train Guy all over again.

[riseofthejedipodcast]

1) Maderna & Phiser innoculations are not "Vaccines" and are also manufactured "gain of function" genetic material. Phiser admits that COVID mRNA Vaccine is -Not A Vaccine- at all!! Its "Chemotherapy" and Gene Therapy. It is unlawful under the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 41 et seq., to advertise that a product or service can prevent, treat, or cure human disease unless you possess competent and reliable scientific evidence, including, when appropriate, well-controlled human clinical studies. https://banned.video/watch?id=60076fda8c03b74ce0e2f6f5 Ebola Virus and Species Patent owned by the U.S. Department of Health. November 12th 2015 Chapel Hill NC gain of function research on bats stirs debate over risky research. Merck and Astrazenica abandoned development and testing of coronavirus vaccines. March 14th 2016 SARS-like WIV1-CoV poised for human emergence | PNAS 2) Two types of "Vaccines" described at the National Institute of Health 1) makes your own cells manufacturer the viral genetic material 2) mRNA, recombinant DNA, by definition, physically changes your DNA. Safety and efficacy studies at the NIH or by the manufacturer are only looking for "Immunoresponses, NOT for Viruses; despite the vaccine companies writing their own studies and fast-tracked. "They use a safe virus to deliver the genetic code (DNA) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to human cells so that the cells can make the protein. JNJ-7843672 uses a human adenovirus to deliver the code for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein." https://niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/covid-19-vaccine-faq. In the same fashion, Koch Postulates to "Isolate" a "Virus" or duplicated "genetic material" for Covid has only been done with Monkeys, with anal swabs, and only found "virus particles". https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7095368/ 3) Covid-19 AI Scenario was predicted by Tesla Leaks as the most likely response to the domination of Tesla & Nikola Tesla; at The Rise of the Jedi Podcast on December 22nd-December 26th 2019 at 1AM Rise of the Jedi Podcast 4) The Great Reset and Plandemic was pre-planned; as their New World Order was at risk of collapse - Joe Biden, January 2016 5) Plandemic was pre-planned at the 2019 World Economic Forum; under the title Event 201 Scenario by Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates 6) Just as their old order of oil, gas, propane, coal and tree buring failed; as their prices collapsed and renewable energy reached "negative prices"; they shut down Tesla Factories in the U.S and Shanghai 7) Hosptitals don't provide or use the words "Cures" to anything, more or less anything for a cold virus, they use the word "Treat" 8) The 2002-2004 SARS outbreak sourced "hospital staff" as the originators of SARS, 500,000 yearly cases of sepsis and other infectious diseases. March 2003 report where 200 hospital staff get SARS and spread it to patients. 9) All real medical cures from Ozone, to UV, to Plasma, to filtering your blood with Electric Fields; are banned by hospitals; while also not covered by Insurance 10) WHO lies about UV-C light and Sunlight; claiming UV-C does-not kill Coronavirus. FDA: UV-C destroys SARS-Coronavirus. The destruction of the protein shell ultimately leads to inactivation of the virus. UV-C is safe for human skin 11) EPA banned peer review of the first study by Trump team on UV-C lights with resperators on humans, citing alleged danger. 12) Governments and Hospitals banned Primatene Mist in 2011 to breath, and instead they use incubators to kill 90% of you. Just 1 mask reduces O2 intake by 20% and causes carbon dioxide poisoning. 13) Mainstream Media ignores real cures of virus and disease. AMA bans electric healing in the early 1900's calling it "quackery" clack clack clack, and Pseudo-Scientific. Electricity Greatest of All Doctors - Nikola Tesla to the IEEE in 1899 14) No authentic pictures exist of Coronavirus; without a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) or TEM Microscope and Photoshop. SARS-2 Photoshop Cartoon 15) Covid from Bat guano in China is only #blamed and never has been proven in any way. Chinese Officials Blame US Army for Coronavirus; citing "this is the Black Swan event the Globalists have been waiting for" 16) No #causation ever proven between any particular virus and a particular disease; not even HIV & AIDS; citing "The correlation between antibody to HIV and AIDS does not prove causation" - NIH 17) Hospitals are empty; emergency tents are empty; have been already torn down. U.S. Field Hospitals Stand Down, Most Without Treating Any Covid Patients - PBS 18) Flu disappeared in 2020 all counted as Covid cases and deaths 19) Swab tests, Anal probes and other test look for antibodies or reactions, not for a particular virus - NIH. Tanzania President shows how Goats show false-positives to Covid tests and "has technical errors". Austrian politician presents a False-positive test using Coca-Cola. Coca Cola and Pepsi join the hoax and promote using thier plastic bottles for covid testing. 20) mRNA therapeutics, by definition, changes your DNA. This mRNA "Vaccine" is from the lung tissue of an aborted child from 1966. 21) PCR test copies genetic material; 40X with errors each replication, looks for only "markers", to become anything they want; and not for diagnosing any illness or disease. However, it must be noted that detection of microbes in the CSF does not always indicate a CNS infection, since impairment of the blood-brain barrier may permit transit of microbes. - NIH 22) Temperature readings of 98.8, is not an accurate gague of a disease. Testing machines are also faulty. The human body is not uniform in its temperature; thus, measurements at different locations can yield varying results. The most accurate way to measure temperature is to take a rectal reading. See China Anal Probe test for Covid. 23) Immunologic Adjuvant "Vaccines" never have been and never will be a cure for anything; other than a poison to solicit a reaction, to reduce or increase T-Cells. 24) All Vaccines contain unregulated nano-particles of protein snippets of #whatchamacallit; nano-organic mercury; nano aluminum, and other so-called adjuvents. The #1 side effect of all mercury derivatives in all innoculations is "brain damage" - NIH 25) Vaccines, by definition, are designed create a cytokine storm of rogue antibodies in which the innate immune system causes an uncontrolled and excessive release of pro-inflammatory signaling molecules called cytokines. Cytokine Storms May Be Fueling Some COVID Deaths - WebMD 26) Trump, Jones, Fauci & NIH claim Hydro-cloro-quine (Hydrogenated Chlorine (Bleech) + AmphetamIne (Ine)) + stinky Sulfer is a "cure" for cold virus's. The FDA & NIH and the larger scientific community have warned against the use of the Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, citing ineffectiveness, lack of benefits and risk of heart rhythm problems. The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet could not verify the data on which the results depended. It's not a Malaria (Hoax) cure either. It simply reduces your T-cells by 40%, reducing the "cases" by 40%, Malaria still ends up killing the patient. Therapies to decrease CD8 immune activation 27) The holes in a paper mask are 1000X bigger than genetic material at .02-.20 Microns. HEPA 2.5 is 10-100X bigger than a Virus. Masks only prevent large particles, not nano-particles. - NIH. To cover for their original lie that "just wear the mask" - Joe Biden; Experts are now claiming you need to wear 2 or 3 masks. 28) Masks in many ways, by touching your ass and face and then mask, foster disease and infection, it doesn't provent them. Bacterial Pneumonia (spread by the hospital staff) Caused Most Deaths in 1918 Influenza. - NIH & Fouci, 2008 29) Masks suffocate and train to suffocate children, elderly, asthmatics and others. Wearing a mask can be dangerous or pose a suffocation hazard 30) Join the Dark Side, We have Masks! Masks are worn by Darth Vader, Storm Troopers, Empire's minions and Walmart employees 31) Psychological effects of mask wearing is astouonding and innumerable. Evidence suggests that there may be consequential psychological impacts of mask wearing on the basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness - NIH 32) Dead Virus's are not Transmittable, despit what you've been told. No one you know died of Coronavirus, that didn't have 5+ pre-existing conditions. Death Counts are considered "Provisional" - CDC. 94% of U.S. COVID-19 deaths had numerous contributing health problems - CDC. But, the fake news does claim Lions at zoo's can get Coronavirus; while the CDC admits that Some coronaviruses, such as canine and feline coronaviruses, infect only animals and do not infect people. 33) There is no newspaper death notices, funerals etc. for any of the alleged deaths. Since there is no funerals, instead Biden to hold national memorial service for US Covid victims. 34) Children have less than a .2% death rate, even with phoney death numbers. Few US children are dying from covid-19 - The Washington Post. 35) There was no dead people in body bags in NY as Trump suggested. He is lying to prop-up the Hoax. Trump Describes Seeing Bodies in Body Bags At NYC 36) There is less overall deaths in 2020 in the U.S. than there was in 2019; when removing the increase in suicide, drug overdoses, poverty; the reduction in traffic deaths and un-registered illegals being counted as deaths. 37) All the politicians and are actors that said they had Covid, had no side effects whatsoever; Larry King did not die of Covid. - Shawn King. Boris Johnson didn't even clear his throat once in his Live Interview. 38) Lockdowns have officially made 40 Million people homeless; without the Presidential Directive banning evictions. USAToday. Lockdowns made 120 Million Jobless. 39) Lockdowns cause people to congregate at home, the opposite of the reason for a lockdown .666) The 6' X 6' X 6' social distancing is, you've got it, 666, or 12' X 12' X 12' is, you've got it 3 6's, or 666. 40) The species name of Covid-19 is (HEL1) spoken "hell one" helical virus; categorized as a family of cold virus by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and in the 1989 AMA Encyclopedia. Coronavirus nsp13 SF1 Helicase (HEL1) - NIH 41) Psychological effects of social distancing, no hugs, hand shakes, kissing or sex; is astounding and innumerable. No sources needed. 42) Rockefeller (Oil) Foundation & US DOS wrote a report on Operation Lockstep; for public policing policy called #lockstep; a prison term. The US Department of State is policing the population policy 1999, NIH. - Rockefeller Foundation is the founder and funder of the World Health Organization. 43) U.N. is threatening a global food pandemic of Apocolyptic proportions 44) 10 Million people have already starved to death because of lockdowns. 132 Million into Hunger - UN 45) 50%-80% of businesses in the U.S. could go out of business, leaving just Taco Bell. Coronavirus Bankruptcy Tracker 46) HIPAA medical privacy laws and dozens of others are cancelled by directives & orders. Trump suspends HIPAA penalties with national emergency declaration 47) $6.66T bailouts and free money to the people behind all these scams. U.S printed $6.66T in phoney currency in 2020. 48) Bill Gates said he will make 200X his investment into his operating system Vaccines 49) First you needed a Vaccine, now multiple Vaccines, next you'll need 100; and still have to wear 3 masks, social distance and a Tattoo of phosphorescent nano-dots. There are currently more than 50 COVID-19 vaccine candidates. 50) CNN admits that you will need a Certificate of Vaccination 2019 (Covid-19) passport to leave your house 51) CNN admits the Contact Tracing APP will ensnare anyone you've been near; to be forceaby quarrantined. Contact tracing will be conducted for close contacts (any individual within 6 feet of an infected person for a total of 15 minutes or more) - CDC. Could your child or pregnant wife be a victim of medical kidnapping? 52) Masks, Contact tracing and Temperature readings are all a violation of HIPAA medical and other privacy laws. 53) Vaccine Mandates or you will not be able to have a job, get government funds or go outside your house without taking Bill Gate's OS vaccines. 54) Citizens around the world have been threatened by merchants, other citizens and police with death from day 1, if they don't do as their told. Police make 6500 arrests in the U.K. for breaking mask and distancing guidelines. 55) Once mandatory by December 9, 2020, national guard, police and military will use the Martial Law to National Guard will administer the vaccines force vaccinate you and your family. - Military Times 56) Local police are now setting up Mask Squads to round up people not obeying their rules (or whatever else they say) 57) Banks are now closing customer bank accounts and destroying your business if you don't wear a mask, or anything else they say 58) False-Flag operations are now in effect, to blame truth, freedom and the American Way and/or God. Oregon Senator correctly describes the Capitol "attack" as a False-Flag Operation to treat American's as Terrorists. 59) Mainstream news is now lying about every event that happens on the ground, making claims of fact we all know are false; such as proven voter fraud and the phoney attack on the Capitol. The company Scytl Secure Electronic Voting, S.A, (also stylized SCYTL) is a Spanish provider of electronic voting systems and election technology; that counts the votes for the U.S., then returns the results, It has board members from the Rockefellers, Rothchilds, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Russia & Others. 60) Covid was a cover for the facist communists to steal the election using dozens of fraudulent vote counting methods. Dominion Voting Systems are a complete fraud. The data is always accessable by the manufacturer. 61) All Presidential Directives, Orders & Mandates are Unconstitutional; the Constitution and Bill of Rights has been CANCELLED! Despite this lack of constitutional authority,... 62) "Rules" are not "Laws"; in the dictionary. To make you think they are the same, they use the term Rule of Law to make it so. A Rule, of a Law, means that government beurocrats can make-up 1000 rules, to supposedly abide by a particular law. 63) Governments are now making Sex Rules where you must not have sex, but masterbate in front of your partner, social distanced and be wearing 3 masks 64) Homeland Security is rolling out Social Distancing Shock Collars for the Slaves as a "cure" for Coronavirus. Social Distancing is a mis-nomer and worthless. Nano-particles float in the air like smoke for at least 45 minutes. Nano-particles from just speech float for 8 minutes. ((Predictive Programming in Movies: In the 1991 movie "Wedlock"; if you venture too far from your controllers, the shock bracelet around your neck; blows your head off)) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedlock_(film) 65) Medicare pays $13K to $300K to list any case or death as a Covid-19 death 66) Weapons confiscation before the government agents and NWO stooges come to kill you. Pelosi wants security money for Stormtrooper Mask and Body Armor to face the "enemy within" House of Representatives

[danishkhan786]

Motorbike Insurance Thailand

Health Insurance Thailand

AA Protection Representatives is controlled by a devoted group with numerous years experience in the protection field in Thailand and abroad. Our clients stretch out all through Thailand and the world and reach from families to global companies. Our maxim is....if it tends to be safeguarded - we will protect it!

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[newstfionline]

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Getting creative to help the homeless (AP) After three years on the streets, Tiecha Vannoy and her boyfriend Chris Foss plan to weather the pandemic this winter in a small white “pod” with electricity, heat and enough room for two. Portland this month assembled neat rows of the shelters, which resemble garden sheds, in three ad-hoc “villages”—part of an unprecedented effort unfolding in cold-weather cities nationwide to keep people without permanent homes safe as temperatures drop and coronavirus cases surge. “We just get to stay in our little place. We don’t have to leave here unless we want to,” said Vannoy, wiping away tears as they moved into the shelter near a downtown train station. “It’s been a long time coming. He always tells me to have faith, but I was just over it.” ... “Those (are) folks who would under normal circumstances maybe come into a drop-in center to warm up, or go into the subway to warm up, or go into a McDonald’s to warm up—and just not having those options available to them. What then?” asked Giselle Routhier of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City.

Raise your mittens: Outdoor learning continues into winter (AP) Cindy Soule’s fourth graders in Maine’s largest city have studied pollination in a community garden. They solved an erosion problem that was damaging trees. They learned about bear scat. Then came a fresh layer of snow and temperatures that hovered around freezing—but her students were unfazed. Bundled up and masked, they scooted outside with their belongings in buckets. They collected their pencils and clipboards, plopped the buckets upside down in the snow, took a seat and went to work. The lesson? Snow, of course, and how snowflakes are formed. Schools nationwide scrambled to get students outdoors during the pandemic to keep them safe and stop the spread of COVID-19. Now, with temperatures plummeting, a smaller number of schools—even in some of the nation’s most frigid climes—plan to keep it going all winter long, with students trading desks in warm classrooms for tree stumps or buckets.

Explosion in Nashville that damaged 20 buildings, injured 3 people an ‘intentional act’ (USA Today) Authorities believe an explosion that occurred in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning and was felt for miles was an “intentional act” sparked by a vehicle. Police responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle parked outside the AT&T building just before 6 a.m. Upon arrival, police said an officer “had reason” to alert the department’s hazardous devices unit, which was en route, when a “significant explosion” happened. Three people were hospitalized with injuries, police said. At least 20 buildings were damaged, Nashville Mayor John Cooper said. The sound of the explosion could be heard from miles away, and people reported windows shaking from South and East Nashville. “It looks like a bomb went off,” Cooper said. The downtown area will be “sealed off” for further investigation and to make sure everything is “completely safe.”

US to require negative COVID-19 test from UK travelers (AP) The United States will require airline passengers from Britain to get a negative COVID-19 test before their flight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced late Thursday. The U.S. is the latest country to announce new travel restrictions because of a new variant of the coronavirus that is spreading in Britain and elsewhere. Airline passengers from the United Kingdom will need to get negative COVID-19 tests within three days of their trip and provide the results to the airline, the CDC said in a statement. The agency said the order will be signed Friday and go into effect on Monday. “If a passenger chooses not to take a test, the airline must deny boarding to the passenger,” the CDC said in its statement. The agency said because of travel restrictions in place since March, air travel to the U.S. from the U.K. is already down by 90%.

Many just want a hug for Christmas this year, Queen Elizabeth says (Reuters) All many people want for Christmas this year is a simple hug, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth said in her annual festive message, saying it would be hard for those who lost loved ones to COVID-19 pandemic or were separated by curbs on social mixing. In her traditional pre-recorded Christmas Day address to the nation, the 94-year-old monarch repeatedly spoke of hope for the future whilst acknowledging millions of Britons would be unable to have their usual family celebrations this year. “Of course for many, this time of year will be tinged with sadness; some mourning the loss of those dear to them, and others missing friends and family members distanced for safety when all they really want for Christmas is a simple hug or a squeeze of the hand,” Elizabeth said. “If you are among them, you are not alone. And let me assure you of my thoughts and prayers.” “Remarkably, a year that has necessarily kept people apart has in many ways brought us closer,” said the queen, adding the royals had been inspired by stories of those who volunteered to help others in need. “In the United Kingdom and around the world, people have risen magnificently to the challenges of the year and I’m so proud and moved by this quiet indomitable spirit.”

For the European Union, It’s a Pretty Good Deal (NYT) The European Union emerges from fraught negotiations with Britain over its exit from the bloc with a sense of satisfaction—that it has maintained its unity and its core principles, especially the integrity of the single market of now 450 million consumers that is the foundation of its influence. And it is now looking ahead to its life without Britain. The final deal is a free-trade agreement that recognizes Britain’s desire to leave the single market and the customs union while preserving tariff-free, quota-free trade in goods with the European Union. To that end, Britain agreed to a mechanism, with arbitration and possible tariffs for violations, that would keep its regulations and subsidies roughly in line with those of Brussels, to prevent unfair competition. But the deal will require inspections of goods to prevent smuggling. The deal also covers many mundane but crucial matters of visas, health insurance, and air, rail and road travel. It treats Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, as within the E.U. customs area to prevent the need for a hard border on the island, but requires some checks on goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland. And the deal reallocates fishing areas and quotas, given that Britain is now an independent coastal state.

Pope Francis celebrates low-key Christmas Eve Mass amid coronavirus restrictions (Fox News) Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve Mass on Thursday night amid coronavirus restrictions that reduced a normal crowd of as many as 10,000 congregants to a group of fewer than 100 people, according to reports. During his homily, the Roman Catholic leader urged followers to reach out to the needy, noting that Jesus Christ was considered an outsider. “The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God,” the pope said. May the Child of Bethlehem help us, then, to be generous, supportive and helpful, especially towards those who are vulnerable, the sick, those unemployed or experiencing hardship due to the economic effects of the pandemic, and women who have suffered domestic violence during these months of lockdown,” he said.

Turkey debates law that would increase oversight of NGOs (Reuters) Turkey’s parliament began debating a draft law on Friday that would increase oversight of non-governmental organisations and which, according to rights campaigners, risks limiting the freedoms of civil-society groups. The government says the measure, covering “foundations and associations”, aims to prevent non-profit organisations from financing terrorism and to punish those who violate the law. Civil-society groups, including Amnesty International and the Human Rights Association, said terrorism charges in Turkey were arbitrary, and that the draft law would violate the presumption of innocence and punish those whose trials were not finalised.Investigations based on terrorism charges have been launched against hundreds of thousands of people under a crackdown following a failed coup in 2016. Hundreds of foundations were also shut down with decrees following the coup attempt.

Half of Russians sceptical Kremlin critic Navalny was poisoned (Reuters) Half of Russians believe that Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was either not poisoned, as he and Western governments contend, or that his poisoning was stage-managed by Western intelligence services, a poll showed on Thursday. The poll, released by the Levada-Center, shows how hard it remains for Navalny to shape public opinion in Russia even as his case attracts wide media attention in the West and his own slickly-produced videos of what happened to him this summer rack up millions of views online. Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critics, was airlifted to Germany for medical treatment in August after collapsing on a plane in Russia. Germany has said he was poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him, an assertion many Western nations accept. The poll by Levada, which is regarded as more independent than state counterparts, showed only 15% of Russians believed what happened to Navalny was an attempt by the authorities to rid themselves of a political opponent. By contrast, 30% thought that the incident was stage-managed and that there was no poisoning, and 19% said they believed it was a provocation orchestrated by Western intelligence services.

Hong Kong street refrigerator keeps giving (AP) Most people who head to Woosung Street in Hong Kong’s old-school neighborhood of Jordan are visiting its popular restaurants serving everything from curries to seafood. Others may be headed for a lone refrigerator, painted blue, with a sign that reads: “Give what you can give, take what you need to take.” The door of the fridge sitting outside a hockey academy opens to reveal it is stuffed with packets of instant noodles, biscuits, tins of food and even socks and towels for anyone who may need them. Ahmen Khan, founder of a sports foundation on the same street, said he was inspired to create a community refrigerator after seeing a film about others doing the same thing. He found the refrigerator at a nearby refuse collection point and painted it blue. “It’s like a dignity, that when you go home, you open your fridge to get food,” Khan said. “So I want the people to just feel like that. Even if it’s a street, it’s their community, it’s their home, so they can simply just open it and then just put food there, and collect the food.” Khan’s blue refrigerator project went viral on social media and people have been dropping by to leave food inside.

Israeli jets fly over Beirut, explosions reported in Syria (AP) Israeli jets flew very low over parts of Lebanon early Friday, terrifying residents on Christmas Eve, some of whom reported seeing missiles in the skies over Beirut. Minutes later, Syria’s official news agency reported explosions in the central Syrian town of Masyaf. Other Syrian media said Syrian air defenses responded to an Israeli attack near the town in the Hama province. The Syrian Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying Israel “launched an aggression by directing a barrage of rockets” from the north of the Lebanese city of Tripoli towards the Masyaf area. Israeli jets regularly violate Lebanese airspace and have often struck inside Syria from Lebanese territory. But the Christmas Eve flights were louder than usual, frightening residents of Beirut who have endured multiple crises in the past year, including the catastrophic Aug. 4 explosion at the city’s port that killed over 200 people and destroyed parts of the capital.