Names and faces
■ Pakistan awarded Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates its second-highest civilian honor Thursday, in recognition of his work to alleviate poverty and diseases such as polio and tuberculosis. On a visit to the capital, Islamabad, Gates was given the prestigious Hilal-e-Pakistan award by President Arif Alvi in a televised ceremony, after he met with Prime Minister Imran Khan. “Government leaders, health workers and parents are working tirelessly to ensure this disease never paralyzes a child again,” Gates said. “This is the final, and hardest, phase of the eradication effort, but by keeping up the momentum and staying vigilant, Pakistan has an opportunity to make history by ending polio for good.” A statement quoted Khan as thanking Gates and saying that polio eradication is a “top priority” for the government, which is working “at all levels to ensure that every child is protected with the polio vaccine.” According to a government statement, Khan during his meeting with Gates thanked the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its continued partnership with Pakistan. Later, Gates told reporters that polio had spread less in Pakistan than anticipated because people were moving around less during the covid-19 pandemic.
■ Actor Rockmond Dunbar sued Disney after getting fired from the Fox drama “9-1-1” for refusing to get a covid shot. Dunbar, 49, said he filed for medical and religious exemptions but was denied both. He was written off “9-1-1” in an episode that aired in November, but the door was left open for his character’s return. In the suit filed Wednesday, Dunbar said that other cast and crew received exemptions but he was singled out because of his race. “Dunbar understands that other members of the ‘9-1-1” cast and crew who also could not be vaccinated have been accommodated, though none sought a religious exemption and none were Black,” the lawsuit states. Disney said that it reviewed all exceptions on a case-by-case basis and claimed it didn’t discriminate against Dunbar, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dunbar’s religious exemption request was tied to his membership in the Church of Universal Wisdom, which he joined in 2013, the lawsuit said. When he was fired, he said: “My sincerely held beliefs and private medical history are very intimate and personal aspects of my life that I do not publicly discuss and have no desire to start now.”