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Fauci: Abbott’s move to ban shot mandates in Texas ‘unfortunate’
WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that it is “really unfortunate” that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has moved to ban vaccine mandates in the state.
The nation’s leading infectious disease doctor, speaking on Fox News Sunday, said that the Republican governor’s decision to block businesses from requiring inoculations would damage public health since vaccines are the “most effective means” to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Fauci was largely encouraged by the downward trend of coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths across the nation and suggested that vaccinated individuals could have a normal holiday season with others who have received the shot. But he said that those who have not been vaccinated should continue to avoid gatherings and should wear a mask.
He also said that police officers and others responsible for public safety should view vaccination against COVID-19 as a key part of their role.
“Think about the implications of not getting vaccinated when you’re in a position where you have a responsible job, and you want to protect yourself because you’re needed at your job, whether you’re a police officer or a pilot or any other of those kinds of occupations,” Fauci said.
Police unions in cities across the country are urging members to resist COVID-19 vaccine requirements for their jobs.
California oil spill: Investigators believe a 1,200-foot cargo ship dragging anchor in rough seas caught an underwater oil pipeline and pulled it across the seafloor, months before a leak from the line fouled the Southern California coastline with crude.
A team of federal investigators trying to chase down the cause of the spill boarded the Panama-registered MSC DANIT hours after the massive ship arrived this weekend off the Port of Long Beach, the same area where the leak was discovered in early October.
During a prior visit by the ship during a heavy storm in January, investigators believe its anchor dragged for an unknown distance before striking the 16-inch steel pipe, Coast Guard Lt. j.g. SondraKay Kneen said Sunday.
The impact would have knocked an inch-thick concrete casing off the pipe and pulled it more than 100 feet , bending but not breaking the line, Kneen said.
Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date or failed due to a preexisting problem, Kneen said.
Arkansas knife attack: Two people in Arkansas were found fatally stabbed and a third person was shot and killed by an officer whose neck was slashed after he found a man beating one of the stabbing victims with a rock, authorities said Sunday.
It happened around 6:20 a.m., when Fort Smith police received a 911 call about an assault. The responding officer discovered Christofer Conner beating a 15-year-old boy, said Fort Smith police Chief Danny Baker.
Police in Fort Smith, located about 160 miles northwest of Little Rock, later determined the boy was Conner’s son.
As the officer tried to place Conner, 40, in restraints, the suspect pulled out a weapon and sliced the officer’s throat and neck, Baker said. The officer then fired two shots at Conner, killing him.
The officer was rushed into emergency surgery, and was in stable condition Sunday afternoon, Baker said. His name was not immediately released.
The boy was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He had sustained multiple stab wounds and other injuries, Baker said.
Inside the home, police found the body of Julia Marie Moore, 42. Authorities believe she had been fatally stabbed.
A 5-year-old child was found safe in the home. The child was later placed with other family members, Baker said.
British slaying: The father of a man held for the fatal stabbing of a British lawmaker during a meeting with local voters has told British media that he was shocked and “traumatized” by his son’s arrest, as police continued questioning the suspect under terrorism laws.
Harbi Ali Kullane, a former adviser to Somalia’s prime minister, said British counterterrorism police had visited him, according to the Sunday Times.
“I’m feeling very traumatized. It’s not something that I expected or even dreamed of,” he was quoted as saying.
British authorities have not released the name of the suspect in the killing of 69-year-old Conservative lawmaker David Amess on Friday, but British media reported the suspect was Ali Harbi Ali, 25, believed to be a British citizen with Somali heritage.
Amess, a long-serving lawmaker, was stabbed multiple times during a regular meeting with his constituents at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, a town 40 miles east of London. The Metropolitan Police has described the attack as terrorism.
Deadly floods in India: At least 18 people have died a day after torrential rains swept through villages and flooded roads in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Officials said rescuers recovered the bodies in two of the worst-hit districts, Kottayam and Idukki, where the heavy downpours triggered massive landslides, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
The National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Army deployed teams to help with rescue efforts as several are still feared to be missing.
Television reports Saturday showed people wading through chest-deep waters to rescue passengers from a bus that was nearly submerged by the torrents flooding the roads.
The state chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, urged residents on Sunday to exercise extreme caution even though the intense rainfall has since subsided.
Over 100 relief camps have been set up, he added.
Russian space capsule: A Soyuz space capsule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers landed after a 3 ½-hour trip from the International Space Station.
The capsule, descending under a parachute, landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 0435 GMT Sunday with Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko aboard.
Actress Peresild and film director Shipenko rocketed to the space station Oct. 5 to film segments of a movie titled “Challenge,” in which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who needs an operation in orbit. Novitskiy, who spent more than six months aboard the space station, is to star as the ailing cosmonaut.
After the landing and a brief delay for filming, the three space flyers were taken to a medical tent for an examination.