Santa Clara County, where the San Francisco 49ers train and play their NFL home games, has one of the highest COVID vaccination rates in California. As of July 11, more than 76% of its vaccine-eligible residents were fully vaccinated, partly because the county and the 49ers franchise turned Levi’s Stadium into a mass inoculation site where more than 350,000 doses were administered over four months.

The 49ers themselves, however, are not so enthusiastic about the shots. In June, head coach Kyle Shanahan said only 53 of the 91 athletes on the team roster — 58% — were fully vaccinated. The team has issued no updates since.

It’s a familiar story in the world of professional sports. Despite resources that other industries can only dream of, most pro leagues in the U.S. are struggling to get their teams’ COVID-19 vaccination rates to 85%, a threshold considered high enough to protect the locker room or clubhouse from spread of the disease. Only the Women’s National Basketball Association, at 99%, can boast a highly successful campaign to educate and vaccinate its players.

And while the public might expect sports figures, and the rich leagues they play for, to help rally the national vaccination effort, that’s not happening. Although the leagues and unions have advocated for players to get the shots, the industry clearly regards vaccination as a personal decision — not a responsibility.

“It’s everyone’s choice whether they want to get vaccinated or not,” Sam Darnold, the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback and a former USC star, said in June when revealing that he had not gotten a shot. “For me, I’m staying by myself right now. I don’t have a family or anything like that. There’s a ton of different things that go into it.”

Comments like Darnold’s and those of Buffalo Bills receiver Cole Beasley, who tweeted a long rant casting the COVID vaccines as a threat to “my way of living and my values,” have dominated news cycles. Meanwhile, the leagues themselves, whose overall vaccination numbers outpace those of the country at large, pad around the topic carefully.

Tell Schools/Universities No Vaccine Mandates for Children/Young Adults!

“Push? No. Encourage,” said Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, when asked at an MLB All-Star Game news conference about the union’s position on player vaccination. “We’ve encouraged from the beginning.”

And most players have shunned the role of public health spokesperson, making the pro-vaccination campaign a largely faceless one. Few have publicly endorsed vaccination or acknowledged receiving shots, even though the league’s numbers suggest large majorities are vaccinated. Most don’t want to discuss it.

In May, NBA superstar LeBron James pointedly refused to answer questions about whether he’d been vaccinated, saying, “Anything of that nature is all family talk.” Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaq Barrett said he and his wife had received vaccines, but as for encouraging teammates, “it’s to each their own. I don’t know why people wouldn’t get it, but whatever makes you comfortable, whatever helps you sleep at night, you do that.”

Zachary Binney, a sports epidemiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, believes pro athletes aren’t that different from the rest of us when it comes to vaccines: “A lot of them are vaccinated. A lot of them are willing to become vaccinated. Some of them have concerns. And some of them just are not going to do it — and they are never going to do it.”

In fact, most of the teams are doing well by overall U.S. standards. More than 70% of NFL and NBA players are at least partially vaccinated, according to reports. That puts both leagues’ rates higher than they are for young U.S. adults as a whole. . . .

“Our schools are finalizing their proposed policies and procedures for the fall,” Commissioner Kevin Warren said at Big Ten football media days.

Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said the conference will take take a “decentralized” approach to COVID-19 protocols by allowing each school to put in place its own plan.

“Our schools are finalizing their proposed policies and procedures for the fall,” Warren said at Big Ten football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium. “We’ll get that information in early August, we’ll combine it, and then we’ll get together with our chancellors and presidents and other key constituents to make the determination as far as how we handle the fall.”

Warren also said there has been no determination on whether games would be forfeited — as has been suggested by the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 — if teams cannot play because of COVID-19 issues.

Last season, the Big Ten at first called off its fall football season because of the pandemic before reversing course and deciding instead to start in late October.

The late start left no room for games to be made up and numerous Big Ten games were canceled because of COVID-19 left teams short players.

Warren said the conference plans to hire a chief medical officer before football season starts.

Preseason All-Big Ten

The preseason all-Big Ten team released Thursday includes three Ohio State players among 10 players selected by a media panel.

Offensive left tackle Thayer Munford and wide receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson are cornerstones for a Buckeyes program that has won four consecutive conference titles and qualified for the College Football Playoff the past two years.

Each were 2020 first-team All-Big Ten selections.

Olave returns for his senior year with 87 receptions for 1,435 yards and 19 touchdowns in three seasons. In two seasons, Wilson has 73 receptions for 1,155 yards and 11 TDs.

Other East Division players honored were Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and Penn State wide receiver Jahan Dotson.

The West Division players include Minnesota running back Mohamed Ibrahim, Northwestern safety Brandon Joseph, Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum, Purdue wide receiver David Bell and Wisconsin linebacker Jack Sanborn. Ibrahim and Joseph were first-team All-Big Ten last season.

Ibrahim rushed for 1,076 yards and 15 TDs on 201 carries as a junior. The scores rank fourth for a single season in school history.

Advisor Alvarez

Former Wisconsin athletic director and coach Barry Alvarez is joining the Big Ten as the special adviser for football.

Alvarez retired from Wisconsin after the past 18 years as AD and 16 seasons previously as coach of the Badgers. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren announced Alvarez would be joining the conference, starting Aug. 2.

“I trust Barry Alvarez implicitly,” Warren said. “He means everything to this conference.”

Alvarez will work with Warren on College Football Playoff expansion, television and bowl contracts, scheduling, and player health and safety.

Alvarez led the Badgers to three Big Ten titles and three Rose Bowl victories as a head coach and went 119-74-4.

Warren also said Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank will replace Northwestern President Morton Schapiro as chairperson of the Big Ten Council of President and Chancellors. . . .

The U.K.-based maker of Covid-19 tests, Mologic, has been bought out by Global Access Health, a new Bill Gates and George Soros-backed consortium.

George Soros’ Open Society Foundation confirmed the deal on Monday in a statement, which says Global Access Health members will invest ‘at least’ $41 million into the project.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also behind the initiative led by the Soros Economic Development Fund.

Mologic was founded in 2003 and has previously worked with the Gates Foundation. . . .

How infections are handled is what matters most, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech to an International Olympic Committee meeting.

TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympics should not be judged by the tally of COVID-19 cases that arise because eliminating risk is impossible, the head of the World Health Organization told sports officials Wednesday as events began in Japan.

How infections are handled is what matters most, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech to an International Olympic Committee meeting.

“The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and cared for as quickly as possible and onward transmission is interrupted,” he said.

The number of Games-linked COVID-19 cases in Japan this month was 79 on Wednesday, with more international athletes testing positive at home and unable to travel.

“The mark of success in the coming fortnight is not zero cases,” Tedros said, noting the athletes who already tested positive in Japan, including at the athletes village in Tokyo Bay, where most of the 11,000 competitors will stay.

Teammates classed as close contacts of infected athletes can continue training and preparing for events under a regime of isolation and extra monitoring.

Health experts in Japan have warned of the Olympics becoming a “super-spreader” event bringing tens of thousands of athletes, officials and workers during a local state of emergency.

“There is no zero risk in life,” said Tedros, who began his keynote speech minutes after the first softball game began in Fukushima, and added Japan was “giving courage to the whole world.”

The WHO leader also had a more critical message and a challenge for leaders of richer countries about sharing vaccines more fairly in the world.

“The pandemic is a test and the world is failing,” Tedros said, predicting more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 worldwide before the Olympic flame goes out in Tokyo on Aug. 8.

It was a “horrifying injustice,” he said, that 75% of the vaccine shots delivered globally so far were in only 10 countries.

Tedros warned anyone who believed the pandemic was over because it was under control in their part of the world lived in “a fool’s paradise.”

The world needs to produce 11 billion doses next year and the WHO wanted governments to help reach a target of vaccinating 70% of people in every country by the middle of next year.

“The pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it,” Tedros said. “It is in our hands.” . . . .

The Biden Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that they will be cracking down on Americans and limiting non-essential travel across the border due to the very dangerous Delta COVID variant.

DHS is in constant contact with Canadian and Mexican counterparts to identify the conditions under which restrictions may be eased safely and sustainably.

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 21, 2021

This is at the same time tens of thousands of illegal migrants and fake refugees are flooding across our border every week.
That’s OK.

For something calling itself Homeland Security they sure have no idea of the lack of security going on at our homelands Southern border. pic.twitter.com/2V1uAuaJtE

— Kevin Dalton (@NextLAMayor) July 21, 2021

The post Biden Homeland Security Announces Travel Restrictions for Americans at Border Due to COVID Variant But Southern Border Will Remain Open to Illegals appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

I lived in two developing African countries for 16 years: Kenya and Tanzania. Despite their countries having been wracked by tribalism, corrupting Marxist ideologies, and violence, when you get to know East Africans one on one and in small groups, you will find them looking for the joy of life, deeply appreciative of what they have, funny, down to earth, tolerant of strangers, yet loyal to family and clan and desirous of development.

What do they mean by development? They mean a “country that functions,” a modern country with proper roads, clean water, dependable electricity, and border security, where financial corruption is minimal and nepotism disappears among a growing middle class that slowly takes over representative government from the tribal oligarchs. They would tell me, “A country just like yours—Canada!”

Is Canada that kind of country anymore? I am afraid not. The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed municipal, provincial, and national bureaucrats, both elected and selected, to grab enormous power, all in the name of the “common good.” The various draconian and near endless lockdowns have taken away basic rights of assembly and freedom of movement that go back to the Magna Carta. The lockdowns have beggared the working classes and have contributed to rising unemployment.

The “one size fits all” of the closure of schools has ignored the growing scientific evidence from around the world that kids from 1 to 12 are at a lower risk from COVID-19 than is the adult population. The near ongoing public “non-discussion” of the Swedish health model for handling the pandemic is also worth noting. . . .

How devastating was the 2020 pandemic and how devastating was government’s reaction to the pandemic? It will likely take years to reach definitive conclusions, but the latest annual federal report on U.S. mortality is a start in discovering the answers. Along with the well-documented ravages of Covid, the government is reporting a stunning increase, especially among young people, in a broad category called “unintentional injuries” that demands further investigation.

The Journal’s Betsy McKay reports:

Life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 1.5 years in 2020, the biggest decline since at least World War II, as the Covid-19 pandemic killed hundreds of thousands and exacerbated crises in drug overdoses, homicides and some chronic diseases.

Provisional data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that American life expectancy dropped to 77.3 years in 2020, roughly the same level as in 2003, erasing years of hard-won gains in the nation’s public health.

Covid was the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer last year, but the virus was the leading contributor to the decline in life expectancy, according to the government. In trying to track all the non-Covid deaths, there are a number of unresolved issues. Reports Ms. McKay:

The full toll of the pandemic has yet to be seen, doctors and public-health officials said. Many people skipped or delayed treatment last year for conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure and endured isolation, stress and interruptions in normal diet and exercise routines.

“That has led to intermediate and longer-term effects we will have to deal with for years to come,” said Donald Lloyd-Jones, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and president of the American Heart Association…

More deaths from homicide, diabetes and chronic liver disease—which is related to heavy alcohol use—also contributed to last year’s life expectancy drop, the CDC said. Pandemic lockdowns, recession and a backlash against police tactics contributed to a sharp rise in homicides in large U.S. cities that has continued in 2021, according to police, researchers, mayors and community leaders.

Life expectancy would have fallen even more, the CDC said, if not for decreases in mortality due to cancer, chronic lower-respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, emphysema and asthma, and other factors.

There are so many questions here, such as how cancer mortality could have declined in a year when so many were skipping cancer screenings and treatments. Were some deaths that otherwise might have been ascribed to cancer or bronchitis categorized as Covid fatalities? . . . .