* “The data is clear. If you are unvaccinated, you’re at risk of getting seriously ill or dying or spreading it.”–President Joe Biden.
* Non-essential travel between the U.S. and Canada will be banned for another month. The world’s longest undefended border has been closed to most travel since March 2020.
* The European Union lifted its travel ban on American tourists, although each E.U. member state retains the right to decide on its own restrictions.
* The U.S is devoting $3.2 billion to advance development of antiviral pills for COVID-19 and other dangerous viruses that could turn into pandemics.
* Missouri has the highest rate of new COVID-19 infections in the country. In a recent 14-day period, the number of new cases increased 72 percent.
* Hidden pockets of low vaccination rates at the local level continue to be a national challenge. Many such pockets are more rural and less economically advantaged than the rest of the U.S.
* “A false sense of security.” That’s how Marwa Zaatari, a pandemic task force member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, referenced plastic shielding. “If you have plexiglass, you’re still breathing the same shared air of another person.”
* Royal Caribbean International has postponed the inaugural sailing of its Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship out of Fort Lauderdale (July 3) after eight crew members tested positive for COVID-19.
* So far this year more than a dozen vaccination events to reach Hillsborough homeless have been held. In most cases, homeless patients received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.