Helen Branswell compiles a primer on what’s known about mixing and matching Covid-19 vaccines. / STAT Texas Governor Greg Abbott bans all organizations, including private companies, from enforcing vaccinations in his state. / BBC News Coronavirus question: Should I humor my friend's request for a pointless Covid precaution?
Severe flooding recently displaced more than 1.76 million people in Shanxi province in northern China, according to local media. / BBC News Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights this weekend, citing weather and air traffic controller problems. No other airlines seemed to be impacted. / CNN Related: An illustrated
Over the last five years, the top 100 law firms in the United States represented fossil fuel clients in 358 legal cases and transactions worth $1.36 trillion. / The Guardian China is ratcheting up military pressure on Taiwan. / The Economist Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's forces intensify airstrikes
Following this week's ruling from a federal judge, at least one Texas healthcare provider is again performing abortions past six weeks of pregnancy. / BuzzFeed News The estate of Henrietta Lacks is suing a pharmaceutical company for selling her cells, which were taken without her knowledge or consent by
The WHO is rolling out the first vaccine for malaria, a disease that kills hundreds of thousands every year, most of them under five years of age. / STAT Pfizer has officially requested the FDA provide Emergency Use Authorization for its Covid vaccine for children aged 5 to 11. / NPR Studies
How the Facebook outage affected the developing world, which depends on WhatsApp for health services and to shield communications from totalitarian governments. / NBC News, People Related: Telegram says it added 70 million new users while Facebook was down. / The Guardian The Facebook outage forced small business owners to realize that
In a brief glimmer of hope, Facebook and all of its services were down for nearly six hours yesterday. / Associated Press Facebook says the outage was caused by a configuration change, and here's a fascinating observation of how the services disappeared from the web. / The Verge, Cloudflare According
An explosive new report on the vast offshore systems used by the powerful—including 14 current country leaders—to hide billions of dollars. / The Washington Post Litigation over the opioid crisis now shifts to major pharmacy chains, which are accused of dispensing opioids while ignoring monitoring protocols. / NPR The whistleblower
The US death toll from Covid has now surpassed 700,000 people. / Associated Press "Each year, our moon moves distinctly, inexorably farther from Earth—just a tiny bit, about an inch and a half, a nearly imperceptible change." / The Atlantic The FCC wants to curtail SIM hijacking by
Despite telehealth’s expansion in the past year and a half, it has largely failed to reach the 57 million people in rural parts of the country. / STAT Covid-19 is killing rural Americans at twice the rate of people in urban areas. / NBC News Britain’s government-funded furlough
