UK Lockdown and Georgia Showdown - 1/5/21

On today's Quick News Daily Podcast, we finally learn the motive of the doctor who destroyed COVID vaccines in Wisconsin, and we have information about the lockdown imposed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Also, we go over issues you might be having when you try to track your COVID stimulus check on the irs.gov website, California Gov. Gavin Newsom floating new ideas to help distribute the COVID vaccine, and our good night on Twitter against Sen. Josh Hawley.

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.rebrand.ly/QuickNews

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WISCONSIN DOCTOR

Well, when the news outlets confirmed that the pharmacist who intentionally damaged those COVID vaccines was, in fact, Steven Brandenburg, it didn't take long to find out his motivation behind what he did. 

According to Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol, Brandenburg "formed this belief they were unsafe." Gerol did not offer any more specific information on why Brandenburg was convinced they were harmful, but he did start to explain the problems going on in his life. He explained that the 46-year-old is in the process of divorcing his wife, and he said another Advocate Aurora Health employee reported that Brandenburg had taken a gun to work twice.

The story gets more complicated when we start to talk about what might happen to Brandenburg in terms of criminal punishment. 

Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the DA couldn't submit proof to the court that the drugs had been damaged and that therefore a crime had been committed. Gerol said that "apparently the only way they can discover that or tell us that is if they test them. It's unknown how much time that will take". There is a crime known as attempted criminal damage to property, Gerol said, and that "would be a misdemeanor and that would seem to apply at some point in time in the future."

But Brandenburg's troubles with the law don't end with the state of Wisconsin: The FBI and U.S. Food and Drug Administration are also investigating.

As for what happens with Brandenburg in the immediate future, Judge Paul Malloy set a $10,000 signature bond for Brandenburg and ordered him to surrender all his firearms to sheriff's deputies, not to leave Wisconsin, not to work in the health care field, and to have no contact with Aurora employees.

Brandenburg was released on Monday 

Brandenburg had already surrendered some weapons to police at the request of his ex-wife, said DA Gerol. Court records Brandenburg's former wife filed for divorce in June 2020. 

UK LOCKDOWN AND ASTRAZENECA

Well, it sounds like Britain is having a heck of a time with the coronavirus at the moment, whether it's related to the new strain of the virus or not.

It's gotten so bad that Prime Minister Boris Johnson reimposed measures that were in place during the first lockdown last spring, including closures of secondary and primary schools to everyone except the children of key workers and vulnerable children. I read that sentence from the CNN article so many times, and I still don't even know what that means. Why would they be sending vulnerable children to be around more kids? Do they mean vulernable to the virus, or kids with a bad home life? Someone from the UK can help me out on that. 

He also added that this means it will not be "possible or fair for all exams to go ahead this summer as normal," and alternative arrangements are being put in place. Yeah, I'm just saying, I think that's the least of their problems right now. Don't worry about the exams, man. 

People will be allowed to leave their homes for limited reasons like shopping for essentials, exercise, and medical assistance. Johnson also said people could still leave home "to escape domestic abuse", which is definitely an important thing to include (although I'd hope that if you need to flee because of domestic abuse, you wouldn't wait for the government to say you can do so. Just go!). 

International departures are now limited to those who have "a legally permitted reason," such as work. Outdoor sports venues will have to close. Nurseries will not be closed, and neither will elite sports. Places of worship will remain open on the basis that attendees adhere to social distancing rules. These restrictions are expected to remain in place at least through the middle of February.

The UK is back in crisis mode because new daily Covid-19 cases have been above 50,000 cases for nearly a week, and hospitalizations exceed April's peak. 

While the lockdown announcement was a relief for many, education unions continued their call for school staff to be prioritized for vaccinations. Others complained about the lack of notice provided to parents over the immediate closure of schools. 

The good news is that even more help is on the way for them, and the my mixup between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Moderna vaccine is finally solved. They are definitely different, because Britain became the first nation to inject people with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, outside of trials, on Monday.

UK regulators approved the vaccine on December 30 and said it will initially be delivered at "a small number of hospitals for the first few days for surveillance purposes," before the rest of the doses arrive at medical practices later in the week, according to England's National Health Service (NHS).

This story also said that they're moving full speed ahead with their plan to frontload the first dose of the vaccine, meaning they're hoping to get a lot of people partial immunity, as opposed to a smaller number of people having complete immunity. The British Medical Association (BMA), a body representing UK doctors, has criticized the move to postpone appointments for the very vulnerable patients currently awaiting their second shots. 

The Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine also has the potential to protect millions more people around the world. AstraZeneca has promised to supply hundreds of millions of doses to low and middle-income countries, and to deliver the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis to those nations in perpetuity. The vaccine is significantly cheaper than others which have been approved and, crucially, it would be easier to transport and distribute in developing countries because it doesn't need to be stored at freezing temperatures, and these developing/third-world countries are unlikely to have the infrastructure and refigeration capabilities needed for, say, the Pfizer vaccine.

IRS WEBSITE

The Get My Payment tool on IRS.gov is designed to show the statuses of the first and second stimulus payments.

Yet some people who received their first round of checks via direct deposit are getting a status that reads "Payment Status Not Available."

"We are unable to provide the status of your payment right now because we don't have enough information yet (we're working on this), or you're not eligible for a payment," the message reads.

The website's FAQ page, however, is unclear whether this status is temporary or indicates that the IRS is unable to issue a second stimulus payment. The IRS appears to be making updates to its guidance.

Those who are eligible and do not get a second COVID-19 relief check may be able to claim it when they file their 2020 taxes this year. Technically, the second stimulus check is an advanced payment of this tax credit.

CALIFORNIA COVID

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state is looking to enlist dentists, pharmacy techs, members of the National Guard and others to help speed up the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations, which has fallen far short of the goal. 

Nearly 1.3 million doses of the vaccine have been received so far, with another 611,500 to be shipped to the state, Newsom said. Just 454,306 doses of vaccines had been administered in California, as of Sunday. Newsom previously said the state planned to administer 2 million doses by the end of 2020. 

The California Dental Association said it welcomed the call for dentists to help administer vaccines and noted that the Department of Consumer Affairs on Monday approved a waiver to allow them to do so.

CDA President Judee Tippett-Whyte said “dentists are ready, willing and able to help administer COVID-19 vaccinations to the public. We can help with surge capacity at clinics and vaccinations sites – wherever we’re needed to quickly administer vaccinations and save lives.”

Meanwhile, a community advisory committee is set to discuss the next phase of the vaccine's rollout. The ADA called for dentists to be moved up in priority for who gets vaccinated first.