Daily Archives: July 25, 2021

Social Security benefits could get the biggest increase since 1983 – Yahoo Finance

Posted: July 25, 2021 at 3:41 pm

Senior citizens and disabled workers could be looking at the biggest boost to their Social Security benefits in decades next year thanks to hot inflation now.

Beneficiaries could see their benefits increase by 5.8% in January 2022, according to a Bank of America analyst note, which would be the biggest boost since 1983. Thats also quite a bit more than January 2021s increase of 1.3% to the cost-of-living adjustment or COLA that hasnt been enough to keep up with this years inflation.

Read more: 3 surprising facts about Social Security

In June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI) a key gauge of inflation shot up to 5.4% from the previous year, marking the largest spike since August 2008. Some of the largest price increases were related to travel and cars, along with everyday items like laundry machines, bacon, fruit, and milk.

This has important implications for both retirees and disabled workers getting Social Security and SSI benefits, the note stated. It means their budgets are being squeezed now, but improve a lot next year.

The estimated COLA hike would translate to more than an additional $80 per month in benefits. (Photo: Getty)

That hike would translate to more than an additional $80 per month in benefits a fourfold increase than the extra $20 beneficiaries saw in the monthly benefits this year, per Bank of America.

With more Social Security dollars to dole out next year and inflation in 2022 expected to ease to 2.3% there will be about a $80 billion or so swing in net tax benefits that will help sustain the recovery into next year, according to the Bank of America analysts.

Read more: 4 Social Security tips to plan your retirement

Seniors and the disabled will be doing their share in keeping the economy hot, the note said.

The final say on the benefit increase rests with the Social Security Administration, which still has three additional months of data to collect before the official COLA percentage is determined.

COLA is measured by data fluctuations in the CPI, specifically those categorized as urban wage earners and clerical workers. A comparison is made in October using the CPI snapshot of the previous years third quarter and the current years third-quarter data; the change in growth, if any, determines the adjustment.

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Stephanie is a reporter for Yahoo Money and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @SJAsymkos.

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Secrets of ‘Captain America’ at 10: Screenwriters reveal scuttled battle with Nazi robot and when Steve Rogers lost his virginity – Yahoo…

Posted: at 3:41 pm

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were an established team with solid credits when they entered into the orbit of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008. After meeting in a creative writing program in 1994, the respective Buffalo, N.Y., and Bay Area natives forged a partnership and subsequently collaborated on the HBO biopic The Life and Times of Peter Sellers (2004), the indie mobster drama You Kill Me (2007) and, most prominently, the Chronicles of Narnia trilogy (2005-10).

Joining Marvel, however, would change everything and ultimately place them among the top three most successful screenwriters of all time thanks to their work on the saga-capping Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

But it all began with Captain America: The First Avenger, the first of three Cap movies they would co-write, and which opened in theaters 10 years ago, on July 22, 2011.

It started with a theoretical conversation, before Marvel was even making movies, where we said, Wouldnt it be neat to make a comic book movie starring a superhero at the time when they were actually created? Markus told us in a recent joint interview with McFeely to commemorate the films anniversary (watch above).

Their agent later alerted them the Kevin Feige-led Marvel Studios was doing exactly that with its first Captain America movie. Directed by Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III, Jumanji, The Rocketeer), the film would trace the origin story of Steve Rogers as he transforms from a scrawny Brooklyn kid into a super soldier squaring off against Nazis in World War II.

We then chased Cap all year, McFeely says. And remember, these are early days for that studio. Theres six people in the whole building, theyre above a car dealership, theyre not the Marvel we think of now.

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Markus and McFeely landed the gig, boarding Cap well before its eventual star, Chris Evans.

And they worked in a production office loaded with concept art featuring other actors in the role. They would do sketches of the costumes and sometimes theyll just pick an actor and put him in the costume, McFeely remembers. Maybe its a wish-fulfillment thing or something but I remember a lot of Jake Gyllenhaal-as-Cap pictures.

Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan in 'Captain America: The First Avenger' (Paramount/Marvel)

They also watched Sebastian Stan audition for the title role before he was ultimately cast as Steves closest friend, Bucky Barnes, the future Winter Soldier.

He carried some of what he carried into Bucky, which then carried into [the 2014 sequel] The Winter Soldier, which is he has a darkness to him, Markus recalled about Stans take on Cap. Thats a more troubled Steve Rogers than I was counting on. But we do have a guy who could be troubled right over there! His troubledness has played off in spades.

Evans was initially reluctant to take on such an iconic role, especially after a pair of critically lambasted Fantastic Four movies. However, once he joined, he proved eager to help reshape Rogers.

He was very conscious of not wanting snark, Markus says. It was a very good understanding of Captain America, which is that if this guys going to fly as a character and as an authority figure, eventually, hes got to have the gravity right away, no matter what the situation. Which is what we all came to realize, that Steve Rogers was born Captain America, he just didnt have the body for it. And Evans got that. I think he may have taken a joke or two out is what I remember.

The script changed dramatically from the time Markus and McFeely came onboard in 2008 to its eventual release in 2011, with the writers saying the biggest difference involved a huge Hydra robot.

A large chunk of the third act was Cap fighting this robot, Markus reveals. It was a Nazi super robot under the control of the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaver) called Panzermax.

I think eventually it was a budget and time thing, Markus explains. Where it was like, We really cant be spending that much time.

Chris Evans in 'Captain America: The First Avenger' (Paramount/Marvel)

Cap never fought that huge Nazi super robot, but if you ask Markus and McFeely, the star-spangled hero did get into another type of entanglement offscreen.

The question of if and when Steve Rogers ever lost his virginity after being frozen in ice for 60-plus years has long been theorized and joked about by Marvel fans and pundits. One popular opinion is that Rogers didnt have sex until he stayed in the past to grow old with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) following the time-hopping climax of Avengers: Endgame.

I think he loses his virginity! McFeely reacts emphatically. Why do people think hes a virgin?

McFeely suggests that Steve might have been doing a little more than singing and dancing during his USO Tour across the nation to introduce him as Captain America and promote war bonds.

If you look like that, and youre going to city to city, and youre signing autographs for the likes of the ladies that hes signing the autographs for, Ive got to imagine that [he lost his virginity], McFeely explains.

Yeah, Markus agrees. And the thing to remember is Steve Rogers isnt a prude. He may be occasionally presented that way. Hes a guy that believes in right and wrong and all these things, but hes not a choirboy. Hes a World War II veteran.

Since wrapping up their work on Avengers: Endgame, the second-highest-grossing film of all time, Markus and McFeely have been plenty busy themselves. Theyre now partners in AGBO, the production studio formed by Avengers directors Anthony and Joe Russo, and have several projects currently in the works. Among them: Cambridge Analytica, a drama about whistleblower Christopher Wylie; the Millie Bobby Brown-starring The Electric State; and a reunion with Evans in The Gray Man, which also stars Ryan Gosling.

Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by Jimmie Rhee

Watch Markus and McFeely talk all about Avengers: Endgame:

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Biden tells crowd: ‘I don’t care if you think I’m Satan reincarnated. The fact is you can’t look at that television and say nothing happened on the…

Posted: at 3:41 pm

President Joe Biden was asked at a town hall whether he was confident US lawmakers could cooperate.

A committee set up in June to investigate the Capitol riot is having trouble finalizing its members.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two Republicans picked by GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Joe Biden had strong words for people questioning the seriousness of the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

"I don't care if you think I'm Satan reincarnated," he said Wednesday at a CNN town hall in Cincinnati. "The fact is you can't look at that television and say nothing happened on the sixth and listen to people who say this was a peaceful march."

Biden was responding to the moderator Don Lemon's question on whether he had confidence Republicans and Democrats could work together, given that the two sides were having trouble establishing a bipartisan investigation into the Capitol insurrection, per the Associated Press.

A 13-member House committee - consisting of both Democrats and Republicans - was mooted last month to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier Wednesday rejected two Republicans nominated by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to be on the committee.

Pelosi questioned whether the two nominees - Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio - would compromise the integrity of the inquiry. In the hours after the Capitol insurrection, the two voted to overturn election results. They are also vocal supporters of former President Donald Trump.

"With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee," Pelosi said in a statement seen by the AP.

In response, McCarthy said Republicans would not participate in the investigation if Democrats did not accept the people he picked.

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Biden also had strong words for GOP legislators pushing voting restrictions and changes to the way elections are run, calling it "Jim Crow on steroids."

"I stand by what I said," Biden told Lemon. "Never before has there been an attempt by state legislatures to take over the ability to determine who won - not count the votes, determine who won."

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A squished tarantula and being followed by a Tesla: How we got the story on SpaceX and Blue Origin – Houston Chronicle

Posted: at 3:41 pm

I'm on my laptop, transcribing interviews, when Jon Shapley slams on the brakes. He is driving us along Texas 54, the remote road that connects Van Horn to Blue Origins launch site.

I just saw a tarantula crossing the road, he says. Should we turn around to see it?

YES!

Shapley whips the car around. And then, just as we approach the tarantula, a truck squishes it.

Tarantulas and space arent related, per say, but for this series of articles we just had to have a tarantula photo.

A tarantula crosses Highway 54 on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, near Van Horn.

Shapley and I were working on three stories dubbed Battle of the Billionaires. It was going to be about two very different communities humid versus dry, beaches versus mountains with one thing in common: a billionaire had chosen their community to launch rockets.

We started in Brownsville, home to Elon Musk and SpaceX. And when I say home, I mean that literally. On Twitter, Musk said his primary home is in Boca Chica Village.

This was confirmed when we spoke to Rob and Sarah Avery, the couple who live next door to Musk when he's in town. It might also explain why a Tesla tailed us around Boca Chica Village, slowly following us from house to house as we knocked on doors.

Other Teslas were parked on the street or in the driveways.Details are important in stories like this, and Shapley noticed that the Teslas werent their usual sleek selves. The electric vehicles were covered in bugs and dirt.

He was photographing one vehicle and had been sitting in front of it, taking pictures of the bugs, when the car turned on. The people inside were giving us a signal: It was time to move along.

Our time in Brownsville was great; Shapley and I ate lots of tacos. And more importantly, we talked to lots of excited students, business owners and real estate agents optimistic about the city's potential. SpaceX could be a game changer.

But we also met homeowners who were being displaced, fishers who couldnt easily access Boca Chica Beach due to road closures and environmentalists who were concerned about the wildlife refuge and state park next door to the SpaceX launch facility.

Our goal was to show the good things created by SpaceX and the conflict. We spoke to more people than I could squeeze into the article, and I am so very grateful for the time they gave us.

Shapley and I got a week at home before it was time to visit Van Horn,where Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is located.

Van Horn is significantly smaller. After we interviewed someone in town, we often saw them again at the post office or a restaurant we chose for lunch. We became regulars at Boots and Scoops, where we met sources and stopped in for coffee and ice cream.

Similar to Brownsville, people in this community were generous with their time and their stories. We spoke to a student who met Blue Origin employees in high school and is now studying aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. I learned that Mayor Becky Brewster shares my love of Star Wars and Star Trek. She told us about the towns promise and its problematic water system.

And oh, did I envy Larry Simpson, the former newspaper owner who had an exclusive interview with Bezos. Not many reporters get one-on-one time with Bezos.

But we still needed a tarantula photo. Because details are important.

I returned to transcribing and Shapley resumed driving. Then he saw the unbelievable. There was a second tarantula crossing the road.Shapley pulled over and got on the tarantulas level meaning he was on his belly in the middle of the highway.

I kept watch for oncoming traffic as he took pictures and video of our eight-legged friend.

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Zoom: Advisor to NewSpace industry predicts great things for Brownsville and RGV – Rio Grande Guardian

Posted: at 3:41 pm

BROWNSVILLE, Texas A developer and advisor in the NewSpace industry is predicting great things for Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley.

Austin, Texas-based Joshua Littlejohn has been making frequent visits to the Valley to learn about its potential and advance his plans to bring investors to the region.

What exciting times for Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley, Littlejohn told the Rio Grande Guardian, during a zoom conversation. It has the potential to be incredibly special.

Littlejohn said Brownsville and the Valley came onto his radar when SpaceX first announced it was going to be testing and launching rockets at Boca Chica. Since then, he said, there have been major inflection points that have increased the chances of the region becoming an important part of the NewSpace industry.

What is happening right now in the Rio Grande Valley, the success of this (recent SpaceX) mission has really energized the NewSpace economy, Littlejohn said. Even though there has not been a successful departure and return of any successful mission just the energy in and of itself of coming to that region is attracting people. We have new companies, we have new interest.

Littlejohn said he has known Brownsville Deputy City Manager Helen Ramirez since her days working in Central Texas. Ramirez is also executive director of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation. Littlejohn praised GBIC for increasing the specific integration points and acting as a conduit to bring activity to the Valley.

Without mentioning names, Littlejohn spoke about one of the companies he is advising.

I have now brought it to their attention that there are incentives that we can take advantage of, there is a relevant market for both the terrestrial application for the solution that that company has but also a path to integrate seamlessly into what is happening today and what will come tomorrow with respect to NewSpace.

Littlejohn said the Port of Brownsville stands to benefit as SpaceX develops its projects at Boca Chica.

As the spaceport develops and if and when a SpaceX starship leaves earth with a capacity it has and returns with that payload, that is another major inflection point, Littlejohn said.

So, what is interesting about the Rio Grande Valley is just its capacity to integrate and grow around that. It makes it very special. You have a port, so now, if a payload comes back it can be shipped anywhere from the port.

The potential for Brownsville and the region is huge, Littlejohn said.

In the most idealized future state, what you could potentially have what equates to a modern day Silk Road from Space coming back into the Valley and all the things that that means. Not just related to NewSpace but also related to uplifting the Valley, uplifting the economy, and all the other cool things that come with such a thing.

And if SpaceX is successful with interplanetary transportation, Littlejohn said, one can imagine the same thing: The successful transportation of people and goods from either the Gulf of Mexico or the Port of Brownsville or Boca Chica. It is just a major, major, major, inflection point.

From his visits already, Littlejohn said it is clear Brownsville is already very special. It is exciting just to be integrating with those individuals and those organizations and looking for ways to add value to the things they have already done and are aspiring to do, he said.

Littlejohn added: A big part of what is making this experience so enjoyable is the people. None of this would be possible if there was resistance or opposition. I know there are concerns. We have to be prudent, we have to be responsible about the way we do anything. We have to make sure we are considering all stakeholders. I think that there is a fair amount of that taking place.

My intention is to do the best that I can to bring interest and capital into the region. To work with existing organizations and companies to actually execute. That makes me enthusiastic because with a high degree of confidence I can go to people and say, look, this is the place to get this done. Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley is a special place and a place I am very much looking forward to realizing some of these initiatives.

Quality journalism takes time, effort and. Money!

Producing quality journalism is not cheap. The coronavirus has resulted in falling revenues across the newsrooms of the United States. However, The Rio Grande Guardian is committed to producing quality news reporting on the issues that matter to border residents. The support of our members is vital in ensuring our mission gets fulfilled.

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Matt Damon on COVID vaccine hesitancy: Trust science ‘more than something you read on Facebook’ – Yahoo Entertainment

Posted: at 3:41 pm

In March 2020, just weeks into a nationwide shutdown as the coronavirus began wreaking havoc all over the country, Matt Damon and his co-stars from Contagiontook to the internet with a series of PSAs for COVID-obsessed Americans.

At the time, Steven Soderberghs 2011 startlingly accurate film about a fictional devastating pandemic found new popularity on streaming services. That prompted Damon (who played a man immune to the disease), Kate Winslet and company to collaborate with medical experts to encourage people to trust science and embrace social-distancing.

You can actually sit on the couch or in a chair, like Im doing, and watch TV and save a life at the same time, said Damon.

Sixteen months later and the U.S. now has free and readily available vaccines for a disease that has killed more than 600,000 Americans yet there remains a strong vaccine hesitancy among many Americans, particularly in more conservative states like Oklahoma, home to the Donald Trump-supporting roughneck Damon plays in his new dramatic thriller Stillwater. Only 56 percent of Americans over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, even as the more highly transmissible Delta variant threatens to create another deadly wave across the nation.

There are a lot of reasons that people have, and I dont want to belittle them, Damon told us in an interview this week promoting Stillwater, in which his oil-rig man Bill Baker travels to France to aid his imprisoned daughter (watch above). Its tough for me, I have a couple friends who are immunocompromised and they cant get the vaccine, so they have no choice but to rely on the rest of us to do our part to get to herd immunity. So I look at it that way.

Matt Damon in 'Stillwater' (Focus Features)

For Damon, it comes down to doing whats best for the greater-good and trusting medicine and science over the rash of misinformation and irresponsible rhetoric spreading across social media.

I wish at the beginning of this people came out and said, Look, if we all do this, then well protect each other better, rather than Well, Im not in this cohort so I dont have to worry and its not going to hurt me that much. Its just about looking at this as a me thing or an us thing.

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But look, its a personal choice. Thats the beauty of America, its a free country. And none of us would have it any other way. But I fall heavily on the side of trusting science more than something you read on Facebook.

Stillwater opens July 30.

Video produced by Jen Kucsak and edited by Jason Fitzpatrick

Watch our 2020 interview with Contagion medical expert Dr. Tracey McNamara:

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Boston Beer stock is crashing because the hard seltzer boom is basically over – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 3:41 pm

Bottom line: The hard seltzer boom is over.

Shares of Boston Beer crashed 20% in pre-market trading on Friday as the maker of Truly hard seltzer and Sam Adams badly whiffed on its earnings expectations and slashed full-year guidance. The culprit: Execs overestimated the potential of the hard seltzer market, which continues to slow amid rising competition and people returning to bars coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic as Yahoo Finance has reported.

"We overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter and the demand for Truly, which negatively impacted our volume and earnings for the quarter and our estimates for the remainder of the year," Boston Beer founder Jim Koch told analysts on a conference call. "We increased our production of Truly to meet our summer peak and have had lower than anticipated demand for certain Truly brand styles, which has resulted in higher than planned inventory levels at our breweries and increased supply chain costs and complexity."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 13: A view of Truly: Hard Seltzer products during the Grand Tasting presented by ShopRite featuring Culinary Demonstrations at The IKEA Kitchen presented by Capital One at Pier 94 on October 13, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for NYCWFF)

The company now sees adjusted full-year earnings of $18 to $22 a share, down from $22 to $26 previously.

"Id say, just the proliferation of brands in this category [hard seltzer] has occurred, there's a herd like mentality in this business broadly. And I think people try to bring new brands into the marketplace and there's a sameness to these brands. There's a lack of originality. And I think what's happened a little bit, little bit of a luster to the specialistic segment for some consumers has been lost," added Boston Beer CEO David Burwick on the call.

Boston Beer's dreadful earnings day comes a few weeks removed from Molson Coors discontinuing Coors Light Seltzer due to a tepid response in a cooling market.

Here is how Boston Beer performed compared to Wall Street profit forecasts.

Boston Beer shares were promptly downgraded by Goldman Sachs on Friday in light of the miss. Others on Wall Street voiced concern about the company's near-term outlook, too.

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"Management reduced its guidance metrics for the year that will disappoint investors and likely put the shares in the penalty box through the back half of the year without any other obvious catalysts, in our view barring any major new innovations," said Guggenheim analyst Laurent Grandet in a new research note to clients.

But unlike his peers on the Street, Grandet is staying positive on Boston Beer shares and reiterated a Buy rating.

"While 2Q results were significantly below our projections and the U.S. hard seltzer category slowed more quickly than expected, we think its important to keep in perspective that its still a segment that is growing faster than any other across beer. Furthermore, the Truly brand is taking market share from the category leader, White Claw, with a share gap that is now less than 10% compared to more than 20% last year thanks to strong, impactful bolder flavors innovations that are helping reach new Black and Hispanic consumers to expand household penetration," Grandet explained. "Boston Beer will continue to be at the forefront of innovations in the spirit-based FMB category facilitated by the new partnership agreement with Beam Suntory to launch, in the first instance, a vodka-based Truly drink through wine and spirit distributors (the economics or financial mechanics are unknown) and malt-based Beam brands like Sauza through beer wholesalers."

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Ryan Reynolds says early days of relationship with Blake Lively were ‘like out of a fairy tale’ – Yahoo Entertainment

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Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively co-starred in the box-office flop Green Lantern in 2011, then married in 2012, so you might think that they fell in love immediately. Not so.

"I met Blake on the darkest crease in the anus of the universe called Green Lantern," Reynolds told Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes on Monday's episode of their podcast, SmartLess. "And we were friends and buddies and then, about a year and a half later, we actually went out on a double date, but we were dating separate people."

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively met when they co-starred in "Green Lantern." (Photo: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

When they met, as Green Lantern began filming in early 2010, Reynolds was still married to Scarlett Johansson, his wife since 2008. They split in 2010. Lively was in a relationship with Penn Badgley, her co-star on Gossip Girl, for several years, also ending in 2010.

So after single Reynolds and Lively crossed paths on this double date, there was a When Harry Met Sally... situation where they fell for each other.

"We hung out and kind of, you know, we always kind of kept in touch but sort of casually. And then next thing you know, she was going to Boston. I was going to Boston. So I was like, 'Ill ride with you,'" Reynolds said. Then he joked, "We got on the train and rode together and then I was just begging her to sleep with me."

Reynolds, who made the first move, noted that the romance moved quickly.

"Honestly, it was kind of one of those silly sort of ... like out of a fairy tale," he said. "Like a week later, I was like, 'We should buy a house together.' And we did."

Now they've been together almost a decade, which Reynolds described as "like 45 years in Hollywood terms."

The two are parents to three daughters: 6-year-old James, Inez, 4, and Betty, 1. (Taylor Swift fans already know this.)

Still, Reynolds's career has not slowed down, and he thanks Lively for that. His list of projects in the works include another installment of his Deadpool franchise (presumably the character's first full-fledged foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and a big-screen adaptation of the board game Clue.

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"The only reason I think I'm able to continue doing this in this way, I think, is that I'm present with my kids and my wife, and my marriage is incredibly important to me and that friendship is important to me, so Im able to kind of get through, you know," Reynolds said. "But then Blake and I don't do movies at the same time, so [when] shes ready to go back and do some stuff, I'll step down and then we go back and forth. She'll do a film and I'll just be with her on location, hanging with the kids."

He said that she's been especially impressive while dealing with kids and their schoolwork during the pandemic: "Blake was so much better than I was, because I'm also a child."

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Keep calm and get vaccinated, Biden says of ‘breakthrough’ COVID cases – Yahoo News

Posted: at 3:41 pm

WASHINGTON Coronavirus rates are rising and masks are returning in some areas, but President Biden had a simple message on Wednesday evening: Get your coronavirus vaccine and, having done so, dont worry about reports of breakthrough infections, which have caused some vaccinated people to test positive for the coronavirus.

There are very, very, very, very, very, very few people whove contracted COVID-19 after having been fully vaccinated, the president told reporters. And those infections, he added, are not life-threatening, because the coronavirus vaccines are exceptionally effective at preventing severe and critical illness.

Some vaccinated people could still experience unpleasant symptoms if they become infected but, as the president pointed out, are extremely unlikely to experience much more than that.

President Biden speaks to the media prior to boarding Air Force One in Hebron, Ky., on Wednesday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

I know of none where theyre hospitalized, in ICU and/or passed away, Biden said of such breakthrough cases. He may have been referring to something that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said last week, that 99.5 percent of Americans who died of COVID in June were unvaccinated.

The rise of the more transmissible Delta variant has stoked concerns that a new coronavirus wave is at hand. But while the variant spreads easily, it does not necessarily cause more severe illness.

We know the Delta variant can be easier to give and get, Dr. Kavita Patel, a Brookings Institution fellow and former Obama administration policy aide, told Yahoo News. We know that it can reproduce in the body faster. We do not think it leads to higher-than-expected deaths or hospitalizations.

Fully vaccinated people are as protected from Delta as they are from all other coronavirus variants. Theres no question that if youre vaccinated, you are far more protected and safer than someone who is not vaccinated because you are at a much, much lower risk of getting infected. Period, Patel said.

Biden has continued to plead with people to get vaccinated; there is unanimous agreement that vaccines, not masks or lockdowns, will lead to the end of the pandemic. Life has largely returned to normal in highly vaccinated parts of the country, even as the coronavirus proliferates in states like Florida, Arkansas and Missouri, where restrictions had been lifted but vaccinations have not been forcefully encouraged.

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Biden made his remarks about breakthrough infections late Wednesday night as he was leaving Cincinnati on the way back to Washington, D.C. He had just concluded a CNN town hall during which hed made much the same point.

Annie Velez receives a shot at a mobile COVID-19 vaccination site in Orlando on Wednesday. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

We have a pandemic for those who havent gotten a vaccination, Biden told CNN anchor Don Lemon, adding a little later, Theres a simple, basic proposition: If youre vaccinated, youre not going to be hospitalized, youre not going to be in an ICU unit and youre not going to die.

He added that this is not a pandemic, an apparent reference to areas of the country where community spread has effectively been halted. The difference in vaccination rates has given rise to two COVID nations, as Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, put it recently to Yahoo News.

For the first months of his administration, Biden was accused by some critics of being too cautious on lifting the crippling restrictions that marked most of 2020. They said that he should have vigorously urged the reopening of schools for in-person instruction, and that he could have taken his mask off as soon as he and other White House staff were fully vaccinated.

More recently, though, it has been obvious that Biden is eager to move past the pandemic. After all, the return of lockdowns and other restrictions, such as a new year of remote learning in schools, would almost certainly frustrate the economic recovery that will help shape his administrations legacy.

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Unvaccinated Americans say COVID vaccines are riskier than the virus, even as Delta surges among them – Yahoo News

Posted: at 3:41 pm

When asked which poses a greater risk to their health, more unvaccinated Americans say the COVID-19 vaccines than say the virus itself, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll a view that contradicts all available science and data and underscores the challenges that the United States will continue to face as it struggles to stop a growing pandemic of the unvaccinated driven by the hyper-contagious Delta variant.

The survey of 1,715 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 13 to 15, found that just 29 percent of unvaccinated Americans believe the virus poses a greater risk to their health than the vaccines significantly less than the number who believe the vaccines represent the greater health risk (37 percent) or say theyre not sure (34 percent).

Over the last 18 months, COVID-19 has killed more than 4.1 million people worldwide, including more than 600,000 in the U.S. At the same time, more than 2 billion people worldwide and more than 186 million Americans have been at least partially vaccinated against the virus, and scientists who study data on their reported side effects continue to find that the vaccines are extraordinarily safe.

A supporter of President Donald Trump on Jan. 5 holds an anti-vaccine sign at a protest at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. (Erin Scott/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Yet 93 percent of unvaccinated U.S. adults the equivalent of 76 million people say they will either never get vaccinated (51 percent); that they will keep waiting to see what happens to others before deciding (20 percent); or that theyre not sure (22 percent).

With Delta rapidly becoming dominant nationwide, U.S. COVID-19 cases have surged by 140 percent over the last two weeks. Hospitalizations and deaths both lagging indicators are up by one-third over the same period. Missouri, Arkansas, Nevada and Florida are being hit particularly hard, with hospitalization rates soaring to 2-3 times the national average. Nearly all of the Americans who are falling ill, getting hospitalized and dying 99 percent, according to some estimates are unvaccinated. And more than half the U.S. population (52 percent) has yet to be fully inoculated.

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As the Delta variant surges among the unvaccinated and counties such as Los Angeles reinstitute indoor mask mandates to try to stave it off, Yahoo News and YouGov sought to understand why so many Americans continue to hold off on vaccination and whether Deltas rise might change any minds.

The results are complicated. Some unvaccinated Americans recognize the rising threat of Delta. The share who say they are worried about the variant has risen 9 percentage points (from 25 percent to 34 percent) since last month. Yet the share of unvaccinated Americans who say they are not worried about Delta is larger, and it has risen by nearly as much (from 31 percent to 39 percent).

As such, just half of the unvaccinated say Delta poses a serious risk to all Americans (33 percent) or unvaccinated Americans (17 percent); the other half says the variant doesnt pose a serious risk to anyone (30 percent) or that theyre not sure (20 percent). In contrast, a full 85 percent of vaccinated Americans and 72 percent of all Americans say Delta poses a serious risk.

Yet while unvaccinated Americans are relatively dismissive of Deltas dangers which have been amply proven by massive outbreaks in India and elsewhere they tend to apply a much lower bar to the COVID vaccines. Asked to pick the most important reason they havent been vaccinated, for example, few say they lack easy access to vaccination (4 percent), cant get time off from work (3 percent), or already had COVID (9 percent). More say theyre not worried about getting COVID (12 percent) or far more frequently that they dont trust the COVID vaccines (45 percent).

Anti-vaccine protesters gather at Indiana University's Sample Gates during a demonstration. (Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

But why? The most important reason, according to 37 percent of unvaccinated Americans, is that theyre concerned about long-term side effects. Thats followed by I dont trust the government (17 percent), The vaccines are too new (16 percent), The FDA hasnt fully approved the vaccines yet (11 percent) and I dont trust any vaccines (6 percent).

The trouble for public health officials is twofold. First, despite the fact that theres no precedent in the history of vaccines for severe side effects emerging several months after dosage, let alone several years and no mechanism by which the COVID vaccines would trigger such side effects its difficult to convince skeptics that this time wont be different. Meanwhile, the pandemic is ongoing and the clock is ticking.

Second, when unvaccinated skeptics are asked to select all the reasons they dont trust the COVID vaccines as opposed to just the most important many select all of them. Seventy percent say theyre concerned about long-term side effects; 60 percent say the vaccines are too new; 55 percent say they dont trust the government; 50 percent say theyre concerned about short-term side effects; 45 percent say the FDA hasnt fully approved the vaccines yet; 45 percent say they dont trust drug companies; and 26 percent say they dont trust any vaccines. Hesitancy, in other words, could turn into a game of whack-a-mole: address one concern and another just pops up to replace it.

Whether Deltas impact softens any of this resistance remains to be seen. Fifteen percent of unvaccinated Americans say the spread of Delta makes them more likely to get vaccinated, particularly Democrats (34 percent) and Latinos (34 percent). Yet another 12 percent of unvaccinated Americans actually say Delta makes them less likely to get a shot, and 73 percent say it makes no difference.

Delving deeper, 20 percent of unvaccinated Americans say they would be much more (10 percent) or somewhat more (10 percent) likely to get vaccinated if COVID cases start to rise among unvaccinated people in [their] area; the same goes for rising local hospitalizations and deaths. Likewise, 27 percent of unvaccinated Americans say theyd be either much more (12 percent) or somewhat more (15 percent) likely to get vaccinated when the FDA fully approves the COVID vaccines, which are currently authorized for emergency use to combat the pandemic.

Full FDA approval isnt expected until next year. COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths, on the other hand, are already rising. Well see if either makes a difference.

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The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,715 U.S. adults interviewed online from July 13 to 15, 2021. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as well as 2020 presidential vote (or non-vote), and voter registration status. Respondents were selected from YouGovs opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.7 percent.

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Unvaccinated Americans say COVID vaccines are riskier than the virus, even as Delta surges among them - Yahoo News

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