Tuesday morning news - November 30, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Biden: omicron cause for concern, not panic » President Biden says the omicron COVID-19 variant is cause for concern, but not panic.

BIDEN: We have the best vaccine[s] in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we’re learning more every single day.

The Biden administration has restricted travel from several African countries, including South Africa where the variant first emerged. Many other nations are doing the same.

But some top officials in Africa and at the UN are blasting the travel restrictions. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said African countries are the victims of “immorally low” vaccinations available on the continent…

DUJARRIC: And they should not be penalized for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information rates with the world.

But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said while there’s no way to stop omicron from spreading to the United States, the restrictions are an important step.

PSAKI: This is not going to prevent. It is going to delay. And that delay is going to help us have necessary time to do the research by our health and medical teams, to get more people vaccinated, and get more people boosted.

Doctors believe the omicron variant is driving a skyrocketing COVID caseload in South Africa. But so far, most of the new cases have been mild, mainly affecting people in their 20s and 30s. And doctors say the majority of hospitalizations have been among unvaccinated patients.

But officially, the jury is still out on how dangerous and how infectious omicron actually is.

Dr. Paul Burton is chief medical officer at Moderna. He said tests over the next couple of weeks should reveal how effective current vaccines are against the variant.

BURTON: If we need to manufacture an omicron-specific variant, it’s going to take some weeks, two to three months is probably what we’re looking at.

President Biden said that on Thursday he will lay out a detailed strategy for how his administration will fight COVID-19 this winter.

Judge blocks healthcare vaccine mandate for some » But he may not be able to bank on vaccine mandates as part of that plan.

A federal judge has blocked his administration's vaccine requirement for healthcare workers in some states.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp in Missouri ruled in favor of 10 states that sued over that mandate.

Schelp said the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid lacked congressional authority to enforce the rule. The mandate would require more than 17 million workers in health facilities and home care providers to receive at least one shot by next Monday.

The mandate did allow employees to request medical and religious exemptions.

The affected states will be exempt from the vaccine requirement while the case is pending. Several other states have mounted similar lawsuits.

Iran nuclear deal talks resume in Vienna amid muted hopes » Negotiators from several countries are back at the table with Iran after talks resumed Monday in Vienna over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The remaining signatories to the nuclear deal are meeting at the same luxury hotel in Vienna where they signed the original agreement six years ago.

Negotiators held their last round of talks back in June. Since then, the task has only become more difficult with Iran’s new harder-line government.

President Biden has signaled that he wants to rejoin the deal after President Trump withdrew from it in 2018. But for now, the U.S. officials are not directly taking part in meetings.

But a U.S. delegation is indirectly involved, with diplomats from the other countries acting as go-betweens.

Critics say a revived agreement won’t prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. And leaders in Israel once again warned on Monday that Iran cannot be trusted to honor the terms of any agreement.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Migrant caravan trekking north toward U.S. border » A caravan of about 2,000 migrants is in southern Mexico today, trekking north to the United States. Most of the migrants are from Central America. They departed the town of Tapachula near the Guatemalan border on Sunday.

National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd called the ongoing unprecedented migrant surge especially concerning right now. He said that’s because many who cross the border and claim asylum will be released inside the United States.

JUDD: They are released without any testing to ensure that they don’t have the COVID and all the variants thereof.

The Dept. of Homeland Security says it does work with state and local authorities and nongovernmental groups to help ensure migrants get tested at some point after entering the country.

The Border Patrol reported more than 164,000 border encounters with migrants last month. That was down slightly from September but still more than double the total from one year earlier.

In the fiscal year that ended in September, the Border Patrol reported more than 1.7 million encounters, more than tripling total encounters from the previous year.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down » Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is stepping down as CEO of the company. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Dorsey will remain on the board until his term expires in 2022. At that point, Twitter’s chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal will take over as CEO.

Dorsey did not give a reason for stepping down. He said only that Twitter should—quote—“break away from its founding and founders.” He added that dependence on company founders is “severely limiting.”

Twitter was caught up in a heated political atmosphere around the 2020 election, particularly when it banned former President Trump after the January Capitol riot.

Dorsey defended the move. Trump later sued the company for alleged censorship.

Dorsey is also the founder and CEO of the payments company Square. Some big investors have questioned whether he could effectively lead both companies.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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