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Mo News: Vaccines For Young Kids Arrive; History of Juneteenth
Mosheh Oinounou
June 20, 2022
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Hi everyone,
We hope you are having a great weekend.
In honor of Juneteenth, our newest federal holiday, we'll take a closer look at the history and origins of the day in today's edition as well as a special Mo News Podcast. While it was celebrated in some states for decades, it officially became a federal holiday last June. It is seen as a second independence day for many Black Americans who didn't get their freedom when America became independent. More on all that in our new series, The Mo You Know, below and in today's podcast.
🗞 But first, a few headlines this AM:
CDC rolls out vaccines for children as young as 6 months.
Thousands of flights were delayed across the country due to airport delays from extreme weather and the growing number of summer travelers.
A new account shows that an Uvalde Police Officer passed up an opportunity to shoot at the gunman before he entered the school.
Bitcoin falls below $20,000 for the first time since fall 2020.
President Biden took a tumble while on a bike ride with the first lady in Delaware this weekend.
📱Mosh will see you tonight at 9pm ET on his regular Mondays with Mosh Instagram Live, where he'll take all your questions.
Appreciate all your support!
~ Mosh & Jill
WEEKEND HEADLINES
💉Vaccines For Kids: On Saturday, the CDC recommended Covid vaccines for children as young as six months old. This age group is among the last of Americans to become eligible for vaccination against Covid-19, which is the fifth most common cause of death in children ages 1 to 5. The vaccines will roll out nationwide early this week. ~ NYTimesThe Moderna vaccine has been authorized for children between 6 months and 5 years. It is a two-shot regimen, spaced four weeks apart, with each shot containing a quarter of the adult dose. Clinical trials showed that the vaccine produced antibody levels similar to those seen in young adults—the efficacy against symptomatic infection is currently around 51% for children 6 to 24 months old and 37% for children ages 2 through 5.The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine produced a similar immune response, but after three doses instead of two, as this shot contains only one tenth of the adult dose. The company is reporting efficacy of 80% for children under 5. But this statistic is based on a 10-child trial where 3 of the kids received the vaccine and 7 received the placebo. As a result, the CDC is effectively saying we do not actually have efficacy data for Pfizer.States have ordered 2.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 1.3 million of the Moderna vaccine so far. Those numbers are lower than expected, given the 18 million children in this age group. But trends show that vaccine adoption has been slow for slightly older children. The Pfizer vaccine was authorized for children ages 5 to 11 in November, but fewer than 30 percent in that group have received both shots. ~NY TimesA dozen countries, including China, already vaccinate kids under 5, with other brands. ~LA Times
Politico put together this chart on the two approved options:
Via Poltico
While both vaccines are producing similar immune responses, there are concerns with the lack of data and the logistics of getting three doses of the Pfizer vaccine versus just two doses of Moderna.
✈️Travel Chaos: Since Thursday, more than 19,000 U.S. flights were canceled or delayed. American and Delta have the most cancellations so far. Over 4,200 U.S. flights were delayed and 900 canceled on Sunday alone, as Americans marked Father's Day amid airline staffing shortages and extreme weather that upended schedules, per USA Today.What's behind the delays and cancellations? It's a combination of a lot of factors, including staffing shortages, though the airlines are mostly blaming severe storms and extreme weather. The chaos comes as there has been an explosion in demand, as Americans are looking to travel after two pandemic summers. ~ USA Today“I think every single part of the travel industry from the airlines to airport employees to security agents, they all just got caught flatfooted by this explosion in demand... It’s really easy to have 20/20 vision in hindsight and tell airlines and airports ‘You went way too far when travel collapsed in cutting back to the bone to stop losing money." -- Kyle Potter, Thrifty TravelerThis is not the first time this season that airlines have seen major delays and cancellations. Memorial Day Weekend, almost 2,800 U.S. flights were cancelled and more than 20,000 were delayed.Travelers are also seeing issues abroad in places like London and Amsterdam where hundreds of flights have been canceled and delayed daily at major European airport hubs over the past two weeks. There are also reports of 6-hour security lines. ~NY Times
🚨An Uvalde Police Officer, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, passed up an opportunity to shoot the gunman before he entered Robb Elementary School on May 24. Officials say he only had a couple seconds to take the shot and was concerned about injuring children in the distance. ~ NYTimesThis is the second major missed opportunity for officers at the scene of the shooting to have prevented the massacre. The Zavala County chief deputy sheriff tells the New York Times that any attempt to shoot the moving gunman would have been difficult, and that the officer would undoubtedly have faced harsh criticism and possibly even a criminal investigation had he missed and hit a bystander in the distance, especially a child.
💰Bitcoin fell below $20,000 for the first time since November 2020, an indication that cryptocurrency selloff is deepening, especially after last week when a major lender paused all withdrawals from its platform due to "extreme market conditions." ~AP NewsAt one point on Saturday, Bitcoin dipped below $18,000. At its peak in November 2021, Bitcoin topped $68,000.Cryptocurrency has seen more turmoil than normal in recent weeks with the growing volatility of financial markets. According to the Associated Press, "investors are selling off riskier assets because central banks are raising interest rates to combat quickening inflation."This has once again sparked calls to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. Last week, bipartisan legislation was introduced to regulate digital assets.
🚲 President Biden fell off his bike on Saturday while out for a ride with first lady Jill Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the couple was celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary with their family. According to White House officials, he is "fine." His foot got caught in a pedal while getting off the bike, having veered from his group to address a crowd of people nearby. No further medical attention was needed. ~ CNN
THE MO YOU KNOW: JUNETEENTH
Juneteenth, short for June Nineteenth, is our newest federal holiday.It officially marks the day in 1865, when more than 200,000 Black American slaves learned that they had been freed from slavery--coming more than 2.5 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.While President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves on January 1, 1863, it was only mandated in states under official confederate control, but not bordering slave states and territories. On top of that, the Union army typically had to enforce it, and it had no significant presence in Texas during the major phases of the war. So, more than two years after the proclamation, and two months after the war ended in April 1865, the Union military was still informing slaveholders that they must free their slaves.Major General Gordon Granger and about 2,000 Union soldiers arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas on June 19, to announce that all the enslaved people in the state were officially free. The day later became known as "Juneteenth" by the formerly enslaved people in Texas.One year later in 1866, Texas marked its first "Jubilee Day," and Juneteenth has been celebrated there ever since.In 1979, Texas was the first state to name Juneteenth a paid state holiday, and in years since, most states and Washington, D.C. have recognized the holiday in some way. ~ History Channel
In 2021, President Biden signed a bill that recognized Juneteenth as a national holiday, the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was added in 1983.
Opal Lee greets President Biden at the 2021 White House bill signing to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Opal Lee, 95, is credited with leading the modern effort to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
How is Juneteenth being celebrated across the country?
All non-essential federal government offices and buildings are closed, as well as some public and private schools.
U.S. stock markets are closed today, including the NYSE and Nasdaq. NBC has a full list of what is open/closed today.
Many companies have made Juneteenth a corporate holiday, such as Adobe, Best Buy, Lyft, Nike, and Target. Axios reports that about 1/3 of American companies have made it a paid holiday, with another 11 percent considering it for 2023.
24 states and DC have passed legislation or issued orders that would provide funding to let state employees observe the day as a paid state holiday, according to Pew.
We have more on Juneteenth in today's Mo News Podcast. And, here is a link to books for further reading on the holiday and America's history with slavery and race relations.
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[Top Banner Photo Credit from Newark, NJ rally on Friday June 17: Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.]