1,000+ troops to help vaccine distribution; at-home test surge coming; Johnson & Johnson applies for authorization. Latest COVID-19 updates. Elinor Aspegren and Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY
How viruses like COVID-19 mutate, and how they impact vaccine development
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More than 1,000 active duty troops will begin supporting vaccination sites around the United States, starting later this month in California, White House senior COVID-19 advisor Andy Slavitt announced Friday.
Slavitt said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin OK ed the move and troops mission in California would being within 10 days.
The White House COVID-19 Response Team also announced Friday that the government would be supporting six additional companies to surge at-home COVID-19 test supplies to more than 60 million by the end of summer.
Debate over fire services heats up in Chatham County
Debate over fire services heats up in Chatham County By Max Diekneite | February 4, 2021 at 6:16 PM EST - Updated February 4 at 7:21 PM
CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Thereâs a passionate debate underway over fire protection in parts of Chatham County.
Most people pay for fire services through their taxes. But in Georgia, thatâs not always the case. State law does not require counties to provide fire services. Thatâs become an issue in unincorporated Chatham County.
Now, thereâs talk of requiring people to pay a private company for the service. Itâs pitting some neighbors against each other and sparked a debate over who should pay for fire services and how.
The reasons for that hit close to home in Savannah, Georgia, where a classified military operation in the 1950s dropped hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes – mosquitoes that many believe were infected with disease – on Carver Village. They didn t tell anybody, and it happened, said Chatham County Commission Chairman Chester Ellis. And so that leaves some apprehension, especially when you have residents of that area who ve been there since the 50s. And so my job as neighborhood president, and also as chairman of the County Commission, is to kind of calm the storm down to let them know that this vaccination is not like that.
Savannah Morning News
Black Americans are more hesitant than whites to take the COVID vaccine. Reasons for that hit close to home in Savannah, and include a classified military operation in the 1950s that dropped hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes mosquitoes that many believe were infected with disease on Carver Village. They didn t tell anybody, and it happened, said Chatham County Commission Chairman Chester Ellis. And so that leaves some apprehension, especially when you have residents of that area who ve been there since the 50s. And so my job as neighborhood president, and also as chairman of the County Commission, is to kind of calm the storm down to let them know that this vaccination is not like that.
Odell seconded motion, cast vote to terminate Chatham Area Transit s Bacarra Mouldin
Savannah Morning News
Former Chatham Commissioner Tabitha Odell has not been appointed to the Chatham Area Transit board as previously announced, according to a letter from Chatham County attorney Jonathan Hart to the Georgia Attorney General’s office.
The response, which came after the attorney general notified the county on Friday of a possible Open Meeting Act violation, could invalidate the CAT board s vote to terminate the organization s CEO, Bacarra Mauldin. She was dismissed by the board on Jan. 26, with Odell seconding the motion to fire her and casting one of the six votes to oust her.