People struggled to tap resources during Northwest heat wave
People in Oregon struggled to get rides to cooling centers during the recent heat wave that is believed to have killed hundreds across the Pacific Northwest, officials said Monday, and staffing shortages prevented callers from reaching operators at an information line. State authorities are examining their response to scorching temperatures that broke all-time records across the region late last month as the American West struggles with a historic drought and climate change makes extreme weather more common and intense. Oregon blamed 116 deaths on the heat, Washington state reported at least 91 and officials in British Columbia say hundreds of “sudden and unexpected deaths” are likely due to the soaring temperatures.
news.yahoo.comGovernors complain over pace of COVID-19 vaccine shipments
FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2020, file photo, a droplet falls from a syringe after a health care worker was injected with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, R.I. Uncertainty over the pace of federal COVID-19 vaccine allotments triggered anger and confusion Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, in some states where officials worried that expected shipments would not be forthcoming. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)Governors bitterly accused the Trump administration Friday of deceiving the states about the amount of COVID-19 vaccine they can expect to receive as they ramp up vaccinations for senior citizens and others. Late Friday, Oregon health officials said a case of the variant had been diagnose in the Portland area in a patient who had no travel history. “What we’re seeing is fully in line with the dysfunction that has characterized the Trump administration’s entire response to COVID-19.