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Stranded Southwest passengers across the country are struggling with a second day of mass flight cancellations by the nation's largest domestic airline.For more, check out the following Tweets:
The U.S. airports with the the heaviest flight cancellations for departures and arrivals Sunday are all big Southwest "hubs," even if the airline doesn't refer to them as such: Denver, Baltimore, Dallas Love Field, Las Vegas and Chicago Midway.
Southwest's Sunday cancellation are on top of 808 cancellations on Saturday, or nearly one in four flights. This during a busy travel weekend given a federal holiday on Monday.
Southwest has not commented on speculation about other possible causes, including opposition to a vaccine mandate the airline announced a week ago following the federal vaccine mandate announced in mid-September by President Joe Biden.
"Southwest Airlines must join our industry peers in complying with the federal government's COVID-19 vaccination directive," Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said on Oct. 4.
Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) blamed the flight woes on staffing and a "poorly run operation." He said the rate of pilots calling in sick has not spiked this weekend. He said nearly three out of four pilots working Saturday had trips rerouted due to the flight woes.
The fall travel troubles for Southwest follow a rough summer for the airline's operation. The airline's executives have repeatedly said their top priority is getting Southwest's operation back on track. The airline is hiring thousands of workers to help with a staffing shortage.
The notice (pdf), filed Oct. 7, said the 871 firefighters are seeking $ 2.5 million each in damages. Kevin McBride, attorney for the firefighters, wrote:See also:"The claims will be filed in Superior Court as an unlimited civil case in accordance with the California Code of Civil Procedure."Los Angeles City Council in August issued an ordinance (pdf) requiring all city employees to have received a second dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine, or a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by the 5th October, unless there is a medical or religious exemption. According to the ordinance:"The goal of the city is to have a vaccinated workforce. As such, employees will not have the option to 'opt out' and be subject to weekly testing."The mayor's office announced that exempt and unvaccinated employees would still need to be tested regularly for COVID-19.
McBride said in the notice of intent, citing orders given to Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) firefighters, that those who are not exempt or fully vaccinated by the "strict deadline" of October 20 will be sent home. for five days without pay, and if they still decide not to get vaccinated after another five days, their employment will be terminated.
The attorney wrote that the vaccination order is "manifestly unlawful conduct," citing several reasons, including: interference with labor rights; inflict emotional distress; violation of constitutional privacy rights; and violation of the protection of human subjects in the act of medical experimentation.
The plaintiffs are members of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles (UFLAC). The union stated its position in an October 4 newsletter,"[T]The city cannot impose any consequences relevant to the October 5 deadline 'to be vaccinated against COVID-19, adding that the city ordinance' does not provide for any consequences, and any planned discipline must first be negotiated with UFLAC.The city has 45 days to evaluate the document, after which the lawsuit will be filed immediately.
"Additionally, the city has not provided any notice to UFLAC that it intends to discipline employees for failing to meet the October 5 deadline."
Los Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement to KTLA:"The US Supreme Court and courts across the country have upheld the vaccine mandates ... I am confident we will prevail."Those who intend to sue the city comprise about one in four of the city's firefighters. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) website, it has 3,435 firefighters.
Finland halts Moderna vaccinations for young men over heart inflammation concernsUDPATE: Via Medical Express:
Finland has decided it will pause rolling out Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine to men born in 1991 and later due to concerns about the rare side effect of heart inflammation post-inoculation, following Nordic nations Sweden and Denmark.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, the director of Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare, Mika Salminen, announced Helsinki's halt on offering Moderna's Spikevax jab to its younger male population.
"A Nordic study involving Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark found that men under the age of 30 who received Moderna Spikevax had a slightly higher risk than others of developing myocarditis," he explained.
Salminen said that while the heart inflammation often went away on its own in a few days, he recommended instead that this demographic be inoculated with Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine, marketed as Comirnaty.
The director also said young male Finns who have had their first dose of Spikevax would receive Comirnaty for their second. He insisted it was still important to get the second dose to get maximum protection against the virus.
Iceland halts Moderna jabs over heart-inflammation fears
Iceland on Friday suspended the Moderna anti-COVID vaccine, citing the slight increased risks of cardiac inflammation, going further than its Nordic neighbours which simply limited use of the jabs.
"As the supply of Pfizer vaccine is sufficient in the territory ... the chief epidemiologist has decided not to use the Moderna vaccine in Iceland," said a statement published on the website of the Health Directorate.
This decision owed to "the increased incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination with the Moderna vaccine, as well as with vaccination using Pfizer/BioNTech," the chief epidemiologist said in a statement.
For the past two months, Iceland has been administering an additional dose "almost exclusively" of the Moderna vaccine to Icelanders vaccinated with Janssen, a single-dose serum marketed by America's Johnson & Johnson, as well as to elderly and immunocompromised people who received two doses of another vaccine.
This will not affect the vaccination campaign in the island of 370,000 inhabitants, where 88 percent of the population over 12 years old is already fully vaccinated.
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Comment: Boris is just broadcasting his bona fides to the real elite, in the possibility he'll be included in the (hoped for) division of the spoils.
'Empire 2.0 fantasy': Boris Johnson pens G7 article on post-Covid world, draws flak for 'hypocrisy' and 'undermining democracy'