The United States will not reach so-called "herd immunity" from COVID-19 as new variants emerge and a large percentage of the population so far does not want to get a vaccinate, according to some scientists.

Herd immunity is achieved when enough of the population has received a vaccine or has become immune after contracting the virus, weakening it and not allow it to further spread.

Another factor is that some countries will continue to struggle with outbreaks.

California's Department of Education has announced that the gap between well-performing students and their less able peers must disappear, indicating that mere words are not enough - schools must deliver 'equity' in classrooms.

Such an effort would involve faculty holding well-performing students back, even while pushing their less intellectual peers forward (as if they were all indeed equal in abilities). Potentially stranding a group of gifted individuals in a situation where they are held back by a single child who simply can't get a problem right and needs endless special instruction is hardly something to be proud of, for the school or the students themselves.

Released on Tuesday, the sprawling, hundreds of pages-long manifesto delivered by the California Health Department described how schools must focus on "active efforts" in mathematics. Starting at the beginning of K-12 education to ensure no "gifted and talented" or advanced tracking programs take hold among the faculty, the policy implies to parents that if they want the same free public education as anywhere else in their school district, they have no choice but to subject their kids to racist pandering and a warped new form of mathematics that many may find insulting.

The number of adults reporting symptoms of depression in the UK more than doubled in early 2021, compared with pre-pandemic levels recorded in 2019, with one in five people suffering from "some form" of depression.

The number of adults reporting symptoms of depression in the UK more than doubled in early 2021, compared with pre-pandemic levels recorded in 2019, with one in five people suffering from "some form" of depression.

A report published by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday revealed that around 21% of adults in Britain experienced "moderate to severe" symptoms of depression in the period between the end of January and beginning of March, compared with 10% before the coronavirus outbreak began in early 2020.

A New Jersey police officer who wrote on Facebook that Black Lives Matter protesters are "terrorists" who couldn't care less if she dies has been fired — a move ripped by her attorney as "pandering to the far left."

Hopewell Township Police Officer Sara Erwin was terminated Friday via unanimous vote of the town committee, which accepted the recommendation of a hearing officer, NJ.com reported.

A second officer, Sgt. Mandy Grey, was demoted and suspended for six months for replying to a comment on Erwin's June 2020 post, their attorney Frank Crivelli told The Post Tuesday.

"The fact that she supported her position as a fellow officer, that was the reason that they actually suspended her," Crivelli said of Grey.

An Alabama state trooper arrested last week on charges he raped an 11-year-old girl had been kicked out of the FBI amid a string of sexual misconduct allegations but was hired by the state agency with the apparent help of a fake bureau letter that scrubbed his record clean.

An Associated Press investigation found Christopher Bauer was suspended without pay and stripped of his security clearance in the FBI's New Orleans office in late 2018 — effectively fired — amid allegations that included a co-worker's claim that he raped her at knifepoint.

But Alabama authorities either overlooked or were unaware of that history. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the state police, told AP that it conducted a "full and thorough" investigation into Bauer's background when he applied to be a trooper in 2019 and that "no derogatory comments were uncovered by former employers."

Bauer indicated on his application that he was still employed by the FBI and had never been dismissed or forced to resign because of disciplinary action. And the state's law enforcement credentialing commission provided AP a copy of a letter — purportedly from FBI headquarters — that makes no mention of Bauer's ouster, confirms his decade of "creditable service" and deems him "eligible for rehire."

​​An independent government watchdog will investigate the Pentagon's actions regarding UFOs following complaints from congressional leaders on how the Department of Defense has handled the out-of-this-world topic.

The announcement comes days after a former Pentagon official, who says he headed up a program investigating what the government refers to as unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, told The Post that he tried to get the government to seriously acknowledge and investigate these unidentified objects, comparing it to an "intelligence failure on the level of 9/11."


"The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the DoD has taken actions regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds, and we will consider suggestions from management for additional or revised objectives," the Defense Department's inspector general said in a statement issued Monday.

The letter, signed by Randolph R. Stone, the assistant inspector general for evaluations space, intelligence, engineering, and oversight, informed military agencies and government departments that they must provide a point of contact within five days of receiving the memo.

Disneyland, which finally reopened last Friday, has revamped its famed "Snow White" ride to include the climactic moment from the classic 1937 film in which the Prince awakens the sleeping princess with a kiss, and some women are slamming the moment, snapping, "Haven't we already agreed that consent in early Disney movies is a major issue?"

The ride, formerly known as "Snow White's Scary Journey," had featured scenes from the movie, some of them in the dark, including a dungeon scene, and culminated in the Evil Queen, who had poisoned Snow White before the prince ultimately awakened her, screaming as she fell to her death.

The City of Baltimore was mocked over a public information campaign encouraging people to get vaccinated before they could socialize, with some comparing the promo to a domestic abuse PSA.

The ad shows a disgruntled looking woman being told by her controlling boyfriend, "Mimosa with the girls? You still aren't vaxxed, Debra!"

How many Americans have died after taking the COVID vaccines? Not Americans who've been killed by the virus, that's a huge number, but how many Americans have died after getting the vaccines designed to prevent the virus? Do you know the answer to that question? Do you know anything about the downside? We know a lot about the upside of the vaccine. We've been completely in favor of vulnerable people taking vaccines.

But what about the potential risks? You'd think you would know more about that than you do. We talk about vaccines constantly, not just on this show, but in this country. Joe Biden was on TV yesterday talking about vaccines. He wants you to get one. Everyone in authority wants you to get one. In fact, you've probably already had your shot, and good for you. If you haven't had your shot, you're under enormous pressure to get your shot. You understand that soon you may not be able to fly on commercial airplanes or go to work at the office or send your children to school if you don't have the shot. Meanwhile, the social pressure is enormous. Friends may have already informed you that you're not welcome at their parties or weddings if you haven't been vaccinated. There is a lot of pressure to comply. At some point, you probably will comply. It's just too difficult not be to vaccinated in this country.

But before you make the appointment: do you know anything about the potential risks? Probably you don't know much. We all assume the risks are negligible. Vaccines aren't dangerous. That's not a guess, we know that pretty conclusively from the official numbers. Every flu season, we give influenza shots to more than 160 million Americans. Every year, a relatively small number of people seem to die after getting those shots. To be precise, in 2019, that number was 203 people. The year before, it was 119. In 2017, a total of 85 people died from the flu shot.

Every death is tragic, but big picture, we don't consider those numbers disqualifying. We keep giving flu shots, and very few people complain about it. So the question is how do those numbers compare to the death rate from the coronavirus vaccines now being distributed across the country? That's worth knowing.

Out of the 53,000 people polled across 53 countries, more respondents (44%) considered US influence on their country to be a "threat to democracy" than those who didn't (26%). Meanwhile, only 38% considered Chinese influence a threat to democracy.

Fear of Russian influence was the lowest of the three, with only 28% considering Russia to be a threat to their democracy.

Asian countries were high among those that feared US influence, with Pakistan fearing Washington the most. Japanese respondents also consider the US to be a greater concern than China - while Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Greece, Israel, Australia, Ukraine, and Switzerland were also among the top half.