Month: June 2021

American corporations are offering a growing cornucopia of special?deals?and promotions to encourage?people?in the U.S. to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Vaccine activism among some of the nation’s best-known brands comes as daily totals for jabs in the arm have declined by roughly 50% since mid-April. U.S. health officials say convincing the hesitant to roll up their sleeves is critical for defeating the coronavirus, a message that appears to have been heard loud and clear in corporate boardrooms.

Ride-booking services, food retailers and even dating sites?have?teamed up with the White House to help push forward President Joe Biden’s goal of getting?at least one shot?into?70%?of adults by July.?

To encourage more people to get the shot,?America’s largest pharmacy chain, CVS, has started a sweepstakes?campaign for those who sign up.?More than?1,000 prizes?will be handed out?to?people who get,?or plan to?get,?vaccinated?through CVS?by July 10.?The winnings include?cash, cruises and?other?vacations.?

Dr.?Kyu Rhee,?senior vice president of CVS Health,?said the company has already dispensed?more than 17 million COVID?vaccinations.?

“Getting as much of the population fully vaccinated will bring us one step closer to all the things we’ve missed during the past 14 months and keep our country moving in the right direction,” he said in a statement.

As the pandemic appears to be winding down in the U.S., many people are eager to travel. United Airlines is helping some of them through its?”Your Shot to Fly”?sweepstakes that will give away free flights. Until June 22, immunized?frequent flyer passengers?can?upload their vaccination record to the airline’s mobile app?or?website?for a chance to win round-trip tickets or?free flights for a year to United’s destinations worldwide.?

In a statement, United CEO Scott Kirby said: “We’re excited to give people one more reason to get vaccinated so they can reunite with friends and family or take that long-awaited vacation which all could be just one shot away.”

From travel to food, customers are getting rewards for being vaccinated, including sweet treats.

Krispy Kreme shops are giving away one free doughnut each day?until the end of the year?to?people who?show they?are?immunized.

At many Shake Shack fast food locations, customers with a vaccination card can get a free side of fries through June 12 with the purchase of a hamburger or chicken sandwich.

While not giving away food freebies,?McDonalds?has partnered with the Biden?administration to?promote vaccinations by printing information on some 50 million coffee cups?beginning in?July.?Featuring the slogan?”We Can Do This,”?the aim of the?campaign is to?encourage Americans who are hesitant to get vaccinated.?

In a statement, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra noted that customers will be able to get “trusted information about vaccines when they grab a cup of coffee or order a meal.”

Some people don’t have transportation to get to vaccination sites, so ride-sharing?firms Lyft and Uber are helping them by giving free rides for inoculations until July 4. Lyft is funding up to $15 each way, while Uber is covering up to $25 back and forth.

Both companies use their own apps to pick up customers.

“We’ve built a new easy-to-use in-app experience,”?Uber’s website says,?”where users will be able to find nearby available vaccines from tens of thousands of local providers.”?

Some stores are offering discounts for getting immunized on-site. At Target, a?merchandise retailer,?customers receive?$5 off any?in-store?purchase, while Albertsons?is?offering a 10% food discount for people who get vaccinated at its grocery stores.

For those seeking romance among the inoculated, online dating site OKCupid recently launched a profile badge that lets users sort other users by vaccination status.

“The (I’m Vaccinated) badge allows daters to signal to others that they’ve been vaccinated,” Ariel Charytan, the company’s CEO, said in a press release, “and will direct users who aren’t to a government-approved resource where they can find a vaccination site near them.”

Profiles of the daters who are immunized are given a “boost,” meaning they can be seen by more users.

There are also freebies for the practical-minded. For the tens of millions of people who got the jab and want to protect their vaccinated cards, office supply chains Office Depot and Office Max are running a promotion through July 25 where they will laminate them free of charge.

Source: Voice of America

Member nations of the World Health Organization have approved a plan to negotiate the terms of an international pandemic response treaty.

Attendees at the closing session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva voted Monday on resolution to create a special WHO assembly session in November aimed at reaching a treaty or convention that would help nations better prepare and respond to a potential pandemic similar to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The ongoing outbreak has sickened over 170 million people around the world and led to more than 3.5 million deaths since it was first detected in central China in late 2019.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told attendees “the time has come” for such a treaty, saying it would strengthen both the U.N. health agency and global health security as a whole. He said it will address “the lack of sharing of data, information, technologies and resources” that marked the sluggish response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The issue of a global pandemic response treaty was one of several reforms taken up during the weeklong event, although they will not be voted on until the World Health Assembly meets again next year.

Organizers of the Copa America soccer tournament announced Monday it was moving the upcoming event to Brazil due to a surge of new COVID-19 infections in Argentina, which was co-hosting with Colombia. The news was greeted with skepticism by some in Brazil, which trails only the United States and India in the total number of coronavirus cases more than 13.5 million, and is second only to the U.S. in deaths at over 462,000.

Scientists are concerned about hosting a tournament in a nation with a more transmissible COVID-19 variant, with many predicting another wave of the disease to hit the country in a matter of weeks. Some opposition politicians are threatening to file an injunction with the Brazilian Supreme Court to block the tournament.

President Jair Bolsonaro has come under heavy criticism for his apparently dismissive attitude toward the pandemic, and is the subject of a congressional investigation over his government’s management of the crisis.

Meanwhile, Australia’s women’s Olympic softball team on Monday became the first to arrive in Japan to begin preparations for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, which is also under a cloud due to a new wave of COVID-19 infections across the country and a slow rate of vaccinations, generating strong public opposition against going through with the Games.

Foreign spectators are barred from attending the Olympics, which begin July 23, and a Japanese newspaper reported Monday the government may require potential spectators to either have to show proof they received a COVID-19 vaccine or tested negative for the virus.

Source: Voice of America

JBS Foods, the world’s largest meat supplier, has been forced to shut down operations in Australia and North America Monday, as the company has been a target of a cyberattack over the weekend, according to officials at its headquarters in Brazil. Authorities said they are working to resolve the impact.

A U.S. subsidiary, JBS USA, issued a statement following the attack saying they are taking “immediate action, suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities, and activating the company’s global network of IT [Information Technology] professionals and third-party experts,” to address the issue, Reuters reported.

Some transactions with customer and suppliers might be delayed due to the cyberattack, the company statement added.

There is no evidence, so far, that the personal data of customers and suppliers or employees had been compromised, the statement said. The company’s backup IT system was not hit by what the company said was an “organized cybersecurity attack.”

The largest global meatpacker has operations in Canada, Britain, Europe, New Zealand and Mexico.

Source: Voice of America