Wednesday, November 11 Top News Briefs
It is Wednesday, November 11. It is Veterans Day, where we honor American soldiers for their service. Here are top news briefs.
Sydney Barber is first Black female to become U.S. Naval Academy brigade commander
The U.S. Naval Academy announced that Sydney Barber is the first Black female to become a brigade commander. This is the highest position among students at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Barber is the 16th female in this role and the first Black female. She is majoring in mechanical engineering and hopes to become a Marine Corps ground officer. She told CBS News that she is “humbled to play a small role in this momentous season of American history.”
C.D.C. says wearing masks helps to prevent inhaling coronavirus
The C.D.C. announced today that wearing masks helps with reducing inhalation of the coronavirus. This is a new update because the CDC previously said wearing masks’ main purpose was to prevent you from unknowingly spreading the virus to others — especially if you didn’t realize you had Covid-19. The CDC said wearing masks benefits the community because of a combination of these two effects. The CDC said cloth masks with higher thread counts are more effective.
The U.S. surpassed 10 million Covid-19 infections on Monday and on Tuesday there were 130,989 new Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day total yet.
Pfizer vaccine would go first to health care workers
The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, said if the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer is authorized by the FDA, the first groups of people to get vaccinated would be health care workers or nursing home residents in December, and then for all health care workers and first responders by January. There would be widespread vaccination for Americans in the first few months of 2021. This would only happen if there are no major delays or complications. The Pfizer vaccine is said to be 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 in trials that involved over 40,000 people. Dr. Anthony Fauci said he would take the vaccine if the FDA approves it because he trusts Pfizer and the FDA.
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NYC pilot program to send crisis workers for mental health calls instead of police officers
Reuters reported that New York City will start a pilot program in February to send mental health and crisis workers to respond to emergency calls related to people going through mental health issues instead of sending police officers. This change is a part of efforts to reform police after the death of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests. Other cities have adopted similar programs — Eugene, Oregon sends unarmed mental health professionals for those kinds of calls.
“Murder hornets” nest had 200 queens
Last month, scientists located a nest of Asian giant hornets, as known as “murder hornets,” in Blaine, Washington. All the insects were euthanized because they are an invasive species that is a serious threat to honeybee populations. Today scientists said the nest had about 500 hornets and in that group, there were almost 200 queens that had the potential to start their own nests, so they were caught and stopped in the nick of time.
That is all the top news briefs for today. Check out our other videos. Stay with the light.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/11/09/first-black-woman-named-student-brigade-commander-at-naval-academy/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sydney-barber-first-black-woman-us-naval-academy-brigade-commander/
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/masking-science-sars-cov2.html
https://www.axios.com/record-131000-covid-19-infections-hospitalizations-peak-f41b0382-2ef0-40f5-bfc8-76c5a4a4ee2e.html
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/10/world/covid-19-coronavirus-live-updates#covid-cdc-guidelines-masks
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN27Q33P?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/murder-hornet-nest-nearly-200-queens-destroyed-nick-of-time/