Viral News: The National Football League knows something about blocking and tackling and that’s what they are doing with the coronavirus.

  The league is not requiring players to be vaccinated … everything but that. The NFL announced that it will not extend the 18-week schedule for games misseed because of Covid-19 outbreaks and that any team that cannot re-schedule a game during the season will be charged for a loss. Also, players from both teams will not be paid for the cancelled game and the team responsible because of unvaccinated players will cover financial losses and be subject to discipline by the Commissioner’s office.

  Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins was quick to object. “Never thought I would say this, But being put in a position to hurt my team because I don’t want to partake in the vaccine is making me question my future in the @NFL,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet.

  The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned yesterday that the US is “not out of the woods yet” on the pandemic and is once again at a “pivotal point” as the highly infectious Delta variant rips through unvaccinated areas. Dr. Rochelle Walensky called the now dominant variant “one of the most infectious respiratory viruses” known to scientists.

  Hospitals are beginning to see “breakthrough” cases, people diagnosed with Covid-19 even after they have been inoculated. The medical  community says that so long as large numbers of people remain unvaccinated and continue to spread the virus, vaccinated people will be exposed to the Delta variant, and a small percentage of them will develop so-called breakthrough infections. 

Havana Syndrome: American diplomats in Vienna have reported what is now a familiar yet mysterious experience in foreign postings. They say they’ve experienced what the State Department calls “anomalous health incidents,” strange noises, developing vertigo, hearing, and vision problems.

  It’s known as “Havana Syndrome,” named after 2016 incidents experienced by US diplomats in Havana, Cuba. As many as 40 Americans there experienced migraines, dizziness, and memory loss. Since then, hundreds of diplomats posted around the world have reported incidents.

 It’s not all in their heads. CIA Director William Burns told NPR he’s convinced the phenomenon is real and serious. Burns said, he is seriously considering the “very strong possibility” that the syndrome is the result of intentional actions and that there are a limited number of “potential suspects” with the capability to carry out an action around the world. A report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that microwave radiation is the “most plausible” explanation for the symptoms.

  Burns said he has assigned one of the Company’s top spooks to the case, a still-undercover agent who was involved in locating Osama bin Laden. Burns said, “I am absolutely determined — and I’ve spent a great deal of time and energy on this in the four months that I’ve been CIA director — to get to the bottom of the question of what and who caused this.”

Justice Delayed: Several Democratic senators are demanding to know why the FBI didn’t do more to follow up accusations of sexual harassment against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was nominated to the court by President Trump. The allegations dated back decades and the FBI admits that it had received thousands of tips but passed along only a few to the Trump White House.

  Responding to the FBI, Sens. Christopher Coons of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote that, “The admissions in your letter corroborate and explain numerous credible accounts by individuals and firms that they had contacted the FBI with information ‘highly relevant to … allegations’ of sexual misconduct by Justice Kavanaugh, only to be ignored.” They said, “If the FBI was not authorized to or did not follow up on any of the tips that it received from the tip line, it is difficult to understand the point of having a tip line at all.”

The Spin Rack: The subdued and limited-attendance opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics began at 7 am Eastern time. Roughly 5,000 to 6,000 athletes from 200 countries were expected to join the parade in a largely empty stadium to avoid spreading Covid. It’s about half the usual parading contingent. The stadium had some kind of objects or lights in the seats to make it look like there were spectators. The ceremony and performances so far are stunning. — Calling Roe v. Wade “egregiously wrong,” Mississippi’s attorney general urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to reverse the historic decision that made abortion legal and to uphold the state’s law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court will hear arguments in the fall. — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that a congressional committee investigating the January 6th Capitol insurrection will take on its “deadly serious” work with or  without the Republicans. — The Washington Post reports that despite raising $75 million for his political action committee, Donald Trump has not put money into recounting the Arizona vote or investigating his claims of fraud in other states. Instead, Trump’s Save America leadership pac has paid for some of the former president’s travel, legal costs and staff, along with other expenses.

Reading the Tag: An Australian activewear company has been fined $5 million for claiming that a line of its clothing had a “groundbreaking technology” called LJ Shield to that would block the transmission of the coronavirus. In their defense, the Lorna Jane company claimed they had been misled by their suppliers.

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