Viral News: With the national vaccination effort lagging, New York City and California announced that they will require all employees to get vaccinated for the Covid-19 or face testing.

   They are going where other governments and employers have feared to go. All workers in New York City, including cops and teachers, and all state employees and on-site public and private health care workers in California will have to be vaccinated or face weekly testing.

  The Department of Veterans Affairs also became the first federal agency to require employees in direct patient care to be vaccinated.

  The vaccinated are beginning to be frustrated with the unvaccinated. Roni Caryn Rabin writes for The NY Times that, “The rising sentiment is contributing to support for more coercive measures. Scientists, business leaders and government officials are calling for vaccine mandates — if not by the federal government, then by local jurisdictions, schools, employers and businesses.”

  In a further effort to reach the unvaccinated, The White House has been talking to Fox News, one of the primary sources of seeded doubt and political resistance to a health issue, CNN reports. Tucker Carlson, the Fox’s most popular host, has aired dozens of segments casting doubt on the vaccination effort questioning the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

  “Even conservative leaders now are having a hard time figuring out how to rein in what had primarily been a propaganda campaign, and they are now realizing their constituencies are particularly vulnerable,” Eric Ward, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the Associated Press. 

  Adopting the vaccine effort, and still making it political, is Donald Trump’s former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She’s the front-runner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in her state next year and wrote in a newspaper opinion that, “It’s clear that the Trump vaccine works and is saving lives.”

  The “Trump” vaccine was developed by scientists and drug companies. Donald Trump has not campaigned for people to get vaccinated.

Five Ring Roundup:  Simone Biles was off her game in the team preliminaries for women’s gymnastics. The US team finished a surprising second to Russia, but the scores are wiped clean for today’s finals. The US has always been considered the favorite to win.

  Seventeen year old Lydia Jacoby of Seward, Alaska won gold in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke. “I was definitely racing for a medal. I knew I had it in me,” Jacoby said.

  Carissa Moore of the US and Italo Ferreira of Brazil won the first Olympic golds in surfing. Ferreira broke a board in the first minute of the men’s final, but went on to win.

  And Naomi Osaka, Japan’s tennis superstar who lit the cauldron during the Olympic opening, was eliminated in the third round of the women’s singles tennis. 

  The US so far has won 22 medals, nine of them gold.

China Syndrome: A Hong Kong protester is the first to be convicted for his actions in anti-Beijing government protests. Tong Ying-kit, 24, who struck police officers with his motorcycle while carrying a protest banner, could be sentenced to life in prison under new anti-terrorism laws. Another 130 people are charged under the same law.

The Spin Rack: The last victim of the Surfside, Florida condominium collapse has been identified. Estelle Hedaya, 54, was originally from New York. The final death toll is 98. — More than 13 years after a court put the life and finances of singer Britney Spears under a conservatorship controlled by her father, a lawyer for Spears has formally filed to have James Spears removed. — Someone threw fire bombs at the Cuban embassy in Paris last night. — With rising seas, Boston’s Blue Line train and the entire MBTA system face an existential threat, according to new research. The Blue Line has a mile-long underwater tunnel.

Weather Report: As the West continues to burn, smoke hung over the Hudson Valley and upstate New York yesterday. Fire departments in Massachusetts were answering calls about the smell of smoke and New Hampshire declared air quality action days. Now they know what it’s like to live in California. 

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