‘Wasting my breath’: Southern faith leaders wary of promoting vaccines Exhausted by backlash over pandemic restrictions, some faith leaders see little upside in urging skeptical congregants to get vaccinated. Dan Goldberg POLITICO

Biden administration and state officials hoped that pastors would play an outsized role in promoting Covid-19 vaccines, but many are wary of alienating their congregants and are declining requests to be more outspoken.

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in most parts of the country, Americans have reason to cheer, with more than half of those over 12 fully vaccinated, state after state lifting all emergency restrictions and caseloads decreasing by double-digits week over week. Families are traveling again, diners are flocking to restaurants and baseball is back as America’s seasonal pastime.

But the summer is turning out to be fairly joyless in places like CoxHealth Medical Center in Springfield, Mo., where nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists have been grappling with a resurgence in coronavirus cases that forced the hospital to reopen the 80-bed Covid unit it had shuttered in May.

The Delta variant infected almost everyone at a 'superspreader' party in Australia — but not the 6 vaccinated people After a birthday party near Sydney, 24 guests tested positive for COVID-19. The six fully vaccinated guests remained healthy, a health official said. Andrea Michelson Business Insider

• Almost all of the guests at a birthday party near Sydney later tested positive for the coronavirus.
• The six fully vaccinated guests remained healthy, a health official said.