NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with former National Security Advisor, General H.R. McMaster, about how climate policy can be used to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s agenda.
Swiss health minister Alain Berset says the country is heading in the right direction, but warns the coronavirus can be ‘unpredictable’
Swiss health minister Alain Berset has signaled that the Alpine nation’s controversial use of a Covid-19 certificate system could soon be over since the public health response to the pandemic appeared to be “on the right track.”
The document – which indicates whether a person has been vaccinated, tested or recovered from the coronavirus and determines entry into public venues – has been in use since July 2021. But Berset suggested on Saturday that the time may have come to do away with the system.
“The certificate period seems to be almost at an end,” Berset told the Schweiz am Wochenende newspaper, adding that the country looks to be “on the right track.” But he warned that the “virus has shown itself to be unpredictable on several occasions.”
Over the last year, protests had broken out over the certificates and other restrictions in a number of cities. But after anti-lockdown groups gathered almost 200,000 signatures to force a vote on the law, a significant majority of Swiss citizens elected in December to keep the system.
Since December 20, only those vaccinated against Covid-19 or who have recovered from an infection have been allowed to enter restaurants, cultural, sporting and leisure venues and attend indoor events. In addition, private gatherings in the country have been limited to 10 people – if there is even one person aged 16 and above present who does not have a level of either natural or vaccine-acquired immunity.
Last Wednesday, the government announced it would extend quarantine and mandatory work-from-home rules until the end of February. It also outlined tentative plans to keep other restrictions in place until March as the country fights a fifth wave of the pandemic.
Despite reports of nearly 38,000 new cases over a 24-hour period on Friday, Berset said on Saturday that the government could “transform the compulsory order to work from home into a recommendation, and end quarantines” if the situation improves over the next few weeks.
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Police are searching for several macaques that escaped a truck after a crash
A truck carrying some 100 monkeys was involved in a crash with a dump trailer in Montour County, Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon. The animals were being transported to a laboratory, local media reported, citing police.
While it is unclear whether any animals were injured, some of them were confirmed to have escaped. The authorities have launched a search and asked for the public’s assistance. At least four of the monkeys – reported to be long-tailed macaques – are believed to be on the loose.
The incident may have endangered not only the animals in question, but the public too, according to the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). If the runaway monkeys suffered injuries in the accident, this would make them more likely to be a threat to any person they might encounter, because fear can cause aggression.
PETA also expressed the concern that they might carry pathogens that could be spread to humans.
“There is no way to ensure that monkeys are virus-free, and state veterinary and other records show that monkeys in laboratories in the US have been found with tuberculosis, Chagas disease, cholera, and MRSA,” primatologist and PETA science advisor, Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel said in a statement.
