The major television networks-- ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC --agreed today to suspend pooled coverage of President Donald Trump after the White House yesterday refused to allow CNN entrance.   This is an incredible and extraordinary escalation of the showdown between Trump and the White House press corps. “Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Bryan Boughton, the Washington bureau chief at Fox News, wrote in a note to television pool members today, which was obtained by The New York Times. (Boughton is the acting chair of the television pool consortium; the networks rotate the chairmanship on a quarterly basis.) Here is how pool coverage has previously worked : They share the news, splitting, financial costs and distributing footage among themselves carried by news organizations worldwide. ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX News and NBC rotate covering all White House activitie s.  CNN was today supposed to follow Trump to...

Two days after the  Russian  rebellion , the surprise is that the news media was actually on top of all the action.  You would have thought that the absence of any kind of reliable information from that country would suppress "the truth."  First, earlier today, released was an 11-minute audio by the leader of revolt as defiant as ever.  Then, later at night, a 5-minute address to his nation by Vladimir Putin, where he essentially reinforced what I thought was the reality.  Essentially, there was this revolt led by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group ( about 40,000 mercenaries ), which ended in a compromise arranged by Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko.  Certainly, this exposed Putin as vulnerable, and no matter what was decided, places Prigozhin as enemy #1 to Putin.  What is the future?  Stay tuned. It is  not popularly known , but there are already decades-old hepatitis B vaccines to prevent liver cancer, and HPV vaccines, intr...

As you know, the new COVID-19 Omicron bivalent booster is now available.   When is the best time to take this shot?   It depends.   Read this article for details . For those who took their last booster six months ago, plan to soon travel, or otherwise happen to be vulnerable, like elders, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. In my case, I'm old, have a long trip coming up beginning on November 12, and live in a seniors' community.   Thus, 15 Craigside will arrange for these shots to be taken on our premises later this month.   For me, that's perfect, especially if taken at least two weeks before departure, which will be the case. But all my four vaccinations were of the Moderna version.   Should I stick to the same one, or expand to Pfizer? The CDC says it does not matter. Some studies of the earlier shots indicated that mixing vaccine brands actually may have produced a higher number of antibodies.  Moderna's earlier monovalent vaccines were ...