New US poll shows lingering vaccine hesitancy amid Johnson & Johnson pause – live | US news

The new poll from Monmouth University also shows more than half of Americans approve of Joe Biden’s job performance so far.

According to the Monmouth survey, 54% of Americans approve of the new president’s job performance, and 41% disapprove.

Biden receives higher marks when respondents are specifically asked about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his $1.9tn relief bill.

While 31% say the president has done a poor job responding to the pandemic, 62% say he has done a good job. That’s up from 57% in March.

And almost two-thirds of Americans, 63%, support the coronavirus relief bill, while 34% oppose it, which is consistent with other polls taken since Biden signed the legislation last month.

Roughly 1 in 5 Americans remain unwilling to get a coronavirus vaccine, according to a new poll from Monmouth University.

The survey found that 21% of Americans say they will never get a coronavirus vaccine if they can avoid it. That number is virtually unchanged from the 24% of respondents who said the same in January and March.

Vaccine hesitancy is particularly high among Republicans. While 5% of Democrats say they will try to avoid getting a vaccine, 43% of Republicans are currently unwilling to receive a vaccine. Among independents, 22% say they want to avoid vaccination.

The new poll comes a day after the Food and Drug Administration announced a “pause” in administering the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine because of six reports of blood clots among the more than 6 million people who have received the vaccine. (The survey was taken before the pause was announced.)

Some health experts have expressed concern that the J&J pause may intensify vaccine hesitancy among Americans who already feel nervous about the safety of the vaccines.

But at the White House coronavirus briefing moments ago, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention argued the pause shows the FDA is taking every possible precaution to guarantee the vaccines’ safety.

“This demonstrates the safety systems we have in place are working,” Dr Rochelle Walensky said.

More than 75 million Americans are already fully vaccinated, Jeff Zients, the White House pandemic response coordinator, noted during the briefing.

The seven-day average of vaccinations is now 3.3 million shots a day, up from an average of 3 million shots a day last week.

Zients said state and local officials are working to reschedule those who expected to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to ensure the pace of vaccinations does not fall steeply in the wake of the J&J pause.

Despite the encouraging news about vaccination rates, coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to increase as well.

The US is now recording an average of 67,530 new coronavirus cases a day, Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said.

Average coronavirus hospitalizations are now up to 5,462 a day, representing an increase of about 7% from a week earlier.

Health experts have consistently urged Americans to remain vigilant about limiting the spread of the virus as vaccinations ramp up.

Members of the White House coronavirus response team addressed the newly announced “pause” in administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine during today’s briefing.

Jeff Zients, the White House pandemic response coordinator, said Americans should be reassured that the Food and Drug Administration is taking every possible precaution to guarantee the safety of the vaccines.

Zients emphasized the Biden administration would continue to work to “strengthen the public’s trust in government and increase their confidence in vaccines”.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, echoed Zients’ confidence in the FDA and its decision to pause administering the J&J vaccine.

“This demonstrates the safety systems we have in place are working,” Walensky said.

The CDC director also stressed that the reports of blood clots among people who received the J&J vaccine are “extremely rare. Walensky added her agency is working “rapidly” to determine whether there is a causal relationship between these blood clots and the vaccine.

The White House coronavirus response team is now holding a briefing to provide an update on vaccine distribution and coronavirus case numbers.

The briefing comes one day after the Food and Drug Administration announced a “pause” in administering the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine because of six reports of blood clots among the more than 6 million people who have received the vaccine.

Jeff Zients, the White House pandemic response coordinator, emphasized the announcement would not have a significant impact on the US vaccination strategy because J&J shots currently make up only about 5% of all administered vaccine doses.

Zients said the Biden administration has “more than enough supply” of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to meet the president’s goal of administering 200 million vaccine doses by his 100th day in office, which will occur later this month.

Lawmakers of both parties have criticized Joe Biden’s plan to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, with some accusing the president of abandoning America’s commitment to the Afghan people.

In his speech this afternoon, Biden will emphasize that America’s work in Afghanistan will continue, even as US troops depart.

“We will keep providing assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Along with our partners, we are training and equipping nearly 300,000 personnel. And they continue to fight valiantly on behalf of their country and defend the Afghan people, at great cost,” the president will say.

“We will support peace talks between the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, facilitated by the United Nations.”

Biden will add, “Rather than return to war with the Taliban, we have to focus on the challenges that will determine our standing and reach today and into the years to come.”

The September 11 attacks cannot justify American troops’ continued presence in Afghanistan, Joe Biden will say in his speech this afternoon.

The White House has just released excerpts of the president’s speech, in which he will announce a September 11 deadline to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan.

“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” Biden is expected to say.

“I am now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility to a fifth.”

The president will emphasize that America’s “diplomatic and humanitarian work” will continue in Afghanistan, even as the country’s military efforts will come to a close.

Biden will pledge to support the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, as well as provide assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.

“After consulting closely with our Allies and partners, with our military leaders and intelligence professionals, with our diplomats and development experts, and with Congress and the Vice President, I have concluded that: It is time to end America’s longest war. It is time for American troops to come home,” Biden will say.

“We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago. That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.”

The AP reports:

Bernie Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, has died in a federal prison, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Madoff died at the Federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina, apparently from natural causes, the person said.

The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

Last year, Madoff’s lawyers filed court papers to try to get the 82-year-old released from prison in the Covid-19 pandemic, saying he had suffered from end-stage renal disease and other chronic medical conditions.

The request was denied.

Madoff admitted swindling thousands of clients out of billions of dollars in investments over decades.

A court-appointed trustee has recovered more than $13bn of an estimated $17.5bn that investors put into Madoff’s business. At the time of his arrest, fake account statements were telling clients they had holdings worth $60bn.

All senators will receive a classified briefing today from Biden administration officials on the president’s plan to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer confirmed the briefing in an interview with CNN this morning, saying it will allow all senators’ questions about the strategy to be answered.

The Democratic leader emphasized the importance of keeping September 11 as a hard deadline to withdraw troops, rather than “kicking the can down the road,” and Schumer said administration officials have agreed with him on that.

CNN anchor John Berman noted Schumer was critical of Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, even calling it an “incoherent policy”.

“I think President Biden has come up with a careful and thought-out plan,” Schumer said. “The president doesn’t want endless wars. I don’t want endless wars. And neither do the American people.”

Schumer added, “It’s refreshing to have a thought-out plan with a set timetable, instead of the president waking up one morning, getting out of bed, saying what just pops into his head and then having the generals have to walk it back.”

Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11 has sparked some criticism within his own party.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a member of the foreign relations committee, said yesterday she was “very disappointed” by the decision.

“Although this decision was made in coordination with our allies, the U.S. has sacrificed too much to bring stability to Afghanistan to leave without verifiable assurances of a secure future,” the New Hampshire senator said in a statement. “It undermines our commitment to the Afghan people, particularly Afghan women.”

Republicans were much more direct with their criticism of the troop withdrawal decision, with Senator Lindsey Graham calling the strategy “dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous”.

It’s worth noting Graham previously expressed some support for Donald Trump’s decision to draw down US troops in Afghanistan, although the senator has consistently said he would still want there to be some American presence in the country.

Amid peace talks with the Taliban last year, Graham, a close Trump ally, said he would “support any reasonable effort to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan”.

He added, “However, any peace agreement must be sustainable, honorable and include protections for the American homeland against international terrorist organisations that are alive and well in Afghanistan.”

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

Joe Biden will deliver a speech this afternoon laying out the US military’s path forward in Afghanistan.

The president is expected to announce he will withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11 of this year, which will mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The news means Biden will miss the May 1 withdrawal deadline established by the Trump administration, although the drawdown of troops is expected to begin in May.

As of now, about 2,500 US troops remain in Afghanistan, as well as 7,000 other foreign troops from the Nato coalition, most of whom will also leave the country by September.

“We will remain in lockstep with them as we undergo this operation,” a senior Biden administration official said yesterday. “We went in together, adjusted together and now we will prepare to leave together.”

The withdrawal decision has received some criticism from lawmakers in both parties, with several saying the troops’ departure will leave Afghan people, particularly women, vulnerable to human rights abuses.

Speaking about a potential troop withdrawal last year, Biden said he would not bear responsibility for the repercussions of the US withdrawal on Afghan people.

Biden said at the time, “The responsibility I have is to protect America’s national self-interests and not put our women and men in harm’s way to try to solve every single problem in the world by use of force.”