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See Tim Walz's full speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 21, 2024 in his video from CBS News. Lyrarc has selected excerpts from Tim Walz's speech above showing what the Trump Republican party plans to do that will gut Social Security and Medicare, and kill the Affordable Care Act, gut efforts to lower exaggerated cost of medical drugs and healthcare. This excerpt shows what Harris will do to build a better life for workers and families and people across all 51 States, in education, childcare, healthcare, cost of living, and housing costs- "We’ve got something better to offer the American people. It starts with our candidate, Kamala Harris. From her first day — as a prosecutor, as a district attorney, as an attorney general, as a United States senator, and then our vice president — she’s fought on the side of the American people. She’s taken on the predators and fraudsters. She’s taken down the transnational gangs. And she’s stood up to powerful corporate interests. She has never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives. And she’s always done it with energy, with passion and with joy. Folks, we’ve got a chance to make Kamala Harris the next president of the United States. But I think we owe it to the American people to tell them exactly what she’d do as president before we ask them for their votes. So this is the part — clip and save it, and send it to your undecided relatives so they know: If you’re a middle-class family, or trying to get into the middle class, Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes. If you’re getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take on Big Pharma. If you’re hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable. And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead, because that’s what we want for ourselves, and it’s what we want for our neighbors."       ...

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Meticulous preparations in France for the Olympics. This report shows Macron at the Olympics Aquatics Centre built at cost of 188 million euros. The budget in 2012 Olympics in London overspent by 200%, France will do it for about 20% overspend, says the Sports Minister. Macron says "Everything is a cause for vigilance and attention, nothing is a cause for worry or paralysis, that is my and our state of mind." When the Olympics open on July 26 this year it will be on the river Seine, with hundreds of flotilla boats. It is a unique effort as even the housing complex was built so that after the Olympics are over the housing could be reused to serve residents of a poorer neglected suburb of Paris. The river Seine is being cleaned up for swimming

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The Zero Energy Ready Home is now becoming a reality- what little energy they need can be derived from a roof full of soalr panels. Instead of conventional cooling and heating such homes use a heat pump, use enough insulation, and LED lighting. In 2020 California will require all new home to be Net Zero for energy use. The European Union also has set a goal of net zero for 2020 for all new home being built. In the U.S. only 8547 units of this type were built in 2017, with about 38,000 in construction.

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Germany's state development bank KfW has signed a memorandum of understanding with German energy company RWE AG to build a new LNG terminal at the northern port city of Brunsbuttel. Netherlands infrastructure group Gasunie will operate the new LNG terminal. The Nordstream 2 $11 billion project is now set aside and Germany plans to use the LNG terminals and other sources outside of Russia. Germany commissioned its gas market trading hub to buy LNG of 1.5 billion euros. 

Germany will now fast track another LNG terminal on the North Sea at Wilhelmshaven. That terminal would be operational in 3 years. 

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It is important to know the cause of 0.3% contraction in first quarter 2025 for US economy. It is says WSJ because of a 5% hit from net exports, the difference between exports and imports, as importers rushed to import more before a tariff deadline. Imports by the US increased by 42% in first quarter 2025. Some include MIchigan Governor Whitmer who supports the tariffs as a way to take back America's industrial base, build factories in the US, say the uncertainty of the way tariffs were implemented is damaging confidence in the economy. For instance could the US have excluded the EU, Japan, UK, India as allies, and focused on China.  The problem with that approach is that it would single out China. It means other nations Japan, South Korea, Germany are not investing in the US, also have used trade for unfair advantage, are not called out. This would put China in an odd position. It is better to call out all who benefited from unfair advantage including China, Germany, Japan South Korea, Taiwan, because this has more credibility, giving all a honest and fair picture that they could then look at themselves in the mirror and correct. In the short run it looks messy, the tariff methods look erratic and back and forth increasing tariffs is also messy and unruy. Yet when every major trading nation knows deep inside that US is only saying it like it is asking only for fairness in trade, it will lead it to negotiate a fair trade agreement with US. ...

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U.S. president Obama calls Hillary Clinton more qualified for the job of president than himself or Bill Clinton, in his speech at the Democratic National Convention. He made a strong effort to rally the party behind Hillary Clinton in his speech, and thanked Bernie Sanders in a separate phone call for helping bring party unity. Vice President said that Trump did'nt have a clue to what would help the middle class, that the truly passionate supporter for the middle class was Hillary Clinton. Kaine and Bloomberg built on this theme.

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Biden's address to Congress after three years of the pandemic marks a turning point for America like Lincoln in 1962 and FDR in 1933. As Biden surveys the damage done to the country not just by Covid loss of 1 million lives, he sees the closing of factories and abandoning of communities that depended on them all over America, abandoned by administrations of either party. Which has led to a loss of faith in the fairness of the system and of democracy itself.  "And two years ago democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. And today though bruised, it remains unbowed and unbroken. . . That's always been my vision for this country, and I know its many of yours. To restore the soul of this nation. To rebuild the backbone of America, America's middle class." Biden sees a complete rebuilding of America to bring back manufacturing, restore American leadership in manufacturing. And invest three hundred billion dollars for the effort that will create jobs and new opportunities.  "For decades, the middle class has been hollowing out, and more than- and no one administration, but for a long time. Too many good paying manufacturing jobs moved overseas. Factories closed down. Once thriving cities and towns that many of you represent became shadows of what they used to be. And along the way, something else we lost. Pride, our sense of self-worth. I ran for president to fundamentally change things, to make sure our economy works for everyone so we can all feel that pride in what we do. To build an economy from the bottom up, not from the top down. Because when the middle class does well, the poor have a ladder up, and the wealthy still do very well. We all do well." "Folks I've been criticized for saying this, but I am not changing my view. We're going to make sure the supply chain for America begins in America. The supply chain begins in America." "And when we do these projects- and again I get criticized for it but I am making no excuses for it- we're going to buy American. We're going to buy American. Folks, and it's totally consistent with international trade rules. Buy American has been the rule since 1933. But for too long, past administrations, Democratic and Republican, have fought to get around it. Not anymore. . . Folks my economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. So many of you listening to me tonight, I know you feel it. So many of you felt simply that you've been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the last four decades, too many people have been left behind and treated like they're invisible."   ...

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In a nationwide television address prime minister Modi of India calls for a Janata Curfew on Sunday March 22, for a test of people's self-discipline in fighting the coronavirus. He urged people to not go outside of their homes from 7am to 9 pm voluntarily in this curfew. The aim is to build public consciousness of the need for social distancing and staying away from crowds and people gathering, as an effective way to prevent spread of coronavirus. Only health care workers and people who provide essential services would be outside. He asked that at 5 pm on that day people ring bells to thank health workers and others who are doing what is necessary in the health crisis.

The prime minister said there should be no hoarding as the government will ensure that there are adequate supplies. He said an Economic Response Task Force has been setup under the leadership of the Finance Minister that will decide on an economic relief package.

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Indian Navy has expanded to 140 warships and technology modernization with domestically produced ships. About another half of that 140 will be added and produced inside India in the next few years. This effort to build the Indian Navy comes with the need to ensure freedom of the seas for open navigation. Much of the world's trade happens for raw materials and manufactured goods through the shipping lanes including the seas in the Indian Ocean and adjoining region. Indian Navy is showing the results of this effort as it protects the oceans in its region in 2024 in the interest of all nations. The US is supporting India's effort with flow of new technologies. The French are also supporting India's efforts and president Macron is in India this week. He will attend the Republic Day celebration as a special guest in New Delhi on Jan 26, after an unprecedented road show in an open SUV in Jaipur today with prime minister Modi.

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Apple is leading transformation of the PC with its M1 chip processors and long battery life on the iMac. Apple's control of hardware and software puts Apple in a position to lead the way, to build the hardware that will run software in a better way. This report in the WSJ calls it making the iMac as capable as the smaller iphones.

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NHK documentary showing the atomic bomb explosion on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The only surviving structure is the Genbaku Dome built in 1914 the entire copper part of it having melted in one second.

"A full scale nuclear exchange, lasting less than 60 minutes, with the weapons now in existence, could wipe out more than 300 million Americans, Europeans and Russians, as well as untold numbers elsewhere. And the survivors as chairman Krushchev warned the Communist Chinese, "the survivors would envy the dead." For they would inherit a world so devastated by explosions and poison and fire, that today we cannot even conceive of its horrors." 

This is John F. Kennedy in a televised address on July 26, 1963

 

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A Hyundai shipyard can build a military ship for $600 million that would cost the US about three times that number -$1.6 billion. South Korea can control costs with its marine shipyard capacity to build 40 ships a year in shorter time frame by 20 months. Note that the US had 17 shipyards in 1970, by 2020 it had dropped to 5 ships. Why is this a problem? China has this type of advantage in cost and expertise so that it would be even with the US current capacity by 2030.  Naval power made it possible for first Britain and then the US to provide the structure for the Modern World based on science and technology to grow and improve living standards. Unlike in the colonial era the US has helped raise living standards in China, India, South Korea, Indonesia, all parts of the world.  An administration that has focus and concentration in its leadership and is based on a concept of the Modern World based on science and technology is best suited for the task of renewing America for its role for the next generation of Americans. ...

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US president Biden proposes to reduce the US deficit by $2 trillion by increasing taxes on American households worth more than $100 million that would apply to their earned income, and their unrealized gains on liquid assets like stocks. Biden also plans quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks by companies, a tax approved in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2021. The deficit in 2023 will be about $1.4 trillion and rise to about $2 trillion, so that Biden's plan is to practically eliminate the  large deficit if the Republicans come on board. Republicans prefer cuts in spending. US companies have engaged in a dramatic increase in stock buybacks in recent years leading to calls for increasing the tax on stock buybacks. Biden says even high income households will not see an increase in their taxes, only the wealthiest households with over $100 million who have benefited vastly through the Reagan type policies of the last two decades. These households with over $100 million in assets will not be affected in the same way as students, workers, and middle income households are affected in shouldering a large part of the burden of these Reagan type policies that did not adequately fund education, healthcare, and manufacturing in communities across America. This was a period when Democrats in Congress awed by Reagan type policies failed to vigorously oppose policy that increased the US deficit and burden on households for health costs by not allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. A senior AARP official says that when we talk about the Biden Inflation Reduction Act of 2021 the key component is the Medicare price negotiation with companies that is now law. Why Republicans and Democrats before Mr. Biden allowed such a gross distortion for two decades since 2001 that burdened ordinary  working Americans while neglecting American manufacturing, till Mr. Biden assumed the presidency, says much about the policies of the last two decades and how it has affected ordinary working families. Shriveling factory towns and creating much distress in these communities with these distortions that are a legacy of Reagan type laissez faire policies that government should do little. The result of these policies is that manufacturing is concentrated in only one country for the whole supply chain something that would never have happened with a thoughtful policy planning process. India and Vietnam are only today seen as alternatives for the supply chain in 2023 when policies were in place in these countries since 2014 for the supply chain to be distributed in a way that would be a win-win situation for all countries, avoiding the national security threats of today with overconcentration of manufacturing in China. This has not benefited China or the US because of the rancor and tension it has created. It was the fall of the Berlin Wall that created some of this awe for Reagan, when looking at it objectively it was nothing more than a course correction in Europe after the Hungarian revolution suppressed in 1956, Czech in 1968. It had little to do with what policies the US should pursue for workers and families, just as the war in Ukraine today remains another course correction in a different direction in Europe, and does not affect domestic policy in the US to build a better society for workers and families that Mr. Biden is doing. ...

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David French in the NYT describes a moral center that is avoiding extremes on college campuses. French quotes from W.B. Yeats poem The Second Coming that was written in the period after the First World War during the Russian Civil War, when things appeared to be in disarray. "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold... The best lack all conviction/ while the worst are full of passionate intensity." The United States is built on a series of ideas from the Declaration of Independence, ideas that were revisited and relived at important times such as the Civil War with Lincoln and the Great Depression with FDR. It is that moral center that French speaks of when he cites Yeats and talks about it being challenged from extreme views on the right and the left in politics and in society.

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Throughout their work as high school teachers in Mankato, Minnesota, during Tim Walz's 8 years in the US Congress, 8 years as Minnesota Governor, Tim and Gwen Walz were a pair that depended on each other and were each others closest advisers. Gwen Walz had an office in the Minnesota Governor's offices. She has taken a strong interest in education, in Minnesota's schools and colleges and shares the same passion that Tim Walz has for the school lunch programs and other ways to build educational opportunity in the state. Jospeh Bernstein looks at the life and work of Gwen Walz, spouse of the new running mate of Kamala Harris, Tim Walz of Minnesota. In 2002 when Tim Walz was running for Governor Walter Mondale came out of retirement to fill the seat of Senator Wellstone. At a meeting she is shown with Walter Mondale whom she thanked for inspiring her with his VP choice of Geraldine Ferraro. This is memorable because Hubert Humphrey was a mentor of Walter Mondale. Humphrey's role in US politics goes back to the days when he was a candidate for the presidential nomination against John F. Kennedy in 1956 and 1960. Humphrey was Vice President under LBJ. Mondale served as Vice President under president Jimmy Carter from Georgia 1977-1981. Minnesotans have served in the VP role twice before - with Tim it would be three- all highly competent Americans with a measure of respect worldwide. ...

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Read the full speech of president Biden at an important time in the Nation's history, 76 days before a national election to decide the future of the Nation and the World. Excerpts from the speech selected by Lyrarc- "Look. Folks, how can we have the strongest economy in the world without the best infrastructure in the world? Donald Trump promised Infrastructure Week, every week for four years, and he never built a damn thing.  And now because of what Kamala and I have done—remember, we were told we couldn’t get it done? Remember, when we came into office, we couldn’t get anything passed?—but right now, we’re giving America an infrastructure decade not week. We’re modernizing our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports, our trains, our buses, removing every lead pipe from schools and homes so every child could drink clean water. We’re providing affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where they live, unlike, not unlike what Roosevelt did with electricity. And so much more. We are uniting the country, we’re growing our economy, we’re improving our quality of life, and we’re building a better America. Because that’s who we are. How can we be the strongest nation in the world without leading the world in science and technology? After years of importing 90% of our semiconductor chips from abroad, which America invented those chips, our CHIPS and Science Act meant that private companies from around the world are now investing literally tens of billions of dollars to build new chip factories right here in America. And over that period, they’ll create tens of thousands of jobs. And many of those jobs in the so-called Fabs, the buildings that make the chips that are being constructed now. And guess what? The average salary in those fabs, size of a football field, will be over $100,000 a year, and you don’t need a college degree.  ...

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The significance of Notre dame Cathedral for France and Europe over 1000 years is shown in this timeline in Le Monde.  The year 1163-  An ancient cathderal St Etienne Cathedral is in decline. In its place will be built Notre Dame. Maurice de Sully becomes Bishop of Paris in the reign of Louis VII in the 12th century. Sully decides to build a great cathedral in honor of the Virgin Mary. The first stone is laid inthe presence of Pope Alexander III. The year 1239- Louis the IX is the first canonized King of France, Saint Louis participated in the seventh and eighth crusade and purchased the relics of the Passion from the Latin Emperor of Constantinople. These relics are seen to be the most honored in Christendom and are installed in the Notre Dame Cathedral.The most significant is the crown of thorns which he carries into the cathedral barefoot in 1239. He build Sainte Chappelle 500 metres away in the Isle de Cite. The year 1594- The Wars of Religion tear France apart. Henry IV is caught in the midst of the Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants from 1562 to the Edict of Nantes in 1598 . It is at Notre Dame that the King Henry iV asserts his power against the Catholic League by attending a Te Deum. Notre Dame is again used as a symbol of recapture in 1918 and on Aug 26, 1944 with the Magnificat for Liberation. 1708- With Louis XIII comes the dedication in 1638, the Vow of King Louis XIII putting his kingdom under the protection of the Virgin Mary, and August 15 as celebration day. 1844- Viollet le Duc emerges as the builder of the renovation of the now aging structure of Notre Dame. Two million frances for restoration run out in 1851. The project resumes in 1859. 1991- It is the project of tourism and heritage as the national site of France. 2019- the second renovation of Notre Dame in Paris begins after the fire.   ...

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This NHK video report says the epidemics of previous periods in history were no different than today. It points to the Nara period (710-794) when smallpox killed 20 to 30% of the population. This was a period of international exchange and large roads were built bringing people from all parts of Japan to Nara and increasing the risk of infection. In fact the Great Buddha at Nara was built by the Emperor at the time to entrust the peace of Japan to the Buddha.

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Building the large LNG terminals to get gas in its liquid form from Canada, the US and Qatar, is essential for Europe as it is expected that Russia will cut off gas supplies this winter. Germany needs three large LNG terminals on the Baltic Sea.  About 1.6 million tons of weapons and explosives were dumped into the North Sea and Baltic Sea after World War II. The problem is most acute near Germany as Allied Commanders ordered the destruction of German explosives after the war. All this debris has to be removed before LNG terminals or offshore windfarms can be built as shown in this report in WSJ.

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The US Fed under Jerome Powell is going to raise interest rates one more time in 2023 following rate increases in 2022- by a quarter percentage point this week. This is not only a fight against inflation but a way to reverse a situation that has affected the wealth and standard of living of ordinary Americans by reducing interest on savings to a paltry less than one percent. Only stock market investors benefitted under the previous regime widening income and wealth disparities in America. Just as today's story in the WSJ showing Bath and Body Works returning to basics such as producing soap in America, something that would not even have been given a second of thought in the 1900's, the Fed is doing its job under Jay Powell of going back to the basics. Where interest on savings provided retirees a comfortable stress free retirement and the inducement to save help build a savings pool in America to invest in what really improves the standard of living for all Americans across this country, from rural to urban, from all parts of the land. ...

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A supply chain crisis with shortages of goods is affecting all economies in the world. The price of oil has increased to $80 and supply chain shortages are affecting most industries. Power shortages in China lead to cutbacks in consumption for industry and some large cities not having essential  electricity for traffic lights. Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted supply chain factories in Vietnam and Malaysia because of lockdowns. Once a product is manufactured it still has to be shipped from far flung places in today's cumbersome and costly supply chain. Cost of shipping is up 3 times according to one shipping index in one year. Prices to ship from China to Rotterdam in Netherlands is up 6 times in one year. Global supply chains at such high cost of shipping means that companies will look to invest in manufacturing at home so that they do not pay high shipping costs and also create jobs at home, and are able to build critical experience in manufacturing technology. ...

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The WSJ looks at $110 billion in projects which get financial support from the US government under the climate law of the Inflation Reduction Act. Many of the projects are being done by foreign companies. Panasonic is planning a third battery plant in the US and will get $2 billion in tax credits from the US government. Other companies are from South Korea such as LG, and from China. The intent is to build a US supply chain that depends on factories in the US and creates jobs in the US, yet because the US supply chain is so undeveloped with so little attention paid to it in the past, foreign companies will be needed.

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What Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is learning from its effort to build chip plans in Phoenix, Arizona, is shown here by John Liu in NYT report. Different cultural practices about work exist between Taiwan and the US and both sides are learning to adapt to the new situation. These Chip plants are part of the effort of the efforts of the Biden administration to have Taiwanese and South Korean companies to invest in America. Following this learning curve the chip manufacturing plants will go into production in 2025.

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Deteriorating China Iran relations as the oil imports from Iran for China face US tariffs of 25% on China's exports to US, and US economic relations far more significant for the Chinese economy. China gets somwhere between 1.4 to 1.6 million barrels aday from Iran (80% of Iran's oil exports) into Shandong refiners at $10 below Brent crude prices. Another 400 mbd comes from Venezuela to China. This means $30 billion comes to Iran from oil sales to China at $59 a barrel, and $8 billion for Venezuela from oil sales to China. This has financed much of the bellicose policies towards the US in the western hemisphere and in the Gulf region. Iran's bellicose policies in the Middle East, its nuclear policy, are now seen by China as a distraction and  detract from good economic relations with the US. China $400 billion oil deal 25 year cooperation agreement signed in 2021 was signed under the Biden administration and China today faces a completely different situation in 2026. Even China's relations with Russia are not the same as the US builds better relations with Russia. A wind down of the Ukraine war would change the situation completely and ensure peace in Europe including Russia, as the US works with the EU to meet future challenges having learned from this experience in Europe (Ukraine dividing Europe) and in the Western hemisphere (drug/ migrant. trafficking). When historians write this chapter of the inflows of capital from advanced West to Arab countries and the Gulf region they will write about the huge contrast between China/India's efforts to modernize and these nations where much of that capital was wasted in wars and conflicts and in grandiose projects that made no material difference to the standard of living and quality of life of the vast number of ordinary people. Once the oil dividend is gone with fossil fuels replaced with renewable energy by 2035-2040 this opportunity to advance is lost for the Arab and Gulf region. ...

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How a deficiency in trust is affecting the US effort to vaccinate its whole population in 2021. The US government took steps early to build vaccine supplies, and was one of the first countries with the UK to begin its vaccination drive. Then after 6 months something went wrong. The deficiency in trust led to about 80 million people many of them young, to avoid getting vaccinated. US president Biden said the country was losing patience with these people. He setup a vaccine mandate and required all employees in private sector in companies with more than 100 employees to get vaccinated. This applied to about two thirds of American workers. All federal government workers were also required to get vaccinated. Yet even after the vaccine mandate the number of vaccinations has not exceeded 900,000 a day. By contrast India was doing 20 million a day. By September 2021 the US had fallen behind all nations in the G-7 in percentage of people vaccinated with one or two doses, behind Italy, France, UK, Germany, Japan, Canada. Trust was also needed, not just vaccine supplies to make a vaccination drive effective. By September the US passed the 675,000 deaths that happened in 1918 pandemic. The deficiency in trust leads one expert to call it breakthrough without followthrough. Other experts see the entrenched social forces that had diminished American health and life expectancy since the 1970's also affecting the vaccination drive. ...