Unusual 'consequences' of not getting a COVID-19 vaccination

Almost 900 Secret Service employees were infected with COVID

• Roughly 900 U.S. Secret Service employees tested positive for the coronavirus, according to government records obtained by a government watchdog group. Secret Service records show that 881 people on the agency payroll were diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 1 and March 9 - 2020, according to documents obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. More than 11% of Secret Service employees were infected. More than half - 477 - worked in the special agent division, which is responsible for protecting the president and the vice president, as well as the families of these leaders and other government officials.

Philippines President Duterte: 'You choose, Covid vaccine or I will have you jailed'

• President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail people who refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as the Philippines battles one of Asia's worst outbreaks, with a cumulative total of more than 1.3 million cases and 23,000 deaths.'You choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed,' Duterte said in a televised address on Monday, following reports of low turnouts at several vaccination sites in the capital Manila. Duterte's comments flatly contradict the remarks of his health officials who say the vaccine is voluntary.

Trump wanted to send COVID-infected Americans to Guantanamo: Book

• Former President Donald Trump considered sending U.S. citizens infected with the coronavirus to Guantanamo Bay, according to a new book. 'Don't we have an island that we own? Trump asked staff in the Situation Room in February, 2020, the Washington Post reported. 'What about Guantanamo?'
• 'We import goods,' the book claims Trump, who later contracted COVID-19, said to his staff. 'We are not going to import a virus.'
• The comments came before coronavirus cases exploded in the U.S. and Trump's administration faced sustained criticism over its handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 601,000 people, according to the John Hopkins University tally. The majority of those deaths, roughly 400,000, occurred under Trump's administration.
• Trump's aides were stunned by the question about Guantanamo Bay and shut down the idea the second time it was raised. 'Testing is killing me!' the book claims Trump said to the then Health & Human Secretary Alex Azar on March 18. 'I'm going to lose the election because of testing! What idiot had the federal government do testing?'
  

In Pakistan, saying 'No' to COVID-19 vaccination carries unwelcome consequences

• Pakistan's punitive measures vary by region - health services are largely the responsibility of the country's four provinces - but the federal government has also announced penalties, all meant to prod a populace long suspicious of vaccines. Pakistan is one of only two countries where polio remains endemic, due largely to scepticism towards the polio vaccine.
• Pakistan's health minister, Dr Faisal Sultan, said the government aims to inform people of the need to be vaccinated. 'The most important lever is communication and education and removing of doubts. Requiring that people be vaccinated would be a last line of defence, though provinces have that power.'
• Sindh province said that it will withold the salaries of unvaccinated government employees, starting next month. Karachi has said it won't issue driving licences to the unvaccinated. In some places punitive action is already in place, in Sindh's rural Qambar Shahdadkot district the police chief has blocked the salaries of his unvaccinated members - who then were 2,000 strong with about a third unvaccinated. Now 98% of the force has had at least the first dose. The eastern province of Punjab, whose population exceeds 100 million, said this month it would block the cellphone connections of the unvaccinated - cellphone ownership is widespread. Human rights groups are not happy with the start of such punitive action and believe it is unjustified.