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Eastern Ukraine gets pounded by Russian forces Tribune Content Agency LVIV, Ukraine — Russian forces aimed a punishing artillery barrage Saturday at cities, towns and villages in eastern Ukraine, destroying electrical plants, fuel depots and other key infrastructure. The onslaught came even as Western and Ukrainian military officials and analysts said Moscow’s much vaunted military offensive in the country’s industrial heartland was being slowed by troop casualties and logistical, supply and morale problems. And in Mariupol, the southern port city that has become ground zero in Russia brutality and Ukrainian resistance, a small group of women and children was finally evacuated Saturday from a besieged steel plant, but hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians, soldiers and wounded remained trapped. Russia reported nearly 400 artillery strikes overnight and early Saturday, mainly in the eastern battle zone. It described the targets as military ones, but Ukraine says
Susan Hiland/Daily Republic
A little less than 600 runners came out for the Loop the Lagoon Fun Run at Lagoon Valley Park, Saturday.
Local runners ‘Loop the Lagoon’ to help support Vacaville’s youth Susan Hiland
SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
VACAVILLE — Asher Love, 18, of Vacaville, was the first person across the finish line this year at the Loop the Lagoon Fun Run. He came in at 16 minutes, 57.6 seconds. “It was OK time,” he said. “Although, I have run this faster at 15 minutes.” He said he was not disappointed in his time because it was just one of many races he has run.
Plans for more runs are already in the works. Love is part of the Solano Thunderhawks, an area running team for young athletes ages 7 to 17. “I love to run. I always have run the fastest in my classes,” he said. Next year, he is looking forward to being on the racing team for Cal Poly. This was the 19th year for Loop the Lagoon Fun Run, according to organizer Carol Gilpin, owner of Fleetfeet in Vacaville.
Loop the Lagoon has been virtual the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. People ran on their own, then posted times and made donations. The run Saturday drew a bit fewer than 600 people. The numbers have fluctuated down to 200 in past years. Organizers also brought out 10 vendors this year. Participants had a choice between running a 5K, 5K and 10K See Lagoon, Page A12
residential areas, including the northeastern city of Kharkiv, are being ravaged. Ukrainian officials said that among the targets hit Saturday was the airport in Odesa, considered the jewel of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Damage to fuel depots was causing severe gasoline and energy shortages, the officials said. At the same time, the Kremlin redoubled efforts to blame the West for the devastating war that is now in its third month. The Russian invasion has killed thousands of people, left whole swaths of cities in ruins, and turned more than 5.4 million people into refugees. Moscow’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, was quoted Saturday as saying that a flood of weaponry from North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies was “pumping up” the battle. But at the same time, in remarks to official Chinese media that were reported on the ministry’s website, Lavrov insisted that Washington and its European allies were “absolutely indifferent” to Ukraine’s fate. The See Ukraine, Page A12
Fauci backpedaled on Covid. What do others say? Tribune Content Agency PHILADELPHIA — Anthony Fauci caused a stir this week when he said on national television that the United States was “out of the pandemic phase.” Nationwide, epidemiologists cringed. For one thing, the word choice by the nation’s infectious-disease chief was wrong, as we’ll explain below. But the bigger question is whether Fauci was correct to suggest that in this country, the worst might finally be over. There’s now evidence suggesting that more than 90% of Americans have some level of Covid-19 immunity. Fauci later acknowledged that the world is MAY 2022
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Drexel University, and Abby Rudolph of Temple University. What’s called a ‘pandemic’ anyway? The words pandemic and epidemic are sometimes used in everyday conversation to suggest “a lot of cases.” But we see lots of cases of flu every winter, and in most years, it isn’t called an epidemic. Instead, an epidemic Patrick Semansky/Pool/Getty Images/TNS File(2020) means a sudden rise Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of in cases above what is expected. A pandemic is Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is shown in 2020. an epidemic occurring in still in the midst of a panFor a deep dive multiple countries. With Covid, the World demic, but said the U.S. into the evidence, we Health Organization was past the “full-blown” spoke to three epidephase of Covid, transition- miologists who’ve been declared a pandemic to be ing to a more predictable, tracking Covid since the underway in March 2020, “controlled” pattern over start: Maciej Boni of after the virus had spread the long term. Pennsylvania State Uni- to more than 100 counIs he right? versity, Thersa Sweet of tries. Before long, it would
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indeed reach them all. Yet it’s not correct to say that any one country is or isn’t in a pandemic phase, as that term applies to multiple countries, said Rudolph, an associate professor at Temple’s College of Public Health. That is, the U.S. could emerge from the epidemic phase while a pandemic remains underway globally. So Fauci was wrong? Technically, yes. The pandemic remains underway, even if maybe the U.S. might be emerging from the epidemic phase. But cut the guy some slack. It is hard to boil down complex subjects into straightforward answers on live television. Upon realizing he had overstated things, Fauci quickly made the rounds
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with the Associated Press and the Washington Post, acknowledging that no, we’re not quite there yet. A similar thing happened during those early controversial weeks of the mask debate. At first, Fauci and other prominent physicians said there was no need for most people to wear face coverings. As more See Fauci, Page A12
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