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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Seth Jones knew that the Stop The Steal rally in Washington D.C. was going to be big when early that morning on January 6 he saw swarms of people convening around transportation stops, on the mall and nearby Lafayette Square.

The city seemed prepared for the event as well, he said.

DC is prepared for and looks almost like a war zone, said Jones during a Zoom interview on Wednesday. My office building where I work is boarded up. Restaurants are boarded up. I mean people are prepared for, businesses are prepared for this kind of activity.

However, he said law enforcement was not. Jones is a senior vice president and the director of the International Security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank that tracks terrorism both domestic and abroad. His office is located a few blocks away from the Capitol. When he saw protesters and Trump supporters storm into the Capitol building, he wondered where was law enforcement.

As Im watching whats going on at the Capitol building, I mean its the number of law enforcement there, where is everybody? Jones asked rhetorically. Its very different from what we saw from much of 2020 where some of the demonstrations saw a larger police presence. They were generally peaceful demonstrations but theres a much larger police presence. Its striking how small that presence was with such a large crowd at the Capitol building.

Jones said he was perplexed and considered the riots to be an act of domestic terrorism.

However, it was a prediction that came to pass. Back in October, after the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was foiled by the FBI and Michigan State Police, Jones told FOX 17 in an interview then that increased demonstrations and violence may happen around Inauguration time, especially if Joe Biden wins.

Were in for a haul, he said back on October 9. There are a lot of people creeping out of the woodwork right now and theyre heavily armed.

Today, he said we can expect more activity in cities and state capitols across the country of extremists protesting the Inauguration and president-elect Joe Biden. The FBI warned earlier this week of potential violence at Capitol buildings as well.

There are an infinite number of conspiracy theories. Many of them will not be violent and many of them will just be disillusioned and ill-informed, Jones said. But some percentage of them as weve already seen may be violent and at the very least will be armed if things get out of control. Whats also possible, again short-term, is that crowds of what you might call violent far-right extremists does bring out this on the far left.

He added that the violence that stemmed from the 2017 Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville may happen again. There may be attacks on Black American churches and synagogues, and this time around, law enforcement agencies.

You could see this in Washington start to transform as people shouted at police on the Capitol steps that they were now the enemies. They were protectors of an illegitimate government, Jones said. If that turns out to be the direction that this goes that does raise the possibility of gun-related incendiaries, explosive attacks against government installations, police, including police locations, national guard and military bases.

Jones said to combat extremism he believes the FBI should focus its attention and resources away from international terrorism, like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and onto domestic terrorism. Sometimes, these groups are hard to track because theyre leaderless and decentralized. There's dozens of them. However, they dont last forever.

If theres a silver lining in a sense these kinds of groups over time, and networks, they peter out, Jones said. The U.S. government and its various law enforcement agencies have decimated historically The Covenant, The Sword, The Arm and The Lord, Jones said, referencing a far-right militant group of the 1970s.

He added that extremist ideologies have to be combated digitally. Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies have already removed extremist and fringe groups or Stop The Steal speech from its platforms. Jones said that was the main way they were meeting and concocting plans.

Jones also said that politicians, both democrat and republican, must denounce extremism and acts of violence. In the meantime, the government has got to tighten security in case future attacks happen.

Theres got to be better preparation and riot-control to deal with what will almost certainly be armed individuals, Jones said. If someone crosses that line and uses violence, the full weight of the U.S. government has to come down on them.

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D.C. terrorism expert: Theres got to be better preparation, riot control' - Fox17

In early January, Nali Gillespie watched her social media feeds fill with vaccine selfies: Photo after photo of her peers at other medical schools around the country posed proudly next to a syringe with their dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.

But Ms. Gillespie who is in her third year at Duke University School of Medicine and is focused on research rather than clinical training knew she wouldnt be able to join them yet.

Because she volunteers in an outpatient clinic just once a week, she has less direct exposure to Covid patients and is waiting in line behind classmates who are working in intensive care units and emergency rooms.

You hear that at some schools, students are already getting their second dose, and then theres some of us who havent even been scheduled for our first, Ms. Gillespie said.

When she goes in for her weekly clinic shifts, she knows she is still vulnerable to exposure to the coronavirus. Youre increasingly aware that an asymptomatic patient can come into the clinic and youre seeing them in a small exam room, she said. The risk is very real.

In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced guidelines establishing priorities of who should get the vaccines first as the rollout began. Although the guidelines were broad, medical students learned that they could be included among the first wave of health care workers, especially those involved with care of Covid patients. But the rollout has varied widely across the countrys 155 medical schools, which have each set priorities based on the availability of vaccine doses in their state.

This has caused stress for some medical students continuing their clinical rotations. Although some schools bar students from treating Covid patients, that rule can be difficult to enforce, especially with asymptomatic cases.

While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, most will likely put medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities first. If you want to understand how this decision is getting made, this article will help.

Life will return to normal only when society as a wholegains enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries authorize a vaccine, theyll only be able to vaccinate a few percent of their citizens at most in the first couple months. The unvaccinated majority will still remain vulnerable to getting infected. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines are showing robust protection against becoming sick. But its also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing theyre infected because they experience only mild symptoms or none at all. Scientists dont yet know if the vaccines also block the transmission of the coronavirus. So for the time being, even vaccinated people will need to wear masks, avoid indoor crowds, and so on. Once enough people get vaccinated, it will become very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people to infect. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve that goal, life might start approaching something like normal by the fall 2021.

Yes, but not forever. The two vaccines that will potentially get authorized this month clearly protect people from getting sick with Covid-19. But the clinical trials that delivered these results were not designed to determine whether vaccinated people could still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms. That remains a possibility. We know that people who are naturally infected by the coronavirus can spread it while theyre not experiencing any cough or other symptoms. Researcherswill be intensely studying this question as the vaccines roll out. In the meantime, even vaccinated people will need to think of themselves as possible spreaders.

The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered as a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection wont be any different from ones youve gotten before. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported any serious health problems. But some of them have felt short-lived discomfort, including aches and flu-like symptoms that typically last a day. Its possible that people may need to plan to take a day off work or school after the second shot. While these experiences arent pleasant, they are a good sign: they are the result of your own immune system encountering the vaccine and mounting a potent response that will provide long-lasting immunity.

No. The vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer use a genetic molecule to prime the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse to a cell, allowing the molecule to slip in. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. At any moment, each of our cells may contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules, which they produce in order to make proteins of their own. Once those proteins are made, our cells then shred the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules our cells make can only survive a matter of minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell's enzymes a bit longer, so that the cells can make extra virus proteins and prompt a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only last for a few days at most before they are destroyed.

At some institutions, like Duke School of Medicine, students working in intensive care units and emergency departments were placed in the highest level priority group, 1A, while all others were told they would be vaccinated under group 1B. At Yale School of Medicine, all medical students, regardless of their level of patient exposure, were told they would be vaccinated in reverse alphabetical order (by the first letter of their last name, starting at the end of the alphabet).

Those who were at the later stages of the alphabet were happy but a bit confused as to how arbitrary it was, said Sumun Khetpal, a fourth-year student.

Students at Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth said that for weeks they had received no communication from the school about when they would receive their vaccines, so some drove hours across the state looking for private pharmacists who would give them shots. And at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, students said they also had to take matters into their own hands, and reach out to private pharmacies to inquire about getting vaccinated because until last weekend, they were not told how to receive vaccines from their school.

The C.D.C. guidelines did not have the level of granularity needed for hospitals and schools to make decisions, said Dr. Alison Whelan, chief academic officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Theres been a fair amount of variability because of the lack of a national plan.

Adding to the confusion, the vaccines were allocated to states according to their populations, which do not always reflect their populations of health care workers, added Dr. Janis Orlowski, chief health care officer of the association. There are 21,000 med students in the country.

For some of them, theres a sense of guilty relief as they receive the vaccine knowing some of their peers still have not.

One of my close friends is a dental student and is in peoples mouths on a regular basis, but she hasnt received the Covid vaccine, said Azan Virji, a second-year medical student at Harvard who got his first dose in late December. It feels like theres a disparity.

Still, Mr. Virji said he has treated Covid-19 patients many times and felt a weight lifted knowing he is now inoculated.

My parents in Tanzania may not have access to this vaccine until 2022, and now Im one of the first people to have access to it, he said. Its bittersweet, but essential for me to feel calmer in the hospital.

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Some Medical Students Wait in Line for Covid Vaccine, While Others Share Selfies of Shots - The New York Times

Apple CEO Tim Cook will appear on Fox News Sunday this weekend with Chris Wallace, the network announced today. During the interview, Cook will talk about Apples decision to remove Parler from the App Store, as well as the broad idea of big tech restricting free speech.

In a pair of teaser clips shared by Fox News ahead of the full interview releasing on Sunday, Cook and Wallace debated the balance of free speech and objectionable content. Cook doubled down on his previous statements that if Parler implements a moderation policy, the app will be allowed back in the App Store:

Wallace: How did you decide to balance free speech with objectionable content?

Cook: We looked at the incitement to violence that was on there and we we dont consider that free speech and incitement to violence has an has an intersection.

Wallace: What about the argument that by taking Parler off Apple, in addition to what other companies are doing, that youre just driving these people, these views further underground?

Cook: Well, weve only suspended them, Chris. And so, if if they get their moderation together, they would be back on there.

Cook also stated his belief that big tech is not monolithic because there are multiple companies in the industry:

Cook: Big tech is not monolithic. You know, theres several companies. They do different things. For us, were always trying to do the right thing.

Wallace: Isnt Big Tech restricting free speech?

Cook: We have an app store that has about 2 million apps in it. And we have terms of services for these apps. We obviously dont control whats on the internet, but weve never viewed that our platform should be a simple replication of the internet. We have rules and regulations and we just ask that people abide by those.

This comes after Cook appeared earlier this week on CBS This Morning to talk about Apples new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative projects as well as the insurrection at the US Capitol and the subsequent removal of Parler from the App Store.

The Tim Cook interview will air on Fox News Sunday at 9 a.m. ET, but times can vary by market. Watch the two teaser clips below.

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Tim Cook appearing on Fox News Sunday this weekend to talk Parler, free speech, and more - 9to5Mac

Facebook has been claiming to benefit small businesses with this feature for a long time.

Facebook vs Apple: As Facebook and Apples feud over user privacy and restrictions imposed by iOS 14 continues, Facebooks own employees have apparently sided with the iPhone manufacturer. The reports have come soon after the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation also sided with Cupertino. The social media giant has been criticising Apple for the past few months over its recent iOS 14, which would bar Facebook from tracking user data without their explicit permission, and this back-and-forth has made things ugly between the two tech giants, even as Apple has for long been a vocal critic of Facebooks data collection methods.

Also read | Facebook is upset with Apple because new iOS update allows iPhone users to opt out of tracking

As per reports, the employees of the social media giant said that it was hiding its bad privacy practices behind small businesses. They are apparently unhappy with Facebooks move to publicly criticise Cupertino, with a report citing an employee as saying that they feel like the social media giant is trying to justify a malafide practice by exploiting people with the help of a sympathetic message.

Apple earlier this year launched iOS 14, which starting next year, would bar Facebook and its products from tracking non-app movements of iPhone users. This is set to hit Facebooks targeted ads feature, a major source of revenue for the social media giant. Facebook recently published a full-page ad in prestigious newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and New York Times to criticise Apple for its iOS 14 provisions, and stated that Cupertinos policies would hurt small businesses which rely on Facebooks targeted ads feature to gain visibility. Facebook has been claiming to benefit small businesses with this feature for a long time, as this has been their most visible and sympathetic pitch behind targeted advertising.

To this, Apple said that it was protecting the interests of its own users and was reinstating within their hands the power to decide who could track their movements and use their data. In this fight, Facebook claimed to stand up for the interests of small businesses, even as Apple made it highly clear that iOS 14 would not stop Facebook from tracking user movement if the user so desires. Instead, Cupertino would just allow users to decide who would be able to access that data, a right which Apple believes is users and theirs alone. Once implemented next year, iOS 14 would not allow iPhone apps to track and sell user data secretly without the customers explicit permission.

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As Facebook-Apple feud over privacy heightens, FB employees side with iPhone maker - The Financial Express

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a vaccine milestone on Wednesday as COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations continue to rise.

More than 1,008,025 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered in the US, and the CDC said it has distributed 9,465,725 doses in total. The news comes just 10 days after the start of an accelerated, ambitious vaccination campaign.

"While we celebrate this historic milestone, we also acknowledge the challenging path ahead," CDC director Robert Redfield said in the CDC press release. "There is currently a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine in the US, but supply will increase in the weeks and months to come."

The CDC added that the number of vaccines distributed includes doses of both the Moderna and the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, but the tally of doses administered only includes the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Federal panels and states continue to determine who will be next in line to get the vaccine.

After approximately 24 million healthcare workers and nursing home residents are vaccinated, the CDC is recommending that frontline essential workers and people over 75 are next in line. The next priority group would encapsulate about 49 million people, including teachers, first responders, US Postal Service employees, and grocery store workers.

Ultimately, states decide the order, and a recent Kaiser Family Foundation report confirmed that a majority of states are following CDC priority group guidelines, but Nevada, New Hampshire, and Wyoming are among a handful of states prioritizing other groups, like law enforcement.

Politicians in DC, young and old, have also been among the first vaccinated.

By the end of January, Insider projects that 50 million people within the initial priority groups will be vaccinated, and by March, Operation Warp Speed aims to have 100 million Americans vaccinated.

If distribution is uninterrupted, then a quarter of Americans could be vaccinated by the spring.

"By the time we get through December, January, February, March, April, we hopefully will have been able to get to the people who are listed as priority people," Dr. Anthony Fauci told reporters in November. "I would say starting in April, May, June, July, as we get into the late spring and early summer, that people in the so-called general population, who do not have underlying conditions or other designations that would make them priority, could get them."

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1 million COVID-19 vaccines administered in US in 10 days - Business Insider - Business Insider