NPR -
October 22, 2021
The coronavirus pandemic continues to claim thousands of lives a week — mostly people who aren't vaccinated. But that's not stopping a major gathering of anti-vaccine advocates and conspiracy theorists in Nashville, Tenn., this weekend. The event is being orchestrated by Tennessee couple Ty and Charlene Bollinger. They have been labeled as some of the nation's biggest vaccine misinformation superspreaders.
HealthDay -
October 22, 2021
Requiring COVID-19 shots for work, school or travel will boost vaccination rates without the backlash and mass walkouts that many have predicted, new research predicts. The findings come as growing numbers of U.S. states, cities and private companies start to enforce COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
ABC News -
October 22, 2021
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to a new low point since the pandemic erupted, evidence that layoffs are declining as companies hold onto workers.
CBS News -
October 22, 2021
America's hospitals are undergoing another emergency: The pandemic has worsened a decade-long shortage of hundreds of needed drugs. … The FDA currently lists 109 drugs in short supply nationally. The AMA is calling the shortage an "urgent public health crisis" that "threatens patient care and safety." According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, three of the top five shortages are drugs used for chemotherapy, heart conditions and antibiotics.
STAT -
October 22, 2021
Some 115,000 health care workers died from Covid-19 from January 2020 to May of this year, according to a new WHO estimate, as the agency pushed once again for efforts to address vaccine inequity. Globally, 2 in 5 health care workers are fully vaccinated, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing Thursday. But, he added, “that average masks huge differences across regions and economic groupings.”
CNN -
October 20, 2021
The White House on Wednesday unveiled its plans to roll out Covid-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, pending FDA authorization. The Biden administration has secured enough vaccine supply to vaccinate the 28 million children ages 5 to 11 who would become eligible for vaccination if the vaccine is authorized for that age group and will help equip more than 25,000 pediatric and primary care offices, hundreds of community health centers and rural health clinics as well as tens of thousands of pharmacies to administer the shots, according to the White House. … Administration officials will provide more details on the rollout during an 8:45 a.m. ET briefing, an official familiar with the plans said.
AP -
October 20, 2021
Federal regulators are expected to authorize the mixing and matching of COVID-19 booster doses this week in an effort to provide flexibility as the campaign for extra shots expands. The upcoming announcement by the FDA is likely to come along with authorization for boosters of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots and follows the OK for a third dose for the Pfizer vaccine for many Americans last month. … The FDA was expected to say that using the same brand for a booster was still preferable, especially for the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna that have proved most effective against the coronavirus.
USA Today -
October 20, 2021
Even in the throes of the summer spike in coronavirus cases across the U.S. fueled by the delta variant, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine proved 93% effective at keeping adolescents 12 to 18 out of the hospital, according to an analysis by the CDC published Tuesday.
STAT -
October 20, 2021
As concern mounts over access to Covid-19 remedies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is committing up to $120 million to accelerate production of generic versions of an experimental Merck pill to treat Covid-19 that would be available to dozens of low-income countries.
AP -
October 20, 2021
Since the pandemic began, health officials have reported more than 125,000 cases and at least 161 deaths of pregnant women from COVID-19 in the U.S., according to the CDC. And over the past several months, hospitals and doctors in virus hot spots have reported a sharp increase in the number of severely ill pregnant women. With just 31% of pregnant women nationwide vaccinated, the CDC issued an urgent advisory on Sept. 29 recommending that they get the shots.
AP -
October 20, 2021
More than six weeks after promising a new vaccination-or-testing rule covering the millions of Americans at companies with 100 or more workers, President Joe Biden’s most aggressive move yet to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is almost ready to see the light of day. An obscure White House office is expected to give the green light any day to the rule’s fine print detailing how and when companies will have to require their employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.
CNN -
October 18, 2021
Colin Powell, the first Black US secretary of state whose leadership in several Republican administrations helped shape American foreign policy in the last years of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, has died from complications from Covid-19, his family said on Facebook. He was 84. "General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19," the Powell family wrote on Facebook. "We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," they said, noting he was fully vaccinated.
AP -
October 18, 2021
U.S. health advisers endorsed a booster of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine Friday, citing concern that Americans who got the single-dose shot aren’t as protected as those given two-dose brands. J&J told the FDA that an extra dose adds important protection as early as two months after initial vaccination — but that it might work better if people wait until six months later. Unable to settle the best timing, the FDA’s advisory panel voted unanimously that the booster should be offered at least two months after people got their earlier shot.
ABC News -
October 18, 2021
In August, unvaccinated people had an over-six times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and over 11 times greater risk of dying from the virus, compared to the vaccinated, according to federal data pulled from 16 states and jurisdictions. In every age group, the death rate was higher for COVID-19 among unvaccinated populations. Americans 80 and older had the highest rate of deaths among fully vaccinated people per capita, though their risk of death was about 5.7 times lower than their unvaccinated counterparts in the same age group.
NPR -
October 18, 2021
In Leslie County, in the foothills of the rugged Pine Mountain ridge that anchors the state's eastern coalfields, gravel roads wind through thick forests blanketed with kudzu vines. House by house, church by church, public health workers are trying to outsmart the fantastical tales spread on Facebook about the COVID-19 vaccines, while also helping residents overcome the everyday hurdles of financial hardship and isolation.
TODAY -
October 18, 2021
The CDC urged Americans on Friday to celebrate upcoming holidays by taking basic safety measures against the COVID-19 pandemic that still plagues the nation. "Protect those not yet eligible for vaccination such as young children by getting yourself and other eligible people around them vaccinated," the CDC noted in guidance issued late Friday afternoon. The latest guidance presents a less restrictive view of the holiday gatherings as two-thirds of Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines.