BuzzFeed News -
August 13, 2021
Many of the outbreaks at recently opened schools have occurred in states with relatively low vaccination rates. … In a South Carolina school district, 126 students and 22 staff members tested positive for COVID-19 during the first week back at school, resulting in more than 600 students and seven staff members having to quarantine after coming in contact with those who were positive. … Throughout the state of Mississippi, roughly 1,000 students and teachers have tested positive for COVID-19, and nearly 5,000 are quarantined.
AP -
August 12, 2021
The CDC urged all pregnant women Wednesday to get the COVID-19 vaccine as hospitals in hot spots around the U.S. see disturbing numbers of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus. Expectant women run a higher risk of severe illness and pregnancy complications from the coronavirus, including perhaps miscarriages and stillbirths. But their vaccination rates are low, with only about 23% having received at least one dose, according to CDC data.
NBC News -
August 12, 2021
The FDA is poised to amend the emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer and the Moderna Covid-19 vaccines Thursday to allow people with compromised immune systems to get a third dose, according to two sources familiar with the plans. … Doctors say it is increasingly clear that many such patients are still vulnerable to Covid following vaccination because they may not mount an effective immune response to the shots.
NPR -
August 12, 2021
The new policy applies to both public and private schools and will affect the state's 320,000 public school teachers, more than 250,000 support staff — from cafeteria employees to cleaners — and at least 80,000 private school employees, according to the California Department of Education and labor unions. It will also apply to school volunteers.
CBS News -
August 12, 2021
Nationwide, the country was averaging around 441,198 new vaccinations per day as of August 5, according to figures released Tuesday by the CDC. That represents a 95% increase from the mere 226,209 average of first doses recorded a month prior, on July 5.
The Atlantic -
August 12, 2021
“What makes me the maddest,” one of my doctor friends told me, “is that these people will reject science right until the second they need everything I have to keep them alive, and then they feel that they can come to our door and be entitled to that help and that hard work.” … To many medical providers working today, the rejection of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines feels like a giant “Fuck you” from 29 percent of American adults. We will keep providing the best care possible, but they are making our job much harder.
NBC News -
August 12, 2021
Vaccination mandates have given new focus to some Covid deniers and anti-vaccination activists, helping to align disparate “liberty” groups around a single cause, as lockdowns did earlier in the pandemic. Among them are nurses who have been vocal opponents of various pandemic mitigation efforts, some of whom have become adept at garnering social media attention, mainly on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
FiveThirtyEight -
August 12, 2021
We’ve collected some of the most common concerns with vaccination mentioned by people who are vaccine hesitant, and we’ve provided evidence-based responses to each one.
AP -
August 11, 2021
The rapidly escalating surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff in virus hot spots that can no longer keep up with the flood of unvaccinated patients and are losing workers to burnout and lucrative out-of-state temporary gigs. Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oregon all have more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic, and nursing staffs are badly strained.
AP -
August 11, 2021
Facebook said Tuesday that it has removed hundreds of accounts linked to a mysterious advertising agency operating out of Russia that sought to pay social media influencers to smear COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca. A network of 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts was traced back to Fazze, an advertising and marketing firm working in Russia on behalf of an unknown client.
CBS News -
August 11, 2021
Children will be heading back to school in the next couple of weeks. But those under 17 years old are the least vaccinated of any eligible age group able to receive a COVID vaccine. Teenagers like 17-year-old Angely Keosann are taking it upon themselves to encourage their age group to get vaccinated. Keosann is one of 27 "Philly Teen VAXX Ambassadors" — teenagers who volunteered through the Philadelphia school district to educate their peers about the vaccine.
Kaiser Health News -
August 11, 2021
As the spread of the delta variant threatens the safety of classrooms, a poll released Wednesday found nearly two-thirds of parents support schools’ requiring unvaccinated students age 5 or older and teachers to wear masks. A majority of parents, however, oppose requiring students now eligible for a covid vaccine to get one, with one Black parent from Michigan telling pollsters that “my child is not a test dummy.”
The Atlantic -
August 11, 2021
Kids remain, as they have been throughout the pandemic, at much lower risk of getting seriously sick with the coronavirus, especially compared with unvaccinated adults. But the recent rash of illnesses among the nation’s youngest is a sobering reminder of the COVID-19 adage that lower risk is not no risk.
CNN -
August 9, 2021
Covid-19 hospitalizations are reaching all-time highs in parts of the South, with some patients unable to get the care they would normally receive. … Florida's hospitalizations recently jumped 13% above the state's previous peak on July 23, 2020, … at Houston's United Memorial Medical Center, "We have no beds. The emergency department is full of patients just waiting to be able to get into the hospital," Chief of Staff Dr. Joseph Varon said Sunday morning. "Over the last 12 hours, we have lost more patients than ... in the last five to six weeks.”
AP -
August 9, 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he was hopeful the FDA will give full approval to the coronavirus vaccine by month’s end and predicted the potential move will spur a wave of vaccine mandates in the private sector as well as schools and universities. The FDA has only granted emergency-use approval of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but the agency is expected to soon give full approval to Pfizer.
Fox News -
August 9, 2021
The study, published as part of the [CDC’s] Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), examined hundreds of residents, finding that the unvaccinated individuals had 2.34 times greater odds of reinfection compared with fully vaccinated individuals. The residents were aged 18 or older and had previous COVID-19 infections in 2020 and experienced a second infection between May and June 2021 – the time period that aligns with the emergence and spread of the delta variant.