Fox News -
August 9, 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that allowing the coronavirus delta variant to circulate freely among unvaccinated individuals could lead to a more potent variant that could harm even vaccinated individuals.
Reuters -
August 9, 2021
COVID-19 vaccinations should be required for U.S. teachers to protect students who are too young to be inoculated, the head of the nation's second-largest teachers' union said on Sunday, shifting course to back mandated shots as more children fall ill. "The circumstances have changed," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told NBC News' "Meet the Press" program. "It weighs really heavily on me that kids under 12 can't get vaccinated."
CNN -
August 9, 2021
Hospitals coast to coast are demanding their employees get vaccinated against covid as the highly contagious delta variant tears through populations with low vaccination rates. Nearly 1,500 hospitals — roughly a quarter of all hospitals in the U.S. —now require staffers to get a covid vaccine, said Colin Milligan, a spokesperson for the American Hospital Association. More follow suit every day…
HealthDay -
August 9, 2021
All 2.2 million health care workers and long-term care workers in California will now have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 30, the California Department of Public Health said Thursday.
TODAY -
August 9, 2021
In a new blog post, Yelp announced two new features for its restaurant listings. Businesses now have the ability to add one or both of the following attributes to their Yelp pages to help communicate their vaccination requirements to customers: "Proof of vaccination required" and "All staff fully vaccinated."
AP -
August 6, 2021
Florida hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are suspending elective surgeries and putting beds in conference rooms, an auditorium and a cafeteria. As of midweek, Mississippi had just six open intensive care beds in the entire state. Georgia medical centers are turning people away. And in Louisiana, an organ transplant had to be postponed along with other procedures. “We are seeing a surge like we’ve not seen before in terms of the patients coming,” Dr. Marc Napp, chief medical officer for Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Florida, said Wednesday. “It’s the sheer number coming in at the same time. There are only so many beds, so many doctors, only so many nurses.”
TODAY -
August 6, 2021
Moderna said on Thursday its COVID-19 shot was about 93% effective through six months after the second dose, showing hardly any change from the 94% efficacy reported in its original clinical trial. That compares favorably to data from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE last week in which they said their vaccine's efficacy waned around 6% every two months, declining to around 84% six months after the second shot
Reuters -
August 6, 2021
The US is working to give additional COVID-19 booster shots to Americans with compromised immune systems as quickly as possible, as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to rise, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday. The US is joining Germany, France and Israel in giving booster shots, ignoring a plea by the WHO to hold off until more people around the world can get their first shot.
USA Today -
August 6, 2021
Months into the nation’s unprecedented COVID-19 vaccination effort, disparities in vaccinating underserved populations have been stark, with data showing white people getting the shot at faster rates than Black and Hispanic people. Experts say that could be changing, as fears mount amid the new case surge and grassroots vaccination efforts begin to pay off.
ABC News -
August 6, 2021
Virginia residents Travis and Kellie Campbell were unvaccinated when they both contracted COVID-19 in late July. Since then, Travis Campbell has been hospitalized for 12 days. … "If I have a day or two left, I don't want to waste my time," he said. "I want to help as many people as I can, to let them see the real truth, that [the delta variant] is real, and it's only getting stronger and faster."
ABC News -
August 6, 2021
In 2020, before covid vaccines, most major private insurers waived patient payments — from coinsurance to deductibles — for covid treatment. But many if not most have allowed that policy to lapse. Aetna, for example, ended that policy Feb. 28 … More than 97% of hospitalized patients last month were unvaccinated. … For this reason, there’s logic behind insurers’ waiver rollback: Why should patients be kept financially unharmed from what is now a preventable hospitalization, thanks to a vaccine that the government paid for and made available free of charge?
AP -
August 5, 2021
The Biden administration is taking the first steps toward requiring nearly all foreign visitors to the U.S. to be vaccinated for the coronavirus, a White House official said Wednesday. … No timeline has yet been determined … Eventually all foreign citizens entering the country, with some limited exceptions, are expected to need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter the U.S.
FiveThirtyEight -
August 5, 2021
Potential cures like hydroxychloroquine and metformin have cycled through moments of initial promise, slavering media hype, and deeply politicized scientific uncertainty. The latest miracle drug is ivermectin, an anti-parasitic used by veterinarians and doctors treating parasitic worms. … Other studies are ongoing, but it’s not clear how to sift data from hype in the meantime.
KHN -
August 5, 2021
[The US] on Tuesday hit a milestone that some thought was unattainable: 90% of people 65 and older are at least partly vaccinated against the disease. … Wohl said political leanings that have skewed vaccination rates across the country have had much less of an impact on older adults. “The threat of covid-19 is so real for those 65 and over that it transcends many of the other issues that are complicating vaccination rates,” he said.
AP -
August 5, 2021
The U.S. nursing home industry’s resistance to forcing workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 for fear that too many of them might quit began to crack this week when its biggest player announced its employees must get the shot to keep their jobs. The new requirement at Genesis Healthcare, which has 70,000 employees at nearly 400 nursing homes and senior communities, is the clearest sign yet that owners may be willing to risk an exodus at already dangerously understaffed facilities to quickly vaccinate the 40% of workers still resisting shots and fend off the surging delta variant.
ABC -
August 5, 2021
[Researchers] analyzed the electronic medical records of more than 74,700 people from the US, UK, Italy, Germany, Israel and Singapore, who tested positive for COVID-19 ... those who didn't get flu shots were up to 20% more likely to be admitted to the ICU; up to 58% more likely to visit the emergency room; up to 45% more likely to develop sepsis; up to 58% more likely to have a stroke; and 40% more likely to develop deep vein thrombosis, compared with those vaccinated against the flu.