The United States needs a full vaccine mandate to be able to control its COVID-19 epidemic but legal obstacles may prevent that from happening, the former director of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention has told Newsweek. Asked whether the U.S. should impose vaccine mandates, Dr. Thomas Frieden, who was CDC director for eight years and is also the former commissioner of health for New York City, said the Joe Biden administration is already facing legal challenges for trying to impose mandatory vaccination for federal employees, and that the president hasn't been able to implement the mandate due to wrangling in court. Multiple states—including Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Ohio— have sued the Biden administration over the vaccine mandates. Whether a vaccine mandate in the United States is successful "remains to be seen," said Frieden, who is now CEO and president of the Resolve To Save Lives, an initiative of global public health organization Vital Strategies. …
CDC recommends Americans avoid travel to France, Jordan, Portugal
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending that Americans avoid travel to France, Jordan and Portugal and several other countries because of a “very high level of COVID-19” within their borders. issued Level 4: Do Not Travel advisories for Tanzania, Liechtenstein, Cyprus and Andorra. The agency noted, however, that fully vaccinated travelers may have a lower risk of contracting COVID-19 and developing severe symptoms. The advisory for France comes as the country is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases among young people. The country took action on Monday, announcing that nightclubs will be closed for four weeks and COVID-19 regulations in primary schools, mainly when it comes to masks, would be heightened. ADVERTISEMENT The State Department, meanwhile, said transportation to and from France may be limited because of COVID-19. It also urged increased caution in France because of terrorism and civil unrest, writing that terrorist groups are …
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Vaccine Mandates Live Updates: Employers can be fined up to $136k for mandate violation
Live Updates The Biden administration announced two new vaccination requirements Thursday. The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that employers with 100 or more employees must require workers to be fully vaccinated by January 4 or submit to weekly COVID-19 tests. This rule will cover 84 million employees. It also requires all unvaccinated employees to were masks in the workplace. Secondly, the Centers for Medicare and Medical Services (CMS) at the Department of Health and Human Services now requires health care workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid to be fully vaccinated by January 4. This rule applies to more than 17 million workers at about 76,000 health care facilities. The administration already enacted policies to require federal employees and contractors to be fully vaccinated. Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now …
Even Before Being Named, Omicron Variant May Have Spread in New York, Courtesy An Anime Convention
They wore fluorescent wigs and capes with gold tassels. They arrived in knee-high white platform boots and with feathered wings affixed to their backs. Dressed like their favorite characters or just wearing street clothes, they packed into Manhattan’s main convention hall — some 53,000 of them — over three days in November to celebrate their love of Japanese animation shows known as anime. In the crowd was Peter McGinn, a 30-year-old health care analyst in town from Minneapolis. He attended discussion panels, chatted with strangers about his anime podcast and, at night, sang karaoke with friends. After flying home, he learned that one friend from the convention — an anime fan from North Carolina — had just tested positive for the coronavirus. In the days to come, many more of his friends from the convention would test positive, as well. Coughing and feeling tired, McGinn also took a test. He had the virus, too. That was Nov. 23, a day before most scientists had even heard of the …
Our COVID Isolation Policies Are Stuck in the Past
For most fully vaccinated people, a breakthrough coronavirus infection will not ruin their health . It will, however, assuming that they follow all the relevant guidelines, ruin at least a week of their life. That very frustrating week began for Joe Russell on November 11, the day he found out he’d tested positive for the virus, just one month after getting a Pfizer booster, and about five or six days after he’d first felt an annoying tickle in his throat. Russell, a 35-year-old hospital-supply technician in Minnesota, dutifully cloistered himself in his basement, far from his fully vaccinated wife and his fully unvaccinated 2-year-old son, and phoned in sick to work. He stayed there through the 15th—the requisite 10 days past his symptoms’ start. Then, fearful of passing the pathogen to his family, he tacked on one more day, before venturing upstairs on the 17th, still in a mask. Now back to business as usual (at least, by pandemic standards), Russell wonders if he—a …
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Up to 300k New UK Heart Cases – Due to ‘Post-Pandemic Stress Disorder’
Senior doctors in London say Britain faces a time-bomb of up to 300,000 new patients with heart conditions – which they attribute to “post-pandemic stress disorder”. “I’ve seen a big increase in thrombotic-related vascular conditions in my practice. Far younger patients are being admitted and requiring surgical and medical intervention than prior to the pandemic,” said senior vascular surgeon Tahir Hussain, who works at Northwick Park Hospital, a major National Health Service (NHS) general hospital managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. “I believe many of these cases are a direct result of the increased stress and anxiety levels caused from the effects of PPSD,” he added, abbreviating “post-pandemic stress disorder” in the same way post-traumatic stress disorder is abbreviated. “We also have evidence that some patients have died at home from conditions such as pulmonary embolism and myocardial infarction. I believe this is related to many people …
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