Tag: COVID-19 vaccines

‘The war has changed’: Internal CDC document urges new messaging, warns delta infections likely more severe

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The internal presentation shows that the agency thinks it is struggling to communicate on vaccine efficacy amid increased breakthrough infections

The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal federal health document that argues officials must “acknowledge the war has changed.”

The document is an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention slide presentation, shared within the CDC and obtained by The Washington Post. It captures the struggle of the nation’s top public health agency to persuade the public to embrace vaccination and prevention measures, including mask-wearing, as cases surge across the United States and new research suggests vaccinated people can spread the virus.

The document strikes an urgent note, revealing the agency knows it must revamp its public messaging to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold. Continue reading.

‘A tipping point’: Government officials, health groups move to require coronavirus vaccines for workers

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NOTE: This article is provided to all to read free of charge by The Washington Post.

New vaccine mandates are being rolled out at VA, in California, New York City, the Mayo Clinic, among other places.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs one of the nation’s largest health systems, announced Monday it would mandate coronavirus vaccines for its front-line workers, becoming the first federal agency to do so and signaling what some experts said could be a national pivot to such requirements.

Faced with the explosive growth of a new virus variant, the state of California and the city of New York gave workers a choice: Get vaccinated or face weekly testing. And an array of hospitals from coast to coast, including the prestigious Mayo Clinic, declared they would require staff to get vaccinated, following a joint plea from the nation’s major medical groups.

Health-care leaders say the moves represent an escalation of the nation’s fight against the coronavirus — the first concerted effort to mandate that tens of millions of Americans get vaccinated, more than seven months after regulators authorized the shots and as new cases rip through the nation. VA’s mandate applies to more than 100,000 front-line workers, New York City’s applies to about 45,000 city employees and contractors, and California’s applies to more than 2.2 million state employees and health workers. Continue reading.

Canada to open border to fully vaccinated U.S. citizens on Aug. 9

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TORONTO — Canada on Monday said it will begin to ease pandemic restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border next month, allowing U.S. citizens and permanent residents living in the United States who are fully vaccinated with Canadian-authorized vaccines to enter for nonessential travel without quarantining.

The decision, which takes effect Aug. 9, follows months of criticism from U.S. lawmakers across the political spectrum, business groups and some travelers over what they said was an overly cautious approach to lifting curbs that have split families, battered the tourism sector and upended life in close-knit border communities.

To be eligible for entry, fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents must be asymptomatic and present a negative coronavirus molecular test taken within 72 hours of flight departure or arrival at a land crossing. Continue reading.

Josh Hawley hits a new low for hypocrisy

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If they decide to make flip-flopping an Olympic sport, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley needs to hop on the next plane to Tokyo.

Hawley just attacked President Joe Biden for attacking Facebook. Yes, this excruciatingly annoying preppy man who has staked his repulsive young political career upon crusading against social media — through the use of social media — has decided it’s not cool for Biden to get in Facebook’s face. Really.

In the past week — publicly and without apology — the Biden administration has pressed Facebook (among other social media) to stop facilitating the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. On Friday, Biden claimed Facebook was “killing people.” The company fired back with a dismissive response telling Biden “to move past the finger-pointing.” Continue reading.

Commentary: How The Republican Party Became A Death Cult

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The childish narcissism and prideful ignorance of the American right — as personified in its idol, former President Donald Trump — have transformed “conservatism” into a public health menace. Republicans in office and their media echoes are the principal obstacles to vaccinating enough Americans to achieve herd immunity from COVID-19, which would be awful even if their gullible audiences were the only potential victims. 

But the rapid spread of the highly contagious and harmful delta variant is a warning that large pools of unvaccinated human hosts create the perfect environment for further mutations that may overcome vaccines and kill more efficiently. This means, in short, that the Republicans resisting vaccination and encouraging others to resist are a danger to all. After whining bitterly for the past year about masks and shutdowns, these same complainers may now make a safe reopening impossible.

The campaign to thwart vaccination grows more intense on the right as the Biden administration seeks desperately to prevent a viral catastrophe. It is a campaign of fear and lies, seemingly designed to ensure that the maximum number of Americans will succumb to the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control, at least 99 percent of those Americans now dying from coronavirus infection are unvaccinated. The Republicans urging their constituents to reject the vaccine appear determined to massacre them in a terrible parody of the Darwinian theory of natural selection. Continue reading.

‘I cried and cried’: Unvaccinated Republican assumed COVID-19 ‘wouldn’t be that bad’ – then came perilously close to dying

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A whopping 99.2 percent of the people who died of COVID-19 in May were people who weren’t vaccinated, Forbes reported, citing data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It showed that only 150 out of 18,000 COVID deaths in May were “breakthrough” infections of fully vaccinated people.

One of those people who survived was Republican Party of Lakeland chairman James Ring, who says now that he “certainly was dying,” when he contracted the virus at a volleyball tournament where his daughters played in Orlando, reported The Ledger.

“I haven’t shared this with many people, but I just spent the last few days confined to a small room in the COVID unit at Lakeland Regional Health with COVID pneumonia in both my lungs,” Ring said in a Facebook post. Continue reading.

Psaki dismisses MTG over Nazi comparison

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“We don’t take any of our health and medical advice from Marjorie Taylor Greene,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the White House would not “take any of our health and medical advice from Marjorie Taylor Greene,” a response to the Georgia lawmaker’s remark a day earlier comparing the Biden administration’s vaccination campaign to Nazis.

Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday called efforts by the Biden White House to vaccinate more Americans against Covid-19 a “political tool” and likened the administration’s on-the-ground push to a Nazi paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung, often referred to as “brownshirts.”

“People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations,” Greene wrote in response to a video of President Joe Biden describing a plan to offer vaccines door-to-door. “You can’t force people to be part of the human experiment.” Continue reading.

Mike Lindell: Biden wants to inject ‘Mark of the Beast’ vaccine into as many Americans as he can before Trump’s reinstatement

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The White House announced that the next step in working to get more people vaccinated is going door to door to convince people and dispel myths.

That sent Steve Bannon and Mike Lindell into the stratosphere of paranoia. 

While appearing on Bannon’s podcast Tuesday, Lindell said that Biden’s plan was akin to both Nazi Germany and communism. Continue reading.

‘It’s a crime. So is insurrection’: Steve Schmidt slams anti-vax Republican’s ‘BS’ support of not vaccinating military

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Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt blasted U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) for announcing he supports members of the United States military who are threatening to “quit” if they are required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“The Army has directed commands to prepare to administer mandatory COVID-19 vaccines as early as Sept. 1, pending full Food and Drug Administration licensure,” Army Times reported late last week.

“I’ve been contacted by members of our voluntary military who say they will quit if the COVID vaccine is mandated,” said Congressman Massie, who has degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has suggested he is a science expert while calling climate change “pseudo science.” Continue reading.

Tuskegee relatives promote COVID-19 vaccines in ad campaign

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Tuskegee is the one-word answer some people give as a reason they’re avoiding COVID-19 vaccines. A new ad campaign launched Wednesday with relatives of men who unwittingly became part of the infamous experiment wants to change minds.

Tuskegee is the one-word answer some people give as a reason they’re avoiding COVID-19 vaccines. A new ad campaign launched Wednesday with relatives of men who unwittingly became part of the infamous experiment wants to change minds.

Neal said he agreed to appear in the national campaign after doing research to gain confidence in the vaccines. Continue reading.