COVID-19 News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Hundreds protest Washington Gov. Inslee's vaccine mandate
Source: AP

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Hundreds of people gathered at the state Capitol in Olympia on Saturday to protest Gov. Jay Inslee’s vaccine mandate.

The mandate, which Inslee announced in early August, requires most state workers, healthcare workers and school employees to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or face losing their jobs. Inslee has said the getting people vaccinated is essential for getting Washington past the pandemic.

Organizers of the rally Saturday warned that a large segment of state workers, including many firefighters, sanitation workers and bus drivers, won’t get the vaccine — as much as 30% to 40% statewide, they said. It wasn’t clear what that estimate was based on.

“If the Governor refuses to rescind his mandate, it will mean that multiple areas of the state will be severely reduced or shut down completely,” Tyler Miller, of the group Liberty, At All Hazards, said in a news release. “The Governor is unnecessarily threatening the genuine safety and well-being of the citizens of Washington if he forces his mandate to stand.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/health-coron ... 1a5c0bdfe6

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

McDonald's, others consider closing indoor seating amid Delta surge in U.S.

August 30, 20219:05 PM BST

NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Some U.S. fast-food restaurants are closing indoor seating areas or limiting hours of operation because of the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, according to franchisees.

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail ... 021-08-30/

[raklian]

What a crazy time to be in but it's all necessary for all of our sakes.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[rizarefaldi]

up and down the case

[wjfox]

Yet another new variant – B.1.621, also known as "mu".

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/01/who-say ... ed-mu.html

[weatheriscool]

Pennsylvania mandated masks in K-12 schools, day cares
Source: AP

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Masks will be required in all Pennsylvania public and private schools, as well as child care facilities, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday, reversing course amid a statewide COVID-19 resurgence that is filling hospital beds just as students return to class. The Department of Health order will take effect Tuesday, Sept. 7 — a week or more after the start of school in many districts — and will require students, teachers and staff to wear masks when inside, regardless of vaccination status, the Wolf administration said.

The order will not apply to student athletes while they’re playing, nor to outdoor activities. “Wearing a mask in school is necessary to keep our children in the classroom and to keep COVID out of that classroom,” Wolf said at a news conference Tuesday. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association said that the decision on masking should have been left to local school officials, but that it would nevertheless remind school districts “of their legal obligation related to the directive.” “Our members remain committed to the health and safety of their students and staff, and while they have welcomed the expertise and guidance of state and federal agencies, they are in the best position to evaluate and promptly respond to the ever-evolving conditions in their own communities,” said Nathan Mains, the group’s chief executive officer.

The Democratic governor took action after the Republican leaders of the House and Senate rejected his request to pass legislation requiring masks in classrooms. GOP lawmakers acknowledged that coronavirus cases are again surging across the state but insisted that local leaders were best positioned to respond to the pandemic. Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford, said Tuesday that the 10 school districts he represents have worked up their own plans to mitigate COVID-19. He said the coming statewide mandate makes him “beyond furious.” “If somehow they’re trying to find a way to take this away, that will be a breathtaking example of bureaucratic overreach,” said Topper, a senior member of the House Education Committee. Less than a month ago, Wolf himself had ruled out a statewide mask mandate for schools after requiring them last year.

But the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus has changed the administration’s calculus about what is needed to keep students in class. Pennsylvania is now averaging more than 3,200 new, confirmed infections daily — 20 times the number of cases it was reporting on a typical day in early July. More than 1,700 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, up sevenfold since last month. Deaths have doubled in two weeks to about 20 per day. Pennsylvania’s two statewide teachers unions had urged K-12 schools to require masks in school buildings, citing delta’s threat. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masks in schools for students, staff and teachers. But masking is a highly contentious issue, and school board meetings have been the scene of heated debate as parents argue for and against.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/health-educa ... ecba3ab6ba

[wjfox]

Some great animations/infographics on how the virus infects you.

[weatheriscool]

Florida Department of Health's new rule: $5,000 fines for some vaccine mandates
Source: Tampa Bay Times

Businesses, schools and governments can’t deny service to unvaccinated Floridains under a state law passed this year.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida businesses and governments that require proof of COVID-19 vaccination from customers or members of the public will soon face $5,000 fines, according to a new Department of Health rule.

Earlier this year, the Republican-led Florida Legislature passed a bill, SB 2006, banning businesses, governments and schools from requiring “vaccine passports” — essentially proof that people seeking their services have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine. In May, DeSantis signed that bill into law. The legislation allowed the state’s Department of Health to issue fines “not to exceed $5,000 per violation.”

On Aug. 27, the department filed a rule that lays out how it will enforce the law. Businesses, governments and schools will be fined $5,000 “per individual and separate violation,” the rule states.

Violators will be issued a notice of their infraction, and they’ll have a chance to appeal their fines, the rule says. Once the fine is finalized, entities will have 30 days to pay it.

Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-p ... cinations/

[weatheriscool]

Lockdown extended until Victoria reaches 70 per cent first vaccine target
By Serena Seyfort

Victoria's lockdown has been extended until 70 per cent of residents have their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Premier Daniel Andrews has allowed playgrounds to re-open from 11.59pm tomorrow but said the risk was too high to reduce other restrictions until the vaccination milestone had been reached, which is expected to be on September 23.
Once the vaccination target has been hit, the five-kilometre travel radius will be expanded to 10-kilometres, more exercise will be allowed and construction sites can also go to 50 per cent capacity.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/coron ... 64547fccf4

[wjfox]

GOP Covid policy is killing GOP voters

Aug 31

It’s well-known, by this point, that the Delta variant is currently hitting Republican states and counties the hardest. In the South especially, vaccination rates are low and mask use has typically been spotty, resulting in skyrocketing case and hospitalization numbers in several states.

But the picture on mortality has been less clear. Deaths lag behind hospitalizations, so the former have been slower to rise than the latter. Covid treatment has also improved since the early days of the pandemic, boosting patients’ odds of survival. And senior citizens, the group most vulnerable to the virus, have high rates of vaccination relative to other age groups.

But several months into the Delta wave and the data are clear: over the past month, people living in the most staunchly Republican counties have been three times more likely to die of Covid than those living in Democratic strongholds. While the disease doesn’t make political distinctions, Republican attitudes, conspiracy theories and policy failures have created conditions in which the Delta variant can thrive.

In counties where Donald Trump got fewer than 20 percent of 2020 presidential votes, for instance, there have been, on average, fewer than 5 Covid deaths for every 100,000 people since July 31, 2021 — roughly the start of the latest wave of death corresponding with the Delta variant. In places where he got 80 percent or more of the vote, on the other hand, the death rate is closer to 15 per 100,000. Across all counties there’s effectively a dose-response relationship between Republicanism and Covid mortality: as the share of Republican voters increases in your county, your likelihood of dying from the disease rises as well.

https://thewhyaxis.substack.com/p/gop-c ... gop-voters

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Texas school district closes after two teachers die of COVID
Source: ABC

A Texas school district has temporarily halted its in-person learning after two junior high school teachers died of coronavirus within the first weeks of the school year.

Natalia Chansler, 41, a sixth-grade social studies teacher, and David “Andy” McCormick, 59, a seventh-grade social studies teacher, had just welcomed students back to their classrooms at Connally Junior High School, outside of Waco, when they both became ill with COVID-19, last month.

"It has been very devastating and heartbreaking for the students, the staff, for everybody that surrounds the situation," Jill Bottelberghe, assistant superintendent of human resources, told ABC News on Tuesday. “The one thing you don't ever know is exactly how many lives they have touched as an educator… so I'm sure we're not the only ones that are feeling that heartbreak right now.”

McCormick was diagnosed with COVID-19 just one day after the start of the school year on Aug. 19, dying less than a week later. Shortly after McCormick’s death, Chansler tested positive for the virus, dying just three days after her diagnosis, according to the district.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/texas-sch ... d=79773758

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[andmar74]

Texas school district closes after two teachers die of COVID
Source: ABC

A Texas school district has temporarily halted its in-person learning after two junior high school teachers died of coronavirus within the first weeks of the school year.

“She was considering getting the vaccine, and she was still doing her own research,” said Annice, who is also a school nurse in another Texas school district. “I don't think she thought that COVID would take her as fast as it did. She was thinking okay, when all this was over, that she would get [the vaccine].”


It doesn't make any sense. You take the vaccine now.