(Washington, DC) On Monday, July 4, 2022, the District Government will observe the Fourth of July holiday.While some services will be affected, many District employees will continue serving to maintain essential District operations.
What's Open on Monday, July 4
Test Yourself DC drop-boxesare open for residents to drop off samplesbetween 10am 8pm
Access to Emergency ShelterAll low-barrier shelters for individuals experiencing homelessness operate year-round. Currently, all low-barrier shelters remain open 24 hours and will remain open all day onMonday, July 4. Individuals seeking access to homeless services should call the DC Shelter Hotline at (202) 399-7093 from 8am 12amor the Mayors Citywide Call Center at 311 at any time of the day or night.
Drop-In Centers for Residents Experiencing HomelessnessThe Downtown Day Services Center (The Center) will offer walk-in services to guests with no appointment required. Hours of operation are 9am- 5pmon Monday, July 4. The Center is operating at its pre-pandemic capacity, meaning a maximum of 120 guests are permitted in the Center at any time. Entry will be permitted on a first-come, first-serve basis. Guests will be provided with a wristband that must be worn while in the Center. Available walk-in services include showers, laundry, medical treatment, computer access, electronic/mobile device charging, housing case management, employment counseling, harm reduction services, and other vital services. Full capacity lunch services will continue on Monday,11am 1pm.
Zoes Doors, located at 900 Rhode Island Avenue NE, will be open from 8am 7pmonMonday, July 4.
Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR)parks, playgrounds, athletic courts, and fields will be open. Fort Lincoln Tennis Courts will close at 3 pmfor the public use. DPR splash parks will be open from 10 am 8 pm. All previously permitted events will take place as scheduled. It is illegal to use fireworks on or at any DPR property including recreation centers, fields, and playgrounds. Gas grills and deep fryers are also prohibited.
DPRoutdoor pools will be open on all three days of the long weekend, including Monday, July 4, from 10am 6pm. On Monday, July 4, six outdoor pools regularly scheduled for closure on Mondays (Anacostia, Kelly Miller, Upshur, Theodore Hagans, Volta, and Oxon Run) will instead be open. DPRs 34 splash parks will be open from 10 am- 8 pmall three days as well. For a full list of pool schedules, visit dpr.dc.gov/page/outdoor-pools. Families can also visit summer.dc.gov or text SUMMER to 69866 for a list of activities across the District for residents ages 18 and younger.
What's Closed on Monday, July 4
All Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)locations will be closed on Saturday, July 2 and Monday, July 4 Customers are encouraged to use online options by visitingdmv.dc.gov.
Walk-up COVID-19 testing, Rapid Antigen test kit pick-up locations, and Test Yourself PCR kit pick-up locationswill be closed Monday, July 4. Sites will reopen on Tuesday, July 5 as scheduled. Visit coronavirus.dc.gov/testing for locations and hours of operation.
All COVID-19 Centers will be closed Monday, July 4. Sites will reopen on Tuesday, July 5. Visit coronavirus.dc.gov/covidcenters for locations and hours of operation.
TheDistrictsCOVID-19call centerwillbe closed on Monday, July 4. For general COVID-19 related questions or to book a vaccine appointment for homebound residents, call 1-855-363 0333 when the Call Center reopens on Tuesday, July 5.
TheDepartment of Employment ServicesNavigation Call Centerand all American Job Centers will be closed on Monday, July 4. Residents are encouraged to file unemployment insurance claims online atdoes.dc.gov.
DC Youth Meal program sites will be closed on Monday, July 4. Youth ages 18 and younger can visit any of the open meal sites on Friday, July 1, between 8:30 am 9:30 amand between 12pm 2pm.
TheSasha Bruce Youth Drop-In Centerfor District residents experiencing homelessness will be closed on Monday, July 4.
DPR indoor pools and recreation centers will be closed on Monday, July 4 and will reopen on Tuesday, July 5. DPR childrens pools will also be closed as scheduled on Monday, July 4.
DC Public Library (DCPL)neighborhood locations and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library will be closed on Monday, July 4. Virtual programs will be available. For more information on available Library programs, visit dclibrary.org or download the Librarys app.
The Department of Human ServicesEconomic Security Administration Service Centers will be closed onMonday, July 4.
The DC Health & Wellness Center(77 P Street, NE) will be closed on Monday, July 4.
Modified Service Adjustments:
TheDC Department of Public Works (DPW)will slide household trash and recycling collectionsfor the remainder of the week into Saturday.For example, households that normally receive trash and recycling collections onMonday, July 4will be serviced on Tuesday, July 5.
The Benning Road Transfer Station will open as regularly scheduled Wednesday through Friday for residential drop-off and Saturday for household hazardous waste.
Construction:
TheDistrict Department of Transportation (DDOT)will suspend construction and work zones for non-emergency work in roadways, alleys, and sidewalks within the Districts right of way. This includes manhole access and construction-related deliveries. Approved construction activities may resumeTuesday, July 5, during permitted work hours.
TheDepartment of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA)does not normally permit construction on District Government holidays, and violations could result in a Stop Work Order and fines. No construction will be allowed on Monday, July 4 for the holiday without a companion Afterhours Permit. Illegal construction reports can be made using theIllegal Construction Inspection Request Formor calling 311. DCRA offers many online services, tools, and resources, enabling customers to conduct business 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
Lane Restrictions:DDOT will suspend reversible lane operations city-wide on Monday, July 4.
Parking Enforcement:
All parking enforcement will be suspended on Monday, July 4 except for Streetcar ticketing and towing. Parking enforcement will resume on Tuesday, July 5.
All DC Circulator routes are operating on a normal schedule, except for the National Mall route, which will not be in service on July 4. DC Circulator service for the National Mall route will resume on July 5.
DC Streetcar is operating on a normal schedule.
Social Media:Mayor Bowser Twitter:@MayorBowserMayor Bowser Instagram:@Mayor_BowserMayor Bowser Facebook:facebook.com/MayorMurielBowserMayor Bowser YouTube:https://www.bit.ly/eomvideos
Whether heading for a scorching Mallorca beach or dancing beneath neon flags at a music festival, millions of people will be hoping for a Covid-free summer. But it isnt working out like that. With infections soaring once more, how can people make sure they stay safe and keep holiday plans on track?
Crowded spaces are ideal for spreading infection, and the dominant Omicron strains BA.4 and BA.5 are reported to evade antibody immunity effectively and are spreading about a third faster than previous variants. So you may feel dismayed at having to squeeze into your seat on the plane next to a stranger who keeps clearing their throat.
But planes have an unfair reputation as reservoirs of infection, experts say, and the actual risk is lower than in many indoor environments. For trains and other transport it depends on how busy they are and whether they have modern ventilation systems. Definitely consider wearing a mask in crowded areas, on public transport, and in the airport where theres a crowd, said Prof Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong. On the plane itself, ventilation is excellent so the risk is actually lower in your seat.
Masks may feel like a thing of the past to some in the UK, but this isnt the case in all countries, so check the rules before you set off. Italy, for instance, has retained a requirement to wear an FFP2 mask on public transport, with the exception of planes. Some airlines have also maintained a mandate.
You may also be motivated by wanting to be a responsible citizen, or by self-preservation. In this case, an FFP2 mask, which filters out potentially infectious particles in the air, is better than a cloth or disposable paper mask. If youre concerned, Id strongly advise a mask, said Dr Stephen Griffin, an associate professor at the University of Leeds. Its been turned into this token of freedom but its sensible and not much of a hassle. Its a no-brainer. Why spoil your holiday feeling rubbish?
This summer festivals are back, from Primavera in Spain to Tomorrowland, the worlds largest dance music festival, in the Belgium town of Boom. Do these huge gatherings lead to outbreaks? Anecdotally a lot of people reported testing positive for Covid after Glastonbury, but then 200,000 people attended and about one in 30 people in England had Covid last week. Its hard to pinpoint whether events like this make much difference to overall numbers at this stage.
If youre trying to assess your own risk, common sense applies: indoor, crowded places make transmission more likely. This scenario may be relevant at a festival or in a nightclub, but equally to highbrow holiday pursuits such as an afternoon in a stuffy museum or crowded art gallery, or exploring the vaults of a medieval church.
The one time Ive been abroad recently was a microbiology conference in Northern Ireland, where I got Covid, said Griffin. Id put all the provisions in place for the conference to be Covid safe, but came back with Covid. Im pretty sure I caught it in a restaurant.
Outdoor spaces are generally low risk and if anything people tend to have fewer social contacts while on holiday. Often people are with their families and theyre not usually making huge numbers of contacts outside their household, being off work and off school, said Prof John Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Actually being on holiday is not particularly high risk. Theres exceptions going clubbing and in bars but I dont want to stop people from having fun.
Again, check the rules for your destination. Many places in Europe no longer require you to arrive at the check-in anxiously clutching a bundle of paperwork, but testing requirements have not evaporated across the board. UK travellers need to show a vaccine certificate or show a negative result from a PCR test taken within 72 hours or an antigen test taken within 48 hours pre-departure. Spain and Portugal have similar requirements. Outside Europe there is a spectrum of strictness.
Beyond the rules, should travellers feel a moral duty to take a test? Edmunds says he does not want to tell people what to do, but notes that a well-established rule of medical screening is that theres no point in taking a test if youre not going to act on a positive result.
If someone tests themselves, finds out that theyre positive and goes anyway, whats the point of that? he said. Ideally if youre positive you shouldnt be getting on an aeroplane or public transport, you are putting other people at risk.
At a time when many are struggling financially, cancelling a flight is painful. But some airlines still have specific refund rules if a flight has to be changed due to Covid and offer more flexibility about changing flights than pre-pandemic.
In some places, including the US, vaccination is an absolute requirement. For other destinations, no vaccine means taking tests. For anyone eligible for a booster or children who havent had their first dose, it may be a particularly good time to get up to date. We know that booster doses give that top-up of protection against severe disease, but for a couple of months the dose also gives relatively good protection against infection, said Cowling. Its the time to get the jab if youre due for one.
Some countries, such as the UK, now have minimal legal isolation requirements. But France and Italy, for instance, still mandate seven days isolation after a positive test. At the extreme end, some countries require hotel or hospital-based quarantine. One of my PhD students ended up spending 18 days in an isolation room in hospital in Shanghai while travelling to visit family, said Cowling. It could be a different kind of holiday from what youd planned if you spend it in an isolation room.
Coronavirus cases have increased steeply in recent weeks, with the latest figures showing about 2.3m across the UK last week. But at this stage, with high overall prevalence and many countries scaling back surveillance, its hard to pinpoint with much certainty which countries are going to be the hotspots two months from now. Its difficult enough to predict whats going to happen in the UK, and weve got better data than everywhere else, said Edmunds. I dont think its possible to do that with any accuracy.
How likely is it for people to catch COVID from someone who is asymptomatic? Its not impossible and may be more common than people realize, health experts say.
With coronavirus cases currently stuck at a high level across California as fast-spreading offshoots of the omicron variant crowd out their competitors, that means the chances of getting COVID from an asymptomatic person are heightened.
An estimated 5%, or about 1 in 20, asymptomatic patients coming to UCSF for procedures unrelated to COVID are testing positive for the virus, said Dr. Bob Wachter, one of the universitys leading infectious disease experts.
UCSF asks patients who show symptoms of COVID to postpone their visits. Patients are routinely screened upon arrival, meaning that those who test positive are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic.
Though its not a perfect sample pre-op patients are more likely to be older, have an illness and be vaccinated because theyre seeking other medical care its a convenient way to measure how many people in the community may be infected and go about their day-to-day lives, Wachter said.
Its been a very useful measure of something that otherwise is very hard to get your arms around, which is the probability that somebody standing next to you in line at a Safeway in the Bay Area would test positive for COVID if I could test them now, he said.
The math is sobering: At the current 5.5% rate of asymptomatic test positivity, In a group of 50 people, I think its a 95% chance that at least one person will be positive, Wachter said. On an airplane of 150 people, theres over 99% chance theres somebody on the plane who has it.
Asymptomatic infections are not uncommon. Many people who routinely test themselves for COVID have received positive test results, including Vice President Kamala Harris.
But guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not advise vaccinated people who have been exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine unless they develop symptoms.
So although many people may have come in close contact with someone diagnosed with the coronavirus, they may not take the same stringent measures for mitigating transmission that they would have two years ago.
We can get a sense there are probably more people asymptomatically infected with SARS-CoV-2 with omicron and its subvariants than there were with delta, said Dr. John Swartzberg, a UC Berkeley infectious disease expert.
A 2021 study in the JAMA Network Open medical journal found that as many as 60% of COVID infections were transmitted by an asymptomatic person.
From the public health standpoint, the public needs to understand you can feel perfectly well and be infected and transmit this virus, Swartzberg said.
Obviously, infected people who show signs of sickness may generate more aerosols by sneezing or coughing. But while asymptomatic people shed less virus, they can still spread the virus without knowing theyve got it.
Fortunately, someone who is vaccinated has less viral load in nasal and throat secretions and vaccination rates for most Bay Area counties are among the highest in the nation, according to state and federal data.
But its still possible to have high viral load without showing signs of sickness, said Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious diseases expert at Stanford.
So what is responsible for driving the current surge? The recent variants of the coronavirus are many times more infectious than the original one back in 2020 and even more contagious than the omicron version last winter. Combine that with a relaxation of public health mandates on local, state and federal levels, and the opportunities to spread the virus, whether by symptomatic or asymptomatic people, are many times higher.
People who have very mild symptoms, such as a cough or sniffles, and who dont know that they have COVID may also be going out under the assumption that they have a cold or allergies, Wachter said.
How can people protect themselves? The high asymptomatic test rate combined with the plateau in infections in recent weeks has public health experts recommending outdoor dining, voluntary indoor masking and opting for a road trip versus a flight.
I prefer not to take those risks, Wachter said.
Gwendolyn Wu (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com
Despite persistent claims to the contrary, none of the three authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines contains fetal tissue.
In an early phase of development, two of the coronavirus shots the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were tested in cell lines that were long ago made from an aborted fetus. And the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is manufactured using a cell line derived from aborted fetal tissue.
Neither fetal cells nor fetal tissue, however, are present in any of the vaccines, and no new abortions were involved in making any aspect of the vaccines possible. Numerous religious groups and anti-abortion organizations have said it is not morally objectionable to receive at least some of the available COVID-19 vaccines.
Confusion about the role of fetal cells or tissue or lack thereof with the COVID-19 vaccines has bubbled up most recently due to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
In a dissenting opinion issued on June 30, Thomas referred to the religious objections of the petitioners in a case about a New York state mandate for health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Petitioners are 16 healthcare workers who served New York communities throughout the COVID19 pandemic, Thomas wrote. They object on religious grounds to all available COVID19 vaccines because they were developed using cell lines derived from aborted children.
Multiple news outlets highlighted Thomas comments, with some suggesting that he had made a factual error or was spreading vaccine misinformation. Its unclear to what degree Thomas was simply summarizing the petitioners viewpoint, or whether he agreed with the sentiment.
Setting aside the issue of when a developing fetus should be characterized as a child, Thomas statement is correct. He is careful to say developed instead of manufactured, and does not claim that any of the vaccines contain fetal cells even if some people mistakenly got that impression from his dissent.
Still, its worth providing context to understand what fetal cell lines are, how theyre involved with the COVID-19 vaccines, and how that compares with other vaccines, medical products and scientific research.
As weve explained before, the fetal cell lines used in testing, developing or producing some vaccines are distinct from fetal tissue, and no vaccine contains fetal tissue. But some vaccines, including a few of the worlds standard childhood vaccines, have some connection to cells grown in the lab that were originally made using cells taken from an aborted embryo or fetus.
Two of the most commonly used cell strains in vaccine development or manufacturing are MRC-5 and WI-38, which were made decades ago from lung tissue taken from two different aborted fetuses in the U.K. and Sweden in the 1960s. Researchers discovered the cells were useful for the purpose because they were good at growing viruses that infect humans, and many vaccines are made of weakened viruses.
The rubella vaccine, for example, which is part of the measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccine, is still manufactured today by growing large quantities of WI-38 cells. The weakened rubella vaccine virus was also developed by passaging the virus in the cells at a temperature below that of the human body. This rendered the virus able to replicate enough to generate long-lasting immunity from the vaccine, but not enoughto make a person ill.
Other vaccines produced in fetal cell lines include chickenpox, hepatitis A and one of the rabies vaccines. As the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia has explained, vaccines manufactured in fetal cell lines do not contain any of the cells because the vaccines are purified.
Only one of the U.S.-authorized COVID-19 vaccines is manufactured by growing virus in a fetal cell line.
The lesser-used Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses an adenovirus viral vector to initiate an immune response against the coronaviruss spike protein, is made in a fetal retinal cell line known as PER.C6.
According to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, the cells derive from retinal cells isolated from an aborted fetus in 1985. The cells were then adapted to grow replication-deficient adenoviral vaccines in the late 1990s.
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which do not contain virus and instead are made of messenger RNA, have a more tenuous link to fetal cell lines. Neither vaccine is made in such cells, but both companies did certain experiments testing their vaccines in HEK-293T cells, which are commonly used in biomedical research.
HEK-293Ts are human embryonic kidney cells, derived from cells isolated from a fetus in 1973. It is unclear whether that fetus was miscarried or aborted, according to a handout from the North Dakota Department of Health.
In particular, scientists used HEK-293T cells to make sure the vaccine mRNAcould be made into SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins, and also used the cells to create SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses to test how well antibodies from vaccinated animals worked to neutralize the virus. Alessondra Speidel, a biomaterials scientist at Swedens Karolinska Institute, told National Geographic that such tests were like a proof-of-concept test, showing that the mRNA design worked.
As the North Dakota Department of Health has noted, the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission have both said it is morally acceptable, given the lack of alternatives, to receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines. However, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishopshas advisedchoosing the vaccine with the least connection to abortion-derived cell lines if possible.That group has also said that getting a COVID-19 vaccine ought to be understood as an act of charity toward the other members of our community and should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.
Moreover, even the anti-abortion Charlotte Lozier Institute considers the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to be ethically uncontroversial.
While the use of fetal cell lines in certain vaccines has long been controversial for some individuals, its worth noting that such cells are commonly used in all sorts of basic biomedical research, and that work undergirds much of scientists understanding of human biology and disease.
Fetal cell lines are also regularly used to identify new treatments for various diseases and to do research onseveralcommon drugs, includingacetaminophen, or Tylenol.
Several COVID-19 treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies and the antiviral drug remdesivir, were also tested using fetal cell lines.
So many people dont realize how important fetal cell lines are to develop life-saving medicines and vaccines that they rely on every day, Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told National Geographic. Their use in developing COVID-19 vaccines isnt anything different or special.
By one estimate, as of 2015, more than 10.3 million lives have been saved from the use of vaccines produced by WI-38 cells alone, and 4.5 billion illnesses have been prevented or treated.
Thomas dissent concerned a case brought against New York about a state law that mandated COVID-19 vaccines for health care workers and did not include a religious exemption.
The employees contended that the mandate violated their right to freely exercise their religion, and stated that they could not agree to being immunized with vaccines that were tested, developed or produced with fetal cell lines derived from procured abortions.
In a 6-3 decision in December, the Supreme Court rejectedtwo requests from health care workers in New York to intervene after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit refused to block the states vaccine mandate. Neil M. Gorsuch wrote a dissent, joined by Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Thomas did not join the dissent, but said he would have sided with the health care workers and put a hold on the mandate.
In a brief forone of the cases, the state noted that health care workers in New York were already required to be vaccinated against rubella, for which there was also no religious exemption.
HEK-293 cells which are currently grown in a laboratory and are thousands of generations removed from cells collected from a fetus in 1973were used in testing during the research and development phase of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the statewrote. But the use of fetal cell lines for testing is common, including for the rubella vaccination, which New Yorks healthcare workers are already required to take.
On the last day of the term, the Supreme Courtdeclined to review the Court of Appeals decision, keeping in place New Yorks mandate. It was this decision for which Thomas, a Catholic, wrote his dissent.
Less than a week prior, the court overturnedRoe v. Wade, the case that had given Americans a constitutional right to abortion.
Editors note:SciChecks COVID-19/Vaccination Projectis made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation hasno controlover FactCheck.orgs editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation. The goal of the project is to increase exposure to accurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines, while decreasing the impact of misinformation.
The Pfizer vaccine is a three-dose series and the Moderna vaccine is two doses.
Nearly 63% of Ohioans have started the coronavirus vaccine and 58.46% of residents have completed it, according to the state health department. More than 7.36 million people in Ohio have received at least one vaccine dose and 6.83 million have finished the series.
About 3.65 million Ohioans got a booster shot and 629,038 people received a second booster, according to ODH.
Ohio added 17,225 coronavirus cases cases in the last week, according to ODH. The state is averaging 16,518 cases a week over the last three weeks.
Coronavirus hospitalizations are continuing to climb in Ohio, but the numbers are a fraction of levels previously reported during the states peak during the omicron surge.
As of Thursday, 753 people were hospitalized with COVID in Ohio and 79 were in the states ICUs, according to the Ohio Hospital Association.
Of the 753 people hospitalized with the virus, 78 were in west central Ohio which includes Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby counties and 110 were in southwest Ohio, which consists of Butler, Warren, Hamilton, Adams, Brown, Clermont and Clinton counties.
This represents a 50% increase compared to the number of inpatients with COVID last week and a 239% increase compared to 60 days ago in west central Ohio, according to OHA. Southwest Ohio reported an 11% decrease in the past week but a 100% increase over the last 60 days.
Though the number of ICU patients in both regions has increased recently, its at a slower rate than hospitalizations overall.
The 15 COVID patients in southwest Ohios ICUs Thursday was a 15% increase from last week and an 88% increase compared to 60 days ago, according to OHA. West central Ohio, which had four ICU patients with the virus, reported a 33% increase in the last week and a 33% increase from 60 days ago.
In the past week the Ohio Department of Health recorded 483 hospitalizations and 32 ICU admissions. The three-week average is 465 hospitalizations and 30 ICU admissions a week.
Since Jan. 1, 2021, there have been 70,372 people hospitalized with COVID in the state who were not fully vaccinated, according to ODH. There have been 4,955 people hospitalized with the virus among the fully vaccinated.
During that same period, there have been 23,943 COVID deaths of people who were not fully vaccinated and 1,286 deaths of people who were vaccinated, according to the state health department.
Masks
Multnomah County Public Health recommends voluntary indoor masking until case counts and hospitalizations go back down.
Steps to take when COVID-19 community levels change.
All Oregonians age 6 months and older are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Visit multco.us/covid19
WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden will present the nations highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 17 people, including actorDenzel Washington, gymnastSimone Bilesand the lateJohn McCain,the Arizona Republican with whom Biden served in the U.S. Senate.
Biden will also recognizeSandra Lindsay, the New York City nurse who rolled up her sleeve on live television in December 2020 to receive the first COVID-19 vaccine dose that was pumped into an arm in the United States, the White House announced Friday.
Bidens honors list, which the White House shared first with The Associated Press, includes both living and deceased honorees from the worlds of Hollywood, sports, politics, the military, academia, and civil rights and social justice advocacy.
The Democratic president will present the medals at the White House next week.
Biden himself is a medal recipient.President Barack Obama honored Bidens public serviceas a longtime U.S. senator and vice president by awarding him a Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2017, a week before they left office.
The honorees wholl receive medals from Biden have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities, and across the world, while blazing trails for generations to come, the White House said.
The honor is reserved for people who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values or security of the United States, world peace or other significant societal public or private endeavors, the White House said.
Biles is the most decorated U.S. gymnast in history, winning 32 Olympic and World Championship medals. She is an outspoken advocate on issues that are very personal to her, including athletes mental health, children in foster care and sexual assault victims.
Lindsay became an advocate for COVID-19 vaccinations after receiving the first dose in the U.S.
McCain, who died of brain cancer in 2018, spent more than five years in captivity in Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Navy. He later represented Arizona in both houses of Congress and was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. Biden said McCain was a dear friend and a hero.
Washington is a double Oscar-winning actor, director and producer. He also has a Tony award, two Golden Globes and the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a longtime spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
The other 13 medal recipients are:
Sister Simone Campbell. Campbell is a member of the Sister of Social Service and a former executive director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization. She is an advocate for economic justice, overhauling the U.S. immigration system and health care policy.
Julieta Garcia. A former president of the University of Texas at Brownsville, Garcia was the first Latina to become a college president, the White House said. She was named one of the nations best college presidents by Time magazine.
Gabrielle Giffords. A former U.S. House member from Arizona, the Democrat founded Giffords, an organization dedicated to ending gun violence. She was shot in the head in January 2011 during a constituent event in Tucson and was gravely wounded.
Fred Gray. Gray was one of the first Black members of the Alabama Legislature after Reconstruction. He was a prominent civil rights attorney who represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr.
Steve Jobs. Jobs was the co-founder, chief executive and chair of Apple Inc. He died in 2011.
Father Alexander Karloutsos. Karloutsos is the assistant to Archbishop Demetrios of America. The White House said Karloutsos has counseled several U.S. presidents.
Khizr Khan. An immigrant from Pakistan, Khans Army officer son was killed in Iraq. Khan gained national prominence, and became a target of Donald Trumps wrath, after speaking at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Diane Nash. A founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Nash organized some of the most important 20th century civil rights campaigns and worked with King.
Megan Rapinoe. The Olympic gold medalist and two-time Womens World Cup soccer champion captains the OL Reign in the National Womens Soccer League. She is a prominent advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice and LGBTQI+ rights who has appeared at Bidens White House.
Rapinoe, who was at training camp in Denver when the White House called to inform her of the honor, thought she was getting a prank or robocall when she saw her phone say White House, U.S. Soccer said in a statement. She showed her phone to a teammate, who encouraged her to answer the call.
Alan Simpson. The retired U.S. senator from Wyoming served with Biden and has been a prominent advocate for campaign finance reform, responsible governance and marriage equality.
Richard Trumka. Trumka had been president of the 12.5 million-member AFL-CIO for more than a decade at the time of his August 2021 death. He was a past president of the United Mine Workers.
Wilma Vaught. A brigadier general, Vaught is one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history, breaking gender barriers as she has risen through the ranks. When Vaught retired in 1985, she was one of only seven female generals in the Armed Forces.
Ral Yzaguirre. A civil rights advocate, Yzaguirre was president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza for 30 years. He served as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic under Obama.
Today, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' (ACIP) recommendation that Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine be used as an option for children ages 6 through 17 years, in addition to its already recommended use in children 6 months through 5 years and adults 18 years and older. This recommendation reinforces the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine as an important tool in the pandemic and provides another vaccine option for children and adolescents. The ACIP recommendation comes after a thorough review of the scientific evidence demonstrating safety and efficacy, and supports the use of the vaccine among those 6 through 17 years of age.
The following is attributable to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky:
"It is critical that we protect our children and teens from the complications of severe COVID-19 disease. Today, we have expanded the options available to families by recommending a second safe and effective vaccine for children ages 6 through 17 years. Vaccinating this age group can provide greater confidence to families that their children and adolescents participating in childcare, school, and other activities will have less risk for serious COVID-19 illness."
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of July 1, 2022, there are currently 2,297 active COVID-19 cases statewide. There were no deaths reported to DHHR over the last 24 hours, and total deaths remain at 7,064 attributed to COVID-19.
CURRENT ACTIVE CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (17), Berkeley (137), Boone (47), Braxton (27), Brooke (21), Cabell (126), Calhoun (5), Clay (8), Doddridge (1), Fayette (61), Gilmer (6), Grant (13), Greenbrier (56), Hampshire (35), Hancock (29), Hardy (11), Harrison (99), Jackson (26), Jefferson (64), Kanawha (249), Lewis (19), Lincoln (20), Logan (43), Marion (90), Marshall (36), Mason (22), McDowell (31), Mercer (82), Mineral (43), Mingo (33), Monongalia (117), Monroe (22), Morgan (8), Nicholas (27), Ohio (45), Pendleton (3), Pleasants (13), Pocahontas (4), Preston (28), Putnam (94), Raleigh (112), Randolph (19), Ritchie (10), Roane (22), Summers (16), Taylor (30), Tucker (8), Tyler (2), Upshur (42), Wayne (32), Webster (13), Wetzel (21), Wirt (3), Wood (114), Wyoming (35). To find the cumulative cases per county, please visit coronavirus.wv.gov and look on the Cumulative Summary tab which is sortable by county.
West Virginians ages 6 months and older are recommended to get vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19. Those 5 years and older should receive a booster shot when due. Second booster shots for those age 50 and over who are 4 months or greater from their first booster are recommended, as well as for younger individuals over 12 years old with serious and chronic health conditions that lead to being considered moderately to severely immunocompromised.
Visit the WV COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator, a free, online tool that helps individuals figure out when they may be due for a COVID-19 shot, making it easier to stay up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccination. To learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, or to find a vaccine site near you, visit vaccinate.wv.gov or call 1-833-734-0965.
To locate COVID-19 testing near you, please visit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx.
All data and statistics are based on publicly available data at the time of publication. Some information may be out of date. Visit our coronavirus hub and follow our live updates page for the most recent information on the COVID-19 pandemic.
California could soon require businesses to notify workers when someone on their job tests positive for the novel coronavirus.
That mandate is outlined in new legislation, AB 685, that California lawmakers just approved. The bill is now on the Governors desk awaiting his signature.
Assembly member Eloise Reyes (D-San Bernardino) sponsored the bill. Her spokesperson told Healthline they believe this legislation would make California the first state to issue these requirements.
If we are serious about getting this pandemic under control, we must get serious about creating a comprehensive reporting framework that will allow worker protection agencies, workers themselves, and the public to combine forces and minimize collective risk, Reyes said in a news release sent to Healthline.
An expert who specializes in employment law says the Golden State is likely on solid legal ground.
A state has broad authority to make rules about the health and safety of its citizens said Michael C. Duff, JD, a professor of law at the University of Wyoming College of Law.
The legislature has full authority to do that Duff told Healthline. California may be on the cutting edge here.
All of this may come as a surprise if you thought your employer was already required to tell you if a co-worker tests positive for the novel coronavirus.
Experts tell Healthline that employers are responsible for notifying workers who may have been exposed to a co-worker who has tested positive, but there is not a hard-and-fast universal rule on a general notification in a workplace.
Is there a specific line somewhere that says you must report to employees any local infection, or divulge the number of people infected? No, theres nothing that is that specific said Dr. Lacey Wheat-Hitchings, MPH, the department chair of McFarland Clinic Occupational Medicine in Ames, Iowa.
Wheat-Hitchings says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlines how to inform the workers who have had contact with a co-worker who tests positive.
Usually that involves letting them know that theyve been exposed to somebody that has been infected with COVID, so theyre at risk she told Healthline.
Typically, the guidance the CDC gives us is that anybody who is within 6 feet for 15 minutes or longer is potentially at risk for infection.
But Wheat-Hitchings says the employer cant name the specific co-worker.
That information is protected by health privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Businesses are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to provide a safe working environment.
They are also required to report to the agency any infections contracted on the job as well as hospitalizations and deaths.
But some workers fear their companies are keeping them in the dark when it comes to COVID-19.
Amazon employees began tracking cases themselves and alerting other warehouse workers when and where someone tested positive for the virus.
Experts say the lack of information in a pandemic with a virus that is highly contagious and potentially deadly may raise questions about a companys liability.
Where your mind might logically go is, doesnt that open the employer up to liability by not informing employees? said Duff.
There are already thousands of lawsuits filed over COVID-19 related issues. The law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, LLP, has a COVID-19 complaint tracker.
A spokesman for the law firm told Healthline that as of September 10, the total number of state and federal cases was 4,883.
Its not known how many were based on allegations of an unsafe work environment.
Duff says it may not be that easy to launch a workplace lawsuit over the virus.
Employees in many instances are not able to bring a lawsuit, he said. The key thing to remember is if COVID-19 is covered by workers compensation, no lawsuit is possible.
There is a rush for companies to protect themselves from liability.
A second stimulus bill has been bogged down in Congress, in part, over liability protections for hospitals, schools, and businesses.
The Republican-backed provisions would prevent workers from suing their employers if they develop COVID-19 on the job.
If you worry you may have been exposed to a co-worker who has tested positive but you werent notified, heres what you should know.
Wheat-Hitchings says its the employers responsibility to know where the employees are working and the people they work with.
They should get additional information from the worker who has tested positive.
Then, the contact tracing is done by an outside agency, usually a public health department.
Anybody that falls within the 6 feet, 15 minute time frame should be quarantined.
Wheat-Hitchings says there are lots of testing options coming online for employers. She encourages companies to invest in testing.
She says that will help them get people back to work faster and give the workers some peace of mind. As an employee, you can ask if there is an option for testing.
Wheat-Hitchings also encourages companies to let workers know all the things they are doing to keep the workplace safe.
As an employee, its really an unnerving time because there really isnt a lot of structured guidance she said.
So I definitely understand that theres some worry about how do I ensure that my employer is doing his or her job to protect me.
