The news was first reported by McClatchy.
The department provided a statement to POLITICO just hours after advisers with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously to give emergency authorization for the use of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on children between the ages of 5 and six-months old. The approval fast tracks the vaccine toward distribution and kids could start receiving shots as soon as Tuesday.
Children 5 and under are the last group of Americans who arent able to get the vaccine.
Floridas Department of Health is led by state Surgeon General Joe Ladapo, an outspoken skeptic of the Covid-19 vaccine. Ladapo, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, told reporters Tuesday after a news conference that he opposes the use of the vaccine on young kids. He has publicly questioned the effectiveness and safety of vaccines even though theres general consensus within the medical community that it protects against Covid-19 and lessens serious symptoms.
Ladapo has been voicing concerns about the safety of the vaccines since the first doses were made available. Ladapo joined 20 other doctors in signing a petition in July 2021 urging the FDA not to give the Pfizer vaccine its final approval without years of studies and clinical trials.
DeSantis has also fought against any vaccine mandates, going so far as to press lawmakers in Floridas Republican-controlled Legislature to prohibit businesses from requiring workers to get the shot. DeSantis also fought with local school districts that wanted to implement mask mandates during the summer and fall of 2021, when the Delta variant was sweeping through the state and leading to record-high hospitalizations.
Most recently, Floridas Health Department threatened the Special Olympics with a $27.5 million fine over the organizations vaccine requirement with DeSantis saying at the time: What connection that has to competing, I dont understand.
Children in Florida can still get the vaccine once its made available through pharmacies that partner with the federal government, such as CVS.
In recent months, Floridas Department of Health has limited its response to the ongoing Covid pandemic, leaving much of the work up to the healthcare industry, which will refer the bulk of newly infected patients for testing and treatment. The DOH statement, which was not attributed to a name, says that doctors can also order vaccines.
Doctors can order vaccines if they are in need, and there are currently no orders in the Departments ordering system for the COVID-19 vaccine for this age group, the statement said.
A new, open, transparent sublicence agreement between the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) on behalf of C-TAP, and South African pharmaceutical company Biotech Africa will accelerate the manufacture and sale of a COVID-19 serological antibody technology around the world.
The World Health Organization welcomes the sublicence agreement, the first of its kind to be signed under the auspices of the WHOs COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative. C-TAP was set up in 2020 to facilitate the timely, equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products.
The new agreement builds on a licensing agreement announced by WHO and MPP last year with Spains National Research Council (CSIC).The non-exclusive sublicence allows Biotech to manufacture and commercialize CSICs COVID-19 serological test worldwide.
The most effective way to get and keep ahead of COVID-19 is to keep testing, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. This new agreement means we can take advantage of untapped manufacturing capacity so more people in more countries can have easier access to affordable diagnostics.
The test effectively checks for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies developed either in response to a COVID-19 infection or to a vaccine. The agreement covers all related patents and the biological material needed to manufacture the test. CSIC will provide all know-how to Biotech as well as training. The licence will be royalty-free for low- and middle-income countries and will remain valid until the date the last patent expires.
BioTech Africa is honoured to have been selected to be the first biotechnology company in Africa to collaborate with C-TAP in order to facilitate the local manufacture of affordable COVID-19 surveillance devices, said Jenny Leslie, Biotech Africa Chief Operations Officer.
This recognition is a product of our perseverance and dedication to become a global player in the manufacture of the highest quality recombinant proteins. The signing of this agreement emphasizes the companys ongoing goal to support diagnostics needs around the world, Leslie said.
We are thrilled to see the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool initiative bearing fruits with the goal of providing equitable access to life-saving health products for the worlds most vulnerable people, said Charles Gore, MPP Executive Director.
Launched in 2020 by the WHO Director-General and the President of Costa Rica, and supported by 44 WHO Member States, C-TAP aims to facilitate timely, equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products by boosting their production and supply through open, non-exclusive licensing agreements.
The C-TAP platform provides a global one-stop-shop for developers of COVID-19 therapeutics, diagnostics, vaccines and other priority health technologies to share knowledge and data and license their intellectual property to additional manufacturers through public health-driven, voluntary, non-exclusive and transparent licences.
By pooling technologies, developers of COVID-19 health products can boost manufacturing capacity in all regions and expand access to life-saving tools.
All of a sudden, it's a lot easier to take a trip to Canada.
With the official arrival of summer fast approaching, its become easier to return home following a trip to Canada. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dropped the pre-arrival Covid testing requirement for air travelers coming into the United States. That means Canadian visitors and returning Americans dont have to prove that they are Covid-negative in order to board a plane to the U.S.
This week, the Canadian government announced a change of its own. As of Monday, June 20, travelers over the age of 12 will no longer be required to prove they are vaccinated against Covid-19 before boarding a plane or train in Canada.
The rub is that this rule applies for domestic travel within Canada, but not for entry into the country. For Americans visiting Canada, essentially nothing has changed.
Everyone who enters Canada must still download the ArriveCAN app and complete the questionnaire within 72 hours of arrival. Vaccinated travelers must upload proof of vaccination to the app in advance of arrival, while unvaccinated Americans and returning Canadians are required to quarantine. Travelers are considered fully vaccinated when they have received at least two doses of an accepted Covid-19 vaccine.
For travel within Canada, masks are still required on planes, trains and other forms of public transportation.
Like their counterparts in the United States, tourism industry officials in Canada have pushed the government to remove any and all frictions and restrictions that they say are dragging down visitor numbers. Despite this months increase in U.S. residents taking trips into Canada through land ports, the number of trips remains at half (50.8%) of the U.S. residents who arrived by automobile during the same month in 2019, the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO) said in a statement.
The main bone of contention has been the ArriveCAN app, which launched in April 2020 primarily as a contact tracing app, and has been used throughout the pandemic, mainly by Canadian travelers, to report mandatory travel, contact and quarantine information when they re-enter the country. Since the border reopened to Americans last summer, U.S. travelers have been required to use the ArriveCAN app when entering Canada.
Tourism officials say requiring travelers to use the ArriveCAN app is stifling tourism, but the Canadian government says the app isnt going anywhere for the time being.
Using the ArriveCAN app is relatively fast and straightforward, taking only a few minutes to complete. Travelers can download the app and start entering their information within 72 hours of their arrival date. Those who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 can use their smartphone camera to scan their vaccination record card or proof of prior infection, or they can manually enter their information into the app or on the web site. Once a traveler has completed entering their information, the ArriveCAN app provides a receipt with a QR code that must be shown at the Canadian border.
The Covid vaccination rate is a few percentage points higher in Canada than in the United States. More than eight in 10 Canadians (81.7%) are fully vaccinated, with more than half (55.5%) of those over 12 years old also having received a booster shot, according to the Canadian governments vaccine tracker. Comparatively, 78.1% of the total American population is fully vaccinated, and less than half (48.8%) of those 12 an up have received a booster, according to CDC data.
But for the grimmest of metrics, the gap is enormous. Canada has tallied fewer than 42,000 deaths due to Covid-19 since the pandemic began, while the United States has surpassed one million deaths from the disease.
On another measurement, the two countries are more aligned. Canada currently has a Level 3 travel health warning from the CDC, signifying high Covid-19 levels just like the U.S.
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea reported a new epidemic" of an intestinal disease on Thursday, an unusual announcement from the secretive country that is already contending with a COVID-19 outbreak and severe economic turmoil.
Its unclear how many people are infected in what the official Korean Central News Agency said was an acute enteric epidemic in southwestern Haeju city.
The agency didnt name the disease, but enteric refers to intestinal illnesses, such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera, which are caused by germs in contaminated food or water or contact with the feces of infected people. Such diseases routinely occur in North Korea, where there is a shortage of water treatment facilities and the public health system has been largely broken for decades.
Some observers said the purpose of the announcement was not so much to report the infections themselves as to mention that leader Kim Jong Un donated medicine from his personal stock an apparent effort to burnish his image at a moment of extreme hardship.
The official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim donated medicine from what it referred to as his familys reserves. The country's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a front-page photo showing Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, looking at saline solutions and medicine that the paper said they donated.
In a country where power is concentrated is the hands of a small ruling elite and hospitals often lack even basic supplies, defectors say it's common for anyone who can to keep stocks of medicine in their homes and senior officials are typically able to stockpile more than ordinary citizens. Observers also said the donated medicine may have simply come from state storage facilities but was distributed in Kim's name.
The outbreak of measles or typhoid isnt uncommon in North Korea. I think its true there is an outbreak of an infectious disease there, but North Korea is using it as an opportunity to emphasize that Kim is caring for his people, said Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea. So its more like a political message than medical one.
Last month, North Korea reported a rising number of patients with fever. At the time, South Koreas spy agency said that a considerable number of the cases included those sick with measles, typhoid and whooping cough.
KCNA said Thursday more than 4.5 million out of the countrys 26 million people have fallen ill due to an unidentified fever and 73 died. The country, which apparently lacks coronavirus test kits, has identified only a fraction of those as confirmed COVID-19 cases. Many foreign experts question the Norths death toll, saying thats likely underreported to protect Kim from any political damage.
North Korea recently claimed progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19 across the unvaccinated population, though a top World Health Organization official said this month the agency believes the outbreak is worsening.
During a ruling party conference last week, Kim claimed the pandemic situation has passed the stage of serious crisis." But the country still maintains elevated restrictions. Some outside experts have said the measures will further strain the countrys already troubled economy hit by long-running pandemic-related border shutdowns and U.N. sanctions.
Late Thursday, South Koreas Unification Ministry renewed its offer of help on health issues. After the North first announced the COVID-19 outbreak, South Korea and the United States offered to ship vaccines and other medical supplies, but the North hasn't responded.
As Democrats and Republicans vie for control of Congress in the midterms in November, Covid-19 will likely be both everywhere and nowhere.
On the surface, the pandemic seems to be far from the minds of voters and the lips of candidates right now. Two years after it helped sink Donald Trumps reelection campaign, few voters name it as a top priority; candidates arent focusing on it either. Even though the United States passed 1 million reported Covid-19 deaths while the primary season was kicking off in earnest in early May, the virus has seemingly lost its salience as a political issue.
Democrats generally arent boasting about their Covid-19 responses or the rollout of vaccines under the Biden administration. If they are talking about the pandemic, they tend to focus more on helping the country move on from it. Republicans dont want to talk about Covid either, as their base doesnt take it as seriously. If they do, its typically to criticize the public health institutions that have taken center stage during the last two years.
But if you look closer, the pandemic is still having enormous, if subtler, influence on American politics. Inflation a crisis that began with supply-chain and workforce issues caused by Covid-19 and was likely amplified by some aspects of the US relief legislation is the No. 1 issue for US voters right now. Murders and drug overdose deaths began rising during the pandemic, souring the publics mood on the countrys future and presaging a difficult campaign for the party in power.
Its been so extensive that you just dont notice it, John Gasper, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied the effect of prior natural disasters on political behavior, said. People are sick of blaming Covid for a lot of things. Politicians dont want to keep talking about Covid.
Both sides arguably have reason to leave Covid-19 out when they take to the stump or produce their campaign videos, Neil Malhotra, a political economist at Stanford University, told me. President Joe Biden and Democrats have been in power for two years and the pandemic is still ongoing. Much of the Republicans voter base has been skeptical of Covid-19s significance for a while, giving their candidates little reason to focus on it.
The exception is the hard-right candidates who oppose public health interventions to slow down the pandemic. Certain Republicans continue to make clear their opposition to mask or vaccine mandates and other measures, even though those restrictions have been lifted almost everywhere.
That bizarre reality in which the pandemic that killed 1 million people is being most effectively politicized by the people who opposed the response to it reflects the unusual nature of Covid-19 as a political event. It started as something akin to a natural disaster: disruptive, but not something that sticks in voters memory. But, unlike most hurricanes or tornados, the pandemic wasnt over within a relatively short time. It lasted years long enough to evolve into a political wedge issue that candidates use to stir up their most strident supporters.
Covid has transformed from a disaster to ... fodder or kindling for the ongoing culture war, Gasper said. Its one more thing to stoke the fire in order to feed your base.
Covids decline as an overt political issue has been precipitous. In January, in the thick of the omicron wave, it was one of the top answers in Gallups poll asking Americans to name the most important problem facing the country. But three months later, in April, the share who still put the pandemic as the No. 1 issue had dropped from 20 percent to 4 percent; it was trailing Russia and fuel prices among peoples concerns.
Inflation and the state of the economy in general have become the dominant issues for voters. Those problems have their origins in the pandemic, but they are complicated by other events like the war in Ukraine.
Over time, voters typically have less tolerance for politicians blaming the same thing for all the problems in the world, even if there is some truth to it. Its old news. So candidates are responding to that apathy in the 2022 campaigns. Democratic politicians, in particular, tend to be very reactive to voters attitudes, Malhotra said, and voters right now are done with Covid-19.
Theyre really trying hard to see where voters are, trying to reach what the median voters believe, he said. The mass voting base in this country is over Covid. They just are. That is the truth.
The example of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in Colorado, who is up for reelection this year, is telling. Polis has positioned himself as more libertarian on the pandemic response, in a state that leans toward Democrats but where Republicans can still win in the right political environment.
Polis ended Colorados state of emergency in July 2021. During the omicron wave this winter, he would not tolerate calls for new mask mandates. He has framed his policies on Covid-19 as moving forward. And he has been rewarded with one of the highest approval ratings of any Democrat seeking reelection this year.
Kyle Kondik at the University of Virginias Center for Politics noted that even in deeply Democratic Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser is seeking in her campaign to strike a balance between touting the citys mitigation efforts while also taking credit for its schools reopening.
In Republican campaigns, Covid-19 is either invisible or the government response is the subject of ridicule. The Nevada GOP candidates looking to challenge Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in a key gubernatorial race all stressed their opposition to mask and vaccine mandates as well as business closures. Tellingly, in the GOP primary for the Pennsylvania US Senate election, candidates Dave McCormick and eventual winner Mehmet Oz took hard-right turns during the campaign. Oz had previously been supportive of pandemic interventions before he then campaigned against mask mandates because masks dont work.
Such sentiments are as powerful as anything in Republican politics right now. As CNN noted earlier this year, even though Trump himself tried to counter vaccine skepticism, many of his favored candidates have continued to run very publicly on their opposition to not only vaccine mandates but to getting vaccinated at all.
It fits into the general themes of distrusting experts and institutions that have been a hallmark of Republican campaigns for a long time now, most notably during Trumps rise to the presidency. Those anti-establishment attitudes are now taking on a Covid framing after two years of living through the pandemic.
I think that comes out in being critical of the Covid mitigation techniques that public health authorities have suggested, Kondik said. So it may be that Republicans place themselves in opposition to such experts as a way of indicating they are on the side of their own voters.
In that sense, Malhotra told me, part of Covids apparent invisibility is a byproduct of it largely serving to reaffirm peoples preexisting beliefs. It didnt change the trajectory of Americas recent political polarization, which has sorted high-income and lower-education voters into the GOP camp and low-income and higher-education voters to the Democrats.
Still, the pandemic has already toppled one sitting president, a rarity in recent American elections. All of the experts I spoke with credited Trumps loss in 2020 with, at least in part, his not taking Covid-19 seriously enough and failing to marshal an effective response.
So we cant say that it hasnt affected American politics at all. But whether our political character is altered in a more fundamental way as a result of the last two years remains to be seen.
In the past, natural disasters have tended to not have a major or lasting effect on voting behavior or political attitudes, according to the research conducted by scholars like Gasper and Malhotra. Their immediate impact is too concentrated and too fleeting to change how tens of millions of people feel about the government and its leaders.
Covid-19 is already different, given the much longer timeline on which the pandemic has unfolded. As long as we are living with runaway inflation and the other secondary effects of the virus, it will leave a mark perhaps subtly but detectable on peoples politics.
Amy Walter, editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report, told me there may be some political benefit to be found in opposing the pandemic response now. But she added that politicians coming into office are also being tasked with fixing the resulting problems: economic uncertainty, rising crime, and the other public health crises in drug abuse and mental health that were exacerbated by Covid-19. And if they fail to act, they may end up paying the price down the road.
A politician may be able to win today by being opposed to the public health establishments response to Covid, she said. But that same politician will likely be dealing with the downstream challenges that Covid has wrought on our society. And, if they are deemed as insufficiently addressing those issues, they could be vulnerable in a re-election bid of their own.
We are all living in a world irreversibly altered by the pandemic experience. So while the virus might be fading as an object of media attention or voter concern, that does not mean the US is the same country it was before Covid-19 arrived.
The consequences of the pandemic for US politics have been subtle and even surprising. But they are still there, if you know where to look.
Ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic infections, has no meaningful benefit for treating COVID-19 symptoms, according to a new study from Duke University.
Why it matters: The Duke study is one of the largest clinical trials to show ivermectin which soared in popularity to treat COVID symptoms during the pandemic is not effective for doing so.
What they're saying: "Given these results, there does not appear to be a role for ivermectin outside of a clinical trial setting, especially considering other available options with proven reduction in hospitalizations and death," Adrian Hernandez, the executive director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, said in a statement. Hernandez led the study.
The big picture: This was not the first study to suggest the ineffectiveness of ivermectin against COVID-19.
What's next: Duke plans to study ivermectin further, with another volunteer group receiving 50% more of the drug than it did in this study.
Go deeper: Read the full study here.
In a recent study published in the CDCs Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, researchers assessed the associations between mental health conditions (MHCs) and severe outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Individuals with MHCs might be at an elevated risk for severe outcomes of COVID-19 post-hospitalization. Most prior studies were limited by the small sample size or aggregation of MHCs concealing the risk differences. Moreover, earlier studies did not evaluate readmissions and hospital length of stay (LOS).
Study: Mental Health Conditions and Severe COVID-19 Outcomes after Hospitalization, United States. Image Credit:lumezia.com/ Shutterstock
In the current study, researchers investigated the associations of select MHCs with severe COVID-19 outcomes, LOS, and readmission. They analyzed a large United States (US)-based database of patient records. Patients hospitalized with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and discharged between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021, were identified. Anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia were select MHCs. The outcomes of interest were intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, LOS, invasive mechanical ventilation, all-cause readmission to the same hospital within 30 days, and all-cause mortality during the hospital stay.
The association between each MHC with each outcome was examined using mixed-effects models. The reference cohort comprised patients without the diagnosis of any MHC. Adjusted odds ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated with logistic models. 95% CIs and percentage differences for LOS were computed using Poisson models. Models were adjusted for age, race, sex, ethnicity, admission month, insurance type, Elixhauser Comorbidity Index, and hospital characteristics.
The study sample comprised 664,956 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Most patients (77.1%) were 50 years or older, and 55% of male patients did not have any MHC diagnoses compared to 45% of females. More male patients (53.8%) than females (46.2%) had schizophrenia. In contrast, most female patients had depression (61.7%), anxiety (61%), or bipolar disorder (58.8%), outnumbering male patients.
Outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients (n = 664,956), by mental health condition diagnosis, compared with patients without mental health condition diagnoses in the Premier Healthcare Database Special COVID-19 Release, United States, March 2020July 2021. For each condition, odds ratios represent the odds of the given outcome for patients with the condition compared with patients without mental health conditions. For length of stay, percentages represent the percentage difference in length of stay for patients with the condition compared with patients without mental health conditions. Covariates were selected based on factors known or plausibly associated with both the mental health condition and given outcome. Bolded values indicate statistical significance (2-sided =0.05), adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni-Holm method.
Greater odds of ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, and death were noted for patients with anxiety than those without MHC. Patients with any of the select MHCs had significantly elevated odds of readmission. All select MHCs were significantly associated with longer mean LOS. Patients with anxiety, on average, had the longest hospital stay of 34.8 days, followed by those with schizophrenia (25.6 days), bipolar disorder (20.6 days), and depression (19.5 days).
The authors found that anxiety was strongly associated with severe disease outcomes. Each of the select MHCs was independently associated with an increased risk of all-cause readmission within 30 days and longer mean LOS. These results could not be compared with findings from previous studies because they had substantial heterogeneity in data/results, aggregation of MHCs, and populations with varying risk profiles, among others.
Moreover, earlier studies found no significant relationship between anxiety and increased risk for mechanical ventilation, ICU admission, or in-hospital mortality. In contrast, most others did not evaluate outcomes such as LOS and readmission. In summary, MHCs might aggravate respiratory diseases, increasing the risk for readmission or prolonged hospital stay in non-psychiatric hospitalizations. The study showed differences in the risks of each select MHC and provided evidence that MHCs could be deemed high-risk factors for COVID-19 patients.
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SECRETARY BLINKEN:Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see you all here. When I heard everyone was gathering here, I thought the least I could do is drop by to simply say thank you, thank you, thank you for the remarkable work that youre doing.
You all know this, but four months ago our countries created the Global Action Plan to try to accelerate our efforts to vaccinate 70 percent of our people against COVID-19, the goal set by the WHO. I think we all knew that hitting that target would take countries stepping up together in a highly coordinated way. So we identified key gaps that remained, we established together six lines of effort to bridge those gaps, and then everyone in this room in effect took responsibility for leading this effort and doing it together.
And as weve talked, and I know as youre discussing today, we have made significant progress on each of these lines of effort. A lot more work remains to be done, but this is moving forward precisely because weve come together in a coordinated way.
The first line of effort: trying to get more shots into arms. We know that there are a lot of vaccines out there. The challenge has been actually getting the shots into arms. Weve ramped up vaccine delivery. Weve improved cold chain capacity to store and ship more doses to more places. Weve conducted in-country campaigns to increase demand for vaccines.
For example, just to cite a few: Colombia has stepped up its efforts to vaccinate Venezuelan refugees; India has enhanced its vaccine production; Japan has significantly expanded cold chain storage worldwide; Australia, New Zealand are doing great work vaccinating citizens in the Pacific Island nations, just to cite some of the striking examples.
To that end, one of the things Im excited to be able to share today is that the United States, in partnership with COVAX, will begin donating pediatric Pfizer vaccines for 5-to-12 year-olds. In fact, the first shipment is going out today: 300,000 doses are being donated to Mongolia; 2.2 million doses are being donated to Nepal. Weve got many more ready to go for countries that want them.
The second line of effort that weve all been working on together: strengthening supply chains for COVID-related materials tests, syringes, treatments. Well, we are building resilience into the supply chains when shortages and disruptions emerge. For example, the European Union has been consulting with businesses across Africa on medical supplies. The United States has started similar engagements in our own hemisphere as well as globally.
The third line of effort: addressing information gaps that lead to low confidence in vaccines. With help from Canada, were coordinating across governments to combat misinformation and disinformation, as well as through programs like the United States Global VAX effort, which uses evidence-based interventions to increase vaccine demand.
The fourth line of effort that weve been working together: providing more support to frontline health care workers. Well, with leadership from Spain, from India, the Republic of Korea, were ensuring that those workers have access to vaccines as well as accurate information about vaccines so that they can stay healthy and keep doing the heroic work that theyre doing every day.
The fifth line of effort: Weve begun a critical conversation on how to increase access to treatments and therapeutics so that people who get COVID can survive it and bounce back faster. Theres a lot more work well need to do on this line of effort to ensure that we have enough interventions available worldwide, from testing to treating, as we move to the next phase of the pandemic.
And finally, the sixth line of effort: building a stronger, more effective global health architecture so that we can better detect, prevent, respond to future emergencies. Well, we started by building on the work of the structures that we created to address this pandemic COVAX, the ACT-Accelerator. And I particularly want to thank Norway and South Africa for coordinating the ACT-As work to develop and equitably distribute tests, treatments, vaccines; Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan for galvanizing donors; Indonesia for creating a financial intermediary fund for pandemic preparedness.
I know that we all agree around this table and in this room that if were just as vulnerable at the end of this pandemic as we were when COVID-19 began, thats dangerous and its a major disservice to our citizens. We have to seize this opportunity to become better prepared than we were before.
Looking ahead, the lines of effort that were all working, the six lines of effort, remain critical. In many ways this is a marathon. We still have a long way to go if were going to end the acute phase of the pandemic and build a lasting foundation for our future.
To do that, perhaps more than anything else, we have to maintain our commitment. We cant let the pandemic and pandemic fatigue deplete our political will. And I just want to assure you all that the United States continues to be intently focused on fighting the pandemic and leaving the world better prepared and better defended for whatever comes next.
This experience, this pandemic, has taught us that health security is national security and that in this 21st century, health emergencies often cant be solved by countries working on their own. Viruses dont respect borders. We are, quite literally, all in this together. And so Im really grateful to everyone here, to the countries you represent, for this partnership. The progress weve made to date has been possible because of your leadership, because of your engagement, because of your willingness to coordinate and collaborate to what I think is a remarkable degree. Now we just need to keep doing it.
So thank you. I hope the meetings here in Washington are productive, I hope theyre energizing, and I look forward to seeing everyone again soon to review our progress, strengthen our efforts, and keep up this common fight. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
Now that child development centers are returning to normal operations coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, most have restarted a prior policy that supplants lower-priority children when a higher-priority family such as an active duty working family requests care.
Theres long been a shortage of military child care, and of child care nationwide.
A Defense Department policy issued just before the pandemic and implemented in September 2020 gave working military families, including Coast Guard families, higher priority for spaces in child development centers and school-age child care programs.
But for the first time, it also allowed officials to supplant, or displace, children who already were in a child development program, whose parents were in a lower priority category, if the military family was expected to be on a waitlist for more than 45 days after the time they need child care.
DoD officials allowed a pause in the supplanting process during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic; not all the service branches paused the process.
The Navy announced the restart of its supplanting process on Tuesday. That change comes in the peak of moving season for military families, when many families are searching for child care as they move to a new duty station. Air Force officials restarted the services supplanting policy earlier in 2022. The Army never stopped its supplanting procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, the Navy has restarted the supplanting procedures at six fleet concentration areas with long child care waitlists: Norfolk, Virginia; San Diego; Naval Base Kitsap and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington; Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Base Mayport, Florida, said Coleen R. San Nicolas-Perez, spokeswoman for Navy Installations Command.
In July, all other Navy installations will restart the supplanting policy.
Across DoD, working active duty families and certain others cant be displaced from the child development centers. Families who are displaced receive notice at least 45 days in advance if their child or children must leave the child development center, so they can attempt to find child care elsewhere.
Families who are supplanted also are allowed to reapply for space through MilitaryChildCare.com, which is the DoDs website for military and DoD-affiliated families seeking child care ranging from the centers, school-age care, family child care homes and fee assistance programs for child care in the civilian community.
Navy officials will review all school-age care programs in the fall to determine if any supplanting will be required, San Nicolas-Perez said.
Some military families felt they were at a disadvantage because they move frequently, while others, such as DoD civilians, dont move frequently, so those child care spots were locked up. The policy allows lower-priority families to be displaced so that there is more room for military children.
For example, the policy change moved DoD civilians down on the priority list. If a military family moving into the area is expected to be on a waitlist for more than 45 days, a DoD civilian familys child could be displaced from the DoD child care program to make room for that military child, with a minimum of 45 days notice to the civilian family.
The priorities are as follows:
* Priority 1A Child development program staff.
* Priority 1B Single/dual military members and military members with a full-time working spouse, including active duty Coast Guard.
* Priority 1C Military members with a part-time working spouse or those with a spouse seeking employment.
* Priority 1D Military members with a spouse enrolled full-time in a post-secondary institution.
* Priority 2 Single/dual Department of Defense civilians or with a full-time working spouse.
* Priority 3 Space available.
Those who cant be supplanted are:
Child development program direct care staff.
Active duty combat-related wounded warriors.
Single/dual active duty military/Coast Guard.
Single/dual Guard/Reserve on active duty or inactive duty training status.
Active duty military/Coast Guard with a full-time working spouse.
Guard/Reserve on active duty or inactive duty training status with a full-time working spouse.
Gold Star spouses (combat-related).
For the full matrix of who can be supplanted, and by whom, visit MilitaryChildCare.com https://www.mcccentral.com/system/files/downloads/training-center/resources/MilitaryFamilyTypes_Supplanting_0.pdf
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KKR today published Engaged. KKR COVID-19 Relief Effort Progress Report (the COVID-19 Report), which discusses the relief fund formally established by KKR and its employees in May 2020 to provide support for those most affected by COVID-19 and the resulting economic dislocation. As part of this initiative, KKR also announced the 82 grants awarded to small business owners and nonprofits in the final rounds of the KKR Small Business Builders (SBB) and KKR Grants programs.
The COVID-19 Report details the four key initiatives of the relief effort KKR SBB, KKR Grants, portfolio company support programs and employee giving which were established with an emphasis on impact and equity. Over the past two years, KKR and its employees have contributed more than $50 million in community funding to support over 20 million people across 19 countries. The results include the following:
Over the past two years, we have provided support for the most vulnerable members of our communities who were disproportionally affected by the unprecedented global health, social and economic crisis, said Ken Mehlman, Partner, Global Head of Public Affairs and Co-Head of Global Impact at KKR. By focusing on small business owners, growing our strategic philanthropy, drawing on our employees skills and passion and creating support systems for our portfolio companies, our goal has been to engage with our communities to build a healthier, more resilient world. We know there is more work to do as we slowly emerge from the pandemic, and we remain committed to investing in and staying engaged in our communities.
Final Round of KKR Small Business Builders
In connection with the progress report, KKR announced the recipients of the final rounds of KKR SBB and KKR Grants programs, two of the cornerstone initiatives of the KKR relief effort focused on providing grants and support to small businesses and nonprofits worldwide.
In the final round of the KKR SBB program, 49 small business owners in 47 cities spread across 24 states in the United States, as well as in Singapore, were selected to receive $10,000 grants. The businesses selected in the final round of SBB grants are 71% minority-owned, 25% owned by veterans or their immediate family members, 14% owned by persons with disabilities and 10% LGBTQ+-owned. To date, 67% of KKRs SBB grantees are from historically underrepresented groups and the LGBTQ+ community. Notably, 54% of recipients have reported being able to increase wages for employees, 57% have reported an increase in revenue and nearly 75% say their KKR grant was a difference-maker in their ability to survive the pandemic.
Final Round of KKR Grants
The final round of KKR Grants through the relief effort included commitments of more than $3.1 million to 33 nonprofits. The grants were awarded to organizations whose missions are aligned with priority areas, including delivering immediate aid to vulnerable populations impacted by the pandemic, providing innovative pathways of workforce recovery and development, and supporting our heroes including teachers, first responders, essential workers and front-line medical professionals.
The recovery from the pandemic will be lengthy and complex, requiring continued and reliable support for the nonprofit sector; our findings underscore this reality, and we are committed to ensuring help is on hand, said Pamela Alexander, Managing Director and Head of Corporate Citizenship at KKR. As we evolve our philanthropic programming beyond the relief effort, we aim to ease these challenges and ensure that communities around the world receive the support they need as they recover and rebuild.
To access the KKR COVID-19 Relief Effort Progress Report, click here.
KKR Small Business Builders Final Round Recipients
Vernishia Robinson
A Healing Touch Chiropractic Center, LLC |
Columbia, SC
Alison Cox
Ali Cox & Company, Inc. | Turlock, CA
Christian Parker
Alternative Home Care Services LLC |
Indianapolis, IN
Marisol Villalobos
Amasar LLC | Jayuya, PR
Amber Jones
Amber's Addictions LLC | Fort Worth, TX
Amyanna Germany
Amyanna's Cosmetics | Bossier, LA
Sherry Chao-Hrenek
Asian Bite | San Antonio, TX
Jamila Musayeva
Avocado Toast LLC | Santa Monica, CA
Breanna Leonard
Bels Dispatching | Columbus, GA
Daphne Tay
Bluente | Singapore
Rose Limon
Borracho Products LLC | Canutillo, TX
Jessica Bussert
Wave Therapeutics | Nashville, IN
Nancy Cruz
Caribella | Chicago, IL
Candy Caboverde
City Roofing and Construction Inc | Miami, FL
April Hendrix-Buckle
Criselle Collection | Sterling Heights, MI
Duygu Karaolan Altop
Cubtale | Marina del Rey, Los Angeles, CA
Rachel Daily
Cure Studios | Austin, TX
Natalie Boone
Ensemble Therapy | Austin, TX
Amari Carrington
Family Matters to Us Inc. | Milwaukee, WI
Sylvia St.John-Martinez
FishBowl Radio Network | Bedford, TX
Ali Rose VanOverbeke
Genusee | Flint, MI
Malia Powell
Go N' Glow Travel | Marietta, GA
Amy Renz
Goodness Gracious, LLC | Marblehead, MA
Margie Traxler
Grain Free Mama's | Henderson, NV
Monika Dharia
GreenGear | Albertson, NY
Ruth Linton
Highland Orchards Farm Market | Wilmington, DE
Jennifer Harden
JenRan Holdings, LLC | Westlake Village, CA
Johannah Easley
Joh So Good Food LLC | Minneapolis, MN
Melissa Wharton
Workout Anytime | Jeffersonville, IN
Jennifer Brogee
KaffeeScape LLC | Lima, OH
Shimere Burrell
Konnect Services, LLC | Charlotte, NC
Cindy Soto Seyford
Local Pour House Inc. | Queens, NY
Dana M. Persico
Long Island Nail Skin & Hair Institute | Levittown, NY
Lindsay Smith
LYS, A Licensed Clinical Social Worker Corporation | San Jose, CA
Nikki Riojas
Made in Corpus Christi, LLC | Corpus Christi, TX
Kellee James
Mercaris | Silver Spring, MD
Andrea Johnson
Tumbleweed Farm Sanctuary | Salina, KS
Tara Ghorashi
Morning Star Child Development Center | Knoxville, TN
Camille Kapaun
Nightingale | New York City, NY
Shane Brown
Pretty in London LLC | Douglasville, GA
Donna Childs
Prisere LLC | Cranston, RI
Trinetta Powell
Reveal and Restore Counseling | Frisco, TX
Laura Fleet
SendaRide, Inc. | Oklahoma City, OK
Lisa Ludwinski
