Coronavirus today update: 35 more dead and more mush from the guv - Arkansas Times
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Ill update if a daily COVID report surfaces, but here is the open line.
UPDATE:
I watched the governor again today on National TV saying mandates harden resistance and his gentle encouragement is better. Numbers dont lie, but maybe Asa does. We lag in shots because our state is committed to Trump idiocy and Asa, to preserve his viability in the political system, is too cowardly to speak up.
Darkansas!
The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping all aspects of life in Arkansas. We're interested in hearing from doctors, nurses and other health care workers; from patients and their families; from people in longterm care facilities and their families; from parents and students affected by the crisis; from people who have lost their job; from people with knowledge of workplaces or communities that aren't taking appropriate measures to slow the spread of the disease; and more.
Chronic neglect of the NHS, poor pandemic preparedness and flawed government policies have contributed to the appalling impact of the Covid-19 crisis in the UK, according to a damning assessment from the British Medical Association.
More than 130,000 people in the UK have died from coronavirus since the pandemic began, with non-Covid excess deaths up 12,000 last year, making the country one of the hardest hit among comparable nations, the doctors body said.
In a speech on Monday, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the BMAs chair of council, will warn that the country and NHS staff have never faced such a crisis before and urge ministers to take action to ensure the health service is better prepared to respond to pandemics in the future.
We will not accept a return to the old pre-pandemic NHS, which was so patently understaffed and under-resourced, where nine in 10 doctors are afraid of medical errors daily, he is expected to say. We will not accept an NHS running at unsafe bed occupancy and without spare capacity.
Before the pandemic, NHS bed occupancy was regularly above the 85% considered a reasonable safe threshold. While the NHS had 7.3 critical care beds per 100,000 people, Germany had nearly 34 per 100,000 as the crisis unfolded.
Further planning failures left the NHS with inadequate stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline staff, leading to last-minute orders of masks, visors and gowns that in some cases turned out to be unsafe or unusable.
Years of underfunding, inadequate facilities and nearly 90,000 staff vacancies meant the NHS was in crisis before coronavirus emerged, leaving it ill-prepared for the demands of the pandemic, Nagpaul is to argue at the BMAs annual representative meeting.
He will criticise ministers for dismissing calls for a rapid inquiry into the crisis, before the second wave of infections struck last year, meaning that crucial lessons from the previous six months were not learned. He will add that the ministerial mantra of living with Covid belies the reality that thousands of people continue to need hospital care for coronavirus with hundreds dying each week.
Despite warnings from senior doctors at the time, Boris Johnsons decision to lift coronavirus restrictions this summer contributed to almost 40,000 being admitted to hospital and more than 4,000 deaths since so-called freedom day on 19 July, the BMA said.
We will not accept an NHS in crisis every summer, let alone every winter, Nagpaul will add. We will not accept a nation bereft of public health staff, facilities and testing capacity, with ministers then paying billions to private companies who were unable to deliver.
In the past week, ministers announced substantial extra funding for the NHS, including money specifically targeted at easing backlogs in treatment. While welcoming the funds as an important first step, Nagpaul will urge the government to provide realistic projections as to how far the money will stretch and to acknowledge that the amount will not address the drastic shortage of NHS staff. The BMA estimates that the NHS has 50,000 fewer doctors than the EU average.
More than 4 million people were on the NHS waiting list in England in March 2020, the month the country went into its first Covid lockdown. That number has since risen to 5.61 million. The Nuffield Trust has said waiting lists could top 15 million people in four years without a significant increase in NHS trust capacity.
Last week, GPs in England said they were finding it increasingly hard to guarantee safe care for patients, as the shortage of doctors meant they could not keep up with the surge in demand. Prof Martin Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), warned of a crisis in primary care after a 4.5% decrease in the number of GPs across England led to a risk of mistakes being made.
The latest:
Several COVID-19 outbreaks across Canada have marred the first week of back-to-school, prompting school closures and class cancellations.
In P.E.I., Dr. Heather Morrison has made the decision to cancel classes at several Charlottetown schools following six confirmed coronavirus cases among people under the age of 19.
On Saturday, the chief public health officer reported that a student at West Royalty Elementary had tested positive for COVID-19. Four of the new cases announced Sunday are considered close contacts of the case associated with West Royalty School.
"The situation at West Royalty Elementary School is considered an outbreak, the first school outbreak in P.E.I. since the pandemic began," Morrison said Sunday.
"We are erring on the side of caution, assuming the new cases are the highly transmissible delta variant."
Across the ConfederationBridge, Monday classes will be cancelled for Grade 11 students at Sugarloaf Senior High School in Campbellton, N.B., after a student tested positive.
Grade 11 students and their parents will be provided more information about the situation on Sunday, said superintendent Mark Donovan.
In Plaster Rock, N.B., allMonday classes at Donald Fraser Memorial School have been cancelled after two cases were confirmed.
The school says cleaning and contact tracing will be performed, and student should expect to return on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Ontario, at least 208 students in the Windsor area have been sent home from exposure to positive COVID-19 cases.
Four schools in the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB) reported cases Friday and one of those reported a second case Sunday. In total, 148 students have been told not to return to class in the last three days.
All schools remain open, according to the WECDSB's website.
Outbreaks have also been reported at several schools in Alberta, where about 2,000 people turned out to a rally in CalgarySunday to protest vaccine mandates and other public health measures.
Four Calgary schools have ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks. Other schools in the province are also affected: In the Medicine Hat school district, every school reported positive cases last week.
As of Sunday, more than224.4million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 case tracking tool. The reported global death toll stood at 4.6 million.
In Asia,Bangladesh has reopened schools and other educational institutions after 543 days of closure as its virus situation eases and more people are vaccinated.Authorities decided to reopen after almost 97 per centof the country's teachers and staff have been vaccinated, the government says.
In the Americas,Los Angeles County school officials ordered vaccinations for all students aged 12 and over, becoming the largest school district in the United States to take that step.School board members voted unanimously to mandate the shots in the coming weeks, despite angry objections from several parents.
In Africa, schools in Egypt are scheduled to resume in-person classes next week, but rising cases are alarming authorities.Daily cases in the country the Arab world's most populous with 100 million people have been spiking in recent weeks since the more contagious delta variant was detected in the country in July.
In Europe,authorities in Britain have decided not to require vaccine passports for entry into nightclubs and other crowded events in England, Britain's health secretary said Sunday, reversing course amid opposition from some of the Conservative government's supporters in Parliament
Coronavirus today and the open line - Arkansas Times
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The governor looks for a bright spot as 33 more Arkansans die. And he throws in more of his ineffectual wishful thinking. His approach gives aid and comfort to the likes of the high sheriff of Faulkner County, Tim Ryals, who says he has no intention of protecting his employees and the people they serve by requiring vaccination or testing. Lawman?
The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping all aspects of life in Arkansas. We're interested in hearing from doctors, nurses and other health care workers; from patients and their families; from people in longterm care facilities and their families; from parents and students affected by the crisis; from people who have lost their job; from people with knowledge of workplaces or communities that aren't taking appropriate measures to slow the spread of the disease; and more.
Low-vaccinated communities continue to lead the state in weekly coronavirus case rates, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive found, underscoring how the delta variant is devouring the unvaccinated.
Oregon has seen cases fall from record levels set earlier this month. But new and presumed infections remain high, and the communities hardest hit continue to be almost exclusively in vaccine-resistant southern Oregon.
The ZIP code for Myrtle Creek in Douglas County led all of Oregon in coronavirus case rates for the week ending Wednesday, among ZIP codes with at least 40 new cases.
The area recorded 103 new or presumed infections per 10,000 residents, roughly double the worst rate for a community in the Portland area.
The vaccination rate in the Myrtle Creek ZIP code? A staggeringly small 38.2% among residents of all ages, far below the statewide average of 62.4%.
In fact, 11 of the 12 ZIP codes with the highest weekly case rates are all well below the statewide average for people at least partially vaccinated. Only the ZIP code for Lincoln City, along the Oregon coast, surpassed the statewide vaccination mark.
ZIP codes in southern Oregons Douglas and Josephine counties accounted for eight of the dozen areas with the highest weekly case rates. The ZIP codes generally run along the Interstate 5 corridor, including Roseburg, Grants Pass, Sutherlin and Winston.
Vaccination rates in each of those eight areas is below 50%.
While both ZIP codes for Grants Pass made the list of jurisdictions with the highest case rates, one of those, the 97526 ZIP code, led all of Oregon in total new cases regardless of population. It posted 256 cases for the week ending Wednesday, more than double the highest total from a ZIP code in the Portland area.
The list of ZIP codes with high new cases also skews heavy along I-5 in southern Oregon, including Medford, Roseburg, but it also includes parts of Salem. And it features Bend and Redmond in central Oregon, too.
State health officials for months have been saying the summer surge is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and Oregons record-breaking case counts flooded hospitals. More people with COVID-19 died in August than in all but two other months of the pandemic, and September could be worse.
Officials for the Oregon Health Authority did not respond to a request for comment to the newsrooms analysis comparing case rates with vaccination rates. But Patrick Allen, the agencys director, released a separate statement Thursday about the states mounting death toll, saying it marks a failure of our collective responsibility to take care of each other.
He said Oregonians could prevent more people from dying by taking simple steps to stop COVID-19 from spreading.
The COVID-19 vaccines are extremely safe and effective at preventing serious illness and death from the virus, including the delta variant, he said in the statement. I urge every Oregonian who can to get vaccinated and wear your masks when youre in public places inside and outdoors.
-- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt
New Jersey on Sunday reported 1,744 confirmed COVID-19 cases and four new deaths. It was the lowest number of reported daily deaths in more than two weeks. However, the state also saw its rate of transmission increase for the first time in more than a month.
The Garden States seven-day average for newly confirmed positive tests is 1,728, which is 1.5% higher than a week ago and 32.5% higher from this time last month.
All of New Jerseys 21 counties are listed as having high rates of coronavirus transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is recommending people in all 21 counties wear masks for indoor public settings regardless of vaccination rates.
There were 1,104 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 or suspected cases across New Jerseys 71 hospitals Saturday night 22 fewer than Thursday night. There were 165 patients discharged from hospitals Saturday.
Of those hospitalized, 234 were in intensive care (11 fewer than a day earlier), with 119 on ventilators (six fewer).
New Jerseys statewide rate of transmission on Sunday rose for the first time since July, increasing to 1 from .99 the previous day and 1.01 on Friday. Throughout the month of August, the rate of transmission either remained the same or declined, but did not increase. Any rate of transmission number over 1 indicates that each new case is leading to more than one additional case and shows the states outbreak is expanding.
The positivity rate for tests conducted on Tuesday, the most recent day available, was 4.8%. The positivity rate on weekends tends to be higher due to fewer tests being conducted.
An early coronavirus hotspot, New Jersey has reported a total of 27,058 deaths, including 24,309 confirmed fatalities and 2,749 considered probable. Thats the most coronavirus deaths per capita in the United States.
With the incredibly infectious delta variant spreading throughout the state, that number is likely to increase. The highly contagious COVID-19 strain accounted for more than 98% of cases sampled for a four-week span ending Aug. 21. In the final week of that time period, 99.7% of cases sampled were the delta variant.
At least 8,485 of the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data.
New Jersey is now reporting more than 5.69 million people who live, work or study in the state have been fully vaccinated. More than 6.2 million people have received at least one dose as the state prepares to administer third doses and booster shots to those fully vaccinated in the coming months, pending approval from the federal government.
The vaccine mandate announced by Biden on Thursday calls for all employers with more than 100 workers to require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.
There are active outbreaks at 151 long-term care facilities in New Jersey, resulting in 571 active cases among residents and 488 among staffers. Those numbers have continued to rise in recent weeks.
In all, the state of 9.2 million residents has reported 972,729 total confirmed cases out of the more than 15.1 million PCR tests conducted since it announced its first case March 4, 2020. The state has also reported 144,777 positive antigen tests, which are considered probable cases.
As of Sunday, there have been more than 224 million positive COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 4.6 million people having died due to the virus. The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 40.9 million) and deaths (more than 659,696) than any other nation.
More than 5.6 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A precedent-setting New York City mandate requiring all employees and patrons of more than 30 different types of businesses -- including restaurants, gyms and performance venues -- to show proof they received the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine that took effect last month will now be enforced starting Monday, Sept. 13.
That means only vaccinated people can eat indoors at a restaurant, be a guest inside a catering hall, workout inside a gym or attend a concert.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the vaccine mandate is necessary to help end the pandemic, especially after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the delta variant is as contagious as the chicken pox.
If youre unvaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things. Thats the point were trying to get across, de Blasio said last month when he initiated the mandate. Its time for people to see vaccination as literally necessary for living a good and full and healthy life.
The city has provided small businesses with posters and flyers to alert customers of the new mandates.
The flyers alert patrons to the mandate and that children under 12 are exempt from the requirement, which the mayors dubbed the Key to NYC. In addition, the flyers provide information about how to get a free coronavirus vaccine.
Patrons and staff will need to provide proof of at least one coronavirus vaccination shot before entering the affected businesses. Acceptable forms of proof are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine cards, the states Excelsior Pass phone app, and the citys COVID Safe app.
There is information available on the citys website that provides businesses with best practices about checking vaccines, dealing with complaints, and the process for recognizing and reporting fake vaccination cards.
INDOOR DINING
More than 30 types of businesses will be affected by the citys coronavirus vaccine mandates.
The indoor dining guidance pertains to restaurants, catering halls, event spaces, hotel banquet rooms, bars, nightclubs, cafeterias, grocery stores with indoor dining, coffee shops and fast food or quick service with indoor dining, according to the city.
INDOOR FITNESS
The indoor fitness venues include all gyms, fitness centers, fitness classes, pools, indoor studios and dance studios, according to the city.
INDOOR ENTERTAINMENT
Indoor entertainment venues include movie theaters, music and concert venues, museums, aquariums and zoos, professional sports arenas, indoor stadiums, convention centers, exhibition halls, performing arts theaters, bowling alleys, arcades, pool and billiard halls, recreational game centers, adult entertainment and indoor play areas.
LAWSUIT DISMISSED
There has been several lawsuits brought by business owners to fight the mandates, the latest of which was presented by a consortium of Staten Island and Brooklyn business owners to strike down the citys vaccination mandate for restaurants, gyms and indoor entertainment venues. However, state Supreme Court Justice Lizette Colon rejected the Independent Restaurant Owners Association Rescues (I.R.O.A.R.) request for a permanent injunction to block the order on Friday.
KIDS SPORTS MANDATES
Also on Friday, just days before the start of the 2021-2022 school year, de Blasio announced that all students ages 12 and up will be required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus if they want to participate in high-risk extracurricular activities.
New York City has already implemented a similar policy for high school athletes, requiring all students participating in high-risk Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) sports to be vaccinated in order to compete.
Weve already done this for high-risk sports, and this is consistent with CDC and state guidance for young people who are involved in extracurricular activities, such as chorus, musical theater, dance, band and marching band, cheerleading, were going to have a vaccination mandate for them, de Blasio said.
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A new survey from Cincinnati-based Interact for Health indicates that 56% of local adults reported that had received a COVID-19 vaccine and that an additional 7% reported that they will definitely get the vaccine.
Eighteen percent had not yet decided whether they will get the vaccine while 19% said that they definitely would not get a vaccine.
The survey was conducted in July with results released Thursday as part of the Greater Cincinnati COVID-19 Health IssuesSurvey.
These data show that the debate about COVID-19 vaccines is not simply about favoring or opposing the shot, said Ross Meyer, vice president of strategy with Interact for Health. Many still want to get the vaccine or are undecided. We need to help our friends, family members and coworkers who feel this way find reliable information about vaccination and get help with transportation and child care so they can take the time to get vaccinated.
Intent to get the vaccine among African-Americans in the region was particularly of interest, the organization said. Only 24% of African American adults reported they received a vaccine. However, 34% of African American adults said they definitely will get the vaccine, much higher than the 3% of white adults.
This suggests there are African-Americans who would like to get vaccinated but havent yet, providing an opportunity for additional community outreach, the organization said.
Reasons for not getting vaccinated
Respondents who were not yet vaccinated were asked to rank how important a variety of reasons were in their decision not to get the shot. The following reasons were ranked as very important: the desire to confirm the safety of the vaccines (72%), concern about side effects (64%) and concern about the timeline for developing the vaccines (64%). Respondents were able to select more than one concern as very important in their decision making.
Since the survey was conducted, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine received full federal approval. There are two other vaccines, from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, that are also widely available free and and highly effective.
Health care providers the preferred source for information
National data have demonstrated that people are receptive to vaccine information from health care providers. Thissurveyfound similar results, showing that 55% of respondents trust their physicians a great deal to provide reliable information about the COVID-19 vaccine, followed by pharmacists (42%) and local health departments (38%).
Doctors, nurses and pharmacists have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response, said Christa Hyson, assistant director, emergency response and public information officer with the Health Collaborative. Many of them have also lent their support to efforts to increase community vaccination. As we continue our efforts to get 80% of those eligible in our region vaccinated, we need health care providers to encourage vaccination at every encounter and be ready to refer their patients for vaccination as needed.
Common barriers to vaccination
Thesurveyshowed that efforts to make vaccination accessible have made a difference. A majority of Greater Cincinnati adults reported it is very easy to find a place to get a COVID-19 vaccine that is convenient for them (70%), a place that they trust (68%) or a place that is open at a time that fits their schedule (60%). African American adults and those living in poverty are less likely to think it was very easy to find a vaccine.
-Staff report
Photo:The queue set up for COVID vaccines at a St. Elizabeth Healthcare facility earlier this year (RCN file)
Saint-Herblain (France), September 13, 2021 Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company, today announced that it has received a termination notice from the UK Government (HMG) in relation to the Supply Agreement for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001. The contract provides HMG with the right to terminate. HMG has alleged that the Company is in breach of its obligations under the Supply Agreement, but the Company strenuously denies this.
Valneva is continuing its VLA2001 development plan. Testing for the Companys pivotal Phase 3 trial, Cov-Compare, is ongoing at Public Health England (PHE). Valneva recently announced that its Phase 3 results are expected to be available early in the fourth quarter and that these results will form part of its rolling submission for conditional approval of VLA2001 with the UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Subject to these data and MHRA approval, Valneva believes that initial approval for VLA2001 could be granted in late 2021.
Valneva has worked tirelessly, and to its best efforts, on the collaboration with HMG including investing significant resources and effort to respond to HMGs requests for variant-derived vaccines. Valneva continues to be committed to the development of VLA2001 and will increase its efforts with other potential customers to ensure that its inactivated vaccine can be used in the fight against the pandemic.
About VLA2001VLA2001 is currently the only whole virus, inactivated, adjuvanted vaccine candidate in clinical trials against COVID-19 in Europe. It is intended for active immunization of at-risk populations to prevent carriage and symptomatic infection with COVID-19 during the ongoing pandemic and potentially later for routine vaccination including addressing new variants. VLA2001 may also be suited for boosting, as repeat booster vaccinations have been shown to work well with whole virus inactivated vaccines. VLA2001 is produced on Valnevas established Vero-cell platform, leveraging the manufacturing technology for Valnevas licensed Japanese encephalitis vaccine, IXIARO. VLA2001 consists of inactivated whole virus particles of SARS-CoV-2 with high S-protein density, in combination with two adjuvants, alum and CpG 1018. This adjuvant combination has consistently induced higher antibody levels in preclinical experiments than alum-only formulations and shown a shift of the immune response towards Th1. CpG 1018 adjuvant, supplied by Dynavax Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: DVAX), is a component of the US FDA- and EMA-approved HEPLISAV-B vaccine. VLA2001s manufacturing process, which has already been upscaled to final industrial scale, includes chemical inactivation to preserve the native structure of the S-protein. VLA2001 is expected to conform with standard cold chain requirements (2 to 8 degrees Celsius).
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About Valneva SEValneva is a specialty vaccine company focused on the development and commercialization of prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need. The Company takes a highly specialized and targeted approach to vaccine development, beginning with the identification of deadly and debilitating infectious diseases that lack a prophylactic vaccine solution and for which there are limited therapeutic treatment options. It then applies its deep understanding of vaccine science, including its expertise across multiple vaccine modalities, as well as its established vaccine development capabilities, to develop prophylactic vaccines to address these diseases. The Company has leveraged its expertise and capabilities both to successfully commercialize two vaccines and to rapidly advance a broad range of vaccine candidates into and through the clinic, including candidates against Lyme disease, COVID-19 and the chikungunya virus.
Media & Investor ContactsLatitia Bachelot-FontaineVP Global Communications & European Investor RelationsM +33 (0)6 4516 7099 laetitia.bachelot-fontaine@valneva.com
Joshua Drumm, Ph.D.VP Global Investor RelationsM +001 917 815 4520joshua.drumm@valneva.com
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of Valneva, including with respect to the progress, timing, design, data read-outs, anticipated results and completion of clinical trials for VLA2001. In addition, even if the actual results or development of Valneva are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, those results or developments of Valneva may not be indicative of future results. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "could," "should," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "aims," "targets," or similar words. These forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of Valneva as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In particular, the expectations of Valneva could be affected by, among other things, uncertainties involved in the development and manufacture of vaccines, unexpected clinical trial results, unexpected regulatory actions or delays, competition in general, currency fluctuations, the impact of the global and European credit crisis, the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection, the cancellation of existing contracts, including but not limited to the HMG Supply Agreement, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the occurrence of any of which could substantially harm Valnevas business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made during this presentation will in fact be realized. Valneva is providing the information in this press release as of the date hereof and disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Attachment
Businesses with at least 100 employees will soon be required to mandate that employees get vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing. Employers are still waiting for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue an emergency temporary standard (ETS), and some key questions have yet to be answered, but employers can take certain steps now to prepare.
Here's what employers need to know.
ETS Timing
President Joe Biden announced the six-part "Path Out of thePandemic" on Sept. 9. "We're going to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by increasing the share of the workforce that is vaccinated in businesses all across America," he said.
Among other steps, the administration will require most federal employees and federal contractors to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Biden's order eliminated the option for such workers to opt for regular testing instead of vaccination. OSHA's pending ETS, however, will let private-sector employers alternatively allow "any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work," according to the White House.
When will the rule take effect? "Although the timing of when the ETS requirement will go into effect is not clear, it will likely not be a long wait," said KeithWilkes, an attorney with Hall Estill in Tulsa, Okla. The rule is expected to impact more than 80 million private-sector workers.
Ashley Brightwell, an attorney with Alston & Bird in Atlanta, said OSHA may not issue the ETS for another 30 to 60 days.
The ETS can remain in place for six months. "After that time, it must be replaced by a permanent OSHA standard, which must undergo a formal rulemaking process involving a typical notice-and-comment period," according to law firm Fisher Phillips.
Start Planning
In light of the news, Brightwell suggested that employers start encouraging all employees to get vaccinated to make compliance easier once the rule goes into effect.
Ian Carleton Schaefer, an attorney with Loeb and Loeb in New York City, said covered employers need to quickly ramp up their infrastructure in terms of policies, administration and tracking.
Employers also need to decide whether they will mandate vaccination or allow weekly testing as an alternative. "For some employers, collecting and tracking weekly test results may burden them such that they decide to adopt a mandatory vaccination policy," according to Fisher Phillips.
Notably, employers will be required to provide paid time off for workers to get vaccinated and recover from any side effects. Businesses will also have to consider the costs associated with confirming negative test results for unvaccinated employees.
"Regarding the tests themselves, while insurance may cover the cost of tests, several states have laws predating COVID-19 requiring employers to pay for mandatory medical tests or reimburse employees for any such testing," Fisher Phillips said.
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay nonexemptemployees for the time spent undergoing testing during the workday. "This likely includes required testing occurring on employees' days off if such testing is necessary to perform their jobs safely and effectively during the pandemic," according to the firm.
Be Ready for Accommodation Requests
OSHA's rule will almost certainly affirm that employers must accommodate employees who refuse to be vaccinated based on a medical exemption or sincerely held religious belief, said Paula Ketcham, an attorney with Schiff Hardi in Chicago.
Erika Todd, an attorney with Sullivan & Worcester, noted that when an employee requests a medical exemption, an employer is entitled to require a reasonable amount of verification to confirm that the employee does have a bona fide medical reason not to be vaccinated. "At the same time, employers must maintain the confidentiality of any medical information they obtain when discussing an exemption," Todd added.
She said religious objections are protected even when they are not supported by a formal religious group, and employers should seek further verification only in rare circumstances if there is a specific reason to doubt that the employee's objection is religion-based. "Notably, political and philosophical objections are not protected by federal anti-discrimination law," she said.
Mixed Reactions to Rule
In addition to potential legal risks, the main concerns employers have had in 2021 regarding vaccine mandates include resistance from employees, the potential impact on company culture and employee morale, and the possibility of losing employees in a tight labor market, according to research from law firm Littler Mendelson.
"The administration's approach will help equalize the playing field and take some pressure off employers who have been concerned about moving too fast or too early in this important area," said Devjani Mishra, an attorney with Littler in New York City.
Schaefer also said the government mandate alleviates some issues surrounding vaccination policies for covered employers that are competing for talent.
Some people have raised concerns about requiring vaccination for those with natural immunity due to a past COVID-19 infection. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, is still urging people who already had the coronavirus to get vaccinated and pointed to the results of a recent study highlighting the risk of reinfection. "The study of hundreds of Kentucky residents with previous infections through June 2021 found that those who were unvaccinated had 2.34 times the odds of reinfection compared with those who were fully vaccinated," the CDC said."The findings suggest that among people who have had COVID-19 previously, getting fully vaccinated provides additional protection against reinfection."
Legal challenges to OSHA's ETS are expected. "Many legal experts have argued that the executive order exceeds President Biden's powers under Article II of the Constitution," noted Stephanie Gaston, an attorney with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Houston.
OSHA has the authority to issue emergency temporary standards only if it can show both of the following factors:
According to the Congressional Research Service, "[I]n the nine times OSHA has issued an ETS, the courts have fully vacated or stayed the ETS in four cases and partially vacated the ETS in one case."
Questions Remain
"The details of what the ETS will include are scarce at this point, leaving many questions unanswered," Fisher Phillips said. How will the 100-employee threshold be counted? Will employers be required to collect proof of vaccination? What type of testing will be required? Will remote employees be covered?
Brightwell thinks it unlikely that the ETS will apply to remote workers under the "grave danger" requirement. If employees are not exposed to anyone in the workplace, the risk of contracting COVID-19 is not work-related.
