Sen. Richard Pan (D Sacramento), along with members of the recently-formed legislative Vaccine Work Group, recently introduced key bills to address shortages in COVID-19 testing infrastructure and misinformation related to COVID-19.
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The work group aims to facilitate coordinated action to promote vaccines and science-based public health policy in the legislature this year, and founding members include Pan, Sens. Scott Wiener (D San Francisco) and Josh Newman (D Fullerton), as well as Asms. Akilah Weber (D San Diego), Buffy Wicks (D Oakland), Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D Winters), and Evan Low (D Campbell).
On Tuesday, Pan and the work group introduced Senate Bill 1479, which would require the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to collaborate with each school district, county office of education, and charter school to create a robust, responsive, and flexible COVID-19 testing plan, which would include preschools, child care centers, and after-school programs.
The bill, contingent on a state or federal appropriation, would require CDPH to use these funds to ensure school districts have adequate resources to implement their COVID-19 testing plans for teachers, staff, and pupils to help schools reopen and keep schools operating safely for in-person learning.
Pan noted the importance of a robust COVID-19 testing infrastructure in the bills announcement.
COVID testing plans are essential to parents and schools and child care sites being confident in staying open and keeping children safe from COVID, he said. Funded school testing plans provide vital information to protect students and teachers through COVID variants and surges.
The bill has not been referred to a committee yet.
With the support of the work group, Pan also introduced SB 1018. This bill would require online platforms utilizing algorithms to publicly and transparently disclose how their algorithms rank and score content, and requires the sharing of this data with researchers.
Pan emphasized the timeliness of this bill and how important it is to address the amplification of misinformation and disinformation related to COVID-19 on online platforms.
Ultimately, we shouldnt have to wait for whistleblowers to understand how platforms have been negatively influencing our lives, including our ability to stop this pandemic that has not only killed nearly 1 million Americans, but has disabled so many people as well, he said. Transparency will allow the public to make informed decisions, and lawmakers and researchers need this necessary information so we can hold online platforms accountable and also set standards.
The bill was referred to the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday.
Pan and members of the Vaccine Work Group have also recently introduced several pieces of legislation related to COVID-19 vaccinations.
SB 871, introduced in late January, would require any student at a public or private elementary or secondary school, child care center, day nursery, nursery school, family day care home, or development center to be fully immunized against COVID-19 prior to their admission. The bill would also remove the personal belief exemption for this immunization requirement.
The bill was referred to the Senate Health and Education Committees on Wednesday.
SB 866 would authorize a minor aged 12 years or older to consent to vaccines that meet specified federal agency criteria without the consent of a parent or guardian.
The bill passed the Senate Rules Committee in a 31-6 vote, and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Registered nurse Kadie Hansen, left, and Tom Wilson pass the time waiting for clients at a free COVID-19 vaccine site on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022 at Shiloh Baptist Church in Anchorage. They said that they had administered one shot in the past three days at that site. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Getting a vaccine booster shot significantly increases protection against a COVID-19 infection especially from the omicron variant.
Despite that, only about a quarter of the Alaskans 5 and older are both vaccinated and boosted. The rate of shots also has slowed considerably in recent weeks, health providers say.
The CDC currently recommends booster shots for anyone 12 and older, five months after theyve gotten two doses of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, or two months after a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The rise of variants like omicron have translated to waning protection from peoples initial vaccine series and increased the importance of booster shots. Multiple studies have linked booster shots to fewer hospitalizations and a significant increase in protection against an omicron infection from around 30% to up to 75%.
Dr. Lisa Rabinowitz, a staff physician with the state health department, said she thinks the lower booster rate has to do with changing public health guidance, a lack of awareness about how helpful booster shots have been at warding off omicron and general COVID-19 fatigue.
[Alaska reports 1,773 COVID-19 cases over 5 days as steep downward trajectory in new infections continues]
Its been confusing, and guidance has changed often, she said.
There are also people who have had COVID-19, and may believe that they are protected from that and didnt need to get boosted which isnt true, she said. While natural immunity from an infection can give some protection against reinfection, data from the CDC has also shown that getting vaccinated after having COVID-19 significantly improves immune protection and further reduces the risk of reinfection.
Alaskas booster rate has varied by demographics, especially age, Rabinowitz said.
We definitely saw that elderly, more at-risk populations get boosted, whereas the rate has been much lower among younger, healthier people.
Younger people may not believe they need that extra protection, or are unaware of how much extra protection you can get with the booster, she said.
By Thursday, state data showed that about half of all Alaskans 65 and older a more high-risk age group were vaccinated and boosted, while just 15% hadnt received any of the three shots.
A graphic shows the vaccination status of Alaska residents as of Feb. 23, 2022. (State of Alaska)
That compares to 26% of Alaskans 5 and up whove been boosted and a third who hadnt got a shot at all.
Still, while Alaska is in the middle of the pack when it comes to its overall vaccination rate, its booster rate is actually slightly above the national average by a couple of percentage points, Rabinowitz pointed out, attributing that fact to strong public messaging about the importance of boosters.
Nationwide, about 43% of everyone who completed their initial vaccine series is eligible for a booster shot but hasnt gotten one yet, CDC data shows. In Alaska, that number is about 45%.
[US coronavirus vaccination drive bottoms out as omicron subsides]
In recent weeks, Alaskas overall rate of both booster shots and first and second doses has continued to decline. State dashboard data showed a 52% decrease in shots this week compared to the week before.
At a vaccine clinic at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Anchorage this week, nurse Kadie Hansen and her colleague Tom Wilson sat alone in an empty recreation room. The site had just one person show up to get a shot in the last three days, Hansen said.
Hansen said she thinks that stems from the fact that most people who want to get a shot have gotten one already, and that the deadline for most workplace vaccine mandates have come and gone.
Registered nurse Kimberly Wells waits for clients at a free COVID-19 vaccine site on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022 at a former Mens Warehouse at Tikhatnu Commons in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
On the other side of town, at a vaccine clinic located in Tikahtnu Commons, staff took bets on how many people would show up that day for shots.
Kimberly Wells, a nurse manager at the site, guessed nine. Colleagues guessed six and 16. By noon, just three people had stopped by.
Wells reflected on the stark difference in her work days between now and last year. There was one day last year where shed had to vaccinate 152 people in one day, all by herself.
Time definitely passes more slowly now, she said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the overall population in an examination of Alaska booster shot rates. Twenty-six percent of Alaskans age 5 and older have been boosted, not 26% of the total eligible population.
SPOKANE, Wash. The Community COVID-19 Testing Site operated by Discovery Health MD with support from Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD), currently located at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center in Spokane Valley, is closing on Monday, February 28, at 5:30 p.m. in preparation for its move to the new location. The new site is aiming to open Monday, March 7, 2022.
The drive-up testing site, located at 13414 E. Sprague Avenue in Spokane Valley, will be open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. to conduct PCR (lab-based) testing for those who are experiencing COVID-19-like symptoms or who have confirmed exposure to a positive case. Appointments can be made online. Appointments are recommended, although not required.
Discovery Health MDs Chief Growth Officer Daniel Pulse says theyre pleased to continue offering their services and expertise to the Spokane Valley area. Discovery Health MD is a Northwest company that provides COVID-19 testing and vaccination services to individuals, communities, and companies directly, and through partnership with state and local health organizations.
We have been advocating for testing in various regions around the state. We know that some areas have seen extremely high positivity rates, and our teams are motivated to do what we can to continue offering equitable access, says Pulse.
SRHDs Health Officer Dr. Francisco Velzquez explained testing is an important element in the three-prong approach to decreasing potential disease transmission.
Testing, along with vaccines and public health measures, will continue to play a critical role as we go forward, said Velzquez. COVID-19 transmission is currently on the decline, but we must remain diligent in our mitigation efforts to prevent severe disease, hospitalization and mortality.
Although Omicron rates are seeing a bit of a drop from those immediately following the holidays, local medical experts agree, testing is still the best way to keep you and your family safe. This convenient drive-thru testing facility is available in Spokane Valley if you have any symptoms or think you might have exposure.
For more information visit the testing information page in the COVID-19 section of SRHD.org or call (800) 525-0127, then press #.
Family members at a mass crematorium ground in East Delhi, India, in April 2021.Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times
A new study estimates that at least 5.2 million children around the world lost a parent or other caregiver to Covid-19 in the first 19 months of the pandemic.
Children are suffering immensely now and need our help, said Susan Hillis, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford and a lead author of the study, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet on Thursday.
The study was based on data from 20 countries, including India, the United States and Peru, and was completed by an international research team that included experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and several colleges and universities.
It warns that a child who loses a parent or a caregiver could suffer negative effects including an increased risk of poverty, sexual abuse, mental health challenges and severe stress.
An earlier study, focused on the first 13 months of the pandemic, arrived at an estimate of 1.5 million affected children. The new figure is much higher not just because it adds data for six more months, researchers say, but also because the first estimate was a significant undercount. Using updated figures on Covid-related deaths, the researchers now calculate that at least 2.7 million children lost a parent or caregiver during the first 13 months.
The new study covers data through October 2021, and does not include the latest surge in cases from the Omicron variant, which have undoubtedly added to the toll.
It took 10 years for five million children to be orphaned by H.I.V./AIDS, whereas the same number of children have been orphaned by Covid-19 in just two years, Lorraine Sherr, a professor of psychology at University College London and an author of the study, said in a statement.
Davyon Johnson, 11, from Muskogee, Okla., is one of the millions of children to have lost a parent in his case, his father, Willie James Logan, who died two days after being hospitalized with Covid in August 2021.
Its been a rocky road, Ill say it like that, Davyons mother, LaToya Johnson, said in an interview.
Davyon has dealt with the grief as best as he can, she said. His grades are still strong. Hes still eager to see friends. Still, there are days when they are both exhausted.
Up and down up and down, Ms. Johnson said of their emotions. Its him wanting to call his daddy and not being able to.
Darcey Merritt, a professor of child welfare at New York University who was not involved in the study, said the deaths of parents and caregivers would have a long, far-reaching impact on children, especially those in lower-income households.
Children of color in the United States, she added, are particularly at risk of negative consequences.
A study in the journal Pediatrics last year found that in the United States, one in every 168 American Indian or Alaska Native children, one in every 310 Black children, one in every 412 Hispanic children, and one in every 612 Asian children had lost a caregiver, compared with one in 753 white children.
The study in The Lancet found that two out of three children orphaned are between 10 and 17, and a majority of the children who lost a parent lost their father.
Juliette Unwin, a lead author of the study from Imperial College London, said in a statement that as the researchers receive more data, they expected the figures to grow 10 times higher than what is currently being reported.
The pandemic is still raging worldwide, Dr. Unwin said, which means Covid-19-related orphanhood will also continue to surge.
The Town of Riverhead will offer free at-home COVID-19 testing kits to residents throughout next week at Town Hall and at the Riverhead Senior Center.
Residents can obtain free testing kits at the Town Hall front desk and at the Riverhead Senior Center from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., according to a press release issued by the town this morning.
Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said yesterday the kits are not limited to a certain number per household.
The town received 1,200 free testing kits from Suffolk County, for distribution to town residents. About half of those were handed out during a distribution on Tuesday, mostly to senior citizens, Aguiar said.
Aguiar said the town will distribute the rest of the initial batch of test kits and has tests in reserve from the county.
Each kit contains two tests.
Theyre like $28 each, Aguiar said. And so if you test two people, or a family of four, thats a substantial amount of money we save for the public.
Riverhead Town Hall is located at 200 Howell Avenue in Riverhead. The senior center is located at 60 Shade Tree Lane in Aquebogue.
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GOV. JUSTICE DISCUSSES RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINEGov. Justice also took time out of his remarks on COVID-19 to ask West Virginians for their prayers amid escalating conflict as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine.
We offer up our prayers for those people, Gov. Justice said. Its just really sad.
We dont know the extent of what Putin really wants to do, other than hed like to put everything back together how the Soviet Union was at one time, Gov. Justice continued. We dont know what the repercussions will be yet for us in this country. But we know its not going to be good.
We need to realize we have made one whale of a mistake in this country. The pipeline should be finished in West Virginia; the Keystone Pipeline ought to be up and going. When it boils right down to it, weve got to realize theres some real bad actors out there. The United States of America could be totally energy independent and the bad actors would be minimized.
The Governor added, The Biden administration needs to step back and say this country needs to be totally energy independent. If we were, wed feel stronger today. With where we are, inflation-wise, and all the challenges we have right now, its not going to be good.
Nineteen of the remaining provisions are terminated immediately, according to a release from the governor's office.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom has lifted a majority of the state's overall emergency declaration set in place during COVID-19, but is keeping measures to continue testing and vaccinating Californians.
Since the start of the pandemic, Newsom has issued about 70 executive orders containing 561 provisions. Now, Newsom's office says just 30 will remain in effect. According to the governor's office, those that will remain are critical to the state's SMARTER plan.
Californias early and decisive measures to combat COVID-19 have saved countless lives throughout the pandemic, and as the recent Omicron surge made clear, we must remain prepared to quickly and effectively respond to changing conditions in real time, said Governor Newsom in a press release. As we move the states recovery forward, well continue to focus on scaling back provisions while maintaining essential testing, vaccination and health care system supports that ensure California has the needed tools and flexibility to strategically adapt our response for what lies ahead.
Under the order signed by the governor Friday, 19 of the remaining provisions are terminated immediately, an additional 18 will be lifted on March 31 and 15 will expire on June 30.
Seventeen of the executive actions still in effect are related to bolstering the states COVID-19 testing and vaccination programs and preventing potential strain on the health care delivery system, according to a press release.
Thirteen other provisions still in place are related to COVID workplace safety.
"(The) remaining provisions ensure COVID workplace safety standards remain aligned with the most current public health guidance and evidence and provide important flexibility to state and local agencies to administer the emergency response while the state of emergency remains open," wrote the governor's office in a press release.
Meanwhile, aside from Newsom lifting "all but 5 percent of COVID-19 related executive order provisions," he signed a proclamation ending a dozen open states of emergency relating to natural disasters dating back to 2015.
To read the governor's full announcement, click here.
People walk past artwork on the side of a shop as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Reykjavik, Iceland, September 3, 2020. REUTERS/John Sibley
Register
COPENHAGEN, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Iceland will lift all remaining COVID-19 restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit and restricted opening hours for bars, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.
"Widespread societal resistance to COVID-19 is the main route out of the epidemic," the ministry said in a statement, citing infectious disease authorities.
"To achieve this, as many people as possible need to be infected with the virus as the vaccines are not enough, even though they provide good protection against serious illness," it added.
All border restrictions would also be lifted, it said.
Iceland, with a population of some 368,000 people, has registered between 2,100 and 2,800 daily infections recently. More than 115,000 infections have been logged throughout the epidemic and 60 have died due to COVID-19.
Register
Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard and Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Kia Slade was seven months pregnant, unvaccinated, and fighting for breath, her oxygen levels plummeting, when her son came into the world last May.
A severe case of COVID pneumonia had left Slade delirious. When the intensive care team tried to place an oxygen mask on her face, she snatched it away, she recalled. Her baby's heart rate began to drop.
Slade's doctor performed an emergency cesarean section at her bedside in the intensive care unit, delivering baby Tristan 10 weeks early. He weighed just 2 pounds, 14 ounces, about half the size of small full-term baby.
But Slade wouldn't meet him until July. She was on a ventilator in a medically induced coma for eight weeks, and she developed a serious infection and blood clot while unconscious. It was only after a perilous 2 months in the hospital, during which her heart stopped twice, that Slade was vaccinated against COVID-19.
"I wish I had gotten the vaccine earlier," said Slade, 42, who remains too sick to return to work as a special education teacher in Baltimore. Doctors "kept pushing me to get vaccinated, but there just wasn't enough information out there for me to do it."
A year ago, there was little to no vaccine safety data for pregnant people like Slade, because they had been excluded from clinical trials run by Pfizer, Moderna, and other vaccine makers.
Lacking data, health experts were unsure and divided about how to advise expectant parents. Although U.S. health officials permitted pregnant people to be vaccinated, the World Health Organization in January 2021 actually discouraged them from doing so; it later reversed that recommendation.
The uncertainty led many women to delay vaccination, and only about two-thirds of the pregnant people who have been tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were fully vaccinated as of Feb. 5, leaving many expectant moms at a high risk of infection and life-threatening complications.
More than 29,000 pregnant people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and 274 have died, according to the CDC.
"There were surely women who were hospitalized because there wasn't information available to them," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Vaccine developers say that pregnant people who have special health needs and risks were excluded from clinical trials to protect them from potential side effects of novel technologies, including the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines and formulations made with cold viruses, such as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
But a KHN analysis also shows that pregnant people were left behind because including them in vaccine studies would have complicated and potentially delayed the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to the broader population.
A growing number of women's health researchers and advocates say that excluding pregnant people and the months-long delay in recommending that they be immunized helped fuel widespread vaccine hesitancy in this vulnerable group.
"Women and their unborn fetuses are dying of COVID infection," said Dr. Jane Van Dis, an OB-GYN at the University of Rochester Medical Center who has treated many patients like Slade. "Our failure as a society to vaccinate women in pregnancy will be remembered by the children and families who lost their mothers to this disease."
At the time COVID-19 vaccines were being developed, scientists had very little experience using mRNA vaccines in pregnant women, said Dr. Jacqueline Miller, a senior vice president involved in vaccine research at Moderna.
"When you study anything in pregnant women, you have two patients, the mom and the unborn child," Miller said. "Until we had more safety data on the platform, it wasn't something we wanted to undertake."
But Offit notes that vaccines have a strong record of safety in pregnancy and sees no reason to have excluded pregnant people. None of the vaccines currently in use including the chickenpox and rubella vaccines, which contain live viruses have been shown to harm fetuses, he said. Doctors routinely recommend that pregnant people receive pertussis and flu vaccinations.
Offit, the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine, said that some concerns about vaccines stem from commercial, not medical, interests. Drugmakers don't want to risk that their product will be blamed for any problems occurring in pregnant people, even if coincidental, he said.
"These companies don't want bad news," Offit said.
In the United States, health officials typically would have told expectant mothers not to take a vaccine that was untested during pregnancy, said Offit, a member of a committee that advises the FDA on vaccines.
Due to the urgency of the pandemic, health agencies instead permitted pregnant people to make up their own minds about vaccines without recommending them.
Women's medical associations were also hampered by the lack of data. Neither the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists nor the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine actively encouraged pregnant people to be vaccinated until July 30, after the first real-world vaccine studies had been published. The CDC followed suit in August.
"If we had had this data in the beginning, we would have been able to vaccinate more women," said Dr. Kelli Burroughs, the department chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital near Houston.
Yet anti-vaccine groups wasted no time in scaring pregnant people, flooding social media with misinformation about impaired fertility and harm to the fetus.
In the first few months after the COVID-19 vaccines were approved, some doctors were ambivalent about recommending them, and some still advise pregnant patients against vaccination.
An estimated 67% of pregnant people today are fully vaccinated, compared with about 89% of people 65 and older, another high-risk group, and 65% of Americans overall. Vaccination rates are lower among minorities, with 65% of expectant Hispanic mothers and 53% of pregnant African Americans fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Vaccination is especially important during pregnancy, due to increased risks of hospitalization, ICU admission and mechanical ventilation, Burroughs said. A study released in February from the National Institutes of Health found that pregnant people with a moderate to severe COVID-19 infection also were more likely to have a C-section, deliver preterm, or develop a postpartum hemorrhage.
Black moms such as Slade were already at higher risk of maternal and infant mortality before the pandemic, due to higher underlying risks, unequal access to health care, and other factors. COVID-19 has only magnified those risks, said Burroughs, who has persuaded reluctant patients by revealing that she had a healthy pregnancy and child after being vaccinated.
Slade said she has never opposed vaccines and had no hesitation about receiving other vaccines while pregnant. But she said she "just wasn't comfortable" with COVID-19 shots.
"If there had been data out there saying the COVID-19 shot was safe, and that nothing would happen to my baby and there was no risk of birth defects, I would have taken it," said Slade, who has had Type 2 diabetes for 12 years.
Government scientists at the NIH were concerned about the risk of COVID-19 to pregnant people from the very beginning and knew that expectant moms needed vaccines as much or more than anyone else, said Dr. Larry Corey, a leader of the COVID-19 Prevention Network, which coordinated COVID-19 vaccine trials for the federal government.
But including pregnant volunteers in the larger vaccine trials could have led to interruptions and delays, Corey said. Researchers would have had to enroll thousands of pregnant volunteers to achieve statistically robust results that weren't due to chance, he said.
Pregnancy can bring on a wide range of complications: gestational diabetes, hypertension, anemia, bleeding, blood clots, or problems with the placenta, for example. Up to 20% of people who know they're pregnant miscarry. Because researchers would have been obliged to investigate any medical problem to make sure it wasn't caused by one of the COVID-19 vaccines, including pregnant people might have meant having to hit pause on those trials, Corey said.
With death tolls from the pandemic mounting, "we had a mission to do this as quickly and as thoroughly as possible," Corey said. Making COVID-19 vaccines available within a year "saved hundreds of thousands of lives."
The first data on COVID-19 vaccine safety in pregnancy was published in April, when the CDC released an analysis of nearly 36,000 vaccinated pregnant people who had enrolled in a registry called V-safe, which allows users to log the dates of their vaccinations and any subsequent symptoms.
Later research showed that COVID-19 vaccines weren't associated with increased risk of miscarriage or premature delivery.
Dr. Brenna Hughes, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' COVID-19 expert group, agrees that adding pregnant people to large-scale COVID-19 vaccine and drug trials may have been impractical. But researchers could have launched parallel trials of pregnant women, once early studies showed the vaccines were safe in humans, she said.
"Would it have been hard? Everything with COVID is hard," Hughes said. "But it would have been feasible."
The FDA requires that researchers perform additional animal studies called developmental and reproductive toxicity studies before testing vaccines in pregnant people. Although these studies are essential, they take five to six months, and weren't completed until late 2020, around the time the first COVID-19 vaccines were authorized for adults, said Dr. Emily Erbelding, director of microbiology and infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of NIH.
Pregnancy studies "were an afterthought," said Dr. Irina Burd, director of Johns Hopkins' Integrated Research Center for Fetal Medicine and a professor of gynecology and obstetrics. "They should have been done sooner."
The NIH is conducting a study of pregnant and postpartum people who decided on their own to be vaccinated, Erbelding said. The study is due to be completed by July 2023.
Janssen and Moderna are also conducting studies in pregnant people, both due to be completed in 2024.
Pfizer scientists encountered problems when they initiated a clinical trial, which would have randomly assigned pregnant people to receive either a vaccine or placebo. Once vaccines were widely available, many patients weren't willing to take a chance on being unvaccinated until after delivery.
Pfizer has stopped recruiting patients and has not said whether it will publicly report any data from the trial.
Hughes said vaccine developers need to include pregnant people from the very beginning.
"There is this notion of protecting pregnant people from research," Hughes said. "But we should be protecting patients through research, not from research."
Slade still regrets being deprived of time with her children while she fought the disease.
Being on a ventilator kept her from spending those early weeks with her newborn, or from seeing her 9-year-old daughter, Zoe.
Even when Slade was finally able to see her son, she wasn't able to tell him she loved him or sing a lullaby, or even talk at all, due to a breathing tube in her throat.
Today, Slade is a strong advocate of COVID-19 vaccinations, urging her friends and family to get their shots to avoid suffering the way she has.
Slade had to relearn to walk after being bedridden for weeks. Her many weeks on a ventilator may have contributed to her stomach paralysis, which often causes intense pain, nausea and even vomiting when she eats or drinks. Slade weighs 50 pounds less today than before she became pregnant and has resorted to going to the emergency room when the pain is unbearable. "Most days, I'm just miserable," Slade said.
Her family suffered, as well. Like many babies born prematurely, Tristan, now nearly 9 months old and crawling, receives physical therapy to strengthen his muscles. At 15 pounds, Tristan is largely healthy, although his doctor said he has symptoms of asthma.
Slade said she would like to attend family counseling with Zoe, who rarely complains and tends to keep her feelings to herself. Slade knows her illness must have been terrifying for her little girl.
"The other day she was talking to me," Slade said, "and she said, 'You know, I almost had to bury you.'"
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
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Over a thousand Texas foster children some as young as 5 years old have been allowed to refuse a COVID-19 vaccine, despite not typically being allowed to make their own medical decisions, according to a new report from protective services watchdogs.
Around 40% of the foster children in the states care who are 5 and older have not received a COVID-19 vaccine despite being eligible. This is due, in part, to guidance from the Department of Family and Protective Services that may be confusing, leading to caseworkers unnecessarily querying even very young children as to whether they would agree to vaccination, court-appointed monitors say.
Nearly half of those children have been identified as having medical needs, meaning they could more easily contract COVID-19.
The monitors detailed how guidance has shifted and that many caseworkers seemed to be unaware that they were allowed to get children vaccinated or thought it required a judges order.
The deference to foster youth, even young children, seems to go against recent guidance from Gov. Greg Abbott on health care for transgender children. On Tuesday, Abbott instructed DFPS to investigate reports of children receiving gender-affirming medical care as child abuse because they are not deemed old enough to make medical decisions, citing an opinion from Texas Attorney Ken Paxton.
Generally, the age of majority is eighteen in Texas, Paxton wrote in his opinion. [Children] are considered by the State in most regards to be without legal capacity to consent, contract, vote, or otherwise.
The DFPS policy on the COVID-19 vaccine says unlike other routine vaccines, the COVID vaccine is currently authorized by the FDA for emergency use authorization, which means getting it is voluntary and the youth should agree (if able) in addition to the medical consenter.
It is also possible that DFPS has confused requirements related to a childs assent to participation in medical research or drug trials with language in the federal statute allowing emergency authorization of a drug or medical procedure, the monitors wrote.
In a response to monitors queries, DFPS officials pointed to federal health code that ensures patients be made aware when treatments are under emergency authorization. The monitors said the code doesnt apply here.
This language requires a medical professional to provide medical consenters with information about the products emergency authorization to ensure informed consent; however, it does not empower those without capacity to become a medical consenter nor does it include any requirements related to a minors assent to the treatment, the monitors wrote.
The report on foster care vaccinations was prepared by court monitors who act as watchdogs of the states foster care system as part of a long-running lawsuit against Texas. It details young children being allowed to refuse the vaccine, oftentimes seemingly nonchalantly or with little resistance from caseworkers.
Between April 20, 2020, and Feb. 17, 2022, there were 22 children in permanent managing conservatorship who were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, the monitors noted. Permanent managing conservatorship means that a judge appoints DFPS, a foster parent or another individual to be legally responsible for a child without adopting them.
The monitors noted that in several examples, the refusal seemed to reflect young childrens general reluctance or fear of shots rather than a reluctance for the COVID-19 vaccine specifically.
Earlier this month, a foster child who recently turned 8 rejected the vaccine because it was a shot, according to the caseworker who spoke to her.
I asked her if she wanted to get the vaccine, the caseworker recounted, according to the report. She said, isnt it a shot? I said yes, it is a shot, but it will help you stay healthy from getting sick with COVID. I said you can say yes you will take the shot, or you can say no. She said well if I get to choose, I say no. I said OK that is fine. You can change your mind in the future if you want to.
The court monitors report comes a month after a hearing in the federal lawsuit against Texas foster care system. State officials during the hearing revealed there is no mandate for a COVID-19 vaccine among foster youth and some expressed difficulties in getting children to be vaccinated because they refuse. DFPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During the January hearing, U.S. District Judge Janis Jack dismissed officials accounts of children refusing the vaccine and noted that foster children have to be immunized for other diseases such as mumps or measles. She called the lack of COVID-19 vaccination negligence.
This continued, unconstitutional and unsafe treatment of these children is just getting to everybody thats involved in this case, Jack said.
The DFPS website outlines its policy on vaccinations for youth in CPS custody. Unless there is known objection by the parent or person with legal authority over the child, the caseworker must ensure that children in DFPS conservatorship are immunized against disease, the website states.
The department states its vaccine schedule is in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP recommends COVID-19 vaccination for all children 5 years old and older who do not have contraindications.
