The Fifth Circuits aggressive behavior in the vaccine case almost pales in comparison to what the court has done with abortion. In September the court rejected pleas from abortion providers in Texas to put the vigilante law Senate Bill 8 on hold to enable the clinics to litigate their case against it. The clinics emergency motion came before the same three judges who later ruled in the OSHA vaccine case.
The panels 19-page unsigned opinion in the case, Whole Womans Health v. Jackson, analyzed the obstacles the private plaintiffs faced in finding someone to sue over a law that purports to insulate all state officials from responsibility for administering a flagrantly unconstitutional ban on abortion after only six weeks of pregnancy. In rejecting the clinics motion, the panel declared primly that we must respect the limits of our jurisdiction. The clinics claims against a Texas state court judge and court clerk were specious, the court said.
The federal government then brought its own suit against Texas on the completely different theory that S.B. 8 was an affront to the sovereign interests of the United States and to the supremacy of federal law. A federal district judge, Robert Pitman, granted the preliminary injunction the federal government sought in a 113-page opinion that meticulously dismantled all of the states objections to the courts jurisdiction.
A different Fifth Circuit three-judge panel, by a vote of 2 to 1, promptly blocked Judge Pitmans order, explaining in a single sentence of a single paragraph that it was granting the states request for the stay for the reasons stated in Whole Womans Health v. Jackson. How could this be? The reasons stated in rejecting the private plaintiffs case had nothing to do with the federal governments suit, as the Solicitor Generals Office told the Supreme Court in its application to vacate the Fifth Circuits stay.
Those reasons do not apply to this very different suit, the acting solicitor general, Brian Fletcher, explained to the justices. Sovereign immunity forced the private plaintiffs in Whole Womans Health to sue individual state officers, and this court and the Fifth Circuit questioned whether those officers were proper defendants. This suit does not raise those questions because it was brought against the state of Texas itself, and the state has no immunity from suits by the United States. The Fifth Circuit ignored that distinction, which refutes the courts only justification for the stay. When the justices refused to lift the stay, instead setting the case for the argument that took place on Nov. 1, Justice Sonia Sotomayor echoed the solicitor generals point in a powerful dissenting opinion.
There is no conceivable excuse for the Fifth Circuits failure to explain itself or for the Supreme Courts failure to call the court to account for its dereliction of duty. But so far, the Fifth Circuit is winning. S.B. 8 is still in effect.
Lets not forget that this is the same court that in 2018, in a challenge brought by an abortion provider, June Medical Services, upheld the Louisiana law that required doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. It was bad enough that this was a requirement that, in the political and religious climate in Louisiana, doctors could not meet. What was really wrong with the Fifth Circuits decision was that two years earlier, in Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt, the Supreme Court invalidated an identical law from Texas. In that case, the Supreme Court overturned a Fifth Circuit decision concluding that the admitting privileges requirement, despite having resulted in the closing of nearly half the abortion clinics in Texas, did not impose an undue burden on womens access to abortion.
This essay is adapted from A Plague Upon Our House by Scott Atlas, due out from Bombardier Books December 7.
It was February 2020, and news accounts had been describing increasingly alarming information about a deadly new virus emanating from Wuhan, China. Apart from my general concern about the spread of the infection, I was confused about some of the basic numbers being aired. The overall message coming from the World Health Organization (WHO) seemed to have obvious flaws. The extremely high risk estimates seemed very misleading. Even worstthe reported fatality rates were based only on patients who were sick enough to seek medical care rather than on the undoubtedly much larger population of infected individuals. I was stunned that this basic methodological flaw was being overlooked by almost everyone, while the resulting fatality rate of 3.4 percent was highlighted throughout the media. Every legitimate medical scientist should have called that out. Their silence was puzzling.
In the United States and throughout the world, a naive discussion about statistical models ensued. To an extraordinary and unprecedented extent, these epidemiological models were featured front and center in news coverage, with no perspective on the models' usefulness. Reminiscent of other legendary frenzies in history, like the tulip bulb mania or the tech stock bubble, hypothetical extreme-risk scenarios went seemingly unchallenged and were given absolute credence.
At the same time, common sense and well-established principles of medicine were being ignored. Every second-year medical student knew that the elderly were almost certainly the most vulnerable group of people, since they were virtually always at highest risk of death and serious consequences from respiratory infections. Yet this was not stressed. To the contrary, the implication of reports and the public faces of official expertise implied that everyone was equally in danger. Even the initial evidence showed that elderly, frail people with preexisting comorbiditiesconditions that weakened their natural immunological defenseswere the ones at highest risk of death. This was a feature shared by other respiratory viruses, including seasonal influenza. The one unusual feature of this virus was the fact that children had an extraordinarily low risk. Yet this positive and reassuring news was never emphasized. Instead, with total disregard of the evidence of selective risk consistent with other respiratory viruses, public health officials recommended draconian isolation of everyone.
The architects of the American lockdown strategy were Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx. With Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the CDC, they were the most influential medical members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
The task force quickly expanded to include a new chairman, Vice President Mike Pence. The White House also announced that Birx would be the task force's coordinator. She had worked in the State Department as the U.S. AIDS coordinator under the Obama and Trump administrationshence she was often addressed by the honorific "ambassador." The task force ultimately included representation from numerous federal agencies concerned with health, science, national emergencies and logistics, the economy and many other relevant concerns.
The task force dealt with a number of issues at its origin. Since the country had not been well prepared for a pandemic, one of the primary tasks was to develop adequate testinga key public health measure in early infectious disease outbreaks. The second main set of tasks centered around the production and logistics of supportive medical equipment, including ventilators, personal protective supplies for hospitals and extra beds and personnel to accommodate sick patients anticipated to overwhelm the system.
Dr. Birx, Dr. Redfield and Dr. Faucioften called "the nation's top expert in infectious disease"dominated all discussions about the health and medical aspects of the emerging pandemic. One thing was very clear: all three were cut from the same cloth. First, they were all bureaucrats, with a background in various government agencies. Second, they shared a long history in HIV/AIDS as a public health crisis. That was problematic, because HIV couldn't be more different from SARS2 in its biology, its amenability to testing and contact tracing, its spread and the implications of those facts for its control. Indeed, the three of them spent many years focusing on the development of a vaccine, rather than treatment, for HIV/AIDSa vaccine that still does not exist.
It's also worth noting Dr. Fauci's history in regard to AIDS. He created headlines for his alarmist speculations in his 1983 JAMA editorial that AIDS could be transmitted by "routine close contact, as within a family household." It had already been known that transmission happened via fluids through blood or sexual contact. Less than two months later, on June 26 in The Baltimore Sun, Fauci publicly contradicted his own explosive claim: "It is absolutely preposterous to suggest that AIDS can be contracted through normal social contact like being in the same room with someone or sitting on a bus with them. The poor gays have received a very raw deal on this." That seemed like quite a flip-flop, with no new evidence or explanation givenmore reminiscent of a politician than a reliable scientist.
Most others on the task force were juggling several concerns or had no medical background. This was one more responsibility added to their portfolios, so they deferred to those deemed medical experts. Drs. Birx and Fauci commandeered federal policy under President Trump and publicly advocated for a total societal shutdown. Instead of focusing on protecting the most vulnerable, their illogical and extraordinarily blunt responsedespite its predictable, wide-ranging harmswas instituted as though it were simple common sense.
Over those first several weeks, fear had taken hold of the public. Media commentators and even policy experts, many of whom had no expertise on health care, were filling the airwaves and opinion pages with naive and incorrect predictions. This misinformation was going unchecked, and was indeed repeatedly endorsed and sensationalized. Some whom I had previously considered among my smartest colleagues and friends expressed great confusion and a striking absence of logic in analyzing what was happening.
I asked myself time and again, "Where are the critical thinkers?"
After more than 15 years a health policy researcher and decades in medical science and data analysis, I had never seen such flawed thinking. I was bewildered at the lack of logic, the absence of common sense and the reliance on fundamentally flawed science. Suddenly, computer modelers and people without any perspective about clinical illnesses were dominating the airwaves. Along with millions of other Americans, I began witnessing unprecedented responses from those in power and nonscientific recommendations by public health spokespeople: societal lockdowns including business and school closures, stay-at-home restrictions on individual movements, and arbitrary decrees by local, state, and federal governments.
These recommendations were not just based on panic; they were responsible for generating even more panic. COVID rapidly became the most important health policy crisis in a century.
Scott W. Atlas, M.D. is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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Is a mandate a law? How will Biden's vaccine mandate be enforced?
Republican governors have threatened lawsuits, but the employers affected by the mandate hold the most ground to sue.
Staff video, USA TODAY
The U.S. reached an encouraging milestoneWednesday with 80% of Americans ages 12 and older having received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, President Joe Biden'scoronavirus response coordinator said.
Jeff Zients, speaking at a White House briefing,estimated that in the last 10 days at least 2.6 million kids ages 5-11 have received their first shot, about 10% of the children that age in the country. He said it took about 50 days to reach 10% of adults, who make up a much larger number.
"We know there is more work to do," Zients said. "But these milestones represent critical progress and shows we are on the right track in our fight against the virus."
The U.S. will invest billions of dollars into vaccine manufacturing capacity with the goal of producing at least one billion doses a year, Zients said.The goal is to be prepared to roll out a vaccine for future pathogens within nine months of an outbreak, hesaid. The investment, first reported in the New York Times,calls for the government to partner with industry to address immediate vaccine needs at home and abroad and to prepare for future pandemics.
Zients said the U.S. alreadyhas provided 250 million vaccine doses to 110 countries "for free, no strings attached."
Also in the news:
A Los Angeles County couple who cut off their tracking bracelets and fled after being convicted of stealing $20 million in COVID-19 relief funds were sentenced in absentiato years in federal prison.Richard Ayvazyan, 43, was sentenced to 17 years and his wife, Marietta Terabelian, 37, got six years, according to a statement from the U.S. attorneys office. They remain fugitives.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said on its website that it has "suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement'' of President Joe Biden's mandate that companies with 100 employees or more require COVID vaccination or testing. Biden's order has been stayed by a U.S. court of appeals.
"Dancing With The Stars"judgeDerek Houghhas tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the show's finale.
A health clinic in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Antioch gave 14 children under age 12 the wrong dose of the COVID-19 vaccineover the weekend, raising a furor among parents.
Today's numbers:The U.S. has recorded more than 47 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than767,000 deaths,accordingtoJohns Hopkins Universitydata. Global totals: More than 254.8million cases and 5.1 million deaths. More than 195.6 million Americans 58.9% of the populationare fully vaccinated,according to theCDC.
What we're reading:Its time to reassess expectations for reading skills of children whose early learning was disrupted by the pandemic. And thats OK, expertssay.
Keep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more?Sign up forUSA TODAY's Coronavirus Watch newsletterto receive updates directly to your inbox, andjoin ourFacebook group.
For much of the pandemic, some Americans fearful of contracting COVID-19 have steered clear of elevators and opted for the stairs. Arecent report suggests elevators likely aren't a high source of coronavirus transmission.
Purdue University researchers simulated airborne particle exposure for people riding a typical elevator with a person who is infected with COVID-19, according to the study published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Building and Environment and commissioned by Otis Elevator.
Researchers ran seven simulations that analyzed different airflow directions and ventilation rates.In each simulation, the elevator began at the ground floor with six passengers and made two stops at the 10th and 20th floors before reaching the 35th floor. The person infected with COVID-19 made the whole trip to the top floor, but in one simulation, the individualcoughed upon entering the elevator.
Researchers determined that due to the short trip duration and high ventilation rate, there is low risk of COVID-19 transmission in elevators. Although the study analyzed particle concentration, air flow and exposure, study authors say more research is needed to account for other factors and one should not neglect the impact of exposure.
Adrianna Rodriguez
Michigan catapulted Tuesday to theworst COVID-19 hot spot in the nation, as the seven-day case rate rose to 503.8 per 100,000 residents, according to the CDC.Cases are rising in 33 states, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Cases for the week ending Monday were at 584,449, up 15% from a recent low in the week ending Oct. 26.
Michigan hospitals say they're feeling the pressure as the number of COVID-19 patients has climbed nearly 50% in the last month from 2,097 admitted Oct. 18 to 3,082 on Monday,according to state data.
"We have both this stark surge of COVID-19 patients, but we also have hospitals that have been dealing with staffing challenges and staffing shortages, as well as high volumes of non-COVID patients,"said John Karasinski, a spokesman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, which represents all 133 community hospitals in the state.
That means potentially long waits at emergency rooms, hospitals that have to postpone non-emergency medical procedures and some that can't accept new patient transfers, he said.Most COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths both in Michigan and nationwide are among the unvaccinated.
Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press
Moderna has once again asked the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of itsCOVID-19 booster shot for all U.S. adults, just as Pfizer is expected to get such clearance this week.
As Moderna noted in a statement Wednesday, the FDA has already granted its booster authorization for seniors 65 and older, for the immunocompromised andfor those whose living or work conditions may put them at high risk of exposure to the virus. But the agency has yet to clear the Moderna booster for everybody ages 18 and older.
Also Wednesday, Moderna requested authorization fromHealth Canada for its COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6-11.
A physician has resigned from Houston Methodistdays after the hospital suspended her and accused her ofspreading misinformation about COVID-19 on social media.
The hospital temporarily revoked Dr. Mary Bowdens hospital privileges Friday, citing unprofessional behavior" after Bowden repeatedly decried vaccine mandates and promoted ivermectin, the anti-parasitic drug that federal health officials have not approved for treatingthe virus.
In her resignation letter she describedvaccination as an "important tool" in the pandemic fight. Bowden, an ears, nose and throat specialist,denies spreading misinformationbut said doctors "should pay more attention to medications such as ivermectin."
The FDA in a September notice wrote that "currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19." The agency said it hadreceived "multiple reports" of patients who have required medical attention after self-medicating with ivermectin. Clinical trials were ongoing.
A second set of states has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers.The most recent suit, dated Monday, was filed in Louisiana on behalf of 12 states and comes less than a week after another lawsuit challenging the rule wasfiled in Missourirepresenting 10 states.
Both lawsuits say the vaccine mandate threatens to drive away health care workers who don't want toget vaccinated at a time when such workers are badly needed. They also contend the rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services violates federal law and unconstitutionally encroaches on states' powers.The Biden administration has not yet filed responses in either of the suits.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Fridayblocked a broader Biden administration vaccine mandate that businesses with more than 100 workers require employees to be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or wear masks and be tested weekly for COVID-19.
The pandemic has spurred many workers to reevaluate their livesand the role work plays in them, leading some to set fresh boundaries,find new jobs or maintain the side gigs that got them through the shutdowns and layoffs.Nearly sixin 10 American workersin an October survey by job search site LinkedInsaid they had gone through acareer awakening during the COVID-19 pandemic, whether it was a desire for better work-life balance, deciding to pursue apromotion or redefining their meaning of success.
The survey also found a majority of American workers who say the pandemic has altered the way they feel about their career.
"Were seeing that lack of fulfillment, motivating people to make changes, whether theyre looking for a new job, a new career or picking up a side hustle,'' says Catherine Fisher, LinkedIn's career expert.
Charisse Jones
Federal authorities are charging a Texas woman with interfering with an aircraft after a clash over a mask duringa flight from Alaska to San Francisco. Debby Dutton faces up to20 years if convicted.
According to the criminal complaint, Dutton and her husband were passengers on board aUnited Airlines flight June 29 whena flight attendant noticed the face mask being worn by Dutton's husband, who was asleep, had fallen off. When the flight attendant tapped the man's shoulder and asked him to put his mask back on, authorities say Dutton began shouting and pushing the flight attendant.
Dutton is being charged with one count of interference of a flight crew or attendants by assault,threator intimidation.
Jordan Mendoza
Contributing: The Associated Press
The first lady and Ciara will hold a conversation aimed at encouraging children ages 5 to 11 years old to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, part of Biden's ongoing work toward promoting child vaccinations. The conversation, a White House official told CNN, will be shared across Ciara and the White House's social media platforms. Ciara, the first official noted, has an audience of 58 million followers on social media.
The Grammy-winning artist, who is married to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, was spotted with her three children -- son Win, 1, daughter Sienna, 4, and son Future, 7 -- posing for a photo outside the West Wing.
Later, the group was seen standing on a balcony with the first lady to watch President Joe Biden's White House South Lawn helicopter departure for a trip to Detroit. The President jogged over to greet them before boarding Marine One.
After the meeting, Ciara said she was hoping to educate more people through her visit.
"I think, you know, being educated in this process is really important, because I think that will make a difference for parents and them feeling more comfortable to take a leap of faith basically," Ciara told reporters, adding that Future was vaccinated for Covid-19 just two days ago.
"He walked in, excited and a little nervous, but he was excited, because a lot of his classmates have gotten vaccinated," Ciara said. "So, you know, it was really cool to be on that journey with him, being a mom and you know, seeing it through his eyes, I think, was amazing as well. And I think the ultimate goal was to end this thing, you know, and for us all to feel more safe and how to add a layer protection."
US child vaccine rates have accelerated since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky endorsed a recommendation to vaccinate children ages 5-11 against Covid-19 with Pfizer's two-dose course earlier this month.
And there has been progress: the White House estimates by the end of Wednesday, about 10% of children ages 5 to 11, or 2.6 million children, will have received their first Covid-19 vaccine shot, according to White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients.
The first lady is in the midst of a nationwide child vaccine effort, making multiple trips and appearances, including a visit to a Children's National medical clinic later Wednesday, to encourage parents and guardians to get their children vaccinated.
CNN's Donald Judd contributed to this report.
The Louisiana Department of Health is partnering with The Links, Incorporateds La Capitale and Baton Rouge chapters as well as other community partners to host a free, family-friendly COVID-19 vaccination event this Sunday, November 21 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Quarters-Endless Entertainment, 4530 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd. in Baton Rouge.
Similar to what was seen in adult vaccine trials, the vaccine is nearly 91% effective in preventing COVID-19 amongchildren ages 5-11 years. Community-based vaccination events make vaccines more widely accessible and remain an important component of fighting COVID-19 in Louisiana.
Currently, the CDC reports that more than 48% of Louisianans are fully vaccinated against COVID and nearly 53%, about 2.5 million people, have taken at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, more than 118,000 children in Louisiana have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Frequently asked questions
Where and how do I get my child vaccinated?
What is the risk of COVID-19 to children?
Why should you consider getting your child vaccinated?
Vaccination, along with other preventative measures, can protect children from COVID-19 using the safe and effective vaccines already recommended for use in adolescents and adults in the United States. The most common side effect was a sore arm.
COVID-19 vaccines have undergone and will continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history.Vaccinatingchildrenwill help protect them from getting COVID-19 and therefore reducing their risk of severedisease, hospitalizations, or developing long-term COVID-19 complications.
Getting your children vaccinated can help protect them against COVID-19, as well as reduce disruptions to in-person learning and activities by helping curb community transmission.
What if you have more questions?
Families can call the COVID-19 Vaccine Hotline at 1-855-453-0774 to find a provider in their area and to speak to medical professionals with clinical experience who can help answer their questions.
After being eligible for two weeks, approximately 1.2 percent of children aged 5 to 11 in Alabama have received Pfizers lower dose COVID-19 vaccine, according to data from the Alabama Department of Public Health.
The lower percentage of younger children receiving the vaccine mirrors Alabamas lower overall vaccination rate across all ages. The state has the fourth-lowest percentage of fully vaccinated residents in the nation at 45 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Georgia, by comparison, 4.4 percent of children aged 5 to 9 are vaccinated (the states tracker categorizes children by age differently than Alabama) while 29.3 percent of kids between 1o and 14 are vaccinated, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
The only vaccine approved for younger children is the lower dose of the Pfizer vaccine, which requires two shots to become fully vaccinated.
Alabama has vaccinated more younger children than neighboring Mississippi, however, where just .2 percent of children aged 5 to 17 are vaccinated against COVID, and Tennessee, where .7 percent of kids 5 to 11 received vaccination.
The percentage of residents vaccinated in Alabama rises in older age categories, however. Nearly half of Alabamians aged 25 to 49 are vaccinated. Just more than 81 percent of those between 65 and 74 are vaccinated while 86.5 percent of Alabamians 75 and older are vaccinated, according to ADPHs data.
The White House on Wednesday said approximately 10 percent of the nations 5-to-11-year-olds have received a dose of the Pfizer vaccine, totaling more than 2.6 million of those younger children.
While children tend to have better outcomes after contracting COVID, severe illness, long-term health impacts and death are still possible. COVID-19 is the eighth leading cause of death for children, Dr. David Kimberlin, co-director of UAB and Childrens of Alabamas Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, said recently.
The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly endorses vaccine in five to 11-year-olds, as well as 12 through 17-year-olds. The Infectious Disease Society of America strongly endorses vaccination of pediatric and adolescent patients. The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society strongly endorses vaccination of pediatric and adolescent patients. This is something across the board thats recommended, Kimberlin said.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has made vaccinations front and center for its holiday safety recommendations.
The CDC said the best way to protect everyone, regardless of age, is getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
To protect people not yet eligible, such as those under the age of 5, the agency said making sure everyone around them is vaccinated is key.
So when is your last chance to get fully vaccinated for the holidays?
For Thanksgiving, its too late.
Fully vaccinated is defined as two weeks after your second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine and two weeks after your Johnson and Johnson shot.
There is time to be fully vaccinated by Christmas if you opt for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. You can get full protection from the one-dose regimen if youre vaccinated by Dec. 10. That will give just enough time to build up enough immunity for Christmas Eve.
For those opting for the Pfizer vaccine, the first dose cut off for Christmas Eve would be Friday, Nov. 19. That would put your second dose at Dec. 10 making you fulling vaccinated on Dec. 24.
Modernas second dose is administered 28 days after the first. Even if you got your first dose as early as Friday, Nov. 19, you wouldnt be fully vaccinated by Christmas, but you would be pretty close to getting there.
Some protection is better than nothing at all.
If youre not fully vaccinated, the CDC recommended wearing a well-fitted mask in an indoor setting. If you are vaccinated but live in a high transmission area, CDC officials recommend also wearing a mask.
The CDC noted outdoor settings were safer than indoor.
The CDC noted that if someone in your household has a weakened immune system, is at increased risk for severe disease, or is unvaccinated, it might still be a good idea to wear a mask even if youre vaccinated.
SAGINAW, MI Thirty-seven children between the ages of 5 and 11 were vaccinated at the first Saginaw-based clinic scheduled outside of traditional school hours, officials said.
Great Lakes Bay Health Centers hosted the event the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 17, at its facility at 229 Gallagher in Saginaw.
The vaccination event featured prizes, gift cards and giveaways for children. Even the medical kits took on a kid-friendly feel: Staff used small Hulk-themed bandages to cover the injection punctures on each childs shoulder.
Health care providers across the U.S. earlier this month began vaccinating children from ages 5 to 11 after officials authorized COVID-19 vaccines for the age group.
In studies of approximately 3,100 children, the vaccine was found to be 90.7% effective in preventing COVID-19 in people ages 5 to 11. No serious side effects have been detected, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
To answer some of the most frequently asked questions related to youth vaccinations, MLive hosted a live chat last week with a pair of experts in the field.
Reporter Justin P. Hicks was joined by Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive for the state of Michigan, and Dr. Rosemary Olivero, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital in Grand Rapids.
Below is a video of their talk:
Related news:
Why should kids get vaccinated against COVID-19, and other questions answered by Michigan doctors
COVID vaccine side effects: Most common reactions for kids ages 5 to 11, according to FDA
Michigan reports 2-day total of 14,561 new COVID cases and 242 deaths on Wednesday, Nov. 17
WASHINGTON Right-wing politicians resistance to vaccine mandates is extending far beyond Covid-19 immunizations, a startling new development that carries vast implications for the future of public health.
In Idaho, a lawmaker introduced a bill that would define vaccine mandates of any kind as a form of assault. In Florida, a prominent state senator has called for a review of all vaccine requirements, including those for immunizations that have enjoyed wide public acceptance for decades, like polio and the measles, mumps, and rubella shot. And in Montana, the Republican governor recently signed into law a new bill that forbids businesses, including hospitals, from enforcing any vaccination requirements as a condition of employment.
The bills represent the latest wave of resistance to the Biden administrations push to impose Covid-19 vaccine mandates for nearly all Americans. But the new, across-the-board revolt against vaccine requirements of any kind, experts told STAT, could begin to reverse a century of progress against diseases that, thanks to vaccines, are afterthoughts to most Americans.
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If you [challenge] all of the childhood vaccinations that are required, we could be in a really serious situation with outbreaks of diseases that long ago should have been eliminated in our society. We just cant have that, said Anthony Fauci, the government researcher and chief medical adviser to the Biden administrations pandemic response, in a Tuesday interview at the 2021 STAT Summit.
In many cases, right-wing legislators resistance to vaccine mandates has been cloaked in rhetoric specific to Covid-19 immunizations. Upon closer reading, however, many of the proposals they have floated some of which have already been signed into law apply to all vaccines, not just the three currently authorized in the U.S. to prevent Covid.
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A Tennessee proposal banning employer vaccine mandates, for one, doesnt specify which immunizations it would apply to, meaning it effectively would apply to any requirement. Alabamas GOP governor recently signed a new law banning any new vaccine mandates in schools, beyond those that already exist a measure clearly aimed at Covid but with a potential impact on future immunization efforts.
Public health departments have a tough enough time vaccinating the public even with the benefit of existing laws that support mandates, said Lily Kan, the senior director for infectious diseases and informatics at the National Association of County and City Health Officials. When lawmakers step in to nullify those mandates, she added, that task becomes even more difficult.
When theres a direct lack of trust based on misinformation, disinformation, and active efforts to undermine vaccination rates, thats really concerning, she said. We dont want people to think that not getting vaccinated can be the norm.
The assorted lawmakers push to effectively ban vaccine mandates altogether comes amid a dual crisis. Most pressing is the ongoing pandemic: The U.S. is still recording well over 1,000 Covid-19 deaths each day, and roughly 18% of the countrys adults remain unvaccinated.
Now, public health experts are beginning to express open alarm about plummeting childhood vaccination rates. In part, they stem from the pandemic itself: Many parents who have worked from home and whose children have attended school remotely have simply made fewer trips into doctors offices for fear of Covid-19 exposure.
In 2020, the World Health Organizations reported that across the globe, childhood immunization rates dropped from 86% to 83%. Roughly 23 million babies didnt receive basic vaccines normally given, the highest number since 2009.
Even before the pandemic, there were worrying signs that we were beginning to lose ground in the fight to immunize children against preventable child illness, including with the widespread measles outbreaks two years ago, Henrietta Fore, UNICEFs executive director, said in a recent statement. The pandemic has made a bad situation worse.
Increasingly, though, those low vaccination rates may also be driven by turbocharged vaccine skepticism and outright misinformation that has clouded parents judgment.
Even before Covid-19, some U.S. communities had begun to experience outbreaks of diseases that most of the country has largely eradicated. In two recent high-profile instances, a Somali-American community in Minnesota and a largely Orthodox Jewish town outside New York City experienced major measles clusters in 2017 and 2019, respectively. In both cases, the outbreaks were driven by lower-than-ideal vaccination rates, which in turn stemmed from active misinformation campaigns.
The new wave of resistance to vaccine mandates of any type, however, marks the start of a completely new era of vaccine politics.
There are real conversations to be had about individual liberty versus public health, government overreach, all of that stuff, said Nahid Bhadelia, a physician-researcher who leads the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research at Boston University. But the level to which this has been politicized its on purpose, and its toward the goal of continuing to create strife around the pandemic.
Still, other experts have warned that governments should factor in inevitable backlash when imposing requirements for Covid-19 vaccines and other immunizations. In situations where most of the population is already vaccinated, sweeping mandates could do more harm than good in the long run, argued Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner and Pfizer board member.
The risk is [that] organized opposition to this OSHA mandate starts to bleed into broader opposition to vaccination and vaccine mandates more generally, and mandates society long embraced become part of this new political fashion, he wrote this month on Twitter, referring to the Biden administrations recent requirement that large companies must mandate their employees to be either vaccinated against Covid or tested weekly. And a whole generation starts to turn against vaccines.
But an anti-vaccine generation might already be the reality. According to one recent poll, the partisan divide over Covid-19 vaccination has crept into the countrys annual flu vaccination campaign.
In 2020, one AP-NORC poll showed just a 4% gap between Democrats and Republicans desire to be immunized against the flu. Two surveys conducted in 2021, however, paint a grimmer picture: Now, Democrats are more enthusiastic than Republicans about flu vaccines by a 24% or 25% margin, according to Axios/Ipsos and Kaiser Family Foundation, respectively.
Its the perfect storm, because theres growing vaccine hesitancy, an anti-vax lobby growing more powerful, and this growing milieu of disinformation, Bhadelia said. There is a general societal movement here in the U.S. to undermine public health recommendations.
