by: Darren Kramer, Nexstar Media Wire
(WTNH) Most people in Connecticut who are eligible have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 which is just over 70%. But there are still thousands who refuse to get the vaccine.
Who are they, and why wont they get the shot?
One is a registered nurse, who despite having seen the ravages of COVID-19 firsthand, refuses to get the vaccine.
Camile, who did not provide her last name, is a registered nurse at a major Connecticut hospital and worked in the COVID ward. She watched people suffer and die and even caught COVID-19 from a patient who died from it. Yet, she still refuses to be vaccinated.
I feel just everything was rushed. I dont feel there is enough evidence to make an educated decision on if the vaccine is safe and effective, Camile said.
Keith Grant, the Senior System Director for Infection Prevention at Hartford HealthCare, agrees that the vaccine development was historically fast, but it worked, he said.
Over 5 billion people have gotten the vaccine. The impact of the vaccine, if you look in Europe, they are now having soccer games. A soccer game in Europe is 100,000-plus people, Grant said.
Camile has a vaccine exemption from her hospital, and shes tested regularly. She has three sons who are all unvaccinated as well. Her 16-year-old son wants the shot, but she wont let him get it.
My 16-year-old has asked me several times, Can I just get vaccinated, Camile said. I said no. Until you are 18, [when] you can make your decision, but until that time, well have more evidence and more knowledge.
Camile said she is concerned about COVID and the safety of her sons, but she added, Theyre kids. I feel like theyd be able to bounce right back.
Grant said not getting vaccinated is playing the odds.
Most kids do very well with COVID-19, but you add vaccines to that and you add your mask and you add proper social distance, it puts you in a much better position, Grant said. And this is not a position that is preventing anything but death. Thats a big thing.
Camile says for her, its about freedom.
I think the government should not be able to tell us what to put in our bodies, she said.
Despite her fight over getting vaccinated, Camile said her primary concern hasnt changed.
Our number one concern is our patients. No matter what, the Connecticut nurse said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 58% of Americans have been fully vaccinated against the virus, and over 68% have received at least one dose.
The CDC says the COVID-19 vaccines are effective at helping protect against severe disease and death from the virus that causes COVID-19, including known variants.
The benefits of COVID-19 vaccinationoutweigh the known and potential risks, which are rare, the CDC said.
COVID-19 Vaccines Reduce Hospitalizations and Death Among Patients With Cirrhosis Psychiatry Advisor
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Puerto Rico Governor Pedro R. Pierluisi has issued an Executive Order (EO) requiring all private sector employers with at least 50 employees to adopt COVID-19 vaccine or testing requirements.
Under EO 2021-075, which is similar in scope to the recentOccupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard, such employers must require their employees to provide:
Proof of COVID-19 vaccination;
A negative test result at least every seven days; or
Certified proof of recovery within the last three months from COVID-19.
Although the EO went into effect immediately, covered employees will have 45 days, or until December 30, 2021, to complete their vaccination cycles and submit proof of vaccination to their employers.
The EO also consolidates into a single document the requirements imposed bypast executive orders. Requirements such as verification of vaccination status for visitors of certain industries, including restaurants, beauty salons, barbershops, aesthetics salons, spas, gyms, casinos, theaters, and other establishments in the dining and entertainment industries,remain in place.
The EO provides that private-sector employers with fewer than 50 employees are not required to comply for now. However, the EO says these employers are urged to take measures such as requiring proof of vaccinations or proof of results.
Similar toprior executive orders, employers must corroborate vaccination by inspecting the immunization certificate (COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card or Vacu ID) or a document establishing the employee has completed or begun the vaccination process. Employees must submit proof of vaccination in order to be allowed into the work area.
Employees who work for employers with at least 50 employees must provide proof that, by November 30, 2021, they have initiated the vaccination process. They must then certify to the employer that they have received the second dose of the vaccine, if the type of vaccine that was administered requires it. Employees will have until December 30, 2021, to complete the vaccination process.
Employees who do not provide proof of vaccination and who are not vaccinated must submit a COVID-19 negative test result at least every seven days or a positive COVID-19 result within the last three months and proof of recovery.
Employees who fail to comply with the mandatory vaccination requirements or provide the required results will not be allowed to be physically present in the work area. For such an employee, the employer can implement applicable pertinent measures, including allowing the employee to use relevant leave of absence or unpaid leave, if applicable.
The EO urges employers to permit employees to get vaccinated during working hours and permit the use of sick leave to recover from secondary effects, if any.
The term employee is to be interpreted liberally to include any person who physically works in a location, except suppliers. The term includes persons who provide services on a voluntary basis.
The EO eliminates the religious and medical exemptions provided inprior executive orders. Further, employees who are not vaccinated (for any reason) must present negative COVID-19 test results at least every seven days or submit certified proof of recovery within the last three months from COVID-19. Prior executive orders required test results on the first day of the workweek.
Failure to comply with the EO may result in fines of up to $5,000, six months in jail, or both, at the discretion of a court.
Jackson Lewis P.C. 2021National Law Review, Volume XI, Number 320
The COVID-19 pandemic has been rife with rumors and misinformation, some of it is intentional. The World Health Organization (WHO) went so far as to say there were two pandemics, COVID-19 and medical misinformation. Yet another rumor has been going around:the COVID-19 vaccines cause changes in womens menstrual cycles.
COVID-19 Vaccines Not Linked to Menstrual Changes
A study in the U.K. of 1,273 women found no correlation. Earlier studies did suggest a link was possible and should be investigated, but this new study supports the idea of no association.
We were unable to detect strong signals to support the ideathat the vaccines affect timing or flow of menstrual cycles, said Dr. Victoria Male, from Imperial College London. She added that more extensive studies or studies in other countries might find links. Its important to note that most people who report such a change following vaccination find that their period returns to normal the following cycle.
OK to Get Flu and COVID-19 Vaccines at Same Time
Another study also found that it was safe to give COVID-19 vaccines and flu vaccines to people simultaneously. This study was published in The Lancet. Theresearchers assigned 697 adults to receive their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine with one of three flu vaccines for the 20202021 flu season (FluAd, Flucelvax or Flublok) or a placebo. The antibody responses werent adversely affected and most reactions were mild or moderate.
Lung Cancer Patients Benefit from mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
In good news, a study found that lung cancer patients who receivetreatments that suppress their immune system still benefit from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. This small study was conducted on 306 lung cancer patients in France, 70% of whom had received immunosuppressive therapies. Patients who had COVID-19 antibodies from a previous infection were give one shot, but most received both. Approximately 10% of the patients didnt develop antibodies in response to the first two doses and were given a third booster shot, which induced antibodies in all but three people who had blood diseases that impair vaccine efficacy.
In the study, which lasted for seven months, only eight patients, or 2.6%, developed mild cases of COVID-19. The researchers say the trial was small and non-randomized, so more research is needed to confirm it.
People on SSRI Antidepressants Less Likely to Die of COVID-19
A study out of the University of California San Francisco found that people taking a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), especially fluoxetine, were significantly less likely to die of COVID-19 than people in a matched control group. The data was analyzed from health records of 87 centers across the U.S. The data was from almost 500,000 patients, including 83,584 adults diagnosed with COVID-19 between January and September2020. Of those patients, 3,401 were prescribed SSRIs.
We cant tell if the drugs are causing these effects, but the statistical analysis is showing significant association, said Marina Sirota, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics and a member of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute (BCHSI) at UCSF. Theres power in the numbers.
The research found that patients taking fluoxetine (sold under the brand name Prozac and Sarafem) were 28% less likely to die of COVID-19, and patients taking either flueoxetine or fluvoxamine (brand names Luvox, Faverin, Fluvoxin) were 26% less likely to die. Out of the entire group, patients taking anySSRI were 8% less likely to die of COVID-19 than the matched patient control group. Other common brands of SSRIs include Celexa (citalopram), Lexapro (escitalopram), Paxil (paroxetine) and Zoloft (sertraline).
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 253.9 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.1 million. More than 7.54 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
The Czech Republic reported 11,514 new COVID-19 cases for 15 November, the fifth time daily infections have topped 10,000 in past seven days, health ministry data showed on Tuesday.
It came as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against travel to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Iceland because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases in those countries.
China administered about 6.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on 15 November, taking its total to 2.396 billion, data from the National Health Commission showed on Tuesday. It also reported 22 new confirmed coronavirus cases for 15 November compared with 52 a day earlier, its health authority said.
Mexico's health ministry reported 775 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 57 more fatalities on Monday, bringing the country's overall death toll from the pandemic to 291,204 and the total number of cases to 3,846,508.
Russia will lift its COVID-19 ban on flights to countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, Mongolia, Costa Rica and Argentina from 1 December, the government coronavirus task force said on Tuesday.
Russia has also granted approval for Pfizer Inc to conduct clinical trials of its experimental antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 in the country, a state registry of medicines showed.
A ban on public sector employees entering their offices if they are unvaccinated and untested for COVID-19 took effect in Egypt on Monday as the government pushes to accelerate vaccination rates in the final weeks of the year.
Nigeria will start a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign later this week, aiming to inoculate half of its targeted population by the end of January, government officials said.
Africa's most-populous country has a goal to vaccinate 111 million people to reach herd immunity.
Under the initiative to start on Friday, 55 million doses or more than a million a day will be administered. The country has to date vaccinated only 2.9% of those eligible to get vaccines.
The plan will see vaccine sites set up at private health facilities, universities, colleges, stadiums, motor parks and shopping malls among other venues.
Boss Mustapha, head of the presidential steering committee on COVID-19, said the government "has enough vaccines in the pipeline to vaccinate about 50% of the target population by the end of January 2022".
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.
Image: Our World in Data
Two billion doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine have been supplied worldwide, the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker and its partner said on Tuesday, in just under a year since its first approval.
The shot, which is the biggest contributor to the COVAX vaccine sharing scheme backed by the World Health Organization, is being made in 15 countries for supply to more than 170 countries, London-listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University said in a joint statement.
AstraZeneca in June last year signed on India's Serum Institute, the world's biggest manufacturer of vaccines by volume, to help double the vaccine's manufacturing capacity to two billion doses.
In 2000, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance was launched at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, with an initial pledge of $750 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The aim of Gavi is to make vaccines more accessible and affordable for all - wherever people live in the world.
Along with saving an estimated 10 million lives worldwide in less than 20 years,through the vaccination of nearly 700 million children, - Gavi has most recently ensured a life-saving vaccine for Ebola.
At Davos 2016, we announced Gavi's partnership with Merck to make the life-saving Ebola vaccine a reality.
The Ebola vaccine is the result of years of energy and commitment from Merck; the generosity of Canadas federal government; leadership by WHO; strong support to test the vaccine from both NGOs such as MSF and the countries affected by the West Africa outbreak; and the rapid response and dedication of the DRC Minister of Health. Without these efforts, it is unlikely this vaccine would be available for several years, if at all.
Read more about the Vaccine Alliance, and how you can contribute to the improvement of access to vaccines globally - in our Impact Story.
The vaccine has faced challenges around efficacy data, supplies and links to rare blood clots.
AstraZeneca last week said as the world learns to live with the coronavirus which causes COVID-19, it would begin to earn a modest profit from the shot after having made a commitment to sell it at cost during the pandemic.
The company's chief executive officer, Pascal Soriot, however, reassured that low-income countries would continue to receive vaccines on a non-profit basis.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said the coronavirus pandemic is about to end as long as everyone keeps fighting against the coronavirus.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a Bipartisan Policy Center event Monday that the pandemic is not permanent and that it will end eventually if everyone does their part, according to The Hill.
In a similar light, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told Fox News Sunday this week that the cold weather could bring more cases, which might delay the end of the pandemic for now.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said during Face the Nation on CBS last weekend that the U.S. is close to the pandemics end. Cases may pick up, but it doesnt mean theres a major outbreak happening.
A study by researchers suggests that air filters can remove almost all airborne traces of COVID-19.
The findings by the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke's Hospital could not only improve the safety of "surge wards" but also opens up the possibility of setting standards for cleaner air to reduce the risk of indoor transmission.
With fears growing of another potential wave this winter, the discovery could allow hospitals to better manage their repurposed "surge wards" which can often lack the ability to change the air with a high frequency.
NHS warns of rise in child obesity, as Sturgeon considers possible new restrictions - COVID news live
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Portable air filtration and ultra-violet sterilisation devices are being proposed as an effective method of preventing patient-to-healthcare worker transmission in COVID-19 wards, according to the study published in the Clinical Infection Diseases journal.
Dr Vilas Navapurlar, a consultant in intensive care medicine who led the study, said: "Reducing airborne transmission of the coronavirus is extremely important for the safety of both patients and staff.
"Effective PPE has made a huge difference, but anything we can do to reduce the risk further is important," he added.
"Because of the numbers of patients being admitted with COVID-19, hospitals have had to use wards not designed for managing respiratory infections.
"During an intensely busy time, we were able to pull together a team from across the hospital and university to test whether portable air filtration devices, which are relatively inexpensive, might remove airborne SARS-CoV-2 and make these wards safer."
The team installed a high efficiency particulate air filter/UV steriliser - a device made up of thousands of fibres knitted together to form a material that filters out particles.
These machines were placed in fixed positions in the ward and operated continuously for seven days, collectively filtering the full volume of air in each room between five and 10 times per hour.
The doctors, scientists and engineers crucially developed a new robust technique for assessing the quality of the air.
They placed air samplers at various points in the room and then tested the samples that were collected using PCR assays similar to those used in the "gold standard" COVID-19 tests.
The team found that the devices not only reduced all traces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus when it was running, but also significant reduced levels of bacterial, fungal, and other bioaerosols.
Dr Andrew Conway Morris, from the department of medicine at the University of Cambridge, said: "We were really surprised by quite how effective air filters were at removing airborne SARS-CoV-2 on the wards.
"Although it was only a small study, it highlights their potential to improve the safety of wards, particularly in areas not designed for managing highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19," added Dr Morris.
Felicia Moore draws a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 while working at the Anchorage School District Education Center vaccine clinic on Nov. 3. (Emily Mesner / ADN)
Alaska reported 1,089 new COVID-19 infections and two additional deaths from Saturday to Monday.
COVID-19 cases in the state started declining recently after weeks of high daily counts. Alaska experienced a surge for much of September and October that squeezed hospital capacity and brought hundreds of deaths.
Cases over the weekend included 427 reported Saturday, 349 on Sunday and 313 Monday.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Alaska has the fourth highest seven-day rolling case rate in the nation, following Minnesota, New Mexico and North Dakota. Alaska previously led the nation for weeks. The states seven-day case rate of 412 per 100,000 people Monday was still much higher than the national average of 170.
There were 146 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide by Monday, a decrease from a high of more than 200 people hospitalized on average since September, though up from the week before, when around 130 people were hospitalized statewide.
Last week, the head of the states hospital association said the situation in Alaskas hospitals was becoming more manageable.
On Monday, Alaska also reported an additional two COVID-19 deaths among two Anchorage women in their 80s or older.
Alaskas most recent surge made September and October the states deadliest stretch of the pandemic, with 255 deaths, roughly 31% of the 803 COVID-19 deaths among residents since the start of the pandemic. The state has also reported an additional 30 COVID-19 deaths among nonresidents.
Around 59% of Alaskans ages 5 and older had received at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 54% were considered fully vaccinated by Monday.
After declining most of the fall, COVID-19 cases are rising again in many parts of the U.S. VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
After declining most of the fall, COVID-19 cases are rising again in many parts of the U.S.
It's a worrying sign for the U.S. ahead of the holiday travel season: coronavirus infections are rising in more than half of all states. Experts warn this could be the start of an extended winter surge.
The rise is a turnaround after cases had steadily declined from mid September to late October. The country is now averaging more than 83,000 cases a day about a 14% increase compared to a week ago, and 12% more than two weeks ago.
"I hate to say it, but I suspect we're at the start of a new winter surge," says Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.
Growing outbreaks in the Midwest and Northeast are most responsible for pushing up the national numbers, and that comes after many weeks of high case counts and stress on states in the mountain West where some hospitals are dealing with crisis levels of patients.
"There are still large swaths of the country under-immunized and even among states that are relatively well-vaccinated, like Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota and Vermont, we're seeing sustained transmission," says Rutherford.
The uptick in cases hasn't yet translated into a national spike in new hospital admissions, which tend to trail a rise in infections by several weeks. However, the grim situation in some parts of the West and upper Midwest offers a concerning picture for other states where cases are now climbing.
"It's a marathon here," says Dr. Kencee Graves at the University of Utah Hospital, in Salt Lake City, Utah, who describes her state, like much of the Mountain West, as stuck in a "high plateau of a surge" where hospitals not only have an ICU full of COVID-19 patients, but also many other kinds of sick patients who need care.
Despite the concerning trends, the expectation among experts who model the pandemic's course is that a surge will not bring the same level of death and severe disease as last year.
"The vast majority of the population has some form of immunity," says Nicholas Reich, a biostatician at UMass Amherst who runs a COVID-19 forecasting model. "That feels really different about this moment there are fewer people to infect."
The growth in cases isn't unexpected, given the patchwork of COVID-19 immunity across the U.S., where about 60% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Americans are moving around like they were before the pandemic, mask wearing is low compared to last year, people are spending more time indoors because of cooler weather, and protection against infection, both from vaccinations and prior infection, is waning, says Ali Mokdad, professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington's Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation.
"You put all of this together and what you see in Europe where many countries with higher vaccination rates than the United States are seeing a surge of course, it's going to happen," he says.
And unlike last year, the U.S. has to contend with a much more contagious version of the virus "that makes it really hard to snuff out chains of transmission," not to mention "human nature, which is wanting us to get back to pre-pandemic life," says Reich at UMass, Amherst.
Just how bad the situation gets will come down to complex dynamics around immunity. Southern states endured a brutal wave over the summer and that may have built up enough immunity from infection to shield them from another big resurgence this winter. Areas that did not face the same kind of surge, in particular states in the northern half of the country, are now dealing with an increase, but many also have the benefit of higher vaccination coverage.
"The real question is how big will it get and will it really be substantial? And my sense is in New England, it's going to hit a wall of vaccinated people," says Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health.
"I think the Midwest and the Great Plains which have lower vaccination rates but have not seen a big delta surge they may very well end up seeing quite a few infections in the weeks and months ahead."
Even if hospitals see fewer COVID-19 patients overall, it's already clear that many are less prepared to handle the demands of the pandemic compared to last year.
"Every hospital I have talked to in the last month has severe shortages of staff, especially nurses," says Dr. Bruce Siegel, president of America's Essential Hospitals, which represents hundreds of public hospitals in the U.S.
At the University of Utah Hospital, Dr. Graves says their surge ICU was closed down because they couldn't staff it anymore, and last month patients were waiting on average between three to five hours for an ICU bed. "Our resources and our stamina are far less now than a year ago," she says.
In the Southwest, hospitals are also dealing with packed ICUs.
New Mexico has higher vaccination rates than many nearby states, but the state was forced to enact its crisis standards of care plan weeks ago. Some hospitals have activated those plans, but none have moved to the most extreme scenario of deciding who gets care and who doesn't, says Troy Clark, president of the New Mexico Hospital Association.
Starting in the spring, there was a "huge influx of patients that we don't normally see" with other urgent medical needs, Clark says. That has kept hospitals extremely busy heading into winter and with no slack to accommodate the growing number of COVID-19 patients.
It's a similar situation in many states, including Arizona where hospitalizations for COVID-19 are now as high as they've been since February. "We just don't have that extra capacity for a COVID spike," says Ann-Marie Alameddin, president of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.
The upper Midwest now has some of the highest cases per capita in the country. Hospitals leaders in Minnesota are imploring people to take caution so they don't require medical care for COVID or non-COVID emergencies. "This has never been more serious," said Kelly Chandler of Itasca County Public Health, which includes the city of Grand Rapids, in a recent public statement. "We are at crisis levels of 2020, but without the same levels of COVID precautions in place."
As we head into the holidays, COVID risk increases, with more people travelling and socializing indoors. But "we also have some things that are helping, like more vaccines and kids getting vaccinated," says Brown's Ashish Jha. "So we're in a stalemate. I don't expect us to have a horrible surge, but I can certainly imagine parts of the country that see modest-sized surges as people get together and as the weather stays cold."
NPR's Rob Stein contributed to this report.
