A look at some of the top headlines trending online today around the world including the latest from Washington, coronavirus updates, Facebook issues and much more.
What is reconciliation, and why is it holding up the infrastructure package? (USA Today)
Biden tells GOP to get out of the way on debt limit (AP)
Huntington Beach oil spill: Officials raise potential oil spill amount to 144,00 gallons amid cleanup efforts (ABC News)
Testimony from former Facebook executive stuns lawmakers (AP)
Facebook blames faulty configuration change for major outages (NBC)
J&J to seek U.S. FDA authorization of booster shot this week (Reuters)
Pfizer Covid shot protects people from hospitalization even as effectiveness against infection falls, Lancet study confirms (CNBC)
More community colleges are mandating coronavirus vaccination (Washington Post)
Southwest is latest airline to mandate vaccines for workers (AP)
Louisiana health system charging workers $200 for unvaccinated spouses (CBS)
Climate change is making Earth dimmer (LiveScience)
Taiwan president warns of catastrophic consequences if it falls to China (Reuters)
Nobel in physics: Climate science breakthroughs earn prize (BBC)
Yang officially breaks with Democratic Party (Politico)
This story will be updated.
Tenmore Mainers have died as health officials on Tuesday reported another 897coronavirus cases across the state since the weekend.
Tuesdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 92,365,according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats up from 91,468 on Saturday.
Of those, 65,902have been confirmed positive, while 26,463were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.
An Aroostook County resident, a Cumberland County resident, a Kennebec County resident, a Knox County resident, five Penobscot County residents and a Piscataquis County resident have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,036.
Of those, one was 80 or older, four in their 70s, two in their 60s, two in their 50s and one in their 40s.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 7,823. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. Thats up from 7,559 on Saturday.
The new case rate statewide Tuesday was 6.70 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 690.11.
Maines seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 597.1, down from 611.4 the day before, up from 521.9 a week ago and up from 383 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.
The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases have been recorded in women and more deaths in men.
So far, 2,536Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Information about those who are currently hospitalized wasnt immediately available.
The total statewide hospitalization rate on Tuesday was 18.95 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (9,869), Aroostook (3,409), Cumberland (20,457), Franklin (1,901), Hancock (2,400), Kennebec (8,734), Knox (1,685), Lincoln (1,631), Oxford (4,537), Penobscot (10,801), Piscataquis (1,176), Sagadahoc (1,802), Somerset (3,679), Waldo (2,126), Washington (1,525) and York (16,632) counties. Information about where an additional case was reported wasnt immediately available.
An additional vaccine dose was administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Tuesday, 878,309 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 74.2 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Tuesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 43,853,214people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 703,402deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
More articles from the BDN
Coronavirus: 670 new cases, eight more deaths reported over weekend in Orange County on Oct. 4 OCRegister
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Flu season has arrived once again, and with the coronavirus pandemic still taking place, theres some confusion about the difference between the two.
Experts with Spectrum Health say ultimately, the symptoms arent very different between the coronavirus and the flu.They say the best way to know which one you have if you arent feeling well is to get tested.
If I could give the biggest message it would be you would want to rule out you do not have coronavirus because of its implications, so testing is the only way to know what you have, said Dr. Kristopher Brenner with Spectrum Health.One of the things that probably is a differentiator is coronavirus is not just bad flu, its a significant disease.Typically, when you get infected by the respiratory droplets for the flu, youre going to have symptoms in a day or two, a lot of times, coronavirus doesnt onset for four or five days.
Brenner says even though the two are not the same, they may come across as such.
Both can give you things like nasal congestion, runny nose, cough, fever, feeling tired, muscle aching.The real, the only way to really know which of the ones you have is to get tested, said Brenner.
In addition to getting tested, he says to get vaccinated against both.
If you havent had your coronavirus vaccine series of Moderna or Pfizer two, or the J&J one, seriously consider doing this, and it not only protects you but the loved ones around you. Theres no reason to not get them both at the same time, said Brenner.
Brenner says even though they have not had a hospitalization for the flu just yet, its better to be safe than sorry.
The main takeaway is get your vaccines, said Brenner. If you feel like you have symptoms, please obtain a symptomatic COVID test to make sure that you are not infected with that.
September, which was already the deadliest month of the pandemic in North Dakota since January, saw its death count increase from 46 to 56 with the Department of Health's latest report on Monday, Oct. 4. The state reported 23 deaths in August, when the current delta surge was still taking off.
The health department occasionally releases large, single-day disclosures of virus deaths, often due to reporting backlogs. In early October of last year, the state reported 24 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, citing a lag that included some deaths from the week prior.
Active virus cases in North Dakota dipped back below 4,000 on Monday following low weekend testing, while virus hospitalizations remained near their highest levels since last December. The state's six largest health care centers have struggled to accommodate the demands of smaller rural facilities in recent weeks, as rising delta hospitalizations, noncoronavirus admissions and staffing shortages have converged to push hospitals to critical capacity.
On Friday, Gov. Doug Burgum and top North Dakota doctors urged residents to make healthy decisions to avoid putting additional strain on the state's already struggling hospital system.
The following are the North Dakota case rates, deaths, hospitalizations and vaccinations as of Oct. 4. Because all data is preliminary, some numbers and totals may change from one day to the next.
Children under age 12, a demographic not yet eligible for vaccination, accounted for 593 of North Dakota's active cases on Monday, as well as four of the state's virus hospitalizations. More than a quarter of North Dakota's active cases are residents under 20 years old.
Burleigh County, which includes Bismarck, had the most known active cases on Monday with 816. Cass County, which encompasses Fargo, had 755 active cases, and Ward County, which includes Minot, had 302.
In recent days the state's 14-day rolling average positivity has hovered above 7.5%, its highest level since December 2020.
ACTIVE HOSPITALIZATIONS: 157
DEATHS: 10 since Friday, Oct. 1
TOTAL DEATHS: 1,621
Virus hospitalizations have fallen from a recent high of 166 early last week but remain near their highest point since last December. Three of the state's active hospitalizations were children five or younger, while two children between six and 14 were also hospitalized as of Monday.
A total of 15 staffed ICU beds were available statewide as of Sunday, according to a state health department database. Bismarck's two hospitals had just one ICU bed and no inpatient beds available. Fargo had nine ICU beds and 17 inpatient beds.
FIRST DOSE ADMINISTERED: 367,828 (55.4% of population ages 12 and up)
FULL VACCINE COVERAGE: 341,376 (51.4% of population ages 12 and up)
The health department is rolling out booster shots for those who received initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved booster doses for those 65 and older, residents of long-term care facilities, adults with underlying conditions and people in high-risk occupations such as health care, teachers and grocery store employees.
About 80,000 North Dakotans are currently eligible for a booster dose, Molly Howell, state immunization manager, said last week.
The Department of Health encourages individuals to get information about vaccines at www.health.nd.gov/covidvaccinelocator.
As a public service, weve opened this article to everyone regardless of subscription status. If this coverage is important to you, please consider supporting local journalism by clicking on the subscribe button in the upper righthand corner of the homepage.
Readers can reach reporter Adam Willis, a Report for America corps member, at awillis@forumcomm.com.
DEAR DR. ROACH: In a recent column, you wrote that there is no risk to family from shedding after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. You failed to mention that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the grandparents could catch COVID and spread it even after being fully vaccinated. Also, according to the CDC, they might be contagious and have a viral load, even before they start showing any symptoms. Isnt the only way to ensure they are not contagious to be tested? -- D.I.
ANSWER: The topic of that column was shedding after a vaccine, and it is true there is no risk of shedding COVID-19 from the vaccination. However, you are correct that it is possible for a vaccinated person to have active, asymptomatic infection.
New data from the age of the delta variant shows that asymptomatic, vaccinated people may indeed by infectious. For this reason, wearing a mask remains important, especially around people at high risk for complications for COVID-19. That includes vaccinated individuals.
Its very important to note that the risk of asymptomatic infection spreading from a vaccinated person is much lower than from an unvaccinated person, simply because someone who is vaccinated is a lot less likely to get COVID-19.
DEAR DR. ROACH: Im an 83-year-old woman. Two years ago, I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. It comes and goes. My doctor recommended I see a surgeon, who recommended a sigmoidoscopy. I dont see what the benefit is. I had two CT scans that showed diverticulitis. The surgeon said he would not do surgery on me.
Do you think I should have the sigmoidoscopy? Is there any risk to this procedure? The doctor said I would be sedated, and I am very reluctant to have it done. -- P.S.
ANSWER: All procedures have risks. A sigmoidoscopy generally has fewer risks than a full colonoscopy, but there is still a risk of damage to the colon, and even moderate sedation, by itself, has risks. The likelihood of benefit must be weighed against the risk of harms.
In your case, I think I can guess why the surgeon wants you to get the sigmoidoscopy. The diagnosis really isnt in doubt -- the CT scans you had are definitive. My best guess is that the surgeon wants to be sure there isnt something else there, especially cancer. The risk of being diagnosed with colon cancer after diverticulitis is substantially higher than would be expected, especially in a person with recurrent symptoms, as you have had. Unless you had an examination of your colon within the past year, such as a colonoscopy, the guidelines recommend an evaluation. The authorities recommend a full colonoscopy, but I suspect your surgeon wants to look most specifically at the area of the colon with the diverticula, which is usually the sigmoid colon. As I noted, a sigmoidoscopy has fewer risks than a full colonoscopy.
This is my guess, but I recommend that since you are reluctant to have the procedure done, ask the surgeon why you need it. The surgeon shouldnt get upset by you asking. Its our job to explain why we recommend what we do, and the reasons why we recommend it over the alternatives.
* * *
Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell.edu or send mail to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.
(c) 2021 North America Syndicate Inc.
All Rights Reserved
SACRAMENTO Education and public health leaders in California and throughout the country applauded Governor Newsoms announcement that the state plans to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of vaccinations required to attend school in-person when the vaccine receives full approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for middle and high school grades, making California the first state in the nation to implement such a measure.The measure follows Californias other first-in-the-nationschool masking and staff vaccination measures, measures that have helped California to maintain thelowest case rate in the entire country. California is currentlythe only state to advance to the CDCs moderate COVID transmission category.
Heres what education and public health leaders had to say about Governor Newsoms first-in-the-nation announcement:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President:I agree with what Gov. Newsom did in California. People need to realize that having a vaccine requirement for schools is not a new, novel thing that is very peculiar or specific to COVID-19. Weve been doing this for decades.
California State Parent Teacher Association President Carol Green:California State PTA supports the use of vaccines to protect the health and safety of children and families across California. The state of California has required student vaccinations in public schools for years and PTA has long-held positions on vaccine requirements to protect our most vulnerable children.
Vaccination is an important tool to ensure our schools remain open for in-person instruction while protecting the health and safety of our students, staff, and entire communities.
Throughout the pandemic, California State PTA has been working with state leaders including the California Surgeon General, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the California Education Coalition, and various equity groups to advocate for children and families and we will continue to do so. We look forward to working with parents and families, the governor, and policymakers to ensure students and families are involved in the rollout of this new regulation.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten:@CFTunion ready to work with Gov. Newsom on Covid vaccines for children and staff including the mandating of vaccines (with appropriate exemptions) the semester following full authorization. Good step by @GavinNewsom
California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd:Teaching and learning are most effective in person, and the COVID-19 vaccine is a proven measure to prevent life threatening illness, keeping schools safe and open for in-person instruction, and will get us closer to being able to put this devastating pandemic behind us. Since the beginning, CTA has called for access to vaccines, testing and multi-layered safety measures in order to be reunited with our students in our classrooms. As the science advances and COVID vaccines are approved for younger students, this is the next step toward ensuring the health and safety of our schools and communities consistent with other vaccine requirements in schools. While recognizing the need for medical and religious exemptions, we believe vaccinations are key for both student and educator safety, keeping our schools open for in-person instruction and for combating this pandemic. Ninety percent of CTA members are vaccinated, and an overwhelming majority supports a vaccine mandate for students and staff. Several California school districts have already worked with educators and families in announcing vaccine mandates and will not be impacted by this new order. Phasing in the implementation timeline will allow local districts to prepare with families and educators and offer schools a vaccination site. Working together we can and will beat the deadly coronavirus that has claimed nearly 70,000 Californians and 700,000 lives in the U.S.
California Federation of Teachers President Jeff Freitas:CFT believes that vaccines are essential to ensuring that our students, school workers, and communities are safe. We know that in-person instruction is best for our students, and that vaccines are the most important safeguard to prevent serious illness from COVID-19 infection.
In a recent poll conducted by CFT, we found that an incredible 89% of CFT members are already vaccinated against COVID-19. We also found that 79% of CFT members support a vaccine mandate for all school staff, with 75% also supporting a vaccine mandate for students.
This supermajority of support underscores just how much CFT members understand the safety of vaccines and the protection they offer to our school communities.
We look forward to working with Governor Newsom, state health and education officials, and our local school districts as they implement a vaccine requirement for our schools. We will work to ensure our members continue to have a voice at the state and local level to address the impacts of any new policies. We will also continue to advocate for other essential safety mitigation strategies, including mask requirements, ventilation upgrades, and regular testing in schools.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond:I have no doubt that todays announcement by the Governor will lead to safer schools and safer communities. I look forward to working with the Governor, his administration, school districts, and school communities across the state to implement this important change.
In the coming weeks, I will be launching a public service campaign to expand vaccination rates across the state. California is already leading the way in combatting this virus, with one of the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rates in the country; the safety measures we take collectively now in our schools will be pivotal to how our communities emerge from the pandemic, and this is especially true for our most vulnerable communities. COVID-19 vaccines provide the best protection possible that will allow students to get back to enjoying what they love most, including school sports, clubs, and social events. We look forward to working with the California Department of Public Health to support this effort that will keep schools safely open. Thanks to public health measures, our communities have opened up, we have been able to hug loved ones, and can now gather again. Lets not lose that progress. The Governors action comes at the right time.
California School Boards Association President Dr. Susan Heredia:The California Schools Boards Association welcomes the states decision to use its longstanding legal authority to add COVID-19 inoculations to the vaccine requirements. CSBA endorses approaches to COVID-19 mitigation that are supported by data and science and that maximize the safety of students and staff principles that are reflected in the new mandate. The patchwork of different methods for COVID-19 mitigation at the local level was not the most effective approach for this particular crisis. California requires a more comprehensive strategy that frees local school boards from the need to act as de facto public health officials. Those decisions are better left to people at the state level who are designated to perform public health functions. In addition, a statewide standard for student vaccinations may help defuse some of the unlawful behavior directed at school board trustees by those who oppose local mandates.
California School Employees Association President Matthew Shane Dishman:As classified staff, we have dedicated our careers to caring for our students by keeping them safe, fed and learning. I can think of no better way to keep students and staff safe than by ensuring every eligible person on campus is vaccinated. Broad vaccination is the only way to get us out of this pandemic so we can ensure every student can learn in person and have the best educational opportunities possible.
San Diego Unified School District President Richard Barerra:We think that it is important to set a standard across the statethat all students public and private schools will be required to receive the vaccination at the point theyre eligible and it certainly builds on the action not only our district has taken, but several other districts in CA have already taken.
California Medical Association President Peter N. Bretan, Jr., M.D.:CMA strongly supports Gov. Newsoms common-sense action to protect our students, teachers and school staff. This is not a new idea. We already require vaccines against several known deadly diseases before students can enroll in schools. The Newsom Administration is simply extending existing public health protections to cover this new disease, which has caused so much pain and suffering across our state, our nation and the entire globe over the last 18 months. We are proud that California continues to put public health first, and urge all who are eligible to get their COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible so we can keep each other safe.
Kaiser Permanente Chair and Chief Executive Officer Greg A. Adams:Kaiser Permanente supports California Gov. Gavin Newsoms strong and timely action to protect students, faculty, and staff who have returned to in-person learning by requiring eligible students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend schools for in-person instruction, once approved by the Food and Drug Administration, beginning in 2022. This is an important step that will protect students and school employees across the state who have returned to full, in-person instruction.
Heres what education and public health leaders have said about vaccine requirements for schools:
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona:I wholeheartedly support [a school vaccine mandate]. Its the best tool that we have to safely reopen schools and keep them open. We dont want to have the yo-yo effect that many districts had last year, and we can prevent that by getting vaccinated.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra:I am very supportive, both personally and as secretary of health and human services of a school district, of a local jurisdiction, of a governor, that says, It is time to keep kids in school safe, and we will, therefore, move to requiring masks and vaccination. The federal government doesnt have jurisdiction to tell schools what to do.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy:The vaccine could make a big difference for the health of our kids and for the peace of mind of parents everywhere. The COVID-19 vaccines are FDAs top priority, and they know the urgency with which our children need a vaccine.
Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown Universitys School of Public Health:Are we willing to use the tools we have to keep schools open? Pretty straightforward: vaccines for everyone eligible, ventilation and filtration, regular testing, indoor masking while community transmission is high, and avoiding crowding. Lets do it.
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All vaccines, including those against COVID-19, undergo rigorous clinical trials, in some cases involving tens of thousands of people. But those trials might not involve enough people with a particular risk factor, meaning certain issues might not be noticed by researchers at the earlier stages. Moreover, any vaccine might cause rare side effects that emerge later on.
Launched in 1990, VAERS is used by the CDC and FDA to detect concerning patterns or unusual and unexpected changes that might indicate a safety problem once vaccines are on the market, according to a 2015 academic paper published by researchers at both agencies in the journal Vaccine.
VAERS is important because it can capture events that were not routinely collected in active surveillance in clinical trials, more rare than would have been observed in trials because of limited sample sizes, or occur in populations not adequately studied in clinical trials, says Steven J. Jacobsen, MD, interim executive director of the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, a Wisconsin-based medical research institute, and former president of the American College of Epidemiology.
For example, government researchers investigated reports of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, that were submitted to VAERS, and then alerted the public when they deemed that risk plausible. The CDC has said its continuing to monitor the development.
VAERS reports on their own communicate only that some sort of adverse event, minor or major, happened after someone received a vaccine. Additional work and information are needed to establish whether the vaccine was the cause.
Physicians, epidemiologists, and statisticians at the CDC and FDA assess the number of reports received, what sort of events are reported, and the number of doses distributed. Then they compare the rate an adverse event is reported in VAERS with the rate of the same adverse event with other vaccines.
So while the reports alone generally cant tie a vaccine to an adverse event, it can play an important role.
VAERS can often provide the earliest information on potential vaccine safety problems, the 2015 vaccine paper by CDC and FDA researchers says.
If it does detect potential safety issues, researchers at the CDC and FDA can then investigate further using other systems, such as the CDCs Vaccine Safety Datalink, which receives more specific data from nine major healthcare organizations and can help measure attributable risk, says Emorys Orenstein.
News 12 Staff
Oct 05, 2021, 10:03am
Updated on: Oct 05, 2021, 10:03am
Research shows the risk ofdeveloping a heart condition after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine is rare.
The research was justpublished by a group of doctors at Kaiser Permanente.
The group studied over 2million people who received at least one dose of the Pfizer and Modernavaccine.
Researchers say 15 peopledeveloped myocarditis, a kind of heart inflammation.
The study showed all 15 caseswere in men between the ages of 20 and 32 years old.
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Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins explained why he got the COVID-19 vaccine, saying he felt"forced" to receive the shot.
Wiggins had been hesitant to take the shot, and risked forfeiture of half his $31.5 million salary for the 2021-22 seasonif he didn't.
The city of San Francisco, where the Warriors play their home games, mandates that anyone over 12 years old must be vaccinated to attend indoor events. At the Chase Center, Golden State players will need proof of vaccination to enter the building.
"The only options were to get vaccinated or not play in the NBA," Wiggins said Monday. "It was a tough decision. Hopefully, it works out in the long run and in 10 years I'm still healthy."
Wiggins said he got the Johnson & Johnson shot and added heis the only one in his family who is vaccinated.
The former No. 1 overall pick went on about his reasons and complaints about the city's mandate, saying he doesn't blame the Warriors for it.
"They didn't make the rule," Wiggins said. "But I guess to do certain stuff, to work, I guess you don't own your body. That's what it comes down to. If you want to work in society today, then I guess they made the rules of what goes in your body and what you do. Hopefully, there's a lot of people out there that are stronger than me and keep fighting, stand for what they believe, and hopefully, it works out for them."
Wiggins averaged18.6points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists last season for the Warriors.
"It feels good to play, but getting vaccinated, that's going to be something that stays in my mind for a long time," Wiggins said. "It's not something I wanted to do, but I was forced to."
