Top Stories
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- There's no more dial system in Pueblo County, all local COVID-19 restrictions and requirements have been lifted for businesses and events as of Monday, according to Pueblo County Public Health.
This means all capacity restrictions have been lifted, and masks aren't required in many settings across Pueblo County.
The Pueblo County Board of Health made the decision to "align with most recent state executive and public health orders," according to a statement sent out on Monday.
However, Public Health Director Randy Evetts did note that businesses can implement their own restrictions.
"This pandemic is not over, COVID-19 is still circulating in Pueblo County and across the nation, and until more individuals are vaccinated, we should continue to take actions that prevent the spread of the disease," Evetts said in a statement.
While the goal is to get Pueblo County, and the state, to 70% of eligible people being vaccinated, as of Monday, only 48.4% of eligible people over the age of 16 have been vaccinated in Pueblo County.
You can sign up to get a COVID-19 vaccine by clicking this link.
Pueblo issued the list of the following changes to its COVID-19 guidelines, according to Monday's news release:
Local News / News / Pueblo
The Indian Medical Association earlier this month said a "complete, well-planned, pre-announced national lockdown" for 10 to 15 days would give the country's overstretched health system time to "recoup and replenish both the material and manpower" it needs.
And top US coronavirus advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci on May 9 said of India: "You've got to shut down ... you need to break the chain of transmission."
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has done that before, and learned a very painful lesson. Experts say shutting down the nation again is not realistic.
That lockdown, which ultimately lasted almost four months, helped India to control the spread of coronavirus, but it came at a high cost, leaving the country's poorest and most vulnerable without income or food, and often stranded far from home.
This time around, Modi says a national lockdown would be a "last option."
"We have to save the country from lockdown," Modi said in an address to the nation on April 20. "We have to try hard to avoid lockdowns."
Since then, the leaders of 35 of 36 of India's states and union territories have imposed their own restrictions, including night curfews, partial closures and week-long lockdowns. These kind of short-term, localized measures are drastically different from the approach taken the last time India faced a coronavirus wave.
Some experts say this makes total sense, as it gives regional leaders the freedom to tailor restrictions to the size of the local outbreak, and the needs of their residents.
A one-size-fits-all lockdown for a country of 1.3 billion people doesn't work, they argue.
India's poor were hit hardest
The model says a national 15-day lockdown could save approximately 100,000 lives, and prevent some 20 million people from catching the virus. The longer the lockdown, the more case numbers are projected to fall, according to the model.
But a nationwide lockdown has its own health risks, particularly for India's poor.
About 100 million Indians are migrant workers, mostly from rural areas who moved to cities for work. During the first lockdown, many were stranded without jobs or food, prompting a mass exodus from cities.
With the national railway system suspended and domestic borders closed, hundreds tried to make the journey home on foot over many weeks and thousands of miles. Many didn't make it, dying from exhaustion, dehydration, hunger or roadside accidents
Ajnesh Prasad, a professor and Canada Research Chair in the School of Business at Royal Roads University, said only a "certain class of individuals" had the luxury to stay at home and maintain social distance.
"If we talk about the urban poor, it's impossible for them to observe these directives," Prasad said. "They will tell you that observing these directives would be tantamount to starving themselves to death."
Population density complicates matters further -- about 35% of India's urban population lives in slums, where households lack sufficient living space and adequate sanitation facilities, according to the World Bank.
In densely populated slum areas an entire family often lives in one small room and shares a bathroom with other families. It's impossible to distance from others -- and unrealistic to expect movement without the risk of virus transmission.
The things that make a lockdown both feasible and effective -- staying indoors, working and attending school remotely, social distancing -- require access to a stable internet connection, and to resources like a laptop and electricity. These luxuries simply aren't available to the vast majority of Indians, most of whom don't even have access to doctors or oxygen as the second wave overwhelms major cities.
Millions thrown into poverty
India's struggling economy also makes it much harder for the government to impose a second national lockdown.
"The lockdown came at a huge economic and social cost," said Chandrika Bahadur, chair of the Lancet Covid-19 Commission India Task Force. "The suddenness of the announcement meant ... the vast majority of the country was unprepared in terms of the implications on income, food, security of tenure, and safety. And in turn, both the central and state governments were unprepared for the migrant crisis."
The economic disruption of the first lockdown has also left India's government with "less policy room to maneuver," Bahadur added.
India has a weaker financial system than countries the United States or the United Kingdom, for instance. There's less money and fewer systems to send it to those who need it most.
Some parts of the country did see ration kits distributed to the poor during the first lockdown, but that wasn't enough to keep people at home. They still needed to earn a wage to feed their families.
"Without a government establishing a robust system of social support through public policy, which would appear in the form of social assistance programs like stipend or subsidies, a lockdown isn't feasible," said Prasad, from Royal Roads University.
A localized approach
In early April, as cases began surging in the capital, New Delhi, many migrant workers returned to their home villages even before any restrictions were imposed. Many were afraid that a surprise lockdown could leave them stranded once again.
India's varied topography means its population density is concentrated in specific hubs -- and while the virus can spread everywhere, its effects are felt more acutely in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Each state also has a different level of resource availability, including health care capacity.
A nationwide lockdown would leave little space for state and local governments to respond to the pandemic in a way fitting to their local circumstances. Right now, some states have nightly curfews, restrictions on public transport and localized measures in certain districts
In its April report, the Lancet's Covid-19 Commission India Task Force recommended against a "blanket national or state lockdown."
Instead, it backed measures such as closing venues for large gatherings and encouraging white-collar workers to operate from home -- but urged the government to minimize restrictions for the rural and urban poor.
Bahadur said the Task Force is now calling for localized but synchronized closures based on two variables -- the spread of the disease and medical preparedness.
Modi echoed those recommendations in his April address, asking state leaders to focus on "micro-containment zones" instead of full lockdowns.
States and union territories are now adopting this approach -- for instance, Delhi has imposed several consecutive lockdowns for short periods of time such as seven or 10 days, with exceptions for many categories of essential workers -- unlike the first lockdown last year.
"The basic point is that there are no simple yes or no answers to a very complicated set of questions," Bahadur said.
"In a country with such diversity, localized decisions, driven by a common science and evidence based approach, with a strong coordinated response is our best bet for success."
Eloise LaCour, 3, gets her COVID-19 vaccination as part of Phase 1 clinical trials on use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children 5 and younger. Stanford Medicine hide caption
Eloise LaCour, 3, gets her COVID-19 vaccination as part of Phase 1 clinical trials on use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children 5 and younger.
Eloise LaCour clutches her dolly as a nurse takes her blood pressure, then swabs the 3-year-old's delicate arm with alcohol.
"Tickle tickle," says Eloise's mom, Angelica LaCour. She's trying to get a smile. "Mommy's going to hug you, OK?"
A Stanford University nurse carefully gives the little girl her shot. Eloise is one of 144 children in the country who are part of a Phase 1 clinical trial to test Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines in the most adorable of study cohorts those 5 and younger.
"That's it!" exclaims nurse manager Richard Brotherton, pulling the needle out of Eloise's arm.
Eloise barely flinches. In fact, under her mask it looks like she's smiling.
"Look at you! Brave kid!" beams her mom.
The next day, Eloise has yet to complain of any side effects not even tenderness at the injection site.
While some people are still hesitating about the highly effective vaccines, let alone enrolling their kids in clinical trials, Angelica LaCour stresses the bigger picture.
"I think it's just really important to highlight that we're not going to get to herd immunity as a country if children are not vaccinated," she says. "We don't know the long-term impacts of the virus. And we know that this is a well-tolerated vaccine that's saving people's lives. And it's important that our children get that as well."
Still, she and her husband Chris were initially nervous about enrolling their only daughter in the early trial. They are not sure they'd be any less anxious when the official rollout of vaccines for the youngest Americans takes place.
And while Eloise is healthy, "we know that there's a lot of other families with kids with vulnerabilities where COVID-19 is potentially life-threatening," Angelica says. "And so being part of making this a reality for those families is something that is really meaningful to us."
Second dose
After three weeks, it's time for Eloise's second poke. She has decided to dress up as Princess Merida from the Pixar movie Brave. This time, she squirms a little more but still doesn't cry.
That night she complains her head hurts a little and that her arm is sore. Nothing that can't be solved with a low dose of Tylenol, says her mom. Otherwise she's running around with "lots of energy," says Angelica.
Now, even before her father has gotten his second shot, Eloise is one of a small number of little kids in the country to be fully vaccinated. The family is excited to start planning summer vacations.
Stanford scientists will track Eloise for the next two years to make sure all goes well. The next phases will involve enrolling many more children, eventually thousands, to study accurate dosage, vaccine safety, immune response and efficacy.
Pfizer is planning to apply to the Food and Drug Administration in September for emergency authorization of the vaccine for children aged 2 to 11. Moderna is also conducting clinical trials in small kids for its vaccine. The FDA has already approved vaccinating those 12 and older.
Fall rollout expected
Currently there are a lot more families willing to volunteer in trials than spaces available in the trials. Historically it's much easier to recruit kids for studies during active disease outbreaks. COVID-19 has killed more than 300 kids across the country.
"That actually represents one of the top 10 causes of death in children right now," says Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Stanford Medicine who is leading the trial. "And there have been thousands of children hospitalized."
But not all parents are so eager to vaccinate their kids. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a survey showing fewer than a third of parents say they plan to get their kids COVID-19 shots as soon as it's possible. Another 32% said they would "wait and see."
Reluctance, especially early on, is not new. It started in the early 1800s when the first smallpox vaccine was developed. However, hesitancy is more rampant now than ever before, according to Dr. Myron M. Levine, associate dean for global health, vaccinology and infectious disease at the University of Maryland.
"Hardcore anti-vaxxers exist in a way that simply could not exist in the 1970s or even the 1980s because we didn't have the connectivity that we have now," says Levine.
The internet and social media platforms provide a ripe environment for anti-vaccine sentiment. In the coming months Levine hopes parents will be swayed by the data from early trials rather than misinformation. He says vaccinating kids is critical to stamping out COVID-19.
"You have to have a very, very high level of coverage," he says, " to keep that bad genie in the bottle."
Posted on May 17, 2021 in Latest News, Newsroom
*Media Advisory details below
The University of Hawaii System is adding the COVID-19 vaccination to its student health clearance requirements beginning in the fall 2021 semester. This means that, to be on any UH campus, students must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As with existing health clearance requirements, students will be able to request exemptions for medical and religious reasons. More detailed information will be made available in the coming months as implementation plans are finalized.
It is clear that a vaccinated campus is a safer campus for everyone, and a fully vaccinated student community enables the best opportunity for a healthy return to high-quality face-to-face teaching, learning and research, said UH President David Lassner. This decision does not come lightly, and is based on guidance from our own Health and Well-Being Working Group as well as the American College Health Association recommendation that all on-campus college students be required to be vaccinated.
The vaccine requirement will take effect only after at least one of the three COVID-19 vaccines currently under emergency use authorization has been approved and fully licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is anticipated this summer.
Unvaccinated UH students will still be welcome and may enroll in online courses. Online learners will continue to be able to engage with student services online, as they have done over the past year, and will be able to participate in student activities virtually.
UHs health clearance requirements for students currently include aTBclearance and immunizations for Measles Mumps, Rubella (MMR) and Tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis and Varicella. The Meningococcal Conjugate vaccination is also required for first-year students living in on-campus housing.
All UH students and employees can sign up now to be vaccinated, and UH urges all members of the UH community to be vaccinated now. The university will also ensure there are vaccination opportunities over the summer and at the beginning of fall for members of the UH community who arrive from other locations where they may not have been able to be vaccinated.
Hawaii Department of Health Director Libby Char says UHs decision to add the COVID-19 vaccine is an important development for the university and the state.
Having fully vaccinated campuses will help tremendously to create a much safer learning environment and minimize any transmission of COVID-19 from person to person, said Char.
The university will also be initiating formal discussions with the three unions that represent UH employees about possibly requiring COVID-19 vaccination.
For more information, please visit the UH COVID-19 vaccination requirement for students FAQs.
Media Advisory:
WHAT: News conference
WHEN: Monday, May 17, 2021, at 1:30 p.m. (HST)
WHERE: Bachman Hall courtyard, UH Mnoa campus
WHO: UH President David Lassner
LIVESTREAM:A livestream of the event will be posted at https://www.hawaii.edu/itunesu/vlive/?s=uhnews.sdp
###
Contact: Dan Meisenzahl, (808) 348-4936 Spokesman, UH Communications
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK) In an effort to get as many people vaccinated, people of color and minority communities are still trailing at the bottom of the list. In the Mountain State, the numbers are extremely low and arent improving much.
Overall, and talking to people theres still a big hesitation on getting the vaccine, especially among our people, especially among our youth, said Bishop Robert Haley, Pastor of A More Excellent Way of Life Church.
According to the West Virginia DHHR, only 5.5% of Kanwaha Countys African American population is fully vaccinated or have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That number is up half a percent from two months ago. Hispanics, Asians and other minority groups have 3.6% of the population vaccinated and 4.0% have had one dose.
What we found that was more of how people are treated now by the health care system rather than something that happened in the past, Rev. James Patterson, CEO of the Partnership of African American Churches said.
Advocates are trying to get those vaccination numbers higher to get the pandemic behind us, now focusing on teens.
Were really going to be pushing our youth and helping the parents understand about this, Bishop Haley said.
Just like when 16 and up were eligible to get the vaccine, West Virginia Health Right will be partnering with the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department to make getting vaccinated convenient.
Every middle school is getting the opportunity for sure to get the vaccine and reaching every child, Angie Settle, West Virginia Health Right said.
Patterson said hes going to stick with what he knows to encourage more minorities to take the shot.
Weve been around for 20 years, so people know us and know who we are. They trusted us and so that was the way we were able to get and continue to get people of color vaccinated, Rev. Patterson said.
Community leaders say the biggest problem is that many seniors on Charlestons west side dont have transportation to get vaccinated. Thats why churches on the west side have agreed to make their locations vaccination sites.
HIMSS on Monday announced that it will have a "Vaccination Required" policy for its 2021 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition, currently scheduled to take place Aug. 9-13 in Las Vegas.
WHY IT MATTERSHIMSS (parent company of Healthcare IT News) will mandate that attendees, exhibitors and staff at HIMSS21 provide proof of "full vaccination" for COVID-19.
As explained on the new HIMSS21 Health and Safety Hub, full vaccination is achieved two weeks after a person's second dose of a two-dose vaccine series such as Pfizer and Moderna, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine such as Johnson & Johnsons Janssen.
"This guidance applies to COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (i.e., Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson (J&J)/Janssen COVID-19 vaccines), and COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use by the World Health Organization (i.e., AstraZeneca/Oxford), as of May 10, 2021," said HIMSS officials.
Attendees who cannot meet those requirements and demonstrate full vaccination will not be allowed onto the HIMSS21 campus.
The details of how full vaccination status will be confirmed and communicated are still being determined, but HIMSS says it is "evaluating validation solutions with a focus on accessible, privacy-preserving technologies. We will provide attendees, exhibitors and HIMSS staff further guidance in the coming weeks on accepted proof and validation solutions."
HIMSS has put together an FAQ focused on other questions about its plans for in-person attendance from the exhibit hall to education sessions to networking events.
THE LARGER TRENDThis past week, a listening session presented by the Global Consortium for eHealth Interoperability, an organization founded by HIMSS, HL7 International and IHE International, offered a look at some of the approaches to vaccine credentials making progress in the U.S. and Europe.
For one example, during the sessionCOVID-19 Vaccination Credentialing: Global Initiatives and Implications, Dr. Brian Anderson, chief digital health physician at the MITRE Corp., gave an update on the U.S.-based Vaccine Credential Initiative, which was launched in January and whose 400 member organizations have been working since on a secure and interoperable approach to proof of vaccination.
VCI is working with mobile devicemanufacturers to support its FHIR-enabled SMART Health Card, an "open-source-based credential on your phone that you can then use with your consent, with a verifier or with a destination as you see fit," said Anderson.
ON THE RECORD"After careful consideration and consultation with internal and external health and safety experts, HIMSS has determined that HIMSS21 can be the most robust, productive and interactive conference possible by requiring vaccinations for entry," said HIMSS officials.
"HIMSS will likely utilize one or more digital health applications to confirm that the vaccination status of each attendee, exhibitor and HIMSS staff member complies with the applicable right of entry protocols," they added. "The anticipated tool(s) will display a HIMSS21 pass status that will be checked (along with a HIMSS21 badge) to permit entry for attendees, exhibitors and HIMSS staff onto the HIMSS21 campus."
HIMSS will continue to update the HIMSS21 Health and Safety Hub.
Twitter:@MikeMiliardHITNEmail the writer:mike.miliard@himssmedia.comHealthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
The city of Brentwood, in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), will offer a two-part, pop-up COVID-19 vaccination event at the John P. Holt Brentwood Library on May 22 and June 12.
Appointments are available, but not required. To sign up for an appointment, visitsignupgenius.com/go/10C0C49ADA72CAAFCC16-brentwood.
The TDH will offer Pfizer vaccines only at this event and will be available to individuals 12 years of age or older, per the recent emergency use approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the 12-15 age range. After receiving the vaccine, individuals will be required to wait 15 minutes in the facility for monitoring.
When requested, we were happy to offer the library as a space for the community to receive the COVID vaccine, Brentwood City Manager Kirk Bednar said.
Both events will take place at the library, located at 8109 Concord Road in Brentwood, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To learn more about TDH services and programs, visitwww.tn.gov/health.
How long will it take to produce and approve boosters?
The good news is that the MrNA vaccines are very amenable to updating, Bushman said.
You just change the nucleic acid sequence to match that of the new variant, and voil, youve got the new vaccine, he said. So that can happen very fast on an engineering level. Then, theres the whole testing and approval process. But testing can probably go pretty quickly, and similarly, approval. So, I think we probably could implement a new vaccine quickly. But it would be much better if we didnt have to.
Vaccines, mask-wearing, and physical distancing help fight against new variants, Bushman said.
So, if we can keep those up and suppress the levels of virus, that reduces the chances of the virus mutating. If theres a lot less virus, a lot less transmission, there will be a lot less viral evolution, he said. So, we have it in our power to strongly influence the situation by getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and engaging in all the precautions weve been hearing about.
If were suppressing the virus in the U.S., but the virus is taking off in South Africa, or Brazil, or wherever, that could be an incubator for new variants that could break through the vaccines we have, so no one is safe until everyone is safe, Bushman added. We need to finish the job here, vaccinating and suppressing the virus, and bringing that to the rest of the world. We need to try and squelch the virus everywhere.
The city of Philadelphia announced Tuesday that all COVID-19 restrictions, with the exception of face mask requirements, will end on June 11. In Pennsylvania, all restrictions are set to lift across the state on Memorial Day, with the exception of face mask requirements. New Jersey is lifting most of its restrictions on May 19, and Delaware on May 21.
I can see the argument both ways. You want to reward people for getting vaccinated, you want to have something to look forward to. However, I think we really have to respond to events, Bushman said.
Things were looking good in India several months ago, until the virus soared because people didnt take enough precautions, and a new variant may have contributed, and now theyre having 400,000 new infections a day. So, it can change very fast. So I think an important thing is to say, We really need to keep up with precautions, we will loosen up gradually in response to data, but should things ever look to go in the wrong direction, were clamping down again.
Moderna said in a statement that during its clinical trial of its booster, people typically reacted similarly to their second dose of the vaccines. Common side effects included pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, as well as muscle and joint pain.
Bushman said hes optimistic that COVID-19 might be an easier problem to solve, because it copies its genetic material more accurately than the flu virus does.
And theres something else going on with the flu, he said.
The genetic material comes in a lot of little pieces, and there are lots of different kinds of flus in the world. So, if two different viruses go in one cell, they can reassort all these little pieces of genome, and you can get something that has four segments from virus one or three segments from virus two, or something like that, so you can get massive changes in the sequence of the flu virus, he said. That doesnt happen with SARS-COV 2 because of that reassorting antigenic shift its called. So, Im hoping SARS-COV 2 will be easier to vaccinate against.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillis working tosupport expansion of COVID-19 vaccination toprimary care clinicsin areaswith lowvaccinationrates, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The work comes as the pace of vaccination in North Carolina has slowed and the state and federal government expand efforts to target hard-to-reach populations.
More than 7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in North Carolina, mostly at mass vaccination sites, hospitals, health departments and even inside cars. Butin the next vaccination phase,moreshotsare expected to be given atdoctors offices.
TheUNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, supported by a $500,000 grant, will provide 18 primary care clinics in areas where vaccination is lowest with the coaching, data and community partnerships needed to get more people vaccinated, especially Black and Latino patients.
Primary care doctors and nurses are among the most trusted professionals in the U.S. Thats where most of us prefer to get our vaccines and vaccine information, said Melissa Gilkey,the scientific lead of the project whois abehavioral scientist at theUNC GillingsSchool of Global Public Healthandfellow atUNCHPDP.
Alice Ammerman,a professor of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health,directs UNC HPDP.Itsone of 26CDC PreventionResearch Centersacross the country to receive support to increase equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.Shell leadHPDPs involvement, sharing best practices and insights with other research teams.
Prevention Research Centers, with their long-term community partners and focus on engagement, are well-positioned to make progress toward increasing vaccine confidence and uptake, Ammerman said.
The work startswith an analysisofstate datatoidentifyareas in North Carolina withlow vaccination rates anddemographic gaps invaccinations.Researcherswill also analyze data from a state-wide surveyofbarriers togetting vaccines at primary care clinics.
The goal istoincrease the likelihood thatpatients receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccineand there are multiple strategies clinics can try.
For example, settingreminders to talk to patientsabout COVID-19 vaccinationand offering evening and weekend clinicsto make it easier toschedule ashot.
The results willbetracked for three months, but researchers will spend a yeareliciting community-drivenideas on ways to improve COVID-19 vaccination.
Joining the project willbePaul Delamater, a Carolina geographer who specializes in geospatial analysis of vaccine uptake and refusal; Noel Brewer, a professor at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and internationally recognized expert in vaccine behavior and communication andAlexandra Lightfoot, a behavioral specialist at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and expert in community engagement.
The team of UNC experts in behavioral science, vaccine delivery and community engagement will conduct the project in partnership with the NC Division of Public Health, the NC Area Health Education Centers and the PRIME Collective, a group of community experts that partners with investigators to engage communities in research.
