Washington state is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine mandate to include all public, charter and private school teachers and staff — plus those working at the state's colleges and universities.
Those who are not fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 risk losing their jobs, Gov. Jay Inslee announced Wednesday.
The policy is the strictest vaccine mandate announced to date for teachers. In other sectors, San Francisco, New York and New Orleans are all requiring vaccines to get into venues.
Vaccine mandates have been a hotly debated topic in recent months, with more being implemented as the delta variant surges around the country. Despite them, cases and hospitalizations are rising, often overwhelming hospitals.
In neighboring state Oregon, officials reported on Tuesday that 93% of the state's hospital beds for adults and 90% of the intensive care unit beds are full.
There are 838 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Oregon — surpassing the state's record, which was set the previous day, by 86 patients. Before this month, the hospitalization record was 622 in November, during a winter surge and when vaccines were not available.
Austin, Texas, on Wednesday recorded the most patients in intensive care units across the area with coronavirus-related illnesses since the pandemic began last spring, according to the latest data from the local coronavirus dashboard. The latest state data released Wednesday showed four staffed intensive care unit beds were left available for the entire health care region.
Alabama had more intensive care patients hospitalized in the state on Tuesday than it had staffed ICU beds.
"People are still having heart attacks, still having strokes, still getting into car accidents," said Kelly Pomeroy, an Elmore County-based EMT. "It's just frustrating that we may not be able to transport our (patient) to the closest appropriate facility due to the hospital being full of COVID patients."
Also in the news:
►The United States is urging more than 150 countries planning to send their leader or a government minister to New York to speak at the U.N. General Assembly next month to consider giving a video address instead to prevent the annual high-level week from becoming “a super-spreader event.”
►Nursing home personnel will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the facilities to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday.
►California will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours for indoor events with 1,000 or more attendees starting Sept. 20. Also Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to require city workers to be fully vaccinated unless they have a medical or religious exemption.
►All Americans who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, regardless of age, will need COVID-19 booster shots eight months after getting the second shot, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.
►The global number of new cases has been increasing for the last 2 months with over 4.4 million cases reported in the past week, but deaths reported have remained the same, said the World Health Organization in its weekly epidemiological report.
📈 Today's numbers: The U.S. has had more than 37.1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 624,300 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 209.1 million cases and 4.38 million deaths. More than 168.8 million Americans — 50.9% of the population — have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
📘 What we're reading: Many states don't consistently track tribal death data, masking COVID-19 impact on Native Americans, study finds. Read the full story.
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Biden to use Education Department to dissuade states from banning masks
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is directing the Department of Education to "take additional steps to protect our children," setting up a federal intervention against governors blocking school mask mandates around the country.
“Unfortunately, as you’ve seen throughout this pandemic, some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures — that is, children wearing masks in school — into political disputes for their own political gain,” Biden said. “We are not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children."
Education Department Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement posted to the ED website that the civil rights division of the department could investigate "if facts indicate a potential violation of the rights of students as a result of state policies and actions."
Several states have banned mask mandates in schools, including Arizona, Florida, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, and Utah. Not all districts in those states have complied with those bans.
Deer in 4 states have been exposed coronavirus, USDA study shows
A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture has found that white-tail deer, the kind some people will see in their backyards, are being exposed to COVID-19.
The study, not yet peer-reviewed, showed that 40% of deer tested across four states in 2021 were positive for antibodies, meaning they had been exposed to the virus at some point. The positive tests do not necessarily indicate deer had active infections.
The findings raise questions about whether deer are transmitting the virus among themselves and how their interactions with humans could affect spread.
"At the moment, there’s no immediate cause for concern but justification for precaution. Just as we socially distance from people who could be infected, we also have to think about socially distancing from some animals who could potentially be infected," Peter Rabinowitz, a physician who specializes in zoonotic diseases and co-directs the University of Washington Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness, told USA TODAY on Wednesday.
- Jeanine Santucci
Vaccine effectiveness declines over time, three new studies find
Protection provided by COVID-19 vaccines declines over time, but protection against the most severe effects of the disease, including hospitalization and death, remains strong, according to three studies published Wednesday by the CDC.
The research, released as three articles in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, show the vaccines' effectiveness against the delta variant is also "generally decreased," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday. The drop in effectiveness varies depending on the cohort, but the data consistently demonstrates a reduction.
A study of 10 million New Yorkers found effectiveness decreased from 92% in May to about 80% in late July, Walensky said. Data from Mayo Clinic Health System facilities showed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s effectiveness declined from 76% to 42% and Moderna's declined from 86% to 76%, she added. Plus, reports from thousands of nursing homes showed effectiveness dropped from 75% in March to 53% in on Aug. 1 among the most vulnerable populations during the months when delta was the dominant strain, she said.
But an analysis of patients at 21 hospitals in 18 states found "sustained high protection from severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalization" through July.
Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday the data indicates that antibody levels decline over time regardless of the variant, but a booster dose increases antibody levels tenfold. Higher levels of antibodies correspond with higher levels of vaccine efficacy and may be needed to protect against the delta variant.
"All of this support the use of a third booster mRNA immunization," Fauci said.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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