Police officers and other public safety workers have a responsibility to get vaccinated, the nation's top infectious disease physician said Sunday.
"I'm not comfortable with telling people what they should do under normal circumstances, but we are not in normal circumstances right now," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview with Fox News. "Take the police. We know now the statistics, more police officers die of COVID than they do in other causes of death. So, it doesn't make any sense to not trying to protect yourself as well as the colleagues that you work with."
COVID-19 is the leading cause of death for American law enforcement officers, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a nonprofit tracking police officer deaths.
Police unions and officers have pushed back on vaccine mandates by filing lawsuits to block them. In Chicago, the head of the police union called on members to defy the city’s deadline for reporting their COVID-19 vaccination status. Seattle’s police department sent detectives and non-patrol officers to emergency calls this week due to a shortage of patrol officers that union leaders fear will become worse because of vaccine mandates.
"Think about the implications of not getting vaccinated when you're in a position where you have a responsible job and you want to protect yourself because you're needed at your job, whether you're a police officer or a pilot or any other of those kinds of occupations," Fauci said.
Also in the news:
► The Navajo Nation has reported no COVID-19 deaths for the 11th time in the past 17 days. The latest numbers released Saturday pushed the tribe’s totals to 34,814 confirmed COVID cases from the virus since the pandemic began.
► Russia reported its largest daily number of new coronavirus infections, more than 70% up on the number a month ago as the country faces a sustained rise in cases.
📈Today's numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 44.9 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 724,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 240 million cases and 4.8 million deaths. More than 189 million Americans — 57% of the population — are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
📘 What we're reading: 'Hours of my life I'm never going to get back': As many offices reopen after being shuttered during the COVID-19 health crisis, roughly 40% of workers say they want to continue working remotely. And for some, not having to commute on crowded trains, slow-moving buses, or in their cars, is one of the biggest perks of working from home.
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Can judges decide whether to force hospitals to administer ivermectin?
Judges are struggling with the question of whether they have the power to order hospitals to give grievously ill COVID-19 patients ivermectin, a drug that hasn’t been approved for use to treat people with the virus.
Florida Circuit Judge James Nutt said state law is unclear. And allowing judges to countermand doctors’ decisions could set a dangerous precedent, he said.
“So every drug combination cocktail or procedure that is debated as to its efficacy … the hospital is going to be taken to court?” Nutt asked. “It’s problematic where this is going.”
Judges in New York, Ohio and Delaware ruled that hospitals couldn't be compelled to administer ivermectin. However, a Jacksonville, Florda,i judge last month ordered a hospital to give it to a COVID-19 patient, according to records submitted to Nutt.
At least two lawsuits have been filed nationwide seeking to force a hospital to administer ivermectin.
— Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post
Cities hope to loosen rules on spending federal pandemic aid
At the Loma Verde Recreation Center south of San Diego, demolition work is underway on a $24 million project that will rebuild the facility from the ground up, complete with a new pool. An hour’s drive to the north, the iconic bridge to the Oceanside pier is deteriorating because the city lacks the money for a roughly $25 million rehabilitation.
A reason one project is moving ahead and the other isn’t revolves around the American Rescue Plan — the sweeping COVID-19 relief law championed by President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats that is pumping billions of dollars to states and local governments.
Under rules developed by the U.S. Treasury Department, some governments have more flexibility than others to spend their share of the money as they want. That’s why the new swimming pool is a go, and the rehabbed pier — at least for now — is a no.
Similar disparities among cities across the country have prompted a pushback from local officials, who want Treasury to loosen its rules before the program progresses much further.
— Associated Press
Chicago mayor says police won't be sent home over their COVID vaccine status — yet
Police officers in Chicago will not be ordered to go home if they defy the city's requirement that they report their COVID-19 vaccination status or be placed on unpaid leave, police leaders and Chicago's mayor said last Thursday.
“Nobody is going to be turned away,” said police department spokesman Tom Ahern. “Officers will be working their normal shifts this weekend (and) they won't be turned away or sent home... Officers will continue coming to work until they are told otherwise (and) that they are no longer on pay status."
Ahern's comments follow a video posted on the police officers' union website this week in which the union president urged members not to report their vaccination status by last Friday, the deadline that Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration set for city workers, and suggested such a refusal might result in them being sent home.
— Associated Press
Contributing: Associated Press
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