Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Fraudulent Vaccine Cards On The Rise; Unions Fighting Vaccine Mandates
USA Today: Stop The Spread Of Illegal Fake COVID-19 Vaccination Cards
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Memphis, Tennessee, recently made a strange but increasingly more common seizure: a package filled with counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards imported from China. More than 120 similar packages filled with thousands of fake cards, with typos and misspelled words, have been seized this year in Memphis alone. As more municipalities, music venues, universities and employers institute vaccine requirements, many unvaccinated people are reevaluating their decision and are getting the COVID-19 vaccine. On the other hand, some are deciding to violate the law by creating fraudulent vaccine cards. As chief legal officers for our states, we want all our constituents to understand that selling or using fake vaccination cards is illegal and can result in fines or jail time. (Josh Stein and Herbert Slatery, 9/29)
The New York Times: New York Needs Vaccine Mandates. Don’t Let Unions Stop Them
As New York pushes forward with some of the toughest and farthest-reaching vaccine mandates in the nation, thousands of health care workers in the state appear to be willing to be fired rather than get vaccinated. So, too, do thousands of people who work in New York City’s public schools. How sad that many of these vaccine holdouts are supported by their unions. Talk about a lack of solidarity. (Mara Gay, 9/29)
The Washington Post: Vaccine Mandates Are Working. Let’s Make Them The Norm
There are positive signs that business and government vaccine mandates are succeeding. While the total number of unvaccinated people in the United States is still way too large — only 64.9 percent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated — the idea of mandates is taking hold, and hopefully will become the norm. United Airlines became the first U.S. carrier to require vaccines for its workforce, and the results are impressive. Out of a workforce of roughly 67,000 people, fewer than 3 percent applied for exemptions on health or religious grounds, and 1 percent didn’t comply. The company said it has begun the process of terminating 593 employees who declined to be vaccinated and did not seek exemption. The airline’s chiefs got it right in their statement that “everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated, and vaccine requirements work.” (9/29)
Stat: Repurposing Drugs Can Speed New Treatments For Covid-19
As the summer of 2021 started to unfold, many Americans thought the pandemic was beginning to fizzle out. But that illusion is over and the country is once more besieged by the coronavirus. Intensive care units across America are again teeming with Covid-19 patients. Only 55% of Americans are fully vaccinated, and just 39% globally. This sets the stage for the emergence of new and deadly variants that will not heed national borders. (Robert Goldberg, 9/30)
Modesto Bee: CA Lawmakers Choose Profit Over People, Gut COVID Disclosure
If you’ve heard about COVID-19 outbreaks in nearby businesses, it’s probably because you learned about it from news reporters. Instead of requiring transparency from all California companies, state lawmakers failed workers and consumers by gutting a bill that would have required full transparency whenever there are COVID outbreaks at workplaces.Wouldn’t you like to know if the staff at your local coffee shop or furniture store is having a rash of COVID sickness? (9/29)
