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"You have said I am unwilling to take any responsibility for the current pandemic. I have no responsibility for the current pandemic," Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a Senate Health Committee hearing Thursday about the federal covid-19 response.
The city agreed with at least four unions to establish rules for workers to apply for medical or religious exemptions to the city's covid shot mandate. AP reports a former Washington State coach, fired for refusing the vaccine, has filed an appeal. A poll shows young people mostly support mandates.
Emergent operates a facility in Baltimore that hit the headlines this year after manufacturing issues saw millions of Johnson & Johnson covid shots destroyed. It has now ended its contract with a federal program run by HHS for infectious disease response. Media outlets cover other vaccine news.
University of Oxford researchers say the gene may explain why different ethnic groups seem to be more susceptible to severe infections. Covid, meanwhile, is reported at higher rates in 24 states as the winter weather arrives. Covid in schools, ivermectin and more are also in the news.
According to Pfizer study data, the pill — when paired with an HIV drug — cut the risk of hospitalization or death by nearly 90% in high-risk adults exposed to the virus. The only approved covid therapies are intravenous, so an easy-to-administer pill would be a big step forward in treating covid.
How will unvaccinated employees be impacted by the sweeping federal mandates? Those working on site for companies with more than 100 workers must wear masks in enclosed spaces with coworkers, and get weekly covid tests starting Jan. 4. And there is no testing opt-out for health workers at facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid funds. News outlets round up all the new rules.
A lawsuit, filed by Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, takes issue with the requirements for federal contractors. Governors in Florida, South Carolina and other states also say they will push back against "federal overreach."
Some private-sector leaders expressed worry over the Jan. 4 deadline. But other measures in the federal rules are considered wins for employers, including that there's an exemption for remote workers and that companies will not be on the hook for testing costs.
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Opinion writers examine these covid and vaccine topics.
Editorial writers delve into these public health issues.
The APA issued a statement last week admitting it played a role in perpetuating structural racism and apologized that psychology, as a whole field, had harmed people of color for decades. Also: Chicago's Mercy Hospital, a rural health grant in Nevada, Walmart's health ambitions and more.
Detroit voters passed a proposal yesterday, 61% to 39%, to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi. Stateline reports that Oregon's moves to decriminalize drugs are spurring progressive lawmakers elsewhere to follow its example. Cancer-causing pollution in Houston is among other news.
The rise over 2019's figures for enrollment in U.S. nursing programs was reported alongside data from Temple University in Pennsylvania, which has seen applications up 15% this fall. Nursing shortages and reports on life as a nurse during the pandemic are also in the news.
Expansion of the program took effect at the beginning of July. Nearly 60% of the people approved for benefits through expansion are female, the state said Wednesday.
Tens of millions of people, mainly in the 30 to 59 age group, may be advised to get hepatitis B shots (with people below 30 largely covered, after a 1991 decision to vaccinate kids). Separately, scientists uncover why some people have Alzheimer's-risk brain chemistry, but no dementia.
Worried that this week's election results are a harbinger of midterm elections to come, Democrats say they will move forward on companion spending bills with renewed urgency. But thorny issues like drug pricing could still throw a wrench in those plans. Politico rounds up what's made the cut so far, and what still needs to be hashed out.
New research has identified that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can easily reach a person's brain after being inhaled through the nose, and then "lurk" there, possibly causing long-term neurological problems. The virus can also infect inner ear cells, potentially affecting hearing and balance.
The approval comes amid surging covid infections in the U.K. Elsewhere around the globe, Thursday saw the highest number of new covid cases in Germany since the pandemic's outbreak, the AP reports, and China is also reported to be locking down Beijing as an outbreak continues.
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