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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sticking with its current classifications: If you've completed your primary series of covid vaccinations, you're considered "fully vaccinated." If you've had a booster shot, you're "up to date."
With final sign-off from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to expand third Pfizer shots to ages 12 to 15, the Biden administration is urging adolescents to get their booster in order to combat omicron. Especially as more children are being hospitalized.
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An outbreak of covid traced to U.S. military bases may prompt the declaration of an emergency on the island of Okinawa. Meanwhile, the British government says it can "ride out" the omicron wave with no strict lockdowns, and in South Africa the omicron wave may have peaked.
In other news, when the recreational cannabis market opened in Montana, over $1.5 million in sales happened on the first weekend. But other reports say medical marijuana shortages may be expected due to the recreational market's opening.
Seventy-five percent of the nearly 54,000 claimants in the case needed to approve the payout, but just 73% did. Meanwhile, as the surprise medical billing law comes into effect, some lawmakers are already pushing for changes to the process, to "line up" with what they say was Congress' intent.
The Marshall fire has forced the closure of Centura-Avista Adventist (the only full-service hospital in Louisville, Colorado) for the "foreseeable future." Separately, a hospital in Philadelphia closes its birthing unit, HCA Healthcare is buying the largest urgent care network in Florida and more.
The Chicago Teachers Union alleged that conditions were "unsafe" for in-person lessons, which resumed Monday. Meanwhile, Florida experienced thousands of absences of staff and students due to covid infections, and testing in California found hundreds of student cases before school reopening.
A report in Stat says Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer gave tens of thousands of dollars to Republican members of Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election, despite pledges to cut off funds. Among other industry news: a tussle between Applied Therapeutics and short sellers and how telehealth companies cut costs.
To combat line-cutting, fights, traffic jams and shortages, some cities are setting up security at covid testing locations while others are limiting the number of tests available. In other news, Walmart and Kroger are upping the price of BinaxNOW tests.
Pockets of the U.S. military and National Guard are continuing to fight against the Biden administration's requirement that they receive the covid vaccine in order to serve.
There had been signals that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would layer in a negative test to its recommendations for when someone with covid can stop isolating. The agency stopped short of making that change and instead laid out the science behind its guidance of 5 days of isolation followed by 5 days of masking — for all, including kids.
On Monday the Food and Drug Administration authorized the change to 5 months from 6, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly agreed. An Israeli study, meanwhile, shows a fourth dose of Pfizer's covid vaccine causes a fivefold rise in antibodies a week after the shot.
The goal is to have enough courses of Paxlovid for 20 million people. Still, Pfizer says it will take months to ramp up supply because of the complexity involved in making the pill.
The study, in JAMA Pediatrics, followed 255 babies born from March to December 2020 in New York City, NBC News reports. The authors stressed that the results may not indicate long-term delays in development.
While covid infections remain at record levels, the number of people hospitalized is fortunately not following the same trend line, as it's done previously in the pandemic. Health officials say that's due to vaccinations and that omicron appears to be causing less severe illness than previous variations of the virus.
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