Category: Health

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TSA Authorized To Fine Anti-Maskers At Airports

The Supreme Court declined to strike down a federal requirement of face masks during air travel

TSA agents have been authorized to fine anti-maskers at airports Beginning Tuesday, February 2, the TSA will require folks to wear a face mask through airport security checkpoints and all the way through commercial and public transport systems. TSA agents have been authorized to fine anti-maskers at airports if the rules aren’t followed. From the Transportation Security Administration:

The federal face mask requirement extends to the nation’s domestic network of airports; passengers and crewmembers flying aboard airplanes operated by domestic and foreign air carriers with inbound flights to U.S. ports of entry; and surface transportation modes, such as passenger rail, bus systems, and over-the-road bus companies.

Passengers without a mask may be denied entry, boarding, or continued transport. Failure to comply with the mask requirement can result in civil penalties.

Whether beginning the security screening process at the airport Travel Document Checker (TDC) or submitting checked baggage for screening, all passengers who appear to be over the age of 2 must properly wear a face mask throughout the security screening process. The officer at the TDC will request that travelers temporarily lower the mask to verify their identity.

Those who approach the TDC without a mask will be asked to wear or obtain one to proceed. Passengers who refuse to wear a mask will not be permitted to enter the secure area of the airport, which includes the terminal and gate area.

Depending on the circumstance, those who refuse to wear a mask may be subject to a civil penalty for attempting to circumvent screening requirements, interfering with screening personnel, or a combination of those offenses.

Back in June I reported on homocon Brandon Straka who was removed from a flight for refusing to wear a mask. For all you anti-maskers at airports, the new rules will stay in effect through May 11, 2021.

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Trump Officials Lobbied Congress Against Funding Vaccine Rollout

The FDA has approved updated versions of COVID-19 vaccines

Frustrated by the rollout of the coronavirus vaccines? This is a reason why it’s going so poorly. StatNews journalist Nicholas Florko reports Trump officials actively lobbied against giving states money for Covid-19 vaccine administration. Via StatNews:

Top Trump officials actively lobbied Congress to deny state governments any extra funding for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall — despite frantic warnings from state officials that they didn’t have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation.

The push, described to STAT by congressional aides in both parties and openly acknowledged by one of the Trump officials, came from multiple high-ranking Trump health officials in repeated meetings with legislators.

Without the extra money, states spent last October and November rationing the small pot of federal dollars they had been given. And when vaccines began shipping in December, states seemed woefully underprepared.

Paul Mango, the former deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services, was apparently a big part of the lobbying effort. He told StatNews that since states hadn’t spent the $200 million that the CDC sent in September, they must not need the funds. Mango told StatNews he believed the states were asking for the funding to help fill empty tax coffers. “A lot of them had shut down their economies and they weren’t getting tax revenue,” he said. There’s much more over at StatNews – quite the deep dive into the facts.

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Biden Deploys FEMA In 11 States To Help Vaccination Effort

A FEMA healthcare worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccination

A FEMA healthcare worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccination
A FEMA healthcare worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccination (image via FEMA)
President Biden ordered FEMA to jump in a help with vaccination efforts across the country, and things are already happening on the ground in several states. From NBC News:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is deploying or supporting vaccination efforts in at least 11 states after President Joe Biden ordered the government to get on a war footing in his mission to vaccinate 300 million Americans by summer’s end.

The states are Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, according to a FEMA official. Federal workers are also supporting efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the official said.

FEMA has reportedly already set up vaccination sites in four of those states – Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Washington. In a statement, FEMA said they are “determining where staff support, supplies and other resource gaps are — and then working to fill them. Items that are funded can include: • Supplies and commodities needed to safely store and administer the vaccine. • Transportation support and reasonable, necessary security for refrigerated trucks. • Medical and support staff. • Communication materials that keep the public informed. • Training personnel on vaccine distribution and administration.

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Once-A-Month Injection Approved For HIV

The FDA has approved Cabenuva, a once-a-month injection to control HIV infection
(image via Depositphotos)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a long-acting once a month injection that can replace the daily pills now used to control HIV infection.

This is the first FDA-approved injectable, complete regimen for HIV-infected adults that is administered once a month.

Medical researchers expect the two-shot combo called Cabenuva will make it easier for HIV+ people to stay on schedule with their HIV medications.

Cabenuva consists of two drugs packaged together – rilpivirine and cabotegravir – but given as separate shots once a month. Cabenuva is administered as two intramuscular injections in the buttocks by a healthcare professional.

The drug makers are also testing the effectiveness of taking the injection every 8 weeks. The FDA approved Cabenuva for use in adults who have had their disease well controlled by conventional HIV medicines and who have not exhibited signs of viral resistance to the two drugs in Cabenuva. The FDA also approved Vocabria (a tablet form of cabotegravir), which should be taken in combination with oral rilpivirine for one month prior to starting treatment with Cabenuva to ensure the medications are well-tolerated before switching to the extended-release injectable formulation.

Dr. Steven Deeks, an HIV specialist at the University of California, told ABC News that a once-a-month treatment “will enhance quality of life” for those on HIV medications. “People don’t want those daily reminders that they’re HIV infected.”

Deeks also believes a monthly dose may be easier for some who have a difficult time staying on a daily schedule like those with mental illness or substance abuse issues.

In addition to treating those living with HIV, ViiV Healthcare (the maker of cabotegravir) hopes to make their drug available as PrEP for HIV prevention.

Two studies have shown an injection of cabotegravir every two months was more effective than taking Truvada on a daily basis.

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Biden Will Deploy National Guard & FEMA To Ramp Up Vaccinations

President-elect Joe Biden will utilize the National Guard and FEMA to ramp up vaccinations against the coronavirus
President-elect Joe Biden (via campaign)
President-elect Joe Biden has announced he will direct FEMA and the National Guard to build coronavirus vaccine clinics across the United States in order to make vaccinations more widely available faster. From CNBC:

The Biden administration will also “quickly jumpstart” efforts to make the vaccines available at local pharmacies across the U.S., which should ensure that Americans have access to doses at facilities only miles from their home, according to the plan.

“Here’s the deal: The more people we vaccinate, the faster we do it, the sooner we can save lives and put this pandemic behind us and get back to our lives and loved ones,” Biden said at a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, Thursday night. “We won’t get out of it overnight and we can’t do it as a separated nation.”

The rollout of the coronavirus vaccine has been much slower than anticipated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of this morning more than 31.1 million doses of vaccine had been distributed across the U.S. Of that, just over 12.2 million vaccinations have been administered. At this writing, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine reports there have been 23,478,669 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and 391,279 deaths related to the virus.

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COVID-19 Deaths Set New Single-Day Record (Again)

The first confirmed case of the omicron variant in the U.S. has been discovered in California.

The U.S. set a new single-day record for COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday As Americans watched the violent invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, the COVID-19 pandemic continued its own ‘invasion’ of the nation as the U.S. reported a new single-day record for deaths due to the coronavirus. From the New York Times:

Officials reported at least 3,964 new coronavirus deaths in the United States on Wednesday, a new single-day record, though delayed recording because of the holidays might have played a role. The daily death toll in New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania also set records.

Some states also reported single-day case records, while Illinois became one of five states that have now recorded their millionth case since the pandemic began.

In Arizona, which is beginning the new year with a higher rate of new cases than any other state, hospitalizations and deaths set records in the past few days. Over the past week, the state has averaged more than 8,000 cases a day, more than double the summer peak.

Read more regarding the COVID-19 pandemic at the New York Times.

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EMTs Told Not To Bring COVID Patients To Hospitals If Survival Chances Are Low

New York state is about to drop its face mask mandate as COVID-19 cases continue to drop in the Empire State.

A man wearing a face mask to improve his survival chances against COVID-19 Things are getting even worse in Los Angeles in regard to the coronavirus pandemic. EMTs are being told to assess the survival chances of a patient before bringing them to a hospital where resources are growing thin. From the Washington Post:

First responders in Los Angeles County have been told not to bring patients to hospitals if their survival chances are low, as health-care workers try to dig out from a deluge of covid-19 patients.

More than 128,000 people across the United States were hospitalized with covid-19 on Monday, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. That number is a record and represents an increase of 2,800 patients in a single day.

The L.A. County Emergency Medical Services Agency issued a directive Monday that ambulance crews should conserve oxygen by administering it only to patients who have oxygen saturation levels below 90%.

To reduce demand on hospitals, the agency recently issued memos directing ambulance staff not to transfer to hospitals most patients who have virtually no chance of survival.

People who require hospitalization are reportedly waiting over 8 hours in ambulances before being admitted. Related: Trump Didn’t Want People Tested For COVID Unless Vomiting In ER

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Dr. Anthony Fauci On COVID-19: ‘The Deaths Are Real’

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci on ‘This Week’ (screen capture)
During an appearance on ABC News’s This Week, Dr. Anthony Fauci shared that he did not foresee how the COVID-19 pandemic death toll in the United States would spin out to such high levels. Fauci pointed to indoor activities and holiday travel for aiding transmission of the virus. He also repeated his call for Americans to take public health precautions seriously if we ever hope to slow the current surge. From ABC News:

“To have 300,000 cases in a given day, and between two and 3,000 deaths a day is just terrible,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert told ABC’s “This Week” Co-anchor Martha Raddatz Sunday. “There’s no running away from the numbers, Martha. It’s something that we absolutely got to grasp and get our arms around and turn that inflection down by very intensive adherence to the public health measures, uniformly, throughout the country, with no exception.”

“The deaths are real deaths,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, when asked by Raddatz for his response to the president’s tweet. “All you need to do is go out into the trenches. Go to the hospitals and see what the health care workers are dealing with. They are under very stressful situations in many areas of the country. The hospital beds are stretched, people are running out of beds, running out of trained personnel who are exhausted.”

“That’s real,” he continued. “That’s not fake. That’s real.”

Just prior to Fauci’s appearance, Donald Trump tweeted (with no evidence) that the numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of infected persons and deaths in the country are “exaggerated.” That’s in spite of nearly every state reporting increased coronavirus infections nationwide. According to Johns Hopkins University COVID tracker, the U.S. this weekend surpassed 20 million reported cases of COVID-19, and the number of deaths has now exceeded 351,000 since the pandemic began 10 months ago.

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Coronavirus Variant Has Shown Up In Colorado

Photo of coronavirus molecules

Photo of coronavirus molecules
(image via Depositphotos)
The Washington Post reports the first known case in the United States of a person infected with the coronavirus variant has that has been circulating rapidly across much of the United Kingdom has been discovered in Colorado. Officials in the state believe the individual hasn’t had any close contacts but health authorities are conducting contact tracing interviews just in case.

Researchers have now detected the more transmissible variant in viral samples in at least 17 countries outside the United Kingdom, including as far away as Australia and South Korea, as of Tuesday afternoon. Officials in Canada had previously said they identified two cases, the first in North America.

In almost all instances. these cases have been in people who traveled from the United Kingdom, and there is no sign so far that the variant is spreading rapidly in these other countries, including the United States.

While the variant appears to spread more easily, it does not make people sicker or more likely to die, scientists in the United Kingdom reported late Monday.

The patient is a male in his 20s who is currently in isolation in Elbert County. He reportedly has no travel history, according to the tweet Gov. Jared Polis below.

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Trump: Florida ‘Doing Well’ Without ‘Lockdowns’ As State Passes 21K Deaths From COVID

New York state is about to drop its face mask mandate as COVID-19 cases continue to drop in the Empire State.

Donald Trump tweeted today criticism about the pandemic situation in California adding that Florida is “open & doing well.” According to the Orlando Sentinel, Florida added 17,042 positive COVID-19 cases today bringing its total to 1,264,588 as the death toll from the virus has risen to 21,135. The Sunshine State has a population of around 21.5 million, which breaks down to one in 17 people in the state who have now tested positive for the virus. California has almost double the population (39.5 million) of Florida and has fewer cases per capita than Florida. Across the U.S., one in 18 have tested positive for the virus, and one in 98 globally. So, no – that’s not doing “well.”