Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Amenorrhea refers to the temporary absence of a menstrual cycle for weeks to months due to a medical cause. It can also refer to menstrual periods that havent started for people who should be in puberty.

Most cases of amenorrhea are due to pregnancy. However, amenorrhea can also be caused by several other underlying factors, including an estrogen deficiency.

If this hormone deficiency isnt addressed, it can increase your risk for osteoporosis. Estrogen deficiency is a common cause of osteoporosis since estrogen is essential to maintaining bone health.

Read on to learn how estrogen levels impact menstruation cycles as well as your bone health and how this hormone deficiency is treated.

Osteoporosis is a condition in which your bones lose mass and density, putting you at greater risk of fractures.

Two core risk factors for osteoporosis are age (being over age 65) and being a postmenopausal woman, which is when estrogen levels naturally decline. However, teens can also have hormonal imbalances that impact bone formation and increase osteoporosis risks.

Estrogen is a hormone that serves several essential functions in your body, including regulating bone formation. If you have lower estrogen levels than considered clinically average, your bones might not become as dense as they could otherwise be. This can contribute to weakness, fractures, and slow healing.

For example, people with amenorrhea are at a higher risk of wrist and hip fractures. In a 2017 study of young women who had low levels of estrogen for 6 months, bone mass density decreased similarly to what you would see in women during the first year of menopause.

For younger people, this decline in estrogen may be due to a hormonal imbalance in adolescence. Teen years are an important time for bone development. In addition to maintaining stable estrogen levels, getting enough calcium and vitamin D, and staying active in your youth help build healthy bones for the rest of your life.

Amenorrhea is classified into two subtypes depending on the underlying cause.

Most menstruation cycles begin soon after age 12. Primary amenorrhea occurs when someone expecting menstruation in puberty has yet to have their first period by age 16. Sometimes this can occur in people who have differences in sexual characteristics or development (intersex) or those who have low estrogen.

Chromosomal irregularities, and any disruptions to the pituitary gland or hypothalamus can also delay the onset of puberty. In some cases, pregnancy can be the cause.

Secondary amenorrhea refers to the absence of periods in previously menstruating people. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) defines amenorrhea as missing your period for 3 or more months.

The most common causes of secondary amenorrhea are pregnancy and breastfeeding, which naturally impact your hormone levels.

Other causes of secondary amenorrhea include:

All these things can have an impact on the way your bodys reproductive hormones are balanced, and some can cause nutrient deficiencies.

Up to 30% of amenorrhea diagnoses in women are classified as hypothalamic amenorrhea, which is typically linked to stress, restrictive eating, and exercise.

Amenorrhea refers to the absence of periods in people who should be menstruating. Menopause refers to the natural tapering off and eventual stoppage of menstruation that happens later in life. This transition can last several years and usually occurs between ages 45 and 55, according to the National Institute on Aging.

People with amenorrhea will usually resume their menstrual cycle with treatment, whereas people with menopause will no longer have periods.

For some people, a couple of missed periods wont have a huge impact on their long-term health. But any cause of period stoppage (cessation) should be evaluated by a doctor.

The long-term health effects of low estrogen in premenopausal women are still being studied. But researchers often agree that for teenagers and young adults, amenorrhea can create health risks later in life.

Childhood and puberty are crucial periods for our bodies development. If estrogen imbalances in childhood and the teen years are not treated, they can have significant future impact on cardiac, skeletal, and reproductive systems.

In addition to interfering with early development, amenorrhea can also present challenges to premenopausal people looking to become pregnant.

It may be difficult for someone with amenorrhea to know if theyre ovulating or if pregnancy is even possible for them at the moment. This can potentially create further emotional stress on top of the underlying medical condition.

Your best treatment option for amenorrhea will depend on the underlying cause, as well as your individual health factors. Determining the cause of your missed periods may involve several diagnostic tests, including those to check for pregnancy and to evaluate your hormone levels.

If an estrogen deficiency is causing your amenorrhea, the most common treatments are dietary supplements and hormone therapy. Estrogen hormone therapy involves taking a synthetic version of the hormone to bring your levels back to a healthy range.

If you have hypothalamic amenorrhea, your doctor will need to determine whats suppressing the hormone signals to your brain. If a dietary restriction or an eating disorder is causing your amenorrhea, treatment will most likely be structured to address any deficiencies and provide you with support.

If theres an anatomical reason that prevented your period from ever starting, or if your bodys hormone levels are imbalanced for some other reason, hormone treatment with estrogen, oral contraceptives, or a combination of the two treatments, might be part of your treatment plan.

Reaching out to a doctor rather than assuming the issue will resolve on its own is the safest recommendation. You could be putting yourself at risk for acute and long-term health complications, such as osteoporosis, by not getting evaluated for amenorrhea.

Low estrogen levels are a common cause of both amenorrhea and osteoporosis. Having untreated amenorrhea puts you at increased risk of osteoporosis.

Amenorrhea and subsequent low bone mass can affect teens going through puberty, postmenopausal women, and others.

No matter the underlying cause of amenorrhea, there is effective treatment available.

Taking estrogen hormone therapy to boost your low levels can return bones to full health and prevent future complications. Sometimes, another underlying health condition causing low estrogen needs to be addressed.

Pay close attention to your menstrual cycles and note any irregularities. Parents should consult a doctor if their childs menstruation hasnt begun as expected to check for estrogen deficiency.

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Amenorrhea and Osteoporosis: Link, Risk Factors, and Treatment - Healthline

Foreign travellers arriving in Australia will no longer need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 from Wednesday morning.

It marks the end of significant COVID-based restrictions on travel into Australia, more than two years after the pandemic began.

Currently, anyone arriving in Australia needs to declare their vaccination status before arriving.

While Australian citizens can arrive unvaccinated, most foreign travellers need to seek an exemption on limited grounds.

From 12:01am on Wednesday morning, those requirements will be scrapped altogether opening the international border in full to unvaccinated travellers.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the decision was being made now on medical advice.

"The Chief Medical Officer has advised it is no longer necessary for travellers to declare their vaccine status as part of our management of COVID," he said.

"Unvaccinated Australians, as well as certain groups of visa holders, have been able to travel to Australia for some time.

"We will continue to act on the medical advice as needed."

Relatively few requests were being made from unvaccinated travellers looking to enter Australia.

In May, just over 1,000 applications were receivedand only 158 were approved largely on compassionate grounds.

Incoming arrivals still need to comply with other COVID-19 restrictions, like wearing masks on flights bound for Australia.

All international arrivals into Australia have been required to fill out a Digital Passenger Declaration, which records their vaccination status.

The DPDs were rolled out earlier this year, but with this decision, they will no longer be used.

It is expected the DPD system will eventually take the place of the paper international arrival cards, currently filled out by anyone landing in Australia.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neill said this decision wouldallow the technology to be worked on before that change was made.

"I know anyone who has travelled internationally since the borders have opened will find this as one less thing to worry about especially as more Australians get back to travelling overseas," she said.

"We've also listened to feedback about the DPD.

"While in time it will replace the paper-based incoming passenger card, it needs a lot more work to make it user friendly"

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COVID-19 vaccination requirements to be scrapped for international arrivals into Australia - ABC News

Toronto will be shortening hours at the city-run immunization clinics during the summer.

According to Toronto Public Health, the new hours of operation will begin on Monday and will impact all of the six active clinics offering the COVID-19 vaccine. In a notification posted to social media, officials said the changes will meet the needs of Toronto residents throughout the summer.

These are the new hours:

At Metro Hall and Crossroads Plaza the clinics will be open between noon to 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday, and between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

At Cloverdale Mall, Mitchell Field Community Centre and 1940 Eglinton Avenue, the clinics will be open noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

At Thorncliffe Park Community Hub, the clinic will be open between noon to 6 p.m., as well as between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

All clinics are offering first, second and third doses, as well as fourth doses for select eligible groups.

Residents can book an appointment using the provincial booking portal or call centre.

Students in Grades 7 to 12 can also book appointments at these clinics for school-based vaccinations such as those for Hepatitis B, HPV and Meningococcal diseases.

About 51.7 per cent of all eligible Toronto residents have received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

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Toronto to shorten COVID-19 vaccine clinic hours over summer - CP24 Toronto's Breaking News

(Precision Vaccinations)

When the U.S. FDAs vaccine committee endorsed the Maryland-produced protein-based COVID-19 vaccine on June 7, 2022, many people expected authorization would immediately follow.

However, according to Novavax Inc.s statement issued on July 1, 2022, this World Health Organization Listed vaccine remains under FDA review.

Novavax stated it is awaiting U.S. emergency use authorization (EUA) for our prototype COVID-19 vaccine, and we are committed to bringing it to market.

Clinical data generated to date demonstrate that this prototype vaccine offers broad immune responses including against circulating variants, such as the Omicron BA.4/5.

Novavax is already well underway in our variant program and will accelerate our focus on Omicron BA.4/5, as recommended by FDA in their guidance on June 30, 2022.

We expect to have additional preclinical data on Omicron BA.4/5 in the late summer or fall, and expect to be in a position to provide an Omicron-containing vaccine in Q4 of 2022.

During the late June FDA meeting, Novavaxs team highlighted data showing the structural features of Novavax's protein-based COVID-19 vaccine displayed epitopes across both the original strain and emerging SARS-CoV-2 virus variants, contributing to the generation of broadly cross-reacting antibodies.

Additional data from Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials and in vitro data on neutralizing antibodies and receptor inhibition from trial participants show cross-reactivity with all virus variants tested, particularly following booster doses.

Novavax continues to believe in the importance of vaccines that offer broad immune responses against a variety of variants, given the fact that COVID-19 will continue to evolve, said the Company.

Novavax originally submitted a request to the FDA for EUA in January 2022.

Another company hoping to bring this non-mRNA vaccine to the USA is the Serum Institute in India (SSI). On June 30, 2022, local media reported SSI is seeking approval to export millions of its version of the Novavax vaccine, Covovax, under the brand name Nuvaxovid, to the USA in July 2022.

As of July 2, 2022, Nuvaxovid has received authorization for use in adults from more than forty countries. Recently, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration granted EUA for Nuvaxovid.

Nuvaxovid (NVX-CoV2373) is a protein-based vaccine engineered from the genetic sequence of the first strain of the SARS-CoV-2 beta coronavirus.

This Novavax vaccine integrates the patented saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant, which has demonstrated a potent and well-tolerated effect by stimulating the entry of antigen-presenting cells into the injection site and enhancing antigen presentation in local lymph nodes, boosting immune response and helping an immunized person make antibodies against the virus.

In July 2020, Novavax was awarded $1.6 billion by the U.S. federal government to complete late-stage clinical development and deliver 100 million doses of the NVXCoV2373 vaccine.

Note: This vaccine news article is not sponsored content.

PrecisionVaccinations publishes fact-checked, research-based vaccine news curated for mobile readership.

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Will the U.S. FDA Authorize a Protein-Based COVID-19 Vaccine? - Precision Vaccinations

The vaccine deployment in December 2020 signaled a turning point in the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of May 2021, 40% of the U.S. population was fully vaccinated. But as vaccination rates lagged over the summer, new surges of COVID-19 came, including Delta in the summer of 2021, and now the Omicron variant, which comprises the majority of cases in the U.S.

The United States as of Apr. 15 reached 988,342 COVID-19-related deaths and nearly 80.5 million COVID-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. Currently, 65.9% of the population is fully vaccinated, and 45.3% of vaccinated people have received booster doses.

Stacker compiled a list of the counties with highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Utah using data from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and Covid Act Now. Counties are ranked by the highest vaccination rate as of Apr. 14, 2022. Due to inconsistencies in reporting, some counties do not have vaccination data available. Keep reading to see whether your county ranks among the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in your state.

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Counties with the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Utah - Longview News-Journal

Despite persistent claims to the contrary, none of the three authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines contains fetal tissue.

In an early phase of development, two of the coronavirus shots the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were tested in cell lines that were long ago made from an aborted fetus. And the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is manufactured using a cell line derived from aborted fetal tissue.

Neither fetal cells nor fetal tissue, however, are present in any of the vaccines, and no new abortions were involved in making any aspect of the vaccines possible. Numerous religious groups and anti-abortion organizations have said it is not morally objectionable to receive at least some of the available COVID-19 vaccines.

Confusion about the role of fetal cells or tissue or lack thereof with the COVID-19 vaccines has bubbled up most recently due to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

In a dissenting opinion issued on June 30, Thomas referred to the religious objections of the petitioners in a case about a New York state mandate for health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Petitioners are 16 healthcare workers who served New York communities throughout the COVID19 pandemic, Thomas wrote. They object on religious grounds to all available COVID19 vaccines because they were developed using cell lines derived from aborted children.

Multiple news outlets highlighted Thomas comments, with some suggesting that he had made a factual error or was spreading vaccine misinformation. Its unclear to what degree Thomas was simply summarizing the petitioners viewpoint, or whether he agreed with the sentiment.

Setting aside the issue of when a developing fetus should be characterized as a child, Thomas statement is correct. He is careful to say developed instead of manufactured, and does not claim that any of the vaccines contain fetal cells even if some people mistakenly got that impression from his dissent.

Still, its worth providing context to understand what fetal cell lines are, how theyre involved with the COVID-19 vaccines, and how that compares with other vaccines, medical products and scientific research.

As weve explained before, the fetal cell lines used in testing, developing or producing some vaccines are distinct from fetal tissue, and no vaccine contains fetal tissue. But some vaccines, including a few of the worlds standard childhood vaccines, have some connection to cells grown in the lab that were originally made using cells taken from an aborted embryo or fetus.

Two of the most commonly used cell strains in vaccine development or manufacturing are MRC-5 and WI-38, which were made decades ago from lung tissue taken from two different aborted fetuses in the U.K. and Sweden in the 1960s. Researchers discovered the cells were useful for the purpose because they were good at growing viruses that infect humans, and many vaccines are made of weakened viruses.

The rubella vaccine, for example, which is part of the measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccine, is still manufactured today by growing large quantities of WI-38 cells. The weakened rubella vaccine virus was also developed by passaging the virus in the cells at a temperature below that of the human body. This rendered the virus able to replicate enough to generate long-lasting immunity from the vaccine, but not enoughto make a person ill.

Other vaccines produced in fetal cell lines include chickenpox, hepatitis A and one of the rabies vaccines. As the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia has explained, vaccines manufactured in fetal cell lines do not contain any of the cells because the vaccines are purified.

Only one of the U.S.-authorized COVID-19 vaccines is manufactured by growing virus in a fetal cell line.

The lesser-used Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses an adenovirus viral vector to initiate an immune response against the coronaviruss spike protein, is made in a fetal retinal cell line known as PER.C6.

According to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, the cells derive from retinal cells isolated from an aborted fetus in 1985. The cells were then adapted to grow replication-deficient adenoviral vaccines in the late 1990s.

The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which do not contain virus and instead are made of messenger RNA, have a more tenuous link to fetal cell lines. Neither vaccine is made in such cells, but both companies did certain experiments testing their vaccines in HEK-293T cells, which are commonly used in biomedical research.

HEK-293Ts are human embryonic kidney cells, derived from cells isolated from a fetus in 1973. It is unclear whether that fetus was miscarried or aborted, according to a handout from the North Dakota Department of Health.

In particular, scientists used HEK-293T cells to make sure the vaccine mRNAcould be made into SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins, and also used the cells to create SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses to test how well antibodies from vaccinated animals worked to neutralize the virus. Alessondra Speidel, a biomaterials scientist at Swedens Karolinska Institute, told National Geographic that such tests were like a proof-of-concept test, showing that the mRNA design worked.

As the North Dakota Department of Health has noted, the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission have both said it is morally acceptable, given the lack of alternatives, to receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines. However, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishopshas advisedchoosing the vaccine with the least connection to abortion-derived cell lines if possible.That group has also said that getting a COVID-19 vaccine ought to be understood as an act of charity toward the other members of our community and should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.

Moreover, even the anti-abortion Charlotte Lozier Institute considers the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to be ethically uncontroversial.

While the use of fetal cell lines in certain vaccines has long been controversial for some individuals, its worth noting that such cells are commonly used in all sorts of basic biomedical research, and that work undergirds much of scientists understanding of human biology and disease.

Fetal cell lines are also regularly used to identify new treatments for various diseases and to do research onseveralcommon drugs, includingacetaminophen, or Tylenol.

Several COVID-19 treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies and the antiviral drug remdesivir, were also tested using fetal cell lines.

So many people dont realize how important fetal cell lines are to develop life-saving medicines and vaccines that they rely on every day, Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told National Geographic. Their use in developing COVID-19 vaccines isnt anything different or special.

By one estimate, as of 2015, more than 10.3 million lives have been saved from the use of vaccines produced by WI-38 cells alone, and 4.5 billion illnesses have been prevented or treated.

Thomas dissent concerned a case brought against New York about a state law that mandated COVID-19 vaccines for health care workers and did not include a religious exemption.

The employees contended that the mandate violated their right to freely exercise their religion, and stated that they could not agree to being immunized with vaccines that were tested, developed or produced with fetal cell lines derived from procured abortions.

In a 6-3 decision in December, the Supreme Court rejectedtwo requests from health care workers in New York to intervene after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit refused to block the states vaccine mandate. Neil M. Gorsuch wrote a dissent, joined by Samuel A. Alito Jr.

Thomas did not join the dissent, but said he would have sided with the health care workers and put a hold on the mandate.

In a brief forone of the cases, the state noted that health care workers in New York were already required to be vaccinated against rubella, for which there was also no religious exemption.

HEK-293 cells which are currently grown in a laboratory and are thousands of generations removed from cells collected from a fetus in 1973were used in testing during the research and development phase of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the statewrote. But the use of fetal cell lines for testing is common, including for the rubella vaccination, which New Yorks healthcare workers are already required to take.

On the last day of the term, the Supreme Courtdeclined to review the Court of Appeals decision, keeping in place New Yorks mandate. It was this decision for which Thomas, a Catholic, wrote his dissent.

Less than a week prior, the court overturnedRoe v. Wade, the case that had given Americans a constitutional right to abortion.

Editors note:SciChecks COVID-19/Vaccination Projectis made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation hasno controlover FactCheck.orgs editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation. The goal of the project is to increase exposure to accurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines, while decreasing the impact of misinformation.

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COVID-19 Vaccines Don't Contain Fetal Tissue - FactCheck.org

The Pfizer vaccine is a three-dose series and the Moderna vaccine is two doses.

Nearly 63% of Ohioans have started the coronavirus vaccine and 58.46% of residents have completed it, according to the state health department. More than 7.36 million people in Ohio have received at least one vaccine dose and 6.83 million have finished the series.

About 3.65 million Ohioans got a booster shot and 629,038 people received a second booster, according to ODH.

Ohio added 17,225 coronavirus cases cases in the last week, according to ODH. The state is averaging 16,518 cases a week over the last three weeks.

Coronavirus hospitalizations are continuing to climb in Ohio, but the numbers are a fraction of levels previously reported during the states peak during the omicron surge.

As of Thursday, 753 people were hospitalized with COVID in Ohio and 79 were in the states ICUs, according to the Ohio Hospital Association.

Of the 753 people hospitalized with the virus, 78 were in west central Ohio which includes Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby counties and 110 were in southwest Ohio, which consists of Butler, Warren, Hamilton, Adams, Brown, Clermont and Clinton counties.

This represents a 50% increase compared to the number of inpatients with COVID last week and a 239% increase compared to 60 days ago in west central Ohio, according to OHA. Southwest Ohio reported an 11% decrease in the past week but a 100% increase over the last 60 days.

Though the number of ICU patients in both regions has increased recently, its at a slower rate than hospitalizations overall.

The 15 COVID patients in southwest Ohios ICUs Thursday was a 15% increase from last week and an 88% increase compared to 60 days ago, according to OHA. West central Ohio, which had four ICU patients with the virus, reported a 33% increase in the last week and a 33% increase from 60 days ago.

In the past week the Ohio Department of Health recorded 483 hospitalizations and 32 ICU admissions. The three-week average is 465 hospitalizations and 30 ICU admissions a week.

Since Jan. 1, 2021, there have been 70,372 people hospitalized with COVID in the state who were not fully vaccinated, according to ODH. There have been 4,955 people hospitalized with the virus among the fully vaccinated.

During that same period, there have been 23,943 COVID deaths of people who were not fully vaccinated and 1,286 deaths of people who were vaccinated, according to the state health department.

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Hundreds of young children start COVID-19 vaccine in the Miami Valley - Dayton Daily News

Today, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' (ACIP) recommendation that Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine be used as an option for children ages 6 through 17 years, in addition to its already recommended use in children 6 months through 5 years and adults 18 years and older. This recommendation reinforces the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine as an important tool in the pandemic and provides another vaccine option for children and adolescents. The ACIP recommendation comes after a thorough review of the scientific evidence demonstrating safety and efficacy, and supports the use of the vaccine among those 6 through 17 years of age.

The following is attributable to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky:

"It is critical that we protect our children and teens from the complications of severe COVID-19 disease. Today, we have expanded the options available to families by recommending a second safe and effective vaccine for children ages 6 through 17 years. Vaccinating this age group can provide greater confidence to families that their children and adolescents participating in childcare, school, and other activities will have less risk for serious COVID-19 illness."

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CDC recommends a second safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 through 17 years of age - News-Medical.Net

WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden will present the nations highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 17 people, including actorDenzel Washington, gymnastSimone Bilesand the lateJohn McCain,the Arizona Republican with whom Biden served in the U.S. Senate.

Biden will also recognizeSandra Lindsay, the New York City nurse who rolled up her sleeve on live television in December 2020 to receive the first COVID-19 vaccine dose that was pumped into an arm in the United States, the White House announced Friday.

Bidens honors list, which the White House shared first with The Associated Press, includes both living and deceased honorees from the worlds of Hollywood, sports, politics, the military, academia, and civil rights and social justice advocacy.

The Democratic president will present the medals at the White House next week.

Biden himself is a medal recipient.President Barack Obama honored Bidens public serviceas a longtime U.S. senator and vice president by awarding him a Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2017, a week before they left office.

The honorees wholl receive medals from Biden have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities, and across the world, while blazing trails for generations to come, the White House said.

The honor is reserved for people who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values or security of the United States, world peace or other significant societal public or private endeavors, the White House said.

Biles is the most decorated U.S. gymnast in history, winning 32 Olympic and World Championship medals. She is an outspoken advocate on issues that are very personal to her, including athletes mental health, children in foster care and sexual assault victims.

Lindsay became an advocate for COVID-19 vaccinations after receiving the first dose in the U.S.

McCain, who died of brain cancer in 2018, spent more than five years in captivity in Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Navy. He later represented Arizona in both houses of Congress and was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. Biden said McCain was a dear friend and a hero.

Washington is a double Oscar-winning actor, director and producer. He also has a Tony award, two Golden Globes and the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a longtime spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

The other 13 medal recipients are:

Sister Simone Campbell. Campbell is a member of the Sister of Social Service and a former executive director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization. She is an advocate for economic justice, overhauling the U.S. immigration system and health care policy.

Julieta Garcia. A former president of the University of Texas at Brownsville, Garcia was the first Latina to become a college president, the White House said. She was named one of the nations best college presidents by Time magazine.

Gabrielle Giffords. A former U.S. House member from Arizona, the Democrat founded Giffords, an organization dedicated to ending gun violence. She was shot in the head in January 2011 during a constituent event in Tucson and was gravely wounded.

Fred Gray. Gray was one of the first Black members of the Alabama Legislature after Reconstruction. He was a prominent civil rights attorney who represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr.

Steve Jobs. Jobs was the co-founder, chief executive and chair of Apple Inc. He died in 2011.

Father Alexander Karloutsos. Karloutsos is the assistant to Archbishop Demetrios of America. The White House said Karloutsos has counseled several U.S. presidents.

Khizr Khan. An immigrant from Pakistan, Khans Army officer son was killed in Iraq. Khan gained national prominence, and became a target of Donald Trumps wrath, after speaking at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Diane Nash. A founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Nash organized some of the most important 20th century civil rights campaigns and worked with King.

Megan Rapinoe. The Olympic gold medalist and two-time Womens World Cup soccer champion captains the OL Reign in the National Womens Soccer League. She is a prominent advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice and LGBTQI+ rights who has appeared at Bidens White House.

Rapinoe, who was at training camp in Denver when the White House called to inform her of the honor, thought she was getting a prank or robocall when she saw her phone say White House, U.S. Soccer said in a statement. She showed her phone to a teammate, who encouraged her to answer the call.

Alan Simpson. The retired U.S. senator from Wyoming served with Biden and has been a prominent advocate for campaign finance reform, responsible governance and marriage equality.

Richard Trumka. Trumka had been president of the 12.5 million-member AFL-CIO for more than a decade at the time of his August 2021 death. He was a past president of the United Mine Workers.

Wilma Vaught. A brigadier general, Vaught is one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history, breaking gender barriers as she has risen through the ranks. When Vaught retired in 1985, she was one of only seven female generals in the Armed Forces.

Ral Yzaguirre. A civil rights advocate, Yzaguirre was president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza for 30 years. He served as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic under Obama.

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NY nurse who received first COVID-19 vaccine to be awarded Medal of Freedom - PIX11 New York News

Masks

Multnomah County Public Health recommends voluntary indoor masking until case counts and hospitalizations go back down.

Steps to take when COVID-19 community levels change.

All Oregonians age 6 months and older are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Visit multco.us/covid19

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July 1: Protect yourself and your community by getting vaccinated and boosted for COVID-19. Public Health recommends wearing a mask indoors. -...