Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Welcome to Iowa's COVID-19 Vaccine information page. Please choose one of the options below.

Link:

Novel Coronavirus - COVID-19 Vaccine Information

The national average indicates that about 50% of deaths were preventable.

May 16, 2022, 6:10 PM

5 min read

COVID-19 vaccines could have prevented at least 318,000 virus-related deaths between January 2021 and April 2022, a new analysis found.

The analysis used real-world data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The New York Times and was done by researchers from Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Microsoft AI for Health.

Their findings suggest that at least "every second person" who died from COVID since vaccines became available might have been saved by getting the shot.

"At a time when many in the U.S. have given up on vaccinations, these numbers are a stark reminder of the effectiveness of vaccines in fighting this pandemic," said Stefanie Friedhoff, associate professor of the practice in health services, policy and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, and a co-author of the analysis. "We must continue to invest in getting more Americans vaccinated and boosted to save more lives."

Although the national average indicated that approximately 50% of deaths were preventable, researchers said there were large differences among states -- ranging from 25% to 74% vaccine-preventable deaths.

People receive COVID-19 vaccines at a mass vaccination site at Lumen Field Event Center in Seattle, March 13, 2021.

West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma lead the list of states where the most lives could have been saved by COVID-19 vaccines, while states with higher vaccination rates, such as Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Vermont and Hawaii, showed the lowest numbers of vaccine-preventable deaths.

"This compelling data illustrates the trajectory of 50 states with 50 different fates during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the important role of vaccines in protecting lives in each state," added Thomas Tsai, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital and assistant professor in health policy and management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study comes just as the nation surpasses 1 million lives confirmed lost to COVID-19.

A medical worker prepares a syringe with a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in in Chicago, April 6, 2021.

"It is really painful as a scientist, a physician and a public health official to see the overwhelming data that showed the difference between vaccinated versus unvaccinated and boosted when it comes to hospitalizations and deaths," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's chief medical adviser, said during an interview with CNN last week. "You have this disparity of morbidity and mortality, that staring you right in the face and it's amazing -- 1 million deaths."

To date, more than 220 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, 100 million of whom have received their first COVID-19 booster, according to CDC data. However, about 92 million eligible Americans -- about half of those currently eligible -- have yet to receive their first booster shot.

"Certainly, we could have prevented at least a few 100,000 of those deaths of people who were eligible to be vaccinated, gotten vaccinated," Fauci said. "I just wish people would look at the data and believe the data it's not made up. It's real."

See the original post here:

300,000 US COVID deaths could have been averted through vaccination, analysis finds - ABC News

Shahidsales S, Aledavood SA, Joudi M, Molaie F, Esmaily H, Javadinia SA. COVID-19 in cancer patients may be presented by atypical symptoms and higher mortality rate, a case-controlled study from Iran. Cancer Rep (Hoboken). 2021;4(5): e1378.

CAS Google Scholar

Taghizadeh-Hesary F, Porouhan P, Soroosh D, Peyroshabany B, Javadinia SA. COVID-19 in cancer and non-cancer patients. Int J Cancer Manag. 2021;14: e110907.

Article Google Scholar

Javadinia SA, Ariamanesh M, Nabavifard M, Porouhan P, PeyroShabany B, Fazilat-Panah D, et al. Multicenter study of antibody seroprevalence against COVID-19 in patients presenting to iranian cancer centers after one year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cancer Invest. 2022;40(2):11523.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Su F. COVID-19 and cirrhosis: a combination we must strive to prevent. Gastroenterology. 2021;161(5):13713.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Marjot T, Moon AM, Cook JA, Abd-Elsalam S, Aloman C, Armstrong MJ, et al. Outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with chronic liver disease: an international registry study. J Hepatol. 2021;74(3):56777.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Iavarone M, DAmbrosio R, Soria A, Triolo M, Pugliese N, Del Poggio P, et al. High rates of 30-day mortality in patients with cirrhosis and COVID-19. J Hepatol. 2020;73(5):106371.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Ioannou GN, Liang PS, Locke E, Green P, Berry K, OHare AM, et al. Cirrhosis and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in US veterans: risk of infection, hospitalization, ventilation, and mortality. Hepatology. 2021;74(1):32235.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Ge J, Pletcher MJ, Lai JC, Harper JR, Chute CG, Haendel MA. Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with chronic liver disease and cirrhosis: a national COVID cohort collaborative study. Gastroenterology. 2021;161(5):1487-501.e5.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Moon AM, Webb GJ, Aloman C, Armstrong MJ, Cargill T, Dhanasekaran R, et al. High mortality rates for SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with pre-existing chronic liver disease and cirrhosis: preliminary results from an international registry. J Hepatol. 2020;73(3):7058.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Fix OK, Blumberg EA, Chang KM, Chu J, Chung RT, Goacher EK, et al. American association for the study of liver diseases expert panel consensus statement: vaccines to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 infection in patients with liver disease. Hepatology. 2021;74(2):104964.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Cornberg M, Buti M, Eberhardt CS, Grossi PA, Shouval D. EASL position paper on the use of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with chronic liver diseases, hepatobiliary cancer and liver transplant recipients. J Hepatol. 2021;74(4):94451.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Ruether DF, Schaub GM, Duengelhoef PM, Haag F, Brehm TT, Fathi A, et al. SARS-CoV2-specific humoral and T-cell immune response after second vaccination in liver cirrhosis and transplant patients. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2022;20(1):162-72.e9.

CAS Article Google Scholar

John BV, Deng Y, Scheinberg A, Mahmud N, Taddei TH, Kaplan D, et al. Association of BNT162b2 mRNA and mRNA-1273 vaccines with COVID-19 infection and hospitalization among patients with cirrhosis. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;181(10):130614.

CAS Article Google Scholar

John BV, Deng Y, Schwartz KB, Taddei TH, Kaplan DE, Martin P, et al. Postvaccination COVID-19 infection is associated with reduced mortality in patients with cirrhosis. Hepatology. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/hep.32337.

Article PubMed Google Scholar

Mahmud N, Chapin SE, Kaplan DE, Serper M. Identifying patients at highest risk of remaining unvaccinated against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in a large veterans health administration cohort. Liver Transpl. 2021;27(11):16658.

Article Google Scholar

Lazarus JV, Ratzan SC, Palayew A, Gostin LO, Larson HJ, Rabin K, et al. A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Nat Med. 2021;27(2):2258.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Liu R, Zhang Y, Nicholas S, Leng A, Maitland E, Wang J. COVID-19 vaccination willingness among chinese adults under the free vaccination policy. Vaccines (Basel). 2021;9(3):292.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Marjot T, Webb GJ, Barritt AS, Gins P, Lohse AW, Moon AM, et al. SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with liver disease: responding to the next big question. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021;6(3):1568.

Article Google Scholar

Cao Z, Liu Y, Cai M, Xu Y, Xiang X, Zhao G, et al. The use of NACSELD and EASL-CLIF classification systems of ACLF in the prediction of prognosis in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis. Am J Gastroenterol. 2020;115(12):202635.

Article Google Scholar

Cui X, Wang P, Wei Z. Emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as of June 2021. Drug Discov Ther. 2021;15(4):2224.

CAS Article Google Scholar

90% of Chinese people vaccinated against COVID-19. Aviliable at http://en.nhc.gov.cn/2022-01/17/c_85646.html. Accessed on 5 Feb, 2022; published online.

Shroff H, Satapathy SK, Crawford JM, Todd NJ, VanWagner LB. Liver injury following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination: a multicenter case series. J Hepatol. 2022;76(1):2114.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Bril F. Autoimmune hepatitis developing after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine: one or even several swallows do not make a summer. J Hepatol. 2021;75(5):12567.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Cao Z, Gui H, Sheng Z, Xin H, Xie Q. Letter to the editor: exacerbation of autoimmune hepatitis after COVID-19 vaccination. Hepatology. 2022;75(3):7579.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Ai J, Wang J, Liu D, Xiang H, Guo Y, Lv J, et al. Safety and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in patients with chronic liver diseases (CHESS-NMCID 2101): a multicenter study. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2021.12.022.

Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Wang J, Hou Z, Liu J, et al. Safety and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (CHESS2101): a multicenter study. J Hepatol. 2021;75(2):43941.

CAS Article Google Scholar

He T, Zhou Y, Xu P, Ling N, Chen M, Huang T, et al. Safety and antibody response to inactivated COVID-19 vaccine in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Liver Int. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/liv.15173.

Article PubMed Google Scholar

Singh S, Khan A. Clinical characteristics and outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 among patients with preexisting liver disease in the united states: a multicenter research network study. Gastroenterology. 2020;159(2):768-71.e3.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Bajaj JS, Garcia-Tsao G, Biggins SW, Kamath PS, Wong F, McGeorge S, et al. Comparison of mortality risk in patients with cirrhosis and COVID-19 compared with patients with cirrhosis alone and COVID-19 alone: multicentre matched cohort. Gut. 2021;70(3):5316.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Sarin SK, Choudhury A, Lau GK, Zheng MH, Ji D, Abd-Elsalam S, et al. Pre-existing liver disease is associated with poor outcome in patients with SARS CoV2 infection; the APCOLIS Study (APASL COVID-19 Liver Injury Spectrum Study). Hepatol Int. 2020;14(5):690700.

Article Google Scholar

Wu J, Li Q, Silver Tarimo C, Wang M, Gu J, Wei W, et al. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among chinese population: a large-scale national study. Front Immunol. 2021;12: 781161.

Article Google Scholar

Velardo F, Watson V, Arwidson P, Alla F, Luchini S, Schwarzinger M, et al. Regional differences in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in December 2020: a natural experiment in the french working-age population. Vaccines. 2021;9(11):1364.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Valckx S, Crvecoeur J, Verelst F, Vranckx M, Hendrickx G, Hens N, et al. Individual factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in between and during pandemic waves (July-December 2020). Vaccine. 2022;40(1):15161.

CAS Article Google Scholar

Joudi M, Moradi Binabaj M, Porouhan P, PeyroShabany B, Tabasi M, Fazilat-Panah D, et al. A cohort study on the immunogenicity and safety of the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (BBIBP-CorV) in patients with breast cancer; does trastuzumab interfere with the outcome? Front Endocrinol. 2022;13:798975. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.798975.

Article Google Scholar

See the original post:

COVID-19 vaccines in patients with decompensated cirrhosis: a retrospective cohort on safety data and risk factors associated with unvaccinated status...

The profound health and economic impact of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine during its first year of rollout in the US is described in detail in a new study in the peer-reviewedJournal of Medical Economics.

It is estimated that in 2021 the vaccine, the most widely used against COVID-19 in the US, prevented 8.7 million symptomatic cases of the virus, as well as 690,000 hospitalizations and more than 110,000 deaths.

The vaccine is also credited with saving more than $30 billion in healthcare costs and over $40 billion in lost productivity.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first COVID-19 vaccine to become available in the US and, according to estimates from the US public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control, was given to almost six in ten citizens who were fully vaccinated in 2021.

The studys authors all of whom received funding from Pfizer, either as direct employees, consultants or employees of firms paid by Pfizer used a model, real-world and trial data to estimate how many symptomatic COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths would have occurred that year if the vaccine had not been available.

They also estimated how much these cases would have cost the healthcare system and the wider economy.

Data fed into the model included information on the numbers vaccinated, the efficacy of the vaccine in different age groups, as well as the probability of catching COVID-19, developing symptoms and being hospitalised.

The effects of long COVID were also taken into account, as were the number of working days likely to have been lost due to short-term illness and the economic cost of premature deaths.

The results not only led to health benefits for millions of people, but also an estimated $30.4 billion of savings in healthcare costs and $43.7 billion of savings in productivity losses.

The analyses show that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine contributed substantial public health impact in the US in 2021, and had a deep effect on the trajectory of the pandemic. It was estimated to prevent millions of COVID-19 symptomatic cases, thousands of hospitalisations and deaths, and generated billions in societal economic value in the US in 2021, says researcher Manuela Di Fusco, of Pfizers health economics and outcomes research team.

She adds that the results, highlight the opportunity to continue widespread vaccination uptake to prevent COVID-19 related disease and generate societal benefits.

The research team lists several limitations of the study, which they say could have led to their figures being an underestimate. These include not factoring in the potential of the vaccine to reduce transmission, the severity of cases and the overall impact of long COVID.

They also acknowledge their results cant be generalized to other COVID-19 vaccine brands, indications and populations not specifically analyzed. Moreover, the model excluded the impact of the Omicron variant which emerged in the US at the end of the study period.

Reference: Di Fusco M, Marczell K, Deger KA, et al. Public health impact of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2) in the first year of rollout in the United States. J. Med. Econ.2022;25(1):605-617. doi: 10.1080/13696998.2022.2071427.

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

Follow this link:

COVID-19 Vaccine Prevented 690000 Hospitalizations and Over 110000 Deaths in 2021 - Technology Networks

2 hours ago

3 hours ago

4 hours ago

5 hours ago

8 hours ago

11 hours ago

14 hours ago

19 hours ago

20 hours ago

22 hours ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

+1 day ago

Read the rest here:

Pfizers Covid Vaccine Protection Against Omicron Fades Just Weeks After Second And Third Doses, Study Finds - Forbes

In a new analysis, KFF researchers find that COVID-19 vaccination rates among nursing home staff increased by 25 percentage points nationally (63% to 88%) from when the Biden administration announced the vaccine mandate for health care workers in August 2021 to after vaccination deadlines passed in March 2022.

Researchers analyzed nursing home-level data from the federal government covering some 14,700 nursing homes, or about 97 percent of all nursing homes in the U.S. They conclude that while a number of factors may have been at work, it appears that the mandate contributed to the increases in staff vaccination rates.

As of March 2022, 12 percent of nursing homes nationally reported that 100 percent of their staff were fully vaccinated, while 39 percent reported staff vaccination rates of over 90 percent but less than 100 percent. The remaining 49 percent of nursing homes reported that fewer than 90 percent of their staff had been fully vaccinated.

While the federal mandate does not explicitly require booster shots, the national booster rate for nursing home staff was 44 percent as of March 2022.

Some nursing home operators warned that requiring health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 could contribute to staffing shortages. Data suggest that the vaccine mandate has not exacerbated such shortages, however.

KFF analysts find that 28 percent of nursing homes in the U.S. reported staffing shortages as of March 2022, down slightly from the peak in January 2022 where nearly one in every three nursing homes reported a shortage.

Staff shortages in nursing homes are a longstanding problem that predates the pandemic. In a separate analysis also released today, KFF analysts summarize federal and state standards related to nursing home staffing prior to COVID-19 and identify changes that states have made to minimum staffing requirements during the pandemic. They also examine state legislative and regulatory actions since the onset of the pandemic that directly affect worker wages and training requirements.

The Biden administration has announced plans to propose new federal minimum staffing adequacy regulations in the next year, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine recently recommended minimum staffing levels as part of its comprehensive report on ways to improve nursing home quality.

Conditions and COVID-19 precautions in nursing homes remain a subject of heightened public interest since over one in five COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic has been in a long-term care facility. While the vaccine mandate remains in effect, litigation challenging the new rule is ongoing. Although cases in Texas and Florida were dismissed after the Supreme Court allowed the rule to take effect, cases in Missouri and Louisiana are still pending.

Excerpt from:

COVID-19 Vaccination Rates Among Nursing Home Staff Have Risen by 25 Percentage Points Since the Biden Administration Announced a Vaccination Mandate...

The original version of this story incorrectly stated the vaccinated mother's name was Chelsea Lexington, rather than Chelsea from the city of Lexington. The story has been corrected to reflect this.

The nonprofit and nonpartisan Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is reminding mothers-to-be in the Bluegrass State that being vaccinated against COVID-19 is one of many ways to better ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy.

Vice president for communications Ashley Brauer said all available data shows vaccination is safe for pregnant women and their children, and the goal of the campaign is to give mothers the facts they need to make an informed decision.

"The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the Kentucky Association of Health Plans have partnered on this educational campaign with a goal to really increase knowledge," said Brauer, "and really encourage pregnant women to have a conversation with their doctors so that they can learn more and decide what's right for them."

Brauer says science-based information, including a series of video testimonials from medical professionals and mothers who were vaccinated while pregnant, are available online at Healthy-KY.org.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now - or might become pregnant in the future.

In a testimonial video, vaccinated mother Chelsea (from Lexington) said she chose to be part of the campaign to encourage expectant mothers to make the same decision she did.

"Getting pregnant during a pandemic is one thing I will never forget," said Chelsea. "My decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine was about the safety and protection of my child. My advice to you would be to go and talk to your doctor to see if the shot is the right thing for you."

Katherine Kington North - director of external affairs for the Kentucky Association of Health Plans - said while the decision is ultimately up to each mother-to-be, the benefits of vaccination are clear.

"It is so important because only 31% of pregnant women in the U.S. are vaccinated for COVID," said Kington North. "And unvaccinated pregnant women are 40% more likely to develop serious complications from COVID. So empowering pregnant women to have a deeper conversation about the vaccine."

When given to a pregnant woman, the COVID-19 vaccine works in the muscle where the vaccine is injected, and does not cross to the baby directly. But antibodies are received through the placenta or through breast milk after birth, providing some protection to the baby against the novel coronavirus during the first six months of life.

South Dakota is among the states hardest hit by the lack of baby formula in stores. There is debate about the underlying factors, but one health expert said there are steps new parents can take in the meantime.

Supply-chain disruptions and a recent product recall have been connected to the empty store shelves parents have encountered.

Dr. Esther Chung, a pediatrician at the University of Washington, said panic buys are also at play, and stores are having a hard time keeping up with demand. She cautioned some people might try to stretch the formula they have by diluting it, and strongly advised against it.

"We would say that's not safe," Chung stated. "Particularly for young infants, because it wouldn't give them the proper nutrition, and it could cause health problems."

Chung pointed out a possible solution is to look for alternative brands sold under a store's name, with ingredients often similar to name brands. According to Datasembly, South Dakota had an out-of-stock rate of more than 50% in late April.

Other experts suggest calling your pediatrician for recommendations on available products. Industry officials noted smaller stores and pharmacies might have more consistent supplies. And Chung added for older infants, parents can get a little creative with pured food.

"The other thing that people have tried is taking pured foods that they've made at home and put them in little ice-cube trays" Chung suggested. "That way, they can freeze these little mini-meals and pull them out for later use."

She stressed it is still important for parents to follow pediatric guidelines in not introducing solid food to babies until they're four to six months old. She also discouraged trying to buy formula products through eBay or similar resale platforms, citing safety concerns.

Nurses from across Wisconsin converged on the state Capitol building Thursday, as part of a rally demanding fairer wages and safer staffing ratios as the pandemic continues.

A report from the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) indicates medical facilities across the state are struggling to fill vacant health care positions, as the strain from the COVID-19 pandemic has driven nurses out of the health care industry.

Carolyn Miller, a registered nurse from Eau Claire, said at a news conference in the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday, the issues plaguing the health care system affect workers at every level.

"Radiology techs, lab technicians, CNAs, unit clerks, EMTs and paramedics," Miller outlined. "All jobs and livelihoods have been slashed in the name of for-profit health care and without regard to patient outcome."

Thursday's event was part of a national series of protests organized under the banner of the National Nurses March, which culminated with a separate march on Congress in the nation's capital. Among other demands, participating nurses are pushing hospitals to ensure fair pay, increased safety standards for health care workers and better caregiver-to-patient ratios.

According to the WHA report, Wisconsin's population is steadily aging, and the health care demand the aging population creates will persist for at least the next two decades.

Adina Sharafinski, a registered nurse who specializes in hospice and end-of-life care, said she has had to endure grueling work conditions at prior jobs to ensure her patients were cared for.

"All of us have one thing in common: you guys are all going to come and see me someday," Sharafinski noted. "There is no avoiding it. And every single one of you deserves to die in peace, in dignity and in comfort."

The report said in 2015, Wisconsin had no counties with more than 40% of the population over age 60. By 2040, about one-fifth of Wisconsin's 72 counties will cross the threshold.

Miller added the pandemic exposed long-standing issues within the American health care system, and contended it needs to be reformed to ensure nurses and other front line medical workers have safer and fairer working standards.

"We lack so much infrastructure, and we aren't heard," Miller observed. "It is time for us to be respected, and it is time for administrators to sit down, stop talking and let us have what we need to do our jobs."

According to the state's Department of Health Services, nearly 90% of hospital beds are currently in use, and COVID-19 hospitalizations are charting upward for the first time since the Omicron surge peaked mid-January.

Coloradans will have more protections against so-called surprise medical bills after the General Assembly passed House Bill 1284.

Adam Fox, interim executive director for the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, said patients were being billed even after their insurance company had paid for services.

In many cases they were being charged, often for thousands of dollars, for procedures performed by team members who were working at an in-network hospital, but were not in-network providers.

"Providers can be out-of-network at an in-network facility," said Fox. "And that's what creates this mess that consumers were running into, before these bills were passed."

Patients have often been billed for the difference, or balance, between what the insurer covered and the total bill, which can include costly services performed by out-of-network providers such as radiologists or other specialists.

HB 1284 aligns Colorado state law with the recently passed federal "No Surprises Act."

Fox said the vast majority of Coloradans should have protections against surprise billing after the measure is signed by Gov. Jared Polis.

Under the new law, if a health provider wants to ask a patient to consent to out-of-network care, at a higher cost, they have to provide paperwork at least 72 hours in advance. Fox added that you don't have to sign a waiver in order to receive the care you've already scheduled.

"If you are presented paperwork that is trying to get you to consent to out-of-network care," said Fox, "you are not obligated to sign that."

Fox said Coloradans also will have more robust protections in place against being charged for out-of-network services if they ever have to visit an emergency room.

"Unless somebody is truly stabilized after an emergency, and able to be transferred with non-medical transit and able to also consent to out-of-network care," said Fox, "then they can't be balanced billed, period."

Link:

KY Mothers-to-Be Urged to Get Vaccinated Against COVID - Public News Service

RICHLAND A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by several hundred Hanford nuclear reservation and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory workers in Richland, Washington, over COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

The lawsuit was filed in November to halt enforcement of President Joe Bidens executive orders requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for Department of Energy employees and the employees of contractors and subcontractors on federal projects, The Tri-City Herald reported.

But U.S. Judge Thomas Rice found that lawyers for the Hanford and national lab workers had not provided clear arguments nor specific information about most workers to make their case.

With the original complaint already changed once, Rice had no confidence in another amended complaint after their continued failures to address the shortcomings in their various pleadings, he said in his order dismissing the case. The case has been argued by Nathan Arnold of Seattle and Pete Serrano, a Pasco city council member and director and attorney for the Silent Majority Foundation in Pasco, which organized the lawsuit.

Rice had already refused to temporarily halt enforcement of the vaccine mandates while the lawsuit proceeded. The judge said 307 of the workers in the case had not shown they were harmed by the vaccine mandate or that a decision in their favor would redress any harm.

Many had not filed for religious or medical exemptions allowed by the mandates, Rice said. Others had filed but failed to provide information to the court on their exemption or vaccination status.

Without knowing whether these plaintiffs are in compliance with the vaccination or exemption requirements, it is impossible to know whether they could face an adverse employment action, Rice said.

Other plaintiffs failed to say who employed them, giving them no standing in the case. That left just seven plaintiffs in the case with possibly valid claims.

Attorneys argued that the vaccine mandates violated the U.S. Constitution. But Rice found that a closer examination of the claims reveals only broad recitations of various constitutional principles muddled with repetitive allegations that the executive orders were promulgated in excess of President Bidens authority.

Claims based on freedom of religion did not hold up because plaintiffs did not identify the religious activities they were engaged in or how those activities were substantially burdened by the executive orders, Rice said. Rice also found that the vaccine mandates or a valid exemption were a requirement for employment, but no one had been forced to get a vaccine, he said.

DOE hires contractors to do most of the work at the Hanford site, with the large majority of the 11,000 workers at the nuclear reservation employed by contractors and subcontractors. The claimants in the lawsuit included some DOE employees, but mostly contractor and subcontractor employees.

The 580-square-mile (1,502-square-kilometer) Hanford nuclear reservation in Eastern Washington was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nations nuclear weapons program.

About $2.5 billion annually is spent on environmental cleanup of the contaminated site. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory in Richland operated by Battelle under an Energy Department contract. It employs about 5,350 people and has an annual budget of about $1.25 billion.

Go here to read the rest:

Judge tosses COVID-19 vaccine objections of Hanford workers - The Columbian

One tragic fact about the nearly 1 million people who died of COVID-19 in the U.S. is that a huge share of them didn't have to.

In Tennessee, 11,047 of the people who died could have survived if everyone in the state had gotten vaccinated. In Ohio, that number is 15,875. Nationally it's nearly 319,000, according a new estimate.

These figures come from an analysis released Friday by researchers at Brown University and Microsoft AI Health shared exclusively with NPR that estimates the portion of vaccine-preventable deaths in each state since COVID-19 vaccines became available at the start of 2021.

In early 2021, when the vaccines were widely distributed, there was huge demand. At the peak of the vaccination campaign in the spring, 4 million people got vaccinated in one day. That demand dropped off by summer. A year later, many states are still barely north of 50% of people fully vaccinated.

How many lives would have been saved if that slump in vaccine demand had never happened? To answer that question, Brown and Microsoft researchers calculated the peak vaccination rate for each state, and then imagined that rate continued until all adults in the state were fully vaccinated.

The total for the country is stark: Many of the nearly 1 million COVID deaths took place in 2020 before the vaccines were available. But of the more than 641,000 people who died after vaccines were available, half of those deaths could have been averted 318,981 had every eligible adult gotten vaccinated. And those numbers are even more striking in certain states where more than half of deaths could have been avoided.

"The vaccine rollout has been both a remarkable success and a remarkable failure," says Stefanie Friedhoff, a professor at the Brown School of Public Health, and one of the analysis's authors. It was a success, she says, in the sense that "the United States was first in getting those vaccines developed and making doses available at high numbers quickly to the public."

A lot of money and energy was invested in the logistics of the rollout the supply side of the equation. Much less was invested in encouraging vaccine demand, she says.

"We did not start early on with information campaigns about why vaccines are important what do they do for us?" she says. "We underestimated dramatically the investment it would take to get people familiarized with vaccines because, by and large, we haven't had a deadly disease like this, so people have become estranged from the important impact of vaccination."

The map of states with the most preventable deaths shows a sharp political divide as NPR has reported, people living in counties that voted for then-President Trump in the 2020 election were three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people who lived in counties that voted for President Biden.

According to the analysis, West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma had the most vaccine-preventable deaths per capita. Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Vermont and Hawaii had the fewest.

The analysis is accessible in an interactive dashboard showing different scenarios to estimate the impact of vaccines state by state, such as a vaccination rate of 85% or 90% instead of 100%.

The national number of vaccine-preventable COVID deaths calculated by Brown and Microsoft exceeds an earlier analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which put that number at 234,000. Cynthia Cox, director of the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker and a co-author of that analysis, tells NPR that differences in methodology may explain the discrepancy.

Unlike the KFF analysis, the new analysis included data on how many Americans were boosted so the vaccine-preventable death total includes people who never got vaccinated, along with those whose vaccine protection had waned and who had not received a booster.

Of the Brown research, Cox says, "I think this is a really clear way of demonstrating both the effectiveness of vaccines and also the need to continue to vaccinate more people and to make sure that they're up to date on those vaccines."

She notes one limitation is that the calculations may be overestimating the impact of vaccines, since the mostly Republican-led states that had lower vaccination rates also underused other pandemic-fighting tools, such as mask and social distancing requirements.

One state that stands out in the analysis is West Virginia, says Dr. Thomas Tsai, a surgeon and professor at Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the analysis with Friedhoff.

Early on, West Virginia's vaccine rollout was celebrated as other states struggled to take a stockpile of vaccines and get them into people's arms.

"There was a very, very early push to get vaccinations out, but a lack of resources to see it through the course of the year," Tsai says. "West Virginia could have ended up like Maine or Vermont, but ended up being more like Wyoming or Idaho not for lack of effort, potentially, but for lack of resources."

A. Toni Young runs a public health outreach organization in West Virginia called Community Education Group, that has worked to vaccinate people against COVID-19 across the state. From her perspective, the drop in the vaccination rate came when the voices of local pharmacies and physicians were overpowered by national voices denying the seriousness of COVID-19 or saying that herd immunity was imminent.

"Folks started to have a conversation within their social networks, and had a real attitude of, 'Well, someone else has been vaccinated, I don't need to be vaccinated.' They also started to see people, particularly in a younger age cohort, get COVID and survive," Young says.

"I think that we could have had more trusted leaders doing the messaging in West Virginia," Young adds.

"All of this comes down to trust whether the political leadership creates the climate of trust in the public health agencies' efforts, in the science, in the ability of the health care system to deliver," Tsai says. "To me, this is a map of trust."

A senior White House official speaking with NPR on background pointed to work the administration has done to invest in community-led vaccination efforts, and said that trust-building was a key part of what the Biden administration is asking Congress to fund.

But the push for more federal COVID-19 funding appears to be stalled. The White House has been asking for $22.5 billion when Congress got close to a funding deal in April, it would have been for less than half of that. Federal officials warn that this delay could affect Americans' access to booster shots in the future. Funding for free COVID-19 vaccination, testing and treatment for people without health insurance has already run out.

The patterns found in the Brown analysis could well continue with future COVID deaths piling up in places where vaccination access is poor and hesitancy is high, cautions Friedhoff.

Immunity both from vaccines and prior infection appears to wane over time and further booster campaigns could well be needed to save lives.

"We're at a point where we have 1 million deaths, but also very little investment and interest in continuing vaccination campaigns and continuing the support for vaccination," she says. The data underlying this tool is real, she notes the people who actually got vaccinated and the people who actually died. "The basis for this dashboard is what actually happened, and it can show us in spite of all the narratives how many people didn't have to die."

It provides evidence and incentive, she adds, to try and support more people in the decision to get vaccinated.

Read more here:

Of 1 million COVID deaths, how many could have been averted with vaccines? : Shots - Health News - NPR

WASHINGTON President Biden and other leaders issued an urgent call on Thursday for the world to step up its fight against Covid-19, and countries including Germany, Canada and Japan pledged large sums to finance tests, therapeutics and vaccines a commitment Mr. Biden could not make because Congress has refused to authorize new pandemic aid.

As the United States approached a harrowing milestone one million American lives lost to the virus fear of another deadly variant loomed large over the presidents second global Covid-19 summit, a virtual gathering co-hosted by Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal. But some countries were notably absent. China, in the thick of its own Covid crisis, did not attend. Russia, waging war against Ukraine, was not invited.

Senior Biden administration officials said the summit produced more than $3 billion in commitments toward the global response and toward efforts to prevent future pandemics. That is far short of the $15 billion that the World Health Organization says is needed. But the summit did lay the groundwork for a new global preparedness fund.

The gathering on Thursday unfolded in a very different climate compared with that of the first Covid summit in September. The war in Ukraine is sapping energy and money from donor nations. The global vaccination campaign has stalled. Testing has plummeted around the globe. Covid antiviral pills, available in the United States, are scarce in many low- and middle-income nations. Many attendees said Covid fatigue had become as big a danger as Covid itself.

Theres still so much left to do; this pandemic isnt over, Mr. Biden said in his opening remarks, adding, We have to prevent complacency.

But the presidents tone was tepid compared with that of some of the other participants, who included heads of state, global health officials and philanthropic leaders. Several, including Dr. Joy St. John, the executive director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, said climate change was speeding up the cycle of pandemics, making the next outbreak inevitable.

The next virus may kill even more people and cause even greater economic disruption, she warned.

Bill Gates, the software entrepreneur and philanthropist whose foundation has donated tens of millions of dollars to pandemic relief efforts and who tested positive for the coronavirus this week railed against global health inequities.

We need to make more lifesaving tools and allocate them based on need rather than wealth, Mr. Gates declared, adding, We dont have time to waste.

There were some proverbial elephants in the room: Chinas ongoing Covid crisis and the war in Ukraine were not discussed. But J. Stephen Morrison, an expert in global health at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the commitments by Group of 7 nations reflected the strengthening of bonds between countries allied against Russia in the Ukraine war.

Those pledges, he said, will pave the way for the World Bank to create a new global pandemic preparedness fund. The fund will be similar to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which was created two decades ago.

It was the G7 that was the core of the H.I.V. response, and in some ways this is getting that same garage band back together, Mr. Morrison said. Referring to the lack of congressional funding, he said, Overall, not a bad outcome given the circumstances.

Before the summit began, Mr. Biden ordered flags lowered to half-staff at the White House and all public buildings and military installations until Monday in commemoration of the nations death toll.

As of Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reported more than 995,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States; a New York Times database put the figure at more than 997,000. But with heads of state, leaders of philanthropies and pharmaceutical executives attending the virtual gathering, Mr. Biden was ready to mark the coming moment.

Globally, the World Health Organization has said that nearly 15 million more people died during the first two years of the pandemic than would have been expected during normal times. That estimate far exceeds the official Covid death toll reported by countries.

Despite the gloomy predictions, summit participants did report some progress. Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told attendees that in Ghana, the percentage of eligible people fully vaccinated had doubled between December and April and now stood at 25.4 percent. Uganda has also seen a surge in vaccination.

Now is not the time to back down; it is the time to push ahead, she said, even if this fight may drag on longer than any of us want.

The White House instructed participants to come to Thursdays summit with significant commitments either financial or nonmonetary. One by one, over the course of four virtual sessions, philanthropies and drugmakers stepped up.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany pledged $1.5 billion, saying his country wants to lead by example. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said his country would donate $732 million. South Korea offered $300 million.

The Clinton Health Access Initiative said it had negotiated agreements with drug manufacturers to make generic versions of Pfizers Covid antiviral, Paxlovid, available for less than $25 per course. Merck, whose Covid antiviral, molnupiravir, has already been distributed in generic form in 15 countries, said it would make two million courses of the drug available at a best access price to low- and middle-income nations.

The United States, which has already committed $19 billion to the global response, did not come entirely empty-handed. The Biden administration put forth a relatively small amount of money at the meeting: $200 million for the World Bank fund to prepare for future pandemics and $20 million for pilot projects to bring coronavirus tests and treatments to poor nations.

But that is much less than Mr. Biden hoped for. The president has asked Congress for $22.5 billion including $5 billion to fight the pandemic globally in emergency coronavirus aid, but the proposal is stuck on Capitol Hill, even as Congress hurries to approve $40 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine.

Lawmakers are still struggling to figure out how to advance a pared-down $10 billion coronavirus package. A group of Nobel laureates and former heads of state, including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, called this week for Congress to fulfill Mr. Bidens request.

Weve got to puncture the complacency about this, to make sure that people realize that if we dont act, another variant is a possibility and we dont know how lethal it could be, Mr. Brown, who is now the World Health Organizations ambassador for global health financing, said in an interview this week.

The United States also made a significant nonmonetary commitment: The National Institutes of Health has agreed to license its stabilized spike protein technology a crucial component of Covid vaccines and treatments to companies through the Medicines Patent Pool, a global nonprofit backed by the W.H.O. that works to bring medicines to low- and middle-income nations at low cost.

The move is significant because it may lay the groundwork for other countries and companies to share their technologies, said Peter Maybarduk, who directs the global access to medicines program for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, and serves on the patent pools board.

While the United States has donated hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to poor nations, it has been less aggressive about sharing technology.

One of the terrible injustices and major impediments in this pandemic has been the exclusive control of critical medical technology, Mr. Maybarduk said. By working with the Medicines Patent Pool, he said, the Biden administration would be not only sharing doses, but sharing knowledge, on the view that sharing doses is charity and sharing knowledge is justice.

May 12, 2022

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misspelled the name of a town where a booster shot was administered in Sri Lanka. It was Kalawana, not Kalwana.

Continued here:

Africas First Covid-19 Vaccine Factory Hasnt Received a Single Order - The New York Times