Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Much of the argument about lockdowns and mask mandates boils down to disagreements about the level of risk thats appropriate to impose on others and how much should be left to individuals to decide.

But now that vaccines are easy to obtain (and have always been free to the recipients), the calculations have shifted. Those who choose to remain unvaccinated no longer pose a serious threat to the vaccinated but theyre still imposing a cost. Hospitalizations for COVID are almost entirely confined to those who are not vaccinated, often at the cost of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Who should bear those costs? Under our system of risk-sharing, its all of us, whether through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid or through private insurers. When someone who refuses to get the vaccine gets seriously ill, their bills currently are paid by taxpayers or others in their insurance group.

But why should the vaccinated bear those financial costs? Insurers, led by government programs, should declare that medically-able, eligible people who choose not to be vaccinated are responsible for the full financial cost of COVID-related hospitalizations, effective in six weeks.

That gives time for the unvaccinated to make a choice, based on their personal preferences and a truer sense of responsibility. Those who continue to believe that COVID is no more than a cold, or that the pandemic is a sophisticated fraud, or that sheep parasite medicine is more effective than vaccines with shockingly good efficacy, can put their money where their mouths (and keyboards) are.

One of the fundamental lessons of economics is that people respond to incentives just witness the success of vaccine lotteries at encouraging vaccinations. But a policy of letting the unvaccinated foot the bill for their COVID-related hospitalizations is only partly about wielding a financial stick to push reluctant people into vaccination. Its also about not expecting others to pay for your decisions. Standing up for your beliefs means being willing to bear the consequences. Otherwise, its just cheap talk.

The most common objection to this policy is a slippery slope argument: what if the insurers stop covering the health outcomes of other lifestyle-driven diseases, like cirrhosis or Type 2 diabetes? Or not covering health costs for those who are unbelted in auto accidents?

Health insurers already do charge more to people who smoke and are permitted in many states to exclude coverage when injuries arise from illegal acts or under the influence of drugs including alcohol. And a full debate about whether people should be charged more when engaging in certain activities is not unreasonable if the costs of these kinds of choices are going to be spread to everyone.

But more importantly, there is a direct and clear connection between vaccination and the likelihood of serious complications from COVID, unlike the decades-long development, mediated by genetics, between many health behaviors and serious illness. A more apt comparison would be if a safe single-shot cure for Type 2 diabetes was developed. The rest of us would be justified in refusing to cover the costs of complications for diabetes for anyone who refused to take the cure.

Those of us who are vaccinated did the responsible thing. Its time for the unvaccinated to live up to the ideals of individual freedom and personal responsibility by taking on more of the consequences of their actions. Some are nervous about the possible risks of a vaccine and are waiting but they should bear not only the health but also the financial risks of their hesitancy.

The complaint that lockdowns and mandates infantilize the population is reasonable. We should be able to make choices about our levels of risk tolerance. And every aspect of life comes with risks. But we dont get to impose serious costs on others, and expecting others to pay is not only puerile but makes hard mandates more likely.

Real adults take responsibility for their decisions.

Now read: MarketWatchs daily COVID column

Jonathan Meer is the Mary Julia and George R. Jordan Jr. Professor of Public Policy in the economic department at Texas A&M University in College Station.

More: Heres a glimmer of hope that more unvaccinated Americans are willing to get the COVID-19 shot

And: CNN fires three employees who came to work unvaccinated

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Dont want the COVID-19 vaccine? Then pay the full cost if you land in the hospital - MarketWatch

Mandates for the COVID-19 shots are popping up all over the country now, which means you may soon have to show proof of vaccination if you want to go to work, the gym or an indoor public event.

The requirements are a reaction to slowed vaccination rates that have left significant parts of the population without protection from the virus, just as the highly contagious delta variant is spreading. Among those supporting the new requirements is President Joe Biden, who has issued one for federal workers and encouraged both private and public employers to do the same.

The requirements seem to be relatively popular. As many as two-thirds of Americans support them, if some recent polling is correct. But there are plenty of opponents out there. Among the loudest are some high-profile leaders in the Republican Party.

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) says vaccine requirements are products of the lefts authoritarian instincts. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) describes the push for requirements as vaccine fascism. House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) responded to Bidens announcement by tweeting, No mandates for anyone, and vowing that Americans will stand for freedom and then punctuating the line with an American flag emoji.

Republicans at the state level are saying similar things and they are acting too, putting in place prohibitions on vaccine requirements in more than a dozen states. One of them is Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued orders and signed legislation thatbansvaccine requirements by private companies as well as local government agencies.

Florida is a free state, and we will empower our people, DeSantis said in a fundraising letter this week. We will not allow Joe Biden and his bureaucratic flunkies to come in and commandeer the rights and freedoms of Floridians.

The virtual flag-waving, appeals to personal liberty, and warnings about fascism suggest there is something fundamentally un-American about vaccine mandates.But requirements to get inoculations have been around since the very first days of the republic, claiming broad support and withstanding legal challenges.

This isnt because officials or judges are ignoring freedom. Its because they believe vaccination is a key to securing it.In fact, among those who support vaccine requirements today are some well-known conservative judges and libertarian scholars in other words, precisely the sort of people you would expect to protest government overreach most vociferously.

What Liberals And Conservatives Say About Vaccine Mandates

A basic justification for vaccine mandates is that your freedom doesnt include the freedom to endanger the rest of your community.The principle is a bedrock of democratic philosophy and the American legal tradition, with courts applying it to a variety of contexts including public health.

You cant walk around assaulting people just because you feel like its an important part of your self-expression, Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor, said in an interview. And you cant dump pollutants into a towns drinking water just because youd rather not pay for cleanup. By the same token, we require kids to get vaccinated for all sorts of illnesses before they go to public school. Otherwise, their bodies could be used as vectors to harm others.

SOPA Images via Getty ImagesFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose state's hospitals are filling up with COVID-19 patients, has said that vaccination requirements threaten freedom.

The most important legal precedent on vaccines specifically is a 1905 case called Jacobson v. Massachusetts, in which the Supreme Court upheld a state law requiring smallpox vaccination for adults. Just this week, a panel from a federal appeals court cited Jacobson when it upheld, unanimously, a new COVID-19 vaccine requirement for students at Indiana University.

The author of that ruling, Frank Easterbrook, is a well-respected conservative first put on the bench by President Ronald Reagan. In the opinion, Easterbrook argued that the Indiana University requirement was actually less onerous than the old Massachusetts requirement, because it applied only to people who are choosing to enroll at the university.

People who do not want to be vaccinated may go elsewhere, Easterbrook wrote.

That appears to be true for all of the vaccine mandates now in place or under discussion: They are not requirements per se, but rather conditions for some kind of voluntary activity. Although the consequences can still be harsh say, if it means giving up a job many of the mandates, including the one Biden introduced for federal workers, offer alternatives like undergoing frequent testing plus a promise to observe social distancing.

Thats in addition to exceptions for people who can cite legitimate religious grounds or who cant get shots for medical reasons.

In the eyes of the law, nothing under discussion is actually a mandate, in the sense of a government command backed up by coercion, Bagley said.

What Some Libertarians Say About Vaccine Mandates

Bagley is generally thought of as a liberal, but its not hard to find conservatives and libertarians who take the same view.

In a 2013 paper titled A Defense of Compulsory Vaccination, Jessica Flanigan, a University of Richmond professor known for libertarian writings on bioethics, cited the example of people firing guns into the air in order to celebrate Independence Day. Governments can and do prohibit such behavior even though its a form of expression, Flanigan explained, because the bullet could end up hitting and even killing somebody.

People are not entitled to harm innocents or to impose deadly risks on others, Flanigan wrote.

Georgetown University professor Jason Brennan made a similar argument in a 2018 journal article called A Libertarian Case for Mandatory Vaccination. That was two years before COVID-19, but, he told HuffPost last week, he thinks the case for mandates now remains strong.

Bill Clark via Getty ImagesElise Stefanik, the House Republican Conference chair from New York, punctuated her tweets on vaccine mandates with an American flag emoji.

In my view, people have the right to harm themselves by making bad choices, Brennan said. This is about protecting others from the undue risk of harm you impose upon them by being unvaccinated. The lower the personal costs/risks of the vaccine and the higher the risk that the unvaccinated impose upon others the stronger the case is for mandating vaccines.

And then there is Ilya Somin, whom nobody would mistake for a fan of government power.

A professor at George Mason University and an adjunct scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, he has spent much of his professional life decrying what he sees as state encroachments on personal liberty, whether its local authorities taking property under eminent domain or the federal governmentpenalizing people for not getting health insurance.

But Somin said in an interview that vaccine mandates make sense under certain circumstances and that the present situation qualifies. He described taking the shot as a small burden for the sake of much larger benefits, like slowing transmission and reducing the opportunities for new, more dangerous variants to emerge.

The issue here is not just that it saves lives, but that it potentially saves a great many of them, and not just those of the vaccinated people themselves, Somin said. It also protects others in the community. That makes it different from primarily paternalistic restrictions on liberty, such as, say, requiring motorcycle riders to wear helmets.

Somin said said he would feel differently about imposing a requirement on the public at large, rather than making the vaccines a condition for engaging in certain activities, in part because it would be a law enforcement nightmare. Somin also noted that many of the mandates are coming from private-sector companies acting on their own.

American laws and courts have long given private companies all kinds of leeway to dictate terms of employment, as well as whom they serve as customers. Libertarians like Somin are especially reluctant to see that erode, because they believe owners, workers and consumers end up better off when corporations operate with fewer restrictions.

Where The Debate Goes From Here

One group that would be happy to cut down on management discretion over employees are labor unions, and thats a big reason so many unions representing teachers, health care workers and other sectors subject to the mandates have been fighting them.

The unions are also representing workers who, in many cases, are genuinely fearful of the vaccines. This is especially true for the health care unions whose memberships include large numbers of Black Americans, whose vaccination numbers nationwide have lagged in part because of deep distrust of the medical establishment that has built up over the centuries.

Of course, from a public health perspective, thats all the more reason to impose the mandate: to boost vaccination among people who take the pandemic seriously and are part of communities that have suffered disproportionately from COVID-19. And thats not to mention the biggest reason, which is that unvaccinated health care workers are a direct threat to the safety and well-being of patients.

Still, many of the unions fighting the requirements are focusing more on the specifics of verification and exceptions to the rules.Thats different from the categorical rejection of mandates you hear from Cruz, DeSantis and the other Republicans. And although the unions certainly represent a lot of members, those GOP officials have a lot of influence especially when it comes to the part of the population most hostile to getting vaccinated.

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Opponents Of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Have A Curious Definition Of 'Freedom' - HuffPost

The safety of the COVID-19 vaccines remains a top concern among those who are unvaccinated. Yet,researchersand medical doctorsat Penn State explain thatthe results of rigorously conducted clinical trials andcomprehensive safety monitoring afterwidespread vaccine uptake among the public suggests there islittleto fear, and they strongly encourage those who are on the fence to getvaccinated.

Theclinical trialsbehind the Food and Drug Administrations (FDAs)decision to grant emergency use authorization to the COVID-19vaccinesdemonstrate an excellent safety profileand since then,the vaccines have been given to millions and millions of people worldwidewith robust safety monitoring, said Catharine Paules, infectious diseases physician, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. I dont think any drugs have ever been scrutinized to the degree that these vaccines have. I feel very confident in their safety.

What about side effects?

Before granting emergency use authorizations to Pfizer and Moderna in December2020and Johnson & Johnson in February2021, the FDA monitored side effects in tens of thousands of clinical-trial patients for two months following administration of the vaccines.

We do see some mild side effects specificallyfatigue, muscle aches, headaches, and less commonly fevers from the vaccines, but more severe side effects such asanaphylaxisandmyocarditis, and blood clots with the J&J vaccine are extremely rare,said Leslie Parent, vice dean for research and graduate studies, Penn State College of Medicine. Importantly,the risksassociated withCOVID-19far outweigh these very, veryraresafety concerns.

Parent added that the likelihood of any additional side effects showing up is unlikely.

Any side effects from the vaccines would have shown up within a few months of monitoring, she said, and long-term health problems have not been reported in millions of people who have been vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the FDA is continuing to monitor the clinical trial patients who have now been vaccinated for about a year. In addition, the vaccines have been distributed to the public since December 2020.

If we were going to see any significant long-term concerns related to safety, said Parent, we would have seen them by now.

How cansomething developedsoquickly be safe?

All three vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have been thoroughly tested and found to be safe and effective.

Absolutely nosafetycorners were cut, Paules said. Indeed, she added, the COVID-19 vaccines were developed faster than any other vaccines in history, but that doesnt mean theyre unsafe.

Paules explains that the COVID-19 vaccines were able to be developed quickly because different stages of development and production, which normally occur one after the other, were carried out in tandem,and the scientific community was leveraged in an unprecedented way.

Each of the stagesof development were conducted rigorously, but priority funding, scientific collaboration,rapid data review andclinical trialvolunteers made it possible to do these thingsquickly, she said.

Isnt thevaccinetechnology new? Can I trust it?

Some people have cited the newness of the vaccine technologyas a concern, but it turns out the technology is not new at all.

In fact, said Paules, mRNA vaccines have been in development for decades. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,bothPfizer-BioNTech and Modernahad been working on mRNA vaccines for influenza, and scientists had already conducted clinical trials of anmRNA vaccine for HIV.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses an adenovirus to deliver the instructions for building the coronaviruss spike protein. This technology is not new either; theZabdeno/Mvabea Ebola vaccine uses a similar strategy.

Should I wait forthe FDAtofully approve the vaccines?

No. Waiting is a mistake, said Parent.

People who decide to wait to get vaccinated are putting themselves and those around them at serious risk of COVID-19 and associated complications, she said. Now is an especially dangerous time to be unvaccinated given that the highly transmissible and potentially more dangerous Delta variant is now the dominant strain in the U.S. If you havent been vaccinated yet, dont wait any longer. These vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective the sooner you get vaccinated, the less likely new dangerous variants will arise, and the safer we all will be.

You can help by getting the vaccine and encouraging everyone ages 12+ to do so, as well. Penn State students, faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to get the COVID-19 vaccine and shouldupload their vaccination recordsas soon as possible. With this information, University officials will be able to better assess vaccination rates across Penn State and plan for the fall activities that we all love. The latest vaccination information is available on Penn States virus information website.

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Can I trust in the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines? | Penn State University - Penn State News

Ethan Overbaugh, who is immunocompromised, poses for a photo outside of his home in Layton on Thursday. Overbaugh has been quarantined for a year and a half as he's undergone leukemia treatments, and he can't get the COVID-19 vaccine until he is off anti-rejection medication for a bone marrow transplant.' (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

LAYTON Following his doctor's orders, Ethan Overbaugh started strictly quarantining in January 2020. A year and a half later, he is still in quarantine. Overbaugh is one of a small percentage of people who are so severely immunocompromised that they are not encouraged to get the vaccine yet.

The former Utah Valley University esports president was diagnosed with leukemia almost two years ago exactly. He started undergoing intense chemotherapy, which involves taking medication that kills off the cancerous cells in the body as well as the cells that are responsible for creating antibodies. Because he has no immune system while undergoing treatment, when his doctor heard about the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, he instructed Overbaugh to quarantine long before any lockdowns occurred in the United States.

He essentially shifted his whole life online, only leaving the house to go to the hospital for chemo treatments, during which he would wear an N95 mask for hours at a time. He passes the time gaming, talking to his friends on Discord while they work, playing virtual Dungeons & Dragons and trying to heal from his recent bone marrow transplant.

In March, it seemed like everyone joined him the world was alone together. He saw friends and celebrities and public figures and companies all encouraging people to stay home, saying that society could get through quarantine and a global pandemic by working together.

Well, at least for a little while. But when the world moved on and reopened, people like Overbaugh got left behind, he said.

Even though vaccines are available, he won't able to get one for another month. The anti-rejection medication he is on so his body won't reject his bone marrow transplant keeps his body from producing T and B cells, which are needed to create antibodies. If he received the vaccine right now, it would not be effective.

As companies, schools and countries discuss vaccination requirements, mandates and passports, people who either cannot receive the vaccine or for whom the vaccine likely won't work as well have been the topic of many conversations both in Utah and nationally. Many critics of vaccination requirements argue that such policies would negatively impact people who medically cannot get the vaccine, some going so far as to say that it's discrimination.

However, Dr. Hannah Imlay, assistant professor of infectious diseases at the University of Utah, stated that the best way to help people who cannot medically receive the vaccination is to ensure they are surrounded by people who are vaccinated and masking up even indoors and in nonpublic spaces when you will still be around other people.

As an infectious disease doctor, Imlay mostly works with patients who have received live organ and bone marrow transplants, and the topic is one that is "near and dear to my heart," she said.

"One strong way to protect the immunocompromised, children and even immunocompromised children is to get vaccinated and wear a mask," she said. "Vaccines work on a community level. We tend to think of them as protecting ourselves, but it works better if we say, 'I get vaccinated so I can protect my family who are vulnerable. I have a young child who cannot yet be vaccinated, and the only way I can protect him other than having him mask in public is to be vaccinated.' The people with healthy immune systems need to exercise the privilege of that immune response to protect vulnerable people."

She also said that the number of people who medically cannot get the vaccine is incredibly small. There is a minimal percentage of people who have had a severe allergic reaction to a vaccine in the past who may not to be able to get the vaccine.

"There's not a heck of a lot else that would preclude you from getting the COVID vaccines, and even the majority of those cases can still be safely vaccinated," she continued.

She explained that there are different "hues" and levels of immunosuppression. For instance, people's immune systems don't work as efficiently as they get older, so they might get sick more often, but the vaccine will be effective in them. Pregnant women have a decreased immune response. And some immunodeficiencies aren't caused by medication and aren't likely to get better by waiting, but these are very rare, and "it's best to go ahead and get it because it might work," she said.

In fact, Imlay herself is pregnant and got vaccinated while pregnant. As a doctor, she recommends other pregnant people do the same. Although no pregnant women were enrolled in any clinical trials during the development of the vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have been monitoring pregnant women who have received the vaccines, and the results have been good news, she said. It appears the vaccine works well in pregnant women and looks very safe for the baby.

"From an infectious disease perspective, being pregnant and not getting the vaccine can lead to heartbreaking decisions that they and their medical teams have to make about the baby's health and safety," she added.

Even immunocompromised people can safely be vaccinated; and if they are on medication like the kind Overbaugh is on, "the vaccine can't hurt them, it just might not be effective," she said.

Overbaugh was told to wait six months after his bone marrow transplant to get the COVID-19 vaccine, so he has one month left until he can be off his anti-rejection medication so his immune system can be strong enough for the vaccine to actually be effective. But he is extremely tired of having people like him used as a reason to not require vaccination.

"It is incredibly, incredibly frustrating. I don't want to be used as a symbol for anti-vaxxers. I don't think it's discrimination. I don't want to be toted around like, 'This is the reason we can't do it.' There are medical exemptions for people like me, and it's a different story than someone who just doesn't want to get it," Overbaugh said. "They haven't asked us, they haven't talked to us about it and are using us for their cause."

He has a similar frustration with people who refuse to wear masks without a medical exemption.

"I've had to wear N95s any time I go to the hospital, sometimes for 10 hours at a time, and you don't see me complaining about wearing mask," he said.

Even when Overbaugh gets the vaccine, it might not be as effective as it would be in someone who has a solid immune system. He will have to continue to wear a mask for a year after his vaccination in order to protect himself from COVID-19 and other illnesses and diseases. And because the vaccination rates are so low and the infection rate with the delta variant of the virus is so high, people like him still cannot leave the house safely.

"You may say that I should just stay home, but I've been at home for a year and a half. I've been doing what I'm supposed to. I just want to make a plea: I want to be able to go outside again and go to the store and do things that I used to be able to do. But it's not in my hands, it's in yours," he said. "The biggest limiting factor isn't the fact that I get sick; it's that other people won't get the vaccine so that I go out freely."

"It's mind-boggling the amount of compassion and love that we had for each other at the start of this pandemic with this 'we're all in this together' mentality," Overbaugh continued. "And quickly, across like six months, issues were politicized issues that shouldn't be politicized. All this love and compassion has turned to violence."

I just want to make a plea: I want to be able to go outside again and go to the store and do things that I used to be able to do. But it's not in my hands, it's in yours.Ethan Overbaugh, leukemia patient

Ryan Berger, who has severe combined immunodeficiency, also known as SCID or "bubble boy disease," has had to go to therapy because of being so vulnerable in a state with such a low vaccination rate. He has also had a bone marrow transplant. He has been vaccinated; however, vaccinations in the past have not always saved him from the disease. In 2012, he got whooping cough even though he had been vaccinated against it.

The illness ravaged his lungs, and the 20-year-old software developer has lungs that are basically the equivalent of a lifelong smoker's. Even if his body makes the antibodies to fight off COVID-19, his lungs can't handle an infection.

"My doctor told me that if I got COVID, I would die," he said. "A lot of it's out of my control. It's very frustrating. It's definitely kind of scary to watch people be irresponsible. Someone being vaccinated is life or death for me, and vaccination isn't a given that it will protect me, so I could be in the hospital next week. I don't want to test it."

Being vaccinated has eased this stress and anxiety a fair amount. He has been able to go into public with a mask and see vaccinated friends and family, but now that the delta variant is spreading so easily and widely, mostly among the unvaccinated, he may have to crack down and quarantine again.

"When you have a bunch of chronic health conditions, everything is risky, but there's an amount of risk that is worth it. Vaccination definitely lowers that risk. It definitely is still scary. I'm not going to act like the vaccine did nothing that would be a terrible way to live my life," he said. "Everyone around me that I know is vaccinated, and they do that for me. Even if my vaccine doesn't work, their vaccines will protect me."

However, he does still have friends and family who are unvaccinated. He tries to be empathetic toward those people, but "you can't be too nice," he said. If someone asks him if it's OK to see him if they're not vaccinated, he usually asks them how they would feel if they gave him COVID-19 and then had to come to his funeral.

"It's really easy to be mad at them, but (I'm) letting them peek in and do that risk calculus for themself because maybe they haven't," he said.

Both Berger and Overbaugh talked about the discussion of personal rights and freedoms that surround the topic of vaccination and mask-wearing.

"It's easy to tell some minority population which is me in this case to go sit inside and quarantine so I can do whatever I want with my body. But there's the contradiction: I don't get the right to my body when you're not vaccinated," Berger said.

Overbaugh sees vaccination as a form of patriotism and a way to get the economy back on track by bringing immunocompromised people back into the workforce. He says that the amount of stuff he has to do just to have a chance of going outside is much more than someone getting a shot.

"If you can get it, get it. If I could get the vaccine, I would. It's completely out of my power, and this mentality is letting people like me down. You say that it's about you and your rights, but I can't return to my normal life until people do the right thing, and that thing is so easy," he said. "Getting sick for a day, tops, to help other people is worth it. I would do it over and over and over again. It can't be worse than my chemotherapy."

For Berger, he believes it comes down to basic empathy for medically vulnerable people like him, which he says is lacking.

"I think that more empathy is needed in this world. That's my takeaway from this whole mess," he said.

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Unvaccinated, not by choice: Immunocompromised people and the COVID-19 vaccine - KSL.com

CNN has fired three employees who showed up to work without getting a covid-19 vaccine, according to reports from multiple news outlets. The firings happened last week but were only announced during an all-staff memo by CNN bosses on Thursday, according to Reuters.

In the past week, we have been made aware of three employees who were coming to the office unvaccinated. All three have been terminated, the memo from CNN president Jeff Zucker said according to Deadline.

Let me be clearwe have a zero-tolerance policy on this. You need to be vaccinated to come to the office. And you need to be vaccinated to work in the field, with other employees, regardless of whether you enter an office or not. Period, Zucker continued.

CNN had been using the honor system to determine who was vaccinated and who was not, but Zucker said that CNNs internal security pass, operated by its parent company WarnerMedia, might soon be linked in a way that proves an employee is vaccinated. Presumably, this would mean showing your vaccination card to security so that it becomes part of the employees internal security record.

We expect that in the weeks ahead, showing proof of vaccination may become a formal part of the WarnerMedia Passcard process. Regardless, our expectations remain in place, Zucker explained.

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The U.S. has seen a surge in covid-19 cases as the Delta variant of the virus makes its way through the unvaccinated population. The U.S. reported over 127,000 new cases of covid-19 on Thursday alone and 574 deaths.

Zucker touched on the topic of masks, which have been hotly debated as the CDC flip flops on its recommendations for vaccinated people.

There have also been some changes to masking policies in recent weeks. As of today, masks are required in our Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Atlanta workspaces. This means that unless you are eating, drinking, or in an enclosed private space with the door shut, you need to wear a mask indoors regardless of your vaccination status, Zucker wrote.

Local guidance in New York was only a recommendation for masking, therefore we are not mandating it. But it goes without saying that even in places that we dont mandate it, anyone who wants to wear a mask should absolutely do so. These decisions can be very personal for people no two situations are the same. Everyone should do what feels most comfortable for them, without any fear of retaliation or judgment from co-workers, Zucker continued.

While its great that CNN is mandating the covid-19 vaccine, its not clear where the three terminated employees worked or whether they were given the opportunity to appeal their firings. But with Americas extremely weak worker rights laws, theres virtually no chance those people will have any avenue for redress.

Employers across the country are free to do a lot of things, including any requirement that employees be vaccinated against diseases. When it comes to covid-19 thats a great thing. But workers definitely suffer under at-will employment in plenty of other areas.

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CNN Fires Three Workers Who Failed to Get Vaccinated for Covid-19 - Gizmodo

MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. Music venue and bar Lulus Downstairs will begin requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of entry to all shows on Wednesday, Aug. 11.

Masks are strongly recommended on-site, though not required at this time.

All venue staff has been fully vaccinated, and masks can be provided to patrons.

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Music venue Lulus Downstairs to require proof of COVID-19 vaccine, negative test starting Aug. 11 - FOX21News.com

Millions of Americans say they wont get their COVID-19 shot despite rising case numbers and pleas from loved ones, health care workers and politicians. How can they be convinced?

We asked psychologist Dr. Stuart Bassman, who said personal relationships with strong foundations of trust and compassion are the best bet to change someone's mind.

Bassman said its important to be understanding and patient about vaccine-hesitant friends fears, and to understand how they arrived at their position.

He said many turn to social media to seek out information confirming their existing emotional beliefs, which might be tinged with anxiety over how quickly the vaccine was developed and approved.

Therefore, its important to meet them on an emotional level. Facts and scientific evidence dont mean much if you cant compassionately address their feelings about the vaccine, which has been safely administered to hundreds of millions of people.

Say to a family member, I know this is scary and frightening for you, Bassman said. I know youre afraid.

Its also important to be patient, he added. Relationships take time. Empathy, even for a position you might find frustrating or hard to understand, is a must.

Instead of trying to get the person to change, you cant do that, he said. What you can do is imagine that youre with them in their fear.

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How can we convince COVID-19 vaccine skeptics to get the shot? - WCPO

Tania J. Mistretta is a principal in the New York City, New York, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Her practice focuseson representing employers in all areas of employment law, including handling employment litigation matters and offering preventative counseling.

Tanias employment litigation experience includes defending employers against claims of discrimination, retaliation and harassment under federal, state and local law.She regularly counsels employers on a broad range of employee issues, including disciplines and...

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IRS Including Leave for COVID-19 Vaccination or Related Illnesses - The National Law Review

A Florida radio host who was vehemently outspoken about vaccinations died from COVID-19 complications on Friday.

Dick Farrel, of West Palm Beach, Florida, was beloved by many listeners and supports for his right-wing opinions. Farrel was also known for his thoughts on the COVID-19 vaccine, which he was opposed to taking himself.

Prior to his death, the radio veteran made a number of comments on Facebook regarding Dr. Fauci and the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Fauci, the power tripping lying freak named in the Trump lawsuit," Farrel said in July. "Why take a vax promoted by people who lied 2 u all along about masks, where the virus came from, and the death toll?"

After contracting COVID-19, Farrel recanted a number of statements and urged them to get the vaccine, according to close friends.

A number of Farrel's friends gave their condolences across social media.

"COVID took one of my best friends! RIP Dick Farrel. He is the reason I took the shot. He texted me and told me to 'Get it!' He told me this virus is no joke and he said, "I wish I had gotten it!" said close friend Amy Leigh Hair on her Facebook page.

"I was one of one the people like him who didn't trust the vaccine. I trusted my immune system. I just became more afraid of getting COVID-19 than I was of any possible side effects of the vaccine. I'm glad I got vaccinated," Hair told WPTV.

Lee Strasser, who's a former Market General Manager for CBS Radio West Palm Beach, spoke about Strasser to WPTV.

"Dick was flamboyant, outrageous at times, and willing to take on any and all comers," said Strasser, who hired Farrel in the 1990s.

"He loved to engage with local politicians and pulled no punches. Was he right all the time? No... But he was "RIGHT" all the time, especially if you asked him," said Strasser.

"Did he stay out of trouble? Not always. Was he great with clients? Yes," Strasser continued. "Was he a pleasure in the building? Absolutely. Was he loyal? Unquestionably! Was he skilled? Yessir! His passing is a big loss. He was a kind-hearted person with a load of passion, and his memory will stand the test of time. We have all lost a friend in Farrel."

In Florida, Farrel's state, COVID cases are spiking rapidly. President Joe Biden recently called out Governor Ron DeSantis regarding his stance on mask mandates.

"And worst of all, some state officials are passing laws or signing orders that forbid people from doing the right thing," Biden said in a Tuesday press conference. "As of now, seven states not only banned mask mandates but also banned them in their school districts, even for young children who cannot get vaccinated."

As of Friday, there are more than 134,500 new reported cases of COVID-19 across Florida and 175 deaths, according to The Florida Department of Health.

Read more here:

Florida Radio Host Who Warned Against Vaccine Dies of COVID-19 Complications - Newsweek

WASHINGTON, D.C. As some Catholics are seeking a religious exemption to the coronavirus vaccine mandates that are becoming more common in workplaces and even some public venues, priests in the Archdiocese of New York have been advised not to get involved in that process.

There is no basis for a priest to issue a religious exemption to the vaccine, said a memo sent to priests in the New York Archdiocese July 30. An image of the memo was published by a news correspondent on social media two days after it was issued.

An archdiocesan spokesman confirmed with Catholic News Service that this communication was accurate and was sent by Msgr. Joseph LaMorte, archdiocesan vicar general, and John Cahill, archdiocesan chancellor.

The memo not only advised priests not to be involved in issuing religious exemptions but stressed that if they did issue them they would be acting in contradiction to the directives of the pope and participating in an act that could have serious consequences to others.

The archdiocesan leaders wrote that they occasionally hear from Catholics who have a sincere moral objection to the COVID-19 vaccines due to their connection to abortion. This concern is particularly acute among people who are strongly pro-life and very loyal to the teaching of the faith. It is a serious issue for some people who often seek guidance and support from the church.

They said New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan had suggested that clarity be provided to assist our priests in response to requests of this nature which they are receiving.

The memo distinguished individual vaccine decisions from getting backing by ones parish priest on this issue, stressing that any individual is free to exercise discretion on getting the vaccine based upon his or her own beliefs without seeking the inaccurate portrayal of church instructions.

Our priests should not be active participants to such actions, it said.

It also echoed what church leaders have said about the COVID-19 vaccine, noting: Pope Francis has made it very clear that it is morally acceptable to take any of the vaccines and said we have the moral responsibility to get vaccinated. Cardinal Dolan has said the same.

The direction for New Yorks archdiocesan priests comes just days before New Yorks Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York City would be the first U.S. city to require proof of at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine for most indoor events, effective Aug. 16.

If you want to participate in our society fully, youve got to get vaccinated. Its time, he said during an Aug. 3 news conference.

And the mayors announcement is on the heels of a July 29 message from President Joe Biden that said his administration will require all civilian federal workers to provide COVID-19 vaccination status or face strict testing measures, social distancing and masking requirements.

Similarly, around the country, particularly amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases and the spread of the Delta variant of the virus, workplaces have been modifying previous decisions on vaccine requirements going from strongly encouraging, but not requiring them, to saying employees must show proof of vaccination.

One Catholic organization supporting such a mandate for employers is the St. Louis-based Catholic Health Association, which represents more than 2,200 Catholic hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities in the U.S. The group issued a statement July 23 urging all health care workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Also in July, two Catholic organizations issued statements against imposing a coronavirus vaccine mandate without conscience, religious or medical exemptions.

The Catholic Medical Association said in a July 28 statement that it opposes mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition of employment without conscience or religious exemptions, adding that an individual Catholics decision to be vaccinated should be informed by the clear and authoritative moral teaching of the church on vaccinations.

And the National Catholic Bioethics Center said in early July that it does not endorse mandated COVID-19 immunization with any of the three vaccines that have received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The center, based in Philadelphia, provides a vaccine religious exemption template on its website, http://www.ncbcenter.org, which states: The Catholic Church teaches that a person may be required to refuse a medical intervention, including a vaccination, if his or her informed conscience comes to this sure judgment.

The issue of not granting religious exemptions to vaccine mandates could make its way to the Supreme Court, just as restrictions on religious gatherings during the pandemic came before the court as an issue of religious discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said that employers must provide a reasonable accommodation if an employees sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance prevents them from receiving the vaccination.

Such an accommodation though cannot pose an undue hardship under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, meaning it shouldnt decrease workplace efficiency or infringe on the rights of other employees.

The Society for Human Resource Management, based in Alexandria, Virginia, states on its website that employers who want to require employees to take the vaccine should be aware that federal law allows employees to ask to be exempted from the requirement for medical or religious reasons.

To be given a religious exemption, it says employees should be asked to provide an explanation of his or her sincerely held religious beliefs and, if necessary, appropriate documentation from his or her religious leader regarding the religious belief that conflicts with the employers vaccination requirement.

Such documentation, which the New York archdiocesan memo specifically referred to, also brings up another legal issue. The memo, for example, asked church leaders to imagine a student receiving a religious exemption, contracting the virus and spreading it throughout the campus. Clearly this would be an embarrassment to the archdiocese, it said, adding that some even argue that it might impose personal liability on a priest.

Colleges in particular, with a mixed bag of requiring proof of vaccination, also are looking at religious exemptions.

In July, The Pilot, newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese, published a story by The Associated Press that said some Boston College students and their parents were upset by the Jesuit-run schools refusal to grant religious exemptions to those who didnt want to get the vaccine.

The university is requiring all students, faculty and staff members to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before the fall semester, unless they are granted religious or medical exemptions.

A religious exemption may be granted if vaccination goes against the fundamental tenets of a faith, said Boston College spokesperson Ed Hayward in a statement.

He added that since Pope Francis, Boston Cardinal Sean P. OMalley and millions of Catholics worldwide have been vaccinated, it is difficult for Catholics to make an argument against a COVID-19 vaccination.

M.C. Sullivan, ethicist for the Archdiocese of Boston, told AP that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do not contain any immorally illicit material. She added that the pope and the archbishop of Boston have said the remoteness of the abortion act in the vaccines is so far removed to the current public health crisis.

Right now, theres a positive moral obligation to save lives by getting vaccinated, she said.

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N.Y. priests urged not to give religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccines - Crux Now