Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Carmela and Robert Singer enjoy lunch in the sunshine on the Crisfield City Dock with their grandson John Boncore, 19. The Singers, a retired couple from Rockville who have owned a home in Crisfield for more than 20 years, are vaccinated, they said. Boncore isn't yet, but he expects to have to get the shot before returning to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the fall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

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Nothing but farms and watermen: Somerset County confronts Marylands lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate - Baltimore Sun

Employees and volunteers who work for Henry Ford Health System will need to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Sept. 10 or face termination, the organizations chief operating officer said Tuesday.

Vaccination will be a condition of employment in the same way that we have with the annual flu shot, Bob Riney, Henry Fords president of healthcare operations and chief operating officer, said at a press briefing. The system has hospitals in Detroit, Wyandotte, West Bloomfield, Macomb and Jackson.

To be considered vaccinated under this new mandate, our team members must have had both doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or a single dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, Riney said. This applies to all team members, medical staff, students, volunteers, and contractors that do business on our facilities, including employees who work remotely.

Employees can obtain an exemption for medical or religious reasons, but those will be scrutinized, said Riney and Dr. Dennis Cunningham, the systems director of infectious control and prevention.

Cunningham said less than 1% of the systems 33,000 employees and volunteers are exempted from flu shorts, and he expects the number to be about the same with COVID0-19.

There are very few reasons not to get the vaccine for medical reasons, and typically involve severe allergies, Cunningham said. Pregnant workers will be encouraged to get vaccinated, but can wait until after they give birth.

In regards to religious objections, an employee would have to show that he or she has been exempted from other vaccines. It has to be something where youve demonstrated (an objection) to other types of vaccines, Cunningham said. You cant just say I have a religious objection to this vaccine. "

Those who have acquired natural immunity through being infected with COVID-19 are not exempt from vaccination. Cunningham said thats because there is some research that suggests the vaccine offers greater protection than natural immunity, particularly in regards to some of the variants.

So were following the recommendations of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other professional medical societies that say its really best to get the vaccine, Cunningham said.

About 68% of Henry Ford workers and volunteers have been vaccinated so far, and the percentage is higher for frontline health-care providers.

We know that not everyone will agree with this decision, Riney said, but the organization will be communicating in a very frank and transparent manner with our team members, making sure that we are providing all the support so that they understand the rationale behind the decision and dispelling any concerns that they may.

At the end of the day there may be some individuals that will choose not to be vaccinated, and choose to leave employment at Henry Ford Health System, he said. But we dont anticipate that number will be very large and we certainly are going to do everything we can to mitigate it.

Although Henry Ford is the first hospital system in Michigan to mandate COVID-19 vaccines, Riney said there are 18 other health-care systems around the country who have announced similar policies.

Earlier this month a federal judge in Texas dismissed a lawsuit filed against Houston Methodist Hospital by employees who challenged its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas written decision, Judge Lynn N. Hughes said the plaintiffs had no case, saying employers are allowed to mandate vaccines for its workers.

Houston Methodist Hospital has since suspended 178 employees who refused to be immunized.

Theres no question this will evoke various reactions from people, Riney said. But at the end of the day, this a leading health system thats helped navigate this community through three major surges and just dealt with so much heartbreak and loss.

We want to do everything we can to be a role model and lead the way, he said. We dont want to be back here in the fall with an emerging Delta variant or another variant.

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COVID-19 vaccine will be condition of employment for Henry Ford Health System employees - MLive.com

Facing a backlash that he waspresenting misleading medical information, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson defended his Monday newsconference in which five people disclosed what they said were serious side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine.

After detailed and at times emotional statements from participants assembled inthe Federal Courthouse in Milwaukee, Johnson said, "You witnessed these stories?"

"Do you think that's reckless and irresponsible?," he added, pushing back at a jibe from Gov. Tony Evers."I think it's called compassion. I think it's showing concern for your fellow human beings who have stepped up."

Johnson, who tested positive for COVID-19 last year but has not taken the vaccine, insisted he was not trying to sow doubt about the vaccine.

"To a person, we are all pro-vaccine," Johnson said at the outset of the news conference. He acknowledged that more than 300 million doses of the vaccine have been given in the U.S. and "for the vast majority of people the vaccine has been administered with little or no side effects."

More: 'Fundamentally dangerous': Ron Johnson has long history of promoting views at odds with scientific research

The group that spoke was put together by Ken Ruettgers, a former Green Bay Packers offensive linemanwhose wife has said she has been affected by the vaccine. Ruettgers, who now lives in Oregon,has started a website to reach out to others. He said he paid hotel bills of those who traveled to Milwaukee for the event.

"They want to be heard, they want to be seen, they want to be believed," he said.

William Haseltine, a former long-time professor of virology at Harvard Medical School, said the people who Johnson brought in to tell their stories are examples of what already is known about the COVID vaccines that they can cause serious side effects in a tiny percentage of people.

"I don't want to minimize their pain and suffering," he said. "For every one of those people you could bring in 500 to 1,000 who will tell you a story about long (term) COVID or losing a friend or relative. Each one of the stories is a heartbreaker."

More: More than 50% of Wisconsin residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

Haseltine also said thePfizer and Moderna vaccines are the most effective and safe vaccines that have ever been produced. It is far riskier, he said, not to be vaccinated.

Among those who spoke was Stephanie de Garayof Cincinnati,whose 12-year-old daughter Maddie participated in the Pfizer trial in the winter. After receiving her second dose, Maddie experienced severe side effects that resulted in three hospitalizations over two months, her mother said.

Maddie, sitting in a wheelchair, listened as her mother told her story of developing "severe abdominal and chest pain."

She said her daughter told her: "It feels like my heart is being ripped out."

Maddie suffered from "unbearable" abdominal pain and developed additional symptoms, including brain fog, headaches, dizziness and seizuresand "loss of feeling from the waist down," her mother said.

Maddie's mother said symptoms persist but "some days are worse than others."

Kristi Dobbs, a dental hygienist from Webb City, Missouri, said she received the Pfizer vaccine in January. Since then, she said, she has experienced severe side effects, including pain, paresthesia and heart palpitations.

Three days after receiving her first vaccine dose, she suffered severe pain she said, including "internal vibrations."

"It feels like you have this electric shock running through your body, like you're stuck in a vibrating chair," she said. "It never stops."

"I have tremors in my hands, which makes me leery that I will ever practice as a hygienist again," she said.

She said she has swollen lymph nodes, muscle weakness, convulsions and seizures.

"I had to have my 6-year-old daughter wake me up from a fit in the middle of the night," she said. "No 6-year-old should have to do that."

As he has done in the past, Johnson again raised the issue of possiblevaccine-related deaths by passing out charts showing there were 4,800 deaths thathad been linked to COVID vaccines that were reported to the federal government's vaccine adverse event website.

However, reports to the site, known as VAERS, can be filed by anyone and are not documented as actually havingbeen caused by a vaccine.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that as of June 21, there have been 5,479 reports of deaths linked to COVID vaccines filed on the website, but that is out of nearly 320 vaccine doses that have been administered, or 0.0017%.

At the same time, COVID has claimed the lives of more than 600,000 Americans.

John Raymond Sr., president and CEO of the Medical College of Wisconsin, said as far as isknown right now, there has not been an increase in deaths in people whohave gotten vaccinated compared to people whohavent been.

"Just throwing a number (of deaths) out there without context not only isnt helpful, it might cause confusion," he said.

He said having people tell their stories about possible vaccine side effects is fine.

"My concern is simply telling stories of peoples strong beliefs that theyve had a severe negative side effect from a vaccine might make people hesitant to get a vaccination, and they might not pursue other sources of information, like having a conversation with their physician or someone who has a more balanced view," he said.

More: 95% of those who've died from COVID-19 in Wisconsin since March weren't vaccinated, or fully vaccinated, officials say

Milwaukee Health Commissioner Kirsten Johnson said in a statement that the senator"used his platform ... to raise misleading concerns regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. The scientific facts about the COVID-19 vaccine remain: it is safe, it is effective, and complications are extremely rare. More importantly, it saves lives."

The health commissioner urged Milwaukeeans "to talk to people they love and trust, listen to the experts and science, discuss questions and concerns with licensed medical or health professionals, and continue to get vaccinated to save lives in our community."

Madeline Heim of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsincontributed to this report.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note that about 320 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the U.S. as opposed to 320 million complete vaccination

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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Facing backlash, Ron Johnson defends news conference with five people who said they got side effects from COVID-19 vaccine - Milwaukee Journal...

The warning notes that reports of adverse events following vaccination -- particularly after the second dose -- suggest increased risks of both types of heart inflammation.

Earlier this week, vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention heard that the agency had received about 1,200 reports of such heart inflammation after 300 million doses of the two vaccines had been given. CDC has confirmed about 300 of those cases, many of them among young men and adolescents.

But patients are recovering quickly, Dr. Matthew Oster, a pediatric cardiologist, told the advisers.

The FDA is advising vaccine recipients to seek immediate medical attention if they experience "chest pain, shortness of breath, or feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart after vaccination."

"This update follows an extensive review of information and the discussion by CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting on Wednesday," the FDA said.

"The data presented at this meeting reinforced the FDA's decision to revise the fact sheets and further informed the specific revisions."

The FDA said at the time it would update the fact sheets the reflect the findings.

Both the FDA and CDC are monitoring reports of these adverse events and will follow up to assess longer-term outcomes, the FDA noted.

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FDA adds a warning to Covid-19 vaccines about risk of heart inflammation - CNN

Now, toddlers and babies as young as 6 months old are testing Covid-19 vaccines to help make sure they're safe for other young children. If the pediatric trials go well, children under 12 might be eligible to get vaccinated in fall or winter.

For many parents, the decision to volunteer their kids was easy.

One family knows the anguish of suddenly losing a healthy child to unexpected illness and doesn't want any other family to endure the same.

And one family is so passionate about helping protect kids, they've enrolled all three children -- ages 6, 3, and 14 months -- in a Covid-19 vaccine trial.

Here's what parents who have stepped up to volunteer their children want other families to know:

'You don't want to be that statistic'

Rebecca and Michael Calloway never imagined they would lose their healthy, energetic toddler to an unexpected illness.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, 3-year-old Ailish became severely sick and was hospitalized with swelling in her brain. She died just a few days later.

"We lost our daughter to something we couldn't control," Calloway said.

"We can be part of showing people that yes, this is safe," the mother from rural Maryland said.

"This is going to keep your children safe. It's going to keep (those) who cannot be vaccinated safe. We want to be part of that."

So her 7-year-old daughter Georgia is testing the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

Their youngest child, 2-year-old Lochlan, is already a vaccine trial veteran. When he was 2 months old, he started participating in a meningitis vaccine trial.

"They want to work towards improving it for younger children because meningitis is something that young children are still getting and dying from," Calloway said.

"You don't want to be that statistic," she said. "I would never, ever want someone to go through the pain of losing a child. It's devastating beyond anything that you can imagine."

Even before Ailish's death, the Calloways planned to support vaccine trials because their relatives suffered consequences from not being vaccinated in the past.

"My family and my husband's family have a history with fallout from not having vaccines," Calloway said.

"We've seen the effects of what can happen without vaccines. Those are very real to us in our family," Rebecca Calloway said.

Even at age 3, Ailish also had a passion for helping others. She started telling everyone she wanted to be a doctor.

Calloway said Ailish would have been so proud of her sister Georgia for testing the Covid-19 vaccine.

"Georgia was her hero," their mother said.

Without vaccinating kids, it's 'going to be impossible to get to herd immunity'

Dr. CJ Bui is a pediatric neurosurgeon. But when Covid-19 started overwhelming hospitals, he and other doctors from different specialties volunteered to help treat Covid-19 patients.

"Seeing how bad it can be for adults, (even) young adults" was sobering, the Louisiana doctor said. "I've seen a healthy 30-something-year-old die a miserable death."

"We both saw how terribly Covid affected patients," said Bui's wife, neurosurgeon Dr. Erin Biro. "We felt strongly about participating in the research -- obviously for the opportunity to have our kids vaccinated (and) to continue to move the needle forward in the battle against Covid."

Their 6-year-old daughter Ellie got her first shot June 8. Her younger brother Christian, 3, and baby sister Sloane, 14 months, received their first injections June 21.

This Phase 2/3 of the Pfizer study is double-blinded, so the family doesn't know whether each child received a dose of Covid-19 vaccine or a placebo. Six months after the second injections, the study will be "unblinded," and those who got a placebo will be able to get the real vaccine.

None of three Bui children had side effects after their injections, their parents said.

Before volunteering their children, Bui and Biro evaluated the risks and benefits -- from the perspectives of both doctors and parents.

"If you really look at the data, the risk is exponentially lower from this vaccine than a lot of common medications. So that played a role," Bui said.

As more variants develop and spread among unvaccinated people, the bar for reaching herd immunity may become higher.

"We're potentially one variant away from removing all this progress," he said.

The doctors also share a desire echoed by many parents: They want children to learn in classrooms, "full time and back to school safely," Biro said.

"And safely, for us, meant vaccination."

How children's Covid-19 vaccine trials work

Both Pfizer and Moderna have started Covid-19 vaccine trials in children between ages 6 months and 11 years.

Some may be surprised babies could test adult doses. But parents don't need to worry about a so-called overdose, said pediatrician Dr. James Campbell, lead investigator of the Moderna children's vaccine study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

"These are very, very small amounts," he told CNN. "So when you're talking half or double of a very small amount, it's still a very small amount. You cannot overdose on vaccine doses."

What might happen is higher doses may lead to more side effects. That's what investigators are trying to determine, Campbell said.

"Could it be that 100 micrograms leads to 10% of people having fever, and 50 micrograms leads to 5% having fever? ... That's what we're looking for," he said.

Scientists are trying to see which doses yield the best combination of high efficacy and minimal side effects.

Of course, 6-month-olds can't describe any side effects they might get. So how would parents know if their young child is having side effects?

"It's the same as any other child who gets ill -- they get fussy," said Dr. Julia Garcia-Diaz, a lead investigator for Pfizer's pediatric vaccine study at New Orleans' Ochsner Hospital for Children.

"They're not eating the same, or they're fussy and they just cry. Parents are attuned to how their child behaves," she told CNN.

Garcia-Diaz agreed with that time frame.

"After that, your body has made the antibodies. It has done what it is supposed to do," she said. "So most likely things that are outside that window are not related."

While some families are hesitant to vaccinate their children, many have been eager to participate in the vaccine trials, Campbell and Garcia-Diaz said.

"There has been a great deal of interest," said Garcia-Diaz, director of clinical infectious diseases research at Ochsner Health.

"The parents had been calling us for weeks on end trying to find out when the trial starts."

Pfizer's trial for young children started in March, and it expects to ask the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for ages 2 to 11 years in September, the company said.

Moderna said if trials go well, its vaccine may be available for children under 12 years old this winter or in early 2022.

A 9-year-old feels like he's helping 'save the world'

Dr. Charles Mugera has seen patients rapidly deteriorate with Covid-19.

"I was admitting patients every day, sending them to the ICU -- some of them dying on the floor," said Mugera, an internist in Maryland. "Going to work every day was scary, not only for what's going to happen to patients but what's going to happen to us" health care workers.

"This vaccine has just changed the game entirely."

"So it becomes very clear that for this pandemic to end, we have to not only protect ourselves from severe disease but (also) get the children vaccinated. Because even though the children have not been perceived as being at risk for death and severe disease, they transmit it."

His wife, Dr. Kabuiya Ruth Mugera, is a pediatrician who also believes children need to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

So they asked their two sons -- Gerald, then 11, and Christian, 9 -- if they would participate in the Moderna vaccine trial.

"Educating them and getting them on board -- yeah, that took a little bit of convincing," Mugera said, especially given a fear of needles.

Their mother "explained how it works, what it does, how it protects you, and how you get your life back. You can travel. Go back to having birthday parties. Go back to school (in-person)," Mugera said.

"That crystallized in their minds very quickly that this is the path to normalcy."

But because the trial requires blood draws to monitor for antibodies, and Gerald had difficulty getting blood drawn, only Christian was selected for the trial.

The 9-year-old has received both doses of the Moderna vaccine -- the full adult dosage each time.

Christian had a sore arm after his first dose and a fever, muscle aches and lethargy after his second dose. But 24 hours later, he was fine.

Mugera admits the family was on high alert for anything that might resemble an adverse side effect. He got nervous when Christian developed a rash.

"Initially we were like, oh my goodness, is this something from the vaccine?" he said.

But Gerald -- who was not vaccinated -- later broke out with the same rash. It turned out to be contact dermatitis after both boys played outside and climbed a tree.

Gerald recently turned 12 and was able to get the Pfizer vaccine. Now the entire family is looking forward to an overseas vacation.

Though Christian was initially hesitant to get vaccinated, he's now excited to play with friends without masks and go back to his normal childhood without worry, Mugera said.

He's also proud to help other kids by testing the vaccine for them. Christian's dad said his younger son has developed a new mantra:

"We're going to save the world. We're going to change the world."

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Why these parents volunteered their young children for Covid-19 vaccine trials - CNN

Governments around the world are trying to capitalize on rising Covid-19 vaccination rates to kick-start international travel again, but officials and travel-industry executives are clashing over how.

The European Union is slated to roll out a digital health certificate this weekallowing vaccinated residents to travel restriction-free across the bloc. Canada and the U.K., meanwhile, have said residents can travel overseas again without having to quarantine on their returnas long as they are fully vaccinated. South Korea has said it would allow vaccinated visitors into the country without quarantine restrictions, and Ecuador has dropped testing requirements for vaccinated visitors.

Industry executives complain that the vaccine-related easings arent being coordinated adequately and are being rolled out too slowly.

Its really confusing and thats part of the challenge, Virginia Messina, senior vice president at the World Travel & Tourism Council, said. Its understanding what the rules are in the country youre going to and then what the rules are when you return.

Meanwhile, the so-called Delta variant, first identified in India, has sent Covid-19 cases rising again in countries that not too long ago seemed to have the virus under control. That has governments reconsidering earlier plans to lift travel restrictions. On Monday, Hong Kong banned travelers from the U.K., citing the variant.

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Eager to Go Overseas This Summer? A Covid-19 Vaccine Will Help - The Wall Street Journal

June 29 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson (J&J) (JNJ.N) said on Tuesday it was in talks with the Indian government to explore ways to speed up delivery of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine in the country.

The Economic Times newspaper reported earlier on Tuesday that the company would no longer undertake local trials for its vaccine, after India's decision to scrap bridging clinical trials for vaccines approved by regulators in other nations. (https://bit.ly/3h2x358)

J&J did not specify in its comment whether it has scrapped the trial.

The U.S.-based company said in April it was seeking an approval to conduct a bridging clinical study of its Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate in India. read more

In late-May, however, the country scrapped local trials for "well-established" vaccines manufactured in other countries. read more

More than 41 million vaccine doses were administered across India in just the last one week, at a time when experts have said that widespread vaccination remains one of the best tools to avoid the kind of devastation the country saw during the pandemic's second wave. read more

Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta

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J&J explores ways to speed up delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine in India - Reuters India

The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday revised its Pfizer and Moderna guidance for patients and providers to include a warning about myocarditis and pericarditis.

The update follows a Wednesday meeting of the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, during which the adverse event of heart inflammation was discussed.

The fact sheets for health care providers now warn about the incidents and advise medical attention for patients experiencing chest pain, shortness of breath, or fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart after vaccination.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, and is typically more common in teen boys and younger men.

Unlike myocarditis caused by the vaccines, traditional myocarditis is most often caused by viruses, such as Hepatitis C, HIV, and Influenza A. Heart inflammation can also be caused by parasitic, fungal, and bacterial agents, as well as illicit drugs, prescription medications, and immunological syndromes.

Symptoms can include chest pain, pressure or discomfort, shortness of breath, and palpitations. Traditional myocarditis can be treated with supportive care, such as oxygen or fluids, anti-inflammatory medicines, or in severe cases, with mechanical support or a heart transplant. Unlike the incidents related to the vaccines, traditional myocarditis is usually more severe. But for both cases, patients must reduce exercise for three to six months.

There are viruses that cause myocarditis and it can be quite severe, meaning it can cause chronic disease, which can lead to a heart transplant. It can cause severe acute disease that can lead to death and ICU admission. So thats not this, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.

The myocarditis following these MrNA vaccines is short-lived, temporary, self-resolving, a mild inflammation of the heart that goes away. Its not based, obviously, on viruses reproducing themselves to the heart muscle because youre not getting the virus So this is a very different thing.

People who develop myocarditis after the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine should talk to their doctors before getting the second shot.

Experts say the benefits far outweigh the risks. The overall efficacy of the MrNA vaccine is 95%. In December, there were about 250,000 COVID-19 cases and 3,000 deaths per day. By comparison, after millions of Americans were vaccinated by June, there were about 13,000 COVID cases and 300 deaths per day.

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Myocarditis and the COVID-19 vaccine: What to know about rare heart inflammation - WHYY

The Egyptian authorities haphazard handling of the countrys Covid-19 vaccine rollout and failure to outline a clear national strategy has meant that at risk and marginalized people have not been prioritized for vaccination and continue to face barriers undermining their right to health, said Amnesty International today. Among those affected are people living in informal urban settlements or remote rural areas, prisoners, refugees and migrants,

The organization is calling on the authorities to rectify ongoing flaws and eliminate all practical barriers hampering at-risk people and those in vulnerable situations from accessing the vaccine.

"Egypts vaccine rollout has been blighted by the authorities lack of clear strategy and transparency leading to delays and backlog, as well as failure to reach out to those most in need or to tackle vaccine hesitancy through targeted awareness campaigns, said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director at Amnesty International.

We call on the government to ensure that priority groups are, in fact, prioritized, and that the distribution plan is inclusive, accessible and non-discriminatory.

Egypts vaccine rollout has been blighted by the authorities lack of clear strategy and transparency leading to delays and backlog, as well as failure to reach out to those most in need or to tackle vaccine hesitancy through targeted awareness campaigns

Given the lack of a national campaign to disseminate information about access to vaccines, with hardly any billboard or radio or TV ads, people with limited or no access to the internet face practical barriers to register for the vaccine, particularly as registration at hospitals is fraught with the lack of clear and consistent procedures. Peoples experience with hotline registration varied with some experiencing difficulties and delays.

Amnesty International spoke to health workers, journalists and human rights researchers and activists who work closely with at-risk and vulnerable individuals or communities. The organization also examined social media posts where people shared their personal and/or relatives experiences, as well as statements by officials and NGOs and media reports.

The Egyptian authorities have a responsibility to ensure that the countrys lifesaving vaccine programme is rolled out fairly through the entire population: from those in urban informal settlements to those in hard-to-reach rural areas, those at liberty to those in detention, to Egyptian nationals as well as refugees and migrants, said Philip Luther.

Lack of a clear national vaccination plan

The governments vaccine rollout was announced on 24 January, and its distribution was deeply flawed. Online registration opened for health workers, older people and people with pre-existing health conditions on 28 February with over 150,000 people registering within the first four days. Registration opened to the general public on 6 March, before millions of older and chronically ill people had been vaccinated. In parallel with opening registration to the general public, the government increased the number of vaccination centers, but individuals from priority groups who registered earlier in the process experienced long waiting times and were unable to get appointments in the newly opened centers.

Amnesty International is aware of at least 11 cases in April where young people without pre-existing medical conditions were contacted for vaccine appointments before their older relatives and other at-risk people. While this flawed distribution was partially rectified since May, the problem remains. One person told Amnesty International in May his 72-year-old chronically ill mother was registered for the vaccine on 20 March and has not yet been contacted for an appointment.

On 24 June, the health minister reported that 4 million people received the first jab, but failed to provide a breakdown of the profiles of those vaccinated.

The governments mixed messaging over the vaccine rollout and lack of public awareness campaigning, both around access to the vaccine and vaccine hesitancy, has led to the exclusion of socio-economically marginalized groups and irregular legal statuses.

There has been no adequate government-sponsored targeted outreach to urban low income and rural remote areas, including those badly hit by Covid-19, as reflected in emptier vaccine centres. For instance, doctors, activists and residents in the impoverished governorates in Upper Egypt and in informal settlements in Greater Cairo, as well as communities of refugees and migrants, told Amnesty International that many residents were unaware of the vaccine rollout, and that in some cases local health workers were spreading awareness in the absence of a government drive.

In April, independent online media platform Mada Masr reported that parliamentarians and their families were given preferential treatment to choose between AstraZeneca and Sinopharm and received their first dose within days, despite the fact that none of them has been officially identified as being part of any priority group.

In the same month, the government also targeted tourism workers by establishing vaccination centers in hotels across touristic areas. On 3 June, officials declared that one million of tourism workers have been vaccinated so far. To date, authorities have yet to proactively reach essential workers at high risk, including transportation and food workers.

In January, the health ministry said it was prioritizing medical teams that treat Covid-19 patients in public, police and military hospitals first. Other health workers, including those who routinely deal with Covid-19 patients were excluded from early allocation. In April, the Doctors Syndicate also expressed concern about the low number of doctors vaccinated. The doctors' syndicate declared that at 578 doctors have died of Covid-19. However, the health ministry continues to downplay health workers' unsafe working conditions, claiming that only 115 of the deceased doctors contracted the virus at work, with the remainder due to community transmission.

Egyptian authorities must publish their vaccine allocation plans; and meaningfully consult with independent civil society groups, including the Doctors' syndicate, to integrate human rights standards, ensuring that at high-risk and marginalized groups are prioritized and safeguards against discrimination and exclusion are introduced.

Prioritize at-risk and vulnerable groups

In line with the WHO SAGE Roadmap for prioritizing uses of Covid-19 vaccines in the context of limited supply, the authorities must abide by their human rights obligations and ensure vaccination of people systematically marginalized in their access to health care. This includes prisoners and detainees, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, and low-income residents of informal settlements or remote rural areas.

Although Egyptian officials confirmed that a vaccination campaign inside prisons began on 17 May with the inoculation of 5,000 older or chronically ill prisoners, they have not shared the vaccination process, timeline, and criteria for eligibility. As a result, human rights lawyers and defenders took legal action against the ministries of interior and health for failing to vaccinate several prisoners and detainees held in relation to political cases. Eight people with direct knowledge of the situation in nine prisons across Egypt, including relatives and lawyers, told Amnesty International that many of those detained in politically-motivated cases have yet to be given access to a Covid-19 vaccine.

On 14 April, the lawyer of 69-year-old detainee Abdelmonim Aboulfotoh, a former presidential candidate and founder of the Misr AlQawia opposition, submitted a request to the public prosecutor to allow his client to receive a Covid-19 vaccine in prison given his age and pre-existing health conditions. Abdelmonim Aboulfotoh has been arbitrarily detained since February 2018 without trial in inhuman and cruel conditions and he has been deliberately denied health care. To date, he has not received a dose.

In light of the pattern documented by Amnesty International of Egyptian authorities deliberately denying perceived dissidents' access to health care, the organization calls on the authorities to ensure that prisoners of conscience, and others detained on political grounds, are not excluded or discriminated against. The organization is further concerned that lack of appropriate medical facilities and staff in police stations and in central prisons, which are designated for those sentenced to short prison terms or for failure to pay debt.

Access to health care is a human right. All detainees should have access to Covid-19 vaccines.

While we welcome promises to vaccinate prisoners, the authorities must provide further information on the process, timeline and criteria for eligibility to ensure that all detainees in custodial settings can access a Covid-19 vaccine in a timely, transparent manner and on the basis of objective criteria starting with those at highest risk, said Philip Luther.

Access to health care is a human right. All detainees should have access to Covid-19 vaccines. Moreover, withholding vaccinations as means of punishing political dissidents or those arbitrarily detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression would be a flagrant human rights violation.

Various practical barriers hamper the access of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to vaccines. Non-Egyptian nationals can register online with their passports, residency documents and ID numbers provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but those undocumented or struggling to formalize their status are excluded. It also remains unclear whether dozens of those detained arbitrarily in police stations in upper Egypt simply on the basis of their irregular migration status would be included.

The Egyptian authorities must also proactively target refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in languages that they can understand, regardless of their legal status.

To date, Egypt has reported more than 280,394 confirmed Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, including 16,092 deaths. According to the national committee to combat coronavirus in Egypt, the actual numbers are likely to be 10 times higher than officially recorded. Journalists, health workers and others questioning the governments handling of the pandemic or official statistics have faced threats, prosecutions and detention, and other intimidation.

Read more from the original source:

Egypt: Haphazard and flawed Covid-19 vaccine rollout fails to prioritize most at-risk - Amnesty International

There are many questions about returning to work, and a lot of those questions have to do with the COVID-19 vaccine.

It turns out, both employers and employees have to adhere to strict rules about what can and can't be asked when it comes to vaccines.

Many businesses are throwing incentives at employees to encourage them to get vaccinated bonuses, time off, gift cards, food vouchers, even marijuana to those who prove they're vaccinated. But even that has some guidelines.

Amber Clayton, a human resources expert, says employees shouldn't feel like they're being coerced into sharing medical records. She says that would be against guidelines set by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"They should be careful about the types of incentives they're offering, especially if they're voluntary," Clayton said.

Clayton works at the knowledge center within the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). They have 300,000 members across 165 countries, and many of them are asking many questions.

Clayton says employers first need to decide whether they will require vaccinations or whether to make them voluntary.

If a company sets a mandatory policy, they can ask questions sort of.

"They should not be asking questions that might elicit disability with regards to vaccinations," Clayton said. "It may be something as simple as their vaccination card showing the date or where they had the vaccination."

A third of their members would rather work remotely than deal with any of it. Communication, she says, is the best policy all around, regardless of vaccination status.

"One of the things they should be doing is educating the employees about what they're doing in the workplace to keep safety measures in place," Clayton said. "Some are still doing social distancing and some still requiring a mask, some are loosening based on local area restrictions being lifted."

Some employers are still weighing in. Some aren't addressing it at all, as everyone tries to figure out what's best for both employer and employee.

Read more here:

Why you should be careful talking about COVID-19 vaccines at work - The Denver Channel