Covid-19 Tests Are Easier to Find. Covering Their Cost Is Getting More Complicated. The Wall Street Journal
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April 7, 2022
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The requirement for COVID surveillance testing of vaccinated and boosted students is being suspended and, pending further assessment, masking in classrooms will continue to be required.
In addition, two locations for Color test kit pickup are closing.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Wednesday that he thinks there will be an uptick in cases of Covid-19 over the next few weeks and that it is likely that there could be a surge in the fall.
I think we should expect, David, that over the next couple of weeks, we are going to see an uptick in cases and hopefully there is enough background immunity so that we dont wind up with a lot of hospitalizations, Fauci said when asked by Bloomberg TVs David Westin about the prospect of another wave of Covid-19 from BA.2 or another variant, given the level of immunity believed to exist in the US today.
Fauci reiterated that the US often follows other countries, offering the UK, which also has the BA.2 variant, as an example. He said that as well as a pullback on many mask mandates and restrictions for indoor settings, there has been a waning of immunity.
Those conditions are also present in the United States, he said. So, I would not be surprised if we see an uptick in cases. Whether that uptick becomes a surge where there are a lot more cases is difficult to predict.
Asked later whether it should be expected that this fall will look like the past two and if people should be bracing for something around October Fauci said that he thinks it is likely that we will see a surge in the fall.
He noted that these are uncharted waters for us with this virus and that with other viruses, such as flu which people have decades of experience with predictions about what might happen can be made with some degree of accuracy.
I would think that we should expect that we are going to see some increase in cases as you get to the colder weather in the fall, he said. Thats the reason why the [Food and Drug Administration] and their advisory committee are meeting right now to plan a strategy, and we at the [National Institutes of Health] are doing studies now to determine what the best boost would be.
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US likely to see a surge of Covid-19 in the fall, Fauci says - CNN
COVIDExperts disagree about whether the slight upswing means a big increase in cases or just a temporary rise.This electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles which cause COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells cultured in a lab. NIAID-RML via AP
Bostons COVID-19 wastewater tracker has begun to tick slowly up again over the past couple of weeks, as it has in the past before most surges.
Experts disagree about whether the slight upswing means a big increase in cases or just a temporary rise.
The latest data from the COVID-19 wastewater tracker shows that current levels are similar to those from early February.
The upward trend comes as the omicron BA.2 variant becomes the dominant one in Boston, The Boston Herald reported, and most pandemic safety mandates in the city have been lifted.
The average COVID-19 levels in wastewater hit a low at the beginning of March, hovering around 100 RNA copies per milliliter. Now, the average levels are above 300 RNA copies per milliliter.
In November and December, scientists accurately predicted the omicron surges in late December and January based on this type of data.
Then, in mid-January, COVID wastewater data was used to accurately predict the stop of the omicron surge that happened in early March.
COVID wastewater levels are still far below what they were during the first omicron surge. At that time average levels of COVID in wastewater reached 11,500 RNA copies per milliliter.
Still, some experts believe it is highly likely that we are on the verge of the next surge.
Matthew Fox, a professor of epidemiology and global health at Boston University, said he thinks its very likely that Boston will soon see a sharp rise in case numbers.
Fox said that infectious diseases like COVID-19 follow a cyclical pattern of surges and lulls, so we can expect surges to continue until the virus becomes a regularly occurring virus like the flu.
Im still optimistic that it will be a less severe wave in terms of deaths and hospitalizations, he said.
Davidson Hamer, a Boston University School of Public Health infectious disease specialist, told the Herald he also believes the next surge is now upon us.
The gradual upward trend in the wastewater is worrisome, he told the newspaper. The good news is that it has been a slow upward trend.
Hamer told the Herald that the upward trend is likely a result of the spread of the BA.2 variant, reduced mask use in public places, and people being less cautious about getting the virus.
Still, he told the paper, hospitalization numbers havent increased much, so that at least is not currently a public health issue.
But not all COVID wastewater experts are so sure that the uptick of COVID in wastewater is a harbinger of the next surge and not just a temporary increase.
Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and the director of Boston Colleges public health program, said that this increase is what the beginning of every surge looks like, but that theres no guarantee that there will be one.
The big question is, is this the leading edge of a surge, or is it just a blip? he said.
Landrigan said the only way to know for sure what the uptick will bring is to keep a close watch on COVID wastewater numbers.
Sheree Pagsuyoin, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Lowell, agreed with Landrigan, saying that when comparing the current uptick to what weve seen before past surges, this one seems minor.
Pagsuyoin said increases have gone back down without becoming a surge before, so shes not that worried right now.
We cant rule out the possibility of a surge, but theres no reason to panic, she said.
Pagsuyoin said its important to monitor the uptick, but the fact that its a slow climb and not a rapid increase is a good sign.
Johnathan Levy, the chair of the environmental health department at Boston University, also said its too early to tell whether or not a big surge is to come.
Levy said its clear that COVID cases and test percent positivity are rising in Boston, and that the UK is currently dealing with a BA.2 surge comparable to the original omicron surge. Even so, he said, COVID has proved itself to be an unpredictable virus.
Its possible that well just have a smaller blip here as we enter the warmer weather, or its possible that well have a fairly large surge, he said.
Though Massachusetts has a high rate of vaccination for the U.S., with 70% of the population fully vaccinated, Levy noted that the state lags when it comes to people getting boosters. This makes residents here less prepared to deal with another surge as compared to those countries like the UK, he said.
Experts agree that there are reasons to be hopeful. If there is a surge, it might not be as bad as the last one, because many people have immunity to the omicron variant due to vaccination or being infected. Still, they said, there is no way to predict how high cases could climb.
They also agreed that the BA.2 variant seems to be about as severe as the original omicron variant when it comes to causing symptoms, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Even though the omicron variant is known to be milder than previous variants, that doesnt mean it cant do significant damage, experts said. BA.2 is significantly more transmissible.
Even with a weaker strain, you can still have a lot of hospitalizations and deaths because its reaching so many people, Fox said.
As of April 5, Boston is experiencing 29.3 new cases a day per 100,000 people on average. The citys goal is to lower that rate to 10 new cases per 100,000 residents per day. However, its still far below the threshold at which the city said it may reinstate COVID safety policies, which is at 50 new cases per 100,000 per day.
The citys COVID test percent positivity rate as of April 5 is 5.4%, which is above the citys threshold of 5%.
Experts agree that its time for us to prepare for a surge by getting ready to wear masks in crowded spaces again and cutting down on social interaction.
Think about small ways you can reduce your risk of getting COVID, Fox said. Dont go out as much, go to fewer large gatherings. You dont have to stop doing everything you love.
As for public policy, such as mask and vaccine mandates, experts said it wont be clear what officials should do until its clear how bad the surge is.
Still, Levy said, both the public and the government should not wait to act and risk hospitals filling up when there are strong warning signs.
Its better to act early, meaning starting masking in crowded indoor settings, certainly getting as many people boosted as quickly as possible, to blunt the possibility of a substantial wave, he said.
Its hard to know when that moment arrives, but its certainly better to act with some precaution and avoid bad outcomes than to wait until something very bad happens and wish that we had done something.
But most importantly, experts agreed, that for those who havent been vaccinated or havent gotten a booster shot, now is the time. The best way to prevent a surge is to increase vaccination rates, they said.
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COVID-19 ticks up in wastewater Are we in the midst of a new surge? - Boston.com
A misleading tweet suggested the CDC updated its guidelines to permit COVID-19 infected people to fly. The CDC has not actually changed its public travel guidance.
On April 6, a tweet with over 3,600 retweets and more than 6,800 likes, claimed that effective April 7, the CDC will now allow infectious #COVID19 cases to fly & stop such reporting.
The tweets author told VERIFY that his tweet was based on a CDC alert on travel that was sent via email to health department officials in Virginia. The email was forwarded to him by a Virginia local health department source and was sent to VERIFY for review.
THE QUESTION
Did the CDC change its COVID-19 public domestic air travel guidance?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, that is not true. The CDCs public guidance for domestic air travel has not changed.
The email alert cited in the tweet was sent to some health departments as a notice of changes in how health departments report individual cases and a positive persons travel plans to the CDC. The CDC has never had a policy that specifically states COVID-19 infected individuals couldnt fly.
WHAT WE FOUND
The tweet that was posted on April 6 said the CDC would discontinue applying health travel restrictions to most COVID-19 cases and contacts with reported air travel.
The tweet is missing important context.
The CDC has not issued any new guidance to the public. What they have done is issued new reporting guidelines to state and local health departments.
VERIFY spoke to the Fairfax County, Virginia Health Department about this tweet. The claim in the tweet stemmed from an email alert sent to local Virginia health departments. Under the health department guidance, the CDC is discontinuing the use of the Do Not Board list in most cases. It also states the health departments can stop reporting the following to the CDC:
A person on the Do Not Board list cant obtain a boarding pass for any flight into, out of, or within the United States. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) enforces this rule. The CDC has never had a policy that specifically did not allow COVID-19 positive individuals to fly, but individual airlines could have conducted their own screening that prevented a person with symptoms from flying (i.e. temperature screening prior to boarding).
In order to be placed on the Do Not Board list, a person would have had to meet criteria outlined by the CDC. The CDC does not place every COVID-19 positive individual on the list.
Officials with the Fairfax County Health Department explained how the previous guidance for COVID-19 positive case reporting worked, and how it impacted travel for infected individuals.
Previously, when an individual received a positive COVID-19 result from a doctors office or lab, the local health department would be notified, Fairfax County officials told VERIFY. Then, that health department would receive a list of close-contact individuals and encourage them to quarantine. That original positive and close contact data would then be reported to the CDC.
If the infected person had indicated an intent to travel during the time they were advised to quarantine and the CDC would place that person on the Do Not Board list.
So, now with the new guidance, health departments arent required to send the information about an infected person and their upcoming or past travels plans to the CDC.
Because the memo from the CDC did not change any public recommendations, Fairfax County officials told VERIFY that is why the CDC would not publicize this update on their website. A spokesperson with the San Diego County Health Department in California told VERIFY they were also aware of the change in data reporting.
The CDC is still encouraging all individuals to be vaccinated against COVID-19, wear a mask during travel. The CDC is encouraging tests for domestic travel for people who are not vaccinated or someone who had a close contact with someone who tested positive.
Do not travel if you are sick, tested positive for COVID-19 and havent ended isolation, had close contact with a person with COVID-19 and havent ended quarantine, or are waiting for results of a COVID-19 test, the CDCs website said.
The CDC did not respond to VERIFYs request for comment.
The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter, text alerts and our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Learn More
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No, the CDC did not change its COVID-19 air travel guidance for the public - 11Alive.com WXIA
In late March, the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced a new COVID-19 variant called XE.
According to the agency, this new variant is recombinant, meaning its a mix of two strains. In this case, highly infectious Omicron BA.1 has combined with the more recent BA.2 variant.
A total 637 cases of XE a recombinant of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 have been confirmed in the U.K. so far, reported the UKHSA in late March. The earliest of these has a specimen date of 19 January 2022.
As viruses mutate over time, recombinant variants are likely to occur.
Its already happened a few times, and usually the way that it happens is you have two circulating variants, someone may get infected with both at the same time, and then the virus will recombine with characteristics of both variants, Carlos Malvestutto, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Healthline.
Malvestutto confirmed that so far, theres no indication that the XE variant is any better at escaping immunity gained by either prior infection or vaccination.
We dont really see in these few cases that have been seen in the U.K., China, India; we dont see that its causing severe disease, he continued.
One major question is whether this recombinant variant is more transmissible than other COVID-19 variants.
It looks like the World Health Organization is citing estimates that show the XE is 10 percent more transmissible than the BA.2, said Robert G. Lahita, MD, Director of the Institute for Autoimmune and Rheumatic Disease at Saint Joseph Health and author of Immunity Strong.
This comes as Omicron COVID-19 variant BA.2 has led to cases rising in the U.S. The variant makes up 72 percent of COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
BA.2 cases were just shy of 14 percent at the beginning of March, and the agency warns they expect new COVID-19 variants to continue emerging.
As variants emerge, they may impact how effective current treatments are against COVID-19.
Malvestutto said he doubts that well see reduced efficacy of currently approved monoclonal antibody treatments because XE should still have characteristics of other Omicron types.
Several times weve had to change monoclonal antibodies that worked against previous variants that did not work against more recent ones, he said. Now the only ones that were using one called sotrovimab, which worked fine against Omicron BA.1, but the neutralization activity of sotrovimab is not good against the BA.2 subvariant.
He said thats why theyve switched to bebtelovimab, which is effective against BA.2.
Its not clear at this point if there would be reduced activity of bebtelovimab, nothing Ive seen suggests that at this point, but were still waiting to see, continued Malvestutto.
Lahita says he expects that we will likely see new COVID-19 variants emerge, just like the flu.
He also said he expects that should the disease become endemic; healthcare providers will end up giving vaccines for both influenza and COVID.
And they will both, including influenza, be messenger RNA based, he predicted.
He also predicts well eventually rely on vaccines with mRNA from influenza and from all the COVID variants.
Carl Fichtenbaum, MD, of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said a virus contagiousness doesnt indicate how dangerous it might be.
It just means that in animal models and humans, the rate of infection is higher, he explained. It does not mean it makes you sicker or more likely to be hospitalized.
However, he cautioned that its too early to know if the XE variant will dominate over the current B.A.2 Omicron variant, which is very well adapted.
[We] need more time to see if it will become predominant strain, he said.
A new, more infectious COVID-19 variant called XE has been identified that has combined genetic information from both BA.1 and BA.2 variants. In early research, it appears to be more infectious than the Omicron BA.2 variant.
Experts say that increased infectiousness doesnt mean its more dangerous and that current treatments will likely remain effective.
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WASHINGTONRep. Ami Bera arrived in Washington on Monday, eager to work on bills focusing on Covid-19 preparedness and Russia trade relations and then fly to Asia at the end of the week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Instead, the California Democrat was bitten by a rabid fox loose on the grounds of the Capitol and spent that evening in the hospital getting shots. The pandemic aid bill bogged down in the Senate. And his Asia trip was canceled after Mrs. Pelosi tested positive for Covid-19, as the virus swept through Congress. But Mr. Bera did return to the floor to help pass bills punishing Moscow on trade.
The rest is here:
Covid-19 Package Remains on Congresss To-Do List - The Wall Street Journal
Women have long found a path toward advancement in healthcare and life sciencesfrom Virginia Apgar, who developed a standard in the 1950s to assess newborn health, to Tu Youyou, who earned the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2015 for her discovery of a treatment for malaria. Women currently account for more than half of all entry-level employees in the sector and have made progress in advancing to management, according to our previous analysis of women in healthcare.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a seismic shift in the workforce, with a specific impact on women. Millions of Americans have resignedfrom their jobs, and many have cited unmanageable workloads or a need to care for family as important factors in their decision. The healthcare sector is no exception. Our most recent analysisis based on the seventh annual Women in the Workplace data (for 2021), by McKinsey and LeanIn.Org. That research looks at drop-offs in female representation, promotion rates, and external hiring at the highest levels in healthcare; at the barriers to advancement for women of color; and at threats to recent gains (see sidebar, About the research). In many cases, these outcomes are correlated with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including reports of increased esponsibilities at home and higher levels of burnout. Parents in particular strugglewith both of these problems. For example, our analysis shows that women in healthcare are twice as likely as men to cite parenthood and increased home responsibilities as reasons for missing out on opportunities for promotion.
In previous work, we have discussed how COVID-19 could reshape the broader healthcare workforce and the potential impact of that shift on women. In this article, we start with the good news: in 2021, women in healthcare had higher representation at the managerial level and lower rates of attrition than they did in previous years. We also focus on the looming challenge of retention and on the risk that women of color will miss out on advancement opportunities. Finally, we offer strategies for improving retention and representation, as well as a goal to prepare for the shift to the next normal in an era of endemic COVID-19.
Women in healthcare are twice as likely as men to cite parenthood and increased home responsibilities as reasons for missing out on opportunities for promotion.
As a whole, healthcare continues to outperform other sectors in the representation of women, who make up more than two-thirds of entry-level employees in healthcare organizations (Exhibit1). We identified three important shifts in 2021: increased representation of women at specific managerial levels, lower rates of attrition among women in healthcare than in other sectors, and increased external hiring of women at specific levels of the pipeline.
Exhibit 1
In healthcare, the representation of women at the senior-manager or director level improved by four percentage points on average, to 53 percent, in 2021. That is 18 percentage points higher than the average across all sectors. The gap in female representation in healthcare between managers and senior managers or directors was smaller than it had been in 2019.
On average, in 2021 women left jobs in healthcare at lower rates than women in other sectors, men in healthcare, and women in healthcare in previous years. In particular, the female attrition rate at the C-suite level was approximately half of what it was in 2019 (Exhibit 2). While many factors probably contributed to this outcome, our employee sentiment survey indicates two possible reasons: more women than men reported being somewhat or very happy with their companies, and more women than men would recommend their companies as great places to work. In addition, fewer women of color in healthcare management roles had left by the beginning of 2021 than had in 2019.
Exhibit 2
Hiring from outside an organization can be one strategy to increase representation. In 2021, external hiring of women at the manager through vice-president (VP) levels increased in healthcare from 2019. These numbers compare favorably with the averages across all sectors, in which women account for 34 to 47 percent of external hires.
Despite the reasons to celebrate womens success in healthcare, critical challenges remain. The ongoing stress of the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to undo progress in promotion and attrition rates, potentially setting female representation and advancement in healthcare back by several years. If women leave the workforce, miss out on promotions, or both, that will hinder efforts to reach gender parity in the C-suite.
We examine three crucial areas: drop-offs in representation at specific levels of the pipeline, in promotion rates, and in external hiring; barriers to advancement for women of color; and potential threats to recent gains in female representation, including increased home responsibilities and levels of burnout, correlated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The representation of women declines at each successive step, from the entry level (67 percent) to the C-suite (29 percent). Representation drops particularly sharplyby eight to 11 percentage pointsat each level from manager to senior vice president (SVP). Clearly, promotion rates, retention, and external hiring have not kept pace to improve representation at more senior management levels.
While promotion rates for women in healthcare were on average on par with or slightly lower than those for men through the SVP level, the gap between men and women was larger in the C-suite (Exhibit 3). Previously, women had been promoted at higher rates to the SVP and C-suite levels: an 8.3percent promotion rate for women to the C-Suite in 2019, compared with 0.8 percent in 2021. This effect can compound over time, resulting in lower representation for women at the highest levels.
Exhibit 3
External hiring is one of the quickest strategies to increase the representation of women at the top. There is room for improvement here: external hiring of women in healthcare is on par with the share of women already in healthcare organizations, and men account for a larger share of external hires than women from the VP level through the C-suite (Exhibit 4). External hiring of women in C-suite positions in particular decreased to 33 percent in 2021, from 42 percent in 2019. Across all sectors, women make up 36 percent of external hires. As a result, current external-hiring trends are likely to further widen the gaps in female representation, especially in senior levels.
Exhibit 4
In healthcare, women of color make up almost a fourth of entry-level positions but occupy only 5 percent of C-suite ones. The attrition rates for women of color at the level of manager (28 percent) and senior manager or director (17 percent) are particularly alarming. Attrition among women of color at the entry levels will probably hurt representation at more senior levels in future years. Compared with White women, White men, or men of color, proportionally more women of color reported spending time on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, but they are the least likely to say that these efforts are well resourced at their companies. They also are the least likely to report that their managers consistently created an environment where people can discuss challenging topics.
Respondents to our survey said that they frequently do not feel supported in their DEI workin fact, 16 percent of women reported that when they spoke out against bias, they experienced retaliation. A larger share of women than of men reported taking on DEI work. Fifty-one percent of women said that they carved out time to learn about the experiences of women of color by reading, listening to podcasts, or attending events. Only 35 percent of men did.
In the COVID-19 era, employed women have faced increasing pressures and challenges, according to results from our employee experience survey. Women across all sectors have shouldered more household responsibilities, and more women reported feelings of burnout.
The problems are seemingly more acute for women in healthcare, who have fewer opportunities to work remotely, report feeling greater pressure to prioritize work over family, and seem to be pushing through burnout and missing fewer workdays than women in other sectors. Although this may have been celebrated in moments of crisis, executives and organizations can evaluate how to encourage women in healthcare to recharge. Otherwise, they may find that the pandemics headwinds are correlated with, if not causing, a more challenging path for women to become top executives in healthcare (Exhibit 5).
Exhibit 5
Exhibit 6
The employee experience survey indicates that women in healthcare feel burned out at work more frequently than men do and have missed more days of work as a result (Exhibits 6 and 7). The recent increase of burnout levels in healthcare may raise attrition in the future. In 2021, levels of burnout for women in healthcare resembled those of women in other sectors: across all levels, the same proportion of women (42 percent) in healthcare and all other sectors reported often/almost always feeling burned out at work. However, women in healthcare appear to be pushing through this burnout: six percentage points fewer women in healthcare than in all other sectors reported that they had missed one or more days of work as a result of burnout, stress, or mental-health issues. Over time, women who do not take time off to address their mental health may leave.
In addition, our 2021 employee experience survey found that 53 percent of women and 47 percent of men in healthcare reported feeling stressed at work in the past few months. Thirty percent of women in healthcare reported feeling pressured to work more in the past few months, compared with 25 percent of men in healthcare. As the pandemic continues, these challenges may be worsening, especially for nurses. McKinseys survey of nurses, conducted in February 2021 and in November 2021, reflected the strain. The November 2021 results indicated that more than 32 percent of surveyed nurses may leave their current positionsproviding direct patient care within the yeara substantial increase over 22 percent in the spring. Of nurses reporting an intention to leave, 60 percent said that they had become more likely to do so after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic began, a higher proportion of female than male nurses have said that they are likely to leave.
This finding is consistent with a recent McKinsey surveyconducted across employees in healthcare and social assistance: in mid-2021, 36 percent of the respondents said that they were at least somewhat likely to leave their current jobs within the next three to six months. Forty-two percent of the healthcare and social-assistance workers who had already quit did so without having new jobs.
Exhibit 7
The experience survey data paint an unprecedented picture: women are nearing a tipping point, and their professional advancement is being affected. If these challenges are not addressed, they could jeopardize the progress that women in healthcare have made in recent years.
Employers can consider three specific actions to retain and promote women in healthcare: mitigate attrition; use open positions to advance DEI goals, with external hiring and equitable promotions as mechanisms for change; and maintain a deliberate focus on opportunities for women of color.
Employers can take several steps to mitigate attrition: for example, they can ensure reasonable workloads, encourage clear boundaries for availability, and provide greater flexibility at work (such as flexible working hours, options to transition to part-time work or to a more time-flexible role, or remote-work options). Women said that these factors could dissuade them from reducing their hours or leaving the workforce.
In addition, people-focused managers can be trained to recognize and acknowledge the additional burdens of the pandemic period and to connect team members with relevant support resources. Appropriate steps might include communicating consistently about mental-health counseling benefits and stress management programs. In healthcare particularly, employees may feel pressure to be available 24/7. Thirty percent of women (and 23 percent of men) said that helping employees to set boundaries for availability would be a meaningful action for employers to take.
This is, of course, in addition to best standard-practice elements of a superior employee experience. These include social experience (people and relationships, teamwork, and social climate), organization experience (purpose, technology, and the physical environment), and the work experience (work organization, work control and flexibility, and growth and rewards)as described in our previous work.
If your company faces rising attrition rates, look at the potential opportunities: stability is a goal, but open positions can be a chance to evaluate ways of making promotions and external hiring more equitable.
As we show in our previous work on women in healthcare, helpful actions include bias training, objective criteria for evaluation and promotion, diverse slates for promotions, and greater transparency and reporting. Requesting a diverse selection of candidates for open roles can be a powerful driver for change at every level. When two or more women are put forward for consideration, the odds that a woman will be promoted rise dramatically. It is equally important to ensure that women and people of color within the organization are ready now or ready soon to fill these openings. In addition to preparing internal succession candidates, companies may want to reexamine external hiring, including whether it is an adequate component of specific recruitment efforts.
If multiple leadership roles in an organization or team are open, it is especially important to take a holistic perspective. In these situations, think about building the best leadership team as a wholewith leaders whose perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds complement one another and reflect the broader employee, customer, or patient populationsrather than making a series of independent hiring decisions. These senior placements are a visible signal of organizational priorities to the rest of the workforce.
Companies may consider comprehensively examining their evaluation and promotion processes, when biases and barriers often disproportionately affect women of color. In addition, they may pay careful attention to retaining critical talent and to addressing the reasons that womenparticularly women of color at the manager, senior manager/director levelcite for reducing their workloads or for leaving.
If healthcare companies truly wish to improve the representation of women of color, they may choose to hold managers and senior leaders more accountable by making the diversity of their organizations more transparent or making diversity goals a component of performance reviews (for example, sponsorship of lower-tenured colleagues from underrepresented groups).
No matter their gender, race, or career dreams, healthcare workers join the sector with a desire to help people recover from illness and to live healthy lives. Yet the past two years have taken a toll on employees, and in particular those on the front lines of the pandemic. Gender parity and proportionate representation of women of color in healthcare at the top levels remains aspirational. Although there are reasons to celebrate, healthcare stakeholders may consider what they can do to rebalance the scales. While we cautiously watch the experience of women in healthcare during the ongoing pandemic, we feel optimistic about the healthcare sectors potential to remain a leader in the representation and experience of diverse leaders.
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Women in healthcare and life sciences: The ongoing stress of COVID-19 - McKinsey
On Wednesday, Mr. T tweeted out, I just received my 2nd Moderna booster vaccine, and I feel good! I ... [+] am still going to wear my mask and keep my distance because the virus aint over, Fool! Grrr. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for USOC)
Well, Mr. T used the word Fool in a tweet, and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) decided to respond. On Wednesday, Mr. T, the actor and former bodyguard and wrestler, tweeted out, I just received my 2nd Moderna booster vaccine, and I feel good! I am still going to wear my mask and keep my distance because the virus aint over, Fool! Grrr, as you can see here:
Aside from the word fool, Mr. T didnt specifically mention or call out anyone in any way. Nevertheless, something in that tweet apparently prompted Cruz to answer with the following:
From Twitter
Bizarre, indeed. Why the heck would a U.S. Senator spend the time to counter a tweet from Mr. T, who is best known for playing B.A. Baracus in the 1980s TV series The A-Team and Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III? Arent there more important things to do like trying to control the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic? Whats next? Responding to a tweet from a Sesame Street character? Oh wait, Cruz already did that back in November 2021, when he seemed to have a bird about a Covid-19 vaccine tweet from @BigBird, as I covered for Forbes previously.
One would think that there wasnt anything really political about what Mr. T had tweeted. Mr. T, who was born with the name Laurence Tureaud, is currently 69 years of age and thus falls within the 50 years and older age range of those authorized to get a second booster by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had also updated its recommendations to cover a second booster for this age group. So his getting the booster was not out of the ordinary.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, posted a response to Mr. T's tweet. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via ... [+] Getty Images)
And Mr. T certainly got the second part of his tweet right to a T. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) certainly aint over, despite what some with political agendas may be claiming. The virus is still circulating quite widely. The New York Times has reported an average of 29,711 new reported Covid-19 cases, 15,226 Covid-19-related hospitalizations, and 599 Covid-19 related deaths a day as of April 6. These numbers may be lagging whats actually happening with the virus by about two to four weeks. With the more transmissible BA.2 Omicron subvariant circulating and people being much more lax about Covid-19 precautions right now, the concern is that there may be another upswing in cases, as Ive covered for Forbes. So maintaining face mask wearing and social distancing right now makes sense.
Now, one thing that may not have made sense was seeing Congress members attend the State of the Union Address sans face masks. Members of both parties left their noses and mouths fairly exposed, despite this March 1, 2022, event being held indoors. Remember, while being fully vaccinated and boosted can offer good protection, its more like wearing a pair of underwear rather than a full body concrete condom. It doesnt offer 100% protection. Just as you wouldnt go to a Costco wearing just a thong, it is better to maintain more than just one layer of protection as long as the risk of another Covid-19 surge occurring remains relatively high.
Unlike Cruz, a number of people on Twitter offered their support for Mr. Ts tweet such as author and attorney Seth Abramson:
And heres what Emmett Macfarlane, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo tweeted:
Artist Brandon Bird even thought that Mr. T could offer a service:
Meanwhile, others on the Twittersphere wondered why Cruz would go out of his way to diminish what Mr. T had tweeted. For example, Holly Jones, a Business Process Analyst, offered the following take:
And Dennis, who apparently is awesome, thought that it was shame:
While Cruz seemed to point the finger at Hollywood, @CaylinSoo appeared to point it back at Congress:
Additionally, other tweets expressed amusement that Cruz was taking on Mr. T:
Mr. Ts catchphrase has long been, I pity the fool. Well, its been a pity that so many people have tried to politicize the Covid-19 pandemic and Covid-19 precautions. Imagine how many deaths and how much suffering could have been prevented had political leaders only supported and followed what real scientists have said to a T.
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Originally posted here:
Ted Cruz Trolls Mr. T Covid-19 Face Mask Tweet, Heres The Reaction - Forbes
The Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus was responsible for a record wave of cases in the U.S. this winter. Although the surge has subsided, some health officials have warned of another rise related to a different version of Omicron named BA.2.
Research suggests that BA.2 is about 30% more transmissible than BA.1, the version of Omicron that contributed to this winters surge.
See the rest here:
Why the BA.2 Subvariant Could Cause Covid-19 Cases to Rise - The Wall Street Journal
