The United States’ largest operator of nursing homes said Wednesday that its workers must get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to keep their jobs. The announcement from Pennsylvania-based Genesis Healthcare — which has 70,000 employees at nearly 400 nursing homes and senior communities — suggests the nursing home industry’s reluctance to force employees to… read on > read on >
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida reached a new high this week, the Florida Hospital Association (FHA) says. Hospitalizations are 13% higher than the previous peak on July 23, 2020, and 60% of the state’s hospitals are expected to face a “critical staffing shortage” in the next seven days, the association said Tuesday, CNN reported. Currently, there… read on > read on >
Scientists suspect that a century-old tuberculosis vaccine might be able to protect older adults against the worst ravages of COVID-19. The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine was first used in 1921, and is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines. More than 130 million babies worldwide receive this vaccine every year. But it is… read on > read on >
The two HIV prevention drugs available in the United States are equally safe and effective, and the biggest difference between them is price, a new study contends. However, a sizable minority of patients have switched from the older and cheaper “preexposure prophylaxis” (PrEP) formulation to the newer and much pricier one. In many cases that… read on > read on >
U.S. gun sales increased early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and many of those firearms ended up in homes with teens, researchers say. “This finding is concerning because we know that the single biggest risk factor for adolescent firearm injuries is access to an unsecured firearm,” said study co-author Dr. Patrick Carter. He is co-director of… read on > read on >
Wealthy nations shouldn’t be giving COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to their citizens while poor nations struggle to get first doses of vaccines, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday. The U.N. health organization called for a moratorium on booster shots until at least the end of September, even for the elderly, health care workers and… read on > read on >
All 11 million residents of the city of Wuhan will be tested for COVID-19 after three locally transmitted cases were reported in the city on Monday, Chinese officials said Tuesday. The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan in 2019. “To ensure that everyone in the city is safe, city-wide nucleic acid testing… read on > read on >
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is speeding up its timetable for full approval of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, hoping to complete the process by early September. President Joe Biden said last week that he expected a fully approved vaccine in early fall, but the FDA’s unofficial deadline is Labor Day or sooner, according to… read on > read on >
COVID-19 vaccines will be offered to migrants in U.S. custody at the Mexican border, federal government officials said Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security will provide the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine to migrants soon after they cross into the United States, two agency officials with knowledge of the plan told the Washington Post. They… read on > read on >
COVID-19 vaccines are helping protect the unvaccinated as the new Delta strain surges across the United States, but experts say its high infectiousness could mean even more people need to take the jab to achieve true herd immunity. Tracking data shows COVID cases aren’t spiking as much in places with high vaccination rates as they… read on > read on >
