Aug 11 Tensions over school mask mandates roil this Mississippi town By Laura Santhanam The simple back-to-school precaution of masking has become a source of controversy in Mississippi and around the country as millions of students prepare to enter the academic year and rates of COVID-19 infection soar. Continue reading
Aug 10 Hospitals run low on nurses as they get swamped with COVID-19 By Terry Spencer, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Andrew Selsky, Associated Press The surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff in virus hot spots that can no longer keep up with the flood of unvaccinated patients. Continue reading
Aug 07 Watch 4:56 From ‘carrots’ to ‘sticks’—Why vaccine mandates may work where incentives haven’t By PBS NewsHour While new COVID-19 cases surge, debate over lockdowns, masks and vaccine mandates continue. Yesterday, United Airlines announced that it will require all of its U.S. employees to be vaccinated as a condition of employment. Juliette Kayyem, professor at the Harvard… Continue watching
Aug 03 For many, the belated realization that COVID will be ‘a long war’ sparks anger and denial By Megan Molteni, STAT News Though this new outrage might look and sound like righteous indignation, mental health professionals say that what’s behind it is fear. Continue reading
Aug 03 New York City will require vaccination proof for indoor dining, gyms By Associated Press New York City will soon require proof of COVID-19 vaccinations for indoor activities, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday, making it the first big city in the U.S. to impose such restrictions. Continue reading
Aug 03 Florida again breaks record for COVID-19 hospitalizations By Freida Frisaro, Associated Press The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida rose to an all-time high of 11,515 patients in one day, according to data the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released Tuesday. Continue reading
Aug 02 Watch 7:03 ‘No signs of plateauing’ in Florida’s COVID cases as DeSantis refuses to mandate masks Over the weekend, Florida reported more than 21,000 cases in a single day — its highest one day total since the start of the pandemic. The CDC says schools should require masks as they reopen. But Florida governor Ron DeSantis… Continue watching
Aug 01 Watch 8:38 Masks, vaccinations, delta: Why we are at a ‘critical point’ in the pandemic By PBS NewsHour Surges in Delta cases across the nation have changed and undone some of the progress made against the COVID-19 pandemic: the CDC has advised fully vaccinated people to remain cautious and even wear masks indoors. Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious… Continue watching
Jul 30 Study: Vaccinated people who got ‘breakthrough’ infections can carry as much virus as others By Lindsey Tanner, Philip Marcelo, Associated Press The findings have the potential to upend past thinking about how the disease is spread. Previously, vaccinated people who got infected were thought to have low levels of virus and to be unlikely to pass it to others. But the… Continue reading
Jul 30 WATCH: WHO reports 80 percent rise in infections in last four weeks By Associated Press The World Health Organization warned on Friday of the vast spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus and said it should serve as a "call to action" to speed up vaccination around the world before "more variants emerge."… Continue reading