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France passed a new Covid-19 law late on Sunday that makes health passes mandatory for a number of indoor venues as the country faces a fourth wave of infections. The vote came after days of heated parliamentary debates that lasted long into the night and protests against the measure in dozens of French cities.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, “With the Delta variant, the epidemic is picking up again,” adding, “My message is simple: to get vaccinated.”

About 40 million people, or nearly 60 percent of France’s population, have received a first shot, but the number of new daily cases has risen steeply over the past week, to over 15,000 on average, from fewer than 2,000 at the end of June.
The health pass — paper or digital proof of being fully vaccinated, of a recent negative test or of a recent Covid-19 recovery — was already mandatory to attend large events in stadiums and concert halls, and to enter cultural venues like cinemas, museums and theaters.

The new law, which will be implemented in early August and can apply until Nov. 15, extends that obligation to bars, restaurants, gyms and certain malls. Establishments that fail to enforce the rules will face penalties, and their employees could face pay suspensions — but not firings — if they fail to get vaccinated as well.

A valid health pass will also be required for nonurgent visits to medical facilities and long-distance train and bus rides. Young people ages 12 to 17 are exempted from the rules until Sept. 3.
“A freedom where I don’t owe anything to anyone doesn’t exist,” Mr. Macron told reporters at a hospital in Tahiti, one of the islands. “What is your liberty worth if you tell me you don’t want to get vaccinated? And tomorrow, you infect your father, your mother or myself. I am a victim of your freedom.”

The new law also obligates health employees and other essential workers, such as firefighters, to get vaccinated by the fall, and it makes a 10-day isolation period mandatory after an infection.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/26 ...
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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It’s good to see how other EU nations are working out the balancing act between personal freedoms and public good during a pandemic.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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Bisbee wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:40 pm It’s good to see how other EU nations are working out the balancing act between personal freedoms and public good during a pandemic.

Yes, especially after their rocky start in getting enough vaccines to immunize their populations, now it's trying to overcome the hesitancy.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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The NFL is getting tough.
As the NFL approaches the 2021 season, the league informed clubs that it would not extend the season to accommodate a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players that causes a game cancellation.

NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Thursday that the NFL sent a memo to its clubs stating that if a game cannot be rescheduled during the 18-week schedule due to a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will forfeit and be credited with a loss, per sources informed of the situation.

In addition, players on both teams will not be paid for the lost contest, and the team responsible for the cancelled game due to unvaccinated players will cover financial losses and be subject to potential discipline from the Commissioner's office.

Last year, the NFL bent over backwards to rework the schedule on the fly as outbreaks occurred. Zero games were missed over 17 weeks.

In 2021, the NFL plans to play its 272-game slate over 18 weeks.

"We do not anticipate adding a '19th week' to accommodate games that cannot be rescheduled within the current 18 weeks of the regular season," the memo stated in a highlighted portion.

It's the clearest line the NFL has drawn to date and the most substantial incentive yet for owners, teams and coaches to pressure players to get vaccinated. The league has insisted it will not mandate vaccinations, but the restrictions in place for non-vaccinated players and potential penalties to teams make the NFL's stance crystal clear.

Thursday's memo underlines that in green. Money green.

"If a game is cancelled/postponed because a club cannot play due to a Covid spike among or resulting from its non-vaccinated players/staff, then the burden of the cancellation or delay will fall on the club experiencing the Covid infection," the memo states. "We will seek to minimize the burden on the opposing club or clubs. If a club cannot play due to a Covid spike in vaccinated individuals, we will attempt to minimize the competitive and economic burden on both participating teams."

It's the clearest language the league has used in delineating the difference between outbreaks among vaccinated individuals and those who elect not to be vaccinated.

NFL Network's Judy Battista reported that with players beginning to report for camps, progress on vaccinations has increased. More than 78 percent of players league-wide have had at least one shot, and 14 clubs have at least 85 percent of players vaccinated. Pelissero reported that all 32 teams have at least a 50 percent vaccination rate among players.

"We're pleased with those numbers, but we're not satisfied. We want to see them continue to go up," NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills told Battista on Thursday's NFL NOW. "Certainly those rates are well above what we're seeing in the rest of society and certainly above the same age group as most of our players are. So a great head-start, more work to be done."

According to Thursday's memo, vaccinated players or staff who test positive and are asymptomatic can return to duty after two negative tests 24 hours apart. For non-vaccinated persons who test positive, the 2020 protocols remain in place, requiring a 10-day isolation.

In essence, the NFL is telling its clubs to up their efforts to convince players to get vaccinated. Otherwise, the burden of risk falls on the team should an outbreak occur.

Pelissero shared an NFLPA email sent to players Thursday night in which clubs were reminded that the "same basic rules" also applied last year, citing that players wouldn't have been paid for games if there was a COVID-19 outbreak and all previously agreed upon joint protocols are effective, when followed as the 2020 season proved.

The NFLPA did note one small difference in that the NFL decided to impose additional penalties on teams which are responsible for an outbreak, should one occur, and the availability of vaccines.
https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-covid-19-o ... elled-game
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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All municipal employees in New York City, including police officers and teachers, and all state employees and on-site public and private health care workers in California will have to be vaccinated or face at least weekly testing.

The [US] Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday also became the first federal agency to mandate that some of its employees get inoculated.
New York City will require its roughly 340,000 municipal workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus by the time schools reopen in mid-September or face weekly testing, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The new requirement in California, which will apply to roughly 246,000 state employees and many more health care workers in the state, will be implemented by Aug. 23, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

At the V.A., one of the largest federal employers and the biggest integrated health care system in the country, 115,000 frontline health care workers will have to get vaccinated in the next two months, according to government officials. “I am doing this because it’s the best way to keep our veterans safe, full stop,” Denis McDonough, the secretary of veterans affairs, said in a telephone interview on Monday.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/26 ... nt-vaccine
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Tuesday that vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors in certain circumstances — the latest step in the nation’s escalating fight against the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus.

The agency advised that vaccinated people who live in high-transmission places wear masks in indoor public spaces, according to three people familiar with the guidance. It also recommended that vaccinated people with vulnerable household members, including young children and those who are immunocompromised, wear masks indoors in public spaces.


The agency also called for universal masking for all teachers, staff members and students in schools, regardless of their vaccination status.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the changes were spurred by “worrisome” new data showing that vaccinated and unvaccinated people infected by the delta variant carry viral loads that “are actually quite similar." That suggests that some vaccinated people “may be contagious and spread the virus to others" even though they are unlikely to become severely ill because of the vaccines’ protection. Such transmission did not happen in any significant way with earlier strains.
Albert Ko, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, said in an email ahead of the CDC announcement that if vaccinated and unvaccinated people carry similar viral loads, new restrictions were necessary. “There are several hoops in logic to pin down (duration of viral shedding being one), but the finding if rigorously proven would be concerning,” Ko said.
But in June the delta began to spread at exponential rates, and Helix scientist William Lee said Tuesday he estimates it accounts for more than 90 percent of infections nationally. The alpha, by contrast, is seen in only about 3 percent of positive tests. “It’s almost gone,” Lee said.

News of the CDC’s changed guidance was welcomed by medical and public health experts many of whom had sought greater restrictions. People infected with the delta variant appear to carry a viral load that is 1,000 times higher than earlier versions of the virus, they said, and can easily spread it.

“Nobody wants to go backward, but you have to deal with the facts on the ground, and the facts on the ground are that it’s a pretty scary time, and there are a lot of vulnerable people,” said Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. “I think the biggest thing we got wrong was not anticipating that thirty percent of the country would choose not to be vaccinated.”

Luis Schang, a Cornell University virologist, applauded the changes and said wearing a mask represents a “small effort” given the suffering caused by the pandemic.

“It’s not a permanent thing. That’s an important thing to highlight,” Schang said. He said the vaccines are still working very well and vaccination rates continue to rise. “This is not something we have to do for years. This is weeks, perhaps a couple of months.”

Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University, noted that the picture in the United States has changed significantly in recent weeks.

“Things were going all right for a little bit. … Now it’s like, well, what are we doing here? The trends are not good,” she said, adding: “The situation has evolved. Literally.”
In mid-July, for instance, when Los Angeles County became the first major county to reimpose masking requirements indoors, it faced angry denunciations from the elected officials of a half-dozen local towns that are part of the county.
“They waited too long,” said one Biden official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.

“People don’t realize how bad delta is,” James Lawler, an infectious-disease doctor at the University of Nebraska, said in an email. “We are looking at transmission dynamics at least as bad as in the fall — with no mitigation measures in place in most states with low [vaccination] rates.”

Some of the CDC’s international partners had already moved to reinstate mask mandates or delay plans to loosen them. In Israel, an indoor mask mandate was lifted on June 15, only to be reinstated on June 25 as cases of delta surged. Other nations, including Australia and France, have seen regional rules on mask-wearing return this summer amid new outbreaks caused by the delta variant.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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President Joe Biden will announce on Thursday a requirement that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated against Covid-19, or be required to submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The announcement will come in remarks where Biden is also expected to lay out a series of new steps, including incentives, in an attempt to spur new vaccinations as the Delta variant spreads rapidly throughout the country. It will also follow the decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to require its frontline health care workers to be vaccinated over the course of the next two months. Biden alluded to the looming announcement on Tuesday.

"That's under consideration right now," Biden said, when asked if he would impose a vaccination mandate on federal workers.

While the specifics are still being finalized, the source said, federal workers would be required to attest to their vaccination status or submit to regular testing. The source said the proposal will be roughly similar to what is being implemented in New York City. Additional requirements for the unvaccinated could be added as agencies push to vaccinate their employees.

Biden will not impose the requirement on the US military, despite his authority to do so, for the time being. He is, however, likely to outline how the Department of Defense may seek to approach the issue going forward, the source said.

"We have a pandemic because of the unvaccinated, and they're sowing enormous confusion. And the more we've learned about this virus and the Delta variant, the more we have to be worried and concerned. There's only one thing we know for sure: If those other (inaudible) people got vaccinated, we'd be in a very different world," he said.

The administration's decision to require vaccines for VA health workers provided a powerful signal that vaccine requirements could be necessary to convince the still-hesitant to get their shots.

Furthering the case for vaccine mandates, the administration is taking steps to spell out the legal grounds upon which American entities can require employees to get shots.

Justice Department lawyers have determined that federal law doesn't prohibit public agencies and private businesses from requiring Covid-19 vaccines, even if the vaccines have only been authorized for emergency use, according to an opinion posted online Monday.

The opinion from the department's Office of Legal Counsel -- dated July 6, but released publicly Monday -- paves the way for more federal agencies and businesses to require vaccinations following the Veterans Affairs announcement about front-line health workers.

In recent weeks, Justice Department officials have been weighing requests from private businesses and federal agencies seeking legal backing for policies aimed at encouraging vaccinations, according to people briefed on the matter.

The opinion marks a reversal from the previous administration. Last year, Attorney General William Barr used the Justice Department's legal power to try to fight certain Covid restrictions, including joining some businesses that sought to overturn state mask mandates.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/politics ... index.html

Section 564(e)(1)(A)(ii)(III) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act concerns only the provision of information to potential vaccine recipients and does not prohibit public or private entities from imposing vaccination requirements for a vaccine that is subject to an emergency use authorization.
https://www.justice.gov/olc/opinions?ke ... er_page=10
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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rockhound wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 10:38 pm
sikacz wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:18 pm It’s time to officially approve those vaccines.
I absolutely agree, though rushing the approval process is going to give more opportunities for idiots to spread doubt and misinformation.

Then again, the idiots are going to to spread doubt and misinformation in any scenario.
As many as have been vaccinated, the data is in and they need to say so. The numbers already are higher than any trial could achieve. It’s done. Finish it, it’s not rushed.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

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156 million vaccinated, so why is the FDA not able to change the status of the vaccines? Is the FDA outdated and inflexible? So our medical people here, what’s the problem, shouldn’t there be enough information out there to make an evaluation?
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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lurker wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 8:38 am
sikacz wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 8:12 am 156 million vaccinated, so why is the FDA not able to change the status of the vaccines? Is the FDA outdated and inflexible? So our medical people here, what’s the problem, shouldn’t there be enough information out there to make an evaluation?
i can't answer your question but if they rush the process it looks culture-war motivated.
not that i want to be cruel and heartless, but if anti-vaxxers are willing to die for their belief (or lack thereof) i'm willing to oblige them. nearer thy god to thee. maybe the survivors will learn something from the experience.

yes, i know that the unvaxxed make a fine petri dish for the virus to fester and mutate in, and thus present a continuing threat to the rest of us, but i'm looking for some sense of winning here.
The problem is allowing this to mutate to something our current vaccinations can’t fight. Then we’re back to square one. Why is 156 million not a large enough sample. The media and the medical establishment needs to go on a PSA campaign and stress that the data is overwhelming and it’s not premature to change the status.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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Last I saw Pfizer said they expected their vaccine would get full approval by 2022, but unofficially at least one administration official said it would be this year. Pfizer submitted their application for approval first, before Moderna.

Remember last December.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the head of the Food and Drug Administration to submit his resignation if the agency doesn’t clear Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by day’s end, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The warning led FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and the agency to accelerate its timetable for clearing America’s first Covid-19 vaccine from Saturday morning to later Friday, according to the Post, which cited anonymous sources.

The New York Times, Axios and Reuters also reported that Meadows told Hahn to resign if he didn’t move quickly to clear the vaccine.
The reports come a day after a key FDA advisory panel voted 17 to 4 with one abstention to recommend the vaccine, which Pfizer developed alongside BioNTech, for emergency authorization. The FDA typically follows the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee’s advice. Following the overwhelming vote, the FDA was expected to clear the vaccine as early as Friday.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/11/white-h ... eport.html

It normally takes about 10 years to get new vaccines approved, the normally glacial moving FDA bureaucracy was pushed and prodded to give EUA sooner. That 10 years of review uncovers things like the very rare clotting that has been reported. It also contributes to the cost of medicines.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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Earlier this summer, one of my older, gun-owning liberal friends managed to acquire the delta variant as a breakthrough infection, despite vaccination.

I've been gritting my teeth ever since I started seeing stories about the breakthrough cases a few weeks ago. We're going to have to go back to masks and distancing - even the vaccinated. I'd be okay with letting delta run amok through the deniers if everyone who wanted the shot could get it. Until they approve it for kiddos, though, schools pose a stupidly high risk for spreading the variants.

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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I'm confused why wingers are confused about wearing a mask. To me, seems an easy decision regardless of what CDC says, even if the only one you care about is yourself and ef everyone else. Get vaxed, wear a mask, and STFU !!
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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The efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech fell from 96% to 84% over six months, according to data released Wednesday, a decline that could fuel Pfizer’s case that a third dose will eventually be required.

The data, released in a preprint that has not been reviewed by outside scientists, suggest the vaccine was 91% effective overall at preventing Covid-19 over the course of six months.

In the ongoing study, which enrolled more than 44,000 volunteers, the vaccine’s efficacy in preventing any Covid-19 infection that causes even minor symptoms appeared to decline by an average of 6% every two months after administration. It peaked at more than 96% within two months of vaccination and slipped to 84% after six months.

Against severe disease, which includes people with low blood oxygen levels or who are hospitalized, the overall efficacy of the vaccine was 97%.
While the data suggest Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine provides lasting protection against the worst symptoms of Covid-19, the paper leaves open the possibility that booster doses will eventually be necessary to curtail infection. If the vaccine’s efficacy continues to decline at the rate observed in the paper, it would fall below the 50% threshold — a benchmark for vaccine utility — within 18 months of vaccination.

That would support Pfizer’s contention that two doses of the vaccine won’t be enough to provide long-term protection. Federal authorities have maintained that people who have been fully vaccinated don’t need booster doses yet but that they are continuing to look at new data.

Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University, said the data point to two possibilities. Either the vaccine’s efficacy against mild disease is decreasing slightly, or the emergence of new viral variants made it look less effective. “It’s some kind of modest decline, keeping it all in perspective that this number is still high.” She also emphasized that as more data are collected, the vaccine remains effective at preventing severe disease.

Moderna’s vaccine was 90% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 and 95% effective against severe disease after six months, the company said in an April press release. Johnson & Johnson has not yet disclosed six-month efficacy data.

The Pfizer study, which enrolled volunteers in Europe and the Americas, doesn’t address whether the vaccine might be less effective against the fast-spreading Delta variant. Pfizer and BioNTech have conducted lab studies suggesting the vaccine should be able to neutralize the variant, but there is no large-scale clinical data to confirm that conclusion.
Dean said that it’s important to remember that we are still learning about these new vaccines, and that different vaccines may still turn out to have advantages and disadvantages.

“For me it’s just remembering why it’s so important that we maintain a wide profile of vaccines and exploring a mix and match approach and also the intranasal vaccines.” Dean said. “We still don’t know what is ultimately going to be the best strategy. We want this wide portfolio because durability is always a question and so is robustness against different variants. This only represents six months of data early on in the life of these vaccines. There are open questions.”
https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/28/eff ... data-show/
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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