Fights about wearing masks in schools intensified Friday, as the United States reported a record number of infections among children in recent weeks after schools reopened.In Florida, an appeals court sided with Gov.Ron DeSantis to reinstate a school mask ban, while the Education Department said it is investigating whether the state was violating the rights of students with disabilities by preventing school districts from requiring masks.In Texas , attorney general Ken Paxton filed lawsuits against six school districts for defying Gov.Greg Abbott’s order regarding mask mandates, adding that he expects to file more suits against noncompliant districts.Nationally, Republican leaders blasted President Biden’s sweeping new coronavirus vaccine mandates for businesses and federal workers, decrying them as unconstitutional infringements on personal liberties and promising to sue .Here’s what to know The Biden administration’s far-reaching announcement mandating coronavirus vaccinations or rigorous testing for larger businesses prompted a mix of critical and supportive responses from companies, employers and corporate advocacy groups.The White House is compelling businesses with more than 100 employees to require their workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus or subjected to weekly testing.Companies that ignore the policy could face penalties of up to $14,000 for each violation, according to a senior administration official.Also, companies would be required to give workers paid time off to get vaccinated.The employer mandates, which the White House estimates could reach as many as 80 million people, or two-thirds of U.S.
workers, would be the most extensive government intervention into private companies and employer practices since the pandemic began.While some companies, such as McDonald’s , Delta Air Lines and Tyson Foods , have already moved to mandate vaccinations or regular testing in their U.S.workforces and offices, the new federal rules threaten to escalate tensions in office workplaces, where some workers have already been arguing about masks and testing rules.In the backdrop, the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus has led to a surge of more than 150,000 new cases a day , mostly among the unvaccinated, while also weighing on the economy.
Advertisement Updates continue below advertisement Biden couldn’t persuade vaccine skeptics.So he embraced mandates.By Annie Linskey 7:57 p.m.Link copied Link
President Biden’s initial approach to the pandemic did not include widespread vaccine mandates, a policy that some advisers and public health officials wanted but that was viewed as a step too far.Biden instead tried to persuade people hesitant to get the coronavirus vaccine, making reasoned arguments and emotional pleas to try to win them over while embracing requirements in limited circumstances.His aides said the government’s role was to advocate for vaccinations, not mandate them as they maintained hope that the vaccine skepticism stoked by misinformation on social media, conservative commentators and some Republican politicians would fade.That hope was not realized.
Advertisement Updates continue below advertisement Unvaccinated people were 11 times more likely to die of covid-19 this spring and summer, CDC finds By Lena H.
Sun and Joel Achenbach 7:54 p.m.Link copied Link
People who were not fully vaccinated this spring and summer were over 10 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 11 times more likely to die of covid-19 than those who were fully vaccinated, according to one of three major studies published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that highlight the continued efficacy of all three vaccines amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.A second study s howed the Moderna coronavirus vaccine was moderately more effective in preventing hospitalizations than its counterparts from Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.That assessment was based on the largest U.S.
study to date of the real-world effectiveness of all three vaccines, involving about 32,000 patients seen in hospitals, emergency departments and urgent care clinics across nine states from June through early August.While the three vaccines were collectively 86 percent effective in preventing hospitalization, protection was significantly higher among Moderna vaccine recipients (95 percent) than among those who got Pfizer-BioNTech (80 percent) or Johnson & Johnson (60 percent).That finding echoes a smaller study by the Mayo Clinic Health System in August, not yet peer reviewed, which also showed the Moderna vaccine with higher effectiveness than Pfizer-BioNTech at preventing infections during the delta wave.
Advertisement Updates continue below advertisement Biden administration opens civil rights investigation on Florida school mask ban By Lori Rozsa and Valerie Strauss 7:21 p.m.Link copied Link
The Education Department said Friday it is investigating whether Florida was violating the rights of students with disabilities by preventing school districts from requiring masks.The moves mark the latest salvo in a legal back-and-forth over the controversial July 30 executive order by DeSantis (R), which prohibits mask mandates in schools.The investigation opened by the U.S.Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights will look into whether the bans may prevent school districts from considering or meeting the needs of students with disabilities who could benefit from the wearing of masks.The department has opened similar probes in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.The announcement came on the same day that an appeals court sided with Gov.
Ron DeSantis, reinstating his ban on mask mandates in public schools.
Advertisement Updates continue below advertisement Student mocked at school board meeting after sharing that his grandmother died of covid-19 By Kim Bellware 6:34 p.m.Link copied Link
High school junior Grady Knox called for a school mask mandate during a school board meeting in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Sept 7.(Rutherford County Government via Storyful) Grady Knox stepped to the lectern at the Rutherford County Board of Education meeting Tuesday to share what was at stake with a mask mandate the board was considering that evening.Knox, a junior at Central Magnet High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., told the board his grandmother, a former teacher in the district, had died of covid-19 last year because of lax mask rules — and was immediately jeered.An unmasked woman seen over Knox’s shoulder smirks and shakes her head at his comment as she holds a sign that reads ‘let our kids smile.’ Another person is heard saying “no” as attendees murmur, interrupting Knox.
Another voice is heard shouting “shut up,” though it’s unclear whether it was directed at Knox or his hecklers.
Advertisement Updates continue below advertisement Kentucky legislature overrides governor’s vetoes, lifting school mask requirement and banning mandates By Bryan Pietsch and Lateshia Beachum 5:54 p.m.Link copied Link
Kentucky’s Republican-run state legislature overrode vetoes by Gov.Andy Beshear (D) late Thursday, voiding a state requirement for masks to be worn in public schools and passing a ban on future statewide mandates.The state assembly passed a law that voided requirements that masks be worn in K-12 public schools and child-care centers.The law instead asks local authorities to develop coronavirus protocols for their students.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised that masks should be worn indoors in schools.Beshear criticized the legislators’ decisions after the work he has done to try to quell the spread of the virus in his state.“I’ve been willing to make the calls, to take the hits, to make the plays.And the legislature asked to go in at QB,” he said, according to the Courier-Journal .
“And what did they do? They punted on first down.”Another law passed by the state legislature prohibits statewide mask mandates and vaccine mandates for hospital workers.Throughout the pandemic, mask mandates have been a contentious topic in Kentucky, a state run by a Democrat but on Donald Trump won with more than 62 percent of the vote in his 2020 presidential reelection bid.Last month, a separate mandate issued by Beshear, requiring masks in all schools, not just public ones, was lifted less than two weeks after it was issued, following a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling against the governor.Beshear said Thursday that Kentucky had set a “new record for hospitalizations and Kentuckians on a ventilator,” adding that the state’s test positivity rate was more than 14 percent — far higher than the 5 percent threshold that experts have said is key to keeping outbreaks under control.“We must do more to protect ourselves and each other,” he said before the state assembly overrode his vetoes, “not less.”
MARSEILLE, France — France’s former Health Minister Agnès Buzyn was placed under formal investigation Friday for “endangering the lives of others” in the coronavirus pandemic, court officials told several French news agencies, marking one of the first such judicial cases worldwide.Buzyn was only in office until the early days of the pandemic — she resigned in mid-February 2020 and went on to unsuccessfully run for Paris mayor — but the investigation against her could still spell trouble for President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to run for reelection next spring.Several of his current or former ministers and top officials may similarly be investigated in the coming weeks, including current Health Minister Olivier Véran and former prime minister Édouard Philippe.Amid a widening inquiry into their role during the pandemic, French authorities searched the homes of Véran, Philippe, Buzyn and other French top officials last October .
The searches were ordered by France’s Cour de Justice de La Republique, a special court tasked with investigating wrongdoing by members of the government.
Advertisement Updates continue below advertisement San Francisco schools report no coronavirus outbreaks; most eligible students in district are fully vaccinated By Meryl Kornfield 4:23 p.m.Link copied Link
Like school districts across the country, San Francisco’s in-person classes have been back in session since last month.But, unlike others, there have been no reported coronavirus outbreaks.San Francisco Department of Public Health said Friday that no outbreak, defined as three or more cases traced back to the school, has occurred in schools or summer camps, noting that 90 percent of students age 12-17 are fully vaccinated.The district of 52,000 students and nearly 10,000 staff members has reported more than 220 cases, which the department attributed to transmission outside of schools.Nationally, pediatric cases and hospitalizations climbed in June and August , as children younger than 12 remain unable to get the vaccine.Several school districts in states including Texas and Georgia have closed over infections.To keep schools open, some officials have considered vaccine mandates for students and teachers.The Los Angeles school board on Thursday enacted a vaccination requirement for students ages 12 and up.New York City and New Jersey schools also require teachers and staff to be immunized.
President Biden plans to receive a booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine when such shots are “widely available,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.“He will.He’s not gotten it yet,” Psaki told reporters.“We’ll wait till it’s widely available, which we expect to be soon.”Biden administration officials last month announced that a third shot of coronavirus vaccine was needed to protect against waning immunity and that booster shots would become available to Americans starting the week of Sept.20.Officials recommended those who had received the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines receive a booster shot eight months after the date of their second dose, while more research is being collected for those who had received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.Biden, who got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, received his second dose on Jan.
11, almost exactly eight months ago.
Some countries are setting records for daily coronavirus infections.Others are pursuing sweeping rules to mandate vaccination.But in Denmark, something like normal life has resumed.After nearly 550 days, the Scandinavian country has lifted the last of its domestic pandemic-era restrictions, declaring that the coronavirus is no longer a “critical threat to society.” Denmark appears to be the first European Union member to issue such a declaration, potentially providing a glimpse into the future of the bloc’s recovery — or serving as a cautionary tale of a nation that moved too quickly.The country’s leaders have pointed to its high vaccination rates — among the best in the world , with nearly 75 percent of residents fully immunized — as evidence that the step is justified, though they have not claimed herd immunity has been reached.Denmark also has one of Europe’s lowest levels of newly reported infections.
Key coronavirus updates from around the world By Annabelle Timsit 3:10 p.m.
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Here’s what to know about the top coronavirus stories around the globe from news service reports.
The coronavirus is spreading through schools once again.But classrooms probably aren’t the main culprit — experts say locker rooms and fields are more to blame.North Carolina has seen a “sharp increase” in clusters of covid-19 in middle and high school sports teams, the state’s department of health and human services announced Wednesday.Between July and September, 45 percent of all clusters in North Carolina middle and high schools stemmed from sports teams, according to the department, with a spike in August at the beginning of the school year.Experts have been studying the risks of youth sports since students returned to their courts and fields last year.Anthony S.Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pointed to youth sports as a high-risk activity for coronavirus spread in April.
Florida court sides with DeSantis, allowing mask-mandate restrictions to continue amid ongoing appeals By Meryl Kornfield 1:53 p.m.
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After a series of recent courtroom losses for Gov.
Ron DeSantis (R), an appellate court on Friday ruled that Florida can continue restricting mask mandates while a legal challenge by parents makes its way through the judicial process.The First District Court of Appeal reversed a decision by Leon County Circuit Judge John C.Cooper that had allowed school districts to enforce their mask rules.After Cooper had sided with parents for the second time, agreeing that DeSantis and other state officials had overstepped their authority, a panel of appeals court judges wrote that they have “serious doubts about standing, jurisdiction, and other threshold matter” in the case they are reviewing.“The stay should have been left in place pending appellate review,” the judges ruled.The panel is made up of judges appointed by DeSantis and former governor Rick Scott (R).It could be months before the appellate court can issue a final ruling, meaning the state’s restrictions on mask mandates will probably remain in effect for much of the school semester.The legal battle over mitigation measures comes as schools have reopened in Florida amid a surge in the delta variant of the coronavirus that has led to a record-breaking increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.About a dozen districts have defied the state by requiring students to wear masks unless they have a doctor’s note, and parents aren’t allow to choose to opt their children opt.DeSantis threatened to withhold the salaries of school board members who approved the mandates.
The United States isn’t the first country to announce sweeping coronavirus vaccine mandates.But not all vaccine mandates around the world look the same.Some countries, such as France, have created “vaccine passes,” which allow entry to certain places only for the fully vaccinated.Other nations, including Indonesia, have implemented blanket vaccine mandates for most citizens.All of these mandates, however, are part of a growing trend around the world to require — or nearly require — vaccinations for certain categories of people to stem the tide of variant-fueled infections and get the pandemic under control..
