77,848 new cases, a 66% increase reported
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Tag Archives: Coronavirus
Coronavirus Variants
December surge now the most severe during pandemic
Disney World pauses COVID-19 vaccine mandate
Walt Disney World confirmed Saturday that it has paused its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
“We believe that our approach to mandatory vaccines has been the right one as we’ve continued to focus on the safety and well-being of our cast members and guests, and at this point, more than 90% of active Florida-based cast members have already verified that they are fully vaccinated,” a Disney spokesperson said. “We will address legal developments as appropriate.”
An internal memo from Disney said that the pause will remain in effect as the company “assesses the new state laws protecting workers from vaccine mandates,” according to FOX 35 Orlando. The station said it had obtained a copy of the internal memo sent to Disney cast members.
Nick Caturano, a cast member at Disney World for more than 16 years, said that he had heard managers were leaking e-mails detailing the move two hours before the cast members received them.
Continue readingFederal appeals court halts Biden administration’s vaccine requirement
A federal appeals court in New Orleans has halted the Biden administration’s vaccine or testing requirement for private businesses, delivering another political setback to one of the White House’s signature public health policies.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, helmed by one judge who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and two others who were appointed by President Donald Trump, issued the ruling Friday, after temporarily halting the mandate last weekend in response to lawsuits filed by Republican-aligned businesses and legal groups.
Calling the requirement a “mandate,” the court said the rule, instituted through the Labor Department, “grossly exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority,” according to the opinion, written by Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt and joined by Judges Edith H. Jones and Stuart Kyle Duncan.
Continue readingFlorida’s weekly COVID-19 cases
Evidence why you would NEVER get a fountain drink at a gas station convenience Store
The photos below are from an ice machine mounted atop a fountain drink dispenser at a very large national chain of gas station/convenience stores in Orlando. It’s funny how the name of the national chain gas station used to describe its hours of operation. After Covid-19 hit, restaurants and bars cut back their maintenance budgets and ice machine cleanings were one of the first to go. The basic theory behind what you are looking at is the following premise…. mold grows in a cold, wet and dark environment. It is essential to keep the plates of the evaporator very clean because this is the surface that produces cubes of ice.
The photo below is where the filtered (supposedly) water cascades over the evapoartor and freezes onto a metal plate that forms the cubes.
Here is a close up shot of the sections that make the cubes.
For comparison, here is an ice machine from a national chain of restaurants and bars. This demonstrates the difference in decision making at a corporate level to end maintenance programs due to finances.
Antibody treatment’s use soars
Vaxxed and holdouts embrace therapy; experts debate use of therapy by vaccinated
Vaxxed and holdouts embrace therapy; experts debate use of therapy by vaccinated
It isn’t just people who are unvaccinated using Florida’s 25 monoclonal antibody treatment clinics, according to Florida officials.
About 45% of the more than 135,000 people who have received the COVID-19 treatment were fully vaccinated, state officials estimate. In parts of the state with higher vaccination rates, such as MiamiDade County, the percentage has been as much as 60%.
But do vaccinated people with breakthrough cases and mild symptoms need to get monoclonal antibody treatment? The question of who should be prioritized is drawing debate in the medical community. The pricey drug cocktail is free to patients but costs taxpayers about $2,100 a dose.
Patients should talk with their doctor, but people who are fully vaccinated and otherwise healthy don’t benefit much from getting the treatment if they develop a breakthrough case of COVID-19, said Michael Teng a virologist at the University of South Florida.
Continue readingMerck says experimental pill cuts worst effects of COVID-19
In a potential leap forward in the global fight against the pandemic, drugmaker Merck said Friday that its experimental pill for people sick with COVID-19 reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half.
That could add a whole new easy-to-use weapon to an arsenal that already includes the COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said it will soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize the pill’s use. A decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could come within weeks after that, and the drug, if it gets the OK, could be distributed quickly soon afterward.
Continue readingUnited Airlines Prepares to Fire Employees Who Refuse Covid-19 Vaccinations
Carrier estimates 593 workers didn’t get the shots Sept. 27 deadline
United Airlines Holdings Inc. is moving ahead with plans to terminate close to 600 employees who didn’t meet its Covid-19 vaccination deadline, company officials said Tuesday.
United in August said it would require all of its 67,000 U.S. employees to be vaccinated—the first major U.S. airline and one of the first large U.S. companies to do so.
Now the Sept. 27 deadline has passed, and while most of the airline’s employees complied, United is starting the process of firing 593 employees who didn’t get the shots, company officials said. Those workers can still save their jobs if they opt to get vaccinated in the coming days before their official termination meetings, airline officials said Tuesday.
“We know for some, that decision was a reluctant one,” United Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart wrote in a letter to employees Tuesday. “But there’s no doubt in our minds that some of you will have avoided a future hospital stay—or even death—because you got vaccinated.”
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