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Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate goes into effect

President Biden first signaled his intent to require many American workers to obtain full vaccination against COVID-19 in September.

Now, a significant number of employers must ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19 by January 4 as the rules become official. The requirements will apply to employers with at least 100 employees, translating to approximately 84 million workers.

At present, roughly two-thirds of Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and just over 58% of the U.S. public is fully vaccinated, according to CDC. In addition, about one in ten people have received a booster dose.

Several other countries have substantially higher vaccination rates, including the United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Spain, Israel, Singapore, Japan and Canada.

The federal requirements also enable workers to receive paid time off to obtain vaccine doses and sick time to deal with side effects.

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White House reveals plan to vaccinate children aged 5 to 11

Photo by Aaron Kittredge from Pexels

The White House says that vaccination will be readily available and free of charge for children between the ages of five and 11, assuming the FDA and CDC authorize them.

The authorization of a vaccine for that age group would make 28 million additional Americans eligible for vaccination.

Pfizer recently asked FDA to extend emergency use authorization (EUA) to its vaccine, which it jointly developed with BioNTech.

An FDA advisory committee will convene on October 26 to discuss Pfizer’s request to amend the EUA. While some members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) have signaled concern about the risk of myocarditis linked to mRNA vaccines in children in the past, clinical trial data suggest the vaccines are safe and effective in five- to eleven-year-olds.

The White House said it would begin dispensing shots with…

Why is the vaccination rate in the U.S. stalling?

Image courtesy of Pexels

In a recent press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki touched on the flatlining COVID-19 vaccination rates in the U.S.

Despite a series of vaccine mandates, the daily rate of new COVID-19 vaccinations is the lowest it’s been since mid-January, according to CDC data.

Daily U.S. vaccination rates have returned dipped below 500,000 doses per day, which had been a lower threshold in July.

“We did expect that rates of newly vaccinated would decline over time as they have in other countries with more mature vaccination programs,” Psaki said.

Jen Psaki. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

There have also been similar declines in vaccination rates in countries with advanced vaccination programs. Examples include the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada. “As a greater percentage of the population is vacci…

Report: U.S. set to buy hundreds of millions of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to share

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. [Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

The Biden administration reportedly plans to purchase and share with the world hundreds of millions of doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The Washington Post reported today that the U.S. has plans to make another large purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, although details of the deal have not been made clear. Neither the White House nor Pfizer have offered comment or confirmation regarding the deal, according to the report.

It seems likely that the apparent purchase comes ahead of the U.N. General Assembly next week because of an increased focus on vaccine access in lower-income countries, according to The Post. Additionally, the report noted that the White House intends to host a virtual summit on global vaccinations alongside the U.N. General Assembly next week.

The Hill said that Biden and his administration remain under…

President Biden announces COVID-19 vaccine mandates

President Joe Biden poses for his official portrait Wednesday, March 3, 2021, in the Library of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

In the early days of the administration, the White House stressed the importance of providing adequate infrastructure for mass vaccination. But now that vaccination rates have stalled, President Biden is advocating a more forceful approach.

In an address yesterday, Biden advocated that the private sector enact vaccine mandates and urged healthcare workers to recommend shots for the unvaccinated.

The Labor Department will require private-sector businesses with more than 100 employees to enact vaccine mandates or face weekly testing.

The U.S. government has also required vaccination for members of the armed forces, federal contractors and the majority of federal employees.

CMS will also require vaccination of healthcare workers wh…

White House envisions $65 billion plan to battle future pandemics

President Joe Biden poses for his official portrait Wednesday, March 3, 2021, in the Library of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

With President Biden’s popularity recently slipping to a new low, the White House has announced a sweeping plan to blunt the impact of future pandemics. In the proposal titled “American Pandemic Preparedness: Transforming Our Capabilities,” the White House argues that “critical work” is “needed to transform U.S. capabilities to respond rapidly and effectively to any future pandemic or high consequence biologic threat.”

The Biden administration is initially seeking Congress to back a $15 billion investment in the initiative.

The proposal calls for a total of $65.3 billion investment in the next seven to 10 years.

Of that total, $24 billion would support the discovery and development of novel vaccines. Another $12 billion would cover thera…

U.S. could recommend COVID-19 boosters at five months, according to Biden

President Joe Biden [Image courtesy of the White House]

Facing the second-largest COVID-19 wave to date, U.S. regulators are mulling providing boosters three months earlier than initially anticipated.

People who are fully vaccinated would be eligible for a booster dose five months after receiving the second dose, Biden said, noting that the plan was still tentative.

On Aug. 18, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said fully vaccinated individuals would be eligible for boosters eight months after administering the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

Earlier this week, WSJ reported that the U.S. was likely to approve boosters at six months.

Regarding the latest potential revision, Biden said U.S. officials were considering advice that “we should start earlier.”

FDA is likely to authorize boosters in September.

Distribution could start on Sept. 20, according to media repor…

COVID-19 vaccine mandates likely to accelerate

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. [Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

Now that the FDA has approved the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine for those 16 and older, it is likely that vaccine mandates will become more common.

Following the approval of the vaccine, the Pentagon, CVS, Chevron, Disney World, New York and New Jersey schools, and other organizations have signaled their intent to enforce vaccine mandates.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden called on a variety of organizations to pursue vaccine mandates. “If you’re a business leader, a non-profit leader, a state or local leader, who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do that,” he said.

“The pandemic of the unvaccinated is a tragedy that is preventable,” Biden said. “People are dying and will die who don’t have to.” People who haven’t been vaccinated should “do it now,” he urged.

The FDA approval…

CMS retreats from ‘most favored nation’ drug pricing scheme

Former President Trump’s plan to peg the price of some drugs to those paid in other developed nations was always controversial. Not long after Trump unveiled an executive order supporting the idea on Sept. 13, 2020, organizations, including PhRMA and Regeneron, filed lawsuits to block the rule.

Several courts agreed that the policy, which CMS codified in November 2020, had procedural issues. Namely, the agency provided less time for involved parties to comment on the rule than the Administrative Procedures Act prescribes.

HHS predicted the rule would save the federal government $85 billion over the next seven years.

Now, the Biden administration is moving to revoke the interim final rule that would have enacted the rule.

It remains unclear, however, what scheme to reduce drug pricing might follow. The Biden administration has stated that it is eyeing ways to reduce spending on Medicare Part B drugs.

The ‘most favored nation’ rule was not ju…

Biden offers $100 incentives to spur COVID-19 vaccination

Image courtesy of Pexels

With COVID-19 transmission continuing to accelerate, President Biden called for state and local governments to offer financial incentives for vaccination.

Speaking at a White House briefing dedicated to the novel coronavirus, Biden offered to draw such funding from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

“People are dying and will die who don’t have to die,” he said in the announcement. “If you’re out there unvaccinated, you don’t have to die.”

Biden also said the government would reimburse small- and medium-size businesses that support vaccinating their employees.

He has also called for federal employees to be fully vaccinated or face regular testing and masking restrictions indoors.

Biden acknowledged that the plan might seem unfair for people who are already fully vaccinated but said the initiative could help beat back the spread of the virus.

Ju…

Biden and Pelosi pursuing plans to cap drug prices

Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi images from Wikipedia

President Biden has instructed FDA to develop a plan to import prescription drugs from Canada while asking federal officials to create a “comprehensive plan” to cut drug prices within 45 days.

Biden has also recommended that FTC block “pay for delay” agreements from pharma companies paying generic drug makers to hold off on introducing competitive products.

The proposals are included in a far-reaching executive order with several healthcare provisions. The main thrust of the order, however, is stimulating competition in the economy.

Earlier this year, Biden asked Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, which was also a goal spelled out in the 2019 House Bill H.R. 3 that Democrats reintroduced in April.

Biden included the recent effort to give Medicare drug negotiation powers in an executive order intended to spur economic comp…

President Biden unveils initiative to boost COVID-19 vaccination numbers

President Joe Biden poses for his official portrait Wednesday, March 3, 2021, in the Library of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

With new cases of COVID-19 increasing 14% in the past two weeks, President Biden is aiming to convince unvaccinated Americans to get their first dose of the vaccine.

CDC data show that the highly transmissible Delta variant now dominates the U.S., driving close to 52% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. from June 19 to July 13, according to CDC. Meanwhile, the Alpha variant that first emerged in the U.K. caused 29% of U.S. COVID-19 infections.

“More than 182 million Americans have received at least one shot, including nearly 90% of seniors and 70% of adults over the age of 27,” Biden said in remarks yesterday about the COVID-19 response and the vaccination program.

The U.S. is on the cusp of having 160 million fully vaccinated Americ…