International [U.S COVID Vaccine News] CDC to Lift COVID-19 Testing Requirement for international Travelers

My country's only managed to vaccinate 6% of the population, and our infection and death rates are both falling.
Makes it hard to believe that vaccines have a whole lot to do with spikes or declines in infections.

My mate's planning to take his employer to court over the attempt to mandate masks or vaccines.
 
Florida is like the most predictable trainwreck ever. I think most people in this thread saw this coming months ago when they realized DeSantis is insane.
Florida just reported its highest-ever number of daily COVID-19 cases and has become the new U.S epicenter for the virus
More than 110,000 positive COVID-19 cases were recorded in Florida in the past week
By Yelena Dzhanova and Michelle Mark | Jul 31, 2021



Florida has broken its record for daily COVID-19 cases, reporting its highest one-day total since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to new numbers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Federal health data showed that the state recorded a whopping 21,683 new cases on Friday. The news makes Florida the new COVID-19 epicenter in the US, according to the Associated Press.

The pace of new infections in Florida appears to be rapidly rising; the state recorded just 17,093 cases the previous day and just 13,256 one week before that.

Previously, Florida's highest number of daily cases was 19,334 on January 7, 2021. Though CDC figures show a spike of 30,531 cases on January 2, that figure actually encompassed January 1 as well, according to The Palm Beach Post.

In just the past week, confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida spiked by more than 50%, according to state health data.

The Florida Department of Health said in a recent report that it recorded more than 110,000 new cases from June 23 to June 29. In the week prior, there were about 73,000 cases reported.

For weeks, Florida has marked continuous surges in the number of positive coronavirus cases. The counts have risen so much that one out of every five coronavirus cases in the United States now comes from Florida.

Amid the rise in cases, Gov. Ron DeSantis has repeatedly criticized mask guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which last week urged vaccinated people to now wear face coverings indoors.

On Friday, DeSantis signed an executive order that barred schools from mandating kids wear masks.

"The federal government has no right to tell parents that in order for their kids to attend school in person, they must be forced to wear a mask all day, every day," he said.

DeSantis brought the point home during a press conference, saying both he and his wife are "not going to do the mask with the kids."

Weekly case counts in Florida are beginning to match some of the worst weeks for the state in the history of the coronavirus pandemic. State data shows that the new coronavirus cases in the past week either match or surpass the rate in January — before vaccines were widely available.

https://www.businessinsider.com/florida-covid-19-cases-jumped-50-percent-surges-2021-7?amp



I love this stuff buddy, keep up the good work. Stay the fuck away from Florida folks, Ron DeSantis said government has no right to impose draconian mandates on the parents that live in his state. It's literally hell on Earth down here, HELPPPPPP!!<Rodgers1><{Heymansnicker}>
 
My country's only managed to vaccinate 6% of the population, and our infection and death rates are both falling.
Makes it hard to believe that vaccines have a whole lot to do with spikes or declines in infections.

My mate's planning to take his employer to court over the attempt to mandate masks or vaccines.

Any info, valid or not, will be suppressed…we are riding on a runaway train…encourage everyone to stand up against the agenda..
 
Our CEO suggested that vaccines will be required even if you work remote/don't come to the office. Fun times were had with my team.
Time for a new job. Bad enough they all bent over for the DE&I bullshit.
 
Not based on previous court cases

Interesting... what are the details or do you have any citations. In the past courts have always ruled that the need must be a reasonable business requirement. If you can work remotely I just don't see that.
 
Southern US States Set Records for COVID Hospitalizations
By VOA News | August 2, 2021

ap21214674065233.jpg

A nurse from Maryland chats with a nurse from Chattanooga, Tenn., as nearly three dozen health care workers from around the country arrive to help supplement the staff at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Aug. 2, 2021.

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 are surging in the Southern United States with some states seeing record numbers of patients as the country faces a wave of coronavirus infections fueled by the delta variant.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Monday that looking ahead to Tuesday's reported hospitalization numbers, there are "more hospitalizations than at any other point in the pandemic."

Edwards did not give the exact number of hospitalized patients, but said it was more than the official count of 1,984 that health officials announced Monday at noon.

The news follows Florida's announcement Sunday that more than 10,000 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in the state, surpassing Florida's record.

Arkansas reported Monday its biggest one-day spike in coronavirus hospitalizations since the pandemic began, bringing the state's total to 1,220. Arkansas is nearing its high of 1,371 coronavirus patients set in January.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday that coronavirus cases are surging in areas with low vaccination rates.

He told reporters on a conference call that one in three cases nationwide occurred in Florida and Texas in the past week. According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, new confirmed cases hit nearly 560,000.

As of Monday night, the U.S. has confirmed 35.1 million cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and more than 613,000 deaths.

https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/southern-us-states-set-records-covid-hospitalizations?amp
 
The delta variant is 'ripping through the unvaccinated', crowding hospitals in Florida and Texas
KEN ALLTUCKER | USA TODAY | AUGUST 4, 2021


A fourth wave of COVID-19 is threatening to overwhelm U.S. hospitals in regions where large swaths of unvaccinated people provide little resistance to the highly contagious delta variant.

Nowhere is the strain more apparent than Florida, which reached a new peak Tuesday of 11,515 people hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Hospitals in Jacksonville and Orlando last week crashed through their pandemic peaks, and hospitals in Miami-Dade County are at or approaching record coronavirus hospitalizations this week, said Mary Mayhew, CEO of Florida Hospital Association.

And cases continue to surge, with 110,477 residents testing positive for the COVID-19 virus for the week that ended July 29, foreshadowing more people needing hospital care in the weeks ahead.

"The delta variant is ripping through the unvaccinated," Mayhew said.

Across Florida, COVID surge is 'straining our system'



Further stressing hospitals are larger-than-normal volumes of sick people crowding emergency rooms with non-COVID-19 illnesses, Mayhew said. The combination has challenged hospitals' capacity to staff enough nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and other clinicians to care for the surge of critically ill patients.

With more than 1,000 coronavirus patients at hospitals across its six-county region, Orlando's AdventHealth suspended non-emergency operations last week to free up staff and space. More than 90% of COVID-19 patients at AdventHealth's hospitals are unvaccinated, and the small number of vaccinated patients with COVID-19 typically have underlying conditions such as cancer or autoimmune disease, the hospital said.

"We have peaked above any previous wave and it is straining our system, our physicians and all of our clinicians," said Neil Finkler, chief clinical officer of AdventHealth's Central Florida division.

"None of these patients thought they would get the virus. But the delta variant has proven to be so highly contagious that even the young and the healthy, including pregnant patients, are starting to fill up our hospitals."

While hospitals from the Northeast to the Southwest set up temporary field hospitals during past surges, Mayhew said Florida hospitals are converting existing hospital space to set up beds. Hospitals are making space in conference rooms, cafeterias and auditoriums.

Mayhew said converting existing hospital space allows more efficient use of limited staff rather than scrambling to staff a remote field hospital in a parking lot or a convention center.

Public health officials have called for tougher measures after the CDC last week recommended all K-12 students to wear masks in classrooms. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed with an executive order blocking mask mandates in schools and school districts concluded they can't legally enforce a mask requirement.

'Every staffed bed' is full at some Texas hospitals



In Texas, hospitals are preparing for the steady rise of COVID-19 hospitalizations that are following rising cases counts. Like in Florida, Texas hospital beds are being filled with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, said Angela G. Clendenin, a professor at Texas A&M School of Public Health.

While previous COVID-19 waves mainly involved older and middle-aged adults with existing health conditions, the new wave is claiming young adults in their 20s and 30s who need breathing machines in hospital intensive care units, Clendenin said.

The result is that hospitals are again preparing for or enacting surge plans to convert medical wings into intensive care units, she said.

"By not getting vaccinated and doing your part, we risk crashing one of the most advanced health care systems in the world," Clendenin said.

Hospitals in South Texas are already struggling to keep up with the pace of sick patients.

South Texas hospitals in Corpus Christi, Victoria, Kingsville, Beeville and San Antonio have begun diverting patients. In a statement this week, Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales urged available nurses to fill a staffing gap amid a surge of COVID-19 patients.

“Every staffed bed is full,” Canales said. “There are beds available but no nursing staff for them.”

While Florida and Texas accounted for one-third of all COVID-19 cases last week, cases, hospitalizations and deaths are increasing in nearly all states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



In Missouri, which trails only Louisiana in cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, hospitals are preparing for stressful weeks ahead.

Hospitalizations during the current delta-driven wave have surpassed last winter's peak in several communities, said Dave Dillon, a spokesman for the Missouri Hospital Association.

"The growth in positivity and hospitalization that might have taken months in 2020 is now happening in weeks with delta," Dillon said. "We’re probably in for a hard summer and fall."

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/5452766001
 
The delta variant is 'ripping through the unvaccinated', crowding hospitals in Florida and Texas
KEN ALLTUCKER | USA TODAY | AUGUST 4, 2021


A fourth wave of COVID-19 is threatening to overwhelm U.S. hospitals in regions where large swaths of unvaccinated people provide little resistance to the highly contagious delta variant.

Nowhere is the strain more apparent than Florida, which reached a new peak Tuesday of 11,515 people hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Hospitals in Jacksonville and Orlando last week crashed through their pandemic peaks, and hospitals in Miami-Dade County are at or approaching record coronavirus hospitalizations this week, said Mary Mayhew, CEO of Florida Hospital Association.

And cases continue to surge, with 110,477 residents testing positive for the COVID-19 virus for the week that ended July 29, foreshadowing more people needing hospital care in the weeks ahead.

"The delta variant is ripping through the unvaccinated," Mayhew said.

Across Florida, COVID surge is 'straining our system'



Further stressing hospitals are larger-than-normal volumes of sick people crowding emergency rooms with non-COVID-19 illnesses, Mayhew said. The combination has challenged hospitals' capacity to staff enough nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and other clinicians to care for the surge of critically ill patients.

With more than 1,000 coronavirus patients at hospitals across its six-county region, Orlando's AdventHealth suspended non-emergency operations last week to free up staff and space. More than 90% of COVID-19 patients at AdventHealth's hospitals are unvaccinated, and the small number of vaccinated patients with COVID-19 typically have underlying conditions such as cancer or autoimmune disease, the hospital said.

"We have peaked above any previous wave and it is straining our system, our physicians and all of our clinicians," said Neil Finkler, chief clinical officer of AdventHealth's Central Florida division.

"None of these patients thought they would get the virus. But the delta variant has proven to be so highly contagious that even the young and the healthy, including pregnant patients, are starting to fill up our hospitals."

While hospitals from the Northeast to the Southwest set up temporary field hospitals during past surges, Mayhew said Florida hospitals are converting existing hospital space to set up beds. Hospitals are making space in conference rooms, cafeterias and auditoriums.

Mayhew said converting existing hospital space allows more efficient use of limited staff rather than scrambling to staff a remote field hospital in a parking lot or a convention center.

Public health officials have called for tougher measures after the CDC last week recommended all K-12 students to wear masks in classrooms. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed with an executive order blocking mask mandates in schools and school districts concluded they can't legally enforce a mask requirement.

'Every staffed bed' is full at some Texas hospitals



In Texas, hospitals are preparing for the steady rise of COVID-19 hospitalizations that are following rising cases counts. Like in Florida, Texas hospital beds are being filled with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, said Angela G. Clendenin, a professor at Texas A&M School of Public Health.

While previous COVID-19 waves mainly involved older and middle-aged adults with existing health conditions, the new wave is claiming young adults in their 20s and 30s who need breathing machines in hospital intensive care units, Clendenin said.

The result is that hospitals are again preparing for or enacting surge plans to convert medical wings into intensive care units, she said.

"By not getting vaccinated and doing your part, we risk crashing one of the most advanced health care systems in the world," Clendenin said.

Hospitals in South Texas are already struggling to keep up with the pace of sick patients.

South Texas hospitals in Corpus Christi, Victoria, Kingsville, Beeville and San Antonio have begun diverting patients. In a statement this week, Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales urged available nurses to fill a staffing gap amid a surge of COVID-19 patients.

“Every staffed bed is full,” Canales said. “There are beds available but no nursing staff for them.”

While Florida and Texas accounted for one-third of all COVID-19 cases last week, cases, hospitalizations and deaths are increasing in nearly all states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



In Missouri, which trails only Louisiana in cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, hospitals are preparing for stressful weeks ahead.

Hospitalizations during the current delta-driven wave have surpassed last winter's peak in several communities, said Dave Dillon, a spokesman for the Missouri Hospital Association.

"The growth in positivity and hospitalization that might have taken months in 2020 is now happening in weeks with delta," Dillon said. "We’re probably in for a hard summer and fall."

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/5452766001

It looks like Florida has already peaked and Texas just reached their peak.

Hospitalizations and deaths and going to continue to increase for the next several weeks before going down

 
US plans to require COVID-19 shots for foreign travelers
By ZEKE MILLER | August 5, 2021



The Biden administration is taking the first steps toward requiring nearly all foreign visitors to the U.S. to be vaccinated for the coronavirus, a White House official said Wednesday.

The requirement would come as part of the administration’s phased approach to easing travel restrictions for foreign citizens to the country. No timeline has yet been determined, as interagency working groups study how and when to safely move toward resuming normal travel. Eventually all foreign citizens entering the country, with some limited exceptions, are expected to need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter the U.S.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the policy under development.

The Biden administration has kept in place travel restrictions that have severely curtailed international trips to the U.S., citing the spread of the delta variant of the virus. Under the rules, non-U.S. residents who have been to China, the European Schengen area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India in the prior 14 days are prohibited from entering the U.S.

All travelers to the U.S., regardless of vaccination status, are required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of air travel to the country.

The Biden administration has faced pressure to lift some restrictions from affected allies, the air travel industry and families who have been kept separated from loved ones by the rules. Many have complained that the travel restrictions don’t reflect the current virus situation — particularly as caseloads in the U.S. are worse than in many of the prohibited nations.

https://apnews.com/article/lifestyl...rus-pandemic-a312ebaf72844c5b75246fb10b0f2ba7
 
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US plans to require COVID-19 shots for foreign travelers
By ZEKE MILLER

The Biden administration is taking the first steps toward requiring nearly all foreign visitors to the U.S. to be vaccinated for the coronavirus, a White House official said Wednesday.

The requirement would come as part of the administration’s phased approach to easing travel restrictions for foreign citizens to the country. No timeline has yet been determined, as interagency working groups study how and when to safely move toward resuming normal travel. Eventually all foreign citizens entering the country, with some limited exceptions, are expected to need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter the U.S.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the policy under development.

The Biden administration has kept in place travel restrictions that have severely curtailed international trips to the U.S., citing the spread of the delta variant of the virus. Under the rules, non-U.S. residents who have been to China, the European Schengen area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India in the prior 14 days are prohibited from entering the U.S.

All travelers to the U.S., regardless of vaccination status, are required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of air travel to the country.

The Biden administration has faced pressure to lift some restrictions from affected allies, the air travel industry and families who have been kept separated from loved ones by the rules. Many have complained that the travel restrictions don’t reflect the current virus situation — particularly as caseloads in the U.S. are worse than in many of the prohibited nations.

https://apnews.com/article/lifestyl...rus-pandemic-a312ebaf72844c5b75246fb10b0f2ba7
I wonder if illegal aliens have to comply
 
Speaking of Arkansas...

Mississippi has only 6 open ICU beds, Arkansas only 25 as delta variant fuels Covid surge

"The entire state of Mississippi only had six ICU beds available for severely ill patients as of Wednesday morning, according to Dr. Jonathan Wilson, chief administrative officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Arkansas, which shares a border with Mississippi, reported it only had 25 ICU beds open as of Wednesday, according to NBC affiliate KARK. The state has about 42 percent of its total population fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to the Arkansas Department of Health."

Mississippi has only 6 open ICU beds, Arkansas only 25 as delta variant fuels Covid surge (msn.com)
 
FDA targets early September to fully approve Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine
Officials have recently accelerated their work and now hope to finalize approval in a matter of weeks.



The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine by early September, amid a resurgence of cases that has heightened pressure on the administration to get more Americans vaccinated.

While the agency had long eyed the fall for granting full licensure, officials have recently accelerated their work, and now hope to finalize approval in a matter of weeks, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Regulators authorized Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine for emergency use last December, followed quickly by Moderna. But full approval is a higher bar that health officials hope will nudge hesitant Americans towards getting vaccinated.

“They are saying that they are pulling out all the stops to get it done as quickly as possible,” said one senior administration official, adding that the FDA has told administration officials it's working "24/7" on the effort.

An FDA spokesperson declined to provide a specific timetable for the expected approval, but confirmed that the sharp rise in Covid-19 infections driven by the Delta variant spurred the agency to speed its work.

“Acknowledging the urgency related to the current state of the pandemic, we have taken an all-hands-on-deck approach," the spokesperson said, a prioritization that has included diverting additional personnel and resources toward the review.

The White House has publicly downplayed the impact that the approval could have on its vaccination campaign, stressing instead the extensive evidence that the vaccines are already safe and effective. And it's taken pains not to get involved with the FDA's review, for fear of appearing to put pressure on the agency.

But in private, the monthslong process has frustrated some administration officials who believe there's little justification for such a lengthy wait, said two people with knowledge of the matter. The administration is also eager to use the full approval to undercut vaccine skeptics who have argued against getting the shot until the FDA formally endorses it.

Roughly 30 percent of unvaccinated people would be more likely to get a fully approved vaccine rather than an emergency authorized shot according to recent polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation. But pollsters couched that many respondents did not know the difference or thought the vaccines already were approved, suggesting that this latest benchmark could be a proxy for skeptics’ broader concerns.

Pfizer filed for full approval in May, followed by Moderna in June. FDA reviews typically take months.

The New York Times first reported the FDA‘s early September timetable for approving the vaccine.

Emergency authorizations can only occur during a public health emergency and expire with an emergency declaration. They also signify that FDA believes there could be a benefit to a vaccine, therapy or test, whereas approval marks the agency saying that a product is safe and effective.

Vaccination rates ticked upward in recent weeks as concerns about the more transmissible Delta variant spread, spurring hospitalization surges and revived mask mandates around the country. The country hit President Joe Biden’s goal of 70 percent adult vaccination this week, just a month shy of the original target and days after the president said federal workers must be vaccinated or undergo regular testing.

But vaccine holdouts represent tens of millions of Americans, many of them in hard-hit Southern and Midwest states where coronavirus surges have strained hospitals and public health resources. At the same time, some governors are resisting other measures such as reinstituting mask mandates, earning ire from the president.

“I say to the governors, please help. If you’re not going to help, get out of the way of people that are trying to do the right thing,” Biden said Tuesday.

https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/08/04/fda-approval-pfizer-vaccine-coronavirus-502397
 
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