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I wonder if the Desantis executive order prohibiting vaccine passports will be applicale to universities in Florida? As far as I know the executive order applies to busnisses and government institutions. However IMO colleges seem to be a gray area....
Many colleges will require the Covid vaccine—here are some of the challenges ahead
CNBC Make It spoke with experts about why schools can require vaccines — as well as the challenges they might face.
Legal precedence
There is significant legal precedence for schools mandating immunizations.
"Schools are allowed to require vaccinations to protect both the students and teachers," says Dr. Howard Forman, director of Yale University's MD/MBA program.
"Colleges and universities do routinely require vaccines, such as rubella, meningitis and chickenpox. I don't see why the Covid-19 vaccine wouldn't be put within that same category," says Kevin Welner, professor at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. "And 'require' is probably not the right word because obviously the student doesn't have to attend the school and there are also waivers or exemptions that students can get."
And attorney Renee Mattei Myers confirms for CNBC Make It that colleges and universities are legally able to require students to get the coronavirus vaccine.
"Under everything that we've seen, and the guidance from agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Education, it's been stated that just like how [colleges] can require other vaccines like meningitis and measles and hepatitis for incoming students, that they could require this vaccine as well," she explains. "The EEOC's guidance that came out in December made it clear and paved the way to say that employers can mandate vaccines and that this isn't considered a medical examination, which is prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act."
FLORIDA — After a video of a coronavirus roundtable discussion hosted by Gov. Ron DeSantis was removed from YouTube, Florida’s governor hosted a second roundtable on public health featuring some of the original panelists Monday morning.
Both events included panelists Dr. Scott Atlas, a member of former President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, as well as Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Martin Kulldorff. They discussed various coronavirus topics, including wearing face masks and lockdowns.
During Monday’s panel, DeSantis slammed Google and YouTube, who “cited the insights of these experts…as being misinformation,” for removing videos of the March roundtable in Tallahassee.
The platform routinely hosts conspiracy videos on various topics, he added. “You can pretty much find any misinformation under the sun on Google YouTube. Now, Google YouTube has not been, throughout this pandemic, repositories of truth and scientific inquiry, but instead have acted as enforcers of a narrative, a big tech council of sensors in service of the ruling elite.”
The video from the March roundtable violated the social media platform’s standards, a spokesperson told NBC News.
The biggest area of contention is a discussion about whether children should wear masks, reports said.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are recommending the U.S. pause on using the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after reports of blood clots in individuals who received the vaccine.
The health agencies released a statement Tuesday morning recommending the pause “out of an abundance of caution,” saying blood clots still seem to be “extremely rare.” So far, the CDC and FDA are reviewing six reported cases in the U.S.
All six recipients were women between the ages of 18 and 48, with symptoms occurring 6 to 13 days after vaccination, according to the statement. One woman died and one has been hospitalized in critical condition.
Johnson & Johnson released a statement Tuesday saying it also was reviewing the cases with European health authorities and has decided to delay the rollout of its vaccine in Europe.
Canada’s famous Whistler ski resort town has suffered the worst outbreak of the highly infectious P1 COVID-19 variant outside of Brazil.
Part of the problem is that it can be hard to isolate and limit close contact: many young people live in shared housing, while jobs, largely in the service sector, force mostly young people in contact with others.
The P1 variant is about 2 1/2 times more infectious than the original strain and has the ability to reinfect those who’ve already recovered from the illness.
The main worry, experts say, is that P1 could worsen vaccine effectiveness: at least two people who contracted the P1 strain in Whistler had previously been vaccinated, the Guardian reported.
Early research even suggests that out of every 100 COVID-19 survivors, 25 to 61 could contract the virus again if exposed to P1.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said the state would follow federal health agencies recommendations and suspend the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in Florida due to the potential for blood clots.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released a statement recommending the pause “out of an abundance of caution,” saying blood clots still seem to be “extremely rare.” So far, the CDC and FDA are reviewing six reported cases in the U.S.
During Tuesday's press conference, DeSantis said the temporary halt shouldn’t put a serious dent in vaccination efforts because the state was only slated to get 37,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines this week.
It was to get nearly 550,000 doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, not including the tens of thousands sent directly to retailers and health care clinics by the federal government.
“We still have very robust availability of the vaccine,” he said.
DeSantis added that he got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and isn’t worried about life-threatening side effects. Others shouldn’t either, he said.
“I don’t think people should be freaking out,” he said.
Federal health officials warned doctors and patients Tuesday to watch for symptoms that could indicate an extremely rare but serious form of blood clot in the brain suffered by six women who received Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine. So what should you look for if you are one of the 6.8 million people who have received Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine, or are scheduled to receive it soon?
The symptoms include headaches, leg pain, abdominal pain and shortness of breath that begins six to 13 days after receipt of the vaccine, officials said. Those symptoms are different from the much more common flu-like aches and lethargy that can occur a day after receiving the shot, which are generally harmless side-effects of inoculation against the coronavirus.
Vaccine recipients with those symptoms that start a week or so after immunization should seek medical attention to determine whether they have a low count of blood-clotting platelets in their blood. All six of the women known to have suffered cerebral venous sinus thrombosis had low platelet counts, leading experts to speculate that the vaccine somehow, in rare cases, activates platelets and leads to blood clots in the channels that help route blood away from the brain. The clots can cause strokes or similar damage to the brain.
“If someone ends up with a very severe headache or any kind of shortness of breath, pain in their legs, pain in their abdomen … they would want to seek medical attention, and if there are low platelets at that time” further discussion with a health-care provider is necessary, said Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the Food and Drug Administration, who spoke at a media briefing Tuesday morning.
In guidance sent to health care providers later Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also included backache, new neurological symptoms, leg swelling and new or easy bruising among possible symptoms. They also warned physicians not to treat the condition with heparin, a common anticoagulant, which in this case could do more harm.
Though the known cases are all among women of childbearing age, “at this time it’s not clear that there is any association with the oral contraceptive pill,” Marks said. Of course, it’s difficult to make any generalizations based on six cases.
The blood clots also appear to be similar to problems caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe.
European regulators said it was “plausible” that the clots were linked to that vaccination. Johnson & Johnson disclosed Tuesday that the cases were being reviewed with European regulators and said the company was delaying its rollout there.
Silversea Cruises became the second major cruise line to announce it will require COVID-19 vaccinations for all passengers when it resumes global itineraries on June 5.
The decision could set up a confrontation with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when the luxury cruise line is scheduled to sail from Port Everglades in December.
DeSantis’ press office on Monday asserted that his recent executive order barring businesses from requiring proof of vaccinated customers extends to cruise lines operating in Florida.
“The Governor’s Executive Order provides that businesses in Florida are prohibited from requiring patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business,” press secretary Cody McCloud said by email. “Therefore, the Executive Order prohibits cruise lines from requiring vaccine passports for their Florida operations.”
Whether DeSantis actually has authority to bar cruise lines from requiring vaccinations could become the focus of a legal battle involving the cruise lines and the CDC.
The Coast Guard and the CDC have asserted control over pandemic-related cruise line activity at the port, but most decisions have been made by a “unified command” that includes the state, federal and county governments, working with the cruise lines, said Ellen Kennedy, spokeswoman for Port Everglades.
Asked about DeSantis’ assertion, Port Director Jonathan Daniels said by email: “We are working with the cruise lines and through all local, state and federal regulations and guidelines to effect a safe restart to cruising.”
However, attorneys familiar with issues of government regulations and maritime law question whether DeSantis’ authority extends to cruise lines, which are foreign-registered corporations operating foreign-flagged ships in mostly international waters.
Dawn Myers, a partner with the government and regulatory team at Miami-based Berger Singerman, last week said DeSantis likely has no authority under interstate law, international law or maritime law to bar cruise lines from requiring vaccinations unless cruise ships were merely traveling from one Florida port to another.
Jim Walker, a South Florida attorney who specializes in maritime law, accused DeSantis of wanting to “have his cake and eat it too” by calling for the CDC to allow cruise lines to resume operations while prohibiting cruise lines from requiring vaccinations. “Both of these issues are well outside the jurisdiction of a state governor,” he said recently.
A small team of 10 researchers began designing vaccine candidates shortly after the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was made public last January. For the past decade, the team had worked on vaccines for the Zika virus and Ebola, as well as another coronavirus, MERS. They knew others working on a COVID vaccine would beat them to market, but they had their sights set on a bigger prize.
This week, that team injected its vaccine candidate into the first human. If it works, it could throw the sales estimates for Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), and others up in the air. It seems while the well-known biotech and blue chip drugmaker were winning the battle against the novel coronavirus, this unsung group was trying to end the war.
Put simply, the group believes it is on the path to a vaccine that could protect against all SARS coronaviruses. So far, tests in thousands of mice and dozens of monkeys have shown the drug to be effective against variants of the current virus, as well as other coronaviruses like SARS-1. Even better, the Army's development process prioritized practicality, so the vaccine doesn't need any special handling. It's stable enough to be tossed in a cooler on the back of a motorbike and driven to whatever remote location needs it.
As more cinemas reopen across the U.S., a locally owned and operated movie theater has announced its return later this month. That soon will be followed by one of the country’s largest cinema chains reopening its Sarasota-Manatee multiplexes, marking the first time that all of the area’s movie theaters will be open simultaneously since the start of the pandemic.
Arthouse Burns Court Cinemas, located in the downtown Sarasota neighborhood of the same name, is set to reopen April 30. Regal Hollywood Stadium 11, also in downtown Sarasota, will then reopen May 7, followed by Regal Oakmont 8 in Bradenton on May 14, according to the theater chain.
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