The latest Florida and other Republican-led states are trying to use federal covid aid to finance tax cuts. The $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package was meant to help states fight the pandemic, shore up local economies and prepare for a potential recession. Congress explicitly told states not to use the funds to subsidize tax cuts or make up for reductions in tax revenue, because once the federal funds dried up there would be budget shortfalls with no easy fix. States have challenged that rule in court – and most of them have won. A luxury nursing home in West Palm Beach, Fla., that diverted the first available coronavirus vaccines away from vulnerable people to wealthy donors in December 2020 agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle legal claims against it. "Do not be weak be strong you have the opportunity to take advantage of everyone who needs the shot and figure out what they have and what we can go after," the nursing home's CEO wrote in a text to the fundraising team, according to the Justice Department. The company, MorseLife Health System, denied the allegations levelled by the Justice Department, but agreed to settle "to avoid the expense and distraction of protracted litigation." Since June 18, about 267,180 children younger than 5 have received their first coronavirus shot, according to newly published data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is a tiny fraction of the nearly 19 million kids in that age group who are newly eligible to receive the vaccine. Other important news New York Mets pitcher Chris Bassitt said he regrets telling the team he tested positive for coronavirus – and probably would not tell them again in the future. A coffee shop? A living room? As companies try to get workers back to the office, some are rethinking what the office should look like. |
Your questions, answered "Why is there no program for regular ongoing boosters every four months? Why are there not boosters for everyone on an ongoing basis, when numbers are ticking up everywhere in the U.S.?" - Sabine, Calif. This is a question that has divided U.S. officials and experts, with some calling for a ramped-up booster campaign, and others cautioning that we need more evidence before expanding more booster shots to all Americans. Currently, federal regulators recommend that most Americans get at least one booster shot, although the timing varies based on which vaccine you originally received. And regulators also say that adults over age 50 and some immunocompromised people should get a second booster, too. So why not more regular boosters, for everyone? Especially because there's evidence that booster shots continue to provide protection against severe disease, and the United States has extra vaccine doses that are going to waste? First, officials are still having trouble convincing Americans to get their first booster shot, which can offer long-lasting benefits. Only about one-third of people have received their first booster dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Second, some experts say they want more data or to wait for new boosters that are better targeted to fight variants, before recommending more shots. They cite concerns like so-called "original antigenic sin" — that receiving the same booster formula, again and again, will train your immune system to fight a certain form of the coronavirus, and leave you more vulnerable when the virus inevitably mutates. Third, there are questions about the optimal timing of boosters, and whether it's better to wait a few months for more Americans to get the shots, to blunt the expected rise in cases this fall and winter. There's evidence that a booster shot provides only a short-term benefit in warding off infection, as our Washington Post colleagues wrote about here. Officials overseas have raised their own concerns about too many boosters. "We cannot really, continuously give a booster dose every three, four months," Marco Cavaleri, a senior vaccine official at the European Medicines Agency, told reporters in January. A spokesperson told The Post this week that European officials continue to worry about the "anticipated social fatigue" from asking people to get repeated boosters, as well as lowering the immune response by administering too many of the same shots. Some U.S. officials have signaled that more people should have access to another booster. Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top-infectious disease expert, said he's "leaning toward flexibility" for adults younger than 50 who got their last booster many months ago, and whose immunity is waning. "Safety doesn't appear to be an issue," Fauci told The Post, listing other considerations too, like expiring supply. "We got a lot of doses, if we don't get them into people soon, they're going to be wasted." |
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