Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency Saturday afternoon, soon after news broke that the first COVID-19 death in the U.S. was reported in King County and that other new confirmed cases were reported.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser warned in an interview with the Financial Times that a broad refusal of vaccines against COVID-19 may undermine efforts to immunize children and contain future illness outbreaks.
Some candidates who lose a long-shot bid in the primary decide to heed the voice of the voters, go home and find other things to occupy their time. A few decide to double down with an even longer shot by running a write-in campaign for another office.
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first redesign of coronavirus vaccines since they were rolled out in late 2020, setting up millions of Americans to receive new booster doses targeting omicron subvariants as soon as next week.The agency cleared two options aimed at the BA.5 variant of omicron that is now dominant: one made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for use in people as young as 12, and the other by Moderna, for those 18 and older.Biden administration officials have argued that even as researchers work to understand how protective the new shots might be, inoculating Americans again in the coming weeks could help curb the persistently high number of infections and deaths.“The idea here is not just to increase the antibodies right now, but also to hopefully give us a longer duration of protection” that will hold up through the winter, Dr. Peter Marks, the top vaccine regulator at the FDA, said at a news briefing Wednesday.An average of about 90,000 infections and 475 deaths are recorded every day around the United States, almost three years into a pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans and driven a historic drop in life expectancy.Only people who have received at least two shots will be eligible for the updated booster, and only those who have had two months or more after finishing their initial two-shot series or getting one of the previous boosters. The updated shot will replace the existing one and could be available in a few days.Ample evidence suggests that many Americans will hold back from getting the updated boosters, either because they are weary of the pandemic or may not feel urgency about an additional dose. With each new shot offered, there are fewer takers.The companies produced the retooled shots with extraordinary speed, a testament to the mRNA technology that Pfizer and Moderna have harnessed since the early months of the coronavirus outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration advised companies only two months ago on the formulation that they should adopt for the new vaccines. By later this week, millions of those doses will be delivered to states.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Representatives for Amelia Clark and the state Board of Health signed an agreement Aug. 16 that prevents Clark from ever serving in the position again. Clark faced multiple complaints alleging she violated state law by dismissing Bob Lutz in October 2020, with an independent investigator later finding evidence she had acted without the approval of the local health board as required by statute.
Even as traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels in many places, some cities are keeping the changes in place, stoking the long-running feud among motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians over control of public rights of way.
White House Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci expected the U.S. would have moved past the Covid-19 pandemic after the first year of the Biden administration, but the disruption from the virus has lingered longer than the infectious disease expert anticipated.
Community members and hospital staff gathered outside MultiCare Valley Hospital Monday night to remember the more than 1,400 people who have died from COVID-19 in Spokane County since the start of the pandemic.
Roshon E. Thomas, 42, pleaded guilty to providing false financial statements to the Small Business Administration about two businesses, a tattoo parlor and T-shirt printer, in order to receive loans intended to assist during the pandemic.
