Here are some of the latest headlines related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the week ending on 9/10/2021.
More and More Big Business Requiring Proof of Vaccination
A growing number of major companies are now requiring that their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19. Per a CNN report, some major companies now mandating vaccinations include:
Walmart
Walmart said all its US-based corporate employees must be vaccinated by Oct. 4, according to a Friday memo from company president and CEO Doug McMillon. This mandate does not apply to Walmart’s store employees, however, the company will soon implement a new process to verify their vaccine status, and is offering employees the chance to get vaccinated while on the clock.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to staff recently announcing a vaccine requirement for employees who are coming back to the office.
Facebook announced this week that all employees must get vaccinated before coming back to the office. “As our offices reopen, we will be requiring anyone coming to work at any of our US campuses to be vaccinated,” Lori Goler, Facebook’s VP of people, said in a statement. “We will have a process for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons and will be evaluating our approach in other regions as the situation evolves.”
Disney
Disney announced that its requiring all its salaried and non-union hourly employees in the US to be vaccinated. Workers who are working on-site but are not yet vaccinated must get their shots within the next 60 days, according to a statement from the company.
Definition of “Fully Vaccinated” May Change as Boosters Roll Out
Currently, people are considered “fully vaccinated” if they have two doses of the Moderna vaccine, two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. However, that may change based recommendations for additional doses, according to the US CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. “Currently, fully vaccinated is two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or a single dose of J&J. I anticipate over time that may be updated, but we will leave that to our advisers…to give us some recommendations,” she said in a White House Covid-19 Response Team briefing.
COVID-19 Infection Linked to Increased Risk for Myocarditis
The risk for myocarditis is increased in association with COVID-19, with risk varying by age group, according to research published in the early-release issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Tegan K. Boehmer, PhD, from the CDC COVID-19 Response Team, and colleagues examined the correlation between COVID-19 and myocarditis using a large, U.S. hospital-based administrative database of health care encounters for more than 900 hospitals. The researchers found that compared with 2019, myocarditis inpatient encounters were 42.3 percent higher in 2020.
U.S. COVID-19 Cases Now Top 40 Million
There have now been more than 40 million cases of COVID-19 recorded among Americans, according to a database maintained by The New York Times. That’s nearly one-fifth of the global total of cases.
