Contrary to myths circulating on social media, COVID-19 vaccines do not cause erectile dysfunction and male infertility.
What is true: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, poses a risk for both disorders.
Until now, little research has been done on how the virus or the vaccines affect the male reproductive system. But recent investigations by physicians and researchers here at the University of Miami have shed new light on these questions. Continue reading.
Saint Paul, Minnesota — Members of the Frontline Worker Pay Working Group are scheduled to meet for the first time today at 12pm. An agenda and pre-submitted public testimony are available here. Live video will be available here.
The working group was established during the June 2021 special session to make recommendations to the Legislature on how to disburse $250,000,000 in direct financial support to frontline workers. In developing its recommendation, the working group must consider factors including a frontline worker’s increased financial burden and increased risk of virus exposure due to the nature of their work.
The working group must submit proposed legislative language implementing its recommendations to the Governor, Speaker of the House, and Senate Majority Leader by September 6, 2021. The Legislature would need to meet in a special session to pass and send a bill to Gov. Walz.
What: Frontline Worker Pay Working Group holds its first public hearing
When: Wednesday, July 28 at 12pm
Where: Minnesota Capitol, Room G-3
Who: Members of the Frontline Worker Pay Working Group
There are almost as many reasons for vaccine hesitancy and refusal as there are unvaccinated Americans. But this problem, not the variant, lies at the root of rising infection rates.
After an all too brief respite, the United States is again at a crossroads in the pandemic. The number of infections has ticked up — slowly at first, then swiftly — to 51,000 cases per day, on average, more than four times the rate a month ago. The country may again see overflowing hospitals, exhausted health care workers and thousands of needless deaths.
The more contagious Delta variant may be getting the blame, but fueling its rise is an older, more familiar foe: vaccine hesitancy and refusal, long pervasive in the United States. Were a wider swath of the population vaccinated, there would be no resurgence — of the Delta variant, or Alpha variant, or any other version of the coronavirus.
While mild breakthrough infections may be more common than once thought, the vaccines effectively prevent severe illness and death. Yet nearly half of the population remains unvaccinated and unprotected. About 30 percent of adults have not received even a single dose, and the percentage is much higher in some parts of the country. Continue reading.
Researchers and regulators say Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines.
SAN FRANCISCO — The article that appeared online on Feb. 9 began with a seemingly innocuous question about the legal definition of vaccines. Then over its next 3,400 words, it declared coronavirus vaccines were “a medical fraud” and said the injections did not prevent infections, provide immunity or stop transmission of the disease.
Instead, the article claimed, the shots “alter your genetic coding, turning you into a viral protein factory that has no off-switch.”
Its assertions were easily disprovable. No matter. Over the next few hours, the article was translated from English into Spanish and Polish. It appeared on dozens of blogs and was picked up by anti-vaccination activists, who repeated the false claims online. The article also made its way to Facebook, where it reached 400,000 people, according to data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool. Continue reading.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated guidance on Tuesday recommending that vaccinated people wear masks in indoor, public settings if they are in parts of the U.S. with substantial to high transmission, among other circumstances.
Why it matters: The guidance, a reversal from recommendations made two months ago, comes as the Delta variant continues to drive up case rates across the country. Millions of people in the U.S. — either by choice or who are ineligible — remain unvaccinated and at risk of serious infection.
Details: Community leaders in areas with high transmission rates should encourage vaccination and masking, the agency says. Continue reading.
A new wave of cases followed by the looming expiration of enhanced jobless benefits, a ban on evictions and other rescue programs is sparking concern among lawmakers and economists.
The resurgence of the coronavirus is threatening to undercut the U.S. economic recovery and upend Americans’ plans to return to work just as the sweeping social safety net that Congress built during the pandemic is unraveling.
That one-two punch — a new wave of cases followed by the looming expiration of enhanced jobless benefits, a ban on evictions and other rescue programs — is sparking concern among lawmakers and economists who say that while widespread business shutdowns are unlikely, renewed fears of the virus alone can slow the economy just as it’s getting back on track.
That could dampen hiring and keep some workers on the sidelines of the job market — stalling or even reversing the labor recovery, the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. New unemployment claims jumped last week to 419,000, well above expectations and the highest since mid-May, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. Continue reading.
NOTE: This article is provided to all free of charge by The Washington Post.
The recommendation would reverse guidance by the agency in May saying that vaccinated individuals did not have to wear masks indoors or out because of protection afforded by vaccines.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to recommend on Tuesday that vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors in certain circumstances, citing the highly transmissible delta variant.
The recommendation, to be unveiled at a 3 p.m. news briefing, would alter the agency’s May 13 guidance saying that vaccinated individuals did not have to wear masks indoors or out because of the protection afforded by vaccines. At the time, cases were dropping sharply and the delta variant, which is 1,000 times more transmissible than earlier versions of the virus, had not gained significant traction in the United States.
President Biden and CDC director Rochelle Walensky have repeatedly said there is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” because unvaccinated people make up the vast majority of patients hospitalized with the disease. But the delta variant has been a game-changer for the United States, sending cases surging throughout the country, and there is concern that although vaccinated people are unlikely to become severely ill, they may still be able to become infected and spread the virus. Continue reading.
The Texas Republican’s prediction was “utterly, completely, in every possible conceivable way wrong,” said MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Thursday reminded Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) of his exactly year-old “astoundingly, beautifully wrong” prediction that Democrats would forget about the COVID-19 pandemic if Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
“If it ends up that Biden wins in November — I hope he doesn’t, I don’t think he will — but if he does, I guarantee you the week after the election, suddenly all those Democratic governors, all those Democratic mayors will say everything’s magically better,” Cruz predicted.
“You won’t even have to wait for Biden to be sworn in,” the Donald Trump apologist continued. “All they’ll need is Election Day and suddenly their willingness to just destroy people’s lives and livelihoods, they will have accomplished their task. That’s wrong, it’s cynical and we shouldn’t be a part of it.” Continue reading.
U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) is demanding the media hold the Democrats’ “feet to the fire” and find out “how many” Democrats in the House and Senate “are willing to say whether or not they’ve been vaccinated?”
When told by a reporter every Democrat in the House and Senate is fully vaccinated, Jackson wanted “evidence.”
The press, especially CNN, has kept a running tally for months of every member of the House and Senate and their vaccination status. Continue reading.
Analysis: Top Trump supporters keep casting doubt on Covid-19 vaccines. Ahead of next year’s midterms, that means missing a chance to give Trump credit.
WASHINGTON — As the delta variant of the coronavirus courses through the American bloodstream, the Republican Party can’t make up its mind about vaccines.
Former President Donald Trump has said that people should get inoculated but also that he wants to respect their right to choose not to. For the most part, he’s been as reluctant to urge vaccinations as his political base has been resistant — perhaps leery of crossing his own voters, even though deaths are higher in traditionally conservative regions.
While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged Americans to get dosed this week and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., released a photo of his injection, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation that played down the risk of the virus, which has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S. Continue reading.
