On the doorstep of the 19th-month fight against the coronavirus, many U.S. states and entities keep on implementing the federal government's universal vaccination call, though with such exceptions as Florida, while the number of vaccinated Americans keeps rising over fear of the virus' lethality.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated that 213,752,856 people had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, making up 64.4 percent of the whole U.S. population, while fully vaccinated people stood at 185,265,610, accounting for 55.8 percent of the total.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation poll released on Tuesday, the recent surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, reports of overburdened hospitals and having a personal connection to someone who became very ill or who died of the virus were the biggest motivators for recent vaccinations.
Among adults who have received their COVID-19 vaccinations since June 1, 39 percent cited the highly transmissible Delta variant as a major reason, 38 percent cited hospitals filling up and 36 percent cited knowing someone who was seriously ill or who died, showed the poll.
Meanwhile, per the poll results, 35 percent said they wanted to participate in activities that required vaccinations, such as travel or attending events, while 19 percent said employer mandates were major factors in their decision to get the shot.
According to The New York Times (NYT), the seven-day average of confirmed cases of the pandemic stood at 114,395 nationwide on Tuesday, with its 14-day change striking a 26-percent fall. The COVID-19-related deaths were 2,026 on Tuesday, with the 14-day change realizing a 7-percent rise.
CORPORATE POLICY VARIES
Last week, retired NBA superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sent a message to professional basketball players who are refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine: Get the shot or get off the squad. His comments came a few weeks before the 2021-2022 NBA season is set to begin, without a vaccine mandate for players.
"The NBA should insist that all players and staff are vaccinated or remove them from the team," the NBA Hall of Famer said in an article published in Rolling Stone. "There is no room for players who are willing to risk the health and lives of their teammates, the staff and the fans simply because they are unable to grasp the seriousness of the situation or do the necessary research."
The league itself requires unvaccinated players to submit to regular testing, once on practice or travel days and at least once on game days. Fully vaccinated athletes won't need to get tested regularly.
Far more stringent than NBA, United Airlines is terminating about 600 employees for their refusing to comply with its vaccination requirement, the company said in a memo sent to staff on Tuesday, stressing that "this was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority."
On Wednesday, the company said that it had already begun its termination process for its U.S.-based employees. Workers losing their jobs because of noncompliance with the mandate make up less than one percent of the airline's U.S. work force of 67,000.
"We will work with folks if during that process they decide to get vaccinated," a spokeswoman at United Airlines was quoted by NYT as saying, while not giving a timeline for the termination process.
STATES DIFFER IN ACTIONS
New York State's pioneering effort to force health care workers to receive coronavirus vaccines appears to have pressured thousands of holdouts to receive last-minute shots, though hospitals and nursing homes continue to brace for potential staffing shortages should the mandate fall short, reported NYT on Tuesday.
As the vaccination mandate went into full effect on Monday, 92 percent of the state's more than 650,000 hospital and nursing home workers had received at least one vaccine dose, a significant increase from a week ago, when 82 percent of the state's nursing home workers and at least 84 percent of hospital workers had received at least one dose, state officials were quoted as saying.
"The jump in vaccinations in the days before the deadline gave New York one of the highest rates of vaccination among health care workers nationally. It was also a positive sign that (U.S.) President (Joe) Biden's planned federal vaccination mandate for most health care workers might buoy rates nationwide," added the report.
However, flagrantly against the federal vaccine call, the Florida administration headed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing forward with plans to penalize local governments that have COVID-19 vaccine mandates in place, as the mayor of Orange County, which includes Orlando, said on Monday that he had received a letter from the state threatening the county with fines for its vaccine requirement.
A letter from the Florida Department of Health claimed that the county's vaccine mandate is a "discriminatory policy" that "infringes upon the fundamental rights and privacies of Floridians," according to Mayor Jerry Demings. The county has a mandate in place that requires all employees to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30 or face a written reprimand, with which Demings said an "overwhelming majority" of employees have complied.
The Department of Health alleged the vaccine mandate goes against a Florida state statute that prohibits governmental entities from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination, or else face a fine of 5,000 U.S. dollars per infraction, which could add up to millions of dollars if local governments are fined for each employee, according to reports published by Forbes.
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