Tag: body integrity

The White House is set to launch a $1.5 billion ad campaign to win over vaccine skeptics, report says

The White House will soon launch a major $1.5 billion public relations campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccination and ease the concerns of Americans who are skeptical or hesitant to get their shots, STAT News reports. 

The effort, which will kick of “within weeks,” will use TV, radio, and digital means to target young Americans, people of color, and Republicans who may be more likely to be hesitant or ambivalent about getting vaccinated, the outlet said. 

The campaign will also educate Americans on where and how they can get vaccinated, and is expected to deploy celebrities and “trusted local officials” who some Americans may trust more than messengers from the Biden administration. 

The White House declined to specify any further when the effort will be launched in response to an inquiry from Insider. 

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CNN “Expert” – Government should give you freedom only if you get the COVID vaccine

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a significant update to travel guidance for people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 which eliminates some testing and quarantine recommendations.

Fully vaccinated people can travel at low risk to themselves, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Friday, but travel still isn’t recommended at this time because of rising numbers of coronavirus cases.

The agency said that as long as coronavirus precautions are taken, including mask wearing, fully vaccinated people can travel within the United States without getting tested for Covid-19 before or self-quarantining after.

For international travel, fully vaccinated people don’t need a Covid-19 test prior to travel — unless it is required by the destination — and do not need to self-quarantine after returning to the United States. They should still have a negative Covid-19 test before boarding a flight to the US, and a follow up test three to five days after their return, the CDC noted.

However, the agency isn’t rushing to ‘let’ us have too much freedom. It seems travel is still not recommended even for those vaccinated:

…Walensky maintained that “CDC is not recommending travel at this time due to the rising number of cases” in the U.S.

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12,000 NYC Students Banned From School For Not Consenting To Random Covid Testing

Today in “how far can your rights be infringed upon before people start to push back” news…

About 12,000 New York City students are being prevented from attending in-person learning because their parents “failed to sign consent forms for weekly random testing”, Bloomberg reported last week. The students are part of a larger group of 190,000 pre-school through elementary students who returned to classrooms in December. 

While about 60,000 pre-school and kindergarten students are exempt from testing, there are still about 130,000 students who are required to participate in random testing. 

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Lawmakers to Debate Elimination of Religious Exemption to Vaccines

Before COVID hit in March, the hottest topic at the state capitol was whether to eliminate the religious exemption to childhood vaccines. With the COVID vaccine on everyone’s mind, does that complicate the debate? 

“It’s probably not complicated by the facts but probably more complicated by the emotion of it,” incoming House Speaker Matt Ritter said.  

Ritter has promised a vote on the issue next year.

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Employers can bar unvaccinated employees from the workplace, EEOC says

With the first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine now being administered in the U.S., the federal government is giving employers around the country the green light to require immunization for most workers.

In general, companies have the legal right to mandate that employees get a COVID-19 shot, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said Wednesday. More specifically, employers are entitled — and required — to ensure a safe workplace in which “an individual shall not pose a direct threat to the health or safety of individuals in the workplace.” That can mean a company requiring its workforce to be vaccinated.

The Americans with Disabilities Act limits an employer’s ability to require workers to get a medical examination. But the EEOC’s latest guidance clarifies that getting vaccinated does not constitute a medical exam. As a result, ordering employees to get a COVID-19 shot would not violate the ADA.

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