Covid roundup: Rural Health Clinics to get $424.7m for testing; rural leaders talk vax outreach strategies... - Entrepreneur Generations

Here's a roundup of recent news about the pandemic and immunization efforts:

At the National Rural Business summit, public-health officials, business leaders and elected officials discussed communication and outreach strategies to encourage rural residents to get coronavirus vaccinations. Read more here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Coast Guard now say fully vaccinated commercial fishing crews don't have to wear a mask while above deck. The updated guidelines come after Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, protested that masks were a safety hazard. Read more here.

The Department for Health and Human Services's Health Resources and Services Administration is providing $424.7 million in funding to more than 4,200 Rural Health Clinics for coronavirus testing and mitigation. Later this summer, HRSA will issue up to $35.3 million in additional funding to rural clinics that meet eligibility requirements. Read more here.

Anti-vaccine activists are using a federal database of reported vaccine side effects to spread disinformation about the safety of the coronavirus vaccines. In short, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System contains unvetted reports of side effects that may be coincidental, and shouldn't be cited as definitive proof. Read more here.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said in a recent interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that the Delta variant now accounts for 10 percent of all U.S. coronavirus cases, but will likely become the most dominant strain. Read more here.

Those who catch the increasingly common Delta variant of the coronavirus are twice as likely to be hospitalized as those infected with the Alpha strain, a recent study found. Read more here.

The Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines have proven highly effective in preventing hospitalizations for those infected with the Delta variant, a recent study found. Read more here.

Novavax's coronavirus vaccine is proving highly effective in clinical trials, a company spokesperson said, meaning it likely to become the fourth vaccine available in the U.S. Read more here.

The FDA has ordered Johnson & Johnson to throw out 60 million doses of its vaccine that may be contaminated. Read more here.

Health experts worry that states with low vaccination rates could see an uptick in cases if the natural immunity of those exposed to the coronavirus begins to wane. Read more here.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/3vuakTH Covid roundup: Rural Health Clinics to get $424.7m for testing; rural leaders talk vax outreach strategies... - Entrepreneur Generations

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