Tag: authorities

Categories
Politics

To Combat Vaccine Lies, Authorities Recruit an ‘Influencer Military’

To Fight Vaccine Lies, Authorities Recruit an ‘Influencer Army’

In March, the White House also orchestrated an Instagram Live chat between Dr. Fauci and Eugenio Derbez, a Mexican actor with over 16.6 million Instagram followers who had been openly doubtful of the vaccines. During their 37-minute discussion, Mr. Derbez was upfront about his concerns.

“What if I get the vaccine, but it doesn’t protect me against the new variant?” he asked. Dr. Fauci acknowledged that the vaccines might not completely shield people from variants, but said, “It’s very, very good at protecting you from getting seriously ill.”

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

Mr. Flaherty said the whole point of the campaign was to be “a positive information effort.”

State and local governments have taken the same approach, though on a smaller scale and sometimes with financial incentives.

In February, Colorado awarded a contract worth up to $16.4 million to the Denver-based Idea Marketing, which includes a program to pay creators in the state $400 to $1,000 a month to promote the vaccines.

Jessica Bralish, the communications director at Colorado’s public health department, said influencers were being paid because “all too often, diverse communities are asked to reach out to their communities for free. And to be equitable, we know we must compensate people for their work.”

As part of the effort, influencers have showed off where on their arms they were injected, using emojis and selfies to punctuate the achievement. “I joined the Pfizer club,” Ashley Cummins, a fashion and style influencer in Boulder, Colo., recently announced in a smiling selfie while holding her vaccine card. She added a mask emoji and an applause emoji.

“Woohoo! This is so exciting!” one fan commented.

Posts by creators in the campaign carry a disclosure that reads “paid partnership with Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment.”

Categories
Health

U.S. Authorities Search Paperwork From Troubled Covid Vaccine Producer

U.S. Authorities Seek Documents From Troubled Covid Vaccine Manufacturer

That decision does not mean the F.D.A. has broadly authorized Johnson & Johnson to distribute doses made by Emergent on an emergency basis. The F.D.A. signed off on previous batches of vaccine made at the Baltimore factory but with a warning that it could not guarantee the company had followed good manufacturing practices. The agency has cleared the equivalent of up to 75 million doses, but tens of millions remain in limbo.

In a conference call with investors on Thursday, Emergent executives announced a $41.5 million hit from being forced to discard doses the F.D.A. had deemed unusable, and said the company had spent another $12.4 million to address manufacturing issues in Baltimore.

The newly disclosed inquiries from federal and state agencies underscore a dramatic reversal of fortune for a company that has spent much of the last two decades effectively cornering the market for biodefense, becoming the government’s go-to contractor for products to protect against bioterrorism and infectious disease outbreaks.

For most of the last decade, the government has spent nearly half of the annual budget of the nation’s emergency medical reserve, the Strategic National Stockpile, on Emergent’s anthrax vaccine alone, crowding out investments in products such as masks that were in short supply during the pandemic, a New York Times investigation found.

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the government turned to Emergent to produce vaccines and treatments. Thanks to a lucrative deal struck in May 2020, Emergent earned record profits and awarded executives record bonuses.

Out of public view, however, concern about the company’s ability to deliver was mounting, as The Times has reported. A series of audits by customers, federal officials and the company’s own evaluators found repeated shortcomings in efforts to disinfect and prevent contamination, and a top federal official warned that the company would have to be “monitored closely.”

After it was discovered in late March that a batch of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been cross-contaminated with material from the AstraZeneca vaccine, federal inspectors descended on the factory, and members of Congress launched an investigation into both the company’s Covid-19 manufacturing work and its contracts with the stockpile.

Categories
Politics

Search paused as authorities put together for demolition

Search paused as authorities prepare for demolition

Search and rescue teams search the rubble of the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida, on July 2, 2021.

Giorgio Viera | AFP | Getty Images

Search-and-rescue operations at the partially collapsed condominium tower in Surfside, Florida came to a temporary halt Saturday, as authorities move to raze the rest of the building in a controlled demolition before the unstable structure is threatened by winds from Tropical Storm Elsa.

During a press briefing, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said operations were paused temporarily at 4:00 p.m. ET Saturday due to preparations for the demolition, which includes drilling into unstable columns. The search can restart once the remaining part of the building is demolished.

“We’re proceeding as quickly as we possibly can,” Levine Cava said Saturday evening.

“It is all of our fervent desire that this can be done safely before the storm so that we can direct the demolition,” the mayor said earlier Saturday. “This demolition would be one that would protect and preserve evidence and allow maximum search-and-rescue activity to continue.”

The death toll from the fallen building rose to 24 as of Saturday, and 121 people are still missing. No one has been rescued since the first few hours after Champlain Towers South, a 12-story condominium built in 1981, partially collapsed on June 24.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the building can be brought down within 36 hours once the final plan is in place, while Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said the demolition could occur as early as Sunday.

“The fear was that the hurricane might take the building down for us and take it down in the wrong direction on top of the pile where we have victims,” Burkett said, referring to Elsa which was downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday.

Levine Cava signed a local state of emergency for Elsa on Saturday morning. “Out of an abundance of caution, we’re ensuring we’re mobilizing everything we need in the county to prepare for any possible impacts,” she said at the briefing.

The long-term forecast track shows Elsa heading toward Florida as a tropical storm by Tuesday morning, but some models would carry it into the Gulf or up the Atlantic Coast.

Search and rescue personnel work at the site of a collapsed Florida condominium complex in Surfside, Miami, U.S., in this handout image July 2, 2021.

MIAMI DADE FIRE DEPARTMENT | via REUTERS

The accelerated plan comes a day after Levine Cava said the demolition might not occur for weeks as engineers studied and signed off on next steps. Officials have restricted access to parts of the building zone that threaten public health and safety.

However, Levine Cava said a demolition expert came forward Friday evening with the experience to move more quickly than originally anticipated. Engineers and state, local and federal authorities reviewed the plan and agreed it was the best path forward, Levine Cava said.

“This proposed demolition is a very narrow footprint so we’re not looking at major impacts to the area or additional evacuations,” Levine Cava said. “We are still in the due diligence process.”

The decision to demolish the portion of the building that’s still standing comes after search-and-rescue operations were halted most of Thursday out of concern that the remaining structure could fall, endangering first responders searching the site.

The cause of the building collapse is still unknown. An engineering firm reviewed the condo tower in 2018, nearly three years before the collapse, and issued a report which found failed waterproofing below the building’s pool was causing “major structural damage.”

“Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,” the report said.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has launched a full investigation into the collapse and will make recommendations about how to improve building safety.

Levine Cava ordered a 30-day audit of buildings 40 years or older in Miami-Dade County which are five stories or taller and have not completed the re-certification process. The county is reviewing 14 such buildings and 10 that recently began recertification.

A condo building in North Miami Beach was closed and more than 300 residents evacuated Friday after an audit and building inspection report found unsafe structural and electrical conditions.

Categories
Health

3M helps authorities cease scammers from promoting pretend N95 masks

3M is helping authorities stop scammers from selling fake N95 masks

Industrial giant 3M has been working with law enforcement agencies around the clock to stop the sale of millions of counterfeit versions of its N95 mask.

“We have taken very strong steps to address counterfeiting or pricing issues. We have done so over the last year in this limited supply and very high demand for critical products like the N95,” said Mike Vale, 3M Security Officer heads and Industry Business Group, said CNBC.

N95 were the gold standard during the coronavirus pandemic for their ability to filter out at least 95% of airborne particles. The masks, which are seen as critical for protecting frontline workers from Covid-19, were in short supply. 3M is the largest N95 manufacturer.

Federal agencies announced Wednesday that fraudsters had distributed millions of counterfeit N95s to healthcare workers in at least five states. To date, 3M has reported 11,000 cases of counterfeit masks, leading to 29 civil lawsuits. In total, the company said it had confiscated 10 million counterfeit N95s. In mid-January, 3M helped its home state of Minnesota avoid purchasing nearly 500,000 counterfeit N95s from a Florida company. 3M sued and won an injunction.

The news of the federal investigation into the counterfeit N95 comes after several hospitals in Washington state found their shipment of the masks contained counterfeit masks.

“It’s a breathtaking feeling … just to think that there are people … making the counterfeit personal protective equipment we need so badly right now during this pandemic,” Cassie Sauer, president of the Washington State Hospital Association, told NBC News earlier this week.

3M helped officials in Washington confirm that the counterfeit masks were purchased from an unauthorized dealer unrelated to the company. 3M advises that hospitals and medical clinics must verify that they are purchasing respiratory protective equipment from a verified, authorized dealer. One way to do this is to check the company’s website or call the anti-fraud hotline.

Despite concerted efforts to eliminate and hold fraudsters accountable, false masks continue to emerge in the US and worldwide. “Counterfeit N95s pose a serious health risk and I think 3M has been reasonably aggressive to get them off the streets. However, it’s a get rid of each other game,” said Scott Davis, CEO of Melius Research, who followed the development of 3M for several years.

In terms of manufacturing, 3M manufactures more than 95 million respirators monthly at its US facilities in South Dakota and Nebraska. By scaling production and hiring hundreds of additional employees, including 300 at its South Dakota facility, the company quadrupled production last year.

However, a number of doctors who spoke to CNBC said they are still rationing masks.

“Obtaining enough N95 to keep health workers safe and secure, especially for the smaller hospitals and health facilities, is an unresolved challenge. When we have to negotiate counterfeit products, it is even more difficult and impossible to get adequate protection for our front line to ensure.” said Dr. Natasha Anushri Anandaraja, who founded Covid Courage, a New York nonprofit that helps healthcare workers gain access to PPE, including N95 and reusable masks.

Because of the limited supply, Anandaraja says more and more healthcare professionals are choosing reusable options. “By providing each health worker with a unique reusable mask, the constant battle to find legitimate disposable masks is eliminated, and the need for health workers to reuse masks that were intended for single use, and in hundreds of health systems rescued.” of thousands of dollars a year. “