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CDC recommends vacationers with excessive danger of Covid problems keep away from cruises

CDC recommends travelers with high risk of Covid complications avoid cruises

The Royal Caribbean cruise ship will be seen on the Hudson River in New York City, United States, on August 18, 2021 as the region’s first cruise ship docks back in New York Harbor.

Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that travelers at high risk of serious complications from Covid-19 should avoid cruises regardless of their vaccination status.

The updated guidelines also recommended that travelers who are not fully vaccinated should not cruise.

The new council follows several coronavirus outbreaks reported on board cruise lines, according to the CDC.

While the agency doesn’t introduce the same masking requirements that apply to planes, trains, and other public transportation, it suggested that face-covering be worn for cruise passengers in common areas.

“The virus that causes Covid-19 spreads easily between people in close proximity on board ships, and the likelihood of getting Covid-19 on cruise lines is high,” the CDC said in its updated guidance.

The agency advised all travelers, regardless of their vaccination status, to get tested one to three days before a cruise and three to five days after their return. Anyone taking a cruise should be in quarantine for seven days after returning, even if they tested negative for the virus.

The new policy comes just a week after the Belize Tourism Board announced that 27 people on board a Carnival cruise tested positive for Covid.

During Friday’s extended trading, Carnival Cruises shares fell more than 2%, Norwegian Cruise Line shares fell nearly 3%, and Royal Caribbean Cruises shares fell more than 2%.

After the industry closed at the beginning of the pandemic due to multiple outbreaks on board ships, the CDC has enforced strict guidelines to prevent similar events from occurring.

Of the three cruise lines, Royal Caribbean was the first to return to operations and had few cases on board ships, which was the target, according to CEO and Chairman Richard Fain.

Royal Caribbean and Carnival have allowed some unvaccinated passengers on board ships, but Norwegian has not.

Norwegian even filed a lawsuit against Florida surgeon general to halt a state ban that prevented companies from requiring customers to provide proof of Covid vaccination. The cruise company was granted a temporary stay in enforcement, but Florida has filed an appeal.

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Maker of Speedy Covid Assessments Informed Manufacturing unit to Destroy Stock

Maker of Rapid Covid Tests Told Factory to Destroy Inventory

Aly Morici, Abbott’s director of public affairs, rose to the challenge in the US, saying in an email that “it is difficult to scale to a dime, but we’re doing it again”. She admitted that “there will be some delivery bottlenecks in the coming weeks”.

Abbott invited workers back to the Maine facility this month to meet what a letter described as “unexpected production needs”. However, it is unclear how many employees will be returning. They would forego weeks of non-work remuneration, as provided for in their severance payments, with only a two-week “thank you” salary extension and no guarantee that their job would last.

The company wasn’t in that position in early 2020. In anticipation of fast, reliable testing that did not require specialized equipment, Abbott assembled a team of approximately 100 scientists, supply chain experts, and engineers to develop BinaxNOW in a highly compressed timeframe. The company took risks, imported expensive equipment, and opened two US factories. “Everyone’s been working non-stop,” said Mr. Ford. “That’s what Abbott was built for, in the end.”

The test strip, which is similar to the one on a stretch stick, is less sensitive than the PCR, but provides instant results so a company or school can react immediately.

The FDA granted BinaxNOW emergency approval last August. A day later, the U.S. government announced it would buy 150 million of the tests for $ 760 million – $ 5 per test plus shipping – to be used in facilities such as nursing homes and schools.

Washington’s Friendship Public Charter School received 20,000 government-purchased BinaxNOW tests for free as part of a pilot program supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. Patricia A. Brantley, the school’s general manager, said 70 percent of students’ parents chose to have them wiped once a week. “Testing is still an important part of the strategy to not only reopen schools but keep them open,” said Ms. Brantley.

Northwestern University also introduced BinaxNOW early on and tested the students twice a week. The university was running up to 5,000 rapid tests a day, according to Luke Figora, vice president of operations at the school.

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Filipino-American faculty college students’ psychological well being suffered throughout Covid

Filipino-American college students' mental health suffered during Covid

When Covid-19 cases soared nationwide during the first few months of the pandemic, Amelia Catacutan said that her mental health was at an “all-time low.”

Catacutan, a Filipino-American college student entering her sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it was hard to cope with the social isolation, virtual learning environment and anxiety over her family’s well-being plus the rise in anti-Asian hate during the pandemic.

As she adapted to this new reality, Catacutan said she felt like she was being crushed by more and more stress and anxiety piling on top of her, making it difficult to express her emotions and go about her daily life.

Amelia Catacunan, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Source: Ciboney Reglos

Catacutan was not alone in experiencing mental health struggles. Nearly half (46%) of Asian-Americans reported anxiety during the pandemic and 15% reported depressive symptoms, according to a Stop AAPI Hate survey.

But another survey conducted by the UC Davis Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies during the first half of 2020 indicates that the pandemic may have had a higher impact on the mental health of Filipino-Americans in particular.

The Filipinx Count Survey found that 81% of Filipino-Americans reported anxiety during the pandemic and 73% experienced depression.

For Filipino-American college students, there were a lot of factors that took a toll on their mental health.

 “The pandemic was just a recipe for disaster for so many Filipino-American students,” said Christine Catipon, a licensed clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, who works with college students. “They had to balance family duties and working on top of a more rigorous learning environment, like every student did, but also had stressors like moving back into a multigenerational household with intergenerational conflict, cultural pressures, fears about their family’s well-being as health workers and more,” Catipon said.

Family members on the front lines

Catipon said many of her clients had heightened anxiety about family members who were health-care or essential workers during the pandemic. She noted that they had a “constant fear” of those front-line family members contracting the virus.

This was true for Catacutan. She said one of the major sources of her mental health struggles during the pandemic was having parents who worked as health-care workers in the Covid units of their respective hospitals.

Filipinos make up a large portion of the health-care industry in the U.S., with 4% of registered nurses nationwide being Filipino, according to a 2020 report from National Nurses United. During the pandemic, nearly 32% of registered nurses in the nation who have died of Covid-19 and related complications were Filipino, the report said.

More from College Voices:
College graduates are struggling to make up for the ‘lost year’ created by the coronavirus pandemic
Why Black and Latinx women are more likely to struggle with impostor syndrome—and how to overcome it
Women in STEM: 3 Challenges we face ̶ and how to overcome them

Catacutan said this disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Filipino health workers brought her a substantial amount of stress and anxiety. With her parents working on the frontline, she said she worried tirelessly about their safety, was left to take over household responsibilities and even decided to quit her part-time job at a local restaurant.

“I had to put a lot of things on hold, like my job, just to make sure that I wasn’t risking their safety even more and that I could take care of the house,” Catacutan said.

But Catacutan said her decision to quit her part-time job was also due to heightened anxiety over the rise in hate towards Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, or AAPI, during the pandemic.

Racism targeting Asian-Americans is nothing new in the U.S. There were actually federal policies that barred immigration from Asia until 1965. But inflammatory political rhetoric about the coronavirus, such as the term “China virus,” prompted a surge in hate crimes against AAPI during the pandemic, according to Stop AAPI Hate.

For example, Anti-Asian hate crimes in 16 of America’s largest cities increased by nearly 150% in 2020, according to data collected by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. The data also indicated that the first spike occurred in March and April, the outset of the Covid pandemic when the harmful rhetoric first proliferated.

Catacutan said the rise in AAPI hate stoked anxiety about her own safety, which played a role in her decision to quit her part-time job.

“I had people who refused to touch me when I worked because they were scared that I carried the virus. It was really hurtful and felt really, really othering,” Catacutan said. “I ended up quitting, partly because the industry was a bit slow, but also because I was starting to receive racial remarks. I didn’t feel safe.”

The stress of moving back home

Catipon, who works with college students, noted that many of her Filipino-American clients experienced a decline in their mental health after moving back home with their family during the pandemic.

Catipon said when students go home, they may encounter intergenerational conflict with their immigrant parents, which refers to a disparity in values between different generations.

For example, some Filipino immigrant parents may have differing beliefs about racial issues, an over-emphasis on academics, or may be prone to unsolicited comments about their child’s appearance and life, she said.

This was the case for Carolene Ulep, a rising fifth year at Texas Tech University, who said her mental health worsened after sheltering at home with her family during the pandemic.

Ulep pointed to “toxic” Filipino family dynamics, recounting a time when her dad made unsolicited comments about her appearance. While Ulep said her dad did not intend to hurt her, she said his comments stuck with her long after.

“When he makes those kinds of comments, or when my mom makes comments about things I should be doing when I already have so much on my plate, I start thinking that I can do so much more. But in reality, I can’t,” Ulep said. “So, it’s difficult because I feel pressure to please my parents about these things, but at the same time, I know it’s my life.”

Carolene Ulep, a fifth year student at Texas Tech University

Source: Ashley Parker

Ulep added that Filipino family dynamics also include showing the utmost respect to elders, which leaves her unable to correct her parents when they make hurtful comments.

Roy Taggueg, the author of the Filipinx Count Survey and a Ph.D. student at UC Davis, also underscored the academic pressures that Filipino-American college students face when they move back home, and how it impacts their mental health.

“The pandemic puts students under really intense scrutiny of their parents when it comes to school since many had to go back home,” Taggueg said. “Students get stressed trying to meet their parents’ expectations to do well, and it goes back to the whole idea of ‘utang na loob.’”

“Utang na loob” is a Filipino cultural value that translates to “debt of gratitude.” Taggueg said it describes when Filipinos feel a sense of debt towards their family members who have made sacrifices for them, such as bringing them to the U.S. from the Philippines, raising them and supporting them throughout their lives.

Catacutan said she felt this pressure to excel academically and to “make her parents proud.” She said it caused her to push herself to the extreme when it came to school and increased her mental stress as a result.

“My parents are both immigrants and they both came here from the bottom up. A big part of the pressure comes from feeling so grateful for them so that you feel like you have to spend all of your time accomplishing just so you can pay them back for everything – all the opportunities that they gave you,” Catacutan said.

“And it’s a constant drive from both them and myself to keep going and going. And I never really learned how to take a break, I just get too busy trying to attain the most,” Catacutan continued.

“Sometimes we think that’s what’s healthy for us and it’s not at all.”

No social outlet

Catacutan also said the pandemic left her with “no outlets” to relieve the heightened mental stress from school, pointing to the lack of social interaction.

This was a trend that Catipon, who works with college students, noticed among her own Filipino-American clients. She said for many students, socializing and spending time with peers served as a “respite” from stressors in their lives.

When pandemic shutdowns across the nation cut off the social lives of students, Catipon said their mental health issues were amplified and they were left with no way to cope with new stressors from the pandemic, such as the rise in AAPI hate and fears about their health-care worker parents contracting the virus.

This was true for Jolene Soriano, a rising junior at the University of Michigan, who said social isolation led to a decline in her mental health.

“The pandemic forced me to be in my room alone with my own thoughts a lot,” Soriano said. “I found that to be a very scary thing, because a lot of thoughts were not the greatest and the pandemic really brought out my feelings about the stressful things in my life.”

Jolene Soriano, a junior at the University of Michigan

Source: Kristina Mallabo

“There were plenty of moments during my second semester where I was so overwhelmed with everything,” Soriano continued. “Sometimes I would set off into a crying fit, or I’d start hyperventilating, and then it would feel like a downward spiral.”

Like Soriano, Ulep said her mental health reached a “low point” during pandemic shutdowns that left her unable to socialize with her peers.

She said social isolation led to loneliness and a significant loss in motivation, which became detrimental to her academic performance.

“I was so used to seeing my classmates and friends during school. Being in lockdown just made me really, really sad and unmotivated,” Ulep said. “I just had no sense of responsibility and I didn’t try my best or get the best grades.”

Prioritizing mental health

While Soriano’s mental health undoubtedly took a hit during the pandemic, she said she now feels “more in tune with it” as she prepares to return to in-person classes in the fall.

“As opposed to just ignoring the problems like I did before, the pandemic has forced me to really look at and prioritize my mental health,” Soriano said. “And as we go back to some sense of normalcy, I’m definitely more aware of it, and trying to make sure I’m taking care of myself in that regard.”

This represents the broader change that Taggueg said needs to occur within the Filipino-American diaspora.

Taggueg said many Filipino-Americans and Filpinos still don’t regard mental health as an issue.

“We have been categorized to be a quote-unquote ‘perfect’ migrant in the U.S. that doesn’t cause problems, that adapts to hardships and does what’s needed because we want to work hard,” Taggueg said.

“That outlook has been shaped by the history of colonialism in the Philippines and has been used by generations of Filipinos to make sense of the world. And when it comes to mental health, it doesn’t fit into that world,” he continued.

However, Taggueg said organizations like the Bulosan Center are making progress in researching and raising awareness about mental health issues among Filipino-Americans.

Resources to help

There are several resources available for Filipino-Americans struggling with their mental health, including the Asian American Psychological Association’s Division on Filipinx Americans. The organization promotes awareness of Filipino-American mental health and provides services such as therapy referrals.

The Filipino Mental Health Initiative of San Francisco is another resource that provides services for Filipino-Americans and aims to destigmatize mental health issues. While they are based in Northern California, they provide resources such as a free suicide hotline with trained and experienced counselors, in-person or virtual wellness workshops and “Mental Health First Aid” training in English and Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines.

Catipon recommended that college students of all backgrounds who are struggling with their mental health utilize the resources available on college campuses, such as counseling centers.

For those who are apprehensive about seeking counseling or therapy, Catipon encouraged attending workshops or peer mentoring groups within their local community.

Catacunan said that she is hoping to re-establish her “boundaries surrounding school” and focus on balancing her wants and needs.

“As stressful as school and navigating my professional life is, it isn’t everything. I want to reinvigorate my love for myself, my hobbies and the people and places around me,” Catacunan said, adding that it is important for college students to prioritize their mental health.

“There’s a reason students are considered ‘part-time’ or ‘full-time’ — being a student is a physically, mentally and emotionally draining job and sometimes we gloss over the fact that we are doing our best, especially in this altered society,” Catacunan said.

“You know your needs better than anyone else and listening to them is so important for your well-being,” she continued. “People tend to think of mental health as being one big entity when the reality is that it isn’t. It’s a multitude of little things that we neglect and that truly add up. So it’s important to take things step by step in order to thrive in the stressful conditions of academia.”

CNBC’s “College Voices″ is a series written by CNBC interns from universities across the country about getting their college education, managing their own money and launching their careers during these extraordinary times. Annika Kim Constantino is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, studying media studies, music and journalism. She is an intern on CNBC’s politics desk. Her mentor is Dawn Kopecki. The series is edited by Cindy Perman.

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Apple delays return to workplace till January as Covid instances surge

Apple delays return to office until January as Covid cases surge

This photo, taken in March 2019, shows Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.

felixmizioznikov | iStock editorial team | Getty Images

Apple employees won’t be returning to the office until January amid fears of rising coronavirus cases, CNBC has confirmed.

News of the delay was first reported by Bloomberg.

The company has told employees that it will continue to monitor the coronavirus situation and give them at least a month’s notice before they have to go back to the office. The delay applies to all of the company’s employees worldwide.

Apple offices and stores will remain open.

The number of Covid cases in the USA is increasing. According to CNBC analysis of the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, Oregon and Mississippi all hit new highs in their seven-day average of new cases on Sunday.

Apple isn’t the only big tech company putting its office return plans on hold. Last week, Facebook said it would postpone its plan to bring U.S. employees back to the office until January 2022 due to concerns about the Covid-19 Delta variant.

Meanwhile, Amazon announced a similar plan for corporate employees earlier this month.

Apple had already postponed the planned return of the office to October after it had initially announced that it would send employees three days a week from September.

Some large US companies are also bringing back mask requirements for workers regardless of their vaccination status, amid concerns about an increase in Covid-19 infections.

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As Childhood Covid Circumstances Spike, College Vaccination Clinics Are Sluggish Going

As Childhood Covid Cases Spike, School Vaccination Clinics Are Slow Going

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — There were no cheery signs urging “Get your Covid-19 vaccine!” at the back-to-school immunization clinic at Carey Junior High School last week. In the sun-drenched cafeteria, Valencia Bautista sat behind a folding table in a corner, delivering a decidedly soft sell.

Hundreds of 12- and 13-year-olds streamed through with their parents to pick up their fall schedules and iPads. Ms. Bautista, a county public health nurse, wore a T-shirt that said “Vaccinated. Thanks, Public Health” and offered vaccines against ailments like tetanus and meningitis, while broaching the subject of Covid shots gently — and last.

By day’s end, she had 11 takers. “If they’re a no, we won’t push it,” she said.

Vaccination rates among middle and high school students need to rise drastically if the United States is going to achieve what are arguably the two most important goals in addressing the pandemic in the country right now: curbing the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant and safely reopening schools. President Biden told school districts to hold vaccination clinics, but that is putting superintendents and principals — many of whom are already at the center of furious local battles over masking — in a delicate position.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized for people 12 and older, but administering it to anyone younger than 18 usually requires parental consent, and getting shots into the arms of teenagers has proved harder than vaccinating adults. Only 33 percent of 12- to 15-year-olds and 43 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds are fully vaccinated, according to federal data, compared with 62 percent of adults. Yet some school districts offering the shots, along with pediatrics practices, appear to be making progress: Over the past month, the average daily number of 12- to 15-year-olds being vaccinated rose 75 percent, according to Biden administration officials.

As the school year begins, many superintendents do not know how many of their students are vaccinated against Covid-19; because it is not required, they do not ask.

It is no surprise that nurses like Ms. Bautista are circumspect in their approach. In Tennessee, the state’s top immunization leader, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, said she was fired last month after she distributed a memo that suggested some teenagers might be eligible for vaccinations without their parents’ consent.

In Detroit, where county health officials have been running school-based clinics all summer, nurses discovered “strong hesitancy” when they made more than 10,000 calls to parents of students 12 and older to ask whether their children would get the shots and answer questions about them, said the deputy superintendent, Alycia Meriweather. More than half said no.

In Georgia, Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools held their back-to-school clinic at the mall — a “neutral location,” said M. Ann Levett, the superintendent. She is also planning school-based clinics, she said, despite some political pushback and “Facebook chatter” accusing her of “pushing the vaccine on kids.”

Ms. Levett said she was deeply concerned about whether she would be able to keep schools open.

“This is only the second day of school, and already we have positive cases among children,” she said in a recent interview. Her district has a mask mandate, but with 37,000 students, “I just introduced 37,000 more opportunities for the numbers to rise.”

In Laramie County, the center of the Delta surge in Wyoming, the Health Department proposed back-to-school clinics to Janet Farmer, the head nurse in the larger of the county’s two school districts. Ms. Farmer knew she would have to tread carefully. The flier she drafted for parents of students at the county’s three middle schools made little mention of Covid-19.

“Vaccines — NOT Mandatory,” it declared.

Nationally, more children are hospitalized with Covid-19 — an average of 276 each day — than at any other point in the pandemic. In Laramie County, Dr. Andrew B. Rose, a pediatrician at the Cheyenne Children’s Clinic and the president of Wyoming’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said two newborns — one a few days old, the other younger than two weeks — were recently admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 symptoms after their parents tested positive.

Wyoming, a heavily Republican state where nearly 70 percent of voters cast their ballots for former President Donald J. Trump in 2020, has one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, with about a third of its population fully vaccinated. Laramie County has about 100,000 people and Cheyenne, the state capital, which bills itself as “home to all things Western” including “rodeos, ranches, gunslingers” and eight-foot-tall cowboy boots.

At Casey Junior High, few children or adults wore masks at the recent clinic, despite a sign on the door saying they were “strongly recommended.” Parents seemed to have visceral reactions; they were either enthusiastic about the Covid shot or adamantly against it. Those who were wavering were few and far between, and not easy to persuade.

A nurse in blue scrubs and her husband, a nuclear and missile operations officer at the nearby Air Force base, who declined to give their names, wandered past Ms. Bautista’s table with their 12-year-old son. Their daughter, 13, has cystic fibrosis and is vaccinated. But their son was reluctant. They chatted amiably with Ms. Bautista, but decided to wait.

Cheyenne Gower, 28, and her stepson Jaxson Fox, 12, both said they were leaning toward getting the shot after talking with their doctors. Ms. Gower, citing the Delta surge, said she would get vaccinated soon. Jaxson said he was “still thinking about it” after his pediatrician discussed the risk of heart inflammation, a very rare side effect seen in young boys ages 12 to 17.

Updated 

Aug. 20, 2021, 5:45 a.m. ET

“Put down that I’m more on the getting it side,” he instructed, eyeing a reporter’s notebook.

Although the vaccines were tested on tens of thousands of people and have been administered to nearly 200 million in the United States alone, many parents cited a lack of research in refusing. Aubrea Valencia, 29, a hair stylist, listened carefully as Ms. Bautista explained the reasons for the human papilloma virus and meningitis vaccines. Ms. Valencia agreed that her daughter should take both.

But when it came to the coronavirus vaccine, she drew the line. “The other two have been around longer,” she said, adding that she might feel “different about it if we had known someone who died” from the coronavirus.

Every once in a while, the nurses encountered a surprise, as when Kristen Simmons, 43, a professional dog handler, marched up with her son, Trent.

“He turned 12 on Monday, and so we want to get his Covid vaccine,” she declared. Ms. Bautista and the other nurses looked stunned.

“We tend to be more liberal,” Ms. Simmons later said — a statement that would have sounded odd in explaining a medical decision before the pandemic.

In the spring, when vaccines were limited to older Americans who were clamoring for them, officials including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, envisioned fall 2021 as the last mile of a campaign that could produce “herd immunity” by year’s end. Vaccinating children was crucial to that plan.

Now it is clear that will not happen. Children ages 11 and under are not yet eligible, but if and when the vaccine is authorized for them, experts expect it could be harder to persuade their parents than those of older children. A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that parents of younger children were “generally more likely to be hesitant to vaccinating,” said Liz Hamel, who directed the research.

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

    • Mask rules. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July recommended that all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in indoor public places within areas experiencing outbreaks, a reversal of the guidance it offered in May. See where the C.D.C. guidance would apply, and where states have instituted their own mask policies. The battle over masks has become contentious in some states, with some local leaders defying state bans.
    • Vaccine rules . . . and businesses. Private companies are increasingly mandating coronavirus vaccines for employees, with varying approaches. Such mandates are legally allowed and have been upheld in court challenges.
    • College and universities. More than 400 colleges and universities are requiring students to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Almost all are in states that voted for President Biden.
    • Schools. On Aug. 11, California announced that it would require teachers and staff of both public and private schools to be vaccinated or face regular testing, the first state in the nation to do so. A survey released in August found that many American parents of school-age children are opposed to mandated vaccines for students, but were more supportive of mask mandates for students, teachers and staff members who do not have their shots.  
    • Hospitals and medical centers. Many hospitals and major health systems are requiring employees to get a Covid-19 vaccine, citing rising caseloads fueled by the Delta variant and stubbornly low vaccination rates in their communities, even within their work force.
    • New York. On Aug. 3, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York announced that proof of vaccination would be required of workers and customers for indoor dining, gyms, performances and other indoor situations, becoming the first U.S. city to require vaccines for a broad range of activities. City hospital workers must also get a vaccine or be subjected to weekly testing. Similar rules are in place for New York State employees.
    • At the federal level. The Pentagon announced that it would seek to make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for the country’s 1.3 million active-duty troops “no later” than the middle of September. President Biden announced that all civilian federal employees would have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to regular testing, social distancing, mask requirements and restrictions on most travel.

For school superintendents and public health officials who are intent on bringing students back to the classroom — and keeping them there — the low vaccination rates, coupled with the Delta surge, are worrisome.

Wyoming won national praise for keeping schools open all last year. Gov. Mark Gordon, who contracted Covid-19 last year and has encouraged people to get vaccinated, imposed a statewide mask mandate in December that he kept in place for schools even after he lifted it in March, which helped limit the spread of disease in classrooms. Despite the Delta surge and a recommendation from the C.D.C. for universal masking in schools, Mr. Gordon, a Republican, said this month that he would not impose another mandate and that he would leave it to each district to decide.

In Laramie County School District 1, which has about 14,000 students, including about 840 at Carey Junior High, the school board recently cut short its public meeting about masking when a man began ranting about another hot-button issue: critical race theory.

“Fifty percent of the calls here have been, ‘Please mask our kids,’ and 50 percent of the calls have been, ‘We’re not wearing masks,’” said Margaret Crespo, who left Boulder, Colo., about six weeks ago to become the new District 1 superintendent. “There’s no gray area.”

Dr. Crespo plans to make an announcement on masking on Friday, just before the school year starts on Monday.

Fights over the masking issue are even more divisive than the vaccination campaign, “and that is playing out in front of our eyes,” said Ray Hart, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents the country’s largest urban school districts.

“Everywhere I go this summer, that’s part of the message: Let’s get vaccinated,” said Allen Pratt, the executive director of the National Rural Education Association. But “because it’s government, you’ve got a line in the sand where people don’t trust you, and you’ve got to be understanding.”

White House officials have also been encouraging pediatricians to incorporate coronavirus vaccination into back-to-school sports physicals. Many districts are offering the shots during sports practice, with a reminder to athletes that if they are vaccinated, they will not have to quarantine and miss games if they are exposed to the coronavirus.

Laramie County District 1 offered coronavirus vaccines at mandatory clinics to educate high school student athletes about concussions; 32 students accepted shots, said Ms. Farmer, the nurse. The numbers were better at the junior high clinics; over two days at three schools with a total of about 2,400 students, more than 100 took their shots.

Ms. Farmer was satisfied.

“If it’s 100 people,” she said, “that’s 100 that didn’t have it yesterday.”

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The right way to get residence if I check optimistic for Covid whereas touring?

How to get home if I test positive for Covid while traveling?

When Ken McElroy decided to go to Belize last June after a business trip to Miami, he said he was not worried about contracting Covid-19.

The CEO of the real estate investment company flew to both places privately – he is also vaccinated.

“I thought there was no way I was going to get it,” he told CNBC.

His fiancée, Danille Underwood, wasn’t that confident, McElroy said.

After 10 days in Belize, the couple took Covid tests the day before their flight back to Arizona. Although he felt tired and she coughed, they were both surprised when their tests were positive.

“We were out of our room within an hour,” said McElroy. “At that point, it got pretty real.”

With the help of people in protective suits, the couple were quarantined in a different part of the hotel, he said.

“We weren’t sure what was going to happen … whether they’d split us up or take us to a hospital,” McElroy said. “I didn’t know if I would need a ventilator.”

None of that happened. Within 72 hours, the couple were back in Arizona on a Learjet.

“Then Delta appeared”

Before leaving, Underwood bought memberships from Covac Global, a medical evacuation company founded by the crisis response firm HRI in early 2020. This meant the couple didn’t pay a dime for their repatriation, McElroy said.

Commercial airlines and private jets cannot fly travelers home with Covid-19, but certified ambulances with medical teams can.

Covid started to be more in the rearview mirror, but then Delta showed up.

Ross Thompson

CEO, Covac Global

While some companies are evacuating travelers in need of hospitalization, Covac Global is bringing back travelers who have tested positive for Covid-19 and have a self-reported symptom. About 85% of the evacuees will be returned home while the rest will need hospital treatment, said CEO Ross Thompson.

When CNBC first spoke to the company in March, it carried out about two to three medical evacuations every month. Now that number has risen to around 12 to 20.

“Unfortunately, business is booming,” said Thompson. “Covid was more and more in the rearview mirror, but then Delta showed up – and it threw everyone on one lap.”

Covac Global memberships have increased 500% this year, up 250% in the last month alone, he said.

So-called “breakthrough infections” caused by the highly contagious Delta variant lead to people who have been vaccinated being sick or stuck far away from home. About 60% of the current evacuees are vaccinated, Thompson said, because “they are now most comfortable traveling”.

Ken McElroy and Danille Underwood board a helicopter to fly to Belize City.

Courtesy Ken McElroy

Many countries require negative tests to return home, which shows mild cases of Covid-19 in travelers who did not know they were infected.

“We find that between 30 and 40% of members test positive by the end of their trip,” said Thompson. “We see it also in the unvaccinated younger children of vaccinated travelers.”

Another medical evacuation company, Medjet, reports a record summer, announcing that sales of MedjetHorizon memberships – its highest level of coverage – hit an all-time high in July. The company was just seeing its highest net monthly gain in more than a decade, it said.

The calls for help are above pre-pandemic levels, said Medjet CEO John Gobbels, although not all of them are related to the pandemic.

“Some are for Covid, but the majority are still the same old things that never went away,” he said.

“Literally from door to door”

After flying to mainland Belize by helicopter and boarding a Learjet (“we didn’t have to go to the terminal”), McElroy and Underwood flew to Phoenix, where a limo bus was waiting on the tarmac.

The service “was literally door-to-door,” said McElroy.

It’s not about five-star service, though, Thompson said. Certified ambulances are required to take Covid-positive patients either to hospitals or, in the case of Covac Global, to their homes, he said.

Medical evacuation flights, like the one McElroy and Underwood flew home on, are like a private jet and a hospital emergency room rolled into one, Ross Thompson said.

Courtesy Ken McElroy

Otherwise, situations arise where non-members ask to be evacuated to the closest city in their country so they can drive to their homes to save money, he said. Instead of driving, they can get on a commercial flight, which Thompson calls “a big no-no”.

McElroy called his fiancée “the hero of history” because she pushed for her evacuation policy and eventually bought her.

“Astronomically expensive”

Other travelers are less fortunate.

CNBC spoke to a 43-year-old Singapore man who tried to move back to Singapore from India last April to start a new job. The trip – which can only be a six-hour flight – turned into a six-week saga. The man asked for anonymity for this report.

Singapore restricted travelers from India, so the man and his family planned a two-week trip to Nepal from which they could fly direct to Singapore. There the Delta variant exploded in the region and all flights from Nepal to Singapore were canceled.

Within a few days, the man, his wife, three children and his 85-year-old mother all tested positive for Covid, he said. At the time, Nepal had imposed a strict lockdown – gas stations and public transport were closed and the family struggled to find food and medicine.

For reasons of space, Covid-19 patients flock to the hallways of a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 11, 2021.

Prabin Ranabhat | SOPA pictures | LightRakete | Getty Images

“We didn’t know anyone,” he said. “We didn’t know about the medical system, and people die, left, right, and in the middle with no beds and no oxygen.”

The family was evicted from their sheltered home when management learned of their health, he said. Weeks passed and the family made a full recovery, but they were prevented from taking the weekly flight back to Delhi because they continued to test positive for Covid-19.

“The RT-PCR [test] basically looking for the virus’ DNA, it doesn’t differentiate between dead and living cells, “he said.

He was investigating medical evacuations, but a friend who was also stuck in the Philippines told him that such flights were “astronomically expensive”.

Eventually the family tested negative and returned to Delhi. In the 20 days after his recovery, the man told CNBC that he slept in 12 different locations. He is now in Singapore, but some of his family members remain in India.

Members vs. non-members

Medical evacuations are expensive. Thompson said evacuations from Singapore to New York could cost up to $ 300,000. Still, 70% of Covac Global evacuations are non-members who pay out of pocket to be flown home from places like the Bahamas, Mexico, South Africa and Dubai.

Since membership opened to all nationalities on July 15, the company has been evacuating more people across Europe, particularly from Spain to the UK.

Comparison of Covid evacuation memberships

Medjet assistant Global salvation Covac Global
deduction Hospitalized 150+ miles from home Hospital more than 100 miles from home Positive PCR test + 1 symptom
Returned Hospital of choice Hospital of choice Home or hospital
Covers other medical problems Yes sir Yes sir Optional add-on
Availability Residents of the United States, Mexico, and Canada All nationalities All nationalities
Cruise coverage Yes sir Yes sir no
Starting prices $ 99 $ 119 $ 675
Source: Medjet, Global Rescue and Covac Global

So far, Thompson said, no foreign government has refused his company’s request to evacuate a Covid-positive traveler from its territory. Usually they like to let her go, he said.

“They don’t want news of a foreigner dying in their Delta hospitals,” he said, nor do they “want to lose one of their beds to a foreigner.”

The only timing problems can occur when a hospital has already started treatment. “From that point on, governments get really a little weird,” he said.

The cruise riddle

Memberships with companies like Medjet and Global Rescue cover cruise passengers, but Covac Global does not.

“Cruises are doing really well with their protocols and policies,” Thompson said. “But the problem is … every time it is reported or not, there are people who are sick.”

Covac Global has evacuated Covid-positive travelers who are not members of cruises, although these cases are not making headlines, he said.

Thompson said service is not expensive for budget cruisers.

“The shipping companies,” he said, “are only tacitly paying for it out of their own pocket.”

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Health

Sens. Wicker, King check optimistic for Covid after being totally vaccinated

Sens. Wicker, King test positive for Covid after being fully vaccinated

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, left, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Tom Williams-Pool | Getty Images

Sens. Roger Wicker and Angus King, who are both vaccinated for the coronavirus, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday after experiencing symptoms.

Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, and King, an independent from Maine, are the latest in a string of prominent politicians to announce positive coronavirus tests in recent weeks despite being fully vaccinated. Others include Republicans Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.

“Senator Wicker is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, is in good health, and is being treated by his Tupelo-based physician,” Phillip Waller, Wicker’s communications director, said in a statement. The 70-year-old Wicker “is isolating, and everyone with whom Senator Wicker has come in close contact recently has been notified.”

The Senate is in recess this week, and many of the chamber’s members are in home states either preparing for 2022 elections or checking in with district offices.

“Despite all my efforts, when I began feeling mildly feverish yesterday, I took a test this morning at my doctor’s suggestion, and it came back positive,” King, 77, said in a statement. “While I am not feeling great, I’m definitely feeling much better than I would have without the vaccine.”

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) holds a chart as bipartisan members of the Senate and House gather to announce a framework for fresh coronavirus relief legislation at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Dec. 1, 2020.

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

Wicker’s and King’s positive tests came as the Biden administration ramps up efforts to encourage Americans to seek booster shots starting next month amid a growing pool of data that shows vaccine protections fade over time.

Three of Washington’s top health experts on Wednesday provided further details on how the immune system’s protections wane over time.

It’s now “very clear” that immunity starts to fall after the initial two doses, and with the dominance of the delta variant, “we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” according to a statement signed by CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and other U.S. health leaders.

New Covid-19 cases are emerging at their highest rates since winter as the delta variant of the coronavirus sweeps across the U.S. Health experts blame its rapid spread for the uptick in case counts and deaths as a growing number of so-called “breakthrough” cases show fully vaccinated people are still at risk.

More than 140,000 new cases and 822 deaths were reported in the U.S. on Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of new daily deaths has more than doubled since the start of August.

The situation in Florida and Texas is especially grim, with case counts in both states blowing past records and overwhelming hospital systems.

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Health

New Zealand central financial institution rate of interest choice after Covid lockdown

New Zealand central bank interest rate decision after Covid lockdown

Workers and shoppers eat on the steps of Freyberg Place in downtown Auckland, New Zealand on October 29, 2020, enjoying the freedom from Covid-19 Alert Level 1.

Lynn Grieveson | Newsroom | Getty Images

New Zealand was widely expected to be the first advanced economy to hike rates, but the central bank left rates unchanged on Wednesday after a Covid case prompted the country to announce a nationwide lockdown the day before.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand said in a statement the decision to keep rates at 0.25% was made “in connection with the government’s imposition of level 4 COVID restrictions on activities across New Zealand”.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed a nationwide lockdown on Tuesday when the first Covid case in six months was discovered in Auckland, the country’s largest city.

The city will be on lockdown for seven days starting Wednesday, while the rest of the nation will maintain a three-day lockdown. Level 4 restrictions are the highest in the country and the most restrictive where people must stay at home and can only leave for essential services.

‘Knife edge situation’

By Wednesday morning, the number of cases discovered had risen to seven and was confirmed as a highly transferable Delta variant, according to Reuters.

Paul Bloxham, chief economist for Australia and New Zealand at HSBC, called it an “exceptional 24 hours” and a “very sharp situation”.

“This morning … we find out that it is Delta (variant), and at that point 24 hours ago the market thought the RBNZ would deliver not just 20 but 25 (basis points),” he told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia “.

Ahead of the interest rate decision on Wednesday, Michael Gordon, acting chief economist for New Zealand at the Australian bank Westpac, said he did not expect a rate hike.

“The key here is that the government cannot trust the extent of the (Covid) problem,” he said in a note Tuesday after Ardern’s lock decision.

Analysts mostly expected a rate hike from the central bank, at least until the lockdown was announced. The majority of the 32 economists polled by Reuters expected the central bank to raise the official currency rate by 25 basis points from a record low to 0.50%.

Most central banks around the world have cut interest rates to record lows to prop up their pandemic-hit economies. Governments around the world have incentivized their economies to support businesses.

But New Zealand is among the most successful in the world in keeping its Covid cases in check with tough lockdowns and closings of its borders.

Major central banks in the APAC region are in no hurry to raise key rates … with the exception of New Zealand and Korea.

Maxim Darmet

Fit ratings

Partly due to its zero Covid strategy, the number of Covid cases has so far been kept at around 2,500, including 26 deaths – one of the lowest in the world.

That has helped the economy recover as data shows that economic growth in the first quarter of this year was above expectations. It was mainly driven by strong retail spending, falling unemployment rates and rising house prices.

The combination of minimal Covid restrictions and generous incentives has resulted in a booming economy and rising inflation, leading analysts to expect higher interest rates.

New Zealand dollar is falling

The New Zealand dollar fell to 0.6944 against the US dollar on Wednesday.

The currency has fallen from over 0.70 to over 0.69 since the lockdown was announced on Tuesday.

Bloxham said the New Zealand dollar could rebound once the Covid situation is contained.

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“If (the lockdown) is enough to contain the virus, keep the numbers small and push them back to zero … then you could imagine in a few weeks … there would be some kind of benefit for the New Zealand dollar,” he told the other CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia”.

New Zealand is likely to continue hike rates

With the expected increase now derailed, analysts said it would now depend on the magnitude of the virus situation.

“Regardless of the economic case for higher interest rates, there is nothing to be gained by pushing the (official cash rate) higher now instead of waiting for more clarity about the Covid situation,” said Gordon of Westpac.

He said experience has shown that once restrictions are lifted, activity tends to rebound. “If that happens, the RBNZ will face many of the same problems as before: an economy faced with cost pressures and capacity constraints, with the risk of inflation becoming more stubborn,” he said, adding that the increases will continue will be needed.

Meanwhile, Maxime Darmet, Asia-Pacific economic director at Fitch Ratings, told CNBC that most of the major central banks in the region are unlikely to hike rates anytime soon.

“The major central banks in the APAC region are in no hurry to start raising rates … with the exception of New Zealand and Korea. Generally limited inflationary pressures and Covid-related economic setbacks put APAC central banks ready to keep policy easy, ”Darmet said in an email to CNBC on Tuesday before the New Zealand lockdown was announced.

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Politics

Thousands and thousands of People Might Be Eligible for Covid Vaccine Booster

Millions of Americans Could Be Eligible for Covid Vaccine Booster

More than five million Americans could be eligible for a booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of September as part of the Biden administration’s plan to combat the Delta variant of the coronavirus through additional doses eight months after the initial vaccinations.

However, the plan depends on several crucial steps that will take place over the coming weeks. Most importantly, the Food and Drug Administration would have to decide that third vaccinations would be safe and effective for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the two vaccines that were first introduced and most widely used.

Pfizer is further advanced in submitting data to the FDA that it says supports the use of boosters. Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are still investigating whether a half or a full dose for a third shot would work better, but are expecting results soon. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the company plans to file its data with the FDA in September.

Government officials are due to announce the strategy at a White House briefing on Wednesday. Nursing home residents, nurses, and rescue workers would likely come first, as with the first few shots. Other older people would follow next, followed by the rest of the general population.

Officials envision giving people the same vaccine they were originally given and using pharmacies as key distribution points.

Administration officials discourage people from checking for booster doses on their own, noting that the FDA has yet to decide about their safety and effectiveness. They hope to distribute extra shots in an orderly manner so that people can get a booster shot when advised, and not just based on their own fears.

Dr. Danny Avula, the vaccine coordinator for the state of Virginia, said his state already has thousands of vaccine providers and can likely manage booster vaccinations without major changes. “What caused so much of the urgency and frenzy of January through April was the delivery bottleneck,” he said.

Now the government has more than 100 million doses in stock that could be used for boosters, along with tens of millions more doses that have already been shipped to pharmacies and other places. Even more supplies are to be delivered in autumn.

In interviews on Tuesday, hospital officials and doctors generally supported calls for a booster vaccination.

“I think we’re running out of second chances,” said Dr. Matthew Harris, the medical director of the coronavirus vaccination program at Northwell Health, New York’s largest hospital system. “What keeps me up at night is the inevitability of a variant that doesn’t respond to the vaccine. So if we have that head start, I fully support it.”

Understand the state of vaccination and masking requirements in the United States

    • Mask rules. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July recommended that all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public places indoors in areas with outbreaks, reversing the guidelines offered in May. See where the CDC guidelines would apply and where states have implemented their own mask guidelines. The battle over masks is controversial in some states, with some local leaders defying state bans.
    • Vaccination regulations. . . and B.Factories. Private companies are increasingly demanding corona vaccines for employees with different approaches. Such mandates are legally permissible and have been confirmed in legal challenges.
    • College and Universities. More than 400 colleges and universities require a vaccination against Covid-19. Almost all of them are in states that voted for President Biden.
    • schools. On August 11, California announced that teachers and staff at both public and private schools would have to get vaccinated or have regular tests, the first state in the nation to do so. A survey published in August found that many American parents of school-age children are against mandatory vaccines for students, but are more supportive of masking requirements for students, teachers and staff who do not have a vaccination.
    • Hospitals and medical centers. Many hospitals and large health systems require their employees to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, due to rising case numbers due to the Delta variant and persistently low vaccination rates in their communities, even within their workforce.
    • new York. On August 3, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that workers and customers will be required to provide proof of vaccination when dining indoors, gyms, performances, and other indoor situations. City hospital staff must also be vaccinated or have weekly tests. Similar rules apply to employees in New York State.
    • At the federal level. The Pentagon announced that it would make coronavirus vaccinations compulsory for the country’s 1.3 million active soldiers “by mid-September at the latest. President Biden announced that all civil federal employees would need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo regular tests, social distancing, mask requirements and travel restrictions.

Federal officials envision offering additional vaccinations to recipients of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, as well as those who received Moderna or Pfizer. But the government didn’t start offering this vaccine until March, and only 14 million people have received it. For comparison: 155 million people were fully vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna.

Data from a Johnson & Johnson clinical trial in which participants were given two doses is likely to be submitted to the FDA later this month and is intended to guide the government’s recommendation on the vaccine.

At the Wednesday briefing, administration officials plan to point out that a booster strategy is essential, even if it needs to be changed as more data comes in. They are expected to provide data showing the overall effectiveness of the vaccine against viral infections is declining, although unvaccinated people still make up the vast majority of people who become seriously ill or hospitalized due to Covid.

The government fears that without boosters, more vaccinated people could get serious Covid disease in the coming months, as there is a double trend: the stronger effect of the delta variant and the decreasing protection of the vaccines.

Data from the Israeli Ministry of Health are seen as a warning sign. It suggests that protection from viral infections fell in June and July relative to the time since a person was vaccinated. According to a data set, the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against serious illnesses in people 65 and over who were vaccinated in January fell to 55 percent. But the margin of error was wide and experts said other data appeared less worrying.

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Health

Airways break up on whether or not to require workers to get Covid photographs

Airlines split on whether to require employees to get Covid shots

A Southwest Airlines jet lands at Midway International Airport in Chicago, Illinois on January 28, 2021.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

U.S. airlines are increasingly divided over whether their flight attendants, pilots and other employees should be vaccinated against Covid-19.

United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines announced this month that their U.S. employees, a total of around 73,000 people, will need to be vaccinated against the virus. Alaska Airlines is considering a similar mandate for its 20,000 or so employees if the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to one of the vaccines, a move expected next month.

Other airlines, including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue Airways, have repeatedly said that they are encouraging but do not require staff to be vaccinated. However, Delta Air Lines requires that new employees be vaccinated.

Pilot unions for these airlines say vaccines should remain voluntary for their members. Following announcements by United and Hawaiian, airline unions that do not require vaccines said pilots expressed concern about what would happen if their airlines followed suit.

Delta variant

The concerns highlight potential challenges carriers could face in also mandating vaccinations. The airlines are all struggling with the recent increase in Covid cases in the US, as the Delta variant prevails and weighs on the demand for air travel – just as the ailing industry began to gain a foothold again.

More than a dozen large US companies have prescribed Covid vaccines for some or all of their employees.

A mandate “could bring an airline into conflict with its unions,” said Ben Baldanza, former CEO of Spirit Airlines.

However, higher Covid cases could affect airline reliability if enough employees are sick, at a time when they are already few and far between.

“You don’t want to touch the third rail, but you want to make sure you have an operation,” said Robert Mann, an aviation consultant and former airline manager.

The latest announcements of vaccine mandates or their lack of vaccine mandates by the airlines have received criticism and praise from both sides on social media. Baldanza said he doesn’t think vaccine status will be a determining factor in booking flights.

Infections are increasing

At the same time, some unions argue that airlines could do more to boost vaccination rates, or urge pilots to use incentives such as extra vaccination time off, especially as the fast-spreading Delta variant is driving the new Covid-19 infections.

The Allied Pilots Association, which represents about 15,000 pilots at American Airlines on Thursday, told members that weekly cases of Covid-19 among pilots have hit an “all-time high,” rising to 36 in the first week of August, double that number as before three weeks earlier.

According to the union, five pilots were hospitalized for Covid-19 on August 12.

“It’s worth noting that none of these pilots have been vaccinated against the virus,” the union’s aero-medical group said.

About 60% of American Airlines pilots are vaccinated, according to a union announcement earlier this month. More than 90% of United pilots are vaccinated, the airline said. United previously offered flight attendants and pilots incentives to get vaccinated.

Encouraging, not demanding

Southwest Airlines reiterated to staff last week that it has not changed its stance on encouraging, but not requiring, staff to be vaccinated.

But Southwest Airlines Pilots Association president Casey Murray last week called on the company to discuss its vaccine plans and stated in a letter to the airline that its current policy is “obviously not set in stone”.

Murray told CNBC that some pilots have told the union that they are concerned about possible side effects from the gunshots, including long-term side effects that may take a while to show up and subsequent loss of paid sick leave or even their medical clearance issued to the Flying is required. The Senior Medical Advisor to the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that “almost all” long-term vaccine side effects occur within the first two months of being vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Murray said the number of Covid cases among pilots is increasing but declined to provide numbers.

Corporate incentives

He said the company should establish guidelines and incentives that could include paying a federally mandated 48-hour wait for pilots to fly before they can fly after each dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

“Talking to the company will go a long way towards allaying those fears,” he said.

Murray noted in his letter that Southwest did not offer pilots incentives to vaccinate as Delta, American, and United did, such as extra time off or extra pay. Offering around $ 15 worth of points on an internal platform was “undoubtedly less effective than the real incentives negotiated by the other airlines with their unions,” he wrote to the company, according to a person familiar with the matter .

“Now that we are facing the escalation of the Delta variant crisis, this will prove significant,” he said.

Ed Bastian, Delta CEO, said last week a vaccine mandate would likely not increase vaccine rates, which he believes already account for about 75% of the company’s roughly 75,000 employees. He said five to ten percent of employees likely have a medical or religious exception for a vaccine.

Voluntary vaccinations

The Atlanta-based airline announced to the Air Line Pilots Association last week of its intention to keep vaccines voluntary, according to a union memo.

“We understand that Covid vaccinations have become an emotional issue,” said the pilots union. “Although an overwhelming majority of the pilot group chose the Covid vaccine, please don’t let this issue become a distraction on the flight deck.”

JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said the New York airline is “reviewing” a vaccination mandate and debating with unions and employees, but the company is “right now” strongly encouraging employees to get vaccinated.

“I think it’s better that people get vaccinated because they want to get vaccinated,” Hayes said in an interview last week. “I think once the US government [fully] approved [the vaccines]”I think that will bring a huge increase in the number of people being vaccinated.” Pfizer and Moderna both received conditional approval to distribute their vaccines in an emergency in December, pending full approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer’s Covid vaccine is expected to receive full approval in a few weeks.

The union that represents the JetBlue pilots said: “We are certainly all ready for the COVID-19 pandemic to come to an end, but there shouldn’t be any rash decisions that affect our pilots and their ability to make private medical decisions with theirs Meeting healthcare providers, potentially compromising consultation, “the Air Line Pilots Association’s JetBlue chapter wrote to members last week.

Frontier Airlines said its employees who refuse to be vaccinated would instead have to test regularly for Covid. United, on the other hand, said employees will be fired if they refuse to get the syringes, although there are exceptions for medical or religious reasons.

More incentives

Mike Klemm, president of the International Association of Machinists District 141, which, among other things, represents around 28,000 customer and ramp service employees at United, estimates that around a third of them are rejecting the mandate.

“That 35% is much louder than the 65%,” he said, adding that while United asked for a lawsuit against the company, it was “in their legal right.”

United is offering a day off for vaccinated workers, but Klemm said it should offer more.

“If they increased the incentive, more people would be attracted to get the vaccine,” he said. “I understand what the company is trying to do, but they should have just given incentives … instead of intimidating people.”

United CEO Scott Kirby told CNN last week that most of the feedback he has received from employees on the move has been positive.

“It’s a highly explosive decision,” said aeronautical advisor Mann. “One way or another, you invite criticism.”