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Biden senior Covid advisor Andy Slavitt leaving White Home subsequent month

Biden senior Covid advisor Andy Slavitt leaving White House next month

Andy Slavitt

Tom Williams | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor to President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team, confirmed on Friday that he will be leaving his role in early June.

Slavitt, whose temporary position on Biden’s Covid panel is known to expire next month, said that while the government had achieved many of its goals for the pandemic, there was more work to be done.

“Look, there’s never a perfect time to leave,” Slavitt said in a Bloomberg interview. But he said he believes that if he retires from the role, “things are in really good hands with the people here, that many difficult things have been accomplished”.

“There’s a lot more to do, but the people here, I couldn’t think of a better group than the people who will be here when I’m gone,” he said.

When asked what still needs to be done, Slavitt mentioned the “great job” of convincing the remaining block of unvaccinated Americans to get their shots and helping other struggling nations to vaccinate.

“There will always be things to do, there will always be challenges,” said Slavitt. “Hopefully, for the sake of the country, they won’t be as intense as before.”

Slavitt said he would be leaving sometime “early June”. The White House did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment for further details on Slavitt’s exit. Slavitt was a so-called special government employee, a status that, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, limited his service to 130 days.

Slavitt discussed his upcoming departure the day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated people would no longer need to wear face masks in most situations.

The shift in guidelines meant a significant relaxation of the social distancing recommendations that were in place in one form or another during most of the pandemic. Biden and other government officials hailed the update, which coincided with the US reaching 250 million vaccinations, as a turning point in the United States’ fight against the virus.

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Suggestions for asking for a month of distant work

Tips for asking for a month of remote work

In addition to on-site yoga classes and ergonomic desks, companies may have a new wellness initiative in store that gives workers annual remote working hours.

Remote working has proven popular with many workers. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 54% of employees say they want to continue working from home after the pandemic has ended.

But that probably won’t happen. Far more companies are expected to switch to hybrid work arrangements this year to get the best of both work environments – flexibility with an office environment focus, less loneliness and less commuting.

However, a hybrid schedule of three days in the office and two days out of the office does not allow for any of the greatest benefits of the work-from-home program: the extended workcation.

Workcations – and their lesser-known cousin, the wellness sabbatical – are blurring the lines between work and vacation. You are sure to work, but with a better view. Research shows that it can be a therapeutic change that complements the regular vacation time rather than replaces it.

Is annual remote working the norm?

“A block of time is an interesting concept,” said Lynne Cazaly, a workplace specialist and author of “Agile-ish: How to Create a Culture of Agility.”

She said the idea might be attractive during certain times of the year (summer, yes, but also during snowy winters), school holidays, and other “difficult times of the year”.

If you don’t offer these evolving advantages, there is a competitive disadvantage.

Lynne Cazaly

Workplace specialist and speaker

Short duration of remote working would also allow employers to compete with companies that are introducing perpetual flexible working arrangements, Cazaly said.

“Many leading indicator companies – like Spotify, Twitter, Square, Unilever and Atlassian – have declared that their employees can work from home forever,” she told CNBC. “Corporations … know that there is a growing war for talent … if you don’t offer these evolving perks, there is a competitive disadvantage.”

Just take a look at google. In an email to employees last week, CEO Sundar Pichai announced that employees would now have four “work-from-anywhere” weeks (of two) to give “everyone more flexibility on summer and vacation travel.” to offer.

Less pandemic-style problems

The problems many employees have had while working from home over the past year – such as isolation and lack of social interaction with coworkers – are less likely to be encountered with short-term stays away from the office.

In fact, workers who use time to travel can improve their mental well-being instead of harming it, said Susie Ellis, CEO of the Global Wellness Institute.

“Academics have actually studied the wellbeing effects of sabbaticals, whether it’s the traditional one-year academic variant or a sabbatical lasting a month or more,” she said. “Research shows [they] Decrease people’s stress, increase general well-being, and help people be more creative. “

Google announced last week that 60% of its workforce will be working in the office three days a week, 20% in new office locations and 20% from home.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Employers’ concerns can also be manageable. According to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 68% of executives said that employees should be in the office at least three days a week to maintain the corporate culture once the pandemic has subsided. For employees following this schedule, one month of remote work equals the requirement of 12 additional external days per year.

Additionally, moving to hybrid schedules could make the old way of working (with everyone in the office) and pandemic-style work (with everyone online) a thing of the past, said Cazaly, adding that a mix of “people here”, there and everywhere it is where it is “now”.

Will it work for your industry?

While some industries cannot simply work from home – retail, construction, entertainment, and healthcare to name a few – Pew’s research has shown that the majority of workers in these industries:

  • Information and technology: 84%
  • Banking, finance, accounting, real estate, or insurance: 84%
  • Education: 59%
  • professional, scientific and technical services: 59%

Yet another obstacle awaits you in these sectors – the buy-in of corporate governance. From Facebook to Google, tech industries are embracing the flexible work trend, while the titans of banking have begun publicly rejecting it.

JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said last week he wasn’t a fan of the work-from-home trend, while Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon described it as “a divergence we’re as soon as possible to correct “.

Jaya Dass, managing director of the Randstad recruitment agency in Singapore and Malaysia, warns employees to perform a “reality check” before requesting remote work opportunities.

“It is not that easy to collaborate and discover work results in a remote environment as it sounds,” she said. “If your manager has not performed as expected over the past year, he may be waiting for you to return to the office to assess whether remote work is the variable factor affecting your work.”

At the same time, Dass noted that it would be inadvisable for companies to unnecessarily reject annual employee remote work requests, as otherwise “they could run the risk of losing their trust and loyalty to the company”.

Tips for annual remote work

1. Don’t wait

When is the right time to ask about annual remote work? “Now, now, now,” Cazaly said, adding that some companies may resort to pre-Covid labor practices over time.

2. Do your research

Check your employee handbook or speak to someone in human resources to see if your company already has a remote working policy, said Amanda Augustine, career coach with resume writing service TopResume.

“If there is no such directive, don’t let that stop you,” she said. “Instead, look online for messages from other organizations – ideally competitors, companies with similar traits, or that your CEO admires – that have indicated that at least some of their employees will be allowed to continue teleworking after the pandemic.”

3. Be strategic

Take your manager’s personality into account when deciding how to start the conversation.

“If your boss prefers direct people, schedule a meeting with a clear goal: ‘I want to schedule a time with you to discuss extending my remote work,'” Augustine said.

Use video chat to request annual remote work hours to assess your employer’s body language, advises career coach Amanda Augustine.

Alistair Berg | DigitalVision | Getty Images

If your manager is less direct, bring up the topic in your next one-on-one interview. Either way, make sure the conversation is over video and not over the phone, Augustine said.

“That way, you can observe your manager’s body language and assess whether your proposal is well received,” she said.

4. Equip yourself with data

Through research, explain how remote working can be a win-win situation for you and your employer.

“Studies have shown that companies offering work flexibility options can reduce employee burnout, increase retention rates, decrease absenteeism, improve productivity, and improve overall work morale,” said Augustine.

Cazaly agrees, “Organizations know that happier employees stay more engaged, productive, and longer.”

5. Show that you are a hard worker

Although remote working has shown productivity gains over the past year, companies can decline short-term remote requests if they fear employees will not be working efficiently away from the office, Cazaly said. To combat this, show that you have a great work ethic and are committed to your role, she said.

Augustine calls this sharing “Your Professional Profits”. Remind your boss of the goals you’ve met or exceeded since working from home, she said.

6. Prepare for objections

Eliminate possible objections from your employer before bringing your case forward. Upgrade your WiFi, buy a new router, fix lights for video calls, and buy noise-canceling headphones, advised Augustine.

Then reassure your managers that you will be available during your absence and that you will not compromise on quality work, said Dass of Randstad.

If companies don’t move, try another option

If employers decline a one-month request, ask to combine two weeks of remote work with two weeks of vacation time.

Kristen Graff, a Singapore-based sales and marketing director, negotiated with her employer to spend a month in Hawaii this summer, with time evenly split between vacation and remote work.

“I know I’m probably the exception, but I didn’t want a four-week vacation,” Graff said, adding that one of the things she wanted most was “a change in the environment … from a productivity standpoint Inspiration “was. “”

Graff said she would be interested in an annual period of remote work, but she believes the idea “really depends on the person”.

“It takes a lot of self-motivation,” she said. “You have to work or you will ruin it for everyone.”

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Paid go away of as much as $4,000 a month for 12 weeks a part of Biden proposal

Paid leave of up to $4,000 a month for 12 weeks part of Biden proposal

aquaArts studio | E + | Getty Images

It would be one of the largest expansions to the US Social Security Network in decades – a new policy of federal paid leave for all workers.

That’s what President Joe Biden is expected to propose on Wednesday night when he launches his $ 1.8 trillion spending and tax credit plan to get the country’s economy back on its feet after a devastating year.

The national paid family and sick leave program would cost around $ 225 billion in a decade, and the White House says it would be paid for primarily by increasing taxes on the rich.

Within 10 years, Biden’s plan would guarantee workers 12 weeks of paid vacation that they could use to “bond with a new child, care for a critically ill loved one, cope with a relative’s military mission, find safety from sexual assault and.” Stalking. ” or domestic violence, healing from their own serious illness or taking time to deal with the death of a loved one, “according to a draft published by the White House.

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Workers could earn up to $ 4,000 a month while on vacation, with at least two-thirds of their average weekly wage replaced. The low-wage workers would receive 80% of their previous income. Biden’s plan also provides that workers have three days of bereavement leave per year from year one. Grief was a major theme of Biden’s presidency. He often talked about losing his son Beau to brain cancer at the age of 46.

The President also called on Congress to pass a law requiring employers to give workers seven paid sick days a year.

Currently, companies with 50 or more employees are required to grant up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. However, the United States is one of the few countries that does not guarantee workers paid time off when they have a new child or deal with an illness.

In Japan and Norway, new parents receive more than a year of paid leave.

Why is the US different from other countries? “We have had low taxes and a tight safety net in the past,” said Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

For the same reason – corporate opposition – the US lacks universal health coverage, said Ruth Milkman, a sociologist and labor expert at the City University of New York.

“You are allergic to government intervention in the job market,” said Milkman.

The vast majority of American voters – around 80% – support the idea of ​​a national paid vacation program.

But while Americans want access to paid family and sick leave, “a government program is not the solution,” said Rachel Greszler, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

“Most would much rather have flexible and accommodating guidelines from their employers than deal with government bureaucrats and the constraints of a unified government program,” Greszler said.

In the absence of a federal paid vacation policy, some states – including California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island – have implemented programs of their own to compensate workers who take time off.

As most workers are at the mercy of their employers’ policy, fewer than one in five have access to paid family or parental leave. Less than half of the paid leave is now offered. Access is even rarer among people of color and low-income workers.

“Too many people have been forced to make impossible choices between the incomes they need and the families they love because they don’t have paid vacations,” said Ruth Martin, senior vice president of the MomsRising community.

“It has become an even more devastating problem during the pandemic that has made millions sick, brought hospital stays to unprecedented levels and forced even more people to take time off to care for relatives with Covid-19,” Martin said.

By one estimate, the typical working-age adult will lose more than $ 9,500 after taking 12 weeks off without pay.

A national paid vacation program would likely be funded through payroll taxes, much like the unemployment system funded, Sawhill of the Brookings Institution said.

In shaping its policies, the federal government should learn lessons from states that offer paid vacation, said Linda Houser, a professor at Widener University.

“One of the many fascinating elements of the state’s paid vacation laws is how they’re paid,” said Houser. “Most of them are funded mainly through employee bonuses.

“In some cases, both employees and employers contribute,” she added. “As with other social security programs in the US and elsewhere, the idea is that everyone pays in.”

Another feature of the state programs that the federal government should investigate is how they have found a way to engage the growing numbers of freelancers, gig workers, and the self-employed, Milkman said.

“It’s pretty cheap, so the self-employed and gig workers choose to do it by just paying the tax, just like some do with Social Security,” Milkman said. “These programs are an insurance model.

“When you pay the tax, you can make a claim when an insured event such as a new baby occurs.”

While Republicans endorse certain paid vacation policies, they oppose Biden’s plan to collect taxes to fund the program. This could make such laws difficult to pass, although Democrats could also use the budget vote process to introduce paid vacation.

This avenue enables them to pass laws by simple majority, which is all they have. Other bills typically need 60 votes to move forward, thanks to Senate procedural rules. The next budget vote process is expected to take place in autumn.

“Paid leave certainly has an impact on the budget so it can go through the reconciliation process,” said Martin.

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Nationwide Poetry Month: Coping With the Covid-19 Pandemic

National Poetry Month: Coping With the Covid-19 Pandemic

Amanda Gorman’s inspired and inspirational poem, which the show stole from President Biden’s inauguration in January, has shown millions of Americans the emotional and social power of poetry and, hopefully, got them to use it themselves.

Diana Raab, psychologist, poet and writer in Santa Barbara wrote on her blog: “Poetry can help us feel part of a bigger picture and not just live in our isolated little world. Writing and reading poetry can be a stepping stone to growth, healing, and transformation. Poets help us see a piece of the world in a way that we may not have had in the past. “

Dr. Rafael Campo, poet and doctor at Harvard Medical School, believes that poetry can also help doctors become better carers, nurture empathy with their patients, and bear testimony of our shared humanity, which he believes are essential to healing. In a TEDxCambridge lecture in June 2019, he said: “When we hear rhythmic language and recite poetry, our body translates rough sensory data into nuanced knowledge – feeling becomes meaning.”

According to Dr. Robert S. Carroll, a psychiatrist from the University of California at Los Angeles, Medical Center, poetry can empower people to talk about taboo subjects like death and dying and enable healing, growth, and transformation.

Regarding the pandemic, Dr. Rosenthal: “This crisis affects more or less everyone, and poetry can help us deal with difficult feelings such as loss, sadness, anger and hopelessness. While not everyone has the gift of writing poetry, we can all benefit from the thoughts that so many poets have expressed beautifully. “

Indeed, the first section of the book contains Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art” about losses that can comfort those who suffer. She wrote::

Even to lose you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I won’t have lied. It is obvious

The art of losing isn’t too difficult to master

though it can look like (write it!) like a disaster.

“When people are devastated by casualties, they should be allowed to feel and express their pain,” said Dr. Rosenthal in an interview. “They should be offered support and compassion, and not asked to move on. You cannot force it to close. If people want a shutdown, they will do it in their own time. “

The closure wasn’t a state that Edna St. Vincent Millay, who wrote this, cherished

“Time brings no relief; you all lied

Who told me that time would free me from my pain? “

Dr. However, Rosenthal pointed out that time brings relief to most people, despite what his friend Kay Redfield Jamison wrote in her memoir, An Unquiet Mind. For her, the relief “took up her own and not particularly sweet time”.

I now know that thanks to Dr. Rosenthal can be a literary panacea for the pandemic. They let us know that we are not alone, that others have survived devastating loss and desolation before us, and that we can be lifted up by the images and cadence of the written and spoken word.

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President Joe Biden urges states to vaccinate lecturers, faculty workers this month

President Joe Biden urges states to vaccinate teachers, school staff this month

Letetsia A. Fox, Chapter President Los Angeles 500 of the California School Employees Association, receives her first COVID-19 Moderna shot from Nurse Sosse Bedrossian, Director of Nursing at LAUSD.

Al Seib | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on states to prioritize vaccinating teachers and school staff against Covid-19 with a goal of giving at least one shot to every educator and staff member across the country by the end of March.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously urged states to give priority to teacher vaccination. However, some public health professionals criticized that vaccination was not a requirement for K-12 schools to reopen.

“Let me be clear, we can reopen schools if the right steps are taken before staff are vaccinated,” Biden said at the White House on Tuesday. “But time and again we have heard from educators and parents who are concerned about it.”

To expedite the safe reopening of schools, Biden said, “Let’s treat personal learning as the essential service it is, and that means vaccinating key workers who provide that service, educators, school staff and child carers.” . ”

“My challenge for all states, territories and the District of Columbia is this: We want every educator, school worker and childcare worker to receive at least one shot by the end of March,” he added.

Biden said he will use the federal pharmacy partnership established with retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens to expand access to Covid-19 vaccines and make the shots available to teachers and school staff before K-12. This would enable these workers to obtain the vaccine in states where they do not meet local approval requirements.

His statement is the strongest appeal yet and the most ambitious timeline the federal government has tabled for states to give priority to educators and school staff, although that is not the mandate for it. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, welcomed the president’s remarks as a concrete step in reopening schools for personal learning.

“What an enormous relief to have a president who can cope with this moment of crisis,” Weingarten said in a statement. “Vaccinations are an essential ingredient in safely reopening schools. This is the administration taking steps to expedite vaccination for educators. This is great news for anyone looking to study in school.”

With the doses of the Covid-19 vaccines still scarce, states are handing them out to prioritized groups, mostly key frontline workers, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. While the CDC makes recommendations as to which groups should receive the vaccine first, states ultimately make their own decisions.

The CDC has recommended that teachers be vaccinated in the Phase 1b group, which includes everyone over the age of 75, as well as “key people on the front lines”. However, some states have excluded teachers and school staff from their definition of the main frontline workforce.

Although the country’s top health authority recommends states give priority to vaccination teachers, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky explains that unvaccinated teachers shouldn’t be an obstacle to schools reopening. She said if schools follow public health precautions set by the CDC, teachers and staff can safely return to face-to-face learning.

However, based on the parameters set by the CDC, about 90% of schools in the country are in significant counties where the CDC says it is not safe for schools to fully reopen to face-to-face learning.

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NY will start providing photographs to folks with underlying well being circumstances this month

NY will begin offering shots to people with underlying health conditions this month

A health care worker gives a picture of Moderna COVID-19 to a woman at a pop-up vaccination site operated by SOMOS Community Care during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in New York on January 29, 2021 Vaccine.

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New York State plans to take unused Covid-19 vaccine doses from hospitals and distribute them to city and county health officials to distribute to people with underlying health conditions starting Feb.15, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday.

The state has focused on vaccinating its health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities with its initial rations of Covid-19 shots. Now, hospitals have a week to use up their doses for staff before the state transfers the vials to local health departments for people with pre-existing health conditions that put them at high risk of serious illness, Cuomo said.

“Hospitals, you still have a week to get your hospital staff to accept the vaccine and then we will focus on the comorbidities,” Cuomo said at a press conference.

Cuomo didn’t immediately state what health conditions someone would need to get a vaccine, despite saying New York officials are working with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to compile a “comorbidity list.” In January, the federal government, under the former Trump administration, proposed that states open up their vaccination eligibility to people 65 and over and to those with conditions like diabetes.

Later on Friday, the governor released a list of 15 underlying health conditions that would entitle a resident to a sting. Some of these conditions include cancer, heart failure, severe obesity, pregnancy, and diabetes, among others.

The Democratic governor added that the hospitals will continue to receive adequate care to vaccinate “who to do and who to plan and which workers to convince to take it”. All doses above that amount will be given to local health authorities, he said.

To date, New York has administered more than 1.7 million first vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as well as nearly 500,000 second vaccine doses, according to the Democratic governor. Around 7 million New Yorkers can currently be vaccinated.

Cuomo said the state has used almost all of its allotted doses and is now waiting for next week’s supply.

In mid-January, Cuomo expanded the pool of people eligible for vaccines in New York aged 65 and over, as well as those in certain key industries such as teachers, police and transit workers. However, some residents struggled to sign up for appointments in New York due to limited availability.

“We don’t have an offer that can reach everyone, we understand that,” said Cuomo. “So the prioritization is to reach those people who are most at risk or most important for this period.”

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Retail Gross sales Drop in December for Third Straight Month

Retail Sales Drop in December for Third Straight Month

Consumer spending fell for the third month in a row in December, confirming what many economists had forecast as the disappointing Christmas season for many retailers and restaurants.

Retail sales fell 0.7 percent last month, the Commerce Department said on Friday as the economic recovery showed signs of stagnation and the number of viruses spiked across the country, causing shoppers to shut down stores amid a new wave of Avoid restrictions.

For the second straight month, the decline was worse than predicted by most economists, showing that the deterioration in the overall economy in the final quarter of 2020 was deeper than expected.

“In one line: grim,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, of December retail sales in a research note on Friday.

“We believe the fear of the third wave of Covid and the restrictions imposed across much of the country to suppress it have caused most of the damage to retail sales in the past two months,” he added added.

The decline was widespread in many categories, including electronics, auto, and grocery and beverage stores, which saw high spending last spring and summer but fell towards the end of the year. Restaurant spending fell again in December as cases and closings rose.

The decline most likely also reflects how retailers’ strategies of offering vacation deals early in fall spread the holiday shopping season over months, and may have dampened sales closer to Christmas.

The Commerce Department also revised its November sales data, showing a 1.4 percent drop, larger than the 1.1 percent drop previously reported.

Weaker consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy, adds to the urgency of the $ 1.9 trillion economic bailout proposed by the new administration in Biden this week, which will increase direct payments to individuals by $ 1,400 would increase.

“This is likely the low point for retail sales as the late December incentive and the upcoming incentive under the Biden administration will improve both bank accounts and consumer sentiment,” Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a Explanation.

However, other economists said Americans would be more likely to save their stimulus money than spend it over the next few months, especially as stores remain closed.

The retailers trade group searched for the bright spots in the trade report, highlighting that vacation shopping was higher last year than it was in 2019, with sales up 8.3 percent.

“With the virus spreading, government restrictions on retailers, and heightened political and economic uncertainty, consumers turned to gifts that lifted the spirits of their families and friends and made them feel normal in the challenging year,” said Matthew Shay, president the National Retail Federation said in a statement.

However, there is evidence that more and more of these sales are going to huge retailers who have been able to use their scale and digital skills to gain larger market share during the pandemic.

One such retailer, Target, said Wednesday that its November and December sales were up 17.2 percent year over year, driven by both in-store and online shopping. Target’s digital revenue was the largest area of ​​growth, more than doubling from the 2019 Christmas season. The vast majority of these deliveries came from Target stores.

Amazon has also said that its Christmas sales hit a record high in 2020 but has not yet provided detailed figures.

Overall, online shopping over the 2020 vacation increased 32 percent year over year to $ 188 billion. However, the weakness in retail sales in December shows that despite the surge in e-commerce, the majority of consumer spending – such as groceries, auto sales, and restaurants – is still in physical environments that remain constrained due to the pandemic.

That reality, Shepherdson said, means that despite the expected stimulus for consumers in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, spending could remain depressed for the next several months.

“We anticipate consumer spending will have problems until the falling Covid cases allow restrictions to be relaxed from March,” he said.

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December is shaping as much as be the Covid pandemic’s deadliest month but within the U.S.

December is shaping up to be the Covid pandemic's deadliest month yet in the U.S.

Sammie Michael Dent Jr., the grandson of Florence Bolton, a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient who died November 2 at Roseland Community Hospital, carries her coffin to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. USA, December 9, 2020.

Shannan Stapleton | Reuters

December is well on the way to becoming the deadliest month of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. It tops April when more than 60,738 Americans lost their lives to the coronavirus.

Hospitals in the US are being overwhelmed and people are dying in record numbers again – even as US and state officials rush to get life-saving doses of vaccine across the country. December is already the second deadliest month of the pandemic in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 42,500 Covid-19 deaths on Thursday and two weeks left each month.

At the start of the pandemic in April, hospitals in the New York City area were overwhelmed by Covid patients and doctors knew little about how to treat them. The country also didn’t test as many people for the virus in April, so the death toll this month could be higher than the original data shows, epidemiologists warn.

The US currently reports more than 2,600 deaths per day based on a weekly average, up from an average of approximately 2,025 deaths per day in April.

The record comes as the US begins rolling out a vaccine for the disease. But health officials and medical staff are warning that a vaccine will not immediately rid the country of the outbreak.

Dr. Syra Madad, senior director of the system-wide program for specific pathogens at New York City Health + Hospitals, described the recent surge in Covid as “a terrible case of Deja Vu.”

“It’s a terrible PTSD to know that we were first on the front lines and in the epicenter and now see that the whole nation is not learning from the lessons of the Northeast,” she said in a telephone interview. “You can’t magically think that the virus will go away on its own without a strategy for containment and mitigation.”

She added that the outbreak will continue to worsen before it gets better based on current trends.

“If you don’t do anything, it will absolutely get worse,” she said. “When cases are widespread we have to put restrictions in place, but I think we can be a lot more strategic because we’ve learned a lot about the spread of the virus.”

People need to hold on and limit their interactions with others while the country works to roll out the vaccine, Madad said.

“We have an incredible scientific achievement that is benefiting healthcare workers across the country,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner, in a telephone interview. “At the same time, we’re seeing an unprecedented number of people getting sick, hospitalized, and dying.”

The country reported more than 233,200 new infections and more than 3,200 deaths on Thursday, according to Hopkins data. Many hospitals across the country are running out of intensive care units, standard beds and staff to handle the surge in patients, data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows.

Large states like Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and California each reported nearly 3,000 deaths or more this month, which is a significant fraction of the national total. However, many smaller states have been disproportionately affected by the virus, with North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, New Mexico, and Kansas topping the list when it comes to population adjustment.

Despite some signs of a slowdown in daily new cases in the Midwest, the number of new cases is still rising across the country, hitting a new high of nearly 217,000 average cases per day as of Thursday.

“Basically, we are now seeing the worst-case scenario of what we predicted a few months ago. This is the deadly winter that we thought could be the case if people don’t take the necessary measures to.” protect yourself and your loved ones, “said Wen, emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University.

Some state and local officials are introducing new restrictions to contain the spread of the virus and protect hospitals from congestion. California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued orders that trigger restrictions when regions of the state reach a certain level of intensive care occupancy. Several regions have sparked new home stays.

And New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has been calling for further restrictions in the last few days, stating that “all forms of restrictions must be on the table”. He launched the idea of ​​a strict post-Christmas restriction while Governor Andrew Cuomo said restrictions could hit New York in January if current trends persist.

As officials ponder implementing new restrictions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged Americans not to travel for Christmas and restrict all non-essential travel.

“I’m very worried about Christmas,” Wen said. “There are so many viruses across the country and I just hope people will remember that the end is not far away. We just have to get through this vacation and this winter.”

– CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

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How New York Metropolis Vaccinated 6 Million Individuals in Much less Than a Month

How New York City Vaccinated 6 Million People in Less Than a Month

“It’s a remarkable achievement in every way,” said Dr. DiMaggio. “It was a public health triumph.”

Dr. Weinstein stepped back from his post in November 1947, seven months after the smallpox outbreak. He left a blueprint for containing an infectious disease in a large, dense city.

But this time New York is facing a logistical hurdle with the coronavirus pandemic. Infectious disease experts point to erosion of public health infrastructure – not just in the city, but across the country. However, they believe that the biggest obstacle is not its proliferation, but rather the public’s distrust of government, academia and media.

“We come from a communications train wreck,” said Dr. Speeches. “We learned that politics is poisonous for a public health initiative, especially during a crisis. Honesty and straightforward, clear messaging are absolutely important. “

In 1947 Dr. Weinstein the only voice with a megaphone. He spoke and the people listened.

“Back then, the media landscape was much simpler,” Ms. Sherman said as she unveiled the Ad Council’s campaign, due to begin early next year. “In today’s environment we are dealing with highly fragmented media. We will rely on micro-influencers who are the trusted voices. “

When the introduction of the Covid-19 vaccine began in New York City last week, one important question remains: can the city get close to what it achieved 73 years ago?

Dr. Redlener, who advises Mayor Bill de Blasio on emergency response, believes New York will rise to the challenge again. But he added, “It is almost inconceivable that we will be able to do something similar so quickly and effectively.”