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Health

Nursing Properties Face Dilemma: Vaccinate Employees or Don’t Get Paid.

Nursing Homes Face Dilemma: Vaccinate Staff or Don’t Get Paid.

Marita Smith runs a nursing home in Seattle while Janet Snipes runs one in Denver. They share years of industry experience and painful memories of Covid-19, but have vastly different views on a new federal policy making vaccinations mandatory for all care home workers.

Ms. Smith said unvaccinated people should not be caring for a vulnerable population that has already been hit hard by the pandemic. The industry is seeing rising infection rates and deaths among residents again, but not reaching the highs of last year, and the mandate is expected to avert further increases.

“It’s great,” said Ms. Smith, administrator of the St. Anne Nursing and Rehab Center, calling the policy a “pretty big deal” that would “flush out health professionals who shouldn’t be in the health service.”

Such exits are exactly what worries Ms. Snipes, executive director of the Holly Heights Care Center in Denver. She, too, wants all homeworkers to be vaccinated, but not at the risk of losing employees who fail to do so in the midst of a labor shortage in an already high turnover industry.

Of the 1.5 million nursing home workers in the United States, approximately 540,000 – 40 percent of the workforce – are unvaccinated. Their fate could be directly affected by a directive announced by President Biden on Wednesday mandating vaccination of all nursing home workers, with the rules expected to go into effect in September. Institutions that fail to meet this goal could face fines or lose federal reimbursement, a major source of income for many.

The practical effect of the policy is that workers must be vaccinated or lose their jobs. Ms. Snipes said several employees told her they could leave. One who referred to her as her best nurse told her she was “very, very scared” of the vaccine, partly because she is black and worried about past medical experiments.

Getting vaccinated “is the safest thing for our residents and staff, but we believe he must contract all health care facilities,” Ms. Snipes said of President Biden. “We cannot afford to lose staff to hospitals and assisted living facilities.”

Several large nursing home chains and some states have already issued vaccination mandates. Industry officials said vaccinations were highly recommended, but their position on the new policy mirrored that of Ms. Snipes.

“We’re going to lose tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of workers,” said Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive officer of the American Health Care Association, a large nursing home trade group. He said he was hoping for policy changes and had already worked with Dr. Lee A. Fleisher, Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, talked about it and looked for a meeting with Xavier Becerra, Secretary for Health and Human Services.

The most important change the industry is seeking is a signal from the administration that at some point there will be a mandate for all healthcare facilities so that nursing home workers can see there is nowhere else they can go. “Make it a commitment for everyone,” said Mr. Parkinson.

In fact, around 2,000 hospitals have already placed vaccination orders, reducing job opportunities for unvaccinated healthcare workers.

Dr. Fleisher said the CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saw a “direct link” in the latest data between rising infections in nursing homes and unvaccinated staff.

Updated

Aug. 19, 2021, 6:01 p.m. ET

“The higher the percentage of unvaccinated workers, the higher the percentage of cases we have seen in these homes,” said Dr. Butcher. “There was a strong relationship.”

Currently, 60 percent of nursing home workers nationwide are vaccinated, well below the previous industry target of 75 percent by the end of June.

Parkinson said the industry is also lobbying the government to “launch a much more intense media campaign to influence workers” that vaccines are safe and effective. The trade organization also wants the government to create a grace period for hesitant employees.

Uy, a geriatrician and medical director of a Philadelphia nursing home, said he had seen the human resource challenges and was “excited about the mandate.”

“I’m exhausted,” he said. “The vaccine is like a small fortress around the weakest, in which the people inside remain safe even though a fire is raging outside.”

The mandate aims to avoid an increase in Covid cases and deaths in a high risk population.

Of the 625,000 Covid deaths to date in the US, almost a fifth – 133,700 – were residents of nursing homes, according to the CDC

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 coronavirus 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.

And a recent CDC study of 4,000 nursing homes found that the effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines among nursing home residents dropped from 75 percent in the spring to 53 percent by midsummer, when the delta variant spread further. “The results underline the crucial importance of the Covid-19 vaccination for employees, residents and visitors,” stated the authors of the study.

Health experts fear that unvaccinated employees could bring Covid-19 into a nursing home and infect residents. Nationwide, more than 80 percent of residents of nursing homes are vaccinated, but the number of cases in this population group is already increasing. In the week ending August 15, 354 care home residents died of Covid-19, the highest number since mid-March, and 3,585 tested positive, according to the CDC

The CDC has found that more employees are getting sick. In the week ending August 15, 5,810 nursing home employees contracted Covid-19, five times more than a month earlier, and 25 employees died.

Earlier this month, the Good Samaritan Society, which operates 142 nursing homes nationwide, announced that all 15,000 employees must be vaccinated by November 1, a position the company took after in homes where unvaccinated workers also tested positive , an increase in infections among residents was recorded. So far, the workforce has remained stable, said Randy Bury, the company’s CEO, who has argued in the past that such mandates would create safe and desirable jobs.

However, he argued that the Biden government’s new policy was wrong unless it was applied to the health sector as a whole. “What’s the difference in a nursing home versus a hospital?” Said Mr. Bury. “They are susceptible to the virus when they come into contact with unvaccinated employees.”

LeadingAge, a non-profit organization that represents 2,000 nursing homes and had previously requested mandates in individual homes, criticized the Biden policy for its narrow focus.

“The administration is right,” said Katie Smith Sloan, president and chief executive officer of LeadingAge, in a released statement. “We are at war. It would be a tragic misstep for the nurses who continue to struggle on the front lines to withdraw funds. “

Ms. Snipes, the director of Holly Heights in Denver, said she spent months training the staff and promoting vaccinations. She said most of her unvaccinated employees agreed to obey the mandate, but she mentioned three that she feared might leave. One told her that she did not want to put anything strange in her body. A second Catholic said he did not want an mRNA vaccine for religious reasons and that he had a letter of support from his bishop.

The third was the black nurse, who “sounds the most fearful of all the people I have spoken to,” said Ms. Snipes. “I want to save you as an employee.”

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Health

U.S. to require nursing houses workers get photographs or lose federal funding

U.S. to require nursing homes staff get shots or lose federal funding

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that his government will require all nursing home workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19, the latest move to protect Americans if the Delta variant spreads.

“Today I announce a new step,” said Biden in a speech at the White House. “If you work in a nursing home and care for people on Medicare or Medicaid, you also need to get vaccinated.”

Biden’s remarks came after an administrative official confirmed to NBC News that the government will withhold federal funding from nursing homes that don’t fully vaccinate their employees.

The new policy, which would hold back funding for Medicare and Medicaid nursing homes that fail to comply, could go into effect as early as next month, the official said, although the timing is fluid. This would affect around 15,000 nursing homes, which employ more than 1.3 million people nationwide.

The move comes as the highly contagious Delta variant is causing a surge in new cases nationwide, and federal officials say they are starting to see signs of declining vaccine protection against mild and moderate illnesses.

According to data compiled by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, roughly 60% of nursing home workers nationwide are vaccinated – much less than the 82.4% of residents who received the vaccinations. In some states, the percentage of nurses who have been vaccinated is even lower.

Some medical experts have asked the U.S. government to pressure nursing homes to vaccinate their staff, saying the unvaccinated staff put older residents at greater risk, who are more likely to become seriously ill or have something called a breakthrough infection.

“We have to go faster. So I’m taking vaccination measures where I can, ”Biden said in the speech.

The new rules for nursing homes are “all about keeping people safe and safe,” he said.

“This is no time to let our vigilance down. We just have to finish the job, with science, with facts and with confidence,” said the president.

Earlier in the day, federal health officials announced that they plan to provide booster shots to most Americans from the week of September 20th. They said it was “very clear” that immunity decreased after the first two doses, and with the dominance of the Delta variant, “we are gradually seeing signs of decreased protection against mild and moderate illnesses.”

“Based on our latest assessment, current protection against serious illness, hospitalization and death could decline in the coming months, especially for those at higher risk or who were vaccinated during the earlier stages of vaccination,” said the statement signed by CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, White House Senior Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, and other US health leaders.

Nursing home residents, health care providers, and the elderly – the first groups to be vaccinated in December and January – will be targeted, according to Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, likely prioritized to get extra vaccinations.

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Politics

U.S. deploying 3,000 troops to assist evacuate Kabul embassy employees as Taliban advance

U.S. deploying 3,000 troops to help evacuate Kabul embassy staff as Taliban advance

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration will deploy 3,000 troops to Afghanistan to facilitate downsizing at the U.S. embassy in Kabul as the Taliban advance rapidly into the Afghan capital.

The troops, which will consist of a total of three infantry battalions from the Marines and the Army, will be stationed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul within 24 to 48 hours, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a press conference Thursday.

“This is a very tightly focused mission to ensure the orderly reduction of civilian personnel from Afghanistan,” said Kirby, adding that the Pentagon expects to increase its air transport capabilities in the region.

A Taliban fighter guarded the entrance to the police headquarters in Ghazni on August 12, 2021, when the Taliban moved closer to the Afghan capital after taking the city of Ghazni.

AFP | Getty Images

In addition, a US infantry brigade will be stationed in Kuwait if it is needed in Afghanistan to secure the airport.

In the meantime, a joint Army and Air Force unit of 1,000 men is being deployed to Qatar to help process special immigrant visas for Afghan nationals who supported US and NATO forces during the war.

Kirby said that despite the temporary influx of troops into Afghanistan, the US expects to fully withdraw all troops by August 31.

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The US embassy in Kabul on Thursday again urged Americans to leave Afghanistan immediately, warning that their ability to help citizens was “extremely limited” due to deteriorating security conditions and downsizing.

“In view of the evolving security situation, we assume that we will fall back on a core diplomatic presence in Afghanistan,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price on Thursday.

Price added that Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and NATO partners about the new troop movement earlier on Thursday.

Since President Joe Biden’s decision in April to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban have made staggering strides on the battlefield, with nearly two-thirds of the nation under their control.

The militants captured the strategically important city of Ghazni on Thursday and brought their front line within 95 miles of Kabul, an astonishing development that comes almost two weeks before US and NATO coalition forces exit.

The Taliban also claim to have captured Kandahar and Herat, Afghanistan’s second and third largest cities. Afghan officials confirmed Thursday night that the Taliban had captured Kandahar, the 12th district, according to a report by The Associated Press.

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Although the Afghan military was vastly outnumbered, the Taliban captured three Afghan provincial capitals and a local army headquarters in Kunduz on Wednesday, according to the AP.

Wednesday’s wins followed a dramatic blitz weekend in which the group captured five provincial capitals in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon has previously said that the ongoing Taliban offensive in the war-torn country violates a commitment made by the group last year to open peace talks with the Afghan government.

“What we are seeing on the ground is that the Taliban are advancing and taking control of district and provincial centers, which clearly shows that they believe it is possible to get government through violence, brutality, violence and repression in great contradiction to their previously stated goal of actually participating in a negotiated political solution, “Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.

Afghan security personnel are patrolling after regaining control of parts of the city of Herat after fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces on the outskirts of Herat, 640 kilometers (397 miles) west of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, August 8, 2021.

Hamed Sarfarazi | AP

He added that while the Pentagon is concerned to see such advances by the Taliban, the Afghan military must now take advantage of nearly two decades of training from US and NATO coalition forces.

“They have the advantage in numbers, operational structure, air force and modern weapons, and it’s really about having the will and leadership to use those advantages for their own benefit,” said Kirby.

“The recipe cannot just be a permanent US presence in Afghanistan that never ends,” he added.

At the White House, Biden told reporters on Tuesday that he had no regrets about his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan, despite the Taliban’s shocking gains.

“Look, we’ve spent over a trillion dollars over 20 years, we’ve trained and equipped over 300,000 Afghan forces with modern equipment,” Biden said.

“Afghan leaders need to come together,” added the president. “You have to fight for yourself, fight for your nation.”

– CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report from New York.

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World News

Taliban seize two key Afghan cities as U.S. evacuates embassy workers

Taliban seize two key Afghan cities as U.S. evacuates embassy staff

Taliban fighters stand over a damaged police vehicle along the roadside in Kandahar on August 13, 2021.

AFP | Getty Images

The Taliban overtook two of Afghanistan’s largest cities, the latest conquests for the insurgents who are rapidly wresting control of the country just weeks before the U.S. was set to complete its withdrawal of troops there.

Islamist militants captured Kandahar, the second-most populous city in the country, as well as the third-largest city of Herat, NBC News reported Friday, citing a Taliban spokesman and local Afghan officials.

The insurgents have now seized at least half of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, taking control of roughly two-thirds of the nation and encircling Kabul, where the U.S. Embassy is preparing to evacuate all but its core diplomatic personnel.

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Afghan government security forces have crumpled and many civilians have fled their homes amid the Taliban’s surprisingly swift advance toward the nation’s power center.

But the White House on Friday morning said Biden stands by his decision to end the U.S. presence in Afghanistan after nearly two decades of fighting in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“The President is firmly focused on how we can continue to execute an orderly drawdown and protect our men and women serving in Afghanistan,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

“You heard him earlier this week: he does not regret his decision,” Psaki said.

In addition to the deployment of three infantry battalions from the Marines and Army to Kabul, a U.S. infantry brigade will be positioned on standby in Kuwait. Another 1,000-member unit comprising Army and Air Force personnel will deploy to Qatar to help process special immigrant visas for Afghan nationals who assisted U.S. and NATO troops during the war.

US national flag is reflected on the windows of the US embassy building in Kabul on July 30, 2021.

Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images

Nevertheless, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the U.S. still expects to fully withdraw all troops by the end of August.

Britain said Thursday it will send about 600 troops to help its citizens leave Afghanistan, where about 4,000 U.K. nationals are believed to be stationed. Canada is also deploying special forces to the country to evacuate staff in the Canadian Embassy in Kabul.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.

— CNBC’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

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Health

Alaska Airways is contemplating Covid vaccine mandates for workers

Alaska Airlines is considering Covid vaccine mandates for staff

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 taking off from LAX.

PG | Getty Images

Alaska Airlines announced Wednesday that it is considering making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for employees, according to a company memo that CNBC viewed.

The policy change would make the Seattle-based airline the newest airline to require vaccines for its employees. On Friday, United Airlines became the first major US airline to require vaccines for its employees. Frontier Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have since issued similar requirements.

Alaska, which has about 20,000 employees, said if it did make vaccines mandatory it would after the Food and Drug Administration fully approved one of the vaccines currently available under emergency approval.

Airline executives recently raised concerns about the rapidly spreading Delta variant of Covid. Southwest Airlines lowered its revenue and profit forecasts on Wednesday and made the spread of the variant due to weaker bookings and increased cancellations.

Delta, Southwest, and American have encouraged, but not mandated, employee vaccination.

“As an employer with a duty to protect you, and given the contagion and health risks of the COVID-19 virus and its variants, we have the right to make that decision and ask you for information about your vaccine status,” Alaska employees said . It was said that there would be exemptions for religious or medical reasons, similar to other companies.

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Health

Brookdale Senior Dwelling mandates vaccine for workers

Brookdale Senior Living mandates vaccine for staff

Brookdale Senior Living, a major operator of assisted living and skilled care facilities in the United States, will require its employees to be vaccinated against Covid, CEO Cindy Baier told CNBC on Friday.

The move is taking place as the highly transmissible Delta variant is causing an increase in coronavirus cases in the country, including in nursing homes. Between July 25 and August 1, coronavirus cases among nursing home residents rose 38%, although levels remain well below previous highs, according to the CDC.

Vaccines provide immune protection to vulnerable residents that was not provided in earlier stages of the pandemic, when long-term care facilities were epicentres for devastating outbreaks. At Brookdale Senior Living’s facilities, which are located in 41 states, 93% of residents are vaccinated, Baier told CNBC. The majority of Brookdale’s portfolio consists of assisted living and memory maintenance facilities.

“Given the widespread access of the vaccine, we are in a much better position to deal with the pandemic,” she said in an interview with the “Power Lunch”.

Still, the surge in coronavirus infection rates across the country puts nursing home residents at risk, many of whom are older and suffer from conditions that make Covid more dangerous to them. Rising vaccination rates among staff coming and going to the facility can play a crucial role in trying to limit the likelihood of an outbreak.

Covid vaccinations have not only been shown to be effective at reducing the risk of developing serious illness or death from the disease, but studies suggest that they can also provide protection against infection.

“We want [have] every Brookdale employee we can vaccinate. Although our efforts have been going on for several months and our vaccination rates are increasing, we would like them to be even higher, “said Baier.” That is why we have chosen a vaccine requirement with limited exemptions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 82% of nursing home residents in the US were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by the end of July. However, the vaccination rates for health workers are lower at around 59%. Overall, 49.9% of the US population is fully vaccinated, while 58.2% received at least one vaccination, according to the CDC.

Earlier this week, Genesis Healthcare – another major U.S. nursing home operator – announced that workers would need to get the Covid vaccine in order to stay on the job. Outside of long-term care, a number of other big companies recently rolled out stricter vaccination policies for employees, including United Airlines on Friday.

The measures are seen as a shock to the country’s vaccination rate, which had slowed significantly since the spring and prompted U.S. health officials to step up efforts to convince hesitant Americans to get the Covid vaccinations.

Several southern states with low vaccination rates have seen increases in shots administered recently as the spread of the Covid Delta variant increased, according to a CNBC analysis of CDC data. In Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas, the weekly average of the first daily doses reported has more than doubled since early July.

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Health

Nursing Properties Confront New Covid Outbreaks Amid Requires Employees Vaccination Mandates

Nursing Homes Confront New Covid Outbreaks Amid Calls for Staff Vaccination Mandates

In saying last Friday that it was monitoring outbreaks at nursing homes related to the Delta variant, the C.D.C. said some measures under review would include “testing, quarantine, visitation, use of PPE and source control.”

Underscoring the concern of regulators about unvaccinated workers, Colorado just implemented a new rule that unvaccinated staff members at nursing homes must be tested for the virus, using a rapid test, every time they come to work. California is now requiring health care workers in the state to be vaccinated or undergo frequent testing.

Feelings are raw among nursing home staff and operators.

“I don’t want to lose anyone else,” said Marita Smith, administrator at Saint Anne Nursing and Rehab Center in Seattle. Eight of 32 residents died of Covid early on in the pandemic, including four who were already on hospice. Ms. Smith says the losses help explain why all 52 staff members have been vaccinated.

“I question their reason for being in the business if they don’t get it,” Ms. Smith said. “You just don’t want to turn your back.”

Some nursing home staff members resisting vaccination argue that they can protect residents without being inoculated. “I go home, stay home as much as possible, do grocery pickup instead of shopping, do a lot of hand washing. I’m not exposing myself to other people,” said Jessica M., a director of nursing at a home in Grand Junction, Colo., who is unvaccinated.

She declined to give her last name because she wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. She added that she wanted to make sure “the side effects aren’t worse than protecting someone from Covid.”

But consumer advocates and others point to the difficulties nursing homes have long had in protecting residents from infection. A government report issued in May found that nursing homes averaged three Covid outbreaks from May 2020 through January 2021, with two-thirds reporting the outbreaks began with an infected staff member testing positive.

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Politics

Kamala Harris’ chief of employees limits entry to vp

Kamala Harris' chief of staff limits access to vice president

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris waits to speak during an event on high-speed internet access in the South Court Auditorium at the White House complex on June 3, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Kamala Harris’ chief of staff has effectively shut out several longtime of the vice president’s political and business world allies as the Biden administration contends with several challenges, including battles over voting rights and the border, according to people familiar with the matter.

Harris has not been returning phone calls to people who have considered themselves members of her inner circle, including donors and people who supported her Senate and White House runs, according to some of the people with knowledge of the situation. 

Under chief of staff Tina Flournoy’s watch, Harris speaks regularly to President Joe Biden, her family members, a tight group of friends, and her strategists, these people said. The people declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Yet as Flournoy, who built a tough reputation while working for former President Bill Clinton, exerts her power as a gatekeeper to the vice president, several of Harris’ allies outside the federal government are struggling to get their calls returned after years of regularly being in touch with her, some of these people said.

A person familiar with Flournoy’s handling of incoming communication with these associates says she sometimes starts a conversation asking, “What is it that you want from the vice president?” If the person wants to just say hello and have a brief conversation, Flournoy says that time will come at future private events.

If a person wants to speak to Harris about where she stands on policy, Flournoy will, at times, say they can’t speak to the vice president about policy and will make an introduction to one of her policy advisors.

Some of these same advisors and donors are trying other routes, including by attempting to speak with Douglas Emhoff, the vice president’s husband. Many of those calls have yet to be returned, these people said.

Chiefs of staff, especially those in the highest echelons of government, are expected to run a tight ship for their bosses, including by limiting who gets in the door for meetings or who reaches them on the phone. In the vice president’s world, some allies can get in – but they guard their status so they don’t run afoul of Flournoy. 

For instance, an influential Democratic donor who raised money for Harris’ failed bid for president recently tried to reach out to the vice president, and had yet to receive a call back. Then this person decided to contact Flournoy. 

That didn’t work. The donor reached out to a fellow Democratic financier for Flournoy’s contact information. But the fellow financier declined to share Flournoy’s email address for fear of losing access themselves.

Another Harris supporter said she hasn’t heard from the vice president since a call with supporters during the transition period.

While Flournoy has made it tougher to get in touch with Harris, some of the vice president’s supporters accept it as a consequence of Harris building out her portfolio. Harris recently made her first visit as vice president to the U.S.-Mexico border, she touted President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, and is expected to have a role working on criminal justice reform, among other items.

One person close to Harris said they appreciated what Flournoy is doing and has accepted that it’s simply going to be harder to get in touch with Harris now that she is vice president and begins working on big-ticket initiatives.

“There’s no question she [Flournoy] is a strong chief of staff and there’s no question that she is very focused on making sure that the VP is able to be focusing on the coronavirus pandemic and getting people vaccinated, the border, voting rights,” said another Harris ally who has spoken to Flournoy. 

“So by making sure that she is able to focus on what she’s being charged with, there could be people who are not necessarily getting access because the chief of staff is prioritizing those tasks for the VP over political outreach,” this person explained.

A spokeswoman for Harris did not return a request for comment.

In this May 31, 2008 file photo, Tina Flournoy, then Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws committee member, during a hearing in Washington.

Susan Walsh | AP

Flournoy’s background

Flournoy has deep roots in Washington, D.C., and is a veteran of the mainstream Democratic establishment.

In the latter half of the 1980s, she worked as a law clerk for Julia Cooper Mack,  a judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals, before jumping into politics, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

CRP also says she later had stints as a counsel for the Democratic National Convention, as a leader on Clinton’s transition team after he was elected in 1992, and then as counsel for the former president’s office of presidential personnel.

Flournoy is listed as general counsel for cigarette maker Phillip Morris in a 1995 White House press advisory naming Kennedy Center advisory committee members. Later, she served as traveling chief of staff for Sen. Joe Lieberman during the 2000 presidential campaign, when he was Al Gore’s running mate.

After working on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for president, she became assistant to the president for public policy at the American Federation of Teachers, an influential union. Flournoy was originally connected to Harris by Minyon Moore, who was an assistant to Clinton when he was president. Moore, who didn’t return a request for comment, was once named as one of the 100 most powerful women in Washington.

Before she became Harris’ chief of staff, Flournoy led the staff working for former President Bill Clinton starting in 2013. At that post, Flournoy oversaw a staff of approximately 10 people who worked directly with Clinton, and had regular engagement with the Clinton Foundation, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

While Flournoy was chief of staff, Clinton held an infamous tarmac meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch while his wife ran for president in the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server was being investigated at the time by the FBI, which is part of the Justice Department.

Flournoy’s style working for Harris is familiar to people who knew her while she worked for Clinton. She took over managing access to Clinton after the departure of his longtime right-hand man, Doug Band. Band, who co-founded corporate consulting firm Teneo, is known for helping create Clinton’s post-presidential life, including assisting in launching the foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative.

According to a report by Vanity Fair, Clinton and Band interacted with some controversial celebrities and executives, including the late Jeffrey Epstein, who later died by suicide in prison after being arrested for child sex trafficking.

“If you look at Doug’s tenure, it ranges from Epstein to others,” a person with direct knowledge of Flournoy’s work told CNBC.

“If you look from 2013 through about a year a half ago when Tina was here, you can’t point to any single one of them being here [Clinton’s orbit]. I call some of those people who were once around ‘the unsavory humans,'” this person added.

Clinton praised the hiring of Flournoy in a tweet after Harris made the official announcement. A spokesman for Clinton did not return a request for comment.

Band did not comment.

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Business

Washingtonian Workers Refuses to Publish to Protest CEO’s Article

Hong Kong Website Doxxing Police Gets Blocked, Raising Censorship Fears

Washingtonian editors refused to post online on Friday after the executive director of DC-based magazine penned an opinion piece on the future of remote working that sparked an immediate backlash.

Cathy Merrill, the executive director of Washingtonian Media, wrote in the Washington Post on Thursday that she was “concerned about what is unfortunately common Office worker who wants to keep working at home and just go inside the office occasionally. “

Ms. Merrill wrote that by opting to continue working from home, employees provide “an enticing economic option that employees may not like”.

Employees who are away from the office cannot take part in the tasks she describes as “additional” tasks, e.g. Such as looking after a junior staff, helping a colleague or celebrating a birthday, she explained, and managers may therefore be less inclined to continue providing these workers with the status and benefits of full-time employees.

“When the employee is rarely there to take part Management has a strong incentive to change its status to “contractor”, ”she wrote.

That way, businesses could save money by eliminating the cost of employee health care, retirement planning, office space, and parking fees.

Ms. Merrill emailed her apologies on Friday, assuring them that she would not make any changes to the employees’ performance or work status.

“Washingtonian is a culture in which employees can express themselves openly,” Ms. Merrill said in a statement. “I appreciate every member of our team not only on a professional, but also on a personal level. I’m sorry if the comment made it look like something else. “

The opinion piece sparked an outcry among staff at the magazine, many of whom posted the same message on Twitter, criticizing Ms. Merrill’s words.

“As members of the Washington editorial team, we want our CEO to understand the risks of not evaluating our work,” they wrote. “We are dismayed by the public threat to Cathy Merrill’s livelihood. We won’t publish today. “

Washington workers who are not part of a union still work from home. The magazine plans to have employees gradually return to the office from the summer and more fully from the fall.

The article and its original headline – “As CEO, I want my employees to understand the risks of not working again” – felt that some Washington employees were threatened that their services or jobs were threatened, a member of the editorial board testified Fear of professional impact wanted to remain anonymous. The headline has been changed to: “As CEO, I’m concerned about the erosion of office culture with more remote work.”

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Professor says incentives for employees are higher

Professor says incentives for staff are better

According to Nancy Rothbard, professor at the Wharton School, companies should encourage their employees to get vaccinated against Covid through incentives, not mandates.

“There are many challenges to assign employees to do anything,” said Rothbard on Thursday in the “Squawk Box” of CNBC. “Any boss will tell you, it’s a lot more about persuasion than telling a story.”

The question of whether workers need to get vaccines to return to the office has come into focus lately, with around 3 million people shot dead in the US every day. The latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that nearly a quarter of the adult American population is fully vaccinated.

While many experts believe it is legal for employers to make vaccines mandatory, business leaders may worry about alienating employees.

“Trying to really motivate people to get vaccinated is going to be a much more popular avenue than mandates, in my opinion,” said Rothbard, a management professor whose research has focused in part on work motivation and engagement.

Companies like Tractor Supply offer their employees one-time cash payments to encourage them to get a Covid vaccine. The aim is to offer hourly workers up to four hours of wages – two hours for each dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that require two shots. It also aims to help with paying for Lyft rides to and from appointments.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, the only other emergency approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, is just one dose.

Companies should consider employee preferences regarding vaccination status disclosure, Rothbard said, adding that some people are less comfortable sharing personal information of any kind with employers and colleagues.

“There are ways to do this more privately when you want to take a member of staff aside and say, ‘See, have you been vaccinated? … If you haven’t, we need to take alternative precautions'” for the safety of others, she offered.

The debate over vaccine disclosure in the workplace does not reduce the need for Americans to be vaccinated to end the pandemic, Rothbard said. “The term ‘herd immunity’ implies that it has a collective cost, not just an individual choice that people make when they choose to be vaccinated.”

Despite the importance, Rothbard stressed that incentives are likely to be effective in helping companies achieve high vaccination rates among their employees.

“I have a newspaper called ‘Mandatory Fun’. People don’t even like it when they are forced to have mandatory fun when they don’t feel legitimate in the workplace,” she said. “People don’t respond well to mandates. They respond better to incentives and encouragement.”

Evidence of vaccines for customers

Whether or not customers need to show proof of vaccination in order to receive services in a business – such as eating out in a restaurant – has become another controversial issue in the US. Some critics have raised concerns about civil liberty, while proponents of the so-called vaccination passport say that requiring people to prove they have been vaccinated benefits public health and allows the economy to reopen safely.

Last week, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order preventing companies from requiring a customer to provide evidence that they received a Covid vaccine as a requirement for service. In his order, DeSantis claims that Covid vaccine passports “restrict individual freedom and compromise patient privacy”.

Texas governor Greg Abbot issued a similar order Tuesday banning the state government and private entities receiving public funding for requiring Covid vaccination certificates.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, told CNBC on Wednesday that he believed the conversation about reviewing vaccine status was not okay.

“I think we thought about vaccination cards through the wrong lens. I think the way they are likely to be used is to create two access routes to different venues,” Gottlieb said in an interview on Squawk Box . “”

Covid testing may be required along with secondary symptom screening for people who cannot prove they have been vaccinated, said Gottlieb, who is now on the board of directors at vaccine maker Pfizer.

“The other will be in a fast lane. If you can prove that you’ve been vaccinated, you don’t have to provide evidence that you’ve recently been tested,” or go through some sort of symptom screening, Gottlieb said.

“It will be like an E-ZPass where you can either go through the fast lane or if you still want to pay the toll because you think the police are following you with the E-ZPass device, you can stop and stand in line and pay the toll, “he said.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion Inc., and biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel. The Associated Press contributed to this report.