Vaccine mandate news - Free rapid tests from Wednesday after Supreme Court blocks Biden Covid rule

A small group of Senate Democrats is pressing the Biden administration about the Covid-19 testing shortage as Omicron cases have soared across the US.

CNN reports, that in a letter to White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeffrey Zients on Thursday, led by Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen, the group asks “why the administration failed to take more significant steps earlier to increase access to at-home tests.”

They praise the promotion and distribution of vaccines across the nation, but are fiercely critical of how slowly tests have been rolled out.

“Far too many measures — such as increasing access to home-based testing — have been reactive, rather than proactive,” the letter reads.

“This administration either knew or should have known that testing shortages were occurring across the country over the past several months, and with the full expectation that the virus would likely mutate into a new variant, steps to increase testing access should have happened before the current wave hit, not several weeks into the surge, with resources still not available until later this month or beyond.”

Other signatories of the letter are senators Mark Kelly of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Jon Ossoff of Georgia.

MSNBC presenter Joy Reid slammed the Supreme Court’s decision to halt President Biden’s employer vaccine mandate on her Thursday evening show, calling the conservative justices “right-wing ideologues”.

“I have to say, I don’t have faith in this Supreme Court. I think they’re ideologues. I think they’re right-wing ideologues. I think they’re sort of doing a Christian nationalist version of whatever it is the Supreme Court used to do,” Ms Reid said.

Ms Reid’s also said: “At this point … have they not just simply stated by their actions that they are more in favor of right-wing politics … than they are in favor of saving lives? They don’t really care if this causes less people to die, clearly.”

Her guest, Supreme Court lawyer Neal Katyal, responded: “Today’s decision on vaccines, it’s such a threat to public safety. And the idea that the Supreme Court is responsible for it, it’s really hard to imagine. The justices are now living in their own bubble.”

Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh confirmed the Biden administration’s stance that, in spite of the Supreme Court ruling denying the right of OSHA to enforce a vaccine mandate on firms of more than 100 employees, they will continue to encourage employers to enforce their own vaccination and testing rules.

He said: “We will continue to encourage all employers to have their workers get vaccinated or tested weekly. Many companies are already doing this, and have found it is the best way to keep workers safe from the deadly virus.”

Professor Christina Pagel and Dr Adam Squires explain how stopping the airborne spread of Covid is perfectly doable by taking the right steps.

The World Health Organization has recommended two new drugs for Covid-19, providing yet more options for treating the disease. The extent to which these medicines will save lives depends on how widely available and affordable they will be.

The first drug, baricitinib, is strongly recommended for patients with severe or critical Covid. It is part of a class of drugs called Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors that suppress the overstimulation of the immune system. WHO recommends that it is given with corticosteroids.

Baricitinib is an oral drug, used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. It provides an alternative to other arthritis drugs called Interleukin-6 receptor blockers, recommended by WHO in July 2021.

WHO has also conditionally recommended the use of a monoclonal antibody drug, sotrovimab, for treating mild or moderate Covid in patients who are at high risk of hospitalisation. This includes patients who are older, immunocompromised, have underlying conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, and those unvaccinated.

Sotrovimab is an alternative to casirivimab-imdevimab, a monoclonal antibody cocktail recommended by WHO in September 2021. Studies are ongoing on the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies against Omicron but early laboratory studies show that sotrovimab retains its activity.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams used a press conference on Friday morning at Steinway & Sons factory in Astoria, Queens to urge businesses to bring employees back in from remote working, and for parents to send their kids to school.

Mr Adams is keen to return the city to regular activity despite a daily average number of Covid-19 cases in excess of 25,000 due to the Omicron variant.

“We cannot run a city as complex as New York remotely,” Mayor Adams said.

He also urged all New Yorkers to make sure they had all their vaccinations and booster shots up-to-date and outlined the city resources available for both physical and mental health problems related to the pandemic.

The Job Creators Network is taking a victory lap on the overturned vaccine mandate with a giant billboard in New York’s Times Square.

It reads: “Hey Joe, we told you to let the mandate go.”

“You lost. America won.”

“You need to think twice when declaring war on small business.”

President Joe Biden will hold a news conference on 19 January, marking a year since he took office.

White House maintains they are still fighting to fulfil promises to voters.