Vaccine mandate news – live: Republicans ‘will not comply’ with DC rules after Supreme Court blocks Biden

A vaccination mandate being rolled out for Washington DC businesses has been met with hostility by several Republican politicians.

The mandate, which was announced by Mayor Muriel Bowser in December, will force many businesses, from gyms and theaters to bars and restaurants, to require customers 12 and older to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination before entering. . DCista reports.

News of the new law, which will be released on January 15, sparked fury among many Republicans, though none were as hyperbolic as Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). in a recent tweet, compared the mandate to Nazism and seemed to imply that DC would eventually round up and kill people who chose not to get vaccinated.

“Let us remember that the Nazis dehumanized Jews before segregating them, segregated them before incarcerating them, incarcerated them before enslaving them, and enslaved them before massacring them,” he wrote, also encouraging people not to comply.

A NewsNation poll of 1,000 voters this week found that less than a third (30.8 percent) trust Dr. Anthony Fauci when it comes to information about the coronavirus.

The question asked participants to select from a list of sources who they trusted when it came to information about Covid-19. They could choose more than one answer.

On the list were Dr. Fauci (30.8 percent), President Biden (15 percent), federal health authorities (49.8 percent), his doctor (63.2 percent), and the media. communication (10.2 percent).

He said there was a 5.8 percent margin of error.

Former Trump adviser Steve Cortés criticized Dr. Fauci when he shared the results on Twitter on Thursday.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to halt the Biden administration’s plans to introduce a vaccination mandate for big business, the president said he was “disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common sense requirements to save lives. for employees of large companies who were punished. squarely in both science and law ”.

He called on companies to set their own vaccination requirements, noting that a third of Fortune 100 companies have already done so.

American companies that have their own vaccine mandates include Door Dash, Deloitte, McDonalds, Google, Facebook, and more.

Two new Covid-19 pills from Pfizer and Merck that were supposed to be crucial in fighting the pandemic are in short supply and have played a small role in the fight against the rise of Omicron.

The Biden administration ordered the two pills late last month, which would reduce the burden on hospitals.

However, it did not place massive orders as it did for vaccines, the Associated Press reported.

Pfizer said that because its Paxlovid pill takes six to eight months to make, it can deliver only about 250,000 cycles of the treatment by the end of this month.

Merck’s pill, Molnupiravir, was produced in larger quantities, but final tests showed that the drug was much less effective than Pfizer’s pill.

It also contains potential side effects for pregnant women and is considered a last option, according to federal government guidelines.

While the federal government has shipped 164,000 Pfizer pills to the states, state population health officials assigned them and said they are inappropriate.

There are also shortages of antibody drugs, and federal officials limit shipments to 50,000 doses per week.

As Omicron cases have risen in the US, hospitals have been overwhelmed.

Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed 19 states have less than 15 percent of intensive care capacity as hospitalizations continue to rise.

These include Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana, and New Hampshire, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont.

The data also showed that hospitals in four of these states – Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana and New Hampshire – have less than 10 percent capacity for intensive care.

As of Wednesday, hospitalizations in the U.S. reached a record 151,261.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made headlines this week after he was heard on a lighted microphone calling a Republican senator a “jerk” during a committee hearing.

It comes after a wave of relentless criticism from conservatives, writes John Bowden.

Senator Rand Paul suggested that Dr. Anthony Fauci “deserves” criticism for his handling of Covid and said The independent he ‘resented’ being blamed by the US’s top medical adviser for the threats against the world’s leading infectious disease expert.

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the federal government will send medical teams to six states to help with Covid-19 care where hospitals and healthcare systems have been overwhelmed by the spread of the Omicron variant.

Military medical teams will be dispatched to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan and New Mexico.

The teams will support the health care systems at major state hospitals.

A defense official said more than 40 Army, Air Force and Navy medical teams are available including a total of 1,000 active duty military medical personnel.

Teams will continue to mobilize and deploy where they are needed in the coming weeks.

A White House official says this is a “first wave of deployments” and that other teams will also be sent to areas where they are needed.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has said the Supreme Court’s decision to block a nationwide vaccine and trial mandate for large companies is “disappointing.”

Speaking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Dr. Murthy said, “As a physician and public health professional, today’s news was disappointing.”

“We know that workplace vaccine requirements are an important part of how we can keep workplaces safer for both workers and customers.”

He added that as the US sees an increase in cases driven by the Omicron variant, the next few weeks will remain challenging.

“I think the next few weeks are going to be challenging. We will continue to see a high number of cases. Our hospital systems in parts of the country are strained and that will continue, ”he said.

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to drop Joe Biden’s term on Thursday for companies that require those with more than 100 workers to institute regular testing or vaccination requirements.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.