INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The quickly approaching fall semester has America’s colleges under pressure to decide how far they should go to guard their campuses against COVID-19 while navigating legal and political questions and rising infection rates.

Hundreds of colleges nationwide have told students in recent months they must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before classes begin.

California State University, the country’s largest four-year public university system, joined the list last week, along with Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. Their announcements cited concerns about the highly contagious delta variant and came as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated mask guidelines based on new research regarding its spread.

CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro called case surges linked to the variant an “alarming new factor that we must consider as we look to maintain the health and well-being of students, employees and visitors.”

Yet many more colleges have held off on vaccine mandates in a reflection of the limits school leaders face in adopting safety requirements for in-person classes.

In many Republican-led states, governments have banned vaccine mandates, or school leaders face political pressure to limit their anti-virus actions even among students who live in packed residence halls. Opponents say the requirements tread on personal freedoms.

Some campuses have sidestepped pushback by instead offering enticements, such as prize drawings for free tuition and computers, as they seek to boost student vaccination rates to 80% or higher.

And a few have gone against the grain of their GOP-led states, such as Nova Southeastern in Florida requiring employees to get the shots and Nebraska Wesleyan mandating vaccinations for its 2,000 students.

Private colleges like these have more legal leeway regarding coronavirus rules, experts say. Prominent private universities mandating student vaccinations include Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Duke and Stanford.

University of California law professor Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, who writes and teaches about vaccine law, said the biggest legal gray area is whether colleges can require the COVID-19 vaccines while they remain under federal emergency use status.

Courts will likely allow university leaders to take such steps to protect student health, but many colleges can’t avoid the reality of states taking a stance against vaccine mandates, Reiss said.

“Especially a state university, going against the prevailing political view is probably going to be short-lived,” Reiss said.

Coronavirus politics have been a complicating factor for the vast majority of campuses without vaccine requirements, said Dr. Michael Huey, interim CEO of the American College Health Association, which in April recommended vaccination mandates for all students taking on-campus classes.

“If you set up a situation where you can’t require vaccination, you can’t ask about vaccine status and you can’t have required testing or mitigation strategies, like masking, it can’t be safe,” said Huey, former executive director of student health services at Emory University in Atlanta.

Indiana University has so far prevailed against a court challenge to its student vaccine requirement, which school officials say is a “clear path forward” to removing limits on in-person classes, sporting events and social activities.

Noah Hamilton, who’ll be a sophomore at Indiana’s main campus in Bloomington this fall, said he had anxiety about getting the shots and likely wouldn’t have done so without the requirement.

“But I don’t want to be stuck doing 100 percent online,” Hamilton said. “I want to be back on campus and actually trying to have a normal college experience.”

Among the some 4,000 college campuses across the country, more than 600 have imposed a vaccine mandate, according to tracking by the Chronicle of Higher Education. But their requirements vary.

The University of Washington and the University of Maryland, for example, are among the public schools mandating shots for both students and employees. The University of Connecticut and the University of Maryland require the doses for students but not faculty or staff.

In some cases, union contracts or state laws prevent schools from requiring staff member vaccinations.

Meanwhile, the University of California and California State University — California’s two major state systems, with more than 750,000 total students — initially were holding off on inoculation requirements until at least one COVID-19 vaccine had full Food and Drug Administration approval. But both have now mandated shots for students and employees.

Religious and medical exemptions from vaccine requirements are commonly offered, although the universities are generally making those students undergo frequent COVID-19 testing and wear masks in public areas.

Opponents of student vaccine requirements have gone to federal court challenging mandates issued by Indiana University, the University of Connecticut and the California State system.

In the first ruling among those cases, a judge last month rejected arguments from eight students that Indiana University’s requirement violated their constitutional rights to “bodily autonomy” by forcing them to receive unwanted medical treatment.

A court in Chicago also denied an appeal from their attorney, James Bopp, who’s been prominent in many conservative political causes. Bopp works with the group America’s Frontline Doctors, which criticizes the COVID-19 vaccine and has been widely discredited for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and unproven treatments.

Bopp said hundreds of people across the country have contacted him wanting to challenge vaccine mandates. He argues the students he represents, primarily young adults, are at low risk of severe COVID-19 illnesses while facing possible dangers from the vaccine being administered under federal emergency use authorization.

“Why are they being targeted for a vaccine that older people aren’t required to take even though their risk is enormously greater?” he said.

Indiana University says nearly 85% of its students have reported receiving at least one dose. Purdue University, Indiana’s other Big Ten school, isn’t requiring vaccinations but is telling students who don’t submit documentation that they could face weekly COVID-19 tests.

Purdue, which says at least 60% of students are vaccinated, tried to entice students to get the shots with 10 prize drawings for a full year’s tuition.

Many other schools are offering similar incentives, such as the University of Wisconsin’s regional campuses giving away 70 $7,000 scholarships to vaccinated students at sites with at least 70% vaccination rates. Missouri State has a $150,000 program with prizes that include free tuition, meal plans and computers.

Face masks won’t fade away as much as hoped on campuses this fall, either. Purdue and the University of South Carolina were among those in the past week to announce a return to required masks following the new CDC guidance that fully vaccinated people wear them indoors if they live in areas with high virus transmission rates.

Rachel “Rae” Applegate, an incoming Notre Dame freshman, was vaccinated this summer with her 16-year-old sister and said she was hesitant because the vaccines are so new. She also feared a greater risk of COVID-19 exposure on campus than at home in Evansville, Indiana.

“I can understand people’s concerns about not wanting to be told what to do, but to me, this (getting vaccinated) just makes sense,” Applegate said. “When we’re all together on a campus like this … and with the variants and everything else, it’s like, don’t we all want to be as safe as possible?”

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To the extent that any of them offered reasons, it was, basically, that it’s nobody else’s business. “I don’t discuss my medical records with anyone but my husband and my doctor,” said Assemblywoman Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel). “I’m not answering any of your questions,” said Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City). Maybe they’re being honest. Maybe these principled legislators are keeping silent to protect the sanctity of medical privacy.

But I don’t believe it.

My gut tells me that at least some of them are being disingenuous. Either they’ve been vaccinated — because they know it’s the safe and healthful thing to do — but out of sheer hypocrisy rooted in political cowardice, they’re unwilling to stand up and tell their constituents what they’ve done. Or, alternatively, they haven’t been vaccinated — presumably because they believe the claptrap they hear on Fox News — but they know they’ll take a huge amount of grief from the science-and-reality-based community if it comes out.

Either way they’re hypocrites, keeping their mouths shut because it’s politically risky to speak the truth about vaccinations.

Now if I had to guess, I’d say that the first explanation is the more likely: They’ve been vaccinated but they don’t want it known by their conservative constituents.

Eleven of the 12 who won’t disclose their status are Republicans, presumably most concerned about keeping their base voters satisfied. They’re well aware that the anti-vaxxer movement is hardening. Fueled by conspiracy theories and misinformation on social media and news outlets like Fox News, conservatives increasingly see vaccination as malevolent government overreach. Declining to be vaccinated is viewed as an emblem of liberty and independence, and a raised middle finger to liberal orthodoxy.

Elected Republicans should be fighting that, obviously. They should be using the power of their offices and whatever personal credibility they’ve got to help recalcitrant constituents understand the overwhelming value of vaccination at a time when COVID-19 has killed more than 600,000 people and caseloads are again rising. The science is irrefutable.

But, uh, wait a minute. Let’s look at it from their point of view. What’s the political advantage of speaking the truth?

When the L.A. Times calls and asks if you’re vaccinated, isn’t it easier just to keep mum and alienate no one? If many of your constituents hate the vaccine like they hate vampires, it might be smarter to keep the news of your own jab off Twitter and off your website and out of the newspapers.

I realize it’s harsh to suggest, without clear evidence, that these Republican legislators are being hypocrites, and it’s certainly possible that some of them have other reasons for keeping mum. But the sort of cynical, self-serving behavior I’ve described above would be entirely in keeping with what we’ve seen over the last few years, as otherwise rational Republicans (with some heroic exceptions) have become less and less willing to stand up to misinformation or buck the mob.

This is the direction we’ve been heading since the Trump train came barreling down the track in 2016 and Republicans decided that if they wanted to remain in power they had to get on board, not stand in the way. That’s why so few have been willing to speak out forcefully against the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. That’s why the myths about the stolen presidential election and the exaggerated specter of voter fraud have been allowed to take root. On the national level, politicians like Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who surely knows better, sold their souls to the Trumpists.

Nothing, it seems, is more important than clinging to power — even the danger of a global pandemic. Consider the hypocrisy of those like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who, when Trump was still president, praised him for saving lives with vaccines as a result of Operation Warp Speed. Now she’s tweeting that Americans should “just say no” to the vaccine and to the “medical brownshirts” showing up at the door “ordering” vaccinations.

What changed, other than the occupant of the White House and the mood of the voters?

With regard to the 11 California Republicans who won’t disclose their vaccination status — we may never know the full story. They’re not required to tell us whether they’ve been immunized or not, or why.

But my guess, and I’m sticking with it, is that some or all of these 11 Republican legislators are running scared of their conservative constituents rather than acting like leaders, standing up for the truth and urging everyone to get vaccinated. I hope I’m wrong. But I’m sorry to say it would be entirely in line with what I’ve seen in recent years.

Nicholas Goldberg | Columnist

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Programs to house homeless people in hotels during the pandemic are beginning to close down, forcing people back to group shelters or the streets, where many feel unsafe from the virus, violence, and other risks. Federal funding for emergency housing ends in September, and while additional dollars have been promised, it’s expected there will be a gap between the end of current efforts and the start of new programs, write Kelli Kennedy and Lisa Rathke at AP.

New York City, eager to house tourists in hotels again, is relocating about 8,500 people to shelters this summer — even though only 14% of the city’s homeless population has been vaccinated against COVID-19. “Once you take the vaccine, they’re going to use it as an excuse to put you in one of those congregate death traps,” said homeless advocate Shams DaBaron, who spent time at the Lucerne Hotel as part of nonprofit Project Renewal’s program in cooperation with the city’s Department of Homeless Services. DaBaron was speaking on behalf of several residents of the Four Points by Sheraton Midtown who’d locked themselves into their hotel rooms rather than leave. For many homeless people, moving from hotel to shelter is a backwards step, reports Rich Calder at The Wall Street Journal. “They were hoping their next move would be into permanent housing,” said Corinne Low of the aid group UWS Open Hearts.

Leaving hotel rooms is particularly risky for women and transgender people, writes Lauren Hepler at the San Francisco Chronicle. Up to 92% of homeless women had experienced some sort of violence in their lives before the pandemic. While local and state officials are planning permanent housing programs, Hepler reports, they aren’t incorporating gender-based housing that advocates say is crucial to protect women.

One nation, divided by vaccination status

When it comes to vaccinations, America is starting to look like two separate nations. COVID-19 cases are dropping in well-vaccinated urban and suburban communities, writes The New York Times’ David Leonhardt, but rising in rural areas, where just 54% of adults have received a vaccine. A CNN analysis finds ongoing disparities between the communities most likely to be fully vaccinated — white, older than 65 — and the populations most heavily affected by the coronavirus, including Black and Hispanic people, adults under 30, and Southerners.

“The biggest tragedy,” Leonhardt writes, “is that this situation is avoidable.” Vaccines have saved an estimated 279,000 American lives and prevented more than 1 million hospitalizations, according to an analysis by The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that also supports the Center for Health Journalism’s webinar program. Dr. Anthony Fauci told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that more than 99% of COVID deaths in June were among people who weren’t vaccinated.

Last Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced his latest push to vaccinate people, including door-to-door vaccinations, workplace clinics and, again, a request that employers offer paid time off for vaccinations. But many health experts say the time for polite entreaties has passed, and it’s now time for vaccine mandates at schools and businesses, report Michael D. Shear and Noah Weiland in The New York Times. About 6% of people will not get the vaccine unless it’s required, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation vaccine monitor. Global health law professor Lawrence O. Gostin of Georgetown University said, “We have to make being unvaccinated the hard choice, not the easy one.”

Vaccines beat delta, but by how much?

The highly contagious delta variant is now officially the dominant strain in the U.S. The three U.S.-authorized vaccines work against all variants tested so far, though their precise efficacy against delta is still uncertain. In Israel, where 60% of people have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, officials reported the vaccine’s efficacy against any variant of COVID-19 infection was down to 64%, and blamed the spread of delta. The vaccine’s ability to prevent severe disease and death remained high. However, data from the United Kingdom and Canada suggest efficacy against symptomatic infection of 79% to 88% after two doses of Prizer’s vaccine, and 72% from just the first dose of Moderna’s vaccine. It’s hard to nail down real-world numbers because populations and measurements vary, explains Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce at Business Insider. A new study indicates that both doses of Pfizer’s vaccine are crucial to prevent delta infection, yet the CDC says nearly 15 million people in the U.S. who got an initial Pfizer or Moderna shot missed their second dose.

Do you need a booster shot?

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine also appears to confer immunity against delta in a test tube, but on-the-ground data are scarce. That’s led some infectious disease experts who originally got the “one-and-done” jab to get a second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce reports at Business Insider. Virologist Angela Rasmussen of the University of Saskatchewan told The Washington Post that she did so — not because she worried she’d get sick herself, but out of concern that she might spread the disease to others or give the virus opportunity to evolve into a deadlier variant.

Is that necessary? “No one knows, actually,” tweeted UCSF infectious disease physician Dr. Monica Gandhi. Johnson & Johnson is conducting a trial of a two-dose schedule, but no results have been released yet, so the federal government has not made a recommendation about boosters. Gandhi told the Los Angeles Times that rates of breakthrough infections appear to be similar among people who got the three different vaccines. And in fact, it may be difficult for Americans who received the Johnson & Johnson shot to get another one right now, if records indicate they’re fully vaccinated, report Ben Guarino and Allyson Chiu in the Post.

Pfizer announced Thursday it plans to seek authorization for a booster shot, of the same formulation as its original vaccine. But the Department of Health and Human Services quickly shot back with a statement that “Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time.” Pfizer will also test a delta-specific booster starting in August.

Wealthy nations hoard vaccines

Although data so far indicate the current shots and dosing schedules provide lasting immunity, the European Union has already ordered more than a billion Pfizer doses that may be deployed as boosters in the next few years. Reuters reports that the U.K. and U.S. are also considering third-dose shots, and the U.K. may give third doses to vulnerable individuals starting in September, writes Ashley Furlong at Politico. Yet more than half the world’s citizens have yet to score their first shot. In low-income countries, only one in 100 people has received even one dose, reports T.V. Padma at Nature, and some may have to wait until 2023 for protection.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the way in which a few nations have scooped up vaccines “morally indefensible” at a press conference last Wednesday. “From a moral, epidemiological or economic point of view,” he said, “now is the time for the world to come together to tackle this pandemic collectively. As long as the coronavirus continues to circulate globally, the risk of new and more dangerous variants remains.

Amber Dance, Ph.D., is an award-winning freelance science journalist based in Southern California. She contributes to publications including PNAS Front Matter, The Scientist, and Nature. She also edits books on a variety of topics.

Amber Dance | Columnist

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CAIRO (AP) — Workers dig and ferry wheelbarrows laden with sand to open a new shaft at a bustling archaeological site outside of Cairo, while a handful of Egyptian archaeologists supervise from garden chairs. The dig is at the foot of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, arguably the world’s oldest pyramid, and is one of many recent excavations that are yielding troves of ancient artifacts from the country’s largest archaeological site.

As some European countries reopen to international tourists, Egypt has already been trying for months to attract them to its archaeological sites and museums. Officials are betting that the new ancient discoveries will set it apart on the mid- and post-pandemic tourism market. They need visitors to come back in force to inject cash into the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.

But like countries elsewhere, Egypt continues to battle the coronavirus, and is struggling to get its people vaccinated. The country has, up until now, received only 5 million vaccines for its population of 100 million people, according to its Health Ministry. In early May, the government announced that 1 million people had been vaccinated, though that number is believed to be higher now.

In the meantime, authorities have kept the publicity machine running, focused on the new discoveries.

In November, archaeologists announced the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins dating back to the Pharaonic Late Period and Greco-Ptolemaic era, along with 40 gilded statues found 2,500 years after they were first buried. That came a month after the discovery of 57 other coffins at the same site, the necropolis of Saqqara that includes the step pyramid.

“Saqqara is a treasure,” said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany while announcing the November discovery, estimating that only 1% of what the site contains has been unearthed so far.

“Our problem now is that we don’t know how we can possibly wow the world after this,” he said.

If they don’t, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying.

In April, Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s best-known archaeologist, announced the discovery of a 3,000-year-old lost city in southern Luxor, complete with mud brick houses, artifacts and tools from pharaonic times. It dates back to Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty, whose reign (1390–1353 B.C.) is considered a golden era for ancient Egypt.

That discovery was followed by a made-for-TV parade celebrating the transport of 22 of the country’s prized royal mummies from central Cairo to their new resting place in a massive facility farther south in the capital, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

The Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is now home to an archaeological museum, as is Cairo’s International Airport, both opened in recent months. And officials have also said they still plan to open the massive new Grand Egyptian Museum next to the Giza Pyramids by January, after years of delays. Entrance fees for archeological sites have been lowered, as has the cost of tourist visas.

The government has for years played up its ancient history as a selling point, as part of a yearslong effort to revive the country’s battered tourism industry. It was badly hit during and after the popular uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the ensuring unrest. The coronavirus dealt it a similar blow, just as it was getting back on its feet.

In 2019, foreign tourism’s revenue stood at $13 billion. Egypt received some 13.1 million foreign tourists — reaching pre-2011 levels for the first time. But in 2020, it greeted only 3.5 million foreign tourists, according to the minister el-Anany.

At the newly opened National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Mahmoud el-Rays, a tour guide, was leading a small group of European tourists at the hall housing the royal mummies.

“2019 was a fantastic year,” he said. “But corona reversed everything. It is a massive blow.”

Tourism traffic strengthened in the first months of 2021, el-Anany, the minister, told The Associated Press in a recent interview, though he did not give specific figures. He was optimistic that more would continue to come year-round.

“Egypt is a perfect destination for post-COVID in that our tourism is really an open-air tourism,” he said.

But it remains to be seen if the country truly has the virus under control. It has recorded a total of 14,950 deaths from the virus and is still seeing more than a thousand new cases daily. Like other countries, the real numbers are believed to be much higher. In Egypt, though, authorities have arrested doctors and silenced critics who questioned the government’s response, so there are fears that information on the true cost of the virus may have been suppressed from the beginning.

Egypt also had a trying experience early on in the pandemic, when it saw a coronavirus outbreak on one of its Nile River cruise boats. It first closed its borders completely until the summer of 2020, but later welcomed tourists back, first to Red-Sea resort towns and now to the heart of the country — Cairo and the Nile River Valley that hosts most of its famous archaeological sites. Visitors still require a negative COVID-19 test result to enter the country.

In a further cause for optimism, Russia said in April that it plans to resume direct flights to Egypt’s Red Sea resort towns. Moscow stopped the flights after the local Islamic State affiliate bombed a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing all on board.

Amanda, a 36-year-old engineer from Austria, returned to Egypt in May. It was her second visit in four years. She visited the Egyptian Museum, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and Islamic Cairo, in the capital’s historic center.

She had planned to come last year, but the pandemic interfered.

“Once they opened, I came,” she said. “It was my dream to see the Pyramids again.”

El-Rays, the tour guide, says that while he’s seeing tourists starting to come in larger numbers, he knows a full recovery will not happen overnight.

“It will take some time to return to before corona,” he said.

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Riverside County health officials have planned a series of changes to better serve residents and provide more opportunities for COVID-19 vaccinations.

The updated clinics, which will take effect this week, will also help provide better access to COVID-19 testing by converting the Perris Fairgrounds into a fulltime testing site.

“The changes that are planned will help provide vaccines in locations where they are needed and give greater access to residents in those communities,” said Kim Saruwatari, director of Public Health. “We wish to thank the Corona-Norco Unified school District for its cooperation with the Corona High School site, which was a great location for the community.”

Here are the changes:

–Three sites will be opened Wednesday and operated by OptumServe in Norco (1377 Hamner Ave.), Temecula (39716 Winchester Road) and Desert Hot Springs (11711 West Drive). –

-The vaccine site at the Lake Elsinore Stadium, which previously operated two days a week, will be expanded to hours Thursday through Monday. The site will be operated by Curative.

–The Indio Fairgrounds vaccine site will convert from county- to Curative-run location.

—The Corona High School vaccine site will close Friday (March 5); the staff from the location will be assigned to a new vaccine clinic in Moreno Valley. The location of the Moreno Valley clinic will be announced soon. Those who received their first dose at Corona High School will be notified when and where to receive their second dose.

–The Perris Fairgrounds site, which provided vaccine two days a week, will be converted to a COVID-19 testing site and be opened seven days a week. This change took effect Tuesday (March 2).

“We are excited to have more vaccine sites open for our residents to get vaccinated as quickly as possible and closer to their communities,” said Board Chair Karen Spiegel, Second District Supervisor. “These vaccines are working to protect our residents and help our community recover from this disease.”

Health officials remind community members to protect themselves by wearing their face masks, practice social distancing, frequently wash their hands, and avoid large gatherings.

To make an appointment at a county-run clinic, or those operated by Curative or OptumServe in Riverside County, click www.rivcoph.org/covid-19-vaccine. Appointment links to the new clinics will be posted to the website as soon as they are available.

Rivco.org • Contributed

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“Prioritizing high-risk groups on paper is not effective if those individuals are not able to actually access the vaccine,” said Dr. Ruiz in the hearing. “Underserved, hardworking communities lack clinics and providers. Many people in my district don’t have access to broadband to schedule a vaccine online. They don’t have hours to spend on the phone trying to get an appointment. They don’t have transportation to the vaccine site. They don’t have access to information in a language they understand to help them navigate the system.”

The hearing comes one day after Rep. Ruiz visited farmworker communities in Mecca and the surrounding East Valley area to educate workers and families about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Hernan Quintas • Contributed

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As of Feb. 2, VA has dispensed at least one dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine to more than 582,000 Veterans and has fully vaccinated over 44,000, totaling more than 626,000 doses. This is in addition to administering more than 401,000 doses to VA employees, and more than 1,200 vaccine doses to federal partners.

“In addition to administering 1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, VA has begun publishing the number of Veterans who have received Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna vaccines at each facility across its enterprise,” said Acting VA Secretary Dat Tran.  “The number of doses administered to Veterans at each facility will be updated daily on the VA COVID-19 National Summary website.”

VA employees across the country are working diligently to vaccinate the department’s health care personnel and the most vulnerable Veterans as quickly as possible. Making the data about vaccine doses administered to Veterans available publicly, VA is taking another step toward being as transparent as possible during the pandemic.

VA is currently providing vaccines at more than 215 sites nationally with plans to expand to additional sites as vaccine supplies increase. As with states distributing vaccines, VA is currently in the limited supply phase, anticipating an increase in weekly vaccine doses in March. Until VA receives an increase in vaccines, many facilities may temporarily run out of vaccines for short periods of time.

VA will continue to follow current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance and the VA COVID-19 Vaccination Distribution Plan until new CDC guidance is available. The distribution plan lays out VA’s overarching intent but implementation of vaccination on a large scale requires agility and flexibility in order to meet the daily threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government will continue to work with states and the private sector to effectively execute an aggressive vaccination strategy, focusing on the immediate actions necessary to convert vaccines into vaccinations.

VA is reaching out to Veterans who are eligible for vaccination. Veterans who would like additional information can visit the VA COVID-19 vaccines webpage, visit their local facility’s website or contact their care team.

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Nearly 77 percent of doses received to Riverside County have been administered to county residents, continuing an upward trend that started weeks ago.

As of Jan. 28, Riverside County had received 193,875 COVID-19 vaccine doses and 149,079 had been administered at county-operated clinics and community partners. The 76.9 percent is a sharp improvement from a week ago, when the county’s rate of vaccine administration was 46.8 percent.

“Through the county team’s hard work and dedication, these vaccines are distributed to partner agencies or administered at a public health clinic within days of receiving them,” said Board Chair Karen Spiegel, Second District Supervisor. “This collaboration between the county and our vaccine providers has been critical in getting more vaccines administered to our residents.”

Riverside County’s vaccination rate is higher than the state average of around 50 percent.

The county is operating various vaccine sites – both walk-up and drive through – at clinics stretching from Corona High School in the west, to the Indio Fairgrounds in the east, and mobile clinics that target hard-to-reach populations like farmworkers. The county’s recent efforts have focused on providing vaccines to the most vulnerable population, including those 85 years and older. More than 10,000 such appointments are scheduled for next week.

Several community partners, including hospitals, medical groups and grocery stores, have recently stepped up their efforts, too, and opened clinics and appointments to those who qualify. Some community partners have opted to return some of their allotment back to the county, which then made those vaccine doses available to other partners or were used at the public health clinics.

For more information please visit www.rivcoph.org/COVID-19-Vaccine.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Only about 1% of California’s 40 million residents have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, setting a pace of immunization that’s “not good enough,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.

The Democratic governor said the state is trying to execute the massive vaccination campaign “with a sense of urgency that is required of this moment and the urgency that people demand.”

Still, the 454,000 doses of vaccine that have been administered in California represent just a third of the more than nearly 1.3 million received in the state so far, according to the California Department of Public Health. Distribution hiccups and logistical challenges — including hospitals having more vaccine doses available than people available to take them — have slowed the initial vaccine rollout in California.

Across the country, the pace of immunizations has gone slower than planned due to logistical hurdles and differing approaches across states and counties. On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nearly 4.6 million shots have been dispensed.

Newsom’s comments came Monday as the state’s death toll topped 26,500 and confirmed cases neared 2.4 million since the pandemic began. The state’s swamped hospitals held more than 22,000 coronavirus patients, including nearly 4,700 in intensive care units, the Department of Public Health said.

Even as he acknowledged the state must do better, Newsom sought to shift some responsibility for the slow rollout, noting “the vaccines don’t arrive magically in some state facility.”

Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said the state assigns the number of doses that local health jurisdictions will receive after getting an allocation from the federal government. The vaccine is then shipped directly to entities like hospitals or county or local public health offices. Pfizer distributes its vaccine directly, while Moderna uses the pharmaceutical company McKesson as an intermediary, which initially led to slow communication, Newsom said.

California is working to expand the list of sites where the vaccine can be distributed to include pharmacies, clinics and dental offices. Officials are also completing a survey of health care workers to find out how many of them do not want to take the vaccine, in response to anecdotal evidence that some are refusing it.

While the state wants to make sure no one is jumping ahead in the line, Newsom said he wants to give providers the flexibility to distribute doses to people not on the priority list if doses are at risk of going to waste.

“We are working hard to make sure that 100% of what we get we get out as quickly as possible,” Ghaly said.

Meanwhile, most of the state’s population remains under a broad stay-at-home order as ICU capacity dwindles. In hard-hit Los Angeles County, the total COVID-19 death toll has reached 10,850 and confirmed cases topped 818,000. The county reported more than 7,700 people hospitalized, including 21% in ICUs.

County health officials fear the incoming Christmas and New Year’s surge. The additional Thanksgiving cases have swamped hospitals, forcing them to treat patients in hallways, ambulances and the gift shop, and forced an oxygen shortage. The California National Guard is contributing freezer trucks to help store bodies as hospitals run out of space.

Meanwhile, some older hospitals in Southern California have oxygen systems that can’t handle the demand for coronavirus patients, and the state is contracting with the Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade the systems. Giant oxygen containers may also be placed in hospital parking lot systems as back ups.

The county is also working to get more vaccines into skilled nursing facilities. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said 206 facilities have received their vaccine doses and will administer the shots themselves and 60 more have asked for help in giving the doses.

There are a handful of others, among the county’s more than 300 such facilities, however, that have not yet picked up their allocations or had their shipments delivered. Ferrer said those facilities need to start the process immediately.

“We do need the vaccinations to get into people’s arms at a much faster clip,” she said. “It’s not been an easy process.”

Elsewhere, organizations representing actors, commercial advertisers, advertising agencies and independent film and television producers recommended a hold on in-person production in Southern California.

The hold would last until mid-January, according to a statement by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Joint Policy Committee, which represents commercial advertisers and ad agencies. The Producers Guild of America made a similar plea.

Major studios are already on a production hiatus until the middle of this month.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our health and well-being beyond the damage caused by the virus. In nearly every community, elective surgeries have been postponed, and routine care has been delayed. Amid closed healthcare offices and clinics, compounded by fear of contracting COVID-19, routine vaccinations have declined significantly across all age groups, with demand plummeting as much as 95 percent for some vaccines.

A recent analysis found that vaccination rates in the US have dropped dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Vaccination rates for older adults dropped an alarming 83 percent compared to last year, and 19- to 49-year-olds saw declines of more than 60 percent. Another study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in Michigan, fewer than half of infants age 5 months and younger are up-to-date on recommended vaccinations. These stories are confirmed by my colleagues across the US who are deeply concerned about their patients not receiving recommended vaccines.

As the country shifts to a “safer at home” approach, now is the time to catch up on postponed medical visits. The decline in vaccination rates represents a threat to public health, along with a strong opportunity to prevent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, influenza (flu), and pneumonia. Life-saving vaccines should no longer be delayed, and we must do everything we can to encourage both healthcare professionals and patients to take the necessary steps to ensure that we use available vaccines to protect all individuals in the US.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases is leading a national Keep Up The Rates campaign with nearly 100 partners to encourage all individuals to receive recommended vaccines that may have been delayed during the pandemic. The multi-media campaign is engaging national experts and leading public health organizations to reach populations most at risk of delaying vaccinations or experiencing complications from vaccine-preventable diseases. A digital hub offers information and resources, including a shareable public service announcement video (in English and in Spanish) to encourage everyone to do their part to stay up-to-date on all recommended vaccines.

Immunization protects entire communities. Individuals who are not able to get vaccinated due to underlying health conditions rely on community immunity to protect them. If communities are not up-to-date on recommended vaccines, then vulnerable populations are left at greater risk of exposure to serious infectious diseases. Staying current on recommended vaccinations helps us to stay healthy and also protects those around us who are at greatest risk of serious complications from vaccine-preventable diseases.

On their own, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases can lead to long-term complications and even death. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, outbreaks of other infectious diseases will also strain the capacity of US hospitals.

Vaccines are one of the most important and effective public health tools available to prevent many diseases across the lifespan. For example, two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine provide 97 percent protection and flu vaccinations can reduce the risk of flu and related complications by up to 60 percent. Look no further than the urgency to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine to see the tremendous role that vaccines can play in protecting public health and, ultimately, giving communities the confidence they need to return to normal activities such as school and work.

While the growth of telemedicine has worked to bridge the gap for sick visits and some preventive care, vaccinations are a critical part of well-visits that must be administered in person. Fortunately, healthcare offices and pharmacies are finding new ways to provide safe environments for patients to receive vaccines. Healthcare professionals, who are well-trained in minimizing the risk of transmission of communicable diseases, wear personal protective equipment and enforce social distancing as the norm in these settings. Exam rooms and common areas are frequently sanitized to reduce the spread of viruses, while the waiting “room” in many settings has been transformed to a parking lot or specific area designated for patients receiving vaccines.

We need help in spreading the campaign messages-join us in encouraging your family, friends, and patients of all ages to stay up-to-date on all recommended vaccines.

Together, we can make our communities as healthy as possible and, one day, look forward to adding COVID-19 to the growing list of vaccine-preventable diseases. To learn more about the steps that you can take to help keep up the rates for all recommended vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, listen to The Schaffner Report podcast.

-William Schaffner | Columnist

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