Study: Vaccine lag cost lives in Fla., Texas

Florida and Texas could have prevented 70,000 hospitalizations and saved 4,700 lives if they had matched the coronavirus vaccination rate of the nation’s top five states, a new study finds.

Those states – Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island – had fully vaccinated 74% of adults by the end of July, compared with 59.3% for Florida and 55.6% for Texas. The national figure as of Thursday was 61.3%.

The researchers, from Yale and York universities and the Commonwealth Fund, point out Florida and Texas have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic’s resurgence, accounting for 28% of the nation’s infections and nearly 35% of the deaths. As a percentage of the nation’s population, Florida ranks first in COVID-19 deaths and Texas ninth, and both continue to see explosive growth in their caseloads.

HHS requires shots for workers

More than 25,000 workers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services must get vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect patients at medical or clinical research facilities, the agency announced Thursday.

Also, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced its vaccination requirement will expand beyond health care workers.

Starting Friday, the requirement will apply to most Veterans Health Administration employees, volunteers and contractors who come into contact with VA patients and healthcare workers.

The HHS rule applies to contractors, trainees and volunteers at the Indian Health Service and National Institutes of Health who may have contact with patients. Members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, who may be deployed as emergency responders, must also be vaccinated.

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Federal regulators were poised to amend the emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to allow for a third shot for some immunocompromised people.

The delta variant accounts for about 93% of U.S. cases. In Mississippi, averaging 2,700 new infections a day, the number of patients needing intensive care and ventilators has surpassed the worst of the pandemic.

Amtrak’s 18,000 employees must get vaccinated or get tested weekly.