COVID-19 is the No. 1 killer of America’s law enforcement

Police officers and other public safety workers have a responsibility to get vaccinated, the nation’s top infectious disease physician says.

“I’m not comfortable with telling people what they should do under normal circumstances, but we are not in normal circumstances right now,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview Sunday with Fox News. “Take the police. We know now the statistics, more police officers die of COVID than they do in other causes of death.

“So it doesn’t make any sense to not try to protect yourself as well as the colleagues that you work with.”

COVID-19 is the leading cause of death for American law enforcement officers, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a nonprofit tracking police officer deaths.

Police unions and officers have pushed back on vaccine mandates by filing lawsuits. In Chicago, the head of the police union called on members to defy the city’s deadline for reporting their vaccination status. Seattle’s police department sent detectives and nonpatrol officers to emergency calls this week because of a shortage of patrol officers, which union leaders fear will become worse because of vaccine mandates.

“Think about the implications of not getting vaccinated when you’re in a position where you have a responsible job and you want to protect yourself because you’re needed at your job, whether you’re a police officer or a pilot or any other of those kinds of occupations,” Fauci said.

Judges weigh whether hospitals can be forced to give ivermectin

Judges are struggling with the question of whether they have the power to order hospitals to give grievously ill COVID-19 patients ivermectin, a drug that hasn’t been approved for use to treat people with the disease.

Florida Circuit Judge James Nutt said state law is unclear. And allowing judges to revoke doctor’ decisions could set a dangerous precedent, he said.

“So every drug combination cocktail or procedure that is debated as to its efficacy … the hospital is going to be taken to court?” Nutt asked. “It’s problematic where this is going.”

Judges in New York, Ohio and Delaware ruled that hospitals couldn’t be compelled to administer ivermectin. But a judge in Jacksonville, Florida, last month ordered a hospital to give it to patient, according to records submitted to Nutt.

At least two lawsuits have been filed nationwide seeking to force hospitals to administer ivermectin.

Cities seek to loosen rules on aid

At the Loma Verde Recreation Center south of San Diego, demolition work has begun on a $24 million project that will rebuild it, complete with a new pool. An hour’s drive to the north, the iconic bridge to the Oceanside pier is deteriorating because the city lacks the money for a roughly $25 million rehabilitation.

A reason one project is moving ahead and the other isn’t revolves around the American Rescue Plan – the sweeping COVID-19 relief law championed by President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats that is pumping billions of dollars to states and local governments.

Under Treasury Department rules, some governments have more flexibility than others to spend their share of the money. That’s why the new swimming pool is a go and the rehabbed pier isn’t.

Similar disparities among cities have prompted pushback from local officials, who want the Treasury Department to loosen its rules before the program progresses.