Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | The Georgia Star News

Nasdaq Expected to Underperform the S&P 500 for First Time in over Five Years

December 29, 2021December 28, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The Nasdaq Composite, a technology-heavy index of publicly-traded companies, is set to underperform the S&P 500 for the first time since 2016, according to CNBC.

The S&P 500, a stock market index consisting of the 500 largest publicly-traded companies in the U.S., climbed 28% in 2021 as of Monday, while the Nasdaq was up 23% on a year-over-year basis, according to CNBC. The S&P 500 previously beat the Nasdaq in 2016 and 2011.

The Nasdaq had a strong start to 2021, almost doubling the S&P 500 in February, CNBC reported. Trading slowed after the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines, which boosted sentiment among investors that the pandemic was ending, reducing demand for remote work technology and other tech-focused goods.

CDC Shortens Isolation Window for Positive COVID-19 Result to Five Days

December 29, 2021December 28, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated the amount of time it recommends people isolate themselves after testing positive for COVID-19, shortening it from 10 days to five.

“Given what we currently know about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, CDC is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others,” the CDC said in a statement Monday.

The CDC changed the guidance because officials believe the data indicates the majority of COVID-19 transmission takes place early in the course of the illness, “generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after,” the statement said.

Official Washington Looks Ahead to a New Year with More COVID, Inflation, and Supply Chain Risks

December 27, 2021 Admin

President Joe Biden walks along the Colonnade with the Combatant Commander nominees U.S. Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson on Monday, March 8, 2021, along the Colonnade of the White House.

Inflation, “softness” in the White House, and pandemic uncertainty make up some of the biggest risks to the U.S. economy in 2022, according to a Washington consulting firm.

“Every quarter, I take a macro look at trends driving politics and policy looking both backward and forwards and identify where key political risks may lurk and where political opportunities may present themselves,” Bruce Mehlman, former assistant secretary of Commerce in the George W. Bush administration, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The most recent analysis targets 2022 and identifies the emerging risks business and government leaders should anticipate and prepare for.”

A founding partner of the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, Mehlman advises prominent companies to understand and prepare for emerging trends and risks critical to the ever-evolving policy environment.

U.S. Life Expectancy Drops to Lowest Level Since Second World War

December 27, 2021 Admin

The U.S. life expectancy dropped to its lowest level since World War II in 2020, multiple sources reported.

Life expectancy fell from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 years in 2020, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, NBC News reported.

The average life expectancy for males fell 2.1 years from 76.3 in 2019 to 74.2 in 2020, NBC News reported. Women’s average life expectancy decreased 1.5 years from 81.4 in 2019 to 79.9 in 2020.

Medical Officials, Experts Criticize Biden Admin for ‘Reckless’ Handling of Pandemic

December 20, 2021 Admin

The federal agencies in charge of COVID-19 response are taking hits from former officials and high-profile medical professors for “sidelining experts,” not conducting basic research, and mischaracterizing evidence related to vaccines and masks for young people.

The Biden administration is getting a pass for “extreme political pressure” that “appropriately” prompted outrage against its predecessor, two FDA alumni wrote in The Washington Post Thursday.

CDC Announces ‘Test-to-Stay’ School Policy for Students Exposed to COVID

December 18, 2021December 17, 2021 The Center Square

The CDC on Friday announced it will allow children who have been exposed to COVID-19 to remain in school if they test negative at least twice in a week, after interacting with an infected person.

The goal of the policy is to keep as many children in school as possible, given the actual risk of them contracting and spreading the illness.

CDC: About 75 Percent of Omicron Cases Are Fully Vaccinated People

December 11, 2021December 10, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The Omicron variant has been detected in at least 19 states in the U.S., and is striking mainly fully vaccinated people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Forty-three people in 19 states have tested positive for omicron, according to remarks made to the Associated Press by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 75 percent of those cases are in people who are fully vaccinated, and one person has been hospitalized. One-third of those individuals had traveled internationally; one-third had received a booster. The cases so far have been “mild,” she said.”

Fauci Says ‘We Might Modify’ Definition of ‘Fully Vaccinated’ to Include Booster Shots

November 21, 2021November 21, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the definition of “fully vaccinated” might be changed by health officials to include COVID-19 booster shots if the data supports it.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that everyone aged 18 and older get booster shots six months after receiving either two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The CDC Can’t Prove a Single Instance of a Naturally Immune Individual Spreading COVID

November 14, 2021November 13, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

In response to a law firm’s query, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was unable to provide a single instance in which an unvaccinated person who’d previously had COVID-19 became reinfected with and transmitted the virus to someone else. The CDC said it does not collect such data, even though the medical freedom of millions of Americans hang in the balance.

A record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September, many of them pushed out of the workforce by the unnecessary vaccine mandates.

‘Propaganda’: Experts Rip CDC Study Claiming Vax Offers Stronger Protection than Natural Immunity

November 9, 2021November 8, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an “early release” study last week that uses a highly curated population to purportedly show that mRNA-vaccinated people have a much lower rate of reinfection by COVID-19 than naturally immune people, contradicting a much larger Israeli study this summer.

The CDC study concludes: “All eligible persons should be vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible, including unvaccinated persons previously infected with SARS-CoV-2.”

The study analyzed “COVID-19–like illness hospitalizations among adults” across nine states from January through Sept. 2. Because public health authorities portrayed vaccination as the best way to avoid hospitalization, it’s less likely that vaccinated people would seek hospitalization, thus hiding their breakthrough infections relative to the naturally immune.

Biden Continues Vaccine Push Even as Data Shows More Americans Have Died with COVID So Far in 2021 Than Died in 2020

October 10, 2021October 10, 2021 Admin

The Biden regime continues to use coercive tactics to get “the vast majority” of Americans vaccinated, even though the data suggests that the vaccines have done more harm than good.

More Americans have died with COVID-19 under Joe Biden’s watch than during the first year of the pandemic under President Donald Trump, data from John Hopkins University show.

CDC Says It Is ‘Urgent’ for ‘Pregnant People’ to Get Vaccinated

October 1, 2021September 30, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday that they strongly recommend pregnant women get a COVID-19 vaccination.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended “urgent action” Wednesday for “people who are pregnant, recently pregnant … who are trying to become pregnant now, or who might become pregnant in the future” as 125,000 COVID-19 cases reported among pregnant women have resulted in 22,000 hospitalizations and 161 deaths.

Analysis: COVID-19 Is Not a ‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated’

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 Admin

On Friday, September 17, the CDC published a study that refutes the common claim that COVID-19 is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Coauthored by more than 50 MD’s and Ph.D.’s, the study contains data on the vaccine status of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 (C-19) at 21 U.S. hospitals across 18 states during March to August of 2021.

Contrary to assertions from the Associated Press and Anthony Fauci that fully vaccinated people comprise only 1% of those being hospitalized or killed by C-19, the study found that 13% of patients hospitalized with C-19 had been fully vaccinated. Moreover, that 13% figure is just the tip of the iceberg because the authors excluded from their study a large group of hospitalized C-19 patients, the bulk of whom were likely vaccinated.

Vaccinating Kids as Young as Five Would Be a ‘Game Changer,’ Biden’s Education Secretary Says

September 26, 2021September 25, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the approval of a COVID-19 vaccine for children would be a “game changer” for students in the U.S.’s public school system, U.S. News reported.

Pfizer announced Monday that a smaller dose of its vaccine has generated an immune response in 5 to 11-year-old children during the clinical trial. The company said it plans to submit data for approval in the next few weeks.

CDC Tells Medical Professionals to Be on Alert over Afghan Evacuees Potentially Spreading Infectious Diseases

September 25, 2021September 24, 2021 The Center Square

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending that medical professionals and clinicians be on alert for infectious diseases among Afghan nationals recently brought into the country, including measles, mumps and rubella, diseases for which Americans have already been vaccinated.

After the CDC announcement, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said Afghan evacuees were required to get the MMR vaccine and then be quarantined for 21 days.

CDC: Childhood Obesity Increased Dramatically During COVID Pandemic

September 20, 2021September 19, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), childhood obesity rates skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic to “substantial and alarming” levels, as reported by Fox News.

The CDC’s findings, released on Thursday, determined that increases in obesity were most prevalent among children who were already overweight before the pandemic started, but found a “profound increase in weight gain for kids” across the board. Overall, the study determined that 22 percent of American children and teenagers were obese in August of 2020, which marked an increase of 3 percent from August of 2019.

CDC Warns Afghan Refugees Pose Threat of ‘Larger Imminent Outbreaks’ of Measles in U.S.

September 16, 2021 Admin

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a private warning to the chief of Afghan evacuation operations that measles is spreading among refugees and poses a “major public health threat” that includes the potential for “larger imminent outbreaks” in U.S. communities already reeling from the coronavirus.

CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky’s memo Tuesday night urged Operations Allies Welcome senior official Robert Fenton to take “urgent public health action” that includes mass vaccinations of refugees, revealing there are now six confirmed cases of measles in Afghan refugees, 17 suspect cases and hundreds of exposures in U.S. hospitals.

Jobless Claims Plummet to 310,000 as Workers Brush Off Delta Concerns

September 10, 2021September 9, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

Photo “Unemployment Insurance Claims Office” by Bytemarks. CC BY 2.0.

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims decreased to 310,000 last week as the economy continues to slowly recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics figure released Thursday represents a substantial decrease in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Aug. 28, when 345,000 new jobless claims were reported. That figure was revised up from the 340,000 jobless claims initially reported last week.

Report: Teachers Unions Bullied the White House, CDC into Changing School Masking Guidelines

September 10, 2021September 9, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The National Education Association (NEA) teachers union threatened to publicly criticize President Joe Biden’s administration if it did not implement stricter mask guidance, according to internal emails obtained by watchdog group Americans for Public Trust and provided to Fox News.

Following a statement published by the NEA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) specified that regardless of vaccination status, masks should be worn by everyone in schools, Fox News reported. The NEA originally sent a drafted statement to White House officials criticizing the CDC’s guidance, but ended up publishing a statement with a milder tone, according to the emails.

Commentary: Lack of Liberty Leads to Death

September 9, 2021 Admin

It’s been 20 years since my son was old enough for his first MMR vaccine. At that time, the CDC was insisting on two things: 1) there had been a huge increase in children with autism, and 2) there was no connection between the MMR vaccine and that increase in autism. I could see very clearly that if you believed the first it would be extremely easy to not believe the second. Once you unleash hysteria, it’s hard to call it back. That is what I call the 2020 Fallacy.

Thanks to Thomas Sowell, I knew that the CDC’s first claim was not true. There was no dramatic increase in the occurrence of autism. There was a dramatic increase in what we diagnosed as autism. Neurologists invented the autism spectrum disorder to explain a long-existing phenomenon. And with that invention, the so-called “dramatic increase in autism” was born.

Studies Point to Varied Effects of Masking

September 7, 2021September 7, 2021 Bradley Vasoli

Crowded street market with people wearing masks

New research published by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Bangladesh, which tracked mask-wearing among 340,000 Bangladeshi adults, indicates mask usage can considerably reduce the spread of symptomatic COVID-19.

Some medical professionals, however, remain uneasy about mask mandates in schools because of their possible impact on children’s learning and social health.

Report: Top Health Officials Tell White House to Pause Vaccine Booster Plan

September 6, 2021September 5, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

Top U.S. health officials told the White House pandemic coordinator on Thursday to scale back the Biden administration’s plan to administer the coronavirus booster shots to individuals in September, The New York Times reported.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey D. Zients that they need more time to collect and analyze the necessary data relating to the booster shots, The New York Times reported.

The doctors told Zients that their agencies might be able to determine whether to recommend boosters for recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the coming weeks, according to the Times.

The two doctors presented their argument to Zients at a meeting on Thursday. It is unclear how Zients responded to the news.

Commentary: Biden’s Eviction Moratorium Reveals Tragic Disdain for the Constitution

August 27, 2021August 26, 2021 RealClearWire

One night while we were sleeping, America lost its Constitution.

That’s not such an unrealistic scenario, and it can happen without gunfire or marches in the streets. In fact, with very little drama, it may be occurring at this moment. By itself, the U.S. Constitution is merely a collection of words. Only citizens who cherish liberty give the document real meaning, and if they remain silent when it’s under threat – as it surely is at this hour – our rights and freedoms become imperiled.

Feds: Vaccinated Americans Will Need Booster Shots

August 19, 2021August 18, 2021 The Center Square

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that federal health experts now recommend vaccinated Americans receive a COVID booster shot.

The boosters will be widely distributed to the public after research indicated that the vaccine’s effectiveness declines over time.

Report: Biden’s 90-Day COVID Origins Probe Expected to Be A Dud

August 14, 2021August 13, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The intelligence community is unlikely to come to any definitive conclusions on the origins of COVID-19 as a result of its 90-day probe ordered by President Joe Biden in May, according to multiple reports.

The report is likely to show that officials are still divided over the two theories they started out with at the beginning of the probe, that COVID-19 either entered the human population through an accidental Wuhan lab leak or by jumping naturally from animals to humans, according to reports by CNN and McClatchy citing sources familiar with the assessment.

Commentary: Our Public Health Bureaucracy Can’t Be Dismantled Quickly Enough

August 5, 2021August 4, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

Earlier this week, the estimable Robert Stacy McCain delivered a quite spot-on assessment of the terrible science behind the Centers for Disease Control’s guidance on masks, vaccinations, and the Delta variant of COVID-19. That guidance has thrown the entire country into a fresh panic about the virus, so much so that in places like Nevada, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. there are now mask mandates in place even for people vaccinated against the virus.

It seems the CDC had two sources for upsetting the national applecart. According to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, it relied on a study of a vaccine in use in India which apparently was less than effective in warding off the Delta variant — but that vaccine isn’t used in the United States because our authorities weren’t satisfied as to its effectiveness, period.

CDC Extends Trump-Era Public Health Order Allowing Border Officials to Expel Most Migrants

August 5, 2021August 4, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the Trump-era public health order allowing border officials to expel most migrants back to Mexico or Canada, the agency announced Monday.

The regulation, known as Title 42, temporarily prohibits noncitizens from entering the U.S. through Canada or Mexico regardless of their port of origin in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 into the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Unaccompanied migrants minors were exempt from the order.

Commentary: I’m Unvaccinated – and I Plan to Stay That Way

August 5, 2021August 4, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The word “confusing” is being used (even by the New York Times) to describe the CDC’s reasoning behind its announcement that masks must again be worn indoors, even by the fully vaccinated.

In fact, the CDC’s reasoning is clear, and talk about “confusion” is an attempt to conceal a straightforward assessment: As CDC head bureaucrat Rochelle Walensky said on Fox News on Friday, vaccinated people can still get the “delta” variant and can transmit it. Top medical mafioso Anthony Fauci said essentially the same thing last week—that for the delta variant there was no difference in the observed level of “virality” between people who were vaccinated and those who were not.

Big Three Automakers Reinstate Mask Mandates for All Workers

August 5, 2021August 4, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

America’s largest automobile manufacturers, along with United Auto Workers (UAW), will require all employees to wear masks again starting Wednesday.

The decision was made by a COVID-19 task force comprised of health officials from UAW, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which manufactures Dodge and Chrysler vehicles. All workers, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, have to wear masks at plants, office buildings, and warehouses, UAW announced in a statement Tuesday.

Commentary: U.S. COVID Deaths Are at Lowest Level Since March 2020, Ivy League Professors Explain

August 3, 2021August 2, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

If you judged the US’s current COVID-19 situation only by the headlines, you’d come away thinking that we’re spiraling back into pandemic disaster. Localities like Los Angeles County and St. Louis have reimposed mask mandates on their citizens, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just revised its “guidance” to say that, actually, fully vaccinated individuals should still wear masks in certain situations. Meanwhile, mainstream media coverage of the rise of the “Delta variant” is soaked in alarmism.

Yet at the same time that all this alarm is mounting, the actual number of COVID-19 deaths is at a nadir. Harvard Medical School Professor Martin Kulldorff pointed this out on Twitter, writing that “In [the] USA, COVID mortality is now the lowest since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.”

Commentary: Nope, I Won’t Mask up Again

August 2, 2021August 1, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

Last March, I followed the CDC’s advice and got fully vaccinated against COVID-19. I did so more out of a sense of civic duty than any actual fear that I might contract the virus. It was just an easy and scientifically sound way to help slow its spread. Naturally, I was delighted when the CDC finally announced that fully vaccinated people could safely participate in indoor and outdoor activities without wearing inconvenient and clinically useless face masks. Now, the CDC has reversed itself and issued new guidance telling 163.6 million fully vaccinated Americans to put our masks back on. Sorry, no sale.

First, the CDC published no data supporting its bizarre reversal. The Washington Post reports: “In the text of the updated masking guidance, the agency merely cited ‘CDC COVID-19 Response Team, unpublished data, 2021.’” Moreover, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is struggling to produce a plausible explanation. She claimed without evidence on ABC News that “new science” has emerged showing that fully vaccinated people should be masking.

Commentary: The Numbers Don’t Support Scapegoating the Unvaccinated

August 2, 2021August 1, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

If you’re tired of the pandemic and just want to go back to normal, David Frum at The Atlantic has news for you: It’s all the stupid people who refuse to take the vaccine that are prolonging our COVID misery.

Oh, wait, that’s not it exactly. In actuality, it’s all Trump’s fault. Frum, once a leading voice of the conservative establishment, declares: “Pro-Trump America has decided that vaccine refusal is a statement of identity and a test of loyalty.”

Sixth Circuit Rules CDC Eviction Moratorium Is Unconstitutional

July 27, 2021July 26, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the national eviction moratorium mandated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is unconstitutional. The court said in its ruling that the matter ultimately needed to be resolved by Congress.

The three-judge panel ruled that the CDC engaged in federal overreach by mandating that tenants who are unable to pay their rent and are in breach of their rental agreements may not be evicted. The CDC had implemented a moratorium in response to millions of people losing their jobs due to governors shutting down their state economies to slow the spread of COVID-19.

‘Global Health Threat’: Untreatable Fungus Spreading In DC, Dallas, CDC Says

July 26, 2021July 25, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

An untreatable fungus is spreading in health facilities in Washington, D.C., and Dallas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC issued an update Thursday regarding Candida auris, an emerging strain of fungus resistant to medication causing infections, fever and death. The fungus was detected in two hospitals in Dallas and a nursing home in Washington, D.C., the Associated Press reported.

Report: Biden Admin Will Keep Restrictions Allowing Border Officials to Expel Migrants for Another Month

July 23, 2021July 22, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

The Biden administration will reportedly keep restrictions allowing border officials to expel most migrants for another month, The Monitor reported Wednesday.

The Trump administration implemented public health order Title 42 prohibiting some individuals from entering the U.S. in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Border officials encountered nearly 190,000 migrants at the southern border in June and over 100,000 of those were rapidly expelled under Title 42, according to CBP.

Arizona Gov. Ducey Urges Continuation of Title 42 Border Restrictions

July 23, 2021July 22, 2021 The Center Square

Gov. Doug Ducey has called on Arizona’s congressional delegation to urge the Biden administration to maintain Title 42 restrictions, which allow federal officials to prohibit entry into the U.S. for those posing a potential health risk.

“I am writing to you today to share details of the impact this dangerous and misguided idea would have on Arizona and to request your assistance on behalf of the people of Arizona in urging the Biden administration to maintain these critical protections,” Ducey wrote last week in a letter to Arizona’s 11 members of Congress.

CDC Sued by Watchdog Group for Withholding Communications Records with Teachers’ Unions

July 18, 2021July 17, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was sued by a watchdog group after the agency failed to hand over requested documentation of communication between the government agency and the leaders of various teachers’ unions, Fox News reports.

The suit was filed by Americans for Public Trust (APT), a nonprofit based in Washington D.C. The group alleges that the documents they previously requested via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) could prove that there was “undue political influence” expressed over the CDC by teachers’ unions, which ultimately dictated the CDC’s lockdown recommendations.

Fully Vaccinated Do Not Need Booster for Delta Variant, CDC and FDA Say

July 12, 2021July 11, 2021 Georgia Star News Staff

Fully vaccinated Americans do not need to receive a booster shot to protect against the Delta variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration said in a press release.

“People who are fully vaccinated are protected from severe disease and death, including from the variants currently circulating in the country such as Delta,” a joint statement said on Thursday.

Furious Parents Demand Fulton County School System Scrap Students’ COVID-19 Mask Mandate

May 7, 2021 Chris Butler

Fulton County parent Danielle Denlien urged — unsuccessfully — that members of the Fulton County School Board abolish the COVID-19 mask mandate they impose upon students. But before she could finish, a law enforcement officer escorted her away from the podium.

Furious Parents Demand Fulton County School System Scrap Students’ COVID-19 Mask Mandate

May 7, 2021May 6, 2021 Chris Butler

Twitter Removes Anti-Mask Tweet From Trump Coronavirus Adviser

October 19, 2020October 18, 2020 Georgia Star News Staff

Twitter removed a tweet from a top White House coronavirus adviser, saying that, contrary to official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, masks don’t prevent the spread of the virus.

On Saturday, Dr. Scott Atlas tweeted that evidence showed masks don’t work, according to NBC News. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released guidance in April urging Americans to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of coronavirus after weeks of recommending the opposite.

CDC Report Indicates Masks May Increase Chance of Infection with COVID or Other Respiratory Illnesses

October 16, 2020October 15, 2020 Corinne Murdock

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report last month in which the nearly 71 percent of individuals infected with COVID-19 reported “always” wearing their mask. This opposed to the 4 percent of infected individuals who “never” wore masks.
The number of individuals infected with COVID-19 positively correlated with the consistency of mask-wearing. The report didn’t address the possible correlation between face mask hygiene and COVID-19 infection, such as proper handling and disposal of masks. It also didn’t differentiate the respondents’ mask types.

VA Democrats Want To Issue Mandatory ‘Vaccination Cards’ Costing $121 Million

October 14, 2020October 14, 2020 Corinne Murdock

Virginia plans on spending nearly $121 million on CARES funding for COVID-19 vaccine equipment and advertisement. This according to a proposal draft, reportedly submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week.

Nearly $6 million will be spent on equipment: over $111 million on administration and staffing and $3 million in a “public education campaign.”

Virginia Department of Health Launches New Pandemic Metrics Dashboard

September 30, 2020September 29, 2020 Jacob Taylor

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) on Monday launched a new pandemic metrics dashboard with more specific, aggregated data to show where COVID-19 is spreading in Virginia’s different regions and any changes occurring over time.

The new dashboard will be updated weekly and features three different tabs: About the Data, Daily Region Metrics, Weekly Transmission Extent. Additionally, School Metrics from the CDC are included within the dashboard.