Category: Vaccine

Staff Shortage Concerns Challenge Germany’s Vaccine Mandate

BERLIN—Frank Vogel, a 64-year-old local politician from the eastern German Erzgebirge region, has been scrambling to find ways to keep nursing homes open when a vaccine mandate for health care workers takes effect next month. His region near the Czech border has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Germany. With only 57 percent of…


CDC Grant Program Spends $5,000 Per Shot to Convince Minorities to Get COVID-19 Vaccine

GAINESVILLE, Fla.—Fleets of specially equipped, federally funded buses are rolling into targeted areas with the mission of convincing people to get the COVID-19 vaccine and giving the jabs on the spot to the newly persuaded. Under a $6 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), teams in six states have worked…


New York Won’t Enforce COVID-19 Booster Mandate for Health Sector Over Staffing Concerns

New York on Friday rolled back on a Feb. 21 deadline that would require healthcare workers to get a COVID-19 booster shot or risk losing their jobs or salary, citing concerns about staffing shortages. “The reality is that not enough healthcare workers will be boosted by next week’s requirement,” said Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the…


Maryland’s Most Populous County Scraps Plans for COVID-19 Vaccine Passport

Maryland’s largest county is not moving forward with plans to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate—though officials are keeping open the option of imposing it in the future. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, a Democrat, pushed for the mandate, which would have required all businesses to screen customers for proof of COVID-19 vaccination. But when the…


Maryland’s Most Populous County Scraps COVID-19 Vaccine Passport Plans

Lawmakers in Maryland’s largest county won’t be moving forward with plans to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate—although officials are keeping open the option of imposing it in the future. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, a Democrat, pushed for the mandate, which would have required all businesses to screen customers for proof of COVID-19 vaccination. But…


Novavax COVID 19 Vaccine Gets Approval for Use in Canada

The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use in Canada. The vaccine, which is protein-based, is the first of its kind to get approval in the country. Experts say a non-mRNA vaccine could win over some vaccine-hesitant people who have still not received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. company Novavax Inc….


BioNTech and Moderna Give Updates on COVID-19 Vaccines Targeting Omicron Variant

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine designed to target the Omicron virus variant could be ready for administration as soon as April while Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine booster designed to neutralize the variant may be ready by August. Trial data on Pfizer-BioNTech jab is on track to be ready for dissemination to regulatory agencies by the end of March but regulators…


BioNTech Plans Modular Vaccine Factories in Africa

BERLIN—German vaccine maker BioNTech, which developed the first widely approved shot against COVID-19 together with Pfizer, unveiled plans Wednesday to establish manufacturing facilities in Africa that would boost the availability of much-needed medicines on the continent. The modular design presented at a ceremony in Marburg, Germany, consists of shipping containers fitted with the equipment necessary…


Boston City Workers Win Bid to Overturn Vaccine Mandate

Boston city workers have won their bid to suspend Mayor Michelle Wu’s vaccination mandate policy. A Massachusetts Appeals Court judge issued an injunction prohibiting the city from enforcing its Dec. 20, 2021, vaccine mandate policy for Boston union police and firefighters. The ruling overturned a lower court’s earlier ruling that kept the mandate in place. The…


Italy Bars Unvaccinated Adults Aged 50 and Older From Workplaces

Starting on Feb. 22, all Italian employees in the public or private sector aged 50 and older will need to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination via the country’s “super green pass” in order to enter their workplace. The “super green pass”—a type of vaccine passport—is also required to enter most venues in Italy. The vaccination…