COVID 19

A Health worker administers vaccinations at a pop-up drive-in clinic Monday, Oct. 11, 2021, in Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand's doctors and teachers are among those who must soon be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to continue working in their

World News

New Zealand's doctors and teachers must soon be vaccinated

4:13am October 11, 2021

by The Associated Press

The new mandate compels health care workers, including doctors and pharmacists, to be fully vaccinated by December. Teachers and other education workers must be fully vaccinated by January.

Cox Medical Center in Branson, Mo., is implementing a personal panic button system for hundreds of its employees. Assaults of hospital staff tripled from 2019 to 2020, the hospital says.

Health & Safety

A Hospital Gives Its Staff Panic Buttons After Assaults By Patients Triple

6:23pm September 30, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

From 2019 to 2020, assaults on hospital staff by patients tripled at Cox Medical Center in Branson, Mo. Now personal panic buttons are being implemented to alert hospital security more easily.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks to reporters about lifting of a state of emergency at his official residence in Tokyo Monday, Sept. 27. Suga announced Tuesday a lifting of the ongoing coronavirus state of emergency and less-stringent measure

World News

Japan To Lift All Coronavirus Emergency Steps Nationwide

7:54am September 28, 2021

by The Associated Press

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Tuesday that virus restrictions will be eased gradually.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, shown here in August, has appointed Dr. Joseph Ladapo as the state's new surgeon general. Ladapo says vaccines are not the only way to promote "good health."

Florida Gov. DeSantis Taps A New Surgeon General Who Doesn't Support Vaccine Mandates

3:18pm September 22, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

Dr. Joseph Ladapo comes to Florida from UCLA and is a Harvard Medical School graduate. He says vaccines are not the only way to promote "good health" and the decision to get one is up to each person.

A health worker administers a dose of a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination clinic earlier this month at the Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pa.

COVID Vaccine For Kids Ages 5 To 11 Is Safe And Effective, Pfizer Says

10:51am September 20, 2021

by Jaclyn Diaz

Pfizer and BioNTech say that early trial results show their vaccine established a strong antibody response against the coronavirus. FDA review is still needed.

Nurse Katrina Philpot (left) protests against COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates in Santa Fe, N.M., in August.

Health & Safety

In The Fight Against COVID, Health Workers Aren't Immune To Vaccine Misinformation

1:18pm September 18, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

About a quarter of U.S. health care workers have refused the COVID-19 vaccine as of July. They share demographic traits with other unvaccinated people and are putting hospitals in a tough spot.

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin is going into self-isolation because of coronavirus cases among his inner circle.

World News

Russian President Putin Self-Isolates After Staffers Get COVID-19

12:41pm September 14, 2021

The Russian leader will attend an upcoming regional meeting via teleconference, the Kremlin said. Putin said he got his second COVID-19 vaccine in April.

Students head toward Thurgood Marshall Academic High School in San Francisco in March.

San Francisco Schools Have Had No COVID-19 Outbreaks Since Classes Began Last Month

4:11pm September 10, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

The city's health department said 90% of children ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated. There have been 227 cases reported among staff and students, but the vast majority are occurring outside school.

Travelers wearing protective face masks wait in line at a Transportation Security Administration screening at LaGuardia Airport in New York last month. U.S. aviation regulators are calling on the nation's airports to crack down on the defiantly unmasked.

Health & Safety

TSA Is Doubling Fines For Those Who Refuse To Wear A Mask While Flying

1:42pm September 10, 2021

by Sharon Pruitt-Young

President Biden says, "If you break the rules, be prepared to pay." He calls the harassment aimed at airline employees over masks "wrong" and "ugly."

ECMO is the highest level of life support — beyond a ventilator, which pumps oxygen via a tube through the windpipe into the lungs. Instead, the ECMO process basically functions as a heart and lungs outside of the body — routing the blood via tubing t

Across The COVID-Ravaged South, High-Level Life Support Is Difficult To Find

5:00am September 06, 2021

by Blake Farmer

ECMO, the highest level of mechanical life support, functions as a temporary heart and lungs for some of COVID-19's sickest patients. But the waitlist is too long for many patients who need it.