Appeals court stays vaccine mandate on larger businesses NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration's vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers. AP NEWS

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration’s vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers.

HHS’s Medical Countermeasures Enterprise Should Be Re-envisioned Post-COVID-19

New lab tool spotlights mutation that speeds spread of Delta variant

As the world has learned to its cost, the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus is more than twice as infectious as previous strains. Just what drives Delta’s ability to spread so rapidly hasn’t been clear, however. Now, a new lab strategy that makes it possible to quickly and safely study the effects of mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants has delivered one answer: a little-noticed mutation in Delta that allows the virus to stuff more of its genetic code into host cells, thus boosting the chances that each infected cell will spread the virus to another cell.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has reached a deal with nine labor unions regarding how the city will handle unvaccinated employees under its tough new vaccination mandate. In exchange, the unions have agreed to drop their legal efforts to overturn the new policy, the city announced Thursday.

The nine unions collectively represent about 88,000 of the 160,000 employees covered by the latest mandate, which requires all city employees to get vaccinated for the coronavirus with no option to take a weekly test. The unions include District Council 37, Teamsters Local 237, the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association Local 831, and SEIU Local 300. ...

There's more demand for boosters than first shots of the COVID vaccine Some experts worry "boostermania" is distracting from the goal of getting tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans their first shots. NPR.org

The number of people getting COVID-19 vaccine boosters in the U.S. is now far outpacing the number getting their first shots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Patients Went Into the Hospital for Care. After Testing Positive There for Covid, Some Never Came Out. About 21% of patients diagnosed with covid during a hospital stay died, according to data analyzed for KHN. In-hospital rates of spread varied widely and patients had no way of checking them. khnchristinaj Kaiser Health News

...

San Francisco plans to extend its indoor proof-of-vaccination requirements to children 5 to 11 years old, the first major U.S. city to do so, following the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s announcement Wednesday recommending the Pfizer-BioNTech lower-dose Covid vaccine for this age group.

The city, which has a proof-of-vaccination mandate for everyone 12 and older to access indoor activities, like restaurants, gyms and sporting events, said that San Franciscans should start preparing to show immunization cards for children 5 to 11 in the coming months. ...