EXPLAINER: What vaccine mandate means for firms and workers The Biden administration's sweeping new COVID-19 mandate will apply to 84 million workers at mid-size and large companies. President Joe Biden described the rules issued Thursday as urgently needed to get more Americans inoculated. AP NEWS

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Here is a closer look at the new COVID rules and what they mean for companies and their employees:

WHAT DO THE NEW RULES DO?

Experimental Pfizer pill prevents Covid hospitalizations and deaths - STAT An experimental antiviral pill from Pfizer reduced Covid patients' risk of death and hospitalization by 89% in a large study. Matthew Herper STAT

An experimental antiviral pill developed by Pfizer reduced the risk of death and hospitalization by 89% in patients who were newly diagnosed with Covid-19 in a large study, the company said Friday.

When are masks most useful? COVID cases offer... Nature - Masks offer the greatest protection indoors and during long exposures to people infected with the coronavirus — but other public-health measures matter, too. Remmel, Ariana nature

An analysis of hundreds of COVID-19 cases suggests that face masks are most protective in specific circumstances, such as exposure to a person with COVID-19 that lasts for more than three hours or that takes place indoors¹.

The United States had the second-steepest decline in life expectancy among high-income countries last year during the pandemic, according to a study of death data spanning several continents. 

The only country studied that saw a starker overall trend was Russia.

The study, published Wednesday in The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), assessed premature death in 37 countries, comparing observed life expectancy in 2020 with what would have been expected for the year based on historical trends from 2005-2019. Life expectancy dropped in 31 of these countries during the pandemic. 

The U.S. trend was among the worst.  ...

Dr. Natasha Burgert is well aware of the concerns parents have about the Covid-19 vaccines.

The Kansas pediatrician, who is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said she’s already been counseling some parents about their fears. And she worries that they are entering a particularly sensitive time — one that anti-vaccination activists could exploit.

“If the anti-vaccine industry starts doing what we anticipate, with those very graphic and emotionally charged videos, and bringing out their supposed experts, I think it’s going to affect a new group of parents,” she said. 

COVID proteins that trigger strokes and heart attacks identified by Israeli team Discovery, made through ‘peek in virus's black box,’ could lead to therapies that halt havoc wrought on vascular system, say Tel Aviv University scientists timesofisrael

Israeli scientists have identified the virus proteins that are triggering strokes and heart attacks in COVID-19 patients, in a breakthrough they expect will pave the way for new drugs.