Coronavirus

Coronavirus Alert: Biden’s New Aggressive COVID-19 Plan Includes More Mandatory Vaccinations, Booster Shots, and Keeping Schools Open; U.S. Infections Top 2020, Los Angeles Becomes 1st Major School District to Mandate Student Vaccination, France Bans Unvaccinated Americans, Stillbirths Double in Mississippi

Here is the latest news, data, and expert insighton the COVID-19 pandemic.

TheJohns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centermaintains an ongoing count of theCOVID-19cases and deaths in the United States and worldwide. As of 6:35 p.m. on September 10, 2021, the tally is:

Total cases worldwide: 223,600,504 (up from 222,989,119 Thursday)

Total deaths worldwide: 4,612,018 (up from 4,602,538 Thursday)

Total cases in the United States: 40,731,352 (up from 40,572,631 Thursday)

Total deaths in the United States: 656,248 (up from 654,268 Thursday)

Top Stories

Biden presented a six-pronged strategy to battle COVID-19.In an address to the nation on Thursday, President Joe Biden presented his newsix-point, comprehensive national strategyfor tackling the pandemic, as the national vaccination rate has stalled at 53 percent of the U.S. population and average daily cases have soared above 150,000,根据疾病控制中心和Prevention (CDC).

Among Biden’s goals are keeping schools open, increasing testing, and requiring vaccines for all federal employees and at businesses that employ more than 100 workers.

The president pleaded for the unvaccinated to get the protection. “What more do you need to see?” Biden asked the 80 million Americans who are still unvaccinated. “The vaccine is FDA-approved, over 200 million Americans have gotten the shot. We have been patient, but our patience is wearing thin.”

州长誓言要打击拜登的新措施.可能是预测,保守governors around the country have vowed to fight Biden’s new pandemic policy and challenge the measures in court,according to The Hill.Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia tweeted, “I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration.” South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster vowed, “We will fight them to the gates of hell to protect liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.”

U.S. infections this year have topped 2020.America this week hit a new record, tallying more cases already in 2021 than in 2020, according todata analysis byUSA Today. By Tuesday night this week, the United States had nearly 20,146,000 coronavirus cases for the year compared with the 2020 total of 20,100,249.

A 31-year-old pled on TikTok for others to get the vaccine before dying.In the final video posted on her TikTok account, Megan Alexandra Blankenbiller pleaded with her followers not to make the same mistake that she did — waiting to get the COVID-19 vaccine — that eventually cost her her life, according to atweet on Minnesota Public Radio. “I don't have a lot of energy for talking, so I want to try to make this quick,” the 31-year-old said in a video from her hospital bed. “I did not get vaccinated. I'm not anti-vax, I was just trying to do my research. I was scared and I wanted me and my family to all do it at the same time. I do think it was a mistake. I shouldn’t have waited.”

"I shouldn't have waited."
In the final video posted on her TikTok account, Megan Alexandra Blankenbiller pleaded with her followers not to make the same mistake that she did — waiting to get the COVID-19 vaccine — that eventually cost her her life.https://t.co/sX7Z4BTnei
— MPR News (@MPRnews)September 9, 2021

National News

Moderna is working on a COVID booster–flu shot combo.AsReuters reported, Moderna announced on Thursday that it is developing a single vaccine that combines a booster dose against COVID-19 with its experimentalflu shot.

Dr. Fauci says the infection rate is 10 times too high.Anthony Fauci, MD, the director of the of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),told Axios.com on Thursdaythat Americans are now getting infected with COVID-19 at 10 times the rate needed to end the pandemic, and the outbreak will continue unless more people get vaccinated. “In a country of our size, you can't be having 100,000 infections a day. You’ve got to get well below 10,000 before you start feeling comfortable,” Fauci said.

He added that once enough people have been vaccinated, “you'll still get some people getting infected, but you’re not going to have it as a public health threat.”

Ninety-five percent of U.S. counties now have a "high" transmission rate.The CDC'sCOVID Data Trackerrevealed on Tuesday that 95.19 percent of counties in the United States are seeing “high” rates of transmission, meaning there were at least 100 new cases reported per 100,000 people in the past seven days,according to The Hill.

Pediatric cases continue to rise.The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)released new data on Tuesdayshowing that almost 27 percent of COVID-19 cases from August 26 to September 2 occurred in children. About 252,000 cases were added the past week, the largest number of child cases in a week since the pandemic began. After declining in early summer, child cases have increased exponentially, with over 750,000 cases added between August 5 and September 2.

The AAP added that at this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children. However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects.

Jesse Jackson and wife have been released from hospital after COVID-19 treatment.Civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Reverend Jesse Jackson and his wife, Jacqueline, have been released from a Chicago hospital after being admitted with COVID-19 on August 22,according toEssencemagazine.

Both Jesse, age 79, and Jacqueline, age 77, had received their vaccines earlier this year. Although theCDC saysthat breakthrough cases such as these are still rare, more vaccinated people appear to be getting infected as the highly transmissible delta variant has swept the nation.

Jesse Jackson has been urging others in the Black American community to get their inoculation.Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation as of August 18show that Black and Hispanic people remain less likely than their white counterparts to have received a vaccine, leaving them at increased risk, particularly as the delta variant spreads.

On the weekend, Jackson’s son, Jesse Jr., posted on Instagram that his father had now tested negative.

Essencesaid, however, that Jesse Jackson is is continuing to receive intensive occupational and physical therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Jackson announced in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with the illness.

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A post shared by Jesse Jackson Jr (@rpzntn)

State Update

Los Angeles County has become first major school district to mandate vaccination.TheLos Angeles Timesreportedthat all children 12 and older in Los Angeles public schools must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by January to enter campus, under an order approved Thursday by the board of education. This is the first such mandate among the nation’s largest school systems and a decision that triggered immediate pushback as about 100 protestors gathered outside during the board vote. Students who are not vaccinated by the deadline will not be allowed on campus, but could enter remote learning through independent study.

Stillbirths are rising among the unvaccinated in Mississippi.TheWashington Postreportedthat health officials in Mississippi are raising the alarm as the state recorded 72 fetal deaths in unvaccinated pregnant women infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Speaking during anews conference, Mississippi State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said the number is twice what would be expected.

DeSantis filed an appeal in his fight to ban mask mandates in schools.Governor Ron DeSantis filed an emergency appeal Wednesday night to try to block the ruling by a Florida judge who ruled that DeSantis could not ban mask mandates in schools,according to NBC News. Under the current ruling, the state is prohibited from enforcing sanctions on school boards that are requiring students to wear masks.

A Tennessee high schooler was mocked by anti-maskers while talking about his grandmother who died.As posted byFox News on Twitter, a Tennessee teenager was heckled at a Rutherford County School Board meeting when he spoke about his grandmother dying of COVID-19 after being exposed to a person without a mask. Someone in the background can be heard screaming, “Shut up!”

The video shows student Grady Knox speaking in favor of a mask mandate at Tuesday night’s school board meeting.https://t.co/njPtAyKvFW
— FOX21 News (@FOX21News)September 10, 2021

Around the World

France removed the United States from its safe travel list.France on Thursday bumped the United States and Israel from the country's “green” list, down to “orange,” effectively prohibiting nonessential travel to France for unvaccinated visitors,according to CNN.

Deaths in Brazil are double compared with last year.Data analysis byUSA Todayon Fridayindicated that Brazil has recorded more than twice as many COVID-19 deaths so far this year than it did in all of 2020. The country has reported 585,174 deaths this year, second only to the United States. President Jair Bolsonaro who has consistently attempted to minimize the disease. In the fall,Bolsonaro told citizensto not be “sissies,” and “we’re all going to die one day.”

Vaccine and Research News

Tens of thousands of nursing home deaths went unreported.Astudy published inJAMA Open Networkon September 9found that the federal government understated total COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes. In an examination of 15,307 U.S. nursing homes, approximately 44 percent of cases (more than 68,000) and 40 percent of deaths (16,000) that occurred before the start of reporting were not included.

New research reaffirms protection from vaccines.TheCDC published hree new studies on Fridayconfirming that vaccines provide a strong defense against the coronavirus. The federal health agency said that latest research demonstrates that after the delta variant became the most dominant strain of the coronavirus, vaccinated individuals a 5 times reduced risk of infection, a more than 10 times reduced risk of hospitalization, and a greater than 10 times reduced risk of death.