The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States is urging all pregnant women to get vaccinated because of the high number of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus. This, after data from the CDC suggests there's no increased risk of miscarriage for those who received at least one COVID shot before 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Meantime, California will become the first U.S. state to require all teachers and school staff to either get vaccinated or face weekly COVID testing, as the new school year is upon students.
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The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday urged all expectant women to get vaccinated over fears that they will suffer from miscarriages and stillbirths after contracting COVID.
Currently, about 23 percent of the country's pregnant women have gotten vaccinated, obviously the vaccination rate among them is low.
In a statement, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stressed "it has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people."
The updated guidance came as CDC data suggests among the 2,500 women who received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy, the miscarriage rate is around 13 percent, within the normal range. Hence, there is no increased risks of miscarriage for expectant women, as long as they get the vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The latest advice echoes recent recommendations from top obstetrician groups. Inoculations are also provided for to-be mothers under the auspices of hospitals across the country. But those groups stopped short of a full recommendation. The new advice also applies to nursing mothers and women planning to get pregnant.
At the same time, knowing his state will run the risk of letting the virus afflict schoolchildren and staff if mask mandates are not in place when school returns, the Californian governor announced today that California will lead by example, becoming the first state to ask all teachers and school staff to either get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID testing, as the new school year is upon students. As a father of four himself, Newsom stressed the need to protect children from the deadly virus. "We think this is the right thing to do, and we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open and to address the number one anxiety that parents like myself have for young children. That is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep our kids safe." Said Gavin Newsom.
The new policy supersedes previous vaccination guidance, as the state battles to ward off the virus.
While some states are taking a page from California by considering making it obligatory for all students and school staff to wear masks in indoor settings, top Republicans are threatening to cut funding from school districts that defy a statewide ban on classroom mask mandates. Such is evidenced by what happened in Florida. Republican governor Ron DeSantis has issued an executive order threatening to cut funding from school districts defying a statewide ban on mask mandates at schools, and even direct officials to withhold pay from superintendents who impose such rules if need be.
But Republican governors have the odds stacked against them - major school districts are holding fast to their decision as mask mandates hold the key to keeping schools open during the pandemic. And some even argued the governors jumped the gun to sign those orders in the name of parental rights.
A meeting of minds between superintendents who have decided to defy the ban on imposing mask mandates in schools as they maintained students' safety far outweigh the threat to their paychecks.
The DeSantis threat had White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki bashing Republican governors who imposed a ban on in-school mask mandates, saying banning in-school mask mandates is not a good idea, and that they should be protecting students from COVID's threat.
Florida and Texas are among some of the states with lower vaccination rates and more infections. That's because their Republican leaders remain opposed to reimposing mask mandates applicable to everyone, irrespective of vaccination status.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. As soaring COVID infections begin to get under health officials' skin, more governors are set to enunciate policies to flee the virus' wrath, with the hope of gaining more ground in the battle with COVID.
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