PFIZER SAYS BIDEN HAS ORDERED 50M MORE VACCINE DOSES FOR KIDS

Pfizer and BioNTech announced in a press release Thursday that they will be providing the U.S. government with 50 million additional pediatric doses of COVID-19 vaccinations.

According to the companies’ statement, the move is meant to help prepare for vaccination needs for children under the age of 5, should the vaccine eventually be approved for children that young.

Pfizer says that with the inclusion of this order of doses, the U.S. government has secured 600 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines since the start of the pandemic.

What’s next: Pfizer has stated that it expects to deliver all the doses by the end of April.

The announcement comes after a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel recommended approving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children as young as 5 on Tuesday.

The trial data for those aged 2 to less than 5 and for those aged six months to less than 2 years old is expected to be available late this year or early next year.

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US: ONE PERCENT OF ADULTS WOULD LEAVE JOB DUE TO VACCINE MANDATE: POLL

One percent of all adults in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll said they’ve left a job due to COVID-19 vaccine requirements as more workplaces institute mandates.

The KFF Vaccine Monitor for October released on Thursday determined that out of unvaccinated adults, just 5 percent left their jobs because of the requirements, “despite widespread news reports” of workplace vaccine mandates driving resignations.

Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to report knowing someone who left their job due to a vaccine mandate, with almost a quarter of all adults saying they know someone who’s quit.

A quarter of workers reported their employers instituted a COVID-19 vaccine mandate — an increase of 16 percentage points since June.

Expected mandate response: The vaccine requirements come as the Biden administration moved forward with its plan to institute a vaccine-or-test mandate for all employers with at least 100 employees.

Almost half of unvaccinated workers, 46 percent, said under that type of mandate, they would opt for weekly testing. Eleven percent said they’d most likely get the vaccine while 37 percent, representing 1 percent of all adults, said they would leave their job.

But without the weekly testing option, a majority of unvaccinated workers, at 72 percent, said they would quit their jobs, representing 9 percent of all adults. Seventeen percent said they would get the vaccine in that situation, amounting to 2 percent of all adults.

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Florida’s DeSantis sues Biden over federal contractor vaccine mandate

© getty: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday sued the Biden administration over its COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal contractors, the latest in a series of GOP attacks on President Biden‘s pandemic response efforts.

The complaint, filed in federal district court in Tampa, calls the policy a “radical intrusion on the personal autonomy of American workers,” and seeks a preliminary nationwide injunction to block it from taking effect.

It names as defendants President Biden and a handful of federal agencies, including NASA, the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget.

“It’s important for us to take a stand,” DeSantis said at a press conference. “Tossing people aside is just not something we can tolerate here in the state of Florida, so we are going to do everything we can.”

Deadline, but not a cliff: The policy is set to take effect Dec. 8. On Wednesday, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said the purpose of the mandates isn’t to punish people, and noted the deadlines for federal employees and contractors “are not cliffs.” He also indicated there will be levels of flexibility, and nobody will lose their jobs immediately: federal employers and contractors will be expected to educate, counsel and accommodate their unvaccinated workers to persuade them to receive the shot before terminating them.

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WORLD STATS

The post Biden in 50m Pfizer Order, Anti-Vaxxer Poll, Florida Gov. Sues US Pres., World Stats appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.