Coronavirus daily news updates, June 25: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world
Julio Marchi June 26, 2022
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday it was recommending Moderna’s vaccine for children ages 6 to 17.
The group has had access to Pfizer’s vaccine since last year.
Meanwhile, more than two dozen employees who were fired for failing to comply with vaccine mandates filed lawsuits against Mayo Clinic alleging the clinic did not grant them religious exemptions.
We’re updating this page with the latest news about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the U.S. and the world. Click here to see the rest of our coronavirus coverage and here to see how we track the daily spread across Washington.
Navigating the pandemic
COVID vaccines for infants arrive in Florida. Here’s why doctors are throwing them away
Dozens of South Florida pharmacies, community health centers, children’s hospitals and pediatricians received delivery this week of the first COVID-19 vaccines available for children as young as 6 months old — much earlier than anticipated after state officials missed a deadline for preordering the shots.
But pediatricians and public health advocates working to vaccinate newly eligible children under 5 said they are being forced to throw away the majority of the doses they have ordered because Gov. Ron DeSantis will not authorize state programs to administer the vaccines for infants and toddlers, effectively cutting off supply to many family doctors.
Pediatricians say they can no longer turn to their county health department to supply them with smaller amounts of the vaccine, which is what many doctors have been doing to procure the vaccine for older kids and adults, said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a University of Miami pediatrician and president of the Florida Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics.
Boeing wants more workers in-office to ramp up production. Not everyone wants to go back
Boeing has ordered some of its remote workforce back to the office to help the company ramp up production and fix supply-chain problems. But like many employers navigating the pandemic as it winds down, the aerospace giant is getting pushback from workers who resent giving up their “home” offices when other colleagues don’t have to.
Employees in Boeing’s parts-procurement operations who are still working fully or partly remotely learned Monday that most will be required to be in the office full time starting in July, Boeing confirmed Saturday.
The company declined to say how many workers are affected by the directive, which was announced internally Monday by Brian Baird, vice president of supply chain.
The back-to-office move, which comes after two-plus years of remote work for thousands of Boeing workers, is needed to support stepped-up production at a time when Boeing is facing parts-related delays, company officials said.
Novak Djokovic’s vaccination status remains a roadblock for the U.S. Open
Wimbledon, long the third of four major tournaments in any normal calendar year, appears to end up as the latter of two for Novak Djokovic in 2022, a matter owing nothing to injury.
The issue came up at Djokovic’s pre-Wimbledon news conference, when the superstar fielded a question about his current inability to enter the United States for the 2022 U.S. Open, stemming from his status as unvaccinated against coronavirus. While Djokovic has lost chances at major titles in recent years through unusual ways — a ball slammed in anger that happened to strike a lineswoman, necessitating default at the 2020 U.S. Open; a deportation from Australia over that country’s vaccination mandate before the 2022 Australian Open — here would come a fresh wrinkle of the latter.
Djokovic played the 2021 U.S. Open well into last September, playing the utmost number of matches while reaching a men’s final he lost to Daniil Medvedev to nip his bid at a calendar Grand Slam. But a few weeks later, in late October, President Biden and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order requiring a coronavirus vaccination for nonimmigrant noncitizens hoping to enter the United States.
Congress extends pandemic-era school meal program, with caveats
Congress on Friday passed a bill to extend a pandemic-era program through the summer that provided free meals to students regardless of income. But lawmakers added a caveat that means fewer youths will qualify in the fall.
The $3 billion Keep Kids Fed Act was praised by advocates who called the lunch waivers a critical source of nutrition for low-income children. The measure also provides schools with a higher reimbursement rate per meal for the next school year and offers more-flexible guidelines for school nutrition programs coping with supply chain problems and short staffing.
But it also reinstates a requirement, suspended during the pandemic, that low-income students above the poverty line pay a reduced price for their meals, rather than getting them free. The provision was added to the bill at the request of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Read the full story here.
Can I get a refund from airlines if I have COVID?
Q: Will the airlines reimburse me if I test positive for COVID? I don’t want to lose $700. – Mike Surinak
A: Travelers are usually offered a credit or voucher when coronavirus disruptions hit. Lots of airlines promote they’ve waived change fees or still offer flexibility on certain tickets. But refunds don’t get the same billing on airline websites.
That makes sense. Many customers will be fine getting a credit or voucher if it is with an airline they will fly again someday, and airlines don’t want to lose your cash. But they also don’t want people on their planes with the coronavirus, either (in fact, websites like Southwest’s spell this out: If you have the coronavirus, please don’t fly). Does that mean they will give you a refund if you test positive near your travel day? Most will at least consider it, but answers vary by airline.
Supreme Court security funding bill heads back to Senate with COVID-19 add
A federal emergency spending bill that would provide security for the Supreme Court was held up Friday by legislative maneuvers, even as the high court handed down its expected opinion overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
The Senate earlier this week had stripped the contents of a spending bill that came over from the House last year and replaced it with the text of a $19.4 million package drafted by Sens. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va. The Senate passed the amended bill by unanimous consent.
House leaders decided to include it in the rule for floor debate Friday on unrelated bills, including the school security and mental health legislation the Senate passed late Thursday, in the wake of recent deadly mass shootings in Texas and elsewhere.
But there was a twist: House leaders amended the text by tacking on unrelated provisions dealing with COVID-19 vaccines and insulin prices. That means the court security measure needs to go back to the Senate first before reaching Biden’s desk, and the Senate recessed Thursday night for two weeks other than for pro forma sessions.
In Florida, Publix is a big player in COVID vaccines — but it won’t give them to kids younger than 5
Publix, one of the biggest grocery chains in the Southeastern United States and a key provider for COVID-19 vaccines in Florida, says it won’t be offering the shot for children ages 4 and under, even though the vaccine is now approved for that age group.
Florida-based Publix has played a major role in the state’s vaccination efforts by offering vaccines to adults and, later, children as young as 5.
But national efforts to vaccinate the youngest children has been complicated in Florida, where state leaders have questioned the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, going against the recommendations of the nation’s top health regulators and medical associations.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo recommended against giving vaccines to healthy children, contrary to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Florida was the only state in the nation not to preorder doses of the under 5 vaccine, which the White House said could delay delivery to medical providers in the state. Parents of children under 18 months must rely on pediatricians, medical clinics and children’s hospitals to get their kids vaccinated.
Army Guard troops risk dismissal as vaccine deadline looms
Up to 40,000 Army National Guard soldiers across the country — or about 13% of the force — have not yet gotten the mandated COVID-19 vaccine, and as the deadline for shots looms, at least 14,000 of them have flatly refused and could be forced out of the service.
Guard soldiers have until Thursday to get the vaccine. But between 20% to 30% of the Guard soldiers in six states are not vaccinated, and more than 10% in 43 other states still need shots, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.
Guard leaders say states are doing all they can to encourage soldiers to get vaccinated by the time limit. And they said they will work with the roughly 7,000 who have sought exemptions, which are almost all for religious reasons.
“We’re going to give every soldier every opportunity to get vaccinated and continue their military career. Every soldier that is pending an exemption, we will continue to support them through their process,” said Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen, director of the Army National Guard, in an Associated Press interview. “We’re not giving up on anybody until the separation paperwork is signed and completed. There’s still time.”
Pfizer says tweaked COVID-19 shots boost omicron protection
Pfizer is tweaking its COVID-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and works, the company said Saturday, just days before regulators debate whether to offer Americans updated booster shots this fall.
The vaccines currently used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death — especially if people have gotten a booster dose. But those vaccines target the original coronavirus strain and their effectiveness against any infection dropped markedly when the super-contagious omicron mutant emerged.
Now with omicron’s even more transmissible relatives spreading widely, the Food and Drug Administration is considering ordering a recipe change for the vaccines made by both Pfizer and rival Moderna in hopes that modified boosters could better protect against another COVID-19 surge expected this fall and winter.
As Microsoft is showing, workers may never come back to the office
Redmond-based Microsoft wants it workers back in the office at least 50% of the time, but knows that may not happen until early next year — and unlike many of us, the company isn’t just throwing out guesses.
That sobering conclusion comes from the data-driven company’s own impressive research on remote work. Last month, the company put collated two year’s of study into a “New Future of Work Report.” It’s 111 pages, with wide-ranging pros and cons. The big takeaway:
Workers love work from home. Bosses don’t.
Up to 80% of workers want either remote or hybrid arrangements (some office, some remote, with flexibility desired to switch between the two). Meanwhile managers by and large want you back at your desks.
The Microsoft report notes that workers are so enamored with remote that they’ll even pay to get it. One study found “employees willing to forgo over $4,300” per year in salary to be able to work from home full-time.
