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King County ending vaccine requirements at bars, restaurants

February 16, 2022, 3:36pm Health

Washington’s most populous county will no longer require COVID vaccination checks to enter restaurants, bars, theaters and gyms beginning March 1. Read story

Customers eat at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022.  Philadelphia city officials lifted the city's vaccine mandate for indoor dining and other establishments that serve food and drinks, but an indoor mask mandate remains in place. Philadelphia Public Health officials announced that the vaccine mandate was lifted immediately Wednesday.

More virus rules fall as CDC hints at better times ahead

Customers eat at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022.  Philadelphia city officials lifted the city's vaccine mandate for indoor dining and other establishments that serve food and drinks, but an indoor mask mandate remains in place. Philadelphia Public Health officials announced that the vaccine mandate was lifted immediately Wednesday.

February 16, 2022, 12:54pm Health

The nation's leading health officials said Wednesday that the U.S. is moving closer to the point that COVID-19 is no longer a “constant crisis” as more cities, businesses and sports venues began lifting pandemic restrictions around the country. Read story

Carpenter Shayne Pitt, left, works to place brackets for curtains to add space for patient beds in a hallway as registered nurse Scott McGieson carries a meal to a patient's room in the acute care unit of Harborview Medical Center, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022, in Seattle. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is deploying 100 members of the state National Guard to hospitals across the state amid staff shortages due to an omicron-fueled spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Inslee announced Thursday that teams will be deployed to assist four overcrowded emergency departments at hospitals in Everett, Yakima, Wenatchee and Spokane, and that testing teams will be based at hospitals in Olympia, Richland, Seattle and Tacoma.

Safe staffing bill passes state House, but disagreement continues

Carpenter Shayne Pitt, left, works to place brackets for curtains to add space for patient beds in a hallway as registered nurse Scott McGieson carries a meal to a patient's room in the acute care unit of Harborview Medical Center, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022, in Seattle. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is deploying 100 members of the state National Guard to hospitals across the state amid staff shortages due to an omicron-fueled spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Inslee announced Thursday that teams will be deployed to assist four overcrowded emergency departments at hospitals in Everett, Yakima, Wenatchee and Spokane, and that testing teams will be based at hospitals in Olympia, Richland, Seattle and Tacoma.

February 16, 2022, 9:07am Health

OLYMPIA — Proposed requirements for the numbers of nurses and other health care workers on duty in hospitals won support from the Washington state House of Representatives on Sunday. Read story

Idaho lifts ‘crisis standards’ designation for hospitals

February 15, 2022, 5:11pm Health

Idaho has lifted the “crisis standards of care” designation for hospitals in the southwestern portion of the state, with public health officials saying coronavirus-related staffing and blood shortages have improved somewhat, though hospitals remain stressed. Read story

FILE - A flock of young turkeys stand in a barn at the Moline family turkey farm after the Mason, Iowa farm was restocked on Aug. 10, 2015. Farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs are on high alert, fearing a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion. The new fear is driven by the discovery announced Feb. 9, 2022, of the virus infecting a commercial turkey flock in Indiana.

US bird flu case puts chicken, turkey farms on high alert

FILE - A flock of young turkeys stand in a barn at the Moline family turkey farm after the Mason, Iowa farm was restocked on Aug. 10, 2015. Farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs are on high alert, fearing a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion. The new fear is driven by the discovery announced Feb. 9, 2022, of the virus infecting a commercial turkey flock in Indiana.

February 15, 2022, 10:52am Health

Farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs are on high alert and taking steps to increase biosecurity, fearing a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion. Read story

FILE - In this June 7, 2021, photo, demonstrators at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital in Baytown, Texas, wave at cars that honk at them to support their protest against a policy that says hospital employees must get vaccinated against COVID-19 or lose their jobs. Religious exemptions are increasingly becoming a workaround for hospital and nursing home staff who want to keep their jobs in the face of federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates that are going into effect nationwide this week.

Unvaccinated medical workers turn to religious exemptions

FILE - In this June 7, 2021, photo, demonstrators at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital in Baytown, Texas, wave at cars that honk at them to support their protest against a policy that says hospital employees must get vaccinated against COVID-19 or lose their jobs. Religious exemptions are increasingly becoming a workaround for hospital and nursing home staff who want to keep their jobs in the face of federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates that are going into effect nationwide this week.

February 14, 2022, 1:22pm Health

When nurse Julia Buffo was told by her Montana hospital that she had to be vaccinated against COVID-19, she responded by filling out paperwork declaring that the shots run afoul of her religious beliefs. Read story

Christiana Neri holds her 13-year-old son, Ivan Hernandez, as Sequoia Hutton administers the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a mobile vaccine clinic held for people age 12 and over at Roosevelt Park on  May 14, 2021, in Los Angeles.

Polio, chickenpox, measles, now covid. It’s time to consult history on school vaccine mandates

Christiana Neri holds her 13-year-old son, Ivan Hernandez, as Sequoia Hutton administers the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a mobile vaccine clinic held for people age 12 and over at Roosevelt Park on  May 14, 2021, in Los Angeles.

February 14, 2022, 6:05am Health

The rapid spread of omicron across the nation — and the finding that vaccines continue to provide strong protection against severe disease — brings covid-19 one step closer, perhaps, to truly earning its place on the list of diseases that have been tamed by vaccines. These include polio, measles, mumps,… Read story

Pandemic-era stresses are helping build momentum for government tech updates.

Faxes and snail mail: Will pandemic-era flaws unleash improved health technology

Pandemic-era stresses are helping build momentum for government tech updates.

February 14, 2022, 6:02am Business

Jamie Taylor received two letters from the Missouri Department of Social Services Family Support Division that began, “Good news,” before stating that she was denied Medicaid coverage. Her income exceeded the state’s limits for the federal-state public health insurance program for people with low incomes. Read story

Retirements cut ranks of scarce front-line workers

February 13, 2022, 6:20am Health

After decades of police work, the idea of retiring started sounding good to Craig Long when COVID-19 struck suburban Suffern, New York, in March 2020. He was in his early 60s. Read story

‘I don’t have a life’: Parents struggle to get home nurses for medically fragile kids

February 13, 2022, 6:05am Health

To make sure her 3-year-old daughter survived the night on her ventilator, Amber Suarez stayed awake for four hours, then woke up her husband to watch Mia for another four hours as the girl dozed. Read story