COVID vaccine Archives - Page 2 of 2

‘It’s Everywhere’: Migrants Say They’re Not Responsible for Spreading COVID-19

August 18, 2021August 17, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Acting Executive Officer of the RGV U.S. Border Patrol Sector Oscar Escamilla, left, fields questions from tour participants as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, right, leads a delegation of Congressional representatives on a tour of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Donna Processing Facility in Donna, Texas, May 7, 2021. Secretary Mayorkas updated the delegation on unaccompanied children arriving at our Southern Border as they viewed conditions at the facility. CBP Photo by Michael Battise

MCALLEN, Texas — Several illegal migrants told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they aren’t responsible for spreading COVID-19 in America.

Migrants who illegally crossed into the U.S. near the Hidalgo Point of Entry on Aug. 10 in a group of about 20 people said they weren’t worried about catching COVID-19 at any point in the journey to their final destinations in America.

“Everywhere people are getting infected,” a vaccinated man from Ecuador told the DCNF after illegally entering the U.S. near the same location on Aug. 7. “It’s honestly not that the migrants are bringing the virus. It’s everywhere.”

Minnesota Governor Walz to Require COVID Vaccine for Government Employees

August 13, 2021August 12, 2021 Hayley Feland

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced that the COVID vaccine will be required for government employees in Minnesota. If employees choose not to be vaccinated and get an exemption, they will need to undergo weekly COVID testing. The State of Minnesota is the second largest business to require employees to be vaccinated, with over 40,000 employees, second to Mayo Clinic.

University of Minnesota Will Require Student Vaccination If FDA Approved

August 11, 2021August 10, 2021 Hayley Feland

The University of Minnesota announced that they will require the COVID vaccine for students if the vaccine is Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved. As long as the plan to mandate the vaccine is approved by the Board, the University has said that they will offer some exemptions, the email from University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel said. The vaccine will not be required for faculty or staff.

Minnesota Department of Health Partner Andy Slavitt Says Going to Public Places ‘Not Constitutional Right’

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021 Hayley Feland

Andy Slavitt, who has been helping the Minnesota Department of Health to vaccinate school children, said in a Twitter thread that going to public events is not a constitutional right. Slavitt was a former Biden COVID Response Senior Advisor and worked in the Obama administration as the head of Medicare and Medicaid.

United Airlines to Become First Major Airline Requiring Staff be Vaccinated

August 8, 2021August 7, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

United Airlines announced Friday that it will require all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 starting this fall, making it the first major airline to do so.

“We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees,” United CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart announced in a memo. “But, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated.”

The order requiring proof of vaccination will go into effect five weeks after the Federal Drug Administration officially gives full approval of the COVID-19 vaccines, or by Oct. 25, whichever comes first, The Hill newspaper reports. The FDA is expects to start giving full approval as early as next month.

First #StopTheMandate Rally Held at St. Johns Hospital in Maplewood, Minnesota

August 8, 2021August 7, 2021 Hayley Feland

MAPLEWOOD, Minnesota – Over 250 protesters showed up at the first of several Stop The Mandate protests at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood, Minnesota. St. John’s is part of the M Health Fairview network which mandated COVID vaccines for their employees last week. M Health Fairview is requiring employees, volunteers, students, vendors, and all contracted staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID by October 31.

Commentary: Government’s Failed COVID Messaging Is to Blame for Vaccine Hesitancy

August 6, 2021August 5, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

It was always going to be Herculean to inoculate, with an untried vaccine, a multi-ethnic nation of 330 million, across a vast continent—in an era when the media routinely warps the daily news.

Some minorities understandably harbored distrust of prior government vaccination programs.

Minnesotans Organize Protest for Medical Freedom Following Vaccine Mandates for Some Healthcare Providers

August 5, 2021August 5, 2021 Hayley Feland

Minnesotans are organizing a protest for medical freedom following several Minnesota healthcare providers requiring employees to take the COVID vaccine or lose their jobs. The protest will be held at the Minnesota State Capitol on August 28. Mayo Clinic, Allina Health, and M Health Fairview are three major healthcare providers that will be requiring employees to take the vaccine. The organizers are holding the protest to “demand informed consent and transparency in matters of health choice and medical freedom without coercion.”

McDonald’s Will Require Workers and Customers to Wear Masks, Vaccinated or Not

August 4, 2021August 3, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Fast food chain McDonald’s is requiring all its staff and customers, vaccinated and unvaccinated, to resume wearing masks in its restaurants in areas deemed high risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The company first announced its new rules in an internal memo to franchisees and workers, CNBC reported. The rules, which went into effect Monday, follow updated guidance last week from the CDC, which recommended fully-vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors to prevent the spread of the delta variant of coronavirus.

McDonald’s told the Daily Caller News Foundation the change in policy was due to the CDC’s updated guidance, and said the company was following the science in making its decision.

Commentary: You Are (Probably) Going to Be Infected With the Coronavirus

August 3, 2021August 3, 2021 RealClearWire

Crowded street market with people wearing masks

It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. It may not be next week. It may not be this month, when the rapid ascension of the Delta variant in the United States could send confirmed daily case counts spiking to 200,000 or more before settling down again. It may not even be next year. But someday, you will almost certainly be infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

This uncomfortable fact may come as a surprise to many Americans, particularly to those who have spent hours sanitizing surfaces and groceries, who have dutifully adorned a mask even when not required to do so, and who have made the simple, science-backed decision to get vaccinated. SARS-CoV-2 has already spread around the world, infecting hundreds of millions or more. The genie is out of the bottle, and it is not going back in.

“We will be dealing with this virus forever,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview one year ago.

Five out of Six ‘New’ COVID Deaths in Minnesota Actually from February

August 3, 2021August 2, 2021 Hayley Feland

Five out of the six “newly reported” COVID deaths for Minnesota were actually from February. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) heralded Monday as having the highest number of newly reported deaths in the last two months. A tweet, from a person who analyzes the Minnesota data showed the specific dates that the “newly reported” deaths were from.

Los Angeles Students Will be Forced to Undergo Weekly Testing Even If They’re Vaccinated

August 2, 2021August 1, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Los Angeles Unified School District this week announced that students and employees returning to in-person instruction in the fall would be forced to undergo weekly testing even if they’ve been vaccinated against SARS-Cov-2.

“All students and employees, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, returning for in-person instruction must participate in baseline and ongoing weekly COVID testing,” Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly told media this week. “This is in accordance with the most recent guidance from the Los Angeles County.”

Though the district policy is making no distinction between unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals, Reilly herself stressed the importance of getting vaccinated anyway.

Study Used by CDC to Support New Mask Mandates Based on a Non-American Vaccine, Rejected by Peer Review

August 1, 2021July 31, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Woman holding orange umbrella, wearing a mask

It has been determined that one of the studies used by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to justify the strict new mask mandates was not only rejected by peer review, but was also based on a vaccine that is currently not authorized for use in the United States, the Daily Caller reports.

The controversial study came from India, where scientists there studied “breakthrough infections” in over 100 healthcare workers who had received a vaccine but still caught the coronavirus, determining that the COVID-19 India variant, also known as the “Delta” variant, produces a higher viral load than other strains of the coronavirus. This was one of the pieces of evidence used by the CDC to claim that even vaccinated individuals should wear masks, since the India variant is allegedly capable of being transmitted by vaccinated individuals to unvaccinated individuals.

Despite admitting that the study in question involved a vaccine that has not been approved in the United States, the CDC’s report said that such studies “have noted relatively high viral loads and larger cluster sizes associated with infections with Delta, regardless of vaccination status. These early data suggest that breakthrough Delta infections are transmissible.”

Minnesota Begins ‘Vax to School’ Campaign

July 30, 2021July 29, 2021 Hayley Feland

Minnesota has begun its “Vax to School” campaign to try to get students and families fully vaccinated against COVID before the start of the school year. To kick off the campaign, the Minnesota Department of Health partnered with teachers across Minnesota to make a “Vax to School” video.

Minnesota Barber Shops Participating in ‘Shots at the Shop’ Campaign to Get More Vaccination in Black Communities

July 29, 2021July 28, 2021 Hayley Feland

14 Minneapolis barber shops are participating in a national program called “Shots at the Shop” which is seeking to increase COVID vaccination rates in the Black community. The campaign is “a White House-led effort that is working with 1,000 barbershops and beauty salons across the country.” Some of the barber shops are even offering the COVID vaccine on site, including one Minneapolis shop.

Studies on COVID-19 Vaccine Effects on Fertility Are ‘in the Works,’ CDC Says

July 28, 2021July 27, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Studies on how COVID-19 vaccines affect fertility are “in the works,” but some are still in the planning stages, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Anxieties over whether the COVID-19 vaccines impact fertility have discouraged some U.S. women from obtaining the vaccines, though the CDC has not found evidence that coronavirus vaccines “cause female or male fertility problems.”

After the Food and Drug Administration issued the first Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020, researchers found that the five “most queried terms” on Google were “COVID Vaccine Fertility,” ” COVID Vaccine and Infertility,” “COVID Vaccine Infertility,” “COVID Vaccine Fertility CDC,” and “COVID 19 Vaccine Infertility,” according to a June 2021 study.

Detroit Meteorologist April Moss: CBS 62 Employees Who Choose Not to Be Vaccinated Are ‘Segregated’

June 24, 2021June 23, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

CBS 62 Detroit Meteorologist and Multimedia Journalist, April Moss, was officially fired from the station this week after blowing the whistle on the network’s discriminatory practices regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.

Moss decided to sit down with Project Veritas founder and CEO James O’Keefe to discuss the behind-the-scenes discrimination and bias after Fox 26 Houston reporter Ivory Hector last week used Veritas to expose how her superiors were trying to “muzzle” her reporting on Hydroxychloroquine.

Moss told O’Keefe that, like Hector, she too was worried that the liberal slant at her station was negatively impacting the public.

Commentary: White Liberal Control Freaks Are a Menace to Liberty

June 17, 2021June 16, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The greatest threat America faces isn’t “white supremacy” or any foreign power, but America’s own ruling class. China understands very well that Americans have less to fear from Chinese armies than they do from their own Stasi-like informants with “In This House, We Believe . . . ” signs on their front lawns.

The Chinese have a word for this demographic: baizuo, which literally means “white left.” It’s a political pejorative referring to narcissistic white American liberals.

In a time of vaccine passports, “disinformation,” and make-believe insurrections, the anti-social, authoritarian tendencies of this lot have never been a clearer menace to America and its tradition of civil liberty.

California Offering Awards Totaling $116.5M to Get Vaxxed

June 1, 2021May 31, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Governor Newsom announced Thursday a $116.5 million vaccine incentive program including $1.5 million in cash prizes to encourage Californians to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

California follows other states in offering big vaccine incentive payouts, New York is giving out scratch-off tickets for the chance to win up to $5 million, according to Politico.

“California has already made incredible progress in the fight against COVID-19, with the lowest case rates in the country while administering millions more vaccines than any other state,” Newsom said in a release. “But we aren’t stopping there, we’re doing everything it takes to get Californians vaccinated as we approach June 15 to help us fully reopen safely.”

Florida Concert Promoter: Tickets Are $18 if You’re Vaccinated but $1,000 if You’re Not

May 31, 2021May 30, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

A concert promoter in Florida is selling $18 discounted tickets to an upcoming show for those who have been vaccinated and charging $999.99 per ticket for those who have not, ABC News reports.

Paul Williams of Leadfoot Promotions in Tampa Bay is organizing the concert which is set to take place on June 26 at the VFW Post 39 venue in St. Petersburg. It will feature performances from three punk rock banks: Teenage Bottlerocket, MakeWar and Rutterkin, according to the report.

Posters for the punk event feature an image of “Nightmare on Elm Street” killer Freddy Krueger with needles for fingers and the Leadfoot Promotions booking page advises attendees to bring their “COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card” showing they have had two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on or before 6/12/2021.

Legal Group Intervenes After University Bars Christian Student from Classes over Refusal to Take Vaccines

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

A Christian nonprofit legal group has sent a letter to the University of Alabama-Birmingham after the public university blocked a student from registering for classes because she would not take vaccines.

The letter from First Liberty Institute asks university officials to follow the religious exemption it granted Jackie Gale for her first year at school. The university does not currently mandate the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Due to Ms. Gale’s religious beliefs, she cannot receive the childhood immunizations UAB requires under its immunization policy,” Christine Pratt, counsel for First Liberty, wrote in a May 13 demand letter.

Commentary: You Don’t Need a Permission Slip to Go Back to Normal

May 19, 2021May 18, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Group of people together socializing at dinner table

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control did an about-face, announcing that the fully vaccinated among us may resume normal activities. The news came more than a year after California initiated the first lockdown on March 19, 2020.

The CDC’s new posture comes with some narrow exceptions. If you’re traveling on a plane or find yourself in a homeless shelter or in a medical or correctional facility, you still need to wear a mask; and the CDC made sure to clarify, apparently out of great deference for federalism and Hayekian spontaneous order, that its guidance does not predominate over the requirements of federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.

Before the CDC updated its pandemic guidance, this was exactly the position espoused by libertarian law professor Ilya Somin of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law. Writing from his regular perch at the legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy, Somin’s argument is summarized nicely in the subheading of his piece, “Free the Vaccinated from COVID Restrictions”: “Doing so will protect constitutional rights, reduce vaccine hesitancy, and increase liberty—all at once.”

Commentary: Facebook ‘Fact-Checkers’ Disagree About University COVID Vaccine Mandates

May 19, 2021May 18, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Facebook’s “fact-checkers” cannot agree on the legality of university COVID vaccine mandates.

Disagreement about the legality of the COVID vaccines is understandable — The College Fix explored this topic several weeks ago in our own article, but the problem is that a Facebook fact-check on an article can lead to reduced distribution.

And enough strikes against a page can lead to a permanent ban. The College Fix has seen this firsthand, after Facebook overlords punished us for sharing the comments of an epidemiologist who made a prediction about what would happen if lockdowns were lifted.

At Least 40 Percent of NIAID and FDA Employees Have Not Been Vaccinated, According to Fauci and Marks

May 18, 2021May 17, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

At least 40 percent of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employees are refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine according to NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and FDA official Dr. Peter Marks.

During a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing Tuesday on efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, Senator Richard Burr (R-Va.) asked Fauci, Marks, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky what percentage of their own employees were vaccinated.

Both Fauci and Marks estimated that a little more than half—perhaps around 60 percent of their employees—have been vaccinated. Walensky waffled, saying only that she was “encouraging employees to get vaccinated,” but couldn’t say how many have actually done so.

CDC Tells Schools to Keep Students in Masks

May 17, 2021May 16, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Student on campus wearing a mask outside.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told schools nationwide on Saturday they should plan to keep students in masks because of the limited vaccinations of children.

“CDC recommends schools continue to use the current COVID-19 prevention strategies for the 2020-2021 school year,” the agency said in new guidance for students issued just days after it cleared vaccinated adults to ditch their masks in most instances.

“All schools should implement and layer prevention strategies and should prioritize universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing,” it added.

Border Agents Report Being Overworked, Understaffed and Exposed to COVID-19 During Migrant Surge

April 17, 2021April 17, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Border officials in south Texas consistently face exposure to COVID-19, don’t have the resources to do their job and are regularly called in for overtime shifts, two active agents told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Many Customs and Border Protection (CBP) field agents work 50-hour weeks and now are required to report for 10-hour long overtime shifts even after they are exposed to migrants who test positive for COVID-19, an active CBP agent told the DCNF. The agents spoke on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak with members of the media.

“CBP gives us a job, but they seem more concerned with getting the job done than with the actual agents,” an active agent told the DCNF. “They want the mission to succeed. We don’t have the resources we need to do our jobs but we make do with what we have. We don’t have enough agents, transport, technology, or aircraft to help us out.”

China Demands to be in Charge of Global ‘Vaccine Passport’ System

March 15, 2021March 14, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

On Tuesday, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) publicly petitioned for the World Health Organization (WHO) to let the Chinese government take charge of a proposed “vaccine passport” system for the entire world in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic that China started, as reported by Breitbart.

The proposal appeared in the Global Times, a Chinese government-run newspaper, which said that China could utilize its connections to Big Tech companies in order to build and sustain an international tracking system for any individuals who either have or have not yet received a coronavirus vaccine.

As Vaccinations Ramp up, One-Third of Americans Still Say They Don’t Want One

March 14, 2021March 13, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

As more people receive vaccines across the U.S. coronavirus cases have continued to fall, but one-third of Americans still say they will not get one, according to a Thursday NPR/Marist poll.

While 45% said they would get vaccinated and 22% said that they had already received a shot, 30% of Americans said they would not get one, the poll showed. Among Republicans, 41% said they would not take one, compared to just 11% of Democrats.

Those unwilling leapt to 49% among Republican men, while just 6% of Democratic men said the same.

Pfizer Says Its Vaccine Significantly Halts COVID-19’s Spread, Effective Against UK Variant

March 13, 2021March 12, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Pfizer said Wednesday that real-world data suggests its coronavirus vaccine is 94% effective in halting asymptomatic infections and effective against a highly transmissible variant first discovered in the United Kingdom.

Israeli analysis of vaccine distribution shows the vaccine being over 97% effective in preventing symptomatic cases and death, higher than the 90% efficiency that was reported in the vaccine’s Phase III trials, Pfizer said in a press release Thursday. Over 80% of the tested specimens were against the UK variant known as B.1.1.7.

FDA Panel Votes to Recommend Johnson & Johnson’s Coronavirus Vaccine for Emergency Authorization

February 28, 2021February 27, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel voted Friday evening to recommend Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency approval, clearing the way for its authorization, distribution and administration nationwide.

The vote followed hours of the panel live-streaming its process of scouring over data from the pharmaceutical company in order to reaffirm that the vaccine was safe for the millions of Americans who will receive it. The FDA also released the vaccine’s clinical trial data on Wednesday showing that the vaccine was effective in fighting the virus itself.

More Than 1 Million Minnesotans Have Gotten a COVID-19 Vaccine

February 21, 2021February 20, 2021 The Center Square

Less than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesotans have received more than 1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Tim Walz announced Friday.

About 728,081 Minnesotans had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 286,543 have completed the two-dose series.

Pfizer, Moderna Vaccines May Offer Less Protection Against South African Coronavirus Variant

February 20, 2021February 19, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Recent studies indicate that the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines may have reduced protection against the South African coronavirus strain, according to reports in the New England Journal of Medicine, raising concerns that they could be less effective against future mutations.

Though both vaccines appeared to generate enough antibodies to neutralize the mutant strain, they both produced fewer antibodies when compared to the original virus. But experts warned that it was unclear just how much protection was needed to neutralize the variant, which scientists believe is more contagious than the original strain.

Tennessee Nurse Who Fainted After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine Says It Was Due to Underlying Condition

December 22, 2020December 21, 2020 Corinne Murdock

The nurse who appeared to faint after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in a viral video has recovered, according to a statement issued by her employer. Tiffany Dover, a nurse at CHI Memorial Hospital, reportedly came close to passing out due to a medical condition unrelated to the vaccination.

The hospital also cited information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, which stated that fainting sometimes occurs after all types of vaccinations.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar on President Trump’s Ban on Critical Race Theory Training: ‘The CDC Will be Complying with the Executive Order’ to Cease and Desist

September 15, 2020September 15, 2020 Julie Carr

Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to the newsmakers line.

At the end of the second hour, Azar discussed the developments in the coronavirus vaccine trials and Operation Warp Speed. He added that all the proper gold standard requirements are being met to develop a safe vaccine in the shortest amount of time.

Sen. Gazelka Challenges Gov. Walz on COVID Measures and Meetings: ‘There is No Longer an Emergency’

September 4, 2020 Corinne Murdock

Senator Paul Gazelka (R-Nisswa) continues to challenge Governor Tim Walz’s emergency executive powers, even after their private meeting Thursday. The two disagree about the necessity of Minnesota’s continued state of emergency.

Their meeting marked the 175th day of Walz’s orders.

Sen. Gazelka Challenges Gov. Walz on COVID Measures and Meetings: ‘There is No Longer an Emergency’

September 4, 2020September 3, 2020 Corinne Murdock

Their meeting marked the 175th day of Walz’s orders.

U.S. COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Birx: Minnesotans Haven’t Done Enough to Decrease Spread

September 1, 2020 Corinne Murdock

U.S. Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx stated in a visit to Minnesota on Sunday that Minnesotans haven’t done enough to decrease the spread of COVID-19. The visit is part of a cross-country tour to gauge how well states are adhering to coronavirus guidelines.
Birx commended the measures instituted by the state. However, she said that Minnesotans needed to do more – especially in rural areas.

U.S. COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Birx: Minnesotans Haven’t Done Enough to Decrease Spread

September 1, 2020August 31, 2020 Corinne Murdock