Midterm campaigns kick off with a political jab -- Dec. 9, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

During a recent medical test, I noticed my face mask had slipped down.

“Sorry!” I said to the technician, who was also masked. “I’m vaccinated and boosted, and you are too, right?” Slight pause.

“I’m healthy,” he said, using a favorite dodge of the unvaccinated.

Why would anyone whose job requires close contact with people who could be sick or immune-compromised take such a risk for himself, his patients and co-workers?

He said he had decades of experience, including at a hospital where tuberculosis patients coughed in his face, and was healthy. He doesn’t buy the need for vaccinations against COVID-19, thinks they could be harmful, and believes the number of reported COVID deaths is inflated.

Scientists, however, agree vaccinations help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and its severity and are less risky than the disease.

Most healthcare workers voluntarily take the commonsense precaution of vaccinations. Still, about 30% of workers in hospitals were unvaccinated as of September, according to a Centers for Disease Control study.

Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued rules requiring vaccinations for healthcare workers and for businesses with 100 employees or more. Both rules are stalled, at least temporarily, by court challenges.

The healthcare rule would require all workers in facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid funding to be fully vaccinated, with no exceptions, or facilities could lose federal funding. The OSHA rule includes a provision that allows workers who do not get vaccinated to be tested weekly and wear masks on the job.

 President Joe Biden was reluctant to impose such vaccination mandates, but after incentives and voluntary behavior weren’t enough, he earlier rolled out requirements for federal workers and employees of federal contractors to be vaccinated.

The mandate for contractors, which included limited exceptions for medical and religious reasons, was blocked Tuesday in federal court. The White House vows to continue fighting for mandates.

Many private employers have imposed vaccination mandates on their own. They realize the economy won’t get back to normal – whatever that is -- until more of the population is protected against this deadly, unpredictable disease.

The latest troubling news about the fast-spreading omicron variant has led public health officials to urge everyone eligible to get vaccinations and booster shots. New research from Pfizer and BioNTech indicates a booster shot may help protect against omicron, but it’s too soon to know.

Opponents argue vaccination mandates are an example of federal overreach. Politicians like to claim they personally are pro-vaccine but anti-mandate. They conveniently forget they and their children had to receive vaccinations against other diseases to enroll in school.

But COVID-19 vaccination mandates are seen as a potent political issue for the midterm elections. The Senate voted Wednesday to repeal Biden’s mandate for companies with more than 100 employees. All Republicans and two Democrats – Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana -- voted to nullify the mandate.

The 52-48 vote was largely symbolic, if not a political stunt. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is unlikely to bring the measure up for a vote in the House, and if it were to pass, the White House said Biden would veto it. It would be his first presidential veto.

Opponents of mandates say their constituents fear mandates will cost jobs and wreck the economy, but instead of working to educate the uninformed, politicians pander.

“Encouraging and requiring are two different things,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. Republican of West Virginia, told reporters. More than killing the American economy, she said, the vaccine mandate is “killing the American spirit of being able to make decisions about yourself, to be respected for that.”

Oh, please.

Vaccination mandates may be more popular than Republican politicians think. Half of Americans support the mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees, while 47% oppose it, a Wall Street Journal poll reported this week. Slightly more – 55% -- support vaccination mandates for public safety workers, such as police and firefighters.

Everyone is sick of the pandemic, but it shows no sign of waning. We all need to take responsibility to fight it. To everyone who’s eligible, except those with a legitimate medical excuse: Get your vaccinations and boosters.

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

Biden injects dose of reality -- Dec. 10, 2020 column

By MARSHA MERCER

It was the shot seen round the world.

At 6:31 a.m. Tuesday, a 90-year-old grandmother in England named Maggie Keenan became the first person in the United Kingdom to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Days from her 91^st birthday, Keenan said it was a “privilege” to be first and urged others skeptical about being jabbed to “go for it.”

“V-Day” is coming soon to the United States. The federal government says 20 million Americans could be vaccinated against COVID in the next several weeks.

Suddenly, people everywhere feel the flicker of an emotion as scarce as toilet paper last March: hope.

Life approaching normalcy could return next year. It won’t be as soon as anyone would like. We know the corner is ahead, but, despite the fantasy talk you’ve heard, we’re far from turning it yet.

COVID-19 just became the number one killer of Americans. More than 15 million in the United States have been infected with the novel coronavirus, more than 288,000 have died and thousands more face debilitating effects of the disease lasting months.

President-elect Joe Biden injected a dose of reality to the pandemic Tuesday when he announced his healthcare team and three-point plan for fighting COVID-19.

“My first 100 days won’t end the COVID-19 virus. I can’t promise that,” he said. “It’s going to take some time.”

Biden’s first priority will be for all Americans to wear masks during his administration’s first 100 days. He’ll require mask-wearing in federal buildings and during interstate travel on planes, trains and buses and work with governors and mayors on state and local mask requirements.

Wearing a mask can reduce cases, hospitalizations and deaths, but it will take more than edicts from the White House, statehouses and city halls to make masking universal. It will take all of us choosing to believe in science – or at least in our family, friends, community and country.

A mask “is not a political statement. It’s a patriotic act. It won’t be the end of our efforts, but it’s a necessary and easy beginning, an easy start,” Biden said.

It’s truly great news three effective vaccines are in the pipeline. Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are expected to gain FDA approval and begin distribution this month with AstraZeneca’s vaccine close behind, but massive logistical challenges loom.

Only a limited amount of vaccine likely will be available in the beginning and, after an initial round, vaccinations could slow and stall, delaying millions from receiving shots for months.

The cold-storage and transportation requirements are daunting. Only some hospitals, typically not clinics or doctors’ offices, have the necessary storage capacity.

Biden’s second priority is a goal of 100 million vaccinations in 100 days. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots a few weeks apart to be effective, so that would mean about 50 million people could be protected.

First in line will be those most at risk -- healthcare professionals and people living in long-term care facilities.

Biden’s third priority is to open a majority of American schools by the end of his first 100 days, so educators will be vaccinated as soon as possible.

Success for his plan depends on several factors, including where distribution stands when he takes office Jan. 20. He called on Congress to provide funding to ensure vaccines reach all parts of the country and for public health measures in schools to safeguard students, teachers and staff.

Success also depends on persuading large numbers of Americans to shrug off fear and misinformation and take the vaccine. We’re likely to see celebrities baring their arms for the cause.

Biden isn’t sugarcoating the situation. Vaccine distribution will be “one of the hardest and most costly operational challenges in our nation’s history,” he said.

“All I can tell you is the truth. We’re in a very dark winter; things may well get worse before they get better.”

But Biden also exhibits calm, competence and confidence that are refreshing and reassuring. When he uses the pronoun “we,” which he does a lot, he means all of us.

“We know that we can overcome and heal together as one nation,” he said. “We can do this.”

Together.

© 2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.