Illinois is latest state to mandate masks indoors

I will have my kids mask but how will that help with an extremely transmissible virus and unmasked children three feet away?

Given the likelihood of outbreaks, do you see local school districts pressing on with in-person classes or returning to (at least temporarily) virtual school?

When can we expect vaccine authorization for 5 to 11 year old?

These are some of the questions posed to Post reporters Amy Joyce and Valerie Strauss.

Read their responses here

For many months, vaccine skeptics and critics of vaccination mandates have pointed to the fact that the coronavirus vaccines were available only under emergency-use authorizations. So when the Food and Drug Administration this week fully authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, these folks had some accounting to do.

Increasingly, some of them have landed on a rather conspiratorial idea that seems likely to rear its head in the future, particularly as employers push forward with mandates.

The claim: The FDA didn’t really fully authorize the Pfizer vaccine.

It’s a claim many of the most prominent vaccine skeptics you might have heard of are pushing with increasing gusto. It’s just not something that, according to experts, actually lines up with the FDA’s announcement.

More than 100 coronavirus infections have been linked to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an annual event that drew hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts to South Dakota this month as the virus’s ferocious delta variant spread misery nationwide.

Health officials in South Dakota, where the rally was held Aug. 6-15, said contact tracing has connected 16 cases to the event. North Dakota identified 40 cases; Wyoming, 32; Wisconsin, 20; and Minnesota, 13.

The 121 cases among the five states almost certainly represent an undercount because the rally concluded less than two weeks ago and contact tracing is challenging in connection with an event that lures attendees from around the country.

These cases are an echo of an outbreak from a year ago, during the pandemic’s first summer, when the rally was thought to have seeded hundreds of infections and contributed to a surge in the Upper Midwest.

Two lawmakers called Thursday for the International Olympic Committee to prevent China from hosting the 2022 Winter Games unless the nation cooperates with a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus.

In a letter to the committee, Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Steven M. Palazzo (R-Miss.) cited the Chinese government’s rejection of a WHO proposal to audit markets and laboratories in Wuhan. That refusal, the lawmakers wrote, was “irresponsible and unacceptable.”

“The decision by China to reject transparency and global cooperation directly contradicts the Olympic values of excellence, friendship, and respect,” they continued. “The Olympics should be an event that embodies international cooperation, and China has shown that they are unwilling to uphold these values.”

The lawmakers’ letter came two days after President Biden received a classified report that was inconclusive about the virus’s origins. It was unable to determine whether the pathogen jumped from an animal to a human as part of a natural process or escaped from a laboratory.

An array of activists, scientists and politicians said Wednesday that the report’s inconclusiveness demonstrated the need for further investigation, even if doing so takes the United States into delicate geopolitical territory. Officials in China have bristled at inquiries into the possibility of a lab leak.

Ryan and Palazzo said in their letter that understanding how the pandemic began is essential to combating future outbreaks. They added, “Without China’s partnership, the international community forfeits critical scientific data which puts the entire world at risk.”

A Florida hospital has removed a doctor from patient care after reports that he offered opt-out letters for $50 to parents who wanted to avoid their children’s school mask mandates.

Brian Warden, an emergency room doctor who contracts with Capital Regional Medical Center in Tallahassee, promoted the mask exemption letters in a Facebook group called Parents Against Masks.

“Also, I am a real doctor,” Warden wrote in the comments of a post explaining that his offer was not affiliated with any hospital or group.

The hospital’s spokeswoman, Rachel Stiles, told The Washington Post in a statement that “third-party providers” are expected to behave in a way consistent with the hospital system’s values, which include “absolute integrity.” She did not clarify whether Warden retains any affiliation with the hospital, other than that he is no longer seeing patients.

Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania on Thursday rejected Gov. Tom Wolf’s call for legislation mandating masks in schools, saying mandates should be a local decision.

“At this late date, in many of our communities, local leaders have already made important decisions they believe are in the best interest of their residents and are prepared to adjust those decisions as challenges evolve,” Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Centre) and House Speaker Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) wrote in a letter to Wolf (D), according to the Associated Press.

Most Pennsylvania school districts do not have mask mandates in place.

“We believe that the current approach — allowing local officials to manage and respond as needed — makes the most sense and should be continued,” the GOP lawmakers’ letter said.

The Republican response came a day after Wolf asked GOP leaders to summon lawmakers to Harrisburg to pass legislation requiring schools and child-care facilities to require masks.

The back-and-forth over masking comes as Pennsylvania experiences a surge in covid-19 cases and hospitalizations.

TOKYO — The Japanese Health Ministry has suspended the use of about 1.6 million unused doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine after reports of contamination, a Japanese distribution company of the vaccine announced Thursday.

Takeda Pharmaceutical, which sells and distributes the Moderna vaccine in Japan, said no health issues were reported among the people who were inoculated from the contaminated batch and asked medical professionals administering the vaccine doses to make sure there is no visual abnormality before giving the shot.

Takeda and the Health Ministry said the unknown contamination materials were a few millimeters in size, and Takeda said in a statement that it has asked for an emergency investigation by Moderna.

Moderna confirmed in a statement to Reuters that it had been notified of “cases of particulate matter being seen in drug product vials of its COVID-19 vaccine” and that it is investigating the matter.

Spanish pharmaceutical firm Rovi said Thursday that no safety or efficacy issues have been identified in relation to the Moderna vaccine so far, according to Reuters.

Rovi said in a statement that the origin of the incident may be in one of its manufacturing lines and that it was conducting an investigation following the standard procedure for such cases. It said two adjacent lots had been put on hold as a precaution.

The news comes as Japan’s coronavirus cases show no sign of dwindling. About half of the population has received one dose of the vaccine. Nearly the entire elderly population in Japan is fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, a Tokyo Paralympics-related visitor to Japan has been hospitalized with covid but is not displaying any severe symptoms, Games officials said Thursday, adding that the person was not an athlete. So far, five athletes who are residing inside the Paralympic Village have tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 4,000 athletes are competing in the Paralympic Games over the next two weeks.

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee and a widely criticized figure in Japan, left Japan on Wednesday night after visiting for the Paralympic Games. On Wednesday, Japan’s top covid-19 adviser blasted Bach for returning to Tokyo after leaving just two weeks ago at the end of the Olympics: “I wonder why he bothered to come. He should be able to judge with normal, common sense,” said Shigeru Omi, Kyodo News reported.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on Thursday announced an indoor mask mandate for everyone over 2 years old and a vaccine requirement for all educators at the kindergarten-through-college level.

During a morning news conference, Pritzker said the measures were necessary to protect “the most vulnerable among us — the elderly and unvaccinated children and families.” He noted that hospitalizations are on the rise and that from January to July, 98 percent of cases, 96 percent of hospitalizations and 95 percent of deaths in the state have been among the unvaccinated.

“You don’t need to be an epidemiologist to understand what’s going on here,” Pritzker said. “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. These are preventable deaths.”

The governor had earlier this month announced that masks would be required in all prekindergarten-through-12th-grade schools and all day-care centers and long-term care facilities. He also mandated vaccinations for all state employees who work in congregate settings and said Monday that he had no plans to expand vaccine mandates beyond that, the Chicago Tribune reported.

But Pritzker said Thursday that current vaccination levels are “not enough to blunt the ferocity of the delta variant and hospitalization surges in some regions,” necessitating further action.

Among those eligible for the vaccine in Illinois, 76 percent have received at least one shot, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Pritzker expressed pride in that figure but said it does not show the areas that are the least protected.

“We have communities where the vaccination rate is in the teens or the 20s,” he said, noting that some regions with low vaccination rates also have fewer hospitals and lower hospital capacity.

Pritzker said he hoped more Illinoisans would get the shots. In the meantime, he said, the indoor mask mandate will be reinstituted statewide. That mandate will begin Monday and will apply regardless of vaccination status.

“Masks work,” he said. “Period.”