The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education approved a measure Thursday mandating eligible students in the nation's second-biggest school district to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Why it matters: It's the first major school district to require vaccines for students — a move that may set a precedent for school districts across the country to follow.
Moderna announced Thursday that it is in the process of developing a new vaccine that combines a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine with a seasonal flu vaccine.
Why it matters: "We believe this is just the beginning of a new age of information-based medicines," CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the press release, which also gave a slew of updates on projects the company is pursuing.
The Mu variant of the coronavirus is something to monitor — as it appears to partially evade immunity from authorized COVID-19 vaccines — but Delta's continued dominance means "Mu is not any immediate threat," NIAID director Anthony Fauci tells Axios.
Why it matters:Sounding the alarm, Fauci says widespread vaccination is a priority to fight the coronavirus and cut down on the rate of new infections — which is currently 10 times higher than where it needs to be.
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it will delay its decision on top-seller Juul, but thousands of other electronic cigarettes will be ordered off the U.S. market.
Why it matters: The stalled decision prolongs the agency's determination on whether there is enough data to show if adult cigarette smokers switching to a less harmful option outweighs the detrimental costs of young people getting hooked on nicotine by vaping.
The Biden administration has awarded over $18 million in grants to expand students' access to health care and mental health support as the new school year takes off, according to new numbers shared with Axios.
Why it matters: Both children's mental health and their utilization of mental health services worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, per research from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). The return to in-person instruction could also lead to increased health risks depending on masking and vaccinations in the community.
HCA Healthcare is not yet mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for its doctors, nurses and other staff, CFO Bill Rutherford said during the Morgan Stanley health care conference Thursday.
Why it matters: HCA is one of the largest health systems in the country with 275,000 employees and 187 hospitals, many of which are in coronavirus hot spots. Health care trade groups have urged health care employers to mandate the vaccines due to the spread of the Delta variant.
The number of Latinos getting vaccinated against the coronavirus in some of the most populated cities in the U.S. is slowly increasing.
Driving the news: Latinos have surpassed whites in the percentage of fully vaccinated adults in New York City. They represent 29.1% of the city's population and non-hispanic whites are 32.1%.
The uptake for Aduhelm, the controversially approved Alzheimer's drug, has been a lot slower than expected as the drug faces "near-term challenges," Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos said at the Morgan Stanley health care conference Thursday.
Between the lines: Physicians want to see Aduhelm's clinical trial data, which has not been published in a medical journal yet, and they want to know how and if they'll be paid for administering the IV drug, which has a $56,000-per-year list price.
The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that Africa will receive 25% fewer doses of the coronavirus vaccine than expected by the end of the year, in part because of the approval of booster shots in developed countries.
Why it matters: The continent lags behind the rest of the world in vaccinations, and the cut to doses will further delay African countries' vaccination efforts — which raises the risk of new, more aggressive variants emerging.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Thursday revealed she was diagnosed with stage 1A breast cancer in February.
State of play: Klobuchar said she had a lumpectomy on her right breast to remove the tumor. She completed radiation treatment in May, and "it was determined in August that the treatment went well."
COVID concerns are keeping a growing number of Americans out of the labor market.
Why it matters: The wave of Delta variant infections over the past two months has renewed worker fears, which threatens to exacerbate ongoing labor shortages.
At the opening of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes' trial, the prosecution and the defense offered two divergent portrayals of the defendant to the jury: she is either a calculating CEO who lied to get money, or a zealous entrepreneur who made mistakes along the way.
Why it matters: The trial in San Jose, which is expected to last 13 weeks, is the highest-profile fraud case yet to come out of Silicon Valley, where startups often "fake it 'til they make it."
Americans are now getting infected with COVID-19 at 10 times the rate needed to end the pandemic, which will persist until more people get vaccinated, NIAID director Anthony Fauci tells Axios.
Threat level: "The endgame is to suppress the virus. Right now, we're still in pandemic mode, because we have 160,000 new infections a day. That's not even modestly good control ... which means it's a public health threat."
New coronavirus infections held steady across the U.S. as falling case rates in a few hot spots in the South were offset by increases elsewhere.
Driving the news: While the overall COVID case rate increased less than 1% over the last two weeks, hospitalizations increased 4% in the same time frame, and the seven-day rolling average of deaths rose 29%.
Despite the White House's reassurance that boosters for Johnson & Johnson are likely on their way, J&J vaccine recipients feel left out of the conversation, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: The administration has said it is eyeing boosters for the mRNA shots available from Pfizer and Moderna and the FDA will meet regarding Pfizer's booster data in mid-September. (Moderna may come later.)
But while the White House has said it is looking at J&J boosters, the plans have not yet publicly included them.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce confirmed the Australian airline will ban passengers not vaccinated against COVID-19 from international flights, traveller.com.au first reported Wednesday.
The big picture: Joyce indicated in November he planned for Qantas to require international travelers provide proof of vaccination. He aims to have the mandate in place by December, when the airline plans to resume global operations. All Qantas staff must be vaccinated by March 2022 unless they have a medical exemption.
United Airlines staffers who are granted religious exemptions for the company's COVID-19 vaccination mandate will be placed on temporary unpaid leave starting Oct. 2, the airline told employees in a memo.
Driving the news: United last month became the first major U.S. airline to institute a vaccine mandate for employees, and acknowledged then it would consider exemptions for religious, personal or medical exemptions.
The death toll from Hurricane Ida's wake rose by 11 in Louisiana on Wednesday after health officials reported additional fatalities in New Orleans.
Details: The newest figures from Orleans Parish coroner's office bring the state's tally to 26, according to the state's health department. The newly recorded deaths occurred between Aug. 30 and Monday.
