As part of his new COVID-19 plan, President Biden is backing a push to expand testing — including at-home rapid tests.
The big picture: DIY tests offer the potential to regularly surveil people for COVID-19 and get them out of circulation before they can infect others. But the strategy will only be effective if the tests are extremely cheap and plentiful.
Latinos who think they have good social standing in the U.S. are more likely to have better cardiovascular health, according to a peer-reviewed paper.
What’s happening: The study looked into how perception of status, success and prestige relative to other people correlates to health factors such as body mass index, blood pressure and levels of cholesterol.
Why it matters: Immigrants comprise a quarter of the essential workers who remained active in the Île-de-France province during lockdowns, per data from a French health observatory.
The Education Department announced Friday that it is investigating Florida over its ban on mask mandates.
Why it matters: The investigation, which said the ban could discriminate against students with disabilities or underlying medical conditions, is the latest development in both the legal back-and-forth over masks in Florida schools and between the Biden administration and GOP-led states over mask mandates.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Friday that he's suing six school districts that have defied Gov. Greg Abbott's statewide ban on mask mandates.
The big picture: Some school districts in Texas have sought to implement masking requirements for teachers, students and staff as COVID-19 cases surge across the state.
The First District Court of Appeal on Friday granted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) approval to uphold an order banning mask mandates in schools, per court documents filed Friday.
Why it matters: The move reverses a decision from earlier this week that paused the state's ability to enforce a ban on strict mask mandates in schools. The state will be able to resume punishing school districts that enforce mandates, which up until this point has included withholding funds from schools.
Unvaccinated people were about 11 times more likely to die of COVID-19 and were more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with the disease, a new study from the CDC released on Friday found.
The U.S. will have to find new ways to get unvaccinated Americans inoculated against the coronavirus to curb the pandemic, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said during an Axios virtual event on Friday.
Why it matters: President Biden announced several efforts to boost new vaccinations, including requiring more than 80 million Americans working in the private sector to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or produce a negative test result at least once a week.
The FDA said on Friday that it is "working around the clock" to support the process of making the coronavirus vaccine available for children under the age of 12.
Why it matters: The number of children getting hospitalized due to the virus is increasing, with some infectious disease doctors worrying that the Delta variant could be causing more serious illness in kids.
Kentucky's Republican-dominated legislature voted on late Thursday night to revoke a statewide mask mandate in public schools meant to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Louisville Courier Journal reports.
Why it matters: The vote came on the final day of an emergency special legislative session called by Gov. Andy Beshear (D) in response to surging cases in the state.
Top Republicans are calling for a public uprising to protest President Biden's broad vaccine mandates, eight months after more than 500 people stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to overturn the election.
Why it matters: It has been decades since America has witnessed such blatant and sustained calls for mass civil disobedience against the U.S. government.
Democrats' ambitious health plans are slowly transitioning from bullet point proposals to more fleshed-out policies, inching the legislative process forward and shedding more light on who stands to win or lose.
Yes, but: Some of these proposals put the House and Senate in conflict with one another, emphasizing just how far Democrats still have to go.
This weekend, we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people. But we've lost track of the fact that at least that many will die of COVID-19 within the span of two days.
The big picture: 9/11 was a shocking attack that sparked massive domestic foreign policy changes and conflict in two countries. While the pandemic has certainly led to enormous policy and lifestyle changes, the daily drumbeat of hundreds of COVID deaths in America isn't garnering the attention it once did.
President Biden says he's met the enemy — and it's America's unvaccinated.
The big picture: The majority of U.S. sentiment may be with him. But Biden's still taking a major political risk, and he and his team know it. He's testing business leaders' resolve, putting Democrats' standing in swing states and districts on the line ahead of 2022's midterm elections and tempting a tsunami of litigation over new requirements that could touch 100 million Americans.
President Biden on Thursday announced aggressive new mandates on vaccinations and testing. Axios experts break down what the announcement means for politics, business and health care.
Axios' political reporter Hans Nichols: White House officials know that Biden was elected to contain the virus — and that if he’s not successful, his entire presidency is at risk.
A number of Republican governors and the Republican National Committee vowed to take the Biden administration to court over the president's plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccination or testing for more than 80 million private-sector employees.
Driving the news: The new rule is part of a six-pronged plan by the administration to ramp up efforts to combat the nation's latest surge in virus cases and hospitalizations due to the Delta variant.
