On Monday, the global COVID-19 death toll reached 5 million (the U.S. has lost over 740,000 lives). The Biden Administration announced the U.S. adult population has reached 70% fully vaccinated status and 80% with partial vaccinated status. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky endorsed Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, making it the first vaccination for children ages 5 to 11. This followed the agency’s independent group of advisers’ unanimous vote to recommend the Pfizer shot for nearly 28 million children. The CDC’s decision to clear the final hurdle for the vaccine came just days after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval. White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients stated distribution of the vaccine would be “running at full strength” by the week of November 8th.
Today, President Biden announced the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirement for employers with 100 or more employees to verify all have been fully vaccinated or test negative weekly for COVID-19 by January 4th. The White House believes that as many as 84 million workers will fall under the agency new requirements. OSHA could issue an approximate $14,000 fine to any employer in violation of the new rules. Nearly 40 Republican Senators vowed on Wednesday to nullify the OSHA regulations through a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act. More details regarding the OSHA requirement – including information regarding the regulation’s applicability to state and local government – is included in the Administration section below.
Vaccination rates have been found to be significantly lower for low-income people, Data showed insurance and education levels play a significant role as well. The CDC announced an investment of $26 million for next-generation infectious disease forecasting and analytics.
Capitol Hill
On November 3, Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Employment and Workforce Safety, announced, along with forty Senate Republicans, that they will use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to challenge President Biden’s new Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring large employers to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. Sen. Braun will attempt to force the Senate to vote on a resolution disapproving of the ETS. It must be passed by the Senate and the House, both of which Democrats control, and be signed into law by the president. If President Biden vetoes the disapproval resolution, Republicans will have to muster a two-thirds vote in each chamber to override the veto and stop the rule from taking effect. Their effort is expected to fall short because Democrats control 50 Senate seats, but it could be a tough vote for vulnerable incumbents up for reelection next year.
On Thursday morning, the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on “Next Steps: The Road Ahead for the COVID-19 Response”. The hearing included four witnesses: CDC Director Rochelle Walensky; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci; Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock; and HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell.
Administration
OSHA released an unpublished version of the COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard; the official version will be published in tomorrow’s Federal Register. An OSHA press release is here; a DOL webinar is here. The standard covers employers with 100 or more employees and requires companies to ensure workers are either fully vaccinated by January 4 or they test negative for COVID-19 at least once per week. Companies will be required to pay workers for the time it takes to get vaccinated and provide sick leave for workers to recover from vaccine side effects. Employers are not required to pay for testing, and unvaccinated people must wear masks while at work. Enforcement of the standard is left primarily to employers as there are far too few OSHA inspectors to effectively monitor compliance.
Note: While the federal OSHA statute specifically excludes state and political subdivision employers from OSHA jurisdiction, states may adopt a federally-approved preemptive regulations – “State Plans” – with equivalent measures that could cover public employees. A Congressional Research Service report outlines OSHA jurisdiction and confirms federal OSHA does have direct jurisdiction over state and local government employers. The National League of Cities provided an informative article on point.
The Administration also released emergency regulations for health care workers, including those at nursing homes caring for elderly and sick residents who are at high risk for infection. All workers at health care facility receiving either Medicare or Medicaid funding must be vaccinated by Jan. 4.
The Federal Communications Commission announced that 36 Connected Care Pilot Program projects were approved for a total of $15.3 million in funding. The program provides funding for selected pilot projects to cover 85% of the eligible costs of broadband connectivity, network equipment, and information services necessary to provide connected care services.
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NACo sent a letter to House leadership calling for the passage of the bipartisan State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (S. 3011). The bill would provide state and local governments flexibility to invest a portion of ARPA funds in transportation, infrastructure, and government services.
Roll Call reported states are still showing lagging vaccination rates among people of lower incomes and education levels, even as gaps for racial and ethnic groups have largely disappeared in recent months. The states that track the COVID-19 vaccination status of Medicaid beneficiaries continue to report disparities. Low-income people were less likely to be vaccinated in all eight states that provided data.
As the deadline for workforce vaccination approaches, some trucking companies are considering whether to end their work with the federal government. The American Trucking Associations’ executive vice president for advocacy Bill Sullivan said that some companies may simply decide the cost of the mandate is not worth the government’s checks.
Thirty-six percent of U.S. employees say their employer requires all workers without a medical exception to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The latest results are up from nine percent from the same poll in July and have shown a steady increase since then. Additionally, 39 percent of workers say they are encouraged but not required to be vaccinated, decreasing from 62 percent in July.
NLC released a statement in response to the Build Back Better Act, urging Congress to bring both the Act and the infrastructure bill to a vote quickly. Executive Director Clarence Anthony noted that both pieces of legislation pave “the way for cities to empower residents and build sustained recovery.”
Vaccine News
The CEO of Merck said the biopharmaceutical company was on pace to distribute tens of millions of the COVID-19 antiviral pill it developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics once it receives federal approval. The FDA is set to hold an advisory committee meeting to weigh Merck’s request for the emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir on November 30. The company’s lab studies have indicated that the pill was effective against the delta variant and other variants of COVID-19.
Moderna warned its full year shipments of the vaccine will not meet its forecasts. Moderna reported that it is dealing with production and shipment issues that will push some of its deliveries back to 2022, especially for export. The company expects to ship 700-800 million doses of its vaccine, down from the range of 800 million to 1 billion doses it had been expecting. Moderna said it will give priority to low-income countries. Beyond supply chain issues with international shipping, problems with deliveries are also due to difficulties with ramping up production capacity.
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Webinars, Events and Resources |
ARPA Office Hour: Leveraging Data to Deploy & Track ARPA Investments
NLC
November 4, 2:00 PM ET
Using SBA’s EIDL Program to Support Small Business Recovery in Your Community
NLC
November 5, 11:30 AM ET
CRS Reports of Interest:
GAO Reports of Interest:
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