Coronavirus Update
October 21, 2021
Information and resources on federal responses to the coronavirus crisis for state, local, and regional government.
Top News
On Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced its plan to give the COVID-19 vaccination to children ages 5 to 11. This plan to vaccinate the 28 million children ages 5 to 11 comes on the heels of millions of children ages 12 to 17 being successfully vaccinated. Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will both need to authorize the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and are currently under consideration. The FDA and CDC’s independent advisory committees will meet on October 26th and November 2nd and 3rd respectively. Many believe approval could come as early as November 5th. White House sources said there are 15 million doses ready to be shipped.

The FDA has given approval allowing Americans to receive a different COVID-19 vaccine as a booster from the original shot they received. Last month the agency authorized booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be received six months after the second dose. This ruling gives the opportunity for millions of Americans to “mix and match” vaccines, allowing for increased availability of the booster shots. The CDC’s advisory committee will consider FDA’s ruling during its Thursday meeting.

On Tuesday evening, the Senate passed, by Unanimous Consent, the State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (S. 3011). This legislation significantly expands the ability of localities and counties to use their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Fiscal Recovery Funds for broader infrastructure-related purposes. This bipartisan bill, sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Alex Padilla (D-CA), makes several categories of infrastructure investments and disaster relief eligible for unspent COVID-19 relief dollars, in addition to allowing cities and counties to use their ARPA funds for government services without using complicated budgetary analysis to calculate lost revenue. The bill goes now to the House for consideration.

Capitol Hill

On October 13, House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Chair James Clyburn (D-SC) released a staff report with new findings from a Select Subcommittee investigation “into how the Trump Administration mismanaged the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) $6 billion Farmers to Families Food Box Program, which was intended to address agricultural surpluses and food shortages during the coronavirus pandemic.” Chair Clyburn also wrote to USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong requesting that her office conduct a review of the program to identify possible fraud and reclaim wasted taxpayer funds.

On October 13, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Ranking Member Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Select Subcommittee Republicans sent a letter to Chair Clyburn “urging Democrats to shift their efforts from pushing massive, trillion-dollar spending packages to assisting Republicans in rooting out known criminal and fraudulent activity from COVID-19 relief programs.” The lawmakers also encouraged Chair Clyburn to schedule an immediate hearing on programs vulnerable to ongoing fraud and cybercrime attacks.

On October 14, the GOP Ranking Members of the House Oversight and Reform, Education and Labor, and Small Business Committees sent a letter to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh “regarding the Biden Administration’s troubling COVID-19 vaccine-and-testing mandate for American employers and employees.” 

Please visit our TFG Coronavirus Legislative Trackers public health & safety, local government relief, and business assistance for detailed information on recently introduced bills.

Administration

The U.S. donated 200 million COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world. According to a White House official, over the next year the U.S. will donate over 1 billion U.S.-made COVID-19 vaccine doses to low and lower middle-income countries.

DHS issued an interim final rule allowing the Secretary to require housing providers participating in several housing and rental assistance programs to provide tenants facing eviction for non-payment of rent with notification of and information about the opportunity to secure emergency funding and additional time to secure such funding prior to eviction. The rule will be effective as of November 8.

The Federal Communications Commission announced it is committing $1.16 billion for 2,471 schools, 205 libraries, and 26 consortia that applied for support from the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund. This second wave of funding will enable these organizations to receive access to devices and broadband connectivity for off-premises access.  

In recognition of World Mental Health Day, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice jointly issued a fact sheet to support students with mental health disabilities, their families, and their schools in the era of COVID-19. Along with the fact sheet, OCR released a letter to educators highlighting the civil rights obligations of schools and postsecondary institutions to students with mental health disabilities.
Industry & Advocacy
The U.S. will lift border restrictions for fully vaccinated international travelers beginning November 8. The policy will be effective for both land and air travelers. The U.S. Conference of Mayors applauded the Administration’s announcement, highlighting the southern and northern border cities and countries whose economies have lost billions due to the border ban.

Southwest will no longer put workers awaiting a decision on exemptions from the company’s vaccine mandate on unpaid leave. Instead, such employees will be able to work as their applications for religious or medical exemptions are considered, provided they observe company rules on masks and social distancing.

A majority of Americans now support requiring public school students aged 12 or older to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before they can attend classes in person. All states since the early 1980s have had vaccination requirements for students entering school that cover shots for conditions like measles, mumps, and rubella. Forty-four state and D.C. grant exemptions on religious grounds, and 15 allow exemptions for children whose parents object on other grounds.

There have been at least two dozen lawsuits filed around the U.S. demanding hospitals give ivermectin, a deworming drug, to COVID-19 patients. The lawsuits follow a similar format; families received a prescription for the drug, but hospitals refuse to use it on the patients, many of whom are on a ventilator. The drug was approved to treat tiny parasites in people, but the Administration, states, and the drug’s leading manufacturer have all warned against using it for COVID-19. 

Vaccine News

FDA expanded the use of a booster dose for COVID-19 vaccines in eligible populations. The agency is amending the emergency use authorizations (EUA) for vaccines to allow for the use of a single booster dose under certain circumstances.

Pfizer and BioNTech announced last week that a booster shot of their coronavirus vaccine restores full protection against COVID-19. The companies said that a late-stage clinical trial found that the booster was 95.6 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19.

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been found to be 93 percent effective against hospitalization for 12- to 18-year-olds, according to CDC research from when the delta variant was predominant. Researchers calculated the vaccine efficacy using data from 464 hospitalized patients, including 179 with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and 285 controls without the virus, across 19 pediatric hospitals between June and September.

AstraZeneca announced its experimental COVID-19 treatment has been found to be effective in late-stage trials at preventing severe illness or death. AstraZeneca said AZD7442 had been shown to prevent COVID-19 viruses from binding to host cells and was able to neutralize COVID-19 variants including the delta and mu strains. 
Webinars, Events and Resources
Community & Economic Development, COVID-19, Leadership, Municipal Finance
NLC
October 27, 12:00 PM ET
 
Latest on the Delta Variant and Using ARP Funds to Respond
NACo
November 2, 3:00 PM ET

CRS Reports of Interest: 



For more information please contact Mike Miller: mmiller@tfgnet.com (707) 224-8648