California workplace regulators are considering ending mask rules if every employee in a room has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirusBy DON THOMPSON Associated PressJune 3, 2021, 1:19 PM• 4 min readSACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is set to fully reopen in less than two weeks and do away with virtually all mask and social distancing requirements for vaccinated people, but those who regulate workplaces in the state aren’t ready to go that far and that has business groups upset.The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board meets Thursday and will consider new... Read More

“It’s one of the gaps in our vaccine access issue,” a professor says. May 25, 2021, 9:04 AM• 7 min readAs the government seeks to increase vaccination rates, especially among communities of color, some experts say a lack of paid time off is keeping many from getting the coronavirus vaccine.There are currently no federal laws that require employers to provide time off — paid or unpaid — in order to get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, a University of California-Hastings law professor whose research focuses on vaccines and the law.”It’s... Read More

The head of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech said Monday that there is no need to waive patents on coronavirus vaccines because manufacturers will be able to produce enough shots to supply the world over the coming yearBy FRANK JORDANS Associated PressMay 10, 2021, 2:34 PM• 3 min readBERLIN — The head of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech said Monday that there is no need to waive patents on coronavirus vaccines because manufacturers will be able to produce enough shots to supply the world over the coming year.Ugur Sahin, the chief executive of BioNTech, rejected the U.S.-backed... Read More

California has gone from worst to first in the rate of coronavirus infectionsBy BRIAN MELLEY Associated PressApril 23, 2021, 12:55 AM• 5 min readLOS ANGELES — Just a few months ago, California was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. Hospitals in Los Angeles were drowning in patients, and ambulances were idling outside with people struggling to breathe, waiting for beds to open.The death count was staggering — so many that morgues filled and refrigerated trucks were brought in to handle the overflow.Now as cases spike in other parts of the country, California has gone... Read More

Nations around the world are setting new records for COVID-19 deaths and new coronavirus infections, and the disease is surging even in some countries that have kept the virus in checkBy MICHELLE R. SMITH Associated PressApril 9, 2021, 1:30 AM• 5 min readAmbulances filled with breathless patients lined up in Brazil as nations around the world set new records Thursday for COVID-19 deaths and new coronavirus infections. The disease surged even in some countries that have kept the virus in check.In the United States, Detroit leaders began making a plan to knock on every door to persuade people to... Read More

All three authorized vaccines work effectively against it. April 7, 2021, 9:42 PM• 5 min readThe more contagious variant of coronavirus that originated in the UK, the B-117 variant, has become the dominant strain in the U.S., CDC director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.”Based on our most recent estimates from CDC surveillance, the B-117 variant is now the most common lineage circulating in the United States,” Walensky told reporters at a White House briefing.Walensky’s comment was on schedule with previous predictions that the B-117 variant would become the more dominant strain... Read More

France is now Europe’s latest coronavirus danger zone, but President Emmanuel Macron is resisting calls for dramatic actionBy ANGELA CHARLTON Associated PressApril 1, 2021, 8:34 AM• 6 min readAMIENS, France — As France battles a new virus surge that many believe was avoidable, intensive care nurse Stephanie Sannier manages her stress and sorrow by climbing into her car after a 12-hour shift, blasting music and singing as loud as she can.“It allows me to breathe,” she says, “and to cry.”People with COVID-19 occupy all the beds in her ICU ward in President Emmanuel Macron’s... Read More

Students and staff were among the infected.March 28, 2021, 11:38 PM• 4 min readAt least 100 coronavirus cases have been linked to a day care center in Omaha, Nebraska, including some from the U.K. variant, health officials said.The Rosewood Academy Childcare and Preschool was shut down last week following confirmation of the first few cases, according to the Douglas County Health Department.As of Sunday, more than 100 COVID-19 cases were linked to the initial outbreak, and testing has shown that some were caused by the U.K. variant, a health department spokesman told ABC News.”This points... Read More

“You can see how extraordinarily uncomfortable I was,” she told ABC News.March 15, 2021, 10:20 PM• 6 min readThe former coronavirus response coordinator in the Trump White House, Dr. Deborah Birx, says she still thinks about the moment last year when she sat silently while former President Donald Trump raised the possibility of injecting disinfectant into people to treat COVID-19.”Frankly, I didn’t know how to handle that episode,” Birx said Monday in an interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran for ABC News Live’s “The Breakdown.” “I still... Read More

A Milwaukee woman has lost at least 15 people in her world to the coronavirus in the year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemicBy CARRIE ANTLFINGER Associated PressMarch 8, 2021, 11:16 PM• 4 min readMILWAUKEE — The first person Kimberly Montgomery lost to COVID-19 was her aunt. She had trouble breathing, so her daughter dropped her off at the emergency room. It was the last time her daughter saw her alive.Then, one after another, 14 other people in Montgomery’s world — family members, friends, friends who were like family — succumbed to the same disease.There was the retired police... Read More