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From Amex to Walmart, here are the companies mandating the Covid vaccines for employees

As the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus struck communities nationwide last summer and fall, many companies stepped up their vaccination requirements, mandating that some or all employees get vaccinated or provide proof of vaccination, many doing so even before President Joe Biden announced the government’s own mandates for workers in the U.S.

The Biden administration’s vaccination mandate for federal contractors is on hold, while another for certain health care workers remains in place. The government’s mandate for large businesses with 100 or more employees was blocked by the Supreme Court in early January and formally withdrawn by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Jan. 25.

Here is the latest on the list of the companies that have already announced their vaccination plans: 

American Express

Starting Nov. 18 the credit card giant began requiring employees, contractors and visitors to be fully vaccinated to work in or visit its U.S. offices and “participate in in-person company-sponsored events,” CEO Steve Squeri said in an internal memo sent out to employees on Nov. 15. He also told employees that “unvaccinated U.S. colleagues and those who do not provide proof of vaccination can request a virtual work arrangement if they can do their jobs effectively from home.” 

Citing the recent rapid spread of the omicron variant, the company delayed its greater hybrid office return, which had been set for Monday, until it feels “comfortable bringing a large number of colleagues back together in the office,” said a memo that was sent out to all U.S.-based employees on Jan. 4.  

Amtrak

The railroad service is requiring employees to have been vaccinated or submit to weekly Covid testing, suspending a blanket mandate that had been planned to go into effect on Jan. 4. In an internal memo that was shared with employees last month, CEO Bill Flynn said a federal court’s halt of the government’s federal contractor vaccination mandate “caused the company to reevaluate” its “policy and to address the uncertainty about the federal requirements that apply to Amtrak.” Flynn also said that at the time, nearly 96 percent of employees either had been fully vaccinated or had received accommodations. 

Anthem

Employees must be fully vaccinated to enter offices that are open, including the health care insurance company’s headquarters in Indianapolis and its office in Atlanta, spokesperson Michelle Vanstory said.

BlackRock

Since July 1, only vaccinated employees and visitors to the investment giant have been allowed to return to the office, according to a company memo obtained by NBC News. All U.S.-based employees, regardless of any plans to return voluntarily, were required to report their vaccination statuses by June 30, 2021.  

Since November, employees have been in the office for an average of three days per week, the company said Jan. 6 in an emailed statement, but they have recently been given the flexibility to work from wherever through Friday in light of the omicron variant. 

Carhartt

The heavy-duty apparel manufacturer said it is upholding its vaccination mandate for all employees, including retail, manufacturing and distribution workers, which went into effect Jan. 4 despite the recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the federal mandate for large private employers.

“We put workplace safety at the very top of our priority list and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling doesn’t impact that core value,” CEO Mark Valade said in part in an email to employees on Jan. 14. “ While we appreciate that there may be differing views, workplace safety is an area where we and the union that represents our associates cannot compromise. An unvaccinated workforce is both a people and business risk that our company is unwilling to take.”

Cisco

The tech and telecoms conglomerate is allowing only vaccinated “critical workers” to go in to the office, and it is pursuing a fully hybrid approach. “Whether that means you work five days a week at home and gather with your team for activities and connection every once in a while, or you are in the office five days a week … every Cisco employee will be hybrid,” Francine Katsoudas, the executive vice president and chief people, policy and purpose officer, wrote in a memo to employees in July.

Citigroup

The banking giant announced in August that employees would need to get vaccinated before they return to its offices, according to a LinkedIn post from Sara Wechter, the bank’s head of human resources. In a LinkedIn post this month, Wechter said that the company reached 99 percent compliance just one day before its deadline.  

“This level of compliance helps us create a safer workplace, protect your families and our communities, and ensure continuity of our business operations,” Wechter wrote. 

Columbia Sportswear 

Corporate headquarters employees have until Feb. 1 to get vaccinated or seek accommodations, spokesperson Mary Ellen Glynn said. Those who do not comply “will be placed on unpaid leave and termination processes will begin.” There is no blanket mandate for Columbia’s retail associates or warehouse workers, Glynn confirmed.  

CVS Health

CVS said in August that it would require patient-facing and corporate employees to get their shots by Oct. 31, new hires by Sept. 15 and pharmacists in retail stores by Nov. 30. At the end of 2021, it expanded its vaccination mandate to all employees, including retail associates, spokesperson Erin Britt said by email this month. Newly mandated employees have until March 31 to be fully vaccinated, she said.

The recent Supreme Court ruling does not change CVS Health’s vaccination policy, Britt said Jan. 14.

The company’s Jan. 10 office return was postponed.

Deloitte

The professional services firm required employees entering its facilities to be fully vaccinated by last Oct. 11. Deloitte spokesperson Jonathan Gandel said Jan. 14 that the requirement remains despite the Supreme Court’s ruling. 

Delta Air Lines

The airline announced in May that it would require all new U.S. hires to be vaccinated effective May 17. “This is an important move to protect Delta’s people and customers, ensuring the airline can safely operate as demand returns and as it accelerates through recovery and into the future,” the company wrote, adding that it would not be “putting in place a company-wide mandate to require current employees to be vaccinated.”  

Those who are unvaccinated must take part in weekly Covid testing, CEO Ed Bastian told staffers in August. He also said that beginning Nov. 1, those who had not received their shots and were enrolled in the company’s health care plan would incur extra $200 monthly insurance charges. 

DoorDash

Since June, only fully vaccinated employees have been allowed to voluntarily return to the office. The company said in an email Jan. 14 that its policy has not changed since the Supreme Court ruling. 

Its office return is delayed indefinitely.

Equinox

The luxury fitness company Equinox, which owns SoulCycle, announced in August that it would begin requiring members, riders and employees to provide one-time proof of vaccination to enter its facilities and offices, starting in New York City in September. “We have a responsibility to take bold action and respond to changing circumstances with urgency. We encourage other leading brands to join us in this effort to best protect our communities,” Equinox Group Executive Chairman Harvey Spevak said in a statement.

Ford

Ford required most U.S. salaried employees to be fully vaccinated as of Dec. 8.  

Ford said in an emailed statement this month that it is “reviewing” the recent Supreme Court ruling to determine whether any changes are needed in its current vaccination policy. It said 88 percent of its U.S. salaried employees had already been vaccinated. 

Goldman Sachs

Since Sept. 7, the investment bank has been requiring all people who enter its offices, including clients and visitors, to be fully vaccinated. Bloomberg reported that eligible employees entering Goldman Sachs facilities must have had booster shots by Feb. 1.  

Google

On July 28, Google became the first major tech company to announce a vaccination mandate for employees looking to return to the office. “Anyone coming to work on our campuses will need to be vaccinated. We’re rolling this policy out in the U.S. in the coming weeks and will expand to other regions in the coming months,” CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a memo in July. Google said in an emailed statement Jan. 14 that it is no longer requiring vaccination as a condition of employment. 

Google recently paused the launch of its broader return to the office and its hybrid workweek model, which had been scheduled for Jan. 10. The company said in part in an email on Jan. 5 that it will determine its new return date “based on local conditions.” 

Jefferies

The financial giant Jefferies will allow only vaccinated people into its offices and outside company events, CEO Rich Handler and President Brian Friedman said in a memo in July. “We require that, after Labor Day, anyone who is not fully vaccinated should continue to work from home, which fortunately has proven to be highly effective. We will closely monitor the situation and be ready to pivot and adapt whenever needed,” they wrote. 

Handler and Friedman told employees in a memo last month that over 95 percent of the global firm’s population had been vaccinated and that boosters would “soon be a requirement” of the company’s “JefVaxPass strategy.” Most employees are already back in the office about three days a week, the executives said. 

Lyft

Since Aug. 2, corporate employees have been required to show proof of vaccination to enter offices, according to an internal note obtained by NBC News. “For those who choose to continue working from our offices — which will remain open — our current safety guidance remains in place, including our existing mask requirement and vaccine requirement going into effect August 2,” CEO and co-founder Logan Green said.  

Nothing has changed in light of the Jan. 13 Supreme Court ruling. 

“Our policy was in place before the federal mandate was announced, and there will be no changes to our policies for corporate employees,” spokesperson Ashley Adams said in an email Jan. 14.

McDonald’s

The fast food chain required all U.S.-based office workers and visitors to be vaccinated as of Sept. 27, according to an internal note obtained by NBC News. The requirement does not apply to people who work in McDonald’s restaurants.

Meta  

The social media giant formerly known as Facebook said Jan. 10 that it would require proof of booster shots for eligible U.S. office workers starting March 28. It first announced a standard Covid vaccination mandate in July. 

March 28 is also when workers are expected back in the office. The new date, delayed from Jan. 31, applies to those who do not request full-time remote work or temporarily pause their return through the company’s Office Deferral Program, which gives employees who may need more time an extra three to five months. 

“We understand that the continued uncertainty makes this a difficult time to make decisions about where to work, so we’re giving more time to choose what works best for them,” Janelle Gale, the vice president for human resources, said in an emailed statement Jan. 10.    

On Jan. 14, Meta said that its vaccination policy remains unchanged in light of the Jan. 13 Supreme Court decision.

MGM Resorts International

The hospitality chain is calling for its salaried workers and all new hires to be fully vaccinated, even if they are working from home, spokesperson Brian Ahern said. Unvaccinated hourly employees must provide proof of negative Covid tests every week. Ahern said this month that the policies still stand despite the Supreme Court decision. 

Microsoft

The tech company announced Aug. 3 that it would require proof of vaccination for all employees, vendors and guests, starting in September. The company did not say in its emailed statement whether the vaccination policy applies to employees who have been going into the office voluntarily since last spring or to those working at its retail stores. In an update on Sept. 9, Corporate Vice President Jared Spataro said in a blog post that the company had suspended its office return indefinitely, given the uncertainty of Covid. Employees had been set to return on Oct. 4. 

Morgan Stanley

The company announced in August that it would require U.S.-based employees to provide proof of vaccination by Oct. 1, Reuters reported. 

NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, is requiring U.S.-based workers returning to the office to be fully vaccinated, Executive Vice President Adam Miller told employees in an email on Aug. 11. Employees will also be required to provide details about their vaccination status.

The company’s Jan. 18 office return has been halted.  

“We do not plan to embark on our larger return in January and the pause will remain in place until we begin to see significant declines in the spread of the virus,” Chairman Cesar Conde told employees in an internal memo Jan. 4.

Netflix

The streaming service requires vaccinations for the casts of all U.S. productions, as well as the people who work with them on set, the company confirmed.

The New York Times

New York Times Co. CEO Meredith Kopit Levien told staff members by email that the company will require proof of vaccination for those who want to go into the office voluntarily. The company is eyeing the first quarter of this year for its full office return, Times media reporter Katie Robertson tweeted Sept. 22. The return had been pushed back indefinitely from Sept. 7. 

Saks

The fashion company said it is asking employees to get vaccinated before they return to the office. “If we’re asking people to come back, we have to make the environment as safe as we possibly can,” CEO Marc Metrick told The New York Times in May.

Salesforce

The customer service software giant has allowed only vaccinated employees back in its offices as of May.

TJX

The parent company of off-price retailers like HomeGoods, Marshalls and T.J. Maxx required its U.S. “Home and Regional Office Associates” to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1. 

For the same employees who were vaccinated before June 1, a booster shot is required by Feb. 1, spokesperson Andrew Mastrangelo said in an email this month. Employees who were fully vaccinated with a two-dose vaccine after June 1 have up to eight months to get their boosters, while those with a one-dose vaccine have four months. “Accommodations can be requested by those who cannot be vaccinated due to qualified medical or religious reasons,” Mastrangelo said. 

Although the requirements do not apply to the company’s retail and distribution center associates, Mastrangelo said TJX is “currently reviewing” what the recent Supreme Court ruling means for it. 

Twitter

The social media giant requires employees to be vaccinated and show proof of vaccination before they voluntarily return to the company’s San Francisco and New York offices. In May 2020, Twitter said employees could work from home for as long as they want.

Tyson Foods

The meat and poultry producer announced Aug. 3 that it would require its corporate workforce to be vaccinated by Oct. 1 and all other employees by Nov. 1, making it the largest U.S. food company to implement such a mandate. CEO Donnie King told employees that the company will also provide $200 to front-line team members who get the shots.

Uber

In an internal note obtained by NBC News, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees that starting Aug. 2, they would be required to be fully vaccinated to return to the office. “If you are not vaccinated, you’ll need to work from home until you are fully vaccinated,” he wrote.

Union Square Hospitality Group

Union Square Hospitality Group, which operates restaurants in New York City and Washington, D.C., requires vaccinations for staff members and guests. “Beginning the day after Labor Day, we are going to require that 100 percent of our staff members be vaccinated and that any guest who wants to dine indoors will be vaccinated as well,” founder and CEO Danny Meyer told NBC News.

United Airlines

The air carrier required all U.S.-based employees to get vaccinated — and provide proof of their vaccinations — either five weeks after federal approval or by Oct. 25, 2021, whichever came first, the company first announced in a note to employees on Aug. 6. United previously required the shots only for new hires, and it became the first major U.S. airline to implement a blanket policy for all employees. CEO Scott Kirby said in January that he wanted to make Covid vaccinations mandatory for employees. 

ViacomCBS

CEO Bob Bakish told employees that the media conglomerate is requiring all U.S.-based employees working onsite during its “Yellow Phase” to be fully vaccinated, adding that it is still assessing whether the mandate will continue into the “Green Phase,” which is when most staff members will be back in the office.

Walgreens

The pharmacy giant requires workers in its support and corporate offices to be fully vaccinated, spokesperson Fraser Engerman said. Those who receive religious or medical exemptions have to undergo Covid testing.

In mid-September, Walgreens put its previously set vaccination deadline of Sept. 30 on pause, Engerman said.

Walmart

Walmart corporate associates and new hires were required to get their shots by last Oct. 4, President and CEO Doug McMillon told employees in an internal memo in July. “As we all know, the pandemic is not over, and the Delta variant has led to an increase in infection rates across much of the U.S.,” he wrote. “Given this, we have made the decision to require all market, regional and divisional associates who work in multiple facilities and all campus office associates to be vaccinated by Oct. 4, unless they have an approved exception. This includes all new hires.”

More than 90 percent of Walmart’s campus office workers are fully vaccinated, Chief People Officer Donna Morris said Dec. 1.

The Walt Disney Company

Disney requires all of its new salaried and nonunion hourly employees to get vaccinated before they head to work. The company said in part in an emailed statement on July 30: “Employees who aren’t already vaccinated and are working on-site will have 60 days from today to complete their protocols, and any employees still working from home will need to provide verification of vaccination prior to their return, with certain limited exceptions. Vaccines are the best tool we all have to help control this global pandemic and protect our employees.”

The Washington Post

Post employees, including new hires, must demonstrate proof of vaccination and must also get their booster shots, spokesperson Shani George said. Earlier, CEO Fred Ryan wrote in a memo advising staff members that they must be vaccinated: “Considering the serious health issues and genuine safety concerns of so many Post employees, I believe the plan is the right one.” The publication delayed its office return until March 15. 

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Bill Gates says COVID-19 vaccines are ‘missing two key things’

Novavax CEO Stanley Erck suggests the corporation is in the system of producing ‘quite a bit of doses and finding them out’ and notes that the vaccine will be ‘very effective’ versus the omicron pressure.

Invoice Gates, who donated $1.75 billion to COVID-19 vaccine improvement and preventing the pandemic, said this 7 days that when the at this time offered vaccines avoid significant illness and demise, they aren’t durable ample and should be much better at preventing infection. 

The Microsoft founder, whose net worthy of Forbes pegs at $135.9 billion, manufactured the responses in a Twitter discussion with Devi Sridhar, the chair of global public overall health at the College of Edinburgh Health care School. 

“The vaccines we have avert extreme sickness and death very nicely but they are missing two important factors,” Gates claimed to a question about what would make the biggest distinction in ending the pandemic. 

“Very first they however let infections (‘breakthrough’) and the length seems to be minimal. We need to have vaccines that prevent re-infection and have a lot of years of length.”

Monthly bill Gates speaks during the World-wide Investment decision Summit at the Science Museum on October 19, 2021 in London, England. (Photograph by Leon Neal – WPA Pool/Getty Photographs)

A modern College of Copenhagen review identified that the swift distribute of the omicron variant, which is now accountable for 98.3{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of new scenarios in the United States, in accordance to the CDC, is probable due to its capability to greater evade immunity made available by vaccines and prior infection than earlier variants. 

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Gates mentioned that omicron will problem wellbeing devices as it turns into the dominant strain in other international locations around the entire world, but may well allow wellness officials to start off treating COVID-19 the similar way they observe endemic viruses like influenza. 

“After Omicron goes by way of a place then the rest of the year ought to see far less conditions so Covid can be addressed more like seasonal flu,” Gates stated Tuesday. 

An employee draws up a syringe with the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease at vaccination bus in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021. Germany battles rising numbers of coronavirus infections. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

An personnel draws up a syringe with the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus and the COVID-19 sickness at vaccination bus in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021. Germany battles growing numbers of coronavirus infections. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa by way of AP)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged European leaders this week to start out managing COVID-19 as an endemic virus rather of a pandemic, stating that overall health officers in Spain will quickly get started tracking it the same way they do the flu. 

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Nadhim Zahawi, the previous British minister for vaccine deployment and recent education secretary, instructed Sky News on Sunday that he hopes the United Kingdom “will be a person of the initially big economies to exhibit to the world how you transition from pandemic to endemic.”

Vials of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are completely ready to be injected to healthcare workers on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Gates gave a prescient Ted Chat in 2015 warning about the danger of a pandemic, indicating that if “anything at all kills about 10 million folks in the upcoming handful of a long time, it’s most most likely to be a remarkably infectious virus rather than a war.”

His philanthropic business, the Bill & Melinda Gates Basis, donated $1.75 billion to fighting the pandemic and developing COVID-19 vaccines. 

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About two-thirds of the U.S. populace older than 5 are absolutely vaccinated towards COVID-19 and 79.2{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} have received at least just one dose, in accordance to CDC information. Of those people who are thoroughly vaccinated more than the age of 18, 39.8{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} have been given a booster dose. 

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Covid vaccines prevented nearly a quarter-million deaths last spring

The Covid vaccination campaign in the United States lower hospitalizations and deaths by approximately fifty percent in the very first six months of 2021, new study implies. 

The photographs saved just about 241,000 life and prevented practically 1.2 million hospitalizations, in accordance to a model posted Tuesday in the journal JAMA Community Open. 

Entire protection of the Covid-19 pandemic

But as 2021 progressed, the vaccines ended up achieved with a important hurdle that blunted the shots’ efficiency: People today stopped getting vaccinated. 

“By late spring and summer season vaccine uptake begun leveling out,” said Dr. Eric C. Schneider, a senior vice president for policy and investigate at The Commonwealth Fund who collaborated on the model. “We could have had even bigger impression if we experienced far more folks vaccinated.”

Even without the need of reaching increased vaccination degrees, the vaccines reduced the impression of the alpha variant, a reasonably more contagious type of the virus that was initial detected in the United Kingdom and commenced circulating worldwide by the stop of 2020. It turned the dominant variant in the U.S. in April 2021.

According to researchers from Yale University, the University of Maryland, Canada’s York University and The Commonwealth Fund, vaccinations averted extra than 14 million cases of Covid from mid-December 2020, when the initial vaccines were being licensed, by the close of June 2021, by which position about 50 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of U.S. grownups were vaccinated. 

Dr. Sudhakar Venkata Nuti, an inside drugs physician at Massachusetts Basic Clinic, reported the new design confirms that what well being officers mentioned about the relevance of vaccination in opposition to Covid was suitable. 

“The messaging that we as a well being treatment technique furnished to the community has been that this vaccine will be beneficial to protect against you from acquiring sick and reduce you from dying. Wanting back, what we explained was accurate and we saved lives, minimized struggling and prevented one more wave of Covid,” Nuti mentioned. “We wouldn’t have had people benefits if not for vaccines.”

To day, Covid has killed far more than 835,000 individuals in the U.S., a toll that would be lessen if extra people today were vaccinated, Schneider mentioned.  

Virtually 208 million individuals ages 5 and up in the U.S., or 62.5 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}, have been absolutely vaccinated, with either two doses of an mRNA vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and additional than 75 million have been given an more booster dose. Far more than 74 per cent of qualified People in america have acquired at least one particular dose of a Covid vaccine, Centers for Sickness Control and Avoidance data demonstrate.

Nuti mentioned that even though the design targeted on the initial 50 percent of 2021, vaccination nonetheless continues to be critical, notably in the encounter of the extremely contagious omicron variant, now the dominant pressure in the U.S.

“With omicron, the likelihood of you becoming uncovered is larger than ever. Obtaining a vaccine and a booster shot would be the finest thing you can do to prevent you and your beloved kinds from receiving really unwell,” Nuti mentioned.

Schneider acknowledged that the emergence of omicron as properly as other variants has created modeling additional challenging. 

“Variants have built predictive modeling complicated and the virus retains stunning us,” he stated. Provided omicron’s capacity to evade immunity, “vaccines aren’t as very good now at stopping infection, but are still very fantastic at blocking hospitalization and death.” 

“Anything that builds immunity in the population is an crucial phase,” he said. 

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Kaitlin Sullivan

Kaitlin Sullivan is a contributor for NBCNews.com who has labored with NBC Information Investigations. She studies on well being, science and the environment and is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at Metropolis College of New York.

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CDC recommends Pfizer and Moderna vaccines over Johnson & Johnson due to rare blood clotting issue

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat on Johnson & Johnson vaccine

The CDC now recommends that Americans take the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna instead of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to rare but serious blood clots.

The agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices unanimously voted on Thursday to give a preferential recommendation to Moderna and Pfizer’s shots. 

“More than 200 million Americans have completed their primary vaccine series, providing protection against COVID-19, preventing millions of cases and hospitalizations, and saving over a million lives,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “Today’s updated recommendation emphasizes CDC’s commitment to provide real-time scientific information to the American public.”

The CDC temporarily halted Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in April while scientists investigated the blood clots, which are known as “thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome.”

Syringes filled with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are shown, Thursday, May 13, 2021, at a mobile vaccination site at the Greater Bethel Church in Miami. ((AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee))

Regulators eventually decided that the benefits of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine outweighed the risks, but the FDA released new data this week showing that more cases have occurred in the summer and fall. 

Women between the ages of 30 and 49 are most affected by the blood clotting issue at a rate of about 1 in 100,000 shots. 

Health officials have confirmed 54 cases of the blood clots, nine of which have been fatal, CDC official Dr. Isaac See said Thursday. Two more deaths are suspected to be related to the blood clotting issue. 

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A CDC official told FOX Business that individuals who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should still receive a booster dose two months after their initial vaccine. 

If an individual received a Johnson & Johnson shot for their primary dose and then a booster of any vaccine, then they do not need to be re-vaccinated with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, according to the official. 

Michelle Falgout, a registered nurse, administers a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to Kerri Houston at a Florida Department of Health in a Pinellas County vaccination event held at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Flori

Symptoms of blood clots – including severe headaches, abdominal pain, back pain, and nausea – usually occur 6 to 14 days after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the American Society of Hematology. 

Only about 16 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered in the United States, compared to about 470 million doses of the vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. 

COVID-19 VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS WILL LIKELY DROP AGAINST OMICRON VARIANT, MODERNA CEO SAYS

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a viral vector vaccine, meaning that it replaces a small piece of the genetic instructions in a harmless adenovirus with genetic instructions for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. When the vaccine is injected, our cells recognize that the spike protein isn’t supposed to be there and produce antibodies to fight it. 

Liesl Eibschutz, a medical student from Dartmouth University, loads a syringe with Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine before giving it to people on the first day that people ages 16 and up can receive the vaccine at Kedren Health on Thursday, April 15, 2021 in

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, which was produced in the United Kingdom, is also a viral vector vaccine and has led to similar blood clotting issues. 

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Several other countries have already recommended mRNA vaccines over the viral vector vaccines, or set age limits for the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines. 

COVID-19 itself can also cause blood clots. The risk of developing cerebral venous thrombosis or portal vein thrombosis is “significantly increased after COVID-19,” according to a University of Oxford study in April. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

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New York City to mandate Covid vaccines for all private sector workers

This new move, which de Blasio announced Monday on MSNBC, means everyone who works in the city will now be subject to a vaccine mandate.

“The more universal they are, the more likely employees will say okay, it’s time. I’m going to do this. Because you can’t jump from one industry to another or one company to another,” de Blasio said. “It’s something that needs to be universal to protect all of us.”

At a press conference later on Monday, de Blasio said the vaccine mandate is the best way to avoid a return to a shutdown of businesses and other public events that other countries have ordered as Covid cases continue to rise.

“We need to take very bold action. We’re seeing restrictions starting to come back. We’re seeing shutdowns,” he said. “We can not let those restrictions come back. We can not have shutdowns in New York.”

Details about the how the rules will apply to businesses are due to be announced December 15, and de Blasio said the city will be holding discussions with businesses between now and then about those rules. The rules will not allow employees to opt out of vaccination through regular testing, as a proposed federal mandate for employers with 100 or more workers will do. And it will require workers to have at least one vaccination dose by the December 27 deadline.

The penalty that will be imposed on businesses that do not enforce the mandate were not disclosed.

“It is part of life that there have to be some consequences,” de Blasio said. “We’ll figure out what makes sense between now and December 15.”

The mayor said that the overwhelming majority of businesses have complied with an earlier city rule requiring customers to show proof of vaccination, including at the city’s restaurants, health clubs and entertainment venues. “It’s been amazing, [there have been] very few times we actually had to penalize people,” the mayor said.

De Blasio said the need for the new rules is a triple threat that is raising the potential for additional cases — the emergence of the Omicron variant, the coming of cold weather forcing people to congregate be inside more frequently, and the expectation of holiday gatherings in the weeks ahead.

The mandate itself will begin only four days before the end of de Blasio’s eight-year term in office. He told reporters that he had spoken to Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who is currently traveling outside the country. Although he said he would not speak for Adams, he’s confident that the new mayor wants to follow the advice of medical professionals and keep the vaccine mandate in place once he takes office.

“In every conversation we’ve had about fighting Covid, he’s been really consistent on the point that he is feeling urgency, about these new threats, and that he understands my job is to keep New Yorkers safe until Dec. 31,” he said. “I feel very, very good about the conversations we’ve had.”

And he said that the medical professionals he has spoken to are united in the need to increase the rate of vaccination, and their belief that a vaccine mandate will work to do that.

Children, ages 5 – 11 in New York will now also be required to show proof of at least one shot before being allowed access to indoor dining, fitness or entertainment, the mayor announced.

Adults will now be required to show proof of two vaccinations for those areas.

The mayor is confident the mandates will hold up in court.

“Our health commissioner has put a series of mandates in place. They have won in court, state court, federal court every single time. And it’s because they’re universal and consistent. And they’re about protecting the public right now from a clear and present danger,” de Blasio said.

City employees were already subject to vaccine mandates. But a federal mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees to require vaccines or weekly testing of its employees is on hold due to court challenges. Many major employers, including some Wall Street banks and tech companies with offices in the city, have their own vaccine mandates in place.

Surprise announcement

The announcement caught business leaders off guard.

“We had no heads up,” Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group, told CNN Monday in a phone interview.

Wylde said she was “surprised” to learn about the new health restrictions through the media because typically local leaders would give the business community a heads up about such a shift.

“It’s unclear if the city has authority to issue such a mandate,” Wylde said, adding that the city business leaders are “very supportive” of vaccines.

Although New York employers are not against vaccine mandates, Wylde said business leaders are looking for more information on how this new order will be enforced and whether employees can opt out through testing. City workers already faced such a mandate.

“Employers do not want to be enforcement agents,” Wylde said.

But the head of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce praised the move.

“I don’t think it’s going to be an issue when it comes to private companies. Most of them are already vaccinated and require it,” said Helena Natt, executive director of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce.

Natt said the move by the city is a “next step” in what needs to be done.

“We’re monitoring Covid, Delta, now we’re monitoring Omicron,” she said. “We’re watching the science and if the people of New York can watch to make sure they can do everything in their power to make sure [they] are safe and coworkers are safe.”

Biden's vaccine mandate is on hold, but companies are moving ahead anyway

Business leaders are also concerned about navigating the maze of federal, state and city health policies. For instance, unlike the city, New York State does not have a vaccine mandate for private employers. And the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for employers with 100 or more workers has been held up by court challenges.

Wylde said there is concern over a lack of coordination for federal, state and city health policies. “Public health protocols generally, and vaccine mandates, should be coordinated and consistent with each other,” Wylde said.

But de Blasio said that the businesses he spoke to about Covid were supportive of a mandate.

“I’ve heard from so many business leaders, including in those sectors, like finance and tech, that the best thing for them is for government to lead the way,” he said. “It’s always better for the private sector if the government sets a single, universal standard, so they don’t have to … say to their employees, ‘Hey, this is something we’re going to do on our own.'”

He said what they really don’t want to see is the kind of spike in cases that requires a shutdown or stay-at-home orders now being put in place in parts of Europe.

“Our health care leadership was adamant that this was a step we could and must take,” he said. “We know from extensive conversations over months with private sector employers what their concerns are. The number one thing I’ve heard … is that we must avert shutdowns.”

— CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this report

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Will the Covid Vaccines Stop Omicron? Scientists Are Racing to Find Out.

As nations severed air links from southern Africa amid fears of another global surge of the coronavirus, scientists scrambled on Sunday to gather data on the new Omicron variant, its capabilities and — perhaps most important — how effectively the current vaccines will protect against it.

The early findings are a mixed picture. The variant may be more transmissible and better able to evade the body’s immune responses, both to vaccination and to natural infection, than prior versions of the virus, experts said in interviews.

The vaccines may well continue to ward off severe illness and death, although booster doses may be needed to protect most people. Still, the makers of the two most effective vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are preparing to reformulate their shots if necessary.

“We really need to be vigilant about this new variant and preparing for it,” said Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

“Probably in a few weeks, we’ll have a better sense of how much this variant is spreading and how necessary it might be to push forward with a variant vaccine,” Dr. Bloom said.

Even as scientists began vigorous scrutiny of the new variant, countries around the world curtailed travel to and from nations in southern Africa, where Omicron was first identified. Despite the restrictions, the virus has been found in a half-dozen European countries, including the United Kingdom, as well as Australia, Israel and Hong Kong.

Already, Omicron accounts for most of the 2,300 new daily cases in the province of Gauteng, South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday. Nationally, new infections have more than tripled in the past week, and test positivity has increased to 9 percent from 2 percent.

Scientists have reacted more quickly to Omicron than to any other variant. In just 36 hours from the first signs of trouble in South Africa on Tuesday, researchers analyzed samples from 100 infected patients, collated the data and alerted the world, said Tulio de Oliveira, a geneticist at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine in Durban.

Within an hour of the first alarm, scientists in South Africa also rushed to test coronavirus vaccines against the new variant. Now, dozens of teams worldwide — including researchers at Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — have joined the chase.

They won’t know the results for two weeks, at the earliest. But the mutations that Omicron carries suggest that the vaccines most likely will be less effective, to some unknown degree, than they were against any previous variant.

“Based on lots of work people have done on other variants and other mutations, we can be pretty confident these mutations are going to cause an appreciable drop in antibody neutralization,” Dr. Bloom said, referring to the body’s ability to attack an invading virus.

South African doctors are seeing an increase in reinfections in people who already had a bout of Covid-19, suggesting that the variant can overcome natural immunity, said Dr. Richard Lessells, an infectious diseases physician at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Omicron has about 50 mutations, including more than 30 in the spike, a viral protein on its surface that the vaccines train the body to recognize and attack.

Some of these mutations have been seen before. Some were thought to have powered the Beta variant’s ability to sidestep vaccines, while others most likely turbocharged Delta’s extreme contagiousness.

“My best guess is that this combines both of those elements,” Penny Moore, a virologist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa, said of the new variant.

But Omicron also has 26 unique spike mutations, compared with 10 in Delta and six in Beta. Many of them seem likely to render the variant more difficult for the immune system to recognize and thwart.

“There are many we’ve never studied before, but just looking at the location on the spike, they are in regions that we know are immuno-dominant,” Dr. Moore said, referring to parts of the spike protein that interact with the body’s immune defenses.

Dr. Moore’s team is perhaps the furthest along in testing how well the vaccines hold up against Omicron. She and her colleagues are preparing to test blood from fully immunized people against a synthetic version of the Omicron variant.

Creating such a “pseudovirus” — a viral stand-in that contains all of the mutations — takes time, but results may be available in about 10 days.

To more closely mimic what people are likely to encounter, another team led by Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute, is growing live Omicron, which will be tested against the blood of fully immunized people, as well as those who were previously infected.

Those results may take longer but should provide a fuller picture of the vaccines’ performance, Dr. Sigal said.

If the vaccines prove to be much less potent against Omicron, they may need to be tweaked to enhance their effectiveness. Preparing for the worst, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson are planning to test an artificial version of Omicron against their vaccines.

The mRNA vaccines in particular — Moderna’s and Pfizer-BioNTech’s — were built with technology that should permit rapid modification. Pfizer’s scientists “can adapt the current vaccine within six weeks and ship initial batches within 100 days in the event of an escape variant” that eludes the immune system, said Jerica Pitts, a spokeswoman for Pfizer.

Moderna’s work began on Tuesday, immediately after its scientists learned of Omicron — the fastest the company has ever responded to a variant, said Dr. Stephen Hoge, Moderna’s president.

Even without data on Omicron’s spread, it was obvious the variant would be a formidable threat to vaccines, he said.

“This thing is a Frankenstein mix of all of the greatest hits,” Dr. Hoge said, referring to the variant’s many concerning mutations. “It just triggered every one of our alarm bells.”

Moderna could update its current vaccine in about two months and have clinical results in about three months if necessary, he said.

Both companies also plan to test whether booster shots will bolster the immune system enough to fend off the new variant. Boosters of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been shown to raise antibody levels significantly.

But those antibodies may not be broadly effective against every iteration of the virus, and may not be enough to neutralize Omicron entirely, said Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York.

People who recover from Covid and then receive even one dose of a vaccine tend to produce a broader range of antibodies, capable of recognizing more versions of the virus, than do people who are only vaccinated.

“It’s clear that hybrid immunity, the kind that people get when they are both infected and vaccinated, is superior, and that is very, very likely to take care of this thing, too,” Dr. Nussenzweig said.

“After two doses of vaccine, we did not see that. But we’re hoping that after three doses, maybe there’ll be some catching up,” he said.

Dr. Nussenzweig and his colleagues are preparing to test Omicron against the mRNA vaccines, as well as the vaccines made by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. They hope to have results within a month.

Omicron-specific vaccines created in just weeks would be a miraculous feat. But the prospect of producing and distributing them raises daunting questions.

If new versions are required to protect people everywhere, companies should make them available to the African countries that most need them and can least afford them, Dr. de Oliveira said.

“South Africa at least has managed to procure their own vaccines,” he said. But poorer countries like Sudan, Mozambique, Eswatini and Lesotho will need low-cost options.

Pfizer did not respond to a question about low-cost vaccines for African nations. Dr. Hoge, of Moderna, said the company already had an agreement with the African Union to deliver 110 million doses at $3.50 per half dose of vaccine.

Dr. Hoge said he recognized that 110 million was less than 10 percent of Africa’s population. But, he noted, “we’re also the smallest of all manufacturers out there, and so 10 percent hopefully is useful.”

Despite the frustration that South African scientists have expressed about vaccine inequity and punishing travel restrictions, they have been inundated with requests for genetic sequences of Omicron from Italy, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, as well as labs in North America.

The more teams involved, the better, said Dr. Moore, who received about 50 requests just on Saturday. As the virus moves across the globe, it is likely to keep changing. “Getting the right combination of mutations in itself is a moving target,” she said.

Researchers everywhere want to avoid drawing conclusions prematurely, a mistake they made when the Beta variant surfaced. Preliminary tests of that variant took only one known mutation into account and underestimated its ability to evade the immune system, Dr. Moore recalled. (Fortunately, the variant also turned out to be less contagious.)

To get a full picture of the effectiveness of the vaccines against Omicron, scientists must look not just at antibody levels but also at immune cells that can recognize and destroy infected cells. Immune cells called T cells are crucial for preventing an infection from progressing to serious illness and death.

Some of Omicron’s mutations occur in parts of the virus targeted by T cells, meaning the variant may be more difficult for T cells to recognize.

Already, a computer simulation has predicted that those mutations may alter about six of the hundreds of regions that T cells can recognize, said Wendy Burgers, an immunologist at the University of Cape Town.

That may not seem like much. But people make varying sets of T cells, so depending on which targets the mutations knock out, some people may barely be affected by Omicron — and others may be left vulnerable.

Dr. Burgers is hoping to obtain blood from 50 people infected with the variant to gauge how the mutations will play out across a population. Once the samples are in hand, results will be available after “probably a week of very late nights and analysis,” she said.

Even if the vaccines hold up against Omicron, new versions will probably be needed at some point, and perhaps soon. The virus is acquiring mutations much faster than expected, Dr. Bloom said.

Seasonal influenza is the often cited example of a virus that mutates quickly, requiring regular updates to vaccines. But the coronavirus is “at least comparable and possibly even faster than that,” Dr. Bloom said. “There’s always going to be new variants arising.”

Lynsey Chutel contributed reporting from South Africa.