Biology Digest

  WASHINGTON (AP) — When a group of Republican doctors in Congress released a video selling the safety of the coronavirus vaccine, their message wasn’t explicitly aimed at their conservative constituents, but nonetheless had a clear political bent. Getting the shot is the best way to “end the government’s restrictions on our freedoms,” Rep. Larry Bucshon, an Indiana Republican and heart surgeon who donned a white lab coat and stethoscope when he spoke into the camera. The public service announcement was the latest effort from GOP leaders to shrink the  vaccination gap  between their party and Democrats. With vaccination rates  lagging in red states , Republican leaders have stepped up efforts to persuade their supporters to get the shot, at times combating misinformation spread by some of their own. Medicine and science and illness, that should not be political,” said Dr. Brad Wenstrup, a Republican congressman from Ohio and a podiatrist who has personally administer...

 

  Article 1 Montana HELENA — Montana’s ongoing debate over  prohibiting vaccination requirements  took several twists Wednesday after Gov. Greg Gianforte sent  House Bill 702  back to the Legislature with proposed changes of his own. Hours later, the House voted 65-35 to accept those changes.  The Senate approved the amended bill Thursday on a party-line vote. The  amendment submitted by Gianforte  appears to address a number of concerns expressed this week about the bill’s potential impacts on  health care facilities . Specifically, Gianforte’s changes would allow such facilities to ask employees to volunteer information about their vaccination status, to consider employees who don’t volunteer that information to be unvaccinated, and to implement policies specific to unvaccinated staff, patients and visitors that are designed to protect against the spread of communicable diseases. The amendment would also exempt nursing homes and assisted-li...

Removing religious exemptions for child vaccinations has drawn massive crowds to the state Capitol in protest and tomorrow, the Connecticut Senate will vote on it after the bill passed in the House last week with a vote of 90 to 53. Both Democrats and Republicans referenced a list from the Department of Public Health.  It shows more than 100 schools that are out of compliance and don't meet the 95% herd immunity threshold. “There’s as many as 100 schools at any given time with vaccination rates below the community immunity threshold. Each of these schools is becoming a potential vector for a disease outbreak,” said Jonathan Steinberg, a democrat who co-chairs the public health committee.   “How many children were religious exemptions, how many were medical exemptions, how many were noncompliant? Nobody could get the answers," said Rep. Anne Dauphinais, (R) Killingly, Plainfield. NBC Connecticut reached out to schools at the top of the list, who are 45%, 46% and 48% out of...