Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: COVID test recall, Medicare, vaccine cards, & more
In the United States, more than 76.3 million people have tested positive for coronavirus as of Saturday, Feb. 5, according to Johns Hopkins University, as the omicron variant makes up the majority of virus cases.
About 901,000 Americans have died. Worldwide, there have been more than 392 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Additionally, more than 5.7 million across the globe have died from the virus. More than 212 million people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated to date – 63.9% of the population – and 88.6 million of those people have gotten a booster shot as of Feb. 4, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The omicron variant made up 99.9% of all sequenced cases the week ending Jan. 29, according to the CDC.
Here’s what happened between Jan. 30 and Feb. 4:
‘Catch the virus’ promotion at Washington bar leads workers to quit, bands to cancel
Owners of a Washington bar say a “catch the virus” promotion was a bad joke after employees quit and bands canceled shows over the COVID-19 stunt.
“Come see the show, maybe catch the virus, or just stay home and whine,” read a Jan. 21 Facebook post by the Vessel Taphouse.
“Tickets 10 bucks or 6 with proof of omicron positive test. Have you had enough???” The pirate-themed bar in Lynnwood says the post, which has since been taken down, led four employees to quit, The Daily Herald reported. Three bands canceled shows.
Keep reading for what the bar’s manager and owner said:
Spotify unveils plans to fight COVID misinformation as Joe Rogan vows to ‘balance’ show
As multiple Grammy Award-winning musicians have dropped themselves from the streaming giant Spotify, the CEO of the company and the podcaster at the center of the controversy have responded.
Statements on Sunday, Jan. 30, from Joe Rogan and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek come as many people have said they are going to boycott Spotify in protest over misinformation shared in podcasts. Musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell led the charge as they removed their catalogs of music from the service.
Young gave Spotify an ultimatum, saying it needed to choose between him and Rogan because Spotify was enabling Rogan to spread “fake information about vaccines.” Young’s music disappeared from Spotify last week, and Mitchell soon joined him.
Continue reading for Rogan’s response:
Is it time to accept COVID is here to stay? Most Americans agree, new poll shows
Do you accept life with COVID-19 as the new normal?
Most Americans think it’s time to, according to a new poll, as 2022 marks another year dealing with the virus’s spread and its potential to mutate into new variants such as delta and omicron.
Specifically, 70% of Americans agree that “it’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives,” according to a new poll released Jan. 31 by Monmouth University in New Jersey.
For more on the poll’s findings in-depth, read on:
Stop using these COVID tests, FDA warns. There’s a ‘higher risk’ of false positives
There’s a “serious” recall for some COVID-19 tests distributed with misleading labeling saying they’re authorized by the Food and Drug Administration when they’re not, the agency is warning.
The FDA is urging everyone to stop using two tests made by U.S. company Empowered Diagnostics – the CovClear COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test and ImmunoPass COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Rapid Test.
“Neither test has been authorized, cleared, or approved by the FDA for distribution or use in the United States,” the agency said in a Jan. 28 news release, adding it’s “concerned about the potentially higher risk of false results when using unauthorized tests.”
For more information on the recall and what you should do if you’ve recently used one of these tests, keep reading:
COVID has killed more Americans in 2022 than the flu has in 3 years, CDC data shows
In the first month of 2022, COVID-19 killed more Americans than the flu has in three years, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.
From Jan. 1-30, approximately 55,000 Americans died due to COVID-19, bringing the seven-day death average to the highest point it’s been since last winter, before vaccines were widely available, according to CDC data.
Between 2019 and Jan. 22 of this year, influenza claimed over 24,000 lives, CDC figures show. From 2019 to 2020, 20,000 died from the flu, followed by sharp declines in 2020-2021, and 2021 to the present, which totaled approximately 4,000 fatalities.
Keep reading for more:
Man denied vital kidney transplant in NC over not getting COVID vaccine, he says
A North Carolina man needing a kidney transplant to help stay alive told news outlets he was denied the vital procedure because he hasn’t received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Now — unsure how long he has to live — Chad Carswell is still refusing to get the shot, WSOC reported last week. “I was born free,” Carswell told the TV station.
“I will die free. I’m not changing my mind.”
To learn what the hospital said in response, keep reading:
Nurse, daughters used fake COVID vaccine cards to work at NY nursing home, officials say
A nurse and her two daughters are facing felony charges after officials accused them of using fake COVID-19 vaccine cards to work at a nursing home in New York.
Vaccination against the virus is a statewide requirement for all healthcare workers.
Poughkeepsie resident Antoinette Clarke, a 48-year-old nurse at a nursing home in the village of Croton-on-Hudson, used a fake vaccine card to keep her job while her daughters sought work at the facility, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office said in a Jan. 31 news release.
To learn about the specific charges filed against them, continue reading:
High schooler refusing to wear mask taken home by cops. Missouri district explains why
A student refusing to wear a face mask as a COVID-19 precaution while at school was taken home by police in a decision that the Missouri district has since defended.
The Herculaneum High School student refused to wear the mask starting on Wednesday, Jan. 26, and that noncompliance continued into Thursday, according to a statement from the Dunklin R-5 School District.
In an interview with KMOV, the student, identified as Tristan Watson, said he “wasn’t going to wear a mask.”
Here’s why the district sent the student home with police:
‘I don’t like it, Mommy.’ Utah mom urges COVID vaccines as 3-year-old fights virus
Yvonne Francis says the last words of her 3-year-old son before he was sedated and put on a ventilator for COVID-19 are “burned in my memory.”
“I sorry, Mommy,” Justin Lee Francis said, she told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Mommy hugs, I scared. I don’t like it, Mommy!”
Justin tested positive for COVID-19 two days after being brought to the hospital after choking on an apple and having an asthma attack, his mom told KSL. She said his doctors don’t know if he caught the virus while in the hospital.
Continue reading here:
Medicare to cover costs of at-home COVID tests this spring. Here’s what to know
Millions of Americans enrolled in Medicare will soon have access to free at-home COVID-19 tests this spring.
Here’s what to know about the tests, including how many beneficiaries can get.
Starting in early spring, enrollees in both Medicare and Medicare Advantage can get up to eight at-home COVID-19 tests covered at no cost each month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a Feb. 3 news release. The tests must be approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration.
For more information, read on:
Woman pulls gun on clerk after she was asked to wear a face mask, Washington cops say
A Washington woman was arrested after video shows her pulling a gun on a convenience store clerk, local media reports.
Surveillance video of the Jan. 27 incident shows the 33-year-old woman, Angela Nommensen, entering a convenience store in Bellevue and asking the clerk for a receipt, KIRO reported. The clerk asked that she wear a mask in accordance with current mask mandates in King County, which require everyone over the age of 5 to wear masks in indoor public settings.
Charging documents say that Nommensen refused to put a mask on, despite the clerk’s repeated requests, KING5 reported. The clerk then escorted Nommensen out of the store.
For more, keep reading:
Reporters Don Sweeney, Mike Stunson, Mitchell Willetts, Simone Jasper, Kaitlyn Alanis, and Vandana Ravikumar also contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 7:20 AM with the headline "Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: COVID test recall, Medicare, vaccine cards, & more."
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