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At the Bellaire-Meyerland- West University area A localized look
Policy pioneers
Total vaccinated
Total population
believes the Biden administration is well within its power in issuing each of the three rules, but she said the polit- ical leanings of judges may in uence the outcomes of some cases. “We’re seeing a direct correla- tion between the judges that were appointed by Republican presidents and these rules being stayed and over- turned and vice versa,” she said. Koch said she also took issue with using the word “mandate” to describe the rules, pointing to the rule for pri- vate sector employees in particular, which is being enforced by the Occu- pational Safety and Health Admin- istration, or OSHA. The rule is not a mandate, she said, because it allows for test and mask requirements for people who do not want to get vaccinated. “It really does allow employers a lot of exibility in crafting their rules when it comes to how they protect their own employees,” she said. Meanwhile, developers of two oral treatments for COVID-19—P zer and Merck—are pushing for emergency use authorization for their treatments from the U.S. Food and Drug Administra- tion. If granted, the treatments would be available for the public to take when symptoms start to present as a means of preventing the illness from becom- ing more severe, Piedra said. How successful local health experts are at getting people to get booster shots will also be telling, Piedra said, and could shape how the virus evolves and how often outbreaks occur. “We have to see whether booster shots that we receive now will need to be given in a yearly fashion because we have waning immunity,” he said.
77005 77025 77030* 77096 77401
Houston Methodist Health System was the rst major employer in the U.S. to institute its own vaccine mandate. A mandate was announced for all employees March 31 with a deadline to get vaccinated of June 7.
77005
59
77401
77030
610
Of the system’s roughly 26,000 employees
77025
0
10K
20K
30K
40K
N
90
77096
153 were red or resigned for refusing the vaccine 118 were approved for a religious exemption 193 were approved for medical exemptions 366 received pregnancy deferrals
*DATA INCLUDES RESIDENTS WHO DO NOT LIVE IN THE ZIP CODE.
Dec. 15: Appeals court allows rule to stand in several states
Dec. 16: Rule appealed to U.S. Supreme Court
Dec. 18: Appeals court determines rule can be enforced Dec. 18: Appeals court declines Justice Department request to reinstate rule
Dec. 1: Health care workers rule put on hold by federal judge
SOURCES: U.S. WHITE HOUSE, HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL SYSTEM COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Dec. 7: Federal contractors rule blocked nationwide by federal judge
Jan. 10: Rule o cially goes into e ect
Latest numbers to know
17.9% of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients as of Jan. 2 59.3% of Harris County residents vaccinated as of Jan. 2
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8
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21
28
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vaccinemandates of their own, though Boon said he was initially surprised it took so long. “If I’m being honest, I really thought there was going to be a whole host of other institutions very closely follow- ing us because it just seemed like a log- ical thing to do,” Boon said. The fate of the three vaccine rules issued by the Biden administration remains to be seen. A rule requiring vaccines for health care workers was put on hold in 24 states by a federal judge Dec. 1, and another one requir- ing vaccines for federal contractors
was blocked by a federal judge Dec. 7. A third vaccine rule requiring vac- cines for all private-sector businesses with 100 or more employees has been challenged by numerous lawsuits, all of which were consolidated before the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. In December, theSixthCircuit overturned a lower court injunction. Both the pri- vate sector case and the health care case will go before the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments Jan. 7. For private sector employers, the ongoing court cases have added con- fusion to what was already an unclear
situation, said Paul Seegert, a man- aging partner with PCS Advisors, a supply chain management strategies company that has been consulting with employers over how to navigate the rules. “A lot of them have seen how divi- sive this has become and how much tougher hiring has gotten,” he said. Futureoutlook Valerie Gutmann Koch, co-director and assistant professor with the Health Law & Policy Institute at the Univer- sity of Houston Law Center, said she
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BELLAIRE MEYERLAND WEST UNIVERSITY EDITION • JANUARY 2022
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