COVID-19 VACCINE

Cases in the United States are up more than 25% in the last month, according to CDC data, as the rapidly spreading BA.5 subvariant has taken hold.

More than 95% of the Guard’s 13,000 soldiers and airmen have been vaccinated against COVID-19, but holdouts remain. The Department of Defense has a Thursday, June 30, deadline to get the shot.

The vaccines for the youngest of kids are expected to be rolled out as early as June 21, the Biden administration said earlier this month.

If all the federal hurdles are cleared, the first kid-sized doses could arrive in Minnesota next week. If they do, doctors, clinics, pharmacies and at least one community site will be ready to administer them.

The sites will test residents for COVID-19 and those deemed to be at high risk for developing severe symptoms could get a prescription for Paxlovid.

Unvaccinated seniors are about four times as likely to die and five times as likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to vaccinated and boosted peers, the data shows

A small county in Tennessee for much of the past year has reported the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Tennessee and one of the highest in the South. If only it were true. The rate in Meigs County was artificially inflated by a data error that distorted most of Tennessee’s county-level vaccination rates by attributing tens of thousands of doses to the wrong counties, according to a KHN review of Tennessee’s vaccination data. When the Tennessee Department of Health quietly corrected the error last month, county rates shifted overnight, and Meigs County’s rate of fully vaccinated people dropped from 65% to 43%, which is below the state average and middling in the rural South.

“Whether you’re pro-vax or anti-vax or whatever we’re for health care freedom and we believe mandates one-size-fits-all should not be the agenda," Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, said at a Wednesday, April 20, news conference touting the bill at the state Capitol. "You and your medical provider can decide based on your health history what is best for you.”

Mayo Clinic vaccinologist Dr. Greg Poland says the latest data show the benefit of a second booster is real, but "fractional" and wanes fast, meaning that timing and individual health circumstances are important factors when considering a fourth shot.