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COVID-19 Update 13

When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated

COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting you from getting sick. Based on what we know about COVID-19 vaccines, people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.

We’re still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19. After you’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you hould keep taking precautions in public places like wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces until we know more.
                     

What’s Changed

If you’ve been fully vaccinated:

• You can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask.
• You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
• If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.
  • However, if you live in a group setting (like a correctional or detention facility or group home) and are around someone who has COVID-19, you should still stay away from others for 14 days and get tested, even if you don’t have symptoms.
    

What Hasn’t Changed

For now, if you’ve been fully vaccinated:

• You should still take steps to protect yourself and others in many situations, like wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces. Take these precautions whenever you are:
  • In public
  • Gathering with unvaccinated people from more than one other household
  • Visiting with an unvaccinated person who is at increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 or who lives with a person at increased risk
• You should still avoid medium or large-sized gatherings.
• You should still delay domestic and international travel. If you do travel, you’ll still need to follow CDC requirements and recommendations.
• You should still watch out for symptoms of COVID-19, especially if you’ve been around someone who is sick. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested and stay home and away from others.
• You will still need to follow guidance at your workplace.

What We Know and What We’re Still Learning

• We know that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 disease, especially severe illness and death.
  • We’re still learning how effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Early data show the vaccines may work against some variants but could be less effective against others.
• We know that other prevention steps help stop the spread of COVID-19, and that these steps are still important, even as vaccines are being distributed.
  • We’re still learning how well COVID-19 vaccines keep people from spreading the disease.
  • Early data show that the vaccines may help keep people from spreading COVID-19, but we are learning more as more people get vaccinated.
• We’re still learning how long COVID-19 vaccines can protect people.
• As we know more, CDC will continue to update our recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

Until we know more about those questions, everyone — even people who’ve had their vaccines — should continue taking basic prevention steps when recommended.

Variants of the Virus that Causes COVID-19
What is a VARIANT?
Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time.

What You Need to Know

Protect yourself and others against COVID-19 by wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet apart, avoiding crowds, washing your hands, and getting vaccinated when it’s available to you.
 

About Variants of the Virus that Causes COVID-19​​

Information about the characteristics of these variants is rapidly emerging. Scientists are working to learn more about how easily they spread, whether they could cause more severe illness, and whether currently authorized vaccines will protect people against them.

What we know

Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time. Sometimes new variants emerge and disappear. Other times, new variants emerge and persist. Multiple variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been documented in the United States and globally during this pandemic.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is a type of coronavirus, a large family of viruses. Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surfaces. Scientists monitor changes in the virus, including changes to the spikes on the surface of the virus. These studies, including genetic analyses of the virus, are helping scientists understand how changes to the virus might affect how it spreads and what happens to people who are infected with it.

• Multiple variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 are circulating globally:
• The United Kingdom (UK) identified a variant called B.1.1.7 with a large number of mutations in the fall of 2020.This variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants. In January 2021, experts in the UK reported that this variant may be associated with an increased risk of death compared to other variant viruses, but more studies are needed to confirm this finding. It has since been detected in many countries around the world. This variant was first detected in the US at the end of December 2020.
• In South Africa, another variant called B.1.351 emerged independently of B.1.1.7. Originally detected in early October 2020, B.1.351 shares some mutations with B.1.1.7. Cases caused by this variant have been reported in the US at the end of January 2021.
• In Brazil, a variant called P.1 emerged that was first identified in travelers from Brazil, who were tested during routine screening at an airport in Japan, in early January. This variant contains a set of additional mutations that may affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies. This variant was first detected in the US at the end of January 2021.

These variants seem to spread more easily and quickly than other variants, which may lead to more cases of COVID-19. An increase in the number of cases will put more strain on health care resources, lead to more hospitalizations, and potentially more deaths.

So far, studies suggest that antibodies generated through vaccination with currently authorized vaccines recognize these variants. This is being closely investigated and more studies are underway.

Rigorous and increased compliance with public health mitigation strategies, such as vaccination, physical distancing, use of masks, hand hygiene, and isolation and quarantine, is essential to limit the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 and protect public health.

What we do not know

Scientists are working to learn more about these variants, and more studies are needed to understand:

• How widely these new variants have spread
• How the disease caused by these new variants differs from the disease caused by other variants that are currently circulating
• How these variants may affect existing therapies, vaccines, and tests

What it means

Public health officials are studying these variants quickly to learn more to control their spread. They want to understand whether the variants:

• Spread more easily from person-to-person
• Cause milder or more severe disease in people
• Are detected by currently available viral tests
• Respond to medicines currently being used to treat people for COVID-19
• Change the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines

What CDC is doing

CDC, in collaboration with other public health agencies, is monitoring the situation closely. CDC is working to monitor the spread of identified variants, characterize emerging viral variants, and expand its ability to find new SARS-CoV-2 variants.  CDC is collaborating with EPA to confirm that disinfectants on EPA’s List N: Disinfectants for Coronavirus (COVID-19 external icon) inactivate these variant viruses. As new information becomes available, CDC will provide updates.

Can People Without Disabilities Use an ADA ‘Mask Loophole’ in Stores?

For the record, Americans without disabilities are not protected by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

      Claim

Americans without disabilities can legally use a federal ADA “loophole” to avoid wearing a mask in stores that require them.

Rating

“Mostly False”
What’s True
Businesses that require customers to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic are required to accommodate people who may not be able to wear masks due to a medical condition.
What’s False
Americans without disabilities are not protected under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Further, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not pertain to customers at a grocery store.
Origin
In April 2020, as major stores such as Costco started requiring customers to wear masks in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, a message started to circulate on social media that appeared to encourage Americans to lie about having medical conditions in order to exploit a “mask loophole.”

✨MASK LOOPHOLE✨
Store clerk at the door:
“Excuse me, but do you have a mask?
I can’t let you in without one”. 😬
Me: “No I’m sorry, I have a medical condition that prohibits the use of anything that could restrict the flow of oxygen to my lungs or brain”. 😶
Their answer 90% of the time:
“Oh, okay, sounds good to me, 🤷🏻‍♀️
Go ahead, have a great day”
Their answer 10% of the time:
“What kind of medical condition is THAT”?
Gentle Answer: “According to HIPAA regulations, you’re not allowed to ask me that. Please don’t discriminate against those who can not wear masks, we need our essentials too.
I’ll be in and out”As long as you’re polite and non aggressive, this has not failed me yet. # staaayfreeeee 🙌🏼
These “mask loophole” posts sometimes opened with the declaration “Don’t want to wear a mask? Try this!” and ended with “What have you got to lose?” They were frequently accompanied by one of two images supposedly showing flyers issued from the U.S. Department of Justice that could be presented to stores to explain that these people were “exempt” from these rules:

However, these flyers were not issued, endorsed, or distributed by the Department of Justice, and the advice relayed in the “mask loophole” flyer is both legally and morally questionable. 

The social media post above essentially argues that able-bodied people can lie about having a medical condition in order to avoid wearing a mask in a store that requires customers to wear them. If the store presses them on the issue, they can claim that the store would be violating the federal American Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by asking them about their medical conditions.

This social media post doesn’t relay a “mask loophole” so much as it encourages people to exploit a law designed to provide protections to disabled people. 

We reached out to several regional ADA centers for more information about the flyers. While their answers varied in length and content, they all hit on one major theme: Americans without disabilities are not protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act: 

New England ADA Center: The ADA protects the privacy of people who have disabilities. People who lie about a medical condition and don’t have one, do not have rights under the ADA.

We are not in favor of people lying in order to get the modifications of policies and procedures that are the legitimate right of people with disabilities for whom wearing a face mask would be detrimental to their medical conditions.

Great Lakes ADA Center: “Individuals without disabilities do not have protected rights in terms of the conditions set forth by a business, etc. in order to come into their establishment but a person with a disability does have rights (ADA plus many state civil rights laws) and thus, business entities must understand these issues and look at what they can do, how they can do it and creative ways of addressing any concerns that they have.”

Northeast ADA Center: The ADA protects individuals with disabilities. As with many things in our society, there are people that attempt to take advantage of our system. There are typically remedies for this in criminal and civil law.A spokesperson for the Justice Department told us the department did not issue the flyers. All of the ADA centers we contacted also told us that they were unfamiliar with the flyers. 

The scenario depicted in this social media post (a citizen refusing to wear a mask at a grocery store) is also unrelated to HIPAA. (It’s worth noting that one of these viral flyers misspelled this acronym “HIPPA”. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed in 1996 with the aim of protecting private medical records. HIPAA restricts hospitals and health care providers from sharing protected information and gives patients better access to their own records. This law has little to do with customers at a grocery store.

Kathy Gips, the director of training at the New England ADA Center, told us:
HIPAA only applies to three types of covered entities: health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers. It restricts their ability to share protected health information. It also gives patients access to their own medical records. It has nothing to do with customers or stores or employment or anything else.

HIPAA does not apply to individuals (in this case, store clerks) asking a customer to wear a mask. It applies to the release of medical records from health personnel. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reiterates this point on its website, explaining that HIPAA regulations apply only to “covered entities,” including health plans, health care providers, and health care clearinghouses. HHS writes:
The Privacy Rule, as well as all the Administrative Simplification rules, apply to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and to any health care provider who transmits health information in electronic form in connection with transactions for which the Secretary of HHS has adopted standards under HIPAA (the “covered entities”). 

The HHS website also notes that HIPAA does not apply to other entities, such as law enforcement, employers, and schools. 

While this social media post appeared to be widely circulated by able-bodied people seeking to exploit a “mask loophole,” the ADA does truly protect individuals who cannot wear a mask due to medical conditions from being discriminated against. This means that stores that implement mask requirements have to find ways to accommodate individuals who cannot wear a mask.

Gips explained: 
Title III of the ADA requires businesses to make reasonable modifications of policies, practices and procedures … The store should work with the person to maintain 6 ft social distancing, and if that’s not possible to consider accommodations such as shopping for the person and providing curbside service or home delivery.

So what about Costco? 

These flyers were widely circulated in the wake of Costco’s announcement that it would be temporarily requiring customers to wear masks while shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. While these social media posts claimed that showing one of these flyers to a Costco employee would force the store to adhere to the ADA’s anti-discrimination guidelines, Costco was already operating with this in mind. In fact, when Costco announced the mask requirement it noted that this new policy did “not apply to children under the age of 2 or to individuals who are unable to wear a face covering due to a medical condition.”

Heated Vaccine Debate – Kennedy Jr. vs Dershowitz

Youtube • 1,656,607 views • Premiered Jul 23, 2020 

Heated vaccine debate between Robert Kennedy Jr. and Alan Dershowitz moderated by Patrick Bet-David. 

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz is Brooklyn native who has been called “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer” and one of its “most distinguished defenders of individual rights,” “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,” “the top lawyer of last resort,” “America’s most public Jewish defender” and “Israel’s single most visible defender — the Jewish state’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion.” He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Dershowitz, a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, joined the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 after clerking for Judge David Bazelon and Justice Arthur Goldberg. 

We noted the unusual patent prosecution efforts of the CDC, when on April 25, 2003, they sought to patent the SARS coronavirus isolated from humans that had reportedly transferred to humans during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak in Asia. 35 U.S.C. §101 prohibits patenting nature. This legality did not deter CDC in their efforts. Their application, updated in 2007, ultimately issued as U.S. Patent 7,220,852 and constrained anyone not licensed by their patent from manipulating SARS CoV, developing tests or kits to measure SARS coronavirus in humans or working with their patented virus for therapeutic use. Work associated with this virus by their select collaborators included considerable amounts of chimeric engineering, gain-of-function studies, viral characterization, detection, treatment (both vaccine and therapeutic intervention), and weaponization inquiries. 
In short, with Baric’s U.S. Patent 6,593,111 (Claims 1 and 5) and CDC’s ‘852 patent (Claim 1), no research in the United States could be conducted without permission or infringement. 

https://msdssafety.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cd9417cf8&id=20a7450310&e=6812b09ddb

https://www.irishcentral.com/news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-dr-fauci-covid19-vaccine?fbclid=IwAR0nYO8hXKKFeuPh0Kc_jKBJnpWVQZyTKIOE9aAdH3kdrAZSMvae77ke0xo

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/28/cdc-under-attack/?fbclid=IwAR3Rm_3r1A6Y-NhUhCwuhUHrsD0SY9mQ8bjZLbTMC2cd__CmJ5ywQ_RsLx8