Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 10January 2021
The news posted last week for the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2), which produces COVID-19 disease, has been surveyed and some important articles are summarized here. The articles are more or less organized with general virus news and anecdotes first, then stories from around the US, followed by an increased number of items from other countries around the globe. Data continues to be quite eratic this week because of the holiday. We hope this is the last week for that. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
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When we think about immunity, we usually think about being resistant to a disease. Immunity is the ability to shrug off an infection, to ignore a virus. It’s an idea that has occupied us for much of the last year. The possibility of being immune to covid-19 because of having
Brighton Rehab attorneys ask for dismissal of federal lawsuit
A federal lawsuit holding Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center liable for deaths due to the state s largest nursing home COVID-19 outbreak should be thrown out, attorneys said this week.
Attorneys with Pittsburgh-based law firm Gordon & Rees on Monday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed in October by three law firms on behalf of the families of 15 residents at Brighton Rehab, citing a federal act put in place more than 15 years ago.
The facility is immune from the claims, attorneys wrote, under the federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, under which Congress declared that healthcare providers are entitled to protection from lawsuits that second guess the manner in which they have administered countermeasures during this national public health emergency.
COVID-19 vaccine: Advice for your clients and your office
By Katerina Kramarchyk and Meghan DiPasquale
Now that the COVID-19 vaccines are available, the question for employers is whether they can require employees to take the vaccine as a condition of employment. A mandatory vaccination policy would help employers create a safe and healthy workplace, as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Such a policy may also result in fewer employee absences due to COVID infection, and reduced expenses and downtime attributable to office closures for COVID deep cleaning.
Though the EEOC and OSHA have yet to issue guidance specific to the COVID-19 vaccine, given past EEOC guidance, employers can expect that they will be permitted to mandate vaccinations.
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Back in March, we wrote about how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had extended the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act to grant immunity to “Covered Persons” providing “Covered Countermeasures” against COVID-19. The Office of the General Counsel for HHS issued an omnibus advisory opinion on April 14 that addressed common questions and concerns about the scope of PREP Act immunity, as discussed in our April update. Last month, we described how courts across the country have interpreted the PREP Act in the context of the ongoing pandemic.