The Latest: Gov DeSantis bars schools from mandating masks reformer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reformer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) Director Dr. Cara Christ will leave her position on Aug. 27 for a leadership role as chief medical officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona.
The news was announced in a press release from Gov. Doug Ducey’s office, in which he said Christ had been instrumental in the state’s COVID-19 response.
“When Cara Christ became a doctor, she did it to help others and save lives. That’s exactly what she’s done. She dedicated countless hours to protecting millions of Arizonans from the COVID-19 pandemic and she’s done it with grace, stability and confidence.”
Gov. Doug Ducey and Dr. Cara Christ at a press conference in 2020.
Arizona s top health official, who has been the face of the state response to the pandemic, is leaving the role next month, Gov. Doug Ducey said Wednesday.
Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, has accepted a role as chief medical officer for health insurance provider Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona.
“When Cara Christ became a doctor, she did it to help others and save lives. That’s exactly what she’s done,” Ducey said in a statement. “She dedicated countless hours to protecting millions of Arizonans from the COVID-19 pandemic and she’s done it with grace, stability and confidence.”
July 28, 2021
PHOENIX – As schools begin to open for the fall semester, the state’s top education official is frustrated by Gov. Doug Ducey’s refusal to impose a mask mandate – defying new guidance from the CDC to wear masks indoors and in public, even if vaccinated.
“This did cause more of a disruption,” Kathy Hoffman, Arizona superintendent for public instruction, told Arizona PBS on Wednesday, “and I have to ask, why? What is the purpose of questioning these evidence-based practices?”
In a statement Tuesday, Ducey said Arizona’s month-old law banning mask and vaccination mandates, as well as vaccine passports, will remain in place. His statement followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s updated guidance for Americans living in any county with substantial to high transmission rates. The update was spurred by alarming increases in hospitalization and death rates linked to the fast-spreading delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-
Banner Health, Arizona s largest private employer and largest health care system, as well as HonorHealth announced last week that their employees would be required to get the vaccine.
Retired nurse Diane Saylors, 67, expressed her concern that those decisions would prompt smaller health care organizations to follow suit.
Saylors said she anticipates a slew of wrongful termination cases if companies fire employees who refuse the vaccine. It is an experimental thing, it has not been FDA-approved and they want to force this on people, she said.
The Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines in use in Arizona have been thoroughly studied, reviewed and approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.