Ezekiel Emanuel (Rahm's brother, doctor and ethicist, adviser to the W.H.O. D-G) pushed the mandates on HCWs and universities while outside gov't -- he should be another litigation target

My Board hearing starts today, new booster fake data, and some odds and ends.

My medical board hearing starts at 1 pm ET today and is scheduled to run till 7 pm. CHD will live stream it and live blog it at https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/maine-medical-board-meryl-nass-m-d-official-hearing. Please send good wishes and prayers.

I am delighted to finally have my day in court to regain my medical license and my reputation for scrupulous honesty, putting patients first (the way the practice of medicine is supposed to be) and excellence as a medical practitioner—and to counterract the many lies told about me. The proverbs sent to me today (below) mean a lot.

"An error can never become true however many times you repeat it.
The truth can never be wrong, even if no one ever hears about it."--Mahatma Gandhi
"Tell the truth and run." --Yugoslav proverb
"Not to know is bad.  Not to wish to know is worse."  -African proverb

The Washington Post boosts the new bivalent boosters, while suggesting they need better messaging, and the term “booster” should be ditched. Zeke chimes in, while Harvard now requires not only a new booster but an annual flu shot if you want to continue your college career and register for next term.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/10/07/covid-booster-winter-surge/

But the campaigns have lagged badly. Only about 105 million U.S. adults — roughly 40 percent [NYT says 33%]— have received the third shot of vaccine initially offered a year ago, according to federal data, a far lower rate than countries like the United Kingdom, where more than 70 percent of adults have gotten a third dose. That figure is also well behind the 200 million U.S. adults who completed their primary series of shots. [CDC says that number is 225.9 million.]

The White House has also tweaked its messaging. Officials are describing the shots as an “updated covid vaccine,” hoping that avoiding the word “booster” shores up confidence….

Some organizations, such as colleges and universities, are moving to require the boosters — as they did with earlier vaccines — amid evidence that such mandates compel uptake.

“Students must be compliant with all vaccine requirements in order to register for the spring term,” Harvard University announced in September. “This includes the annual flu shot as well as the bivalent Omicron-specific COVID-19 booster.”

But this time around, there is little appetite to try to persuade employers to mandate booster shots, said Ezekiel Emanuel, who coordinated efforts to persuade many health care organizations and universities to compel them last year. Emanuel said that while he believes such organizations should require the new shots, he has no plans for another campaign, citing legal challenges and other complications.

Inside the White House, officials predict that interest in boosters will grow if COVID infections rebound this fall and winter. Americans could be particularly motivated by the arrival of “scary European variants,” such as omicron descendants B.Q.1.1. and BA. 2.75.2, which are spreading overseas, show an ability to evade treatments and could lead to more serious illness, said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.

The July 2021 Washington Post revealed the trickery of the White House and exposed the central role of Emanuel in imposing vaccine mandates:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/26/mandatory-vaccinations-urged-health-workers/

The White House has said it will not impose national mandates but supports private employers that create new requirements for their workers.

Emanuel, who spent two weeks organizing the effort, said he believed that requiring vaccinations in health care would ripple beyond the industry.

“Despite everything — cajoling, making access readily available at any pharmacy, making it free, having the president plead — all of this hasn’t really moved the needle very much in the nation,” he said, praising the wide buy-in from medical groups.

“One of the things that resonated with people is, ‘Look, we’re the medical community. This is a health problem. We need to lead — and we need to have the courage of our convictions,’” Emanuel added.

Health systems step forward

By Monday afternoon, an array of organizations had announced their own vaccination mandates, led by VA — the nation’s largest integrated health system, which serves more than 9 million veterans — and the Mayo Clinic.

VA’s mandate — which applies to front-line workers, including physicians, dentists, podiatrists and registered nurses — gives workers eight weeks to comply. Agency officials said the decision was driven by the determination to protect both workers and patients, noting that four unvaccinated employees recently died of covid-19 and that there was an outbreak among staff and unvaccinated trainees at a VA training center.

Emanuel said the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which imposed its own coronavirus vaccination mandate two months ago, also has seen a similar uptake in shots.

“The sky didn’t fall,” Emanuel said. “When we do it, and we have a good justification, people respond.”