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UW-Health to take part in new Moderna trial for children

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UW-Health will be taking part in a clinical trial to determine the dosage of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in children.

Dr. William Hartman says this is just another step in the University’s commitment to fighting the coronavirus. 

“We’ve been at the Forefront of really every phase of this pandemic this far and this continues that.”) 

The vaccine will be the same one that is administered to adults, but researchers are trying to work out the correct dosage for children from six months to 12 years, much like with other vaccines. “That is being established for the kids 6 to 12 first, and then it’s likely that dose is going to be reduced even further out for the younger kids.”)

Hartman says this is vital as newer variants of COVID seem to be more contagious in young children than previously thought. 

 

Republicans vote to block UW System COVID-19 fall protocols

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University of Wisconsin System leaders will have to run future COVID-19 rules past state lawmakers. On a 6-4 party line vote, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules declared Tuesday that the UW System must issue an emergency order to enact pandemic protocols like mandatory testing and masks.

“No public hearing. No opportunity even for the legislators on the committee to discuss the issue at hand,” said Representative Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) a committee member.

The committee voted by ballot on Tuesday. The action comes amid a steady increase in new COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin and across the U.S.

“I think they understand and know that they’re on the wrong side of this one, as they have been throughout this entire pandemic,” said Senator Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), another committee member.

“The path forward in addressing Covid-19 is not through excessive government mandates, but in the restoration of Americans being able to make voluntary informed decisions based on their individual health circumstances,” said Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) the committee co-chair who introduced the resolution last week.

“If the university proceeds with putting these measures in place, as I think they need to – it’s imperative – I would not be surprised to see the Republicans sue,” Subeck said. “We have seen Robin Vos and Devin LeMahieu perfectly willing to spend loads of taxpayer money on ridiculous lawsuits.”

Republican state Senator wants to block UW System COVID-19 protocols

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Senator Steve Nass

A Republican state legislator is seeking to block the University of Wisconsin System’s COVID-19 plans for the fall.

State Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) wants the UW System to get legislative approval for any virus-related regulations. Nass co-chairs the legislature’s administrative rules committee. Nass explained his decision in media release on Wednesday.   

Unfortunately, some chancellors in the UW System consider themselves mini-Andrea Palms not beholden to following state law and moving quickly to take advantage of the Delta-variant hysteria to enact excessive Covid-19 mandates.  The legislature should not drag its feet in utilizing the powers we have to prevent state agencies from abusing the statutory and constitutional rights of citizens as was done in 2020.

 

Interim UW System President Tommy Thompson

Senator Kelda Roys (D-Madison) serves on the rules committee, and her district includes the Madison campus. “It’s just hard to see how any rational person could think that prohibiting any COVID precautions is a good idea. I mean unless you really think that unmitigated spread of COVID is a good thing,” said Roys.

Interim UW System President Tommy Thompson did not directly address Nass’ proposal, but expressed his concerns in a statement released on Thursday.

Given my experience as a former United States Health and Human Services Secretary, I know the biggest threat to in-person classes this fall would be actions that strip the UW System of the tools it has so successfully used to date to address outbreaks and reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Nass plans to hold a paper ballot vote Tuesday in the committee, in which Republicans hold a 6-to-4 majority. His effort to restrict the UW System’s efforts come with Wisconsin the midst of an increase in new COVID-19 infections.

DHS asks for people to get vaccinated as COVID case counts climb

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Public health officials are pleading for people to get vaccinated, as COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services Thursday update showed a 7-day average of 556 new confirmed cases – double what it was a week earlier and nearly 8 times where it was a month ago.

With just over 49 percent of the state’s eligible population age 12 and up fully vaccinated against coronavirus, DHS reported 57 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties were experiencing high case activity, much of that attributable to the more easily transmissible Delta variant.

Governor Evers pleased with Supreme Court decision not to hear ACA challenge

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Governor Tony Evers says he’s pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

In a 7 to 2 decision released on Thursday, the Supreme Court said that a group of Republican states couldn’t show that the Affordable Care Act was harming them, because the mandate to have insurance doesn’t carry a penalty. 

Evers said that healthcare isn’t just for the wealthy, quote “Today’s decision is a critically important victory for our work to make sure everyone has access to quality, affordable healthcare coverage.” Governor Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul withdrew from the lawsuit in 2019 .

State Senator Roys calls for repeal of Wisconsin’s 170 year old ban on abortions ahead of possible Roe v Wade ruling

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Two Wisconsin legislative Democrats want to pull Wisconsin’s 172 year old abortion ban off the books.

That’s in response to the US Supreme Court taking up a case that could challenge the Roe v. Wade ruling. Senator Kelda Roys says losing women’s health protections in Wisconsin will be devastating to the poor and underprivileged. 

“Women of privilege and women of means will always be able to travel elsewhere to get abortions. It’s women who don’t have privilege and families don’t have those privileges that are going to be most adversely affected.” 

Roys says the hearing and lawsuit is just another attack on women’s health by anti-choice groups. 

“Conservative anti-choice interests have been so effective at undermining access to abortion.  They’ve done it through harassment, threats, forcing clinics to close.”

Roys says she understands that it’s unlikely that the bill will pass through the Republican controlled legislature, but that women deserve the right to choose their own medical decisions. 

Pop up clinics are key amid decline in vaccinations

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The number of people in Wisconsin getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is dropping, and Deputy Health Services Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said they’re now taking the vaccine to where people are.

“Vaccinators are going to malls and shopping areas, and farmers markets and even bars and Brewers games and Bucks games,” Willems Van Dijk said this week. “I hope we have a vaccination center at the state fair and at every county fair.”

The goal remains vaccinating 80 percent of Wisconsin’s population. As of Wednesday, 38 percent had completed the vaccine series, and 44.5 percent had gotten at least one dose.

Willems Van Dijk said pop-up clinics may vaccinate relatively small numbers of people.

“You’re probably going to see 50 or 100 people. And compare that to some of our mass vaccination clinic sites and some of our health systems which were doing a thousand, even two thousand doses a day. It’s going to take us longer to get there, with those smaller sites.”

‘Grim milestone’ – Wisconsin surpasses 600,000 COVID-19 cases

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Wisconsin has surpassed 600,000 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Deputy Health Services Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk called it “a grim milestone” on Tuesday.

“As we pass this milestone of 600,000 cases, let us recommit. Recommit to preventing more cases, and more deaths. Recommit to remembering that these numbers represent people, and that this virus results in loss for far too many.”

DHS reported 721 new cases Tuesday, for a seven day average of 633 daily cases and a total of 600,297. There were also 11 deaths recorded, for a total of 6,850.

Willems Van Dijk stressed that vaccination remains the most effective tool to get through the pandemic.

As of Tuesday, 2,021,685 people, or 34.7 percent of the state’s population, have been fully vaccinated, including 75 percent of those 65 and older.

To reach herd immunity goal, every percentage of vaccinated is critical

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Herd immunity to COVID-19 – what does it mean, and how will we know if we’ve gotten there?

“Herd immunity is the concept that by having a large percentage of a population, or your herd, immune to a particular infectious disease, that even within that herd, there can be people who are not immune who are protected who don’t get the illness, because there just aren’t cases of COVID-19 around due to that large immunity rate,” said Dr. Matt Anderson, senior medical director of primary care with UW Health.

“So, even though somebody’s not immune, they’re not really at risk because the disease doesn’t exist in the community through the immunization immunity.”

Experts say the U.S. could reach herd immunity when 70 to 90 percent of the population is vaccinated. “Every extra percentage point that we’re getting vaccinated is fewer cases, fewer hospitalizations, fewer deaths,” Anderson said. “More protection for everybody, including those who are most vulnerable.”

State Senate leader slams the door on legalized marijuana in Wisconsin

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There’s no way forward for legalized marijuana of any sort, in the Wisconsin state Senate.

During a WisPolitics virtual event Thursday, Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oosburg) said law enforcement has a lot of concerns – as do employers.

“That it might . . . cause them more problems with people who are high on the job.”

Some Assembly Republicans are willing to consider medical marijuana. Not in the Senate, LeMahieu said. “I don’t think we have support at this point.”

LeMahieu said marijuana should be dealt with at the federal level. “If there’s advantages to it, if it helps out people I have no problem with it, as long as a doctor’s prescribing it,” he said. “But I think that discussion needs to be done at the federal level, and not have some rogue state doing it, without actual science behind it.”

Twenty states, including Minnesota, allow marijuana use for medical purposes. Another 16, including Illinois and Michigan, allow recreational use by adults. Governor Tony Evers proposed legalized medical marijuana in his state budget.