By LENA H. SUN AND ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER | The Washington Post | Published: February 26, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. An inflammatory lung disease puts Nate Engebrecht at increased risk from the coronavirus. When he was hospitalized last year with influenza, doctors gave the Milwaukee college student respiratory therapy every four hours to keep air moving through his lungs. We re all terrified of what would happen if he got covid, said his mother, Kerri Engebrecht.
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
LINCOLN, Neb. Today, a coalition of 11 organizations announces strong opposition to a legislative proposal that would substantially weaken Nebraskas motorcycle helmet law and increase the number of deaths and traumatic injuries on the states highways.
LB 581 would allow motorcyclists over the age of 21 to ride without a helmet, whereas current law requires all riders to wear helmets.
Motorcycle helmets reduce the risk of head injury by 69 percent and lower the risk of death by 42 percent. In 2019, there were 9.3 times as many unhelmeted fatalities (1,682 fatalities) in states without a universal helmet law compared to states with a universal helmet law (180 fatalities) (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). These states were nearly equivalent with respect to total resident populations. According to the Government Accountability Office, laws requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets are the only strategy proved to be effective in
Earlier this year, Omahan Dana Carlton-Flint signed up for a clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine from the biotech company Moderna.
Months later, data from that trial and another for a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech have shown that both vaccines are safe and more than 90% effective.
Late Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizerâs vaccine for emergency use in people 16 and older. The first doses could be administered by early next week.
The Moderna vaccine is expected to quickly follow the Pfizer vaccine to emergency approval and distribution. An FDA advisory panel is slated to review it on Thursday.
Vaccinations are crucial
We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the recent news that two vaccines are very near receiving FDA approval and will soon be distributed to our hospitals and front line health care workers.
There has been a tremendous amount of work that has gone into the development of these vaccines, which have been shown to be 95% effective.
This is a historic achievement and is good news for all of us.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, has stressed that public confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine approval process is key to beating this global pandemic. However, no matter how well the vaccine works in preventing the coronavirus, it wonât end the pandemic if not enough people take it.
State prepared with crisis plan for worst-case scenario in pandemic
The document created in November outlines how to ethically and fairly maximize resources when they re not enough
The document created in November outlines how to ethically maximize limited resources
Posted at 6:25 PM, Dec 11, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-11 19:25:01-05
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) â It seems unlikely that hospitals will become overwhelmed by this coronavirus pandemic to the point where they have to triage patients, some health care officials say.
But they say that should it happen, Nebraskaâs ethical framework and crisis management plan is now ready.
âI would say itâs unlikely that we will reach a point where we would have to implement crisis standards of care,â Dr. Cliff Roberston, CHIâs CEO, said on Nov. 24. âIt is a possibility.â