Health News at Your Fingertips

Joe Biden has now arrived back at the White House, after he and the first lady spent some time at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, this weekend.

As the president approached the White House, reporters shouted questions at him about his economic agenda and the results of last week’s elections.

When asked about whether he would soon speak to Glenn Youngkin, the Republican governor-elect of Virginia, it sounded like the president replied, “I tried to call him.”

The White House deputy press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said on Thursday that the president had not yet spoken with Youngkin.

“The will of the people is clear, and the president has always believed in working across party lines for the good of the American families,” Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing. “And he looks forward to doing that with Governor-elect Youngkin.”

The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly and David Smith report:

In his Saturday remarks, Joe Biden praised the infrastructure bill as a “once-in-a-generation investment that’s going to create millions of jobs, modernise our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our broadband, a range of things turning the climate crisis into an opportunity, and a put us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century that we face with China and other large countries in the rest of the world”.

The House approved the $1tn bill late on Friday, after Democrats resolved a months-long standoff between progressives and centrists. The measure passed 228-206. Thirteen Republicans, mostly moderates, supported the bill while six progressive Democrats opposed it, among them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Approval sent the bill to the desk of a president whose approval ratings have dropped and whose party struggled in elections this week.

Biden said he would not sign the bill over the weekend because he wanted those who passed it to be there when he did so.

“We’re looking more forward to having shovels in the ground,” Biden said. “To begin rebuilding America.”

Joe Biden will travel to Baltimore, Maryland, on Wednesday to deliver a pitch for the benefits of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed the House on Friday.

In Baltimore, the president will “discuss how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal delivers for the American people by upgrading our nation’s ports and strengthening supply chains to prevent disruptions,” per the White House’s guidance on the trip.

The House was able to pass the bill on Friday night, after speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to delay another planned vote on the larger spending package championed by Democrats.

The infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate in August, provides $555bn in new federal funding for roads, bridges and railways, among many other projects.

Celebrating the House’s passage of the bill, Biden said on Saturday, “This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America. And it’s long overdue.”

As Jill Biden launches her campaign to encourage American parents to vaccinate their children against coronavirus, the White House is taking additional steps to boost vaccination rates among kids.

The AP reports:

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona are sending a letter to school districts across the country calling on them to organize vaccine clinics for their newly eligible students. The officials are reminding school districts that they can tap into billions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief money to support pediatric vaccination efforts.

The Biden administration is providing local school districts with tools to help schools partner with pharmacies to administer shots. And it’s asking schools to share information on the benefits of vaccines and details about the vaccination process with parents, in an effort to combat disinformation surrounding the shots.

The White House is encouraging schools to host community conversations and share fact sheets on the vaccines and is working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to partner local physicians with schools aiming to share science-based information about the shots.

Many US schools have been affected by coronavirus-related closures this year, and there are high hopes that the approval of a vaccine for all school-aged children could help keep classrooms open moving forward.

Eric Berger reports on the Biden administration’s efforts to enact vaccine requirements in workplaces:

Biden administration plans to get US companies with more than 100 or more workers to vaccinate their staff or bring in regular tests have been welcomed by public health groups but slammed by Republicans and trade groups, who claim government overreach with negative economic consequences.

Such divided reaction to the rules announced last week mirrors much of America’s problematic vaccine rollout, where social and political headwinds have seen vaccination take-up slow down worryingly.

US vaccination rates are some of the lowest in industrialized countries where the vaccine is readily available.

Subject at least to a temporary stay issued by a circuit court in New Orleans on Saturday, the new rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) will take effect on 4 January.

But the rules sparked new backlash from Republican lawmakers and conservative groups who described the measures as unconstitutional. Republican governors or attorneys general in 15 states plan to file lawsuits against the mandate, according to the Associated Press.
“This rule is garbage,” South Carolina’s attorney general, Alan Wilson, a Republican, said, according to the AP. “It’s unconstitutional and we will fight it.”

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

First lady Jill Biden will kick off a campaign this afternoon to convince more American parents to vaccinate their children against coronavirus.

Biden and Dr Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, will visit a vaccination clinic at Franklin Sherman elementary school in McLean, Virginia, which was the first school to administer the polio vaccine in 1954.

The event comes less than a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the administration of a lower dose of the Pfizer vaccine to children between the ages of five and 11.

The Biden administration is now coordinating with schools, pharmacies and local health departments to ensure families have access to vaccines and (perhaps more crucially) give parents information about why kids should get their shots.

The first lady, who is an educator herself, will have the opportunity to deliver that message in person today.

Stay tuned.