Is Your Business Mindset-Shift Ready?

• In today’s Recommendations for Industry, we discuss TAG’s new whitepaper on how the pandemic has led to a shift in worker mindsets and what that means for your business. Read more below.
• Although the CDC and FDA have both issued statements that a booster shot against COVID-19 is not needed (at this time, based on current information), Pfizer is expected to discuss vaccine boosters (and its need) with officials in the next few days. Additionally, the WHO Director-General is encouraging Moderna and Pfizer to focus on supplying the COVAX vaccine supply (to push down vaccine inequities globally) rather than simply focusing on creating boosters. At the same time, in Israel, COVID-19 booster shots are being offered to at-risk adults.
• With the increase in COVID-19 cases – mostly in unvaccinated populations – especially in five hotspots including Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nevada – deaths are expected to rise as COVID-19 death rates tend to “follow three to four weeks behind spikes in cases.”
• The CDC has issued new guidance for schools this fall, emphasizing reopening as “many students have suffered from months of virtual learning.”
• There is fear that attendance at the Euro 2021 finals may lead to another COVID-19 outbreak.
• The FDA has added another warning for the J&J vaccine, now indicating that there is a very small potential risk of Guillan-Barré syndrome which has been identified in 10 individuals out of 12.8 million people who have received the vaccine. Altogether, the J&J vaccine is still safe.

Public Health & Food Safety:

• • There are new changes to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List); these changes will go into effect next week on July 26.
  • A recent study from UGA found that 60% “of cattle fecal samples contained multiple strains if Salmonella that traditional testing methods missed” and that “one out of every 10 samples tested positive for Salmonella Reading, a drug-resistant serotype of ”

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Is Your Business Mindset-Shift Ready?

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the business world in ways for which there is no going back. Some of these changes are for the better, some simply bring new challenges for which businesses will need to adapt and evolve.

In a new white paper, Pandemic Shifts Worker Mindsets: What this means for your business continuity, The Acheson Group (TAG) delves into these challenges created by the shifting of worker mindsets and their workplace expectations.

• Discover why some workers would seek another job if not allowed to continue working remotely – while others are eagerly awaiting their return to the workplace.
• Learn how bringing workers back increases the potential for the other workplace communicable infectious diseases – and what you can do about it.
• Understand the “Vaccination Dilemma” and why some workers may never elect to be vaccinated.
• Learn what is key to a healthy workplace and how the continued implementation of the Hierarchy of Controls can help protect your workers – and your business.

The pandemic has undoubtedly changed the world in which we live, and thoughts on how companies can navigate these new complexities. Thankfully, these challenges can be overcome and even make the business better for it.

Click here to download your copy of Pandemic Shifts Worker Mindsets: What this means for your business continuity.

• In Thursdays’ Recommendations for Industry, we discussed the trends being seen in the TAG Risk Matrices. Read more here!
• The global COVID-19 death toll has surpassed 4 million individuals, with this count being more-than-likely underreported.
• President Biden is making moves to bring about vaccination to more individuals living in the U.S., “including door-to-door outreach, sending vaccines to health care providers and pediatricians who can encourage adolescents to get shots, wider availability at pharmacies and expanding mobile clinics and vaccination sites for workers.”
• The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has published a piece on COVID-19 misinformation – both within the U.S., but also globally. Variants, Misinformation, and ‘Brain Drain’ — The COVID-19 Vaccine Experience in Brazil, India, and Africa discusses the need for vaccine equity and misinformation’s negative impacts on achieving this.
• Prior to the Olympics, Japan is declaring a state of emergency for the next six weeks.
• New data finds that 30 county clusters (in the U.S.) with low vaccination rates and high populations continue to see COVID-19 cases rise (Delta variant) which threatens the overall safety in the U.S. Some of these clusters are included in Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
• Europe’s new COVID-19 passport is known as “Green Pass.”
• There is continued concern that reported COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. prison system is undercounting the number of individuals who have actually become ill and died.
• The FDA is hosting a webcast today, Thursday July 08, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM ET) on “SARS-CoV-2: Host-pathogen interaction, vaccines and variants of concern” presented by Professor Miles W. Carroll (Head of Emerging Pathogens Group at Oxford University) to discuss “how the human body responds to severe SARS-CoV-2 infection which will help in future treatments” while presenting results on the immunological response to infection and vaccination.
• J&J vaccine protects against Delta variant for at least 8 months, studies find J&J vaccine protects against delta variant for at least 8 months, studies find (healio.com)
  • Data from two preprint studies, submitted to bioRxiv, showed that Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose COVID-19 vaccine generates “strong, persistent activity” against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including the rapidly spreading Delta variant
  • Data demonstrating the efficacy of the vaccine against variants came from a preprint study that assessed blood samples obtained from a subset of eight participants in the phase 3 ENSEMBLE study, which showed that the shot elicited neutralizing antibody activity against the delta variant “at an even higher level than what was recently observed for the beta variant (B.1.351) in South Africa.” According to the trial, the vaccine was 85% effective against severe disease and protected against hospitalization and death.
  • The second preprint study showed that the vaccine generated “a strong neutralizing antibody response that does not wane” but actually improved over time through at least 8 months.
• COVID-19 Falls to 7th Among Leading Causes of Death in the U.S.
  • An updated issue brief examines COVID-19’s effect on mortality rates, and finds that as of June 2021, COVID-19 has fallen to number seven on the list of the top ten leading causes of death in the U.S. As recently as January 2021, COVID was the number one leading cause of death, with an average of 3,136 people dying daily. Amid widespread availability of vaccines, that number has fallen to an average of 300 daily deaths in June 2021. (Issue Brief)
• Almost half of US reported rising cases last week, attributed to Delta variant surge: Latest COVID-19 Updates Delta COVID variant spikes Missouri, Mississippi cases: Updates (usatoday.com)
  • Alaska and Arkansas more than doubled cases in just the last week. South Carolina and Kansas are up more than 50%
  • In Missouri, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients jumped by nearly 30% over the Fourth of July weekend in a hard-hit area where immunization rates are low, leading to a temporary ventilator shortage and a public call for help from respiratory therapists
  • About 95% of those hospitalizations have been in unvaccinated Mississippians, officials said.