(NEW YORK) — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday announced that all patient-facing health care workers in hospitals run by the state will be required to get vaccinated. He said, “There will be no testing option.”
Additionally, as of Labor Day, all state employees must either be vaccinated or get tested on a weekly basis.
Governor Cuomo said the decision was made due to the “dramatic action” needed to control a surge in COVID-19 cases linked to the Delta variant. He said school districts in areas of high transmission should also consider taking a more aggressive approach.
“I understand the politics, but I understand if we don’t take the right actions, schools can become super-spreaders in September,” Cuomo said.
Calling on private sector businesses, Cumo said they should incentivize vaccinations by only allowing vaccinated people in.
75% of adults in New York state have been vaccinated.
(BENTONVILLE, Ark.) — America’s largest private employer announced on Tuesday that it will pay for college tuition and books for associates, in full.
In a press release, Walmart says it will also eliminate the $1 per day fee from its Live Better U education program, which provides workers with access to training or a degree. The company says with these changes, “approximately 1.5 million part-time and full-time Walmart and Sam’s Club associates in the U.S. can earn college degrees or learn trade skills without the burden of education debt.”
Lorraine Stomski, the company’s senior vice president of learning and leadership, said the move would create “a path of opportunity for our associates to grow their careers at Walmart, so they can continue to build better lives for themselves and their families.”
The company also noted it will add four academic partners, bringing the total number of institutions it works with to ten. The new partners include Johnson & Wales University, the University of Arizona, the University of Denver, and Pathstream.
Earlier this year, Walmart announced it would raise its starting pay to $11 per hour. That move, which affected approximately 425,000 employees, brought the company’s average pay to $15 per hour.
(BALTIMORE) — Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has tested positive for COVID-19, the team announced Wednesday, keeping him off the field for the team’s first training camp workout.
Head coach John Harbaugh says the test came back on Tuesday, and that Jackson had repeatedly tested negative in the preceding days. The NFL was working to process and evaluate the results as of Wednesday morning.
Jackson is the second Ravens player to test positive this week, after running back Gus Edwards. In Jackson’s absence, Trace McSorley and Tyler Huntley took most of the practice snaps on Day One.
The 2019 NFL MVP tested positive for COVID-19 last Thanksgiving, missing a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers because of the virus. He was activated from the COVID-19 reserve list less than two weeks later.
Jackson was one of 20 Ravens to spend time on the COVID-19 reserve list last season, including an outbreak in November and December where at least one player tested positive for ten consecutive days.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Universal Music Group
Kanye West is showing off his current living situation.
After reports that the rapper is hunkering down in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz stadium as he puts the finishing touches on his 10th audio album, DONDA, he shared a snap of the room that’s presumably his.
The caption-less photo, which Ye posted to Instagram on Tuesday evening, shows a room with just the bare essentials in it — a bed, TV and closet. There are also shoes lined up along the wall next to an open suitcase, some workout equipment and a bottle of water next to the bed.
Last week the “Power” rapper held a sold-out listening event at the stadium for his upcoming album, with its release intended for Friday, July 23. However, the album never dropped and now has a reported release date of August 6.
Since then, the Yeezy designer’s team has has turned parts of the venue into a designated recording and living space, complete with a chef, according to TMZ.
Ye first teased DONDA, which is named after his late mother Donda West, in March 2020 and said it was slated to come out that July, but failed to materialize. It was later announced that the release was canceled because the rapper was further tweaking it. Can someone say deja vu?
Dave Grohl is often referred to as the nicest guy in rock, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the Foo Fighters helped shape one of today’s most heartwarming shows.
On the latest episode of Mark Hoppus‘ After School Radio Apple Music Hits program, Ted Lasso co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis revealed how the Foos classic “My Hero” inspired the just-premiered second season of the beloved soccer comedy.
“‘My Hero’ was the first time that I heard a song and I felt, I saw a whole movie about that song,” Sudeikis explains. “At least my interpretation of it.”
“I’m sure [Grohl’s] spoken about it somewhere, but I’ve never sort of tried to research what it was about, but I knew what it was about for me,” he continues. “And some of those themes are literally being used in season two of Ted Lasso.”
“My Hero,” of course, finds Grohl describing his own hero as “ordinary.”
“Just the idea of false prophets or don’t meet your heroes or the idea of all statues have clay feet, I think is another example of that,” Sudeikis says. “People are human.”
Back in January, Steve Martin posted a photo of himself with Martin Short and Selena Gomez — his co-stars in the upcoming Hulu series Only Murders in the Building — and Stingwas in the picture, too. At the time, Martin wrote that it was a “special day” on set, but Hulu wouldn’t confirm that Sting was actually in the show. Well, now we know he is.
The full trailer for the series has dropped, and the former Police frontman makes an appearance as himself. The show follows Martin, Gomez and Short as the three true-crime fanatics who decide to do a podcast about the murder of one of the residents of their New York City apartment building — and attempt to solve the crime in the process.
In the trailer, we learn that the police believe the murderer is one of the building residents, and we see Sting, who is seemingly one of those residents, opening the door to his palatial apartment. “There’s a very strong chance the killer is musical superstar Sting,” declares Short.
“The guy from U2?” Gomez asks, prompting to Martin to wince at the young star’s appalling lack of knowledge about one-named singers of iconic ’80s bands.
Of course, in real life, Sting does own a palatial apartment in New York City, so the casting is somewhat believable.
Only Murders in the Building debuts August 30 on Hulu.
Lucy Liu cleared the air about what really happened between her and Bill Murray on the set of Charlie’s Angels.
Liu, who starred as Alex in the hit 2000 film, spoke with Los Angeles Times‘ Asian Enough podcast Tuesday and recalled the tumultuous relationship she had with Murray, who played Bosley.
The Chinese-American actress said the two had an argument after she rehearsed a scene Murray was unable to join because he had to attend a “family gathering.” When he returned, Liu said he began to “hurl insults” that “kept going on and on.”
“I was, like, ‘Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me,'” the Emmy nominee recalled. “I say, ‘I’m so sorry. Are you talking to me?’ And clearly he was, because then it started to become a one-on-one communication.”
Liu, who said she had “the least amount of privilege in terms of creatively participating” in the movie because “I was the last one cast,” didn’t tolerate the way Murray allegedly treated her.
“Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it,” the 52-year-old actress continued. “So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it. Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down. And I would not stand down, and nor should I have.”
Liu revealed that, several years after Charlie’s Angels hit theaters, cast members approached her and said “they were really grateful that I did that.”
“I have nothing against Bill Murray at all,” she clarified, saying they’ve run into each other since and been cordial. “But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”
Lisa Leslie knows basketball. That’s why it wasn’t much of a surprise when the three-time WNBA MVP and four-time Olympic gold medal winner was able to lead her Big3 league team, the Triplets, to victory in 2019, in her first year as coach.
Leslie tells Essence magazine that coaching a Big3 men’s team wasn’t that big of shock to her as a woman.
“I only get reminded we’re different when it’s time for my guys to change clothes in the locker room,” Leslie says, joking about giving her players their privacy.
“And then the second time is only in media,” she continues. “People ask me the question about being a woman and I’m like, ‘Oh, what about it?’ because it really is basketball. We all play this sport at such a high level and after a while, it’s like screens and picks and rolls and certain strategies that we all know. And then it’s hard effort and fight and that don’t got nothing to do with being a woman or a man, you know? You either come in and you’re mentally strong about it or you’re not.”
Considering Leslie’s glowing track record, including helping to coach the WNBA All-Stars to victory against the Tokyo-bound U.S. national team, it’s been asked whether the former-basketball star has any interest in coaching for the NBA.
“I would never say that I’m not interested,” Leslie shares. “For me, I love being a wife and a mom and I feel like it’s about sacrifices and the age of my children. Obviously, I’ve had those opportunities when my kids were younger and I wasn’t willing to do that. Now as my kids get older and they understand the routine of the house it’s a possibility.”
(AURORA, Colo.) — Two Colorado officers from the Aurora Police Department are facing charges after body camera footage purportedly shows one hitting a suspect in the head and then choking him.
Officers John Haubert and Francine Martinez responded to a reported trespassing, attempting to arrest 29-year-old Kyle Vincent and two other adult men.
Martinez learned that they all had felony warrants, and the officers tried to take them into custody. When two of the men fled, Haubert drew a pistol and directed it at Vincent.
Haubert grabbed the back of his neck and pressed the gun against Vincent’s head.
The man denied having a warrant and attempted to avoid being handcuffed. Police say Haubert came on top of the man and grabbed the side of his neck, hitting him with the gun 13 times.
Haubert is facing three felony charges; attempted first-degree assault, second-degree assault and felony menacing. There is also misdemeanor charges of official oppression and official misconduct.
“This is not the Aurora Police Department, this is criminal,” said Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson.
Officer Martinez faces criminal charges for not intervening.
(NEW YORK) — As contentious debates over vaccine mandates continue with new coronavirus cases on the rise among the unvaccinated, elected officials are starting to fine-tune the idea of a new incentive by requiring public employees to get a coronavirus test until they get their shots.
Barun Mathema, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News that the plan is a very effective incentive on paper, and it will have a bigger impact outside of the public sector when it comes to confidence in the vaccines.
“This is saying the government, unambiguously, supports vaccination. One can try things like lotteries to entice individuals, but to me, this is a serious and thoughtful approach,” he told ABC News.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that employees of the city’s public hospital system, which included medical centers like Elmhurst Hospital, the epicenter of the first wave of hospitalizations in 2020, would have to show proof of vaccination or submit a weekly test until they got their shot. Exemptions are allowed for religious medical reasons.
De Blasio expanded that order on Monday to all city public employees, which included police officers, firefighters and teachers. Even though 59% of the city’s entire population and 70% of its adult population has at least one dose of the vaccine as of Tuesday, the numbers were lagging among the ranks of some New York agencies, city data showed.
The NYPD had a 43% vaccination rate, the Department of Correction had a 42% vaccination rate, the FDNY had a 55% vaccination rate, and public school employees and city hospital employees each had a 60% vaccination rate, according to data from city officials. Nationally, 56% of all residents and 69% of all adults have at least one shot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The testing mandate will go into effect for unvaccinated public hospital workers next week, and goes into effect on Sept. 13, the first day of schools in New York, for other public employees.
De Blasio stressed that the delta variant is causing cases to rise in unvaccinated neighborhoods in the city and he wanted to ensure New Yorkers that their public employees were vaccinated or proven safe.
“We’re going to keep climbing this ladder and adding additional measures as needed mandates and strong measures, whenever needed to fight the delta variant,” the mayor said during a news conference Monday.
A few hours later, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he would place a similar testing mandate for any state employee who can’t provide proof of vaccination. The mandate affects 249,000 employees and also provides exemptions for religious or medical reasons.
“California has committed to vaccination verification and or testing on a weekly basis,” Newsom said at a news conference.
California’s policy will take effect on Aug. 9.
Mathema said the policy will be most effective at swaying unvaccinated employees who were on the fence about getting the shot and needed an incentive to do so.
In this case, time spent on taking a COVID-19 test, submitting the paperwork to a boss and getting their OK week after week would take its toll, Mathema said.
“There will certainly be some people who find the constant testing inconvenient,” he said.
Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said the testing requirement will put extra pressure on an unvaccinated employee to get their shot.
“They’ll have to quarantine and put themselves out of two weeks of work,” he said.
Brownstein predicted that more states will follow New York City and California’s lead and there appears to be momentum at the federal level. President Joe Biden is expected to announce Thursday that all federal employees show proof of vaccination or submit to regular testing, ABC News has learned.
Brownstein added that some businesses have begun to implement rules that provide more benefits for customers. Some cruise ships, he noted, restrict their non-vaccinated passengers from the more popular dining areas and attractions.
“It’s a hybrid carrot and stick situation. You’re giving benefits to people who are vaccinated and punishing people who aren’t,” he said.
Mathema warned that there are likely to be a number of public employees who will submit to the weekly testing rather than get their shots. He reiterated that elected officials and businesses that implement a testing mandate for the unvaccinated needed to supplement their policy with a focused educational plan.
“I do believe this needs to be met with outreach, strong outreach and consistent outreach,” Mathema said. “We do need to be tactful, show empathy and address real issues that are out there: people’s concerns over the vaccine.”
Anyone who needs help scheduling a free vaccine appointment can log onto vaccines.gov.
