Texas House Approves Ban On COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates by Private Employers; Heart Attack Alert: COVID-19’s Direct Assault on Coronary Arteries, and other C-Virus related stories
Texas House approves ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates by private employers:
After several attempts by Republicans to rein in COVID-19 vaccine mandates by Texas employers, lawmakers are edging closer to a statewide ban on the practice after legislation won House approval early Thursday.
Violators would be subject to a whopping $50,000 fine under an amendment adopted by the Texas House. The bill’s sponsor called it the strongest such ban in the country.
“This bill is not about infringing on employers’ ability to protect their employees in the workplace. And this bill is not about what vaccines are good or bad, or what vaccines someone should or should not take,” said state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, the bill’s House sponsor. “This bill is instead about who should decide.”
After debating the bill on Wednesday, the Texas House gave final approval to Senate Bill 7 on a 91-54 vote in the early hours of Thursday morning, with all Republicans in favor and most Democrats opposed, after a passionate debate on the merits and safety of the vaccine, the impact of employer mandates on Texas workers, the rights of private business owners vs. private individuals, whether to allow stronger exceptions for hospitals and doctors, and the bill’s impact on medically vulnerable populations.
The Texas Senate passed the legislation, authored by state Rep. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, last week, and the bill will go to a conference committee to work out changes made by the House. Abbott included the ban in his agenda for the special legislative session, which could last up to two more weeks.
SB 7 would ban private businesses from requiring employees and contractors to get the COVID vaccine.
Health care facilities would be allowed to require unvaccinated employees and contractors to wear protective gear, such as masks, or enact other “reasonable” measures to protect medically vulnerable patients.
The same allowances could also be true for other private employers under the bill, lawmakers on both sides of the debate said, although it’s not as clearly laid out for that group. The legislation only prohibits actions taken against an unvaccinated employee that the Texas Workforce Commission considers to be punishing or otherwise adversely affects the employee. —>READ MORE HERE
Heart Attack Alert: COVID-19’s Direct Assault on Coronary Arteries:
COVID-19 is known to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. The intense inflammation that occurs throughout the body in severe cases likely contributes to this increased risk. But it wasn’t clear whether SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, also affects blood vessels directly.
Recent Findings on Blood Vessel Infection
To find out, an NIH-funded research team, led by Dr. Chiara Giannarelli at New York University School of Medicine, analyzed coronary artery tissue samples from eight people who died of COVID-19 between May 2020 and May 2021. Results were recently published in Nature Cardiovascular Research.
The team found SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in coronary artery tissue from all patients. They found more viral RNA in the arterial walls than in the surrounding fat tissue. Many of the infected cells were macrophages, a type of white blood cell that ingests pathogens. Samples with more macrophages had more viral RNA.
Linking SARS-CoV-2 With Atherosclerosis
Macrophages also help remove cholesterol from blood vessels. When macrophages become laden with cholesterol, they are known as foam cells. Accumulation of foam cells within arteries forms plaques that are a hallmark of atherosclerosis. The team confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 could infect human macrophages and foam cells in a petri dish. The foam cells were much more susceptible to infection than the macrophages. This could explain why people with atherosclerosis are more vulnerable to COVID-19. —>READ MORE HERE
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