Use of the Janssen (also known as Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine should resume next week after a “pause” begun on April 13. At the end of a six-hour meeting today, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted, 10-4-1, to recommend resumption of the […]
In “pausing” use of the Janssen vaccine, one of only three COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized for use in the US, RI is following national guidance from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the RI Department of Health (DoH) said in an early morning statement on Tuesday, […]
One week before COVID-19 caused Rhode Island to enter a state of emergency, the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island announced its plans for the Khmer New Year. Along the Pawtuxet River in Cranston, Buddhist monks from the state’s temples would bless attendees during a morning ceremony as local Cambodian families gathered to remember and honor […]
At the weekly COVID-19 press conference on Thursday, April 8, Gov. Daniel McKee and RI Department of Health (DoH) Director Nicole Alexander-Scott made clear that economic reopening plans were conditioned upon a goal of vaccinating 70% of everyone in the state to approach herd immunity. While a laudable aspirational goal, it is in my opinion […]
Motif previously reported (“Unemployment insurance runs out for hundreds in RI”, by Michael Bilow, Mar 1, 2021) that 213 beneficiaries had exhausted their available Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), but further information emerged on Wednesday, March 3, from the RI Department of Labor and Training (DLT), which administers the program, that many more were notified in […]
UPDATE: Important information in follow-up “Their Bad: Thousands notified in error of end of RI Unemployment Insurance eligibility”, by Michael Bilow, Mar 3, 2021. As the latest pandemic relief bill crawls through Congress with a provision that would extend the program, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits have ended for many individual recipients. According to spokeswoman […]
COVID-19 vaccination reservations can now be made for everyone age 75 or older who lives, works, or goes to school in Rhode Island, the RI Department of Health (DoH) announced this morning. Actual vaccination appointments begin tomorrow, Thursday, February 18, at the two state-run points of dispensing (PODs), Dunkin Donuts Center POD, 1 La Salle […]
Much to the apparent surprise of RI Department of Health (RI DoH) Director Dr Nicole Alexander-Scott, who was caught unaware on live television at her press conference at 1pm on Friday, January 28 – “RI Health Director Defends Vaccine Rollout”, Jan 28, by Michael Bilow – the City of Warwick opened a web page at […]
On Friday, January 28, the regular weekly COVID-19 press conference conducted by Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the RI Department of Health (RI DoH), was unusually chaotic. In prepared remarks that were uncharacteristically defensive for the normally diplomatic Alexander-Scott, she avoided mentioning. but tacitly addressed, recent criticism in the media for what is widely seen […]
How to define eligibility for priority groups in Phase 2 of the state COVID-19 vaccination program was the subject of the regular weekly meeting of the Vaccine Sub-Committee at the RI Department of Health (DoH) on Friday, January 22. The goal is to have this clearly settled by the time Phase 2 is expected to […]