VACCINATION

For some parents of kids under 5 who want to vaccinate them, the wait has been excruciating, fraught with delays and close calls. Others are hesitant to have their young children vaccinated.

Since vaccines became widely available for Texans 12 and older last May, about 82% of Texas’ COVID-19 deaths were among the unvaccinated.

Launched in June, a cross-border effort using buses and donated vaccines is helping roughly 2,000 Nuevo Laredo residents per day get COVID-19 shots in Laredo — 10% of Texas’ daily total.

COVID-19 numbers are plummeting statewide, but on Texas’ southern border with Mexico, Laredo is still battling its fourth surge.

Corbevax, a low-cost coronavirus vaccine created in Houston, could be a better weapon against COVID-19 by reaching the unvaccinated in poorer countries.

The country is the first in Europe to make vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory for over-18s.

The latest findings hint at how common reinfections might be and who is more likely to catch Covid again.

Texas will soon surpass its previous COVID-19 hospitalization record. Doctors and nurses say they can’t keep up this pace for much longer and implore people to get vaccinated.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s mandate that requires federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Department of Justice is appealing the decision.

Challenges to new Texas laws on voting, political districts and abortion are all pending in court, as is the state’s challenge to federal vaccine mandates. But until the courts rule, those laws remain in place — and they provide political fodder for the incumbents who support them.

“The situation in Texas is that it probably won’t reach the peak [for cases] until the second half of January,” a top researcher said.

The state has already challenged the federal government’s vaccine orders for big businesses, health care workers and federal contractors.

In 2021, the Tribune’s data visuals team helped tell the biggest stories affecting Texans. Here’s a roundup of our most impactful work.

The highly contagious omicron variant has led to a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in Texas. Hospitalizations are beginning to increase in a health care system already troubled by staffing shortages.

So far this month, at least 1.2 million Texans have gotten booster shots — nearly triple the number of people who received their first doses of the vaccine during the same time.

Untreated medical conditions, lack of access to testing and limited paid time off leave uninsured Texans particularly vulnerable to the disease.

Texas’ nursing home staff vaccination rates are lower than half the country’s — but a judge’s decision last week to delay a vaccine mandate helped them avoid laying off a third of their employees.

Early indicators suggest the variant is very contagious, but little is known about the severity of disease it causes.

So much is unknown about the new COVID-19 variant: the severity of the illness it causes, whether it can resist vaccines and natural antibodies and whether it’s more contagious than the delta variant that has burned through Texas and the U.S. for months.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had called the mandate “an unprecedented federal vaccine decree” on health care workers.

Prof Calum Semple says some scientists are "hugely overstating" the fears around the Omicron variant.

A surge in COVID-19 cases from the West is impacting El Paso.

Some two million people without Covid-19 jabs have been told to stay home in Austria.

Fifty-seven percent of voters support mask requirements in indoor public spaces based on local conditions, while 58% support mask requirements in public schools.

The new state survey is the first time Texas health officials have been able to statistically measure the vaccine's true impact on the pandemic.

Slovakia has expanded strict coronavirus restrictions to nearly half of the country amid a record surge of infections

The move comes a week after Texas filed a separate lawsuit over new vaccination rules for federal contractors.

Appointment slots filled up quickly for the first pediatric doses. More kid-friendly shot sites come with therapy dogs, toys and snacks.

The new rules preempt state and local laws, including part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on vaccine mandates.

The approval marks a long-awaited milestone in the nearly two-year fight against the deadly virus that experts say has likely already infected nearly half the population in that age group.

The federal government will now send a first shipment of more than a million doses destined for children in that age group to providers in nearly half of the state's counties.

The vaccine’s protection goes down with time, so medical experts recommend a supplemental dose after two to six months. Find out here if it’s time to get one.

A Houston vaccine team would like a U.S. distributor but for now focuses its efforts abroad to inoculate those in countries where COVID-19 variants surface more quickly.

A prohibition on vaccine mandates was one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priorities for the special session, but it did not have enough support in the Legislature.

The halt comes after Gov. Greg Abbott expanded his ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates — which previously applied to cities, counties and school districts — to private employers.

American Airlines and Southwest Airlines say they will continue requiring employee vaccinations despite Abbott’s new order, which has left federal government contractors, nursing homes and other companies caught between conflicting rules from the Biden administration and the state.

About 40% of Texas nursing home workers are unvaccinated and could face dismissal or quit their jobs under a federal vaccination requirement for the industry.

Health officials say that the state’s high rate of unvaccinated people contributed to a summer surge in hospitalizations, which preceded the spike in deaths.

Escuche al Dr. Ivan Meléndez disipar la desinformación que corre entre la población de habla hispana.

About 30 people came to a rally at Houston City Hall Saturday to decry masks and vaccines amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Pregnant women are getting vaccinated at lower rates than the general population. “This variant is much more aggressive, [and] pregnant women are getting sicker much faster,” one doctor says.

More than 11% of those who received their first dose haven’t gotten a second shot, and more than 1 million people are more than 90 days overdue.

The government has "choked off" travel trade and 70% of firms plan redundancies, says Abta.

While some national companies are requiring employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, mandates have been the exception for businesses in Texas.

More and more Houston area businesses are choosing to mandate vaccinations or are considering doing so.

Scientific advisers say government should plan for this happening by the end of September in England.

Ten years ago, the state led in requiring meningitis vaccines for students under 22 enrolling in college. Now, in the middle of a pandemic, lawmakers are more skeptical of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Due to the increase in demand for COVID-19 vaccinations, Harris County Public Health said Tuesday it is making changes to better meet the vaccination needs of Harris County residents.

The Houston Health Department is announcing the schedule for sites offering free doses of COVID-19 vaccine during the week of Aug. 16, 2021.

Sheyla Moraes, an intensive care nurse, says this latest surge of the coronavirus pandemic is particularly draining because it was preventable. Listen in the weekend edition of The Brief podcast.

The number of COVID-19 patients being treated continues to increase every day.

Worried that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus could derail San Francisco’s economic rebound, Mayor London Breed announced Thursday that the city will require proof of full vaccination at indoor restaurants, bars, gyms and entertainment venues to help keep businesses open.

Senate Bill 968, signed into law in June, allows the TABC and other agencies to revoke businesses' state licenses if they make vaccine proof a requirement of getting service.

The network is among several US firms to require employees working with others to be vaccinated.

There are two main groups within Texas’ unvaccinated population: white conservatives in rural areas, and Hispanic and Black people in big cities.

Memorial Hermann Health System announced its mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy Monday for all members of its workforce.

There are many reasons why people choose not to get vaccinated.

Texas Republican state leaders held their ground against allowing local schools and governments to require masks. The CDC guidelines are not mandates and have no weight of law.

“A guest or host may not be as supportive of these efforts,” the conservative network said. “However, they do not reflect the position of Newsmax.”

In the Texas Medical Center, and at more than a dozen hospitals throughout the greater Houston-Metro area, health officials say COVID-19 numbers are trending in the wrong direction.