A3
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2021
Anxiety rising amid virus surge, poll fi nds
By JAMES ANDERSON
and HANNAH
FINGERHUT
Associated Press
DENVER — Anxi-
ety in the United States over
COVID-19 is at its highest
level since winter, a new poll
shows, as the delta variant
rages, more states and school
districts adopt mask and vac-
cination requirements and the
nation’s hospitals once again
fi ll to capacity.
The poll from the Associ-
ated Press-NORC Center for
Public Aff airs Research also
fi nds that majorities of Amer-
ican adults want vaccination
mandates for those attending
movies, sports, concerts and
other crowded events; those
traveling by airplane; and
workers in hospitals, restau-
rants, stores and government
offi ces.
The poll shows that 41%
are “extremely” or “very”
worried about themselves
or their family becoming
infected with the virus. That
is up from 21% in June, and
about the same as in Janu-
ary, during the country’s last
major surge, when 43% were
extremely or very worried.
“I wouldn’t have said this
a couple of years ago, but I’m
not as confi dent as I was in
America’s ability to take care
of itself,” said David Bowers,
a 42-year-old business ana-
lyst in the Phoenix suburb of
Peoria.
Bowers, a Democrat,
and his wife, a public school
teacher, got vaccinated early.
But they fret once again about
Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
People in favor of and against a mask mandate for Cobb County schools gather and protest
ahead of the school board meeting on Thursday in Georgia.
their daughters, ages 7 and
9, attending school in a state
where Republican Gov. Doug
Ducey signed a law to block
school districts from mandat-
ing masks, let alone vaccines.
A brief summer respite
from COVID-19 fatigue
included a family trip to New
York. “COVID was pretty
much out of mind,” Bowers
said. “Now it feels like we’re
going backward.”
Close to 6 in 10 Ameri-
cans say they favor requir-
ing people to be fully vacci-
nated against COVID-19 to
travel on an airplane or attend
crowded public events. Only
about a quarter of Americans
oppose such measures.
Roughly 6 in 10 also sup-
port vaccine mandates for
hospital or other health care
workers, along with govern-
ment employees, members of
the military and workers who
interact with the public, such
as in restaurants and stores.
Support is slightly lower for
requiring vaccinations to go
out to a bar or restaurant,
though more are in favor than
opposed, 51% to 28%.
Nearly 200 million peo-
ple, or just over 60% of the
U.S. population, had received
at least one vaccine dose as
of Thursday, according to the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Just over half
of the population was fully
vaccinated.
Hospitals across the U.S.
had more than 75,000 corona-
virus patients as of last week,
a dramatic increase from a few
weeks ago but still well below
the winter surge records.
Florida, Arkansas, Oregon,
Hawaii, Louisiana and Mis-
sissippi have set records for
COVID-19 hospitalizations
in recent weeks, and the surge
in the delta variant, combined
with low vaccination rates,
has produced a scramble to
fi nd beds for patients.
The poll suggests that
despite increasing cases and
greater concern about the
virus, Americans have not
stepped up their own precau-
tionary behavior since June,
though at least half still say
they always or often wear a
Biden orders nursing home staff to get vaccinated
By ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Joe Biden announced
that his administration will
require that nursing home
staff be vaccinated against
COVID-19 as a condition for
those facilities to continue
receiving federal Medicare
and Medicaid funding.
Biden unveiled the new
policy in a White House
address earlier this week as
the administration continues
to look for ways to use man-
dates to encourage vaccine
holdouts to get shots.
“If you visit, live or work
in a nursing home, you
should not be at a high risk
for contracting COVID from
unvaccinated employees,”
Biden said.
The new mandate, in the
form of a forthcoming regula-
tion to be issued by the Cen-
ters for Medicare & Medicaid
Services, could take eff ect as
soon as next month.
Hundreds of thousands
of nursing home workers
are not vaccinated, accord-
ing to federal data, despite
those facilities bearing the
brunt of the early COVID-
19 outbreak and their work-
ers being among the fi rst in
the country to be eligible for
shots.
It comes as the Biden
administration seeks to
raise the costs for those who
have yet to get vaccinated,
after months of incentives
and giveaways proved to be
insuffi cient to drive tens of
millions of Americans to roll
up their sleeves.
In just the past three
weeks, Biden has forced
millions of federal work-
ers to attest to their vacci-
nation status or face oner-
ous new requirements, with
even stricter requirements for
federal workers in frontline
health roles, and his admin-
istration has moved toward
mandating vaccines for the
military as soon as next
month.
Biden has also celebrated
businesses that have man-
dated vaccines for their own
workforces and encouraged
others to follow, and high-
lighted local vaccine man-
dates as a condition for daily
activities, like indoor dining.
The new eff ort seems to
be paying off , as the nation’s
rate of new vaccinations has
nearly doubled over the past
month. More than 200 mil-
lion Americans have now
received at least one dose of
the vaccines, according to
the White House, but about
80 million Americans are
eligible but haven’t yet been
vaccinated.
Mark Parkinson, the pres-
ident and CEO of the Amer-
ican Health Care Associa-
tion and National Center for
Assisted Living, praised the
Biden decision, but called on
him to go further.
“Vaccination
man-
dates for health care per-
sonnel should be applied to
all health care settings,” he
said. “Without this, nurs-
ing homes face a disastrous
workforce challenge.”
Last year the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Ser-
vices used similar regula-
tory authority to prohibit
most visitors from nursing
homes in an eff ort to protect
residents.
Happy 39 th Birthday
Courtney Ann
August 21, 1982
When I’m afraid,
I put my trust in you.
- Psalm 56:3
Love always, forever
and ever and ever -Dadio
Saturday, October 2 nd , 2021
Elks Lounge
5:00pm Cocktails (no host bar)
and 6:30 dinner
($35.00 per plate to be paid at door)
Prior and after classes, including
past teachers invited at 7:30pm
to help celebrate.
Sookie
2 1/2 year old
Torti Blend
RSVP (for 1980 classmates)
by September 5th to
Sophia Anastasiadis Jacobs
503-969-5278
The good life is found
in small things. Most of
these have four feet and
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unserious, cozy and fun.
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Republicans are in favor of
mask mandates for public-fac-
ing workers.
Robbie Allen, a 63-year-
old retiree from Clifton, Texas,
is fully vaccinated and will
wear a mask when required
by stores or other places. But
the self-described indepen-
dent who leans Republican
insists it is a matter of personal
choice, and he sees mandates
as taking the joy out of life.
“The COVID is not going
away very quickly, but I don’t
think people should live in
fear,” said Allen, who motor-
cycled with his girlfriend to
this month’s Sturgis Motor-
cycle Rally, which attracted
hundreds of thousands to the
South Dakota city. “People are
going to die, but if we all hun-
ker down, life gets miserable.”
Partisan gaps are also
wide on vaccination require-
ments. In Arizona, Bowers has
already taken time off work
to pick up his daughter from
school after she developed a
high fever. They spent hours
last week looking for a drive-
thru COVID-19 testing site
that wasn’t overcrowded. She
tested negative. But the wor-
ries persist.
“My thinking is, the people
who don’t want mandates are
the people who need to be reg-
ulated,” Bowers said. “There’s
a slim majority in this country
making the right decisions. If
it wasn’t for a slim majority as
a country, we’d be in trouble.”
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mask around other people,
stay away from large groups
and avoid nonessential travel.
Confi dence in vaccines to
withstand virus variants has
not waned, either, as U.S.
health offi cials this week
announced plans to dispense
booster shots to all Americans
to shore up their protection.
The doses could begin next
month.
Carla Jones, 37, of Lafay-
ette, Louisiana, is a paraple-
gic with immunity problems
and uses a wheelchair after
she was severely injured in a
car accident. Because of her
health, she has been told by
her doctor she cannot get the
vaccine. She gets anxious vis-
iting the doctor or when her
grandchildren visit.
“I see someone next to me
at the doctor’s without a mask,
it makes my heart rapidly beat
faster,” Jones said.
Jones, a Democrat, strongly
favors vaccination and mask
mandates, and not just for her-
self. “For the good of all,” she
said. “I don’t have the shot,
but I defi nitely wouldn’t want
to pass it on to anyone else.”
The poll shows that 55%
support requiring Americans
to wear masks around other
people outside their homes,
while 62% support mask man-
dates specifi cally for workers
who interact with the pub-
lic, such as at restaurants and
stores. Eighty-fi ve percent
of Democrats and 39% of
GO FISHERMEN!
Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat
The family of Charles “Scott” Parker would like to express their greatest appreciation
for the incredible kindness graciously given by so many during the past few months.
We were blessed to be surrounded by such sincere caring and loving people when we needed it most.
Thank you for all the beautiful flowers, plants, cards, and heartfelt messages. We express our deep gratitude
to Dr. Curti and the staff at the Providence Cancer Institute, the doctors and staff at St. Vincent’s Hospital
and Dr. Sasaki and staff in Astoria. A very special thank you to the wonderful doctors, nurses and staff at
Providence Seaside Hospital and the Providence Home Health team for their wonderful care and support
of Scott and our family. Thank you to the friends and family who called, checked in, brought food, visited,
and shared hours with Scott telling the best of the best stories, good and bad, old and new, of their amazing
once in a lifetime experiences. We wish to thank Brian and Pam Dutton of Ocean View for their exceptional
care and Father Oruko and St. Mary Star of the Sea church for the wonderful service. Special thank you to
Frank Tuimato, Ronnie Williams, Willis Van Dusen, Steve Fick, Parker Riser, Justin Grafton, Danny Riser, and
Sign One for your incredible support and assistance. We also thank each one of you who planned, created,
donated to, organized, supported, volunteered, and just said yes when asked to help make everything come
together. Thank you all so very much for attending Scott’s services and the wonderful afternoon spent
celebrating his life.We will hold the memory of this beautiful day in our hearts forever.
Blessings to all from the Parker Family.