Because Gov. Roy Cooper’s former secretary of health and human services, Mandy Cohen, just got the nod from President Joe Biden to be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control, politicians and analysts are again debating how North Carolinians fared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When my first book, The Heroic Enterprise, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1996, I asked about releasing it on audio. “Let’s see how it goes,” my editor replied, warning me that while there was an audiobook market by then — primarily in the form of cassette tapes — it wasn’t very large. If my book on corporate social responsibility turned out to be a bestseller, there might be enough demand to justify a cassette version.
The U.S. public health emergency that was declared to respond to COVID-19 ends today. North Carolina will continue to distribute the federally funded COVID-19 vaccines and tests for free to individuals who are uninsured while supplies last.
State and local governments in North Carolina would be barred from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for employees or students under a bill passed March 21 by the House Health Committee.
Today, Governor Roy Cooper signed Executive Order 245 to strengthen the state’s ongoing fight against COVID-19 with more health care workers and flexibility for care facilities, as well as easier access to vaccines, tests and treatments. The regulatory waivers in the Order are key to facilitating the state’s COVID-19 response at this critical juncture in the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought many issues to the forefront, including the challenges the broader education system faces. School age kids from elementary through college navigated virtual learning, among other things. It demonstrated that education policy touches most every household in the United States and affects every sector of our state’s economy. As taxpayers, all North Carolinians have a vested interest in student outcomes.
Rampant inflation, supply chain issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t dampening the Christmas spirit at the international Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse.
Governor Roy Cooper signed Executive Order 229. The Executive Order extends several provisions outlined in Executive Order 224 that direct the State Health Director to issue statewide standing orders for testing and vaccination. Additionally, this Order directs cabinet agencies to implement the COVID-19 vaccination and testing policy developed by the North Carolina Office of Human Resources (OSHR).
North Carolina providers have now administered more than 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with vaccinations trending upward as the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus spreads through the state, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced today.
Today, Governor Roy Cooper, NC DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen and State Health Director Dr. Betsey Tilson sent a letter to school boards that have failed to adopt the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit urging them to protect their students and staff in the new school year.
On the heels of a new executive order requiring state employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine or be required to wear a mask and submit to weekly testing, Gov. Roy Cooper is urging other members of the Council of State to push their own staffs to get vaccinated.