COVID News: Nassau County starts new campaign to encourage booster shots

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Nassau County is rolling out a campaign to encourage residents to get their COVID booster shots.

It will include weekly clinics and pop-up events.

The pop-up vaccination sites will offer either Moderna or Johnson & Johnson boosters.

95% of adults in Nassau County have had one or more vaccine doses.

Here are more of today's COVID-19 headlines:

Booster shots for employees at NJ hospital

Certain employees are now under orders to get a booster shot at University Hospital in Newark.

Workers who originally received the Johnson and Johnson shot must roll up their sleeves again by Dec. 24.

That's because it appears the J&J vaccine loses its effectiveness faster than the other formulas.

Most parents won't vaccinate their young children right away against COVID, survey finds

A COVID-19 vaccine could be available for little kids soon, and public health leaders say vaccinating them could help end the pandemic -- but only if parents actually get them vaccinated.

A new survey suggests that's uncertain at best. The majority of parents say they will not get their younger children vaccinated right away, according to the survey published Thursday from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Kids vaccines to be available in NYC within 24 hours of federal approval, mayor says

Covid vaccines for children will available at city-run sites within 24 hours of CDC authorization, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. The shots will be available at pediatricians' offices, pharmacies and other vaccination sites across the city within 48 hours of the CDC's approval. A final ruling from the agency is expected sometime early next week, after a review by the FDA and a CDC advisory panel.

FDNY unions to protest vaccine mandate outside Gracie Mansion

Fire union officials said they will be rallying outside Gracie Mansion today at 11 a.m.and expect other union members and politicians to join them. "11 a.m. in front of Gracie Mansion, we've heard from a lot of other municipal unions that they are going to be attending in support of us, as well as many elected officials from around New York State and the city," said Jim McCarthy with the FDNY Fire Officers Association.

CDC 4th shot

The CDC is now signaling that some people may need a fourth vaccine shot. According to the CDC's website, people whose immune system is compromised and have already gotten a booster shot may need a fourth dose six months later. Medical conditions and treatments can make it harder for immunocompromised people to build immunity.

Excessive drinking during pandemic leading to spike in liver transplants

People have been drinking more during the pandemic, leading to a huge spike in the need for liver transplants. Researchers say those receiving transplants or on a waitlist due to alcoholic hepatitis went up 50% higher than what was predicted. Alcoholic hepatitis causes the liver to stop processing alcohol, which could lead to irreversible liver damage. It normally takes years of heavy drinking to prompt this condition, but it can also happen after a short period of excess.

Court hears arguments on nurses' vaccine mandate challenge

The Constitution of the United States does not require healthcare employers to allow religious exemptions to New York's vaccine mandate, the state argued Wednesday as it sought to overturn a lower court's injunction.

"This is not hostility to religion," Steven Wu of the New York Attorney General's office argued before a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. "This is a neutral, generally applicable law that is sustained under the Free Exercise clause even if it does impose some burdens."

17 healthcare workers who are mainly Catholic said they could not consent to COVID-19 vaccines "tested, developed or produced with fetal cell lines derived from procured abortions" but the judges noted the rubella vaccine, also created from fetal cell lines, has faced no similar objections.

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