Coronavirus vaccine and COVID variant updates for 12-07-2021

<p>This is Vaccine 411, the latest coronavirus vaccine information for December 7th, 2021.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The Mayor of New York City announced that all private employers, big and small, must now require their workers to get vaccinated, the most sweeping mandate of any big city or state in the U.S. And you must get the injection, there is no testing alternative. That will add about 184,000 businesses, including mom and pops, to those placed under previous mandates, </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The European Union's drugs agency recommended approval of an anti-inflammatory medicine to treat adults hospitalized with severe COVID. Now it has to be confirmed by the EU executive commission. The drug is RoActemra from Roche, currently used to treat arthritis. It works by tamping down the protein interleukin-6, often found in excess in COVID patients.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In Spain, Christmas festivities at one hospital are suspected of infecting dozens of hospital staff. 170 people attended the Christmas dinner in a restaurant last weekend. And afterwards, 68 staff, including ICU nurses and doctors, tested positive. All took antigen tests before the event and were negative, and all of the infected staff were fully vaccinated.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As always, there’s not nearly as much of a war on COVID going on as there is a war on travel. The CDC has put five places in Europe on its list of "very high" travel risk destinations, including one of the very biggest for tourism, France. Also included on the list were Cyprus, Liechtenstein, and Portugal.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So will New Yorkers be mad about these new business vaccine mandates? Not if this Morning Consult poll is to be believed. It shows broad approval by Americans for strict measures to control COVID, as long it doesn’t cause businesses and services to shut down. The most commonly supported measures are better ventilation and enforcing social distancing. But masking and vaccine mandates also get the support of a comfortable majority, as in almost 70%.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I