Are unvaccinated women prone to stillbirths?
- Unvaccinated women who contracted COVID-19 during pregnancy were at a higher risk of stillbirths. a study found.
- Women were more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit, give birth prematurely or die.
- None of the stillbirths doctors studied involved a pregnant person who had been fully vaccinated and the pattern was consistent.
- Pharmaceutical companies and government officials failed to ensure that pregnant people were included in the early development of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Seattle to end hazard pay for grocery store workers
- The Seattle City Council voted to end pandemic hazard pay — an additional $4 dollars an hour — to grocery store workers.
- Grocery businesses that employ at least 500 staff members worldwide have been required to pay their workers an additional $4 dollars an hour since the hazard pay was set in 2021.
- Socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant cited COVID-19 surges and inflation as reasons to not cut grocery workers’ pay, saying “they deserve a raise, not a pay cut.”
- Meanwhile, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen made $18 million last year and Albertsons President Sharon McCollam was paid $11.7 million, Sawant cited.
OSHA says more training needed after workers shot by a shoplifter
- OSHA proposed $330,446 in penalties to a Family Dollar store in Orlando after an investigation into a fatal shoplifting incident uncovered willful and repeat safety violations.
- Shortly after struggling with a shoplifter in a failed effort to prevent their escape with merchandise, a 41-year-old store employee experienced shortness of breath and nausea.
- An assistant manager called 911, but the employee later died at a local hospital.
- OSHA cited Family Dollar Stores Inc. for entrapment hazards and issued a hazard alert letter for exposing employees to hazardous conditions associated with workplace violence.
Investigator opened after the death of nursery home worker
- OSHA is looking into the Covid-19 death of a Buffalo man employed at two nursing homes.
- Adrienne K. Johnson, 60, a full-time cook at Williamsville Suburban and part-time kitchen worker at Terrace View Long Term Care, died Dec. 20, four days after testing positive for Covid-19.
- Johnson was the second local nursing home worker known to die from the virus.
- OSHA regulations require employers to report workplace-related deaths within eight hours of the occurrence of the fatality.