Jury fines BlueCross for firing worker over COVID-19 vaccine mandate | Chattanooga Times Free Press

A Tennessee jury has awarded a former research scientist at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee $687,000 in back pay and damages after she was fired in 2021 for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Following a three-day jury trial in Chattanooga last week, a federal jury decided BlueCross failed to provide reasonable accommodation for Tanja Benton, who did most of her work from home and claimed a religious exemption to the company's vaccine mandate.

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Biden administration proposes rule for workplaces to address excessive heat President Joe Biden's administration is proposing a rule aimed at addressing excessive heat in the workplace, as tens of millions of people in the U.S. are under heat advisories due to blistering temperatures. AP News

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U.S. awards Moderna $176 million to produce bird flu vaccine

The U.S. government has awarded $176 million to Moderna to advance development of its bird flu vaccine, the company said on Tuesday, as concerns rise over a multi-state outbreak of H5N1 virus in dairy cows and infections of three dairy workers since March.

The funds from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will be used to complete late-stage development and testing of a pre-pandemic mRNA-based vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza, the company said in a statement....

COVID Is Surging Right Now—This Is the #1 Symptom to Look Out For, According to Infectious Disease Experts You may have missed it entirely. Yahoo News

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Infectious disease experts and epidemiologists we spoke with agreed that the most common COVID symptom of the current surge is a sore throat.