Monthly Archives: August 2021

Vaccine mandates are on the rise after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval of Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 vaccine and Moderna submitted for full federal approval of its vaccine, bringing to light an issue dividing the country as supporters say a mandate is for the common good while opponents call for medical freedom.

And as the number of COVID-19 cases climb nationwide, with the seven-day average topping 150,000 this week for the first time since January, health officials are pleading with the public to get vaccinated.

I wish everyone was mandated to have the vaccine. Its a political problem, particularly in the deep South, Dr. David Thrasher, director of respiratory services at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama, told Yahoo Finance. I dont want the government telling me what to do, but this is one for the common good.

Public and private sector employers are mandating vaccines as the U.S. sees a surge in cases, driven largely by the highly contagious Delta variant. So far this week, Goldman Sachs, Chevron, and UPS are among several companies announcing vaccine mandates for employees. The Pentagon also said Monday that it is requiring all U.S. military service members to be fully vaccinated, while Disney World reached a deal to require workers at its Florida theme parks to be innocculated.

Hospitals are overwhelmed in states where vaccination rates are low, including Thrashs home state of Alabama, as well as Mississippi, and Louisiana, as unvaccinated patients make up the majority of COVID-19 patients hospitalized.

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U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations have now surpassed 100,000 for the first time since January, with ICU beds at or near capacity in a number of states. In Alabama, hospitals are facing a severe shortage of ICU beds as the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations climbed to 2,845 as of Wednesday. The state currently has an ICU bed deficit of 54, according to the Alabama Hospital Association, and of those hospitalized, 85% were unvaccinated and 3% were partially vaccinated.

Alabamas vaccination rate, although rising, remains among the lowest in the nation with about 48% of Alabama residents having received at least one dose. Nationwide, about 202 million people, or 61% of the total U.S. population, have received at least one shot.

A surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is also fueling renewed calls for mask mandates. A number of state and local officials have already sprung into action. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said on Tuesday that the state is restoring an indoor and outdoor statewide mask mandate. And last week, Los Angeles County enacted an outdoor mask mandate for large outdoor events of over 10,000 people.

On the other hand, a number of GOP governors are holding firm on orders banning mask mandates, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

It's a shame, Thrasher said of governors who have politicized mask mandates. Masks are not hurting anybody. They clearly help. How much flu did you see last year? None because the masks work. It's a shame it's become such a political issue.

In Texas this week, a Dallas County judge ruled against Abbotts order to ban mask mandates in the state and therefore allowing Dallas County to reinstate a mask mandate, the same day the governor reissued his ban on vaccine mandates regardless of federal approval status.

Seana Smith anchors Yahoo Finance Lives 3-5 p.m. ET program. Follow her on Twitter @SeanaNSmith

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Delta variant surge: 'I wish everyone was mandated to have the vaccine,' says Alabama doctor - Yahoo Finance

Web service provider Yahoo said it is shutting down its news operations in India on August 26 citing new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regulations.

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Yahoo will shut down its services including Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Finance, Entertainment and MAKERS India. The change will not affect users of Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Search.

As of August 26, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account, Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual, a statement on Yahoo India homepage read.

The Verizon Media owned company ceased publication of content in the country as the new FDI policy, which will come into effect in October, limits foreign funding of more than 26% in digital news media outlets.

Also Read | Yahoo Groups to shut down on December 15

Yahoo said on its FAQ page it did not come to this decision lightly but has been impacted by changes to regulatory laws in India that limit foreign ownership of media companies.

Answering a question on shutting down of Yahoo Cricket, it explained that Yahoo Cricket has a news component which is why it was impacted under the new FDI regulations.

The company noted that it has a long association with India and remains open to opportunities that connect to users.

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Yahoo shuts down news sites in India over FDI regulations - The Hindu

Billionaire "Bond King" Jeffrey Gundlach says the stimulus and the Federal Reserve's low interest rates have "been a very deep punch bowl spiked pretty heavily with 100-proof liquor," and "once this party ends, the hangover is going to be in the form of a sharp drop in economic growth."

Gundlach, the founder and CEO of $137 billion DoubleLine Capital, explained that the economic picture in the U.S. is "very hard to divine" because of the government's intervention.

"It's like pushing on like a waterbed or something. As you push on the side of the waterbed, the other side goes up, and weird things happen, and you can't really compare it to a time period where you're not pushing on a waterbed," Gundlach told Yahoo Finance Live exclusively on Monday, adding that "it's very hard to discern what's going to happen."

The 61-year-old bond investor noted that the employment situation in the U.S. "is really fascinating, and it's kind of seminal to the screwed-up nature of the economy."

In the U.S., GDP has recovered from the depths of the pandemic and is essentially flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, and that's with 5.8 million fewer jobs compared to February 2020. Meanwhile, the latest JOLTS report showed job openings in the U.S. reaching 10.1 million.

"Everywhere you go, almost any profession you ask, they say they have a hard time getting workers. Well, no surprise. People are making more money or the same amount of money by not working, and the government continues to support that," he said.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive and chief investment officer of DoubleLine Capital, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Gundlach argues that when the stimulus programs ultimately end or when the moratorium on evictions is lifted, "There's going to be tremendous economic disruption." On the eviction moratorium, when that ends, Gundlach believes there will be "all kinds of consequences," including rents going "way up."

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"The officials have a tiger by the tail, and for now they are not getting clawed or mauled by the tiger. But if you let go of the tail of the tiger, you're going to very likely get mauled. And that's what's going to happen," Gundlach said.

The investor also highlighted that the rebound in GDP, which is 70% consumption, has been fueled by the stimulus.

"As this economy has rebounded back on a GDP basis, it's done so with tremendous increase in the trade deficit. Multiple percentage points of GDP have come from an increase in the trade deficit that's not real GDP," Gundlach said.

He argued that consumption is "not really the economy," but instead, the economy is about production.

"And when you buy goods produced in Asia with stimulus money, it shows up as GDP, but it's really Asian GDP, it's consumption for the United States. So the economy isn't really that strong, as you point out, with 5 million fewer jobs. It shows up as correctly, mathematically, in the productivity equation, but it's really Chinese productivity," Gundlach said.

Elsewhere, Gundlach believes that one reason consumer sentiment recently cratered in the most recent reading "has to do with the fact that people are aware that maybe stimulus is getting a little shakier in terms of our ability to predictably rely if it's coming again."

The University of Michigan's preliminary reading on consumer sentiment for August fell 11 points to 70.2, the lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic began and one of the worst declines in the survey's more than 50-year history.

The bond investor also brought up the Misery Index, an economic indicator that's the sum of CPI and the unemployment rate, which is back in the double-digits. The U.S. Misery Index is currently at a level of 10.77, down from the prior month's 11.29 reading.

"Maybe the consumers are feeling the inflation. I think people are starting to realize that inflation is out there. If you ask people what the big thing worrying you about the economy, overwhelmingly right now, what comes across is inflation because people see it at the gas pump, at the supermarket. As long as there's stimulus happening, I see food inflation as continuing," Gundlach said.

Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

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Gundlach: Low rates, stimulus have been 'a very deep punch bowl spiked pretty heavily with 100-proof liquor' - Yahoo Finance

Hawaii was the summer poster child of what a U.S. travel rebound could look like, but now it's quickly turning into what could be a nightmare fall.

As Hawaii's Lieutenant Governor Josh Green explained to Yahoo Finance Thursday, a 14-fold spike in COVID-19 infections since July and a surge in hospitalizations has led the Aloha state to "hit the pause button on travel to Hawaii until October."

"As a physician, I'm seeing the impact on our hospitals. Our hospitals are now full in the state of Hawaii because we've had a large surge since July 4," Green said. "And when I say full, I mean so full with COVID patients that we don't have any access to transfer other patients, like heart attack patients and stroke patients that I see in the hospital, because we don't have ICU beds."

Hawaii's huge step backwards is particularly surprising given how stringent testing requirements for travelers basically eradicated COVID on the island earlier this year. It's also surprising given Hawaii's vaccination status. About 66% of Hawaii's adult population is fully vaccinated, and a nation-leading 87% of its adult population has received at least one dose.

The state only recorded about 50 cases a day in July, when the state opted to lift its requirement for U.S. travelers to show a negative test before traveling to the islands as long as they were vaccinated. But now, as the state averages more than 700 daily cases, Green explains federal travel guidelines are complicating a return to stricter controls at the state level.

"We now have to wrestle with the fact that the CDC and the FDA have given us formal recommendations that people can travel safely if they are fully vaccinated. That creates some legal challenges," he said. "I will say this, there is still a concern that people will catch and spread the Delta variant even if they are fully vaccinated."

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As such, Gov. David Ige (D, Hawaii) stopped short of either requiring testing for travelers or officially restricting travel from other states, however, Green did note renewed capacity restraints on the island could force travelers to reconsider. Earlier in August, for example, the state limited indoor capacity in restaurants, bars, and gyms to 50%.

"It will be a little more difficult to get a restaurant reservation. No one is allowed to gather indoors with groups larger than 10, or outdoors in groups larger than 25. That means that a lot of the activities that people tend to do in Hawaii are severely restricted," Green said.

Some on the island, including billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, have criticized the restrictions for not going far enough. But for a state that suffered the largest spike in unemployment as its tourist-dependent economy saw a nearly 100% reduction in travel, the latest wave has become particularly complicated as small business owners were just starting to recover.

"With the lowest mortality rate in the pandemic, I think Mr. Benioff should be applauding that," Green said. "Ultimately, vaccinating is what will end this pandemic. Science will end this pandemic, and we will do our best."

Zack Guzman is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live as well as a senior writer covering entrepreneurship, crypto, cannabis, startups, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.

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Why Hawaii 'hitting the pause button' on travel is turning heads - Yahoo Finance

Salesforce (CRM) delivered yet another record quarterly report as the cloud-based software giant's products continue to benefit from more companies embracing the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.

"Our products are just more relevant than they've ever been. I think every CEO is realizing that this pandemic is not going away we're in a new pandemic world, an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. And companies are investing in their digital infrastructure so that they can set themselves up to grow in this new world," Salesforce president and COO Bret Taylor told Yahoo Finance Live on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Salesforce reported better-than-expected second-quarter results, with quarterly revenue crossing $6 billion for the first time. For the second quarter, Salesforce posted $6.34 billion in revenue, up 23% year-over-year. The cloud giant delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1.48, well ahead of estimates of 92 cents per share.

Salesforce also raised its guidance for fiscal 2022 to a range of $26.2 to $26.3 billion, up $300 million from the prior guide, and representing approximately 23% to 24% year-over-year growth. The company expects to reach $50 billion in annual revenue by fiscal 2026.

Salesforce's Sales, Service, Marketing & Commerce, Platform, Tableau, MuleSoft, and Slack are all billion-dollar-plus products, or what CEO Marc Benioff has dubbed, "a herd of unicorns." In July, Salesforce closed on its $27.7 billion record acquisition of messaging app Slack Technologies, which will play a critical role in its bet on a digital work-from-anywhere future.

The Slack app icon is displayed on a computer screen, Wednesday, Dec 2, 2020, in Tokyo. In a deal announced Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020, business software pioneer Salesforce.com is buying work-chatting service Slack for $27.7 billion in a deal aimed at giving the two companies a better shot at competing against longtime industry powerhouse Microsoft. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

As the debate about the future of work continues across corporate America, Taylor contends that with the Delta COVID-19 variant, more CEOs are realizing, "This isn't just going to snap back." As such, boards and leadership teams are "realizing that investing in your digital employee experience, your digital partner experience, and your digital customer experience is paramount if you want to go grow in this new normal," Taylor added.

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In this new normal, tools like Slack "represent a vision for a new way to work" that is more asynchronous and provides more flexibility for employees. Taylor added that Slack also offers new tools and workflows, allowing a sales team, for example, to close a quarter "better and faster."

Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

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Salesforce president on record Q2: 'Our products are just more relevant than they've ever been' - Yahoo Finance

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bolsters the argument that unvaccinated individuals are at a much higher risk of experiencing the worst outcomes of COVID-19 than vaccinated individuals.

These data indicate that authorized vaccines protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19, even with increased community transmission of the newly predominant Delta variant, the CDC report stated.

Between May 1 and July 25, 2021, unvaccinated residents of Los Angeles County, California, were 29.2 times more likely to be hospitalized by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, than their fully vaccinated counterparts. Those unvaccinated individuals also accounted for 71.4% of all infections during that time.

Unvaccinated LA residents studied were more than 29 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID than fully vaccinated individuals. (Chart: CDC)

About 51.6% of the American population is fully vaccinated. In California, about 55.1% of the population is fully vaccinated while 67.9% have received at least one dose.

This really is a medical miracle that we were able to take the information that weve had over the past two decades and have all of our agencies working together to get us a vaccine in record time, Dr. Adam Brown, Envision Healthcares COVID-19 national task force chair, said on Yahoo Finance Live recently. But whats important for folks to recognize is that the safety procedures, the clinical trials, the number of people who were tested with the vaccine, have been followed just like they have been with other types of medications.

Vaccination has slowed despite scientific data showing that the vaccines make a significant difference in preventing serious illness and death. Unvaccinated individuals cited reasons including distrust of the FDA, concerns over side effects (stemming from misinformation), or personal liberties.

The FDA initially granted Pfizer (PFE), along with Moderna (MRNA) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), emergency use authorizations for their COVID-19 vaccines, meaning that they would allow the use "in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives."

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The FDA granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine on Monday, and the new CDC study further corroborates the idea that the vaccines work.

I understand theres a lot of fear out there, Brown said. Theres a lot of information coming at people from multiple different sources about the vaccine, about the virus, about masks. The fact is that these vaccines are safe. And when you look at our hospitals, you look at the people who are sadly dying from COVID-19, they are primarily with a high percentage those who are unvaccinated.

A woman holds an American flag and prays "in tongues," or in an unknown language, according to the Pentecostal Christian belief, as anti-vaccination protesters gather near City Hall in Los Angeles, on Aug. 14, 2021. (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP)

The Pfizer vaccine is the only shot available for children under age 18, though those under the age of 12 still can't get it. That leaves millions of children still vulnerable to the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, and data has shown more children are being hospitalized now than at any other point during the pandemic.

The CDC study found that the unvaccinated individuals in LA County represented 85% of deaths, 86.9% of those admitted to intensive care units, and 87.3% of those who required mechanical ventilation to assist with their breathing.

The report also detailed the rise of the Delta variant. In May, the Alpha variant accounted for 55% of cases among the unvaccinated in Los Angeles County. By July, the Delta variant accounted for an overwhelming number of cases among the unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, and even fully vaccinated residents.

The Delta variant now accounts for a majority of COVID cases. (Chart: CDC)

Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells and reach her at adriana@yahoofinance.com.

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Unvaccinated LA residents were 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19: CDC study - Yahoo Finance

Delta Air Lines broke new ground recently by requiring unvaccinated employees to pay an extra $200 per month for company-provided health insurance. That may be a bargain for workers refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

The average cost of hospitalization for Covid-19 is around $20,000, according to recently published data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. At $200 per month, it would take 100 months of added premiums, or more than 8 years worth, to cover the cost of a Covid hospital visit. That doesnt cover lost worker productivity, testing and other disruptions, which is probably why Deltas chief health officer said recently that the $200 monthly surcharge wouldnt come close to fully covering the added costs related to unvaccinated workers.

[Read more: Vaccine mandates: Here are the companies requiring proof of inoculation from employees]

Delta (DAL) said the extra payments are meant to impose some accountability on unvaccinated workers who are raising costs and risks for everybody. Other companies could follow suit. The Food and Drug Administrations full approval of the Pfizer Covid vaccine on Aug. 23 removes legal barriers some companies felt prevented them from requiring workers to get vaccinated, or treating unvaccinated workers differently from those who have gotten their shots. More companies are now requiring workers to get jabbed, and theres some evidence more Americans will now be willing to get their shots.

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But with about 26% of adult Americans still unvaccinated, companies are likely to be grappling with the ramifications of unprotected workers for months or years. Every unvaccinated person wont get Covid, and every person who gets Covid wont end up hospitalized. So every unvaccinated worker doesnt represent a $20,000 risk. But unvaccinated workers clearly represent some higher cost of care. An obvious question for employers is whether that higher cost should be pooled among all workers, or borne directly by those choosing not to get vaccinated.

Deltas $200 per month insurance surcharge appears to be a compromise. Delta is choosing not to require current workers to get vaccinated as a condition of employment, as rival United (UAL) and many other companies are, for reasons the company hasnt explained. It may have something to do with political opposition to vaccine mandates in Deltas home state of Georgia. There are also questions as to whether charging some employees more for insurance complies with the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits higher insurance premiums for people with pre-existing conditions, except for narrow exceptions, such as smoking. So Delta could face a legal challenge.

Whats much more clear is the mounting health and financial toll associated with the unvaccinated. Kaiser estimates 113,000 unvaccinated Americans who were hospitalized with Covid-19 in June and July would have stayed out of the hospital had they gotten vaccinated. At an average cost of $20,000 per hospitalization, those unvaccinated Covid victims required about $2.3 billion in unnecessary health care spending, in just two months.

Most people dont pay the full cost of a visit, since they have government or private-sector insurance. But the plans pay, and if higher costs for one type of illness raise overall costs, then the cost of insurance for everybody will go up. People without insurance do face the entire cost of a hospital visit, though sometimes hospitals negotiate the cost down or end up writing it off for people who cant pay.

The cost of going unvaccinated is rising in a variety of ways. Some unvaxxed workers have lost their jobs because they refuse to abide by employer vaccine requirements, which courts have ruled legal. With full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine, many employers may decide they are legally obligated to require vaccines, to protect workers and customers. The unvaccinated also face a kind of outsider status as more states, cities and private organizations require proof of vaccination to eat at a restaurant or attend events like concerts and professional sports.

A patient receives her booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine during an Oakland County Health Department vaccination clinic at the Southfield Pavilion on August 24, 2021 in Southfield, Michigan. Oakland County is the second county in Michigan to reach the state's goal of vaccinating 70% of its population. (Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images)

Theres also the obvious risk of dying. Health officials now say nearly every Covid death in the United States is preventable, since vaccines are widely available, for free, and they largely forestall death and serious illness. More than 31,000 Americans have died of Covid since the beginning of June, an astounding measure of needless loss. Many of those victims were workers lost to their companies forever and providers who no longer provide. The cost of dying is plainly higher than the cost of going unvaccinated, and at this point most Americans have the ability to avert both.

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including "Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman. You can also send confidential tips, and click here to get Ricks stories by email.

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New weekly jobless claims hovered near their lowest level since March 2020, underscoring the sustained improvement in the labor market despite ongoing concerns over the Delta variant and worker shortages.

The Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

Initial unemployment claims, week ended August 21: 353,000vs. 350,000 expected and a revised 349,000 during the prior week

Continuing claims, week ended August 14: 2.862 million vs. 2.772 million expected and 2.820 million during the prior week

At 353,000, the level of new jobless claims was up slightly from the previous week, marking the first increase in initial claims in five weeks. Still, weekly claims have more than halved compared to their weekly pace in August 2020, and have trended lower since the start of 2021. And the four-week moving average for new jobless claims came down by another 11,500 to reach 366,500, marking the lowest level since March 2020.

The U.S. economy, however, has yet to return to the weekly filing levels of the period before the pandemic. New claims were coming in at a weekly rate of just over 200,000 throughout 2019.

And the total number of individuals claiming benefits across all state and federal programs remains elevated relative to pre-virus sums. As of the week ended August 7, about 12 million Americans were claiming benefits of all forms, marking an increase of 182,000 versus the previous period.

This total, while bumpy, has largely come down as more vaccinations took place and more than two dozen states phased out federal enhanced unemployment benefits, with the hope of incentivizing workers to rejoin the labor market. At the national level, all states are set to phase out pandemic-era federal augmented unemployment benefits as of Sept. 6.

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Many economists are looking for the broader expiration of these unemployment benefits and the start of the school year to provide a further boost to the labor market in the coming weeks and months.

"Fundamentally, if we look at the production side of the economy, labor's going to come more back to the market after Labor Day when kids are back in school, where more folks are vaccinated, when those unemployment benefits run out," JoAnne Feeney, partner and portfolio manager at Advisors Capital Management, told Yahoo Finance. "We have a lot of good fundamentals in place for continued economic growth."

Others highlighted that the increase in COVID-19 cases does pose a risk to the pace of the economic recovery, but that the labor market should ultimately still see a strong pick-up even against this backdrop.

"Not to sound too sanguine we do see the rise in the Delta cases, that is a downside risk to the economy but we do think that each of these surges has had less of an impact on the economy, partly because the appetite for adding restrictions from the administration seems to be lower," Priya Misra, TD Securities managing director, told Yahoo Finance. "We do see a slowing in the economic outlook, or GDP, but remaining very robust, and the labor market really accelerating. GDP has outpaced the labor market, and now it's time for the labor market to catch up."

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck

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Jobless claims: Another 353,000 individuals filed new claims last week - Yahoo Finance

New confirmed cases of COVID-19 and resulting hospitalizations are skyrocketing in Florida, and the mayor of Fort Lauderdale would like Governor Ron DeSantis to rethink some of the policies contributing to elevated transmission.

If theres an ultimate political agenda trying to appeal to some sort of outlier group thinking thats going to advance a person politically, I just think theyre misjudging what people really want, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). And I think that its ok to step back. Its OK to say all right, maybe we should change course.

DeSantis, a staunch Republican who is eyeing a 2024 election bid, enacted policies banning masks in schools and downplayed the latest Delta variant-driven surge while newly confirmed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths rose to new pandemic highs in the state.

No one is going to blame anybody for doing the wrong thing because look, in government, we dont always make the right choices, said Trantalis, a Democrat. But we do know that if we do make a wrong choice, we need to live by it and we need to accept the wrong choice and try to do the right thing. Id ask the governor to rethink his agenda and try to work with all of the local communities in trying to keep people safe here.

Hospitals in Florida are running out of ICU beds as they're being inundated with COVID patients, most of them unvaccinated. (Floridas overall vaccination rate is 51.6%, which is on par with the nations average of 51.5%.) The city of Orlando is now asking its residents to restrict their water use in order to make sure there's enough to use as liquid oxygen for COVID patients.

"Our hospitals are experiencing the highest number of unvaccinated, critically ill patients at this point as any other point during the pandemic," Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said at a press conference on Friday. "Many of these patients require liquid oxygen."

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Over the last 18 months, Florida has seen 3,040,590 total cases and 42,252 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. The Sunshine State also ranks fifth overall in terms of the number of cases per 100,000 people at 14,157.

Keep in mind that its not just older people that are getting this disease, Trantalis said. We just had a recent death in our own police department, a 27-year-old young woman with a newborn child, a new husband, and tomorrow is her funeral. 27 years old, not vaccinated.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference to announce the opening of a monoclonal antibody treatment site for COVID-19 patients at Lakes Church in Lakeland, Florida, on August 21, 2021. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Conservatives have praised Gov. DeSantis throughout the pandemic for keeping the states economy going, while health officials have criticized his moves as dangerous to public health.

According to Trantalis, you would have to ask DeSantis what his ultimate goal is with his attitude towards the pandemic.

All I know is that as I listen to the folks around the country, those in the medical community, theyre insisting that masks are important to prevent the spread of the disease and that vaccinations are clearly the best choice in terms of whether or not this disease is going to ever achieve the herd immunity that were hoping to achieve, Trantalis said.

DeSantis has come out strongly against mask mandates, going as far as threatening to withhold funding from schools that mandate students to wear masks.

School-age children are proving to be more vulnerable to the Delta variant, which has become the dominant strain of coronavirus circulating in America. Cases in children have risen substantially since the beginning of July and now account for 18% of newly confirmed weekly cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), indicating an increased going into the new school year.

The reality is we have a public to protect, Trantalis said. Governments sole purpose is to protect its citizens. If we fail in that, then we fail in our responsibility. The school board made the right decision. The school board is now being assisted by the federal government in any way that it can to draw up any of the resources that might be denied as a result of the state trying to take some sort of action against it.

Broward County recently approved a mask mandate for schools and is now facing threats from the Florida Education Commissioner, who has warned that board members could start losing their salaries if they refuse to include an opt-out clause for parents in any county-level masking policy.

We cannot tolerate this as a community, as a society, knowing that theres a possible cure out there and then to ignore it, Trantalis said. Its just playing Russian Roulette with our society.

In addition to encouraging mask wearing, Trantalis is also working towards getting more of his constituents vaccinated.

In Broward County, in particular, just over 50% of the people are actually vaccinated fully, Trantalis said. So whats the message we have to make? What do we have to say to convince people that vaccination is the way out of this pandemic? Were looking for ways.

The foundation of his efforts centers around one key course of action: Following the science.

Weve talked about that since day one, Trantalis said. Last year in March, we closed our beaches for spring break because that was the science back then: Avoid close contact, try to get people out of cramped quarters in these hotel rooms where all these kids were visiting our state.

Since then, he said, theyve learned that there are more efficient courses of action. Beaches and hotels have since reopened, but Fort Lauderdale is strongly encouraging vaccinations.

We have free vaccination sites all over the city, Trantalis said. We even started pop-up sites in places that we find that the vaccination rate is least utilized for example, in many of our churches, especially some of our fundamentalist folks who seem to have an aversion to this vaccine. Were going to their pastors and setting pop-up vaccination sites at their churches.

A man talks with a health worker as he waits to be inoculated against COVID-19 during a vaccination event at FTX Arena in Miami, August 5, 2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello

The city is specifically reaching out to the homeless and Black communities. (Black Americans are less likely to have received a COVID-19 vaccine than their white counterparts, despite being disproportionately hit harder by the pandemic.)

This includes setting up pop-up vaccination sites, asking their pastors to spread the word, to preach the word to say that vaccinations are the right thing to do, Trantalis said. But were doing it without fanfare. Were doing it on a community-by-community basis. But were getting it done.

The state as a whole, however, is struggling to break down cultural and politcal barriers to successfully fight off the latest surge.

Unfortunately, Florida is a hot spot here in the nation, Trantalis said. One out of every five new cases is in Florida. Its really difficult to have to deal with that because it impacts so many people. It impacts schoolchildren. It impacts our hospitality business. It impacts people just coming to and from work because the message of getting vaccinated just doesnt seem to penetrate the culture here.

Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells and reach her at adriana@yahoofinance.com.

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Former long-time Cisco CEO John Chambers has done business in China for decades, dealing with corporate leaders and government officials. The various dealings were always tough, acknowledges Chambers, but importantly there was a certain predictability to them and a focus on win-win outcomes.

But that predictability has evaporated as the Chinese government cracks down on the business operations of Didi (DIDI) and other big tech players in the country, says Chambers.

As a result of this new unpredictability from Chinese officials, Chambers is suggesting to the leaders of the portfolio of upstart tech companies he oversees as founder and CEO of venture capital firm JC2 Ventures to be more cautious when doing business in the country.

"I think they [China] overreached in terms of the most recent technology moves they made in hampering their tech startups," Chambers said on Yahoo Finance Live. "Will they be the largest economy in the world inevitably? Yes. Will the U.S. and China eventually figure out how to get along? Yes. Do I think it will be bumpy? Yes. And will I be investing in China at the present time, especially as a small company that has technology leadership? I would not."

The harder line on China tech companies has pummeled investors in some of the most well-known names.

Shares of Tencent have plunged 32% over the last six months, Alibaba (BABA) is down 35% and Didi has crashed nearly 50%. JD.com (JD) shares have performed the best on a relative basis, but are still down 22%.

The Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF (PGJ) which holds investments in top China names such as Nio (NIO) and Alibaba has shed an astounding 55% in the past six months.

The situation may be poised to get even bumpier, too.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler told Bloomberg on Tuesday the "clock is ticking" on delisting Chinese companies.

"I think they [China] have to get back to that [being more predictable]. I don't think it's in their country's best interest long-term or ours. Both sides are to blame there," Chambers added.

Story continues

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Former Cisco CEO says he is 'not investing in China' - Yahoo Finance