Pandemic roundup: Nursing shortage means hospitals could be easily overwhelmed; vaccine mandate penalties delayed

Here's a roundup of recent news stories about the pandemic and vaccination efforts:

The Biden administration is delaying vaccine mandate penalties until 2022. Read more here.

The current nursing shortage means it won't take much to overwhelm hospitals this winter. Read more here.

Many nurses are leaving their jobs and tripling their salaries as travel nurses. Read more here.

The Trump administration gave a new agency $100 million to alleviate pandemic supply-chain problems in the health-care sector, but a government watchdog has found that the agency did not distribute any of the money. Read more here.

Medical professionals are often dismissive of patients with "long Covid," or symptoms that linger for months after the infection subsides. But even medical professionals themselves, who are used to being taken seriously, are having a hard time getting providers to believe they have long Covid. Read more here.

Pediatricians warn parents to watch out for long Covid symptoms in children. Read more here.

The American Psychiatric Association has added "prolonged grief disorder" to its diagnostic manual of mental disorders—an increasingly common ailment during the pandemic as many struggle with multiple losses. Read more here.

The Marine Corps is on track to have the lowest compliance rates with the coronavirus vaccine mandate. Read more here.

State lawmakers' anti-vaccine efforts may prove to be mostly symbolic, but could serve to rally Republican voters ahead of the midterm elections. Read more here.

In a New York Times op-ed, a rural Michigan doctor writes about how unvaccinated Covid-19 patients are filling the beds in the hospital where he works. Read more here.