Alaska opens vaccines to residents 16 and older
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy announced Tuesday that the COVID-19 vaccine is available for everyone who lives or works in Alaska and is 16 or older, making the state the first in the nation to remove eligibility requirements. The state decided to open vaccines to all Alaskans for reasons including the increasing vaccine availability and the effective vaccine rollout, especially by tribal health organizations, according to the governor. Fairbanks News-Miner
New Mexico House passes bill to cover COVID-19 in workers’ comp
Essential employees in New Mexico who contract COVID-19 and who can demonstrate their employers did not comply with existing public health orders would qualify for workers’ compensation benefits under a bill passed Monday by the New Mexico House of Representatives. The bill, which now moves to the state senate, also would allow employers to rebut the claim if they could prove the employee violated a public health order. Las Cruces Sun News
Attorney: Arizona workers’ comp opinion may apply to COVID-19 stress
Among those employees teleworking all or most of the time now, many have reported difficulties getting their work done without interruptions, feeling motivated to do their work, meeting deadlines, and having adequate technology and equipment to do their jobs. One might think such increased stressors would lead to a jump in the number of Arizona workers’ compensation benefits being paid for mental injuries arising from stress related to COVID-19, writes Ryan Heath, attorney at Gilson Daub LLP. Law360
Diplomats were ignored after warning in 2018 of risky coronavirus experiments in Wuhan lab
The original Chinese government story, that the coronavirus pandemic spread from a seafood market in Wuhan, was the first and therefore most widely accepted theory. After seeing a risky lab in late 2017, however, U.S. diplomats and officials at the Beijing Embassy alerted Washington that the lab’s own scientists had reported “a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory.” Politico
Former Georgia insurance agent pleads guilty to fraud
A former Gwinnett County, Georgia insurance agent pleaded guilty last month to swindling business owners out of workers’s compensation insurance coverage and has been sentenced to seven years’ probation and $26,000 in restitution. WGCL