States Begin To Cast Vaccine Net Wider, Covering More Groups

The New York Times: Dolly Parton, Who Helped Fund The Moderna Vaccine, Gets A ‘Dose Of Her Own Medicine.’
The country music star Dolly Parton has another new gig: Singing the praises of coronavirus shots and getting vaccinated on camera. Last year, Ms. Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which worked with the drug maker Moderna to develop one of the first coronavirus vaccines to be authorized in the United States. The federal government eventually invested $1 billion in the creation and testing of the vaccine, but the leader of the research effort, Dr. Mark Denison, said that the singer’s donation had funded its critical early stages. On Tuesday, Ms. Parton, 75, received a Moderna shot at Vanderbilt Health in Tennessee. “Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine,” she wrote on Twitter. (Ives, 3/2)

More groups are made eligible in some states —

CNBC: Detroit Expands Covid Vaccine Eligibility To Autoworkers
Manufacturing employees in the city, such as autoworkers, are now eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine without any restrictions such as age or proof of preexisting conditions. The expanded eligibility for Detroit manufacturing workers marks a major expansion for autoworker eligibility for vaccination following similar actions by municipalities such as Boone County in Illinois. It should assist in keeping employees safe and auto plants up and running. (Wayland, 3/2)

AP: Arkansas Makes Food Plant Workers Eligible For Vaccine
Workers at Arkansas’ poultry plants and other food manufacturing facilities are now eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Tuesday, in a move that opens up access to the vaccine for an additional 49,000 people. Hutchinson made the announcement as state health officials reported the first case in Arkansas of someone infected with United Kingdom variant of the virus. (3/2)

North Carolina Health News: People With Disabilities Moved To Vaccine List 
Linda Guzman has been lying awake nights, worried about her son JJ, a young man in his twenties who has autism. “It could be catastrophic for JJ if he contracted the virus with all his other health issues,” Guzman wrote in an email to John Nash, head of The Arc of North Carolina, an organization that provides services and advocacy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “I have done my best to protect him, but the stress and anxiety of doing so have been overwhelming at times,” the Chapel Hill mother wrote. (Hoban, 3/3)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana COVID-19 Vaccine: VA Will Vaccinate Some Vets As Young As 18
While most Indiana residents need to be 55 or older to be eligible for vaccination, veterans in the state 18 and older can sign up for the shot. Last week, veterans 45 and older who receive care through the VA could sign up for the vaccine at the Indianapolis Veteran Affairs Medical Center, according to Veteran Health Indiana's Facebook page. At that time, the Indianapolis VA had vaccinated more than 15,000 veterans. Monday, the VA opened eligibility for those 18 and over according to the Facebook page. Some designated caregivers also are eligible to receive vaccine, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (Rudavsky, 3/2)

Tampa Bay Times: DeSantis Dropped Off 3,000 Vaccines To A Pinellas Senior Community. But Was The Distribution Fair?
Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference on Feb. 18 at the Mainlands of Tamarac by the Gulf, announcing the arrival of 3,000 vaccines for the Pinellas Park senior community. But the process that followed after the cameras were turned off was chaotic and questioned by some. (LeFever and Contorno, 3/3)

Boston Globe: State Offered Leftover Vaccines To Civilians At A Clinic For First Responders, Prompting Questions
State officials invited nearly 300 civilians on three separate days in January and February to receive a shot at the Massachusetts State Police headquarters in Framingham, where officials said they had extra doses at a clinic and, in at least one instance, faced “limited time” to find arms to put them in before they would be wasted. Each of the individuals vaccinated — 292 in all — were either over the age of 75 or personal care attendants, all of whom were eligible to receive a vaccine, according to a spokesman for Governor Charlie Baker’s public safety office. Administration officials said Tuesday that they could not identify any of the civilians, citing legal restrictions on releasing people’s medical information. (Stout, 3/2)

But other groups are still waiting —

Stat: Pilots Flying Covid-19 Vaccines Call For Their Turn To Be Vaccinated
Thousands of UPS and FedEx pilots have flown around the globe for months to deliver doses of Covid-19 vaccines, their landings broadcast as breaking news in the historic vaccination effort. But many of those pilots have yet to receive the vaccines they’re transporting, because the aviation industry’s attempt to get freight pilots vaccinated early has struggled to gain traction as states take varying approaches to who can get immunized at each stage of the rollout. (Rapoport, 3/3)

KHN and KPCC: In California, Caregivers Of People With Disabilities Are Being Turned Away At COVID Vaccine Sites 
In California, confusion and botched communication has caused some eligible parents and family caregivers of people with disabilities to be turned away at covid vaccination sites. Oscar Madrigal is one of those caregivers. His two sons are on the autism spectrum and his youngest requires almost constant care. (Fortier, 3/3)

AP: California Clinics: More Vaccines Going To Rich Than At-Risk
Teresa Parada is exactly the kind of person equity-minded California officials say they want to vaccinate: She’s a retired factory worker who speaks little English and lives in a hard-hit part of Los Angeles County. But Parada, 70, has waited weeks while others her age flock to Dodger Stadium or get the coronavirus shot through large hospital networks. The place where she normally gets medical care, AltaMed, is just now receiving enough supply to vaccinate her later this month. Parada said TV reports show people lining up to get shots, but “I see only vaccines going to Anglos.” (Taxin and Har, 3/3)

USA Today: COVID-19 Vaccination Appointment System Is Broken. How Can We Fix It?
The nation's vaccine appointment system is broken in many places, leading to a race to find appointments that in many places works best for the lucky, the internet-savvy or the mobile. "I have plenty of neighbors who are driving hours to get to other counties where they can get vaccinated, but not everybody can do that," said Melissa McPheeters, a professor of health policy and biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Even for those with options, sometimes the system doesn't work at all. In Washington, D.C., the city's vaccination portal was down over the weekend, unable to handle a surge as more than 36,000 people tried to get access to 4,300 appointments, according to a tweet by Lindsey Parker, chief technology officer for the D.C. government. (Weise, 3/2)

KHN: Rural Americans In Pharmacy Deserts Hurting For Covid Vaccines 
As the Biden administration accelerates a plan to use pharmacies to distribute covid-19 vaccines, significant areas of the country lack brick-and-mortar pharmacies capable of administering the protective shots. A recent analysis by the Rural Policy Research Institute found that 111 rural counties, mostly between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, have no pharmacy that can give the vaccines. That could leave thousands of vulnerable Americans struggling to find vaccines, which in turn threatens to prolong the pandemic in many hard-hit rural regions. (Hawryluk, 3/3)

Also —

San Francisco Chronicle: Good Samaritan Hospital CEO Resigns In Wake Of Teachers Jumping Vaccine Line
The chief executive officer for Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose has resigned “to pursue external career advancement opportunities” weeks after the hospital gave dozens of Los Gatos teachers and staff coronavirus vaccinations ahead of groups with priority and during a vaccine shortage. Joe DeSchryver, the hospital’s CEO, submitted his resignation on Tuesday morning, said Antonio Castelan, a spokesperson for HCA Healthcare, the hospital’s parent company. Castelan said DeSchryver was not leaving in connection to the vaccination scandal, but instead to pursue other career opportunities. (Hernández, 3/2)

NBC News: Granddaughter Vaccinates Grandparents Against Covid-19
Like so many of this country’s elders, Glenna and Eugene Luetgers of Plymouth, Minn., have spent most of the last year locked down, safe in their senior living center but unable to be with the rest of their family.Among the things they missed most was seeing their granddaughter, Lindsey Hawkins, regularly. "It was kind of traumatic at first," Glenna, 87, told NBC affiliate KARE. "When we couldn't have any visitors, that was a low point," agreed Eugene, who’s also 87. But, he said, he had an idea. He knew Lindsey, a pharmacist, was working with a Covid-19 vaccination team. So he made a special request: that she be the one to vaccinate her grandparents. (Ignacio, 3/2)

Axios: Vaccine Hesitancy Is Fading In U.S. And Europe 
Vaccine hesitancy is fading, according to a poll of six countries shared with Axios by strategic consulting firm Kekst CNC. Brits have embraced the national vaccination mission, with a whopping 89% willing to be vaccinated. (Lawler, 3/2)

Stateline: COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Slows Race To Defang The Virus
The goal is to reach herd immunity, a widely debated concept that most scientists say can be achieved by vaccinating roughly 80% of the adult population, leaving the coronavirus with so few hosts that it all but disappears. “We’ve never done that before with any other adult vaccine,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. It’s a worthy goal, he said, but it will take a monumental effort. In some places, local health departments already are making inroads in minority and immigrant neighborhoods where people may mistrust the medical community and refuse vaccinations, he said. But even within the priority groups designated in the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines—health care workers, long-term care residents and staff, and people 65 and older—a substantial number of people are holding back. (Vestal, 3/2)