White House Focuses On Smoothing Vaccine Sign-Ups, Reaching Holdouts

Stat: White House Set To Unveil Sweeping Vaccine-Confidence Campaign
The White House this week will unveil a wide-reaching, $1.5 billion public relations campaign aimed at boosting vaccine confidence and uptake across the U.S., Biden administration aides told STAT. This television, radio, and digital advertising blitz, set to kick off within weeks, will focus on Americans outright skeptical of vaccines’ safety or effectiveness as well as those who are potentially more willing to seek a Covid-19 immunization but don’t yet know where, when, or how. Specifically, the campaign will target three groups in which access, apathy, or outright skepticism may pose a barrier to vaccinations: young people, people of color, and conservatives, according to a Biden aide. (Facher, 3/15)

Politico: Biden Vaccine Website Pledge Invokes The Ghosts Of Obamacare 
Almost a decade ago, Jeff Zients was asked to rescue Obamacare's online sign-up system — a task that proved pivotal to the presidency. Now the head of the White House Covid response team has six weeks to roll out another website to help millions of people sign up for coronavirus vaccines and make good on President Joe Biden's pledge to get life back to something close to normal by midsummer. (Kenen, Cancryn and Tahir, 3/12)

In updates on the Biden administration's plans for economic relief —

Politico: Biden Eyes Gene Sperling To Serve As Covid Rescue Plan Czar 
President Joe Biden is eyeing Gene Sperling for a role to oversee the implementation of the administration’s coronavirus relief plan, according to two sources with knowledge of the plans. The White House could announce the role for Sperling as early as Monday, the sources said. Sperling, who served on the economic teams in both the Obama and Clinton administrations, was under consideration to serve as Biden’s director of the Office of Management and Budget after the president’s first pick, Neera Tanden, failed to secure enough support in the Senate. Instead of that post, he is being strongly considered for a position within the White House where he will be tasked with overseeing the enactment of the recently signed $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill. (Barron-Lopez and White, 3/14)

Politico: Beyond Covid Relief: Biden Invokes LBJ As Democrats Aim To Expand Welfare State 
Democratic leaders are banking on some of the aid provisions being so popular that letting them expire would be a political nightmare, painful enough for Americans that even Republicans couldn’t stand in the way. At the top of the list is making permanent the expanded child tax credit, a move supporters believe could generate bipartisan backing and which analysts say would cut child poverty nearly in half. But some lawmakers and outside experts expect Democrats will also fight to keep the expansions of the earned income tax credit and a second program for child and dependent care, while further extensions of food assistance and boosted unemployment benefits are also likely. (Cassella, 3/14)

CNBC: Unemployment Benefits Jeopardized For Americans Stranded Abroad
Justin Samuels was living abroad in Malaga, a Spanish port city in the country’s south, along the Costa del Sol, when the pandemic chaos began to unfurl. It has led to a lengthy battle for unemployment benefits — a situation facing many Americans stuck overseas in the early days of the health crisis. (Iacurci, 3/13)

KHN: Journalists Explore Covid Relief Bill And Vaccine Issues
Chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed how the $1.9 trillion covid relief bill will help bolster the Affordable Care Act with “PBS NewsHour” on Wednesday. Colorado correspondent Rae Ellen Bichell spoke with KUNC’s “Colorado Edition” on Wednesday about what childhood vaccine rates can tell us about public acceptance of the covid vaccines. (3/13)

In other news about the Biden administration —

The Washington Post: A Border Community, ICE At Odds Over Release Of Detainees With Covid
In a border area that has suffered from ongoing covid-19 outbreaks, advocates for immigrants and ICE are at odds over the agency’s treatment of infected detainees. Advocates and county officials say they had no idea ICE was dropping detainees with covid off at the bus stop, while ICE says it is the agency’s protocol to notify local authorities ahead of time. While the advocates agree that detainees diagnosed with covid-19 should be released from detention so they can seek better medical care, failing to coordinate those transfers with health officials and nonprofits is a danger to public health, they said. (Gerberg and Sacchetti, 3/14)

Stat: Former FDA Commissioners Push For Strong Tobacco Regulation
A bipartisan cadre of FDA commissioners urged the Biden administration to get tough on regulating tobacco and to finalize a Trump-era regulation that would render cigarettes non-addictive. “I hope that this administration will have the courage to fight what will be tough battles,” said Robert Calif, who served under President Obama. “I have never seen more capable or nastier lawyers than what I experienced in trying to deal with the tobacco industry.” (Florko, 3/12)

Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting: DOL Watchdog: OSHA’s Virtual Inspections During Pandemic Likely Led To Dangerous Workplaces 
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s decision during the COVID-19 pandemic to conduct many inspections virtually — instead of onsite — risked worker safety, the U.S. Department of Labor’s inspector general concluded in an audit report released Tuesday. The report does not specifically mention OSHA’s enforcement at meatpacking plants, which quickly became COVID-19 hotspots last year, but the problems the report details have plagued the agency’s response to the industry. (Chadde, 3/14)