Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
10% Of US Has Received At Least One Shot, But Vaccine Supplies Still Uneven
CNN: US Coronavirus: About 1 In 10 Americans Have Gotten At Least Their First Covid-19 Shot. But Supply Challenges Remain
About one in 10 Americans -- nearly 32.9 million people --- have so far received at least a first dose of the two-part Covid-19 vaccines, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, and about 9.8 million people have been fully vaccinated. (Maxouris, 2/10)
The Washington Post: Coronavirus Live Updates: Most Americans Are Not Happy With How The Vaccination Process Is Going, Says New Gallup Poll
Amid an unprecedented effort to vaccinate the country against the coronavirus, most Americans are dissatisfied by the daunting process to get immunized, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday morning. Days into the Biden presidency, 66 percent of Americans were dissatisfied with the handling of the vaccine rollout, including 21 percent who were “very dissatisfied,” according to the Gallop survey of 4,098 adults conducted Jan. 25 to Jan. 31. The effort, riddled with long lines and supply shortages, has frustrated many people eligible for immunization, including health care workers and seniors, as some have been unable to book appointments. (Kornfield, 2/10)
In other news on the vaccine rollout —
The New York Times: Biden Pushes For Racial Equity In Vaccination, But Data Lags
Federal health officials are struggling to gather accurate data on the race and ethnicity of people being vaccinated against the coronavirus, hampering President Biden’s push for racial equity in a pandemic that has taken a disproportionate toll on communities of color. Mr. Biden has repeatedly said racial equity will be at the core of his administration’s coronavirus response. On Tuesday, White House officials announced a program to ship doses of vaccine directly to a network of federally funded clinics in underserved areas, beginning next week. (Stolberg, 2/9)
NPR: Does Loose Enforcement Of COVID-19 Vaccine's Eligibility Rules Lead To Cheating?
Dr. William Moss, at Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health, researches how to design vaccination campaigns. He said confusing, unclear eligibility categories are causing problems with the vaccine rollout in Washington state and around the country. 1"That was definitely well intentioned when it was thought out," Moss said. "But people didn't take the next step, 'How would we actually pull this off and operationalize this?'" Without a plan to roll out the vaccines in the intended order, Moss said, "You create confusion, and then you create opportunities for people to cut the line." (O'Neill, 2/9)
The New York Times: The Coronavirus Crossroads: the Vaccinated, the Stymied and the Waiting
For a vast majority of Americans, a coronavirus vaccine is like sleep for a new parent: It’s all you can think about, even if you have no idea when you will get it. People are scrolling through perpetually crashing websites at 3 a.m., or driving 150 miles each way in the snow. Others are lining up at grocery stores for hours on end, hoping to snag a leftover shot, or racing to hospitals amid rumors of extra doses. (Steinhauer, 2/8)
In updates on vaccine development —
The Hill: Scientists Ramp Up Work On Vaccine That Would Address Every Type Of Coronavirus: Report
Scientists are ramping up research into creating a vaccine that would be effective against all types of coronaviruses as new strains have been reported around the world. A new report from the New York Times details previous and current efforts to develop a “pancoronavirus” vaccine that would protect against all types of the virus. Past enthusiasm for such a medicine was low as it was commonly believed, before the pandemic, that the coronavirus was not a serious threat and only caused mild colds. (Choi, 2/9)
PBS NewsHour: COVID-19 Vaccines Can Adapt To New Variants. Here’s What It Will Take
These vaccines can be quickly tweaked, said Dr. Drew Weissman, a physician and infectious disease expert at the University of Pennsylvania. The genome for SARS-COV-2 maps out the sequence of proteins that form the virus. The mRNA vaccines are short segments of the viral genome, so if the virus changes at all, researchers can swap out proteins to mimic those evolutionary adaptations. For 15 years, Weissman worked with biochemist Katalin Kariko to develop the research and technology for the mRNA vaccines, which have been vital in fighting the virus. (Santhanam, 2/9)
The Washington Post: Did We Underestimate Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine?
Not long ago, talk of the Russian-made coronavirus vaccine provoked mockery. “There’s no way in hell the U.S. tries this on monkeys, let alone people,” a Trump administration official told CNN in August, referring to initial reports about Russia’s development of the Sputnik V drug — which bypassed traditional steps in testing before its release. Even at home, where a history of political opacity and bureaucratic incompetence has left a lingering distrust of authority, many ordinary Russians shied away from getting the jab once it was made available to the public in December. But now, Sputnik V — named after the world’s first satellite that saw the Soviets initially outpace the Americans in the space race — is starting to look like it could be a global success story. (Tharoor, 2/10)
Popular Science: Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is what’s called an adenovirus-vectored vaccine. It’s a technique that was attempted in the development of an HIV vaccine in the mid-2000s, but which proved ineffective. But over the summer, the EU authorized Johnson & Johnson’s Ebola vaccine based on the same technology, and a number of COVID vaccine candidates, including that of Oxford/AstraZeneca, use a similar approach. (Kiefer, 2/1)
