Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Alaska Plans To Vaccinate Tourists; Florida Vaccinates Foreign Students
Anchorage Daily News: Alaska Will Offer COVID-19 Vaccines To Tourists Starting June 1
Print article The state of Alaska will begin offering COVID-19 vaccinations to tourists arriving and departing the state through four of its biggest airports starting June 1, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Friday. “The idea is that we have access to vaccines, so why not use them? So this is what we’re saying to our tourists: If you come to Alaska — and this will start on June 1 — if you come to Alaska, you get a free vaccination,” he said. The vaccinations will be offered at the Anchorage, Juneau, Ketchikan and Fairbanks airports, said Heidi Hedberg, director of the Alaska Division of Public Health. (Brooks, 4/16)
WLRN 91.3: International, Out-Of-State Students Can Get Vaccinated In Florida
Camila Gutiérrez, an international student at Florida International University, got an email this week offering her the COVID-19 vaccine. She immediately signed up. The native of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, rushed to do so because she hasn’t been able to get immunized against the deadly virus, despite the minimum age restriction dropping to 18 about two weeks ago. (4/16)
The Boston Globe: As Mass. Expands Vaccine Eligibility, Experts And Advocates Urge Greater Equity In Distributing Doses
As everyone in Massachusetts 16 or older becomes eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine Monday, health officials cautioned the state must do more to deliver doses to communities of color, which have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic. With appointments open to 1.7 million more residents, the state will reserve 20,000 appointments for communities of color for a week, starting Monday, at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center mass-vaccination site, according to Governor Charlie Baker. A recent analysis found that Black and Latino communities have some of the lowest inoculation rates in the state. (Hilliard, 4/18)
North Carolina Public Radio: The VA Has Vaccinated Millions. Congress Is Asking It To Inoculate Many More
When it comes to getting its patients vaccinated, the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system has in many ways been out ahead of its counterparts responsible for inoculating the general population. In several regions, the VA already has opened vaccinations to all its enrollees, regardless of age or health status. (Price, 4/16)
KHN: Snag A Vaccine Appointment, Then Face The Next Hurdle: How To Get There?
The airport says a lot about Cortez, Colorado: The single-engine planes that fly into its one-room airport seat nine passengers at most. The city of about 9,000 is known largely as a gateway to beautiful places like Mesa Verde National Park and the Four Corners Monument. But covid vaccines have made Cortez a destination in its own right. “We had a couple fly in to get their vaccine from Denver that couldn’t get it in the Denver metro area,” said Marc Meyer, director of pharmacy services and infection control for Southwest Health System, which includes clinics and a community hospital in Cortez. Others have come from neighboring states and as far away as California, Florida and the Carolinas. “They all come back for their second dose,” he said. “Because it’s so hard to get in the cities.” (Bichell, 4/19)
KHN: The Shock And Reality Of Catching Covid After Being Vaccinated
Robin Hauser, a pediatrician in Tampa, Fla., got covid in February. What separates her from the vast majority of the tens of millions of other Americans who have come down with the virus is this: She got sick seven weeks after her second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. “I was shocked,” said Hauser. “I thought: ‘What the heck? How did that happen?’ I now tell everyone, including my colleagues, not to let their guard down after the vaccine.” As more Americans every day are inoculated, a tiny but growing number are contending with the disturbing experience of getting covid despite having had one shot, or even two. (Findlay, 4/16)
In other news on the vaccine rollout —
AP: Celebrities Make A Stand For COVID Vaccines On TV Special
President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama and a slew of celebrities including Billy Crystal, Jennifer Hudson and Lin-Manuel Miranda are part of a special aimed at boosting COVID-19 vaccination rates. “Roll Up Your Sleeves,” airing at 7 p.m. EDT Sunday on NBC, will feature Matthew McConaughey interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci to help separate “fact from fiction” about the vaccines, the network said. (4/16)
Axios: Head Of World's Largest Vaccine Maker Urges Biden To Lift Export Ban On Raw Materials
The CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines, asked President Biden on Friday to lift a U.S. export embargo on raw materials for vaccines, saying it is hampering vaccine production in other parts of the world. Equitably producing and distributing coronavirus vaccines may be the defining global challenge of 2021 and a crucial step to controlling the pandemic, as prolonged unequal access to vaccines may allow the virus to spread and dangerously mutate in unvaccinated parts of the world. (Knutson, 4/16)
Also —
CNBC: 13-Year-Old In Pfizer Covid Vaccine Trial Who Wants To Be An Epidemiologist: ‘I Like To Learn Everything I Can’
Epidemiology is not high on your average teen’s list of hobbies. But it is for Andrew Brandt, a 13-year-old who lives in New Orleans and is enrolled in Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine trial for children. “When the pandemic started, it was sad because I did want to help people and I just kind of felt like I really couldn’t do that,” Andrew tells CNBC Make It. Finding the Pfizer trial for his age group felt like a tangible way to pitch in, and also fit his interest in science and medicine. (Stieg, 4/17)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Women Reporting Irregular Menstrual Cycle After Vaccination
It’s not listed as a side effect, but women are reporting having irregular menstrual cycles after getting the coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Katharine Lee, a postdoctoral scholar in the public health department at Washington University in St. Louis, noticed her first cycle after getting the vaccine was “different,” and wondered if she were the only one. She reached out to a few friends and colleagues, some of whom had also noticed something was a little off, too, Salon reported. (Clanton, 4/16)
The Washington Post: Coronavirus Vaccination Cards A Target Of Scams
One listing offered eBay customers an “Authentic CDC Vaccination Record Card” for $10.99. Another promised the same but for $9.49. A third was more oblique, offering a “Clear Pouch For CDC Vaccination Record Card” for $8.99, but customers instead received a blank vaccination card (and no pouch).All three listings were posted by the same eBay user, who goes by “asianjackson” — using an account registered to a man who works as a pharmacist in the Chicago area — and all were illegal, federal regulators say. The account sold more than 100 blank vaccination cards in the past two weeks, according to The Washington Post’s review of purchases linked to it. (Diamond, 4/18)
KHN: Journalists Unpack Patchwork Vaccine Rollout, Rapid Covid Tests And More
California Healthline correspondent Rachel Bluth unpacked California’s newly expanded vaccine eligibility rules and the state’s vaccine appointment website on KALW’s “Your Call” on Thursday. ... California Healthline correspondent Angela Hart discussed California cities’ experiment with city-managed homeless camps on KQED’s “Forum” on Thursday. ... Midwest editor and correspondent Laura Ungar joined a covid-19 reporter’s roundtable on Illinois Public Media’s “The 21st Show” on Wednesday. Ungar also discussed gender-based vaccine disparities with KCBS on Tuesday. (4/17)
