Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Azar Lays Out New Vaccine Timetable
USA Today: COVID Vaccine Is Coming In 'A Matter Of Weeks Or Months,' HHS Says
At least one COVID-19 vaccine should be available as soon as the end of this year, and the general public should be able to get vaccinated by early spring, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Wednesday. “There is hope on the way in the form of safe and effective vaccines in a matter of weeks or months,” said Azar, speaking in Atlanta at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the rare public briefing, Azar laid out a specific timetable that didn't exactly match what the government has previously said. (Weintraub, 10/21)
Politico: An Angry Azar Floats Plans To Oust FDA’s Hahn
Infuriated by the FDA’s defiance in a showdown over the Trump administration’s standards for authorizing a coronavirus vaccine, health secretary Alex Azar has spent recent weeks openly plotting the ouster of FDA chief Stephen Hahn. Azar has vented to allies within the Health and Human Services Department about his unhappiness with the top official in charge of the vaccine process, and discussed the prospect of seeking White House permission to remove him, a half-dozen current and former administration officials said.During some of those conversations, he’s gone as far as to float potential replacements for Hahn, said one current and two former administration officials familiar with the talks, identifying HHS testing czar Brett Giroir and a pair of career civil servants – FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy and longtime regulator Janet Woodcock – as prime candidates to step in as acting commissioner should Hahn be removed. (Cancryn and Diamond, 10/22)
ABC News: Trump's Operation Warp Speed Adviser Says All Americans Could Be Immunized With COVID Vaccine By June
Most Americans may have access to a COVID-19 vaccine by early this spring, one which could potentially immunize them by June, according to Operation Warp Speed's chief adviser, Dr. Moncef Slaoui. "It's not a certainty, but the plan -- and I feel pretty confident -- should make it such that by June, everybody could have been immunized in the U.S.," Slaoui told ABC News' Bob Woodruff Wednesday morning. (Salzman and Ordonez, 10/21)
In other COVID vaccine developments —
The Washington Post: Volunteer In Oxford Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Dies, Reportedly Did Not Receive Experimental Vaccine
A Brazilian who participated in the clinical trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine has died, officials here said Wednesday. Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency, which is overseeing multiple vaccine trials in a country suffering one of the world’s worst outbreaks, said the individual volunteered to receive the vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University and produced by AstraZeneca. The Brazilian newspaper O Globo, citing unnamed sources, reported that the volunteer was in a control group that did not receive the experimental vaccine and died of covid-19. The news service G1 said the volunteer was a 28-year-old physician who treated coronavirus patients in Rio de Janeiro. (McCoy, Traiano and Johnson, 10/21)
The Washington Post: Unprecedented Vaccine Trials On Track To Begin Delivering Results
In a matter of weeks, one of the most closely watched human experiments in history will start to report early results, with data on prospective coronavirus vaccines possibly coming this month or in November from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the biotechnology company Moderna. Amid the turmoil, chaos and misinformation that have defined the U.S. response to the pandemic, progress toward a vaccine, or vaccines, has been steady, reassuring and scientific. Political meddling has so far been largely deflected. Drug companies, working closely with the U.S. government and fueled by an infusion of more than $10 billion of taxpayer money, have developed, tested and scaled up a half-dozen potential vaccines at unprecedented speed. (Johnson, 10/21)
AP: Next Up In Hunt For COVID-19 Vaccine: Testing Shots In Kids
The global hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine for kids is only just beginning — a lagging start that has some U.S. pediatricians worried they may not know if any shots work for young children in time for the next school year. Older adults may be most vulnerable to the coronavirus, but ending the pandemic will require vaccinating children, too. Last week, Pfizer Inc. received permission to test its vaccine in U.S. kids as young as 12, one of only a handful of attempts around the world to start exploring if any experimental shots being pushed for adults also can protect children. (Neergaard, 10/21)
The Hill: State Officials Plead For More Info On Vaccine Distribution Plans
Governors and state health officials scrambling to develop comprehensive coronavirus vaccine distribution plans are pleading with the Trump administration for more clarity and more funding. State and local officials sent drafts of their plans to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week, just 30 days after the administration released its initial COVID-19 vaccination playbook. (Weixel, 10/21)
And the FDA advisory committee meets today —
ABC News: What To Expect From The Official COVID-19 Vaccine Committee
As the race for an effective COVID-19 vaccine continues, the public will get inside look at one a crucial part of the Food and Drug Administration's decision-making process: the first meeting of its normally obscure advisory committee. Never before has much attention been paid this small group of vaccine experts whose job is to advise the FDA on whether a new vaccine should be green lighted. (Salzman, 10/21)
AP: Regulators, Experts Take Up Thorny Vaccine Study Issues
The U.S. regulators who will decide the fate of COVID-19 vaccines are taking an unusual step: Asking outside scientists if their standards are high enough. The Food and Drug Administration may have to decide by year’s end whether to allow use of the first vaccines against the virus. Thursday, a federal advisory committee pulls back the curtain on that decision process, debating whether the guidelines FDA has set for vaccine developers are rigorous enough. “We will not cut corners, and we will only use science and data to make that determination,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn pledged at a meeting of the Milken Institute Wednesday. (Neergaard and Perrone, 10/22)
Stat: Watching This FDA Hearing Can Help Ease Your Covid-19 Anxieties
The Covid-19 pandemic has turned obscure regulatory bodies into front-page news. Among these is the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the group that reviews the safety and effectiveness of vaccine candidates and then makes recommendations to the FDA about whether to authorize and license vaccines. (Nachlis, 10/21)
