Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden Expects All Americans Who Want Vaccine Can Have Shot By End Of July
The New York Times: Biden Suggests Vaccines Will Be Available For Every American ‘By The End Of July.’
President Biden said on Tuesday that every American who wants a Covid-19 vaccine will be able to get one by the end of July, striking a more optimistic tone than he delivered last week when he warned that logistical and distribution hurdles would most likely mean that many people would still not have been vaccinated by the end of the summer. Mr. Biden made the comment in Milwaukee during a town hall-style meeting hosted by CNN. When the host, Anderson Cooper, asked him when every American who wants a vaccine was “going to be able to get a vaccine?” Mr. Biden replied without hesitation: “By the end of July this year.” (2/17)
CNN: Biden Says Things May Be Back To Normal By Next Christmas
The prediction of nearly another year in pandemic-dampened conditions was admittedly not optimistic. But Biden still said it was as good as he could offer with any level of confidence. "As my mother would say, with the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors, that by next Christmas I think we'll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today," Biden said. "A year from now, I think that there'll be significantly fewer people having to be socially distanced, having to wear a mask." He added: "I don't want to over promise anything here." (Liptak, 2/16)
ABC News: Biden Cautiously Predicts 'Very Different Circumstance' With Pandemic By Christmas
A mother of a college student with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) expressed to Biden her frustration that other Americans, who she said are less vulnerable than her son, are able to get the vaccine first. “Do you have a plan to vaccinate those who are most vulnerable sooner to give them a priority?” she asked. Though he initially answered, “Yes, there are,” Biden immediately pivoted to a blunt acknowledgment that prioritization for population groups is up to the states, not him. “The states make the decisions on who is in what order. I can make recommendations, and for federal programs, I can do that, as president of the United States, but I can't tell the state: ‘You must move such and such a group of people up.’” (Gomez and Kolinovsky, 2/17)
In related news —
Los Angeles Times: Fauci Pushes Back COVID-19 Vaccine Timeline Amid Shortages
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, offered on Tuesday a more cautious note about when vaccines might be more fully available across the country. Last week, Fauci said the country could see “open season” for COVID-19 vaccine doses by April. However, in an appearance on “L.A. Times Today,” he said the timeline may be more like “late May and early June.” “We were expecting a greater number of doses from Johnson & Johnson, and it looks like, even though it’s a good vaccine, that we’re not going to have a substantial amount of doses until we get into April and May,” he said during the program, which is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Tuesday. (Money, 2/16)
The Hill: Fauci Says He Was Nervous About Catching COVID-19 In Trump White House
Anthony Fauci said in an interview with “Axios on HBO” that he worried about contracting the coronavirus during the Trump administration because of its lax approach to the virus. Fauci, who is 80 years old and has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than three decades, said his age category was always in the back of his mind particularly when he visited the White House under then-President Trump. (Chalfant, 2/16)
