Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden's July 4 Vaccine Goal May Be At Risk Thanks To Gen Z's Hesitancy
AP: US Increasingly Unlikely To Meet Biden's July 4 Vax Goal
For months, President Joe Biden has laid out goal after goal for taming the coronavirus pandemic and then exceeded his own benchmarks. Now, though, the U.S. is unlikely to meet his target to have 70% of Americans at least partially vaccinated by July 4. The White House has launched a month-long blitz to combat vaccine hesitancy and a lack of urgency to get shots, particularly in the South and Midwest, but it is increasingly resigned to missing the president’s vaccination target. The administration insists that even if the goal isn’t reached, it will have little effect on the overall U.S. recovery, which is already ahead of where Biden said it would be months ago. (Miller and Willingham, 6/9)
Roll Call: Gen. Z Needs To Get Vaccinated, And This College Student Has TikToks To Make It Happen
About 26 percent of Gen Z adults said they didn’t plan on getting the coronavirus vaccine, according to a Morning Consult poll in March. But Jordan Tralins, a sophomore at Cornell University, has been working to produce TikToks and Instagram slideshows to help combat vaccine hesitancy among her generation. Tralins and classmate Olivia Pawlowski founded the COVID Campus Coalition, which started at Cornell but has since expanded to students at over 20 universities. The group has accounts on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to share information about vaccines and fight disinformation that continues to crop up online. (McKinless and Cohen, 6/8)
Roll Call: Young Adults Shun COVID-19 Vaccine As White House Warns Of Risks
Young adults in Generation Z are refusing the COVID-19 shot at a higher rate than other age groups, a development that many public health experts and White House officials worry could prolong the virus’s spread and lead to dangerous new mutations. “For young people who may think this doesn’t affect you, listen up, please. This virus, even a mild case, can be with you for months. It will impact on your social life,” President Joe Biden said at the White House on June 2. (Cohen, 6/8)
Modern Healthcare: Teen COVID Hospitalization Spike Spurs Mass Vaccination Effort
Michigan's COVID-19 hospitalization rate surged by 311% among ages under 18-years-old from February through April, forcing providers to perform procedures rarely used on children with respiratory infections. Dr. Matthew Denenberg, an emergency pediatric physician, and his colleagues at the Children's Hospital of Michigan pumped the hearts of multiple kids infected with COVID-19 through an ECMO Machine over the past few months. His hospital is one of three in the state licensed to perform the procedure on children, rarely is it employed, as it is a last resort to provide circulation to the body. (Gellman, 6/8)
In other news about the vaccine rollout —
The New York Times: Wisconsin Pharmacist Who Tampered With Vaccine Gets 3-Year Sentence
A hospital pharmacist who pleaded guilty to trying to spoil more than 500 doses of a Covid-19 vaccine was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison, federal prosecutors in Wisconsin announced. The pharmacist, Steven R. Brandenburg, 46, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay nearly $84,000 in restitution to the Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wis., where he worked an overnight shift. (Paybarah, 6/8)
Modern Healthcare: Houston Methodist Suspends 178 Workers For Not Getting Vaccinated
Houston Methodist suspended 178 workers for failing to get fully vaccinated by the deadline set by the health system, the CEO said Tuesday. In a letter to all employees and physicians, CEO Marc Boom said the 178 workers will be suspended without pay for two weeks, giving them another chance to either get the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or a single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In April, Boom told employees that COVID-19 vaccines would be mandatory, and those who did not comply would face termination. (Christ, 6/8)
Los Angeles Times: COVID-19 Vaccine Site Opens At L.A.'s Union Station
A COVID-19 vaccination site opened Tuesday at downtown Los Angeles’ Union Station as the effort to get shots into more residents’ arms ramped up ahead of the state’s planned reopening next week. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti highlighted the convenience of the site at a news conference, noting that the transportation hub is widely used by commuters. Before the pandemic, roughly 110,000 people traveled through the station every day, he said. (Seidman, 6/8)
Axios: Trump's Surgeon General Criticizes Alcohol-Related Vaccine Incentives
Jerome Adams, the U.S. surgeon general under former President Trump, criticized states who are offering lottery tickets, beer and donuts as prizes for getting the coronavirus vaccine. Adams said he was "uncomfortable" with the "public health trade offs" involved with certain kinds of vaccine incentives, pointing to a report put out by the current surgeon general warning about the health effects of alcohol consumption. (Rummier, 6/8)
KHN: An Anti-Vaccine Film Targeted To Black Americans Spreads False Information
When a filmmaker asked medical historian Naomi Rogers to appear in a documentary, the Yale professor didn’t blink. She had done these “talking head” interviews many times before. She assumed her comments would end up in a straightforward documentary that addressed some of the most pressing concerns of the pandemic, such as the legacy of racism in medicine and how that plays into current mistrust in some communities of color. The subject of vaccines was also mentioned, but the focus wasn’t clear to Rogers. (Stone, 6/9)
