Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Black Americans Hesitant To Get Vaccine In Sign Of Ongoing Mistrust Of Medical Community
NPR: New Survey Finds Roughly Half Of Americans Plan To Get Coronavirus Vaccine
As the federal government, public health experts and scientists push toward a coronavirus vaccine, a new survey suggests only about half of Americans say they will get one when it becomes available. The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 49% of Americans overall say they plan to get a vaccination, while 31% of respondents say they are unsure if they will get vaccinated. The survey found 20% of respondents flat out said they will not. (Booker, 5/27)
Bloomberg: Covid-19 Vaccine Is A Long Way Off, Forecasters Say
People who get paid to make forecasts say there’s only a 9% chance that there will be a widely available vaccine for Covid-19 before next April. That’s according to Good Judgment Inc., a company that maintains a global network of forecasters to make predictions for clients based on publicly available evidence. (Coy, 5/27)
ABC News: Coronavirus Vaccine Update: Possible By The End Of The Year?
With top White House officials indicating a coronavirus vaccine may be available by January 2021, scientists and vaccine experts outside the Trump administration are cautious but optimistic that a vaccine could be delivered on such an accelerated timeline. Experts interviewed by ABC warned that developing a vaccine within a 12-month time frame could mean throwing normal scientific standards out the window, but added that a vaccine could be available by the new year if everything goes perfectly. (Salzman, 5/27)
Reuters: GSK Aims For 1 Billion Doses With COVID Vaccine Booster Plan
Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) laid out plans on Thursday to produce 1 billion doses of vaccine efficacy boosters, or adjuvants, next year as the race to develop and produce a successful solution to the coronavirus crisis heats up. The world’s largest vaccine maker said it was in talks with governments to back a manufacturing expansion that would help to scale up production of future vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. (5/28)
Bloomberg: Coronavirus Vaccine: Glaxo To Make 1 Billion Doses Of Booster
The adjuvant can reduce the amount of vaccine required per dose, allowing more people to be immunized, and create longer-lasting immunity, Glaxo said in a statement Thursday. The U.K. drugmaker in April agreed to provide its technology to help develop an experimental vaccine with French pharma giant Sanofi. Glaxo is among dozens of companies in the hunt for a vaccine, seen as the key to halting the pandemic and reopening economies around the world. The global death toll has climbed past 350,000. (Fourcade and Paton, 5/28)
CNN: In Race For Coronavirus Vaccine, Hurled Insults And The Wisdom Of Spider-Man
Ethicists and physicians are concerned that, amid a desire to put an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, developers of drugs and vaccines have become overly enthusiastic about the chances their products will work. While several vaccine developers have issued statements looking into the future -- setting possible timetables for study completion and vaccine manufacturing -- the ethicists and doctors say one group in particular stands out as being the most aggressive in painting the rosiest picture: the University of Oxford in England. (Cohen, 5/27)
