Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Concern Grows That People With Disabilities Left Out Of Vaccine Plans
Bloomberg: Vaccine Rollout Leaves Behind The Blind, Paralyzed, Autistic
“One year into the pandemic, we’re just getting around to wonder how to make vaccine sign-up universal and accessible,” Bryan Bashin, chief executive officer of San Francisco-based LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. About 1 in 4 adult Americans, or 61 million people, have a disability that can affect mobility, cognitive function, hearing and sight, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thirty years after the Americans With Disabilities Act fundamentally changed how public and private entities must treat them, the pandemic is demonstrating once again how the disabled can be forgotten, advocates say. (Young, 3/18)
North Carolina Health News: Disabled Worry They're Low Priority During Pandemic Surge
As the coronavirus took hold in early 2020, New York City hospitals were overwhelmed. Patients gasping for breath filled gurneys in emergency departments while doctors, hospital executives and public health officials wondered if they would have enough ventilators to keep critically ill people alive. If things got worse, doctors in some of New York’s hardest hit hospitals would have to decide who would get a ventilator, and who wouldn’t. (Hoban, 3/19)
In updates on vaccine eligibility —
AP: Missouri To Open Vaccines To Everyone Beginning April 9
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday said the homeless, minorities, restaurant workers and other vulnerable communities will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines beginning March 29, and the vaccine will be opened up to everyone soon after. Any adult in Missouri who wants a COVID-19 vaccine will be eligible to get one beginning April 9, Parson said. (Ballentine, 3/18)
The Baltimore Sun: Maryland To Open COVID Vaccine Eligibility To Phase 2 In Waves Starting Tuesday, With All Adults Eligible By April 27
Maryland will dramatically expand COVID-19 vaccination eligibility in a series of steps beginning Tuesday and continuing over the coming weeks, culminating with plans to offer the shot to all adult Marylanders before the end of April, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday. Hogan said the move came after the White House told governors to expect shipments of vaccine doses to jump sharply at the end of March, helping ease a supply crunch that’s held back vaccination efforts nationwide. (Mann and Stole, 3/18)
AP: Atlanta Hawks Get 14 Players Vaccinated For COVID-19
Fourteen Atlanta Hawks players received their first vaccinations for COVID-19 following Thursday night’s win over Oklahoma City. The team said in a statement after the game that 36 individuals with the basketball operations staff, including 14 players, took their first dose after meeting the state’s eligibility requirements. Three players were not vaccinated because they didn’t meet Georgia standards to qualify. (3/19)
In news about vaccine skepticism —
North Carolina Health News: Overcoming COVID Vaccine Skepticism At FEMA Clinic
Juan Diggs scrolled through his phone while he was being monitored with a dozen or so others inside a former department store after getting a first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The 47-year-old Greensboro resident was among the more than 3,000 people who booked and showed up for an appointment Monday at the federally supported mass vaccination clinic at Four Seasons Town Centre in Guilford County. (Blythe, 3/19)
The Washington Post: Many Health-Care Workers Have Not Gotten A Coronavirus Vaccine
Health-care workers were the first group in the United States to be offered coronavirus vaccinations. But three months into the effort, many remain unconvinced, unreached and unprotected. The lingering obstacles to vaccinating health-care workers foreshadows the challenge the United States will face as it expands the pool of people eligible and attempts to get the vast majority of the U.S. population vaccinated. According to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, barely half of front-line health-care workers (52 percent) said they had received at least their first vaccine dose at the time they were surveyed. More than 1 in 3 said they were not confident vaccines were sufficiently tested for safety and effectiveness. (Wan, Stead Sellers, Ahmed and Guskin, 3/19)
Reuters: The Ex-Pfizer Scientist Who Became An Anti-Vax Hero
Late last year, a semi-retired British scientist co-authored a petition to Europe’s medicines regulator. The petitioners made a bold demand: Halt COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. Even bolder was their argument for doing so: They speculated, without providing evidence, that the vaccines could cause infertility in women. The document appeared on a German website on Dec.1. Scientists denounced the theory. Regulators weren’t swayed, either: Weeks later, the European Medicines Agency approved the European Union’s first COVID-19 shot, co-developed by Pfizer Inc. But damage was already done. (Stecklow and Macaskill, 3/18)
