Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Crippling Storms Delay Vaccine Shipments
Politico: Storms Likely Causing 'Widespread' Delays Of Vaccine Shipments, CDC Says
The Biden administration is expecting "widespread" delays in Covid-19 vaccine shipments due to severe winter storms across the country, a CDC spokesperson confirmed Tuesday evening. At least two shipping hubs that multiple states rely on for vaccine distribution have been affected by the storms, and federal officials expect delays to continue for several days. (Ehley, 2/16)
NPR: Winter Storm Disrupts COVID-19 Vaccinations, Closing Clinics And Delaying Shipments
The massive storm sweeping across the country isn't only bringing subzero temperatures and widespread power outages to much of the U.S., it's also putting a freeze on COVID-19 vaccine distribution in several states and cities. In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson announced on Monday that all state-run mass vaccination events scheduled for this week are canceled, citing safety concerns brought on by the extreme weather. "Missouri is experiencing severe winter weather that makes driving dangerous and threatens the health and safety of anyone exposed to the cold. These conditions will also likely delay some vaccine shipments," Parson said. "We want to protect the safety of everyone involved in the mass vaccination events, from the patients being vaccinated to the volunteers who generously support these events." (Treisman, 2/16)
AP: Crippling Storm Hampers Vaccinations As FEMA Opens New Sites
Snow, ice and bitter cold forced authorities to halt vaccinations from Pennsylvania to Illinois and from Tennessee to Missouri. In snowy Chicago, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said more than a hundred city vaccine sites didn’t get shipments Tuesday because of the extreme weather, leading to many cancellations. The Biden administration said the weather was expected to disrupt shipments from a FedEx facility in Memphis and a UPS installation in Louisville, Kentucky. Both serve as vaccine shipping hubs for a number of states. (Garcia and Noveck, 2/16)
The Hill: Pentagon, FEMA To Set Up Vaccine Sites In Texas, New York
Up to 3,700 active-duty troops are on standby to administer COVID-19 vaccines at Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sites, with an eye on locations in Texas, New York and the Virgin Islands. Several hundred service members have already been sent to FEMA sites in Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif., with more sites to be set up in Texas and New York in roughly a week, followed by the Virgin Islands in early March, U.S. Northern Command head Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters on Tuesday. (Mitchell, 2/16)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Rough Weather Delays COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments To Georgia
Shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine that normally would have arrived the first part of this week were held back by the manufacturers due to the nasty weather gripping the nation, Georgia health officials said Tuesday afternoon. Many vaccine providers are rescheduling appointments and delays are expected to continue through the week, Georgia Department of Public Health officials said. Vaccine providers should contact people to reschedule appointments, officials said. (Stirgus, 2/16)
Chicago Tribune: Snowstorm Causes 100-Plus Chicago Vaccine Sites To Miss Shipments, But City’s Public Health Commissioner Says Doses Will Come Soon
More than a hundred vaccine sites in Chicago didn’t get their shipments Tuesday following a heavy snowstorm overnight, city Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said while promising people will get their appointments rescheduled and doses will not go to waste. (Yin, 2/16)
Freezing temperatures, the water supply and carbon monoxide poisoning are critical concerns —
The Washington Post: Freezing Temperatures And Power Outages Hurt Texas’s Most Vulnerable Yet Again
Families living in substandard homes lacking proper insulation are often huddling around a single space heater to stay warm in South Texas. Asylum seekers are wrapping themselves in blankets and keeping a community fire ablaze in a migrant camp near the border. Community organizers in Austin, San Antonio and other major Texas cities are hustling to rescue the unhoused as hypothermia and frostbite set in. (Foster-Frau and Hernandez, 2/16)
The New York Times: Power Is Still Off For Millions After Winter Storm
The disruptions caused problems at water treatment plants, leading to boil water advisories for hundreds of thousands of people across Texas, from Fort Worth down to the Rio Grande Valley. Some customers lost water altogether, forced to flush their toilets with melting snow. By early Tuesday afternoon, Southwest Power Pool, which manages the electrical grid across 17 Central and Western states, had stopped ordering controlled rolling cutoffs of power service to customers as the energy supply began meeting the extreme demand, a spokesman said. (2/17)
Houston Chronicle: Harris County Is Slammed With 300+ Carbon Monoxide Cases - And Many Are Kids
Harris County has seen more than 300 carbon monoxide poisoning cases as temperatures bottomed out Monday in Houston and the state’s electricity grid failed, sending people scrambling for heat sources. That includes 90 carbon monoxide poisoning calls to the Houston Fire Department and 100 cases in Memorial Hermann's emergency rooms. Many of the cases stem from people using BBQ pits and generators indoors to stay warm, said Drew Munhausen, a Memorial Hermann spokesperson. Doctors are treating 60 of those cases at the hospital’s Texas Medical Center location. (Wu, 2/16)
NPR: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning From Portable Generators Can Prove Deadly
To Michelle Seifer, the timing was just a coincidence. After losing power in a summer storm, she came down with flu-like symptoms. It wasn't until two days later, when a carbon monoxide detector activated and a utility company worker tested levels in Seifer's home, that she learned she was being poisoned by the portable generator she had been running in her open garage. "That's when I went to the hospital and learned that my levels were high enough where they needed to admit me," said Seifer, a finance manager and mother of five in Hartland, Mich. "Because if I didn't receive the proper treatment for the carbon monoxide poisoning, if I were to fall asleep I wouldn't wake up." (Treisman, 2/4)
