Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Are Vaccine Mandates Needed In U.S.?; Is The Fourth Wave Happening Or Not?
The New York Times: These People Should Be Required To Get Vaccinated
The next coronavirus surge seems to be underway. Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin are among the states with rising cases, hospitalizations and intensive care occupancy, and hospitalization rates among younger people are increasing nationally. The causes of this pronounced rush of cases — the spread of a more infectious B.1.1.7 variant and lockdown fatigue — are not going away. We need to sharply reduce coronavirus infections to turn the tide and quell the pandemic. The best hope is to maximize the number of people vaccinated, especially among those who interact with many others and are likely to transmit the virus. How can we increase vaccinations? Mandates. ( Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Aaron Glickman and Amaya Diana, 4/14)
Bloomberg: Fourth Pandemic Wave Defies Predictions By Experts
So are we having a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. or not? University of Minnesota’s Michael Osterholm has forecast a Covid “category 5 hurricane” this spring. To some people, a look at hard-hit Michigan could justify this level of alarm. But Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia could also claim to be right with his much more optimistic view that vaccines will mostly tame the pandemic from this point forward. After all, U.S. death rates and hospitalizations are not spiking and may never return to anything close to the fall/winter peak. (Faye Flam, 4/14)
The Washington Post: Vaccines Won’t Save Michigan From Its Covid-19 Surge
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, is calling on the Biden administration to surge covid-19 vaccines to her state, where overall cases are as high as they were in November thanks in part to the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus first identified in Britain. I feel for the governor, but vaccines are not going to save her state. The best strategy for Michigan at this point is to implement the same public health measures that we’ve been using for more than a year. This is an important lesson not only for Michigan, but also in other places experiencing a surge. The B.1.1.7 variant, now the dominant strain of covid-19 in the United States, is wreaking havoc in Michigan and Minnesota. It’s driving an increase in cases in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Florida and parts of Texas. B.1.1.7 is landing even younger adults in the hospital with severe covid-19. The Michigan Health and Hospital Association found that hospitalizations increased by 633 percent among adults in their 30s and by 800 percent for adults in their 40s over the course of March. (Celine Gounder, 4/13)
New England Journal of Medicine: Vaccine Successes And Vaccine Adverse Events
The continuing spread of SARS-CoV-2 remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. What physicians need to know about transmission, diagnosis, and treatment of Covid-19 is the subject of ongoing updates from infectious disease experts at the Journal. In this audio interview conducted on April 14, 2021, the editors discuss the current state of Covid-19 vaccination, including the rare occurrence of thrombotic thrombocytopenia in recipients of the ChadOx1 nCoV-19 and Ad26.COV2.S vaccines. (Eric J. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., Lindsey R. Baden, M.D., and Stephen Morrissey, Ph.D., 4/15)
CNN: A Number On Covid-19 Vaccinations That Will Leave You Shaking Your Head In Wonder
There's one way to end the Covid-19 pandemic that has gripped the country (and the world) for the last year-plus: Get vaccinated against it! Which is why the latest numbers from a Monmouth University national poll about the vaccination -- and peoples' plans (or not) to get it -- is so, so baffling and troubling. (Chris Cillizza, 4/14)
Stat: Rethinking Triage In An Era Of Vaccine Nationalism
Just about every schoolchild learns that Napoleon Bonaparte was a small man. But few know that he cast as large a shadow over the history of medicine as over the nature of warfare. That’s because his surgeon-in-chief in the Napoleonic Wars, Dominique Jean Larrey, transformed how wounded soldiers are cared for. His innovation — triage — is still used today in battlefield medicine and responses to public health crises. Yet it needs to be reimagined in how it is being applied to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. (Ethan Dmitrovsky, 4/15)
NBC News: The Johnson & Johnson Covid Vaccine Pause Is Good For Science But Rough For Public Trust
We are currently seeing — or, at least, until this week, we had seen — an all-time low of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy: According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the percentage of Americans who planned to wait to get a Covid-19 vaccine had dropped from 39 percent in December to 17 percent in late March. Those who say they won’t ever get it — unless, perhaps, it’s required — has, over the same period, remained fairly constant at 20 percent or just over. The news on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were recommending a several day “pause” in the administration of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine to give them time to investigate a potential link between the vaccine and six cases of rare blood clots may complicate that picture. (Yuliya Shneyderman, 4/14)
