Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: NFL Adjusting its Vaccine Rules; What If We Can't Convince The Vaccine-Hesitant?
The Atlantic: The NFL Confronts Vaccine Refusers
Here’s something I almost never say: The NFL is right. When pro football announced last week that it will impose stiff penalties on teams that experience a COVID-19 outbreak involving unvaccinated players, it exposed a serious vaccination divide among its athletes. Fans also learned in real time that some of their favorite NFL stars are not only vaccine-hesitant but also susceptible to some of the same misinformation that has duped millions of other Americans. (Jemele Hill, 7/28)
The New York Times: What If The Unvaccinated Can’t Be Persuaded?
I hate that I believe the sentence I’m about to write. It undermines much of what I spend my life trying to do. But there is nothing more overrated in politics — and perhaps in life — than the power of persuasion. It is nearly impossible to convince people of what they don’t want to believe. Decades of work in psychology attest to this truth, as does most everything in our politics and most of our everyday experience. Think of your own conversations with your family or your colleagues. How often have you really persuaded someone to abandon a strongly held belief or preference? Persuasion is by no means impossible or unimportant, but on electric topics, it is a marginal phenomenon. (Ezra Klein, 7/29)
USA Today: Biden, Businesses Must Mandate The COVID Vaccination Shot For Some
As a new wave of COVID-19 infections sweeps across the country driven by a highly contagious variant, an era of carrot incentives to increase the number of fully vaccinated Americans has played itself out. Enticements ranging from hard scientific facts to Krispy Kreme doughnuts and million dollar lotteries are failing. Months after making free shots available, less than half the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. One hundred million eligible recipients simply say no. Time has come to use the stick. (7/28)
Kansas City Star: Putting Students At Needless Risk With Hit-Or-Miss Masking Should Be Unthinkable
Now that we know that the delta variant galloping through Kansas City can be more easily spread by even those who have been vaccinated than earlier versions of the coronavirus could be, Mayor Quinton Lucas had no choice but to issue a new mask mandate. To those who complain that the guidance keeps changing, that’s because the virus keeps changing. And will keep right on mutating until a lot more of us get vaccinated. All of the vaccines approved for emergency use remain highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death, including from the delta variant. (7/29)
Bloomberg: Three Reasons The New CDC Mask Guidance Makes Sense
Just two months after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was generally safe for those vaccinated against COVID-19 to drop their masks, the agency switched course and now recommends that even the inoculated wear face coverings indoors in areas where the highly transmissible delta variant is spreading rapidly. The guidance change may provoke some whiplash — and it's already generated some backlash, if social media is any measure — but it makes sense. Here's why. (Max Nisen, 7/28)
The Washington Post: To Finally End This Pandemic, We Must Once Again Mask Up And Get Vaccinated.
The highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus has forced a return to face masks in some places. Despite the grim disappointment of what might appear to be a step backward, the nation’s pandemic response must not flag. Vaccines have proved to be extraordinarily effective in preventing severe disease and death, and there is no better solution at hand than getting millions more people vaccinated in the United States and the world. Face masks can restrain the spread of this virus. However, it is going to take longer than once hoped. We must not give up. (7/28)
USA Today: Take The COVID-19 Vaccine. It's The Christian Thing To Do.
As a doctor and a Christian, I am struck by the profound difference that my fellow Christians could make in the trajectory of the pandemic by getting vaccinated. The delta variant, a much more transmissible form of COVID-19, threatens a new round of restrictions and a new round of deaths. And nearly all the deaths involve people who haven’t been vaccinated. Earlier this year, 45% of white evangelical adults said they would not be vaccinated, according to a Pew Research Center survey. That amounts to more than 45 million Americans or 14% of the population, based on the 2020 Census of American Religion. If this group alone accepted the COVID-19 vaccine, we could begin to close in on herd immunity and move beyond this painful and deadly season. (Dr. Andrew Wong, 7/28)
