Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Steps The G7 Must Take To End The Pandemic; Tactics To Fight Vaccine Hesitancy
Bloomberg: Joe Biden, Boris Johnson And The G-7 Can End The Global Pandemic
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to vaccinate the world by the end of next year, saying it “would be the single greatest feat in medical history.” Sadly, a promise is not a plan, and I fear that an initiative that appears to focus on dose-sharing by nations will fall far short of delivering the worldwide herd immunity needed to make all of us safe again. Having attended 12 of them as prime minister or finance minister, I know how G-7 meetings work. They thrive on informality, which, of course, allows for plain speaking free of diplomatic niceties. (Gordon Brown, 6/9)
USA Today: COVID Vaccine Trust Gap: Fight Hesitance With Facts And Empathy
The United States was No. 3 in the world early last month in getting at least one dose of COVID vaccine into adult arms. Even though nearly two-thirds of American adults have now received a dose, as of this week we had slipped to No. 8. How can America surge again to the top? One key is addressing the nearly 1 in 3 people who are hesitant or unsure about getting vaccinated. We all have friends and family members who have expressed concerns. (Jeremy Howard and Dr. Nick Talley, 6/9)
Newsweek: Must We Care If You Don't Get The Shot?
I'm fully vaccinated, and so is just about everyone I know. We feel mostly protected against COVID-19. And so if others don't want to get the shot for political reasons or out of ignorance, must we care? We read that many Republicans are refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine, while most Democrats are all in. The reasoning on the right seems to be that President Joe Biden wants us all to get vaccinated, therefore they won't. Do these folks think that they are somehow offending or frustrating the opposition? (Froma Harrop, 6/8)
The Washington Post: Thank You, Uncle Sam. The Vaccine Rollout Is The Biggest Government Success In Decades
I came of age in the 1980s as a Reagan Republican distrustful of “big government.” In 2016, I left the Republican Party, but former president Donald Trump’s unethical and incompetent conduct only further heightened my suspicion of the government. Why should I trust Washington when the previous president abused his power so badly that he was twice impeached? I am hardly alone in my skepticism. The Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of Americans who trust the federal government to do what is right has fallen from 73 percent during the Eisenhower administration to just 24 percent today. (Max Boot, 6/8)
