Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Warning Needed On J&J Vaccine; Are Vaccine Passports The Answer To Hesitancy?
The Washington Post: The CDC Was Right To Lift The Pause On The J&J Vaccine But Should Have Warned Younger Women Against Using It
Friday’s vote by an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention to resume administering the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine was the right decision, but with a serious mistake: There should be an explicit warning against the vaccine’s use in women under the age of 50. I’m in this group. I’m also a participant in the Johnson & Johnson clinical trial who was told that I’d received the placebo. I then opted to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. If I knew then what I know now, I would have chosen the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead. (Leana S. Wen, 4/24)
San Francisco Chronicle: Why It's Time To Demand COVID Vaccine Passports In The Bay Area
California’s overwrought vaccine eligibility criteria have fallen away, once-scarce vaccination appointments are proliferating and half of American adults have experienced the oddly joyful soreness of a shot in the arm. It’s a triumph of international science and a success — if a delayed and heavily qualified one — for local, state and federal logistics. A little over a year since the arrival of the novel coronavirus in the Bay Area and the United States, we’re on the brink of protecting a majority of the population from the deadly disease it causes. (4/25)
Bloomberg: Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout Leaves Poor Countries Tragically Behind
To judge by the headlines, you’d think the most critical immunization issue facing the world is the safety and hesitancy concerns over the AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. That debate is genuinely important. Still, it shouldn’t distract from the biggest challenge the world will face over the coming months: the grossly unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries. (Brooke Sample, 4/24)
