Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How The J&J Pause Affects The Total Vaccination Effort
Bloomberg: J&J Vaccine Pause Disrupts An Already-Slow Rollout To Minorities
The U.S. vaccination drive has failed to equitably reach people of all races, and the pause on the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine is halting key efforts to jab hard-to-reach minority populations. The J&J shot only makes up about 4% of the more than 189 million doses administered. But because it doesn’t require expensive refrigeration and is only one dose, it’s the vaccine of choice for programs aimed at inoculating people who are homebound, homeless, and whose jobs make it hard to schedule multiple appointments. These are groups disproportionately made up of the minority populations already lagging in doses. (Green, 4/14)
CNBC: Covid Vaccine: White House Says U.S. Is Working To Accelerate Pfizer, Moderna Doses
The Biden administration is working to accelerate doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines after U.S. health officials advised states to hold off on using Johnson & Johnson’s shot while regulators investigate a rare blood-clotting issue, a top U.S. official said Wednesday. Jeff Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 coordinator, said the Food and Drug Administration’s recommended pause on J&J’s vaccine would not have a “significant impact” on the administration’s vaccination program. (Lovelace Jr., 4/14)
Politico: Sharpening Resistance: States Fret Pause In J&J Vaccine Could Drive Up Hesitancy
The Biden administration says its decision to stop administering Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus shot should make Americans more confident vaccines are safe. A growing chorus of state officials says it could have just the opposite effect. Any interruption could harden skepticism among people who were ambivalent over getting vaccinated or scared about getting sick from side effects, some governors and state health officials say. That could make tamping down new outbreaks and ending the pandemic much harder, especially with public places reopening and travel on the rise. (Roubein and Goldberg, 4/14)
The Atlantic: The mRNA Vaccines Are Looking Better and Better
A year ago, when the United States decided to go big on vaccines, it bet on nearly every horse, investing in a spectrum of technologies. The safest bets, in a way, repurposed the technology behind existing vaccines, such as protein-based ones for tetanus or hepatitis B. The medium bets were on vaccines made by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, which use adenovirus vectors, a technology that had been tested before but not deployed on a large scale. The long shots were based on the use of mRNA, the newest and most unproven technology. The protein-based vaccines have moved too slowly to matter so far. J&J’s and AstraZeneca’s vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19—but a small number of recipients have developed a rare type of blood clot that appears to be linked to the adenovirus technology and may ultimately limit those shots’ use. Meanwhile, with more than 180 million doses administered in the U.S, the mRNA vaccines have proved astonishingly effective and extremely safe. The unusual blood clots have not appeared with Pfizer’s or Moderna’s mRNA technology. A year later, the risky bet definitely looks like a good one. (Zhang, 4/14)
In related news about vaccine hesitancy —
The Washington Post: Public Health Experts Double Down On Vaccine Education After J&J Vaccine Pause
Community leaders and those in charge of vaccinating vulnerable populations said that the pause does not appear to have immediately deterred people who want to be vaccinated or have upcoming vaccine appointments. “My concern is the people who were already not planning to get the vaccine will latch on to this as further justification just for why they shouldn’t get it,” said Leana Wen, Baltimore’s former health commissioner and an emergency physician. (Portnoy, 4/14)
The New York Times: Western Warnings Tarnish Covid Vaccines The World Badly Needs
Safety worries about the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines have jeopardized inoculation campaigns far beyond the United States, undercutting faith in two sorely needed shots and threatening to prolong the coronavirus pandemic in countries that can ill afford to be choosy about vaccines. With new infections surging on nearly every continent, signs that the vaccination drive is in peril are emerging, most disconcertingly in Africa. (Mueller, 4/14)
Bloomberg: Vaccine Hesitancy Down In U.S., But 1 In 7 Are Still Reluctant
Vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. is shrinking, though 1 in 7 residents remain wary about getting a Covid-19 vaccine, largely because of concerns about side effects. That segment is younger and less educated than average, according to a tracker released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau that uses Household Pulse Survey data. Residents were surveyed before U.S. regulators on Tuesday recommended pausing Johnson & Johnson vaccines because of concerns about rare blood clots. (Querolo, 4/14)
CNN: Many Evangelicals Say They Won't Be Vaccinated Against Covid-19. Some Experts Say Distrust And Misinformation Have Played A Role
At Pastor Tony Spell's Sunday sermon this week, he preached a different kind of message than usual to his congregants: Don't trust Covid-19 vaccines. "I'll just tell you today, if being anti-mask and anti-vaccine is anti-government, then I'm proud to be anti-government," Spell, who has made a national name for himself protesting Covid-19 rules in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told Life Tabernacle Church congregants. He goes on to falsely state: "If you have a 99.6% survival rate, why do you want somebody to contaminate your bloodstream with something that may or may not hurt you?" (Reeve, Guff, Waldrop and Brunswick, 4/14)
ABC News: Justices Sonia Sotomayor And Neil Gorsuch Agree: Misinformation Is Threat To America
They are ideological opposites on the U.S. Supreme Court, but Wednesday Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch united in a rare, joint public appearance to declare the spread of misinformation on social media an urgent threat to national security. ... Sotomayor cited a recent study from MIT which found false news stories are 70% more likely to be retweeted than true stories are. "That's frightening, isn't it," she said, "that people don't learn about truthful statements as much as false statements through social media. That is a true threat to our national security." (Dwyer, 4/14)
NPR: The Most Popular J&J Vaccine Story On Facebook? A Conspiracy Theorist Posted It
The most popular link on Facebook about the Johnson & Johnson news was shared by a conspiracy theorist and self-described "news analyst & hip-hop artist" named An0maly who thinks the pandemic is a cover for government control. It's a stark example of what experts warn could be a coming deluge of false and misleading information related to the one-shot vaccine. (Parks, 4/15)
