Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Mass Sites Opening Shakes Up Vaccination Process
The New York Times: A FEMA Site In Florida Gave Some Unused Shots To Young People. Before Long, It Was Mobbed.
Few eligible people were trickling in to a remote Federal Emergency Management vaccination site in South Florida on Saturday. So when some younger people without proof of eligibility showed up, workers at the site went ahead and gave them shots, thinking there was no danger of running out for the day. Word quickly spread around town: The site in Florida City, just north of the Florida Keys, was vaccinating any state resident 18 or older. Get down there fast. (3/7)
AP: Indiana Health Officials Tout 8,200 Vaccinations At Speedway
More than 8,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the first two days of a vaccination clinic at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, state health officials announced Sunday. The state’s first mass vaccination clinic runs four days through Monday and all appointments have been booked. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb received a shot at the site on Friday. (3/7)
Gwinnett Daily Post: Temporary COVID-19 Vaccine Site To Open In Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Federal officials are planning to open a temporary mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, adding to several other large vaccine sites scattered across Georgia. The Atlanta vaccine site inside the stadium is expected open in the next two weeks and should be able to administer about 6,000 shots a day, or 42,000 per week, according to a news release from President Joe Biden’s administration. It will be open for eight weeks, marking a test run for mass vaccine sites overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in vulnerable communities hit hard by the pandemic. (Evans, 3/5)
Axios: Why It's So Hard To Sign Up For Vaccinations Online
The verdict from Americans trying to get the COVID vaccine is in: the sign-up websites are awful. Appointment systems are a vital part of getting Americans vaccinated, but a series of missed opportunities, at every level, left local governments scrambling. And the frustrating, confusing process now carries the risk that some people will simply give up. (Harding McGill and Hart, 3/8)
Also —
AP: Michigan Makes Homeless People Vaccine-Eligible
People who are homeless will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in Michigan starting Monday. Health officials say it’s a critical step in curbing infections and making sure vulnerable populations have access. “Our vulnerable populations are high priority for us right now,” Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said, according to the Lansing State Journal. “This opens the door to make sure that population is also vaccinated and we don’t continue to have outbreaks in shelters.” (3/7)
Oklahoman: Oklahoma Expands COVID Vaccine Eligibility To Nearly 40,000 More Residents
Beginning Monday, roughly 40,000 more Oklahomans will be eligible to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine. The state will expand eligibility to the last groups in Phase 2 of its distribution plan, including staff and residents in congregate locations and worksites. Those locations include homeless shelters, prisons and jails, some manufacturing facilities without appropriate space for social distancing, and public transit systems. Front-line public health staff as well as senior state, city and county government leaders and elected officials will also be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine starting Monday. (Branham, 3/6)
In updates about vulnerable groups —
Bay Area News Group: Hard-Hit Bay Area Zip Codes Left Out Of State's Vaccine Rollout Scheme
Many of the Bay Area’s hardest-hit neighborhoods have been left out of the state’s new equity-focused vaccine distribution scheme, frustrating local officials and community clinics racing to vaccinate the region’s most vulnerable populations. California’s list of more than 400 priority ZIP codes — for which the state will reserve about 40% of vaccine supplies — encompasses several lower-income neighborhoods such as Oakland’s Fruitvale, North Richmond and San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. But notably absent are other areas where residents have contracted and died from COVID-19 at high rates, such as East San Jose, East Palo Alto, Hayward, San Rafael and Concord. (Kelliher, 3/5)
Roll Call: Vulnerable Groups Still Falling Behind In Vaccination Effort
The Biden administration has argued it can distribute the coronavirus vaccine both quickly and equitably, but federal data shows little progress in getting doses to minority communities as states prioritize getting shots into as many arms as quickly as possible. (Macagnone, 3/5)
Bloomberg: One U.S. State's Laser Focus On Data Helps Shrink Racial Vaccine Gap
North Carolina is among the best-performing U.S. states when it comes to distributing vaccines evenly among Black and White residents. That’s partly because the state is by far the best at collecting demographic data. About 11% of North Carolina’s Black population has received at least one shot, compared with 17% of the state’s White residents, the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker shows. That puts North Carolina in fourth place for the smallest spread between the two groups among states with the most comprehensive data sets. Other states might be doing as well or better than North Carolina in terms of equality, though huge numbers of incomplete records obscure the national picture. (LaVito, 3/6)
