Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Shots, More Destinations: Feds Ramp Up Vaccination Shipments
Bloomberg: White House Announces Boost in Vaccine Shipments, New Sites
President Joe Biden’s administration will boost weekly vaccine shipments to states to 11 million from 10.5 million and launch a vaccination program through community health centers in every state and territory, White House adviser Jeff Zients said Tuesday. The administration will begin shipping doses to the centers as soon as next week. That will include a total of one million doses -- enough for 500,000 full vaccinations -- as the program ramps up in coming weeks, Zients said at a briefing. The timeline for those shipments wasn’t immediately clear. (Wingrove and LaVito, 2/9)
The Hill: White House To Ship COVID-19 Vaccines Directly To Community Health Centers
Community health centers will be receiving coronavirus vaccines directly from the federal government next week, White House officials announced Tuesday. The goal of the new program is to focus on equitable vaccine distribution, in order to reach traditionally underserved areas. (Weixel, 2/9)
And the Biden administration prepares its public safety campaign —
The Wall Street Journal: Biden Administration Plans Covid-19 Safety Campaign Focused On Social Distancing, Mask Wearing
The Biden administration plans to ramp up a public safety campaign focused on social distancing and mask wearing to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the coming weeks as states begin relaxing public-health measures, according to a person familiar with the matter. But the administration will delay a broad national campaign it had been planning that would promote vaccine awareness until more doses are available, the person said, and will instead launch a limited version targeting smaller groups where skepticism is pervasive. (Armour, 2/9)
In news about testing and tracing —
The Washington Post: As CDC Weighs Coronavirus Testing Requirement For Domestic Flights, Industry Voices Fierce Opposition
U.S. public health officials are weighing whether to require domestic travelers to show proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding their flights, drawing fierce opposition from airlines, labor unions and lawmakers but underscoring the severity of the pandemic and difficult trade-offs involved with trying to subdue it. ... Ed Bastian, chief executive of Delta Air Lines, said Tuesday on CNN that a testing requirement is a “horrible idea” and argued it would not make domestic travel safer. He is backed by a coalition of aviation groups, which released a four-page document outlining reasons requiring travelers in the United States to test negative before they board a flight would be ill-advised. (Aratani, Laris and Duncan, 2/9)
KHN: As Pandemic Surged, Contact Tracing Struggled; Biden Looks To Boost It
Contact tracing, a critical part of efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, has fallen behind in recent months as covid-19 cases have soared. President Joe Biden had pledged to change that. Biden proposes hiring 100,000 people nationwide as part of a new public health jobs corps. They would help with contact tracing and facilitate vaccination. Experts said it’s not clear that would be enough tracers to keep up with another surge in covid cases, even if the vaccination rate increases at the same time. (Findlay, 2/10)
