Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
One Million Shots In 24 Hours: US Vaccination Pace Hits Seven-Week High
Politico: Nation Hits 1M Vaccinations Benchmark For First Time In Seven Weeks
More than one million Americans received a dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday, a benchmark the nation has not met in nearly seven weeks amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic. White House Covid-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar announced the vaccine upswing on Twitter, noting a 31 percent week-over-week increase in the daily average of those becoming fully vaccinated. He said Thursday’s numbers include 562,000 newly vaccinated people. (Sheehey, 8/19)
The Hill: White House: More Than One Million Vaccine Doses Administered In Past 24 Hours
The numbers show the vaccination rate is increasing across the country after weeks of stagnating at about 500,000 per day. Vaccinations had slowed down after hitting a peak in mid-April of about 3.3 million doses per day. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just under 60 percent of the entire eligible U.S. population is fully vaccinated, indicating the U.S. still has progress to make to combat the virus, especially as cases, hospitalizations and deaths have surged across the country. (Weixel, 8/19)
CNN: As Covid-19 Hospitalizations Increase, More Americans Are Deciding To Get Vaccinated
Oklahoma and Louisiana -- two states that have lagged the rest of the nation in vaccinations -- are now outpacing the national average, White House Covid-19 Response Team Chief of Staff Asma Mirza said in calls with local faith leaders Thursday. "We're seeing a new willingness, a new openness to getting vaccinated," she said in a discussion with Louisiana faith leaders. (Caldwell, 8/20)
In related news —
CIDRAP: Early US Vaccine Efforts May Have Prevented 140K COVID Deaths, 3 Million Cases
The first push of the US COVID-19 vaccination campaign averted an estimated 140,000 deaths and more than 3 million infections by early May, saving $625 billion to $1.4 trillion, suggests an observational study yesterday in Health Affairs. In the first known study to evaluate the effects of state-level vaccination campaigns, a team led by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researchers modeled the number of COVID-19 deaths that would have occurred from Dec 21, 2020, to May 9, 2021, had it not been for vaccines. (Van Beusekom, 8/19)
CNBC: Fauci: U.S. Expanding Covid Vaccine Manufacturing To Donate More Doses To World
The United States is expanding manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines to donate more doses to countries that don’t have as much access to the lifesaving shots. “We are now working on greatly expanding the capacity to allow us to donate hundreds and hundreds of millions of doses to the low- and middle-income countries,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said in an interview Thursday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” (Mendez, 8/19)
