Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pentagon To Offer Vaccine To Prisoners At Guantanamo Bay
The Hill: Guantanamo Bay Prisoners To Be Offered Coronavirus Vaccines
The Defense Department will offer the coronavirus vaccine to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay facility, a prosecutor involved in the government’s case against five of the prisoners said in a letter to defense lawyers. “[A]n official in the Pentagon has just signed a memo approving the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine to the detainee population in Guantánamo,” prosecutor Clayton G. Trivett Jr. wrote Thursday, according to The New York Times. (Budryk, 1/28)
The New York Times: Mexico’s Death Toll Becomes The World’s Third Highest, Surpassing India’s
Mexico’s confirmed coronavirus death toll surpassed India’s on Thursday to become the world’s third-highest, after months in which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had downplayed the coronavirus as his government scrambled to control it. As of Friday morning, Mexico had recorded 155,145 coronavirus deaths during the pandemic, 1,135 more than India, according to a New York Times database. It recorded 1,506 deaths on Thursday alone, about 300 short of a daily record from earlier this month. (Ives, Abi-Habiv and Lopez, 1/29)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Germany Expects Limited EU Approval For AstraZeneca Vaccine
Germany’s health minister says he expects the European Union's drug regulator to authorize a further coronavirus vaccine made by AstraZeneca on Friday, but that currently available data may mean it is not recommended for older adults. Jens Spahn said authorities are waiting to see what advice the European Medicines Agency issues with regard to vaccinations for people over 65, and Germany would then adjust its own guidance for doctors in the country. “We don't expect an unrestricted approval,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin. (Jordans and Cheng, 1/29)
The Wall Street Journal: Behind AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine Stumble
AstraZeneca PLC Chief Executive Pascal Soriot promised to churn out more Covid-19 vaccines, at a lower price, than any of his big pharma competitors. Now, a production problem at a single factory in Belgium has delayed tens of millions of doses destined for Europe, endangering the continent’s already-slow inoculation drive and representing the greatest threat so far to Dr. Soriot’s extraordinary pledge last year to vaccinate the world—and do so for no profit. After disclosing the European problem, the drugmaker now says it has been troubleshooting similar production issues in recent weeks as far away as the U.S. and Australia. (Strasburg and Norman, 1/28)
The New York Times: Governments Sign Secret Vaccine Deals. Here’s What They Hide.
When members of the European Parliament sat down this month to read the first publicly available contract for purchasing coronavirus vaccines, they noticed something missing. Actually, a lot missing. The price per dose? Redacted. The rollout schedule? Redacted. The amount of money being paid up front? Redacted. (Apuzzo and Gebrekidan, 1/28)
In news about China —
The Washington Post: U.S. Handling Of American Evacuees From Wuhan Increased Coronavirus Risks, Watchdog Finds
As the first American evacuees from Wuhan, China, touched down at a California military base a year ago, fleeing the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, they were met by U.S. health officials with no virus prevention plan or infection-control training — and who had not even been told to wear masks, according to a federal investigation. Later, those officials were told to remove protective gear when meeting with the evacuees to avoid “bad optics,” and days after those initial encounters, departed California aboard commercial airline flights to other destinations. (Diamond, 1/28)
AP: WHO Team Visits Wuhan Hospital That Had Early COVID Patients
A World Health Organization team on Friday visited a hospital where China says the first COVID-19 patients were treated more than a year ago as part of the experts’ long-awaited fact-finding mission on the origins of the coronavirus. The WHO team members and Chinese officials earlier had their first in-person meetings at a hotel, which WHO has said were to be followed by field visits in the central city of Wuhan. (Fujiyama, 1/29)
The Washington Post: A Scathing New Documentary From HBO Alleges A Chinese Coverup On The Coronavirus
When evidence began mounting of a deadly new coronavirus in China a year ago, authorities could have reacted with swift warnings about public safety. They didn’t. Instead, they banned social-media posts about the virus, stopped symptomatic people from entering hospitals, punished doctors who spoke of the risks and unleashed a stream of state-TV propaganda downplaying its severity. That’s the narrative constructed by “In The Same Breath,” a scathing new documentary by the Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker Nanfu Wang. (Zeitchik, 1/28)
