Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Several Florida Communities Criticized Over Distribution Of Shots
Tampa Bay Times: Wealthy Florida Keys Enclave Received Vaccines In January Before Much Of The State
As Florida’s eldest residents struggled to sign up to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, nearly all those ages 65 years and older in a wealthy gated enclave in the Florida Keys had been vaccinated by mid-January, according to an emailed newsletter obtained by the Miami Herald. (Klas and Goodhue, 3/3)
Stat: Shots For Rural Black Communities Going To Wealthy White Floridians
The winds blew southwest the day of Pahokee’s Covid-19 vaccination drive, which meant the sugarcane fields were ablaze. Growers are banned from burning excess leaves when there’s an eastward breeze, to keep fumes away from the gated communities of Florida’s Gold Coast 40 miles away. Pahokee is in the same county but, with a median personal income of $13,674, its residents live in a different world. (Goldhill, 3/4)
Tampa Bay Times: DeSantis Dropped Off 3,000 Vaccines To A Pinellas Senior Community. But Was The Distribution Fair?
Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference on Feb. 18 at the Mainlands of Tamarac by the Gulf, announcing the arrival of 3,000 vaccines for the Pinellas Park senior community. But the process that followed after the cameras were turned off was chaotic and questioned by some. (LeFever and Contorno, 3/3)
In other news about who's getting the covid shot —
The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore, Prince George’s Leaders Push For More Equitable COVID Vaccine Plan: ‘We Can Reverse The Course’
The leaders of Maryland’s two largest majority-Black jurisdictions on Wednesday urged the state to do a better job distributing vaccines in an equitable way. “Despite statements otherwise, the residents of Baltimore City are both entitled to — and deserve — the vaccines,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott said. “However our residents do not have equitable access to vaccine doses and the state is not providing an equitable share across jurisdictions.” (Wood, 3/3)
The Baltimore Sun: Who’s Getting COVID Vaccine Doses In Maryland? Here’s What The Data Shows About Racial And Geographical Gaps.
With the expansion of the state’s mass vaccination sites and the emergency authorization of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine late last week, Maryland is preparing to ramp up its COVID-19 vaccination efforts over the next few weeks. But even as it does, the state is reckoning with inequities in the rollout of the vaccine thus far, with white Marylanders receiving nearly four times as many doses of vaccines as Black residents. (Kamidi, 3/3)
ABC News: Retired Minnesota Couple On TikTok Encourages Others To Get A Vaccine, Wear A Mask
One retired couple is helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 by going viral. Joel and Harmony Kaplan, from Edina, Minnesota, have been taking to TikTok to share video messages about the pandemic. Singing together, they encourage everyone to wear masks, to wash their hands and to get a vaccine. The lyrical duo has been married for 50 years, and they have two children and four grandchildren. On March 1, they received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. (Yamada and Noll, 3/3)
