Shipments To Leap 40% Next Week; Feds Will Give States Better Notice

The Hill: Vaccine Distribution To Jump 40 Percent Next Week, UPS Executive Says 
FedEx and UPS said they plan to increase distribution of the coronavirus vaccine by 40 percent next week, with peak distribution likely to come in May. Wes Wheeler, the head of UPS’s health care unit, said the courier service is currently handling about 10 million weekly doses but that the figure is set to increase to 14 million next week. (Budryk, 2/25)

Politico: White House Planning To Forecast Vaccine Shipments Months In Advance 
The Biden administration is planning to provide states with estimates of their expected vaccine shipments likely months ahead of time rather than weeks, according to multiple sources with knowledge. The longer planning window, which is expected to start as soon as next week, could address concerns from governors who had complained that limited shipment forecasts affect their ability to plan vaccination clinics and figure out where to steer doses. And it represents the growing confidence among vaccine makers and the Biden administration in the production of shots, with substantial boosts in supply expected over the coming weeks. (Roubein, 2/25)

In updates from the states —

Salt Lake Tribune: Utahns Age 16 And Older With Certain Health Conditions Can Make Vaccine Appointments Now, Gov. Cox Says
Beginning immediately, Utahns age 16 and older with certain severe and chronic health conditions can make appointments to be vaccinated, Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday. That shift had been planned to happen on March 1, but is running a few days ahead of schedule. Cox credited the change to the speed of Utah’s work to vaccinate groups who were already eligible. For example, in the first week that Utahns between the ages of 65 and 69 could make appointments, 29% received their first dose of vaccine. As Utah now invites residents with qualifying health conditions to be vaccinated, the state is working on the honor system, he noted. (Means, 2/25)

Houston Chronicle: Texas National Guard Deployed To Get COVID-19 Vaccines To Older Texans Who Are Homebound
Some 1,100 members of the Texas National Guard will administer vaccines to older people in their homes in rural and isolated areas of the state in an effort to get the majority of Texans who are 65 and older inoculated against COVID-19 by the end of March, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday. Abbott also said that with vaccine supply ramping up considerably starting next week, combined with the anticipated approval of a third vaccine this week, the state could open up eligibility to more Texans beyond the first two identified priority groups sometime next month. (Brooks Harper, 2/25)

The Washington Post: D.C. Coronavirus Vaccine Registrations Freeze Up; Vice President Kamala Harris Visits D.C. Pharmacy 
A glitch in the District’s coronavirus vaccine registration system caused it to freeze up Thursday amid a flood of submissions on the first day of eligibility for people in hard-hit areas who have underlying health conditions. On a day when Vice President Harris showed up to observe vaccinations inside a Southeast Washington pharmacy, an unknown number of qualified residents were locked out from registering for an appointment. City health officials blamed “a technical review failure,” which sparked more confusion in what has been a frustrating vaccination process in the Washington region. (Olivo, Fadulu and Brice-Saddler, 2/25)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Thousands Of Vaccine Appointments At UW Health Canceled Again
One of the state's largest health systems is canceling thousands of COVID-19 vaccine appointments this week after not receiving enough doses. UW Health is rescheduling more than 4,000 vaccine appointments in Wisconsin's capital city, including those for people who already had to delay their appointments once. "The supply of the vaccine we have received from the state so far is just a small fraction of what we need to reach the patients we care for in our community," the message sent Thursday to patients said. Virtually all of the appointments are for people over the age of 65, a spokeswoman said. (Beck, 2/25)

ABC News: Massachusetts Residents Told They Could Wait Hours Or Days To Schedule COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment 
Nearly 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine appointments in Massachusetts were snatched up in 90 minutes Thursday morning, as residents were told they could be waiting hours, or even days, to schedule one of the limited slots. (Deliso and Mitropoulos, 2/25)

Boston Globe: State Health Secretary Explains Why Employer-Hosted Vaccine Programs Are Being Suspended
The Baker administration had hoped companies could play a key role in inoculating their workers, by establishing employer-hosted vaccination programs. Now, that plan is on hold. Only several weeks after soliciting help from the business community, the administration is telling companies to suspend their COVID-19 vaccination efforts for now. On Thursday, Marylou Sudders, Governor Charlie Baker’s health and human services secretary, chalked up the problem to supply issues, during an online discussion hosted by the Massachusetts High Technology Council. The official word came out via a memo from her agency Wednesday night. (Chesto, 2/25)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Most Kids And Teens Can’t Get The COVID-19 Vaccine. So Why Did Pa. Send Thousands Of Doses To Pediatricians?
Meanwhile, the department allocated more than 12,000 doses to pediatric offices statewide. The Food and Drug Administration has not authorized emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for anyone younger than 16, or the Moderna vaccine for anyone under 18. Older teens must have serious underlying health conditions to get the vaccine now. Pediatric offices have a lot of expertise doling out vaccines, and they do have older teen and even adult patients who might qualify. But what puzzles many doctors is why practices that cater to seniors — the most vulnerable to serious illness and death from COVID-19 — weren’t able to get doses. “I honestly don’t know what the distribution method is because it just seems so random,” said Tracey Conti, a physician with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians. (Laughlin, 2/25)

The Washington Post: People Giving Covid Vaccines Are Surrounded By Joy And Hope 
The happiest place in medicine right now is a basketball arena in New Mexico. Or maybe it’s the parking lot of a baseball stadium in Los Angeles, or a Six Flags in Maryland, or a shopping mall in South Dakota. The happiest place in medicine is anywhere there is vaccine, and the happiest people in medicine are the ones plunging it into the arms of strangers. “It’s a joy to all of us,” says Akosua “Nana” Poku, a Kaiser Permanente nurse vaccinating people in Northern Virginia. (Judkis, 2/25)

Also —

The Washington Post: Disabled People Are Not Being Prioritized For The Coronavirus Vaccine, Advocates Say. This Dashboard Could Help 
In early January, while she was helping her grandfather register for a coronavirus vaccine, 21-year-old Sabrina Epstein realized that she was also eligible to be vaccinated in Texas, where her grandfather lived. But in Maryland, where she is a senior studying public health at Johns Hopkins University, she wasn’t eligible. As she started looking more closely at policies, Epstein realized that states across the country had prioritized people with chronic health conditions and disabilities, like hers, either in varied phases or not at all — and according to vastly different definitions and standards.On Twitter, she began connecting with other people with disabilities, and she discovered that many of them were similarly frustrated, confused or discouraged by their states’ vaccine rollouts. So, Epstein approached her mentor at Johns Hopkins’s Disability Health Research Center, Director Bonnielin Swenor, about creating a resource for people with disabilities to find their state guidelines. Disability activists could also reference it as they advocated for more equitable vaccine distribution, Epstein hoped. (Nowell, 2/25)

NBC News: Parents Desperate To Get Their Disabled Kids Vaccinated Face Big Hurdle: CDC Guidelines
They're caught in a Covid-19 catch-22. Karen Woodall is desperate to get Liam, her disabled son who is in the seventh grade, back into his North Carolina school because he can't learn on the computer and, as a result, has lost a full year of schooling. (Syed and Siemaszko, 2/26)

Capital & Main: Missteps In L.A.'s Pandemic Response Left Disadvantaged Communities Behind 
As Los Angeles’ COVID-19 winter surge hit its deadly peak last December, the county government launched a new initiative meant to tap trusted community leaders to slow the virus’s spread through information campaigns and distribution of vaccines in hard-hit neighborhoods. Community organizers told Capital & Main that they’re grateful for the support. But many say the slow rollout of the government-community partnership, which started after the recent surge was waning, is illustrative of both the missteps that have led to lives lost and the change of course needed ahead. (Albaladejo, 2/25)

KHN: As Covid Surged, Vaccines Came Too Late For At Least 400 Medical Workers 
As health care workers in the U.S. began lining up for their first coronavirus vaccines on Dec. 14, Esmeralda Campos-Loredo was already fighting for oxygen. The 49-year-old nursing assistant and mother of two started having breathing problems just days earlier. By the time the first of her co-workers were getting shots, she was shivering in a tent in the parking lot of a Los Angeles hospital because no medical beds were available. When she gasped for air, she had to wait all day for relief due to a critical shortage of oxygen tanks. (McCormick, 2/26)