Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Once Blamed Vaccines For Autism, But Now In Face Of Coronavirus Outbreak He's Changed His Tune
The New York Times: President Trump On Vaccines: From Skeptic To Cheerleader
President Trump has been promising the imminent arrival of a vaccine to halt the spread of the coronavirus, the novel germ that has sickened more than 100,000 people worldwide, killed more than 3,400 and is now spreading in the United States. Federal health officials have repeatedly pointed out that his timetable is off — that it will take at least a year — but his single-minded focus on warp-speed production of a new vaccine represents a striking philosophical shift. For years, Mr. Trump was an extreme vaccine skeptic who not only blamed childhood immunizations for autism — a position that scientists have forcefully repudiated — but once boasted he had never had a flu shot. (Hoffman, 3/9)
The CT Mirror: After The Outcry, A Search For Accommodation On Vaccines
In the polarized battle over vaccines, Gov. Ned Lamont thought he’d found common ground with Trisha Connelly, one of the mothers who laid siege to the Legislative Office Building last month, staying overnight to testify against legislation that would bar unvaccinated children from school in September. When Connelly first approached Lamont at a public event Feb. 26 at Eastern Connecticut State University, it seemed like she was asking the governor to back less restrictive rules for medical exemptions to vaccines. (Pazniokas, 3/9)
Stat: To Develop A Coronavirus Vaccine, Synthetic Biologists Try To Outdo Nature
Even as companies rush to develop and test vaccines against the new coronavirus, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are betting that scientists can do even better than what’s now in the pipeline. If, as seems quite possible, the Covid-19 virus becomes a permanent part of the world’s microbial menagerie rather than being eradicated like the earlier SARS coronavirus, next-gen approaches will be needed to address shortcomings of even the most cutting-edge vaccines: They take years to develop and manufacture, they become obsolete if the virus evolves, and the immune response they produce is often weak. (Begley, 3/9)
