Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Vaccine Distribution Snafus Predicted
Stat: Democratic Group Warns U.S. Unprepared To Distribute Covid-19 Vaccine
A Democratic group warned Tuesday that the U.S. is fundamentally unprepared to manufacture and distribute hundreds of millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses when one becomes available, urging Congress to step up preparedness efforts and spend $40 billion to quickly increase manufacturing and distribution capacity. In a 20-page report published by the Center for American Progress, two leading Democratic health policy figures called the current vaccine manufacturing setup “haphazard.” (Facher, 7/28)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: There Won't Be Enough Coronavirus Vaccine To Go Around. Who Should Get It First?
Whenever a vaccine for the coronavirus becomes available, one thing is virtually certain: There won’t be enough to go around. That means there will be rationing. Someone will have to decide which of the world’s 7.8 billion people gets first crack at returning to a more normal life. Infectious disease experts and medical ethicists say this exceptionally complex decision must weigh not only who is most at risk from the virus and who is most likely to spread it, but also who is most important for maintaining the medical and financial health of a nation as well as its safety. (Burling, 7/28)
In business news —
The New York Times: Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion In Rush For Coronavirus Vaccine
On June 26, a small South San Francisco company called Vaxart made a surprise announcement: A coronavirus vaccine it was working on had been selected by the U.S. government to be part of Operation Warp Speed, the flagship federal initiative to quickly develop drugs to combat Covid-19. Vaxart’s shares soared. Company insiders, who weeks earlier had received stock options worth a few million dollars, saw the value of those awards increase sixfold. And a hedge fund that partly controlled the company walked away with more than $200 million in instant profits. (Gelles and Drucker, 7/25)
Stat: Facebook's Vaccine Misinformation Problem Faces A New Test With Covid-19
As scientists begin to clear a path to a potential coronavirus vaccine, researchers and advocates are increasingly sounding the alarm over what they see as a looming threat: Facebook’s apparent inability to police dangerous falsehoods about vaccines. Since the outset of the pandemic, vaccine-related falsehoods have ballooned on the platform — and recent research suggests some of those inaccurate posts are gaining traction among people who weren’t previously opposed to vaccinations. Part of the problem appears to be the way Facebook’s algorithms capitalize on divisive or extremist content. (Brodwin, 7/28)
AP: Head Of China CDC Gets Injected With Experimental Vaccine
The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved. “I’m going to reveal something undercover: I am injected with one of the vaccines,” Gao Fu said in a webinar Sunday hosted by Alibaba Health, an arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, and Cell Press, an American publisher of scientific journals. “I hope it will work.” (Kang, 7/28)
Also —
The Philadelphia Inquirer: How To Join A Coronavirus Vaccine Clinical Trial
If you want to be among the first to get a vaccine for the coronavirus, joining a clinical trial might be your best bet. Vaccine makers are going to need thousands of volunteer testers over the next few months. As with any clinical trial, these new vaccines are experimental, so they may not work. And thousands may also be in the placebo group, so they will have no extra protection against the virus. There’s also a risk of nasty side effects, but clinical trial participants may feel good about doing something concrete to fight COVID-19. (Burling, 7/27)
CNN: Vaccines Are Remarkably Safe, Review Finds
Vaccine label changes have made vaccines even safer than they were before, and they remain "remarkably" safe, Israeli-based researchers reported Monday. A review of 58 different changes to labels on vaccines made between 1996 and 2015 has shown very few dangers in vaccination, and changes that were made were mostly to ensure people vulnerable to side effects or allergies were protected, they found. (Thomas, Lin Erdman, Kane and Hetter, 7/27)
