Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Vaccine Mistrust Dropping, No Thanks To Spanish-Speaking Social Media
USA Today: 'You Can't Trust The Government': Spanish-Speaking Social Media Spreads COVID-19 Vaccine Disinformation, Adds To Hesitancy
It took Maria Teresa Kumar weeks to find out why her mom wouldn’t take a COVID-19 vaccine and to convince her it is safe. Kumar’s mother, a Colombian American woman who runs a small eldercare facility in Northern California, received a video on WhatsApp featuring a speaker who claimed to be a pharmacist. In Spanish, the speaker warned viewers not to get the shot because it was a "new technology never introduced into humans before. "It was one of several alarming videos her mother shared with her, all laced with unbacked, fearmongering claims surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. (Hassanein, 3/29)
CNN: Mitch McConnell Encourages Republican Men To Get Vaccinated
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday encouraged "all Republican men" to get the Covid-19 vaccine, as new polls indicate many in the group are skeptical of getting the shot. "I can say as a Republican man, as soon as it was my turn, I took the vaccine. I would encourage all Republican men to do that," said McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, on Monday, when asked what kind of messaging he can push as the GOP leader to help encourage people, specifically Republican men, that the vaccine is safe and they should get it. (Zaslav, 3/29)
KHN: Covid Vaccine Hesitancy Drops Among All Americans, New Survey Shows
A new poll of attitudes toward covid vaccinations shows Americans are growing more enthusiastic about being vaccinated, with the most positive change in the past month occurring among Black Americans. About 55% of Black adults said they had been vaccinated or plan to be soon, up 14 percentage points from February, according to a poll released Tuesday by KFF. The rate now approaches that of Hispanics, at 61%, and whites at 64%. (Asian Americans were not polled in sufficient numbers to compare their responses with other racial and ethnic groups.) (Huetteman, 3/30)
Bloomberg: How The U.S. Is Vaccinating Its Way Out Of The Pandemic
On Dec. 14, 2020 a milestone was reached in the U.S. The nation’s first Covid-19 vaccine started to arrive at hospitals across the country, nine months after the coronavirus shuttered the U.S. economy, killed hundreds of thousands and wreaked havoc on every aspect of American life. That day reflected both a landmark scientific achievement and a logistical triumph. Cameras captured Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse, receiving a shot of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s vaccine in New York. Lindsay became the first known person to get the vaccine in the U.S. following regulatory clearance. (LaVito, Tozzi and Shah, 3/30)
The Atlantic: 'Which Vaccine Did You Get?' Small Talk Is Back In America
The vaccines are here, and with them, the promise of getting back to some sort of normal. Over the coming months, many Americans will be returning to offices or schools, traveling to see family and friends, eating cheeseburgers inside sports bars. But the vaccines’ arrival has also provided a more immediate relief: giving people something to talk about. After a year of awkward conversation, the United States has entered vaccine exuberance. People are sharing vaccine selfies, posting photos of their vaccine cards to Instagram, and even just broadcasting tips on where they got appointments or found short lines. “I got my first shot” is news worth hearing. Finally, you have an answer to the dreaded “How’s it going?”: perhaps, “My parents are fully vaccinated as of today. What a relief.” (Bogost, 3/29)
In regional distribution news —
North Carolina Health News: Health Centers Get New Funds For COVID Vaccination Gap
Even as North Carolina’s health care providers have administered nearly 5 million coronavirus vaccinations, the state’s Latino and African American populations remain underrepresented among those who received at least one shot. To help decrease that gap, the Biden Administration has awarded a collective $161 million to 40 safety net clinic operators. Community health centers — 250 of which are in North Carolina — serve hundreds of thousands of uninsured and underinsured patients across the state. (Engel-Smith, 3/30)
Roll Call: DC Didn’t Qualify For A FEMA Mass Vaccine Site Because It’s Not Part Of A Larger State
The District of Columbia has “a high social vulnerability” when it comes to COVID-19, but the city did not qualify for a mass vaccination site because it isn’t part of a larger state, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Bob Fitton told reporters on Friday. FEMA currently has 21 mass vaccination sites scattered across the country to help quickly get shots in arms. These sites, which were set up after the Biden administration took office, can inoculate thousands of people per day. Many of the sites are near cities with high minority populations and many people who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. (Cohen, 3/29)
AP: Native American Health Clinics Offering Vaccine To Visitors
The Indian Health Service announced Monday that it is shifting its vaccine distribution system to target individual hospitals and clinics with high demand for shots and taper supplies to hubs where most eligible patients have received doses. The U.S. agency is part of a two-pronged national effort to immunize Indigenous communities that also relies on state health agencies. Native Americans have been disproportionately sickened and killed by the pandemic, and are also now at the forefront of federal efforts to deploy vaccine shots in the United States. (Lee, 3/30)
