Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Vaccines Are Being Wasted; Pfizer Will Send Smaller Shipments To Help
Axios: Pfizer To Offer Smaller Shipments Of COVID Vaccine
Pfizer will begin distributing smaller packages of COVID-19 vaccine to states by the end of May to reduce potential waste. As public demand for vaccine teeters, health officials see smaller clinical settings as the next step in vaccinating Americans who haven’t sought out a shot already. (Fernandez, 5/3)
KHN: CVS And Walgreens Have Wasted More Vaccine Doses Than Most States Combined
Two national pharmacy chains that the federal government entrusted to inoculate people against covid-19 account for the lion’s share of wasted vaccine doses, according to government data obtained by KHN. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 182,874 wasted doses as of late March, three months into the country’s effort to vaccinate the masses against the coronavirus. Of those, CVS was responsible for nearly half, and Walgreens for 21%, or nearly 128,500 wasted shots combined. (Eaton and Pradhan, 5/3)
In other updates on the vaccine rollout —
Axios: There's Not Just One Kind Of Coronavirus Vaccine Hesitancy
Around 10% of Americans aren't very eager to get the vaccine, but they're not really hesitant either — they're just waiting to get it until they get around to it, according to new Harris polling. Making vaccination more convenient will be a big part of the difficult process of getting more shots in arms, now that many of the most eager Americans have gotten their shots. (Owens, 5/3)
The Washington Post: Low Police Vaccination Rates Pose Public Safety Concerns
Police officers were among the first front-line workers to gain priority access to coronavirus vaccines. But their vaccination rates are lower than or about the same as those of the general public, according to data made available by some of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies. The reluctance of police to get the shots threatens not just their own health, but also the safety of people they’re responsible for guarding, monitoring and patrolling, experts say. (Stanley-Becker, 5/2)
Bangor Daily News: Maine Makes Quick Shift To Walk-In COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments
More than a dozen COVID-19 vaccination sites in Maine will offer doses without appointments next week in a rapid and marked shift from scarce doses and few appointments to little issue getting a shot as the vaccine effort continues. The prevalence of walk-ins is striking because of how quickly it was adopted. Just over two weeks ago, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah gingerly discussed the possibility of appointment-free clinics, warning they could come with logistical hurdles to ensure doses would not be wasted. (Andrews and Piper, 5/3)
Axios: Colorado Battles COVID Vaccine Hesitancy With Get-Out-The-Vote Tactics
Colorado is using tried-and-true get-out-the-vote tactics to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates across the state. The novel approach is part of a broader effort by state public health officials to reach herd immunity by targeting populations that are hesitant or too busy to get vaccinated. (Frank, 5/3)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly’s Vaccination Effort Reaches Out To Another Community: The Deaf
In fact, the Esperanza site, at Fourth and Bristol Streets, and the Convention Center site in Center City both have American Sign Language interpreters every day they are open, said Charlie Elison, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the clinics in partnership with the city and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. On average, the sites vaccinate about five to 10 people daily who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, Elison said. But for the last few weeks, FEMA, the city’s Department of Public Health, SEPTA, the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had promoted Saturday as a day at Esperanza dedicated to those who are deaf or have hearing loss, with more ASL and Certified Deaf Interpreters on hand. (Shaw, 5/1)
KHN: As Vaccine Demand Slows, Political Differences Go On Display In California Counties
Demand for covid vaccines is slowing across most of California, but as traffic at vaccination sites eases, the vaccination rates across the state are showing wide disparities. In Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, nearly 67% of residents 16 and older have had at least one dose as of Wednesday, compared with about 43% in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles. Statewide, about 58% of eligible residents have received at least one dose. (Almendrala, 5/3)
Also —
The Hill: Gottlieb Predicts 10M Kids Would Get Inoculated Before Fall If Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Is Authorized
Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer's board of directors, on Sunday predicted that 10 million kids would be vaccinated against the coronavirus before fall if the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for use on younger teens. ... "I'm hopeful the FDA is going to authorize that in a very short time period," he said. (Oshin, 5/2)
Bloomberg: Second Pfizer Covid Vaccine Needed For Full Inoculation, UK Study Shows
People who haven’t fought off Covid-19 before are still vulnerable to infection from variants after getting the first dose of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s vaccine, underscoring the need for fast and full inoculation regimens, according to a U.K. study published Friday. Among those who previously had mild or asymptomatic cases of Covid, the protection was “significantly enhanced” after a single dose against the variants first seen in the U.K. and South Africa, researchers said in the study, published Friday in the journal Science. (Loh, 4/30)
Boston Globe: U.S. Government Has Invested $6 Billion In Moderna's Covid-19 Vaccine
The federal government has now invested about $6 billion in the Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna, the Cambridge, Mass., biotech that few outside the scientific and investment worlds had heard of a couple of years ago. Moderna said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that under a change in its government contract on April 18, it will receive as much as $236 million in additional reimbursement for costs associated with its late-stage vaccine trial on about 30,000 volunteers, including safety monitoring. (Saltzman, 4/30)
The Atlantic: Pfizer Gang And The Sadness Of Vaccine Culture
Weirder still, one vaccine in particular—from Pfizer—has somehow become the cool vaccine, as well as the vaccine for the rich and stylish. Slate’s Heather Schwedel recently discussed the “Pfizer superiority complex” at length. As one source told her: “One of my cousins got Moderna, and I was like, ‘That’s OK. We need a strong middle class.’” On Twitter, the vaccinated are changing their usernames to reflect their new personal identities: There are Pfizer Princesses and Pfizer Floozies and Pfizer Pfairies and at least one Portrait of a Lady on Pfizer. “Pfizer is what was available when I signed up,” Jagger Blaec, a 33-year-old podcast host told me, “but it’s no coincidence every baddie I know has Pfizer and not Moderna.” Isn’t it a coincidence, though? (Tiffany, 4/30)
