Viewpoints: Lessons On Containing Covid, Getting Vaccinations Rolling, Improving Public Health Policy

Stat: 5 Ways To Contain The Pandemic And Return To An Open Economy 
“When will this pandemic be over so we can return to normal life and an open economy?” As researchers who have been carefully following this global health crisis, that’s a question we are often asked by friends, family, and colleagues. (Menachem Fromer, Sarah Poole and Robert M. Califf, 1/6)

The New York Times: Why Is It Taking So Long To Get Americans Vaccinated?
When a nurse named Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the United States to receive a vaccine for the coronavirus on Dec. 14, federal officials were saying they hoped to vaccinate 20 million Americans before the month was out. But five days into the new year, just 17 million doses have been shipped, and only 4.8 million of those have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We are at a pace right now to deliver vaccines in L.A. over five years, instead of over half a year,” Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.” What problems are causing the vaccination drive to lag so far behind expectations, and how can they be solved? (Spencer Bokat-Lindell, 1/5)

The Washington Post: Our Vaccination Need Is More Urgent Than Ever. You Wouldn’t Know It From State Efforts. 
Here in America, where covid-19 infections and deaths have recently been setting ever higher records, thousands are dying every day. Meanwhile, Britain has closed schools and locked down nationwide (again) to contain the spread of a new, more contagious strain that threatens to capsize its health-care system. South Africa’s hospitals are also struggling to cope with another more contagious mutation, and there are concerns that existing vaccines may not be effective against their variant. The British strain is known to be circulating in the United States, and the other variant may be here as well. Which means that our vaccination program is more urgent than ever. You wouldn’t know that, however, from state vaccination efforts. (Megan McArdle, 1/5)

Miami Herald: Still Can’t Get COVID Vaccine? Sure, Blame President Trump, But Blame President Reagan, too
But like so many problems afflicting America, Trump might be the bleeding get-to-the-emergency-room symptom, but he’s not the disease. The United States so far is failing at the task of administering doses for the same reason it didn’t know how to create the testing-and-tracing regimes that have largely worked across Asia, or avoid the embarrassing shortages of protective gear that had some nurses wearing trash bags. This country has been waging war on the very concept of good government for 40 years, and public health has been in the front trench taking World War I-level casualties. Trump might be finishing the job, but the president who created this mess was Ronald Reagan, who assured a similarly anxious nation upon taking office in 1981 that “(i)n this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem — government is the problem” and then put a lack of money where his mouth was. (Will Bunch, 1/5)

Bloomberg: Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout Is Being Slowed By Too Many Government Rules
For too many people, it’s a knee-jerk reaction: Blame the slow U.S. rollout of Covid-19 vaccines on too little central planning by the administration of President Donald Trump. Demand tighter control from the incoming administration of President Joe Biden. Limit the number of vaccination sites! Bring in the military! Put somebody in charge! But the problem with the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines isn’t that no one is in charge. Far from the answer, tighter federal control would probably be a disaster. It would only amplify the problem. (Virginia Postrel, 1/5)

The Washington Post: It’s Time To Consider Delaying The Second Dose Of Coronavirus Vaccine
Until recently, we supported the strict vaccine regimen, requiring two doses within a month. Both the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials were carried out this way, and the much-touted 95 percent efficacy rates were drawn from those trials. But as Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they’ve been punched in the mouth.” When it comes to covid-19, we’re being punched in the mouth over and over again. It’s time to change the plan; namely, we should give people a single vaccination now and defer their second shot until more doses of vaccine become available. (Robert M. Wachter and Ashish K. Jha, 1/3)

Stat: The FDA Needs To Apply Its Covid-19 Flexibility To Pediatric Cancer 
One of the few bright spots in the Covid-19 pandemic has been the swift development of therapies and vaccines that — beyond all odds — made it to patients in mere months versus years. The government, specifically the Food and Drug Administration, has played an essential role, flexing to expedite activities and prioritizing speed without sacrificing safety. I applaud their efforts and hope they won’t stop there. (Julie Guillot, 1/6)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Poses Special Risks To People Like My Brother-In-Law. They Need Vaccines Now. 
In mid-November, my wife Veronica got a phone call she’d been dreading. Her brother Vincent was very sick, and had been taken by ambulance to our local hospital. Veronica raced there, where she found Vincent febrile and groggy, complaining of abdominal and chest pain. He was placed in the covid-19 unit and given oxygen while we awaited definitive test results. Vincent is one of an estimated 7.4 million Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Like roughly 600,000 others, he lives in a Community Integrated Living Arrangement, or CILA for short. Residents and the staff who care for them are at high risk during this pandemic. They should be given correspondingly high priority for covid-19 vaccines. (Harold Pollack, 1/5)

North Carolina Health News: The Bumpy Road To Vaccine Trial Participation 
When I first became interested in taking part in a coronavirus vaccine trial, I assumed all I had to do was step forward. I believed that the same characteristics that raised my coronavirus risk — Black, over 60, type 2 diabetic — also made me highly sought-after as a volunteer. But it wasn’t nearly that easy. (Melba Newsome, 1/6)

The Wall Street Journal: California’s Covid Woes
California has been celebrated as a Covid-19 model, but these days it’s the country’s biggest Covid hot spot. Politicians believed their strict lockdowns and mask mandates would defeat the virus, but they didn’t, and the latest infection surge has exposed deep problems. Hospitalizations in California have increased seven-fold since early November and are nearly three times higher than at the summer peak. California Gov. Gavin Newsom justified reimposing a lockdown in mid-November based on projections that the state’s health-care system would be overwhelmed by virus cases. Yet state and local officials failed to prepare hospitals for the surge that their models predicted. (1/5)

New York Post: Quit The Excuses — And Get New Yorkers Vaccinated
Amid their bungling of the vaccine rollout, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio are proving great at two other things: making excuses — and passing the buck. “This was a much more aggressive undertaking than anyone thought,” Cuomo whined Monday. The nation “was not prepared.” Huh? Cuomo’s had nine months to plan. People sometimes refuse to take the vaccine, he added — including 30 percent of hospital workers. Yet he himself cast doubts on the shot before the November election. (1/5)

New York Post: Cuomo And De Blasio's Deadly COVID Failure Vaccine
In the beginning, the fall-back position for New York politicians was as predictable as it was successful. As the coronavirus ripped through the city and state and fear spread like wildfire, all they had to do was blame President Trump and they were heroes. Trump didn’t provide enough safety gear or ventilators or help with hospital beds, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio insisted. Soon the federal government sent planeloads of equipment and invoked the Defense Production Act to build tens of thousands of ventilators. It sent a naval hospital ship and built a new hospital inside the cavernous Javits Center. (Michael Goodwin, 1/5)