Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons On Failed Distribution Of COVID Vaccines In US
The Washington Post: Here’s What Leadership On Vaccination Would Look Like
Of the 13.1 million doses of coronavirus vaccine distributed thus far, only 32 percent — about 4.2 million — have been administered. The alarming delay is largely due to the Trump administration’s lack of leadership. The administration seems to believe its responsibility ends once vaccines are shipped to states. But that’s wrong. Here’s what the federal government should do to infuse urgency into the vaccination efforts. (Leana S. Wen, 1/3)
Fox News: COVID Vaccinations Are Going Much Too Slowly — Here’s How To Speed Them Up And Save Lives
Vaccines against the novel coronavirus were developed in record time. But getting those vaccines into the arms of Americans has been frustratingly slow at a time when speeding up vaccinations is literally a matter of life and death. Tragically, thousands of people are dying of COVID-19 every day in the U.S. and the confirmed death rate from the disease reached nearly 350,000 people across the nation Saturday night, according to Johns Hopkins University. Hospitals are running out of capacity to treat COVID-19 patients in addition to patients being treated for other conditions. (Sally Pipes, 1/3)
The Washington Post: Vaccination Is Going Slowly Because Nobody Is In Charge
Vaccine development for covid-19 has occurred at a remarkable pace, thanks in large part to the careful work of the scientific community, both in the United States and around the globe. Operation Warp Speed played a key role in accelerating the creation of vaccines without cutting corners, and producing millions of doses. As a result, the two vaccines that have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration are safe and highly effective against the disease. That’s why we want them to reach people’s immune systems as quickly as possible — and why the current delays in getting people vaccinated are so disappointing. Let’s start with a quick recap: As recently as early October, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said we’d have 100 million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020. One month later, that was reduced to 40 million doses. As recently as Dec. 21, Vice President Pence, the head of the White House coronavirus task force, said that we were on track to vaccinate 20 million Americans by Dec. 31. Unfortunately, 20 million doses haven’t even gotten to the states. (Ashish K. Jha, 12/31)
The Wall Street Journal: Pharmacies Can Get Shots In Arms
The federal government built a Covid vaccine delivery scheme to track every dose shipped to the states. Information like location and travel history is available in a software platform developed for “Operation Warp Speed” called Tiberius, so that public-health officials can make sure the limited supply is allotted carefully and fairly. These are important goals, but central control comes with a trade off: it slows down the process of getting shots into arms. Poor local and state planning hasn’t helped. Neither has the trickle of funds the feds have provided to stand up vaccination sites. Add it all up and you have the explanation for the sluggish pace of immunization. Fewer than 5 million people have been vaccinated so far, versus the 20 million promised. Here’s what’s needed to turn things around. (Scott Gottlieb, 1/3)
Miami Herald: You Know How Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned? That’s How Much Trump Cares About The Lack of COVID Vaccines
The day before returning to the White House for New Year’s Eve, Donald Trump played golf at his country club in West Palm Beach. He was there from 9:26 a.m. to 2:33 p.m., a leisurely round. Meanwhile thousands of his fellow Floridians in the same high-risk bracket spent many of those hours strangling their phones, unsuccessfully trying to get an appointment for the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Others lined up early at inoculation sites, only to be sent home after supplies soon ran out. “Operation Warp Speed” currently looks more like “Operation WTF.” The big rollout is rocky and slow throughout the country, but the only surprise is that people are actually surprised. (Carl Hiaasen, 1/2)
St. Louis Post Dispatch: House Must Get To The Bottom Of Trump's Deadly Politicization Of The Pandemic
Through spring and summer of 2020, the Trump administration attempted to “alter or block” more than a dozen scientific reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention related to the pandemic, a top House lawmaker alleges. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who chairs the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, wants more information about this deadly politicization of public health. As usual, the administration has been uncooperative — so much so that Clyburn’s panel last month finally subpoenaed two top U.S. health officials. Good. This is urgent information to pursue, even if it can’t be fully exposed until after the current president exits. (1/3)
The Wall Street Journal: The Year In Covid ‘Messaging’
Anthony Fauci is being clobbered after admitting to the New York Times that he publicly lowballed his estimate of the Covid-19 herd immunity threshold, but it’s ludicrously late in the day to discover that “messaging” has been going on. Dr. Fauci’s early pooh-poohing of masks to preserve supply for medical personnel at least was defensible for the larger good. Not until summer did he admit the test-and-trace miracle cure was no such thing given the realities of asymptomatic spread. To this day, test-and-trace serves as the magic X in every pundit piece, allowing the author to claim that our failing mommy and daddy (a k a government) let us down by not enacting this simple solution. (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., 1/1)
The Hill: COVID-19 Doesn't Care About New York Or New Delhi
Public health experts say we will be in a much better place come late summer of 2021. We think that perspective severely discounts the billions of people living outside of the United States, the European Union (EU) and other wealthier countries — and in doing so, underestimates the difficulty of a true global recovery from health and economic impacts of the pandemic. (Marian W. Wentworth and Wade Warren, 1/3)
Stat: Covid-19 Vaccines Are Safe. That Doesn't Mean No Side Effects
As the first Covid-19 vaccines are being distributed in the United States and in other countries around the world, the main question now on many minds is, “Are these vaccines safe?” The answer is yes. (Wayne C. Koff and Michelle A. Williams, 12/23)
