Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons On Getting More People To Agree To Take Vaccines
Stat: Engage 'Willing Skeptics' To Help Counter Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy
More than 250,000 people in the U.S. alone have died from Covid-19 this year. Researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation estimate that 1 in 4 deaths could be avoided in the next three months if people take wearing masks in public more seriously. In spite of early fumbles and mixed messages from local governments, the messaging around masks from public health officials eventually became clear. (Joseph S. Salama, Jenna Borges and Ryan Baum, 12/10)
The New York Times: The Coronavirus Vaccines Were Developed In Record Speed. Now, The Hard Part.
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant emergency use authorizations to the first two coronavirus vaccines in the next several days. The sheer speed with which doctors and scientists were able to reach this stage is a major achievement, and the early results for both vaccines are undeniably impressive. New vaccines normally take years to develop, and scientists initially worried.But when all is said and done, making the vaccine might turn out to have been the easy part. (12/9)
The Washington Post: Black People Are Justifiably Wary Of A Vaccine. Their Trust Must Be Earned.
Trust is earned. We all know that. But if a national vaccine campaign is to succeed, we must quickly figure out how to earn the confidence and cooperation of African Americans who are justifiably wary of a coronavirus vaccine. The world is at war with covid-19, but a successful distribution of a vaccine in the United States will be won and lost on a battlefield with a long history of medical racism. Government-approved medical experiments from the past have undermined Black America’s trust in this moment. (Michele L. Norris, 12/9)
Bloomberg: FDA Review Confirms Vaccines Are Safe. It's Covid-19 That's Dangerous.
Vaccines can be scary. You’re asking healthy people to roll up their sleeves and take a shot of something mysterious — something associated with deadly germs. For Covid-19 vaccines, such fears may be amplified by concern that development was rushed, and by the way everything associated with the pandemic has been politicized. It will be hard to garner the public trust needed for a pandemic-ending vaccination campaign. (Faye Flam, 12/9)
USA Today: COVID Vaccine Allocation: Prioritize High-Risk People, Not Just Speed
Government agencies worldwide are starting to authorize new vaccines against the novel coronavirus. Now the hard work of distributing this scarce resource begins.In the United States, several groups of experts have recommended that Americans at highest risk get vaccinated first. But late last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced that vaccine shipments would be divided among states based simply on the size of their adult populations. In short, the more adults, the more vaccine. (Eric Schneider, 12/9)
The Wall Street Journal: George W. Bush And The Covid Vaccine
The Bush administration also dealt with a previously unknown virus from China called SARS, and health professionals were concerned about H5N1, the avian flu. While difficult to transmit from human to human, H5N1 had an alarming fatality rate of above 50%. Mr. Bush was particularly concerned that the method available for manufacturing vaccines to deal with such a crisis was too slow and cumbersome. Vaccines were cultured in eggs for six months, one dose per egg, with an unacceptable failure rate. So in November 2005 Mr. Bush asked Congress for $2.8 billion for research to speed up vaccine development and strengthen early detection of viral outbreaks world-wide. (Karl Rove, 12/9)
The Hill: Should Journalists Be Among The First To Receive The COVID-19 Vaccine? It's Complicated
A COVID-19 vaccine could start being injected into the first arms of Americans most vulnerable to the virus as early as Thursday, pending likely approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And debate around who gets in line where in getting this vaccine has begun. One question raised: Should journalists be near the front of the line? (Joe Concha, 12/9)
The Washington Post: Incarcerated People Are Suffering From Covid-19 More Than Most. They Should Be Among The First Vaccinated.
My friend’s second email ended, “Please send your prayers.” Her cousin, a Black man in his 50s, had just tested positive inside California State Prison-Corcoran. Her first email had shared his impending sense of doom. That day had started with news of a covid-19 death in his facility. Next, first one roommate and then another were removed after testing positive. Then, by day’s end, the news came that there were more people in covid wards than in regular housing. Now, her cousin, too, had tested positive.Another friend wrote me about her cousin, another Black man in his 50s, this one in Texas, who described people with covid in his prison being housed in unheated tents without any medical care. (Danielle Allen, 12/9)
