Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Why Are Pregnant Women Declining The Vaccine?; Will We Ever See The Pandemic End?
Los Angeles Times: Despite Our Efforts To Convince Them, Too Many Pregnant Patients Won't Get The COVID Vaccine
In our high-risk pregnancy clinics there are three vaccine conversations that we have with patients regularly. First, there are patients who are vaccinated for COVID-19 and counting down the days until they can schedule a booster shot. Then there are patients who will accept vaccines for influenza and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis), but not COVID-19. The third conversation is with expectant mothers who not only decline a COVID-19 vaccination but also other vaccines recommended in pregnancy. (Alyssa Stephenson-Famy and Linda Eckert, 11/17)
The New York Times: When Will The Covid Pandemic End?
On Nov. 15, 2020, in the United States, as the most devastating wave yet of coronavirus infections was beginning to crash over the country, about 1,148 Americans were dying of Covid every day. A year later, that number is 1,129. To call the statistic sobering would be an understatement. And yet many parts of the country are not in the same place, epidemiologically speaking, as they were last year. In New York City, where I live, and where 87 percent of adults have received at least one vaccine dose, restaurants and bars and theaters fill with people every night. Cases have ticked up once again in recent weeks, but hospitalization and deaths continue to decline — for now, at least. (Spencer Bokat-Lindell, 11/16)
Bloomberg: Covid Vaccine Booster Shots Should Be Available To Everybody
It looks as though the White House may have finally figured out the obvious: It’s time to roll out Covid-19 booster shots to everyone, ASAP. Medical specialists are still debating the extent to which boosters are strictly necessary, given that one- and two-dose vaccine regimens seem to be protecting people against life-threatening disease. And there’s an ethical debate about whether it's fair to give Americans third shots when lots of people in other parts of the world are still awaiting their first. (Scott Duke Kominers, 11/16)
Stat: Are Authorized/Approved Covid Vaccines The Best Ones? We Don't Know
Pfizer/BioNTech. Moderna. Johnson & Johnson. AstraZeneca. These are the marquee names that spring to mind when you think of the vaccine companies at the forefront of the global fight against Covid-19. And for good reason: together they have manufactured the majority of the estimated 7 billion-plus Covid vaccine doses administered to date around the world. But as regulators in the U.S., Europe, and around the world mull the most responsible way to expand vaccine eligibility to an even larger share of their populations — including to younger children, as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have done this month by greenlighting Pfizer’s vaccine for kids 5 to 11 years of age — it’s time to confront an uncomfortable reality: The global health community still doesn’t know which of the hundreds of Covid vaccines currently in clinical and preclinical development are truly “the best.” (Mike Rea, 11/17)
CNN: Rescuing Our Kids From Covid Trauma Is Vital For Healing America
Now that the Pfizer vaccines have been authorized for emergency use in children ages 5 to 11, I, like so many parents across the US, am breathing a sigh of relief that my little ones can finally be protected against Covid-19. We still have a lot of work to do to ensure we emerge from this pandemic as soon as possible, but as a pediatrician and the Surgeon General of California, I recognize that reining in the virus can't be the end of the story. If we're going to truly heal from the impacts of Covid-19, we need to once again let medicine lead our decision making and recognize the role that trauma caused by the pandemic and other cumulative stressors plays in both personal and public health — particularly when experienced during childhood. (Nadine Burke Harris, 11/16)
The Atlantic: The Upside Of COVID Hygiene Theater
We are now more than a year and a half into the coronavirus pandemic, and we are once again hand-wringing about “hygiene theater,” the various public displays of sanitation and cleanliness that critics attack as unnecessary, wasteful, and even counterproductive. But if detractors mock these measures—temperature checks before concerts, QR codes instead of paper menus at restaurants, outdoor mask wearing—for being useless and performative, it’s worth remembering that not everything we do need necessarily have a use, and that not everything performative is without merit. (Colin Dickey, 11/16)
The Washington Post: How To Assess The Covid-19 Risk From Holiday Gatherings? Here Are Four Things To Consider
After weeks of steady decline, covid-19 cases are on the rise again. Much of the United States is in the highest-risk category for transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As Thanksgiving, Christmas and other winter holidays approach, here are four factors to consider when assessing risk to decide which gatherings to attend. (Leana S. Wen, 11/16)
