Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
When's Your Vaccine Time?: Most Will Wait For Several Months
CNN: 'Healthy, Young' Americans Will Likely Get Covid-19 Vaccine In Mid- To Late Summer, Expert Says
It likely will be months from now until the vaccine is widely available to the American public, infectious disease expert Dr. Celine Gounder told CNN Sunday night. "We're looking at probably middle of the summer, end of the summer before the average, healthy, young American has access to vaccination," Gounder told CNN Sunday. (Maxouris, 1/25)
In other news about who's in line for the vaccine —
Boston Globe: In Suffolk County, Black And Latino Residents Face Stark Disparities In Vaccine Access
If you are Black or Latino and living in Suffolk County, you are more likely to have to travel farther than white residents for a coveted dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, a Globe analysis has found. In Suffolk County, which includes Boston as well as Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop, Black and Latino residents face stark disparities in vaccine access: Fewer than 14 percent of Black residents and roughly 26 percent of Latinos live in census tracts that are within 1 mile of a vaccination site, compared with nearly 46 percent of white residents. Currently, the only public vaccination site in Suffolk County is at the South Boston Community Health Center. A mass vaccination site at Fenway Park is slated to open Feb. 1 for prioritized groups. (Pan and Hancock, 1/23)
The Washington Post: Firefighter Who Nearly Died Of Covid Begs Front-Line Workers: ‘Please, Get The Shots’
The firefighter’s family had decided to let him go. For a month, Steve Collins, a 33-year veteran of the Prince George’s County fire department, had been hooked to a ventilator and fighting for his life against the coronavirus. The doctors said he would not wake up. His family visited a funeral home to make arrangements. But before they said farewell, they had one request: Wait to remove him from the machines until after his 61st birthday. (Mettler, 1/22)
The New York Times: To Promote Vaccines, New Orleans Dances With Its Sleeves Rolled Up
The snap of the snare drums is insistent. New Orleanians take joyous turns high-stepping and chicken strutting, dressed in the hand-sewn feathered finery of their social clubs and krewes. The celebration, shown on a new 30-second public service announcement airing in the city, is both resplendent and aching, an evocation of Carnival masking season that should have begun this month, culminating on Feb. 16 with Mardi Gras. All of it canceled, of course, by the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the spot is hopeful: to regain this and more, it exhorts, get vaccinated. (Hoffman, 1/24)
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Health Experts Urge Confidence In COVID Vaccine After Hank Aaron's Death
Within minutes of news breaking Friday morning of the baseball great’s death, those with doubts about the vaccine turned to social media to try to draw a connection to [Hank] Aaron’s recent immunization. That worries Joe Beasley, one of the activists who received the Moderna vaccine shot alongside Aaron. “I hope this won’t have a chilling effect on our people,” said Beasley, 84. “We can’t afford it because too many people are dying (from COVID-19).” (Schrade and Stirgus, 1/22)
KHN: Anti-Vaccine Activists Peddle Theories That Covid Shots Are Deadly, Undermining Vaccination
Anti-vaccine groups are exploiting the suffering and death of people who happen to fall ill after receiving a covid shot, threatening to undermine the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. In some cases, anti-vaccine activists are fabricating stories of deaths that never occurred. “This is exactly what anti-vaccine groups do,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious diseases specialist and author of “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.” (Szabo, 1/25)
NPR: COVID-19 Vaccine Highlights Need To Protect Pregnant Women 'Through Research'
Doctors who treat pregnant patients are finding themselves in a tough and familiar spot as the COVID-19 vaccines roll out: making decisions about the use of a particular medicine in this group of patients without any clinical evidence to guide them. "We've been denied that evidence," says Dr. Judette Louis, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of South Florida. While it has been headline news that the COVID-19 vaccines haven't yet been tested in pregnant people, the problem is broader. "There are very few vaccines that have," Louis says. (Mertens, 1/25)
