pharma&tech 012020

Biden prometió 100 millones de vacunas de covid en 100 días. No será fácil de cumplir
By Victoria Knight Está en la naturaleza de los presidentes hacer promesas. Kennedy prometió enviar un hombre a la luna y lo cumplió. Distribuir 100 millones de vacunas parece más difícil.

Biden’s Covid Challenge: 100 Million Vaccinations in the First 100 Days. It Won’t Be Easy.
By Victoria Knight But keeping campaign promises regarding the nation’s covid response will go beyond stepping up the rollout of the vaccines.

Eureka! Two Vaccines Work — But What About the Also-Rans in the Pharma Arms Race?
By Arthur Allen How two effective vaccines on the market make it so much harder to quickly test any competing vaccines.

In Los Angeles and Beyond, Oxygen Is the Latest Covid Bottleneck
By Rae Ellen Bichell and Lauren Weber The oxygen delivery infrastructure is crumbling under pressure in Los Angeles and other covid hot spots, jeopardizing patients’ access to precious air and limiting hospital turnover.

Listen: How Operation Warp Speed Became a Slow Walk
KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal discusses the bottlenecks in distributing covid vaccines on NPR's “On My Mind” podcast with host Diane Rehm.

Analysis: Some Said the Vaccine Rollout Would Be a ‘Nightmare.’ They Were Right.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal There are already signs that the distribution of the COVID vaccines will be messy, confusing and chaotic.

As the Vulnerable Wait, Some Political Leaders’ Spouses Get Covid Vaccines
By Laura Ungar Spouses of governors and federal leaders are getting early access to scarce doses of covid-19 vaccines. Some officials have argued their inoculation sets an example for the public and shows the vaccines to be safe and effective. But critics say those doses should go to more vulnerable people first.

With Few Takers for COVID Vaccine, DC Hospital CEO Takes ‘One for the Team’
By Phil Galewitz Howard University Hospital officials are eager to get their 1,900 employees vaccinated, but so far few are showing up.

Inside the First Chaotic Days of the Effort to Vaccinate America
By Rachana Pradhan and Lauren Weber and Jay Hancock After missteps in Washington, each state and county is left to juggle where to send vaccines first and how to get them to each nursing home, hospital local health department and even school.

COVID Vaccines Appear Safe and Effective, but Key Questions Remain
By Bernard J. Wolfson The federal government expects vaccinations to be available to everyone who wants them by summer — though glitches are inevitable. If enough of us get vaccinated, we could wave goodbye to the pandemic in 2021.

Las vacunas de COVID parecen ser seguras y efectivas, pero todavía hay preguntas
By Bernard J. Wolfson Una encuesta publicada en diciembre mostró que el 45% de los encuestados están adoptando un enfoque de “esperar y ver qué pasa” con la vacunación.

San Francisco Wrestles With Drug Approach as Death and Chaos Engulf Tenderloin
By Rachel Scheier Covid-19, distrust of police and cheap narcotics have turned parts of the wealthy city into cesspools of filth and drug overdose. City officials and residents profoundly disagree on what needs to be done.

Heading Off the Next Pandemic
By Jim Robbins As long as humans encroach on nature, pandemics are inevitable — making it important to concentrate resources in areas where people and wildlife are linked.

Do-It-Yourself Contact Tracing Is a ‘Last Resort’ in Communities Besieged by Covid
By Brett Dahlberg, WCMU Covid-19 cases are spreading so fast that they're outpacing the contact-tracing capacities of some local health departments. Faced with mounting caseloads, those departments are asking people who test positive for the coronavirus to do their own contact tracing.

Is Your Covid Vaccine Venue Prepared to Handle Rare, Life-Threatening Reactions?
By JoNel Aleccia More than two dozen people who have received the new covid vaccines in U.S. hospitals and health centers suffered anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction. While such severe reactions are rare, experts warn that the drugstores and drive-thru clinics considered integral to the vaccine rollout must be prepared.

‘Peer Respites’ Provide an Alternative to Psychiatric Wards During Pandemic
By Sarah Kwon A growing number of “peer respites,” nonclinical settings for psychiatric recovery, can help people in distress who mainly need to talk to people who understand their problems.

California Budget Reflects ‘Pandemic-Induced Reality,’ Governor Says
By Angela Hart California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2021-22 budget blueprint would direct billions in state covid assistance to schools, businesses and the state’s vaccination effort. But he didn’t propose more funding for the state's 61 local health agencies, which have taken on increased responsibility for testing, contact tracing and enforcement of health orders.

Feeling Left Out: Private Practice Doctors, Patients Wonder When It’s Their Turn for Vaccine
By Julie Appleby Doctors say some patients, and even medical staff members, don’t know where to go to be vaccinated against covid-19.

Hospitals’ Rocky Rollout of Covid Vaccine Sparks Questions of Fairness
By Phil Galewitz The lack of a federal strategy on how distribution should work at the local level means that states, hospitals, nursing homes and pharmacies are making decisions on their own about who gets vaccinated and when.

Only a Smokescreen? Big Tobacco Stands Down as Colorado and Oregon Hike Cigarette Taxes
By Vignesh Ramachandran After spending tens of millions of dollars to oppose past efforts, Altria didn’t oppose Colorado’s tobacco tax initiative and could benefit from the law’s minimum-price provision.

Are You Old Enough to Get Vaccinated? In Tennessee, They’re Using the Honor System
By Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio In most Tennessean counties, residents currently eligible to get the coronavirus vaccine are health care workers, long-term care residents and people 75 and older. But don't expect strict enforcement.

California Counties ‘Flying the Plane as We Build It’ in a Plodding Vaccine Rollout
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester In California, the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history is run largely by the same overworked and underfunded local health departments tasked with covid-19 testing and contact tracing. It’s a daunting undertaking as the pandemic continues to surge.

Vaccination Disarray Leaves Seniors Confused About When They Can Get a Shot
By Judith Graham As covid cases and deaths soar, it’s difficult to get up-to-date, reliable information about inoculations, and many older adults don’t know where to turn for help. Navigating Aging columnist Judith Graham answers questions from several readers.

Delicate Covid Vaccines Slow Rollout — Leading to Shots Given Out of Turn or, Worse, Wasted
By Rachana Pradhan “Thaw. Rest 15 minutes. Do not shake. Do not refreeze.”Do not shake. Do not refreeze.” Moderna’s vaccine comes with complicated instructions. And both available vaccines are good for only six hours once the vial is open. So at day’s end, health workers are left to either throw out precious doses or get shots into any arm that’s available.

5 Reasons to Wear a Mask Even After You’re Vaccinated
By Liz Szabo Vaccination, face coverings and physical distancing are essential parts of a team effort against the coronavirus.

Geography Is Destiny: Dentists’ Access to Covid Shots Depends on Where They Live
By Phil Galewitz A handful of states are making dentists a lower priority than other health professionals for inoculations, even though they have their hands in people’s mouths and are exposed to aerosols that spray germs in their faces.

Biden Terms Vaccine Rollout ‘A Dismal Failure’ as He Unveils Pandemic Response Plan
By Victoria Knight President-elect Joe Biden has delivered two speeches within the past 24 hours focused on his ambitious plans to address the “twin crises” of the covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy.

CVS and Walgreens Under Fire for Slow Pace of Vaccination in Nursing Homes
By Rachel Bluth and Lauren Weber A federal program that sends retail pharmacists into nursing homes to vaccinate residents and workers has been hindered by bureaucratic hurdles and scheduling woes.

Black Americans Are Getting Vaccinated at Lower Rates Than White Americans
By Hannah Recht and Lauren Weber Black Americans are receiving covid vaccines at a much lower rate than their white peers due to a combination of mistrust and access issues, leaving them behind in the mission to vaccinate the nation’s population.

Covid: 5 razones para seguir usando máscara después de vacunarse
By Liz Szabo Las vacunas se probaron en ensayos clínicos, en los mejores centros médicos, en condiciones óptimas. Pero en el mundo real, suelen ser un poco menos efectivas.

Patients Fend for Themselves to Access Highly Touted Covid Antibody Treatments
By JoNel Aleccia Months after President Donald Trump credited monoclonal antibody therapy for his quick recovery from covid-19, only a trickle of the product has found its way into regular people. While hundreds of thousands of vials sit unused, sick patients who might benefit from early treatment have been left on their own to vie for access.