Our next webinar, "How Faith-based and Community-based Organizations are Making COVID-19 Vaccination More Equitable and Strengthening their Communities" will be held on Thursday, May 20, 2021, 2 PM ET. Register today!

Some updates from our local teams across the country:

Millions Are Saying No to the Vaccines. What Are They Thinking? The people I spoke with were all under 50. A few of them self-identified as Republican, and none of them claimed the modern Democratic Party as their political home. Most said they weren’t against all vaccines; they were just a “no” on this vaccine. They were COVID-19 no-vaxxers, not overall anti-vaxxers. (The Atlantic, 5/3/21)

Why a Former Anti-Vax Influencer Got Her COVID-19 Shot. Heather Simpson’s journey, from falling into the world of anti-vaccine activism to finding her way out and even to promoting vaccination herself, reveals not only how easily the movement entraps people but also that it’s possible—if much harder—for minds to change. (Texas Monthly, 4/30/21)

Celebrities Are Endorsing Covid Vaccines. Does It Help? Do the star-studded endorsements really work? Not necessarily. Epidemiologists say there are plenty of caveats and potential pitfalls — and little scientific evidence to prove that the endorsements actually boost vaccine uptake. (New York Times, 5/1/21)

Combatting COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy. A panel of BARDA experts came together to talk about the different yet significant ways they have contributed to developing medical countermeasures against COVID-19. Watch our discussion about the issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccine and treatment hesitancy -- and what it means to contribute to the pandemic response as members of one of the communities that have been disproportionately affected by this disease. (ASPR, 5/3/21)

How to Sell the Coronavirus Vaccines to a Divided, Uneasy America. The question of whether to vaccinate sits at the center of America’s deepest sources of discontent: political hatred, racial injustice, institutional mistrust. And unlike a political campaign, which needs to persuade 50.1 percent of the voters, or a car commercial, which would be a smashing success if it captured 25 percent of consumers, this marketing blitz had to convince upward of 70 percent of the public — enough to reach herd immunity. (Washington Post Magazine, 4/26/21)

Kids’ covid vaccines are on the way. Parents, don’t let anti-vax propaganda fool you. You can remind yourself that in this post-pandemic landscape, the downstream effects of covid infection and transmission are innumerable. Even mild covid infection in children will translate into more time in isolation, more school closures, more time away from activities, more deprivation of the normal life we are trying so desperately to restore to them. (Washington Post, 5/4/21)

Faith, Freedom, Fear: Rural America’s Covid Vaccine Skeptics. People say that politics isn’t the leading driver of their vaccine attitudes. The most common reason for their apprehension is fear — that the vaccine was developed in haste, that long-term side effects are unknown. Their decisions are also entangled in a web of views about bodily autonomy, science and authority, plus a powerful regional, somewhat romanticized self-image: We don’t like outsiders messing in our business. (4/30/21)

Many police officers spurn coronavirus vaccines as departments hold off on mandates. Police vaccination rates are lower than or about the same as those of the general public, according to data made available by some of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies. The reluctance of police to get the shots threatens not just their own health, but also the safety of people they’re responsible for guarding, monitoring and patrolling, experts say. (Washington Post, 5/2/21)

The Hot-Person Vaccine. One vaccine in particular—from Pfizer—has somehow become the cool vaccine, as well as the vaccine for the rich and stylish. There has been some pushback on this narrative from Dolly Parton fans, who prefer the Moderna vaccine that she helped fund last year. Jon Ossoff, who is widely regarded online as the “hot senator,” has also made his own TikTok portraying all three of the vaccines available in the U.S. as equally cool and fun—a solid message in the interest of public health. (The Atlantic, 4/30/21)

The federal VAERS database is a critical tool for researchers, but a breeding ground for misinformation. VAERS is unlike other official government data sources. Numbers from other agencies, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the Census Bureau, flow through consistent reporting channels and get screened by statisticians and analysts before they are made available to the public. VAERS, on the other hand, is an open-access system. (Poynter, 5/4/21)

See also: Tucker Carlson Says Vaccine-Related Deaths May Be Abnormally High — But Vaccines Haven't Been Linked To Deaths (Forbes, 5/5/21)

The vaccinated will make different choices about what they can do now. That’s OK. Most of us are not willing to wait years for the pandemic to be over to resume our lives, so we need to live with risk and accept the idea that others will make very different choices from us. I’d encourage vaccinated people to consider three factors when deciding which activities to bring back to your lives: medical risk of your household; personal risk tolerance; and circumstances involved. (Washington Post, 4/30/21)

COVID-19 Vaccinations In The US Are Declining, But Biden Is Aiming For 70% Of Adults To Have At Least One Shot By July 4. The new vaccinations goal includes opening pharmacies to walk-in shots, and pediatricians offering teens shots in anticipation of next week’s expected FDA authorization. (BuzzFeed News, 5/4/21)

Need A COVID-19 Vaccine? Biden Admin Launches GETVAX Text Line And Other Search Tools. The Biden administration launched a website and text line on Friday to help people find COVID-19 vaccines near where they live. A national 1-800 hotline in dozens of languages will also soon be announced, according to a senior official from the Department of Health and Human Services. (NPR, 4/30/21)

Pro-Trump web forums are abuzz with directions to forge Covid vaccine cards. Since the cards are marked by hand, don't contain much information, are printed on easily obtainable heavy white paper and are impossible to quickly verify, it leaves an opportunity for the anti-vaccine community to beat the system by sharing directions on how to forge them. (NBC, 4/29/21)

Rural Maryland and Virginia counties were once ahead in vaccinations. Not anymore. In Maryland, state data suggests that the gaps have closed more significantly between Black and White residents than between Latino and White residents. In Virginia, the reverse appears true, though there is a large share of vaccinations — 44 percent — for which no race information is reported. (Washington Post, 4/30/21)

Covid vaccinations are slowing in the U.S. as supply outstrips demand. How states are targeting who’s left. The country is averaging 2.6 million reported vaccinations per day over the past week, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows, down from a peak of 3.4 million reported shots per day on April 13. That number is trending downward even with eligibility now open to all adults in every state. (CNBC, 4/30/21)

The Era of Mass Vaccinations is Ending. With more than half of Americans still unvaccinated, the COVID-19 immunization campaign is far from over. It is now entering a new phase. Instead of in convention centers and arenas, shots will be distributed across a larger number of smaller sites: pharmacies, doctors’ offices, churches, mosques, factory parking lots, barbershops, bars, breweries, even individual homes. (The Atlantic, 5/4/21)

American Journal of Public Health. In its June 2021 issue, now available online, AJPH has featured a special collection of articles focusing on the role of COVID-19 vaccines in containing the disease and rebuilding confidence in public health. (AJPH, 6/21)

We don’t really know if vaccines have been distributed equitably. The federal government has collected vaccination data by race, sex and age, but it hasn’t analyzed those together, making it impossible to tell if Biden has delivered on a key promise of his first 100 days. (19th News, 4/27/21)

See also: Unpacking Inequity: COVID-19, Structural Racism, and the U.S. Healthcare System (Physicians for Human Rights, 5/3/21)

Vaccine Equity for Indigenous Communities. This webinar is hosted by the University of Maryland School of Public Health, and will be held on May 24, 2021, 6 PM Eastern. Registration is required. (University of Maryland, 5/20)

¡Ya Basta! Building Health Equity & Vaccine Confidence In Latinx Communities. The goal of the town hall is to discuss the state of the vaccine rollout, address concerns in the community, remove the barriers of misinformation, and address issues related to poor access in our Latinx communities, the same communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. It will take place on May 13, 2021, 2 PM CDT. (Latino Coalition Against COVID-19, 5/21)

COVID-19 Vaccines for Caregivers and Personal Care Assistants. This webinar will explore the considerations of COVID-19 vaccines for caregivers and PCAs within the disability community. Presenters, many who are caregivers and PCAs themselves, will share their COVID-19 vaccine experiences and why they chose to get vaccinated. The webinar will take place on May 12, 2021, 2-3 PM CDT. (Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation, 5/21)

CVS, Walgreens have wasted more Covid vaccine doses than most states combined. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 182,874 wasted doses as of late March, three months into the country's effort to vaccinate the masses against the coronavirus. CVS was responsible for nearly half, and Walgreens was responsible for 21 percent, or nearly 128,500 wasted shots combined. (NBC, 5/3/21)

Vaccination plus Decarceration — Stopping Covid-19 in Jails and Prisons. To protect the safety of incarcerated people, guards, and the general public, health experts have long called for large-scale decarceration. Now, with the rollout of vaccines, public debate has increasingly shifted toward vaccination of incarcerated people. But several factors suggest that vaccination alone will not be enough to stop carceral outbreaks. (New England Journal of Medicine, 4/29/21)

Beer? Money? States and Cities Offer Incentives to Get Vaccinated. Scoring a dose of the coronavirus vaccine in America, once the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket, has started to resemble something else: a clearance sale. So much so that some states and cities, which are struggling to fill appointments as the demand for vaccine wanes, are turning to an array of not-so-subtle incentives to get shots into the arms of more Americans. (New York Times, 5/3/21)

Black Chicagoans Aren’t Getting Vaccinated At The Same Rate As Others — And It’s More Than Just Distrust. Some of the lowest vaccination rates in Chicago are on the South Side. Officials could change that by improving health care access, opening more permanent vaccine sites and better listening to residents' ideas, organizers said. (Block Club Chicago, 5/3/21)

How Asians Became the Most Vaccinated Group in New York City. Despite the seemingly remarkable vaccination rate, many New Yorkers of Asian descent face a laundry list of complications that impedes vaccine access: immigration status, language barriers, lack of reliable internet and fear of violence. (New York Times, 5/5/21)

In critical shift, US now backs patent protection waivers for COVID-19 vaccines. The Biden administration now says it supports waiving the intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines, opening the door for their possible manufacturing by companies and countries around the world, beyond those that invented them. It is a historic shift and one that advocates and aid groups say is critical for speeding up the end of the coronavirus pandemic. (ABC News, 5/5/21)

Victims of Rare Vaccine Injury Wait to See If U.S. Will Pay.  A 2005 law -- extended last year to include the Covid-19 pandemic -- shields manufacturers and health-care providers from state and federal liability in instances of public health and bioterrorism emergencies. In exchange for immunity for vaccine makers, the federal government pledged compensation for adverse reactions to coronavirus treatments and vaccines, but it’s a program with a history of rejecting claims and a relatively high bar for recovering costs. (Bloomberg, 5/3/21)

See also: Detecting Rare Blood Clots Was a Win, But US Vaccine Safety System Still Has Gaps (KHN, 5/3/21)

VIDEO

The Challenge of Global Vaccine Equity. The funding and logistical arrangements for production and distribution of COVID vaccines made a year ago were based on politics rather than evidence -- "nationalism at its worst," said Rebecca Weintraub, MD, of Ariadne Labs and Harvard Medical School. "What we're seeing internationally," said CoVEReD co-host Harald Schmidt, PhD, "is the market playing out in a way that is not compatible with public good." Learn more about the University of Pennsylvania's COVID Vaccine Equity Research Dialogues (CoVEReD). (CoVEReD, 4/29/21)

New Questions on Census Bureau Survey Explore COVID Vaccine Attitudes, Mental Health, Telehealth Use. Have people who received the COVID-19 vaccine stopped wearing masks or avoiding indoor events? Are they no longer social distancing? Phase 3.1 of the Household Pulse Survey, the newest phase of the U.S. Census Bureau experimental survey, gauges whether people change their preventive behavior after receiving the COVID-19 vaccines. (U.S. Census Bureau, 5/4/21)

Anxiety seems to be the culprit in J&J vaccine fainting spells. After conducting interviews with the 64 patients (out of 8,624) who displayed those symptoms at the five sites, the CDC concluded that none of the cases met their definition of serious side effects, and the majority were resolved within 15 minutes. The researchers attributed the symptoms to anxiety rather than any discrepancies between the J&J vaccine and its Pfizer and Moderna counterparts. (Vox, 5/1/21)

See also: Is needle fear holding you back from getting vaccinated? Here’s what to do about it (Los Angeles Times, 5/3/21)

Modeling of Future COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations, and Deaths, by Vaccination Rates and Nonpharmaceutical Intervention Scenarios — United States, April–September 2021. Data from six models indicate that with high vaccination coverage and moderate non-pharmaceutical intervention adherence, hospitalizations and deaths will likely remain low nationally, with a sharp decline in cases projected by July 2021. Lower NPI adherence could lead to substantial increases in severe COVID-19 outcomes, even with improved vaccination coverage. (CDC, 5/5/21)

Pfizer says it will seek clearance in September for its vaccine to be used in children aged 2 to 11. By early next week, the F.D.A. is also expected to issue an emergency use authorization allowing the vaccine to be used in children 12 to 15 years old, a major step ahead in the U.S. fight against Covid. (New York Times, 5/4/21)

Giving 2 Doses Of Different COVID-19 Vaccines Could Boost Immune Response. Basically, all vaccines work by showing people's immune systems something that looks like an invading virus but really isn't. If the real virus ever comes along, their immune systems will recognize it and be prepared to fight it off. Using two different vaccines is a bit like giving the immune system two pictures of the virus, maybe one face-on and one in profile. (NPR, 5/5/21)

The Statistical Secrets of Covid-19 Vaccines. Confusion over the statistical measures of how well vaccines work, might be providing quiet (and mostly incorrect) justification for some people’s hesitancy. All that adds up to a delay in the widespread inoculation that will set the world back on course. Here’s to statistics—the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems. (Wired, 5/6/21)

Future COVID-19 vaccines might not have to be kept so cold. Versions of a more stable mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 seem to be on the horizon. Pfizer and BioNTech are currently recruiting participants for a phase 3 trial that will evaluate a freeze-dried version of their SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. They hope for results in the second half of 2021, after which they can submit the results to regulatory agencies for review. (National Geographic, 4/30/21)

COVID-19 Lessons to Inform Pandemic Influenza Response. This global public workshop will convene international experts, thought-leaders, and other stakeholders to discuss the emerging evidence on these unprecedented actions related to COVID-19 that could inform and advance pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccine preparedness efforts and subsequent response. The workshop will take place over May 18, May 21, and May 25. Registration is required. (National Academies of Medicine, 5/21)

COVID-19 Vaccines Might Not Work As Well For Those With Organ Transplants. For most people, COVID-19 vaccines promise a return to something akin to normal life. But for the roughly 500,000 Americans living with organ transplants, it's a different story. (NPR, 5/5/21)

See also: Antibody Response to 2-Dose SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine Series in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients (JAMA, 5/5/21)