Weekly Roundup COVID-19 Vaccine Development, Policy, and Public Perception in the United States

People, Perceptions, and Polls

NEWS The myth of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Covid vaccines: Why false perceptions overlook facts, and could breed resentment. News coverage and social media posts about clinical trial results are creating a hierarchy of Covid vaccines in the minds of much of the public: “good vaccines” and “bad vaccines.” The former you might try to seek out; the latter might even prompt you to step out of line. That, health officials say, is a problem. (STAT, 2/17/21) See also: Take whatever COVID vaccine you can get. All of them stop death and hospitalization. (USA TODAY, 2/12/21)

NEWS This COVID-vaccine designer is tackling vaccine hesitancy — in churches and on Twitter. Kizzmekia Corbett is one of many Black scientists and doctors who are doing this outreach, often virtually, in their free time. Researchers say it’s necessary to make scientific knowledge accessible in public forums, to ease health disparities. (Nature, 2/11/21) See also: TIME 100: Kizzmekia Corbett (TIME, 2/17/21) Decades later, infamous Tuskegee syphilis study stirs wariness in Black community over COVID-19 vaccine (Los Angeles Times, 2/5/21) Biden’s vaccine push runs into distrust in the Black community (Washington Post, 2/13/21) Closing the COVID Trust Deficit (Project Syndicate, 2/15/21) Escaping Catch-22 — Overcoming Covid Vaccine Hesitancy

NEWS Get Ready for an Anti-Vaxxer Movement ‘on Steroids.' As COVID-19 vaccines have become available, Facebook has tried to crack down on its long-simmering vaccine disinformation problem. On Monday, the company announced new rules against false claims about vaccines, and on Wednesday, Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) banned prominent vaccine opponents like Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Del Bigtree. (Daily Beast, 2/12/21) See also: Biden’s next fight: Anti-vaxxers jeopardize plans to protect U.S. against Covid (CNBC, 2/10/21)

GUIDANCE Achieving high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines: Interim Guidance. Understanding how people think, feel and act in relation to vaccination is vital to inform the development of strategies to generate acceptance and uptake for the vaccines. Generating and using data on behavioural and social drivers contains a set of tools – surveys, interview guides and related tools – to support gathering and use of quality data on the drivers and barriers to COVID-19 vaccines uptake. This guidebook will enable programmes to design, target and evaluate interventions to achieve greater impact with more efficiency, and to examine and understand trends over time. (WHO, 2/3/21)

SURVEY Coronavirus Vaccine Uptake Tracking Study, Wave 1 of 6. This report contains summary findings of a January 2021 study of coronavirus vaccine uptake among a national sample of adults. There are notable gaps in intended uptake across racial/ethnic, political, geographic, and education attainment groups that threaten efforts to reach population immunity. (COVID Collaborative, 2/21)

OP-ED Time to End Assumption that Public Health Interventions Encourage Risk. In the future, we will face more new dangers and more uncertain interventions. When that happens, the accumulated data tells me we should start with the assumption that interventions are at least as likely to make people more cautious. (Behavioral Scientist, 2/15/21)

NEWS A Different Early-Bird Special: Have Vaccine, Will Travel. People over 65 have been among the first in line to receive Covid-19 vaccinations. And they are leading a wave in new travel bookings. (New York Times, 2/17/21)

POLL Nearly a third of US adults undecided on COVID-19 vaccine. The poll, released Friday, found that 31 percent of adults are going to “wait until it has been available for a while to see how it is working for other people” before getting the coronavirus vaccine. (The Hill, 2/13/21) See also: Essential Workers More Wary of Getting Vaccinated Despite Higher COVID-19 Risk (Morning Consult, 2/3/21)

POLL Most Americans Think Schools Should Wait Until Teachers Are Vaccinated To Reopen, Poll Shows. Over half (55%) of the roughly 2,000 voters surveyed in the Morning Consult/Politico poll said states should wait to reopen schools until teachers are vaccinated, while 34% said schools should open as quickly as possible regardless of teacher vaccinations. (Forbes, 2/17/21)

NEWS How soon will COVID-19 vaccines return life to normal? Now, as vaccination campaigns gain speed, a raft of pressing questions have arisen: Does being immunized mean you won’t spread the virus? When will the campaigns begin to curb the pandemic and allow daily life to return to normal? And what do the new variants of SARS-CoV-2, able to spread faster or evade immune responses, mean for the promise of vaccines? (Science, 2/16/21)

WEBINAR Covid 19 Vaccines: Separating Fact from Fiction and Protecting our Communities. On Tuesday, February 23rd we’ll be joined by Board-certified Emergency Medicine physician, Dr. Uché Blackstock, CEO of Louisiana Public Health Institute, Shelina Davis, and writer and strategist, Kenyon Farrow, for a conversation to answer just that. We’re discussing all things Covid -- how we’ve gotten to this point, the real deal on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, and what we need to do to protect our communities. RSVP now to reserve your seat for this critically important discussion. (Black to the Future, 2/21)

Research, Development, and Clinical Practice

NEWS COVID vaccines and safety: what the research says. It is clear that coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective, but as more are rolled out, researchers are learning about the extent and nature of side effects. (Nature, 2/16/21)

NEWS Here’s How COVID Vaccines Are Made — And Why We Can’t Just Start Making A Lot More Of Them. Quick fixes by the White House, or any government, to drive up vaccine production right now may mean fewer shots if those interventions interfere with the supply chain. Accelerating production could also cause shortages of other vital medicines if factories are retooled to produce vaccines. (BuzzFeed News, 2/12/21)

RESEARCH Reports of Anaphylaxis After Receipt of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines in the US—December 14, 2020-January 18, 2021. During December 14, 2020 through January 18, 2021, a total of 9,943,247 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 7 581 429 doses of the Moderna vaccine were reported administered in the US. CDC identified 66 case reports received by VAERS that met Brighton Collaboration case definition criteria for anaphylaxis (levels 1, 2 or 3): 47 following Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, for a reporting rate of 4.7 cases/million doses administered, and 19 following Moderna vaccine, for a reporting rate of 2.5 cases/million doses administered. (JAMA, 2/12/21) See also: Misunderstanding Vaccine Side Effects Poses a Problem for Uptake (Behavioral Scientist, 1/20/21)

REPORT Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Recommended Immunization Schedule for Children and Adolescents Aged 18 Years or Younger — United States, 2021. After Emergency Use Authorization of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ACIP issued an interim recommendation for use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in persons aged ≥16 years at its December 12, 2020, meeting. In addition, ACIP approved an amendment to include COVID-19 vaccine recommendations in the child and adolescent immunization schedule. After Emergency Use Authorization of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine by FDA, ACIP issued an interim recommendation for use of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in persons aged ≥18 years at its December 19, 2020, emergency meeting. (MMWR, 2/12/21)

NEWS Can vaccinated people still spread COVID-19? How long does immunity last? Here’s what science knows now. None of the uncertainties is reason to hesitate in getting the vaccines, which are safe and remain our best hope of curbing the pandemic. But the answers will be complicated by the emergence of new coronavirus variants, which could reduce the vaccines’ effectiveness, and by the fact that the real world is inevitably messier than a clinical trial. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/17/21)

NEWS Here’s How COVID Vaccines Are Made — And Why We Can’t Just Start Making A Lot More Of Them. Quick fixes by the White House, or any government, to drive up vaccine production right now may mean fewer shots if those interventions interfere with the supply chain. Accelerating production could also cause shortages of other vital medicines if factories are retooled to produce vaccines. (BuzzFeed News, 2/12/21)

NEWS To Get Their Lives Back, Teens Volunteer for Vaccine Trials. To reach students, some researchers have tapped school connections, local pediatricians and social media campaigns. While waiting for appointments in the vaccine research clinics, some teenagers, ignoring advice to keep their vaccine volunteering off of social media, have posted TikTok videos, which have inspired friends to sign up. But the adolescent Covid vaccine trials will be much smaller than the adult trials — two or three thousand subjects instead of 30,000. (New York Times, 2/16/21)

Policy

NEWS As US stocks up on COVID-19 vaccines, Biden pledges $4 billion to global COVAX campaign. On Friday, President Joe Biden will announce a $4 billion U.S. commitment to the global vaccine alliance known as COVAX, aimed at helping poor countries inoculate their populations, according to a senior administration official. Biden will outline the pledge during Friday's virtual meeting with G7 members. The White House plans to release $2 billion immediately and use the second $2 billion as leverage to get other wealthy nations to contribute to the global vaccination effort, according to the administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity. (USA TODAY, 2/18/21)

NEWS The United States Needs a New Approach to Fight Pandemics in a New Era. The new mRNA vaccines are highly effective and comparatively simple to produce, but doing so requires access to the intellectual property behind them and a transfer of specialized technology to make them. The United States should prioritize helping governments, multilateral organizations, and companies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to rapidly stand up such production. (Think Global Health, 2/5/21) See also: Podcast: A Forever Pandemic (The Atlantic, 2/13/21) Challenges in ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines: production, affordability, allocation, and deployment (The Lancet, 2/12/21)

HEARING The Science of COVID-19 Vaccines and Encouraging Vaccine Uptake. The hearing will be livestreamed on Friday, February 19, 2021, 11 AM EST. (U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, 2/21)

RESEARCH SARS-CoV-2 evolution and vaccines: cause for concern? A number of studies have yielded insight into the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 genomic variability and the host immune response; in this Comment, we discuss whether such variability has the potential to affect the efficacy of recently developed vaccines. (The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 1/29/21) See also: In lab experiment, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine less potent against coronavirus variant (STAT, 2/17/21)

NEWS Immunization Expert Accuses C.D.C. and Deloitte of Stealing Her Idea. Tiffany Tate, who had offered the federal government her own mass vaccination tracker at a lower price than Deloitte’s, is accusing the company and the C.D.C. of stealing her intellectual property. (New York Times, 2/6/21)

NEWS Biden administration increases the number of Covid vaccine doses shipped weekly to states and pharmacies. The Biden administration will send out 13.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine per week, up from 11 million last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. (CNBC, 2/16/21)

Public Health Practice

NEWS Winter Storm Disrupts COVID-19 Vaccinations, Closing Clinics And Delaying Shipments. The massive storm sweeping across the country isn't only bringing subzero temperatures and widespread power outages to much of the U.S., it's also putting a freeze on COVID-19 vaccine distribution in several states and cities. (NPR, 2/16/21) See also: Hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine deliveries, injections delayed by winter storm (Texas Tribune, 2/16/21) Houston scrambles to give vaccines after power outage (WTXL, 2/15/21) Texas Officials Scrambled To Administer COVID Vaccines Before They Expired During A Winter Storm (BuzzFeed, 2/16/21)

OP-ED Disabled People Deserve Priority in COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts. Despite the United States Center for Disease Control’s recommendation to put people aged “16—64 years with underlying medical conditions which increase the risk of serious, life-threatening complications from COVID-19” in Phase 1c of vaccine rollout, states such as Rhode Island are instead including people in that category in later stages. California has switched to a system solely based on age, meaning older caregivers are eligible for the vaccine when the disabled people they care for aren’t. (Teen Vogue, 2/12/21) See also: Opinion: Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Were Excluded From COVID-19 Vaccine Priority Guidelines (Association for Psychological Science, 2/12/21)

NEWS People Over 75 Are First in Line to Be Vaccinated Against COVID-19. The Average Black Person Here Doesn’t Live That Long. Prioritizing COVID-19 vaccinations for people 75 and up can leave out Black Americans, who tend to die younger than their white counterparts. In majority-Black Shelby County, this gap raises questions of how to make the vaccine rollout equitable. (ProPublica, 2/12/21) See also: Reparations for American Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the U.S. and their Potential Impact on SARS-CoV-2 Transmission (Social Science & Medicine, 2/9/21) How President Biden Can Deliver on His Vaccine Promise to Communities of Color (Scientific American, 2/13/21) Vaccines Go Mobile to Keep Seniors From Slipping Through the Cracks (KHN, 2/16/21)

NEWS A U.S. Vaccine Surge Is Coming, With Millions of Doses Promised. Currently, the U.S. is administering 1.6 million doses a day, constrained by the recent supply of about 10 million to 15 million doses a week. But Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers and U.S. officials have accelerated their production timelines and signaled that the spigots are about to open, providing hundreds of millions of doses to match the growing capacity to immunize people at pharmacies and mass-vaccination sites. (Bloomberg, 2/18/21)

OP-ED On Internet and Vaccine Access, Minorities Are Left Behind. Signing up for the vaccine has predominantly occurred online. This means that far fewer older adults from underresourced racial and ethnic minority communities have been able to make appointments. (Undark, 2/16/21)

NEWS Inoculation Nation: Limited COVID-19 Vaccine Data Shows Uneven Access by Race. Based on the limited available data, Black and Latino Americans—who have experienced among the highest age-adjusted mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic—appear least likely to have been vaccinated against COVID-19 so far. Our analysis of the data released by Washington, D.C. and 24 state health departments through Feb. 12 shows that Indigenous Americans are most likely to have been vaccinated to date, followed by White and Asian Americans. (APM Research Lab, 2/17/21) See also: U.S. Vaccine Data Reveal Big Racial Gaps in Who’s Getting Shots: Covid-19 Tracker (Bloomberg, 2/17/21) NYC’s Rich Neighborhoods Get an Outsize Share of Covid Vaccines (Bloomberg, 2/16/21)

NEWS Vaccine hunters and skipping line - can America’s Covid vaccination ‘cheats’ be stopped? SoulCycle instructors and wealthy hospital donors have found loopholes to skip the line at a time when vaccine doses are in limited supply. (The Independent, 2/8/21)

INTERVIEW What Can Employers Do to Encourage Vaccine Uptake? How do you persuade those people, and what can employers do to encourage the uptake of vaccines? Dr. Rupali Limaye is a health communication scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who has researched ways of nudging people to improve their health outcomes. (Brink News, 2/7/21) See also: COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements: Potential Constraints on Employer Mandates Under Federal Law (Congressional Research Service, 2/10/21) Assessing The Legality Of Mandates For Vaccines Authorized Via An Emergency Use Authorization (Health Affairs, 2/16/21)

NEWS In Hard-Hit Indian Country, Tribes Rapidly Roll Out Vaccines. The Tribal Nations across America race against the clock to vaccinate their elders who are the keepers of culture and tradition. For Tribes recognized by the Federal Government it's a success, but others are left out. (Daily Yonder, 2/12/21)

NEWS Overloaded schedules and ‘Covid cowbells’: For pharmacists, the Covid-19 vaccine rollout brings exhaustion, but some relief. Working with limited supplies and imperfect scheduling systems, many are drowning under a flood of inquiries. Wait lists, where they exist, are getting longer. And even creative solutions are succumbing to the cold realities of the day. (STAT, 2/12/21) See also: With vaccines in more drugstores, Walgreens, CVS and other pharmacies go on hiring sprees (Baltimore Sun, 2/10/21)

BLOG Four Recommendations To Efficiently And Equitably Accelerate The COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout. Although scientists have created highly effective and safe vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) and pharmaceutical companies are rapidly mass-producing them, the US continues to face an enormous distribution logistics problem, made more challenging by uncoordinated government planning and response. (Health Affairs, 2/10/21)

NEWS Google Enters the Fray to Help States Scale Up Vaccination Push. At a time when COVID-19 vaccination efforts have been hampered by a lack of coordination and overwhelmed by public demand, Google is entering the fray to try and help states and localities better organize and focus their initiatives with cloud-based analytic, scheduling, and informational software. (Medscape, 2/15/21)

DATA COVID-19 Vaccine Doses: Selected Data Sources on Allocation, Distribution, and Administration. The selected sources below can help congressional staff track the progress of the U.S. COVID-19 vaccination campaign at the national, state, and local levels. Sources were selected for having commonly cited and frequently requested data. (Congressional Research Service, 2/10/21)

NEWS Vaccinating the homeless population for COVID adds a whole new layer of difficulty. A transient population is, by its nature, a moving target. It includes many people who are suspicious of authority, and many who are specifically suspicious of the vaccine. And the vaccine itself in limited supply, has to be kept frozen, can’t be shaken while in the vial, can’t be in direct sunlight and must be injected within several hours of being defrosted. All that has complicated a difficult and unequal process. (Los Angeles Times, 2/15/21)

This newsletter supports CommuniVax, a research coalition convened by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Texas State University Department of Anthropology, with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.