The second national CommuniVax report will be released in July. In the meantime, be sure to check out our previous reports and download our implementation toolkit.

Our local teams continue their efforts to promote vaccine uptake in their communities:

Vaccine Hesitancy In The U.S. Is A Peculiar Privilege. "I want to wait and watch." This is a peculiar response I receive from my friends and some family members in the United States when I ask them about their thoughts on COVID-19 vaccination. This is a peculiar response for a couple of reasons: COVID-19 vaccines are exceptionally effective, are now readily available and are the best way to end the pandemic and return to normalcy. (NPR, 6/22/21)

Chris Paul Bears the Brunt of Pro Sports’ Vaccination Problem. That Paul has become the focus of the privacy debate is ironic because, by being vaccinated, he’s done the right thing. But as leagues try to institute separate protocols for vaccinated and unvaccinated players, they’re also revealing the pitfalls of treating vaccination as simply a personal choice. (The Atlantic, 6/18/21)

Why Is There Such A Gender Gap In COVID-19 Vaccination Rates? CDC reported that nearly 9.5 million more women than men have been vaccinated in the U.S., and in the 42 states that collect gender data, a greater share of women are getting the vaccine as well. The magnitude of the gender gap varies from state to state but has hovered just below 10 percentage points on average over the past month.. (FiveThirtyEight, 6/22/21)

How COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Uniquely Affects Communities of Color. Here to unpack these concerns and explore best practices for restoring trust, Nora Benavidez (PEN America’s director of U.S. Free Expression programs) offers practical steps that individuals and communities can take to evaluate online information, challenge misleading narratives, and revitalize the flow of accurate information online. (Pen America, 6/9/21)

See also: Confronting Vaccine Misinformation in the Workplace (SHRM, 6/23/21)

These Videos Could Boost COVID Vaccination Rates. In a survey of more than 1,500 U.S. adults conducted by the Pew Research Center in January and February, 81 percent of respondents reported watching content on YouTube, compared with 56 percent who reported watching satellite or cable TV. And social media users, rather than traditional authorities, create most of the health content that visitors click on, says public health researcher Corey Basch of William Paterson University. (Scientific American, 6/22/21)

How pastors and health experts are struggling to close the vaccine gap among White evangelicals. The reasons for White evangelicals rejecting or hesitating to get vaccinated against the coronavirus are complex and not necessarily tied to religious doctrine. During the pandemic, people often engaged in what Jamie D. Aten, a disaster psychologist and disaster ministry expert at Wheaton College, calls “spiritual bypass” — using personal spirituality to keep questions over decisions such as whether to get the vaccine at bay. (Washington Post, 6/18/21)

See also: Target Evangelicals to Boost COVID Vaccine Confidence, Says Advocate (MedPage Today, 6/22/21)

Vaccinomics: a cross-sectional survey of public values. We characterize public values regarding vaccinomics, which aims to improve vaccine safety and effectiveness using genomics. Federal funding, communications, and policies should assure the public that vaccinomics will not remove their decision–making power and engender trust in public health authorities. (Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, 6/21/21)

Misleading information about vaccinating children is linked to old WHO advice. Outdated public health guidance about children and Covid-19 vaccines is being misleadingly passed off as a new development. In guidance posted April 8, the World Health Organization said that several Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective for most people over 18, and that children “should not be vaccinated for the moment.” This guidance had remained on the WHO website since that time, but resurfaced June 22 to advance false and misleading information, with the topic dominating vaccine-related Google searches in the US yesterday, according to Google Trends data. (First Draft News, 6/23/21)

COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Adults — United States, December 14, 2020–May 22, 2021. By May 22, 2021, 57.0% of U.S. adults aged ≥18 years had received ≥1 vaccine dose; coverage was lower and increased more slowly over time among younger adults. If the current rate of vaccination continues through August, coverage among young adults will remain substantially lower than among older adults. (CDC, 6/25/21)

Lowest Rates, Highest Hurdles: Southern States Tackle Vaccine Gap. Federal and state officials have made vaccines available at community health centers and pharmacies and added mobile units to expand access to the shots. But vaccination rates continue to lag in rural Southern states such as Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, which rank near the bottom in the country for vaccine uptake. (Pew Trusts, 6/17/21)

CDC: Lags in Childhood Vaccines Could Spark Outbreaks in Other Illnesses. Stay-home orders and other disruptions in the early months of the pandemic led to a dramatic drop in the number of students vaccinated against typical childhood diseases. While families have started to bring their children back for doctor’s visits, in many cases, it won’t be enough to recover the same level of protection for the large groups of students who will return to full-time, in-person learning this year without a major effort by schools. (EdWeek, 6/17/21)

All Chicagoans Can Now Get COVID Vaccinations At Home For Free — And They’ll Get $50 Gift Cards. The move is meant to make it easier for everyone to get their vaccination shots. Under the program, health workers will go to any household in Chicago and vaccinate eligible people, Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said at a Tuesday news conference. Those households will also get a $50 gift card for Grubhub, a food delivery service. (Block Club Chicago, 6/22/21)

Assessing COVID-19 Vaccination Equity to Date. Helene Gayle, MD, MPH, emphasized the importance of maintaining a strong equity focus in the continuing national coronavirus immunization program. Questioning the use of lottery-based incentives, Gayle suggested it might be more effective to offer potential vaccinees transportation coupons or subsidized day-care services for a day to help them get to a vaccination site. (University of Pennsylvania, 6/15/21)

Community Engagement Resources. The Vaccine Equity Cooperative provides tailored tools and vetted resources to support vaccine decisions in your community. (Vaccine Equity Cooperative, 6/21)

Hospitals Start Requiring Workers to Get COVID Shots. Dozens of hospitals and medical groups in Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere began issuing vaccination requirements. Public health law experts say the moves are a legal means of ensuring a safe, COVID-19-free environment for patients and workers. (Pew Trusts, 6/21/21)

States Move to Ban 'Vaccine Passports.' Some of the measures prevent local governments from issuing or requiring vaccine credentials, while others also discourage businesses from doing so. At least one state, Arizona, made an exception for healthcare providers. (Center for Public Integrity, 6/18/21)

U.S. Government to Donate 500 Million COVID-19 Vaccines. Shipping will begin in August 2021, with the goal of delivering 200 million doses by the end of the year and the remaining 300 million doses by early 2022. This initiative marks the largest-ever purchase and donation of vaccines by a single country. (Very Well Health, 6/17/21)

Behind the historic US vaccine effort is FDA's Peter Marks. The job is 'not for the faint of heart.' Marks, 57, who runs a division of the Food and Drug Administration, has played a key role in nearly every major vaccine-related decision since the United States' COVID-19 outbreak began. (USA TODAY, 6/23/21)

Wondering if the Vaccine Worked? Get the Right Test, at the Right Time. Antibody tests can be crucial for people with weak immune systems or those who take certain medications — a broad category encompassing millions of people who are recipients of organ donations, have certain blood cancers, or who take steroids or other drugs that suppress the immune system. (New York Times, 6/20/21)

CureVac COVID vaccine let-down spotlights mRNA design challenges. Two vaccines made using messenger RNA (mRNA) have proved spectacularly successful at warding off COVID-19, but a third mRNA-based candidate has flopped in a final-stage trial, according to an initial report released this week. Researchers are now asking why — and some think that choices about the type of mRNA chemistry used might be to blame. Any insight could help to guide the future design of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 or other diseases. (Nature, 6/18/21)

COVID-19 vaccine side effects: The positives about feeling bad. Other than vague reference to an ongoing immune response, the actual cause of the side effects has received almost no attention. So what is the cause of these effects? As discussed here, most of the symptoms can likely be attributed simply to exuberant production of a cytokine that plays a vital role in potentiating early stages of the immune response, namely type I interferon (IFN-I). (Science, 6/22/21)

Heart Inflammation In Teens And Young Adults After COVID-19 Vaccine Is Rare, CDC Says. The CDC says the findings do not change the basic recommendation that all people 12 and older should receive either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. However, the CDC recommends that if a person develops myocarditis after the first dose, a second dose should be delayed until the condition has fully resolved and the heart has returned to a normal state. (NPR, 6/23/21)

The mRNA Vaccines Are Extraordinary, but Novavax Is Even Better. The latest Novavax data confirm that it’s possible to achieve the same efficacy against COVID-19 with a more familiar technology that more people may be inclined to trust. (The mRNA vaccines delivered efficacy rates of 95 and 94 percent against the original coronavirus strain in Phase 3 trials, as compared with 96 percent for Novavax in its first trial, and now 90 percent against a mixture of variants. (The Atlantic, 6/24/21)