A recording of the second national CommuniVax webinar, “Community-Centric Public Health Practice: COVID-19 Vaccination and Beyond,” is now available to view on YouTube. Additionally, CommuniVax co-PI Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana recently gave an interview with Healthcare NOW Radio on CommuniVax and the first national report. Stream the interview here.

Our local teams across the country continue their community outreach efforts:

Influencers Getting Vaccinated Are New Targets For Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorists, But Many Are Rising To The Challenge. Influencers face a choice: acknowledge current events, no matter how outside their usual content and comfort level, or risk becoming irrelevant. Now many are. With vaccinations for COVID-19 now available to all American adults, many popular influencers are proudly sharing that they have gotten their shots. (BuzzFeed News, 4/23/21)

Disinformation Dozen: The Sequel. Appearing before Congress in March, tech CEOs promised to act on twelve anti-vaxxers who are responsible for almost two-thirds of anti-vaccine content circulating on social media. One month on, our report shows that Big Tech has failed to act, allowing the spread of vaccine disinformation that has been viewed up to 29 million times. (Center for Countering Digital Hate, 4/28/21)

The Anti-Vaxxer Hunt for Dead People Is Getting Even Weirder. As soon as the United States authorized the use of the first COVID-19 vaccine in mid-December, a small but vocal group of skeptics and conspiracy theorists, baselessly convinced that the jabs were lethal, started hunting for dead people. As the scale and sophistication of America’s vaccine rollout have exponentially ramped up over the last three months, so have efforts to hunt down alleged vaccine fatalities. (Daily Beast, 4/24/21)

Reaching new lows, Ron Johnson peddles reckless vaccine nonsense. The Wisconsin Republican has had plenty of mind-numbing things to say about vaccinations. Johnson insists it's "not a fully approved vaccine"; he's "getting highly suspicious" of the "big push to make sure everybody gets the vaccine"; there's "no reason" to encourage Americans to get vaccinated; and he has "doubts" in response to White House requests that the public should "trust the government.". (MSNBC, 4/23/21)

Even after being fully vaccinated, many still wrestle with a fear of catching Covid. With more than 93 million people, or more than a quarter of America, fully vaccinated, two camps have emerged: those making up for lost time in the form of house parties, happy hours and travel, and those who cannot shake the fear that they may still get the coronavirus. (NBC, 4/25/21)

Vaccine-hesitant, vaccine refusers and anti-vaxxers: There's a spectrum, and the differences matter. Are all the people who say that they won't get the vaccine "anti-vaxxers"? Not necessarily. Lumping everyone together in the "anti-vaccine" category might deter those who are skeptics and hesitant, as opposed to those who might actually have an anti-vaccine agenda, hampering campaign efforts to get skeptics vaccinated altogether. (Salon, 4/24/21)

See also: It’s Not Vaccine Hesitancy. It’s COVID-19 Denialism. (The Atlantic, 4/27/21)

Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Rural Communities? Checking Our Assumptions. To plan effective public health action for next steps in vaccine distribution, we need a clearer understanding of why doses distributed to rural areas remain unclaimed. We must check our assumptions to prevent a false narrative that could cause harm by reinforcing a false belief that rural residents are not interested in vaccination. (The Hastings Center, 4/26/21)

COVID vaccines: time to confront anti-vax aggression. Nearly one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered in less than six months, but anti-vaccine disinformation and targeted attacks on scientists are undermining progress. These threats must be confronted directly, and the authority and expertise of the health community alone aren’t enough to do this. (Nature, 4/27/21)

See also: Covid protesters must stop exploiting symbols of the Holocaust (CNN, 4/27/21)

'Faith-Based Approaches' Could Help Convince Millions of Americans to Get COVID-19 Vaccines. The survey found that among Americans who attend some type of religious service at least a few times a year, 44% of people “hesitant” about COVID-19 vaccines said that a faith-based approach—or approaches—could impact their eventual decision to get vaccinated, and 14% of people “resistant” to the vaccine said the same. (TIME, 4/22/21)

People seeking coronavirus vaccine appear eager to receive Johnson & Johnson. There is no government data yet on whether health authorities’ 10-day halt in administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine soured people on the product, and the company declined to discuss the matter. But in spot checks across the country, people seeking vaccines and officials dispensing them appear eager to resume using the vaccine, which is also easier to store and transport. (Washington Post, 4/29/21)

See also: Why We're Terrible At Weighing The Risks Of The J&J Vaccine (WBUR, 4/28/21)

The covid-19 vaccines are an extraordinary success story. The media should tell it that way. Recent news coverage is fueling a pernicious narrative: What’s the point of getting a covid-19 vaccine if the vaccinated might still get infected, if protection doesn’t last that long and if the vaccine itself could lead to dangerous outcomes such as blood clots? Clinicians need to address each concern head-on, and we need the media’s help to do it. (Washington Post, 4/20/21)

Differences in COVID-19 Vaccine Concerns Among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: The COMPASS Survey. Overall, 76% of the respondents reported having at ≥1 concerns about the vaccine. The most common concern was side effects (65%). Vietnamese Americans reported less concerns (vs. Chinese Americans). Those who were 30-39 and 40-49 years old (vs. <30), females (vs. males), and experienced mild negative impacts from COVID-19 on family income/employment (vs. no change) reported more concerns about the vaccine. (Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 4/21)

COVID-19 Vaccines: Building Confidence & Explaining Efficacy. As the nation works to vaccinate the population against COVID-19, public officials are faced with the challenge of communicating, promoting, and encouraging vaccination in their communities. This webinar will cover public engagement and communications strategies public officials can use to promote vaccination, build vaccine confidence, and overcome confusing messages about vaccine efficacy. It will take place on May 4, 2021, 2-3 PM CDT. (Societal Experts Action Network, 4/21)

Understanding and Communicating Vaccine Efficacy and Effectiveness. Confusing messages about how well COVID-19 vaccines work pose a barrier to public understanding and broad vaccine uptake. This new guidance from the Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN) can help public officials prepare and evaluate their communications efforts around vaccination. (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 4/21)

Men lag behind women in coronavirus vaccinations, especially in Black communities. “You got the hesitancy, you got the inconvenience, you got the misinformation and you got the machismo,” said the Rev. Derrick DeWitt of First Mount Calvary Baptist Church in West Baltimore, who has interceded on behalf of several female congregants struggling to get their husbands vaccinated. (Washington Post, 4/24/21)

David Letterman, Chrissy Teigen Joining Global Citizen’s ‘Vax Live’ Event. Billed as the first large-scale music event for a Covid-compliant audience (the crowd will be comprised of fully-vaccinated frontline workers), the show will now also boast appearances from Ben Affleck, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Oliva Munn and Sean Penn. Also set to join the show are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, along with President Joe Biden, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Rolling Stone, 4/27/21)

COVID-19 Has Hit The Amish Community Hard. Still, Vaccines Are A Tough Sell. Holmes County, where half of the population is Amish, has the lowest vaccination rate in Ohio, with just 10% of its roughly 44,000 residents fully vaccinated. Less than 1% of Amish have received any doses of vaccine, according to Michael Derr, the county's health commissioner. (NPR, 4/28/21)

How Vaccine Hesitancy is Driving Breakthrough Infections in Nursing Homes. At many facilities where every single resident has received the vaccine, fewer than half of the staff have. “One of the obstacles to herd immunity is hesitancy on behalf of the staff,” De La Rosa said. As long as the virus is circulating in the community, an unvaccinated staff member can pick it up and bring it to the nursing home, where conditions may make the otherwise rare breakthrough infections more likely. (New Yorker, 4/27/21)

One Overlooked Cause for Vaccine Hesitancy? A Fear of Needles. While the root causes of the condition may vary between genetic factors, hypersensitivity to pain, and a more deep-seated psychological distrust of having foreign substances injected into your body, the outcome is the same: severe anxiety, fainting, or avoidance altogether. It’s the latter possibility that is most worrying in the context of COVID-19, of course, with the broader social implications of not receiving a shot and thus becoming a vector for the virus to travel being harmful not just to oneself but one’s community too. (Vogue, 4/28/21)

See also: Do I Have to Get the Covid Vaccine in My Arm? (New York Times, 4/29/21)

Vaccinated and ready to hit the gym? Here’s how to assess the risks. The risk of gyms and indoor workout classes can be lower as long as various safety measures are in place — and being vaccinated can be a game-changer. If you are one of the millions of Americans who are fully vaccinated, some experts are encouraging a return to a somewhat normal workout routine, citing concerns about the pandemic’s impact on mental health and weight gain. (Washington Post, 4/28/21)

You're Vaccinated. Congrats! Now What Can You Do Safely? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has laid out some guidelines. But for many interactions, "there is no set rulebook," says Dr. Cassandra Pierre, an infectious disease specialist at Boston Medical Center. "It really has to do with your risk tolerance." And parents with kids too young to be eligible for vaccines will have somewhat different considerations. (NPR, 4/29/21)

See also: When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated: How to Protect Yourself and Others (CDC, 4/27/21)

The End of U.S. Mass Vaccination Is Coming Sooner Than Later. As of Saturday, 138.6 million people in the U.S. have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot. About 1.3 million more are getting a first dose every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the rate of new vaccinators is declining, even if it were immediately cut in half, it would mean that six weeks from now more than half of the population of the U.S. and its territories will have had a dose. (Bloomberg, 4/25/21)

Millions Are Skipping Their Second Doses of Covid Vaccines. More than five million people, or nearly 8 percent of those who got a first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, have missed their second doses, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is more than double the rate among people who got inoculated in the first several weeks of the nationwide vaccine campaign. (New York Times, 4/25/21)

Why Black And Latino People Still Lag On COVID Vaccines — And How To Fix It. While overall vaccination rates in Philadelphia are beginning to slow in the last couple of weeks, providers there — and echoed nationally — say the disparity between racial groups isn't the result of people who are hesitant to get vaccinated. Instead, they say barriers such as the location of vaccination sites, online-only sign-ups, appointment scheduling, transportation and other planning and access issues are to blame. (NPR, 4/26/21)

Unions Use Their Advocacy Skills To Get COVID-19 Vaccines In Members’ Arms. Unions across the San Diego region are working hard to get their members vaccinated, employing many of the same tactics they use to get laws passed and favored political candidates elected. They’re lobbying lawmakers to grant eligibility to their members and securing separate supplies of vaccines from state and county officials. They’ve also launched vaccine awareness campaigns among their members that stress the importance of getting the shots. (KPBS, 4/21/21)

Vaccine Equity Index Shows Reduction in Maryland Covid-19 Vaccination Disparity in Less Than Two Months. As communities develop targeted programs to improve access to and administration of vaccines in underserved populations, the Vaccine Equity Index (VEI) can be applied as a simple and objective method for tracking the progress of such efforts. (New England Journal of Medicine, 4/23/21)

COVID-19 Vaccine Verification Requires a Multidisciplinary Strategy Grounded in Health Equity. Developing a means of assessing COVID-19 vaccination status will require contributors from multiple disciplines, and it is incumbent that it be focused on producing equitable health outcomes. It will hinge on more effective messaging, incorporating ideas from behavioral economics, and building equitable access programs. (Think Global Health, 4/26/21)

West Virginia giving people under 35 $100 savings bonds for getting vaccinated. Governor Jim Justice said he would use federal emergency funding provided by the CARES Act, which passed Congress in March 2020, to pay for the savings bonds. That relief package sent about $150 billion directly to state governments to help them fight the pandemic. States have until the end of this year to spend the money. (CNN, 4/26/21)

Lost in Translation: Language Barriers Hinder Vaccine Access. Lack of language access to vaccine information wasn't necessarily the result of poor pandemic planning. In part, it was intentional. In 2020, the Trump administration removed language-access protections that had been written into the Affordable Care Act (ACA). (WebMD, 4/23/21)

Miami school bars vaccinated teachers from seeing students. Co-founder Leila Centner informed parents on Monday that, when possible, the academy's policy is to not employ anyone who has received a Covid-19 vaccine at this time, CBS Miami reported. (BBC, 4/27/21)

Outpacing The U.S., Hard-Hit Navajo Nation Has Vaccinated More Than Half Of Adults. About half of the tribe's more than 300,000 enrolled members live on its reservation, which spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and is considered the largest in the country. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez celebrated the success of the vaccine rollout but urged continued caution in a statement on Sunday. (NPR, 4/26/21)

Uber App Offers Covid-19 Vaccine Appointments at Walgreens. When booking a shot through the app starting Wednesday, customers can then schedule transportation to and from the pharmacy. It will do the same for a follow-up appointment at Walgreens locations that administer vaccines requiring two shots. (Bloomberg, 4/28/21)

Biden Administration Looks For Help With Next Phase Of Pitching COVID Vaccines. The administration is working to bring together hundreds of local and national groups into something it calls the COVID-19 Community Corps, enlisting people to help their friends, family and neighbors make appointments and get access to vaccines. (NPR, 4/23/21)

See also: Another boon from vaccinating millions of Americans: Jobs (CBS, 4/23/21)

In Reversal, U.S. Will Send Vaccine Materials to Stricken India. The Biden administration, under increasing pressure to address a devastating surge of the coronavirus in India, said on Sunday that it had removed impediments to the export of raw materials for vaccines and would also supply India with therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and personal protective gear. (New York Times, 4/25/21)

Hollywood Lobbyists Intervene Against Proposal to Share Vaccine Technology. Industry sources say the lobbyists are concerned that the waiver will be too broad in scope and could open the door for increased piracy. But the copyright industry push relates to a provision of the proposal that would waive copyright enforcement for the “prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19.” (The Intercept, 4/27/21)

Biden Must Push Drug Firms to Share Science With The World. The Biden administration has begun to address this growing vaccine inequality crisis with new high-level appointments, statements, donations, and convenings of international funders to support vaccination in low- and middle-income countries. But if the administration focuses primarily on donations to low-income countries its efforts will fall far short of the 11 billion doses required for global herd immunity. (Bloomberg, 4/23/21)

Vaccinated U.S. Travelers Will Be Allowed To Visit Europe Again Starting This Summer. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said she expects all 27 EU member states will accept travelers who've received COVID-19 vaccines that the European Medicines Agency has approved. That would include the three vaccines that have been authorized for use in the United States — Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer-BioNTech. (NPR, 4/26/21)

See also: When It Comes to a Travel Restart All Vaccines Are Not Equal (Bloomberg, 4/25/21)

Effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Vaccines Against COVID-19 Among Hospitalized Adults Aged ≥65 Years — United States, January–March 2021. In a multistate network of U.S. hospitals during January–March 2021, receipt of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines was 94% effective against COVID-19 hospitalization among fully vaccinated adults and 64% effective among partially vaccinated adults aged ≥65 years. (MMWR, 4/28/21)

The most promising coronavirus vaccine you’ve never heard of. The vaccine’s developer, Novavax, has never brought a product to market. The shot entered late-stage clinical trials months after candidates from bigger names like Pfizer and Moderna. But the Novavax vaccine proved just as potent as those mRNA shots in a U.K. trial, and the company is now preparing to file for U.S. authorization in a matter of weeks — potentially leapfrogging AstraZeneca, a former frontrunner. (POLITICO, 4/27/21)

COVID vaccines and kids: five questions as trials begin. Nature looks at how the trials will account for differences in children’s immune systems and susceptibility to COVID-19, compared with those of adults, as well as the added safety precautions that surround medical research in kids. “Children are not little adults,” stresses Dr. Kawsar Talaat, an infectious-disease physician and vaccine scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. (Nature, 4/21/21)

New Blood Tests Should Show How Long A COVID-19 Vaccine Will Protect You. The results will show whether there is a specific antibody level that will let you say with confidence a new vaccine will work without testing it in tens of thousands of people. (NPR, 4/28/21)

CDC Walks Back Director’s Comments on COVID Vaccines for Pregnant Women. CDC said on Tuesday that its guidelines for pregnant women who wish to receive a coronavirus vaccine have not changed since they were initially released in March. Those guidelines state that “if you are pregnant, you may choose to receive a COVID-19 vaccine” but caution pregnant women to weigh the risks posed by vaccination and the virus against one another. The guidelines do not explicitly “recommend” that pregnant women get vaccinated, as Walensky suggested Friday. (Yahoo! News, 4/27/21)

See also: Vaccination of pregnant or lactating people (CDC, 3/21)

One Vaccine to Rule Them All. “A universal SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is step one,” Dr. Anthony Fauci says. Step two would be a universal coronavirus vaccine, capable of protecting us not only from SARS-CoV-2 in all its forms, but also from the inevitable emergence of new and different coronaviruses that might cause future pandemics. The race to create such a vaccine may prove one of the great feats of a generation. (The Atlantic, 4/26/21)

You Don't Have To Suffer To Benefit From COVID Vaccination — But Some Prefer It. While the symptoms show your immune system is responding to the vaccine in a way that will protect against disease, evidence from clinical trials showed that people with few or no symptoms were also protected. Don't feel bad if you don't feel bad, the experts say. (NPR, 4/27/21)