Two of our local teams in Virginia recently released reports describing efforts to address vaccine mistrust and hesitancy and improve health equity in their communities. Read more about their work on Virginia's Eastern Shore and in Hampton Roads, and check out our other local team reports at Communivax.org!

For Vaccine-Hesitant Veterans, Side Effects a Top Concern. Among the 29% of veterans who reported they were unvaccinated, fear over potential side effects and concern about the "newness" of the vaccines were the primary reasons given for their hesitancy, with 40% of that group reporting they either definitely would not or probably would not get vaccinated. (U.S. News & World Report, 11/3/21)

With Only 26% of Pregnant People in the United States Vaccinated Against COVID-19, New Survey Sheds Light on the Reasons Why. In July, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), the preeminent professional membership organizations guiding obstetric care, issued a strong recommendation in support of vaccination during pregnancy. In September, after the deadliest month on record for pregnant people as a result of COVID-19 infection, the CDC issued its strongest guidance to date, urging people who are currently pregnant, recently pregnant, or trying to become pregnant to receive the vaccine. (Maven Clinic, 11/21)

Covid Shots Are a Go for Children, but Parents Are Reluctant to Consent. Even many parents who are themselves vaccinated and approved the shot for their teenagers are churning over whether to give consent for their younger children, questioning if the risk of the unknowns of a brand-new vaccine is worth it when most coronavirus cases in youngsters are mild. (New York Times, 10/30/21)

‘There was no plan’: Throwing spaghetti at the wall to overcome Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy. One or two donuts, a car, $1 million, $25, Super Bowl tickets, french fries. There’s a remarkable range of incentives and other methods devised to overcome Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy. While some of these ideas have stuck like spaghetti thrown against a wall, it’s not clear which are most effective. Even when researchers have demonstrated the success of certain strategies, they haven’t been widely adopted. (STAT, 11/2/21)

Montana’s governor nixed a kids’ vaccine campaign, so health officials plan their own. A state endorsement and ad campaign on television, radio and the internet could encourage and persuade undecided parents to get their kids vaccinated. The lack of such public messaging could contribute to Montana’s continuing lag in vaccination rates and high ranking in covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths. (KTVQ, 11/3/21)

NYC Begins COVID Vaccine Push For 5-11 Kids, With Public Schools To Host Pop-Up Clinics. Next week, every public school with an eligible population will host a one-day vaccination drive to reach a broader swath of families. Parents or guardians will need to accompany their children. Unlike the vaccination push for adults that centered on large-scale sites and community clinics, state and city officials have repeatedly invoked family pediatricians as critical to rolling out the vaccine for younger kids. (Gothamist, 11/3/21)

How to Put a Vaccine Card on Your Phone. In the US, those slightly-too-big-for-your-wallet paper cards are the main official record that someone has been vaccinated. They can be a pain to carry around, and are just as easy to lose as anything else that’s jangling around in your pockets. Fortunately, there are ways to digitize them. Usually. (Wired, 10/31/21)

Vaccine or test: Biden advances sweeping new mandates for private sector. It would be the first time Washington has set a federal standard that regards a respiratory virus as an occupational hazard outside of the health care sector, essentially putting COVID in the same category as other workplace safety concerns as asbestos and dangerous machinery. (ABC News, 11/3/21)

See also: COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (OSHA, 11/21)

Select Subcommittee Launches Investigation Into Online Entities Pushing Coronavirus Misinformation And Selling Unproven Treatments. Today, Rep. James E. Clyburn, Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, launched an investigation into online entities that are spreading misinformation and facilitating access to disproven and potentially hazardous coronavirus treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. (Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, 10/29/21)

Supreme Court Won’t Block Maine’s Vaccine Mandate for Health Care Workers. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to block Maine’s requirement that health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus notwithstanding their religious objections. As is the court’s custom in rulings on emergency applications, its brief order gave no reasons. But the three most conservative members of the court — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch — issued a lengthy dissent, saying the majority had gone badly astray. (New York Times, 10/29/21)

FBI Investigating Loretto Hospital’s Vaccination Program As Part Of A Criminal Probe. The FBI is investigating Loretto Hospital’s COVID-19 vaccination program following reports that doses went to ineligible people with ties to hospital administrators, government records show. Two federal grand jury subpoenas were issued to the Illinois Department of Public Health in May and September after Block Club Chicago revealed the hospital vaccinated ineligible people at Chicago’s Trump Tower, where Loretto’s chief financial officer, Dr. Anosh Ahmed, lived, as well as a luxury jewelry shop and a high-end Gold Coast steakhouse where Ahmed hung out. (Block Club Chicago, 11/2/21)

Vaccine Stocks Eye $24.5 Billion in Lost Value on Moderna Miss. The FBI is investigating Loretto Hospital’s COVID-19 vaccination program following reports that doses went to ineligible people with ties to hospital administrators, government records show. Two federal grand jury subpoenas were issued to the Illinois Department of Public Health in May and September after Block Club Chicago revealed the hospital vaccinated ineligible people at Chicago’s Trump Tower, where Loretto’s chief financial officer, Dr. Anosh Ahmed, lived, as well as a luxury jewelry shop and a high-end Gold Coast steakhouse where Ahmed hung out. (Bloomberg, 11/4/21)

US Kids Ages 5 To 11 Can Now Get COVID Vaccines. The FDA authorization on Friday and the CDC advisory committee’s unanimous decision to recommend the vaccines on Tuesday now means that you can get your kids under 12 vaccinated. (Children 12 and older are already eligible to get a Pfizer vaccine, and the CDC recommends that they do so.). (BuzzFeed News, 11/2/21)

Moderna Says FDA Needs More Time to Assess Vaccine for Teens. Moderna Inc. said it was notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will require additional time to assess the company’s emergency request to approve its Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 17 as regulators examine the risk of a rare heart inflammation. (Bloomberg, 10/31/21)

CDC finds immunity from vaccines is more consistent than from infection, but both last at least six months. Reviewing scores of research studies and its own unpublished data, CDC found that both infection-induced and vaccine-induced immunity are durable for at least six months — but that vaccines are more consistent in their protection and offer a huge boost in antibodies for people previously infected. In comparing the two types of immunity, scientists said research shows vaccination provides a “higher, more robust, and more consistent level of immunity to protect people from COVID-19 than infection alone.” (Washington Post, 11/1/21)

The Race Is On to Develop a Vaccine Against Every Coronavirus. It is a complex project, and no group is close to reaching the goal. Universal vaccines against other recurrent, genetically variable diseases—see, especially, influenza—have been pursued unsuccessfully for years. But researchers think one for coronaviruses might be more achievable, both because this virus is less genetically complex than the one that causes the flu, and also because the threat of another coronavirus pandemic feels uncomfortably real. (Wired, 11/1/21)

What Do We Really Know About Vaccine Effectiveness? No vaccine is 100% effective against any disease. The covid shots are no exception. Effectiveness in preventing infection — defined as a positive test result — appears in some studies to wane sharply the more time that goes by after completing the one- or two-shot regimen. But on key measures — prevention of serious illness, hospitalization and death — real-world studies from the U.S. and abroad generally show protection weakening slightly, particularly in older or sicker people, but remaining strong overall, even with the rise of the more infectious delta variant of the covid virus. (Publication, Date)