GOP blocks Senate COVID bill, demands votes on immigration
Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt Tuesday to begin Senate debate on a $10 billion COVID-19 compromise, pressing to entangle the bipartisan package with an election-year showdown over immigration restrictions that poses a politically uncomfortable fight for Democrats. A day after Democratic and GOP bargainers reached an agreement on providing the money for treatments, vaccines, and testing, a Democratic move to push the measure past a procedural hurdle failed 52-47. All 50 Republicans opposed the move, leaving Democrats 13 votes short of the 60 votes they had needed to prevail. Hours earlier, Republicans said they’d withhold crucial support for the measure unless Democrats agreed to votes on an amendment preventing President Joe Biden from lifting Trump-era curbs on migrants entering the U.S. With Biden polling poorly on his handling of immigration and Democrats divided on the issue, Republicans see a focus on migrants as a fertile line of attack. “I think there will have to be” an amendment preserving the immigration restrictions “in order to move the bill,” bolstering federal pandemic efforts, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. “I don’t think there are probably 10 Republican votes at the moment for a process that doesn’t include” a vote on language retaining the immigration barriers, said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Thune of South Dakota. At least 10 GOP votes will be needed in the 50-50 Senate for the measure to reach the 60 votes it must have for approval. Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., want Congress to approve the pandemic bill before lawmakers leave in days for a two-week recess. Tuesday’s vote suggested that could be hard. ”This is a potentially devastating vote for every single American who was worried about the possibility of a new variant rearing its nasty head within a few months,” Schumer said after the vote. The new omicron variant, BA.2, is expected to spark a fresh increase in U.S. COVID-19 cases. Around 980,000 Americans and over 6 million people worldwide have died from the disease. The $10 billion pandemic package is far less than the $22.5 billion Biden initially sought. It also lacks $5 billion Biden wanted to battle the pandemic overseas — money that fell victim to disagreements over GOP demands that the measure be entirely paid for with budget savings. At least half the bill would be used for research and to produce therapeutics to treat COVID-19. Money would also be used to buy vaccines and tests and to research new variants. The measure is paid for by pulling back unspent funds provided earlier for protecting aviation manufacturing jobs, assisting entertainment venues shuttered by the pandemic, and other programs. Administration officials have said the government has run out of money to finance COVID-19 testing and treatments for people without insurance, and is running low on money for boosters, free monoclonal antibody treatments, and care for people with immune system weaknesses. At the 2020 height of the pandemic, President Donald Trump imposed immigration curbs letting authorities immediately expel asylum seekers and migrants for public health reasons. The ban is set to expire May 23, triggering what, by all accounts, will be a massive increase in the number of people trying to cross the Mexican border into the U.S. That confronts Democrats with messy choices ahead of fall elections when they’re expected to struggle to retain their hair-breadth majorities in the House and Senate. Many of the party’s lawmakers and their liberal supporters want the U.S. to open its doors to more immigrants. But moderates and some Democrats confronting tight November reelections worry about lifting the restrictions and alienating centrist voters. Shortly before Tuesday’s vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., showed no taste for exposing his party to a divisive immigration vote. “This is a bipartisan agreement that does a whole lot of important good for the American people. Vaccines, testing, therapeutics,” he said. “It should not be held hostage for an extraneous issue.” Jeff Zients, head of White House COVID-19 task force, expressed the same view about an immigration provision. “This should not be included on any funding bill,” he told reporters. “The decision should be made by the CDC. That’s where it has been, and that’s where it belongs.” But Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he would still support a Senate COVID-19 aid bill if it included the GOP effort to retain the Trump immigration restrictions. “Why wouldn’t I?” he said in a brief interview. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which initiated the move two years ago, said earlier this month that it would lift the ban next month. The restrictions, known as Title 42, have been harder to justify as pandemic restrictions have eased. Trump administration officials cast the curbs as a way to keep COVID-19 from spreading further in the U.S. Democrats considered that an excuse for Trump, whose anti-immigrant rhetoric was a hallmark of his presidency, to keep migrants from entering the country. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who faces a competitive reelection this fall, declined to say Tuesday whether she would support retaining the Trump-era ban, saying she wanted to see its language. But she said the Biden administration needs to do more. “I’ve been very clear with the administration. I need a plan; we need a plan,” she said in a brief interview. “There’s going to be a surge at the border. There should be a plan, and I’ve been calling for it all along.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Under pressure to ease up, Joe Biden weighs new virus response
Facing growing pressure to ease up on pandemic restrictions, the White House insisted Wednesday it is making plans for a less-disruptive phase of the national virus response. But impatient states, including Democratic New York, made clear they aren’t waiting for Washington as public frustration grows. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that New York will end its COVID-19 mandate requiring face coverings in most indoor public settings — but will keep it for schools. Illinois announced the same. Earlier this week, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware all disclosed plans to join states that have lifted or never had mask requirements for their schools, and Massachusetts will follow suit at the end of the month. All but Massachusetts have governors who are Democrats, like President Joe Biden. Biden, who has long promised to follow to “follow the science” in confronting the pandemic, is hemmed in, waiting for fresh guidance from federal health officials, who so far still recommend that nearly all Americans wear masks in most indoor settings. Defending Biden, press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged that while people are tired of masks and “we understand where the emotions of the country are,” the administration is following the advice of medical experts who rely on scientific evidence. “That doesn’t move at the speed of politics; it moves at the speed of data,” she said. Clearly feeling the pressure, the White House, for the first time, acknowledged movement in its planning, saying conversations have been underway privately to develop plans for guiding the country away from the emergency phase of the pandemic. Federal COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said officials are consulting with state and local leaders and public health officials on potential next steps. But as governors and local officials press for clearer federal guidelines for easing or ending restrictions, states, cities, and school boards are adopting an awkward patchwork of policies that differ widely from one place to the next. “We are working on that guidance,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a White House teleconference Wednesday. “As we’ve been encouraged by the current trends, we are not there yet.” The White House offered no timetable for the review or an indication of what it will recommend. And some critics say that’s not good enough. “The tragic thing is that these are governors that would probably have followed the White House’s guidance,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner. “They wanted CDC input and asked for it, but without a clear timeline, at some point, they had to decide that they couldn’t wait any more. The fault is not theirs, but the CDC’s and by extension, President Biden’s, which, with each passing day, is making itself less and less relevant.” Asked whether Biden appears to be out of touch with the country, Psaki defended his caution. “As a federal government, we have the responsibility to rely on data on science, on the medical experts,” she said. Pressed on whether Americans should follow less-restrictive state or local rules or the stricter federal guidance, she repeated the White House’s daily counsel: “We would advise any American to follow the CDC guidelines.” New York’s Hochul and others aren’t waiting. They are ending or easing many broad mandates, though her state will keep masking rules in schools and health facilities. “Given the declining cases, given the declining hospitalizations, that is why we feel comfortable to lift this, in effect tomorrow,” Hochul said Wednesday. Even allies of the administration have argued that Biden should at least lay out a roadmap for moving back toward normalcy. He has been hesitant, aides say, in part because of the sting of his fleeting “declaration of independence” from the virus last summer, which proved premature in the face of the delta and then omicron strains. Now, though, cases and hospitalizations from COVID-19 have dropped markedly since they peaked earlier this year amid the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant, and the vast majority of Americans are protected against the virus by effective vaccines and boosters. Still, more than 2,000 people infected with the virus die in the U.S. each day, and there is concern within the administration about letting up while deaths remain high. And Psaki noted that many Americans support continued mask-wearing. Some in the White House point to the consternation that was voiced in December after the CDC shortened the isolation time for Americans who test positive. While Biden and other administration officials emphasize that the threat from the virus is far diminished from a year ago, before the wide roll-out of vaccines and booster shots and the approval of rapid at-home tests and highly effective therapeutics, administration officials acknowledge that most federal guidelines have been slow to keep up. The CDC continues to recommend indoor mask-wearing in places of “substantial or high transmission” of the virus, which as of Wednesday was all of the U.S. but 14 rural counties. State and local leaders, nevertheless, have announced plans to ease virus restrictions in the coming weeks as omicron cases fall, citing the protections offered by vaccines as well as the increased availability of at-home testing kits and therapeutics for those who do catch the virus. Many of the restrictions eased last year, only to be reinstated as omicron swept the country. After more than a year of a top-down federally driven response, the emerging shift marks a return to the historical norm, where states have typically had the first say in how they handle public health emergencies. The CDC can advise them and issue general guidance for the nation, but in most situations, it cannot order them what to do. While the Biden administration has pushed back strongly against efforts by GOP governors to prohibit mask-wearing requirements, it is indicating that it will take a more flexible approach to jurisdictions that make their own choices. Policies lifting mask requirements “are going to have to be made at the local level” depending on case rates, Walensky said. Despite the encouraging reports in the Americas, Western Europe, and some
White House: 10% of kids have been vaccinated in 1st two weeks
The White House says about 10% of eligible kids aged 5 to 11 have received a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine since its approval for their age group two weeks ago. At least 2.6 million kids have received a shot, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday, with 1.7 million doses administered in the last week alone, roughly double the pace of the first week after approval. It’s more than three times faster than the rate adults were vaccinated at the start of the nation’s vaccination campaign 11 months ago. Zients said there are now 30,000 locations across for kids to get a shot, up from 20,000 last week, and that the administration expects the pace of pediatric shots to pick up in the coming days. Kids who get their first vaccine dose by the end of this week will be fully vaccinated by Christmas, assuming they get their second shot three weeks after the first one. State-by-state breakdowns of doses given to the age group haven’t been released by the White House or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but figures shared by states show the pace varies. About 11-12% of children in that age group have received their first doses in Colorado, Utah, and Illinois, but the pace is much slower in places like Idaho (5%), Tennessee (5%), and Wyoming (4%), three states that have some of the lowest rates of vaccination for older groups. The White House was stepping up its efforts to promote kid vaccination, with first lady Jill Biden and the singer Ciara taping a video Wednesday encouraging shots for kids. The first lady also visited a Washington pediatric care facility along with Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, the Washington Mystics’ Alysha Clark, and the Washington Wizards’ Thomas Bryant. “You’re the real heroes,” Biden told newly vaccinated kids. “You have your superpower, and now you’re protected against COVID.” Biden also warned parents against misinformation around the vaccines and emphasized their safety. “I want you to remember and share with other parents: The vaccine protects your children against COVID-19,” she said. “It’s been thoroughly reviewed and rigorously tested. It’s safe. It’s free, and it’s available for every single child in this country five and up.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Jim Zeigler: Joe Biden may ease off vaccine mandate, but citizens should keep pressure on
The Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccination deadline will not require immediate action on the part of employers against unvaccinated employees when it comes into force on Dec. 8, the White House coronavirus response coordinator said on Wednesday. Jeff Zients said he expects federal agencies and contractors “will follow their standard HR processes and that for any of the probably relatively small percent of employees that are not in compliance they’ll go through education, counseling, accommodations, and then enforcement.” Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler is warning citizens to “keep the pressure on Gov. Kay Ivey and the Alabama legislature to ban the mandate in Alabama.” Ivey called the legislature into special session but ignored requests to include legislation to ban the mandate in Alabama in the call for the session. Her call included only redistricting and appropriation of federal COVID funds. For a vaccine mandate ban or any legislation not in the call, passage requires a 2/3s majority of both houses. Ivey also issued an executive order about the mandate, but it protected only workers in the executive branch of state government, including Ivey’s employees. Zeigler says that tens of thousands of Alabama employees could lose their jobs on account of the vaccine mandate. He urged citizens to continue to push Ivey and the legislature for a clear ban on the mandate. “No one should be threatened with losing their job if they make a personal decision about their own healthcare. This mandate is now putting thousands of Alabama workers at risk for their livelihood, retirement benefits, and insurance,” Zeigler said at a rally against the mandate Thursday at the Alabama Statehouse. “Gov. Ivey needs to quickly look at what is being done by Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas. She needs to simply ban vaccine mandates in Alabama. If the Feds take Alabama to court, we can fight it there while our workers remain on the job.”
White House details plan to vaccinate 28 million children age 5-11
Children ages 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician’s office, local pharmacy, and potentially even their school, the White House said Wednesday as it detailed plans for the expected authorization of the Pfizer shot for elementary school youngsters in a matter of weeks. Federal regulators will meet over the next two weeks to weigh the safety and effectiveness of giving low-dose shots to the roughly 28 million children in that age group. Within hours of formal approval, which is expected after the Food and Drug Administration signs off and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel meets on Nov. 2-3, millions of doses will begin going out to providers across the country, along with the smaller needles needed for injecting young children. Within days of that, the vaccine will be ready to go into arms on a wide scale. “We’re completing the operational planning to ensure vaccinations for kids ages 5 to 11 are available, easy and convenient,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said. “We’re going to be ready, pending the FDA and CDC decision.” The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses three weeks apart and a two-week wait for full protection to kick in, meaning the first youngsters in line will be fully covered by Christmas. Some parents can hardly wait. Dr. Sterling Ransone said his rural Deltaville, Virginia, office is already getting calls from people asking for appointments for their children and saying, “I want my shot now.” “Judging by the number of calls, I think we’re going to be slammed for the first several weeks,” said Ransone, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Justin Shady, a film and TV writer in Chicago, said his 6-year-old daughter, Grey, got nervous when he told her she would be getting the shots soon. But he is bribing her with a trip to Disney World, and “she’s all in.” The family likes to travel, “we really just want to get back in the swing of seeing the world,” Shady said. As for youngsters under 5, Pfizer and Moderna are studying their vaccines in children down to 6 months old, with results expected later in the year. The Biden administration noted that the expansion of shots to children under 12 will not look like the start of the country’s vaccine rollout ten months ago when limited doses and inadequate capacity meant a painstaking wait for many Americans. The country now has ample supplies of the Pfizer shot to vaccinate the children who will soon be eligible, officials said, and they have been working for months to ensure widespread availability of shots. About 15 million doses will be shipped to providers across the U.S. in the first week after approval, the White House said. More than 25,000 pediatricians and primary care providers have already signed on to dispense the vaccine to elementary school children, the White House said, in addition to the tens of thousands of drugstores that are already administering shots to adults. Hundreds of school- and community-based clinics will also be funded and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help speed the process. In addition to doctors’ offices, schools are likely to be popular spots for the shots. In Maryland, state officials have offered to help schools set up vaccination clinics. Denver’s public schools plan to hold mass vaccination events for young children, along with smaller clinics offering shots during the school day and in the evenings. Chicago’s public health department is working closely with schools, which have already been hosting vaccination events for students age 12 and older and their families. The White House is also preparing a stepped-up campaign to educate parents and children about the safety of the shots and the ease of getting them. As has been the case for adult vaccinations, the administration believes trusted messengers — educators, doctors, and community leaders — will be vital to encouraging vaccinations. Dr. Lisa Reed, medical director for family medicine at MAHEC, a western North Carolina safety net provider that serves patients from rural Appalachia and more urban communities such as the tourist town of Asheville, said it is going to take effort to get some families on board. Reed said she lives “in a community that has a lot of vaccine hesitancy, unfortunately.” “Some have lower health literacy or belong to ethnic groups that are more hesitant in general” because of a history of mistrust, she said. And Asheville, she said, has a sizeable population of well-educated adults who are longtime vaccine skeptics. While children run a lower risk than older people of getting seriously ill from COVID-19, at least 637 people age 18 or under have died from the virus in the U.S., according to the CDC. Six million U.S. children have been infected, 1 million of them since early September amid the spread of the more contagious delta variant, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. Health officials believe that expanding the vaccine drive will not only curb the alarming number of infections in children but also reduce the spread of the virus to vulnerable adults. It could also help schools stay open, and youngsters get back on track academically, and contribute to the nation’s broader recovery from the pandemic. “COVID has also disrupted our kids’ lives. It’s made school harder, it’s disrupted their ability to see friends and family, it’s made youth sports more challenging,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told NBC. “Getting our kids vaccinated, we have the prospect of protecting them, but also getting all of those activities back that are so important to our children.” Murthy said the administration, which is imposing vaccine mandates for millions of adults, is leaving it up to state and local officials to decide whether to require schoolchildren to get vaccinated. But he said such measures would be “a reasonable thing to consider.” “It’s also consistent with what we’ve done for other childhood vaccines, like measles, mumps, polio,” he said. The U.S. has
States that had a grip on COVID now seeing a crush of cases
The COVID-19 surge that is sending hospitalizations to all-time highs in parts of the South is also clobbering states like Hawaii and Oregon that were once seen as pandemic success stories. After months in which they kept cases and hospitalizations at manageable levels, they are watching progress slip away as record numbers of patients overwhelm bone-tired health care workers. Oregon — like Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana in recent days — has more people in the hospital with COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic. Hawaii is about to reach that mark, too. This, despite both states having vaccination levels higher than the national average as of last week. Arkansas and Louisiana were significantly below average, while Florida was about even. Mississippi, meanwhile, ranks at the very bottom for vaccination rates. “It’s heartbreaking. People are exhausted. You can see it in their eyes,” said Dr. Jason Kuhl, chief medical officer at Oregon’s Providence Medford Medical Center, where patients are left on gurneys in hallways, their monitoring machines beeping away. Others needing treatment for cancer or heart disease are being turned away. In other developments, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize a third COVID-19 shot for certain people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients, to give them an extra dose of protection. The U.S. is seeing the virus storming back, driven by a combination of the highly contagious delta variant and lagging vaccination rates, especially in the South and other rural and conservative parts of the country. New cases nationwide are averaging about 123,000 per day, a level last seen in early February, and deaths are running at over 500 a day, turning the clock back to May. For the most part, during the pandemic, Hawaii enjoyed one of the lowest infection and death rates in the nation. In recent days, though, it reported record highs of more than 600 new virus cases daily. On its worst day in 2020, Hawaii had 291 patients hospitalized with the coronavirus. Officials expect to hit 300 by the end of this week. Despite the promising demand for COVID-19 shots early on, it took three weeks — much longer than expected — to get from 50% to 60% of the vaccine-eligible population fully vaccinated. Vaccinations have since plateaued. Nationally, the rate is about 59%. The biggest hospital on Hawaii’s Big Island is feeling the pressure. Out of 128 acute beds, 116 were taken Wednesday at Hilo Medical Center, and the hospital’s 11 intensive care unit beds are almost always full these days, spokeswoman Elena Cabatu said. “If someone out there has a heart attack or a sepsis or gets into a bad accident that requires intensive care, we will have to hold that person in the emergency department,” Cabatu said. “I’m surprised we landed here,” she lamented. “The hope during the mass vax clinics was just so high.” Hilton Raethel, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, disputed any notion that the rebound in tourism in Hawaii is largely to blame. “The tourists have been a source for infection, but they’ve never been the predominant source of infection,” Raethel said. “There’s a lot more concern about people from Hawaii, residents who go to the South, go to Vegas, to other places, and they come back and spread it.” In Oregon, a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations — 670 — was reported for a third straight day Thursday. ICU beds across the state remain about 90% full, with COVID-19 patients occupying 177 of them, the Oregon Health Authority said. The previous peak of 622 hospitalizations came during a November surge. “Our doctors and nurses are exhausted and rightfully frustrated because this crisis is avoidable. It is like watching a train wreck coming and knowing that there’s an opportunity to switch tracks, yet we feel helpless while we watch unnecessary loss of life,” said David Zonies, associate chief medical officer at Portland’s Oregon Health & Science University. Public health officials in the southern part of the state said they fear the situation will only get worse as the delta variant spreads through a region where fewer than half the residents have been fully vaccinated. “I’m fearful that the darkest days of this pandemic may still be ahead of us,” said Chris Pizzi, CEO of Providence Medical Center in Medford. In a renewed effort to stop the spread, Gov. Kate Brown announced this week that nearly everyone will have to wear masks again in indoor public spaces, regardless of their vaccination status. Throughout the pandemic, health officials have described Oregon as a success story, largely because of its tight restrictions, which were lifted at the end of June. California, which is below the national vaccination rate, is also seeing alarming spikes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest county, faced 1,573 hospitalizations as of Wednesday — the highest since the end of February. The city of Los Angeles is working out a possible vaccine requirement to enter indoor spaces. Meanwhile, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said more people are getting vaccinated in states with the highest infection rates, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. “We’re getting more shots in the arms in the places that need them in the most. That’s what it’s going to take to end this pandemic,” he said. Mississippi broke its single-day records of COVID-19 hospitalizations, intensive-care use, and new coronavirus cases. The state Health Department said 1,490 people were hospitalized Wednesday, and 388 were in the ICU because of COVID-19. It also confirmed 4,412 new cases. The state health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said a majority of the cases are in the unvaccinated. In Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has steadfastly blocked mandatory mask-wearing, some emergency rooms are so overcrowded that doctors are sending patients home with oxygen and small, portable oxygen-monitoring devices to free up beds for sicker patients. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Vaccinations rise in some states with soaring infections
Vaccinations are beginning to rise in some states where COVID-19 cases are soaring, White House officials said Thursday in a sign that the summer surge is getting the attention of vaccine-hesitant Americans as hospitals in the South are being overrun with patients. Coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that several states with the highest proportions of new infections have seen residents get vaccinated at higher rates than the nation as a whole. Officials cited Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, and Nevada as examples. “The fourth surge is real, and the numbers are quite frightening at the moment,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said on a New Orleans radio show. Edwards, a Democrat, added: “There’s no doubt that we are going in the wrong direction, and we’re going there in a hurry.” Louisiana reported 2,843 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, a day after reporting 5,388 — the third-highest level since the pandemic began. Hospitalizations are up steeply in the last month, from 242 on June 19 to 913 in the latest report. Fifteen new deaths were reported Thursday. Just 36% of Louisiana’s population is fully vaccinated, state health department data shows. Nationally, 56.3% of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Aly Neel, a spokesperson for Louisiana’s health department, said the state has seen “a little bump” in vaccinations recently, adding that details would be available Friday. Warner Thomas, president and CEO of the Ochsner Health system serving Louisiana and Mississippi, said the system had seen a 10% to 15% increase in people seeking vaccination over the past week or two. It has administered vaccines at churches, the New Orleans airport, basketball games, and the mall. “We see each person we get vaccinated now as a victory,” said Dr. Katherine Baumgarten, director of infection prevention and control for the 40-hospital system, noting that it has been bringing in traveling nurses and that projections show its ICUs could fill up at the current rate of infection. Dr. Catherine O’Neal, chief medical officer and an infectious disease specialist at Our Lady of the Lake regional medical center, said Thursday that the most shocking aspect of the surge has been its speed. The caseload has roughly tripled in the course of a week, she said. On Sunday, the medical center stopped taking transfers of coronavirus patients from hospitals in other parts of the state because they simply did not have the capacity, she said. In Missouri, which is second only to Arkansas and Louisiana in the number of new cases per capita over the past 14 days, officials have rolled out a vaccine incentive program that includes $10,000 prizes for 900 lottery winners. The state lags about 10 percentage points behind the national average for people who have received at least one shot. Hospitals in the Springfield area are under strain, reaching pandemic high and near pandemic high numbers of patients. “Younger, relatively healthy, and unvaccinated. If this describes you, please consider vaccination,” tweeted Erik Frederick, chief administrative officer of Mercy Hospital Springfield, noting that half of the COVID-19 patients are ages 21 to 59, and just 2% of that group is vaccinated. The surge that began in the southwest part of the state, where some counties have vaccination rates in the teens, has started to spread to the Kansas City area, including at Research Medical Center. “I don’t want to keep putting my life on the line just because people don’t want to get vaccinated or listen to what health care professionals are recommending,” lamented Pascaline Muhindura, a registered nurse who has worked on the hospital’s COVID-19 unit for more than a year. “A lot of them don’t even believe in COVID-19 to begin with. It is incredibly frustrating. You are helping someone that doesn’t even believe that the illness that they have is real,” Muhindura said. Dr. Jason Wilson, an emergency physician with Tampa General Hospital, also has watched the rise in cases with frustration. Unlike earlier in the pandemic, when many patients were in their 70s, he has seen the median patient age fall to the mid-40s. “I spent a lot of time this fall and last summer saying, ’We’ve got to do these things, these social mitigation strategies until we get that vaccine. Just hang in there,” Wilson said. Hospitals initially were hopeful as cases declined. But then, he said, “Things just fell flat.” Conservative Utah reported Wednesday that almost 300 people were hospitalized due to the virus — the highest number in five months. Intensive care units reached 81.5% capacity. Health officials renewed their pleas for residents to get vaccinated. One of Arizona’s biggest hospital systems issued its own call for vaccinations, citing an increase in seriously ill COVID-19 patients in just a few weeks. Dr. Michael White of Valleywise Health said doctors were mostly treating people with moderate symptoms, but that began to change two weeks ago. Now patients arrive acutely ill. “This delta at the moment it is honing in on largely unvaccinated persons,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases in the health policy department at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. The variant, which originated in India, now accounts for an estimated 83% of coronavirus samples genetically identified in the U.S. It is the predominant strain in every region of the country and continues “spreading with incredible efficiency,” the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, told reporters at the White House. She said the mutation is more aggressive and much more transmissible, calling it “one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of.” “We are yet at another pivotal moment in this pandemic,” she warned. “We need to come together as one nation.” The CDC has not changed its guidance that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks. But in Georgia, Atlanta Public Schools announced Thursday that it will implement a “universal mask-wearing” policy in all of the system’s school buildings when fall classes begin. Just 18%
U.S. to swiftly boost global vaccine sharing, Joe Biden announces
President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will swiftly donate an initial allotment of 25 million doses of surplus vaccine overseas through the United Nations-backed COVAX program, promising infusions for South and Central America, Asia, Africa, and others at a time of glaring shortages abroad and more than ample supplies at home. The doses mark a substantial — and immediate — boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries. The announcement came just hours after World Health Organization officials in Africa made a new plea for vaccine sharing because of an alarming situation on the continent, where shipments have ground to “a near halt” while virus cases have spiked over the past two weeks. Overall, the White House has announced plans to share 80 million doses globally by the end of June, most through COVAX. Officials say a quarter of the nation’s excess will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners. Of the first 19 million donated through COVAX, approximately 6 million doses will go to South and Central America, 7 million to Asia, and 5 million to Africa. “As long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world, the American people will still be vulnerable,” Biden said in a statement. “And the United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home.” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. “will retain the say” on where doses distributed through COVAX ultimately go. But he also said: “We’re not seeking to extract concessions, we’re not extorting, we’re not imposing conditions the way that other countries who are providing doses are doing. … These are doses that are being given, donated free and clear to these countries, for the sole purpose of improving the public health situation and helping end the pandemic.” The remaining 6 million in the initial distribution of 25 million will be directed by the White House to U.S. allies and partners, including Mexico, Canada, South Korea, West Bank and Gaza, India, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as for United Nations frontline workers. The White House did not say when the doses would begin shipping overseas, but press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration hoped to send them “as quickly as we can logistically get those out the door.” Vice President Kamala Harris informed some U.S. partners they will begin receiving doses in separate calls with Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador, President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago. Harris is to visit Guatemala and Mexico in the coming week. The long-awaited vaccine sharing plan comes as demand for shots in the U.S. has dropped significantly — more than 63% of adults have received at least one dose — and as global inequities in supply have become more pronounced. Scores of countries have requested doses from the United States, but to date, only Mexico and Canada have received a combined 4.5 million doses. The U.S. also has announced plans to share enough shots with South Korea to vaccinate its 550,000 troops who serve alongside American service members on the peninsula. White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said that 1 million Johnson & Johnson doses were being shipped to South Korea Thursday. The U.S. has committed more than $4 billion to COVAX, but with vaccine supplies short — and wealthy nations locking up most of them — the greater need than funding has been immediate access to actual doses to overcome what health officials have long decried as unequal access to the vaccines. The U.S. action means “frontline workers and at-risk populations will receive potentially life-saving vaccinations” and bring the world “a step closer to ending the acute phase of the pandemic,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, which is leading the COVAX alliance. However, Tom Hart, the acting CEO of The ONE Campaign, said that while Thursday’s announcement was a “welcome step, the Biden administration needs to commit to sharing more doses. “The world is looking to the U.S. for global leadership, and more ambition is needed,” he said. Biden has committed to providing other nations with all 60 million U.S.-produced doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has yet to be authorized for use in America but is widely approved around the world. The AstraZeneca doses have been held up for export by a weeks-long safety review by the Food and Drug Administration, and without them, Biden will be hard-pressed to meet his sharing goal. The White House says the initial 25 million doses announced Thursday will be shipped from existing federal stockpiles of Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. More doses are expected to be made available to share in the months ahead. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that Harris had informed him before the White House announcement of the decision to send 1 million doses of the single jab Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “I expressed to her our appreciation in the name of the people of Mexico,” he wrote. Guatemala’s Giammattei said Harris told him the U.S. government would send his country 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. As part of its purchase agreements with drug manufacturers, the U.S. controlled the initial production by its domestic manufacturers. Pfizer and Moderna are only now starting to export vaccines produced in the U.S. to overseas customers. The U.S. has hundreds of millions more doses on order, both of authorized and in-development vaccines. The White House also announced that U.S. producers of vaccine materials and ingredients will no longer have to prioritize orders from three drugmakers working on COVID-19 shots that haven’t received U.S. approval — Sanofi, Novavax, and AstraZeneca — clearing the way for more materials to be shipped overseas to help production there. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Joe Biden makes all adults eligible for a vaccine on April 19
President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he’s bumping up his deadline by two weeks for states to make all adults in the U.S. eligible for coronavirus vaccines. But even as he expressed optimism about the pace of vaccinations, he warned Americans that the nation is not yet out of the woods when it comes to the pandemic. “Let me be deadly earnest with you: We aren’t at the finish line. We still have a lot of work to do. We’re still in a life and death race against this virus,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. The president warned that “new variants of the virus are spreading, and they’re moving quickly. Cases are going back up; hospitalizations are no longer declining.” He added that ”the pandemic remains dangerous” and encouraged Americans to continue to wash their hands, socially distance, and wear masks. Biden added that while his administration is on schedule to meet his new goal of distributing 200 million doses of the vaccine during his first 100 days, it will still take time for enough Americans to get vaccinated to slow the spread of the virus. But he expressed hope that his Tuesday announcement, that every adult will be eligible by April 19 to sign up and get in a virtual line to be vaccinated, will help expand access and distribution of the vaccine. Some states already had begun moving up their deadlines from the original May 1 goal. “No more confusing rules. No more confusing restrictions,” Biden said. Biden made the announcement after visiting a COVID-19 vaccination site at Immanuel Chapel at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. During his visit, he thanked everyone for administering the shots and for showing up to receive them. “That’s the way to beat this,” Biden said. “Get the vaccination when you can.” The president also said no one should fear mutations of the coronavirus that are showing up in the U.S. after being discovered in other countries. He acknowledged that the new strains are more virulent and more dangerous but said “the vaccines work on all of them.” Biden also announced that 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been shot into arms since his inauguration on Jan. 20. That puts the president well on track to meet his new goal of 200 million shots administered by his 100th day in office on April 30. Biden’s original goal had been 100 million shots by the end of his first 100 days, but that number was reached in March. Still, he acknowledged Tuesday that his administration fell short of its goal to deliver at least one shot to every teacher, school staff member, and childcare worker during the month of March to try to accelerate school reopenings. Biden announced the target early last month and directed federal resources toward achieving it, but said Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about 80% of teachers, school staff, and childcare workers had received a shot. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, also spent the day Tuesday focused on promoting the COVID-19 vaccine, each touring a vaccination center, Harris in Chicago and Emhoff in Yakima, Washington. Harris praised the workers and those receiving their vaccine at a site set up at a local union hall and spoke of spring as “a moment where we feel a sense of renewal.” “We can see a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. Some states are making plans to ease their health restrictions, even as the country is facing a potential new surge in virus cases. On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned that the country is in a “critical time” because “we could just as easily swing up into a surge.” “That would be a setback for public health, but that would be a psychological setback, too,” he said during an interview with the National Press Club. He noted that Americans are experiencing “COVID-19 fatigue” after more than a year of lockdowns and restrictions to public life aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. Biden and many of his advisers have warned against reopening the economy too quickly and easing mask mandates, at the risk of driving a fresh surge in virus cases. “We just don’t want to have to go back to really shutting things down. That would be terrible,” Fauci said. But Biden’s announcement of the April 19 deadline was aimed at injecting optimism into a public that’s grown weary of the restrictions, and it comes as a flood of vaccine is being sent to states this week. Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus coordinator, told governors Tuesday during a weekly conference call that more than 28 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be delivered to states this week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced at her daily briefing. That allocation brings the total amount of vaccine distributed over the past three weeks to more than 90 million doses, Psaki said. At least a dozen states opened eligibility to anyone 16 and older on Monday alone, while New Jersey and Oregon announced this week that all residents 16 and older will become eligible on April 19. The president had announced just last week that 90% of adults would be eligible for one of three approved COVID-19 vaccines by April 19, in addition to having a vaccination site within 5 miles of their home. But eligibility isn’t the same as actually being vaccinated. Being eligible means people can sign up to reserve their place in a virtual line until they can schedule an appointment. “That doesn’t mean they will get it that day,” Psaki said, speaking of a vaccine shot. “It means they can join the line that day if they have not already done that beforehand.” Seniors still waiting to be vaccinated should seek appointments quickly “because the lines are going to become longer” after April 19, Psaki said. “There are going to be more people waiting.” The White
Joe Biden vows enough vaccine for all US adults by end of May
President Joe Biden said Tuesday the U.S. expects to take delivery of enough coronavirus vaccine for all adults by the end of May — two months earlier than anticipated — and he pushed states to get at least one shot into the arms of teachers by the end of May to hasten school reopenings. Biden also announced that drugmaker Merck will help produce rival Johnson & Johnson’s newly approved one-shot vaccine, likening the partnership between the two drug companies to the spirit of national cooperation during World War II. “We’re now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May,” Biden said. Despite the stepped-up pace of vaccine production, the work of inoculating Americans could extend well into the summer, officials said, depending both on the government’s capacity to deliver doses and Americans’ willingness to roll up their sleeves. Biden’s announcements quickly raised expectations for when the nation could safely emerge from the pandemic with the promise of speedier vaccinations, but even as he expressed optimism, Biden quickly tempered the outlook for a return to life as it was before the virus hit. “I’ve been cautioned not to give an answer to that because we don’t know for sure,” Biden said, before saying his hope for a return to normal was sometime before “this time next year.” As Biden spoke, states across the country were moving to relax virus-related restrictions. This despite the objections of the White House and the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who have warned against any relaxation of virus protocols until more Americans are vaccinated. In Texas, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott moved to lift his state’s mask-wearing mandate and a host of other limitations. Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer eased capacity limits on restaurants and both public and residential gatherings. Fauci has previously said the nation must achieve a vaccination rate of about 80% to reach “herd immunity.” Only about 8% of the population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though the pace of vaccination has been increasing. The U.S. set a new daily record for injections last Thursday and Friday. In hopes of increasing vaccinations even further. the Biden administration told governors to make preparations to administer even more doses in the coming weeks. More shots are also headed toward the federally backed program to administer doses in retail pharmacies, which federal officials believe can double or triple their pace of vaccination. More than 800,000 doses of the J&J vaccine will also be distributed this week to pharmacies, on top of the 2.4 million they are now getting from Pfizer and Moderna. Those pharmacies will be key in getting the vaccines into the arms of teachers — particularly in the roughly 20 states where they have not been prioritized for shots. The aim is to help reopen schools to better educate students who have been at risk of falling behind during the pandemic and reduce the burden on parents who have had to choose between childcare and a job. “Let’s treat in-person learning as the essential service that it is,” Biden said. Teachers will be able to sign up directly through participating retail pharmacies, the administration said. White House press secretary Jen Psaki also announced Tuesday that the federal government was increasing supply of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to states next week to 15.2 million doses per week, up from 14.5 million previously. States will also receive 2.8 million doses of the J&J shot this week. On a call with governors Tuesday, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said states should prepare to administer 16 million to 17 million total weekly doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines by the end of March, climbing to 17 million to 18 million weekly by early April. The supply of J&J doses to states, expected to dip after the initial shipment this week, will climb to 4 million to 6 million weekly doses by the end of March and 5 million to 6 million doses weekly through the end of April. Officials have said J&J faced unexpected production issues with its vaccine and produced only 3.9 million doses before being cleared for emergency use authorization on Saturday. The company has promised to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June. Before the approval of the J&J shot, Biden had suggested that it would take until the end of July to have enough vaccine for every adult in the U.S. Facing questions about the company’s slipping delivery schedule, J&J Vice President Richard Nettles told lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week that the company had faced “significant challenges” because of its “highly complex” manufacturing process. Psaki said that an “across-the-administration effort” was required to get the two historic rivals to work together on the vaccines, even though conversations between J&J and Merck have been going on for months. “There’s a difference between conversations and it moving forward,” she said. The White House said Merck would devote two plants to the production process. One would make the vaccine and the other would handle inserting the vaccine into vials and ensuring strict quality controls. Psaki said the Biden administration was using its powers under the Defense Production Act to help Merck retool to work on the production. Still, it was not immediately clear when the effect of Merck’s assistance would be reflected in supply. Federal officials have cautioned that setting up the highly specialized manufacturing lines to produce vaccines would take months. Compared to the two-dose versions produced by Moderna and Pfizer, the J&J vaccine is less resource-intensive to distribute and administer, making it critical for U.S. plans to spread vaccinations around the world — but only once Americans are inoculated. The J&J vaccine can be stored for months at refrigerated temperatures, rather than frozen, and doesn’t require patients to return for a second dose three or four weeks later. J&J has set up a global production network that includes brewing bulk
States easing virus restrictions despite experts’ warnings
With the U.S. vaccination drive picking up speed and a third formula on the way, states eager to reopen for business are easing coronavirus restrictions despite warnings from health experts that the outbreak is far from over and that moving too quickly could prolong the misery. Massachusetts on Monday made it much easier to grab dinner and a show. In Missouri, where individual communities get to make the rules, the two biggest metropolitan areas — St. Louis and Kansas City — are relaxing some measures. Iowa’s governor recently lifted mask requirements and limits on the number of people allowed in bars and restaurants, while the town of Lawrence, home to the University of Kansas, now lets establishments stay open until midnight. Mike Lee, who owns Trezo Mare Restaurant & Lounge in Kansas City, said he hopes increased vaccine access, combined with warmer weather, will improve business. “I think that people are excited to put this past them and be able to start to get back to their ways of doing things,” Lee said. The push to reopen comes as COVID-19 vaccine shipments to the states are ramping up. Nearly 20% of the nation’s adults — or over 50 million people — have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 10% have been fully inoculated 2 1/2 months into the campaign to snuff out the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Johnson & Johnson shipped out nearly 4 million doses of its newly authorized, one-shot COVID-19 vaccine Sunday night to be delivered to states for use starting on Tuesday. The company will deliver about 16 million more doses by the end of March and a total of 100 million by the end of June. That adds to the supply being distributed by Pfizer and Moderna and should help the nation amass enough doses by midsummer to vaccinate all adults. The White House is encouraging Americans to take the first dose available to them, regardless of manufacturer. In New York City, where limited indoor dining has resumed, officials said the J&J vaccine will help the city to inoculate millions more people by summer, including through door-to-door vaccinations of homebound senior citizens. But the efforts come with strong warnings from health officials against reopening too quickly, as worrisome coronavirus variants spread. On Monday, the head of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, urgently warned state officials and ordinary Americans not to let down their guard, saying she is “really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures that we have recommended.” “I remain deeply concerned about a potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic,” she said. “We stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground that we have gained.” Cases and hospitalizations have plunged since the end of January, and deaths have also dropped sharply, but they are still running at dangerously high levels and have even risen slightly over the past several days. “We cannot be resigned to 70,000 cases a day and 2,000 daily deaths,” Walensky said. Overall, the outbreak has killed more than a half-million Americans. The vaccine already is contributing to a decrease in severe cases and deaths among older people, and is “quickly becoming a bigger contributor” nationally, Justin Lessler, an expert in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University, said in an email. “I suspect we will see it overtake natural infection as the biggest driver of immunity late spring earliest, more likely midsummer,” Lessler said. Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, said he believes states and cities have leeway to ease some restrictions because hospitals no longer are at capacity in most communities. But “I do think that masks are likely going to need to be kept in place for some time until we get more of our vulnerable populations vaccinated,” he said. “It is important for restaurants who are increasing their capacity to remember that we are still in a pandemic and to continue to follow some of those rules,” Adalja said. The Biden administration wants to see all three vaccines distributed evenly, while also acknowledging that the easy-to-handle J&J vaccine will be used in pop-up mobile sites and locations without freezer storage capacity. States are hoping that the surging vaccine supply will help tamp down new infections. In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker lifted restaurant capacity limits entirely. Theaters can open at 50% capacity, with a maximum of 500 people. And capacity limits across all businesses have been raised to 50%. Las Vegas on Monday became the latest of the nation’s largest school districts to return children to classrooms. Pre-K children to third graders will go back two days a week, with other grades to be phased in by early April. And in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders reached an agreement aimed at getting most children back in classrooms by the end of March. Under the deal announced Monday, school districts could receive up to $6.6 billion if they reopen by March 31. The U.S. ranks fourth in the world, behind Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Britain, in the number of doses administered relative to the population, according to data compiled by the University of Oxford. President Joe Biden fell well short of his goal of setting up 100 new federally operated mass-vaccination sites by the end of February, with just seven up and running. White House vaccination coordinator Jeff Zients also acknowledged that scheduling of vaccination appointments “remains too difficult in too many places.” But he said the White House is working with states to improve scheduling systems and is exploring federal support for call centers to make it easier for people to get appointments. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Beyond 100M: Joe Biden team aiming for bigger vaccine numbers
It sounded so ambitious at first blush: 100 million vaccination shots in 100 days. Now, one month into his presidency, Joe Biden is on a glide path to attain that goal and pitching well beyond it to the far more ambitious and daunting mission of vaccinating all eligible adults against the coronavirus by the end of the summer. Limited supply of the two approved COVID-19 vaccines has hampered the pace of vaccinations — and that was before extreme winter weather delayed the delivery of about 6 million doses this past week. But the United States is on the verge of a supply breakthrough as manufacturing ramps up and with the expectation of a third vaccine becoming available in the coming weeks. That means the act of delivering injections will soon be the dominant constraint, and it’s prompting the Biden administration to push to dramatically expand the universe of those who will deliver injections and where Americans will meet them to get their shots. “It’s one thing to have the vaccine, and it’s very different to get it in someone’s arms,” Biden said Friday as he toured Pfizer’s manufacturing plant in Portage, Michigan. The company is set to double its pace of vaccine deliveries in the coming weeks. Since their approval in December, more than 75 million doses of the two-shot-regimen Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been distributed, of which 63 million have been injected, reaching 13% of Americans. Nearly 45 million of those doses have been administered since Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. The pace of deliveries of those vaccines is about to take off. About 145 million doses are set for delivery in the next 5 1/2 weeks, with an additional 200 million expected by the end of May and a further 200 million by the end of July. That’s before the anticipated approval by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use of a third vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson. The single-dose J&J vaccine is expected to help speed the path to immunity and requires half the vaccination resources of the two-shot regimens. But there is no massive stockpile of J&J doses ready to roll out on Day One. “We’re going to be starting with only a few million in inventory,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said this past week. Still, when combined with the anticipated increases in the other vaccines, the J&J doses could prove the pivotal advance in delivering enough shots for nearly all American adults by the end of June, at least a month earlier than currently anticipated. The daily inoculation average climbed to 1.7 million shots per day last week, but as many as double that number of doses are soon expected to be available on average each day. The focus of Biden’s team is now quickly shifting to ensuring those doses can get used, though the administration has resisted the calls of some health experts to publicly set a “moonshot” target for how many daily doses it hopes to deliver. Biden first set his target of 100 million doses in 100 days on Dec. 8, days before the first vaccines received emergency use authorization. By Inauguration Day, it was clear the U.S. was on course to attain that goal. Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, said she would like to see the administration commit to a more ambitious 3 million shot-per-day target. “I want to see them put that stake in the ground and ask everyone to help them achieve that goal,” she said. The current pace of vaccination dipped markedly in recent days as winter weather shuttered administration sites in Texas and across the South, and icy conditions stranded supplies at shipping hubs in Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee. One-third of the delayed doses have already been delivered, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, announced Sunday. The White House anticipates that remaining delayed doses will be injected by March 1 and that the daily pace of vaccinations will continue to climb. Much of the increase, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, comes from people receiving their second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. The pace of first-dose vaccinations, meanwhile, has been largely steady over the past several weeks, hovering around an average of 900,000 shots per day. Increasing both the rate of first-dose administrations and the rate of overall vaccinations will be key to achieving herd immunity — estimated to require vaccination of about 80% of the population — in hopes of ending the pandemic and curtailing the emergence of potentially even more dangerous “mutant” strains of the coronavirus. That means keeping demand high. The administration has expressed concerns about public surveys showing that tens of millions of Americans are reluctant to get the vaccine and it is stepping up public outreach to overcome that hesitancy as the U.S. death toll nears 500,000 — “a terribly historic milestone in the history of this country,” as Fauci put it, and “we’re still not out of it.” Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, the White House COVID-19 data director, said in an interview that the administration is “focused on going out to communities and making sure people know these vaccines are safe and how they can get them, with a goal of vaccinating nearly all Americans,.” The administration has also turned its focus toward identifying new delivery paths for the vaccines beyond those already used by states, including federally-run mass vaccination sites, smaller community health centers and retail pharmacies. The White House’s goal is to stand up the sites now so that they will be ready to handle the influx of vaccine in the coming weeks. “They can push a lot more volume through those channels, through those big box stores, through the community health centers,” Scott Gottlieb, a former Trump administration FDA commissioner, told MSNBC on Friday. He praised the Biden administration for setting up those sites in advance. The Pentagon, at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has started deploying thousands of active-duty troops to open mass vaccination centers
