More Black And Latinx Americans Are Embracing COVID-19 Vaccination

Mar 26 2021

When COVID-19 vaccines began arriving in Memphis, Tenn., late last year, some Black residents had questions. Did the vaccines cause infertility? Did they alter a person's DNA? They don't. And local community leaders worked hard to counter these and other vaccine myths as they came up in public forums around town or appeared online. Even so, Dr. Pat Flynn, an infectious disease specialist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, was worried that early public vaccination events might be dominated by white people in a town where most residents are Black.

Source: NPR

100 days of doses: How the vaccine rollout overcame chaos to be a point of pride

Mar 26 2021

One hundred days after the United States started administering Covid-19 shots, it is in a somewhat surprising place: The vaccination effort is, by most accounts, going well. Many caveats apply. It’s early still, with two-thirds of adults not yet having received a single dose. The distribution has been uneven, including along racial lines. And coronavirus variants threaten to cause fresh outbreaks even as more states and counties move toward relaxing restrictions.

Source: NBC

These ‘vaccine hunters’ are chasing down appointments for people who need them most

Mar 26 2021

As the United States ramps up COVID-19 vaccine production during the largest vaccination campaign in American history, millions of people are still struggling to get vaccine appointments even if they qualify. So far, nearly 84 million U.S. adults have gotten at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Joe Biden said there will be enough vaccine doses for every U.S. adult by May 1, but getting people immunized takes more than manufacturing vials of vaccine.

Source: PBS

Pfizer Begins Testing Its Vaccine in Young Children

Mar 26 2021

Pfizer has begun testing its Covid-19 vaccine in children under 12, a significant step in turning back the pandemic. The trial’s first participants, a pair of 9-year-old twin girls, were immunized at Duke University in North Carolina on Wednesday. Results from the trial are expected in the second half of the year, and the company hopes to vaccinate younger children early next year, said Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for the pharmaceutical company.

Source: NYT

Nearly a dozen countries resume AstraZeneca Covid shots after safety rulings from regulators

Mar 26 2021

Nearly a dozen countries resumed use of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 shots on Friday as European Union and British regulators said the benefits outweighed any risks after reports of rare instances of blood clotting that temporarily halted inoculations. The end of suspensions will kick off a test of public confidence, both in the shot and in drug regulators whose conclusions are under unprecedented scrutiny, as virus variants spread and the global death toll, now at nearly 2.7 million, rises.

Source: NBC

More than 4 in 10 health-care workers have not been vaccinated, Post-KFF poll finds

Mar 25 2021

Roy Lakes wasn’t planning to get a coronavirus shot until he overheard a Zumba instructor urging her attendees to sign up. “You owe it to your kids, to your grandkids, to stay around,” the instructor kept saying. Those words changed his mind. The 46-year-old from Anaheim, Calif., who has worked as a mental health counselor, has now set up an appointment with his doctor to discuss getting vaccinated.

Source: WP

200 million vaccines in 100 days is the new goal, Biden says, though the U.S. is already on track to meet that.

Mar 25 2021

President Biden, who said when he was inaugurated that he would have “100 million shots in the arms” of Americans by his 100th day in office, announced Thursday at his news conference that he is doubling that goal. The moving target is in keeping with the president’s pattern: aim low, and when it is clear the initial target will be exceeded, adjust upward to another attainable goal.

Source: NYT

Defense Production Act Speeds Up Vaccine Production

Mar 19 2021

In the run-up to President Biden's promise on March 2 that there would be enough COVID-19 vaccines for every adult in the United States by the end of May, he talked up a Korean War era law called the Defense Production Act. Biden mentioned it in his first presidential remarks about the pandemic fight from the White House State Dining Room on Jan. 26. He brought it up again during a Feb. 19 trip to a Pfizer vaccine factory in Kalamazoo, Mich., while he stood in front of gleaming stainless steel production equipment. He brought the law up on Feb. 25 after watching a Washington, D.C., resident get vaccinated in front of cameras at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for an event to celebrate the 50-millionth shot. Less than two hours later, he talked about the law in the National Governors Association's winter meeting.

Source: NPR

One year into COVID-19 in the U.S.: vaccine rollout, hesitancy, and supply

Mar 19 2021

One year after the first COVID-19 shutdowns began in the U.S., over 500,000 people have died from the disease, businesses have opened and closed, and several vaccines have emerged. President Biden has set a May 1 deadline for universal vaccine access; currently, over 10 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Caroline Chen of ProPublica has been reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic since its earliest days. She joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the latest.

Source: PBS

Global March 20 Anti-Vaccine Protests Promoted by QAnon-Linked Groups

Mar 19 2021

Anumber of anti-vaccine protests have been planned all across the world this Thursday which appear to be heavily linked to the QAnon movement in all but name. The "World Wide Rally for Freedom and Democracy" events on March 20 are being widely promoted online, with rallies against coronavirus restrictions and the "tyranny" of the vaccine implementation taking place in countries such as the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and Germany.

Source: Newsweek