Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Experts are thrilled about the reported safety and effectiveness of two COVID-19 vaccines rolling out across the country.But they remain concerned about what still could go wrong to shake the public's fragile faith in it.

Nearly everything about the process has gone well so far, shepherded by the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed.

Thefirst two vaccines, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and the other from Moderna,were ready well before anyone expected. Trials showed them tobe among the most effective vaccines ever, particularly for a notoriously hard-to-prevent respiratory virus.

And the initial days of the rollout, while far from perfect, have already led to 1million vaccinations in the U.S., mostly among front-line health care workers.

Federal officials expect 20 million doses to be manufactured and available for shipping by early January, an additional30 million doses by the end of that month, and 50 million more by the end of February.

Vaccinesshould becomeavailable for the general public as soon as late February or early March, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

In interviews with USA TODAYover the past several days, a dozen vaccine experts were more guarded. Most believe vaccines won't become widely available until late spring or early summer, assuming no production problemsand the authorization of two additional vaccines by sometime in February.

The federal government should underpromise and overdeliver, advised panel member Dr.Kelly Moore,associate director of immunization education at theImmunization Action Coalition, a nonprofit thatdistributes information about vaccines and the diseases they prevent.

"Projecting concrete dates that we cannot know risks setting the public up for needless frustration and disappointment," she said.

The panel members'concernsmainly revolvearound what will happen before vaccines are widely available.

They worrythe public could lose faith in the vaccinebecause of more allergic reactions like those already seen a few times or some other symptom whether it's actually linked to the vaccine or not.

And they're concerned about potentialglitches in distribution or any of the thousands of other things that could go awry with such a complex scientific, logistical and political process.

"Areas of particular concern," Moore said, "include unpredictable supply issues, storage and handling failures resulting in vaccine waste, and all sorts of data management and data sharing challenges resulting from the use of several new IT systems."

Every month, members ofUSA TODAY'sexpert panelgauge theprogress of COVID-19 vaccines by choosingthe time on an imaginary clock that beganat midnight with the discovery of the virus in early 2020and ends at noon,when a vaccine is freely available across the U.S. Each month, we calculate the median time the midpoint of their estimates.

In June, that was 4 a.m. By October, the sun had risen and their consensus fell at8 a.m. The time for Novembershot ahead to 9:30 a.m. the biggest advance in a month to that point. For December, the panel returned to its steady pace and advanced the clock one hour to 10:30 a.m.

Overall, panelists said they'reimpressed with the development and manufacturing of the first two authorizedvaccines.

"Manufacturing has been managed remarkably well," saidPrashant Yadav, a medical supply chain expert andsenior fellow with theCenter for Global Development, an international development think tankbased in Washington, D.C., and London.

Typicallywith a fast scale-up, "we usually have more hiccups," Yadav said.

Concerns have turned out to be overblown aboutmaintaining the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the necessarysupercold temperature, saidPrakash Nagarkatti, vice president for research at the University of South CarolinainColumbia.

Several panel members said they were pleasantly surprised bothvaccines appearsafe with no major, long-term problems and aremore than 94% effective.

"I was worried that the vaccine(s) would not be this effective but was thrilled with the results," said Dr.Monica Gandhi,an infectious disease researcherat the University of California, San Francisco.

"This is amazing and very impressive," said Pamela Bjorkman, astructural biologist at the California Institute of Technology. "I was worried about serious side effects from vaccinations, but there appears to be little to no evidence ofthis so far."

'Culmination of years of research': Dr. Fauci gets Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, received his first dose of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.

USA TODAY

Many of the panelists said they're still worriedsomething will go wrong, causing the public tolose trust in the vaccine.

Right now, the biggest concernsare allergic reactions, which are rare but seem to be occurring more frequently than they should be,and a handful of cases of Bell's palsy, a neurological condition affecting muscles on one side of the face.

It's usually temporary, but Dr. Paul Offit,director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, fretsthat more cases may drive people away from getting vaccinated.

"I'd like to see that not be a big problem," he said.

Sometimes, relatively rare events like Bell's palsy crop up more often than they should purely by chance. If you flipped a coin as many times as there were people in both vaccine trials, you could end up with heads five times in a row, henoted. "That's the tyranny of small numbers in large databases."

Boxes containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the McKesson distribution center in Olive Branch, Miss.Pool photo by PAUL SANCYA

Offit, who is eager to get the vaccine himself in the next week or two, said he was concerned recently when he met a phlebotomist who won't take the vaccine because he's convinced that Black Americanssuch as him will get a different vaccine from white Americans though of course that's not true.

"What worries all of us is that there would be a serious adverse event that was permanent," Offitsaid. "Then people would recalculate whether they think it's worth gettingthe vaccine."

Even if a side effectis extraordinarily rare and the likelihood of being infected withCOVID-19remains quite high, people may turn away from the vaccine, he said.

"Statistically, they'reprobably still so much better off getting the vaccine, because this is a common virus, a virus which even if it doesn't kill you can cause permanent harm," he said. "But people don't view risk that way," andpeople may conclude against scientific evidence that the danger posed by the vaccine outweighs that of the virus.

Among the panelists' other worries: There's plenty of time for serious production problems. Rich people could try to jump the line. Andone scenario is out of anyone's control: The virus could mutate to make the vaccines less effective.

The risk of mutation "increases the longer we let millions of people continue to get infected and transmit the virus from one to another," saidDr.Gregory Poland,director of theMayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group andeditor-in-chief of the journalVaccine.

Vice President Mike Pence received the COVID-19 vaccine on December 18.Associated Press

Still more panelists expressed concern about the lack of federal outreachto reassure people that the vaccine is safe.

Peter Pitts, president and cofounder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, said it'simportant that Vice President Mike Pence was publicly vaccinated this week. That"sends an important message to his core constituency many of whom are vaccine skeptics that now is not the time to allow lingering political animus to trump public health priorities."

More still needs to be done, he said, to reach out to communities of color who are hesitant to take the vaccine.

"Having an abundance of safe and effective vaccines is a tremendous victory," saidPitts, a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner for external relations."Failing to coordinate access and convince our fellow citizens to roll up their sleeves and do the right thing would be an inexcusable failure."

People will need to be remindedto get their booster shots both vaccines authorized so far require two doses andto continue taking precautions like wearing masks and maintaining distance until transmission has been stopped, saidSandra Crouse Quinn,senior associate director of the Maryland Center for Health Equityand chair of the department of family science at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.

"All of that said, and of course, I could say more," she said,"these are fabulous developments the first glimmer of a light at the end of the tunnel."

USA TODAY asked scientists, researchers and other expertshow far they think the vaccine development effort has progressed since Jan. 1, when the virus was firstrecognized. A dozen responded.Weaggregated their responses and calculated themedian, the midway point among them.

Pamela Bjorkman,structural biologist at the California Institute of Technology

Dr.Monica Gandhi,an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco

Sam Halabi,professor of law, University of Missouri; scholar at the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University

Florian Krammer,virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City

Dr.Michelle McMurry-Heath,president and CEO of Biotechnology Innovation Organization

Dr.Kelly Moore,associate director of immunization education, Immunization Action Coalition; former member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; chair, World Health Organization Immunization Practices Advisory Committee

Prakash Nagarkatti,immunologist and vice president for research, University of South Carolina

Dr. Paul Offit,director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphiaand a professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Peter Pitts, president and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, and a former FDA Associate Commissioner for External Relations

Dr.Gregory Poland,director, Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, and editor-in-chief, Vaccine

Sandra Crouse Quinn,senior associate director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity, and chair of the department of family science at the University of Maryland School of Public Health

Prashant Yadav,senior fellow, Center for Global Development, medical supply chain expert

Contact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com and Elizabeth Weise at eweise@usatoday.com.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

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USA TODAY panel says US has nailed the science behind COVID-19 vaccines, but logistics, trust remain a concern - USA TODAY

The U.S. began vaccinating the population against the coronavirus last week, but mass adoption is not a guarantee.

Nearly 4 in 10 Americans say they would "definitely" or "probably" not get a vaccine, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 12,648 U.S. adults from Nov. 18 to 29.

While this is better than Pew results from September, which showed that nearly 50% of respondents were leaning toward not getting the vaccine, it still falls short of what is needed to adequately protect the country. To achieve herd immunity, about 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated or have natural antibodies, experts say.

Widespread mistrust could be a product of the fact that the Covid vaccine was researched and developed in just eight months, breaking the speed record of four years.

Or it might have something to do with the fact that if anything goes wrong with the vaccine, the drugmakers that produced them Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have total immunity against lawsuits related to injuries resulting from the vaccine until 2024.

Central to closing this trust gap is a robust and reliable national education campaign. The Department of Health and Human Services will spend $250 million on this effort.

But the push by the federal government to educate the public has been plagued by controversy, including suspicions about politicizing the message and concern over the lengthy delay in rolling out the targeted messaging that was promised.

At least 15 states told NBC News in early December they weren't waiting for the HHS campaign. Instead, they launched their own communication campaigns to expedite the message.

Ultimately, if there is any chance of returning to life as normal, mass vaccination is going to be critical.

Watch this video to find out how major stakeholders plan to persuade the entire country to trust a vaccine made in record time, using technology that had never before been licensed.

Subscribe to CNBC Pro for the TV livestream, deep insights and analysis on how to invest during the next presidential term.

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Nearly 4 in 10 Americans do not want to take the Covid vaccine. HHS is planning to spend $250 million to convince the U.S. it is safe - CNBC

Its one thing to talk about vaccinating the majority of people living in the United States to stop the Covid-19 pandemic. Its another thing to do it and pay for it.

Epidemiologists tell us we need 75% or more of Americans to be immune to Covid-19 to create herd immunity. Much of that immunity will come from vaccinations. Recent polls show only about 60% of Americans are willing to take the vaccine. Visualize a line of people willing to take the shots: As of now, its much too short.

A vaccine program will also be expensive, even though recipients are told they will get vaccinated for free. One thing Ive learned in life is that free is rarely a good price for anything. Especially something of great value, like protection from a deadly disease.

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Leveraging the difference between price and value with creative approaches can nudge more Americans to get vaccinated and simultaneously fund the vaccination program. I propose a citizen-led program with three basic objectives:

The first two parts of the proposal are linked: Have the wealthiest and most influential Americans donate large sums of money to get to the front of the vaccine line, and use that money to fund the broader effort to vaccinate people against Covid-19. While some may donate because it is the right thing to do, Id expect a substantial portion of the money raised to come from businesses that want greater certainty for themselves in a very uncertain world.

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Donations would come from five tiers. For each tier, the mechanism is the same. People (or businesses on behalf of their people), donate money to get to the front of the Covid-19 vaccine line. There are limited available slots and getting the vaccine must be publicly documented so others can be motivated by these influential figures.

In the first tier, 100 of the wealthiest Americans each donate $100 million to be first in line for a vaccine, getting it within the first weeks of availability. This raises $10 billion.

In the second tier, 1,000 people each donate $10 million to get vaccinated within the first month. This raises another $10 billion.

You can see where this is going: The third tier requires a $1 million contribution for up to 10,000 people. The fourth, $100,000 for up to 100,000 people. The fifth and final tier requires a $25,000 donation from up to 400,000 people. Everyone participating in the program is vaccinated within the first two months of vaccine availability. The bigger the donation, the further toward the front one goes.

All told, this raises $50 billion for the cause by vaccinating just 511,000 people.

What would this $50 billion be used for, since the federal government has said it (thanks, taxpayers) is paying for the vaccines? A lot. I dont pretend to know the optimal ways to spend this money, but I do know there are plenty of places it can help.

At the highest level, it can cover some of the governments vaccination costs and save taxpayers some debt. But I think it will be more useful if it aids states and localities in filling voids in their vaccine distribution processes, essentially creating flexibility where it is needed. That can mean everything from better serving those in remote locations to providing information in languages other than English. It can mean funding for vaccine programs where standard channels struggle, such as for people who are homeless or undocumented. Perhaps it means paying for child care so health care workers can put in overtime, allowing people to get vaccinated more hours of the day. And for those wholl have a tough time going to a clinic, it can pay for programs to bring the vaccine to peoples homes.

In short, it can help get past the multitude of barriers to vaccine access, big and small, that exist in the U.S.

Paying to get to the front of the line might seem obscene. But with 331 million people in the United States, this donor group is just 0.17% of the population. If the program seems too aggressive, removing the lowest tier still raises $40 billion with 111,100 vaccinations, which I estimate is less than one hours worth of anticipated peak vaccine capacity.

This whole idea fails if it interferes with getting vaccines into the arms of the people who need it most. The program is designed to ensure a maximum delay of no more than 24 hours for anyone, anywhere, at any point. The maximum average delay is under eight hours. Having a comparatively small numbers of donors makes this work.

A lot of vaccinations can be funded with $50 billion. At about $150 per U.S. resident, the money raised from the 0.17% can cover the cost of most perhaps all vaccinations for Americans.

Involving influencers is an essential part of this program, much as the federal government tapped Elvis Presley to promote the stalled 1956 polio vaccination program. As these influencers share their vaccinations on traditional and social media, virtually everyone unsure about getting a Covid-19 vaccine will see someone they admire getting it. The line for people wanting a Covid-19 vaccine will grow.

Success depends on a good sales pitch. This isnt the logic-driven scholarly pitch that you can find on a daily basis. Instead, it is a pitch that reaches the reluctant and recalcitrant. In marketing parlance, influencers reach people where they are.

Nothing reinforces the idea that getting a vaccine is a good idea like someone paying big money to move up in line. Seeing people motivated to get to the front of the line creates a perception of value, which is always a useful part of a sales pitch a phenomenon weve seen ranging from Hamilton tickets to new PlayStations.

Few things offer more actual value than a vaccine against a rampaging deadly disease. But for too many people, the perception of value is missing here. Having influencers from most every segment of society get vaccinated alters this perception and changes the game for the U.S.

How might this work? Ill offer sports as an example.

U.S. professional sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, National Womens Soccer League, and MLB currently have little or no certainty around their business. The same is true for the 2020 Olympics, to be held in Tokyo in the summer of 2021. The availability of vaccines changes that.

Vaccines mean no canceled games and more time to practice. They mean the ability to travel without expensive and frustrating bubbles. A teams performance will no longer turn on Covid-19, as happened when the Denver Broncos football team was unable to field an experienced quarterback against the New Orleans Saints and lost 31 to 3.

There are about 5,000 athletes in these team sports, with another 5,000 first-line staff members. Teams could pay $100,000 per person for early access to vaccines, generating $1 billion for vaccination efforts. The Tokyo Olympics has no shortage of wealthy stakeholders: team sponsors, the media, and others have a vested interest in making the games work.

Some leagues might even decide its worthwhile to fund lower-level operations. For example, the NHL might choose to fund the American Hockey League in the lowest tier, or MLB might fund its farm teams.

Athletes are likely to be last on the official list of vaccine recipients as they constitute one of the lowest-profile risk groups: very healthy people under age 40. But in return for the sort of money that can vaccinate millions of people, these organizations get business certainty while their employees get paycheck certainty.

Equally important, athletes are influencers. Or put another way, 83% of Americans know who Tom Brady is.

My proposal is neither conservative or liberal or it can be portrayed as both.

For conservatives, it is a free-market solution: People and businesses are making a choice on how they use their money. Liberals can view it as a wealth tax: People who can afford it pay for early access to a vaccine and, in doing so, pay for others to get vaccinated.

I believe that the concept is inherently nonpolitical. Instead it is a solutions-oriented approach to concerns that have been raised about U.S. vaccination programs. Are wealthy individuals finding ways to move forward in the vaccine line without offering up anything for the rest of society? Princeton sociology professor Shamus Khan says it is happening now and he is concerned this will grow dramatically.

We need solutions.

By establishing one price for the vaccine free we artificially constrain ourselves to that price and exclude other pricing models able to deliver better results for society.

One other program idea Im aware of assigns a cost to the vaccine. Former Congressman John Delaney offered this solution: pay each American $1,500 to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

His intriguing idea has two notable deficiencies compared to my plan. One is that it costs an enormous amount of money nearly $400 billion to vaccinate enough people for herd immunity compared to collecting money for vaccination programs. The second is that it does nothing to bring influencers into the equation, but assumes that money is a sufficient influencer on its own. Delaney offers what some will see as a bribe, bound to increase skepticism in the quarters where there is already a lot of skepticism.

When I have a new idea and want to test it, Ill often call a specific family member and run it by him. Paraphrasing John F. Kennedy from a very different context, I do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard. In many respects, especially politically, this family member and I couldnt be more different. Im well to the left, he self-describes as to the right of Genghis Kahn. For me, he is the very definition of a hard sell.

So I asked him if hed be willing to pay $10,000 to move up in line for a Covid-19 vaccination. He responded that hed pay $100,000. His reasoning? Hed done well in the stock market this year and would be happy to both move up and help. Hed spent a career in uniform defending America against military threats. Defending Americans against a deadly disease didnt seem much different. He could afford it and hed do it.

To be sure, one persons opinion isnt proof a program like this would work, but it did clear a high hurdle for me.

As happens with my family and me, when enough elements come together we find agreement. With the pandemic, by understanding goals correctly and ditching artificial constraints, we build a vaccination program that better serves the nation.

Alan Levine is a technology executive for Wright Williams and Kelly, which specializes in optimizing complex manufacturing environments for products such as integrated circuits and solar cells.

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Let the ultra-rich and influential skip the line for Covid-19 vaccines? Hear me out - STAT

COLUMBUS Citing the elevated risk of death to older Ohioans and the need to get children back in classrooms, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday that those age 65 and over and school teachers and staffwill be next in line for COVID-19 vaccinations.

Vaccines for more than 138,000 adult employees will be offered to school districts willing to resume in-person classes, with a goal of getting pupilsback in classes by March 1, DeWine said. Parents can continue to opt for remote learning for their children, he said.

DeWine said it is important to get children back in classrooms because many struggle with remote or online learning. About 71% of Ohio pupils are attending classes remotely or in a hybrid model of a combination of in-person and online learning, he said.

"I believe it's time to get all our children who want to be in class, back in class," DeWine said. "That is our goal. These kids are our future. These kids have really been hurt in some cases by not being in school."

Depending on which of the two vaccines is involved, it is not recommended children under ages 18 or 16 receive shots. No school children will be targeted for vaccination, the governor said.

Also in the next group:

DeWine couldn't say when the next phase will begin but officials are targeting mid-January to begin scheduling shots.

"Everyone in Ohio who wants to get this vaccine will at some point be able to get it, DeWine said. "They just cant all get it today."

Health care workers andEMS responders along with nursing home and long-term care residents and employees were the first to get shots in Ohio. The governor said the others who will be included in the next group to be vaccinatedhas not yet been determined.

DeWine's list for who receives vaccines in the next phase differs from a federal recommendation calling for those age 75 and older to be next in line not 65 and over. The federal panel agreed on school staff vaccinations and a large group of essential workers who cannot work remotely.

DeWine wants older Ohioans to get the vaccine because roughly a third of those who have died in the state from COVID-19 were age 65 or older.

Initially, Ohio expected to receive 123,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week. That was dialed back to 70,200 doses due to the feds holding back enough doses for the necessary second shot.

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The Ohio Department of Health announced Tuesday night that an allotmentof 89,700 doses will arrive Thursday.

The number of first-shot COVID vaccinations reported by the state on Wednesday totaled 11,700, an increase of 1,363 from Tuesday. That's still behind more than a dozen other states.

DeWine told The Enquirer on Tuesday that's in part because reporting is lagging by a couple days and also becauseOhio decided to start vaccinations at nursing homes with its first batch of Pfizer vaccines the first week.Federal officials required a certain number of doses be reserved in order to begin.

Ohio reported 7,790 new COVID-19 cases and 109 deaths on Wednesday since Tuesdays report. Cases and deaths can be reported days or weeks after someone gets sick or dies.

Continuing a trajectory that saw COVID-19 infections declinelast week, reported daily cases so far this week have averaged 7,598as compared to 8,710 last week. Case levels, though, still remain three timeshigher than two months ago.

An estimated 4,694 COVID-19 patients were receiving treatment in Ohio hospitals on Wednesday, according to the Ohio Hospital Association. That includes 1,131 people in intensive care.

The positive rate on virus tests increased to 15.3% on the latest reported day (Monday), boosting the seven-day average positivity rate to 14.0%.

Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/12/23/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-covid-19-update-dec-23/4022597001/

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Teachers and school staff will be in next Ohio COVID-19 vaccine group, DeWine says - The Cincinnati Enquirer

Overcoming distrust of vaccines is a major obstacle to persuading enough people to get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Employers, working in concert with federal and state health agencies, can help tackle this problem. To do so, they should tailor their campaigns to local communities. Here is a five-part plan for doing that. It includes:understand your population and focus on inequities, tailor messages and channels to local needs, educate and be transparent, leverage data and analytics, address hurdles and incentivize positive behavior.

Now that the first vaccines are being rolled out to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, a major challenge is persuading people to take them. Getting 70% or more of the public vaccinated or recovered from the Covid-19 virus is critical to containing the disease and creating herd immunity. However, recent surveys indicate that a considerable number of people across the United States are hesitant to take the new vaccines. Overcoming this reluctance which cuts across geographic, political, religious, and demographic groups but is more prevalent in certain subgroups, especially Black Americans is critical to ending the pandemic in the United States.

The reasons for this hesitancy are varied from skepticism about the science to worries that the approval process has been too fast or politicized to safety concerns about being first for something so new. Others distrust all vaccines.

While federal and state public health agencies are leading the charge in educating the public, their efforts can be dramatically amplified if employers join the effort. Working together, public health agencies and employers can increase transparency about the data, the allocation process, and vaccine efficacy while fostering trust and confidence in the process and safety of the vaccine. Here is a playbook that can help employers design and implement their campaigns to drive vaccination and address health equity issues.

Spend time to understand the cultural beliefs that may dissuade employees from getting vaccinated. Engage your diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals to connect with all demographics in your employee base, and conduct surveys now to understand employees attitudes toward and beliefs about vaccination. This information will help you develop a more targeted education and engagement plan, leveraging existing public health materials. Once you have a baseline, you can continue to conduct pulse surveys of your workforce over the coming months to see whats changed and how to target interventions most effectively.

Personalized communications will be crucial in the campaign to foster trust. In addition, employers, working in concert with or in parallel to public health officials, should try to identify the right parties and channels in the company and local community to deliver those messages to each subgroup. Leaders can set an example by publicly supporting vaccinations and when they are eligible, getting vaccinated themselves.

Create a dynamic program to engage with your people and customers about the goals, safety, and benefits of vaccination. Provide the latest information and be transparent in terms of access challenges and other concerns. Messaging will need to be agile to respond to changing local conditions and should be delivered in a nuanced, culturally sensitive fashion.

Analytics platforms distill data into meaningful insights and support decision-making. They can help you stay on top of evolving sentiments and behaviors, allowing you to rapidly respond with targeted tactics.

Make sure that people in your workforce do not have to choose between getting paid and getting vaccinated and create policies that protect wages and provide paid time off for vaccination. Recognize the challenges for employees with children and facilitate vaccination during times that are both convenient and feasible. You might provide child care options. When vaccines become more broadly available, you might set up an on-campus vaccination site. If employees are getting a vaccine that requires a second dose, educate them about the importance of getting both doses and provide incentives to do so through your employee recognition and rewards programs.

Now is the time for employers to step up and be a part of the solution to ending the worst public health crisis in a century and addressing the inequities in our health system and society that the pandemic has exposed. Taking the actions that we have laid out will pay dividends now by getting people back to work faster and reviving our economy and down the road by building the infrastructures needed to overcome similar challenges in the future. By joining the campaign to persuade people to get vaccinated, employers will not only help themselves, they will also help society overcome deep-seated anti-vaccination sentiments that are a danger to us all.

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Patricia Camden, Natasha Eslami and Blythe Randolph to the research and development of this article.

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Employers Have a Crucial Role to Play in Covid-19 Vaccinations - Harvard Business Review

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine recipient with history of allergies has severe reaction to injection  Montgomery Advertiser

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Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine recipient with history of allergies has severe reaction to injection - Montgomery Advertiser

Five new COVID-related deaths were reported in Arlington overnight as the countys average daily caseload continues to climb.

An additional 101 local cases were reported this morning, bringing the seven-day moving average to about 90 cases per day, the highest point in nearly two weeks. Five new deaths were reported, bringing Arlingtons cumulative COVID fatality count to 174, which is less than a tenth of a percent of the overall population and just over 2% of cases (8,222).

Three new hospitalizations were also reported overnight, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data, but the seven-day trailing hospitalization total dropped to 10. Yesterday the seven-day total was 21, largely due to a big spike in reported hospitalizations on Dec. 16.

Encouragingly, Arlington now has its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Arlington County Boardgot the news on Tuesday, about an hour after the Arlington Health District received an allotment from the state health department. The first doses will be given to healthcare workers, nursing home residents and staff.

(Virginia Hospital Center has already started vaccinating its employees.)

This is, I think, one of the brightest spots in this long nightmare of the pandemic, Board member Katie Cristol said. I cant imagine that I am the only Arlingtonian who just breathed a sigh of relief listening to you describe what it means that our health care workers at Virginia Hospital Center and surrounding facilities are finally being reached by this vaccine.

Arlington Public Health Director Dr. Reuben Varghese predicted that the general public could be inoculated as early as mid-2021, and that the timing for the next phase is up to VDH. He also said that the next phase of inoculations will likely be for essential workers, including first responders, law enforcement and grocery store workers.

This will take time to put into place, Varghese said. Even though we know how to vaccinate, vaccinating with six foot distances with appointments is not something that weve all done before. So, we ask for your patience.

TheModernaandPfizer vaccines have 95% efficacy rate, but have not been tested on anyone under the age of 16. Side effects include muscle aches, soreness and fever.

Varghese also said that the health department will not collect citizenship information from those receiving vaccines.

Were not collecting that in any of our databases about whos getting it and what their immigration status [is], he said. If you do that you will send infection underground, and you will not be able to control the spread. That principle has been maintained, and Ive actually registered in the vaccine system and there was no status question.

James Cullum contributed to this report. DoD photo (top) by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II.

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Arlington Has Received a Shipment of the COVID-19 Vaccine - ARLnow

During a Q&A session with the USA TODAY Editorial Board, Dr. Anthony Fauci fields a question about ongoing vaccine studies and ethics of placebos. USA TODAY

Americans' willingness to take the coronavirus vaccine has jumped since the first two vaccines were authorized by the FDA and health care workers and nursing home residents began to receive the shots.

That growing acceptance is a reassuring sign for public health experts who call distribution of the vaccine crucial to controlling the pandemic that has killed more than 318,000 people in the USA.

In a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll Wednesday through Sunday, 46% say they will take the vaccine as soon as they can. That's close to double the 26% who were ready to get the shot as soon as possible in a USA TODAY poll in late October. In the new poll, 32% say they will wait for others to get the shots before they do so themselves.

"We need to get control of this virus, and that would be doing my part," says Susan Sadule, 59, a retiree from Easton, Pennsylvania,who voted for Joe Biden in the presidential election.She was among those polled.

"From what I've read, it's going to take about 75% of the nation taking the vaccine in order to create herd immunity," says Lisa McAlister, 48, a registered nurse from Grove, Oklahoma, who voted for President Donald Trump,"and quite frankly, I don't want to live in a pandemic the rest of my life."

Those most resistant to taking a vaccine remain unpersuaded. In October, one in five said they wouldn't take the vaccine, now or later. An identical 20% say that in this month's survey.

Both polls surveyed 1,000 registered voters and have margins of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

More: Two COVID-19 vaccines are authorized in the USA; here's what we know about them

On the issue of personal health, there is a sharp partisan divide.

Two-thirds of Democrats, 67%, arewilling to take the vaccine as soon as possible. The percentage of Republicans ready to take the vaccine is a stitch lower than the percentage who say they would nevertake it, 35% compared with 36%.

"It's not a cure; it's barely preventative," scoffs Casey Case, 39, an electrician fromVacaville, California, who voted for Trump. He questions the vaccine's effectiveness and its safety. "There's already been multiple people who've had drastic side effects of it already or severe allergic reactions," he says.

Though a handful of people in Alaska and Great Britain who got the coronavirus vaccine had a severe allergic reaction to it, all have recovered.

Asked why they aren't ready to take the vaccine, at least not yet, almost two-thirds say they are worried it isn't safe. Fourteen percent saythey never take vaccines of any kind, and 8% say they don't believe COVID-19 is a real threat.

A parade of elected officials from Vice President Mike Pence to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to President-elect Biden have gotten shots before cameras, part of an effort to persuade Americans the vaccine is safe to use and important to take.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says "we need to own" the pandemic if we are going to solve it.(Photo: AP)

When asked whom they trustmost on whether to take it,people didn't cite political figures. More than four in 10 say they trusttheir own doctor most, and three in 10 nameDr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert. No other person reaches double digits, including Trump (5%) or Biden (1%).

That said, Biden's actions on the coronavirus have gotten reasonably good ratings, especially considering the partisan turmoil since he defeated Trump's bid for a second term. By 22 percentage points, 52%-30%, those surveyed say they approveof Biden's approach on the pandemic;18% are undecided.

Eighty-four percent of those surveyed, including two-thirds of Republicans, say they would personally abide by Biden's call for all Americans to wear masks in public places for the first 100 days of his tenure in an effort to bring the virus under control.

"Given that he has no authorities other than his bully pulpit coming in, I think he's been a valuable role model," Babette Salus, 60, of Springfield, Illinois, says. A retired attorney who works for a nonprofit organization, she voted for Biden for president. She faults Trump for failing to lead by example during the pandemic.

"I think there's 300,000 souls that would agree with me, that he has not been doing a very good job," she says.

The broad reach of COVID-19 is clear. Halfof those surveyed, 49%, say they or someone in their family had gotten the virus.Nearly 18 million Americans have been diagnosed with it.

Vial of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first approved for use in the U.S.(Photo: Leon Neal / Getty Images News via Getty Images)

A majority in the poll are opposed to vaccine mandates by employers (60% against) and schools (52% against).But most are braced to heed the warnings of health officials to scale back holiday celebrations this month. The spread of the virus during Thanksgiving gatherings contributed to a rise in cases, health experts say.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 64%, say they planto stay home during the holidays, avoiding travel or gatherings with those outside their immediate households. Nineteen percent saythey will hold some celebrationsbut limit the numbers attending and keep them outdoors. Only 15% say they plan to go ahead with customary travel and gatherings with family and friends, in conflict with advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of those celebrating the holidays as normal, ignoring CDC guidelines, say they will flat out not take the vaccine at all, even when its available for them, says David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. "That sets the stage for substantial virus-spreading.

When will the nation get back to normal?

By the middle of 2021, Salus predicts. Things "may not be the way they were, but it will be normal: Businesses will open, and people will get together, and kids will be back in schools, and colleges and universities will be on campus." Half of those surveyed say the USA will be back to normal by the end of next year.

"By the summertime," says David Cheff, 73, a retiree from Jacksonville, Florida, who voted for Trump. But he adds, "Who knows what normal is these days?"

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Exclusive: Americans' readiness to take the COVID-19 vaccine spikes after the start of shots - USA TODAY

LIHUE, Hawaii (KHON2) -- Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami sent a proposal to Gov. David Ige during the week of Monday, Dec. 21, that would allow incoming Kauai passengers who received a pre-travel test to quarantine at an approved "resort bubble." Participants would then take a post-travel test three days after arrival and be released from quarantine after the second negative result comes in.

Mayor Kawakami's request to opt-out of the state's pre-travel test program was approved by Gov. Ige on Friday, Nov. 27, and went into effect on Wednesday, Dec. 2, after a spike in COVID-19 cases was reported on Kauai. All travelers to Kauai are currently subject to a 10-day quarantine with no options for testing out.

More:

Hawaii received 33,450 COVID-19 vaccines as of Dec. 23, heres how many each County got - KHON2

Harlingen, Texas (KVEO)As the nation is one step closer in getting the COVID-19 vaccine, some Black Americans have been skeptical of getting it.

After millions of COVID-19 cases, over 300,000 deaths in the United States and months of quarantine, there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been approved by the FDA and frontline workers, politicians, and those most vulnerable have already received it.

According to the Pew Research Center, Black Americans continue to stand out as less likely to get vaccinatedjust 42% percent have the intent to do so.

By comparison, 63% of Hispanicand 61% of White Adults have the intent to get vaccinated. Contrastingly, 83% of Asian Americans are even more likely, definitely or would probably get vaccinated.

Pastor Carl Flowers of Anointed Word RGV Church, in Edinburg, is among those who are not anxious to get in line.

One of Flowers main concerns is the speed in which the vaccine was developed and approved. Hes also concerned with the lack of data.

Im glad theres a vaccine. Im glad we can move forward, but Im not going to be first in line to take it, he said.

Flowers also said there is something else lingering in the back of his mind, which is The Tuskegee Study.

The Tuskegee Study is a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service and the CDC.

The study involved 600 black men. 399 had Syphilis, 201 did not have the disease.

The study was conducted to gain a better understanding of the disease, but the CDC acknowledges today that the study was conducted without the benefit of patients informed consent.

Many Black Americans refer to the study today as unethical, making them hesitant to receive the Covid-19 Vaccine that immunologists have developed.

That was a real horrid part of our past, a horrible part of our history as a nation, Theresa Gatling, the Local Pastor of Mt. Olive Worship Center in Mcallen said.

Gatling hasnt ruled out taking the vaccine altogether but says she also does not want to be first.

When referencing the Tuskegee Experiment, It will always be a nebulous thought in the back of your mind.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says he understands the skepticism within minority communities, but urges them to take it.

In a recent interview Fauci said, It really is a process of trying to dissect what the reasons for the skepticism are and to try and address them individually. Fully respecting the underlying skepticism that you have every reason to have for historical reasons to balance those two, thats how I would approach it.

Dr. Anthony Fauci also acknowledged in previous interviews that a black woman was in fact at the forefront of developing one of the vaccines.

KVEO asked multiple Black Americans if this makes them more inclined to get the vaccine, and many agreed that it is not enough to make them take it.

Im excited and really proud that a Black woman was involved in such a high level of management in creating this vaccine, in this historical moment, but I dont know her, Gatling said.

Gatling went on to say shes waiting to see more data, and more responses to the vaccines before she feels more inclined to take it.

Dr. John H. Krouse, Dean of the UTRGV Medical School, says the medical field has advanced tremendously since the Tuskegee Study.

Krouse says the vaccine trials, and the rollout we see today is not representative of years past.

We need to do a better job of communicating, but also making sure that the provider, who takes care of the patients, are people from their groups.

Krouse says people who participated in the COVID-19 Vaccine Trials had full consent, in comparison to those who did not in the Tuskegee Experiments.

Dr. Amy Hay is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

She says she hopes many Black Americans get vaccinated but says the distrust with the vaccine is deeply rooted in history, and disproportionate and adverse treatment in the medical field. She says this treatment dates back to slavery.

They even made up a disease called Drapetomania, that explained why they [slaves] ran away, she explained. So it wasnt that they were treated brutally, but they had to be crazy to run away from their masters.

Hay also went on to reference American Physician, J. Marion Sims as reasons why the Black Community is distrusting of the Covid-19 Vaccine and medical treatment.

Sims is considered the father of Gynecology, but it turns out he did a series of experiments on Black women, she said.

And though this history lingers in the thoughts of some, many Black Americans say it may be time to push forward for the greater good.

George McShan, former School Board Trustee for Harlingen CISD said though the thoughts about the Tuskegee Study lingers in his mind, he will take it as soon as it is available.

We have to understand history, so we dont repeat it, but we have to move on to the 21st century, he said.

The rest is here:

Black Americans in the RGV distrusting of COVID-19 vaccine due to Tuskegee study - KGBT-TV