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The Pentagon has authorized more than 1,000 active-duty service members to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with its vaccination effort against COVID-19. The 1,110 active-duty troops will be broken up into teams of 222 people to support five state vaccination sites, according to a Defense Department fact sheet released Friday. (Mitchell, 2/5)

More than 35 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the country, but it is becoming increasingly clear that vaccinations have not been equitable for communities of color that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. Several members of Congress have taken notice of the disparity in the past week, with three sets of the lawmakers urging the Biden administration to address the situation. (Johnson, 2/7)

Mayor Sylvester Turner and other elected officials called for a more fair and equitable system for distributing COVID-19 vaccines. At a news conference Saturday at the Settegast Community Health clinic, Turner criticized the vaccine distribution system, calling it skewed against minorities and blaming it for vaccine hesitancy. The discrepancy is even more concerning, Turner said, given that minority communities have been hit hardest by the virus. “The impact of this virus has been disproportionate on people of color,” he said. “Yet when the vaccine is on the scene, it seems as though it is converse of that.” (Goodman, 2/6)

Faced with the daunting task of parceling out a limited supply of coronavirus vaccines, Trump administration officials came up with a seemingly simple formula last year to streamline distribution of the shots. First, federal administrators would run an automated algorithm to divide vaccine doses nationwide, based on the size of each state’s adult population. Then each state would decide how to dole out the shots to local hospitals, nursing homes and clinics. (Singer, 2/7)

In other news about how states are rolling out the vaccine —

Kroger has joined a growing list of large US grocery store chains offering incentives for workers to get the Covid-19 vaccine. The company announced that its associates would get a one-time $100 payment if they show proof that they've received the full manufacturer-recommended doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. Workers that can't get the vaccine for health or religious reasons can get the payment if they take an educational health and safety course, the company said in a news release. (Williams, 2/6)

As seniors across the country struggle to book appointments for scarce doses of coronavirus vaccines, one assisted-living facility marketed access to the doses through a “Vaccination Staycation.” Tall Oaks Assisted Living in Fairfax County advertised that those who booked a month-long stay in a $5,000, all-inclusive studio apartment there could also receive a two-dose vaccine at the facility. (Portnoy, 2/7)

When Baltimore resident Phyllis Fung heard that some pharmacies were going to offer the COVID-19 vaccine in Maryland, she rushed to check their websites. The 53-year-old had “frantically” tried health departments and hospitals to get her elderly parents and in-laws immunized. (Mann and Condon, 2/8)

KHN: California’s Smallest County Makes Big Vaccination Gains
In the winter, the roughly three-hour drive from Alpine County’s main health clinic in Woodfords to the remote enclave of Bear Valley winds along snowy two-lane roads and over 8,000-foot mountain passes, circumventing the more direct route, which is closed for the season. So to get a box of the frozen Moderna covid-19 vaccine to the ski resort hamlet of about 100 people, the clinic has enlisted the sheriff’s department. (Norman, 2/8)