Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Upcoming Covid Vaccine Rollout Already Has A Hiccup
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new program to get the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines to uninsured and underinsured Americans will likely not be ready in pharmacies by the time the new vaccines hit the market as early as this September, leaving millions of high-risk Americans in the lurch. (Cohen, 8/17)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the delay in pharmacy availability, with spokesperson Kathleen Conley saying the government is still finalizing contracts with companies like CVS and Walgreens that will allow them to distribute the vaccines for free. ... The uninsured will instead need to go to federal health centers or individual providers for free vaccines during the first stage of the fall vaccination campaign. (Cancryn and Lim, 8/17)
Moderna and Pfizer say their new shots are effective against newest strains —
Moderna’s new Covid vaccine generated a robust immune response against the now-dominant Eris variant and another rapidly spreading strain of the virus in an early clinical trial, the biotech company said Thursday. (Constantino, 8/17)
Pfizer Inc said on Thursday its updated COVID-19 shot, which is being tested against emerging variants, showed neutralizing activity against the "Eris" subvariant in a study conducted on mice. (8/17)
More on the spread of covid —
Some parents are rushing to have their children vaccinated as the school year begins. About 91.7% of kindergartners met the requirement for the previous school year. Similarly, about 94% of seventh-grade students received the mandatory vaccines, falling short of the state’s goal of vaccinating 95% of those students. That’s according to data from the Florida Department of Health. (8/17)
A dose of bivalent (two-strain) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine booster pushed effectiveness against emergency or urgent care (ED/UC) to 80% among preschool children, compared with 46% after two Moderna monovalent (single-strain) doses and 70% after three monovalent Pfizer/BioNTech doses. (Van Beusekom, 8/17)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday it is tracking a recently discovered COVID-19 strain, BA.2.86, after experts discovered a case of the highly-mutated strain in Michigan. "Today we are more prepared than ever to detect and respond to changes in the COVID-19 virus. Scientists are working now to understand more about the newly identified lineage in these 4 cases and we will share more information as it becomes available," CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley said in a statement to CBS News. (Tin, 8/17)
