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The number of people getting a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine is declining again in the U.S. after a fleeting uptick in August. The drop is being led by the South and Central regions of the U.S. It’s a reversal of what just a month ago seemed like a hopeful trend for public health officials, when those places — hit hard by a wave of delta variant-driven cases — briefly led the nation in the number of people starting vaccinations. (Armstrong, 9/15)

Seated in an ornate, columned hearing room before a panel of state legislators, the 7-year-old girl spoke with conviction. “I love God with my whole heart,” she said. “He made our immune systems perfect.” Therefore she — and other children from families with such religious beliefs — should be exempt from requirements to get vaccinated against measles and other infectious diseases, the girl argued. A crowd of supporters erupted in applause. And within days, lawmakers tabled their effort to tighten the state’s school vaccination rules, leaving intact the option of obtaining a religious exemption. A scene from a red state, perhaps? Somewhere in the Great Plains or the Deep South? Try New Jersey, which has voted for Democrats in the last eight presidential elections. (Avril, 9/16)

Southwest Airlines will give vaccinated workers two days of bonus pay that will arrive in paychecks just before Christmas, moving to reward workers even as the White House pushes its own mandates for all large businesses. Dallas-based Southwest also told workers in a memo Wednesday that only vaccinated workers would be allowed to take time off for contracting COVID-19 without having to use their own sick or vacation time. “There are a lot of opinions swirling right now around COVID-19 vaccines, and we respect that every employee has individual thoughts on the topic,” the memo said. “That said, Southwest supports vaccines as our best line of defense against COVID to protect our employees and the customers you are serving each and every day, as well as maintain a reliable operation.” (Arnold, 9/15)

More than nine months after coronavirus vaccines were made available, inequities in Florida’s distribution process are still affecting some populations. Though a majority of people who haven’t been vaccinated are white, vaccination rates among Black Floridians are still far behind their white and Hispanic counterparts. The state reports 49% of white people in Florida are vaccinated, compared with 31% of Black people. (Colombini and Sheridan, 9/15)

Ron DeSantis isn't anti-vaccine. But he has started standing shoulder-to-shoulder those who are. The Florida governor’s clear and unadulterated public messaging about the need for vaccines has become more diluted in recent months, culminating with a press conference he held this week to bash President Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandate plan — and threaten to fine cities and counties that impose their own mandates. (Caputo and Fineout, 9/15)

For four-plus years of Donald Trump’s ramblings on Twitter, the GOP conveniently didn’t see that tweet. When Trump claimed a stolen election, his fellow Republicans instead offered a watered-down case for merely questioning the election results — even as the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters internalized Trump’s starker version. And now, with coronavirus vaccine misinformation proliferating in their midst and severely hampering efforts to stomp out the virus, they have repeatedly shrugged off the need to do anything about it. ... At an event Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appeared with a man who promoted a conspiracy theory common among anti-vaxxers. “The vaccine changes your RNA,” claimed the man, an employee of a utility company. “So for me, that’s a problem.” DeSantis stood right next to him, staring at him as he said this. But when pressed on why he, as an advocate for vaccination, didn’t weigh in, DeSantis claimed he didn’t hear the man’s statement. (Blake, 9/15)

The CDC moved too slowly at several points in the coronavirus pandemic, ultimately hindering the U.S. response, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb writes in a new book, Uncontrolled Spread. The book argues that American intelligence agencies should have a much bigger role in pandemic preparedness, even if that's sometimes at the expense of public health agencies like the CDC. (Reed, 9/16)

Clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines should include examination of any possible effects on women's menstrual cycles -- if only because so many women are worried about possible problems, a British expert argued Wednesday. But there's also evidence the immune response prompted by both vaccines and viral infections can temporarily affect menstrual cycles, so studying these effects is important, Dr. Victoria Male, a reproductive specialist at Imperial College London, wrote in the BMJ. "Vaccine hesitancy among young women is largely driven by false claims that Covid-19 vaccines could harm their chances of future pregnancy," Male wrote. (Fox, 9/15)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Pittsburgh have seized two shipments of phony COVID-19 vaccination cards shipped from China. CBP seized the first of the two international parcels on August 24. CBP officers determined that the parcel of 20 cards had a "low-quality appearance." CBP said the cards were being shipped to someone in Beaver County, Pa. That individual, whose identity was not released, is not from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or a certified medical entity, CBP said. (Betz, 9/15)

As someone who’s been working in the recruiting and talent acquisition industry for two decades, Dustin Mazanowski knows how important it is for job candidates to have “key words” on their profiles and resumes that quickly distinguish them from the pack. That’s why he has “#vaccinated” in his LinkedIn profile. ... Job seekers say volunteering their COVID-19 vaccination status could be a way to give them a competitive edge. (Keshner, 9/16)