Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Booster Program Won't Be Expanded Until Fall When Retooled Shots Available
The Food and Drug Administration is shelving plans to let more younger adults get second COVID-19 boosters this summer. Instead, officials are planning to speed up availability of the next generation of boosters in the fall, three administration officials confirmed to NPR. The new strategy came after a debate within the administration about trying to balance protecting people this summer with keeping people safe next winter, when the country will probably get hit by yet another surge, according to the officials familiar with the discussion. (Stein, 7/28)
In internal deliberations, some senior health officials argued that eligibility for a second booster should be broadened before the reformulated version is ready because coronavirus infections are on the rise again. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, and Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the White House pandemic response coordinator, both advocated that position. (Weiland and LaFraniere, 7/28)
On other covid developments in the news —
President Joe Biden resumed in-person public events a day after ending his Covid isolation, deviating from federal health guidance that people recovering from the disease wear a mask for 10 days. Biden attended a briefing Thursday afternoon indoors with several aides, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, as well as Marriott International CEO Tony Capuano. He entered with a mask but took it off and distanced himself from others in the room. (Wingrove, 7/28)
Los Angeles County dropped a plan to impose a universal indoor mask mandate this week as COVID-19 infections and rates of hospitalizations have stabilized, a top health official said Thursday. (Weber, 7/28)
The coronavirus pandemic walloped rural America last year, precipitating a surge of deaths among white residents as the virus inflamed longstanding health deficits there.But across the small towns and farmlands, new research has found, Covid killed Black and Hispanic people at considerably higher rates than it did their white neighbors. Even at the end of the pandemic’s second year, in February 2022, overstretched health systems, poverty, chronic illnesses and lower vaccination rates were forcing nonwhite people to bear the burden of the virus. (Mueller, 7/28)
The federal government is trying to make it easier for immunocompromised patients to access a treatment that can protect them against COVID-19 by allowing individual health care providers to order small amounts — up to three patient courses at a time, according to a Health and Human Services Department spokesperson. (Stein, 7/28)
In China, an inhaled covid vaccine shows promise, and the origins of covid are still investigated —
Chinese vaccine firm CanSino Biologic's inhalation-based candidate elicited a better antibody response as a booster against the BA.1 Omicron sub-variant than Sinovac's shot, but the antibody level dropped in months, clinical trial data showed. (7/29)
Raccoon dogs, a spaniel-size canine bred and sold in China both for their meat and luxurious fur, are one of the likeliest sources of the last 2½ years of human misery. A new study suggests these furry creatures, native to Asia, may have been the intermediary, catching the SARS-CoV-2 virus from bats and passing it on to people at a Chinese market, leading to the global COVID-19 pandemic. (Weintraub, 7/29)
