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Some pregnant women remain unsure about getting the COVID-19 vaccine because safety data is scarce and health agency guidelines are vague and in some cases contradictory. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Monday that about 10,000 pregnant women in the U.S. have been vaccinated since the Food and Drug Administration authorized two vaccines, and so far there have been “no red flags.” “We had a lot of pregnant women vaccinated. The FDA followed them and will continue to follow them,” he said during a media roundtable at the IAS COVID-19 Conference: Prevention. “Even though we don’t have good data on it, the data that we’re collecting on it so far has no red flags.” (Rodriguez, 2/1)

Starting Monday, adults in Maryland who are hospitalized with certain health conditions will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s latest clinician guidance. But the list of qualifying conditions is short, and the news comes while vaccine appointments remain difficult to obtain. People who are not hospitalized but are diagnosed with these conditions won’t be able to be vaccinated until Phase 2 of the rollout. (Condon, 2/1)

It’s a question on the minds of many Marylanders who are eligible for the coronavirus vaccine: Should I sign up for every waitlist I can find? When that question was posed to the state’s top health official Monday, he didn’t have an answer. (Wood, 2/1)

While state and local governments have been busy planning for and distributing vaccines, many have left out an important piece: how to provide transportation to people who can’t get to those sites. Millions of older adults and low-income people of color who are at higher risk of contracting the virus don’t have cars, don’t drive or don’t live near public transit. Some are homebound. Some live in rural areas far from vaccination sites. “It’s incredibly complicated how the vaccine planning played out across the country. Transportation was overlooked,” said Denny Chan, a senior staff attorney at Justice in Aging, a national legal advocacy organization for low-income older adults. (Bergal, 2/1)

The anti-vaccine protest that temporarily cut off access to a mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium was organized on Facebook through a page that promotes debunked claims about the coronavirus pandemic, masks and immunization. The Facebook page, “Shop Mask Free Los Angeles,” issued a call last week to gather Saturday at the baseball park. Health authorities have been administering shots to as many as 8,000 people a day at the site, one of the largest vaccination centers in the country. Such venues form a critical component of the effort to corral the pandemic, which has lashed Los Angeles County so brutally in recent weeks that oxygen for patients has been in short supply. (Stanley-Becker, 2/1)

Terris King is intimately familiar with the Black community’s skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines. The Baltimore pastor — who has also worked for 30 years in federal and other public health programs — has been using his remote pulpit for almost a year to preach about the power and safety of vaccines, weaving together science and religion in a way he may be uniquely qualified to do. (Sokolow, 2/2)

After driving an hour to a Staten Island coronavirus vaccination site on Friday, SoulCycle celebrity instructor Stacey Griffith made her case to officials as to why she should receive a first dose of the Moderna vaccine. What qualified Griffith, a spin instructor with a cult following among New York’s wealthy gym-goers, for the hard-to-come-by vaccine? The 52-year-old was an “educator,” she told the Daily Beast this weekend. (Shepherd, 2/2)

KHN: With Demand Far Exceeding Supply, It Matters That People Are Jumping The Vaccine Line 

The Biden administration’s much-needed national strategy to end the covid-19 pandemic includes plans to remedy the chaotic vaccination effort with “more people, more places, more supply.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency will open more vaccination sites, the government will buy more doses, and more people will be immunized. Still, by all estimates, the demand for vaccines will far exceed the supply for months to come. For weeks, Americans have watched those who are well connected, wealthy or crafty “jump the line” to get a vaccine, while others are stuck, endlessly waiting on hold to get an appointment, watching sign-up websites crash or loitering outside clinics in the often-futile hope of getting a shot. (Rosenthal, 2/2)

KHN: When Your Chance For A Covid Shot Comes, Don’t Worry About The Numbers 

When getting vaccinated against covid-19, there’s no sense being picky. You should take the first authorized vaccine that’s offered, experts say. The newest covid vaccine on the horizon, from Johnson & Johnson, is probably a little less effective at preventing sickness than the two shots already being administered around the United States, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. On Friday, Johnson & Johnson announced that, in a 45,000-person trial, its vaccine was about 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe covid illness. No one who received the vaccine was hospitalized with or died of the disease, according to the company, which said it expected to seek Food and Drug Administration authorization as early as this week. If the agency authorizes use of the vaccine, millions of doses could be shipped out of J&J’s warehouses beginning in late February. (Allen and Szabo, 2/1)