Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Hopeful Milestone: More Americans Vaccinated Than Have Been Infected By Covid
More Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine than have tested positive for the virus, an early but hopeful milestone in the race to end the pandemic. As of Monday afternoon, 26.5 million Americans had received one or both doses of the current vaccines, according to data compiled by the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. Since the first U.S. patient tested positive outside of Seattle a year ago, 26.3 million people in the country have tested positive for the disease, and 443,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. (Fay Cortez and Court, 2/1)
Also 鈥
Sergio Trist谩n, a 65-year-old retired State Department employee, really missed squeezing his own tomatoes at the grocery store. He recently received the first dose of Moderna鈥檚 Covid-19 vaccine and the second is scheduled for early February. Suddenly, life鈥檚 little joys, the kind that have been shelved for many people for almost a year, are back on the horizon. 鈥淧icking up the tomatoes at the store makes a big difference,鈥 he says. (Bartholomew, 2/1)
Danielle Seal likens going for a walk during the pandemic to an extreme sport. "When I go [and walk] the dog I have to ask people to stay two meters away," she told CNN. "And that's what really upsets me. If you try and squeeze past me, you are putting my life in danger. Going for a walk is an adrenaline-seeking extreme sport." (Rahim, 1/31)