Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Third Dose OK'd For San Franciscans Who Got Johnson & Johnson Shots
San Francisco residents who got the Johnson & Johnson Janssen coronavirus vaccine and have been boosted with a second shot can now get a third, following an advisory issued this month by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Regardless of what brand of vaccine people had for their second dose, the city is advising a Pfizer/BioNTech shot for the third. (Ho, 1/28)
In the next few weeks, two African cheetahs living at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore will walk to the edge of their habitat, sit like house pets and allow a keeper to pull their tails through an opening in the fence. This is how the cheetahs, Bud and Davis, will get their COVID-19 vaccines. Two or three weeks later, they will repeat the process so their keeper can get a blood sample. There will be another vaccination and blood will be taken six times in all during the year. The samples will become part of a nationwide study seeking to understand how well the particularly vulnerable species is protected against the deadly coronavirus. (Cohn, 1/31)
In Cumberland County, about a third of 5- to 11-year-old children have not yet received a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Just two hours to the north, in much more rural Piscataquis County, that figure is a staggering 82 percent. Maine has seen significant disparities in its county-by-county vaccination rates virtually since vaccines became available to the general public. But those disparities for the general population aren鈥檛 nearly as pronounced as they are for the 5- to 11-year-old age group that鈥檚 currently the youngest age group eligible to receive the vaccine, and the one that became eligible most recently. (Marino Jr., 1/31)
Also 鈥
The music-streaming service Spotify says it will implement changes to guard against COVID-19 misinformation after some high-profile artists and public figures criticized the platform for hosting Joe Rogan's hit podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. Music legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell each pulled their music from Spotify over their objections to Rogan, who experts say has repeatedly made false claims about the coronavirus and vaccines. Over the weekend Nils Lofgren also confirmed he had his music pulled. Author and researcher Bren茅 Brown said she would stop releasing new podcasts until further notice, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also expressed their concerns about COVID misinformation on the platform. (Hernandez, 1/30)
For years, Julie DeVuono has offered to help people avoid vaccination. In 2017 and 2018, the nurse鈥檚 pediatric practice advertised 鈥渧accine exemption workshops鈥 that it said would detail tips for 鈥渢he best chance of acceptance.鈥 Now DeVuono and an employee face charges for allegedly selling fake coronavirus vaccination cards and entering them into a state database. Authorities say the pair from Long Island left behind a ledger recording profits of more than $1.5 million in less than three months. (Knowles, 1/310)