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The Trump administration on Tuesday pledged to provide a future Covid-19 vaccine for free to “vulnerable” Americans unable to afford it. The remarks constitute the federal government’s most concrete pledge to date about vaccine affordability, which has emerged as a sticking point in recent congressional hearings and in legislation to address the pandemic. (Facher, 6/16)

Candidate vaccines are in early trials, and the goal — considered ambitious — is to have 300 million doses by early next year. At the White House signing of an executive order on policing, President Donald Trump predicted it could even be met before the end of this year. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health has said a vaccine by year’s end is conceivable only if everything goes right in final testing this summer. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/16)

HHS has already promised up to $1.2 billion in support for a vaccine candidate developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. That agreement promises at least 300 million doses of the vaccine for the United States, with clinical studies beginning this summer with approximately 30,000 U.S. volunteers. HHS also has given $456 million to Johnson & Johnson for its candidate, set to begin its first phase of clinical trials this summer, and $483 million for Moderna’s candidate vaccine, which began its first phase trail in mid March. (Flaherty, 6/16)

U.S. health insurers may balk at covering tests that look for coronavirus antibodies in some cases, arguing that employers or the government should foot a bill expected to run into billions of dollars. Health insurers have largely escaped the economic pain wrought by the pandemic. Their profits increased as many Americans delayed more routine and expensive medical care during the recent lockdown period, while the total cost of covering COVID-19 patients has been less than expected in many regions with low case numbers. (Humer, 6/16)