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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has admitted that it failed to adequately protect COVID-19 vaccination status data for about 500,000 of its employees. Following an internal investigation by the VA’s Data Breach Response Service, the agency removed a spreadsheet containing personal details including vaccination status, according to a notice sent to the agency’s bargaining unit employees that was obtained by FedScoop. Federal Times first reported about the data breach. (Krishan, 11/30)

Democrats were prepping a counteroffer on a fiscal 2023 omnibus framework Thursday, as negotiators contended with a range of divisive issues, such as how to treat veterans medical care spending and the military’s requirement for servicemembers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. (Quigley, McPherson and Krawzak, 12/1)

The Department of Health and Human Services is partnering with the U.S. national men's soccer team to promote vaccinations with the updated COVID-19 shot, which are currently at a low. (Gonzalez, 12/1)

A new study looks at excess deaths by partisan affiliation in two states during the pandemic. ... The study finds that excess deaths during the pandemic were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats in two states, Ohio and Florida. What’s more, the partisan gap in death rates increased significantly after vaccines were introduced. (11/30)

President Xi Jinping and his advisers have so far shunned the messenger RNA vaccines developed in the West. Experts are divided on the full implications of China’s vaccine nationalism. But most agree that bringing in a foreign booster now — even one tailored to target omicron in addition to the original strain of the virus — would not address the core problem China faces, which is a large population of older people who have resisted a third shot of any vaccine. (Johnson, Cadell and Achenbach, 12/1)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., criticized China’s Covid lockdowns as “draconian” and said the Beijing government should focus on vaccinating the elderly. “The vaccination of the elderly has not been well performed and the vaccine they have has been not a particularly effective vaccine,” Fauci told The Washington Post in an interview on Thursday, as he prepares to step down as director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases later this month. (Kimball, 12/1)

China’s coronavirus czar said that the country would take “baby steps” in extricating itself from a three-year pursuit of “zero covid,” after authorities stepped up censorship efforts following rare mass protests, and ahead of a state funeral for a popular former leader. (Li, 12/2)