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A lack of a high school education was the most important predictor of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in 3,142 US counties, finds a study yesterday in the American Journal of Infection Control. ... Of all reasons cited for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, a lack of trust in the vaccines (55%) was the most common, followed by worries about side effects (48%) and low trust in the government (46%). Five of the 10 most common reasons given for vaccine hesitancy were related to a lack of knowledge about potential side effects, benefits, effectiveness, and risks of being unvaccinated. (Van Beusekom, 1/5)

As many as two-thirds of pregnant women remain unvaccinated — many out of concern that the vaccine is not safe. In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged those expecting a child to get a vaccine because COVID-19 can cause health complications for both the mother and baby. Now, a new CDC study released on Tuesday of more than 40,000 women has found that the COVID-19 vaccine does not add to the risk of delivering a baby prematurely or delivering a child who is born smaller or less developed than expected, also known as small-for-gestational-age. (Le, 1/5)

Almost 6 million more people will be eligible for a booster shot following Monday’s decision from the Food and Drug Administration to shorten the wait time for those who received Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine. The 53.6 million people who completed their Pfizer series are eligible during the new window, up 5.7 million from those who got their second shot before August, according to an analysis of vaccine data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Ramos, 1/5)

Bank of America Corp. is donating $100 to local food banks and hunger-relief organizations for each U.S. employee that registers their Covid-19 booster. The company will direct the funds for every eligible employee, including those that already received their booster shot, who registers those vaccinations by the end of January, Sheri Bronstein, chief human resources officer, and Chief Administrative Officer Steve Boland said in a memo to staff. (Doherty, 1/5)

The state Senate’s sole physician pressed the head of the state health department Wednesday over a monthslong delay in notifying patients who may have received spoiled vaccines — and said he is worried issues are prevalent among other vaccine providers. Democratic Sen. Clarence Lam asked Maryland Department of Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader about the department’s failure to quickly notify hundreds of Marylanders who may have received vaccines that were mishandled — potentially rendering them ineffective — by TrueCare24, a San Francisco-based company the state contracted with last year to hold vaccine clinics across Maryland. (Deville, 1/5)

A Southern California man was arrested after he recently attacked workers at a coronavirus vaccination clinic, allegedly calling them “murderers” and falsely accusing the staffers of causing the covid pandemic, according to police and clinic officials. (Bella, 1/5)

New Covid-19 variants are likely to keep on emerging until the whole world is vaccinated against the virus, experts warn, saying that the sharing of vaccines is not just an altruistic act but a pragmatic one. “Until the whole world is vaccinated, not just rich Western countries, I think we are going to remain in danger of new variants coming along and some of those could be more virulent than omicron,” Dr. Andrew Freedman, a reader in infectious diseases at Cardiff University Medical School, told CNBC on Thursday. Viruses “tend to become milder” as they evolve, Freedman noted, but he cautioned that this “isn’t always the case." (Ellyatt, 1/6)