| | | | | | | Presented By Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs | | | | Vitals | | By Caitlin Owens ·Jan 29, 2021 | | Good morning. Today's word count is 986, or a 4-minute read. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Teachers want the vaccine, but they'll have to wait |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Some teachers don't want to return to the classroom until they've been vaccinated — setting up potential clashes with state and local governments pushing to reopen schools, Axios' Marisa Fernandez reports. Why it matters: Extended virtual learning is taking a toll on kids, and the Biden administration is pushing to get them back in the classroom quickly. But that will only be feasible if teachers are on board. Where it stands: Although the rise of new, more contagious variants has scrambled the calculus on school reopening, for now the expert consensus is that vaccinations aren't essential to safely reopening schools. - Most states haven't put teachers at the front of the line for vaccines. Only 18 have included teachers in the early priority groups that can get vaccinated now, and in all but four of those states, teachers are competing for shots with other higher-risk populations, including the elderly.
Yes, but: Teachers in some large school districts don't want to return to the classroom without being vaccinated — which could mean several more months of virtual classes. - The Chicago teachers' union has asked to delay reopening until teachers receive at least the first dose of the vaccine, but the city's public health commissioner has said it could take months for teachers to be vaccinated, the Chicago Tribune reports.
What they're saying: "The issue is that we should be aligning vaccination with school opening. That doesn't mean every single teacher has to be vaccinated before you open one school, it means there has to be that alignment," Randi Weingarten, the president of AFT, told ABC News. The other side: Prioritizing teachers can be controversial. - Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has been criticized for the decision to vaccinate teachers ahead of the elderly, high-risk essential workers and other vulnerable communities.
Go deeper. |     | | | | | | 2. Long COVID leaves a maze of questions |  | | | Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios | | | | Millions of COVID-19 survivors worldwide — even those who had mild illness — are reporting long-term symptoms months later, including brain fog, persistent exhaustion, and lung, heart or kidney damage, Axios' Eileen Drage O'Reilly reports. Why it matters: For too long, these long-haulers, as they call themselves, have not been taken seriously enough by providers and researchers, some doctors tell Axios, adding that there's an urgent need for dedicated research in order to treat patients with lingering symptoms. - Doctors started to realize long COVID was a problem last spring, and yet "there's little to show for it," says cardiologist Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute.
What's happening: Many providers and health care systems initially dismissed the symptoms as related to something else, but growing evidence points to SARS-CoV-2 as the culprit in many cases. - A preprint study in medRxiv, not yet peer reviewed, surveyed 3,762 self-described long-haulers from 56 countries, with symptoms after the onset of what was likely COVID-19.
- Six months after first becoming sick, almost half were unable to work full time and 22% weren't working at all. 88% had cognitive dysfunctions or memory loss, and most had multiple symptoms.
There are many questions about why some people develop long COVID-19 and others don't. - Topol says they need to figure out whether early treatments like monoclonal antibodies may help diminish the chance of long COVID.
Go deeper. | | | | | | | | 3. The latest in the U.S. |  Data: The COVID Tracking Project; Note: Does not include probable deaths from New York City; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios National data on COVID-19 testing is incomplete, "critical gaps in the medical supply chain" remain, and a lack of data has stalled delivering key resources to people who need it most, a nonpartisan federal watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, has found. Novavax said yesterday that its coronavirus vaccine works well against the virus, except for the South Africa variant, per NYT. South Carolina health officials have reported the first-known U.S. COVID-19 cases of a fast-spreading variant discovered in South Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Wednesday. Data from New York's public health department undercounted COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50%, according to a report released Thursday by state Attorney General Letitia James. | | | | | | | | A message from Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs | | The Rebate Rule is the wrong prescription for lower drug prices | | |  | | | | The Trump Administration's prescription drug "Rebate Rule" will raise seniors' premiums by up to 25%, skyrocket government spending, and will not deliver the lower drug costs that patients need. Learn more about why it should be overturned. | | | | | | 4. The long global line for COVID-19 vaccines |  There's a wild scramble at the front of the line for COVID-19 vaccines, with the EU discussing export bans and legal action to ensure its supply speeds up in the coming months, Axios' Dave Lawler reports. The flipside: The back of the line likely stretches to 2023 and beyond. Almost no low-income countries have managed to begin distribution in earnest, and total vaccinations in all of continental sub-Saharan Africa currently number in the dozens. Driving the news: The EU is expected to approve a third vaccine tomorrow, from AstraZeneca. But European leaders are furious that initial supplies will be far lower than anticipated. The state of play: The fact that rich countries are not only buying up most of the supply of approved vaccines but also struggling to roll them out efficiently bodes ill for the countries left waiting further behind. - The Economist Intelligence Unit projects that vaccines will only be widely available in the world's wealthiest countries this year, while many others (Brazil, India, Egypt) will reach widespread vaccination next year, and most low-income countries will wait until 2023 or beyond.
African health authorities are hoping vaccine distribution will begin across the continent in March, initially with the roughly 3 million doses needed to cover medical workers. - The urgency is only growing as case counts rise on the continent and new variants spread.
- The global COVAX initiative hopes to cover 20% of the population of every country by the end of 2021, and the African Union is attempting to supplement that with additional orders.
Go deeper. | | | | | | | | 5. Dog of the week | | My mom helped again this week, and she could not decide just one dog. So this week, we have three dogs of the week. Piper. Photo: David Kopp Meet (the other) Piper, "who, like many dogs, has adjusted to COVID very well," writes her dad, David. - Piper is "loving all the walks, mid-day attention and even the unending photo sessions."
Ruby. Photo: Laurie Naismith We also have Ruby, who "wants to be a reporter for Axios," her mom, Laurie, says. Luna. Photo: Megan Barretto Last but certainly not least, meet Luna. - "Like her dog-mom, she enjoys long walks next to the lake and chewy treats. Luna is thrilled with Mom's new mostly-WFH life, as she gets double the walks and belly rubs," writes her mom, Megan.
- "Dog-mom is on faculty at a local Sacramento university teaching nursing students — Luna photos bring a smile to stressed out students who are learning to be heroes of tomorrow."
| | | | | | | | A message from Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs | | Premiums for seniors will skyrocket under the Rebate Rule | | |  | | | | The Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs, alongside other concerned organizations, urges the Biden Administration and Congress to protect seniors from higher premiums by overturning this rule and enacting reforms that lower Rx prices. Learn more. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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