| | | | | | | Presented By PhRMA | | | | Vitals | | By Caitlin Owens ·Feb 25, 2021 | | Good morning. Today's word count is 976, or a 4-minute read. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Republicans least likely to want the coronavirus vaccine |  Reproduced from Civiqs; Chart: Axios Visuals Americans of all ages, education levels, genders, races and political parties say they're more likely than not to get the coronavirus vaccine — except Republicans. Why it matters: Vaccine hesitancy is higher among white Republicans than any other demographic group, and it hasn't been improving much as the vaccination effort continues, according to Civiqs polling. By the numbers: 41% of Republicans say they don't plan to get a vaccine if it's available to them. Only 33% say they do plan to get vaccinated. - 70% of Democrats and a plurality of independents (47%) say they plan to get vaccinated.
- White Americans are now less likely than Black and Latino Americans to say they plan to get the vaccine.
Between the lines: States' levels of vaccine hesitancy correlate strongly with their politics, according to CoVaxxy, a project by Indiana University's Observatory on Social Media. - Blue states have lower rates of vaccine refusal than red states, and battleground states are generally somewhere in the middle.
- Wyoming, North Dakota and Mississippi have some of the highest rates of vaccine refusal, while Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut have some of the lowest.
The bottom line: The virus doesn't care about politics, and it certainly won't confine itself to states with the largest unvaccinated populations. - High rates of vaccine hesitancy among any group threatens our collective progress against the pandemic, meaning that it's just as important to reach white Republicans as it is to reach other hesitant groups.
|     | | | | | | 2. New coronavirus cases fall by 20% |  Data: The COVID Tracking Project, state health departments; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios New coronavirus infections continued their sharp decline over the past week, and are now back down to pre-Thanksgiving levels, Axios' Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon report. The big picture: Given America's experience over the past year, it can be hard to trust anything that looks like good news without fearing that another shoe is about to drop. - But the U.S. really is doing something right lately. Cases are way down, vaccinations are way up, and that's going to save a lot of lives.
By the numbers: On average, just under 65,000 Americans were diagnosed with coronavirus infections every day over the past week. That's a 20% drop from the week before, and continues a steep downward trend that has lasted more than a month. - Caseloads got worse over the past week in four states — Idaho, New Hampshire, Washington and Wyoming — and improved in 34 states.
- Hospitalizations were unchanged over the past week, but deaths fell by 24%. The coronavirus is now killing about 2,000 Americans per day.
- The U.S. conducted an average of about 1.4 million coronavirus tests per day over the past week, and is administering about 1.4 million vaccine doses per day.
What's next: It's true that more contagious variants of COVID-19 could cause cases — and therefore hospitalizations and deaths — to spike again. But the best protection against that risk is to curb the virus' spread and ramp up vaccinations — which we're doing. | | | | | | | | 3. Lessons from Charlotte's mass vaccination events | | A group of Charlotte businesses hope to be a model for mass vaccination events nationwide through a playbook they delivered to governors of all 50 states on Wednesday, Axios Charlotte's Katie Peralta Soloff reports. Why it matters: Large-scale vaccinations like the kind the business community in Charlotte has held could be replicated nationwide, local leaders say. - They see the resources of the private sector as a crucial piece in accelerating vaccinations.
The memo to governors comes weeks after the partnership between Honeywell, Atrium Health, Tepper Sports & Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted back-to-back mass vaccinations at Charlotte Motor Speedway and at Bank of America Stadium. - The two events together administered more than 36,000 vaccinations over five days.
The Charlotte group's playbook is essentially a how-to guide in vaccinating thousands of people at a time. Some recommendations include: - Identify venues with sufficient space to allow for social distancing, either by foot or by car.
- Have patients schedule appointments through the health-care system's web portal.
- Use pre-screening technology to assess patients for risk level.
- Develop bar codes technology to check in patients and convert data to upload to the state database.
Yes, but: There isn't a coordinated effort at the national level to leverage the resources of the private sector on mass vaccinations, as Axios' Courtenay Brown writes. - Plus, there are limits to how involved the private sector can be, given sensitive patient data and states' varying vaccine eligibility rules.
| | | | | | | | A message from PhRMA | | We are committed to being a part of the solution | | |  | | | | America's biopharmaceutical companies are committed to ending the pandemic by: - Continuing to develop treatments and vaccines to combat COVID-19,
- Working closely with governments, insurers and others to make sure vaccines and treatments are accessible and affordable.
| | | | | | 4. Anti-tobacco organizations call for menthol ban |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Public health advocates are pressing the Food and Drug Administration to ban menthol-flavored tobacco products, years after other flavors were banned, Axios' Marisa Fernandez writes. The big picture: Congress gave menthol a pass when it banned flavored cigarettes in 2009, but advocates are highlighting the products' disproportionate use among Black smokers, at a time when policymakers are especially attuned to racial inequities in health. - A new report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids highlights tobacco companies' aggressive marketing of menthol cigarettes, which can be more harmful than non-menthol products, in Black communities.
- Massachusetts and California have already banned menthol cigarettes; Connecticut and Maryland are considering similar laws.
What's next: The FDA has said it will make a decision by late April, in response to a lawsuit filed by public health advocates. | | | | | | | | 5. Catch up quick |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | The Food and Drug Administration's staff released a briefing document on Wednesday endorsing Johnson & Johnson's one-shot coronavirus vaccine as safe and effective. Vaccine producer Moderna announced Wednesday it is sending doses of a new vaccine designed to better protect against the coronavirus variant first discovered in South Africa to the National Institutes of Health for a Phase 1 clinical trial. After nearly a year of pandemic life, people are making plans to indulge in all the activities they have desperately missed — emboldened by encouraging vaccine news, Courtenay writes. The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will send more than 25 million masks to more than 1,300 community health centers and 60,000 food pantries and soup kitchens in order to reach some Americans most vulnerable to COVID-19. Black pastors have a new job on their plates during COVID-19: encouraging skeptical congregants to get vaccinated. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby believes that people will feel safe traveling again by this time next year, depending on the pace of vaccinations and the government's ongoing response to the pandemic, he said at an Axios virtual event. | | | | | | | | A message from PhRMA | | Biopharma is committed to being a part of the solution | | |  | | | | As we usher in a new administration and Congress, there are many things on which we can all agree, like building a more just, equitable society. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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