News : Axios Vitals: Vaccines may limit the damage from coronavirus variants

Monday, April 5, 2021

Axios Vitals: Vaccines may limit the damage from coronavirus variants

Presented By PhRMA

Vitals

By Caitlin Owens ·Apr 05, 2021

Good morning. Happy belated Easter to everyone who celebrates. Hopefully it is one of the last holidays that will fall during the pandemic two years in a row!

Today's word count is 1,043, or a 4-minute read.

1 big thing: Vaccines may limit the damage from coronavirus variants

Illustration of a person staring into the light at the end of a tunnel, the light is in the shape of a coronavirus cell.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Many public health experts are optimistic that the fourth wave of the coronavirus that the U.S. has entered won't be as bad as the other three — but emphasize that it will still be important to take precautions.

Why it matters: A more transmissible, deadlier variant of the virus — the one that originated in the U.K. — is becoming increasingly prevalent across the country, but the extraordinary U.S. vaccination effort may blunt the worst effects of this most recent wave of cases.

Driving the news: The U.S. reported over the weekend that more than 4 million doses had been administered in a day for the first time.

Three-quarters of Americans 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC.

What they're saying: "It's kind of like a race between the potential for a surge and our ability to vaccinate as many people as we possibly can," NIAID director Anthony Fauci told NPR's "Morning Edition" on Friday. "And hopefully, if you want to make this a metaphorical race, the vaccine is going to win this one."

"I think that there's enough immunity in the population that you're not going to see a true fourth wave of infection," former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said yesterday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Yes, but: Experts warn that a victory over the variants is dependent on Americans maintaining precautions, like mask wearing and social distancing, while the vaccination effort continues.

Some states' rollback of mitigation measures is working with the rise of the variant that originated in the U.K. to cause the recent spike in cases, Fauci said. "The one thing we don't want to do is pull back prematurely."
And in some hot spots, like Michigan, hospitalizations are rising — evidence that not everyone vulnerable to severe infections has yet been vaccinated as the virus gains steam.

Go deeper.

2. Pandemic leads to staggering teacher shortages

Illustration of a teacher carrying a giant apple on their back.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

The pandemic has pushed teachers out of the workforce in droves, and many schools don't have a strong safety net to fill the gaps as children come back into classrooms, Axios' Erica Pandey reports.

Why it matters: Teaching has been one of the toughest pandemic-era jobs, with pivots to remote learning and then risk of infection with school reopenings.

Teacher retirements are up 44% in Michigan since August, Chalkbeat in Detroit reports. "The pandemic is a game-changer. I think there's going to be record retirements," Dwight Pierson, a high school teacher in St. Johns, Michigan, told Chalkbeat.
Long Beach Unified, one of the largest school districts in California, saw teacher leaves of absences spike by 35% this year, per EdSurge.

There's also no safety net, with substitute teacher shortfalls in many districts.

73% of districts said their need for substitute teachers was more dire in 2020 than in 2019, per a recent Education Week survey of principals and school administrators. And 74% said the number of applicants for sub positions dropped.
Case in point: Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia, which is one of the country's largest districts, with about 178,000 students, is dealing with a 30% drop in the number of available subs, according to the New York Times.

What to watch: Schools are hiring. While many industries are still recovering from the initial pandemic crash, job openings for teachers are actually 2% higher than pre-pandemic levels, AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the jobs site Indeed, tells Axios.

Go deeper: America's massive teacher shortfall is stunting student learning

3. Doctors and nurses as vaccine messengers

Illustration of a man yelling with vaccination syringes projecting from his mouth

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

One of the most important messages vaccine-reluctant Americans could hear is that their doctors trust the COVID vaccine, so they should, too, KFF's Drew Altman writes in today's column.

The big picture: Vaccine takeup among doctors and skilled nurses is high — and they're among the messengers Americans trust most.

By the numbers: Nearly nine in 10 physicians and nurses with graduate degrees report either already being vaccinated or planning to get a vaccine.

Large majorities of other health care professionals who diagnose and treat patients say they are already vaccinated or plan to be.

Why it matters: Throughout the pandemic, majorities of American adults have said their doctors and nurses were their most trusted sources of information about the coronavirus.

Eight in 10 have said their doctors are the ones they will turn to when deciding whether to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The bottom line: Because they are such trusted messengers, doctors and nurses are in a special position to put their voices where their arms have already been:

They can get the word out that they have been vaccinated and encourage their communities to get vaccinated, too.

Go deeper.

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.

The biopharmaceutical industry remains committed to addressing systemic racism on behalf of our communities, the patients we serve and our employees.

4. J&J takes control of Baltimore vaccine output

Johnson & Johnson announced late Saturday that it's "assuming full responsibility" for manufacturing its COVID-19 vaccine at a Baltimore plant where 15 million doses were ruined last week, Axios' Rebecca Falconer reports.

Of note: AstraZeneca said Saturday night it is in "full cooperation with the U.S. government" moving production from the facility, run by Emergent BioSolutions, which had been producing both vaccines.

Why it matters: The Biden administration took the "extraordinary" step of intervening as officials were "worried" the error would "erode public confidence in the vaccines," notes the New York Times, which first reported the news Saturday.

Driving the news: Both Bloomberg and Reuters report that the Department of Health and Human Services "facilitated" the move.

J&J said in a statement that it's "adding dedicated leaders for operations and quality, and significantly increasing the number of manufacturing, quality and technical operations personnel to work with the company specialists already at Emergent."
AstraZeneca, which has yet to receive FDA approval, said in a statement Saturday night it "will work with the U.S. Government to identify an alternative location."

For the record: The plant has yet to receive authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for either vaccine and the error is unlikely to impact the U.S. government's acceleration of the vaccine rollout.

What to watch: J&J said in its statement it "expects to deliver nearly 100 million single-shot doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. Government by the end of May."

5. Catch up quick

Illustrated collage of a cut up coronavirus cell.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

A new Pew Research survey found that only 27% of adults in the U.S. planned on attending an in-person Easter service this year, a 17-point drop from a group that otherwise would have reported 44% church attendance, NBC News reports.

TSA on Friday screened 1,580,785 people across U.S. airports, a record high since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Around 56% of Hispanic renters said in March, before an U.S. eviction moratorium was extended, that they were otherwise likely to be forced to leave their homes in the next two months, per Census data.

Pope Francis, while giving his Easter Sunday message, urged the international community to overcome delays in vaccine shipments, "especially in the poorest countries."

France is cutting it's GDP growth forecast to 5% from 6% as the country enters a four-week national lockdown aimed at slowing a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Bloomberg reports.

The Bangladeshi government on Saturday announced plans to impose a seven-day national lockdown starting Monday as coronavirus cases surge in the country, Bloomberg reports.

A message from PhRMA

We are committed to being a part of the solution

As we usher in a new Congress and new administration, we can all agree that people need quality, affordable health coverage that works when they need it.