Axios Vitals: CDC panel takes on vaccine side effects

Plus: Medicaid swells | Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Open in app View in browser   Presented By PhRMA   Axios Vitals By Tina Reed ·Jun 22, 2021 🌞 Good morning. Today's newsletter is 668 words, or a 3-minute read. We'll start today's newsletter with this interesting tidbit: As the CDC tries to find new ways to reach Spanish speakers, it's turned to Facebook's WhatsApp, writes Axios' Shawna Chen. Thanks for reading! Please invite your friends, family, colleagues to sign up for Axios Vitals.     1 big thing: High stakes for CDC meeting on myocarditis Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios   A CDC advisory committee will meet Wednesday to evaluate the risk of heart inflammation in teens who get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, Axios' Marisa Fernandez reports. Why it matters: Cases of heart inflammation are rare, but they've raised concerns among some experts and scientists — including some whose job it is to sift through those risks and recommend whether to authorize the vaccines for children younger than 12. What they're saying: "Myocarditis is something that needs to be looked at closely because we're likely seeing the tip of the iceberg," Michael Kurilla, a member of an FDA advisory committee on vaccines, said earlier this month. Yes, but: Out of 310 million vaccine doses administered, there have been 323 confirmed cases of myocarditis or pericarditis as of June 14, according to the CDC. The cases have been primarily from teens and men age 30 and younger. Symptoms were usually mild, and the overwhelming majority of patients who were hospitalized with the condition — 81% — made a full recovery. Unvaccinated children and young adults are also at higher risk of getting heart inflammation and related conditions if they contract COVID-19, experts say. The bottom line: Many observers say they don't expect the advisory committee to recommend against vaccination for teens or young adults. "It may well be in the end that we stay where we are," incoming American Heart Association president Donald Lloyd-Jones told Axios. The panel "will do what they did for the J&J vaccine, which is to put it in context and allow the listener to understand the concept of relative risk — that a choice not to get these vaccines is not a risk-free choice," said Paul Offit, a member of FDA's vaccine advisory panel.     2. 🎉 An unpleasant birthday surprise: COVID Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios   Sorry to be a buzzkill, but if you have had a birthday party during the pandemic, you probably increased your chances of catching the coronavirus, Axios' Caitlin Owens writes. A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine illustrates the limitations of policies — such as closing restaurants, bars and schools — that reduced public gatherings but couldn't stop private ones. What they found: In counties with high coronavirus prevalence, households that included someone with a birthday in the prior two weeks had 8.6 more coronavirus diagnoses per 10,000 people than households without any birthdays. Children's birthdays were associated with a larger increase in diagnoses than adult birthdays. Share this story.     3. U.S. allocates remaining shots President Biden at a press conference on the final day of the G7 summit. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images   The Biden administration on Monday announced a list of countries that will receive the remaining 55 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that the U.S. has pledged to allocate by the end of this month, Marisa writes. About 41 million of those 55 million doses will be shared through COVAX, including: 14 million for Latin America and the Caribbean. 16 million for Asia. 10 million for Africa.     A message from PhRMA Out-of-pocket costs don't have to be out-of-this-world confusing     The way insurance covers your medicine is too complicated. What you pay out of pocket for medicines should be more transparent, more predictable and more affordable. Because the system should work for patients. Not the other way around. Get the facts.     4. China's billion doses Data: Our World in Data; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios China has now administered 1 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines — 500 million of them in just the past month. That's half of the global total during that period, Axios' Dave Lawler writes. The big picture: China's vaccine rollout started slowly, due in part to a low sense of urgency and the fact that the government was focusing on exporting doses. The government aims to have 40% of the population fully vaccinated by the end of the month, Lawler writes.     5. Health insurers soak in Medicaid growth Data: Company filings, CMS, Kaiser Family Foundation; Chart: Michelle McGhee/Axios National Medicaid enrollment hit a record 80.5 million this past January as Congress provided extra funding during the pandemic, Axios' Bob Herman reports. Between the lines: Because more states have outsourced their Medicaid programs to private health insurers, this pandemic-fueled growth also has been a boon for some of the largest insurance companies. By the numbers: Seven out of 10 Medicaid enrollees are in a plan run by an insurance company, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That would mean roughly 55.5 million of the 80.5 million people now on Medicaid are in a privately run plan. And of those 55.5 million, roughly two-thirds are in a plan owned by one of six dominant insurance companies. Centene, the largest, covers s 13.6 million Medicaid enrollees.     A message from PhRMA Out-of-pocket costs don't have to be out-of-this-world confusing     The way insurance covers your medicine is too complicated. What you pay out of pocket for medicines should be more transparent, more predictable and more affordable. Because the system should work for patients. Not the other way around. Get the facts.   Like this style and format? Request access to Axios HQ The tool and templates you need for more engaging team updates.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: