| | | | | | | Presented By PhRMA | | | | Axios Vitals | | By Tina Reed ·Jul 16, 2021 | | 😙Happy Friday, Vitals readers! Today's newsletter is 1,016 words, or a 4-minute read. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Many nursing home staff still unvaccinated |  Data: AARP; Chart: Will Chase/Axios Only slightly more than half of nursing home staff and about 78% of residents across the country have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports from a new AARP analysis. Why it matters: The virus is continuing to spread among unvaccinated people, and unvaccinated nursing home residents are still at very high risk of severe infections or death. Between the lines: "There is a strong relationship between vaccination rates of staff and vaccination rates of residents. This means that in states where the vaccination rate of staff is low, there are also more unvaccinated residents who are vulnerable to a resurgence of the virus," AARP writes. - As of mid-June, only one in five facilities had vaccinated at least 75% of their staff.
What we're watching: Calls for mandatory vaccinations for health care workers are growing. - "No vulnerable, immunocompromised patient — older adults, cancer and transplant patients, individuals with HIV/AIDS, and others — trying to beat their disease should have to worry that the people caring for them may be asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19," a trio of University of Pennsylvania academics argued this week in STAT.
Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. Celebrities and the COVID vaccine |  | | | Pop music star and Disney actress Olivia Rodrigo. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | | | | Gen Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo was at the White House this week to create promotional videos aimed at boosting vaccination rates among America's youth, Axios' Marisa Fernandez reports. "I think it's more than safe to say that we will be reaching out to celebrities and anyone that can help us spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines," a White House official told Axios. Where it stands: There have certainly been a few high-profile celebrity endorsements of vaccines. But the typically noisy world of online promotion from celebs and social influencers has been comparatively quiet. - It appears some public figures may be choosing not to endorse vaccines for fear of backlash, experts say.
- "Celebrities and influencers may hesitate to take a strong stand for fear of alienating a sector of their audience. Unfortunately, vaccines now have an ideological spin," Timothy Caulfield, a health policy professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, told Axios.
- "The silence matters," Caulfield added.
The bottom line: As of Wednesday, only 55% of 25-to-39-year-olds have received one dose, far below older Americans. Among those aged 18 to 24, it's about 51%, according to CDC data. Share this story. | | | | | | | | 3. Profits swell when insurers are also doctors |  Data: Company documents; Chart: Will Chase/Axios UnitedHealth Group isn't just making more money because people deferred care throughout the coronavirus pandemic. It's making more money because it's owning a bigger piece of the health care system, Axios' Bob Herman reports. The big picture: Insurers keep more of the premiums they collect when they also own the medical providers that are paid those premium dollars. And no insurer has expanded as aggressively into care delivery over the years as UnitedHealth. Zoom in: Each quarter, UnitedHealth reports what it calls "intercompany eliminations." - This is when money transfers from one part of the company to another. UnitedHealth can't record the transaction as revenue because it is just paying itself.
By the numbers: UnitedHealth recorded $43.8 billion of eliminations in the first half of 2021, putting it on pace for roughly $91 billion for the entire year. | | | | | | | | 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. Getting to what you pay for medicines shouldn't be a maze. What you pay out of pocket for medicines should be more transparent, more predictable and more affordable. If we fix insurance, we can fix out-of-pocket medicine costs. See how. | | | | | | 4. Vaccinations at the Olympics |  | | | Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios | | | | Olympic organizers have made a series of major, last-minute policy changes to reduce the risk of a superspreader event, but won't be employing one particularly powerful tool: a vaccine mandate, Axios' Dave Lawler writes. Mandatory vaccinations would have been a massive logistical and ethical puzzle. But without one, the threat of infection will loom over the Olympic Village, and could ultimately extend well beyond it. What they're saying: An International Olympic Committee spokesman told Axios that around 85% of the people traveling to Tokyo in official delegations will be vaccinated, but did not specify the vaccination rate among athletes. - Nearly all IOC staff traveling to Tokyo will be vaccinated, along with 70–80% of media members, per the spokesman.
- The decision to ban spectators will also reduce the risk of outbreaks spreading into the community. But there will still be thousands of volunteers and local workers, not all of whom will be vaccinated.
- While efforts have been made to get distribute vaccines to National Organizing Committees, some athletes will almost certainly arrive in Tokyo without having had the opportunity to get vaccinated.
My thought bubble: Some of the most important tools experts told me the IOC should employ include more frequent COVID testing than the current plan of once a day. - They also pointed to real-time genomic testing. "That's really an important way to reduce the global fallout," said Annie Sparrow, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. Her biggest concern is for the spread among the Japanese. "They are the ones who are really going to suffer."
Go deeper. | | | | | | | | 5. ⌚️ Demand jumps for connected health tech |  Reproduced from Consumer Technology Association; Chart: Axios Visuals The pandemic supercharged consumer demand in connected health-monitoring tech like smart thermometers, pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs, and blood glucose monitors — and that growth is expected to continue this year. Driving the news: The latest industry forecast from the Consumer Technology Association shows the pandemic changes to U.S. consumer tech demand, with retail sales reaching a record-breaking $487 billion in 2020. Overall, connected health and fitness tech is on pace to reach $13 billion in 2021, a 12% jump over last year. - Some of the fastest growth is expected in smart health monitoring devices, which are expected to see 12.8 million units shipped and earn $740 million in revenue this year. That's up from 10.4 million and $632 million in revenue in 2020.
- It's a small, but growing, piece of the broader consumer health tech market. For instance, smartwatches are expected to reach $6.7 billion in revenue while connected exercise products such as Peloton and MYXfitness are expected to earn $3.9 billion in revenue in 2021.
| | | | | | | | 6. Dog of the week |  | | | Powder. Photo: Robert Pearl | | | | Meet Powder, a 60-pound Samoyed who lives with dad Robert Pearl, a Stanford University professor, author and former CEO of the Permanente Medical Group. - Powder's recent trip to the vet taught Pearl several lessons about health care he'd never considered before, including how greatly emotions influence our choices, Pearl wrote in Forbes.
- Powder also has his own Instagram page.
Powder. Photo: Robert Pearl | | | | | | | | 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. Getting to what you pay for medicines shouldn't be a maze. What you pay out of pocket for medicines should be more transparent, more predictable and more affordable. If we fix insurance, we can fix out-of-pocket medicine costs. See how. | | |  | | It'll help you deliver employee communications more effectively. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
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