Tag Archives: vaccine

Biden’s bid for a nursing home vaccine mandate faces obstacles

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Photo: Wyoming National Guard via Flickr

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series about the Biden Administration’s efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates among nursing home workers. For the first story see: Federal funds at stake as Biden Administration seeks to require vaccines for nursing home workers

The Biden administration likely will face challenges in trying to implement a planned mandate for COVID-19 vaccinations for staff of nursing homes, despite efforts to portray this proposal as a done deal. Continue reading →

Kerry Dooley Young is an independent journalist and AHCJ's core topic leader on patient safety. Liz Seegert, based in New York City, is AHCJ’s topic leader on aging.

Federal funds at stake as Biden Administration seeks to require vaccines for nursing home workers

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Photo: Maryland GovPics via Flickr

Is a new push by the Biden Ad­min­i­stra­tion to increase COVID-19 vaccinations among nursing home workers the right approach? While patient, resident and industry advocates are mostly supportive, others are alarmed by even the vague outline of the rule recently announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

President Biden asked CMS to issue an emergency declaration on August 18 to mandate that workers at the nation’s more than 15,000 nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid dollars get the COVID-19 vaccine or put the facility’s federal funding at risk. Continue reading →

Liz Seegert, based in New York City, is AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. Kerry Dooley Young is an independent journalist and AHCJ's core topic leader on patient safety.

Pfizer lays out timeline for its COVID-19 vaccine and a new flu vaccine

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Vial of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine

Photo: Arne Müseler via Flickr

In a teleconference announcing the company’s first-quarter 2021 earnings earlier this month, Pfizer laid out its timeline for when different versions of its COVID-19 vaccine may become available for various populations. The company also said it is working on two approaches for an mRNA-based flu vaccine (similar technology as the COVID-19 vaccine), with plans to run clinical trials in the third quarter.

By the end of May, the New York City company expects to submit a biologics license application (BLA) asking the FDA to fully approve the vaccine rather than continue its use under an emergency use authorization (EUA). Continue reading →

Tara Haelle (@TaraHaelle) is AHCJ's medical studies core topic leader, guiding journalists through the jargon-filled shorthand of science and research and enabling them to translate the evidence into accurate information.

One journalist’s efforts to counter misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines

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Daniel Funke

Daniel Funke

Alarm over the impact of COVID-19 misinformation has been growing, especially with increasing efforts by right-wing groups to spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

The effort to end the pandemic through vaccination could stall if too many people refuse to take the vaccine because they don’t have the correct facts to make a decision. It can be a daily battle by journalists to correct false statements on social media — especially for those on the fact-checking beat.

“It is hard to stay on top of everything,” Daniel Funke, staff writer at PolitiFact, a non-partisan fact-checking website, said during a recent How I Did It interview for AHCJ. “We don’t have a great way to quantify misinformation and where it is coming from because we’d have to fact check everything on the internet.” Continue reading →

Bara Vaida (@barav) is AHCJ's core topic leader on infectious diseases. An independent journalist, she has written extensively about health policy and infectious diseases. Her work has appeared in the National Journal, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg News, McClatchy News Service, MSNBC, NPR, Politico, The Washington Post and other outlets.

Vaccine hesitancy among rural elders, caregivers nearly double of more urban counterparts

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Older man with a band-aid on his upper arm

Photo: SELF Magazine via Flickr

A recent survey of family caregivers revealed some troubling information about the divide between rural and urban communities regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

According to the poll, nearly one in three (31%) family caregivers who live in rural communities say they won’t take the older adult under their care to get the COVID-19 vaccine—nearly double the refusal rate of urban and suburban caregivers (16%). About the same number (36%) of rural caregivers say they won’t get vaccinated themselves.

Safety concerns primarily drive caregivers’ unwillingness to get the vaccine for their loved ones and themselves, according to survey respondents. Among the rural family caregivers surveyed, an overwhelming 81% have doubts that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and more than a quarter (28%) are “not at all confident” in the vaccine’s safety. In comparison, 9% of their urban and suburban peers are not at all confident. Taken together, experts say the findings show how difficult it will be to save lives in communities where access to healthcare is already limited. Continue reading →

Liz Seegert is an independent health journalist and AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. She covers older adults, baby boomers, health policy, and social determinants of health, as well as many other health issues. Her bylines include stories for PBS/NextAvenue.org. the American Journal of Nursing, TIME Health, Medscape, Consumer Reports, and Medical Economics, as well as dozens of other trade and mainstream media. Her articles have been syndicated in Forbes.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant, the Saturday Evening Post and other major outlets.