WASHINGTON Useful Covid-19 information isnt reaching the Instagram generation.
Theres almost no messaging specifically tailored to them from federal or state public health officials. Theres hardly anything official on Tik Tok. And even the limited efforts to reach them where they are like Instagrams links to its Covid-19 information center arent working.
Just ask Kymon Palau, a 21-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M., who has over 18,000 followers on the site.
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If I am being honest with you, I probably clicked those tags once back in April of last year and never clicked them again its annoying, Palau said.
Palau isnt alone in interviews with more than half a dozen other young people around the country, nearly all said they werent opposed to vaccinations they just couldnt find information tailored to them.
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That lack of information is clearly having an impact. A recent STAT-Harris Poll finds that 21% of Generation Z defined in the survey as young adults aged 18 to 24 said they would not get vaccinated against Covid-19 and another 34% said they would wait awhile and see before getting vaccinated. The results come on the heels of an NBC-Morning Consult poll that found that 26% of Gen Z said they would not get the vaccine.
There isnt anything that is consumable and/or targeted at our demographic, said Gabrielle Kalisz, a 22-year-old who lives in Washington, D.C., and who has been vaccinated. All the messaging online isnt targeted toward our age group, it doesnt explain why, if youre a healthy 19-year-old, you should get this vaccine.
Numerous public health officials told STAT that the issue of growing vaccine reluctance among young people can be solved with a coordinated campaign of reliable, useful information that makes it both easy and enticing for young people to get vaccinated, even if they may not personally benefit much.
Those same officials acknowledged, however, that much of the groundwork for messaging to young people is yet to be done.
Time is running out: Unvaccinated young people are fueling an exponential uptick in Covid-19 cases in the Midwest, prompting fears of a fourth Covid-19 surge that could spread throughout the United States. Around the world, young people are also increasingly showing up in intensive care units with life-threatening symptoms. The uptick in cases, which experts believe is caused by the increased spread of the coronavirus variant known as B.1.1.7, has been so serious that it has prompted one Canadian province to go back into lockdown. Public health officials also fear that reopening universities this fall could fuel regional outbreaks in college towns around the country.
People keep referring to it as the race against time, but thats where we are, Michael Meit, a researcher who holds positions at the University of Chicago and East Tennessee State Universitys Center for Rural Health Research. We need to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible and in particular we need to get the people vaccinated who are the ones who are spreading the virus, and right now the people who are spreading the virus are those younger age groups.
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Round Dance Mighty Arrows
Catriona Fee, 19, from Washington, D.C., isnt getting vaccinated. Shes too worried about whether the Pfizer and Moderna shots will impact her ability to have a family down the line a concern that several other Gen Zers shared with STAT. (Early data has shown that the vaccines do not affect fertility, and leading medical associations still recommend vaccines for individuals who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.)
Fee maintains shed be open to getting vaccinated if more information was available about potential long-term impacts on fertility, but right now shes not convinced.
Gen Z they have to consider, is this going to impact my choices down the road? Fee said. For the vaccine, its, is this going to impact my ability to have children?
Young people are also worried about whether vaccine side effects will keep them out of work or make it harder for them to finish their mountains of homework. While all three vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration have a tendency to hit young people harder with side effects, theres little information available about what they can expect.
People just dont have time to try to find an appointment, to take the time out of their day to go get the shot, and have two days where they feel awful, said Kyler Tipton, 24, of Conway, Ark., who wants to get vaccinated. I know nobody really has the time to leave work or take a couple off of days off because they got a vaccine, but for people my age, they might miss their rent.
Theyre also just less motivated than many older people.
The challenge in this age group is they know that the risk to them is pretty low from this virus we shouldnt be dishonest about that. Its helping them be motivated enough to protect others to overcome their own personal ambivalence, said Sarah Van Orman, division chief of college health at the University of Southern California.
The problem of vaccine hesitancy is even more pronounced in rural, conservative communities. Recent polling suggests between 20% and roughly 40% of rural Americans are unsure about getting vaccinated.
Tipton told STAT that young people in his community are weighing the modest benefits of getting vaccinated with the criticism they may receive from their community, from people who are themselves hesitant or opposed to the vaccines.
They just dont see it being more valuable than the social ostracism, and the sickness, explained Tipton, referring to the potential side effects of the vaccine.
Though public health officials havent launched any specific campaigns targeting young people, Gen Zers themselves are starting to organize to help their peers.
Palau, the Instagram influencer, largely credits his own change of heart on the vaccine to his followers and fellow influencers particularly people of color on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Palau, who is Indigenous, was hesitant for months because of the long history of exploitation and medical experimentation on Native communities, he said, even though he lost several family members to Covid-19.
We were treated like lab rats to be forcibly tested on, he said. Of course that history is going to cross our minds.
Eventually he made his own TikTok videos urging other Native young people to get vaccinated. His video is part of a campaign dubbed See Friends Again, a small campaign stood up by Bigtent Creative, an advocacy organization focused on mobilizing young people on channels like TikTok and Snapchat. The campaign focuses on contracting with young people of color who are micro influencers to share vaccine positive messages on their social media accounts.
Jordan Tralins, a 19-year-old from St. Petersburg, Fla., started the Covid Campus Coalition at her college, Cornell University. The campaign, which shares eye-catching, university-themed infographics answering common vaccine questions, piggybacks on the growing trend of Instagram infographic activism. More than 20 universities have now joined the coalition, including Ohio State and Notre Dame.
I hadnt seen any type of campaign targeted toward people my age and thats how the idea came to be, explained Tralins. I definitely dont think the information was in my face. It was not in my Instagram feed anywhere. Anything that was on Facebook or TikTok that I saw was false information.
Kaelin Connor, a 21-year-old from Belton, Texas, wrote an op-ed in her college newspaper debunking common vaccine myths. Kalisz, the 22-year-old from Washington, D.C., meanwhile, said she was pushing her friends to come to her for help.
We went into the group chat and said what are your questions about the vaccine? What can I explain for you? What resources can I get to you? Can I help you find where to get vaccinated? explained Kalisz. A lot of it was just pushing a topic that maybe some kids didnt even want to talk about, so that at least it was out there and we could have the conversation.
Those kinds of personal conversations between trusted friends can make a big impact in changing peoples minds. Alison Buttenheim, an associate professor of nursing and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania who researches strategies to increase vaccine acceptance, described the impact of these conversations as huge, huge, huge, huge.
The Biden administration has promised that its about to get much more involved in drumming up demand for vaccines and young people are one of its primary targets.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a $3 billion initiative aimed at increasing vaccine acceptance. The administration also launched a sweeping public relations campaign, which includes a new Covid community corps, a coalition of several hundred groups that will work with the White House to spread vaccine positive messages.
Both individuals and groups can join the community corps, which will provide participating groups with resources like fact sheets and social media posts to share, although its not yet clear how central a role the community corp will play in the overall vaccine rollout.
NextGen America, a nonprofit that typically focuses on registering and mobilizing young voters, is a member of the new corps. The group is planning to send text alerts and emails to its some 10 million young people, both to help them figure out where to be vaccinated and to answer basic questions.
We are hearing from folks that they are not worried about the vaccine, or its more important for their grandparents to get vaccinated, or they dont know where to get vaccinated, they dont know when theyll be able to get vaccinated, said Justin Atkins, the groups national politics manager. We have young folks that still believe they cant get vaccinated because its something thats reserved only for the elderly in areas where they can get vaccinated.
The community corps model concept makes sense, argued Buttenheim, the vaccine acceptance expert.
This really seems to me like the sweet spot, she said, adding that community-based efforts, like a recent ad promoting vaccination in New Orleans, just land in a way that Dr. [Jill] Biden smiling and saying we should all get vaccinated probably wouldnt. (Buttenheim added that Biden should continue to do those, too.)
She just wishes it started sooner.
Easy for me to say: It feels a little late, Buttenheim said. But thats OK.
It was not in my Instagram feed anywhere. Anything that was on Facebook or TikTok that I saw was false information.
Jordan Tralins, a 19-year-old from St. Petersburg, Fla.
A number of public health officials told STAT that the reopening of college campuses may be, paradoxically, a boon for controlling Covid-19 because campuses have a leg up in helping vaccinate their populations.
We know where people live, we know their email addresses, and we also know a lot about them. We know how to reach different parts of our students with the messages they need, explained Van Orman, the USC professor.
Already a handful of college campuses, including Rutgers University and Cornell University, have also mandated students get vaccinated, and others are likely to follow.
The optimism may be misplaced, especially if most universities dont mandate the vaccine. Flu vaccination on college campuses rates typically hover between 8% and 39% far short of the 70% recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The problem is even more pressing for the roughly one-third of college-aged people who arent enrolled in college. While colleges can bombard their students with vaccine positive messages, create vaccine sites all over campus, and even mandate vaccines none of that exists for those who dont enroll in higher education.
We have all the factors that we have in college students without the role of the institution helping to mitigate them, said Van Orman. I worry much more about our young adults that are not associated with institutions of higher education.
Some public health officials are already lamenting their lack of planning, and worrying about the future.
Im not entirely sure how well-prepared everybody is to start communicating, getting key messages tailored to the younger generations out there. Everybodys been so preoccupied they really havent had a chance to think two or three moves ahead, said William Schaffner, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University. We have a lot of work to do.
Others, however, are still hopeful they have to be.
Using messages and strategies and approaches that are rooted in the research and that we know work will get us where we need to be, said Ann Christiano, the director of the University of Floridas Center for Public Interest Communications. If I didnt believe that, I wouldnt be able to get out of bed in the morning.
Ed Silverman contributed to this report.
The study is looking for unvaccinated participants, but space is extremely limited.
SEATTLE Its the next step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Tia Babu from the University of Washington is heading up a local study looking at the long-term effectiveness of the vaccine.
The primary endpoint, we will be looking at safety and tolerability of the vaccine, but we will also be looking at immune response, said Babu.
We don't know how long people have immunity after vaccination, Babu continued. We don't know, over time, will that immunity wane?" We do know that some of the vaccines are less effective against different variants.
UW Medicine is among four health groups participating in the study, which is expected to last just over a year. They're looking for people who have not yet been vaccinated to participate in the early phase of the study.
We're looking for people who don't have a lot of medical diagnoses, who don't have any risk for severe COVID, and for people who don't have a severe allergy profile as well, explained Babu.
The study is small, so only a limited number of spots are available. To inquire, you can contact the UW Virology Research Clinic via email at gritstone@uw.edu or by phone at 206-520-4340.
Babu said the study is important to address future vaccine effectiveness against the mutating variants of the virus.
We do want to see if we can elicit a broader immune response, she said.
The study will be in two phases. During the first phase, participants will be given two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In the second stage of our study, we will be enrolling participants and we will be administering two other vaccines," said Babu. "These vaccines will actually have proteins for coronavirus that include the spike protein but will also have additional COVID proteins. So, we are hoping in the stage two portion of our city that we will be able to elicit a broader immune response, which may cover some of the variants which people might be familiar with mutations in the spike protein in coronavirus.
The Arkansas Department of Health reports African Americans make up only 10.6% of people vaccinated in Arkansas
by: Crystal Martinez
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) The Arkansas Department of Health reports African Americans make up only 10.6% of people vaccinated in Arkansas but the census shows they make up almost 16% of the total population.
Lindsey Leverett-Higgins and Quinton Green are with the NWA Dr. MLK council. They say this disproportion shines a light on racial disparities in health care.
Systematic racism, they feel that when they are working with a healthcare professional that often times their concerns are not heard and their concerns are not taken seriously, Leverett-Higgins said.
For example, when you talk about the 1940s or 1950s because of those earlier experiences that have transpired throughout generation after generation after generation, Green said.
President Biden has designated health centers to receive shipments of the vaccine to reach vulnerable populations.
A recent study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows the majority of people who got their first shot from these centers were people of color. One health center thats in our area is Community Clinic.
There are groups that have had less access to quality information and we need to change that and so I think recognition is the first step, Dr. Gary Berner said.
Now the council is working with other organizations and the community clinic to get more people vaccinated with a mass vaccination event.
Ensuring that we are partnering with those key organizations that target the African American community to really help to educate our community and to encourage them to seek opportunities to get vaccinated, Leverett-Higgins said.
I think also we have to have more minorities at the decision-making table, Green said. You cant make decisions if you dont have those that are impacted at the table.
They all say this vaccine clinic is just one of many they hope to put on for the community.
The community COVID-19 vaccination clinic is scheduled for Tuesday, April 13 at the Rogers Convention Center from 10 AM to 6 PM. You can sign up by clicking on the registration link.
Northwest Michigan Health Services announced Wednesday they had a surplus of vaccines that needed to be claimed by Saturday.
Its an issue becoming more common in rural areas, while other parts of the state dont have nearly enough.
As part of the state of Michigans initiative to get doses into rural parts of the state, Northwest Michigan Health Services was given 1,000 doses to spread across five mobile clinics.
But unlike other parts of the state like Southeast Michigan where theres such a high demand and not enough supply, NMHSI had more supply than demand. It has been a struggle for them to make sure to get enough people, from the area, to get the shots in arms and not let them go to waste.
It hasnt been a significant problem, said Kerry Ebersole-Singh of the Protect Michigan Commission, But its definitely something we are mindful of.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer says amidst spiking cases, that more restrictions arent the way forward, vaccines are.
When local health departments are close to throwing surplus doses away because they cant find arms to put them in, it raises concerns.
We are actually reaching out to patients within NMHSI, calling those patients, letting them know, said Alicia Harmon of NMHSI, That we do have some vaccines that are available if theyre willing to come in.
NMHSI will find the arms and not waste a dose but they say their biggest issue is people finding them.
Unfortunately its not a centralized system in terms of registering and getting scheduled, said Ebersole-Singh.
The states first move to fill these demand gaps was to expand eligibility.
Which we hope will again increase and infuse demand for vaccines, said Ebersole-Singh.
As some parts struggle to keep up, allotment schedules may shift. Away from rural areas to urban areas unless more Northern Michiganders step up for their shots.
We know where every dose has been allocated in the state of Michigan, said Ebersole-Singh, Where its allocated, when its scheduled and when it gets into an arm.
Last spring, Covid-19 brought into sharp focus the abhorrent conditions in our overcrowded jails and prisons. There was hope that we might finally begin to decarcerate, sending home people for whom there is no good public safety reason to be locked up. That unfortunately did not happen, despite hundreds of thousands of infections and thousands of deaths among incarcerated people.
After reaching historical lows in the middle of 2020, by November, many jail populations across the country returned to their pre-pandemic levels. The result is a severe and urgent danger to both everyone behind bars and the surrounding communities, and it is a public health necessity to vaccinate everyone in jails as soon as possible.
People who are incarcerated have been largely left out of the vaccine eligibility process. A New York judge recently ruled that the state must immediately begin to offer the vaccine to all incarcerated people in the states prisons and jails after they had been arbitrarily left out. Now, some or all people in prison are vaccine-eligible in 37 states plus DC, while 21 states and DC have similar rules for people in local jails.
One year ago this week, Michael Tyson was the first person incarcerated at New York Citys Rikers Island to die from Covid-19. Since then, virtually nothing has changed for those behind bars. There are still too many people like Tyson held in jails for noncriminal technical violations of parole, like missing a drug treatment class. As of February, more than 1,100 people were still in New Yorks jails for such reasons.
Jails are a central locus of infection and spread, not only because of poor conditions, but because of the enormous churn of people through their doors. Social distancing is nearly impossible. Individuals sleep dozens to a room, share bathrooms and showers, and often receive inadequate medical care. Outbreaks in jails have fueled further community spread, as people detained for short periods of time, staff who work there, and visitors and volunteers carry the virus beyond the jail walls.
In June 2020, the situation looked somewhat promising. Thanks to pressure from families and advocates, local officials made efforts to flatten the curve and reduce jail populations. A coalition of at least 30 elected prosecutors called for their peers to release people deemed nonthreatening to society. Others followed Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosbys lead, who in mid-March announced that her office would dismiss pending charges against anyone arrested for a number of low-level offenses. And by mid-April, Chicagos Cook County Jail had released 1,300 people roughly 25 percent of its population when prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the sheriff agreed to release some pretrial detainees.
Many wondered if these actions would stick. But populations in four of the nations biggest jail systems Houston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are now either higher or just as high as they were prior to the pandemic. This has been primarily driven by the steep increase in the number of people held pretrial, often because they are unable to pay bail.
Although national statistics describing the full scope of Covid-19 infection in jails are hard to come by, some jurisdictions shed light on the current scale of the problem. In Los Angeles, nearly 4,300 people in jail and nearly 3,000 staff have tested positive since the inception of the pandemic. In Maricopa County, Arizona; Orange County, California; Philadelphia; Chicago; and New York, cumulative cases among incarcerated people total nearly 9,000, according to UCLAs Covid Behind Bars project.
To be sure, violent or gun-related crime has risen in some places over the last year, and so too has the proportion of people held for more serious charges a population that was excluded from early 2020 efforts to decarcerate. Researchers have speculated that this rise was due to a perfect storm of factors, including economic decline and increases in unemployment, a surge in firearm ownership, and mental health effects such as isolation, hopelessness, and loss. More needs to be done to understand the root causes of this rise, and interventions beyond punitive criminal justice responses must target these drivers.
The dangers posed by Covid-19 could have accelerated efforts to unwind mass incarceration. But the threat of the virus to people in jail, the staff who work there, and the communities both return to endures. Whats more, the pandemic further exacerbates existing racial and ethnic disparities in both the criminal justice and healthcare systems, requiring more radical approaches to ensure that these disparities do not persist. This makes vaccination efforts in jail facilities all the more urgent.
For most of 2020, the little socializing Anthony Fauci did involved the neighbors right next door.
Fauci has lived in the same neighborhood in northwest Washington, DC, for more than 40 years, and the combination of his busy schedule and pandemic safety concerns confined his social life to a small radius.
"I haven't gotten the day off in a year and three months," Fauci told me recently.
When Fauci and his wife did gather with neighbors, they took no chances: The households stayed socially distanced and outdoors, even in the fall and winter when the weather got chilly.
"Whenever we would get together, we would do it outside, freezing our butts off, wearing a mask, having a dinner or having a drink outside on my deck," he said.
Then Fauci, who has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984,got vaccinated. In a much-photographed moment (see above), he got his first Moderna shot on December 22. In the months that followed, others in his age bracket followed suit.
Being fully vaccinated, Fauci said, has changed his behavior but only slightly.
The biggest shift is that he and his neighbors have finally moved the party indoors: "We feel very comfortable in the house with no masks, and we can have physical contact and things like that," he said.
But for now, he still won't eat indoors at a restaurant or go to a movie theater.
"I don't think I would even if I'm vaccinated go into an indoor, crowded place where people are not wearing masks," Fauci said.
He's not planning any travel, either: "I don't really see myself going on any fun trips for a while," he said.
Fauci in Washington, DC, on February 25, 2021. Saul Loeb /AFP via Getty Images
Fauci's caution, he said, stems from the "interesting crossroads" at which the US sits.
A record number of people are getting vaccinated 3 million doses are now given daily, on average but the number of new infections being reported is still trending upward in 18 states. In Michigan, one of the worst hot spots, average daily cases have more than quadrupled in the past month.
"It's kind of a race between the vaccine and the possibility that there'll be another surge," Fauci said. So the more Americans are patient about their return to normal life, he said, the less likely we are to see a fourth case spike.
Some of Fauci's neighbors in August 2020. Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Like 64 million other Americans, Fauci is regularly assessing what is safe and unsafe as a vaccinated person in a country in which four out of every five people are not yet fully vaccinated. Rising US case rates complicate matters. In the last week, an average of more than 65,000 new cases has been reported per day a 14% increase from the country's seven-day average in mid-March.
Given all that, Fauci said his day-to-day life remains essentially unchanged from the way it was before he got his shots. He does not see being vaccinated as a green light to resume the myriad activities he and the rest of us have been deprived of.
Movie theaters where viewers remove their masks to snack on popcorn? Nope.
"That would still be of concern to me," Fauci said.
Bars and restaurants where maskless people are eating and drinking inside? Those are still off the table, too.
People sit in London's Bar Elba on September 24, 2020. Hannah McKay/Reuters
Fauci's behavior aligns with CDC guidelines, which say that vaccinated Americans should continue to wear a mask in public at all times and avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings.
As has been the case throughout the pandemic, bars and restaurants are particularly risky. A recent CDC study found that a rural Illinois bar was the site of a superspreader event. At least 46 COVID-19 cases, one hospitalization, and a school closure affecting 650 children were linked to the bar's reopening in February.
Not all experts agree with Fauci and the CDC's levels of caution.
Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician in Baltimore, previously told Insider that the CDC guidelines for vaccinated people are "overly cautious."
"For individuals who are fully vaccinated, they may well decide to take on risk that other people may not be engaging in," she said. "So having policies to allow certain things back, I don't think is necessarily a bad thing."
A group of friends at Jonesy's Local Bar in Hudson, Wisconsin, on May 14, 2020. Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via Getty Images
Still, Fauci said it's important for all Americans both vaccinated and unvaccinated to continue avoiding crowds and socially distancing until we know for sure that vaccinated people don't spread the virus. Growing evidence suggests they don't, but being patient is how we'll "keep a lid" on cases, Fauci said.
Fauci has estimated that the threshold for herd immunity the point at which enough Americans are either vaccinated or immune to the virus from an infection to stymie its overall spread could be between 70% and 85% of the population.
"If we could just hold on for a while," he said, "we'll reach a point where the protection of the general community by the vaccine would really make it very unlikely that we're going to have another surge."
Vaccination rates in the US have doubled every month since February. If that trend continues, the country could reach that threshold as early as June.
So for Fauci, nights out on the town can wait until then.
The CDC announced Friday that vaccinated Americans can travel by plane, train, or bus in the US without needing to quarantine or get tested, as long as they wear masks.
I was thrilled, since the change meant I could finally make a plan to visit my 84-year-old grandmother in Minnesota. I'd been itching to see her for the past 12 months she's in a senior-living home, and it's been hard to hear her sound lonelier and lonelier on our daily phone calls. She has wanted to show me her balcony garden for months and walk together on Wayzata Bay.
So I asked Fauci if he, too, is planning any trips, in the hopes that he might share my excitement.
No such luck.
"I don't see that in my life," Fauci said. "When this is all over, then I'll worry about that."
Travelers wait to check luggage at Los Angeles International Airport on December 23, 2020. AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
He did say, though, that part of the reason he's changed his behavior only "very, very, very slightly" in the past few months is that he still doesn't have time to relax or recreate. His sporadic indoor meetups with a few friends and family members are all he can fit in.
"To be honest with you, I don't really have time to do anything else," he said.
So in part, Fauci's cautious approach is a product of a very lopsided work-life balance.
"I'm a very unusual person," he said.
The small COVID-19 vaccination card is quickly becoming the must-have item of 2021.
But what should you do to protect your card? And what can you do if you lose it? We found some answers.
Treat your COVID-19 vaccine card like you treat your birth certificate or your passport. Thats the advice from FEMAs Angela Byrd, whos spent the last two months helping vaccinate 6,000 people a day at the Oakland Coliseum site.
"Keep it safe and tucked away," she said, before adding that you should also take a photo of it.
She said the more copies you have of your card digital or physical the better.
"Take the opportunity to get it laminated," she said.
Over at Oaklands Piedmont Copy & Printing shop, owner Fatima Yousuf said her shop has laminated up to 200 vaccination cards so far.
"Every day, like 5 to 10 customers daily, and theyre asking to get their card laminated," she said.
Her customers told her they want to be reassured the card is protected so they can take it when going on international trips or attending large events.
But Yousuf pointed out we still dont know if well need booster shots in the future and if that information will need to be added to our vaccine cards.
"Im suggesting people just make a copy, laminate that, and save the original as it is," she said.
Staples, Office Depot and Office Max stores are offering to laminate peoples vaccine cards for free, until the end of July.
What happens if you lose your card? The CDCsays theres no national organization keeping track of every vaccine record. Your best bet is to call up the facility that gave you the vaccine or reach out to Californias Immunization Registry to see if they can help you find your vaccine records.
Leaders from Home for Good, a non-profit housing assistance program, also helped in getting the word out to the homeless population, picking some of them up and offering a ride to the shelter. Those who showed up had to fill out some paperwork, and were then well on their way to being vaccinated.
Getty Images
The NFL will not mandate COVID-19 vaccines. Thus, it stands to reason, even with incentives offered to teams and players who are vaccinated, some players arent going to get a shot.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen could be one of those.
In an appearance on The Ringers 10 Questions With Kyle Brandt podcast, Allen said he has not had a vaccine and might not get one.
Im still debating that, Allen said, via Matt Parrino of nyup.com. Im a big statistics and logical guy. So, if statistics show its the right thing for me to do, Id do it. Again, Id lean the other way, too, if thats what it said. I havent been paying attention to it as much as maybe I should have. Ive just been doing my thing and masking up when Im going out and just staying close and hanging around family.
It is unclear what statistics Allen needs to see to convince him to get a shot. The Pfizer vaccine was shown a 95 percent efficacy rate in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, just 1 percentage point more than Modernas. The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine was shown to have a 72 percent efficacy rate in the United States in preventing symptomatic illness and an 85 percent efficacy rate in preventing the most severe disease 28 days after vaccination.
Allen, 24, made clear hes against any kind of mandate.
I think everybody should have that choice to do it or not to do it, Allen said. You get in this tricky situation now where if you do mandate that thats kind of going against what our constitution says and the freedom to kind of express yourself one way or the other. I think were in a time where thats getting a lot harder to do. Everybody should have that choice.
However, the league expects to amend certain protocols for those who are vaccinated and for teams as a whole if certain vaccination levels are met, which will encourage (pressure?) players to get a COVID-19 shot.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) The Oklahoma City VA Health Care System is expanding COVID-19 vaccinations and will host a Johnson & Johnson one-dose event.
The Oklahoma City VA is expanding vaccinations to anyone who served in the military, as well as their caregivers and spouses and some beneficiaries. The SAVE LIVES Act that President Joe Biden signed on March 24 provides the VA authority for the expansion, according to an OKC VA news release.
Since the start of the pandemic, OKCVAHCS has been focused on vaccinating as many Veterans as possible, and we are excited to multiply our efforts thanks to the SAVE LIVES Act, said Wade Vlosich, Director, OKCVAHCS.
Individuals eligible for the vaccine under the SAVE LIVES Act can register for the vaccine at www.va.gov/health-care/covid-19-vaccine/stay-informed, where they can also find information on the VAs vaccine rollout process.
It is recommended those eligible to register at least 24 hours prior to walking in to receive the vaccine, the news release states.
Enrolled veterans can schedule an appointment to receive the vaccine by calling (405) 456-7119, option 2 or walk into the OKC VA Medical Center, 921 NE 13th St, between 6 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Veterans who are not enrolled can visithttps://www.va.gov/health-care/apply/application/introduction, call (877) 222-8387 toll free or visit one of OKC VAs local eligibility offices, located in the OKC VA Medical Center and the Lawton Community Based Outpatient Clinic, to apply for VA health care benefits.
One-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines are available to veterans, their spouses and caregivers.
The OKC VA will hold aJohnson & Johnson Single Dose COVID-19 Vaccine Kick Off Walk-in Event onfrom 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 10 at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center.
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