The trickiest vaccine launch in U.S. history
12 November 2020
Even if the federal government manages to secure the cash needed for COVID-19 vaccine distribution — and that's a big if — there's still a huge task ahead at the state level.
Why it matters: America has never attempted to vaccinate so many people on such short notice, with so many lives on the line.
1) Record-keeping: States will turn to their existing immunization registries, AP reports.
- Pharmacies and doctors’ offices will need to be able to look up records, so people don’t have to return to the same place for their second shot.
2) Storage: Smaller pharmacies and doctors' offices are needed to make getting shots more convenient, but the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at -94°F.
- About 60% of pharmacy chains nationwide — Walgreens Boots Alliance, CVS Health, Walmart, Kroger and Costco Wholesale, so far — agreed to partner with the federal government to ramp up access, HHS announced today.
- The private sector will also be needed to help with shipping and storage and technology lags from remote or tribal areas.
3) Return visits: The CDC is considering ways to help Americans remember to get the second shot with the same brand, per AP:
- One would be to issue cards that people would get with their first shot, like the polio immunization cards many older Americans remember.
- In a rural part of South Carolina, one community health center is planning multiple reminders, including text messages and calls from health workers.
- In rural Minnesota this fall, masked nurses in traffic vests reached into cars to give passengers flu shots as a way to social distance, but it also served as a test run for a COVID vaccine.
The bottom line: The government needs to get its messaging right this time.
- The CDC and other agencies can't afford a repeat of this spring, when they gave bad guidance about face masks and testing that is still confusing many Americans.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.