Coronavirus Crisis Update: Dr. Jennifer Kates & Josh Michaud “A Race Against Time.”

Dr. Jennifer Kates and Josh Michaud, Kaiser Family Foundation, take us on a tour d’horizon. Rapidly accelerating vaccine coverage has resulted in “a huge, huge change.” By the end of June, we will have twice the volume of vaccines needed to inoculate America’s 260 million adults. Improvements in testing and surveillance lag – “We can’t just focus on one intervention.” At the same time, state leaders relax controls, and variants increase transmissibility, concentrated among youth. “We are definitely at risk.” The equity agenda? “It’s not going well yet…. Most states are not doing a good job on equity…. It is the key aspect of this rollout over the next few months.” Many southern states are weak performers on vaccines (AL, TN, TX, GA, AR, SC, MS) while many smaller states are strong performers (AK, ME, SD, ND, RI, WV, CT). 55% of Americans now “want to be vaccinated,” while those who prefer to wait-and-see has dropped from 30% to 22%. But 15% are refusing, and another 7% will take the vaccine only if required. The chief challenge: how to reach Republican voters – especially male, rural, younger – with what message and what messenger? Digital certification of vaccination is “going to happen” but “can be quite fraught” over privacy, discrimination, and civil liberty concerns. 

Dr. Jennifer Kates is Senior Vice President for Global Health and HIV Policy; Josh Michaud is Associate Director for Global Health Policy, at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C.