Short Wave - The State Of Vaccinations In The U.S.

Episode Date: May 25, 2021

Eight states have passed an important milestone: getting 70% of all adults vaccinated with at least one shot. That's a number President Biden wants the country to reach by July Fourth. As cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. continue to come down, host Maddie Sofia talks with NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey about vaccination progress around the country. Have questions about the latest coronavirus headlines? Email us at [e-mail] and we might cover it on a future episode.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Maddie Safai here, joined by NPR health correspondent Alison Aubrey. Hi, Allison. Hey, Maddie, good to be here. It's another COVID-19 roundup episode with you. A big topic we touch on, it seems, every week. An important one, though. How the U.S. is doing on getting people vaccinated.

Right. Eight states have passed an important milestone, getting 70% of all adults vaccinated with at least one shot. That's a number of President. Biden wants the entire. country to reach by July 4th. Okay, today on the show, we're going to dig into vaccination progress a little more in the states and among 12 to 15-year-olds. And the challenges of going back to the office if you've been working from home during the pandemic. This is a shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR.

Allison, over the weekend, Rhode Island became the eighth state to reach a goal set by President Biden to get 70% of adults vaccinated with at least one shot by July 4th. Is the rest of the country on track? Well, so far, many of the smaller northeastern states have reached this goal first, including Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Jersey. Nationwide, about 61% of adults have received their first dose, and very close to half, are now fully vaccinated. So this is all good news. But in states where vaccinations remain much lower, including Alabama, Mississippi,

Arkansas, Utah, it's kind of unclear. I mean, nationwide, the number of daily vaccinations has declined over the last month. Part of this is that a lot of people have already been vaccinated. Now we're at about 1.7 million shots a day. So we have a ways to go as a country. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has pointed to survey data showing that more people would be motivated to roll up their sleeves if their employers gave time off to get the shot and recover from it.

So employers not only have an opportunity to increase vaccination rates, It turns out that they can also help the close the equity gap in vaccinations. And, you know, in recent weeks, mega retailers, including Target and Walmart, have announced compensation and incentives for hourly employees who get vaccinated. Some employees have been offered cash bonuses. Yeah. And Alison, can we take a second to talk about what is going on in my home state of Ohio right now? I saw my parents this weekend and they were telling me what they were going to do when they

won the vaccine million. Yes, Ohio. has gotten a ton of attention for this lottery program. So for the next five weeks, beginning this week, there will be a $1 million lottery draw for people who get their first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the one dose of the JNJ. Other states have jumped on this lottery bandwagon, Oregon, Kentucky, Maryland. In New York, they've rolled out something called the Vax and Scratch initiative with a $5 million possible win. So, you know, Ohio was really touting some pretty impressive numbers in terms of a boost in vaccinations. And I think it's surprising just how well

lotteries may work. I talked to a behavioral economist about this, Katie Milkman at the University of Pennsylvania. And your parents might appreciate this, Maddie. The high jackpot is really alluring. It feels exciting like a game. And because we overweight the small probability that we might win and imagine that wonderful outcome, they're really highly motivating. And there's lots of research showing that lotteries can be used to change all sorts of other health behaviors. Allison, I love this. You know, it's like finally, humans being bad at probability is a good, useful tool in this pandemic. Or even people who do understand probability quite well, just pushing it to the side for a moment, having that dream.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. You know, people in Ohio under the age of 18 who got the vaccine can be entered into a lottery to win a scholarship. So not a million bucks, but a chance to win a four-year-old. scholarship to a public university or college in Ohio, including room and board. So not a bad deal there. Right, right. Okay. So speaking of adolescents, the vaccines were just recently opened to 12 to 15 year olds. How many have been vaccinated? Well, last week, CDC director Rochelle Walenski said that about 600,000 12 to 15 year olds had received their first dose. That's out of the roughly

17 million children in this age group in the U.S. So this could take a while. I should point, point out, the CDC is evaluating some cases of myocarditis in adolescents and young adults who've been vaccinated with the mRNA vaccines, those made by Pfizer and Moderna. Now, this is inflammation of the heart muscle. And for now, what is known is that the cases have been mild and rare. It's actually the same rate we see in a normal population. Okay. So if it's normal for this age group, why are they concerned about this, Allison? Well, they want to be extra careful and extra transparent. I mean, vaccine experts say this is a sign that the system is working, that they're monitoring and picking up on even a rare condition.

They want to check it out. At this point, experts don't know if the vaccine is causing the inflammation, but the folks at the CDC tracking this felt that clinicians should be on alert. I spoke to Patricia Stenshfield. She's a non-voting member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. It is younger adolescent, young adult males, mostly after dose two, and they've all seemed to be mild and are being followed up right now. So at this point in time, we don't have information that says this is cause and effect, but it's enough for us to just take a closer look. And leaders of the American Academy of Pediatrics tell me that their infectious disease experts are watching closely, that they're in touch with the CDC, but nothing has changed in the recommendations.

pediatricians are encouraging kids 12 and up to get vaccinated. Okay, so just something to watch. That's right. And I should point out the nation is seeing the success of the vaccination program. Cases are down to about $24,000 a day. That is less than half of what they were a month ago. Yeah. And Allison, this improvement means a lot of things are opening back up, including offices.

For the people who have had the privilege of working from home, you know, do people want to go back in the office and in person? What have you found out? You mean, do people want to go back to the office where they can't slurp their coffee and wear their yoga pants and exercise all day? Yeah, no, I don't know anybody like that. I think it depends. Many people who have been able to work from home over the last 15 months have gotten used to it. I spoke to David Greenway of UMass Lull, who has been analyzing workers' reactions to changes during the pandemic. Well, work-life balance has always been this perennial struggle. It seems like putting the genie back in the bottom. after this taste of autonomy and flexibility is going to be difficult for employers, especially if the old policies are just simply re-implemented. You know, this long, forced pause has given people a chance to adjust to a new way. Some people have moved to be near family or to be in a place with a better quality of life,

say to the mountains or the waters. So some people are definitely going to bristle at having to snap back to the way it was in March of 2020. So what's the advice for people to strategize or cope with going back to the office? You know, I think nothing stokes anxiety like uncertainty. So the sooner employers can be clear about what is expected or what the return to office policies will be. The sooner workers can start to plan. And that will lessen anxiety a bit. There are any number of things that we as workers cannot control. So focus on the things that are in your control, planning for child, planning your commute. You can ask for more flexibility if you want to. University of Pennsylvania's Katie Milkman says workers may have some bargaining power right now. It's a tight labor market right now, and there is always the option to say, okay, my employer's not flexible on this. Should I consider another opportunity? The pandemic has just led more people to reevaluate their priorities and

think anew, I think. NPR's Alison Aubrey, thank you so much for this update. Thank you, Maddie. Great to be here. This episode was edited by Jane Greenhalsh and Viet Le, produced by Britt Hansen, and fact-checked by Rasha Reedy. The audio engineer for this episode was Marcia Caldwell. I'm Maddie Safaya, and you're listening to Shortwave from NPR. What happens after a police officer shoots someone who's unarmed? For decades in California, internal affairs investigations, how the police police themselves or secret. Until now.

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