Coronavirus: The Hill and the Headlines, April 16 2021

In Washington:

• An independent advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet again on April 23 to resume deliberating about the use of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine, agency director Rochelle Walensky said Friday. The meeting will mark 10 days since federal regulators recommended a nationwide pause on the use of the vaccine due to a small number of extremely rare types of blood clots in people receiving the vaccines.

• Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Johnson & Johnson privately asked rival vaccine makers AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Pfizer to join the company in its effort to evaluate blood clot risks in its own vaccine. Sources added that J&J also wanted the other companies to participate in a campaign that would address the issues of blood clots and vaccine safety. AstraZeneca, which has also had reports of blood clots linked to its COVID-19 vaccine, was the only one to accept Johnson & Johnson's offer.

• For its part, Johnson & Johnson said that there’s “insufficient” evidence to declare a “causal relationship” between the company’s vaccine and the blood clots that prompted the pause in distribution. The statement came from company scientists in a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine published Friday. The six documented cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and low blood-platelet counts, out of the more than 6.8 million Americans who have received the vaccine, have led to one death. 

• Ten U.S. senators sent a letter to the White House on Thursday night urging President Biden to back India’s and South Africa's appeal to the World Trade Organization to lift intellectual property rules for vaccines, the Associated Press reports. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) led the letter. The temporary waiver, supported by more than 100 countries, may allow nations struggling to inoculate their populations to manufacture vaccines faster. Pharmaceutical manufacturers oppose the waiver.

• The White House on Friday announced plans to spend $1.7 billion to ramp up efforts to identify and track coronavirus variants. At least $1 billion of those funds will be used to expand genomic sequencing, the process by which virus DNA is decoded and mutations identified. The funds will go to the CDC, states, and cities to bolster their existing coronavirus strain surveillance efforts.

• The U.S. has administered more than 202 million coronavirus vaccine doses so far, with nearly 4 million vaccinations reported on Friday alone, according to the latest data from the CDC. That number means 39 percent of the total U.S. population, and 49 percent of U.S. adults specifically, have received at least one dose. Sixty-five percent of people age 65 and older are fully vaccinated. 

• A Pew Research Center poll released Friday finds that 59 percent of Americans approve of President Biden's handling of his job. That’s a five-point increase from March. Biden gets high marks, at 72 percent approval, for vaccination efforts. Pew also measured a 50 percent approval rating for Democratic congressional leaders and 32 percent for GOP congressional leadership. 

In the News:

• The CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine-maker, asked President Biden on Friday to lift a U.S. export embargo on raw materials for vaccines, arguing that it’s hampering vaccine production outside the U.S., particularly in poor countries. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, told the Associated Press that lack of raw materials could delay the production of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax by five to six months. 

• Americans' confidence in the safety of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine took a big dip this week after the pause in its use, according to new YouGov polling, even though the risk of blood clots following the shot is extremely low, if it exists at all. Before the pause, only 26 percent of Americans said they thought the J&J vaccine was very or somewhat unsafe, according to YouGov. After the pause, that number jumped to 39 percent.

• People will "likely" need a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine as a booster within 12 months of being fully vaccinated, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC Thursday. Bourla also suggested that people may need to be vaccinated annually in order to stay immunized. Pfizer announced earlier this month the vaccine was still highly effective up to six months after the second dose. The company continues to study how long protection from the virus lasts.

• Uppsala, one of Sweden's most populous regions, has asked residents to voluntarily enter a "personal lockdown" in order to curb soaring COVID-19 cases, Euronews reported Wednesday. Libertarians and conservatives, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), have lauded Sweden's more relaxed approach to the pandemic, characterized by few restrictions. Sweden this week reported the highest infection rate in the EU. The country recorded its highest death tally since 1869 in the first half of 2020.

Authored by Ivan Zapien