Category: Vaccines

What Childhood Vaccine Rates Can, and Can’t, Teach Us About Covid Vaccines

Hesitancy toward routine childhood vaccines doesn’t necessarily predict hesitancy toward a covid shot.

In Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana, CVS Vaccine Appointments Go Unfilled

Dozens of open appointment slots in the three Southern states last week stood in sharp contrast to states such as Delaware, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, where spots generally were claimed by midmorning or earlier.

Behind The Byline: Reporting Road Trip

Check out KHN’s video series — Behind The Byline: How the Story Got Made. Come along as journalists and producers offer an insider’s view of health care coverage that does not quit.

Ouch! Needle-Phobic People Scarred by So Many Images of Covid Shots

The pictures are on the nightly news, on billboards, bus stop posters and all over social media. How can people who fear needles manage to get their covid shots?

Biden’s Criticism of Trump Team’s Vaccine Contracts Is a Stretch

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. had agreed to buy at least 1 billion doses of covid vaccine, enough to vaccinate 550 million people. Those agreements, though, applied to vaccines that were authorized as well as those still in development. And the Biden team had the advantage of 20/20, experts say.

On Vacci-Dating: Singles Seem Enamored of Sharing Vaccination Status Online. Is That Wise?

When considering whether to meet up with someone who is vaccinated versus unvaccinated, vaccinated sounds somewhat safer. But before you give pandemic dating a shot, heed these warnings from experts.

California’s Vaccine Appointment Website Has Glitches. No Surprise?

Experts give poor usability ratings to My Turn, the new statewide sign-up app for covid vaccination. But with so many problems plaguing the vaccination effort, it seems unreasonable to have expected this one to work perfectly.

Firefighters — ‘Health Care Providers on a Truck’ — Signal Pandemic Burnout

Grappling with stagnant pay and a lack of personal protective equipment, firefighters are even more frustrated to find they are lower down the vaccine priority list than health care workers despite serving on the front lines of the medical system.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Good and Not-So-Good News on Covid

The FDA authorized the emergency use of a one-shot vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, which could help accelerate the pace of vaccinations to prevent covid-19. But after a dramatic decline, case numbers are again rising, and several states are rolling back public health mitigation efforts. Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Jordan Rau about the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode.

Kaiser Permanente, Big Player in California Vaccine Effort, Has Had Trouble Vaccinating Own Members

Older patients in several states where the California-based managed care giant operates complain they’ve had difficulty scheduling appointments and spotty communication from the health system. Some report it’s getting better, though.