It was a relatively quiet week on the COVID front—so quiet that President Biden held his first White House press conference last week and wasn’t asked a single question about the pandemic, which continues to be a race between vaccinations and virus variants.
Not that nothing happened this week: it was a rocky week for AstraZeneca, which was hoping to change the narrative over its vaccine, which has stumbled in its rollout in Europe, by reporting positive results from US trials.
After a press release announcing that the vaccine was found to be 79 percent effective against symptomatic COVID, an independent review board called the results into question, pointing out that the report was based on data that had not been fully updated. That earned a swift and unusual rebuke from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), forcing the company to correct its findings—to 76 percent.
A relatively minor difference, but the dust-up served to further undermine confidence in the company’s COVID jab, especially troubling in Europe where hesitancy and distribution have been a vexing problem, and concerns about blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca shot caused several countries to pause inoculations. Given the supply of already-approved vaccines from other manufacturers in the US, it’s not clear that the AstraZeneca shot will play a big role here, but it is critical in other parts of the world, especially as part of the global COVAX initiative targeted at developing countries, since the vaccine can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures.
The company’s set-to with American regulators also highlighted another challenge that’s become common during the COVID pandemic: conducting scientific review by press release, as the global emergency has required the otherwise slow-moving research community to move at lightning pace.
Meanwhile, back at that relatively dull White House press conference, one piece of encouraging news:President Biden doubled his “first 100 days” goal for vaccinations to 200M shots, a goal that seemswholly achievable, given that 2.5M Americans are being vaccinated every day, on average.
RWJBarnabas Health sued an insurance carrier for allegedly refusing to cover the West Orange, N.J.-based system’s pandemic-related losses, according to NJ.com.
The health system is suing Zurich American Insurance Co. for breach of contract, alleging the company refused to honor its obligations under a $2.5 billion “Zurich Edge Healthcare Policy.”
The health system, which treats 3 million patients annually, claims Zurich’s policy should cover losses caused by illnesses like COVID-19. The lawsuit, filed March 19, alleges Zurich failed to acknowledge COVID-19 caused property damage after employees and patients died from the virus in its facilities, according to Law360.
“Zurich has known, or should have known, for decades that its policy could be called upon to pay up to its full limits — here $2.5 billion dollars — to RWJBarnabas for losses associated with viruses and pandemics,” the lawsuit states.
Ridgewood, N.J.-based Valley Health System is also suing Zurich, alleging the insurance company wrongfully denied covering its losses tied to the pandemic under a $550 million policy, according to Law360.
A Zurich spokesperson declined to comment on RWJBarnabas’ lawsuit, telling NJ.com that it is not the company’s practice to comment on pending litigation.
In Virginia, Carilion Clinic filed a similar lawsuit against its insurance provider, American Guarantee and Liability Insurance Co., on March 18. The Roanoke, Va.-based system says it lost more than $150 million because of the pandemic, and the insurance company allegedly refused to provide coverage or properly investigate its losses.
“To cushion the impact of the coronavirus and COVID-19, Carilion Clinic turned to its property insurer, AGLIC, to whom Carilion Clinic had paid nearly $1 million in premiums in exchange for $1.3 billion in property damage and time element (also known as business interruption) coverage effective June 1, 2019 to June 1, 2020,” the lawsuit states. “AGLIC, however, declined to fulfill its obligations to Carilion Clinic under the policy.”
Carilion is seeking damages for breach of contract and a judgment declaring the scope of American Guarantee’s obligation to cover the losses under the policy.
Top public health experts and officials are developing new strategies to reach out to the conservatives most skeptical of or hesitant about receiving a coronavirus vaccine.
The efforts are targeting supporters of former President Trump, who have emerged as the most significant hurdle to widespread vaccination.
The officials and experts are making appearances on Fox News and Newsmax and taking part on panels with prominent conservative politicians to reach out to vaccine skeptics on the right.
And the public health experts are not taking an antagonistic approach either. They say many conservatives have legitimate questions about COVID-19 vaccinations that are worth listening to and answering.
“These are folks who really feel disrespected. They feel that COVID and the vaccines and the response has been politicized and weaponized, in their words,” said Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Obama. “They feel deeply alienated from the government.”
Up to now, the main problem with increasing vaccinations has been one of supply and demand, but administration officials expect that to change shortly.
“We are approaching the point where we will have a sufficient supply of vaccines for everybody in the United States to have the chance to get immunized by the end of May,” Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said in an interview with The Hill on Wednesday.
At that point, convincing skeptical conservatives to get a shot could mean the difference between the U.S. achieving herd immunity and resuming normal life or variants of COVID-19 getting second and third winds, leading to new lockdowns or restrictions on life.
As Collins puts it, “the hesitancy will begin to become the defining factor on whether we reach herd immunity or not.”
“I think that means this has to be the moment where we really pull into this conversation all of the trustworthy voices,” he added.
A recent CBS poll found a third of Republicans said they would not be vaccinated, compared to 10 percent of Democrats. A “PBS NewsHour” poll showed similar results: Nearly half of U.S. men who identify as Republicans said they have no plans to get vaccinated.
The underlying mistrust comes after a year in which Trump and his allies played down the severity of a virus that has killed more than half a million Americans already.
Circumstances have conspired to allow that skepticism to grow: The coronavirus arrived later in more rural, conservative enclaves than it did in liberal metropolitan areas like Seattle, New York and Detroit, giving some the sense that they had been locked out of the economy to protect against a virus that was not yet present in their community.
Julie Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who advised the Biden transition team on COVID-19 issues, said she has been surprised to see how political vaccine hesitancy has become.
In the past, Morita said, public health officials have focused on race and ethnicity. “We didn’t really look at politics or political affiliation,” she said.
Morita said her message remains the same, but that she has had to focus on where to deliver it. She recently co-wrote a Fox News op-ed answering some of the common questions about the available COVID-19 vaccines and urging people to get the shots when they’re available.
“Whether you’re a community of color, or whether you’re a conservative, these are the questions that people ask and want to have the answers to before they get vaccinated,” Morita said. “I don’t feel like that’s a shifted message as much as maybe we’re just able to get it into a more conservative news outlet.”
Convincing a group of people who did not vote for the president presents a challenge to a Democratic administration. So President Biden has been outsourcing the message.
Appearing on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show this week, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he doesn’t shy away from conservative outlets that may not be friendly.
“I say yes to a wide variety of requests. I’ve been on Fox multiple times, so I don’t shy away from that, no,” Fauci said.
Health officials are increasingly convinced that successful messaging is not going to come from politicians or government officials but from doctors, clergy and trusted community leaders.
Last month, Frieden participated in focus groups with vaccine-hesitant Republican voters led by veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz.
The groups, first reported by The Washington Post, showed vaccine-hesitant conservatives were not swayed by Republican politicians like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) or former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — or even by Trump himself.
Instead, Frieden said, the message that moved the hesitant to the accepting hit closer to home: Their doctors took the vaccine when it was offered.
“You listen to the audience, you understand where they are and you address their concerns. And that’s the same thing we have to do for Trump voters who are reluctant to get vaccinated or African Americans or Latinx or vegans who don’t want to get vaccinated,” Frieden said.
Morita said she thinks the same efforts and resources that go into convincing communities of color should also be directed at conservatives.
“High-level government officials espousing the importance of vaccines and sharing their experiences with it is really important but it’s not sufficient,” Morita said.
Support for Trump and a distrust of the government is not the only reason conservatives might be reluctant to accept the vaccine. Many are concerned about how quickly the vaccines were developed.
Still others object on religious grounds, which is where Collins, the NIH director, comes in.
A devout Christian who is open about his faith, Collins has become an ambassador to the faith community. He spends hours a day talking to faith leaders, assuring them of the vaccine’s soundness and science.
Collins told The Hill he frames the decision to get vaccinated in religious terms.
“Is this a love your neighbor moment? Yes, it is,” Collins said. “And whatever faith you are, the Golden Rule seems to apply, and the Golden Rule would say, for your neighbor or for your family, for your neighbors down the street who may be vulnerable, this is something you can do for them.”
Uber Health is partnering with e-prescription startup ScriptDrop in a deal expanding the ride-hailing giant’s prescription delivery footprint from a few cities to dozens of U.S. states.
Uber first forayed into medication delivery in several metro areas in August through a deal with digital delivery marketplace NimbleRx, as the pandemic caused a surge in patient demand for the service.
With this latest deal, Uber’s hundreds of thousands of drivers will be accessible to pharmacies using ScriptDrop in 37 states across the U.S. ScriptDrop, a third-party tech platform connecting patients and pharmacies with couriers nationwide, will pay Uber for the cost of each delivery.
But the San Francisco-based company is also hoping the crowded but lucrative at-home prescription drug delivery market will be profitable, following mounting losses last year as the coronavirus pandemic pummeled ride-hailing companies.
Growth in Uber’s delivery business has outpaced plummeting ridesharing revenue during COVID-19. In fourth quarter earnings released February, Uber’s gross bookings in its mobility business were down 50% year over year, while gross bookings in its delivery segment were up 130%.
This latest deal suggests Uber is doubling down on delivery, banking that demand for at-home drug delivery remains high beyond COVID-19.
ScriptDrop integrates with a pharmacy’s software system to provide same-day shipping medication delivery options, and also has a consumer-facing portal for drop-offs. As of today, Uber is integrated with ScriptDrop via an application programming interface, and will become the default option for select pharmacies depending on location and driver availability, the companies said.
ScriptDrop doesn’t share the exact number of U.S. pharmacies working with its platform, but a spokesperson told Healthcare Dive they partner with thousands. ScriptDrop clients include prominent pharmacies like Albertsons, Kmart and Safeway; pharmacy systems such as PDX and a number of courier companies, health systems and insurers.
The partnership is operational in 37 states as of today, including California, Florida, New York and Texas. Uber and ScriptDrop have additional plans for near-term expansion, in some cases in new states in the next couple of weeks, the spokesperson said.
Uber first launched consumer-facing prescription delivery in several U.S. cities through the Uber Eats app, in the partnership with NimbleRx. That’s grown from a pilot in Seattle and Dallas to cities including New York, Miami, Austin and Houston, with more metro areas to come, according to Uber.
Prescription drug delivery companies have reported skyrocketing utilization during COVID-19. Columbus, Ohio-based ScriptDrop has said delivery volume jumped 363% from February to April last year, while revenue tripled between October 2019 and October 2020. The startup announced a $15 million funding round in October to drive growth, bringing its total funding to $27 million since launching in 2017.
Partially as a result of COVID-19 tailwinds, the prescription tech sector, which includes e-prescription vendors like NimbleRx and ScriptDrop, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16%, the quickest of the enterprise health and wellness segments, according to a February report from Pitchbook.
Despite consumer demand for at-home prescription delivery, it’s a crowded market. Most major pharmacies, including CVS Health and Walgreens, have hustled to build out their delivery networks in the past few years, facing potential disruption from outside entrants, notably Amazon.
