Media/Policy Watch
This watch section is intended to alert readers to substantive news, analysis and opinion from the general media and selected think tanks and similar organizations on vaccines, immunization, global public health and related themes. Media Watch is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes and issues CVEP is actively tracking. This section will grow from an initial base of newspapers, magazines and blog sources, and is segregated from Journal Watch above which scans the peer-reviewed journal ecology.
We acknowledge the Western/Northern bias in this initial selection of titles and invite suggestions for expanded coverage. We are conservative in our outlook in adding news sources which largely report on primary content we are already covering above. Many electronic media sources have tiered, fee-based subscription models for access. We will provide full-text where content is published without restriction, but most publications require registration and some subscription level.
The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
[No new, unique, relevant content]
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
Health
UN’s Guterres makes Covid vaccine donation appeal
The UN secretary general says richer countries need to take a global view as “their citizens will not be safe until every citizen in the world is safe”.
António Guterres has called on countries such as the US, China and Russia to guarantee fair access to a successful vaccine.
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
[No new, unique, relevant content]
Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
[No new, unique, relevant content]
Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
Oct 1, 2020
Trump Is ‘Single Largest Driver’ Of Covid-19 Misinformation, Cornell Study Finds
Trump declared hydroxychloroquine a “game-changer” and once suggested injecting Covid-19 patients with disinfectants such as bleach.
By Tommy Beer Forbes Staff
Editors’ Pick| Sep 30, 2020,10:54am EDT
Operation Warp Speed Has Over $6 Billion In Secret Covid-19 Vaccine Contracts Evading Scrutiny
Robert Hart Forbes Staff
Topline
Billions of dollars’ worth of coronavirus vaccine contracts have avoided usual mechanisms of transparency and regulatory oversight with Operation Warp Speed – the Trump administration’s project to develop a Covid-19 vaccine – which is funneling money through a nongovernmental intermediary, a move that is likely to reignite worries over the project’s opaque nature.
Key Facts
:: Rather than entering into contracts with vaccine makers directly, NPR reports that more than $6 billion in Operation Warp Speed funding has been routed through an intermediary nongovernmental firm, thereby avoiding the usual requirements for regulatory oversight and transparency that accompany federal contracting as well as many public records request requirements.
:: NPR reports that funding is directed through the defense contract management firm Advance Technologies International, Inc., (ATI) who go on to award contracts to companies developing vaccines for Covid-19.
:: Some of the contracts for the most high-profile vaccine candidates have been awarded by ATI in this way, including $1 billion for Johnson & Johnson, $1.79 billion for Sanofi, $1.6 billion for Novavax, and $1.95 billion for Pfizer.
:: Since its inception, Operation Warp Speed has repeatedly come under fire over its opaque nature, including from Senate critics who accused officials of making major decisions behind closed doors; it is likely that the revelation in the way the project issues its contracts will reignite this debate.
Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
[No new, unique, relevant content]
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
[No new, unique, relevant content]
The Guardian
http://www.guardiannews.com/
[No new, unique, relevant content]
New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/
News Desk
Chinese Citizens Are Already Receiving a Coronavirus Vaccine
The pandemic has only increased the battle with the U.S. for scientific and political supremacy.
By Peter Hessler
September 29, 2020
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
Politics
Biotech Industry Pushes Trump Administration to Release New Vaccine Guidelines
The BIO trade group, whose members include most of the vaccine makers, asked the health secretary to make the new vaccine guidelines public.
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
Accessed 3 Oct 2020
CDC’s credibility is eroded by internal blunders and external attacks as coronavirus vaccine
Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach · Health · Sep 28, 2020
At UN, India vows to help produce virus vaccine for world
· Sep 27, 2020
Black doctors want to vet vaccine process, worried about mistrust from years of medical racism
Meryl Kornfield · National · Sep 26, 2020
Trump, White House demand FDA justify tough standards for coronavirus vaccine, raising concerns
Laurie McGinley, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey · Politics · Sep 25, 2020
vaccines and global health :: ethics and policy 