From making telemedicine more consumer friendly to increasing access to care during the pandemic, retail giants including Amazon, Walmart and Walgreens are ramping up their virtual care initiatives and innovating the healthcare delivery system. Read more about Walmart, Amazon, Sam’s Club, CVS and Walgreens’ telehealth expansions over the past year.

Doctors and nurses trying to build confidence in COVID-19 vaccines on social media are mounting coordinated campaigns to combat anti-vaccination forces prevalent on those platforms. At the same time, public health groups are mobilizing a global network of vaccine advocates to come to their aid when they are attacked online by activists, who closely monitor certain hashtags and keywords. One group, Shots Heard Round The World, has 900 vetted global physician and other volunteers who it taps to post supportive messages when vaccine advocates’ posts are targeted. Healthcare workers can report anti-vaccine activity through a link on the group’s homepage, which is monitored at all hours. The group, part of a nonprofit that is helping Kaiser Permanente and other health systems encourage COVID-19 vaccination, has shared a detailed playbook for handling anti-vaccination activists that it’s developed after years of promoting vaccines for HPV, flu and diseases. Read more.

Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna earned praise for creating highly effective COVID-19 vaccines in record time. But a post circulating on social media claims they are hurting the public by not sharing their technology with other pharmaceutical companies to help speed up vaccine manufacturing and distribution. According to the CDC, nearly 66 million doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines had been distributed and roughly 45 million administered by the second week in February. The post claims the COVID-19 vaccine shortage does not need to exist because Pfizer and Moderna can share their vaccine designs with “dozens” of other pharmaceutical companies that are ready to produce the vaccines and end the pandemic. However, there is much more complexity to the issue. Read more.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health issued an update on COVID-19 Vaccine Second Dose Administration and Timing. The updated alert highlights the following:

• Persons receiving the second dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine should follow the recommended scheduling as closely as possible.
• DOH and CDC recommend receiving the same vaccine product at both vaccinations.
• If it is not feasible to adhere to the recommended interval for any reason, including vaccine availability, the second dose may be administered up to 6 weeks after the first dose.
• Every effort should be made to complete the vaccine series using the same vaccine product.
• If the first dose product cannot be determined or is unavailable, any available mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may be administered at a minimum interval of 28 days between doses.
• If two doses of different mRNA vaccine products are administered for any reason, no additional doses are recommended at this time.
• The discordant doses should be noted on the person’s vaccination card.

Click here to access 2021 Health Alerts and Advisories.

The Executive Committee of the National Governors Association (NGA) sent a Feb. 15, 2021 letter to the Biden administration regarding vaccine distribution. This letter specifically mentions federal vaccine distribution efforts to FQHCs and long-term care facilities and pharmacies and calls for more coordination with state governments. The governors state that without this coordination, these direct distribution programs may be redundant and inefficient. The goal of the letter was to seek more clarity from the Administration about the vaccine rollout among all entities. Members of the NGA are complimentary of Community Health Centers and rely on FQHCs for the quality care we provide.