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"article": "Welcome to Thursdays Overnight Health Care . As graduation season continues for the class of 2021 , check out this video of a man taking his celebration for a graduate to a whole new level . If you have any tips , email us at nweixel @ thehill.com , psullivan @ thehill.com and jcoleman @ thehill.com . Follow us on Twitter at @ NateWeixel , @ PeterSullivan4 , and @ JustineColeman8 . Today : The Biden administration outlined its initial plan for donating 25 million coronavirus vaccine doses overseas . In the U.S. , new infections and cases have fallen to the lowest levels in over a year . And a new poll shows the public , even Republicans , support Medicare negotiating drug prices . Well start with overseas donations : White House unveils plan to donate 25 million vaccine doses abroadThe Biden administration on Thursday announced it will donate 25 million coronavirus doses abroad , with about three quarters of them allocated to the World Health Organizations COVAX initiative , and the rest donated directly to handpicked countries . The White House said it will donate about 19 million doses to COVAX , which purchases and distributes vaccines to low-and middle-income countries . About 6 million doses will go to Latin America and the Caribbean , 7 million doses will go to Asia , and 5 million will go to Africa . Additionally , about 6 million doses will go directly to countries in need , including India , Iraq , the West Bank , Gaza , Canada and South Korea , and to United Nations front-line workers . More to come : White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters Thursday this was just the first wave , and more donations will be announced when supplies become available . Expect a regular cadence of shipments around the world , across the next several weeks , Zients said . Biden has also pledged to donate 60 million extra doses of AstraZenecas vaccine but those doses have been undergoing a safety review from the Food and Drug Administration and its not clear when , or if , that review might conclude . Advocacy groups broadly felt the announcement was insufficient given the global need , but was at least a step in the right direction . Not diplomacy : The White House took pains to distinguish between its donations and the vaccine diplomacy that China and Russia are engaging in . We are sharing these doses not to secure favors or extract concessions . We are sharing these vaccines to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic , with the power of our example and with our values , President Biden said in a statement . Read more here . Milestone : US recorded COVID-19 cases , deaths fall to lowest levels since March 2020COVID-19 cases in the United States have fallen to around 15,000 per day , part of a sharp decline in new infections as more of the population gets vaccinated , CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Thursday . The seven-day average of about 15,600 cases per day is the lowest level of new recorded cases in the U.S. since March 2020 . Our seven-day average is about 15,600 cases per day , Walensky said during a White House press briefing . This represents a decrease of more than 30 percent from our prior seven-day average and more importantly it is a 94 percent decrease from the peak of COVID-19 cases we reported in January of this year.This is the type of news I like to deliver , and certainly these data are encouraging and uplifting as we battle this pandemic , she added . Important note : Comparisons to the first month of the pandemic can be tricky given that testing still lagged at that time . Vaccines credited : The rapidly improving situation comes as more and more people get vaccinated . Almost 63 percent of U.S. adults now have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine . Still , the daily vaccination rate has been falling significantly , and the White House is pushing to boost the numbers to meet a goal of 70 percent of eligible residents having gotten at least one shot by July 4th . Read more here . US tells Americans in Afghanistan to get out due to COVID-19 surgeThe U.S. called on Americans to evacuate Afghanistan as soon as possible as the country faces a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths . The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a health alert Thursday to U.S. citizens in Afghanistan , warning of the COVID-19 surge and overwhelmed hospitals . In its statement , the embassy said hospitals in the country are experiencing shortages of supplies , oxygen and beds for all patients . U.S. citizens seeking hospital care have reportedly been denied admittance . The alert encourages Americans to make plans to leave without U.S. government assistance . Given the security conditions and reduced staffing , the Embassys ability to assist U.S. citizens in Afghanistan is extremely limited , the alert reads . By the numbers : Afghanistan is enduring a rapid uptick in COVID-19 cases and deaths since mid-May , reaching a pandemic-high for the seven-day average of 897 cases on Wednesday , according to Our World in Data . The country has documented a seven-day average of almost 22 fatalities a day , approaching the record 25 deaths seven-day average in July 2020 . At the same time , about 1.24 percent of people in Afghanistan have received at least one dose , and 0.37 percent are fully vaccinated . Read more here . Poll : Majority of Republicans support Medicare negotiations for prescription drug pricesA majority of polled Republicans backed giving Medicare the authority to negotiate lower prescription drug prices in a survey released Thursday . A West Health/Gallup poll showed widespread support for giving the federal government a major role in negotiating drug prices , with 61 percent of Republicans and 97 percent of Democrats saying they backed such an initiative . Overall , 81 percent of respondents said they supported Medicare negotiations to regulate drug costs . The survey comes as some congressional Republicans have come out against the move , joining the pharmaceutical companies , saying the reduced prices will damage competition and discourage innovation of new products . Only 19 percent of Americans said they think Medicare negotiation would damage innovation or market competition , including 39 percent of Republicans . Respondents vastly agreed that drug pricing requires major reform , with 90 percent concurring that improvements are needed instead of keeping with the status quo , including 96 percent of Democrats and 83 percent of Republicans . Read more here . And another poll finds the public wants drug pricing actionA new poll from the progressive groups Data for Progress and Social Security Works finds that a majority of likely voters want Congress to move urgently on Medicare drug price negotiation , even if it is backed by only one party . The view Congress should move urgently to lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs , even if this law is passed with the votes from just one party got 59 percent support . That is compared to 32 percent who said It is important that Congress finds a bipartisan solution to the cost of prescription drugs , even if reaching a bipartisan deal means it will take longer to reach an agreement and the cost savings might not be as large.The results come as progressives push for drug pricing legislation to be included in a coming infrastructure package . Biden health official taking a look at Trump drug pricing proposalA key Biden administration health official said Thursday that she is taking a look at one of former President Trumps proposals to lower drug prices but did not commit to pursuing the plan . I think were , you know , taking a look at those concepts , Liz Fowler , director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation , said when asked about Trumps most favored nation proposal to lower drug prices . I think you can expect that well continue looking at this issue , she added . I dont think were going to let our foot off the gas , but I dont know that itll take that form . We cant because its in court.Background : Trump had touted that initiative as a way to lower the prices Medicare paid for certain drugs to be in line with the prices paid in other wealthy countries . But the proposal , which Trump put forward at the end of his term , never went into effect after it was blocked by the courts for failing to follow proper procedural steps in its implementation . Tempered praise : The issue is unusual in that it marks an area where Trump put forward a proposal that is closer to the Democratic position than the usual Republican position . Fowler even offered some tempered praise for the Trump administrations approach on drug pricing . I thought that the previous administration was very creative in a lot of the ideas and areas that they were looking at tackling , she said . Read more here . Pandemic proves importance of pharmaceutical innovation U.S. Not On Pace To Meet Biden 's Vaccination GoalMICHEL MARTIN , HOST : We 'd like to turn now to President Biden 's handling of the pandemic here in the U.S. and the goal he set last month of having 70 % of Americans vaccinated against COVID-19 by the Fourth of July . And by that , he means either fully vaccinated or having received at least one dose . While some states are closer to meeting that goal than others , many authorities in this area predict that the country as a whole is unlikely to hit that 70 % mark by Independence Day . We wanted to hear more about what this may mean as the country tries to reopen and resume many of the activities that were restricted or put on hold at the height of the pandemic , so we called Bill Hanage . He is an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard 's T.H . Chan School of Public Health , and he 's with us now from Cambridge , Mass . Professor Hanage , thanks so much for talking with us . BILL HANAGE : Thanks for having me on the show . MARTIN : So , as we mentioned , President Biden set the goal of 70 % of Americans being at least partially vaccinated by July 4 . Can I ask your view ? Do you think the country will reach that goal ? HANAGE : I think it 's pretty unlikely that the country as a whole is going to reach that goal . I think it 's going to get very close , and it 's certainly going to get there in a lot of places . But the country as a whole , it 's going to be a bit tough to get there . On the other hand , like I say , I think we 're going to be close . MARTIN : So what happens if we do n't get there ? Is that a big setback ? Or is that 70 % mark more of a , I do n't know , symbolic number ? HANAGE : Yeah . Yeah . The 70 % mark is just a - sort of a line in the sand . I mean , it 's a reasonable amount of immunity in the population . And it 's great . And we 'd much rather have 70 % than 60 % . But on the other hand , 80 % , 90 % would still be better . But 70 % is quite a lot . And it gets us a lot closer to the goal that we should have , which is making this something which does n't cause large outbreaks and is something that we are able to handle in the future . MARTIN : So this is where I want to ask you about a term that I think a lot of people will have heard in really - recent months , really , over the course of the year , I think . It 's that phrase herd immunity . And some people are using that to describe the point at which enough people are immune or protected against the virus so that further spread is stopped or at least severely limited . Can I just ask you to give me your scientific explanation of that term and also whether it 's even useful to use in this context ? HANAGE : Yeah . Epidemiologists sometimes wince when they hear herd immunity being bandied about because it 's been unfortunately used in common understanding during the pandemic as a sort of finish line beyond which we - once we get there , we can just say , OK. That 's it . It 's over . And that 's not really the right way to think about it . The reason why herd immunity is a thing is that an epidemic , an outbreak requires supply of fresh people to be infected . It 's like a wildfire . If it burns out everything , then it 'll eventually exhaust all of its fuel . And because people are immune once they 've been infected , that means that , you know , people who have recovered from infection or have been immunized can no longer be infected . And that is - produces , eventually , a situation where there 's just not enough raw material for the virus to keep going . But - and this is a really important but - the exact point at which that occurs is really dependent on the type of contacts we make . And it 's really dependent upon who is vaccinated and whether or not you have clumps of unvaccinated people . MARTIN : So realistically , could you just give me a sense of what the future of the coronavirus looks like here ? Let 's just start with this summer . What can we expect to happen this summer and as we head into the fall ? HANAGE : So over this summer , we expect things to be relatively quiet in a lot of places . And we have a couple of reasons for that . Firstly , the summer was relatively quiet last year , and that was obviously before we had lots of immunization . We do expect there to be a bit of seasonality . Coronaviruses are not like flu . They 're not strongly seasonal . But we do see , you know , more transmission happening in the fall and winter than in the summer . Now , over the coming months , we expect , perhaps , to see some localized outbreaks . I mean , I and a lot of my colleagues are especially watching the South because you 'll recall the South had a surge in the Sun Belt over last summer . And the South has got quite patchy vaccination . There are some counties with a lot . There are some counties with less . And so that 's going to give us a lot of information and a lot of stuff to help understand what we can expect towards the fall and the winter of this year . MARTIN : So these days , more and more people are starting to get back into a lot of the activities that they have n't been able to do since the pandemic started . People are starting to go back to bars and restaurants and into movie theaters , and concerts are starting up again . And , you know , as you can imagine , people are excited about that . But given what you know about this virus and the vaccination efforts , which are , as you 've just , you know , told us , they 're not consistent across the country , is it too soon ? HANAGE : That 's a very good question . And I think you have to always remember the context that you 're in . So if you 're in a situation where almost everybody who you contact is going to be immunized , then you 're in a pretty good situation for doing those kinds of things . On the other hand , I think that it 's always easy - or it 's important to remember that there are going to be some people who are not vaccinated . And we want to be able to protect them for as long as possible until we get vaccination levels really high . So personally , I am choosing - when I 'm going into a place with a crowd of , you know , lots of people , I 'm choosing to wear a mask . The reason is that even though I 'm immunized , it 's not complete 100 % protection . And I really would not want to carry on those chains of transmission such that it would eventually get into an unvaccinated person or somebody who was , for instance , immunocompromised . MARTIN : Before we let you go , how - I do n't know if this - this is not a really precise question , but I 'm interested in how you are feeling about where we are at this stage of the pandemic . Is there any way you can kind of assess that for me ? HANAGE : Well , if you 're talking to epidemiologists , you 'll often find that they have this kind of - they feel split down the middle because on the one hand , I look at my local environment . In Cambridge , Mass. , the vaccination rates are through the roof . I mean , they 're really very good . And I do n't expect there to be large outbreaks here . Then I think about the other places . I think about places which are not immunized . I think about places , you know , networks of folks who have not been able to access a vaccine because they 're scared of taking time off work or scared of the side effects . And then , of course , I also think about the rest of the world because in the rest of the world , there 's so many people who are yet to get any chance of vaccine . And we 're going to need them to be protected . The pandemic is not going to be over , over anytime soon , unfortunately . And epidemiologists ca n't get that thought out of their heads . MARTIN : That was Bill Hanage , associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard 's T.H . Chan School of Public Health . Professor Hanage , thanks so much for spending some time with us . And I do hope we 'll talk again . HANAGE : Thanks . It was great to be with you . ( SOUNDBITE OF HARRIS HELLER 'S `` AMBIENT GOLD '' ) Copyright 2021 NPR . All rights reserved . Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information . NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor . This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future . Accuracy and availability may vary . The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record . A spring swoon in vaccinations has put President Joe Biden 's goal of getting at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose into the arms of 70 percent of adults by the Fourth of July on shaky ground . As of Monday , close to 64 percent of adults have received at least one dose of a vaccine , just shy of the pace needed to meet the goal . At the current pace , about 67 percent of the adult population will have received shots by the Fourth of July holiday . The country appeared on pace to clear the goal for most of May , but the pace of vaccinations slowed as June arrived . At the current seven-day rate of first doses , it will take until nearly the end of July to hit Biden 's 70 percent goal , according to an NBC News analysis . The pace is also short of what Biden needs to hit his other goal of fully vaccinating 160 million adults . The dip in adult first doses mirrors a drop in overall doses across the entire population in the spring . Vaccinations climbed steadily in the early part of the year , peaking at an average of 3.4 million doses per day . But they 've tumbled since then as states have had to contend with vaccine hesitancy among their populations . The Biden administration projected confidence at a briefing Monday , as White House press secretary Jen Psaki attributed some of the slowdown to the Memorial Day weekend . Psaki pointed to the administration 's national `` month of action '' in which the federal and state governments and businesses will encourage vaccinations with incentives like free beer , child care and baseball tickets as a sign that the administration will continue to push as hard as possible . `` I 'll also note that regardless of where we are on July 4 we 're not shutting down shop on July 5 , '' Psaki said . `` We 're going to continue to press to vaccinate more people across the country . '' Television pundits wondered aloud if the beer offer amounted to a bribe . But for Mr. Biden , the 70 percent goal is serious business both a public health objective that will drive down infection and death rates , as well as a benchmark by which Americans will judge his administration . As of Wednesday , about 63 percent of American adults have received at least one coronavirus shot , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , and 12 states have passed the 70 percent mark ; California and Maryland are the latest to do so . But a number of states , particularly in the South , are far short of that goal . If the pace of adult vaccination continues at its current seven-day average , the nation will come in just shy of Mr. Bidens target , with roughly 68 percent of adults partly vaccinated by July 4 , according to a New York Times analysis . Reaching all eligible Americans remains a daunting task ; as vaccination rates rise , the pool of the most willing adults is shrinking . We knew it was going to get harder , Dr. Vivek Murthy , Mr. Bidens surgeon general , acknowledged in an interview on CNN after the president spoke . ", |
