Healthcare facilities in U.S. counties with higher Black populations were 32% less likely to offer Covid-19 vaccines than areas with smaller than average Black populations, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal PLOS Medicine, as health experts continue to emphasize the need for equal access to vaccines as key to curbing the pandemic.

71.8% of eligible pharmacies and 55.5% of all healthcare facilities offered Covid-19 vaccines in counties where the Black population is greater than 42%, compared to 76.3% of pharmacies and 60.5% of healthcare facilities in counties where the Black population is less than 12.5%, according to the study.

Read more at Forbes.

The Biden administration may scrap plans to let more younger adults get second COVID-19 boosters this summer. Instead, officials are trying to speed up availability of the next generation of boosters in the fall, NPR has learned.

The new strategy is aimed at trying to balance protecting people this summer with keeping people safe next winter, when the country will probably get hit by yet another surge.

But the possible shift is being met with mixed reactions. The Food and Drug Administration could make a final decision by the end of the week.

Read more at NPR.

Just four days after testing positive for COVID-19, President Biden met virtually with administration officials, labor leaders and business executives on legislation to boost the domestic semiconductor industry on Monday afternoon.  

His voice a bit raspy, Biden told reporters he is feeling “great” and hoped to be back to work in person by the end of the week.  

Biden’s public appearance — his second since testing positive last Thursday — sent a signal to Americans that a 79-year-old person who contracts the virus can weather the sickness relatively easily because of vaccines and booster doses. 

Read more at The Hill.

New survey results published Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation indicate that 43% of parents of children under 5 in the US say they will not get their child vaccinated against Covid-19, the highest percentage in the year that KFF’s Vaccine Monitor survey has been asking the question.

The US Food and Drug Administration authorized Covid-19 vaccinations in children as young as 6 months in mid-June.

According to the KFF data, only 17% of parents of children between 6 months and 5 years old say their child has been vaccinated or will be as soon as possible. Another 27% say they will wait and see how well the shots work in other kids, and 13% said they will vaccinate their child only if required to do so for school or child care.

Read more at CNN.

The Biden administration is warning states to prepare for a “limited supply” of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine to be made available, after federal health authorities cleared the shots for use on Tuesday. States will likely be unable to begin requesting their first shipments until next week. 

“A limited number of doses of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed and not all providers are expected to carry Novavax COVID-19 vaccine,” says a planning document published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

States will not be able to begin ordering from the Biden administration’s supply of Novavax’s vaccine until the week of July 25, the document “tentatively” estimates.

Read more at CBS.

What’s happening

The CDC has recommended a new COVID-19 vaccine called Novavax.

Why it matters

Novavax is the first protein-based vaccine for COVID-19 available in the US, though protein-based vaccines have been around for decades.

What it means for you

If you haven’t been vaccinated yet, you’re eligible for Novavax, which expands the vaccine options.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine late Tuesday, following an endorsement from a group of scientific advisers that give advice to the CDC. 

Read more at CNET.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on Tuesday that a newly authorized vaccine from Novavax be used as an option for adults seeking a primary immunization against the coronavirus.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C.’s director, signed off on the recommendation of a panel of vaccine experts that had unanimously endorsed the vaccine on Tuesday afternoon. The decision removes the final regulatory hurdle for the fourth Covid-19 shot authorized in the United States.

Read more at The New York Times.

Health officials around the world are racing to curb an outbreak of monkeypox cases that has swelled into the thousands, deploying both vaccines and treatments for a disease that can lead to weeks of painful rashes and lesions for those infected.

While monkeypox infections have been seen before in the U.S. — in two travelers from Nigeria last year and in 47 cases that were linked to imported animals back in 2003 — the current outbreak is by far the largest recorded in American history. 

Here’s what’s known about the monkeypox outbreak and response:

Read more at CBS.

Millions of children around the world, most of them in the poorest countries, missed some or all of their childhood vaccinations over the past two years because of a combination of conflicts, climate emergencies, misinformation campaigns, pandemic lockdowns and Covid vaccination efforts that diverted resources, according to a new analysis from Unicef, the United Nations agency that vaccinates half the world’s children, and the World Health Organization.

It is the largest backslide in routine immunization in 30 years, the report said. Combined with rapidly rising rates of malnutrition, it has created conditions that could threaten the lives of millions of young children.

Read more at The New York Times.

States where parents have hesitated to inoculate their children against Covid-19 are now ordering fewer doses of the vaccines for children under 5 than others, underscoring the challenge facing the Biden administration as a highly transmissible variant sweeps the nation.

Experts broadly agree states shouldn’t order more doses than they think they’ll use. But they worry the low demand in states such as Alabama and Mississippi is a warning sign of the widening ambivalence among many parents about the benefits of vaccinating children against the virus and continuing politicization of health care.

Read more at Politico.