BIDEN’s J&J VACCINE PUSH STUMBLES AGAIN — Senior Biden health officials knew two weeks ago that a contractor’s vaccine production problems threatened to delay delivery of critical vaccine doses. But on Wednesday, the extent of the difficulties became clear, POLITICO’s Erin Banco, Sarah Owermohle and Rachel Roubein report: A mix-up by the contractor, Emergent BioSolutions, caused it to waste 15 million J&J vaccine doses. The mistake is just the latest snag for a vaccine the Biden administration had once touted as crucial to inoculating hard-to-reach communities and accelerating the overall immunization drive. J&J itself ran into production issues earlier this year and just barely met its goal of shipping 20 million doses to the U.S. by the end of March. Now, it’s unclear whether the company will be able to hit its next delivery milestone: 100 million doses by June. Biden officials have since instructed J&J to begin supervising Emergent’s production process. Still, the distribution of doses to states is likely to be patchy over the next several weeks, and future shipments could be further delayed. And that’s not all: Also on Wednesday, a whistleblower confirmed to Sarah that a Merck factory now being retrofitted to produce J&J doses was the subject of a complaint about safety and hygiene violations. In the complaint, a former FDA safety officer said that FDA inspection officials downplayed a range of safety hazards at the plant, including that employees were "soiling their uniforms rather than taking bathroom breaks.” The former FDA officer also accused Merck of destroying evidence. Merck agreed in March to help J&J bottle millions of vaccine doses starting as early as May, with plans to start producing the vaccine itself in the second half of the year. HARRIS HEADLINES VACCINE OUTREACH INITIATIVE— The vice president will lead a meeting this morning with founding members of the fledgling Covid-19 Community Corps, the next step in the administration’s vaccine outreach effort. The group, meant to amplify the administration’s messaging and help combat vaccine skepticism, includes 275 organizations and people representing various industries and communities. Among the notable participants: the American Medical Association, Planned Parenthood, religious and veterans groups, major sports leagues like the MLB and NFL, labor unions and a range of rural, Latino, Black, Asian and Native American organizations. — Surgeon General VIVEK MURTHY, who will co-chair the initiative alongside several other top health officials, will appear alongside Harris today. It’s his first major assignment since his confirmation last week. — HHS is also debuting a series of TV ads targeted to various demographics that encourage people to get vaccinated. The department is also releasing pro-vaccine “social frames” that people can overlay onto their Facebook profile pictures. | 
