WALENSKY STRIVES TO PUT CDC BACK ON TRACK — After a brutal year, the agency now faces what could be its biggest test yet: loosening coronavirus guidance while trying to tamp down new outbreaks in undervaccinated communities. That’s meant Walensky has had t o unify the agency’s public messaging, Erin Banco writes. — While she regularly appears on national TV and in White House press briefings, Walensky’s top lieutenants and the CDC’s rank-and-file scientists rarely make public appearances or give interviews to journalists. That lack of media access pushed the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in February to send her a letter, denouncing the CDC's “restrictions on staff speaking to reporters without notifying authorities.” — Yet the CDC’s strategy for rolling out new Covid guidance has still caused some headaches in the administration. The agency in March stalled on officially releasing its recommendations for vaccinated Americans — even after the guidelines had been circulating among top officials and some reporters. When the CDC updated that guidance in April, it again caught some officials off-guard, Erin writes. Still, Walensky’s colleagues at the CDC say they are still hopeful she will lead the agency into a new, more positive era. “So many of the changes that [Walensky] is making are long overdue,” said a senior CDC official. The CDC did not respond to a request for comment on Erin’s story. GLITZY VACCINE SWEEPSTAKES FAIL TO CUT THROUGH APATHY — States’ efforts to boost Covid-19 vaccination rates through million-dollar lotteries have not reversed a steep decline in adult coronavirus vaccinations, according to a POLITICO analysis of federal data by Dan Goldberg and Tucker Doherty. Ohio — which promised $1 million to five lucky adults, the first state to offer such a giveaway — saw a two-week bump in adult vaccination rates last month. But the pace of vaccinations there has already fallen off, and despite the lottery bump, the state continues to lag behind the national average in the share of adults given a first dose. Other states that followed Ohio’s example have only seen marginal gains, the analysis shows. “People aren’t buying it,” said Irwin Redlener, who directs the Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative at Columbia University. “The incentives don’t seem to be working — whether it’s a doughnut, a car or a million dollars.” Why? State lotteries and giveaways appear to offer diminishing returns in part because the so-called movable middle — the group that is willing but not persuaded to get vaccinated — gets smaller and smaller every day, Dan and Tucker write. But public health officials say they’ll try almost anything to get shots in arms. ICYMI: WITH OBAMACARE SAFE, A NEW BATTLE BEGINS — The Supreme Court’s decision Thursday dealt the final blow to GOP dreams of repealing the Affordable Care Act; now, Democrats must reckon with the future of their health care vision, Susannah Luthi writes. Even the ACA’s biggest fans acknowledge Obamacare has its problems: high premiums, large deductibles, and a gaping coverage gap in the dozen, mostly Republican, states that still refuse to expand Medicaid. But Obamacare’s future could look very different depending on Democratic leaders’ next steps. “For many years, one of the biggest obstacles to making big progressive steps on health care was the mantra that we needed to implement Obamacare and then defend Obamacare,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “It was a very existential block to going forward, just keeping the law alive. Now that it seems quite safe, there’s more flexibility across the Democratic Party to take bold steps.” President Joe Biden campaigned on making seismic changes to the ACA, such as offering a public option and lowering the Medicare age to 60, but has since pulled back to focus on more incremental policies. The Democrats’ Covid relief package in March temporarily boosted Obamacare subsidies by nearly 30 percent, which the president is looking to make permanent.
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