NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As millions continue to wait their turn for the COVID-19 vaccine, small but steady amounts of the precious doses have gone to waste across the country.

It’s a heartbreaking reality that experts acknowledged was always likely to occur. Thousands of shots have been wasted in Tennessee, Florida, Ohio and many other states. The reasons vary from shoddy record-keeping to accidentally trashing hundreds of shots. However, pinning down just how many of the life-saving vials have been tossed remains largely unknown despite assurance from many local officials the number remains low.

To be sure, waste is common in global inoculation campaigns, with millions of doses of flu shots trashed each year. By one World Health Organization estimate, as many as half of vaccines in previous campaigns worldwide have been thrown away because they were mishandled, unclaimed or expired.

By comparison, waste of the COVID-19 vaccine appears to be quite small, though the U.S. government has yet to release numbers shedding insight on its extent. Officials have promised that may change soon as more data is collected from the states.

In the interim, state health agencies are much more inclined to tout how fast they’ve administered the shots while keeping mum on the number of doses that end up in the trash.

Read the full story here.

Facebook to label vaccine posts to combat misinformation

LONDON — Facebook is adding informational labels to posts about vaccines as it expands efforts to counter COVID-19-related misinformation flourishing on its platforms.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post Monday that labels will contain “credible information” about the vaccines from the World Health Organization. They will be in English and five other languages, with more languages added in coming weeks.

“For example, we’re adding a label on posts that discuss the safety of COVID-19 vaccines that notes COVID-19 vaccines go through tests for safety and effectiveness before they’re approved,” Zuckerberg said.

The social network is also adding a tool to help get users vaccinated by connecting them to information about where and when they can get their shot.

Facebook and Instagram have been criticized for allowing anti-vaccination propaganda to spread and for being woefully slow in weeding out the misinformation, often with fact-checks, labels and other restrained measures.

“This announcement falls well short of what is needed to solve the crisis of anti-vaccine lies polluting social media users’ timelines,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, a critic of social media companies’ handling of hate speech and misinformation.

“Facebook and Instagram still do not remove the vast majority of posts reported to them for containing dangerous misinformation about vaccines,” her said “The main superspreaders of anti-vaccine lies all still have a presence on Instagram or Facebook, despite promises to remove them. And the evidence suggests that the way Facebook applies labels to misinformation posts has minimal impact.”

For years, Facebook and other social platforms have allowed anti-vaccination propaganda to flourish, making it difficult to stamp out such sentiments now. And their efforts to weed out other types of COVID-19 misinformation – often with fact-checks, informational labels and other restrained measures, has been woefully slow.

The Associated Press recently identified more than a dozen Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, collectively boasting millions of followers, that have made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine or discouraged people from taking it. Some of these pages have existed for years.

Why some countries are suspending use of AstraZeneca vaccine

LONDON — Nearly a dozen countries including Germany, France and Italy have all temporarily suspended their use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine after reports last week that some people in Denmark and Norway who got a dose developed blood clots, even though there’s no evidence that the shot was responsible.

The European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization say the data available don’t suggest the vaccine caused the clots and that people should continue to be immunized. Here’s a look at we know – and what we don’t.

Denmark was the first country to halt its use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine last week after reports of blood clots in some people, including one person who developed multiple clots and died 10 days after receiving at least one dose. Danish health authorities said the suspension would last for at least two weeks while the cases were investigated, even as they noted that “at present, it cannot be concluded whether there is a link between the vaccine and the blood clots.”

Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Congo soon followed suit. On Saturday, Norwegian authorities reported that four people under age 50 who had gotten the AstraZeneca vaccine had an unusually low number of blood platelets. That could lead to severe bleeding. Shortly afterward, Ireland and the Netherlands announced that they, too, were stopping their use of the AstraZeneca vaccine temporarily.

Authorities in the Netherlands — like those elsewhere — said their suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine was strictly precautionary.

“We must always err on the side of caution, which is why it is sensible to press the pause button now as a precaution,” said Hugo de Jonge, the Dutch health minister.

On Monday, Norwegian doctors announced that one of the people hospitalized after getting the AstraZeneca vaccine had died. After saying last week they would continue with the vaccine, German officials said Monday they would suspend its use after fresh reports of new problems, based on the advice from its medicines regulator.

Read the full story here.

Yo-Yo Ma played a surprise concert at vaccination clinic

In an airy, sunny gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, under basketball hoops and banners, in front of people freshly pricked and waiting for minutes to pass, Yo-Yo Ma played a little Bach.

The world-renowned cellist had gone to the vaccination clinic at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass., for his second coronavirus vaccine dose, according to clinic organizers. After getting his shot, he took a seat along a padded blue wall of the gym, near others waiting out their 15-minute post-vaccination observation time, and surprised them with a performance.

Leslie Drager, the lead clinical manager for the vaccination site, said that when Ma started to play, the whole place went quiet.

“It was so weird how peaceful the whole building became, just having a little bit of music in the background,” said Drager, who is the lead public health nurse for Berkshire Public Health Alliance.

She said the vaccination site has nine stations of nurses administering doses. On Saturday, 1,102 shots were administered – all second doses. Ma arrived toward the end of the day.

“People are talking and moving, there are lots of volunteers, and everybody just went quiet and went to watch and listen,” Drager said.

When Ma got his first dose, he came and went mostly unnoticed, she said. This time, he arrived with his cello.

Read the full story here.

Biden says Medicare will boost what it pays for vaccine shots

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration says Medicare will significantly boost what it pays for COVID-19 shots to help get more Americans vaccinated, particularly those in hard-to-reach areas.

White House coronavirus special adviser Andy Slavitt said Monday that Medicare will now pay $40 per shot. That’s an increase over the average of nearly $23 per shot the program has been paying.

For a vaccine requiring two shots, it would work out to $80, nearly double the $45 Medicare now pays.

As the government’s flagship health insurance program, Medicare covers more than 60 million people, including those 65 and older and younger individuals who are disabled.

The payment increase will make it easier for more health care providers to get out into communities and give shots to those most in need, Slavitt said. Hard-to-reach areas can include rural communities but also urban neighborhoods in which a long bus ride is the only way to reach a vaccination center.

Unmasked spring breakers are descending on Florida. Officials are begging them to behave.

After the fledgling pandemic forced an early end to Florida’s annual spring break bacchanal in 2020, the state is wide open this time around and – for some – irresistible.

Walt Disney World’s four parks, operating at reduced capacity, have no more tickets available through March 25. Photos from popular beach destinations this month have shown large, occasionally raucous crowds of unmasked revelers. Over the weekend, Miami Beach police arrested 100 and pepper sprayed “unruly” spring breakers.

Flights are cheap. Travel restrictions are nonexistent, and the state reopened its economy months ago.

Public health experts point out that spring break visitors are likely to be young and unvaccinated – and participants in high-risk behavior like hanging out in bars and packed clubs.

“It’s a perfect formula for spreading the disease,” said Eric Toner, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Even though we’re doing much better now than we were several months ago with the incidence of covid-19, we’re still at a level nationally that last summer we would have thought was alarmingly high.”

The crowds descend as Florida has added another 31,603 coronavirus cases and 605 deaths in the past seven days, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency said the state also leads the nation in reported cases caused by the variants that were first identified in the United Kingdom and Brazil.

“The state has relaxed nearly all of its restrictions and containment measures,” Toner said. “And so there’s every reason to think that there’ll be high rates of transmission.”

Read the full story here.

Mississippi makes all adults eligible for shots

JACKSON, Miss. — All Mississippi residents will be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine starting Tuesday. Gov. Tate Reeves made the announcement Monday.

“Starting tomorrow, ALL new appointments will be open to ALL Mississippians,” Reeves tweeted Monday. “Get your shot friends – and let’s get back to normal!”

Vaccinations in Mississippi are currently available for anyone ages 50 or over, staff at K-12 schools, first responders, health care workers and those who are at least 16 and have health conditions that might make them more vulnerable to the virus.

Reeves urged those in the 50 and up age group to make appointments Monday before eligibility expands to the entire state. People can get vaccinated at state-run drive-thru sites in counties across the state, at private clinics and community health centers and some pharmacies, like Walmart and Walgreens.

West Virginians 16 and older with medical conditions eligible for vaccine

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginians aged 16 and older with underlying medical conditions are now eligible for a coronavirus vaccine, along with all essential workers of any age, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced on Monday.

The list of eligible conditions include asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, intellectual disabilities, autoimmune disorders and more. Pregnant residents are also eligible as are the caretakers of those with some diseases.

All residents 50 and over have already been eligible for a vaccine. Last week, Justice said the state “will absolutely step up” to meet President Joe Biden’s goal that all Americans be eligible for vaccinations by May 1. He and other governors, though, stressed the need for the vaccine supply to increase.

Connecticut to speed up next round of vaccine eligibility

HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced plans Monday to speed up the next age-based phase of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout by a few days.

Ultimately, the new timeline will allow everyone else, age 16 and older, to begin making their appointments for a shot tentatively on April 5.

Meanwhile, the state plans to work with health care providers and the Department of Developmental Services to accelerate access for the most medically high-risk individuals under age 45 during April.

The Biden administration has informed Connecticut that it should be receiving a “significant” increase in vaccine doses over the next several weeks. Currently, the state is receiving roughly 139,000 to 150,000 doses a week, and that will climb to about 200,000 doses a week by early April.

Currently, everyone age 55 and older, health care personnel, medical first responders, residents and staff at long-term care facilities and select congregate settings, and pre-K-12 school staff and professional childcare providers are allowed to get the shot.

WHO says countries should keep using AstraZeneca vaccine

GENEVA — The chief scientist of the World Health Organization is recommending that countries continue to use the AstraZeneca vaccine for now despite concerns about blood clots in some people who have received it.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan says officials at the U.N. health agency “don’t want people to panic” even as close monitoring of the vaccine’s use continues. She said a review is under way that could produce updated recommendations as early as Tuesday.

Swaminathan noted that some 300 million doses of a variety of coronavirus vaccines have been given to people around the world, and “there is no documented death that has been linked to a COVID vaccine.”

She said the rates at which blood clots have occurred in people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine “are in fact less than what you would expect in the general population.”

Missouri opens vaccine eligibility to teachers, school workers

O’FALLON, Mo. — Missouri teachers and other school workers are now eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, even as the leader of the state’s largest jurisdiction said Missouri’s “fumbled vaccine rollout” continues to frustrate urban residents.

The state made educators and school staff along with transportation and infrastructure workers eligible for shots on Monday. Missouri officials estimate the new group includes about 550,000 people.

But Democratic St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said the St. Louis region is still a long way from vaccinating those in earlier groups. He declined to estimate how long it will be before doses can go to all teachers who want them in the county of 1 million residents, but stressed the importance of vaccinating them so schools can return to in-person learning.

“The fumbled vaccine rollout has added frustration to a process,” Page said during a news conference. “Seeing our residents drive several hours to snag an appointment or wait in hopes that there are surplus shots at the end of a vaccination event is no way to provide a service critical to ending a pandemic.”

A message left with Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s spokesperson was not immediately returned. Parson has repeatedly said the vaccine distribution is equitable and based on population.