Covid live updates: Biden to double J&J vaccine purchase; Alaska offers shots to all residents

The Biden administration plans to purchase an additional 100 million additional doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, two administration sources told NBC News.

President Joe Biden is expected to announce the plans Wednesday during a White House meeting with executives from J&J and Merck.

The announcement comes as the administration works to ramp up the production of J&J’s vaccine after it learned earlier in the year that the company had fallen behind in vaccine production.

J&J currently has a deal with the U.S. government to provide 100 million doses by the end of June. The additional purchase would double that supply. Last week, Biden announced that pharmaceutical giant Merck would help make J&J’s Covid vaccine.

–Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Target shoppers can now get a Covid-19 shot at the big-box store.

The retailer said more than 600 CVS Health locations inside of its stores will administer the vaccines to customers and employees who get an appointment and are eligible based on their age, medical conditions and other factors. Participating stores are listed on the CVS website.

Target announced in February that it would give extra pay and cover the cost of a Lyft ride for employees who get the vaccines. At the time, the company said it was also working on getting CVS and other providers to give doses to employees inside of stores and at distribution centers.

—Melissa Repko

Public health officials are running into an unforeseen issue with distributing Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine.

While J&J’s vaccine is a highly effective shot, especially against severe illness and death, it’s perceived by some Americans as inferior to Pfizer’s and Moderna’s. Though unintentional, the allocation of J&J’s shot to inner-cities and rural areas, as some officials are suggesting, risks bringing allegations of discrimination based on race and class, health experts say.

That could further erode trust in the vaccine rollout, especially in communities of color, health experts say, as more data from states shows Blacks and Hispanics continue to make up a disproportionate share of Covid-19 fatalities but are receiving the vaccines at significantly lower rates than white people.

State and local health officials must clearly communicate the benefits of J&J’s vaccine and why it may be distributed in a certain way.

“If you start distributing this vaccine to certain groups and certain neighborhoods, without explaining why it is being done that way, then there is likely to be a perception that ‘my group, my neighborhood, my town is getting this low efficacy vaccine compared to that group, that neighborhood or that town,’” said Kasisomayajula Viswanath, a professor of health communication at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

—Berkeley Lovelace Jr.