Magnificent News: Coronavirus Updates: Too few young adults are getting vaccinated, CDC says

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Important developments in the pandemic.

By Ben Guarino
with Lindsey Bever

The Post's coronavirus coverage linked in this newsletter is free to access from this email.

The latest

Although 64 percent of adults in the United States have had at least one coronavirus shot, the country will not meet President Biden's July 4 goal of first doses for 70 percent of all U.S. adults. Instead, the White House set a new Independence Day target: one shot for 70 percent of Americans age 27 and up. It will take weeks after the holiday for young adults age 18 and 26 to surpass the 70 percent benchmark. A nationwide rate of 70 percent, though, will obscure the patchwork acceptance of vaccines – in some counties, vaccination remains below 50 percent.

And a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Monday highlights the level at which young adults remain under-vaccinated compared with older populations. Only 38 percent of Americans age 18 to 29 were vaccinated, compared with 80 percent of adults older than 65, the CDC found. One vaccine researcher said the lack of vaccination among young adults could be associated with the perception the pandemic is more of a concern for older people.

Enrollment in Medicaid reached a record high in the pandemic, climbing to 9.7 million Americans, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said. Fueling that increase, federal health officials said, was a change in Medicaid rules under one of last year's coronavirus relief laws – states received more federal money to help with Medicaid costs, on the condition they couldn't remove people from Medicaid during the coronavirus crisis.

In the British region where the Group of Seven summit was held, coronavirus cases have risen. Case rates in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly rose more than 20-fold. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted there was no relationship between the summit and the spike. Public health officials also suggested students or young adults on vacation could be driving the surge, because many of those infected are between 15 and 24.

The coronavirus surge in India has been complicated by another type of infection: Cases of a black fungus, named mucormycosis, that have killed 700 patients and sickened thousands more in the western state of Maharashtra, India. Patients with severe covid are treated with steroids, but that can increase susceptibility to this fungus, which attacks the eyes and sinuses.

Other important news

Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, has threatened to jail those who do not get vaccinated although immunization is not compulsory there.

China's frequent use of state secrets and classified work is a major complication for investigations into research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

After the pandemic took a heavy toll on this small hospital, which serves the mostly Black community in Prince George's County, Md., the facility is trying to expand and improve.

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Your questions, answered

"If the coronavirus vaccine is free of cost for everyone in the United States, why did they need my medical insurance card?" — Kristin in Missouri

Yes, the three coronavirus vaccines authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration are free for anyone living in the United States, regardless of health insurance or immigration status. That means individuals are eligible to get a vaccine at no cost to them no matter which insurance provider they have, including Medicare and Medicaid, or whether they have coverage at all.

The vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, have already been paid for by the federal government, using taxpayer dollars.

So why were you asked to show your health insurance card?

Vaccine providers, such as hospitals and pharmacies, may still request health insurance information because providers participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccination program are allowed to bill the federal government or private insurance companies to recoup administration fees. After all, it does cost money to hire people to schedule appointments, collect patient information and give the injections.

But individuals should never see a bill, unless of course a patient received the vaccine during a medical appointment for something else. In that case, the patient might be billed for services related to the other thing — such as an examination, diagnostic testing or treatment — but not for the coronavirus shot.

All of that said, there have been some instances in which people were wrongly asked to pay.

The CDC warns against providing personal or financial information to anyone who tries to charge you for the vaccines, administration costs, office visits, copays or coinsurance or any other fees.

On the off chance that you do get a bill in the mail, "don't pay it," Cynthia Cox, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, wrote in an email to The Washington Post. "Instead, call the provider or your insurer and explain that you should not have been billed," she said.