"We have more people with protection": Gov. Tim Walz defends Minnesota's COVID vaccine rollout

Torey Van Oot

While the pace is picking up, until recently Minnesota ranked near the bottom of states for its slower-than-hoped-for coronavirus vaccine rollout.

The state of play: In an interview with Axios, Gov. Tim Walz defended his approach, saying the state has actually done well when it comes to getting people fully vaccinated with both doses.

Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.

  • "West Virginia may have more of those [vaccines] out of the front end, but we have more people with protection, because of the second doses," he said, referencing one of the nation's leaders in vaccine distribution.

Yes, but: Walz said in retrospect, the state could have focused more on leveraging its "very robust private health care system" instead of relying on a federal partnership with large pharmacies to inoculate long-term care residents.

  • "Candidly, here's the thing: I thought President Trump would punish governors that opted out of it," the DFL governor said.

  • Walz also blamed the state's scramble to establish vaccine distribution and appointment systems on "an overconfidence that the federal government had that part right," despite Minnesota being tapped by the CDC to come up with plans last year.

Driving the comments: MDH data show the large pharmacies at the center of that program have lagged other providers in getting available shots into arms.

What's next: Walz asked the large pharmacies to turn over unused doses so MDH could reallocate them to a broader group of seniors and teachers.

  • Starting today, the state will also redirect doses from most pilot vaccination sites to medical providers to get "significantly more vaccine" to Minnesotans 65 and older, per the Star Tribune.

Meanwhile, communication issues continue to cause confusion.

  • The latest hiccup happened this weekend, when a state vendor accidentally sent notes to thousands of seniors erroneously claiming their appointments were canceled.

This story first appeared in the Axios Twin Cities newsletter, designed to help readers get smarter, faster on the most consequential news unfolding in their own backyard.

Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.

Latest Stories

  • Eric Trump reportedly wagered Election Day that his father would win 320 electoral votes

    Former President Donald Trump and those closest to him believed before Election Day that he would win a second term, "their views swayed by the assurances of pro-Trump pundits and the unscientific measure of the size and excitement of the president's rally crowds," The New York Times reports. Trump had laid the groundwork for a Plan B, arguing that he lost only because of a vast conspiracy of fraud, but he and his close circle didn't think he would need it, the Times reports: Flying home on Air Force One from the final campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the early hours of Nov. 3., Mr. Trump's son Eric proposed an Electoral College betting pool. He wagered that the president would win at least 320 electoral votes, according to a person present for the exchange. "We're just trying to get to 270," an adviser more grounded in polling and analytics replied. [The New York Times] The Times did not report how much Eric Trump bet or whether he ever paid up. But watching returns come in on election night, Donald Trump "fell into enraged disbelief as his lead inexorably dissipated, even in formerly red states like Arizona," the Times reports. "Eric Trump goaded him on — a dynamic that would play out in the weeks to come." Read more about Trump's post-election machinations at The New York Times. More stories from theweek.comThe Jan. 6 rally that fed the deadly Capitol siege was reportedly a Trump White House productionRise of the Barstool conservatives5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problem

  • Thousands of Navalny supporters rally across Russia despite fierce crackdown

    Thousands are rallying across Russia as nationwide protests in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny continue to grow. For the second straight weekend, Russians took to the streets on Sunday in the Far East and Siberia as Moscow geared up for the rally with a strict security lockdown. Defying minus 20 degrees temperatures, more than 6,000 people marched across Russia’s third-largest city of Novosibirsk on Sunday, chanting “Down with the czar!” after riot police sealed off the main square. In Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean, police pushed the crowds on the frozen Amur Bay where officers chased protesters in the snow. More than 500 arrests were reported across the country by Sunday morning.

  • Israeli army kills alleged Palestinian attacker in West Bank

    An Israeli soldier on Sunday shot dead a Palestinian suspected of attempting an attack on troops in the West Bank, the Israeli army said. The army said in a statement that “an armed assailant with three knives connected to a stick” attempted to attack soldiers at a West Bank junction south of Bethlehem. No soldiers were hurt.

  • Taiwan says Chinese fighters, U.S. aircraft both entered defence zone

    Six Chinese fighter aircraft and a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft entered the southwestern corner of Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Sunday, the island's defence ministry said, in an unusual admission of U.S. military activity. Tensions have spiked over the last week or so after Taiwan reported multiple Chinese fighters and bombers flying into the zone last weekend, in an area close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the northern part of the South China Sea.

  • Trump appointees aggressively lobbied against giving states COVID-19 vaccine rollout funds

    As states were formulating plans to vaccinate their residents against COVID-19 last fall, top Trump administration officials pushed Congress to deny the state governments any extra funding for the vaccine rollout, Stat News reported Sunday. The officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and White House Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought, disregarded "frantic warnings from state officials that they didn't have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation," focusing instead on $200 million the states had not yet spent, Stat reports. Vought was "obsessed" with the fact that states hadn't already spent the allocated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Republican Senate aide told Stat, adding that even staunch fiscal conservatives in Congress knew states needed more than $200 million to inoculate 300 million Americans. But "much of the lobbying push came from Paul Mango, the former deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services," Stat reports, citing a Democratic congressional aide and Mango himself. "A lot of them had shut down their economies and they weren't getting tax revenue," Mango told Stat. "I'm sure they could use money — that's not in dispute — what's in dispute is whether they needed money given all they hadn't used to actually administer vaccines." The National Governors Association and the Association for State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) both warned the Trump administration last fall that more funding was needed to prepare for the soon-to-be-approved vaccines, and former CDC Director Robert Redfield had asked Congress for $6 billion for the states' efforts. Mango told Stat that Redfield was "lobbying Congress for money behind our back" to "help their friends at the state public health offices." State health departments note they were not vaccinating anyone in October and said they were drawing down sources of money that were set to expire before tapping the $200 million, especially because it wasn't certain Congress would allocate anymore. Congress did approve $4.5 billion in December, but the funds didn't start arriving in states until January. Read more about the lobbying effort, what effect it may have had on the slow rollout, and the schism between the Trump political appointees and public health officials at Stat News. More stories from theweek.comThe Jan. 6 rally that fed the deadly Capitol siege was reportedly a Trump White House productionRise of the Barstool conservatives5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problem

  • Drone video shows major damage after chunk of iconic California highway washes into ocean

    Part of Highway 1 in the Big Sur area collapsed after heavy rains and slid into the Pacific.

  • Police: Carjacker tossed 1-year-old out of vehicle

    St. Louis police are looking for suspects after armed robbers stole a woman's car then threw her 1-year-old son out of the vehicle. Police say a 22-year-old woman was sitting at a stoplight in north St. Louis with two men and her child.

  • Hungarians protest against lockdown measures despite gathering ban

    Restaurant workers were among hundreds of people protesting against coronavirus lockdown measures on Sunday in Budapest, and at least 100 restaurants planned to re-open even as the government threatened them with heavy fines. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government has said it could only start easing the measures if the number of coronavirus cases falls sharply, or if large numbers of Hungarians are inoculated. Hungary became first in the EU this week to sign a deal for Russia's Sputnik V COVID vaccine and Chinese Sinopharm's vaccine.

  • GOP senators release details of $618 billion COVID relief package

    A group of 10 Senate Republicans that are seeking a compromise on a COVID-19 relief package released the details of their $618 billion proposal Monday, ahead of a meeting with President Biden.By the numbers: The proposal includes $160 billion in spending toward the direct response to the pandemic, including money for vaccines, testing and tracing, treatment and medical equipment. Get smarter, faster with the news CEOs, entrepreneurs and top politicians read. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here. * The package includes $1,000 in direct payments to Americans, a reduction from the $1,400 that Biden included in his plan. * The payments would be phased out starting with individuals making $40,000 a year or more. People making $50,000 or more would not receive a payment. * It would provide $50 billion in relief for small businesses. Child care and schools would each receive $20 billion.State of play: The plan does not include funding for state and local governments or an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour — both which are a part of Biden's $1.9 trillion proposal. * The Republicans' plan would also provide $300 in weekly unemployment benefits through June. Biden's plan offers $400 weekly through September.What they're saying: “Mr. President, we recognize your calls for unity and want to work in good faith with your Administration to meet the health, economic, and societal challenges of the COVID crisis,” the senators wrote. * The group includes Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)Between the lines: Biden has said he prefers a bipartisan approach to getting his plan through Congress, writes Axios Hans Nichols. * But he hasn’t ruled out relying on Democratic votes alone to pass his proposal through budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority in the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled last week that Democrats would seek to use the tactic if they could not garner Republican support.Go deeper: White House plots "full-court press" for $1.9 trillion relief planBe smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.

  • Nine top New York health officials quit amid Cuomo undercutting expert advice, report says

    Health officials told The New York Times that morale was at an ‘all-time low’ in the state’s Health Department

  • Thousands flee Hong Kong for UK, fearing China crackdown

    Thousands of Hong Kongers have already made the sometimes painful decision to leave behind their hometown and move to Britain since Beijing imposed a strict national security law on the Chinese territory last summer. Others say China’s encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and they want to seek a better future for their children abroad. The moves are expected to accelerate now that 5 million Hong Kongers are eligible to apply for visas to Britain, allowing them to live, work and study there and eventually apply to become British citizens.

  • Two million Australians in lockdown after one coronavirus case found

    About 2 million Australians begun their first full day of a strict coronavirus lockdown on Monday following the discovery of one case in the community in Perth, capital of Western Australia state, but no new cases have since been found. Authorities ordered a five-day lockdown of Perth after a security guard at a hotel used to quarantine people returning from overseas was found to have contracted the virus. The state government said 66 people have been deemed close contacts of the unidentified guard and none of those already tested were infected.

  • Police pepper spray 9-year-old girl in New York

    “This is not something that any of us should want to justify,” said Mayor Lovely Warren, who ordered an investigation.

  • Biden redirecting Trump's $30 billion fund used for farmers impacted by trade war

    The Biden administration wants to use the Agriculture Department money to tackle climate change, support restaurants and kickstart other programs without waiting for Congress; Fox Business Network's Charles Payne reacts.

  • Anxiety grows as long-term care awaits COVID-19 vaccines

    Frustration is building over the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations at long-term care sites, where some homes still await first shots while fending off a virus that can devastate their residents. The major drugstore chains tasked with giving shots in these places are far along in vaccinating nursing home residents and staff. CVS and Walgreens have started a massive vaccination push in nearly all states, and they say they are proceeding on schedule.

  • Russian prosecutors seek Navalny jail term, Kremlin tells U.S. to back off

    Russian state prosecutors said they would ask a court on Tuesday to jail opposition politician Alexei Navalny for up to three and a half years, and the Kremlin said it would not listen to U.S. complaints about his case. Riot police detained more than 5,300 people who took part in protests across Russia on Sunday calling for the release of Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin who was detained last month on his return from Germany. The political unrest is a headache for Putin, 68, who has dominated Russian politics for over two decades.

  • Major storm hits Northeast, more than foot of snow forecast

    The storm will also cause near-hurricane force wind gusts and major coastal flooding.

  • Could a human enter a black hole to study it?

    A person falling into a black hole and being stretched while approaching the black hole's horizon. Leo Rodriguez and Shanshan Rodriguez, CC BY-ND Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Could a human enter a black hole to study it? – Pulkeet, age 12, Bahadurgarh, Haryana, India To solve the mysteries of black holes, a human should just venture into one. However, there is a rather complicated catch: A human can do this only if the respective black hole is supermassive and isolated, and if the person entering the black hole does not expect to report the findings to anyone in the entire universe. We are both physicists who study black holes, albeit from a very safe distance. Black holes are among the most abundant astrophysical objects in our universe. These intriguing objects appear to be an essential ingredient in the evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang till present day. They probably had an impact on the formation of human life in our own galaxy. Two types of black holes The universe is littered with a vast zoo of different types of black holes. They can vary by size and be electrically charged, the same way electrons or protons are in atoms. Some black holes actually spin. There are two types of black holes that are relevant to our discussion. The first does not rotate, is electrically neutral – that is, not positively or negatively charged – and has the mass of our Sun. The second type is a supermassive black hole, with a mass of millions to even billions times greater than that of our Sun. Besides the mass difference between these two types of black holes, what also differentiates them is the distance from their center to their “event horizon” – a measure called radial distance. The event horizon of a black hole is the point of no return. Anything that passes this point will be swallowed by the black hole and forever vanish from our known universe. The distance from a black hole’s center of mass to where gravity’s pull is too strong to overcome is called the event horizon. Leo and Shanshan, CC BY-ND At the event horizon, the black hole’s gravity is so powerful that no amount of mechanical force can overcome or counteract it. Even light, the fastest-moving thing in our universe, cannot escape – hence the term “black hole.” The radial size of the event horizon depends on the mass of the respective black hole and is key for a person to survive falling into one. For a black hole with a mass of our Sun (one solar mass), the event horizon will have a radius of just under 2 miles. The supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, by contrast, has a mass of roughly 4 million solar masses, and it has an event horizon with a radius of 7.3 million miles or 17 solar radii. Thus, someone falling into a stellar-size black hole will get much, much closer to the black hole’s center before passing the event horizon, as opposed to falling into a supermassive black hole. This implies, due to the closeness of the black hole’s center, that the black hole’s pull on a person will differ by a factor of 1,000 billion times between head and toe, depending on which is leading the free fall. In other words, if the person is falling feet first, as they approach the event horizon of a stellar mass black hole, the gravitational pull on their feet will be exponentially larger compared to the black hole’s tug on their head. The person would experience spaghettification, and most likely not survive being stretched into a long, thin noodlelike shape. As the person approaches the event horizon of a a Sun-size black hole, the vast difference in gravitational pull between the inidvidual’s head and toes causes the person to stretch into a very long noodle, hence the term ‘spaghettification’. Leo and Shanshan Rodriguez, CC BY-ND Now, a person falling into a supermassive black hole would reach the event horizon much farther from the the central source of gravitational pull, which means that the difference in gravitational pull between head and toe is nearly zero. Thus, the person would pass through the event horizon unaffected, not be stretched into a long, thin noodle, survive and float painlessly past the black hole’s horizon. A person falling into a supermassive black hole would likely survive. Leo and Shanshan Rodriguez, CC BY-ND Other considerations Most black holes that we observe in the universe are surrounded by very hot disks of material, mostly comprising gas and dust or other objects like stars and planets that got too close to the horizon and fell into the black hole. These disks are called accretion disks and are very hot and turbulent. They are most certainly not hospitable and would make traveling into the black hole extremely dangerous. To enter one safely, you would need to find a supermassive black hole that is completely isolated and not feeding on surrounding material, gas and or even stars. Now, if a person found an isolated supermassive black hole suitable for scientific study and decided to venture in, everything observed or measured of the black hole interior would be confined within the black hole’s event horizon. Keeping in mind that nothing can escape the gravitational pull beyond the event horizon, the in-falling person would not be able to send any information about their findings back out beyond this horizon. Their journey and findings would be lost to the rest of the entire universe for all time. But they would enjoy the adventure, for as long as they survived … maybe …. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Leo Rodriguez, Grinnell College and Shanshan Rodriguez, Grinnell College. Read more:Supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy may have a friendThe scariest things in the universe are black holes – and here are 3 reasons The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

  • Why GameStop's stock could rise much, much higher

    The meteoric rise in GameStop's stock price is being called a short squeeze by most. But that's not what's happening, says one expert, and that could mean that if and when the short squeeze does come GameStop's price could soar significantly higher than current levels.What's happening: Short sellers have piled into GameStop as a result of its meteoric stock price rise, not the other way around, Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners, told Axios.Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here. * Over the past year the amount of shares shorted has increased by 12%, while the total dollars at risk have risen by 1,900%, S3's data show. * That's a sign that big bets are coming in from hedge funds and institutional investors, meaning that the short squeeze has not even begun.How it works: In a typical short squeeze, short sellers have sold the stock and "rented" shares with the intent to buy them after the stock's price falls. But they are "squeezed" out if the price rises too much and they are forced to exit the trade by buying the stock at a higher price. * That helps the value of the stock rise because the short sellers join the momentum pushing the price higher. * But with GameStop, every time a short seller exits the market and buys shares, new short sellers are coming in to replace them, keeping the same downward pressure on the price and, in fact, short interest is increasing.What it means: "That tells me what’s moving the market is the long buyers. This is not a short covering rally," Dusaniwsky said. * "If it was I would see shares shorted dropping precipitously. For this kind of price move, I would have to see short interest being wiped out." * "One way I can see short interest is not being wiped out is because the stock borrow rate is getting higher. * "That means shorts are not getting out on a net basis."Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.

  • Russian hack brings changes, uncertainty to US court system

    Trial lawyer Robert Fisher is handling one of America’s most prominent counterintelligence cases, defending an MIT scientist charged with secretly helping China. The new rules for filing sensitive documents are one of the clearest ways the hack has affected the court system. It's also not clear that the intrusion has been stopped, prompting the rules on paper filings.