News on Growing Climate Solutions and vaccine allocation

Thanks to BIO’s advocacy efforts, two more U.S. Senators have cosponsored the Growing Climate Solutions Act: Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). Here’s where things stand with this important legislation.

Sustainable, biology-based land management practices like reduced tilling and planting cover crops allow farmers to capture carbon in the soil and sell carbon credits. 

The Growing Climate Solutions Act would create a federal carbon sequestration certification program,encouraging producers to use modern biological approaches to improve soil health through precision plant breeding, biostimulants, and microbial inoculants. It would also bring greater value to sustainable fuels, biobased products, and food and feed applications by allowing producers to reliably demonstrate their true environmental benefits—from farm to consumer.

How it would work: “USDA will help connect landowners to private sector actors who can assist the landowners in implementing the protocols and monetizing the climate value of their sustainable practices. Third-party entities, certified under the program, will be able to claim the status of a ‘USDA Certified’ technical assistance provider or verifier,” explains Sen. Fischer’s press release.

The legislation has broad support—from bipartisan U.S. Senators as well as farmers, ranchers, various advocacy groups, and biotechnology companies like BIO member Novozymes. (And BIO!) 

What Sen. Fischer’s saying: “By reducing barriers to carbon credit markets, [this] bipartisan legislation will enable more ag producers to be part of the climate solution and it will help them expand on existing practices.” Back in June at a hearing on the bill, Sen. Fischer also highlighted the importance of reducing emissions in animal production, which can be done using feed additives to improve animal gut health.

What Sen. Klobuchar’s saying: “As our country continues to face unprecedented natural disasters, changes in climate are having a significant effect on our nation's farmers and ranchers. We must do more to empower farmers and rural communities to address the growing threat of climate change. The Growing Climate Solutions Act will help ensure that USDA is providing a framework for producers to voluntarily implement conservation practices that can be monetized through carbon credits. We should continue to do more, not less, to address climate change because inaction is not an option.” 

Want to support farmers and the planet? Contact your policymakers and urge them to support the Growing Climate Solutions Act.

With the first shipments of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine scheduled to arrive December 15 and Moderna doses soon after, a big question looms: who gets them first? Independent health policy experts on the vaccine advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) met yesterday to make a recommendation.

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) held an emergency virtual meeting on December 1 to determine allocation of the initial doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

They voted 13-1 to recommend that the first doses are given to health care workers, including those in long-term care facilities, and residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities—about 24 million Americans, according to STAT News.

Why these groups? “Health care workers have been hit hard, with at least 243,000 infections and 858 deaths, according to CDC data presented at the ACIP meeting. Residents of nursing homes, who tend to be older and in poor health, are also especially vulnerable to the COVID-19. Nearly 500,000 residents and staff in skilled nursing facilities have contracted the disease as of mid-November and nearly 70,000 have died, according to CMS data,” says POLITICO.

This is in line with the recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine,who said frontline health workers, first responders, and seniors in nursing homes should be among the first vaccinated to maximize societal benefit and mitigate health inequities. 

Within the CDC's prioritization recommendations, states will make the final decisions, and “many states that are putting together vaccination plans are looking to the CDC group as a guide,” explains POLITICO. 

The next steps: After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee meets to discuss emergency use authorization of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (December 10) and Moderna vaccine (December 17), ACIP will meet again to make final recommendations on how each should be used within the prioritized populations. This is the key independent recommendation that matches each vaccine to the best population to receive it. ACIP will also meet over the next few weeks to discuss recommendations for subsequent vaccination phases—likely to include essential workers and adults with multiple chronic conditions putting them at risk of severe COVID-19 illness.

Have more questions about vaccine allocation and distribution?The New York Times has answers. 

Deep dive: On a recent episode of the I AM BIO Podcast, BIO’s VP of Infectious Diseases Phyllis Arthur spoke with Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust and one of the authors of the National Academies’ report, about who should get vaccinated first and why. Get the episode at www.bio.org/podcast or via Apple, Google, or Spotify.

More Health Care News:

Biopharma Dive: Regeneron, UPenn to use gene therapy tools to deliver a COVID-19 antibody drug
“Regeneron is investigating the possibility that its antibody-based treatment for COVID-19—an infusible drug recently used to treat President Trump—may protect against coronavirus infections when given as a nasal spray.” 

The Guardian: Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine approved for use in UK to be rolled out next week
“The UK has become the first western country to license a vaccine against COVID."

President Trump’s Wednesday: Lunch with the Secretary of State. Attorney Gen. William Barr said there’s no evidence of widespread election fraud.

President-elect Biden’s Wednesday: He’ll participate in a virtual roundtable with workers and small business owners. He spoke with the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman about what to expect in his first few months in office, saying his top priority will be a coronavirus stimulus package. 

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: There’s been a last-ditch effort to revive coronavirus relief talks, reports POLITICO. Two hearings of note today: House Financial Services Committee’s Oversight of the Treasury Department’s and Federal Reserve’s Pandemic Response, and Senate Agriculture Committee’s Agricultural Research and Securing the United States’ Food Supply.