COVID-19 - Wuhan Coronavirus (a non-political thread, see pg. 36 #1778)

[Castlerock]

I was talking to my Aunt today (who is probably 86 - 87 years old and has a lung issue) and she said she wasn't sure if she wanted the COVID vaccine. She said she was concerned about unknown vaccine complications a year or two from now. She also said that she wasn't all that concerned about getting COVID because she was 86 and doesn't have all that long anyhow. She said this in consecutive sentences.

[miami_fan]

The timing and the tone of the change in plan is interesting. Maybe Biden can snap his fingers and make things happen.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

It's no longer the Biden option. Azar announced that it starts now.

To be fair, credit goes to the Brits for thinking outside the box. It's the UK option that Biden stole from who then Trump stole from.

[Edward64]

If you were infected and recovered, you have at least 5+ months of protection and "unlikely you will develop severe infections".

I think this was my ongoing assumption but good to know there's been some studies done showing further evidence of this. It would be great if they can give a more precise measure than "at least 5 months".

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/healt...ntl/index.html

"We now know that most of those who have had the virus, and developed antibodies, are protected from reinfection, but this is not total and we do not yet know how long protection lasts," Susan Hopkins, senior medical adviser at PHE and co-leader of the study, said in a statement.

"Even if you believe you already had the disease and are protected, you can be reassured it is highly unlikely you will develop severe infections. But there is still a risk you could acquire an infection and transmit (it) to others," Hopkins said.

The SIREN research study regularly tested almost 21,000 health workers from across the UK between June and November. Among them, 6,614 people participants tested positive for antibodies against the virus, while more than 14,000 had no signs of previous infection.

But of those who had been infected, 44 developed possible new infections -- representing an 83% level of protection against reinfection.

[Ksyrup]

I wonder when that will be widely accepted and filter down. My daughter had it in November and recovered and will start testing again in February (college athletics requirement). I think 3 months has been the standard.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I wonder when that will be widely accepted and filter down. My daughter had it in November and recovered and will start testing again in February (college athletics requirement). I think 3 months has been the standard.

My guess/hope is once Biden's team starts holding productive & informational press briefings by credible scientists & researchers, we'll all be much better educated.

There will be stumbles so how about by Month 2.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Edward64

To be fair, credit goes to the Brits for thinking outside the box. It's the UK option that Biden stole from who then Trump stole from.

Much as it pains me to say it, it was Tony Blair who first put the idea forward

This is from the government report:

Short-term vaccine efficacy from the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is calculated at around 90%
Short-term vaccine efficacy from the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is calculated at around 70%, with high protection against severe disease

The committee supports a 2-dose vaccine schedule for the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines. Given the data available, and evidence from the use of many other vaccines, JCVI advises a maximum interval between the first and second doses of 12 weeks for both vaccines. It can be assumed that protection from the first dose will wane in the medium term, and the second dose will still be required to provide more durable protection.

The committee advises initially prioritising delivery of the first vaccine dose as this is highly likely to have a greater public health impact in the short term and reduce the number of preventable deaths from COVID-19.

[molson]

Vaccine distributions do seem to be picking up a bit in the U.S. We're at about a million doses a day.

I was talking to a friend who works at Albertson's about their prepping for distribution, it really gave me the sense that things will pick up a lot once the grocery stores and the WalMarts can get a hold of it, and once the eligible groups aren't so limited. There's a whole process to distributing through eligible employers for employee distribution, but once it's, "everybody over 65 can make an appointment", things should ramp up. I think in a couple of months our biggest problem will be convincing more people to take it. Vaccine production and availability is an issue too, but, the U.S. seems very well positioned there relative to other countries at least.

[JPhillips]

We're at everyone over 65 and some other groups in NY and the problem around here now is that all the vaccine is gone. There's definitely more demand than supply at this point.

[rjolley]

California moved to everyone over 65 can get the vaccine yesterday per Gov Newsome. Health providers are expected to start next week.

[Edward64]

No idea how accurate or up to date it is, but link has a grid of all 50 states and territories on # doses and % used.

No surprised that CA is at the very bottom at 49th with 27.5%. A little surprised that GA is also there at 48th with 28%.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

[albionmoonlight]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...serve-used-up/

It would not be the Trump Administration if he didn't leave by making a big empty promise that he knew it would be impossible to keep even as he made it.

[miked]

Originally Posted by Edward64

No idea how accurate or up to date it is, but link has a grid of all 50 states and territories on # doses and % used.

No surprised that CA is at the very bottom at 49th with 27.5%. A little surprised that GA is also there at 48th with 28%.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Kemp is an idiot and made no plans. Each area has their own criteria/plans and have to request doses from the states. Dekalb county got 50% of the doses of the northeast county region, despite having probably double the population. Now some of that is because people in the country are dying at much higher rates (ITP there is like 92% survival of hospitalized patients, OTP is much worse further OTP). But also, goobers in Gilmer and Fannin and other places are refusing to take it.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Edward64

No idea how accurate or up to date it is, but link has a grid of all 50 states and territories on # doses and % used.

No surprised that CA is at the very bottom at 49th with 27.5%. A little surprised that GA is also there at 48th with 28%.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

I check that site a few times a day just to watch those numbers go up. It's interesting to see how the different states and countries are doing. West Virginia is consistently leading the way in % of population vaccinated.

I'm not sure what the allocation stats tell us. Every state got a certain allocation of dosages that they are currently working through. But I'm not sure where those unused dosages are, or whether the states have full immediate access to them. Obviously we're seeing some states with supply issues even though they're not halfway through their allocations. Where are those vaccines exactly? Are those states struggling to access allocated dosages, or struggling to distribute them?

[JPhillips]

Why weren't the states prepared? Because the feds wouldn't tell them how it was going to work.

[albionmoonlight]

On some deep level, I think that he suspected he was going to lose. He started burning shit down long before Nov 5th.

[CrimsonFox]

My county (Hamilton) went purple today coronaviruswise. But oh boy look at the bus...the wheels on the bus going round and round round and round round and round. The wheels on the bus drop off these kids. That aren't wearing a mask...

[NobodyHere]

23 die in Norway after receiving Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

Well that's lovely

[tarcone]

I registered today for my shot. Of course, my county has received no vaccines yet.

[CrimsonFox]

I think I'm more interested taking the Maderna vaccine. Do we have any of those yet?

[Edward64]

Good speech. Didn't have all the details I wanted but assume that will be coming in the next couple weeks.

I like the idea of mobilizing National Guard to help with vaccination. Some states have done this already in Dec but others haven't (until maybe recently). I guess there is a rationale but beats me ... must be staying within budget is more important than lives.

FEMA sounds like a good idea also. I get Trump should have brought this up as an option but I can honestly say I did not read previously about using FEMA in MSM to help with inoculations.

Not sure I understand how we are somehow missing the "2nd dose we were saving for". If someone like Azar/current task force said it existed and it really never did exist, I'm okay if the Dems make examples of of him/them. Have to wait to better understand since it just broke.

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President-elect Joe Biden plans to use FEMA and the National Guard to build coronavirus vaccine clinics across the United States, according to new details of his Covid-19 vaccination plan released by his transition team on Friday.

The Biden administration will also “quickly jumpstart” efforts to make the vaccines available at local pharmacies across the U.S., which should ensure that Americans have access to doses at facilities only miles from their home, according to the plan.
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Drug store chains and pharmacies were supposed to take on a larger role in distributing the vaccine once the government expanded access to more people. But the slower-than-expected rollout has frustrated pharmacy chains. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores called on the federal government earlier this week to allow states to send more doses directly to pharmacies as they do with hospitals and health departments.

The group estimated that the country’s retail pharmacies could administer at least 100 million doses of vaccines each month, which would exceed the incoming administration’s promise of 100 million shots in 100 days.

[Thomkal]

So an "interesting" thing happened with our Walmart pickup order today. Got home and the order was not ours. Call them and find our order still there waiting for us, and because of COVID, we couldn't return the order we did get,

Good news: Groceries we didn't have to pay for.
Bad news: It was all organic food-chicken breasts, eggs, and a LOT of veggies, some of which we don't eat. No snack or "bad" food at all.

[Edward64]

I do like Cuomo getting creative here but I lean against letting states do this. And if a state did this, it probably should be CA since they are the worst off.

Similar thing happened early with the PPE where states were buying their own because of Federal incompetence.

One of those that I don't know if this is right (don't know) or ethical (probably not).

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/18/covi...om-pfizer.html

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla Monday for the ability to buy Covid-19 vaccine doses directly from the company. But the company in a statement said the Department of Health and Human Services would need to approve such a model first.

The request comes after an alarmingly slow start to the national vaccine rollout, with the country millions of injections short of the Trump administration’s initial projections. As of Jan. 15, the U.S. had distributed more than 31 million doses and administered just over 12 million. Health officials had hoped to inject 20 million Americans by the end of 2020.

Cuomo, a Democrat, blamed the Trump administration for failing to send enough vaccine doses to his state. This week, he said, New York would receive 250,000 doses — 50,000 fewer than the week before.

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

So an "interesting" thing happened with our Walmart pickup order today. Got home and the order was not ours. Call them and find our order still there waiting for us, and because of COVID, we couldn't return the order we did get,

Good news: Groceries we didn't have to pay for.
Bad news: It was all organic food-chicken breasts, eggs, and a LOT of veggies, some of which we don't eat. No snack or "bad" food at all.

I do that from Paera's quick pickup shelf, except I don't place an order.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I do like Cuomo getting creative here but I lean against letting states do this. And if a state did this, it probably should be CA since they are the worst off.

Similar thing happened early with the PPE where states were buying their own because of Federal incompetence.

One of those that I don't know if this is right (don't know) or ethical (probably not).

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/18/covi...om-pfizer.html

they had to do this with PPE too

[Thomkal]

So Publix has started to offer the COVID vaccine at (all?) of its locations. In South Carolina sadly all their appointments are booked. Here's the address for the South Carolina website-you will have to change it to the state you are looking for in the web address-you can only sign up for an appointment through the website:

COVID-19 Vaccine in South Carolina | Publix Super Markets

EDIT: Leave off the SouthCarolina part of the web address and you will go to a main page that shows the vaccine will be available in FL, SC, and GA

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

So Publix has started to offer the COVID vaccine at (all?) of its locations. In South Carolina sadly all their appointments are booked. Here's the address for the South Carolina website-you will have to change it to the state you are looking for in the web address-you can only sign up for an appointment through the website:

COVID-19 Vaccine in South Carolina | Publix Super Markets

Publix is offering vaccinations in GA also. It's not my phase yet but went to look and it showed 2-3 weeks of "full".

This made me wonder if Publix & like are working overtime to get shots done? I don't know but if they are not, that is something State of GA should explore with Publix Corp about. From an earlier post, the bottom 3 in % vaccinated are AL, CA and GA.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Publix is offering vaccinations in GA also. It's not my phase yet but went to look and it showed 2-3 weeks of "full".

This made me wonder if Publix & like are working overtime to get shots done? I don't know but if they are not, that is something State of GA should explore with Publix Corp about. From an earlier post, the bottom 3 in % vaccinated are AL, CA and GA.

yeah just changed my initial post to show GA,SC, and FL

[sterlingice]

A fitting legacy: topping 400k deaths on Trump's final day in office

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/healt...day/index.html

SI

[JPhillips]

A big question I've got is where is the vaccine not being administered? Cities seem to be running short, NYC for example will run out on Thursday. Where are the millions of doses delivered but not administered? Were we being fed inaccurate delivery numbers?

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

A fitting legacy: topping 400k deaths on Trump's final day in office

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/healt...day/index.html

SI

To be fair, excess deaths are likely over 1/2 million.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

A big question I've got is where is the vaccine not being administered? Cities seem to be running short, NYC for example will run out on Thursday. Where are the millions of doses delivered but not administered? Were we being fed inaccurate delivery numbers?

Not sure where you are getting your data but below link (updated as of 1/19 but who really knows) show NYC at 52% doses administered.

GA is at 41% and no longer in bottom 3 !!

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

[Ksyrup]

The Mayor said today they would be out by Thursday.

[Ksyrup]

KY shows 65% on that tracker but Beshear is asking the Feds to double the supply because they are running low. I don't know where the disconnect is there.

[Edward64]

There was this disclaimer under that grid. Not sure if it explains the difference though.

Note: Data gathered from government websites, official statements and Bloomberg interviews. Local governments and the CDC sometimes report different totals for the same jurisdiction; in these cases Bloomberg uses the higher number. It can take several days for counts to be reported to databases. “Doses distributed” have been recorded by the CDC as having shipped but may still be in transit; New York City’s doses are reported directly by the city only after they’ve been delivered.

[Ksyrup]

Some sort of discrepancy going on.

States across the country say they're running low on coronavirus vaccine supply, with many officials insisting the vaccine delivery numbers reported by the Trump administration don't align with what they are seeing on the ground https://t.co/fEJTD3mFfD

— CNN (@CNN) January 20, 2021

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Not sure where you are getting your data but below link (updated as of 1/19 but who really knows) show NYC at 52% doses administered.

GA is at 41% and no longer in bottom 3 !!

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Inslee was saying that for Washington the reported numbers you see on websites tend to lag a couple days or more behind. This week he made changes requiring sites administering the vaccine to report numbers within 24 hours, but it they expect it will take some time for everyone to get up to that standard. I'm sure other states are having similar issues.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Some sort of discrepancy going on.

There's been times that I've taken over a project in trouble. I always document what I view the problems are (e.g. not enough budget, wrong skill sets etc.) and make sure my leadership understand my concerns and what I need to get back on track. I don't always get what I want but I've got it officially documented somewhere. Admittedly, a CYA but needs to be done if you inherit someone else's mess.

I would strongly suggest Biden's team do the same thing by Week 2. Lay it out transparently.

[NobodyHere]

First rule of being a government employee: Always say you are in short supply of everything.

That way you know you're going to be first in line when the next distribution of vaccines. If you say you have enough then you'll be in the back of the line.

[Ksyrup]

It also helps if you kiss the President's ass publicly. Oh wait, that might not work as well starting tomorrow...

[miami_fan]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/busin...ine/index.html

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Inslee was saying that for Washington the reported numbers you see on websites tend to lag a couple days or more behind. This week he made changes requiring sites administering the vaccine to report numbers within 24 hours, but it they expect it will take some time for everyone to get up to that standard. I'm sure other states are having similar issues.

Timely reporting, just what we were talking about ...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/healt...-bn/index.html

States across the country say they're running low on coronavirus vaccine supply, with many officials insisting the vaccine delivery numbers reported by the Trump administration don't align with what they are seeing on the ground.

From New York to Tennessee to West Virginia, officials are clamoring for more doses of coronavirus vaccine. And officials in those states said that federal tallies suggesting they have thousands of doses sitting on the shelves don't accurately reflect the supply of vaccine on hand.
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A source close to the Biden transition team said there is enormous concern among the incoming administration about the accuracy of the numbers that have been released by the federal government. It was only within the last few days that the transition team was given access to Tiberius, the system that shows states how many doses are available to them and allows states to determine delivery locations.

[Ksyrup]

From the news tonight, the issue in KY is forward-looking. They are vaccinating 30K+ more people a week than weekly doses we are receiving. So Beshear is asking for double the amount because in a matter of weeks, they'll have people sitting around unable to administer shots because they don't have enough. The surplus will be gone shortly.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

From the news tonight, the issue in KY is forward-looking. They are vaccinating 30K+ more people a week than weekly doses we are receiving. So Beshear is asking for double the amount because in a matter of weeks, they'll have people sitting around unable to administer shots because they don't have enough. The surplus will be gone shortly.

My mom was really happy that she was able to get signed up for one. She's getting her first shot next week.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

My mom was really happy that she was able to get signed up for one. She's getting her first shot next week.

Are you pretty much guaranteed for a second shot (e.g. appt is made during the first shot) or do you have to wait, watch & signup again?

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

From the news tonight, the issue in KY is forward-looking. They are vaccinating 30K+ more people a week than weekly doses we are receiving. So Beshear is asking for double the amount because in a matter of weeks, they'll have people sitting around unable to administer shots because they don't have enough. The surplus will be gone shortly.

FWIW, I read an article that Israel (I think) said the first Pfizer shot alone had like 50% efficacy. Meaning, people really need to get the second shot for the 94-95% efficacy. Don't know if it's true.

The supply chain and just-in-time logistics must be horrendous.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Are you pretty much guaranteed for a second shot (e.g. appt is made during the first shot) or do you have to wait, watch & signup again?

I have no idea tbh. I thought that they were holding off on all the second doses until more people could get the first vaccine, but I have no idea.

[Ksyrup]

My wife is a substitute teacher and our county already has their doses, so she should be going next week for her first shot.

[sterlingice]

Accidentally went to the first page of this thread when trying to do a reply. Oof... but not what I was here to talk about

SI

[sterlingice]

A family friend's 8yo got COVID two months ago to the day and then it went through their whole family. The mom had the brain fog and they all had the cough and a bit of lingering fatigue but basically felt "over it" about a month later. Today, the same 8yo was diagnosed with diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. In talking with the pediatrician who diagnosed this, anecdotally, it's something they've seen a significant uptick in with COVID patients .

There's a bit of literature starting to come out about this:
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
For instance, this article in August said there was an 80% increase in cases but it was also with the caveat "Data on new-onset type 1 diabetes during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, particularly in children, is limited" and, yes, with a small sample size.

So, just a reminder that this crap virus still has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. And that kids aren't immune from lifelong effects from it even while we pretend it won't hurt them.

SI