CDC Notifies States, Large Cities To Prepare For Vaccine Distribution As Soon As Late October

[Cheburashka]

We do have Remdesivir but we really do need more bench depth, not everyone can afford a hospital stay for this treatment.

And Remdesivir probably needs to be used way more often and earlier in disease progression than it's being used now, and prior to hospitalization. It's like Tamiflu. Tamiflu is extremely effective if given very early (like just a few hours) after symptoms develop. Once you've waited a day or two, its effectiveness sharply declines, and after a few days of symptoms, it's useless.

I understand that Remdesivir is still "experimental", but they're shooting themselves in the foot waiting until hospitalization to administer it. With Trump, they didn't wait, they gave it to him right away, and it worked wonders on him, especially considering his age and overall poor health. If every American could get the standard of care that Trump received, the death rate from Covid would plummet. I'm surprised there wasn't more talk about that at the time, frankly. Most of the chatter was about his refusal to wear a mask, but the way that intensive & immediate treatment saved his life (& could potentially save others) was the bigger story & a mostly missed story by the media.

So I agree, there is a lot more we could be doing with treatment to dramatically lower the death rate. Mass vaccination takes a long time, so it won't significantly lower the death rate for months.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Some viruses mutate quickly, as we can all see, so much so that a multifaceted approach will be needed. Vaccines are imperative because they are relatively lower cost and the least disruptive, protecting the most people fastest, but vaccines can't be the only tool because they are not 100%. On the flip side, treatments alone won't work because the virus can overwhelm before the illness can be identified and treatment administered. Best case scenario, fully vaccinated population with multiple treatment options for vaccine failure.

 

[godisney14]

Moderna says its Covid-19 vaccine is less effective against one coronavirus variant
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/25/moderna-vaccine-less-effective-variant/

Moderna also said today they are already working on a booster. So, as some anticipated, this could be like an annual thing (or longer) depending on how studies show it. Won’t know until time has passed obviously.

 

[lifesavacation]

Moderna says its Covid-19 vaccine is less effective against one coronavirus variant
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/25/moderna-vaccine-less-effective-variant/

Moderna also said today they are already working on a booster. So, as some anticipated, this could be like an annual thing (or longer) depending on how studies show it. Won’t know until time has passed obviously.

I also read this morning it could end up being a 3 shot series instead of 2 shots.

 

[RamblingMad]

I also read this morning it could end up being a 3 shot series instead of 2 shots.

It’s likely to be two with a booster for variants in the future. The later will be like a flu shot.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Here's a crazy story about this whole insane vaccine rollout:

The Cleveland Clinic- currently ranked the #2 hospital system in America, ahead of Johns Hopkins- is telling ELIGIBLE patients they don't have enough supply to vaccinate them right now.

Giant Eagle- currently a regional grocery store- is still taking appointments to vaccinate.

Ha...same here. Cant' get an appointment at the local hospital....they're out of vaccine. But...had eligible people known, they could have snagged an appointment at my town's YMCA. They're partnering with the local VNA. I'm not sure why the VNA (visiting nurses association)....would be handing off vaccines to the YMCA. But there it is.

I listened to the whole extended interview that Margaret Brennan did with Dr. Birx. It's on the podcast Facing Forward if anyone is interested....about an hour and 20 minutes. Birx was clearly very deeply frustrated by a lot of things, and she said several times that she took very detailed notes throughout the pandemic....and wrote over 310 reports. Meaning....she's got the receipts .

But.. she also brought up our way of delivering healthcare for a pandemic like this wasn't always effective and hopes that there is a lot of work put into studying what worked, what didn't....so we can do better next time. Clearly our "Federally supported, State Directed and Locally Executed Plan".....really didn't work well. In many instances throughout the response it has created a "every man for himself" mentality....from procuring ventilators, masks....staff, and now vaccines.

 

[godisney14]

Here's a crazy story about this whole insane vaccine rollout:

The Cleveland Clinic- currently ranked the #2 hospital system in America, ahead of Johns Hopkins- is telling ELIGIBLE patients they don't have enough supply to vaccinate them right now.

Giant Eagle- currently a regional grocery store- is still taking appointments to vaccinate.

Not crazy surprised at all.
What has gone smoothly, properly or promptly regarding this virus in the US so far?

 

[disneypharm]

On Saturday, I managed to get 2 vaccine appointments for this morning for my parents (both over 70) at a local pharmacy (Safeway). Both have Kaiser insurance and were registered for several health systems in our state, but nothing was happening. I kept checking the Safeway website every day, in addition to other websites. All mentioned that vaccines will be coming but no access to any appointment scheduling. I finally found these appointments through a website that provides booking and scheduling for a lot of companies, not just Safeway. Not sure why Safeway's website kept saying that vaccines are not available yet! I think this might be an issue with other companies as well.

 

[bcla]

One hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area is being cut off for vaccine distribution after they offered it to teachers at a school district who weren't otherwise eligible under state and county rules. The school district had a fundraiser to pay for meals provided to the hospital's workers, and letting the teachers jump the line was a quid pro quo gesture.

https://sanjosespotlight.com/south-...ed-affluent-school-district-to-skip-the-line/

 

[NotUrsula]

So the state next to me opted to add in the National Guard for assisting to try and speed up things.

They held the state's first mass vaccinations which was for 2,000. Here's the role the National Guard took: "Thirty guard members took care of the set up, paper work and traffic, which freed up local health professionals to focus on giving out the vaccine."

"National Guard members will hold once weekly mass vaccination clinics in each of the nine Missouri State Highway Patrol districts, starting next Friday. The locations will vary but the National Guard will return to the same location on the third week so participants can get their second dose. Each of the regions across the state will have a mass vaccination team from the National Guard just like this who is supporting their local health departments," said Col. Russell Kohl."

Which sounds great -- except for one teensy problem. There is no vaccine available for those planned Friday clinics. Every health agency in the state is pointing fingers at one another because no one seems to know where our most recent shipments actually are.

 

[Pyotr]

Good news out of Israel.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/week-...ne-shot-only-20-of-128000-israelis-get-covid/

 

[RamblingMad]

Good news out of Israel.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/week-...ne-shot-only-20-of-128000-israelis-get-covid/

It’s a tiny country.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Which sounds great -- except for one teensy problem. There is no vaccine available for those planned Friday clinics. Every health agency in the state is pointing fingers at one another because no one seems to know where our most recent shipments actually are.

I'll let them worry about it. What information about shipments we know today well you just know can change. So I guess I would say don't count it out about planned in the future vaccinations based on what the most recent shipments are for stuff in the future. It will always work this way, vaccines may spoil, something may happen in the production line, dose amount expected from the government reduced, etc.

But I'm going to go with a positive here..they are pulling in people to help with the logistics, they had a mass vaccination event (something which was a complaint before), they have a plan at least in play for routine mass vaccinations using people to do the mundane stuff allowing healthcare workers to worry about the actual vaccinations, seems better than some states, no?

 

[Colleen27]

what a relief. They keep saying the new variants will cause cases to soar, but so far it seems cases are dropping in many states. I know the UK is having a hard time with the new strains. I wonder why we have not seen that. Or maybe it's coming?

I think we may be operating from a false assumption in saying we haven't seen that. The UK variant was identified from a sample taken in Sept. It is very, very likely that it has been spreading here more or less undetected since not long after that, since US-to-UK travel was possible with limited restrictions for several months after the variant emerged. We just didn't know it until the variant made headlines in the UK, at which point we started looking for it here (and have subsequently found it to have arrived independently in a number of states). There's also mounting evidence that the LA area is dealing with a different, but also apparently more contagious, variant.

It seems possible, probable even, that we have been seeing the consequences of new strains. We just didn't label our fall surge as such because of a combination of a lack of the genetic sequencing that allows for variant tracking and a cultural bias to look for explanations in individual behavior rather than systemic shifts to explain changing data patterns.

 

[Pyotr]

It’s a tiny country.

What does that have to do with it? Did you read the article? Let me give you a readers digest version.

Out of 128,000 people who were given both doses, only 20 were diagnosed with Covid. Even better, "none of the 20 vaccinees was hospitalized or suffered from a fever higher than 38.5 degrees."

Yes. It's a small sample. But it is good news.

 

[Jonfw2]

It’s a tiny country.

Come on, man.

 

[godisney14]

Good news out of Israel.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/week-...ne-shot-only-20-of-128000-israelis-get-covid/

Lol, so they wait just 1 week after getting vaccine to report whether it is effective?

 

[RamblingMad]

Come on, man.

More people live in FL.

 

[Jonfw2]

More people live in FL.

Stipulated...so?

 

[RamblingMad]

Stipulated...so?

So why should I care about what happens in a country that doesn’t have a significant population? The numbers are too small. It’s like let’s look at what WY does and hold it up as an example. It’s absurd.