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

[Jonfw2]

US and UK numbers continue to plummet...

 

[mrs. magoo]

And doing it without any sort of uniform shutdown, never mind one as strict as the UK has put in place to deal with the new variant. I do think that supports the idea that we've been dealing with a more contagious variant, either the one from the UK or a homegrown variant like the one identified in SoCal, that has been driving the fall/winter spike.

My 73yo mother was *finally* able to get a vaccination appointment for Monday, and I think I'm happier about it than she is because I've been limiting my activities more than I otherwise would for fear of exposing her. I'm ready to breathe a little easier if my daughter wants to get together with a friend who isn't in her class or I decide to stop for lunch while I'm out running errands, and this gets us one big step closer to not having to worry so much about everything I do. Once she gets the second dose, I might even live dangerously and start taking substitute teaching assignments again!

This is my house exactly. My father, my husband and myself have all gotten the first shot and as soon as we get the second I will feel a small sense of relief. I won't be as hard on my 17 year old son and will allow him to hang out with some of his friends. I won't worry about going to school and coming home with something. It will allow my father the ability to see some of his friends that he has not seen in a year. My father has lived with my husband and I since we were married (My mother died in 1991) and we have always gotten along but with all the togetherness things have gotten a bit testy at times. My father used to sub, go on 3 cruises a year and go out with his girl friend 2 times a week before covid now we are together all the time. I have been back in the classroom since January 4th so that helps, but it is still a lot of together time. We do not have an inlaw suite he just has a first floor bedroom. I cook every night and we just need a break from each other.

 

[Jonfw2]

This is my house exactly. My father, my husband and myself have all gotten the first shot and as soon as we get the second I will feel a small sense of relief. I won't be as hard on my 17 year old son and will allow him to hang out with some of his friends. I won't worry about going to school and coming home with something. It will allow my father the ability to see some of his friends that he has not seen in a year. My father has lived with my husband and I since we were married (My mother died in 1991) and we have always gotten along but with all the togetherness things have gotten a bit testy at times. My father used to sub, go on 3 cruises a year and go out with his girl friend 2 times a week before covid now we are together all the time. I have been back in the classroom since January 4th so that helps, but it is still a lot of together time. We do not have an inlaw suite he just has a first floor bedroom. I cook every night and we just need a break from each other.

And this is exactly why the economy will bounce back quicker than expected- when older people get vaxxed, the younger people in their lives go back out.

 

[Jonfw2]

A town in South Carolina put a chik fil a manager in charge of its drive in vaccine line- they reduced the wait time from an hour to fifteen minutes.

 

[aggiedog]

A town in South Carolina put a chik fil a manager in charge of its drive in vaccine line- they reduced the wait time from an hour to fifteen minutes.

I believe it. I'm constantly amazed at the efficiency of Chik-Fil-A!

 

[mrs. magoo]

US and UK numbers continue to plummet...

So do you think there is a seasonality to the virus? I keep looking at India's numbers and their cases are so low, but then Brazil is also in summer and their cases are exploding. I really don't know what to make of the case numbers. I have been following Israel's numbers very closely. They are in a 3rd lockdown with an aggressive vaccination plan and they are still having 5,000 to 7,000 cases a day. I am not sure what to think but after a year there has to be a ton of data that can be used to make informed decisions. I feel like the press wants to continue to push the doom and gloom. All I know is that this seems never ending and my life will never return to even a bit of normalcy. I want to believe in the vaccine and when my father has received his second shot in a week and half I will feel better but I really feel that there are people who want to keep things locked down for years to come.

 

[Southernmiss]

I think we are coming out of the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's surge. There were so many holidays between October and January and people could not stay apart from each other. Now, we are in winter with difficult weather in most places. People have done their visiting for a while and are just not going around others. I know I saw my mom over Christmas and Thanksgiving and my in laws then, too. We are good with not seeing each other for a while. Though our parents are beginning to get their vaccines. So that's going to be a good thing.

 

[dvcgirl67]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/28/covid-vaccine-variant-south-africa/

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

There isn't really any other covid thread other than have you and will you on the vaccine but did y'all see this?

https://www.kmbc.com/article/new-york-undercounted-nursing-home-deaths-by-thousands-ag-says/35355008
"The 76-page report found an undercount of more than 50%, backing up the findings of an Associated Press investigation last year that focused on the fact that New York is one of the only states in the nation that count residents who died on nursing home property and not those who later died in hospitals. Such an undercount would mean the state's current official tally of 8,711 nursing home deaths to the virus is actually more than 13,000, boosting New York from No. 6 to highest in the nation."

Underlying is mine..I really didn't know this. Wonder what other states did this. I know on a different thread there was a discussion on doses administered and distributed where the CDC tracker didn't account for long-term care facilities but this appears to be a continued separation going on when it comes to long-term care. I know there's been a lot of past discussion regarding 'counting' a covid death and the circumstances of their death so I guess I found this to be interesting to be the opposite where deaths weren't being counted on the state's numbers just because they passed away in a hospital.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/28/covid-vaccine-variant-south-africa/

Well that just sucks..and the first known case in the US announced today too in SC (although I'm sure it's been here already undetected as public health officials agree).

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/28/covid-vaccine-variant-south-africa/

This is all so depressing. It feels like we’re going to be living in this limbo forever.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Well that just sucks..and the first known case in the US announced today too in SC (although I'm sure it's been here already undetected as public health officials agree).

It really does suck. My husband just told me that he read that they've found two cases in the U.S.....but that means we've got a lot more. And I believe that the Brazilian strain is nearly identical to the S.A. strain. I know I've seen articles that the mRNA vaccines supposedly can handle the S.A. strain.....let's hope that's the case.

 

[dvcgirl67]

This is all so depressing. It feels like we’re going to be living in this limbo forever.

I don't think we'll be in limbo forever, but I do think this complicates things for our planet. I am really hoping for good news from J&J....we need a really good third candidate in not just for our country....but for the world.

 

[Mango7100]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/28/covid-vaccine-variant-south-africa/

I’m actually in the Novavax trial—was injected with something Tuesday (67% chance it was the actual vaccine). I was encouraged by the efficacy against the “regular” COViD strain and the UK variant. The South African variant is worrisome, but 60% efficacy in HIV negative participants is decent. Thats a good year for the flu vaccine in terms of efficacy. I never thought we would achieve 90+ efficacy in vaccines but the Pfizer and Moderna reports were a welcome initial surprise. I had been hoping for 60% before any initial vaccine reports. It is worrisome that participants that previously had COVID could be reinfected with the South Africa variant, so natural immunity is lacking against this strain.

 

[dvcgirl67]

There isn't really any other covid thread other than have you and will you on the vaccine but did y'all see this?

https://www.kmbc.com/article/new-york-undercounted-nursing-home-deaths-by-thousands-ag-says/35355008
"The 76-page report found an undercount of more than 50%, backing up the findings of an Associated Press investigation last year that focused on the fact that New York is one of the only states in the nation that count residents who died on nursing home property and not those who later died in hospitals. Such an undercount would mean the state's current official tally of 8,711 nursing home deaths to the virus is actually more than 13,000, boosting New York from No. 6 to highest in the nation."

Underlying is mine..I really didn't know this. Wonder what other states did this. I know on a different thread there was a discussion on doses administered and distributed where the CDC tracker didn't account for long-term care facilities but this appears to be a continued separation going on when it comes to long-term care. I know there's been a lot of past discussion regarding 'counting' a covid death and the circumstances of their death so I guess I found this to be interesting to be the opposite where deaths weren't being counted on the state's numbers just because they passed away in a hospital.

I saw this story in the NYT. And...it's on Morning Joe this morning too. If I"m understanding this correctly, NY didn't undercount COVID deaths, but didn't designate them as nursing home residents correct? The real story will be whether this was done purposefully....possibly because there was all the negative reports of nursing home residents being transferred back to their facilities from hospitals....spreading COVID. I didn't know that NY would previously have been counted as #6 in nursing home covid deaths before this report.....that's more shocking to me than finding out they are actually #1.

I don't care how satisfied some of us in the northeast may be with respect to our states responses. We all pulled together....especially those first few months. To many of us, it felt like our leaders were giving it to us straight, and for the most part I still believe that. But it's obvious that mistakes were made in transferring nursing home patients back to their homes.

Sadly, so many are still dying in those long term care facilities. The little on-line news site for my town has been reporting an outbreak at the luxury LTC facility in my town. There's a non-refundable fee to even get into this place....starting at 500K, and that gets you a studio with no view. The 1-2 bedroom units with river views are much more. And then there's the 5 figure fee for meals and monthly care. Extra if you need therapies, and much more if you or your spouse needs to stay in the sub-acute unit. Sadly...all of that "high end" care....doesn't keep Covid out of that place....because over 20 people have died there since November. I don't know if they're dying there or at the hospital, but I do hope they are counted at nursing home deaths...because that's what they are.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I’m actually in the Novavax trial—was injected with something Tuesday (67% chance it was the actual vaccine). I was encouraged by the efficacy against the “regular” COViD strain and the UK variant. The South African variant is worrisome, but 60% efficacy in HIV negative participants is decent. Thats a good year for the flu vaccine in terms of efficacy. I never thought we would achieve 90+ efficacy in vaccines but the Pfizer and Moderna reports were a welcome initial surprise. I had been hoping for 60% before any initial vaccine reports. It is worrisome that participants that previously had COVID could be reinfected with the South Africa variant, so natural immunity is lacking against this strain.

I totally get that. We've all been spoiled by these 90%+ efficacy numbers with the mRNA vaccines. I know 60% would be a very good year for the flu vaccine, but the flu "only" killed 22,000 Americans in the 2019-2020 flu season. We're at 430K or so with Covid. And while I understand that with Covid, we have had virtually no effective way to defend ourselves (until very recently with vaccines being rolled out), it surely seems that with the S.A. strain, and likely more to come....we're going to be dealing with an excessive level of death for several years. This year we have had very, very little influenza as it didn't get the chance to really travel here from the Southern Hemisphere as international travel is way down. Next winter I'm guessing we're going to have a flu/covid death toll as people inevitably begin to travel again.

It's going to take months and months to get everyone vaccinated here, in the U.S.....the wealthiest country in the world. And like you pointed out...with the possibility of reinfection rising, we're all likely getting covid vaccines every year or so going forward. I keep hoping that Covid will be in the way, way back of my mind, especially once I am fortunate enough to get the vaccine. But...will it be? Hopefully down the road it will be, but I think Covid is going to be big news for the next few years. There are still a ton of unknowns with this virus.

p.s...I hope you got the real vaccine and not the placebo!

 

[Mango7100]

I totally get that. We've all been spoiled by these 90%+ efficacy numbers with the mRNA vaccines. I know 60% would be a very good year for the flu vaccine, but the flu "only" killed 22,000 Americans in the 2019-2020 flu season. We're at 430K or so with Covid. And while I understand that with Covid, we have had virtually no effective way to defend ourselves (until very recently with vaccines being rolled out), it surely seems that with the S.A. strain, and likely more to come....we're going to be dealing with an excessive level of death for several years. This year we have had very, very little influenza as it didn't get the chance to really travel here from the Southern Hemisphere as international travel is way down. Next winter I'm guessing we're going to have a flu/covid death toll as people inevitably begin to travel again.

It's going to take months and months to get everyone vaccinated here, in the U.S.....the wealthiest country in the world. And like you pointed out...with the possibility of reinfection rising, we're all likely getting covid vaccines every year or so going forward. I keep hoping that Covid will be in the way, way back of my mind, especially once I am fortunate enough to get the vaccine. But...will it be? Hopefully down the road it will be, but I think Covid is going to be big news for the next few years. There are still a ton of unknowns with this virus.

p.s...I hope you got the real vaccine and not the placebo!

Oh I agree that we will be dealing with COViD for years. I don’t think we have 100% pre-COViD normalcy for awhile. I do think mass vaccination that hopefully will be achieved by fall will go a long way. I also think we will deal with various variants of COViD for a long time. right now it’s the South African variant, but who knows if in 6 months there will be a more troublesome variant? It’s certainly possible. We just don’t know if this will morph into a yearly vaccine with tweaks based on variants circulating like they do with the flu vaccine.

So far I have had zero effects from the injection, not even a sore arm. Absence of side effects doesnt prove placebo, but I was at hoping for a low grade fever as maybe a clue! I will be unblinded once authorization is granted and will receive the actual vaccine right then, so at least I have that option

 

[Jonfw2]

Bad news from JNJ: their vaccine is only 72% efficacy and is less effective than that against some strains.

But, looking past the headline, it's not horrible...they saw no SEVERE cases and no cases at all after day 49 of the vax. Ironically, that puts its effectiveness after 2 months about where the other two are.

Long story short, Scott Gottleib is thrilled with this news.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/29/cov...t-in-the-us-but-less-effective-elsewhere.html

 

[dvcgirl67]

Bad news from JNJ: their vaccine is only 72% efficacy and is less effective than that against some strains.

But, looking past the headline, it's not horrible...they saw no SEVERE cases and no cases at all after day 49 of the vax. Ironically, that puts its effectiveness after 2 months about where the other two are.

Long story short, Scott Gottleib is thrilled with this news.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/29/cov...t-in-the-us-but-less-effective-elsewhere.html

That's right....pre-mRNA vaccine insanely great efficacy.....we would have been thrilled with this news.

 

[gwynne]

Bad news from JNJ: their vaccine is only 72% efficacy and is less effective than that against some strains.

But, looking past the headline, it's not horrible...they saw no SEVERE cases and no cases at all after day 49 of the vax. Ironically, that puts its effectiveness after 2 months about where the other two are.

Long story short, Scott Gottleib is thrilled with this news.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/29/cov...t-in-the-us-but-less-effective-elsewhere.html

Some discussion on the morning shows about a possible needed booster. So maybe it will become a two shot vaccine?