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

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That hasn’t always been true with the J&J though. There was a few weeks where other states were getting more than CA in actual doses. I have no idea if it’s been sorted out now.

Yeah J&J seems to be wildly all over the place. It's probably just hiccups with the production early on in its deployment but really frustrating. There was already 3 weeks delay in between the first and second shipment for at least KS and MO.

 

[RamblingMad]

Michigan is in some serious trouble.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/heal...michigan-heres-what-to-know-march-25-2021/#//

A friend of mine at UM Med is saying the hospitalized patients, more younger ones (40’s) these days, are generally sicker than during the previous wave back in ~January.
It’s not like MI is doing terrible wi the vaccinations. They’re about the national average. Hopefully, this will be a warning heeded by other states.

I have some family there. The variants are definitely troublesome.

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

Michigan is in some serious trouble.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/heal...michigan-heres-what-to-know-march-25-2021/#//

A friend of mine at UM Med is saying the hospitalized patients, more younger ones (40’s) these days, are generally sicker than during the previous wave back in ~January.
It’s not like MI is doing terrible wi the vaccinations. They’re about the national average. Hopefully, this will be a warning heeded by other states.

Not that it makes it better, but I can only hope that this is because these are the people less likely to have been vaccinated yet, and once it continues to expand, it will improve. But regardless, it’s really sad and scary that people seem to be getting sicker. Ugh, it’s so hard to be optimistic and continues to feel like we’re in a never ending battle.

 

[godisney14]

Not that it makes it better, but I can only hope that this is because these are the people less likely to have been vaccinated yet, and once it continues to expand, it will improve. But regardless, it’s really sad and scary that people seem to be getting sicker. Ugh, it’s so hard to be optimistic and continues to feel like we’re in a never ending battle.

That is one reason for sure, though maybe not the biggest reason for the cause in MI. If so, you would see similar patterns all throughout the country as vaccines have been mostly limited to the similar age groups until just recently everywhere.

 

[DLgal]

Wasn't this expected with the UK strain? I thought we knew it resulted in more hospitalizations and more severe cases. Maybe I am not remembering correctly.

People need to start being treated with the Regeneron antibody cocktail immediately upon testing positive. I was listening to a research doctor who said this needs to be a standard treatment protocol and anyone high risk who tests positive should be given it automatically. It is available everywhere now and sitting around on shelves, but nobody is using them. It's a real head scratcher, honestly. More work needs to be done to get this treatment to people before it is too late.

 

[godisney14]

Pfizer announced that they just commenced their clinical trials for their vaccine on children between 6 months and 11 years old.
They had started trials for children between 12 and 16 years old back in October, and trials for pregnant women began last month.

When these trials are expected to report significant findings are unknown yet. They need to see a meaningful difference in infection rates between the two groups, which means it depends on how widespread the infections become in the communities of these trial participants. For reference, the adult Pfizer trials began in May and received EUA in December. Assuming there are less cases these days and less so among young children, maybe end of this year, or sometime next year? But, schools seem to have more children these days.

 

[Donaldswife]

Wasn't this expected with the UK strain? I thought we knew it resulted in more hospitalizations and more severe cases. Maybe I am not remembering correctly.

People need to start being treated with the Regeneron antibody cocktail immediately upon testing positive. I was listening to a research doctor who said this needs to be a standard treatment protocol and anyone high risk who tests positive should be given it automatically. It is available everywhere now and sitting around on shelves, but nobody is using them. It's a real head scratcher, honestly. More work needs to be done to get this treatment to people before it is too late.

Do you have any links to any news articles about this doctor and the regeneron? I would be interested in reading more or listening to him if you have a place where we can.

 

[DLgal]

Pfizer announced that they just commenced their clinical trials for their vaccine on children between 6 months and 11 years old.
They had started trials for children between 12 and 16 years old back in October, and trials for pregnant women began last month.

When these trials are expected to report significant findings are unknown yet. They need to see a meaningful difference in infection rates between the two groups, which means it depends on how widespread the infections become in the communities of these trial participants. For reference, the adult Pfizer trials began in May and received EUA in December. Assuming there are less cases these days and less so among young children, maybe end of this year, or sometime next year? But, schools seem to have more children these days.

Pfizer's age 12-17 trial is complete. They expect to be approved to vaccinate high risk kids in this age group by July or August. Moderna's trial is currently underway in the same age group and they expect to have those results and an EUA sometime in early fall.

The timeline I heard for younger kids was spring 2022.

 

[DLgal]

Do you have any links to any news articles about this doctor and the regeneron? I would be interested in reading more or listening to him if you have a place where we can.

The Regeneron cocktail has been in the news in the last few days. Google "Regeneron Cocktail" and then click on the news link to filter out the results. They just completed a phase 3 trial that showed it prevents 70% of hospitalizations in high risk patients and reduces symptomatic Covid. They also found it can be used as a "passive vaccine" while people wait to be vaccinated. It basically gives you the antibodies as a prophylactic against infection, so could be used as a stopgap while people await a vaccine. It's really positive news.

The interview I listened to was on the MedCram channel on YouTube. The part about the antibody cocktails is in the second half. I will link the video below:

 

[godisney14]

Wasn't this expected with the UK strain? I thought we knew it resulted in more hospitalizations and more severe cases. Maybe I am not remembering correctly.

People need to start being treated with the Regeneron antibody cocktail immediately upon testing positive. I was listening to a research doctor who said this needs to be a standard treatment protocol and anyone high risk who tests positive should be given it automatically. It is available everywhere now and sitting around on shelves, but nobody is using them. It's a real head scratcher, honestly. More work needs to be done to get this treatment to people before it is too late.

That cocktail is not a magical cure. It doesn't work on everyone.
How many people these days are driving directly to a hospital right after getting a positive test result? Hospitals and staff everywhere would become overloaded if everyone testing positive, mostly high risk to begin with, were to seek immediate care/treatment.

ETA: The idea of using Regneron's cocktail as a stopgap "vaccine" is truly ridiculous. First, there is very little availability compared to vaccine production, and the cost of Regeneron's treatment is up to thousands times more expensive than the vaccine. Most people aren't going to be paying for that as a short-term preventative when a relatively zero-cost vaccine will be widely available in a few months.

 

[Donaldswife]

The Regeneron cocktail has been in the news in the last few days. Google "Regeneron Cocktail" and then click on the news link to filter out the results. They just completed a phase 3 trial that showed it prevents 70% of hospitalizations in high risk patients and reduces symptomatic Covid. They also found it can be used as a "passive vaccine" while people wait to be vaccinated. It basically gives you the antibodies as a prophylactic against infection, so could be used as a stopgap while people await a vaccine. It's really positive news.

The interview I listened to was on the MedCram channel on YouTube. The part about the antibody cocktails is in the second half. I will link the video below:

Thanks for the information!

 

[DLgal]

That cocktail is not a magical cure. It doesn't work on everyone.
How many people these days are driving directly to a hospital right after getting a positive test result? Hospitals and staff everywhere would become overloaded if everyone testing positive, mostly high risk to begin with, were to seek immediate care/treatment.

It has a success rate of 70%. That's extraordinary. It works better than Tamiflu. It needs to be more widely used. It can be given at home via infusion. There is already a pilot program with CVS under Operation Warp Speed offering this.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Wasn't this expected with the UK strain? I thought we knew it resulted in more hospitalizations and more severe cases. Maybe I am not remembering correctly.

People need to start being treated with the Regeneron antibody cocktail immediately upon testing positive. I was listening to a research doctor who said this needs to be a standard treatment protocol and anyone high risk who tests positive should be given it automatically. It is available everywhere now and sitting around on shelves, but nobody is using them. It's a real head scratcher, honestly. More work needs to be done to get this treatment to people before it is too late.

Yes, this was expected. Dr. Osterholm is probably one of the most pessimistic that I've heard calling for a "Cat 5 hurricane". I listened to this week's podcast and he's still pretty concerned but did say that when he was referring to the Cat 5 hurricane that he was really referring to the world and not just our country. I kind of think that's new from him....but he had some good points today.

I haven't heard very much about the antibody cocktails at all. I know it's expensive, and the idea that it's free to everyone is not true. I feel like it's a treatment that you get if you're the squeaky wheel and demand it or something.

 

[dvcgirl67]

It has a success rate of 70%. That's extraordinary. It works better than Tamiflu. It needs to be more widely used. It can be given at home via infusion. There is already a pilot program with CVS under Operation Warp Speed offering this.

I think it has to be given very early though....correct? If it could be given at home, like you mention....that's ideal. That's also expensive though. A lot of this would come down to insurers for sure.

 

[godisney14]

I think it has to be given very early though....correct? If it could be given at home, like you mention....that's ideal. That's also expensive though. A lot of this would come down to insurers for sure.

Yes, it is a very expensive treatment. As I mentioned above, it costs thousands more than just administering the vaccine.
Most, if not all, insurance plans these days are not covering any costs besides the vaccine.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Hey...where's Jonfw2 been? Penalty box?

 

[tink2424]

1. No one locked people into their homes. Talking about theatrics, there’s the theater. Over exaggeration.

2. Just because places like California has a lot of cases doesn’t mean restrictions do not work. That’s a logical fallacy. Are you saying other countries with stricter guidelines and restrictions that have done better with the pandemic are a mystery?

3. CA has the largest population. Some people don’t understand what that means. We do have a lot of people not following the guidelines. Just from sheer population size, as blue leaning CA is, CA likely has more people who don’t follow guidelines or believe in masks than many other states. FYI, CA has 40x more people than South Dakota and almost 100X more people than Wyoming. Even if just 1 out of 100 Californians do not adhere to guidelines, that would be equivalent to the entire population of Wyoming being maskless.

1. True no one in the US was locked in their homes but ex-US they were and we had stay at home orders so very similiar.

2. There is no logical fallacy. The fact is that different geographical areas have had different levels of restrictions and the number of cases across the board have not directly correlated to the level of restrictions. If you look at California and Florida the numbers were not the same but yet California had much more significant spread and enacted very severe restrictions that took a long time to finally work. So was it the restrictions that led to the decline or would the decline happen anyway. We don't know and we should be researching this more.

3. Agree the size of CA is important but you can look at other countries with similiar numbers and they haven't had the exact same issues either.

You can't ignore the fact that we can't accurately predict how this is really spreading and why certain people are more affected than others. I'm not saying that we shouldn't mask or take other measures but we should very much be doing studies in different areas to find out what is actually working and what is not.

 

[DLgal]

Yes, it is a very expensive treatment. As I mentioned above, it costs thousands more than just administering the vaccine.
Most, if not all, insurance plans these days are not covering any costs besides the vaccine.

It is free. SOME insurance companies charge for the cost to administer it, but anyone with Medicare has those costs waived and it is truly free.

Not sure where you got your information that it is an expensive treatment. This is probably one misconception that has prevented people from seeking it out.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/health/coronavirus-antibody-drugs.html

 

[Heigh-Ho]

Hey...where's Jonfw2 been? Penalty box?

He seems to still be reading this thread so I'm assuming yes to your second question.

 

[tink2424]

I actually do feel that way to some extent, yes. There is a part of me that feels like the severity of the pandemic in the Western world has much more to do with our generally unhealthy ways of living than with any of our responses or lack thereof. My daughter has been in touch with her host families in Japan throughout this entire thing, both sets of parents and three of her host-siblings individually. She was particularly concerned about her first host family, because they live in an apartment building in a suburb of Tokyo and she couldn't imagine how they could social distance, based on her time there. And their success with the virus seems almost inexplicable. They shut down non-essential travel between prefectures and closed some large congregate entertainment facilities like theme parks, but her father has been commuting on a train to Tokyo every day throughout the whole thing and says it is only a little less crowded, and the restrictions on smaller entertainment venues were a request for people to use caution and reduce capacity but not a closure. Her college-age brother was out at a karaoke bar the weekend he moved into his apartment near school and has had in-person classes and her mother and tween host sister made a weekend of moving him in, complete with a stop at an onsen resort on their way home. They've had much more freedom of movement and far fewer business closures than we have, and yet the virus never really took off there.

And as far as non-compliance, I think every state has that problem. Mask mandates have been a joke in Michigan. There are maybe a dozen counties (of 84) where they're taken seriously. Business closures have been somewhat more effective because that is under the power of state licensing agencies rather than up to local authorities to enforce, but there has been plenty of defiance and plenty of people supporting that defiance. So I tend to assume that's a constant of human behavior; there will be X% who ignore all mandates and Y% who are more cautious than reopening plans, and state mandates are only likely to sway those who fit neither group. I suspect that rates of poverty, communal living, and jobs that cannot be done remotely are all far more influential than either compliance rates or lockdown rules.

Yes, I focused on restrictions but there is definitely more to it. We very much know that obesity has a big effect on who has serious outcomes and those who do not. It is much bigger than just restrictions.

Anecdotally my manager just had a COVID scare where her whole family was exposed in their home to a fully symptomatic COVID positive person (he thought he just had allergies) for a full 24 hours while he was sneezing and coughing and they all had no masks on. Her whole family tested negative and are now through the 10 day quarantine period. With how contagious this virus is why did NONE of them test positive. There is very little rhyme or reason. There is something more going on...