Covid Vaccine Updates and General Discussion About Vaccines

[GoofGoof]

I'm not sure there is an exact right way to do this either. I had no idea Philly was so different than western PA (which was far more open than we were for a while, then we leap frogged)

For me I am ever so grateful for all the essential workers. I know some were vaccinated in the health departments but there were so many others I was grateful and remain grateful for. I do not think of them as unworthy of shots the way I've seen some people be. I'm glad that your workers will be vaccinated soon! I've thought the J&J would be great for those as it could easily be done as an onsite type clinic for workers.

Yeah, it’s hard to say what’s the best plan. In general most people aren‘t happy with the way the vaccines were rolled out, but that was unavoidable. Lack of supply was going to make someone unhappy no matter how the priorities were set. I am hopeful now that we are starting to reach the point where supply is keeping up better with demand and pretty soon we will switch from a push to a pull. Right now the primary priority of the government is to push out as many doses as possible as quickly as possible but soon supply will start exceeding demand and the government will need to switch to plans to pull in the remaining people who haven’t gone yet. As challenging as the push phase has been the pull phase is going to be just as challenging and may be more critical to the overall success of the vaccine rollout. If we fail to get enough people vaccinated then we may not see cases flatline which has obvious public health impacts but may also delay the economic recovery. Everyone wants a “return to normal”, but not everyone will be willing to “return to normal” behavior if the numbers don’t dictate that.

After saying all of this I am confident we can get where we need to on vaccine acceptance.

 

[MisterPenguin]

 

[CatesMom]

Yeah, it’s hard to say what’s the best plan. In general most people aren‘t happy with the way the vaccines were rolled out, but that was unavoidable. Lack of supply was going to make someone unhappy no matter how the priorities were set. I am hopeful now that we are starting to reach the point where supply is keeping up better with demand and pretty soon we will switch from a push to a pull. Right now the primary priority of the government is to push out as many doses as possible as quickly as possible but soon supply will start exceeding demand and the government will need to switch to plans to pull in the remaining people who haven’t gone yet. As challenging as the push phase has been the pull phase is going to be just as challenging and may be more critical to the overall success of the vaccine rollout. If we fail to get enough people vaccinated then we may not see cases flatline which has obvious public health impacts but may also delay the economic recovery. Everyone wants a “return to normal”, but not everyone will be willing to “return to normal” behavior if the numbers don’t dictate that.

After saying all of this I am confident we can get where we need to on vaccine acceptance.

Vaccine demand remains extraordinarily high here in the greater Washington, DC area (much like Philadelphia and surrounds). We remain firmly in the government "push" zone, with four vaccine entities giving out all available doses fast and furiously: Virginia, Maryland, DC, and the federal government. While the vaccine entities are working hard to make doses available to vulnerable populations, they are also still far removed from the "pull" zone of dealing with vaccine hesitancy. All of this is to say that I'm amazed when I see news stories or social media posts from other areas with broader eligibility (such as 16+) or discussing lack of interest in the shot.

 

[GoofGoof]

Vaccine demand remains extraordinarily high here in the greater Washington, DC area (much like Philadelphia and surrounds). We remain firmly in the government "push" zone, with four vaccine entities giving out all available doses fast and furiously: Virginia, Maryland, DC, and the federal government. While the vaccine entities are working hard to make doses available to vulnerable populations, they are also still far removed from the "pull" zone of dealing with vaccine hesitancy. All of this is to say that I'm amazed when I see news stories or social media posts from other areas with broader eligibility (such as 16+) or discussing lack of interest in the shot.

It’s going to get interesting. I do think we will end up with a pretty wide gap between the state with the highest percent of vaccine taken and the lowest. My guess is the lowest state may end up barely over 50% while the highest could be north of 85%. It will probably be somewhere like Vermont that seemed to have just gotten a lot of things right all along that will hit the high mark. I also think it will vary within states. The affluent suburbs of major urban centers will probably max out while rural areas and urban centers will have less uptake. I know in a state like PA the Governor has to balance both sides. The middle of PA is a rural state focusing on agriculture and some manufacturing with a lot of small towns. On eitjer end of the state you have Philly and Pittsburgh. So he needs to draw out the rural residents and then probably use a very different plan to focus on urban centers. It’s going to be hard work and I’m sure not all smooth sailing but the difference between 60% and 80% vaccinated will hinge on how successful local leaders are.

 

[CatesMom]

It’s going to get interesting. I do think we will end up with a pretty wide gap between the state with the highest percent of vaccine taken and the lowest. My guess is the lowest state may end up barely over 50% while the highest could be north of 85%. It will probably be somewhere like Vermont that seemed to have just gotten a lot of things right all along that will hit the high mark. I also think it will vary within states. The affluent suburbs of major urban centers will probably max out while rural areas and urban centers will have less uptake. I know in a state like PA the Governor has to balance both sides. The middle of PA is a rural state focusing on agriculture and some manufacturing with a lot of small towns. On eitjer end of the state you have Philly and Pittsburgh. So he needs to draw out the rural residents and then probably use a very different plan to focus on urban centers. It’s going to be hard work and I’m sure not all smooth sailing but the difference between 60% and 80% vaccinated will hinge on how successful local leaders are.

My semi-rural South Texas hometown (where my parent still live) had a great early response, especially among the 65+ crowd. Overall vaccine rates there currently are on-par with nationwide averages. Texas is not reporting vaccine rates, however, so it's hard to gauge acceptance rates beyond the "big picture" that the CDC breakouts offer.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

When I got my first dose almost 2 weeks ago at the NY State Fair, they had cardboard cutouts directing us where to go. Kind of creepy.

 

[Bullseye1967]

@GoofGoof I think you may have predicted this. All were given JnJ jabs.

News

News

www.wsmv.com

 

[eliza61nyc]

It’s going to get interesting. I do think we will end up with a pretty wide gap between the state with the highest percent of vaccine taken and the lowest. My guess is the lowest state may end up barely over 50% while the highest could be north of 85%. It will probably be somewhere like Vermont that seemed to have just gotten a lot of things right all along that will hit the high mark. I also think it will vary within states. The affluent suburbs of major urban centers will probably max out while rural areas and urban centers will have less uptake. I know in a state like PA the Governor has to balance both sides. The middle of PA is a rural state focusing on agriculture and some manufacturing with a lot of small towns. On eitjer end of the state you have Philly and Pittsburgh. So he needs to draw out the rural residents and then probably use a very different plan to focus on urban centers. It’s going to be hard work and I’m sure not all smooth sailing but the difference between 60% and 80% vaccinated will hinge on how successful local leaders are.

We seem to be ironing out some kinks here in Philly after some disastrous and rather embarrassing snafus. FEMA opened up 4 mass vaccination clinics and they are now allowing walk ups from underserved communities.
lol also Spring time and daylight savings time has helped, which is baffling. I guess the weather turning warmer has people wanting to do more and encouraging them to get vaccinated? it's weird but hey, I'll take any thing that gets people out and vaccinated.
The case numbers continue to trend down and we've opened up some indoor stuff. The sixers are allowing small numbers of spectators

 

[eliza61nyc]

Did I hear correctly that Astra-Zeneca may have a vaccine coming on board?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Did I hear correctly that Astra-Zeneca may have a vaccine coming on board?

They've announced that their own evaluation of their U.S. trial is 79% effective.

But they've still have to submit to the U.S. for emergency use approval. That whole process would take them to May, at which point, the other three vaccines would have covered just about everyone in the U.S.

It would still be useful to give/sell to other countries who are months behind the U.S. in vaccinations.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Did I hear correctly that Astra-Zeneca may have a vaccine coming on board?

It looks like they plan to submit the vaccine to the FDA sometime in April.

I've only seen the press releases, but there is a tantalizing bit of verbiage that I wish they would clarify. The press release said that it showed equal efficacy "with all age groups". Does this mean children too or just the age groups included in the study?

 

[ToTBellHop]

I fear the AZ vaccine, which is quite controversial right now, would damage trust in the vaccine if approved in the USA. It would do far better good if we sold our doses to Canada and Mexico, our neighbors who want those doses. Europe’s behavior with respect to the AZ vaccine has badly damaged its reputation. And, as @MisterPenguin suggests, we really don’t need it.

 

[correcaminos]

They've announced that their own evaluation of their U.S. trial is 79% effective.

But they've still have to submit to the U.S. for emergency use approval. That whole process would take them to May, at which point, the other three vaccines would have covered just about everyone in the U.S.

It would still be useful to give/sell to other countries who are months behind the U.S. in vaccinations.

Which we are doing at this time. Glad to see the higher efficacy of it though. Pity it took so long to get through.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Which we are doing at this time. Glad to see the higher efficacy of it though. Pity it took so long to get through.

I meant to give/sell all 300M doses, not just the 4M we gave to Canada and Mexico.

With just the three we have, we'll wind up with enough doses to vaccinate everyone in the U.S., including children, one and half times over.

And that's not even counting Novavax if that gets approved.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I meant to give/sell all 300M doses, not just the 4M we gave to Canada and Mexico.

With just the three we have, we'll wind up with enough doses to vaccinate everyone in the U.S., including children, one and half times over.

And that's not even counting Novavax if that gets approved.

Exactly. And, at a minimum, we need countries we directly border to vaccinate well. Then we should help our other allies.

 

[Tom P.]

West Virginia has opened vaccine eligibility to anyone ages 16 or older as of today.

 

[Lilofan]

There will be some who refuse to get the vaccine like my neighborhood pizza manager. He said in his whole life he did not believe in vaccines. He said he thinks he contacted covid last December. He said reluctantly he had to get a flu shot three years ago because when he wanted to be in the hospital delivery room when his baby was born he had to be vaccinated.

 

[correcaminos]

I meant to give/sell all 300M doses, not just the 4M we gave to Canada and Mexico.

With just the three we have, we'll wind up with enough doses to vaccinate everyone in the U.S., including children, one and half times over.

And that's not even counting Novavax if that gets approved.

Gotcha and I agree, it is definitely good form to help your neighbors.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Apparently AZ fudged their data AGAIN.

"Late Monday, the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) notified NIAID, BARDA, and AstraZeneca that it was concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial,” the statement says.

“The DSMB expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.“

“We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible.”
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They really just need to say, “thanks, but no thanks.” The company has been up to monkey business (a technical term in science) w.r.t. its approval in America long enough. At what point are they in breach of the contract?

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Dose 2 of Pfizer in 4 hours! I‘m nervous and excited. Boys have a surprise day off from school so they are coming with. Jesus, take the wheel.

 

[danlb_2000]

Apparently AZ fudged their data AGAIN.

"Late Monday, the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) notified NIAID, BARDA, and AstraZeneca that it was concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial,” the statement says.

“The DSMB expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.“

“We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible.”
———————————
They really just need to say, “thanks, but no thanks.” The company has been up to monkey business (a technical term in science) w.r.t. its approval in America long enough. At what point are they in breach of the contract?

———————————

Dose 2 of Pfizer in 4 hours! I‘m nervous and excited. Boys have a surprise day off from school so they are coming with. Jesus, take the wheel.

Glad we aren't relying on this one.