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Coronavirus
- Thread starter Jaybifla
- Start date
I realize this topic has become a hybrid of both public health and politics. But I figure that this existing thread is the best place to discuss Covid, even if some of the convo definitely veers into politics also.
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NBC News
Trump said vaccines would be widely available by February. New CDC director says they won't.
Elisha Fieldstadt
Thu, January 21, 2021, 8:28 AM
The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the Covid-19 vaccine would not be widely available by late February as the Trump administration previously said.
The new administration is determined to meet the goal of 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in 100 days, Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Savannah Guthrie on NBC's "TODAY" show.
However, the shots won't be available for just anyone in pharmacies, like the flu vaccine is, by late February, as former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Guthrie last month.
"We are going to, as part of our plan, put the vaccine in pharmacies. Will it be in every pharmacy in this country by that timeline? I don't think so," Walensky said. "I don't think late February, we're going to have vaccine in every pharmacy in this country."
"After 100 days, there are still a lot of Americans who need vaccine, so we have our pedal to the metal to make sure that we can get as much vaccine out there," she said. "We recognize this is the most immediate emergency to get this country back to health."
According to Walensky, the work to meet the 100-day goal "had already begun" and the main points of the plan are to make sure vaccine eligibility meets supply, that there are enough vaccinators and that vaccine sites are "diverse so that we can get to all people."
"The whole basis for how we do vaccine rollout has to be based on equity and we’re committed to that," she said.
A main goal is to help people who have "vaccine hesitancy" by educating them on the science so they better understand the vaccine, according to Walensky.
The administration also has to pinpoint and fix distribution problems by making sure the vaccine, the syringes and the demand for the shots all line up at specific sites, she said.
"We’ve been meeting daily at least for six weeks or so. So that work has begun already, so we are on the ground," Walensky said. "The plan was not to start planning today. The plan is to start working today and to get it out to the people."
Walensky, an infectious diseases specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, was sworn in Wednesday when the U.S. reported 4,131 coronavirus-related deaths, setting a record for the most COVID-19 deaths recorded in a single day.
Walensky said that at the current pace, 100,000 more coronavirus-related deaths could be expected by the middle or end of February.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/cdc-director-says-covid-vaccine-132846292.html
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I'm not surprised at all that Trump and his minions were lying to our faces when they claimed that the vaccine would be widely available by the end of February. Lying about the really important stuff to the public and being totally uncooperative with providing crucial information to incoming Biden officials trying to get off to a smooth transition, is totally in character for Trump and the rest of those sleazebags.
So the Biden team is finding out officially that there wasn't even a notebook binder or a post-it note of a plan for a nationwide rollout of the vaccine. And we have Trump, but also Jared Kushner and Mike Pence in particular to thank for that. Mike Pence was the official head of the so-called National Covid Task Force in charge of managing the response to the pandemic. Jared bailed out early because he wasn't smart enough to be of any help. He preferred to dump the whole problem on to the individual governors and states. So then it was (sort of) given to Pence. And he did so much better of a job with it. *smh*
So big surprise. Not only was there never any national plan to get the vaccine into people's arms, but the new people are just now finding out that the national inventory of supply of the vaccine was overstated (lied about) and is actually very low. I suspect that the drug manufacturers still have millions of doses in their own warehouses that the previous government (through a combination of corruption, laziness and incompetence) just hadn't ordered, processed and paid for yet. If so, maybe there's hope to get a bigger supply built up fairly quickly now that we finally have some competent grownups in charge. (Instead of the unloading clown bus of brain-dead clueless morons with impressive sounding college degrees, white collar criminals, grifters, opportunists and hangers-on living off of nepotism like we've had shuffling through the White House in very recent memory.)
It will still require ramping up actual production of the vaccine to get to the hundreds of millions of doses we'll need. And in a hurry! Maybe Biden invoking the National Defense Production Act would be helpful in speeding up the whole process? I would love to see the day when the U.S. could become an actual exporter of the vaccine to other countries. That's much more like the USA that I know and remember.
***************************************************************
NBC News
Trump said vaccines would be widely available by February. New CDC director says they won't.
Elisha Fieldstadt
Thu, January 21, 2021, 8:28 AM
The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the Covid-19 vaccine would not be widely available by late February as the Trump administration previously said.
The new administration is determined to meet the goal of 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in 100 days, Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Savannah Guthrie on NBC's "TODAY" show.
However, the shots won't be available for just anyone in pharmacies, like the flu vaccine is, by late February, as former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Guthrie last month.
"We are going to, as part of our plan, put the vaccine in pharmacies. Will it be in every pharmacy in this country by that timeline? I don't think so," Walensky said. "I don't think late February, we're going to have vaccine in every pharmacy in this country."
"After 100 days, there are still a lot of Americans who need vaccine, so we have our pedal to the metal to make sure that we can get as much vaccine out there," she said. "We recognize this is the most immediate emergency to get this country back to health."
According to Walensky, the work to meet the 100-day goal "had already begun" and the main points of the plan are to make sure vaccine eligibility meets supply, that there are enough vaccinators and that vaccine sites are "diverse so that we can get to all people."
"The whole basis for how we do vaccine rollout has to be based on equity and we’re committed to that," she said.
A main goal is to help people who have "vaccine hesitancy" by educating them on the science so they better understand the vaccine, according to Walensky.
The administration also has to pinpoint and fix distribution problems by making sure the vaccine, the syringes and the demand for the shots all line up at specific sites, she said.
"We’ve been meeting daily at least for six weeks or so. So that work has begun already, so we are on the ground," Walensky said. "The plan was not to start planning today. The plan is to start working today and to get it out to the people."
Walensky, an infectious diseases specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, was sworn in Wednesday when the U.S. reported 4,131 coronavirus-related deaths, setting a record for the most COVID-19 deaths recorded in a single day.
Walensky said that at the current pace, 100,000 more coronavirus-related deaths could be expected by the middle or end of February.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/cdc-director-says-covid-vaccine-132846292.html
*********************************************************************
I'm not surprised at all that Trump and his minions were lying to our faces when they claimed that the vaccine would be widely available by the end of February. Lying about the really important stuff to the public and being totally uncooperative with providing crucial information to incoming Biden officials trying to get off to a smooth transition, is totally in character for Trump and the rest of those sleazebags.
So the Biden team is finding out officially that there wasn't even a notebook binder or a post-it note of a plan for a nationwide rollout of the vaccine. And we have Trump, but also Jared Kushner and Mike Pence in particular to thank for that. Mike Pence was the official head of the so-called National Covid Task Force in charge of managing the response to the pandemic. Jared bailed out early because he wasn't smart enough to be of any help. He preferred to dump the whole problem on to the individual governors and states. So then it was (sort of) given to Pence. And he did so much better of a job with it. *smh*
So big surprise. Not only was there never any national plan to get the vaccine into people's arms, but the new people are just now finding out that the national inventory of supply of the vaccine was overstated (lied about) and is actually very low. I suspect that the drug manufacturers still have millions of doses in their own warehouses that the previous government (through a combination of corruption, laziness and incompetence) just hadn't ordered, processed and paid for yet. If so, maybe there's hope to get a bigger supply built up fairly quickly now that we finally have some competent grownups in charge. (Instead of the unloading clown bus of brain-dead clueless morons with impressive sounding college degrees, white collar criminals, grifters, opportunists and hangers-on living off of nepotism like we've had shuffling through the White House in very recent memory.)
It will still require ramping up actual production of the vaccine to get to the hundreds of millions of doses we'll need. And in a hurry! Maybe Biden invoking the National Defense Production Act would be helpful in speeding up the whole process? I would love to see the day when the U.S. could become an actual exporter of the vaccine to other countries. That's much more like the USA that I know and remember.
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mikeyank
Long time forumite
I just looked back to the origin of this thread. Jay started it on March 11th of last year just when the shit was hitting the fan. We were all so innocent then and look what has transpired in the last ten months. Gratefully now with the vaccine being available, (although not as quickly as we would like), but the end is in sight. But what a ten months we have been through. Such a relatively short time, yet so much has happened including 400,000 American lives lost. All in less than one year. Wow!
juanjo
BSB Addict
As you say, it is no surprise to anyone that the Trump Administration has been lying about the vaccine rollout. This is par for the course. But Tamp, you are far too unfair of Jared by saying, "Jared bailed out early because he wasn't smart enough to be of any help. He preferred to dump the whole problem on to the individual governors and states". The fact is that prior to bailing out Jared and his cronies managed to buy up vast amounts of PPE sometimes using federal power to divert orders made by individual states and eventually placing it in the federal stockpile after wandering through a number of dummy corporations who jacked up prices and made profits for certain people, including Jared, his wife, and some of his in-laws. That behavior is currently under investigation.
But here we are basically one year from the time COVID first hit our shores. We have had 25 million-plus people diagnosed with COVID and have lost as of today, 416,000 people. Just over 25% of the world's COVID cases are in the USA and slightly less than 25% of the deaths from COVID have been in the USA. We have vaccinated 10 million people with the first dose of the vaccine and vaccinated just over a million with the second dose. The good news is that the current surge seems to be plateauing and the positivity rate has dropped to 12% and the case fatality rate has held at 1.7% since early December which is down from a high of almost 7% last June.
The new administration is serious about addressing this problem on a national level rather than the absurd response of the prior regime which was do little but claim credit for good news while dumping everything on the states. Biden's desire to administer 100 million doses of vaccine in 100 days is quite ambitious and frankly I can see some people trying to mess with it just to make him look bad. But we need to do something to make this think come under control. I am relieved that there are responsible adults in charge now.
But here we are basically one year from the time COVID first hit our shores. We have had 25 million-plus people diagnosed with COVID and have lost as of today, 416,000 people. Just over 25% of the world's COVID cases are in the USA and slightly less than 25% of the deaths from COVID have been in the USA. We have vaccinated 10 million people with the first dose of the vaccine and vaccinated just over a million with the second dose. The good news is that the current surge seems to be plateauing and the positivity rate has dropped to 12% and the case fatality rate has held at 1.7% since early December which is down from a high of almost 7% last June.
The new administration is serious about addressing this problem on a national level rather than the absurd response of the prior regime which was do little but claim credit for good news while dumping everything on the states. Biden's desire to administer 100 million doses of vaccine in 100 days is quite ambitious and frankly I can see some people trying to mess with it just to make him look bad. But we need to do something to make this think come under control. I am relieved that there are responsible adults in charge now.
Thank you for that additional info on the profiteering/corruption of Kushner and his cronies. I do realize that my character assessment above was actually too charitable and understated. (As he would/will never admit that he botched a potential federal response to Covid from the very beginning because he was too stupid and uninterested to be put in charge of it in the first place.) But of course following Trump's lead of being a corrupt and transactional kind of guy...it surprises me not at all that someone of Kushner character figured out (yet an additional way) to use his unique access and influence as a way to stuff his own pockets and those of his family using taxpayer funds.
He already shook down Qatar for over a Billion dollars to bail out the family business and their mismanaged and bankrupt property at 666 Fifth Avenue in NYC. So more allegations of corruption by him do not surprise me. As time goes on I'm sure only more sweetheart deals will come to light.
Here's a link that covers some of the very shady and seedy miraculous surprise $1.2B bailout the Kushner family received.
https://archive.thinkprogress.org/the-kushners-mysterious-1-2-billion-bailout-92f6c12de50c/
mikeyank
Long time forumite
I was wondering how the vaccine distribution is going around the country? I hate the way the roll-out began here in New York City, where people had to scramble to register online and then spend hours and hours trying to find a site where you could make an appointment. I would think that there could have been a more orderly way for shots to be given. At the time someone said trying to get an appointment was similar to trying to get tickets to Hamilton on Broadway or Elton John at Madison Square Garden. That's not the way for particularly senior citizen's to be vaccinated.
By now there are many sites around the five boroughs of New York City and I got my first shot last week with my second appointment scheduled for March 30th. By the way, today is the one year anniversary of the business I work at part time, closing for five months. I knew it was coming as business had ground down to practically zero. It was the second Wednesday in March of 2020. What a year it's been but all things are trending to a much better 2021!
By now there are many sites around the five boroughs of New York City and I got my first shot last week with my second appointment scheduled for March 30th. By the way, today is the one year anniversary of the business I work at part time, closing for five months. I knew it was coming as business had ground down to practically zero. It was the second Wednesday in March of 2020. What a year it's been but all things are trending to a much better 2021!
kgmets
BSB God
My first vaccination was February 16th and my second one will be next Tuesday March 16th.
Hey Guys,
I'm guessing you both got the Moderna vaccine. That's what I got. I was thrilled to get mine on February 26, and my second one will be on March 26th.
My mom was also able to get her first one finally. Here in Florida it's been about as bad as elsewhere with having to get online and keep hitting refresh over and over. In the end I had luck with my mom being able to get one locally at a senior citizen center. It had nothing to do with a luck of the draw computerized appointment system. I found out the senior center 1.5 miles away was offering open appointments for 2 days away from signup day. So I raced down there and got her in with not much more than her name and phone number and a questionnaire for her to fill out and return on the day of. She got the Pfizer vaccine. So she only has to wait 3 weeks in between.
Tampa General came through for me. Because I am under 65 no place else would even let me sign up yet. Even though I am under 65 I have extenuating health conditions that put me at greater risk. So TGH emailed me and told me I could schedule an appointment directly with them online. And if I came to their satellite facility off the hospital campus (but still in Tampa) I could get the vaccine. No doctor's note of medical explanation needed.
So as it turned out, after playing the game of getting up super early to be all bright eyed and bushy tailed and online at 7:00am M-W-F for 2 weeks, for a possible vaccine for my mom through the Publix grocery store chain...only to have them all gone in the first 45 minutes...and playing the same game of logging in to my county health department website where all 2-4 thousand vaccines disappeared in about a half an hour...I ended up getting it much more easily through a totally different route.
It seems down here at least that the supply of the vaccine is finally starting to catch up with the demand. The state government is announcing that teachers who are 50 y/o + can get vaccinated now. And any Florida resident 60 y/o and above can start getting vaccinated starting on March 15th. (That's a drop in age from the previous 65+ only.)
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mikeyank
Long time forumite
I actually got the Pfizer one, but I had no idea going in and I didn't really care. From what I've heard all three including the Johnson & Johnson will do the trick in keeping people from getting very sick or dying and that is the main focus. It looks like all adults will be able to get vaccinated by early summer. I imagine the problem will be getting everyone to do it as there are still some wacky conspiracy theories going around. But the U.S. has made giant strives in eradicating the pandemic, and that i the name of the game.
mikeyank
Long time forumite
That is sick. The man is delusional.
Cool!
I know with the Pfizer one you wait only 3 weeks in between doses. But with Moderna you have to wait 4 weeks in between. And of course with the Johnson & Johnson it's one dose only and you are presumed to be protected by about two weeks after that shot. The J&J one however does have a lower efficacy rate as far as actually preventing you from getting symptomatic Covid.
Pfizer 95%, Moderna 94%, and J&J a 72% success rate (in the U.S.) in preventing you from getting symptomatic Covid. The big BUT with J&J is that even if you do come down with symptomatic Covid after receiving the shot, their trial studies report NO hospitalizations or deaths from Covid. So what that says to me is that even if you do come down with Covid after the J&J vaccine that it will feel like a mild case of the flu that you can treat and get over at home.
The J&J one really is a game-changer for the developing world in particular. Because it can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures. Not like Pfizer that has to be stored at 94 degrees below zero. Nor Moderna that has to be stored at 4 degrees below zero. That means that medical teams can pack a whole bunch of J&J in high quality ice coolers, throw it on the back of a truck or a jeep and run it into the jungles of Asia, the bush lands and deserts of Africa, the Amazon, wherever. You can take it to the most remote and rural of areas, regardless of climate or local access to electricity (as long as you have ice or maybe dry ice), give everyone one shot...and you're done. You can move on to the next outpost. You don't have to come back to the same remote areas 3 or 4 weeks later and try to track down every single person you vaccinated the last time.
This article below was particularly helpful to me in writing this post.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/02...eloped-by-pfizer-moderna-and-johnson-johnson/
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My other concern with immunizing us and the rest of the world as quickly as possible is this. The longer it takes, the greater the chance for a mutation or variant to develop that is able to render our current vaccines useless. That's a real nightmare scenario if we get stuck back at the beginning again.
I'm practicing medicine without a license here. But my guess is that Covid will eventually become an annual problem like the flu, where they have to guess the most likely strain to go around and prepare a vaccine in advance targeting certain particular variants. And it will always be a guessing game with some room for error.
I'm practicing medicine without a license here. But my guess is that Covid will eventually become an annual problem like the flu, where they have to guess the most likely strain to go around and prepare a vaccine in advance targeting certain particular variants. And it will always be a guessing game with some room for error.
No doubt about it. He's a sick pup. Quite unwell.
He just has to be the center of attention. His ego needs constant stroking. Almost like a mental form of masturbation. Keeping a spotlight on himself is like a matter of life and death to him. It's all very sad and pathetic.
kgmets
BSB God
Contrast this crap with what he could have done: he could have joined the other living former Presidents in that joint PSA showing them getting vaccinated and urging their fellow Americans to do the same. Or, instead of Trump and Melania getting vaccinated privately and quietly in January, his public statement could have and should have been: "Melania and I have been vaccinated, and so should you. I urge all of my supporters for the sake of our country and themselves to get vaccinated as soon as possible." That might have actually done some good in convincing his delusional anti-vaccine supporters to reconsider their position.
kgmets
BSB God
P.S. This has been a topic of ongoing discussion on mikeyank's new tread, but the caronavirus has essentially destroyed the ACC Men's Basketball tournament by coronavirus infections forcing first Duke and now Virginia to drop out to go into quarantine. This could bode ill for the upcoming NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. So, even though there is light at the end of the tunnel, we are not there yet.
mikeyank
Long time forumite
Exactly KG. We are close but not out of the woods yet.
juanjo
BSB Addict
My most sincere and deepest hope is that this man is indicted for crimes committed through his businesses, given some jail time, and financially ruined. His arrogance and delusion are beyond belief. He is taking a victory lap for something he really did not accomplish at all, although he may have been president while portions of it started. The Pfizer vaccine was developed completely independent from any financial or logistical assistance by the United States. The Moderna vaccine was the result of a grant the company had received from the NIH prior to the COVID outbreak to study the use of RNA-based vaccines on coronaviruses. They had been researching for several years and done a lot of legwork that allowed them to jump right on top of the COVID virus and start on a vaccine. J&J did receive money from the government to assist their research.
Once they had vaccines, Trump authorized the purchase of 100 million doses from Moderna and Pfizer respectively. That was enough to vaccinate 50 million people. He turned down offers to sell the US additional doses. His entire distribution plan was to vaccinate old people in nursing homes and the staff caring for them and then tell the states to buy vaccine and do as they wished. Much like his containment plan, there was no unified structure or advice, no logistical support, no financial support, nothing at all.
The sad reality is that Trump could have gone down in history as the president who pulled the United States through one of the most dangerous periods it has faced in modern times. He could have spoken out about people uniting and following the advice of the CDC on mask use, social distancing, hygiene, etc. He could have led by example. The country would have still taken an economic hit but that was inevitable. But it may not have been as bad as it has been and we would not have lost as many people as we did.
Trump turned the virus into a political litmus test. If you wear a mask then you are against him. If you do not wear a mask then you are for him. Viruses do not give a damn about someone's political views. Even now, polls show that around half of all male Republicans are unwilling to be vaccinated. This is a direct result of the incompetent bumbling of this orange-tinted idiot. If, as others have pointed out, he had gone on television and announced he received the vaccine or better, shown himself receiving it, while during all Americans to be vaccinated he would have done the world a good turn. Instead, he saw his doing so as a show of weakness, that he was not a superman who did not need such trifles as vaccines.
This man is evil and has been his entire life. His entire family is poison. Yet, despite the ample evidence of this, there are still a large number of people out there who think he is the greatest thing that ever happened.
kgmets
BSB God
To make matters worse in college basketball, Kansas just had to drop out of the Big 12 Conference Tourney due to cononavirus infection.
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