COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

[Smoove_B]

Reposted in R&P.

[stimpy]

I thought Biden had a plan to get distribution more organized and accessible?
It's a clusterfuck of disorganization. Where's the direction from our Leader?
All I've heard him crow about was ramping up production.
BFD if the system to actually....ya know....get the shot is so f-ed up.
Hard to believe he's been in office for a couple of months, had many more months to sit back and get a plan together before taking office, and the system is as broke as ever.

Take it to R&P.

I actually thought I was in R&P. I apologize.
I was going to delete my post until Zaxxon felt compelled to throw his useless quip in there.

[stimpy]

I thought Biden had a plan to get distribution more organized and accessible?
It's a clusterfuck of disorganization. Where's the direction from our Leader?
All I've heard him crow about was ramping up production.
BFD if the system to actually....ya know....get the shot is so f-ed up.
Hard to believe he's been in office for a couple of months, had many more months to sit back and get a plan together before taking office, and the system is as broke as ever.

This is a Very Serious Take that is Clearly Well Thought-Out and Informed by Current Events.

It's also A Big Surprise from this Poster, Who Clearly Found the Appropriate Thread in the Right Forum in Which to Grind His Axe.

Thanks for keeping it short and to the point.

[stimpy]

I thought Biden had a plan to get distribution more organized and accessible?
It's a clusterfuck of disorganization. Where's the direction from our Leader?
All I've heard him crow about was ramping up production.
BFD if the system to actually....ya know....get the shot is so f-ed up.
Hard to believe he's been in office for a couple of months, had many more months to sit back and get a plan together before taking office, and the system is as broke as ever.

Did you mean to post this in R&P as it's completely political?

I did. I apologize.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Nice! It definitely will be interesting to see if the systems hold up when half the state becomes eligible. I was planning to just check the pharmacies around here for appointments, but I'm guessing they'll fill up quickly.

I do not approve of the state system. When every recommendation says "accepting eligible appointments", I would expect them to have slots. That is not the case. You have to visit each individual organizations site to see if they have any open slots (Narrator: They do not), so I get to check CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Sams Club, Doctors Care, and Prisma Health every few hours? Days? It's unclear.

Yeah, its pretty inefficient, at least on the user end of it. I checked the usual places this morning when I first woke up and they've all been booked. Perhaps I should've stayed up until midnight when the eligibility change went into effect. Since then I found a site - findashot.org - that scans a number of the different places in the area to look for available appointments. Seems like it could be pretty useful.

Thanks for that. If I use it to check out CVS, it says we are not eligible as the list of priority groups is much smaller than the actual list. Kind of a bummer.

The CVS eligibility listing I'm seeing is the same as the one the state put out for Phase 1B. Were you looking for something else?

[stessier]

Nice! It definitely will be interesting to see if the systems hold up when half the state becomes eligible. I was planning to just check the pharmacies around here for appointments, but I'm guessing they'll fill up quickly.

I do not approve of the state system. When every recommendation says "accepting eligible appointments", I would expect them to have slots. That is not the case. You have to visit each individual organizations site to see if they have any open slots (Narrator: They do not), so I get to check CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Sams Club, Doctors Care, and Prisma Health every few hours? Days? It's unclear.

Yeah, its pretty inefficient, at least on the user end of it. I checked the usual places this morning when I first woke up and they've all been booked. Perhaps I should've stayed up until midnight when the eligibility change went into effect. Since then I found a site - findashot.org - that scans a number of the different places in the area to look for available appointments. Seems like it could be pretty useful.

Thanks for that. If I use it to check out CVS, it says we are not eligible as the list of priority groups is much smaller than the actual list. Kind of a bummer.

The CVS eligibility listing I'm seeing is the same as the one the state put out for Phase 1B. Were you looking for something else?

The only thing I'm seeing is Teachers (schools, daycare, etc), first responders (Fire, police, EMS), or healthcare. Nothing about manufacturing (me!).

• Age 55 or over
• Teachers K-12, Daycare, and preschool workers and staff members
• Age 16+ with medical conditions that increase risk of severe illness from COVID-19
• Medical first responders (paid and volunteer)
• Fire department and law enforcement who provide emergency medical care
• EMS
• None of the above

[Smoove_B]

Maybe here?

Beginning March 8, appointments to get the COVID-19 vaccine can be made by people in the following groups:

Anyone aged 55 and up
People with increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease
People aged 16-54 with one or more of the following high-risk medical conditions:
Cancer (current, not a history of cancer), chronic kidney disease (any stage), chronic lung disease, diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2), Down syndrome, heart disease (congestive heart disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension), HIV/AIDS, solid organ transplant, obesity (BMI >30), pregnancy, sickle cell disease.
People who have a developmental or other severe high-risk disability that makes developing severe life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection more likely
Frontline workers with increased occupational risk
Frontline workers with increased occupational risk are people who:
Must be in-person at their place of work, and
Perform a job that puts them at increased risk of exposure due to their frequent, close (less than 6 feet) and ongoing (more than 15 minutes) contact with others in the work environment

Examples of frontline workers include, but are not limited to, school staff and daycare workers, manufacturing workers, grocery store workers, law enforcement officers, etc.

Emphasis added by yours truly.

[stessier]

Maybe here?

Beginning March 8, appointments to get the COVID-19 vaccine can be made by people in the following groups:

Anyone aged 55 and up
People with increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease
People aged 16-54 with one or more of the following high-risk medical conditions:
Cancer (current, not a history of cancer), chronic kidney disease (any stage), chronic lung disease, diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2), Down syndrome, heart disease (congestive heart disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension), HIV/AIDS, solid organ transplant, obesity (BMI >30), pregnancy, sickle cell disease.
People who have a developmental or other severe high-risk disability that makes developing severe life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection more likely
Frontline workers with increased occupational risk
Frontline workers with increased occupational risk are people who:
Must be in-person at their place of work, and
Perform a job that puts them at increased risk of exposure due to their frequent, close (less than 6 feet) and ongoing (more than 15 minutes) contact with others in the work environment

Examples of frontline workers include, but are not limited to, school staff and daycare workers, manufacturing workers, grocery store workers, law enforcement officers, etc.

Emphasis added by yours truly.

Sorry - yes, I know DHEC's classifications. It's just CVS says that some states limit whom they can give the shot too and when you go through the CVS site, you get the shortened list I quoted above for South Carolina.

[Smoove_B]

Ah. I guess it's likely CVS corporate then that hasn't localized their settings to address viable selections in your state?

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Could be, but they've added a bunch of the other eligibility reqs that just dropped today. So seems maybe intentionally not listing the frontline worker part?

[LordMortis]

I am qualified to register according to state regulations as of today! Nobody (county or my PCP health care system) who can take my registration is even in the ball park of letting me register. Turns out no CVS in this are doing vaccinations. I'm debating registering at Meijer but I'm not already in their database, so it may still be faster through my health care system (which would be faster than the county), currently

Currently vaccinating eligible patients 65 and older and covering second doses. Working with the Washtenaw County Health Department to vaccinate K-2 teachers in the county. Appointments by invitation only.

Putting me still behind opening to

Essential workers (firefighters, police, correction workers, inspectors)
Child care and pre-K through high school staff
Congregate care facilities (homeless shelter, juvenile justice, child care staff)
Frontline essential workers in the food processing and agricultural industries

Which the state has opened but my health care system has not yet gotten to. (The county is worse)

But the state has at least opened up. That's the first step, for which no others could be taken before hand.

The state is projected open to most of the people I would socialize with on on 22nd, though I'm not sure access will go that quickly. Still better than I would have thought less than a month ago.

People aged 50 and up

[jztemple2]

Essential workers (firefighters, police, correction workers, inspectors)
Child care and pre-K through high school staff
Congregate care facilities (homeless shelter, juvenile justice, child care staff)
Frontline essential workers in the food processing and agricultural industries

Reminds me vaguely of an old Monty Python skit.

[Kraken]

Essential workers (firefighters, police, correction workers, inspectors)
Child care and pre-K through high school staff
Congregate care facilities (homeless shelter, juvenile justice, child care staff)
Frontline essential workers in the food processing and agricultural industries

Reminds me vaguely of an old Monty Python skit.

Or Douglas Adams, except the telephone sanitizers weren't launched first.

[LordMortis]

Funny, it reminds of the ever expanding categories of people in line trying to board an airplane early enough so they can take all the overhead space with their oversized luggage and force the people behind them to check their actual overnight bags or selecting a prize when Steve Martin can't guess my weight.

Still, it's moving forward faster than my February expectation, so it's good that I'm feeling the pain of technically being able to register while not actually being able to register, rather than wondering when the day will come that I won't be able to register even though they say I can register. Now I get to start checking web sites every day (or probably not nearly every day because, lazy, and who knows when they actually update them) to see if local guidance have changed or if I could get a reservation at a cattle call site.

[Daehawk]

My black KN95 masks arrived today. Nice masks.

[hitbyambulance]

just to make things interesting i joined two vaccine 'extra doses' standby notification queues:

https://extravaccinenotifier.com/

https://vaxstandby.hidrb.com/

[stessier]

Could be, but they've added a bunch of the other eligibility reqs that just dropped today. So seems maybe intentionally not listing the frontline worker part?

My coworker called the hotline and reported back -

Vaccine update. I just called the hotline and there was 0 wait. 3rd party pharmacies (CVS etc) do not have to follow all of the SC guidelines, they can add restrictions (like not having manufacturing as an option). The DHEC controlled locations require a VAMs (Vaccine Administration Management) which can be setup with a phone call. You give name and email address, then they send email to verify info with 48hrs and you get an assigned vaccine date and time. It might be at a 3rd party pharmacy but might also be at other locations that only take official VAM appts.

I'm going to give this method a shot and will report back - sounds like I'll get a response in a couple days.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Interesting. I saw something about the VAMs system, but couldn't find out how or where to sign up. I might try that route as well since I haven't had much luck otherwise. Twice yesterday I saw on Findashot that a CVS near me had an opening, but by the time I clicked through CVS' website, all appointments were taken.

[stessier]

Interesting. I saw something about the VAMs system, but couldn't find out how or where to sign up. I might try that route as well since I haven't had much luck otherwise. Twice yesterday I saw on Findashot that a CVS near me had an opening, but by the time I clicked through CVS' website, all appointments were taken.

I just called and setup the VAM - took all of 3 minutes. I guess the real test is what happens once I get the email. The number is 1-866-365-8110. I just said I was eligible for Phase 1B but the pharmacies in my area weren't accepting me and could I setup a VAM account. They asked for my name, email address, age, city, county, and zip code.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Thanks. Might try giving them a call. I suppose there's no harm in trying both that and the normal, scour-the-internet-for-vaccine-appointments, right?

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Lots of DHEC sites seem to have appointments available for this week. Unfortunately, the closest one to me is about 2.5 hours away (Myrtle Beach). Hopefully something closer pops up soon.

[Z-Corn]

MI just opened up for people 50+ who know how to navigate bureaucracies so I have first shots scheduled for my Wife and I Tuesday and second shots for the 30th.

Just back from getting the first shot and it could not have gone more smoovely. 45 minutes in and out, including the 15 minute observation wait and navigating the parking ramp.

This was done at the DeVos Place Conference Center. Yes, Betsy's father-in-law put up $25 million to help build the place.

It was staffed by very friendly and professional volunteers and shots were administered by National Guardsmen. Our guy said he had done over 2,000 immunizations since December. The plan was for them to be deployed in this capacity until June but he figured they'd be there until at least August.

A very positive experience overall and there was an excitement in the air. Everybody was very happy to be getting their shots and to be helping people get their shots.

[Pyperkub]

Starting to get more data on long-term impacts of infection, even asymptomatic:

Many people who experience long-term symptoms from the coronavirus did not feel sick at all when they were initially infected, according to a new study that adds compelling information to the increasingly important issue of the lasting health impact of Covid-19.

The study, one of the first to focus exclusively on people who never needed to be hospitalized when they were infected, analyzed electronic medical records of 1,407 people in California who tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 60 days after their infection, 27 percent, or 382 people, were struggling with post-Covid symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pain, cough or abdominal pain.

Nearly a third of the patients with such long-term problems had not had any symptoms from their initial coronavirus infection through the 10 days after they tested positive, the researchers found.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Was able to schedule an appointment through DHEC at the site closest to me for March 20. Just happened to be on the site when the spot opened up (and was only one spot available). I’ll keep looking to see if I can find something sooner, but nice to have that on the schedule.

[LawBeefaroni]

Had a meeting on the same floor as the vaccine clinic this morning. After the meeting, I took a walk over to see how it was going (we're doing about 2,500/week at that location).

Decent crowd for 8am but no long lines. Mostly people waiting their 15 mins of observation after the shot.

There was a guy in a MAGA 45 hat huffing around daring anyone to say anything to him and no one did. He looked at me and I just gave him a friendly nod. He seemed confused that no one wanted to engage.

[El Guapo]

Still better than the NJ vaccination delivery system.

[LordMortis]

After signing up to get notices for when to sign up with my health care system, I have received a notice! As of today I am eligible through my Health Care System but only by invitation.

Currently scheduling first doses and completing scheduled second doses. Currently vaccinating eligible active patients 65+ and those 50+ with underlying medical conditions or disabilities. Appointments by invitation only.

Every step is one step closer.

[Jaymann]

I got my first Pfizer shot today (they originally said Moderna but they ran out). As I suspected it was pretty well organized by now, using a cafeteria sized room in the hospital.

[hitbyambulance]

Novavax NVX‑CoV2373 vaccine candidate PR:

Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced final efficacy of 96.4% against mild, moderate and severe disease caused by the original COVID-19 strain in a pivotal Phase 3 trial in the United Kingdom (U.K.) of NVX‑CoV2373, the company’s vaccine candidate. The company also announced the complete analysis of its Phase 2b trial taking place in South Africa, with efficacy of 55.4% among the HIV- negative trial participants in a region where the vast majority of strains are B1.351 escape variants. Across both trials, NVX-CoV2373 demonstrated 100% protection against severe disease, including all hospitalization and death. Both studies achieved their statistical success criteria. Today’s final analyses build on the successful interim results announced in January 2021, adding substantially more COVID-19 cases and statistical power.

96.4% - of course they wanted to best Pfizer's results, lol

https://ir.novavax.com/news-releases/ne ... 40129199=1

[Daehawk]

Must be a ton of HIV there to have to post you tested on non HIV persons.

[hitbyambulance]

oh and Novavax may well be applying for EUA at the end of March.

[Zaxxon]

May 1st is the date for open season on vaccine eligibility, apparently.

[Smoove_B]

https://twitter.com/DrAliSKhan/status/1 ... 3615834112

Good #COVID news. Tomorrow will reach 100 millionth vaccine delivered. Vaccinating 2.23M per day on target to 3M+ by the end of the month. Cases continuing to decline in the the US to 175 cases per million [still 1500 deaths daily] towards target of 50.

[Defiant]

You would think that the target would be 0 cases per million, no?

[Smoove_B]

Not realistic during a pandemic. There are places around the world where a single vaccine hasn't been offered. We need to get it down to manageable levels here first; complete eradication might not be a viable option ever.

[Zaxxon]

Not realistic during a pandemic. There are places around the world where a single vaccine hasn't been offered. We need to get it down to manageable levels here first; complete eradication might not be a viable option ever.

At minimum, many years is what I've been reading.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, could be. It's one for the academics and scientists to debate, imho. We'll know when we know.

Speaking of helping to make information easier to understand, I'm amazed at the ability some people have to creatively communicate.

https://twitter.com/Karnythia/status/13 ... 0566152195

Tiktok is undefeated in easily digestible educational content

[Jaymann]

Tiktok is undefeated in easily digestible educational content

Perhaps, but that made no fucking sense.

[Defiant]

I prefer the XKCD death star plan explanation.

[Max Peck]

If I was a betting man, my money would be on recurring winter surges, if for no other reason that too many people refuse to do the right thing to ever effectively suppress the virus.

COVID herd immunity may be unlikely—winter surges could “become the norm”

Some experts speculate that the pandemic coronavirus will one day cause nothing more than a common cold, mostly in children, where it will be an indistinguishable drip in the steady stream of snotty kid germs. Such is the reality for four other coronaviruses that have long stalked school yards and commonly circulate among us every cold and flu season, to little noticeable effect.

But that sanguine—if not slightly slimier—future is shaky. And the road to get there will almost certainly be rocky. For the pandemic coronavirus to turn from terror to trifle, we have to build up high levels of immunity against it. At the population level, this will be difficult—even with vaccines. And with the uncertainty of how we’ll pull it off, some experts are cautioning that we should prepare for the possibility that the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, will stick with us for the near future, possibly becoming a seasonal surge during the winter months when we’re largely indoors.

“The prospect of persistent and seasonal COVID-19 is real,” write public health expert Christopher Murray of the University of Washington and infectious disease expert Peter Piot of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In a recent commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the two warn that if that happens, it “could require both health system change and profound cultural adjustment for the life of high-risk individuals in the winter months. There is an urgent need to prepare for such a scenario.”