News & Experiences continued

[Dobre]

Here in my German state 40 % of *********-19 deaths over this winter were nursing home residents

We were told by our local health department that every single nursing home and assisted living facility in our county had CV deaths. They listed the facilities and how many CV deaths occurred at each one. One of them had over 100 deaths. We've had a total of 171 CV deaths in our county so clearly most of the deaths were from these facilities, and over half from one facility alone. Huge fail.

Yeah, a substantial number then. And, of course, nursing home residents would be likely to have health issues that still make them more susceptible than the population at large. Also I believe younger populations make up a much higher rate of hospitalizations than deaths. But as nursing home residents were/are among the first people vaccinated, we could see a notable drop in deaths based on the vaccinations to that specific population alone. Even with potentially 90+% of the population left to be fully vaccinated. I feel like every week helps with relation to that most susceptible nursing home population.

 

[Susan1]

Researchers urge delaying Pfizer vaccine's second dose as first highly effective

The vaccine had an efficacy of 92.6% after the first dose, Danuta Skowronski and Gaston De Serres said, based on an analysis of the documents submitted by the drugmaker to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These findings were similar to the first-dose efficacy of 92.1% reported for...

news.yahoo.com

 

[beepbeep]

This is already happening to an extent. I can't remember the name of the place, it's late here, but there's a city/region in I think Brazil? where there has been a huge second wave thanks to the Brazil variant spreading through a population that had already had high numbers of wildtype cases. Currently the South Africa variant is the one known to have some degree of immune escape from the vaccines. The UK variant/b117 doesn't have any significant degree of immune escape as far as I know, and I haven't heard about the Brazil variant.

The herd immunity claim in Manaus was likely over stated, so I hear. I am choosing to believe that to avoid severe depression.

The main mistake of the “herd immunity” claim is saying it can be reached by the way of people just catching the disease.
Herd immunity only exists in a vaccination scenario.

Manaus is a series of grave failures, mainly by the authorities. Lockdown measures were never an option when the experts sounded the alarms and doing it after the whole thing exploded is moot. It also doesn’t help that nothing is enforced and people just don’t give a sh!t.
Given we hardly test cases before they get to hospital and the amount of genetic testing done is a joke, we simply cannot grasp the how the Manaus variant is influencing things. I’m surprised it was discovered at all!

The main concern in Brazil is that pandem1c seems to be doing the same path it did on the first wave: North, Northeast (sh!t is hitting the fan as we speak), Center, Southeast, South. It should fully hit the South along with the seasonal winter diseases.
We know how things are going to happen, it’s going to be much worse this time around and nothing is being done.
We have the know how on mass vaccinations, but our government simply doesn’t buy enough shots to avoid the disaster. Instead, they keep trying to find a “preventative treatment” to harp.

I’m as a doomsday kind of person as it gets when it comes to this. How can one not worry and take the threat of variants seriously when you’ve been having over 1000 deaths a day for months?
Data scientists are the ones rubbing it like it is to our faces and, even if they are not epidemiologists, we should all pay attention to what they are stating and learn a bit more. I, for one, really appreciate @FGRSK8 ’s points and concerns.

See the world for what it is, not how you think it should be.

 

[Sarah]

After getting my mom scheduled yesterday, I thought I'd take a few days off before trying to schedule myself. I'm a different category depending on the state I'm in. Turns out, in PA, I'm actually considered 1A due to immunocompromised state thanks to long-term corticosteroid use for asthma. While asthma isn't considered comorbidity for purposes for the vaccine, PA lists "Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from...use of corticosteroids, or use of other immune weakening medicines" and my doctors told me that I should have tried to sign up weeks ago... Oops.

Anyway, I decided to go on Rite Aid and see how dire the situation was. The plan was to wait until next week to start the midnight hunting. I went through the pre-qualification stuff and then decided I'd do one or 2 searches. One my very first search (10 locations), I found an appointment and was able to complete the entire form. I was VERY slow typing too being that I was convinced that it wouldn't go through (someone else would have already claimed it). It went through. I have the confirmation. I got someone's cancellation. Next Friday afternoon.

PA is having a lot of supply issues so there is a good chance it'll be cancelled. That's OK. If it's cancelled, Rite Aid reschedules. I'm 100% fine with that. I'm just shocked that I got an appointment on my first try?

 

[kwanfan1818]

According to this article, there's now evidence that recombination has happened:

Exclusive: Two variants have merged into heavily mutated coronavirus

The UK and California variants of ******** appear to have combined into a heavily mutated hybrid, sparking concern that we may be entering a new phase of the *********-19 *********

tinyurl.com

The hybrid ***** is the result of recombination of the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant discovered in the UK and the B.1.429 variant that originated in California and which may be responsible for a recent wave of cases in Los Angeles because it carries a mutation making it resistant to some antibodies.

 

[once_upon]

We are still at the over 70 age group and they add teachers to the priority vaccinations cycle, so I expect it to be mid March before over 65 get their turn in line.

I agree teachers should be priority. Im just jealous that you all are having the opportunity

 

[MsZem]

Some good vaccine-related news:

No side effects seen in dozens of Israeli kids vaccinated due to risk factors

Health Ministry allows inoculation of youngsters with specific conditions as well as child of a severely immunocompromised parent, despite lack of firm clinical data

www.timesofisrael.com

Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal posted a preprint of Pfizer/Israeli Ministry of Health findings. Following second dose:

Almost 90% drop in infection
94% effective against symptomatic disease
94% against severe and critical hospitalization
93% against death

 

[Dobre]

The usual caveat about possible winter weather testing suppression . . .

Tennessee, Connecticut, & Texas moved down from red to orange on the NPR map today.

Oregon moved down from orange to yellow today.

The only state from yesterday to fluctuate back into red today is New Hampshire. (Seems like a good sign for Arizona & Arkansas, which I thought were a surprise yesterday).

Utah, Oklahoma, & Kentucky dropped down into the 25-29 cases per 100K range today, still in red but close to orange.

Maine is very close to yellow today, with 10 cases per 100K.

 

[MacMadame]

California's cases have dropped down to Fall levels. Deaths and hospitalizations seem to be following.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

We are still at the over 70 age group and they add teachers to the priority vaccinations cycle, so I expect it to be mid March before over 65 get their turn in line.

I agree teachers should be priority. Im just jealous that you all are having the opportunity

Not everywhere. In Connecticut they keep pushing us back. I don’t mind being behind older people, but I wish they’d be transparent instead of saying we’re about to get it and then changing their minds all the time.

 

[Susan1]

Ohio 2/18/21

Another day of the same comments, same complaints. One hour once a week would be sufficient. People could look at old updates on the website and old updates in their own papers and websites to answer their stupid, repetitive, redundant questions. There's hardly anything on his twitter today even.

Weather delays. Check with your provider before going to your vaccination appointment.

The one thing I want everybody to see is - this time last year, we had 5,500 FLU hospitalizations. So far this year, <100!!!! Masks, social distancing, duh. (I think we should all wear masks next winter.)

When asked about deaths - flu vs. c.v., how do you know? Dr. Vanderhoff (he seems to be going over better than Dr. Amy Acton. I wonder why. Not.) said they go by death certificates and infection reporting, just like they would with the flu. Then reconciliation, which is where they had the problem recently. Later someone said so many of the symptoms were the same as the flu. How do they know which it is. (AFTER A YEAR OF THIS?????? Please. I wrote down "testing". And then Dr. Vanderhoff said testing. Way back in the beginning of the drive up tests at UD Arena, they tested for flu first and if you did not have that, they sent you to the c.v. test line.)

Dr. Vanderhoff went over the conditions that are eligible again. And a reporter later said he had questions from a 48 year old with cerebral palsy and two women in their 30s with cystic fibrosis who had appointments that were cancelled because they weren't 65. The reporter wanted to know what to tell them. I didn't catch his city. If he can be there asking that question, he knows he could do a good thing and contact the provider and tell them to look at the criteria. Or their doctors? No, make the Governor do it? DeWine said all providers had the guidelines and that shouldn't happen. And to contact him afterwards with the provider information. Go get 'em.

Director of Agency on Aging said they are now in a maintenance program for nursing homes and assisted living. Had a webinar this morning with over 1,000 people, had to use some overflow area.

New patients or staff, and anyone who did not want the vaccine the first, second and third times they were there, or who were not at work that day will be offered the vaccine. Again she said the nursing home works with their usual medication provider now. Later, a reporter asked what the obstacles were to not getting everyone in nursing homes vaccinated yet, in an accusing voice like it was her fault. How do these people not yell at these reporters? #1 - people didn't want it when they could get it - three damn times. #2 - they weren't there. Geez. The Director said there were missed opportunities. Some idiot will write that they missed the opportunity to give the shots, not that it was the people getting the shots who caused their own missed opportunity.

Next week they will give more information on nursing home visitations. I forgot to ask my cousin when they put her mom in Hospice for respite care for five days because she has been too hard to manage what there policy was, so I looked. Employees were in the health care people to be vaccinated. Masks. 5 visitors per day, 2 at a time in the room. No one under 14. Screening questions. They've been having the home Hospice people in, wearing masks and sanitizing, even when Tim, Tina and my aunt all had c.v.

A reporter said the Trinity independent living community (out by our mall) had not been contacted. They tried to call the county and the state and kept getting told to call the other. The director of Aging said she would get the number for the Regional Rapid Response team for him. That would be a good thing to publish, I think. Even if she would have told him the number then, only reporters would be able to tell people. Maybe the Dayton Daily News or our local stations can get it.

Cases - 2,200 (down); Hospitalizations - 173; ICU - 28; Deaths - 98, I don’t know if they are still catching up on deaths. 1,516 in hospital with c.v. currently, small decrease every day. Vinton county (smallest rural county) has dropped off the High Incidence color coding - at 98.4. The top three are now 4X high incidence, compared to 11X for awhile.

Then -
Dr. Vanderhoff: "It's very important that we don't declare victory too quickly. Vaccines are working very well, but our national vaccination effort needs more time. We have to keep up our work of preventing spread through masking and distancing. Even in the face of new, more infectious variants, we have the weapons we need to improve our lives as we head into the spring. Masking and distancing work. They'll be the key to living our lives normally."

DeWine talked about the things people want to do in the spring. I wrote down the usual "masks work". And then he said "power of the mask". Sneaky.

Q&A - the Franklin county vaccination website crashes when they add a new provider. He didn't comment on that. He said we get ~200K doses per week and 55K of those have been going to schools. By March 1, they will be done with that and the 55K will go back to the 65+. Plus there will be more supply coming.

Only 12% of schools are fully remote today. Even before all the whining about not wanting to be back in class without the second dose. Youngstown has vaccinated 1100 of their 1300 employees, but will miss the March 1 deadline for reopening. They will still get the second dose, but they should all try to be back in class as soon as possible.

Homeless/shelters? Group is discussing. Part of the problem is having to find transient people for the second dose.

Veterans Homes waiting list - will gradually open again "very, very soon".

Did the restrictions work? He went through the whole explanation again. My answer - Duh, stop asking.

And there were several questions on SB22 again. He's just going to veto it. They are trying to find a way to override his veto. He said they need to work together. Went through the dates of restrictions and how the numbers went down each time. Health orders were based on the best medical advice he could get.

Same questions about the variants, contagiousness. J&J tests were in South Africa and South America and they had 100% protection against hospitalization and death.

Ohio was mentioned in the CDC Mortality and Morbidity report for our strong mask mandate and mitigation efforts.

Second dose? Dr. Vanderhoff - The first vaccine dose creates significant antibodies. The second dose "triggers adaptive immune system" and "allows staying power of immunity to deal with variants".

How tracking and where? Dr. Vanderhoff - a national effort on genetic surveillance. January 15, CDC ramped up the program, Ohio is included. They were identified in different labs in the state. The UK (B117) will likely be dominant in late March, early April. Mutations don't affect the spread though, so masking and social distancing need to continue. It's "going to take a period o time" (o.k.?) to get everyone vaccinated.

 

[Dobre]

I think teachers are currently eligible for vaccination in about half of states (technically 28, but 7 of those are limited to certain counties). There is a list of different states & some of their priorities on this page here if you scroll down to just past the purple map:

See How the Vaccine Rollout Is Going in Your State

See where doses have gone, and who is eligible for a shot in each state.

tinyurl.com

It's a pretty mixed bag. I also think it depends on states' specific scenarios. Essential workers were prioritized over seniors in the CDC recommendations that came out originally (still under Trump). But a lot of states decided to have seniors go first. And some decided to have teachers go early but not all essential workers. Some states had overwhelmed hospitals and decided to prioritize seniors in the hope of easing hospital numbers. The latter has changed now, and that may be one of the reasons the administration is talking about vaccinating teachers now. There are only three full months left of the school year, maybe 4, so if vaccinations are going to help schools reopen before the end of the year, now is the time.

I'm still of the philosophy that all these priority groups are good. I mostly wish my parents were vaccinated, but I totally appreciate that we are trying to resolve a health care crisis that is much bigger than all of us as individuals.

(I still think second doses should be delivered ASAP. I don't see the point of doing a half--- job and having no one actually feel safe. If we're going to do this, let's do it well, IMO).

 

[SkateSand]

Well, the only after effect I had from the vaccine yesterday was a sore arm. I had the beginnings of a headache in the evening so I immediately took an Advil and it was gone before it even really started. My arm isn't too sore today - doesn't hurt at all unless I try and raise it over shoulder height. My husband, on the other other hand, had a headache, chills, and extreme fatigue from his first shot. I wonder if it means anything at all whether you have a strong reaction or a very mild one.

 

[Dobre]

A baby boy died of the ***** today in Umatilla County.


Oregon had 466 new cases.

And 22,000+ vaccinations.

(We've had two days of sunshine which melted my street pretty well, along with the path from my garage to the street. It's now snowing).

 

[Susan1]

I looked at the Ass's FB page since he's not asking obnoxious questions at the briefing since he got humiliated. One person said it wasn't fair that they couldn't visit someone in a nursing home. And that DeWine had too much power. It's not up to DeWine. There are Health Department guidelines and the individual nursing home, based on cases, makes their own rules. And people were going on and on about how their loved one got it from the staff bringing it in because they went out to a restaurant or something, which is what all these people want to do. People are stupid.

 

[once_upon]

We are still at the over 70 age group and they add teachers to the priority vaccinations cycle, so I expect it to be mid March before over 65 get their turn in line.

I agree teachers should be priority. Im just jealous that you all are having the opportunity

Last evening we were watching our "2nd choice in news channel" as our 1st choice plays Jeopardy during the 6 pm hour. When reporting on local vaccine numbers, they made a reference that over 65 were eligible to make appointments starting at midnight. It was not mentioned on the other local channels-just that setting up appointments would be available in Friday.

I got an email around 9:30 pm with the link, we noted that it was the link from the last week for over 70. Because I had heard the frustration people had last week, I opened the site at 11:40 pm figuring I would have to refresh constantly until the site would let me in. To my great surprise I got in, and had my pick of times. Total time to get in, get my husband in and get appointments for us - about 3 minutes. I honestly thought I'd be trying all night, given my brother's experience in Iowa.

Hopefully some teachers were also able to get appointments.

 

[Dobre]

The usual caveat about winter weather possibly suppressing testing . . .


Mississippi moved down from red to orange today on the NPR map.

States currently yellow with 1-9 cases per 100K: Hawaii, Oregon

States currently orange with 10-24 cases per 100K: Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, California, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, West Virginia, Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas

States still in red but close to orange with 25-29 cases per 100K: Massachusetts, Kentucky, Utah, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Delaware, Virginia, Georgia, Florida


5 states with the highest average number of cases right now: South Carolina (52 per 100K), New York (40 per 100K), New Jersey, Rhode Island, North Carolina (these final 3 are currently in the 30s per 100K).

Puerto Rico is currently yellow. D.C. is currently orange.

Hawaii is currently down to 3 cases per 100K.

North Dakota still doing well, but its average has been up all week. Last week it was averaging about 55 total cases a day. Currently averaging 97.

Missouri is very close to yellow today at 10 per 100K.

 

[Dobre]

I have an appointment for my second shot next week. The clinic has been moved from the parking lot where it was held last month to the fairgrounds. I'm taking this as a sign that the county is vaccinating more people now, which would make sense as vaccinations went way up in January so there should be a lot more people needing second doses now than back then + the amount of vaccine being shipped to states has gone up as well.

 

[Buzz]

Toronto’s stay at home order to last until March 8th.

Stay-at-home order remains in effect for Toronto and Peel but restaurants, gyms will reopen in York Region

Toronto and Peel Region will remain under a stay-at-home order for at least another two weeks but some restrictions will be eased in York Region next week as it enters the red zone of the province’s reopening framework, the province announced Friday.

www.cp24.com

 

[skategal]

Toronto’s stay at home order to last until March 8th.

Stay-at-home order remains in effect for Toronto and Peel but restaurants, gyms will reopen in York Region

Toronto and Peel Region will remain under a stay-at-home order for at least another two weeks but some restrictions will be eased in York Region next week as it enters the red zone of the province’s reopening framework, the province announced Friday.

www.cp24.com

The press conference the Toronto MOH (I forget her name) gave a few days ago was absolutely bone-chilling.

Glad the message got through to extend the lockdown.

 

[SkateSand]

We seem to have quite a bit more of the vaccine here locally. Yesterday afternoon, the public health website posted they still had over 160 available appointments for the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine for Friday. A local college also has a first come, first serve vaccination clinic all day on Saturday for the second dose of the Moderna vaccine.

We've had three days in a row of no CV deaths in our county. Supposedly, we might be moved to a less restrictive tier by the beginning of March.

In other news, all three of the local rodeo associations have announced they will be holding their annual rodeos this spring. You may recall last year that despite being on strict stay at home state mandate, one of the rodeo associations still held their rodeo, which, of course, made the national news.

 

[Dobre]

Oregon had 25,000+ vaccinations today and 492 new cases. 1/8 of the people in the state have now had their first dose.

Bend School District, which is the 5th largest district in the state, has returned to open buildings full time this month. They are doing a hybrid system at the high school. I'm not sure if elementary & middle schools are also hybrid. (Teachers & staff there got their 2nd vaccination doses last Friday). Portland is scheduled to restart very limited instruction on Monday.

Seniors 70+ can begin vaccinations on Monday. (This week is for 75+).

 

[Dobre]

Notes from today's White House ********* Press Briefing:

Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials | The White House

Via Teleconference 11:48 A.M. EST ACTING ADMINISTRATOR SLAVITT: Good morning. Thank you for joining our *********-19 Response briefing. First, I want to start by saying that our hearts go out to the people in Texas, Louisiana, and across the country who have been impacted by the severe weather...

tinyurl.com

A few key things:

1. Due to weather & power outages, companies have been waiting to ship some vaccine until vaccination sites could get the power back on & safely receive & store vaccine. That backlog is being sent out now--some today, some Saturday, and the rest Mon-Wed. Vaccination centers have been asked to extend hours in order to help prepare for the "extra" potential vaccinations this coming week.


2. "Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ll be opening five additional vaccination centers: one in Pennsylvania and four in Florida. In Florida, we will stand up four major new community vaccination centers, in partnerships with the state, in Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa. These sites will have the capacity to vaccinate a total of 12,000 individuals per day in total.

In Pennsylvania, we’re announcing a major new community vaccination center at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. This site will have the capacity to deliver 6,000 doses per day.

Selection of all of these sites is based on a CDC-FEMA framework that has been developed to target vaccinations to those who are most vulnerable. The goal is to launch vaccination sites that use processes and are in locations that promote equity and deploy the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index."

(Well, there you go, Florida. There's a neat & generous little end-run around DeSantis & his alleged favoritism).


3. On the subject of when vaccines trials are anticipated to be completed for children:

"So, the bottom line of all of this is as follows: It is highly likely that sometime in the fall, we will have data that will give us the capability of saying the safety and comparable efficacy in children 12 to 17, 18 years old. Again, the final decisions we always leave to the FDA. I’m trying to give you a roadmap of what likely will happen. But then also, with the studies that I just mentioned, to getting the information to make the decision in elementary school children almost certainly will not be firmed down until the first quarter of 2022."


4. In response to a question about the new Israeli study that says 1st doses of Pfizer are almost as effective as 2 doses: Fauci says the level of neutralizing antibodies is 10 times higher with a second dose and we don't have evidence of equal durability over time with only one so, at least for now, we are sticking with 2 doses. He also says there may be more risk of variants developing or something like that with only one dose. (I'm not sure I understood that last part about the variants correctly).

 

[MsZem]

Another day, another promising update on vaccine effectiveness:

Coronavirus vaccine 99% effective in preventing serious disease, death

The data clearly shows a significant decrease in cases among the population over 60 as a higher rate of them became fully vaccinated.

bit.ly

 

[missing]

There may be a correlation between lower temperatures and higher amounts of transmission.

The researchers compared daily low temperature data and logged cases of *********-19 in 50 countries in the Northern Hemisphere between Jan. 22 and April 6, 2020. Their research, published this week in PLOS ONE, showed that as temperatures rose, the rate of new cases of *********-19 decreased.

The data analysis showed that between 30 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a 1-degree Fahrenheit increase in daily low temperature was associated with a 1% decrease in the rate of increase in *********-19 cases, and a 1-degree decrease in temperature was associated with an increase in that rate by 3.7%. By analyzing data from early in the *********, the results were obtained without significant influence by lockdowns, masking or other social efforts to contain the *****.

 

[Orm Irian]

Oh dear, starting to see some worrying reports of R numbers rising above 1 again during the past ten days in Eastern/Central Europe. The numbers I've seen reported are: Poland 1.15; Hungary 1.14; Austria 1.1 (probably driven by the variant outbreaks in Tyrol); Czechia 1.1; Ukraine 1.09; Bulgaria 1.08; Bosnia-Herzegovina 1.06; Romania 1.01.

Along with the case number increases in The Netherlands, Sweden acting in anticipation of a third wave (took them long enough), Switzerland planning to start opening up from March 1 with some cantonal R numbers not low enough to suppress b117 (looking at you, Geneva)...I hope they can get on top of this before a full-on third wave starts up.

 

[SkateSand]

My husband had his second Moderna vaccine shot today. He's already scheduled a substitute teaching job for March 8th. At least I won't worry about him going back into the classroom.

 

[Dobre]

Iowa changed the way they count positive cases today. (As far as I can tell, they are counting all tests now instead of all individuals, in order to improve the positivity rate. This is fairly common, but you can count all your tests separately without it skyrocketing your new-case count so I'm not sure why this change made their new cases suddenly go sky high today).

Oregon had 500+ cases today. Basically the same as last Saturday. (Saturday numbers generally seem to be the highest for us now, then drop on Sunday/Monday and then slowly climb again through Saturday). Another 25,000 vaccinations were counted.

I went to the grocery store today. The lady who helped me carry out my groceries told me this story about how she asked someone in another city to please step 6 feet back. I think she was trying to make me feel more comfortable & let me know she was taking safety seriously. I would have felt more comfortable if she had been wearing her mask over her nose .

 

[Dobre]

Utah moved down from red to orange today on the NPR map.

North Carolina is still red, but close to orange today with between 25-29 cases per 100K.

 

[missing]

Nearsighted, never mastered contact lens, me loves this article.

People who wear glasses could be up to three times less likely to be infected by ********, a study from India has suggested.
One way the ***** can enter the body is by people touching their eyes, nose or mouth after coming into contact with it.

However, researchers in India say people who wear glasses rub their eyes less and are therefore at less risk of contracting *********-19.