News & Experiences continued

[acraven]

There's a mathematical anomaly on the CDC's vaccination-tracking website today. On Saturday the number of doses to date was shown as 79,128,495. Today the figure has dropped to 75,204,965. I've checked a few websites without finding an explanation. No doubt there are other possibilities, but these are the two I thought of:

- Saturday's figure included a lot of the doses that got hung up due to weather delays because they expected to get them delivered on Saturday (or Friday). But many of the delayed doses are still hung up somewhere, so they recast the final delivery figure reported this week align with reality. If this is the explanation--and I think it's something like that, there will be quite an upward bounce next week.

- The CDC realized it had been double-counting some doses, perhaps reporting military doses as delivered both to the military and to the individual states where the bases are located. If this is the explanation, we have about 4 million fewer doses of vaccine available at the moment than we thought, but on the other hand, the country has been doing a more efficient job of administering vaccinations than it looked like before (using a higher than reported percentage of the available doses).

 

[Dobre]

If we ignore Iowa (where the new tracking system appears to have royally mucked up the state's data) the entire western half of the U.S. is out of the "red zone" on the NPR map today. Actually, every state west of Kentucky.

 

[Susan1]

DeWine, Dayton city leaders attend COVID-19 vaccine event at Thurgood Marshall Sunday

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine visited a vaccine clinic at Thurgood Marshall High School Sunday.

tinyurl.com

Jefferson Twp. Schools announce no in-person learning for remainder of year

Jefferson Township Schools confirmed Friday that the remainder of the school year there will be no in-person learning.

www.whio.com

 

[once_upon]

I found an article that said 4,800 people on Saturday were vaccinated at the site where we were vaccinated. That as more vaccines are available, they expect to expand that site.

 

[acraven]

Some preliminary information out of Scotland suggests a single dose of vaccine initially reduces the hospitalization rate sharply but the protection from the first dose of the Pfizer (more data available) and AstraZeneca (less data available) vaccines peaks at 4 weeks after vaccination and then begins to wane. The article gives no data on how rapidly the protection drops as the time between doses is extended.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/early-data-offers-hope-on-astrazeneca-s-*********-19-vaccine/ar-BB1dUfim?ocid=msedgntp

 

[sk8pics]

I dreamed last night that I got vaccinated. I was very disappointed to wake up and realize it was all a dream.

 

[Dobre]

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

(Yay, @clairecloutier! You see, it really does look like you were just behind the curve).

Also, while things have definitely been a huge mess in Texas, numbers are still dropping there and we are now into a new week. Ditto for Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Arizona. (All states where case numbers were previously very high).

Michigan is now very close to yellow with 10 cases per 100K today.


Note: Oregon's new case numbers from yesterday were reportedly incomplete due to a server error. Today's numbers are expected to go up, though I wouldn't be surprised if the delayed count gets pushed into tomorrow as some counties don't report on Sundays.

 

[Dobre]

Over 200 million vaccination shots have now been given worldwide.

 

[acraven]

Edited to correct the June date originally provided. See also new information in bold.

England has laid out a series of "not-before" dates for loosening of *********-related restrictions. At the end of the article the underlying assumptions are given. The other components of the UK may end up with different paths forward.

The reference to "international travel" is open to interpretation. I assume it refers to outbound travel by residents of England.

https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-52530518

These are some reopening dates of possible interest to potential visitors:

• Outdoor dining not before April 12.
• Indoor dining (apparently, because not specifically mentioned) not before June 21 [date corrected].
• All shops not before April 12.
• Self-contained accommodations open for UK resident “staycations” (no mixing of households) not before April 12.
• Hotels, B&B, etc. (no mixing of households) not before May 17.
• All lodgings without restriction not before June 12.
• Museums not before May 17.
• Theatres not before May 17, at half capacity. (Full capacity not before June 21 [date corrected].)
• International travel not before May 17. (There's no indication this applies to incoming foreign visitors; edit: this has been confirmed by a Brit; this is just for English folks traveling outside the country.)

Given that the UK is well ahead of the rest of European in administering vaccinations, I think the above dates may represent the earliest dates popular tourist activities will be available in many European countries--at least the ones that are not extremely desperate for tourist dollars. I don't think the dates say anything about when foreign visitors will be admitted to England.

 

[Susan1]

Ohio 2/22/21

It's a good thing I watched the noon news. Update today and Thursday instead of tomorrow.

"Update on Weather-Related Vaccine Delivery Delays: Some Pfizer shipments were delivered last week despite the bad weather, but all Moderna shipments were delayed. Some providers used second doses that they had received already so they didn’t have to cancel clinics that they had scheduled. Those second doses will be backfilled with the shipments they receive this week. Additional delayed shipments of Pfizer and Moderna will arrive between today and Wed. For providers who canceled appointments, we have urged them to expand their appointment schedules - including evening/weekend hours - to catch up & continue to get more vaccines out to Ohioans."

This was mostly about nursing home visitations.

"We're seeing positivity rates decrease. Soon, more nursing homes may be able to allow more visitation. I'm sending a letter to each facility to remind them to:
*Check county positivity rate every week to determine their visitation status
*Allow for compassionate care visits

Ohio’s facilities are required to report in weekly and update our visitation dashboard to indicate if visitation is allowed at their facility. Families can access the visitation dashboard here: http://bit.ly/2ZGz3Xm "

He said - the CMS guidelines override any state guidelines. (SO STOP BLAMING HIM FOR EVERYTHING.) There were 343 new cases in nursing homes (including assisted living, etc.) last week, compared to the high of 2K+ in December. And he gave some examples of compassionate care visits - not just end of life, but decline (which I bet they all are), failure to thrive, grief over a loss, etc. (They aren't putting as much in his twitter feed for me to copy and stuff is too hard to find on the c.v. website.) If you have been denied compassionate care visits, contact the Ombudsman. (So now everybody will come up with an excuse to visit. Maybe the nursing homes are denying visits to keep obnoxious or obstinate or anti-maskers out. )

Cases - 1,611; hospitalizations - 120; ICU - 16; Deaths - 120. 2 counties (rural) are now off the high incidence level. There are only 6 counties above 3X. Currently in hospital - 1,374.

The main page of the Vaccination chart on the website - 60% of the 80+ have received at least their first vaccination; 49.91% of 75-79; 37.29% of 70-74; 23.43% of 65-69 year olds. Still trouble with the registration. Total all ages - 1,451,107 (that would be including the school personnel and health care workers groups, and developmentally disabled and ongoing childhood conditions groups, like cystic fibrosis).

"Age is the top indicator of the likelihood of death from c.v. 87% of all deaths in Ohio are of those ages 65 and older. As we move forward in our vaccination plan, we will hold at age 65+ until we have satisfied the vaccine demand in this age group. As we move forward, we will open up vaccinations to age 60+, then 55+, then 50+. Those 50+ make up 97-98% of all c.v. deaths in Ohio. In addition, we are also looking at certain small groups that, because of exposure, may potentially be added in with the 60+ group."

"We're asking hospitals/doctors with access to the vaccine to proactively reach out to their patients whom they know have these medical conditions so that these vulnerable Ohioans can get their vaccines ASAP. Vaccine eligibility opened up to this group last week."

There's still a problem with people with the ongoing conditions getting turned away because they are not yet 65. He is asking providers (who are not watching the briefing) to stop doing that.

Talked about the audit on the death reporting. Read something I couldn't copy down. It’s not on his twitter. A report will be out next month.

Husted - "2021 is a year of recovery". Mentioned that parts of Ohio were lauded in a WSJ article. And Rocket Mortgage is almost doubling their staff in Cleveland. We beat out Detroit and Phoenix for the job expansion.

Q&A -
When are you going to open it up to (pick one)? How long will it take to get through the 65+ year olds. Why can't _____? (Bitch and moan and whine about every decision and Order he comes up with, then ask him to tell you what his next decision will be and when. I don't even write them down anymore. One woman about weddings said "give us your guidance right now". He's not the c.v. whisperer.) Nobody knows. He said he doesn't have a crystal ball. Not going to speculate. He goes by what the medical experts say. Masks. Masks. Masks. Dr. Vanderhoff said what we want to be able to do depends on us being responsible and continuing precautions. (Just like last year.)

Sports? 30% capacity to start. Don't know about the variant that is more contagious and could become dominant in March.

Some jerk asked if he thought there would be 500,000 deaths by now and would he have done anything differently. No. Has good friends that are gone. Masks sooner. (But people wouldn't listen then. They still think he's on a power trip.) Masks and the vaccine will help us do more of the things we should not have done last summer.

When are you going to have mass vaccination sites? Who's going to staff them? We already do. The first thin he said today was that 1,592 people were vaccinated at a school in Dayton yesterday. (Weren't you paying attention. Didn't have to write this down - over 700 sites, with over 2200 signed up. National Guard already.) The locations were picked for convenience and to get to as many people as possible, so they wouldn't have to all go to mass vaccination sites. We have the locations and the staff. WE NEED MORE VACCINE. They've been to senior housing. Over 200K school personnel have been vaccinated.

Cleveland schools are going to get some back March 1, then more in layers each week. He said they need to try to get as many back in school as possible. (Nobody from here asked what he thought about Jefferson Township schools not going back.)

Yes, again, when the schools are done this week, the 1/4 they were getting will be in the pool for the 65+. J&J is expected to be available the first or second week of March.

Is checking about visitation for group homes.

Why aren't blacks getting the vaccine? There's a townhall tonight. Too many people are not specifying race for the dashboard. So they can't know if they are hitting enough of the underserved areas.

Same old, same old.

 

[clairecloutier]

A 65+ friend in Massachusetts just posted on Facebook about trying to get a vaccine appointment.

Just spent an hour hitting the refresh button for one location. Tried 25 times to snag an open slot, got to the phone number part, they texted me a confirmation number, and then told me the slot was no longer available. I've answered the 11 pre-screening questions 25 times in the last hour, along with a few other questions, as quickly as I could, and nada. I'm getting RSI trying to get an appointment.

 

[acraven]

nfortuntately, that is an all-too-common experience in jurisdictions where you can't pre-register and have to re-enter your information on each attempt.

You might suggest that your friend try choosing a date several days farther out than the earliest one available, assuming that is possible in her system.

 

[SkateSand]

I had some paperwork I needed to fax today regarding my 401 K. I could have done it from home, but the paperwork required a notary so we had to drive to town anyway for that. So we drove over to Office Depot to fax the notarized document to my 401 K plan administrator. My husband asked the clerk why the woman who had been waiting in line in front of us was not required to wear a mask (all the employees were wearing masks). I fully expected her to say that management did not want confrontations with customers blah-blah-blah. But that's not what her response was. She said, "We don't require masks from customers because they may have a medical condition, but masks make you sick, anyway. My son got sick and I know it was from wearing a mask."

I hate living in a red county full of so many ignorant people.

 

[Orm Irian]

The first half of our second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech has arrived in Australia on schedule. It's still a titchy amount, but any approved vaccine in the country is better than no vaccine.

 

[Dobre]

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are putting on a mass vaccination clinic this weekend. They've been sent 975 doses of Pfizer from the Indian Health Service. This is interesting because hospitals & county health care systems here get Moderna rather than Pfizer. I suspect the reservation had Pfizer previously as well because they were the first place I heard of within the region to give out vaccines & Pfizer was available a week or two prior to Moderna. The reservation health care facility was sent 1,000 doses early on. In that case I do not know if all the health care workers that were vaccinated on the reservation were reservation members. If they were, the reservation has now been sent enough vaccine for 2/3rds of the reservation (or at least 1/3rd but I would think all those people that were vaccinated back in December would already have gotten their second doses before now).

It is a good thing for Umatilla County, which is reportedly 2nd lowest in the state for its vaccination rate. (And has one of the worst infection rates in the state). Also, the tribe has permission to vaccinate employees that work on the reservation, regardless of whether they are tribal members.

"Vaccinations will be provided to enrolled members of the CTUIR who are 16 and over, employees of all CTUIR entities, including the Tribal government, Wildhorse Resort & Casino, Cayuse Holdings, Hamley’s and Birch Creek Golf Course. Additionally, all residents of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, family members of CTUIR employees who reside in the same household and vendors and contractors who do work for CTUIR entities are eligible to be vaccinated."

Anyway, this pretty much confirms for me that the Indian Health Service program is the reason that states with high Native American populations have successfully vaccinated a higher rate of their population than average.

 

[ilovesalchows]

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are putting on a mass vaccination clinic this weekend. They've been sent 975 doses of Pfizer from the Indian Health Service. This is interesting because hospitals & county health care systems here get Moderna rather than Pfizer. I suspect the reservation had Pfizer previously as well because they were the first place I heard of within the region to give out vaccines & Pfizer was available a week or two prior to Moderna.

My husband got Pfizer last night at the Convention Center. I was surprised too.

 

[MsZem]

This from WaPo is just the saddest story: kids who passed away from CV, and what they left behind. Very hard to read.

 

[once_upon]

This from WaPo is just the saddest story: kids who passed away from CV, and what they left behind. Very hard to read.

I read that last night. I had a very hard time reading it.

 

[once_upon]

I guess 9 raisins soaked in gin helps you survive pan!demics?

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com

 

[Dobre]

*********-19 good news: 1st doses of vaccine have reached almost all Oregonians in long-term care​

COVID-19 good news: 1st doses of vaccine have reached almost all Oregonians in long-term care

Oregon may have quietly reached a monumental milestone last week in the fight against *********-19.

tinyurl.com

I thought this section here was probably right on the money. People who face a higher risk healthwise from the disease & also remember the positive impact of the the polio vaccine have a different worldview than those who don't:

"Marquis has also reported promising rates of vaccine acceptance: 82% for staff and 90% for residents.

'We’re very very pleased with our consent rates,' said Fogg, the company CEO.

He believes there’s a generational difference in attitudes toward vaccines. Staff members are often younger and more likely to be fearful and need more information or education about the *********-19 vaccine.

Residents, by contrast, are enthusiastic, he said. Many remember what the world was like before routine childhood immunizations.

'Between polio and smallpox and all the other things that they’ve done they’re not resistant to it at all,' he said."

 

[acraven]

More bad news on the AstraZeneca delivery schedule for the EU: There's going to be a major Quarter 2 shortfall, with deliveries being less than half of the expected number. At this point the company is expecting to deliver under 90 million doses rather than the 180 million contracted for. However, an (anonymous) EU official says it should still be possible to reach the goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by "summer" (not defined) as long as other suppliers deliver on schedule.

It sounds as if AstraZeneca is still hoping to improve on its Quarter 2 delivery numbers.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-********-eu-astrazeneca-exc-idUSKBN2AN22Y

 

[Dobre]

Oregon has 528 cases today. That is the highest number we've had on a Tuesday in weeks. (Not good, but I'll wait to see what is posted for tomorrow before worrying as it is possible the delayed Saturday cases may have been pushed to today to be released).

County risk levels were reassessed today. Most county averages have either been flat or going down for the last two weeks. 16 counties moved down risk-levels today, a bunch of them moving down from "extreme risk" which means they are no longer frozen. Three counties moved up, Douglas County into Extreme risk. (Which it should, IMO. Numbers have been up there for a while & are now getting worse in its neighboring counties).

8 deaths were reported today.

14,000+ vaccinations were added today. (The CDC site says we have a higher total than the article I just read. This is ??? because recently the CDC map has been behind the state dashboard so ).

*An article from a few days ago said they've had outbreaks/more cases at both major state universities.

 

[SkateSand]

Our county moved down to the red tier. It will be effective at midnight tonight. That means gyms can open and restaurants can open for indoor dining (at a reduced capacity). We went to Red Robin yesterday for my husband's free burger as this was his birthday month because they are one of the few restaurants that has outdoor seating. It ended up being the best service we've ever had there. Usually, it's an interminable wait for service, but with only five couples and two servers, I guess they could keep up this time.

 

[Susan1]

This showed up in my Yahoo news feed. I guess cause I opened an Ohio thing the other day.

Coronavirus: Cases increase by 2,775 in Ohio, hospitalizations continue to drop

Feb. 23—Ohio reported 2,775 daily cases of ******** on Tuesday, the most reported in nearly 10 days, according to the Ohio Department of Health. On both Sunday and Monday less than 2,000 daily cases were reported in the state. Over the last 21 days, Ohio is reporting an average of 2,639 cases...

tinyurl.com

p.s. - first thing I saw was "less than". It's "fewer than". Go back to school.

 

[Orm Irian]

p.s. - first thing I saw was "less than". It's "fewer than". Go back to school.

My editor's soul is in hearty agreement!

 

[Miezekatze]

More bad news on the AstraZeneca delivery schedule for the EU: There's going to be a major Quarter 2 shortfall, with deliveries being less than half of the expected number. At this point the company is expecting to deliver under 90 million doses rather than the 180 million contracted for. However, an (anonymous) EU official says it should still be possible to reach the goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by "summer" (not defined) as long as other suppliers deliver on schedule.

It sounds as if AstraZeneca is still hoping to improve on its Quarter 2 delivery numbers.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-********-eu-astrazeneca-exc-idUSKBN2AN22Y

I read a German article that said that they are hoping to deliver all the planned doses in the 2nd quarter after all, but only less than half of them will be produced in Europe and they want to add the rest from other production places. So hopefully it won't be so big a decrease.

Personally I'm really hoping I can get AstraZeneca in summer, because it's not so popular in Germany, so I hope this might be the most accessible for healthy people in my age I'd really rather be more protected as early as possible (and i tend to think that here Biontech is a bit overhyped right now, after all there's no actual real life data about how well it works for the South African variant either).

 

[allezfred]

This is disturbing.

Limerick man flees Sweden over criticism of his Covid-19 campaign

Keith Begg set up an online group critical of Swedish policy but he suffered a backlash

tinyurl.com

A Limerick man has fled his adopted home of Sweden, fearing for his safety, after national public radio suggested an online group he moderated, which was critical of Sweden’s *********-19 strategy, was a national security threat.

Keith Begg set up a private Facebook group with the aim of “exposing the failed Swedish *********-19 strategy”.
But a recent national Swedish radio report portrayed his online activities as “attempting to influence Swedish interests abroad”, triggering a wave of abuse and threats. After nearly eight years in the country, the 46-year-old dual citizen of Sweden and Ireland decided to return to Limerick.
“I received a letter in my postbox referring to me as a traitor, I got hate speech . . . calling me a dirty foreigner,” he says. “It was getting so vitriolic, I was worried about a brick through the window and the safety of myself, my husband and our two cats.

 

[antmanb]

My in laws had their first shot a few days before Christmas. If the government does indeed plan to give second jabs within 12 weeks of the first then my in laws need to get the second dose by 18 March but they have not been contacted or had anything schedule yet.

While its great that the government are trying to get as many people with their first dose done as quickly as possible, if they don't know how effective the second dose will be 12+ weeks out (and if it is so ineffective as to be like getting it for the first time again) then it does seem rather short sighted.

 

[Susan1]

The DeWine's had their second shot yesterday.

And this was on our local news this morning -

Tricking the novel coronavirus with a fake “handshake”

Fool the novel ******** once and it can’t cause infection of cells, new research suggests.Scientists have developed protein fragments – called peptides – that fit snugly into a groove on the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein that it would normally use to access a host cell. These peptides effectively...

tinyurl.com

 

[skategal]

Nova Scotia started their first to 10 community clinics for over 80s this week.

The first clinic in a First Nation community (of 13) starts today.