How can there not be a COVID-19 thread?

[User.45]

Re air travel: nothing flying >18k feet now, NJ to SC. Regional ATC down, covid

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1348351547890159623/

These are the exact things that reveal why focusing only on deaths misses the big picture.

Trump administration had no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan: White House

There was no distribution plan for the coronavirus vaccine set up by the Trump administration as the virus raged in its last months in office, new President Joe Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, said on Sunday.

www.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There was no distribution plan for the coronavirus vaccine set up by the Trump administration as the virus raged in its last months in office, new President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, said on Sunday.

“The process to distribute the vaccine, particularly outside of nursing homes and hospitals out into the community as a whole, did not really exist when we came into the White House,” Klain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Now the claim from a reputable source (I prefer Reuters over CNN any day of the week) with a concrete name and statement. We'll see how much of this is true, but my bias is that it is mostly true...

Uh...
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1350851124446769154/

Earlier into the pandemic there were big cats testing positive for COVID too. This virus seems to have like a viral version of Rosetta Stone... it runs on mammalian hardware without many problems. The concern really is how it could mutate further in extra animal populations. But TBH, diseases like this always existed. It's just that we never cared and never had the capacity to test and track these processes. So I'd say this is just a previously hidden level or reality we became aware of. What's been really interesting of SARS-CoV2 is that it was highly infectious from the get go and is getting more infections whereas case fatality rate just doesn't seem to drop drastically beyond what we artificially see due to better testing. Usually from an evolutionary aspect, spreading faster poses a major selection benefit whereas the severity of disease if anything, is even a negative factor in selection (if people die before they can spread the disease the strain dies out with the host).

This is just a weird ass virus.

 

[Alli]

This is just a weird ass virus.

That is the understatement of the decade.

My mother gets her second dose tomorrow. Still no idea when either my 65+ husband or I will be eligible for the first dose. Alabama leaps to the back of the line again!

 

[User.45]

That is the understatement of the decade.

My mother gets her second dose tomorrow. Still no idea when either my 65+ husband or I will be eligible for the first dose. Alabama leaps to the back of the line again!

You'd already be eligible in my state.

 

[Alli]

You'd already be eligible in my state.

Hail to Alabackwards.

 

[JayMysteri0]

Oklahoma trying to return $2 million stockpile of hydroxychloroquine

The state of Oklahoma is trying to return $2 million worth of hydroxychloroquine it purchased at the behest of former President Donald Trump last spring. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt made the purcha…

www.nydailynews.com

The state of Oklahoma is trying to return $2 million worth of hydroxychloroquine it purchased at the behest of former President Donald Trump last spring.

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt made the purchase from a California-based company in April and said the anti-malaria drug could be used for other things if it proved to be ineffective against COVID-19 and “that money will not have gone to waste in any respect.”

 

[lizkat]

So they found out the stuff only works on for swamp critters, eh?

Whadda surprise.

 

[User.45]

Got my second shot. It's been a trip. I've been feeling intoxicated for the past 24h, but the most hilarious thing isn't that.
I got the shot in the left arm and it's been warmer to touch than the right. I've been having 3-limb chills, but not in my left arm. It remained nice and warm. Definitely recommend people to get this on a Friday and plan for a lazy Saturday afterwards.

 

[User.45]

Yaaay. Lupus patients will finally have access to their drug!!!

 

[lizkat]

Got my second shot. It's been a trip. I've been feeling intoxicated for the past 24h, but the most hilarious thing isn't that.
I got the shot in the left arm and it's been warmer to touch than the right. I've been having 3-limb chills, but not in my left arm. It remained nice and warm. Definitely recommend people to get this on a Friday and plan for a lazy Saturday afterwards.

Heh, I'm starting to like the idea that rural areas are more likely to end up with the one-dose J&J vaccine due in part to its not requiring supercold storage and also because rural residents may have more difficulty getting to a site to receive the vaccine to begin with. One and done sounds good to me...

 

[User.45]

Heh, I'm starting to like the idea that rural areas are more likely to end up with the one-dose J&J vaccine due in part to its not requiring supercold storage and also because rural residents may have more difficulty getting to a site to receive the vaccine to begin with. One and done sounds good to me...

We'll see...there are so many unknowns. The 2-shot combo is great for healthcare workers. Two of my colleagues partook in the Moderna trial. One got placebo, the other the real deal. We try our best double blinding these studies, but boy, everybody can easily tell who got the actual vaccine

 

[lizkat]

We'll see...there are so many unknowns. The 2-shot combo is great for healthcare workers. Two of my colleagues partook in the Moderna trial. One got placebo, the other the real deal. We try our best double blinding these studies, but boy, everybody can easily tell who got the actual vaccine

I have kin and a couple friends who are making a four-hour drive farther upstate to appointments for the first shot late next week. That's four hours one way, so it's a bit daunting to know they have to repeat the gig three weeks later... not the greatest weather to be taking the scenic tour of the North Country area.

As I don't have work or social requirements to go out, I feel blessed I can just continue taking the basic "closed door" approach to maintaining distance from the virus, until a vaccine is offered a little bit closer to home later on. My winter pantry is holding up well so far and I don't even need to re-up on delivery of fresh or frozen things again until sometime well into February.

So a lot of things to be grateful for.. and I am mindful of it every time I pick up a paper and read about what so many people are going through. Way too many now struggling just to keep food on the table and roof overhead.

I really hope the push to vaccinate more people in a much shorter time frame will be successful. Some friends who work in retail settings locally have noticed that people apparently grow more weary by the week now of masking up, and so are not doing it in larger numbers, regardless of their politics. And the case rate has gone up here again, even in this sparsely populated area. Ugh. Are we Americans just not able to adopt a necessary routine and stick to it for as long as it's going to take to beat this thing back and make a normal life more possible sooner?

 

[User.45]

I have kin and a couple friends who are making a four-hour drive farther upstate to appointments for the first shot late next week. That's four hours one way, so it's a bit daunting to know they have to repeat the gig three weeks later... not the greatest weather to be taking the scenic tour of the North Country area.

As I don't have work or social requirements to go out, I feel blessed I can just continue taking the basic "closed door" approach to maintaining distance from the virus, until a vaccine is offered a little bit closer to home later on. My winter pantry is holding up well so far and I don't even need to re-up on delivery of fresh or frozen things again until sometime well into February.

So a lot of things to be grateful for.. and I am mindful of it every time I pick up a paper and read about what so many people are going through. Way too many now struggling just to keep food on the table and roof overhead.

I really hope the push to vaccinate more people in a much shorter time frame will be successful. Some friends who work in retail settings locally have noticed that people apparently grow more weary by the week now of masking up, and so are not doing it in larger numbers, regardless of their politics. And the case rate has gone up here again, even in this sparsely populated area. Ugh. Are we Americans just not able to adopt a necessary routine and stick to it for as long as it's going to take to beat this thing back and make a normal life more possible sooner?

A 4H drive after the second dose might be tricky... I suspect a lot of people will forego the second dose and who knows how that will impact their immunity. We are all tired of masking for sure and I'm tired of lecturing people about it. COVID fatigue is sadly normal, it happened in Europe as well and they are my control for normalcy. What wasn't normal is Americans throwing fits about masking in the first months.

 

[lizkat]

A 4H drive after the second dose might be tricky... I suspect a lot of people will forego the second dose and who knows how that will impact their immunity. We are all tired of masking for sure and I'm tired of lecturing people about it. COVID fatigue is sadly normal, it happened in Europe as well and they are my control for normalcy. What wasn't normal is Americans throwing fits about masking in the first months.

They are taking a young relative with them for the driving re second dose... were thinking to stay in a motel instead but for assorted reasons that didn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[User.45]

They are taking a young relative with them for the driving re second dose... were thinking to stay in a motel instead but for assorted reasons that didn't make a whole lot of sense.

That's more reassuring for sure.

 

[Alli]

I figure Covid vaccinations should be available for most of us in Alabama by 2022. I'm hoping with that kind of delay it will be a one dose deal.

 

[JayMysteri0]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1354836669292228608/

 

[lizkat]

I figure Covid vaccinations should be available for most of us in Alabama by 2022. I'm hoping with that kind of delay it will be a one dose deal.

My local paper said a nearby clinic just got a couple hundred first doses of Moderna --which for this region has to be packed in dry ice and trucked down about sixty miles-- for the phase 1b group

(first responders, e.g., firefighters and police; educators, including teachers, support staff and day care workers; food and agriculture workers; manufacturing employees; corrections workers; employees at the U.S. Postal Service; public transit workers; grocery store workers... and people 75 and older).​

The area clinic also noted they already had about 5,000 people registered to the wait list in those categories. So it will be awhile for most of us over-75s who are still living independently. I'm liking my deep winter pantry!

 

[User.45]

I figure Covid vaccinations should be available for most of us in Alabama by 2022. I'm hoping with that kind of delay it will be a one dose deal.

YOU.
SHOULD.
BE.
ELIGIBLE.
NOW!

That's all I can say about it

 

[Clix Pix]

On another site I read where the Moderna vaccine provides 80% immunity after a couple weeks of the first dose......the second dose presumably provides the rest of the 20% or close to it along with the physical whammy it delivers, too to the recipient. Availability remains a concern, although my guess is that they are going to be keeping tabs on the supply in order to be able to deliver second doses of those who have already had the initial one, even if some have to wait for that first dose....??

Yeah, I saw reports of the mess in Philly and that just really sucks, the whole situation! Now people who should have already been safely vaccinated for the first round haven't been and everything was royally screwed up. I'm glad that at least the city has discontinued their connection with that (more or less pseudo) and definitely unqualified organization which really was not suitable to have been administering vaccinations in the first place. Now Philadelphia is pretty much having to start over again, which isn't all that helpful for the residents of that city. Ouch!

 

[User.45]

On another site I read where the Moderna vaccine provides 80% immunity after a couple weeks of the first dose......the second dose presumably provides the rest of the 20% or close to it along with the physical whammy it delivers, too to the recipient. Availability remains a concern, although my guess is that they are going to be keeping tabs on the supply in order to be able to deliver second doses of those who have already had the initial one, even if some have to wait for that first dose....??

Yup antibody titers peak on day #42 from shot #1. The efficacy data is BS though because it will likely diminish over time. We just don't know how quickly (data is primarily from a 4month window)