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Published: 2/27/2021 6:30:33 PM
Deerfield, Whately and Sunderland have all signed a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker opposing the prioritization of mass COVID-19 vaccination sites over local vaccination sites.
We just have to try to get more vaccines more vaccines to come into Franklin County, said Deerfield Board of Health Chairwoman Carolyn Shores Ness at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) vaccine clinic at Tree House Brewing on Thursday, where 500 doses were scheduled to be administered over two days. We certainly have the capacity to do much more, and were hoping the governor will see this.
All three select boards discussed and signed the letter this week, which argued that local governments are intimately familiar with their communities.
We know who our most vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations are and have plans in place to work with them, the letter states. The mass vaccination sites fail to account for those high-risk individuals in need, especially in rural communities that lack adequate public transportation options.
At a Sunderland Select Board meeting earlier this week, board member Tom Fydenkevez said Baker fails to understand the importance of individual communities.
We dont really have any mass transit; we cant get from Point A to Point B easily, he said. Having mass vaccination sites in Springfield and Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park they may be able to push numbers, but youre not going to actually gain inroads into our population that needs the service.
Whately Select Board member Jonathan Edwards said at a board meeting Wednesday night that while there are many people who believe mass vaccination sites are more effective, they present barriers to a large segment of the population.
The challenge of mass sites is they are a huge barrier to people without online capabilities for signing up, Edwards said. It means theyre in large places that potentially are not convenient to more rural places.
We really do know what were doing, he said.
Whately Town Administrator Brian Domina said the states emphasis on mass vaccination sites means more vaccines are sent to larger, more urban communities in western Massachusetts, as opposed to locally run clinics, such as the one held at Tree House Brewing.
What the state is saying is Were going to give 500 (vaccines) to Eastfield Mall in Springfield, because its a regional site, because its western Mass., so everybody can get to Springfield, he said. Thats the stance the state is taking.
The distance to a vaccine site is enough to deter people from getting the vaccine, Domina added.
Convenience (of getting a) vaccine is one reason to get the vaccine, Edwards said. We dont want to put up obstacles to get the vaccine, we want to remove obstacles to get the vaccine.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) -- Virginia Beach Police say a North Carolina man was arrested Friday in connection with a shooting earlier this week that left two women with injuries.
Jeffrey Nigel Carr,26, of Moyock, was arrested and charged with two counts of malicious wounding, three counts of Shooting into an occupied dwelling, two counts of use of firearm in commission of a felony, and three counts of destruction of property.
Only one vaccine has approval for kids 16 and older. There's still a lot of data that needs to be collected.
ST PAUL, Minn. Governor Tim Walz released an updated timeline on Thursday showing when various groups may have access to COVID-19 vaccines, but theres still a big question lingering:
When will kids get their shots?
Only one vaccine, from Pfizer, has received FDA approval for any type of minor and even that product can only be given to children 16 and older. Walzs timeline places people age 16 years and over with any underlying medical condition in the late spring category, but it is difficult for experts to predict when all kids will gain widespread access.
Dr. Jill Foster, the Division Director for Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the U of M, said its an interesting question without firm answers right now.
For kids under 16, we dont have an approved vaccine. That has taken a little while, and I think people want it to take a little while, Foster said. Because we want to make sure we get it right.
Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted that high school students could be vaccinated in the fall, although for younger grades, it may not happen until early 2022. Due to the lack of data, the exact timing remains uncertain.
Pfizer and Moderna, however, are both studying the impact of the vaccine on kids 12 and older and have said theyd like to share some data by the spring.
At the U of M, Dr. Foster said Faucis timeline of vaccinations during the 2021-2022 school year seems feasible.
I think for the older teens, theyre probably going to be able to get the same vaccine as the adults, Foster said, so its just a matter for them of having enough vaccine supply.
But it may not be so simple for the younger age groups. Foster pointed out that its common for vaccines to impact children and adults different, hence the potential need for some slight adjustments.
Pediatricians like to say that kids are not just little adults. Sometimes, they are going to react differently, Foster said. Kids immune systems are different. Theyve had shorter time to be exposed to various pathogens and other vaccines. Its a little bit tricky.
People ages 16 to 64 with the following conditions may be eligible for vaccines Thursday: cancer, chronic kidney disease, pulmonary diseases, smoking, diabetes, heart conditions, solid organ transplant, obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease and disabilities. There are an estimated 3.2 million people in Illinois in that group.
The Path to Immunity
Historical trends show there are different challenges to getting shots in arms, depending on where people live.
On Feb. 24, Surgo Ventures unveiled a data tool: The U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Coverage Index to track major barriers in getting people vaccinated.
The index was created to assist federal, state and county decisionmakers in identifying which communities face challenges to vaccine coverage and why, based on the community-level barriers affecting COVID-19 vaccine uptake.
The index captures 28 supply and demand factors through five different themes. Surgos news release said the indexs modular design helps contextualize vaccine rollout performance and highlight inequities across communities helping keep a pulse on the pace of efforts to ensure equitable, efficient vaccination.
This map shows counties with the highest and lowest levels of concern of distributing the vaccine to its population, according to the index.
Click on the map to go to the site and see how each county compares.
The five themes that make up the index are:
According to the index, the following states are the highest concern when it comes to ensuring widespread vaccine coverage:
These maps show several challenges in each state:
Heres how the rollout is going in each state, according to the index:
U.S. rates
In the U.S., the latest vaccination rate is 1,275,497 doses per day, on average. At this rate, it will take an estimated nine months to cover 75% of the population with a two-dose vaccine.
Across the U.S.
As of Feb. 24, 44.5 million people have received at least one dose. At least 19.9 million people have completed the two-dose vaccination regimen.
And, 19.6 doses have been administered for every 100 people, and 79% of the shots delivered to states have been administered.
According to Bloomberg, the first stage of the U.S. rollout fell short of federal projections as vaccinations proceeded unevenly across the states. After focusing first on hospitals and other institutional health-care settings, the next phase of vaccinations will draw more on pharmacies and health clinics.
California has the highest daily rate of doses given at 209,334. Florida has the second-highest rate at 115,287.
You can visit the Bloomberg site for daily updates on vaccination progress.
How will the storage requirements of the Pfizer vaccine affect the programme?
It was initially thought that the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at -70C to be effective, meaning it can only be delivered to GPs with the facilities to keep it at that temperature.
However, according to latest results, the Pfizer vaccine no longer needs to be kept at super cold temperatures. If approved by regulators, this means the vaccine can be stored in standard medical freezers for two weeks, which will have a significant impact on distribution.
It is understood the vaccine batches are being broken down into doses of 75, in order to give the vaccine toelderly residents and staff in homes with more than 50 beds to avoid wastage.
The Oxford vaccine does not need to be stored in such cold conditions - it can be kept at temperatures between 2C and 8C.
This means it is moremobile than the Pfizer jab and therefore more easily deployed into care homes of varying sizes and into private homes for individual doses.
Vaccine MinisterNadhimZahawi said that 8am-8pm inoculations will continue for those in the over-80s age group, but as more people in other age groupsbegin to receive the vaccine, "it becomes much more convenient for people to go late at night and in the early hours".
Mr Zahawi expected the scheme to be in operation in hospitals around London, and 50 vaccination centres, by February.
Offering vaccinations overnight will speed up the rollout, and allow the Government to reach their goal of vaccinating 32 million people - 60 per cent of the UK adult population by spring.
The South African variant and the Brazilian variant have threatened to undermine the vaccine and testing gains of recent months.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is expecting some vaccine tweaks to be needed as it has already begun to look at how quickly an altered jab could be approved, and Matt Hancock has said he is "very worried".
As of Feb 16, 217cases of the South Africa Covid-19 variant have been identified in England. Due to some cases not being linked to travel,door-to-door testing will take place in some parts of England.
This comes as scientists have found that theKent coronavirus variantis mutating to mimic theSouth African variant,which could render current vaccines less effective.
It was announced on Feb 7 that studies of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca jab have shown that itdoes not protect against mild and moderate infection of the South African variant.
However, vaccines against new coronavirus variants should be ready by October, the team behind theOxford University/AstraZeneca jabhas said.
On Jan 25, Moderna Inc announced that its vaccine was effective against the Kent and South African variants. Deliveries of the vaccine will take place in the spring.
Britain is also on the brink of approving a fourth coronavirus vaccine, after a jab trialled in the UK was shown to be highly effective against the Kent variant in what the Health Secretary hailed as a breakthrough.
Sixty million doses of the Novavax jab have been secured by the UK,which Mr Zahawi was himself injected with as part of the trial, which was shown to be 89.3 per cent effective in preventing coronavirus in participants.
Professor Paul Heath, the Novavax Phase 3 trial chief investigator, said he believed that vaccines could be adapted "at pace" to target new variants of coronavirus after the Novavax jab was found to be effective against the Kent variant.
Crucially, it was shown to be highly effective in preventing infection from the Kent variant whichBoris Johnson said on Jan 22 could be up to 30 per cent more deadly than the original.
However, most promisingly, on Jan 16, The Telegraphrevealed that Britain would have the capacity to vaccinate the entire nation against new coronavirus strains within four months, once a new super-factory opens this year.
The government is currently looking to the future, and Boris Johnson has said that elderly and vulnerable people in the UK may have a coronavirus vaccine every year, similar to the roll-out of the annual flu jab.
Have you had the Covid vaccine or are you due to get one? We want to hear from you. Get in touch with us here.
ONE IN FIVE ADULTS UNDER 70 IN ENGLAND GIVEN FIRST COVID JAB, FIGURES SHOW
One in five adults in England aged under 70 have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, new data suggests.
Provisional figures from NHS England, published on Thursday, show that 16,337,561 Covid-19 vaccinations took place in England between December 8 and February 24, including first and second doses.
This is a rise of 411,146 on the previous day's figures.
Of this number, 15,794,992 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 396,937 on the previous day, while 542,569 were a second dose, an increase of 14,209.
An estimated 20.3% of people aged 16 to 69 had received their first jab as of February 21. The estimates show little variation between the regions, ranging from 17.2% in London to 22.3% in north-west England.
Vaccine makers are moving to test booster shots, prompted by new coronavirus variants that have sprung up in South Africa, the U.K. and elsewhere. Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Vaccine makers are moving to test booster shots, prompted by new coronavirus variants that have sprung up in South Africa, the U.K. and elsewhere.
The U.S. is still ramping up its vaccination program, hoping to finally clamp down on the COVID-19 pandemic. But even as vaccine doses are being rolled out, their makers are exploring several strategies to bolster them, hoping to protect people against worrying new variants that have sprung up in recent months, from South Africa to the U.K.
The companies that have FDA-authorized vaccines are currently working on the problem, out of concern that mutations in SARS-CoV-2 could make the virus more difficult to control. Several strains seem to spread more easily than older forms of the coronavirus. There are also concerns that some mutated versions could elude antibody responses that would normally protect people who have been immunized or previously infected.
Here's an overview of the approaches being pursued by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech and Moderna the drugmakers with U.S.-authorized vaccines along with Johnson & Johnson, whose vaccine is now poised for FDA authorization:
Booster shots of the existing vaccine: This approach relies on giving people who have already been vaccinated a follow-up dose of the same vaccine.
Pfizer and BioNTech calls for people who have already completed the normal two-dose regimen to get a third 30-microgram dose, 6-12 months later. Moderna's plan calls for a 50-microgram dose, after people have gone through its two-dose regimen.
Variant-specific booster shot: Much like how specific vaccines are tailored to fight influenza, drugmakers can craft a version of their vaccine to combat individual coronavirus variants. Moderna says its new vaccine candidate, based on the strain first identified in South Africa, is now ready for clinical testing. The company says it has shipped doses of that potential vaccine to the National Institutes of Health to get started.
Last month, Paul Stoffels, the chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson, said his company is also preparing a special version of its vaccine to target the spike protein found in the B.1.351 seen in South Africa.
A 'multivalent' booster: In this approach, drug companies essentially blend two versions of their vaccines into a single booster shot. One would target original or "ancestral" versions of SARS-CoV-2, while the other would go after new variants. Moderna says it will look at combining its original vaccine known as mRNA-1273 with the newer version it created to fight the B.1.351 coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.
Putting the boosters front-and-center: As drugmakers tweak their original vaccines to respond more acutely to variants, they will also consider whether new versions of their vaccines might effectively replace the initial recipes. Moderna says it will explore whether its variant-specific booster and its multivalent booster should become the primary vaccination series of shots for people who haven't been exposed to the coronavirus.
In the future, different circumstances will likely determine which vaccine or booster a person receives.
Someone who has antibodies from a previous infection or immunization would probably only get a booster shot, for instance, while someone whose system hasn't been exposed to the coronavirus would receive "an updated vaccine that aims to provide immunity to both the ancestral strains and variants of concern," Moderna said on Thursday, during a call with investors.
It's also possible people could receive a vaccine that's tailored to variants that have been detected in their country.
Johnson & Johnson's new vaccine was found to be 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe cases of COVID-19 a result that reflects testing in numerous countries, including South Africa and Brazil, where troubling new variants have emerged.
Current versions of their vaccines work against the new COVID-19 strains, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson say. Health experts also stress that all three of the vaccines are overwhelmingly effective in preventing the worst outcomes, such as hospitalizations and deaths. Still, newly tailored versions of the vaccines may be needed, as strains of SARS-CoV-2 continue to mutate and combine.
"While we have not seen any evidence that the circulating variants result in a loss of protection provided by our vaccine, we are taking multiple steps to act decisively and be ready in case a strain becomes resistant to the protection afforded by the vaccine," Pfizer CEO and Chairman Albert Bourla said in a statement about his company's plans to study boosters' effect on variants.
Pharmaceutical companies are studying boosters out of caution, Bourla added, to make sure they have an answer in the pipeline for an evolving coronavirus and to ensure they have a path for emergency authorization if an updated vaccine or booster becomes necessary.
"This regulatory pathway is already established for other infectious diseases like influenza," said Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech.
Both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech created their vaccines using relatively new messenger RNA technology, which has been hailed for its ability to produce vaccine candidates quickly. That swift process, the drug makers say, can also help them produce new versions of their vaccines in response to coronavirus mutations.
Citing the speed and flexibility of mRNA, Moderna CEO Stphane Bancel said on Thursday that his company "is committed to making as many updates to our vaccine as necessary until the pandemic is under control."
In contrast, Johnson & Johnson used a viral vector technique to make its vaccine, using the same strategy as the AstraZeneca / University of Oxford team. The approach is known to take longer than mRNA, but the resulting vaccine can also give patients immunity after a single dose.
Along with providing protection against new coronavirus variants, another potential benefit of booster shots, drug makers say, is that they can prolong or enhance protection even at smaller doses than the original regimen, easing some of the pressure on strained production and distribution networks.
Wanting kids back in the classroom, Kemp expands COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to teachers and more WSB Atlanta
