Meyer began to feel as if he knew the people personally the ones who described smells in terms of tea and fruit, or meat and gasoline, or blue Powerade and lollipops. The way they described their senses felt so intimate, he said later, you could almost see the type of person they are. He was becoming convinced that people believe they are bad at describing smells simply because they so often are asked to do so in labs, sniffing single, isolated molecules (when the more familiar odor of coffee is a blend of many hundreds of them), cloistered away from the context of their real lives and the smells that actually mattered to them. Given the right opportunity, he said, people become very, very verbal.
For Meyer, an IBM researcher who specializes in using algorithms to analyze biological data, and who was one of the people who insisted that the G.C.C.R. surveys should include open text boxes, this was exciting news. For years, scientists studying smell have been working off just a few, deeply deficient data sets that link different chemicals and the way humans perceive them. There was, for example, a record created in the late 1960s by a single perfumer, who described thousands of smells, and study after study relied on a single Atlas of Odor Character Profiles, published in 1985. It drew on the observations of volunteers who had been asked to smell various single molecules and chemical mixtures, rating and naming them according to a supplied list of descriptors that many scientists felt was flawed and dated.
More recently, Meyer and many others had been using a new data set, painstakingly created by scientists at the Rockefeller University in New York and published in 2016. (I visited the lab in 2014, while Leslie Vosshall and her colleagues were building their data, and was surprised to find I could smell one of the vials, though it probably just triggered my trigeminal system. When I told Vosshall that it seemed minty, she replied: Really? Most people say, Dirty socks.) But while the new data set was a significant improvement 55 people smelled 480 different molecules, rating them by intensity, pleasantness, familiarity and how well they matched a list of 20 descriptions, including garlic, spices, flower, bakery, musky, urinous and so on it was still a sign of how limited the field was.
This was why Meyer, along with his colleague Guillermo Cecchi, pushed for those open text boxes in the G.C.C.R. survey. They were interested in the possibilities of natural language processing, a branch of machine learning that uses algorithms to analyze the patterns of human expression; Cecchi was already using the technology to predict the early onset of Alzheimers, when it is most treatable, by analyzing details of the way people speak. Many researchers had written about the possibilities of using artificial intelligence to finally make a predictive olfactory map, as well as to look at links between changes in olfaction and all the diseases to which those changes are connected, but sufficient data was never available.
Now Covid had provided researchers with a big, complicated data set linking olfactory experience and the progression of a specific disease. It wasnt constrained by numerical rankings, monomolecules or a few proffered adjectives, but instead allowed people to speak freely about real smells, in the real world, in all their complex and subjective glory.
When Meyer and Cecchis colleague Raquel Norel finished analyzing the open-ended answers from English-speaking respondents, they found, with surprise and delight, that their textual analysis was just as predictive of a Covid diagnosis as peoples numerical ratings of smell losses. The algorithms worked because people with Covid used very different words to talk about smell than those without it; even those who hadnt fully lost their olfaction still tended to describe their sensations in the same ways, repeating words like metallic, decayed, chemical, acid, sour, burnt and urine. It was an encouraging finding, a proof of concept that they couldnt wait to explore in a lot more depth first in the G.C.C.R. responses in other languages and then, in the future, in other data sets related to other diseases. Meyer got excited when he talked about it. Anything where smell changes, he told me. Depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, neurodegeneration, cognitive and neuropsychiatric disease. The whole enchilada, as they say.
I had a hard time imagining the olfactory map that scientists have dreamed of for so long. Would it, I asked Mainland, look something like a periodic table? He suggested I think, instead, of the maps that scientists have made of color space, which arrange colors to show their mathematical relationships and mixtures. We didnt know how useful color space was until people started inventing things like color television and Photoshop, he explained, adding that the map itself isnt the goal, but rather the ability to use it to understand why we smell what we do. After that, what will be really interesting are the applications we cant yet imagine. Its hard to understand the utility of the map, he said, until you have the map.
Boise, Idaho Governor Brad Little announced today the State of Idaho launched a new COVID-19 vaccination information web page to help Idahoans more easily find information on when and where to get vaccinated and what to expect when they get to their appointment.
The new web page is https://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/covid-19-vaccination.
The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Idaho is my number one priority, and we are doing everything we can to get people vaccinated as safely, quickly, fairly, and transparently as possible, Governor Little said.
Local public health districts are responsible for implementing vaccination plans, and enrolled COVID-19 vaccine provider information is on each public health district website, but the new resource offers just one place where all Idahoans can find out when they are eligible to receive the vaccine and where to access enrolled COVID-19 vaccine providers in their area.
The page also tells Idahoans which priority groups, by occupation and age, are next in line for the vaccine.
The new web page can also be accessed at https://coronavirus.idaho.gov/covid-19-vaccine/, which will continue to be a source of information about the COVID-19 vaccine as well.
# # #
A Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax proved nearly 90% effective in preliminary results from a key clinical trial in the United Kingdom, the company said, but in a separate trial appeared far less effective against a new variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in South Africa.
In its 15,000-volunteer U.K. trial, Novavax said, the vaccine prevented nine in 10 cases, including against a new strain of the virus that is circulating there. But in a 4,400-volunteer study in South Africa, the vaccine proved only 49% effective. In the 94% of the study population that did not have HIV, the efficacy was 60%.
In the U.K. trial, Novavax observed 62 cases of symptomatic Covid-19, with 56 in the placebo group and six among volunteers who got the vaccine. One patient on placebo developed severe Covid-19, compared with zero in the vaccine group. The company provided few details on the vaccines safety, saying only that the serious side effects were rare and balanced between the studies vaccine and placebo groups.
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In the South African study, 29 cases of symptomatic Covid-19 were observed in the placebo group, and 15 in the vaccine group.
Its unclear whether these data will be enough for U.S. approval, or if the U.S. will wait for further data, as it appears to be doing with vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Novavax said it expects to file for an emergency authorization in the U.K. in the coming months, once it has final data from its clinical trial there. The company said it has been in contact with the Food and Drug Administration but didnt provide details on its plans.
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Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. governments vaccine incubator, is running its own large U.S. trial of the Novavax vaccine in the United States and Mexico. Researchers expect to complete enrollment in the first half of February.
Carlos del Rio, a professor of infectious diseases at the Emory University School of Medicine, said the overall efficacy numbers were impressive, and that the vaccine showed at least some efficacy against the variant first identified in South Africa.
By the same token, the lower efficacy against that variant could be a vulnerability in the United States, where it was first reported in South Carolina on Thursday, and elsewhere.
Nahid Bhadelia, medical director of the special pathogens unit at Boston Medical Center, emphasized that although the drop in efficacy against the South African variant is bad news, the results arent a complete wash. The vaccine, she said, can still make a huge difference. But the results also emphasize the important work of figuring out how to develop booster shots against new variants, especially given the news that the South Africa strain, B1351, was found in South Carolina.
Novavax said it is already at work on a new version of the vaccine designed to combat more infectious strains of SARS-CoV-2, which could work as a booster shot for people already inoculated. But clinical testing isnt expected until the second quarter of this year.
Some experts cautioned against over-interpreting the efficacy results in the South Africa trial, noting that they amounted to a relatively small number of cases in a preliminary analysis.
I am not sure that it is disappointing. The U.K. data look very good. The South Africa data may be more nuanced, said Anna Durbin, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, noting that each trial defined symptomatic disease slightly differently. She said she would be interested in seeing more data on the severity of disease in the cases reported.
Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner and Pfizer board member, said he didnt think it was a surprise that the vaccine was less effective against the new strain.
We have already seen experimentally that there is a falloff in neutralization against that variant with the other vaccines, and we should expect that this may be common to all the vaccines that use the original spike protein as the epitope, regardless of how that protein is being delivered, he said.
More data will be available with results from Johnson & Johnson, expected soon, because that trial will include patients from both Brazil and South Africa.
I think this raises the stakes on putting boosters into development that are based on these new variants, and building a regulatory process that allows this sort of incremental, follow-on innovation to reach the market based on something short of brand new, full-blown outcomes studies, Gottlieb said.
Novavaxs data arrive as countries around the world scramble to secure enough vaccine doses to protect their populations. In the U.S., the federal government has struggled to meet demand for doses of the only two authorized vaccines, from Moderna and partners Pfizer and BioNTech.
Novavax has said it expects to produce about 2 billion doses of its vaccine in 2021. The U.S. has signed a contract to buy 100 million of them and has the option to acquire more.
Like all the Covid-19 vaccines that are being used or are in final test, Novavaxs two-dose shot works by mimicking a protein called spike, which is found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2. When the immune system catches sight of that protein, it produces antibodies against it, thereby protecting the body from a case of Covid-19.
But Novavax is using the most tried-and-true technology among the frontrunners in the race to develop Covid-19. The first two vaccines authorized in the U.S. use a technology called mRNA, which slips genetic material into cells to create a protein that stimulates the immune system. Others still in development, such as one from Johnson & Johnson and another from AstraZeneca, use genetically altered viruses to do something similar.
Like some approved vaccines, Novavaxs vaccine manufactures fragments of the spike protein in insect cells and then adds another chemical, called an adjuvant, to stimulate the immune system to respond. This approach is used in an approved flu vaccine sold by Sanofi, and was the approach that Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline planned to use in their own Covid-19 vaccine. The similarities are not entirely coincidental. Gale Smith, the former chief scientific officer of the company that developed that vaccine, is now a scientist at Novavax. But while the drug giants stumbled, Novavax, a small company that has not previously brought a product to market, has mostly hit its marks.
The company presented promising early data in August that showed neutralizing antibody levels that were roughly quadruplethose seen in patients who had recovered from Covid-19, among the best for any vaccine in early testing. Those same results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in September.
In July, Novavax received $1.6 billion in funding from Operation Warp Speed to scale up its manufacturing processes, with the agreement that the 100 million doses of vaccine that would result would be owned by the U.S. government.
The good news, said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, is that, from the start, several different vaccine technologies have been developed against Covid-19. That makes the world more ready for what comes next.
This is why its important to have an open pipeline, Dean said. At every stage we want to not put all our eggs in one basket. And this is the same situation. We still dont know about durability, we dont know how the vaccines work against different variants. At all stages we want a diversity of approaches.
According to an incomplete data set, healthcare providers have wasted thousands of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
OLYMPIA, Wash. At least 2,315 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have gone to waste in Washington state, according to information reported to the state.
That data is incomplete and is only what's been reported to the state Immunization Information System so far. Not every health care provider is entering data the same way or reporting all fields, according to a state spokesperson.
Earlier this month, the Washington State Hospital Association said that though it isn't happening frequently, doses are being thrown out.
An employee at a MultiCare facility said doses of the vaccine are being thrown away at the end of shifts because state guidelines make it difficult to provide doses for those who don't meet the criteria for the current phase at that time the state was in Phase 1A. If someone doesn't show up for their appointment, the clinic administering the vaccine is left with an extra which cannot be saved because it expires too quickly.
The state is now in the first tier of Phase 1B.
Washington State Hospital Association CEO Cassie Sauer said if this happens, its only a few doses at a time.
If youre doing 500, 700 doses a day, to end up at the end of the day with three leftovers, you know, wed like there to be zero but thats a hard ratio to hit, Sauer said earlier this month.
The Department of Health sent this statement to KING 5 regarding the vaccine doses and ways to make sure they do not go to waste.
"We've seen a few cases of vaccine excursion, usually with it being out of temperature range. In those cases, they are referred to Moderna or Pfizer, and the manufacturer lets them know viability. There have also been a few cases when people didnt know to what to do with extra vaccine who to give vaccine to if they cant find a 1A person. Providers in that situation are asked to make a clinical judgment about who should receive the vaccine. One reason DOH expanded Phase 1A to add tier 2 was so that those who have vaccinated their tier 1 employees can begin vaccinating in tier 2."
The text reads, Interested in a paid COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial? Theres a telephone number and email to contact someone at Centex Studies.
HOUSTON Theres a text message going around asking people if they are interested in getting paid to participate in a COVID-19 vaccine trial. Someone thought it sounded too good to be true. So, they asked the VERIFY team to check it out.
The text reads, Interested in a paid COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial? Theres a telephone number and email to contact someone at Centex Studies.
Our source for this is Dr. Joe Pouzar, principal investigator at Centex Studies, a clinical research network in Texas and Louisiana that conducts clinical trials on various conditions including Alzheimer's, diabetes, endometriosis and most recently, the COVID-19 vaccine. He tells the VERIFY team, the company is reaching out to potential participants through text message.
That's one of many ways that we're recruiting for the trial. We have a presence on Facebook and other social media as well, Dr. Pouzar said.
Dr. Pouzar says Centex Studies is looking for several hundred people in the Houston area to participate in a COVID-19 vaccine trial sponsored by Janssen, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson.
It's two injections. They're spaced roughly two months apart. Then, there's ongoing follow up for any side effects, and also for overall effectiveness and antibody levels. That goes on about two years after the start of the clinical trial, Dr. Pouzar said.
Participants will be paid $100 per visit. Centex Studies says they began recruiting through text in November.
I can't think of anything that would be more important right now in the field of medicine than combating this particular pandemic, Dr. Pouzar said.
So, we can VERIFY the text message is legit.
So, as the nation waits for widespread vaccines, the steps people should take to slow the spread are the same as always: wear masks, avoid congregate settings and wash hands, experts have said.
Covid-19 numbers are on a downswing
New daily recorded cases in the US are falling. Health experts had warned that the November-December holidays, with boosts in travel and indoor gatherings, would send Covid-19 cases soaring.
And soar they did, reaching a pandemic-record average of more than 249,200 cases a day across a week as of January 10, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The surge has fallen off: The average was down to about 166,380 cases a day across a week as of Tuesday -- a drop of more than 33% from the peak.
And the country has reported fewer than 200,000 new cases a day for 10 straight days -- the longest such stretch since before Thanksgiving.
Hospitalizations are falling: About 108,950 Covid-19 patients were in US hospitals on Tuesday -- a number generally dropping since a pandemic peak of 132,474 patients recorded January 6.
The statistic is now about where it was just before mid-December, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Deaths reported per day are hovering just under a record: The country averaged 3,349 Covid-19 deaths a day across a week as of Tuesday.
That's very close to a pandemic peak average of 3,355 reached on January 13 -- and far ahead of the averages around 1,000 just in mid-November.
Experts have said movements in the volume of deaths can lag weeks behind case and hospitalization numbers, because those who succumb to the disease can first be sick for weeks.
That's in part because of seasonality, institute director Dr. Christopher Murray said Monday -- meaning warmer weather can mean less opportunity for spread, with more social opportunity outdoors.
But vaccinations, too, "will prevent a lot of death," Murray said.
About those variants
Dr. Leana Wen, emergency physician and former Baltimore health commissioner, is among experts worrying that more-transmissible variants could lead to more case surges if they take hold.
"We've seen what happens in other countries that have actually had coronavirus under relatively good control, then these variants took over and they had explosive spread of the virus, and then overwhelmed hospitals," Wen told CNN Monday.
'Get as many people vaccinated as quickly as you possibly can'
One obvious way to combat these variants -- and to lessen the chances of more-dangerous mutations from occurring -- Fauci has said, is to get vaccinated.
"The best way you prevent the evolution of mutants is to suppress the amount of virus that's circulating in the population. And the best way to do that is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as you possibly can," Fauci told CNN on Monday.
Evidence indicates the effectiveness of vaccine-induced antibodies might be diminished against the mutant first seen in South Africa, but "it's still well within the cushion-range of being an effective vaccine," Fauci said.
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has stressed that rich nations need to do more to ensure vaccines are available worldwide. That's not only for moral reasons but also because dangerous mutations could emerge in places where people are not vaccinated in sufficient numbers -- and end up sickening people already vaccinated.
"A me-first approach leaves the world's poorest and most vulnerable people at risk. It's also self-defeating," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.
Keep masking up, experts say
The steps people should take to fight variants and get the country closer to normal while waiting for vaccines follow the now-familiar roadmap of pandemic precautions, from wearing masks to avoiding crowds to basic hand-washing.
New strains put "a lot of pressure on us to try (to) do everything we can to get transmission down," Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC, said Tuesday.
"Vaccines are part of that, but the biggest part of that is trying to come together as a nation and see: Can we get those people who aren't wearing masks to do so? Can we get people to social distance and avoid crowded indoor places?" he said
"If we can do those things, we can blunt the impact of the pandemic this winter."
These prevention measures in tandem with the vaccine rollout -- even over several months -- should bring increasing relief, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, told CNN late last week.
"I am hopeful that by late spring into early summer, life will begin to feel really meaningfully different and better," he said.
CNN's Amanda Watts, Elizabeth Cohen, John Bonifield, Andrea Diaz, Maggie Fox, Naomi Thomas, Sandee LaMotte, Deidre McPhillips and Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI The dining room of the senior living facility, which has mostly been empty since the start of the pandemic, was busy with activity again.
Music played over speakers, loud conversations filled the room and pharmacists drew dose after dose of the Moderna vaccine from small vials.
Over 200 residents and staff of a Grand Rapids senior living facility received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Thursday. The vaccinations followed several recent coronavirus cases at the residential building.
Everyones excited and hopeful that this is a step in the right direction, said Beth Covault, executive director of Samaritas Senior Living Grand Rapids.
Samaritas partnered with CVS to vaccinate its staff and residents at The Woods building, 1900 32nd St. SE.
Sue Spielmaker, a licensed practical nurse with Samaritas, received her first dose at the temporary vaccination clinic. It took about two minutes for a pharmacist to put fresh gloves on, sanitize her arm and give her a long-awaited shot.
I feel wonderful, she said immediately after.
Spielmaker was then handed a chocolate Kiss from a basket that said kiss COVID goodbye.
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Direct care workers, residents, staff receive COVID-19 vaccine at senior living facility
Healthcare workers, residents and staff of long-term care facilities like The Woods are high on the list for vaccinations. In Michigan, they are a part of the first phase which started at the end of December.
Its been an eventful year, said Covault. This is just such a positive experience. Everyone seems more refreshed, energized.
RELATED: Ottawa County says current COVID-19 vaccine allotment isnt cutting it
The stress of the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on the staff and residents of The Woods, said Covault. The building recently had a wave of cases, and it can be difficult for residents with cognitive impairments to social distance and remain isolated.
Jill Schrotenboer, the administrator of The Woods, said its been a long, hard 10 months at their facility but the vaccine brings hope.
It was quite emotional for me to see them get it, said Schrotenboer, who has worked with Samaritas for more than two decades.
Strict restrictions have only allowed residents to see their families with outdoor or window visits, which has been heartbreaking, but the vaccine takes a step forward in bringing families back together, Covault said.
RELATED: 10,000 veterans and healthcare workers vaccinated at Ann Arbor VA hospital
The Woods also stopped all in-person dining, programming and activities when COVID-19 hit. Schrotenboer is looking forward to residents being able to congregate and mingle again.
I hope that (the vaccine) will allow us to get back to what is kind of normal, she said.
Both Schrotenboer and Covault said the vaccine shows theres a light at the end of the tunnel.
Michigan also recently started allowing anyone over the age of 65 to sign up for a vaccination as well as expanded categories of frontline workers like teachers, corrections staff and workers at homeless shelters.
The state is aiming to vaccinate 70% of the state by the end of the year. About 800,000 Michigan residents have been vaccinated to date, which is about 8% of the nearly 10 million residents.
To register for a vaccine, visit vaccinatewestmi.com.
More on MLive:
57% of Michigan nursing home staff, residents decline COVID-19 vaccine so far
9 retired nuns die from COVID-19 in January at Adrian home
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To start, the vaccine appointments this weekend are being offered to central office and school-based employees, including teachers.
Teachers in Prince Georges County, Maryland, are set to start getting COVID-19 vaccine appointments this weekend, part of a big push to get school employees vaccinated before students return to classrooms this spring, the school system announced.
Prince Georges County Public Schools is working with the county health department and Kaiser Permanente to provide vaccinations for teachers and other school staff members, according to a news release Thursday.
The appointments start this weekend and are expected to run for six to eight weeks.
From the beginning of the pandemic, the safety of our students and staff has been my top priority as we navigate these unprecedented times, schools CEO Monica Goldson said in a statement. With the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine, I am encouraging all Prince Georges County Public Schools (PGCPS) employees to get vaccinated for their own safety and that of the children and families we serve.
To start, the vaccine appointments this weekend are being offered to central office and school-based employees, including teachers.
The school system is sending individual registration links directly to school employees to make appointments and are telling staff members not to share their registration link with anyone else.
Staff members will need to use their school system email to register for their appointments and also need to bring a work ID card or another form of employment verification, such as a printed pay stub or a supervisors memo to their appointment.
The appointments will take place at the Prince Georges Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, starting Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, and then Saturdays and Sundays after that. The appointments will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Next week, the school system will open appointments to support staff, including employees in building services, food and nutrition services, transportation and IT staff. Those appointments start Feb. 3 and will take place at the Kaiser Permanente Lanham Rehabilitation Center at 4400 Forbes Blvd. in Lanham. Support staff appointments will run Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
School employees will receive paid leave for the following day after their vaccine appointment or the Monday after their vaccine appointment for people vaccinated on weekends. Teachers are instructed to provide either recorded lessons or independent work for their students that day.
We are encouraging all employees to get vaccinated for their safety as well as their familys safety, schools spokeswoman Gabrielle Chew said in an email to WTOP. In an effort to allow for a recuperation period, some classes may be asynchronous, rather than live, to accommodate employees who recently received a vaccination. We want to make this as seamless as possible.
Teachers and child care employees are included in Marylands Phase 1b vaccine rollout plan. However, given the extremely limited supply of the vaccine doses, there has been a slow rollout to educators as health officials focus on getting vaccine doses to those age 75 and older.
In neighboring Montgomery County, teachers are beginning to receive vaccine doses this week by Johns Hopkins and Suburban Hospital. Overall, there are 8,775 doses of the vaccine, but the doses will be shared by public school employees and regular hospital patients who are older than 65.
School employees eligible for the vaccine doses are being identified by Montgomery County Public Schools and referred to the hospital for scheduling.
Elsewhere in the D.C. region, a mass vaccination of teachers in Prince William County, Virginia, is planned for this weekend. In Fairfax County, several thousand teachers are getting vaccine appointments this week after earlier appointments were canceled due to a shortage of vaccine doses.
More Coronavirus News
Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia|Maryland|D.C.
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These interactive graphics and maps will show you how many people have received the COVID-19 vaccine in Colorado and beyond.
DENVER After months of staying home to slow the spread of COVID-19, a vaccine is finally here. But, that doesn't mean the pandemic is suddenly over.
Health officials in Colorado and around the world are working to distribute the vaccine to as many people as possible in a race against a virus that continues to take thousands of lives around the U.S. each day.
This effort has even more urgency due to new strains of COVID-19 that are believed to be even more infectious.
> The video above is from a previous 9NEWS story where 9Health Expert Dr. Payal Kohli discussed the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines on new variants of the virus.
Colorado's vaccination plan has three phases. Frontline healthcare workers were the first to receive vaccines, followed by Coloradans over the age of 70. Essential workers -- including teachers and grocery store employees -- are next in line, followed by Coloradans over 60 and those with preexisting conditions.
The general public isn't expected to begin receiving vaccines until the summer.
Officials are targeting vaccinating 70% to 95% of the population in order to achieve "herd immunity," or a level in which COVID-19 can no longer spread in the community.
The chart below shows the percentage of Coloradans who have received their first and second shots of the COVID-19 vaccine as compared to that herd immunity number.
Different states have different strategies when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Each state is constrained by the supply of the vaccine, which is dictated by what the federal government receives from manufacturers.
Here's a look at the percent of the population who have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by state.
Can't see the interactive?Click here.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) updates its vaccine statistics at 4 p.m. each day. Click here for the latest data, which includes a breakdown of the race and genderof who has received a vaccine.
Below are previous stories from 9NEWS about the COVID-19 vaccination process in Colorado.
Do you have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine or newstips you'd like to share? Text them to 303-871-1491.
Officials said that the University of Tennessee Medical Center's goal is to vaccinate as many people as quickly and efficiently as they can.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Officials announced Thursday that the University of Tennessee Medical Center will start scheduling appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine.
The appointments are available for people 75 years old and up, officials said. People can register onlineor call UT Medical Center at (865) 305-6225. Only the patient and one support person will be allowed to enter the medical center, due to COVID-19 safety guidelines.
People will need an email address to sign up, or they can type "NONE@NONE" in the form if they don't have an email account. They will also need to bring proof of their age, such as a driver's license, birth certificate or other officials documents.
Insurance is not required to receive a vaccine, officials said.
People who receive a vaccination will be able to get a second dose 3 weeks later, on the same day of the week and at the same time as the original appointment.
The Knox County Health Department also announced that they would open more COVID-19 vaccine appointments Friday and that they were preparing to roll out a new waiting list system for people who want to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Officials said that they expect the appointments to fill up almost immediately because of the huge demand for vaccines. It only took a few minutes for nearly 1,000 appointments to fill up during the previous opportunity at the health department.
