What! Denise and I are something like 89K in line and they have only received 3000 doses. If that's not a shortage, I don't know what is. And this is just the wait for up to 1B.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Coronavirus
- Thread starter Wenche
- Start date
bkp_duke
Well-Known Member
Not true. If production is constantly ramping up, there is no need to store the the 2nd dose.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
I'd even say better to not store the second dose, less chance of something happening to it over time.
U.S. races to catch up with other countries in COVID-19 sequencing research
"Medical experts have warned for months that the U.S. is falling far behind other countries in research on the evolution of the coronavirus, in both speed and comprehensiveness of approach. In early December, the discovery of a faster-spreading variant of COVID-19 in the U.K. lent urgency to the need for genetic sequencing that will help determine whether treatment regimens and vaccines remain effective against new mutations of the virus.
In the U.S., the first case of the U.K. variant B.1.17 was discovered in Colorado in December, and since then, at least 15 states have identified cases of the strain. Public health experts say it was already likely spreading here unseen, a casualty of the country's delayed COVID-19 sequencing campaign, and warned that other new homegrown variants could also be mutating without anyone's knowledge.
The U.S. is estimated to lag behind more than 30 nations in its sequencing effort, according to an analysis by the Broad Institute, from the global GISAID Initiative database.
But Colorado, where the first case of the faster-spreading U.K. variant was found in the U.S., is rushing to reverse this trend. The state has expanded its public health staff and equipment to speed its efforts. Its labs have identified the genetic sequencing of 1,400 samples so far and aim to sequence some 200 samples a week."
-----------------
Trying to catch up, good.
"Medical experts have warned for months that the U.S. is falling far behind other countries in research on the evolution of the coronavirus, in both speed and comprehensiveness of approach. In early December, the discovery of a faster-spreading variant of COVID-19 in the U.K. lent urgency to the need for genetic sequencing that will help determine whether treatment regimens and vaccines remain effective against new mutations of the virus.
In the U.S., the first case of the U.K. variant B.1.17 was discovered in Colorado in December, and since then, at least 15 states have identified cases of the strain. Public health experts say it was already likely spreading here unseen, a casualty of the country's delayed COVID-19 sequencing campaign, and warned that other new homegrown variants could also be mutating without anyone's knowledge.
The U.S. is estimated to lag behind more than 30 nations in its sequencing effort, according to an analysis by the Broad Institute, from the global GISAID Initiative database.
But Colorado, where the first case of the faster-spreading U.K. variant was found in the U.S., is rushing to reverse this trend. The state has expanded its public health staff and equipment to speed its efforts. Its labs have identified the genetic sequencing of 1,400 samples so far and aim to sequence some 200 samples a week."
-----------------
Trying to catch up, good.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
I think they actually are making sure this is the case, since that is required by the FDA, but it is debatable whether it needs to be. The strategy here depends entirely on your confidence in the picture of future supply. (I am not suggesting a deviation from dosing schedule!)
In any case it’s easy enough to schedule people for a first dose, with an expectation of future supply, and if it doesn’t come through, just boot them and give to people who need their second dose.
That’s a shortage of people to inject your vaccine, or local non-homogeneity of supply, not a shortage of doses. Texas has about 1 million doses available, so there is no shortage of vaccine.
In general, the exact picture here is unclear, and that is not a surprise. But as far as I can tell:
Moderna and Pfizer will be delivering 10-11 million doses each week right now. With a ramp up leading to 200 million delivered by the end of March (that is the contract terms I have heard). Right now we are injecting less than 1 million doses each day.
So there is no shortage of vaccine, and no reason to hold back second doses (though I suspect they are actually doing that in many states, due to lack of clarity on future supply). This is non optimal.
We should inject as many people as possible ASAP, and strictly comply with the dosing schedule. These two things are not incompatible. In parallel perhaps they can do a study of alternative vaccine dosing schedules. But right now there is no reason to deviate from it, since there is no shortage of vaccine.
Again: note “no shortage of vaccine” does NOT mean that demand for a vaccine does not exceed supply! Demand for the vaccine most definitely exceeds supply, yet there is no shortage of the vaccine. Strange but true!
It’s an important distinction, because it informs how to proceed with dosing, who to schedule, what to focus on, etc.
The county websites and information emails say otherwise: Waiting list: 123,420; Doses received 1000; Uallocated doses: 0; Doses administered: 1008 (some vials have two doses). There are supposed to be another 6975 doses shipped next week. This really sounds as if there is a vaccine shortage, not an personnel shortage. (perhaps most went to Houston or something, but they sure aren't around here).
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Yeah.
Because of negligence, at this point. I hope Biden fixes this but at the moment it appears he is just pushing in general mask use. I guess that is triage but hopefully they understand the importance of building up capacity for making quality masks.
With the new variants around it will be important for as many people as possible to be wearing N95s and P100s. I suspect at that point it will be necessary to emphasize to people the importance of protecting their eyes as well.
It’s such a disaster. The basic protections medical workers take (masks, eye protection) seem to work, so if the public would also take these same precautions I suspect it would help.
Quality N95 masks should also be free.
But right now, the situation is that most people think masks don’t work, and they have no idea that eye protection is important. It’s an abject failure of the government to educate the citizenry, and the gov’t has also failed to crack down HARD on the speech of those spreading dangerous lies. It should be pretty clear at this point that it is critically important to prevent speech that is not protected by the 1st Amendment.
The main reason I wear my P100 everywhere I go (with surgical) is that I am much more confident that the filters are not counterfeit- there’s just very little market which is susceptible to such fraud. And it provides robust eye protection of course.
Totally agree with the article’s point that at this point we should be telling people that some masks (and eye protection) protect the wearer, and directing people towards these masks (rather than the crappy ones), and providing them for free, will enhance compliance. The time for appealing to people to help protect others is long past. Just wear something that protects YOU - and is not vented of course.
Maybe Biden will mail every family in the US 5 N95 masks every few weeks, along with 5 sets of cheap safety glasses. That is only 1 billion N95s every month or so, which should be no problem at this point.
Last edited:
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Yeah, as I said (I edited about 10 minutes ago), it could be local supply issues - another problem that needs to be solved. Again, if there are a million doses sitting around unused in Texas, there is not actually a real shortage.
I thought the vials had 5 doses? Is that just Pfizer? They are trying to source low waste syringes that allow an extra dose.
You can get a breakdown if you like, it looks like: COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Trends in the US | CDC COVID Data Tracker
Haven’t played around with it to see whether the state data is there in detail. Just was relying on NY Times which says Texas has administered 55% of 2.1 million doses.
Last edited:
Bit unclear, appears most deaths occurred in the very frail.
Covid-19: Norway investigates 23 deaths in frail elderly patients after vaccination
“There is a possibility that these common adverse reactions, that are not dangerous in fitter, younger patients and are not unusual with vaccines, may aggravate underlying disease in the elderly,” Madsen said. “We are not alarmed or worried about this, because these are very rare occurrences and they occurred in very frail patients with very serious disease,” he emphasised. “We are now asking for doctors to continue with the vaccination, but to carry out extra evaluation of very sick people whose underlying condition might be aggravated by it.” This evaluation includes discussing the risks and benefits of vaccination with the patient and their families to decide whether or not vaccination is the best course.
I had a nightmare earlier this week about staffing a drive-thru clinic here in Colorado. Starting at 6AM, 12 degrees F, still bit dark, walking by a car seeing a patient slumped over their steering wheel with all doors locked. I'll be sure to take my auto glass break if I'm ever voluntold for that duty...
My wife now has COVID symptoms and got a positive test so now I am quarantined at home for 2 weeks. Hopefully she doesn't get any worse, and I don't develop symptoms.
We are not sure how she caught it...
We almost made it to a vaccine, but unfortunately lost that race.
We are not sure how she caught it...
We almost made it to a vaccine, but unfortunately lost that race.
Last edited:
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Very sorry to hear that. That really really sucks. Hopefully remains mild and does not spread. Any idea about the possibilities for exposure? N95 and eye protection in use at all times?
Still very curious about how to lower risk level. Hearing a lot of stories about people not wearing N95 but wearing a mask contracting the virus (which is not surprising, but trying to assess the “anecdata”).
Everyone should be wearing N95 (with surgical over a vented N95 if that is all that is available). And good wraparound eye protection.
I like the 3M 8210 (or 8210V for valved, which I use when exercising outside, to protect myself only, in that low risk environment).
Better yet P100 full face, with vent covered.
Other factors:
Getting a CO2 meter is also a good idea (a couple hundred dollars). Exit buildings immediately if they exceed 500-600ppm. (Atmosphere is just over 400ppm.). This is a proxy for how much of other people’s lung contents you are rebreathing. I don’t worry about this since I am using a P100 at all times inside. I also go to grocery store only on Saturday evenings, which are very quiet, and I do grocery delivery selectively when possible.
Other important factor: High humidity tends to limit virus spread, as it slows and limits evaporation of droplets. This means air-conditioned environments are more dangerous.
But obviously the most important thing is to avoid exposure entirely. You don’t want to have to rely on your defenses.
Last edited:
dhanson865
Well-Known Member
dhanson865
Well-Known Member
adult cartoon humor, edgy, NSFW, dunno how the mods here feel about that. a few extra clicks/taps since I hid it behind spoiler tags but it'll just show you an image if you click to it.
Last edited:
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
I bought a P100 for ~$20 and they last for months. Just remove the filters and wash the mask... I don't understand why I never see anyone else wearing one. I prefer it since it actually seals over my nose which prevents my glasses from fogging. I just hang the mask up and let anything the filters caught 'die'.
Is it? From what I've read is that a COVID infection that starts in the eyes would initially display as conjunctivitis which doesn't appear to be very common with COVID patients. Seems like ~99.9% starts in the lungs with inhaled droplets. Even 'fomites' appear to be of almost no threat.
Last edited:
Still not sure. I was the one doing most of the shopping in my P100 with face shield and gloves. I had to do the high risk stuff like go to the pharmacy to pick up her medications.
I am not sure if I caught it first and was aymptomatic or she caught it first. I still haven't been tested but have no symptoms.
She thought my extreme mask set-up and obsessive cleansing of groceries and mail was overly paranoid, and sometimes she would shop in a home made cloth mask with no eye protection.
She use to be home 100% of the time, but was going stir crazy (COVID fatigue) and so had to get out occasionally. Fact is we will never know, but even people trying to be careful can end up catching this...
By the way, my full face mask with 3M P100 filters and a KN95 on the exhaust port:
Last edited:
Also, for what it is worth, I have stepped up my vitamin regimen now...
I had already been taking extra C, D, Zinc, Turmeric, and NAC
but now added Quercetin, licorice, cinnamon, tonic water & melatonin...
I have a couple of other more controversial things in reserve if I start to get symptoms.
I had already been taking extra C, D, Zinc, Turmeric, and NAC
but now added Quercetin, licorice, cinnamon, tonic water & melatonin...
I have a couple of other more controversial things in reserve if I start to get symptoms.
Last edited:
Similar threads
