COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

[Daehawk]

I thought it used to be there.

[LawBeefaroni]

THERES 10 FUCKING MILLION PEOPLE HERE! You can combine 7 FUCKING STATES TOGETHER AND THEY STLL AREN'T AS BIG AS LA COUNTY. 10 million people are exactly 10 million people. No one in the country is trying to vaccinate as many people as LA county is trying to vaccinate. No one. Believe it or not, vaccinating more people takes longer. Apparently it should all happen instantaneously but somehow it just can’t work that way. They are still vaccinating health care workers because unimaginably there are hundreds of thousands of health care workers here. Two friends of mine, a nurse practitioner and a chiropractor are still waiting for their vaccination. And since the county can’t force volunteers to work on a holiday, Dodger stadium closed for a day. Unbelievably Dodger stadium is not the only place doing vaccinations. So adding another near million more people simply brings more chaos and makes no sense. Plus they are almost out of vaccine anyway.

I don’t hear any complaints from people who actually understand the situation. I’d love to get vaccinated today but health care workers have to come first.

Also note that federal law prevents anyone using volunteers to force them to show up.

Lastly, weirdly enough, LA county knows how many people are sick with Covid, who’ve recovered from Covid and who’ve died of Covid. They get that information directly from the hospitals.

First of all, it's an issue of scale. I'm not saying it easy but a county of 10M has more resources.

No one is asking for instantaneous vaccination. Just not a full day halt at one of the most crucial times.

No one is blaming healthcare workers. I was questioning why the vaccination clinic shut down for the day. You know who doesn't get MLK day off? Healthcare workers. No hospital was closed yesterday. Healthcare workers are used to it. They do what needs to be done. They can't force volunteers to work on a holiday but did they ask them? Thing about volunteers, they usually step up.

FWIW, I'm in the second largest county in the nation. Yeah, it's a paltry 5.5M but it's still fairly large. I'm getting my second dose this week and we've started on seniors and other 1Bs (teachers, police, incarcerated persons, etc). It's not impossible. It's very difficult with severe headwinds but it can be done at scale.

LA county got screwed on supply, sure. But even if it was 4 counties of 2.5M people each, you'd still be dealing with 10M people. In fact, each would probably have lesser leverage than a single larger entity.


I'm not a fan of our governor, mayor, or county president but they have done a good job on this. Despite the fact that the outgoing administration in DC hates them and had personally attacked 2 of the 3 (maybe all 3, can't remember) and tried to thwart several COVID efforts. Not sure what the leadership situation is in LA but I'd look at them before blaming the rest of the universe.

[LawBeefaroni]

I thought it used to be there.

OP asked for the move. Based on thread history it was a good ask.

[Lorini]

How is discussing vaccines R&P political? If this is R&P then why isn't the other Covid thread R&P? Mask discussion is certainly R&P right? Just because I get annoyed doesn't make it R&P.

[Lorini]

THERES 10 FUCKING MILLION PEOPLE HERE! You can combine 7 FUCKING STATES TOGETHER AND THEY STLL AREN'T AS BIG AS LA COUNTY. 10 million people are exactly 10 million people. No one in the country is trying to vaccinate as many people as LA county is trying to vaccinate. No one. Believe it or not, vaccinating more people takes longer. Apparently it should all happen instantaneously but somehow it just can’t work that way. They are still vaccinating health care workers because unimaginably there are hundreds of thousands of health care workers here. Two friends of mine, a nurse practitioner and a chiropractor are still waiting for their vaccination. And since the county can’t force volunteers to work on a holiday, Dodger stadium closed for a day. Unbelievably Dodger stadium is not the only place doing vaccinations. So adding another near million more people simply brings more chaos and makes no sense. Plus they are almost out of vaccine anyway.

I don’t hear any complaints from people who actually understand the situation. I’d love to get vaccinated today but health care workers have to come first.

Also note that federal law prevents anyone using volunteers to force them to show up.

Lastly, weirdly enough, LA county knows how many people are sick with Covid, who’ve recovered from Covid and who’ve died of Covid. They get that information directly from the hospitals.

First of all, it's an issue of scale. I'm not saying it easy but a county of 10M has more resources.

No one is asking for instantaneous vaccination. Just not a full day halt at one of the most crucial times.

No one is blaming healthcare workers. I was questioning why the vaccination clinic shut down for the day. You know who doesn't get MLK day off? Healthcare workers. No hospital was closed yesterday. Healthcare workers are used to it. They do what needs to be done. They can't force volunteers to work on a holiday but did they ask them? Thing about volunteers, they usually step up.

FWIW, I'm in the second largest county in the nation. Yeah, it's a paltry 5.5M but it's still fairly large. I'm getting my second dose this week and we've started on seniors and other 1Bs (teachers, police, incarcerated persons, etc). It's not impossible. It's very difficult with severe headwinds but it can be done at scale.

LA county got screwed on supply, sure. But even if it was 4 counties of 2.5M people each, you'd still be dealing with 10M people. In fact, each would probably have lesser leverage than a single larger entity.


I'm not a fan of our governor, mayor, or county president but they have done a good job on this. Despite the fact that the outgoing administration in DC hates them and had personally attacked 2 of the 3 (maybe all 3, can't remember) and tried to thwart several COVID efforts. Not sure what the leadership situation is in LA but I'd look at them before blaming the rest of the universe.

We're not seeing leverage here. They should have leverage, we have housing where 12 people live in a 2 bedroom apartment and they aren't getting the vaccine either. The county is way way too big and it's my fervent hope that they break the county up into smaller populations that can be more easily managed. It's ridiculous.

And no, I'm not a fan at all at how the county has handled the pandemic. But given all that's gone on, it doesn't surprise me one bit that I can't get vaccinated at this time.

[Smoove_B]

How is discussing vaccines R&P political?

I think because invariably the vaccine topic dips into government as the feds, states and now locals are all intrinsically tied to the distribution. From there, it *could* spiral into a discussion on the role of government and elected officials, depending on the framing and/or the intention of the person posting.

By way of example, I learned yesterday that the State of NJ has the ability to currently vaccinate about 500K people a day across the mega sites and various satellite locations in our 21 counties. However, based on the latest information from the federal government over the weekend, our state can expect about 100K vaccine doses a week for the next month. Already, my heavily-leaning R county is framing this as our state governor (a Democrat) not sending enough vaccines to my county - which is total nonsense.

Regardless, we now have a supply issue. Add that to the 2+ million people that were just declared eligible last week (after being told we were getting more vaccines by the feds) and now it's complete and total chaos. I had been expecting to be vaccinated late next month. Now? I'll be amazed if it happens before the end of April.

[Lorini]

I would then argue that the other thread should be in R&P as well. I don't want that to happen and in no way should my rant be taken as political. I don't normally go to R&P and I was wondering where the vaccine discussion went to.

[stimpy]

How can you make comments based on perceived Government ineptitude and not think it's political?

[Lorini]

How can you make comments based on perceived Government ineptitude and not think it's political?

The pandemic has been way worse because of government ineptitude yet it's discussed in EBG. You tell me what the difference is. I think both discussions belong here and I think political discussions about what elected politicians are doing belong in R&P. But that's only my opinion.

[LawBeefaroni]

There's an R&P thread and several EBG threads. Whether something "belongs" in R&P in this case has less to do with the topic and more to do with the resulting discussion.

[Blackhawk]

Threads tend to wander, and they tend to wander back. If they moved the thread every time the topic morphed it would be a full-time job. It used to be that way, especially back when R&P was a lot more hostile than it is now. But we've relaxed a bit, and staff has, too. They generally don't move threads that could go either way unless it becomes blatant or the OP requests it.

[Lorini]

LA County will start vaccinating seniors over 65 on Thursday. So there you have it. I don't know, my friend who is a nurse practitioner and faces Covid patients daily still can't get vaccinated, would feel like I was taking her vaccine, so I may wait. Their website is not taking appointments now though, I'll keep checking throughout the day as my friend said she wants me to be vaccinated first. Not real comfortable about that but I'll do as she asks.

[dbt1949]

In Arkansas the started Monday on people over 70. The problem is they only have like five percent of the vaccine needed. So, very long waiting lists.

[Defiant]

I thought I was going nuts, not being able to find this thread. Nice to know that that's not the reason I'm going nuts.

Israel’s coronavirus tsar has warned that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be providing less protection than originally hoped, as the country reported a record 10,000 new Covid infections on Monday.

In remarks reported by Army Radio, Nachman Ash said a single dose appeared “less effective than we had thought”, and also lower than Pfizer had suggested.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... n-we-hoped

[$iljanus]

LA County will start vaccinating seniors over 65 on Thursday. So there you have it. I don't know, my friend who is a nurse practitioner and faces Covid patients daily still can't get vaccinated, would feel like I was taking her vaccine, so I may wait. Their website is not taking appointments now though, I'll keep checking throughout the day as my friend said she wants me to be vaccinated first. Not real comfortable about that but I'll do as she asks.

It really sucks about how many people who work with COVID patients can’t get vaccinated and I understand your guilt. But remember that with every vaccinated person that’s one less COVID patient that needs to be seen so you’re helping your friend and others!

[LawBeefaroni]

Yeah, if you can get it, get it. The problem isn't a queueing issue, it's a logistical one. You're not taking away from someone else.

[Lorini]

Well because California is not following this CDC guideline "1c: People aged 65 through 74 years and People aged 16 through 64 years with underlying medical conditions and Other essential workers" I can't get it now. I'm on hold on the phone with the California vaccine people to find out why they aren't following that guideline. I'm 63 and have an underlying medical condition.

[Daehawk]

With 4 COVID19 strains now its getting hairy.

[Smoove_B]

Well because California is not following this CDC guideline "1c: People aged 65 through 74 years and People aged 16 through 64 years with underlying medical conditions and Other essential workers" I can't get it now. I'm on hold on the phone with the California vaccine people to find out why they aren't following that guideline. I'm 63 and have an underlying medical condition.

States don't need to follow the CDC - the CDC just makes their recommendation as to what should be done. If California doesn't feel like they can or should open up the vaccination categories, that's their call - they know how to run their own vaccination program (ideally).

This is also why public health in the United States is a complete mess. Depending on where you live (State, region, zip code), the services you have access to might be completely different than someone in a different area; we don't have unified, equitable offerings. Public health is a patch-work service and has been for 75+ years.

Here's what I could find about LA County:

County public health officials have said they expect that all eligible healthcare workers will receive their first dose in the next two weeks, and that they’ll be able to move on to the next phase of vaccinations in early February. Those eligible in the next phase include people 65 and older, as well as those who work in education, child care, emergency services, or food and agriculture and face risk of exposure.

[Lorini]

They updated that yesterday.

"Los Angeles County residents who are of age 65 and older can now make appointments to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, county Supervisor Kathryn Barger announced Monday.

Starting Tuesday, those 65 and older, as well as those in Phase 1A, are able to make appointments via vaccinatelacounty.com, according to city of Santa Clarita officials."

My ex husband who lives with me is 67, so I made an appointment for him and then I went through the process to make an appointment for me, noting that I was 63 with underlying conditions, and they made the appointment for me as well, so we'll see.

Here's the article
https://signalscv.com/2021/01/covid-19- ... up-sooner/

It's also on the latimes.com page, but that's a paywall.

[Jeff V]

While I'll get the vaccine if I'm ever able to do so (late 50's, underlying conditions, expect my number will come up in a few years), my enthusiasm is tempered by the lack of a child-friendly vaccine. We'll have to stay quarantined until there's a vaccine available for the kids. I expect this will be when the kids aren't kids anymore, a couple of decades.

[Daehawk]

While I'll get the vaccine if I'm ever able to do so (late 50's, underlying conditions, expect my number will come up in a few years), my enthusiasm is tempered by the lack of a child-friendly vaccine. We'll have to stay quarantined until there's a vaccine available for the kids. I expect this will be when the kids aren't kids anymore, a couple of decades.

[Jeff V]

News reported this morning that next group (60+) will begin on May 31. I'll be 59 by then.

[Max Peck]

Given the turnaround time to develop new COVID-19 vaccines, I figure there's a good chance that by the time my turn comes the flavour-of-the-week vaccine will cover the new South African variant as well as COVID Classic.

[malchior]

[Daehawk]

Crom!

[Max Peck]

The Second-Generation COVID Vaccines Are Coming

Six months ago, as the northern hemisphere was still battling the coronavirus pandemic’s first wave, all eyes turned to the COVID-19 vaccines in late-stage clinical trials. Now, a year after the pandemic first erupted, three COVID vaccines have been given emergency authorization by either the U.S. or U.K., as well as other countries. Two of the vaccines, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna, respectively, both employ a novel genetic technology known as mRNA. And the third is a more conventional vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca that uses a chimpanzee virus to deliver DNA for a component of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. (Russia, China and India have rolled out their own vaccines, but with the exception of a few countries, they have not been widely authorized elsewhere.)

But impressive as they are, these vaccines alone will likely not be sufficient to end the pandemic, experts say. Luckily, there are hundreds of other COVID vaccines under development—including many with new mechanisms of action—that could prove to be effective and cheaper and easier to distribute.

[Kraken]

I'm holding out for the sugar cube version.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Eli Lilly Antibody Drug Prevents Covid-19 in Nursing Homes, Study Finds

Eli Lilly LLY -0.76% & Co. said its antibody-based drug prevented Covid-19 among many residents and staff of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, results that point to the drug complementing vaccines while inoculations increase.

The drug, called bamlanivimab, reduced the risk of both staff and residents getting sick with Covid-19 by about 57% compared with a placebo, Lilly said Thursday. The effect was more pronounced among residents, the company said, an 80% reduction in risk of Covid-19.

The findings signal the potential for a new preventive weapon that could augment the fledgling Covid-19 vaccination effort to stem the pandemic.

Lilly said it would ask U.S. health regulators to widen the drug’s authorized use to include protecting people in long-term-care facilities where someone has recently been diagnosed with Covid-19.

[Daehawk]

If a drug was 1% effective wouldn't that automatically make it 100% better than a placebo?

[LawBeefaroni]

Got my second jab today.


Licked a few door handles on the way back, feel fine!

If a drug was 1% effective wouldn't that automatically make it 100% better than a placebo?

Placebo is a control, not a fake drug.

[YellowKing]

I'm getting my first dose in the morning.

I'll have to say I've been really proud of our community effort. Since receiving the first doses we've performed 12,000 vaccinations. Yesterday our local movie theater donated its building to be used as a public vaccination center, and 900 doses were administered. They are expecting to ramp up to 1500 doses a day over the coming week.

Really the only constraint at this point is the vaccine supply itself, as they believe they could do more. The hospital staff have done an incredible job scaling from dozens of frontline employee vaccinations to thousands of public vaccinations in the span of a couple of weeks.

It certainly gives me hope that we will get this thing knocked out sooner rather than later.

[Defiant]

Got my second jab today.


Licked a few door handles on the way back, feel fine!

You have to wait 14 days after the second jab before licking door handles.

[Lorini]

Got my Pfizer dose today. Thought it would take longer, but we got there early, got pushed through quickly and left. Can’t wait til a month from now when I should be truly covered.

[LawBeefaroni]

Got my second jab today.


Licked a few door handles on the way back, feel fine!

You have to wait 14 days after the second jab before licking door handles.

Phew, thanks for that info! Just gargled some hydroxychloroquine and took a few heartworm pills. I should be good for 14 days.

[stessier]

If a drug was 1% effective wouldn't that automatically make it 100% better than a placebo?

Placebo is a control, not a fake drug.

Also, placebos are not 0% effective, generally.

[Paingod]

If a drug was 1% effective wouldn't that automatically make it 100% better than a placebo?

Placebo is a control, not a fake drug.

Also, placebos are not 0% effective, generally.

That's the best part. Convince someone you'll make them well and their mind may make it so.

[LawBeefaroni]

All over soreness from the second shot yesterday, feels like I spent 3 hours at the gym. Also had trouble sleeping but nothing major.

[Zaxxon]

All over soreness from the second shot yesterday, feels like I spent 3 hours at the gym. Also had trouble sleeping but nothing major.

FWIW, my wife and MIL have both been vaccinated (both Pfizer) and had similar experiences. The first shot was similar to a flu shot for them--little soreness but nothing significant. 2nd shot knocked them both down pretty well--more soreness, general malaise, etc.

[Kraken]

All over soreness from the second shot yesterday, feels like I spent 3 hours at the gym. Also had trouble sleeping but nothing major.

FWIW, my wife and MIL have both been vaccinated (both Pfizer) and had similar experiences. The first shot was similar to a flu shot for them--little soreness but nothing significant. 2nd shot knocked them both down pretty well--more soreness, general malaise, etc.

I just talked to a friend last night who had the same experience.