COVID-19/Coronavirus thread

[Chisoxfn]

Has there been any update on how the studies have been going on the vaccine for kids?  I know everything there was delayed with way lower take-ups, etc but hadn't seen anything in past few weeks.  

[StrangeSox]

UK is doing 6-17 with the Oxford/AZ vaccine son. Pfizer's full enrolled in their 12-16 range and will slowly ramp down in age every couple of months or so. Fauci said kids maybe by September, but he's always floating different dates for things so take that with a grain of salt. I haven't really heard much of anything about trials for kids under 6. I'm assuming it's going to be late 2022 before my kids can get vaccinated.

[NWINFan]

6 hours ago, Harry Chappas said:

Sadly I know too many GOP folks that are not getting the vaccine.  

The fact politics in this country has come to this is scary.  The 54 year far left lady that works for me got vaccinated because she had to walk down the hall and it was free other than that she was going to opt out for no good reason.

Insanity 

From the beginning the pandemic has been made political and that has only led to more problems. Yes, the political situation in the country is scary, and it hasn't helped that so much misinformation has been out there. It has only led to more loss of life. Tragic.

[The Beast]

4 hours ago, Chisoxfn said:

Has there been any update on how the studies have been going on the vaccine for kids?  I know everything there was delayed with way lower take-ups, etc but hadn't seen anything in past few weeks.  

A summary from The Daily on “Children and Covid” with Michael Barbaro and Apoorva Mandavilli.

“At the end of the US vaccination campaign, a quarter of the population will not be vaccinated. At the end of the summer, parents may be vaccinated, but their kids won’t be.

Kids don’t get sick at the same rate adults do. Covid is mild in kids. The risk for kids is very different. Most young kids don’t get symptoms and some do get sick. Overall, there have been 250 deaths in kids versus 500,000 deaths in adults.

Like returning to schools, or when the vaccines will be available to all, there is a moving target with information known about transmission in kids. The elementary ages of kids are half as transmissible as adults are. Older teens are more likely to transmit, right around the age of 15.

By the end of the year or early next year, we will need kids to be vaccinated. We need 80% of the population to be vaccinated to get to herd immunity and kids are a part of that population. 

Pfizer and Moderna have clinical trials for kids 12 and older and we should know results by the summer. Kids younger than that should be included in those trials after that and we won’t have results on that until the fall and the results with vaccines until the end of the year or even early next year.

Will parents have their kids get the vaccine especially if they reason that the virus isn’t as much of a problem? Would companies showing data that they are safe and with minimal side effects put your mind at ease to vaccinate your kids?

Will teachers and staff go back to work this fall with vaccines? What if it is a requirement to make it a priority to vaccinate teachers and not a requirement for in person instruction to resume? What if everyone has to wear masks for instruction to resume?

Grandparents, likely to be vaccinated and wanting to see their unvaccinated children in the coming months. “I’m vaccinated, I might carry the virus but I’m not going to get very sick from it.” Is that the right calculation? Will people be able to hug their grandkids without a mask on before putting it back on?

There are no guarantees. Numbers are falling because of the precautions being in place. Variants will become dominant, especially by mid March in the United States. If restrictions are lifted we could see increases in cases, but not necessarily in deaths or hospitalizations and could bring on a new wave. 

So what do we do? Keep washing hands, wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Get vaccinated. Hold on until the end of the year until kids can get vaccinated.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/podcasts/the-daily/coronavirus-pandemic-children-vaccinations.html

[bmags]

 

march is gonna be big, and it has to be. So yeah, the country publich health websites saying 1C may not start for months...full of shit.

[bmags]

Speaking of, vax rates in IL have been pretty meh since the snowstorm for real reasons, but looks like there was a big catch-up in reporting today with 130k! that puts the 7-day at 66k, which is great for what happened last week. I wonder if we can hit 100k/day soon in march, that would put us at around 45% of population vaccinated heading into April.

[greg775]

I'm definitely willing to do anything to avoid Covid knock on wood and have made the decision to take the vaccines as presented to me. I'm just waiting to get the call it's my turn. I was wondering though ... isn't it strange we are hearing today it might be wise to get three doses? Does the fact there is discussion about what should be done at this point concern anybody? Shouldn't our scientists be convinced at the proper course of action and that's that? And shouldn't we hear daily reports of any problems of people who have been vaccinated? 

p.s. I think I read too many articles. They can scare/confuse a person after a while.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/third-pfizer-dose-covid-19-vaccine-maker-studying-booster-shots-n1258775

Edited February 25, 2021 by greg775

[Balta1701]

8 minutes ago, greg775 said:

I'm definitely willing to do anything to avoid Covid knock on wood and have made the decision to take the vaccines as presented to me. I'm just waiting to get the call it's my turn. I was wondering though ... isn't it strange we are hearing today it might be wise to get three doses? Does the fact there is discussion about what should be done at this point concern anybody? Shouldn't our scientists be convinced at the proper course of action and that's that? And shouldn't we hear daily reports of any problems of people who have been vaccinated? 

p.s. I think I read too many articles. They can scare/confuse a person after a while.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/third-pfizer-dose-covid-19-vaccine-maker-studying-booster-shots-n1258775

No, it is not strange. The booster shots would be in response to the virus having evolved over time. Evolving our response to deal with new variants makes perfect sense. 

[hogan873]

I'd get a shot once a month if that is what's required to stay ahead of variants.  I don't think it will come to anything so drastic, but I don't doubt that boosters will be required.

[Texsox]

It looks like I'm getting the Pfizer vaccine. My wife was there today. The facility is in a space that formerly was a major department store. Thousands of people being pushed through. They are using three levels of the building.  She felt like cattle and since in her previous life she owned a dairy farm with many hundreds of cows,  she should know. 

 

 

[bmags]

58 minutes ago, hogan873 said:

I'd get a shot once a month if that is what's required to stay ahead of variants.  I don't think it will come to anything so drastic, but I don't doubt that boosters will be required.

I'd take a microchip that let them monitor my different titer levels and boost more vaccine into me from their satellites.

[bmags]

On 2/23/2021 at 1:33 PM, southsideirish71 said:

Sure I won't die as I get Covid that week.  But in the end, I can still get covid, have cardiac issues, and all of the other fine stuff that goes along with these "mild" cases.   Getting a mild case of covid might still be a death sentence for me in the long run.  I already have cardiac issues and other side effects with my diabetes.  I don't need another kicker for my issues. 

 

If I was a normal healthy individual.  Sure bring on whatever.  I would take any shot no worries. 

My wife (pregnancy) was able to get an appt just now thru Walgreens. Hope you see this and can try your luck!

[southsideirish71]

3 hours ago, bmags said:

 I'd take a microchip that let them monitor my different titer levels and boost more vaccine into me from their satellites.

I love the microchip argument.  "I dont want Bill Gates to track me."  They of course post this on their smart phone. 

[southsideirish71]

1 hour ago, bmags said:

My wife (pregnancy) was able to get an appt just now thru Walgreens. Hope you see this and can try your luck!

I am taking my shot with a bunch of these providers.  Thank you.  Congrats on the upcoming addition to the family.    

[Balta1701]

Well, after a week of this I unfortunately think we can call this a trend. We got down to under 70k cases a day in the moving average, but this week it turned around and it has gone up every day this week, now up to 77k. 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

The drop off over the last month was almost certainly a combination of the vaccine and people not gathering as much after XMas. An increase this week could be one of two things - the Super Bowl leading to gatherings, or the B.1.1.7 variant taking over the trend. Based on the data from January, this is right about when that variant should be reaching 20-40% of the total cases, so if it is growing rapidly then we could actually be seeing its effect in case numbers.

[bmags]

33 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Well, after a week of this I unfortunately think we can call this a trend. We got down to under 70k cases a day in the moving average, but this week it turned around and it has gone up every day this week, now up to 77k. 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

The drop off over the last month was almost certainly a combination of the vaccine and people not gathering as much after XMas. An increase this week could be one of two things - the Super Bowl leading to gatherings, or the B.1.1.7 variant taking over the trend. Based on the data from January, this is right about when that variant should be reaching 20-40% of the total cases, so if it is growing rapidly then we could actually be seeing its effect in case numbers.

I think this is going to end up being true, I'm like 80% convinced on that.

But the other part of me is just really hoping this is due to last week being artificially lower due to the storms and people waiting, and the typical cascading delays of reporting which typically makes wed/thurs higher.

But more likely is it's going back up.

I do wonder, I would imagine a decent percentage of the daily tests come from groups that are forced to work. As they get vaccinated, if we are going to miss some signals from groups that are more likely to just get a test after known contact.

[bmags]

IL hits 2 straight days over 100k

[Texsox]

I can't believe what an assembly line for vaccines. If my calculations are correct this facility is knocking out close to 6,000 per day. Just a steady stream of humans. 

[mqr]

3 minutes ago, Texsox said:

I can't believe what an assembly line for vaccines. If my calculations are correct this facility is knocking out close to 6,000 per day. Just a steady stream of humans. 

The state PD is putting like 12,000 people a day or something absurd like that through McCormick place. It’s insane. 

[Texsox]

2 minutes ago, mqr said:

The state PD is putting like 12,000 people a day or something absurd like that through McCormick place. It’s insane. 

I believe that's about what we're doing at the Alamodome. Just amazing. And it's not enough. 

UPS is predicting between 5 and 10% of their summer business will be vaccine shipments. 

[Iwritecode]

Meanwhile in my little town...

[Texsox]

San Antonio just announced a text service that will send an alert when appointments are available. I expect everywhere will get better as we gain experience. I just keep thinking we had months to prepare for this. I can't believe this is the best we can do. 

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, Texsox said:

San Antonio just announced a text service that will send an alert when appointments are available. I expect everywhere will get better as we gain experience. I just keep thinking we had months to prepare for this. I can't believe this is the best we can do. 

That’s what happens when there was no attempt at national or Federal coordination for a full year, contracts were simply given to pharmacies and public health departments were left out of the loop...to the previous administration, just coming up with a vaccine itself was the victory that would theoretically allow for a second term.   But there was no to no thought given collectively or collaboratively on how to distribute it effectively.  It was more like a political prop or tool.

[bmags]

Illinois will enter March with an 80k/day pace. The US breaks new record with 2.4 million in a day. 

And now we are about to get big supply increases.

LFG

[greg775]

Are we in a stage we can sort of "let our guard down?" Just asking because I have some travel opportunities and still am not crazy about getting on a plane or train or bus or stay in a hotel. I have not had the opportunity to be vaccinated yet.

I ask because at least around here the general consensus is people are going back to work in person, people are letting their guards down definitely. I know a lot of this has been political but where do you all see us in terms of safety/everyday life? I STILL don't want to get COVID. Thank u.