COVID-19/Coronavirus thread

[Texsox]

On 3/20/2021 at 12:50 PM, Balta1701 said:

One of the interesting things we learned last year was how every state has its own unemployment insurance system and some of them were designed using old versions of software that had last been updated in the 1980s. So when unemployment applications surged past the great recession and stayed there for 52 weeks now (what an accomplishment!), you had New Jersey trying to find people who knew that language. So yeah...that just ain't happenin'.

In twenty years do you trust Walgreens to still have their pandemic vaccine software up to date? 

[Balta1701]

2 hours ago, Texsox said:

In twenty years do you trust Walgreens to still have their pandemic vaccine software up to date? 

I can't even f***ing use an ecoupon at Walgreens because their app is so bad. 

[Texsox]

5 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

I can't even f***ing use an ecoupon at Walgreens because their app is so bad. 

They are the ones scheduling vaccines now. I think states could do a better job. 

[bmags]

It's hard to make something that works for so many people and connects to constantly changing capacity in just a couple months.

It's good to include walgreens/cvs/walmart etc because they already have a lot of real estate with ability to do vaccines. Something more centralized has benefits, but it requires a lot of planning and this was an all hands on deck, get it out fast as possible so it is what it is at this point.

CVS's new scheduling has been pretty great.

[bmags]

The other thing about walgreens/etc is they actually don't get that much of the vaccines but get a lot of the traffic since they have been the least restrictive (they have followed state guidance rather than county). So, for example, when the state opened up vaccines to high-risk, you couldn't book into cook county's system for any of the dph centers because it only allowed 65+ still. But walgreens you could, and it was slammed for all of that group since it was the one place many in chicagoland could go.

[Balta1701]

12 hours ago, bmags said:

It's hard to make something that works for so many people and connects to constantly changing capacity in just a couple months.

It's good to include walgreens/cvs/walmart etc because they already have a lot of real estate with ability to do vaccines. Something more centralized has benefits, but it requires a lot of planning and this was an all hands on deck, get it out fast as possible so it is what it is at this point.

CVS's new scheduling has been pretty great.

As Tex said, there was plenty of time to do that planning last year, and as I said - the reason it wasn't done was that there was 0 planning done until January 20. So that's the connecting thread.

[caulfield12]

28 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

As Tex said, there was plenty of time to do that planning last year, and as I said - the reason it wasn't done was that there was 0 planning done until January 20. So that's the connecting thread.

Neither CVS nor Walgreen ever publicly committed to Azar's rapid deadline. But in early December, CVS CEO Larry Merlo promised a quick rollout. "We're ready to go," Merlo said in a virtual meeting with investors and analysts. "Once the vaccine hits our facilities, we expect to be in those long-term care facilities within 48 hours later beginning to provide vaccinations in the arms of what is our most vulnerable population."

Both CVS and Walgreens declined to comment for this story. In its announcement on Monday, CVS called its inoculation effort "on schedule based on program parameters." Walgreens, which has a similar but smaller role in the effort, said last week it expected to finish administering its first doses in nursing homes this week. 
 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cvs-walgreens-vaccine-nursing-homes/

 

 

Dr. Virginia Banks says if the U.S. really wants to bring the pandemic to an end, it’s going to take mobile vans of vaccines in neighborhoods where people don’t have transportation — and even giving shots at hair salons and barber shops.

As thousands of pharmacies get shipments of doses and start vaccinations at their stores this week, the country is taking a significant step toward reaching more Americans. Public health officials and advocates, however, say that won’t go far enough in communities where people have been the sickest.

More Black and Hispanic Americans have been hospitalized and died from Covid-19. They often face bigger barriers to get vaccine, too: A lack of transportation. A juggle of multiple jobs. Hesitance because of past mistreatment by the medical community.

CVS Health and Walgreens will play a bigger role in the effort as a federal program ships doses to more of their stores and those of other retail pharmacies. The expansion represents a business opportunity for the nation’s two largest pharmacy chains as they get paid for each vaccine and draw more foot traffic to stores. The vaccine rollout will also test the companies’ commitment to expanding health-care access in Black and Hispanic communities.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/13/cvs-and-walgreens-have-a-chance-to-make-covid-vaccine-rollout-more-equitable.html

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by caulfield12

[bmags]

1 hour ago, Balta1701 said:

As Tex said, there was plenty of time to do that planning last year, and as I said - the reason it wasn't done was that there was 0 planning done until January 20. So that's the connecting thread.

I honestly don't think building an app should have made the top 100 in terms of priorities. The only real issue people have here is that there isn't enough vaccine currently for everyone that wants it.

When there will be plenty of vaccine, they'll be able to sign up online for a convenient time at their nearby CVS/Walgreens/Jewel/Costco/Walmart/Local general practicioner or through a local public health designated vaccination center using ZocDoc, or they can call the central hotline or pharmacy.

There is nothing particularly bad about Walgreens app, it was really bad initially then they fixed it in weeks. That's actually an impressive timeline for developing something like that. Albertsons (Jewel), and CVS are both good. The Zocdoc app is really convenient. and IL was just able to partner with an existing company vs. developing their own.

But they all suck because they are dealing with a small amount of slots and a bunch of traffic. It's the same reason ticketmaster's app sucks. If the government had a singular app, we'd be talking about how it sucks, because it said it was available but then when you got through it was booked - because it would have to balance benefits of a queueing system vs. getting through as much availability as it can per day.

They did a good job on getting the vaccine developers resources to develop and get approval, a piss-poor job at anticipating resource bottlenecks and distribution. That was really the only path to a smooth rollout, but the public-private apparatus has mobilized rapidly relative the the size of the problem.

[StrangeSox]

Thinking about the initial ACA federal marketplace rollout, for no particular reason

[bmags]

16 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

Thinking about the initial ACA federal marketplace rollout, for no particular reason

This stuff is pretty hard. And yeah, it's bad that a lot of government software runs on COBOL, but there's still an pretty extraordinarily high number of banking functions running on COBOL too, and those are private firms with plenty of need and capital to improve that.

Federalism also makes it harder.

Overall, just letting a bunch of places figure out the online scheduling is probably one of the smarter decisions (probably was just the absence of a decision, but I'll still give credit)

[Iwritecode]

30 minutes ago, bmags said:

This stuff is pretty hard. And yeah, it's bad that a lot of government software runs on COBOL, but there's still an pretty extraordinarily high number of banking functions running on COBOL too, and those are private firms with plenty of need and capital to improve that.

Federalism also makes it harder.

Overall, just letting a bunch of places figure out the online scheduling is probably one of the smarter decisions (probably was just the absence of a decision, but I'll still give credit)

I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I spent 16 years programming in COBOL. My last job was thrilled to find me because I knew the language and was under the age of 40.

It's one of those things where it's not broken and it's been working just fine for the last 50 years, so a lot of companies don't want to spend the massive amount of time and money it would take to upgrade all their systems to something newer. The problem they are running into instead is that they average age of their programmers is usually 55+ and they can't find younger talent to take over when their current people inevitably start to retire.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Iwritecode

[bmags]

5 minutes ago, Iwritecode said:

I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I spent 16 years programming in COBOL. My last job was thrilled to find me because I knew the language and was under the age of 40.

It's one of those things where it's not broken and it's been working just fine for the last 50 years, so a lot of companies don't want to spend the massive amount of time and money it would take to upgrade all their systems to something newer. The problem they are running into instead is that they average age of their programmers is usually 55+ and they can't find younger talent to take over when their current people inevitably start to retire.

Ha, that's actually amazing.

I keep picturing 20 years from now where the top paid employee at JP Morgan is going to be this like 75 year old programmer who is the only one that knows all of the systems that they keep throwing more and more money at to stay out of retirement.

[Iwritecode]

11 minutes ago, bmags said:

Ha, that's actually amazing.

I keep picturing 20 years from now where the top paid employee at JP Morgan is going to be this like 75 year old programmer who is the only one that knows all of the systems that they keep throwing more and more money at to stay out of retirement.

The biggest issue is that it's simply not a language that is taught anymore. I know the local community college where I learned it no longer offers it. I checked NIU (which partners with our CC) and they have one single class on it.

[bmags]

56 minutes ago, Iwritecode said:

The biggest issue is that it's simply not a language that is taught anymore. I know the local community college where I learned it no longer offers it. I checked NIU (which partners with our CC) and they have one single class on it.

Yeah, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy of nobody teaching it because nobody wanting to learn it and nobody learning it because nobody teaches it. But, this stuff inevitably figures itself out when they are forced to figure it out.

[StrangeSox]

Ancient legacy tech undergirding tons and tons of absolutely critical systems in public and private sectors that are increasingly unservicable because nobody knows how to work on them anymore is a big looming issue. Similar things on the physical skills side in the nuclear industry where much of the workforce is rapidly approaching retirement age and nobody young is joining because it's a dying industry!

[StrangeSox]

AZ's large-scale, not-a-complete-disaster US trial found ~80% efficacy in preventing symptoms and 100% efficacy in preventing deaths and hospitalizations. 

 

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/astrazeneca-us-trial-data-shows-vaccine-79-effective-76600407

 

LONDON -- AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against disease and complete protection against hospitalization and death across all age groups in a late-stage U.S. study, the company announced Monday.

AstraZeneca said its experts also identified no safety concerns related to the vaccine, including a rare blood clot that was identified in Europe. Scientists found no increased risk of clots among the more than 20,000 people who got at least one dose of the AstraZeneca shot.

 

Although AstraZeneca's vaccine has been authorized in more than 50 countries, it has not yet been given the green light in the U.S. The U.S. study comprised more than 30,000 volunteers, of whom two-thirds were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots.

In a statement, AstraZeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine had a 79% efficacy rate at preventing symptomatic COVID and was 100% effective in stopping severe disease and hospitalization. Investigators said the vaccine was effective across all ages, including older people — which previous studies in other countries had failed to establish.

[Quin]

5 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

AZ's large-scale, not-a-complete-disaster US trial found ~80% efficacy in preventing symptoms and 100% efficacy in preventing deaths and hospitalizations. 

 

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/astrazeneca-us-trial-data-shows-vaccine-79-effective-76600407

 

LONDON -- AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against disease and complete protection against hospitalization and death across all age groups in a late-stage U.S. study, the company announced Monday.

AstraZeneca said its experts also identified no safety concerns related to the vaccine, including a rare blood clot that was identified in Europe. Scientists found no increased risk of clots among the more than 20,000 people who got at least one dose of the AstraZeneca shot.

 

Although AstraZeneca's vaccine has been authorized in more than 50 countries, it has not yet been given the green light in the U.S. The U.S. study comprised more than 30,000 volunteers, of whom two-thirds were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots.

In a statement, AstraZeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine had a 79% efficacy rate at preventing symptomatic COVID and was 100% effective in stopping severe disease and hospitalization. Investigators said the vaccine was effective across all ages, including older people — which previous studies in other countries had failed to establish.

[bmags]

illinois's state allocation for this week doesn't look much different than last week, which is a bummer. I was hoping a lot more J&J vaccine, who said they were still on track for 20 million before march to be delivered. Guess it's like, dropping at 11:59 on 3/31.

[lostfan]

It's really an uphill task to convince people that the J&J vaccine isn't necessarily "worse" than Pfizer and Moderna bc of the efficacy numbers. They're really not measuring the same thing and they weren't tested the same way.

[Iwritecode]

2 hours ago, bmags said:

Yeah, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy of nobody teaching it because nobody wanting to learn it and nobody learning it because nobody teaches it. But, this stuff inevitably figures itself out when they are forced to figure it out.

One of my ex-coworkers said he knew a guy that made a pretty good living traveling around the country and working for different businesses by converting their old COBOL code into newer languages. 

One of my first projects at my current job was converting an entire system over from Access 97 to a Windows application built in VB.net.

[Balta1701]

Jesus. The guy who founded the Texas Roadhouse chain apparently suffered long-COVID symptoms for an unknown length of time and commuted suicide.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/03/22/979929592/texas-roadhouse-founder-kent-taylor-dies-after-struggle-with-post-covid-19-sympt

[Balta1701]

I do not know what AstraZeneca’s endgame is here, are they trying to make sure the FDA rejects one so that the public keeps confidence in the others? 

They are requesting to put this into 15 million people with limited testing due to an emergency. Even the “oops I lost a nuclear weapon” forms probably have more leeway.

 

[StrangeSox]

Yeah, they're doing a fantastic job of undermining public confidence. Absolutely insane how badly they've fucked up nearly every single step of this.

 

 

 

 

[Iwritecode]

My co-worker finally found an opening to get his shot. He only has to drive 2 hours one-way...

[bmags]

21 hours ago, bmags said:

illinois's state allocation for this week doesn't look much different than last week, which is a bummer. I was hoping a lot more J&J vaccine, who said they were still on track for 20 million before march to be delivered. Guess it's like, dropping at 11:59 on 3/31.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/22/biden-administration-frets-j-j-may-miss-vaccine-goal-477602

"Biden administration officials are increasingly concerned Johnson & Johnson may not deliver the 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine it promised would be available by the end of this month, according to three senior administration officials.

The full tranche of vaccine Johnson & Johnson committed in February to delivering may not be ready to ship until the second or third week of April, the officials said, potentially complicating preparations for states expecting millions of J&J shots."

There was an initial wave of mass vaccination 24 hour places who just used the new J&J shots since the other places had been aligned for a two-shot operation. I haven't seen any recently and the stats looked flat. I'm not surprised, but the vaccine makers have done such a good job getting close to production goals that this is a big disappointment as it seemed for most of last week that May 1st for all eligibility seemed conservative.