COVID-19/Coronavirus thread

[bmags]

Super interesting. 

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/29/covid-vaccine-sites-478233

[Balta1701]

 

  Also in there - results of a study on health care workers over the last 3 months showing a 90% drop in total infections after both vaccine shots are given.

[Chisoxfn]

16 hours ago, Chisoxfn said:

Greg - a few hours later still ticking from my moderna. Such an awesome feeling getting that shot. Don’t think I’ve ever had such a big smile for getting a need injected in me.  

Just a real minor sore arm. Very similar to flu shot.  Arm is already back to 90% plus this morning.  No other side effects (from 1st shot).  

[Soxbadger]

Im finally eligible and I feel like this is one of the dumbest things I have ever been apart of. I really cant believe that the expectation is that I refresh multiple websites every minute to hopefully get a chance. 

[bmags]

13 minutes ago, Soxbadger said:

Im finally eligible and I feel like this is one of the dumbest things I have ever been apart of. I really cant believe that the expectation is that I refresh multiple websites every minute to hopefully get a chance. 

there are appointments available in walgreens right now

[Soxbadger]

3 minutes ago, bmags said:

there are appointments available in walgreens right now

When I try it always says none in 25 miles. I just tried right now.

 

(It says available but when I click I get a system error on phone. On website it says none)

Edited March 29, 2021 by Soxbadger

[bmags]

5 minutes ago, Soxbadger said:

When I try it always says none in 25 miles. I just tried right now.

 

(It says available but when I click I get a system error on phone. On website it says none)

That could be true I can't get through anymore since i'm tied to an appt. But I always did 4 zip codes, 60504 for Aurora and its radius, 60302 for oak park/city radius, 60004 for north of city, 60422 for south of city. It's not really worth constantly pinging it but morning/lunch/evening and you eventually will get an appt. If you don't have time for that sign up for cook county which does a big 15k sign-up at noon every few days. That you'll definitely want 20-30 minutes cleared off since it's a frustrating system, but if you are there right at noon it's a pretty decent shot.

[Soxbadger]

5 minutes ago, bmags said:

That could be true I can't get through anymore since i'm tied to an appt. But I always did 4 zip codes, 60504 for Aurora and its radius, 60302 for oak park/city radius, 60004 for north of city, 60422 for south of city. It's not really worth constantly pinging it but morning/lunch/evening and you eventually will get an appt. If you don't have time for that sign up for cook county which does a big 15k sign-up at noon every few days. That you'll definitely want 20-30 minutes cleared off since it's a frustrating system, but if you are there right at noon it's a pretty decent shot.

Yeah I assume its just a luck/dedication. I went on at 12 based on your information and unfortunately the app isnt even working right now. Probably are getting overwhelmed because its 1C today. 

Just a horrible system, and I can only imagine how someone who cant sit in front of a computer all day would feel.

[StrangeSox]

1 hour ago, Balta1701 said:

 

  Also in there - results of a study on health care workers over the last 3 months showing a 90% drop in total infections after both vaccine shots are given.

Pretty incredible how effective these vaccines are.

 

 

 

[The Beast]

On 3/27/2021 at 12:36 PM, bmags said:

Walgreens is starting to have pretty consistent availability around noon (like now) for those who need

3 hours ago, StrangeSox said:

Mariano's seems to update and release their upcoming appointments around 3:30-3:45. They go quick!

Illinois is expanding eligibility on April 12, so I hope I can get my vaccine around then. It would be a nice birthday present to have it by April 25. I also hope that many grocery store employees have gotten the vaccine. It seems logical that they could get it through work but I hope many of these workers get them elsewhere if they can’t get it at work.

1 hour ago, Balta1701 said:

 

  Also in there - results of a study on health care workers over the last 3 months showing a 90% drop in total infections after both vaccine shots are given.

I want to know if she’s really concerned about the variants even with the vaccines that are available.

[StrangeSox]

6 minutes ago, The Beast said:

Illinois is expanding eligibility on April 12, so I hope I can get my vaccine around then. It would be a nice birthday present to have it by April 25. I also hope that many grocery store employees have gotten the vaccine. It seems logical that they could get it through work but I hope many of these workers get them elsewhere if they can’t get it at work.

I want to know if she’s really concerned about the variants even with the vaccines that are available.

You could always try booking an appointment now through the various sites for a date on or after 4/12. That way you'd still be within the official rules but not fighting the same massive rush of a bunch of new people trying to sign up on 4/12.

 

Several of the variants are "variants of concern" for the CDC.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/variant-surveillance/variant-info.html

 

There's pretty decent real-world efficacy data on B.1.17 "UK" variant now, and that it's more transmissible and deadly but the vaccines work just as well against it. The problem is that so many places are opening up wide while we still have many tens of millions of adults and children unvaccinated. We have what are essentially miraculously efficacious vaccines but we just couldn't wait another couple of months for bars/restaurants/concerts/etc, or keep schools hybrid/remote through the end of the year to avoid another wave of sickness and death.

[StrangeSox]

Here's a "trick" to schedule Walgreens appointments. Part of the problem is that they go so incredibly fast sometimes that by the time you answer the questionnaire, someone else already got it. So if you use this trick, you have your questionnaire pre-filled.

 

Use the Walgreens trick to secure newly cancelled appointments in real time.

1. Sign up for an account if you don't have one already
2. Have the app downloaded and be signed in, looking for available appointments using your preferred zip (which will look for 25mi around the zip)
3. Also be signed in to the website on a desktop browser
4. In the app, hit the arrow button to Search every 2-5 seconds
5. In the browser, hit the Search button to search every 2-5 seconds
6. When you first see "Appointments Available" you'll always have to fill out a short questionnaire, this part can be skipped later under certain conditions
7. Fill it out and more than likely the appointment will be gone by the time you get to the Schedule Dose 1 screen
8. Stay on that screen, either in the app or the web browser, and keep hitting the search button, even when no results come up
9. Also in either the app or the web browser, keep searching for appointments back on the Location Finder screen
10. Eventually doing this is going to cause you to see some available in the browser or the app first, which will let you immediately go to the Dose 1 screen that you kept open and then when you search there, you'll see the open appointment
11. Try to grab whatever times are available if you aren't picky, very very high chance you'll secure this appointment since you're bypassing the questionnaire
Congrats, you got it!

Edited March 29, 2021 by StrangeSox

[ploof76]

(First post, been around various boards since 2001, last place folded)

Our company launched a program where employees can sign up to get the shots because many of us are "essential" due to being customer facing and in the field. Keep an eye out if anybody here is in a similar work environment. I'd imagine the size of the company means something as well.

And I think it extends to purely office personnel as well. Maybe it's a "since we're here, might as well" kind of deal.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Just signed up in Indiana today for the J&J vaccine for me and my wife. I'll be fully vaxxed by Cinco De Mayo. Can't wait! 

[Stinky Stanky]

Walgreen's haha.  I got my first (Moderna) 3/2 and was scheduled for my second 3/30.  But it was entered in their computer system as if I had gotten Pfizer.  So I got a frantic call from them saying my second appointment was invalid.  Which it wasn't and I got them straightened out, after some difficulty.  There's a reason CVS is kicking their butt.

[Heads22]

Would imagine if they are 90% effective at stopping even infection, then we could be moving towards not needing masks if vaccinated......of course, it seems like cases are going to keep rising anyways.

[Balta1701]

 

[caulfield12]

58 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

 

How easy it going to be for India/China/Russia to create their own vaccines with this information...?  Obviously, they'd need the sub-zero storage conditions.

 

By the way, Florida, SHOCKINGLY, going in the reverse direction and creating another "super-spreader" event with their Spring Break shenanigans.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cases-florida-national-covid-bellwether-115340644.html

Edited March 30, 2021 by caulfield12

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

26 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

How easy it going to be for India/China/Russia to create their own vaccines with this information...?  Obviously, they'd need the sub-zero storage conditions.

 

By the way, Florida, SHOCKINGLY, going in the reverse direction and creating another "super-spreader" event with their Spring Break shenanigans.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cases-florida-national-covid-bellwether-115340644.html

Should India, China, and Russia not have access to the vaccine? I don't understand the issue.

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

Should India, China, and Russia not have access to the vaccine? I don't understand the issue.

What is the incentive for American pharmaceutical companies to innovate...if they're just going to give the results away without any patent protection and then lose almost ALL of the profits to cheaper manufacturing countries like India, China, etc?  

What do you tell Pfizer and Moderna and J&J shareholders, that American exceptionalism exists, but we are just going to give up any advantages we have for the "good of the world" when nobody else is doing the same thing other than China?   Let's not forget the debacle brewing with AstroZeneca shipments even leaving the UK at this time...every country in the EU is pretty much at each other's necks, with the northern countries like Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Germany once again pitted against Greece/Italy/Spain/Portugal, etc., in a re-run of 2008-2010.

If China does do this (start copying the US vaccines), it would be a huge political loss of face, because they've already spent so much time and money/resources promoting their five homegrown vaccines through "vaccine diplomacy" to the rest of the world.  Just don't see it happening at this point.

Nevertheless, there are only roughly 40 democracies standing in their (China's) way at this point.

Plus, China has a SURPLUS of homegrown vaccines right now, it's just that the majority of the general population doesn't quite trust them at this point.   We're only at 3% roughly of the entire population vaccinated.  By the time that happens, variants and booster shots will be the buzzword, as it will be late 2022 to reach 70% of the population.

 

Philosophically, the faster the world reaches herd immunity (and not just individual countries), the better off everyone will be...but there are certainly philosophical differences about how to achieve that.  But the vaccine coalition (Novavax or whatever it's called) for the 2nd and 3rd world is woefully underfunded, and there's only so much the WHO can do on its own.

[hogan873]

I've seen several articles and interviews with people saying we need to expand eligibility sooner rather than later.  The upticks in positivity rates are being driven by younger people (18-35 or so).  Couple that with the latest news that the vaccines are 90% effective in the real world, the quicker we get people vaccinated, the quicker we can squash a potential wave.

There are always going to be holdouts, those who will never get the vaccine.  We can't worry about them.  Hate to say it, but it's the truth.  If the vaccines are 90% effective against even catching COVID, the truly small population of anti-vaxxers won't matter to the population as a whole.

Regardless, we're so close to the finish line.  We can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Keep putting shots in arms, keep wearing masks, keep taking precautions until it's safe enough to relax.

[bmags]

7 minutes ago, hogan873 said:

I've seen several articles and interviews with people saying we need to expand eligibility sooner rather than later.  The upticks in positivity rates are being driven by younger people (18-35 or so).  Couple that with the latest news that the vaccines are 90% effective in the real world, the quicker we get people vaccinated, the quicker we can squash a potential wave.

There are always going to be holdouts, those who will never get the vaccine.  We can't worry about them.  Hate to say it, but it's the truth.  If the vaccines are 90% effective against even catching COVID, the truly small population of anti-vaxxers won't matter to the population as a whole.

Regardless, we're so close to the finish line.  We can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Keep putting shots in arms, keep wearing masks, keep taking precautions until it's safe enough to relax.

Definitely. I'm glad there is anxiety around the rising cases because you are right - at this point the deaths seem so cruel with such a short time to go.

But Israel is a good place to look to for perspective and hope. They were vaccinating people like crazy but cases were rising into that. They reported 0 cases yesterday.

The lag really sucks, we vaccinated so many the last month, and many more this month to come. And so maybe it isn't until Memorial day where we all really feel it being crushed again. Maybe it takes hold way earlier with so many more interruptions with vaccinated people and it doesn't spread as easily and this is just a smaller hump.

The local health depts seemed totally crappy at getting shots out quickly, I'm hoping they are much more equipped to do what they are more often doing and reaching out to the most vulnerable/hidden/resistent and are successful getting more of them vaccinated.

[Stinky Stanky]

11 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

How easy it going to be for India/China/Russia to create their own vaccines with this information...?  Obviously, they'd need the sub-zero storage conditions.

 

By the way, Florida, SHOCKINGLY, going in the reverse direction and creating another "super-spreader" event with their Spring Break shenanigans.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cases-florida-national-covid-bellwether-115340644.html

Since the genetic information used here to develop the vaccine was provided by China, and China and Russia already have vaccines, what the hell are you talking about?

[caulfield12]

13 minutes ago, Stinky Stanky said:

Since the genetic information used here to develop the vaccine was provided by China, and China and Russia already have vaccines, what the hell are you talking about?

Their vaccines are not based on much different mRNA platform but traditional ones...if you think there’s no appreciable difference, you’re free to volunteer to fly here and get one yourself.   I have no choice, as my job (and family) depends on my getting it.

This is not an all vaccines being equal question.  The genetic information for Covid vs. mMRA sequencing are two entirely distinct issues.

 

• Ahead of talks at the WTO on patents on COVID-19 tools, a small number of countries continue to block a waiver that would open up access to these tools during the pandemic.
• Should the waiver be agreed, countries could produce COVID-19 vaccines and drugs on a larger scale, at lower prices.
• MSF urges these countries to immediately stop blocking the proposal to allow lives to be saved.

https://www.msf.org/countries-obstructing-covid-19-patent-waiver-must-allow-negotiations

 

Governments around the world are taking steps to make sure that private corporations don’t use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to make unjustified monopoly profits. They’re doing that by ensuring that governments can override patents and issue compulsory licenses for COVID-19 related treatments, vaccines, and tools. Canada’s recent COVID-19 bill authorizes the government to make and use patented inventions as needed in fighting the pandemic. Governments in Chile, Ecuador, Germany, and Israel have taken similar steps.

But in the U.S., lobbyists and lawyers for patent owners are pushing our government to move in the exact opposite direction. And they may succeed. Last week, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) introduced a bill that gives 10 extra years of patent rights (on top of the usual 20 years) to any “new or existing pharmaceutical, medical device, or other process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.” The patent rights grab, included in a bill that’s ostensibly about limiting medical lawsuits, also applies to improvements on existing technology.

Sasse’s bill does prevent issued patents that relate to COVID-19 from taking effect until after the current national emergency declaration ends. But that reasonable limitation is coupled with an unnecessary and damaging giveaway of 10 extra years of patent exclusivity.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/lengthening-patent-terms-10-years-exactly-wrong-response-covid-19

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by caulfield12

[StrangeSox]

It'll be hard to manufacture and especially distribute the mRNA vaccines in a lot of countries. Hopefully J&J can be more widely manufacturered since it's so much easier to distribute even to places without electricity.

18 minutes ago, Stinky Stanky said:

Since the genetic information used here to develop the vaccine was provided by China, and China and Russia already have vaccines, what the hell are you talking about?

They have the SARS-CoV-2 sequence but not the mRNA platform being used to give you the spike protein.

 

Anyway time to head out for my second Pfizer shot!