Vaccines are the way out.
Correction: Vaccinations are the way out.
Shots in a freezer or in a distribution center are merely potential. Shots in arms with the spike proteins provoking T-cells and making B-cells remember stuff is the key indicator.
The December goal was 20 million people getting at least their first shot.
That is unlikely to happen.
Latest CDC vaccine distribution and administration numbers are out.
Doses Distributed: 11,445,175
Doses Administered: 2,127,14318.6% of the doses distributed have been administered.
Track vaccine allocations and administrations here:https://t.co/Y9GkUb5syt pic.twitter.com/BbDWm75yuT
— Benjy Renton (@bhrenton) December 28, 2020
On The Road – Kody Kastel – California Photos
debbie
Hoarding?
MJS
Is this yet another example of this administration’s absolute incompetence? I’d bet money it is, but there may be issues beyond the administration’s control that I’m not aware of.
lowtechcyclist
@MJS:
Part of it is surely that the states have no money to handle distribution on account of Mitch wanting to bankrupt them all.
Trump may want to burn it all down on the way out, but he’s deranged. Mitch is just plain evil.
OzarkHillbilly
@MJS: With this administration’s criminal incompetence, it’s a sure fire bet they contributed if not wholly caused it.
Baud
Half the doses distributed have to be set aside for the second shot, no?
satby
@Baud: presumably a subsequent shipment would provide for that, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all that providers are saving second doses out of the initial shipment because of a lack of faith that a replacement shipment might not show up on the timetable expected.
Edit, or that a subsequent shipment might be from a different vaccine provider.
Baud
@satby:
That seems risky, even with a competent administration. Anything can happen to the second shipment.
debbie
@satby:
Here, they’re holding them aside. I’ve heard both doses need to be from the same manufacturer.
scottinnj
The UK reported appx. 600,000 vaccinations as of December 24 in a population of 66m. Extrapolating that to the US it is the equivalent of 3 million vaccinations as of 12/24 vs the 2.1m as of 12/28 as above.
satby
@Baud: in a normal vaccine rollout, it wouldn’t be all that risky, any more than assuming you’ll get replacement doses of other drugs. There’s well established protocols and supply chains. But with this crew in charge any fuckup is possible. And it will take time for the Biden admin to fix.
satby
@debbie: which my edit noted. Because that is a huge risk with the trumpets in charge.
Speaking of, our doctors office may be in line next week, with other second tier health care workers, to get the vaccine. Still waiting on test results from the symptomatic co-worker, but she last was in the office 6 days before she developed symptoms, so I’m hoping that plus good safety protocols keep us clear.
Baud
@scottinnj:
UK approved the vaccine sooner.
TS (the original)
That’s a massive difference, even if holding some for the 2nd dose. Does it relate to how the vaccine has to be stored. Have some been ruined?
Baud
MJ covering this. Saying the problem is state funding crunch and lack of federal guidance.
Frankensteinbeck
Vaccinations will take off in the Biden administration. Like competent, responsible professionals they publicly predict worst or near-worst case. You don’t promise what you’re not sure you can deliver in a catastrophe like this. Not if you’re ethical. But we’ll be going from malicious incompetents to people who see COVID as their #1 priority and were chosen for being some of the most competent in the world. I don’t have the expertise to predict the details, but I don’t need expertise to know the difference will be huge.
EDIT – I’ll be honest, we’re up shit creek until the 20th.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Surprise surprise surprise!
Cheryl Rofer
Do the states have enough trained people to administer the shots?
Are there venues appropriate for people to come to and get the shots?
Are there plans to transport the materials needed to those places in a timely way?
Those are three questions that immediately come to my mind. They should have been considered and acted on at least three months ago. I am pretty sure I wrote about this back in the spring but can’t find the post.
I’m sure there are more questions like this, and I’m sure that nobody in the Trump administration considered them.
ETA: Did the states get money to make these things happen?
Mousebumples
Two things to share this am –
When i was still at Walgreens giving shots, we had a similar shortage of the new Shingles shots. No direction on how to allocate, so my location kept a running list of who we’d administered (along with a wait list of those who had asked for the shot while we were waiting on doses). If you got your first shot from us, after you were due for your 2nd dose, we moved you ahead of people getting their first dose. The 2nd dose wasn’t necessarily exactly X days apart, on schedule, but we tried to keep as close to that as we could.
For covid, I’d suggest getting 1st doses in as many arms as possible now. It sounds like Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act, and inauguration is just over 3 weeks away. Delaying 2nd shots for people by a few weeks seems preferable since there is some immune benefit (60ish % i think?) after only one shot.
2. Apparently a local hospital in Wisconsin wasted 500ish doses of Moderna vaccines by leaving 50 vials (10ish doses per vial) out of the fridge over the holiday weekend. Whoops? And another reason to get those doses into arms versus making sure they stay at the right storage temp for a few more weeks…
satby
Oy, I hope that person got fired. That kind of carelessness in a pharmacy could be lethal.
Mousebumples
@satby: no clue. Understandably that sort of info isn’t published in the local paper.
In terms of “the person responsible” – it may have been a 1 person goof or it may have been a systems issue. (eg vaccine delivered but never transported from shipping container to fridge) with medical facilities being understaffed, and the not labeling shipments with COVID VACCINE for security reasons… I can see at least a handful of ways in which that could (unfortunately) happen.
Hopefully a lesson for others on how to *not* do that in the future…
Gin & Tonic
@Mousebumples: At the hospital my dear wife works at, the vaccine was delivered with a state Dept of Health staffer escorting, and has been stored in a locked freezer with a 24×7 armed guard.
She gets her second dose next Wednesday.
Another Scott
Someone on Twitter made the point that the US routinely vaccinates ~130M people against the flu in ~ 4 months. 2M a month is not exactly Warp Speed. But Donnie doesn’t care.
Of course Biden will do better. Fortunately. Here’s hoping that lessons will be remembered for the next time.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Cheryl Rofer: Gov DeWine announced last week that teachers and olds are in round 2 to get the vaccine, but so far no information at all about how to sign up.
County health department says call the state health department. State health department says call the county. Our doctor doesn’t know anything either.
It’s easier with round 1 (nursing home workers and residents) because they are all on site.
ETA: Walgreens and CVS have been in the vaccinating business for years but I would not feel safe at all going in to get a Covid shot in their current vaccine setup.
mad citizen
@Mousebumples: “For covid, I’d suggest getting 1st doses in as many arms as possible now. ”
Yup. I talked to a nurse at our newly-formed department of health for my city of 100K last week (Indiana), and learned: states have the ultimate decision over who gets it when; and the plans seem to change week to week (not saying our state plan–guessing it would be more on the federal side).
I gathered the biggest worry was simply getting people to take it, so I agree they should maybe relax all of this tiering of groups and allow those who want it to come and get it (perhaps an orderly reservation system works instead of just show up). The nurse told me their health department is going to receive vaccines and perform the vaccinations–they are thinking of repurposing/using the existing city drive up testing site. (They also have other distribution avenues for nursing homes, etc. via the pharmacies). But she said they would not be checking whether one is a resident of my city–main goal is to deliver as many shots as possible.
mad citizen
@sab: It’s this kind of thing that drives me crazy. (Following is my Indiana experience) My health insurer (Anthem) simply says on their website the shots will be free. I went on my city’s website (they created a new health department this year) and there was no information on how/when to sign up. I tried emailing their link for questions and their link was not a valid email address, it was a web address (or seemed so). Finally called their number, got voice mail and simply said one frustrated thing and left my number. Got a call the next week.
During that call the “notice” question’s answer was basically–“You will know–it will be publicly announced.” Seems a bit badly managed.
grandmaBear
@sab: according to Dr DIL yes, the 2 doses must be the same vaccine. The interval is slightly different for the two as well. And she said they are reserving the second dose. I can believe they don’t trust the supply lines at this point. It’ll be a while before they get to us olds in group two. There are a lot of carehome residents and staff in Ohio and they’ve just started. I believe they have to get okays for each resident too, which complicates things.
sab
@grandmaBear: My dad’s carehome e-mailed me a consent form attachment. Being a luddite I printed it out and returned it in person (mail not working well lately.) The were all set up to receive the consents with a pile of received ones on the front desk. They buzzed me in, pointed to the pile and then buzzed me out.
grandmaBear
@sab: I’m glad to hear they’re ahead on that. More efficient for everyone.
sab
@grandmaBear: They also had a social worker call to tell me there was an e-mail. They understand their residents’ relatives.
FlyingToaster
Using our pediatrician’s flu clinics and the school covid-testing as extrapolation, I suspect that teachers and essential retail will get their jabs at work, administered by staff from the local urgent-care. I don’t think the regular CVS will be able to do it, just the MinuteClinics, since they have waiting areas. The not-in-LTC Olds will get theirs from the Senior Center in Feb/March.
We don’t know when/if a vax for sub 16 (Pfizer) or sub 18 (Moderna) will get its EUA. Moderna’s in trials right now, so it’s possible it could get released to pediatricians and health departments by May/June. The pediatrician will have to set up a party tent and add another nurse (this year it was 1 doctor, 1 nurse, a “booth” tent with awning and a table in the parking lot). No way in hell will school want that headache.
Massachusetts announced their plans back in October, as first “good” results were coming in.
Matt McIrvin
91-DIVOC started posting vaccination numbers. I looked at the per-capita chart, and, based on memory of what happened with PPE hoarding in the spring, expected to see all the vaccinations happening in the Trump states, but there’s no pattern like that at all.
Massachusetts, interestingly, is solidly in the middle of the pack for vaccinations accomplished so far. I know the hospitals in Methuen and Lawrence got some of the first doses around here (they need them desperately).
patrick II
@Baud:
Not if you trusted your logistics. No. Not if you were willing to gamble that more people woul have an 80% chance during the worst of the pandemic rather than 95% chance they would get with the second shot but after the tide was on the way down. And it’s not binary. Do you have reason to worry 10% will be late, 25%.? !00? What, do you think someone is going to bomb the vaccine factory? That still leaves the one-shotters with an 80% chance.
What they are doing is dumb. But to be expected.
You play percentages in logistics. But holding back 100% for the second shot as if the second shot is coming by mule train is dumb. Unless wartime. Different story.
The Moar You Know
We seem to have no plans whatsoever for distribution in CA. The only people I know who have gotten any are the Stanford administration. Ahead of their doctors, nurses, residents, and everyone else doing actual front-line medicine. Apparently we’re seeing this in health care facilities throughout the country.
It’s not the two million delivered that bothers me (that’s bad enough) but that only sixteen million are out the door. We’d been told by everyone – not just this admin, which of course does nothing but lie – that production was going to be ramped up to billions of doses by end of January. That is obviously bullshit. At this rate it will take several years to vaccinate the US population.
I’m not happy with the situation.
MattF
xkcd describes what to do after you’ve been vaccinated.