Reply
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,970
Registered: ‎03-16-2010

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change

@Lucky Charm  @shoesnbags   I haven't seen the specific data submitted to the FDA advisory committee.  When the FDA does grant emergency use authorization they usually post the specific data pertaining to the clinical trial.

 

One thing to consider is that in most of these phase 3 trials they are conducted in populations across different countries.  So there are times that a vaccine will have a higher degree of reported efficacy when compared to another country, but the aggregate the data in the end so that all numbers are considered and averaged.

 

But in the discussion between both of you, I think maybe the one thing that might be confusing is the "assumption" (for lack of a better term) that severity of illness is equated with hospitalization.  

 

People can have symptoms of covid that are considered severe (high temp, days of chills, etc.) but not have serious respiratory or cardiovascular symptoms that would put someone in the hospital.

 

All that will be defined in the data pertaining to their clinical trials. 

 

Rather than delete the above, I found the specific data

 

https://www.fda.gov/media/146217/download 

 

Case definitions for moderate versus severe disease are on pg. 15.

 

Basically the study is citing that "No vaccine
recipients were hospitalized due to COVID-19 with onset at least 28 days post-vaccination.".  pg.38.

 

I haven't had time to really examine all the data, but I suspect that some individuals may have developed severe symptoms but they did not require hospitalization.  

 

I don't know whether that helps or not.

 

Basically it looks like this is a pretty darn good vaccine that prevents hospitalization and death related to covid-19.  It does not have the efficacy of the mRNA vaccines, but even in those that contract covid it looks like it gives a high level of protection to prevent both hospitalizations and death.  

 

 


* Freedom has a taste the protected will never know *
Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,887
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change

@pitdakota Do the other 2 vaccines available have a high success rate of keeping people out of the hospital and I guess I'm wondering if it's been calculated how many people who've received the vaccines already have died.

 

Also, what do you make of the uptick of deaths in the past month or so.  We were at about 350M  at the beginning of the new year (so from the onset of the pandemic till years end) and have surpassed 510M (?) since.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,970
Registered: ‎03-16-2010

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change


@Trinity11 wrote:

@Nonametoday wrote:

@Trinity11 wrote:

@Bhvbum wrote:

From Ron Klain WH Chief of Staff:

 

50 million shots given in the past 37 days - no other country has done it.

 

There are about 55 Million Americans who are over 65:

 

-- Six weeks ago only 8% had gotten a shot

-- Today almost 50% have gotten at least one shot

 

Long way to go, but don't get discouraged we are making progress.

 

 


Great news but when a 67 year old woman with Type 1 diabetes, 2 heart attacks and a stroke can find no place to get the vaccination because of being told it is her zip code, something is wrong.

 

Having spent hours on my computer, I have been turned down time and time again. When I asked yesterday on the phone, the man told me it was my zip code. He refused to clarify why. Three times this month I was told the same thing.

 

I tried everywhere but even when it says vaccines available, I plug in my town and it comes up with no vaccines available within 25 miles of your town. I asked to be on a waiting list and was told there was no such thing.


@Trinity11 

 

So has my 80year-old husband with 4 prior stents, quadruple bypass, 5-shot/day diabetes, pulmonary arterial hypertension, pacemaker in situ and continued atrial fib-flutter and s/p colon cancer.


@Nonametoday , I just don't get it. Are you also in New York? I just tried Walgreens and I got to where they ask first applicable statement which was age 65 and older. Told me they had it and to continue. Filled in my zip and was told there was nothing available. 


____________________________________________________

@Trinity11, it is possible that the vaccination sites in your location have no available vaccine to establish new appointments.

 

No doubt that demand exceeds supply at this point.  Here, our Walgreens opened up several different sites with multiple appointments and they were gone within 15 minutes in just my local area.   Then when they received a second shipment, they offered more appointments.  Those went quickly too.  I was lucky enough to get one of those appointments which was yesterday morning.

 

When I was waiting this other lady came in and asked me if I was the 10:30 appointment.  I said yes and she said I tried to get that appointment too as well as others for the previous day, etc.  She said she jumped up and down when she got the 10:45 appointment.  So they go quickly and I mean within minutes.

 

Same thing happens with available appointments through the drive through sites and hospitals that are doing vaccinations.  

 

My state just opened 1c.  The way my state did the roll out, my husband was vaccinated during the 1 b category.  It took effort on my part to keep checking sites multiple times a day, but finally success and he received both doses.  However, no one under the age of 70 was considered until 1 c opened unless they were residents of long term care. 

 

Here is a tip that I learned from volunteering with the drive thru vaccination program here.  The state is notified on Thursdays the number of vaccines it will receive for the next week.  The state has only Friday then to notify the different sites which vaccine and the number they will be receiving for the next week. 

 

That system was set up with the initial vaccine roll out during 2020 and it hasn't changed here.  So that means that vaccine sites are not able to set up new appointments until they are notified of the number of vaccines they get, which are usually fairly small numbers for each location.  So appointments usually aren't added until early in the week for addtional appointments.  

 

The day your state is notified may certainly be different, but I am betting it the odds are it is the same.  So keep trying all the different sites  late in the weekend and early during the week maybe.  

 

It is very hectic since back in the fall 2020 they made it a requirement for states to come up with their plan.  Therefore, every state is doing things differently.  Add to the challenge that demand greatly outpaces supply at this point and it can be really frustrating.   Hang in there! 

 

 


* Freedom has a taste the protected will never know *
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,970
Registered: ‎03-16-2010

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change


@Lucky Charm wrote:

@pitdakota Do the other 2 vaccines available have a high success rate of keeping people out of the hospital and I guess I'm wondering if it's been calculated how many people who've received the vaccines already have died.

 

Also, what do you make of the uptick of deaths in the past month or so.  We were at about 350M  at the beginning of the new year (so from the onset of the pandemic till years end) and have surpassed 510M (?) since.


___________________________________________________-

 

@Lucky Charm, since both the mRNA vaccines had a high degree of efficacy in preventing infection, it also prevents hospitalizations and deaths.  

 

Remember  that deaths will always lag behind in that the number of deaths will not start to decline for a fairly significant period of time even after a drop in new cases and a drop in the number of hospitalizations.  

 

People that test positive may experience fairly mild symptoms for the first couple of days and then need hospitalization day 5 or later into their diagnosis. Then many of those patients may spend 5 or more weeks in the hospital before they die.  It isn't unheard of for people to have been hospitalized for 8 weeks or more and then die.  

 

So what we are seeing in terms of deaths is still the hold over from the holiday and post holiday surge in numbers of new cases we experienced in this country.  We have deaths occurring from those in the hospital from the holiday surge and still deaths occurring from those that contracted covid early Feb. as well. Hope that makes sense.

 

 


* Freedom has a taste the protected will never know *
Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,950
Registered: ‎07-18-2010

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change


@Lucky Charm wrote:

@Bhvbum wrote:

From Ron Klain WH Chief of Staff:

 

50 million shots given in the past 37 days - no other country has done it.


It seems that the number of deaths during this time has increased incredibly.  That is troubling.  Over 100,000K.

 

I'm not sure where you are getting your information but as of February 25, from the CDC, the seven day average was about 2100 per day.  In January it was 3250 per day. So we are significantly down. 


 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,950
Registered: ‎07-18-2010

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change


@Lucky Charm wrote:
So trying to figure out since this includes first shot and some second shots, how long it will be at this rate, that the rest of the 300 million people in the US will be vaccinated and then again a second time?  Do they have any projections?  Admittedly, I am not good with complicated math problems.  

Still doesn't make me wish to be older than I am.  I'll patiently wait my turn which is a ways off.

 

update:  CDC - 70.5 million total (includes 1 & 2nd dose) administered and we have about 55 million people that are over 65 and that age is either the target or the requirement to register.  So we could easily be at the 50% mark for those over 65.

Obviously the most dense populations will be behind the states

that aren't. And the whole point is we are making progress. Add to that as of today a third option for vaccine from J&J.

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,887
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change


@Bhvbum wrote:

@Lucky Charm wrote:

@Bhvbum wrote:

From Ron Klain WH Chief of Staff:

 

50 million shots given in the past 37 days - no other country has done it.


It seems that the number of deaths during this time has increased incredibly.  That is troubling.  Over 100,000K.

 

I'm not sure where you are getting your information but as of February 25, from the CDC, the seven day average was about 2100 per day.  In January it was 3250 per day. So we are significantly down. 


 


@Bhvbum 

 

I was curious if the death rates had gone down any since 01/20/21 and after the 50M vaccines had been administered.

 

Using Worldometer US Deaths, from 01/20/21 to 02/25/21 (5 weeks) there were 100,694 deaths.

 

The 5 weeks prior (12/15/20-01/19/21) there were 102,214 deaths.  A rather small difference of 1540 considering there were many holiday celebrated in that 5 week time frame.

 

I didn't realize and am quite surprised we are still experiencing covid deaths from the holidays all the way to the end of February as per @pitdakota .  

 

 

 

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,775
Registered: ‎07-09-2011

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change

@pitdakota 

 

Thank you for this thoughtful post, good to see you & hope you are well.

 

At this point this GOOD NEWS post seems to have become primarily Me, Me, Me, and political posturing.

 

 1 Million in 100 days! 

"Animals are not my whole world, but they have made my world whole" ~ Roger Caras
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,970
Registered: ‎03-16-2010

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change


@Drythe wrote:

@pitdakota 

 

Thank you for this thoughtful post, good to see you & hope you are well.

 

At this point this GOOD NEWS post seems to have become primarily Me, Me, Me, and political posturing.

 

 1 Million in 100 days! 


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Good to see you as well @Drythe!  We are doing well here and trying to behave.  lol   DH has had both vaccines and I received my first yesterday.  Had to work like it was a part time job to get those appointments, but not regretting it one bit.

 

I know, I just SMH.  Love that it is the public health department's fault.  Yeah, those chronically underfunded public health departments that have computer equipment and software platforms that are outdated.  Oh, and the small little problem that along with trying to get vaccines out there rolling, we are still in the middle of a pandemic.  So that same underfunded public health department still has to keep track & report on a daily basis newly identified cases, hospitalizations, those in ICU, those on ventilators, percentage of hospital capacity for covid patients for every hospital in their state, numbers of death, analyze the data, record and report the data, and then do contact tracing on top of everything else.

 

I think most people grossly overestimated just how big of an effort this is and just thought it was going to be like any type of influenza vaccine effort.  That just isn't gonna happen right now.  At the same time it can be frustrating to have to keep checking to see about appointments & not being able to get an appointment since demand at this point greatly exceeds supply.

 

I am hopeful that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will receive EUA soon.  Not only will it put more vaccine out there, it has the potential to be a game changer since it is similar to influenza vaccine in terms of storage, transportation, handling, etc.  

 

Technically, the Pfizer vaccine is not to be moved more than 4 times and needs to be given with 6 hours of coming out of cold storage or go back directly into storage.  Geez, I would be a wreck trying to figure all this out.  So my hat is off to those that have had to work these plans up to this point!!  So no doubt that getting a shelf stable, one dose vaccine out there will be a welcome relief in addition to adding more vaccine in the pike!  Pshew!

 

So glad they had the foresight in Feb. to order more vaccine to meet the demand for sure. With 200 million more doses ordered in early Feb. and the J&J vaccine, hopefully things will start to open up so we can start getting even more people vaccinated. 

 

But I am very pleased the vaccination effort has progressed as well as it has despite all its challenges.  We just need to keep moving forward. 

 

Hope you and yours are doing ok.  I know we are all looking at getting on the other side of this for sure!

 

 


* Freedom has a taste the protected will never know *
Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,775
Registered: ‎07-09-2011

Re: Vaccine Good News for a change

@pitdakota 

 

Good news from you!

 

I don’t think most realize that we are not the sole consumers of the vaccines, but sharing production with many other countries.  Not a position we are accustomed to!

 

I’m volunteering to help out at the HDP as I can.  Honestly, they have the same computer equipment they did back when I was doing state surveys.  And the clinicians working at the vaccine clinics here are all volunteers.  SMH too!

 

DH and I have had round 1 of Maderna, and will gratefully receive #2 on 3/6.

 

Best Wishes,

~Be Well - Be Safe~

"Animals are not my whole world, but they have made my world whole" ~ Roger Caras