Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Gov. Jim Justice was all smiles Tuesday as he announced that more than one million West Virginians have been partially vaccinated. (Photo Provided)

CHARLESTON More than a million West Virginians have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, contributing to the continual decrease in active cases, hospitalizations and deaths, Gov. Jim Justice said on Tuesday.

According to the state Department of Health and Human Resources, 1,005,135 eligible West Virginians age 12 and older have at least one dose of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as of Tuesday, making up 64.5 percent of all eligible residents.

I congratulate everyone who has played a role in getting us to this point, but we still have more work to do, Justice said during his COVID-19 briefing from the Capitol. West Virginia, youve done a whale of a job.

Seniors age 65 and older account for a majority of those who are partially vaccinated. More than 87 percent of the 65-and-older population have the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Of those age 50 and older, the percentage for partial vaccination is more than 79 percent. Justice said state health officials are pushing to get the partial vaccine rate for those age 65 and older to 90 percent and for those age 50 and up to 85 percent.

Were going to get there, and were going to surpass it, Justice said.

Justice continued to call on eligible children and young adults to get vaccinated, but the governor pushed back on criticism that the state was not doing all it could to push for vaccinations for young people.

You may have a whole lot of people on the outside who are throwing mud at us and saying why do this, Justice said. Id say kiss my butt, anybody who would sit and think in any way that West Virginia is having trouble now getting 12- to 35-year-olds there. For the most part, those people are not in danger like our older people have been.

Active COVID-19 cases in the state were 1,093, accounting for only 0.06 percent of state residents with an active COVID-19 infection as of Tuesday. Active cases have dropped 19 percent in seven days, from 1,356 active cases last Tuesday. Only Mineral and Mingo counties were in the yellow category on the County Alert System map one step down from green in the five-color alert system map.

Hospitalizations have dropped to 66 cases in West Virginia, with 25 of those in ICU beds and seven on ventilators. There were only four new deaths since Fridays DHHR update prior to the July Fourth weekend. The Delta variant, also known as the India variant, has remained as 12 cases since last Tuesday.

The only way weve gotten there is we all kept pulling the rope, we call kept pushing these folks and pushing them and pushing them to get there, Justice said. Its extremely important you get your second shot the effectiveness of these vaccines is off-the-chart good.

The next drawing from West Virginias vaccine incentive lottery is today with announcements coming throughout the day. More than 330,000 partially vaccinated residents have registered for the drawing today, with the cut-off for each weeks drawing on the Sunday before. West Virginia have four more opportunities to win prizes between now and Wednesday, Aug. 4, including $1 million, college scholarships and custom pick-up trucks.

Eligible West Virginians can go to governor.wv.gov to register for next weeks drawing.

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More than one million West Virginians have one COVID-19 vaccine dose - Parkersburg News

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SOMERVILLE Somerset County is continuing to take its COVID-19 vaccine clinics on the road with a stop this week at Friday Night Cruise Night in the county seat.

The vaccine clinic will be held 3 to 7 p.m. Friday on West Main Street by the Verizon building between Davenport Street and Doughty Avenue.

The Pfizer vaccine will be given at one of the largest cruise nights on the East Coast which is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The vaccine is free, and no appointment is necessary.

COVID: Is Murphy's decision to lift the mandate on school masks based on science or politics?

Somerset County has also scheduled the following clinics:

Somerset County has surpassedthe goal of achievinga 70%vaccination rate by July 4.

According to the stateDepartment of Health,201,783 county residents hadreceived thefull course of COVID-19 vaccinations as of June 30. That is71%of all residents 12 years and older, and more than 76%of all adult residents.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

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Somerset County taking COVID-19 vaccine clinics on the road - My Central Jersey

When one member of a household gets vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), that person cuts the infection risk of their unvaccinated spouse, and the benefits increase over time, according to a new report.

The research was published as a pre-print, prior to peer review and journal publication. It is based on an analysis of a Finnish database of patients who received mRNA vaccines and their family members.

Co-author Mika Kortelainen, PhD, of University of Turku and Chief Researcher at the VATT Institute for Economic Research, and colleagues, wrote that while the impacts of the vaccine on vaccinated individuals have been well documented, there has been less research into the indirect benefits of vaccination.

Kortelainen and colleagues used a national database of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections among vaccinated and unvaccinated healthcare workers, as well as a national administrative database to identify spouses of those healthcare workers. They then compared the incidence of COVID-19 cases between the healthcare workers and their spouses.

The data showed that two weeks after a recipients first dose of vaccine, the spouses of vaccinated people had 8.7% fewer cases than the spouses of unvaccinated people. By 10 weeks after the first dose, spouses of vaccinated people had 42.9% fewer cases.

Our results suggest that mRNA-based vaccines do not only prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections among vaccinated individuals but lead to a substantial reduction in infections among unvaccinated household members, the investigators wrote.

Koretlainen told Contagion that the data suggest the benefit comes specifically from household members, rather than from changes in the infection or vaccination rates in the region or country where a person lives.

Having a vaccinated person in your household makes the difference in Covid-19 infections, he said. Our statistical model adjusts for time-varying factors such as the state of the epidemic and the overall increase in the countrys vaccination rate. Thus, the overall vaccination rate in the country should not explain our main findings.

The findings can help public health officials better understand how vaccination affects a population on a household level, and Kortelainen said they can also be used to craft better vaccine rollout plans, especially in areas with limited vaccine supplies.

[O]ur results suggest that it might not be necessary to vaccinate immediately all household members in low risk households, he said. This strategy allows one to increase the number of vaccinated households compared to a scenario where all eligible household members are vaccinated.

Furthermore, by better understanding the indirect benefits of vaccines, governments can better understand when and how it is safe to lift restrictions designed to limit the spread of the virus, Kortelainen and colleagues concluded.

The authors said while their study was particularly designed to gauge transmission risk within households, the actual risk for particular spouses of healthcare workers may vary, since some healthcare workers are more likely than others to be directly involved in caring for patients with COVID-19.

Kortelainen and colleagues said their next focus will be to look at the indirect benefits of COVID-19 vaccination on children in the household. Such data could play an important role as regulators like the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency consider whether to make COVID-19 vaccines available to children under the age of 12.

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COVID-19 Vaccination Appears to Give Protection to Unvaccinated Household Members - Contagionlive.com

From the July/August 2021 issue

This spring, as supply of COVID-19 vaccines began to exceed demand in the United States, Maria Elena Bottazzi fielded texts from people in Honduras, where she grew up. There, many were desperately seeking the kind of immunizations that sat unused in Houston, where Bottazzi is co-director of Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

Five years ago, a team led by Bottazzi and her lab co-director, Peter Hotez, developed a vaccine for SARS, caused by a coronavirus similar to that which causes COVID-19, which they believe could have also been effective against the novel disease. But they couldnt get funding for clinical trials, and it languished in a Houston freezer. In 2020, they drew from these years of research to quickly develop a COVID-19 vaccine that could be cheaply produced in large enough quantities to help vaccinate the rest of the world, pulling donations from the Kleberg Foundation, Titos Vodka, and more.

As India faced a devastating COVID-19 surge this spring, Biological E., a major pharmaceutical company, announced it would begin phase III trials in India and other countries of their new COVID-19 vaccine. It could be approved for widespread use by late summer.

First off, congratulations. Can you briefly explain the difference between yours and other COVID-19 vaccines and why thats important for vaccine access globally?

Scientifically, all the vaccines have the same objective: to block the spike protein, which is the key to be able to open the lock and enter into our cells. Either you give a crude virus that you inactivated, something that looks like the virus, the sequence that is going to encode the protein, or you give the protein directly, which is what we do.

Now, why the protein approach? We already have many manufacturers that can make them. Protein-based vaccines have been used widely for many other diseases, so they are very safe. And they are very cheap because its economies of scale; if you have to build a factory, train the people, and prepare, you add more to the cost. So our vaccine, because its modeled on how much the Hepatitis B vaccine costs, were talking $1.50 a dose. Compared to $20, $30, $50, $80. These types of vaccines traditionally are pennies on the dollar.

So Im oversimplifying, but the extent to which were able to pull from vaccines that already exist, the easier it is to more quickly vaccinate against future pandemics.

The problem that happened at the beginning of the pandemic is that no protein-based vaccine programs were heavily funded. We had to penny-pinch, compared to Heres $12 billion. Go deal with it. They put a lot of hope, money to these technologies, which, thank God, actually ended up working. But now were seeing it never was really clearly thought out. Maybe people were hopeful that it would not become such an enormous pandemic. Now, we actually need 18 billion [doses]. And by September, October, all of a sudden they were like, Shoot, we cant really make enough quickly. Theyre expensive. Now theyre coming to us and saying, OK, hurry up. Fortunately, behind the scenes, we were moving.

Theres long been reticence to invest in public health. What lessons should we learn from this pandemic?

The pandemic raised a lot of red flags in a lot of deficiencies in health systems, not only in the low-, middle-income countries but also in high-income countries, like the U.S.

Of course, we want to make sure that theres continued funding supporting research activities. But I think whats been missing is translating that research into a product that can ultimately serve the community. For example, the National Institutes of Health paid us more than $6 million over six years to develop a SARS vaccine prototype. When we did, we called and said, OK, whats next? And they said, I dont know. Go talk to [the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority]. And BARDA said, Well, right now we dont really care about a coronavirus vaccine. We are busy with Ebola, or were busy with Zika. So theres a total disconnect, because we could have had that SARS vaccine potentially sort of stockpiled. Theres no seamless, sustainable funding.

Second, which our vaccine center has been trying to do, is how do you strengthen the capacity in foreign nations, too? How you have to build better bridges and better infrastructure, we have to build better public health infrastructure. I think as a result of the pandemic, its not just scientists and health agencies who recognize this urgency, but also people and organizations working outside health.

A friend whos a teacher got vaccinated early and felt so grateful but also guilty, especially being in the U.S., where we failed to manage the pandemic. Ive been feeling that, now vaccinated myself and seeing whats happening in India. As someone based in Texas but working on global vaccine access, how do you think folks here should be thinking about this in a broader context?

You always have that guilt of Why me and not somebody else? Whats really sad right now in the U.S. is we can go even without an appointment to H-E-B and Walgreens and nobody shows up anymore. So you have vaccines that are just sitting there. While you go to Honduras, where theyre fighting for the 40,000 doses that arrived yesterday. I appreciate that a lot of people may still be hesitant; of course we dont want to take that opportunity if somebody changes their mind. But theres gonna be a point where we have an excess amountlets just not sit on that.

So for me now, thats what my guilt is. Im here, Honduran, and I know that I can go to Walgreens, and they hardly have people showing up. Maybe thats a strategy, to raise that guilt and say, Look, at the end of the day, if we dont help the others, then the virus is never really going to disappear. I think its not fair seeing all these people getting sick and dying. So thats the new guilt: How much longer can we try to ask people to come and get themselves vaccinated? And if they dont want it, lets start sending them somewhere else. Then if you decide you want it, maybe we wont have enough, or maybe youll have to wait.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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The Peoples Scientist - The Texas Observer

Five Acres, an Altadena-based children's foster care agency, and Carbon Health, a leading technology-enabled healthcare provider, announced a new COVID-19 vaccination event on its premises for eligible children in foster care.

ALTADENA, Calif., July 7, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Five Acres, an Altadena-based children's foster care agency, and Carbon Health, a leading technology-enabled healthcare provider, announced a new COVID-19 vaccination event on its premises for eligible children between 12 and 18 years old who are in foster care.

During the pandemic, many children experienced isolation, instability, and anxiety and for children in foster care, those feelings may feel compounded, as their permanent safety and stability may be impacted. Families have been afraid to take children into their homes because they are unable to understand the amount of COVID-19 exposure that child has had. In 2020, the number of children in foster care in Los Angeles County increased to 21,876, a 3.5% increase since the prior year.

"Today, there is renewed hope for children in foster care who are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine," said Dr. Rachel McClements, Chief Operating Officer of Five Acres. "During the pandemic, Five Acres continued to provide basic essentials, such as safe homes, support, COVID-19 testing and PPE, along with the well-being and mental health of the children and families in our care. And now, we are excited to partner with Carbon Health to continue that work and bring the vaccine directly to our eligible children in foster care. The vaccine provides families and foster children a sense of permanency, security, safety, and well-being, opening new opportunities for foster and adoption placements."

"Carbon Health's mission is to make high-quality healthcare accessible to everyone, especially underserved communities like foster care children. Often, that means meeting people where they are, whether at a community center or at an agency like Five Acres," said Dr. Sujal Mandavia, Chief Medical Officer of Carbon Health. "Including our partnership with the City of Los Angeles, Carbon Health has played a key role in administering more than 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines, and we are proud to partner with Five Acres to bring this life-saving healthcare to their foster care community."

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While administering the vaccine, Five Acres and Carbon Health have personalized the experience to the needs of the children in foster care to make them feel comfortable and taken care of. Extra efforts to get kids excited about the vaccine included a petting zoo and ice cream truck on-site as well as longer vaccination windows to make the youth feel comfortable and not rushed.

One youth waiting his turn was excited to get his vaccine, asking, "When is it my turn?"

These vaccinated children have a greater sense of hope and personal safety as they are able to be fostered, adopted, or rejoined with their biological families. Families can also now be assured their foster and adopted children are protected from COVID-19, opening up more opportunities to provide kids stability.

To learn how you can become a foster parent or be certified to be an adoptive parent, visit 5acres.org/foster-care.

About Five Acres

Since 1888, Five Acres has protected the most vulnerable members of our community: children. Serving more than 9,000 children and family members annually across six counties, Five Acres now strives for permanencya permanent, loving homefor all children in their care. The three pillars of safety, well-being and permanency provide the framework for its programs and guide the steps as the agency develops even more effective means of caring for children and families in crisis.

About Carbon Health

Carbon Health is a leading national healthcare provider with a mission to bring high-quality healthcare to everyone. Leveraging its unique technology platform, Carbon Health provides its patients with omnichannel care: seamless care from the same trusted providers at a wide variety of access points, including clinics, mini health clinics, video, the Carbon Health app, and on-site at their employers. Carbon Health also provides value-based care to enterprise partners across a broad range of industries, including academia, sports, entertainment, biotechnology, and travel.

Carbon Health is headquartered in San Francisco and provides both in-person and virtual care access to nearly two-thirds of the U.S. Founded in 2015, Carbon Health is backed by Dragoneer Investment Group, Brookfield Technology Partners (BTP), DCVC, and Builders VC. To access Carbon Health, download the app (iTunes or Google Play) or visit carbonhealth.com.

Media Contact

Marisol Barrios Perez, MSPA, APR, Mission Driven PR, 310-713-8567, marisol@missiondrivenpr.com

SOURCE Five Acres

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Five Acres and Carbon Health Partner to Administer COVID-19 Vaccine to Eligible Children in Foster Care - Yahoo Finance

Alert: Click here for information regarding free vaccination clinics for West Virginians.

Please always check with your local venue for last minute changes.

Any West Virginian age 65 and older who is still waiting on an appointment is urged to call the West Virginia Vaccine Info Line: 1-833-734-0965 to be scheduled for an appointment to be vaccinated. The info line is open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

All West Virginians 12 years of age and older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Vaccines are available in all 55 counties through community vaccination clinics, community health centers, pharmacies, schools, workplaces, and/or other locations.

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This web section provides COVID-19 vaccine information. All of the information is available in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese & Korean through the languages dropdown at the top of each page.

Additional CDC Information

Resources for the planning, allocation, distribution, administration, storage & handling, patient education, and more for COVID-19 vaccine.

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COVID-19 Vaccine - West Virginia

Coloradans reached a milestone during the holiday weekend 70% of adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

More than 3.2 million people in the state are at least partially inoculated against the coronavirus, with 2.95 million fully immunized, according to state data.

The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment announced Saturday that seven out of 10 adults have been vaccinated.

Gov. Jared Polis put the number of adults vaccinated at 70.4%, congratulating Coloradans for meeting President Joe Bidens aspirational goal of vaccinating 70% of Americans age 18 and up by July Fourth.

This is an exciting milestone for the people of our state, it is a testament to our resilience and united commitment in the fight against this deadly virus. The vaccine is a safe and effective way to protect ourselves and enjoy the life we love in Colorado, Polis said in a news release. Our country has a simple tool to stop the loss in the form of a safe, highly effective and free vaccine. So get your vaccine to safeguard yourself and your family.

For information on where to get a vaccine here.

To date, 3,154,395 Coloradans 18 and older, and 3,344,512 total Coloradans have been immunized with one dose, according to the governors office. Fully immunized Coloradans number 2,957,758. Everyone 12 and older can get a COVID-19 vaccination. Colorado is ahead of the national inoculation rate, which sits at 67%.

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Colorado hits the 70% mark for COVID-19 vaccinations - Sky Hi News

Some customers at the barbershop Mike Brown manages in Hyattsville, Md., say they dont plan to get a coronavirus vaccine. They say that the vaccine doesnt work, or that they have heard Covid-19 is a hoax.

Mr. Browns Shop Spa just outside Washington, D.C., is part of a national initiative thats enlisting Black barbers and stylists to combat vaccine hesitancy. He listensthen talks about how the vaccines have been proven to work.

I use my platform to advocate for truth and dispel myths, said Mr. Brown, who has also held a vaccination clinic in his shop. Ive gotten about 60% of my clients to get vaccinated, he said.

The Biden administration is building on the barbershop vaccination effort as it steps up such community efforts, trying to reach people reluctant to get the vaccine. The White House has acknowledged that its falling short of its goal of getting at least one shot into the arms of 70% of Americans by July 4. Only about 60% of Americans are partially or fully vaccinated. One reason behind the shortfall is vaccine hesitancy and barriers to accessing the vaccine that can disproportionately affect the Black community.

The barbershop program, dubbed Shots at the Shop, is described by administration officials as critical for reaching vaccine holdouts and easing barriers to access.

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Barbershops and Hair Salons Are Enlisted in Covid-19 Vaccine Push - The Wall Street Journal

Why can COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy be traced back to party affiliation?

Because many Americans view politics as religion and sport, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told CBS televisions Face the Nation host Ed OKeefe, who on Sunday pressed the governor on rising COVID-19 cases, vaccine rollout and the states historic drought.

OKeefe was quick to note that Utah is one of four states where the Delta variant, the highly transmissible COVID-19 variation first discovered in India, has skyrocketed.

Hospitalizations are rising again, Cox said, a trend he called concerning.

The good news is that our adult population is getting vaccinated at the same rate as the rest of the country ... were at about 69% right now, Cox said. We have 89% of those over the age of 65 (vaccinated) and we feel really good about that and our death rates have gone down ... but we desperately need more.

About 95% of Utahs recent COVID-19 deaths have been among the unvaccinated, Cox said, a reality he stressed is preventable.

Those are deaths that dont have to happen, hospitalizations that dont have to happen.

Cox recently set a goal to have 70% of adult Utahns vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 4, and on Sunday he said his administration would like to see more young people get inoculated.

Vaccine hesitancy is proving to be a key roadblock in getting all eligible Utahns inoculated; according to a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll, roughly 30% of Utahns are either still hesitant or will never get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Complications also stem from how rural Utah is, Cox said, although he stressed that its never been easier to get a vaccine.

We have set up a very robust vaccine network, our clinics are spread throughout the state, he told OKeefe.

Some of the hesitancy can be traced back to political party lines, according to OKeefe, who on Sunday pointed to the majority of Democrats 86%, according to a Washington Post poll who have received the vaccine compared to the 45% of Republicans who have been inoculated and 38% who say they never will.

Its troubling, Cox said in response.

Ive spoken about this often...how unfortunate it is that politics is becoming religion in our country, politics is becoming sport and entertainment in our country, he said. Its a huge mistake, its caused us to make bad decisions during this pandemic and in other phases of our life as well.

Cox did say that Utah Republicans are doing a little better when compared to OKeefes numbers, although he did not go into specifics.

Some state governments have turned to lotteries and cash incentives to boost vaccine rollout, while other states have taken a more creative route. In Alabama, recently vaccinated people could win a ride on the famed Talladega Speedway, while West Virginia is holding a giveaway with rifles and shotguns, according to Scientific American.

But in an appropriations bill passed by the Utah Legislature in May, lawmakers restricted any of the Beehive States COVID-19 relief funds to be directed toward vaccine incentives.

Cox on Sunday did not rule out revisiting vaccine incentives with lawmakers, telling OKeefe that he would like all options on the table.

Were certainly having those conversations with the Legislature, theyre looking closely at whats working in other states, Cox said. I will say this, not dying is a great incentive.

OKeefe then turned to climate change and the drought consuming Utah, asking Cox what solutions, if any, his administration has in the works.

Cox pointed to two. Number one, he said, was that every person in our state has to use less water.

Thats going to happen in lots of different ways. We have water restrictions across the state, he said, noting that his familys farm in Fairview is currently at 70% of its water consumption.

Number two is to store more water.

As the fastest growing state in the country, Cox said we have to be prepared for generations to come, something he said Utahs early settlers knew how to do.

Were not doing a great job of that anymore, he told OKeefe. Im grateful in this bipartisan infrastructure push, there is money for that kind of infrastructure. Storing water above ground and underground as well will make a big difference.

OKeefe then pressed Cox on the reluctance of some GOP politicians to act on the current environmental crisis, telling the governor that he is a member of a party that includes many that dont still believe in climate change.

Cox pointed to Utah Rep. John Curtis, who recently launched the Republican Climate Caucus, before acknowledging the importance of finding short term solutions to fight the wave of wildfires and drought plaguing the American West.

Were working on electric car infrastructure across the West, so great things are happening there but we also have to take the short term impacts and we have to take them very seriously, which President Biden did this week talking about wildfires in the West.

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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox talks COVID-19 vaccines, drought on Face the Nation - Deseret News

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) Norfolk health officials will be at Town Point Park to offer free COVID-19 vaccinations on the Fourth of July.

Members of the Norfolk Department of Public Health will be on-site with their mobile unit providing free Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Town Point Park.

The vaccine event is part of the Fourth of July Great American Picnic & Fireworks. The vaccines are for guests ages 18 and older.

The mobile unit will be located adjacent to Town Point Park in the Nauticus turnaround off the corner of Boush Street and Main Street.

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Norfolk giving free COVID-19 vaccinations at Town Point Park on 4th of July - WAVY.com