Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

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On Friday, White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci had a vital message for Americans who have gotten their first dose of the Moderna or Pfizer coronavirus vaccine: Don't skip your second shot.

About 8% of people nationwide who have received one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine have not returned for their second dose, Fauci said Friday. That's normal compared to what health experts have seen with other multidose vaccines. But skipping a second dose will not be as effective in preventing the spread and providing the complete protection needed against the virus that has killed more than 576,000 people in the U.S. and more than 49,000 people in Texas.

"Bottom line of my message: Get vaccinated. And if you're having a two-dose regimen, make sure you get that second dose, too," Fauci said.

A lower percentage of people vaccinated in Texas are skipping their second dose relative to the rest of the country. As of April 25, about 5% or 570,399 of Texans who had received the first dose were 43 days or more past due for their second dose, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Health experts say fears of side effects, an inability to take time off of work or incorrectly thinking that a single dose is enough all might be contributing factors to why some are skipping their second dose.

A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 64% effective at preventing hospitalizations in the elderly after the first dose. But they are 94% effective after two doses.

"Everything is showing us that you need two doses to get good protection against the virus," said Dr. John Carlo, CEO of Prism Health North Texas and a member of the state medical association's COVID-19 task force.

Carlo said another issue some Texans had earlier this year was finding a second dose, as the number of people eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine surpassed the number of vaccines available. However, he said, that's no longer an issue.

Texas is seeing its first dip in vaccine demand and a surplus in supplies since the states vaccinations began last winter, leading local and state officials to brainstorm ways to get people to their regional vaccination hub. Strategies have included trucks driving through small rural towns with LED signs, a $1.5 million TV and digital ad campaign and even possibly offering bobblehead or gift card incentives.

Since skipping second doses isn't unique to any part of Texas, both state and local officials are trying to spread the word of the second dose's importance, said DSHS spokesperson Douglas Loveday.

"DSHS has launched new TV, radio and digital ads about these important issues, but we're not the only ones carrying the message," Loveday said in an email. "The governor posted a new video ... on his Twitter account about the importance of getting a second vaccine dose, and our region and local partners continue to message about getting fully vaccinated."

Loveday said the second vaccine dose is also essential in preventing the creation and spread of new COVID-19 variants a mutation of the original virus.

While new variants have not yet been identified as deadlier than the original coronavirus strain, according to the CDC, they can be more contagious. This can lead to more cases, more hospitalizations and, potentially, more deaths.

Dr. Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist with UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston, said the first dose primes your immune system. The second dose cements the protection.

"The first dose of the vaccine may protect you from the original virus, but there are variants out there," Troisi said. "Because your immune response isn't as strong without your second dose, variants can replicate and spread. The second dose lowers the odds of that happening."

Health experts say Texans who have missed an appointment for a second dose shouldn't worry about having to start the process over again. While getting the second dose should happen within two to six weeks after the first one and not any sooner than that it's always better to get it late than never. If someone has missed their appointment for their second vaccine dose, they can contact their vaccine distributor to reschedule their appointment.

"There isn't going to be any shaming if you get the vaccine months later," said Dr. Diana Cervantes, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. "I know people might be hesitant if they missed their second dose. But it's never too late."

Disclosure: The University of North Texas and UTHealth School of Public Health have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Don't skip your second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, health experts warn - The Texas Tribune

Dr. Anthony Fauci is calling it: mRNA COVID-19 vaccines can provide people with better protection against new viral variants than a prior coronavirus infection alone can.

During a White House COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, Fauci pointed to several new studies, which, when taken together, suggest that the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna provide great immune protection against newly circulating viral variants.

According to the data, the vaccines bump up any natural protection people may have had from prior infection substantially.

"Vaccines, actually, at least with regard to SARS-CoV-2 [the coronavirus] can do better than nature," Fauci, America's leading infectious disease expert, said. "Vaccination in people previously infected significantly boosts the immune response."

Two of the studies that Fauci referenced during the briefing have been peer-reviewed, meaning other independent scientists have given them a thumbs up, while two others are still awaiting peer approval. But they all tell a very similar story.

One study found that people who'd had two doses of an mRNA coronavirus vaccine (either Pfizer's or Moderna's) had antibody titer levels "up to 10 times" that of a natural infection, Fauci said, suggesting those vaccines give people's bodies more fighting power against viral variants than a prior illness can.

"You had interesting increased protection against the variants of concern," Fauci said.

Another small study showed that previously infected people who got vaccinated were exceptionally well protected against three of the five major variants of concern: the P1 variant, first identified in Brazil, the B.1.1.7 variant from the UK which is now dominant in the US, and the B.1.351 variant, first found in South Africa.

But that's not all. In another study that Fauci mentioned, people who'd been previously infected with COVID also displayed better T-cell immunity after a single dose of Pfizer's mRNA vaccine. (T cells can help make infections milder, if people do ever get reinfected.)

"Now, remember these are only laboratory data, have not been proven in the clinic," Fauci said, pointing out that the new studies are based on blood tests, so it's hard to know exactly how everything would play out with real-world infections and variants. "But they are really very interesting, and things that we need to follow up on," he added.

The final study Fauci cited suggested that people who have recovered from a prior COVID-19 infection who then get vaccinated may receive great broadband protection, not just against concerning viral variants, but also against other coronaviruses, like SARS, from their COVID-19 vaccination. That's a virus-fighting power that people who've been infected but not vaccinated don't get.

"Vaccines are highly efficacious," Fauci concluded. "They are better than the traditional response you get from natural infection."

See more here:

Fauci: Why COVID vaccines work better than natural infection alone - Business Insider

To combat vaccine hesitancy among Christian evangelicals, First Baptist Church in Dallas will have a COVID-19 vaccination clinic May 16.

Senior pastor Robert Jeffress said he hopes the move will encourage people to get shots so more of his 14,000 congregants can come and worship in person.

Our church will never be what it needs to be until youre back. The greater risk is the spiritual danger of staying isolated, Jeffress said in a recent sermon. Im not forcing anybody to get the vaccine. Thats your choice. But what I am saying is if you are not back yet, and would like to come back, one option is to take the vaccine, and therefore you dont have to worry about what other people do or dont do here in the church.

Ben Lovvorn, First Baptists executive pastor, said the church is partnering with Dallas County Health and Human Services and will distribute as many Moderna doses as needed based on advanced registrations.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the clinic is one of many efforts the county is using to target groups of people who may be hesitant to get the vaccine. In Deep Ellum, for example, he said the county is partnering with local businesses to target younger bar patrons.

Jenkins said he hoped Christians who attend other churches would be more likely to sign up for the vaccine at First Baptist.

That may change minds, he said. Were just trying to get to every community... What we can all identify is that were stronger together. We all need to do our patriotic duty and get the vaccine.

The clinic at First Baptist will be focused on first doses, with a follow-up clinic in a few weeks for second doses, Lovvorn. People can register online at firstdallas.org/vaccine.

We wanted to do this as a resource and an opportunity for our church family, Lovvorn said. We are not pressuring anyone to get the vaccine, but if you are one of those individuals who desire to get the vaccine and you have not had the opportunity to do so yet, you will.

Lovvorn said he and Jeffress have been fully vaccinated.

Jeffress is among a group of high-profile evangelical pastors who are supporting vaccine efforts. Earlier this year on a Fox News appearance, he compared getting the vaccine to his stance against abortion.

We talk about life inside the womb being a gift from God, he said. Well, life outside the womb is a gift from God, too.

According to the Pew Research Center, white evangelicals are among the least-likely demographic groups to get the vaccines. In a March poll, 45% of evangelicals said they would not get the shots.

Those numbers have fueled concern even within evangelical circles. The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 local churches, is part of a new coalition that will host events, work with media outlets and distribute various public messages to build trust among wary evangelicals.

The pathway to ending the pandemic runs through the evangelical church, said Curtis Chang, a former pastor and missionary who founded ChristiansAndTheVaccine.com, the cornerstone of the new initiative. With white evangelicals making up an estimated 20% of the U.S. population, resistance to vaccination by half of them would seriously hamper efforts to achieve herd immunity, Chang contends.

Chang said that as a former pastor, he understands why some whose congregations are mistrustful of the government and the vaccines may muzzle themselves rather than risk backlash if they urge their flocks to get vaccinated.

Theres going to be some courage required, Chang said.

His initiative includes a toolkit for pastors offering suggestions for how to address within a Christian framework the various concerns of skeptical evangelicals. They range from the extent of the vaccines link to abortion to whether they represent the mark of the beast, an ominous harbinger of the end times prophesized in the New Testaments Book of Revelation.

Partnering in the initiative is the Ad Council, which is known for iconic public service ad campaigns such as Smokey Bear and Friends Dont Let Friends Drive Drunk.

We know the important role faith plays in the lives of millions of people throughout the country, Ad Council president Lisa Sherman said, expressing hope that the campaign could boost their confidence in the vaccines.

Some large Dallas-area churches, like the Potters House in southern Dallas, have served as vaccination sites. Others dont have plans to do so.

Gateway Church, an evangelical church with eight locations across North Texas, isnt planning to host vaccine drives any time soon, said the churchs executive director of media, Lawrence Swicegood.

Because vaccines are relatively accessible across North Texas, the church wasnt planning to start one. But we certainly would consider it and would be available if any circumstances change, Swicegood said.

He also said church leaders arent concerned that the evangelical community is wary of vaccines. He said the church has been proactive about implementing protocols recommended by health and government officials to protect their congregants against coronavirus. Many pastors and staff members at the church have been fully vaccinated, Swicegood said.

Were very much supportive of whatever helps rid our communities of the pandemic, he said.

Staff writer Mariana Rivas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Robert Jeffress hopes to combat vaccine fears with First Baptist Dallas COVID-19 vaccination effort - The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON, D.C. While COVID-19 vaccines now reach most the country, one group isnt part of the rollout equation yet: children.

But thats starting to change.

It's a family and a parent decision, and its not the right thing for every parent, said Dr. James Campbell with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a principal investigator for a clinical trial now underway involving more than 6,700 kids and the Moderna COVID vaccine.

At their Baltimore vaccine trial site, they had just 150 slots for children, but they received thousands of inquiries from parents trying to enroll their children.

I think the reason why we have had such an outpouring, so many families wanting to be in the study, is because of the success of the vaccine so far in adults, Dr. Campbell said.

One of those families is the Mugeras, who were able to enroll their 8-year-old son, Christian.

We thought about it and then we, for me, was a no-brainer, said his dad, Dr. Charles Mugera.

The Mugeras arent just parents, theyre also doctors themselves. They carefully reviewed information about the study beforehand and thentalked to their kids about it.

I think for the children, ultimately, what was the most appealing to them was the fact that they got their life back, Dr. Mugera said.

The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial is for children under the age of 12, who are then broken down into three age groups:

The groups get vaccines varying in strength from a full adult dose to a half dose. Parents need to keep an electronic daily diary of any symptoms and commit to one year of follow-ups either by phone or in person.

So far, Dr. Charles Mugeras son only experienced some initial soreness in his arm from his first full dose of the shot.

It's going to change the game completely, especially if we get the children vaccinated, he said. This is going to save millions and millions of lives.

It marks one more front in the war against COVID-19.

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Thousands of children now involved in COVID-19 vaccine trials - The Denver Channel

Since last year, Anastasios Butch Tsiatis, professor emeritus of statistics, has served on the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the U.S. government-sponsored clinical trials evaluating COVID-19 vaccines such as those developed by Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.

Tsiatis had previously served on other vaccine trial monitoring boards and as a statistical consultant for the World Health Organization.

He talked to us about the work of the Data Safety Monitoring Board and how statistics expertise can help in evaluating the COVID-19 vaccines, some of the most scrutinized pharmaceuticals in history.

Describe the charge and composition of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board.

The purpose of the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) is to ensure the safety of study participants and the rigor and integrity of the clinical trials that it monitors. The COVID-19 vaccine DSMB is part of Operation Warp Speed and is responsible for reviewing and monitoring all U.S. government-supported clinical trials of candidate COVID-19 vaccines.

The board consists of 11 members from the United States, Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and includes experts in infectious disease, vaccinology, immunology, biostatistics, pharmacoepidemiology, public health and biostatistics.

When did you begin serving on the board, and how were you appointed? Had you served on this type of board before?

On June 9, 2020, I received a letter from Dr. Anthony Fauci inviting me to serve on the COVID-19 vaccine DSMB. I was honored to be asked and immediately accepted to serve.

Ive been serving on DSMBs for government-sponsored clinical trials for almost 40 years, including clinical trials for vaccines for AIDS, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

What has been your role on the board?

The other DSMB members and I review all the accrued safety and efficacy data for the trial being monitored. My focus is on the statistical aspects of the reports. When a clinical trial is first proposed, the other statisticians on the board and I carefully review the statistical analysis plan and check all the calculations that describe the sample sizes being proposed and the analyses that will be conducted. We also review all the tables and plots that will be presented to the board to ensure that all the relevant information will be captured so that the board can make the most informed decision regarding the study.

How does statistics expertise apply to this project?

At each meeting, we are presented with a plethora of data on both vaccine efficacy and adverse events. Statisticians are best equipped to understand and interpret these data. We are trained to understand uncertainty and can help guide the DSMB to distinguish between real effects and those that may have occurred by chance.

Outline a typical review process for a vaccine. What are some factors you and your colleagues consider in evaluating them?

The DSMB meets by videoconference at least every one to two weeks, generally reviewing one trial per meeting. Prior to each meeting, members receive study reports via a secure website. Once a trial begins enrolling, our reviews focus on three main elements: trial conduct, safety and vaccine efficacy.

For each review, the DSMB examines metrics related to trial conduct such as proportions of participants in relevant subgroups (by age, sex, race, ethnicity and presence of COVID-19 risk factors) and the quality of data to ensure that the trial is proceeding as planned. The board then makes recommendations based on this data review.

When a vaccine recipient experiences an adverse reaction, the DSMB must assess the likelihood that it was related to the vaccine and, if so, whether it recommends changes to the protocol or informed consent documents or whether the trial should be paused pending further investigation.

The DSMB also reviews two types of efficacy analyses to determine whether accumulating data suggest that it is highly unlikely that a vaccine will meet specified criteria for effectiveness or whether they show convincing evidence of efficacy by surpassing stringent, prespecified criteria. In either case, we can make a recommendation regarding the future conduct of the study. This recommendation shows the DSMB believes the data are compelling and actionable and allows manufacturers to take actions such as submitting applications to regulatory agencies for emergency use authorization or full approval or notifying participants and the public of study findings.

In what ways does the work of this group add to the evidence that the approved vaccines are safe? And how has your work informed your own opinions about the vaccine and the COVID-19 crisis in general?

The COVID-19 vaccine trials have been perhaps the most politicized trials in history, even becoming embroiled in United States presidential election politics. The politicization of these trials prompted prominent figures in the scientific community to question whether vaccine approval might be rushed for political reasons and fostered public concern about whether safety would be compromised. Notwithstanding these controversies, the DSMB has focused throughout on its primary goals the safety of study participants and the integrity and scientific validity of the trials that it is tasked to oversee and has encountered no interference with its ability to fulfill its charge.

Personally, seeing the process unfold and the work and dedication of the DSMB, I have full confidence in the integrity and accuracy of the results from these studies. As soon as I was able to receive my vaccine, I did not hesitate to do so and have encouraged all my family and friends to also get vaccinated.

Find out how the College of Sciences has been at the forefront of solutions during the COVID-19 crisis.

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Behind the Scenes of COVID-19 Vaccine Review - NC State News

Young kids are extremely unlikely to suffer serious complications from COVID-19. Its weird. Nobody entirely understands why. But you know what? Im sold. Its been a tough year lets take our wins where we can. Particularly when, as several news outlets have reported in recent weeks, this is good news for a lot of parents during a probably long stretch when they will be vaccinated but their children will not.

Before I started making plans for my post-vaccine parenting lifestyle, though, I wanted to understand one other aspect of risk: the role my unvaccinated kids might play in getting other people sick. In the U.S., only about 31.6 percent of eligible people were fully vaccinated as of Monday morning, and that number varies a lot from place to place 23.8 percent of Alabamians were fully vaccinated compared with 40.2 percent of Mainers, and you can assume counties and cities show this same kind of variation. That leaves a lot of people who can still contract COVID-19, and I wondered whether young kids could end up being a conduit that keeps COVID-19 moving through the population even as vaccination rates rise.

As with many aspects of COVID-19, this question doesnt yet have absolute, unequivocal answers. When I asked Yair Goldberg, a professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology who is studying how COVID-19 spreads in that country, he said that his team wasnt yet ready to talk about the data theyre collecting. Even a year in, were still learning as we go.

But other researchers told me that evidence suggests grade-school kids are not a major driver of COVID-19s spread in communities at least, that is, so long as theyre following mitigation strategies like wearing a mask.

For example, even after many school districts had been open for a while last fall and case numbers were rising to a surge, a study modeling the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. found that children age 9 and under were responsible for only about 5 percent of the transmissions happening at the time. And those results line up with what researchers are seeing in other countries. Kids in the U.K. can and do get infected and spread COVID-19, said Rosalind Eggo, a professor and infectious disease modeler at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. But so far, she said, cases among kids arent rising before cases in adults, a sign that would indicate they were the ones driving infection.

The fact that kids dont seem to be a leading source of COVID-19 transmission is a bright spot in this whole sad, sorry year. It could quite easily be a different situation. Influenza, after all, works exactly the opposite way, said Oliver Ratmann, a lecturer in statistics at Imperial College London and one of the authors of the U.S. modeling study. With the flu, he told me, kids are both more susceptible to the virus and more likely to transmit it. Whats more, he said, they tend to have a higher number of contacts than adults, thanks to spending their days in school or day care.

If COVID-19 spread like the flu, a community where none of the children and the majority of adults were not yet fully vaccinated would be in trouble. Unvaccinated, unmasked kids playing outside together, going to restaurants or movie theaters with their vaccinated parents and traveling on vacation to other communities would pose a meaningful risk to a lot of people besides themselves.

So, it is a pretty big relief that this is not the case, and were seeing that fact echoed in new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that classify unvaccinated people (including kids) hanging out unmasked, outside in the safest category so long as the people theyre with are all vaccinated. That said, risks remain. Young children do transmit the virus, and variants like the more-transmissible B.1.1.7 lineage increase how likely kids are to spread COVID-19. Its also important to note that those low rates of children transmitting COVID-19 are very dependent on behavioral modifications in particular, wearing masks indoors. A brand-new study out on Thursday found that risk-reduction strategies like teachers wearing masks, kids wearing masks, checking symptoms daily and canceling extracurricular activities like sports made the difference between in-person schooling that spread COVID-19 from kids through their families and in-person schooling that didnt significantly increase the spread of COVID-19.

All this means that vaccinated parents should not go around treating their unvaccinated children as extensions of themselves, said Dr. William Raszka, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Vermont Medical Center. There will be situations where two vaccinated adults can safely hang out mask-free but their unvaccinated kids cant.

Its also the case that the more adults get vaccinated, the more COVID-19 cases will concentrate in young children simply because thats increasingly the only place the virus has left to go. Researchers have seen that in the U.K. as well, said Edward Goldstein, a senior research scientist in epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Kids age 5-12 are now the group with the highest infection rate in the U.K.

Experts like Raszka say kids going unmasked outdoors unless theyre in a large, closely packed group is probably fine. But masking indoors remains an important way to keep COVID-19 from spreading among unvaccinated people of all ages. In the end, the degree to which your childrens lives can reasonably change has a lot to do with how tightly locked down your family has been up until this point. If your kids have been masked up everywhere, indoors and out, the fact that rising numbers of adults are vaccinated and experts are saying outdoors is safer than previously thought will look like a reprieve. If youve already lost the masks months ago, the good news might not seem so great.

Originally posted here:

Kids Cant Get The COVID-19 Vaccine Yet. How Much Of A Risk Do They Pose To The Rest Of Society? - FiveThirtyEight

LAKE COUNTY, Ohio Northeast Ohio counties are among the stop in the state to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

During Mondays press conference, Gov. Mike DeWine released the number of people getting the vaccination in the state based on counties.

Lake County reported the second-highest amount in the state, with 36.4% completing the vaccination process.

Geauga County reported the fifth-highest amount in the state, with 37% completing the vaccination process.

Medina, Cuyahoga, Summit, and Lorain counties rounded out the top 10.

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Northeast Ohio counties among top in state to get COVID-19 vaccination - News 5 Cleveland

MOSCOW (AP) While at the Park House shopping mall in northern Moscow, Vladimir Makarov saw it was offering the coronavirus vaccine to customers, so he asked how long it would take.

It turned out its simple here 10 minutes, he said of his experience last month.

But Makarov, like many Muscovites, still decided to put off getting the Sputnik V shot.

Russia boasted last year of being first in the world to authorize a coronavirus vaccine, but it now finds itself lagging in getting its population immunized. That has cast doubt on whether authorities will reach their ambitious goal of vaccinating more than 30 million of countrys 146 million people by mid-June and nearly 69 million by August.

The vaccine reluctance comes as shots are readily available in the capital to anyone 18 or older at more than 200 state and private clinics, shopping malls, food courts, hospitals even a theater.

As of mid-April, over 1 million of Moscows 12.7 million residents, or about 8%, have received at least one shot, even though the campaign began in December.

That percentage is similar for Russia as a whole. Through April 27, only 12.1 million people have gotten at least one shot and only 7.7 million, or 5%, have been fully vaccinated. That puts Russia far behind the U.S., where 43% have gotten at least one shot, and the European Union with nearly 27%.

Data analyst Alexander Dragan, who tracks vaccinations across Russia, said last week the country was giving shots to 200,000-205,000 people a day. In order to hit the mid-June target, it needs to be nearly double that.

We need to start vaccinating 370,000 people a day, like, beginning tomorrow, Dragan told The Associated Press.

To boost demand, Moscow officials began offering coupons worth 1,000 rubles ($13) to those over 60 who get vaccinated not a small sum for those receiving monthly pensions of about 20,000 rubles ($260).

Still, it hasnt generated much enthusiasm. Some elderly Muscovites told AP it was difficult to register online for the coupons or find grocery stores that accepted them.

Other regions also are offering incentives. Authorities in Chukotka, across the Bering Strait from Alaska, promised seniors 2,000 rubles for getting vaccinated, while the neighboring Magadan region offered 1,000 rubles. A theater in St. Petersburg offered discounted tickets for those presenting a vaccination certificate.

Russias lagging vaccination rates hinge on several factors, including supply. Russian drug makers have been slow to ramp up mass production, and there were shortages in March in many regions.

So far, only 28 million two-dose sets of all three vaccines available in Russia have been produced, with Sputnik V accounting for most of them, and only 17.4 million have been released into circulation after undergoing quality control.

Waiting lists for the shot remain long in places. In the Sverdlovsk region, the fifth most-populous in Russia, 178,000 people were on a wait list by mid-April, regional Deputy Health Minister Yekaterina Yutyaeva told AP.

On April 28, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there are enough vaccines available in Russia, adding that demand was the defining factor in the countrys vaccination rate.

Another factor in Russians reluctance over Sputnik V was the fact that it was rolled out even as large-scale testing to ensure its safety and efficacy was still ongoing. But a study published in February in the British medical journal The Lancet said the vaccine appeared safe and highly effective against COVID-19, according to a trial involving about 20,000 people in Russia.

A poll in February by Russias top independent pollster, the Levada Center, showed that only 30% of respondents were willing to get Sputnik V, one of three domestically produced vaccines available. The poll had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Dragan, the data analyst, says one possible explanation for the reluctance is the narrative from authorities that they have tamed the outbreak, even if that assessment might be premature.

With most virus restrictions lifted and government officials praising the Kremlins pandemic response, few have motivation to get the shot, he said, citing an attitude of, If the outbreak is over, why would I get vaccinated?

Vasily Vlassov, a public health expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, echoed Dragans sentiment and also pointed to inconsistent signals from officials and media.

Russians in 2020 were bombarded with contradictory messages first about (the coronavirus) not being dangerous and being just a cold, then that it was a deadly infection, he told AP. Then they were banned from leaving their homes.

Another narrative, he said, was that foreign vaccines were dangerous but Russian-produced ones were not. State TV reported adverse reactions linked to Western vaccines while celebrating Sputnik Vs international success.

A proper media campaign promoting vaccinations didnt begin on state TV until late March, observers and news reports note. Videos on the Channel 1 national network featured celebrities and other public figures talking about their experience but didnt show them getting injected. President Vladimir Putin said he received the shot about the same time, but not on camera.

Fruitful ground for conspiracy theorists, said Dragan, who also works in marketing.

Rumors about the alleged dangers of vaccines actually surged on social media in December, when Russia began administering the shots, and have continued steadily since then, said social anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova.

The rumors combined with other factors the pseudoscience on Russian TV, vaccine distribution problems and an uneven rollout of the promotional campaign to hamper the immunization drive, Arkhipova told AP.

Vlassov, meanwhile, noted the outbreak in Russia is far from over, and there even are signs it is growing.

Roughly the same number of people get infected every day in Russia now as last May, at the peak of the outbreak, he said, adding that twice as many people are dying every day than a year ago.

Government statistics say infections have stayed at about 8,000-9,000 per day nationwide, with 300-400 deaths recorded daily. But new cases have been steadily increasing in Moscow in the past month, exceeding 3,000 last week for the first time since January.

Infection rates are growing in seven regions, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on April 23, without identifying them. She blamed insufficient vaccination rates in some places.

And yet, the abundance of vaccines in Moscow has attracted foreigners who cant get the shot at home. A group of Germans got their first jab at their hotel last month.

Uwe Keim, 46-year-old software developer from Stuttgart, told AP he believes there are more vaccines available here in Russia than is demanded by the people here.

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Kostya Manenkov and Anatoly Kozlov in Moscow and Yulia Alexeyeva in Yekaterinburg contributed.

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Follow APs pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/hub/understanding-the-outbreak

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Russia lags behind others in its COVID-19 vaccination drive - The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO COUNTY (CBS13) Officials say there are hundreds of open COVID-19 vaccination appointments available at Sacramento County drive-thru locations this week.

The locations still accepting appointments include the countys McClellan and Cal Expo sites.

It was really fast. I was surprised, said Ram Chandran, who got his vaccine on Monday.

Chandran went online to book his shot.

It was pretty seamless to get an appointment, he said.

Both locations will be administering the Pfizer vaccine, officials say. Patients even get to stay in their cars when the shot is given.

Were here. Were ready to go, said Jason Cowen with Curative, the company running the vaccine clinics. Knowing that there are that many people out here who still need it is something were out there trying to help correct.

Same-day appointments are still available, officials say, and both locations are even accepting patients without an appointment.

McClellans site runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, while Cal Expos runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Appointments can be made through the states MyTurn website.

The rest is here:

Hundreds Of Sacramento County Drive-Thru COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments Still Open - CBS Sacramento

The fact that vaccinated people can still get COVID-19 should not be a surprise.

And its certainly no reason not to get vaccinated.

Breakthrough cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated people are expected.

It doesnt mean that the vaccines currently in use are not highly effective.

They are.

Theyre just not 100 percent effective.

So, yes, you can still get sick even if youre vaccinated, but its exceedingly rare.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 87 million Americans had received the COVID-19 vaccine as of April 20, 2021. Among vaccinated people, there were 7,157 breakthrough cases, with fewer than 500 hospitalizations and 88 deaths.

Do the math and you can see the cases are about 1/100th of 1 percent of those vaccinated.

The effectiveness of any vaccine in preventing serious illness is high, and in the case of the COVID-19 vaccines, its very high, Dr. S. Wesley Long, an infectious disease researcher and clinical microbiologist at Houston Methodist in Texas, told Healthline.

All the data shows that if youre vaccinated you probably wont get any symptoms at all, but even if you do, you still probably wont get full-blown COVID and end up in the hospital, he said.

COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness varies according to which shot you get.

Research published this month by the CDC shows that messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against COVID-19 which include those developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are 80 percent effective in preventing detectable coronavirus infections 14 days after the first dose and 90 percent effective after the second dose.

The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine was found to be 66 percent effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness 2 weeks after vaccination.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, based on more conventional adenovirus technology, was also found in clinical trials to be 100 percent effective against serious COVID-19 illness.

In the study, several people in the control group were hospitalized and/or died from COVID-19.

None of those who received the vaccine were hospitalized or died, even among those who got detectable infections.

So, why can people who get vaccinated still get sick?

To begin with, 66 percent or 80 percent or 90 percent effective isnt the same as 100 percent effective.

You can also get sick if youre exposed to the coronavirus in the weeks immediately following your shot, when the immune response caused by the vaccine is still developing.

There is [also] a small subset of people who will not make a protective response after immunization, Long said. Thats why we need herd immunity to protect those people.

That said, the vaccines for COVID-19 are remarkably effective.

Since the 200910 flu season, for example, the effectiveness of the flu vaccine has ranged from 19 to 60 percent.

The COVID vaccines do very well, especially when compared to something like the influenza vaccine, Long said.

How well?

Consider that when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued guidelines for emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines, it set the efficacy threshold at just 50 percent.

All three vaccines now in use in the United States far exceed that minimum.

We [also] have evidence to suggest that the vaccines do a pretty good job of preventing transmission of the disease to other people, Long said.

Breakthrough cases in vaccinated people are entirely normal.

There will be a small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated who still get sick, are hospitalized, or die from COVID-19, the CDC states.

Even if we have a handful of breakthrough cases its important to remember that these people are unlikely to have severe disease or pass COVID along to other people, Long said.

The latest data from the CDC, for example, shows that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were 94 percent effective against COVID-19 hospitalization among fully vaccinated adults ages 65 and older the population considered most vulnerable to the disease and 64 percent effective among partially vaccinated adults.

Thats similar to whats already known about the flu.

A study published in 2018 found that even when people who got the flu shot fell ill, their odds of being hospitalized were reduced by 37 percent compared with unvaccinated people. The odds of requiring intensive care were cut by 82 percent.

To recap:

If you get vaccinated, the odds are you wont get COVID-19.

If you get vaccinated and you do get sick, the odds are you wont get seriously ill or die from the disease.

Its not a 100 percent guarantee, but its close.

See the original post:

COVID-19 Vaccines Are 90% Effective - Healthline