Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

(KTVX) Youve done it youve waited to be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, you refreshed web pages until you got an appointment, and you showed up, getting a quick prick in the arm.

You may be ready to pop the champagne or crack open a beer and celebrate, but hold on for a moment.

Can you even drink alcohol after you get the COVID-19 vaccine? What about before?

Health officials have confirmed that you shouldnt take painkillers before getting a shot to prevent symptoms, but, if your doctor agrees, you can use them afterward if needed.

We know there are side effects after the vaccine the CDC says you may experience fever, nausea, body aches, headaches, chills and other similar symptoms after you receive both your first and second dose.

If you arent familiar, some of those symptoms are similar to a hangover.

But there is no advice from the CDC regarding drinking alcohol before or after getting your dose. In Russia, a scientist caused a stir when she recommended Russians stop drinking alcohol two weeks before getting the vaccine, then three weeks after the second. Another Russian scientist was interviewed and recommending you dont drink alcohol for three days after each injection, according to Forbes.

While there is no firm answer, most health officials advise against drinking because of the symptoms that may occur after you get your dose.

Vaccine side effects include muscle aches and pains and feeling under the weather. Compounding that with the side effects of alcohol runs the risk of making you feel worse,Tania Elliott, MD, clinical instructor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, tellsHealth.

Having a glass of wine or a pint of beer after your vaccine appointment could make the side effects a bit worse, Dr. William Greenough III, M.D., professor emeritus of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, tells Bustle.

While its true that chronic, heavy drinking and binge drinking can suppress your immune system, Richard Kennedy, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and co-director of the Vaccine Research Group, says an occasional drink including one after your second dose, wont have an effect.

Ultimately, while having a drink after getting either of your doses wont make your recovery any harder, health officials agree that instead of having alcohol, you should focus on staying hydrated and taking care of yourself in case of symptoms of the vaccine.

There have been a lot of questions about the vaccine and what you can do before or after getting your shot. Here are a few frequently asked questions, answered:

If you have been fully vaccinated, the CDC says you can resume travel at low risk of getting or spreading COVID-19. Because of this, those who are fully vaccinated with either the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson vaccine can travel safely within the U.S. without getting tested before or after travel unless their destination requires it and they do not need to self-quarantine.

New research suggests the protection theModerna vaccinegives against COVID-19 lasts for at least six months. Research on the Pfizer vaccine has found the same results. Both vaccines have only been available in the U.S. for six months.

The CDC recommends that peopleavoid pain medicinelike Tylenol or Ibuprofen prior to getting the vaccine. The chance that over-the-counter medications will affect your immune response is unlikely, the Utah Department of Health says, but it is still not known for sure if they can impact the vaccines effectiveness.

Its widely known that the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccines tend to come with more side effects than the first, including tiredness, headaches, chills, fever, nausea and muscle pain. With the first dose, your body begins building its initial immune response, including producing antibodies.

But with the second shot a.k.a. the second exposure to the virus the big guns of your immune system react.

How long should I wait to get the vaccine after having the virus?

According to Jenny Johnson, Public Information Officer with the Utah Department of Health, people who have had COVID-19 can safely be vaccinated.

The only rule about being vaccinated after being infected with the virus, she says, is that people must havecompleted the quarantine period and be symptom-free.

There is no reason why someone should not get the vaccine after being infected, Johnson says.

Can I donate blood after receiving the vaccine?

You can, but the American Red Cross says it isimportant to note which type of vaccine you got.

More here:

Can you drink alcohol after getting the COVID-19 vaccine? - WGN TV Chicago

PHOTO: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Amid the staggering amount of suffering and death during this historic pandemic of COVID-19, a remarkable success story stands out. The development of several highly efficacious vaccines against a previously unknown viral pathogen, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), in less than 1 year from the identification of the virus is unprecedented in the history of vaccinology. A frequently asked question is how such an extraordinary accomplishment could have been realized in such a short time frame, when timelines for other vaccines are measured in years if not decades. In fact, concern about this truncated timeline has contributed in part to the hesitancy in accepting these vaccines. What is not fully appreciated is that the starting point of the timeline for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines was not 10 January 2020, when the Chinese published the genetic sequence of the virus. Rather, it began decades earlier, out of the spotlight.

Two activities predate the successful COVID-19 vaccines: the utilization of highly adaptable vaccine platforms such as RNA (among others) and the adaptation of structural biology tools to design agents (immunogens) that powerfully stimulate the immune system. The RNA approach evolved over several years owing to the ingenuity of individual scientists, including Drew Weissman and Katalin Karik, and the concentrated efforts of several biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

The discovery of an immunogen adaptable to the multiple platforms (messenger RNA and others) used for COVID-19 vaccines resulted from collaboration across different scientific subspecialities. At the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a group led by Peter Kwong had for several years used tools of structure-based vaccine design to determine the optimal structural conformation of a trimeric protein on the surface of the virus (the envelope protein) that allows HIV to bind to cells and ultimately trigger the production of antibodies that neutralize many HIV viral strains. Although this sophisticated approach has not yet led to a successful HIV vaccine, it caught the attention of another VRC investigator, Barney Graham, who was interested in generating a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Graham joined Jason McLellan (of Kwong's team) to adapt a structure-based approach to an RSV vaccine. They identified the prefusion conformation of the viral spike protein as highly immunogenic and created mutations to stabilize that conformation for successful use as an immunogen. This was a huge step toward the creation of a successful RSV vaccine.

VRC researchers and colleagues then built on the RSV advances. Graham's team, including Kizzmekia Corbett, and collaborators in the laboratories of McLellan and Andrew Ward adopted this approach of mutational stabilization of prefusion proteins in their work on the spike protein of the coronaviruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). So, when the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 became available, Graham's team lost no time in joining their long-time collaborators at Moderna to develop an RNA vaccine using a stabilized, prefusion spike protein as the immunogen. Pfizer and BioNTech, where Karik was working, also used the RNA platform that she and Weissman had perfected and the immunogen designed by Graham to develop an RNA vaccine. Additional companies also used Graham's immunogen in other vaccine platforms that had been evolving for years, to make SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccines based on the new immunogen rapidly moved to clinical trials. Several of these vaccines were tested in phase 3 efficacy trials at a time when the level of community spread of SARS-CoV-2 was extremely high, allowing vaccine efficacy endpoints of greater than 90% to be reached in a timely fashion. The speed and efficiency with which these highly efficacious vaccines were developed and their potential for saving millions of lives are due to an extraordinary multidisciplinary effort involving basic, preclinical, and clinical science that had been under wayout of the spotlightfor decades before the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the stories and recounting of this pandemic are written, it is important that this history not be forgotten, as we are reminded once again of the societal value of a sustained and robust support of our scientific enterprise.

Excerpt from:

The story behind COVID-19 vaccines - Science Magazine

Stars of NBC's 'Today' receiving Covid-19 vaccines on Wednesday, April 7, 2021: Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin, Jenna Bush Hager, Dylan Dreyer, Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones and Savannah Guthrie.

NBC | NBCUniversal | Getty Images

As doctors and health professionals race against Covid-19vaccination skepticism, some Hollywood producers, writers and showrunners are betting that inputting vaccines into television storylines can help curb widespread misinformation.

Shows across TV networks began integrating Covid-19 into scripts, including questions about social distancing and masking, as the pandemic spread across the U.S. last March. Now, as vaccination efforts ramp up nationwide, shows like "This Is Us" which featured arecurring character receive two doses of a vaccine in an episode last month are integrating vaccines into episodes and audiences can expect to see more vaccination plot points, says Kate Folb, director of the Hollywood, Health and Society program at the University of Southern California.

Folb is a member of a growing network of entertainment industry experts working closely with writers and showrunners to accurately depict health and medical information, and use entertainment to fight the misinformation campaigns and nationwide skepticism fueled by social media.

Using the entertainment industry to relay public health information is not a new phenomenon. Major networks including ABC, CBS and NBC in the 1980s are credited with raising awareness toward a nationwide designated driver campaign by inputting posters and references into shows like "Cheers" and "L.A. Law."

"People in fact do believe what they see on TV and it's imperative that we provide accurate information," says Neal Baer, a doctor and writer and producer on shows like "ER" and "Designated Survivor."

Writers, health professionals and advocates are grappling with how to tell vaccine stories that cater to a range of opinions, concerns and viewpoints, all while maintaining both viewers and ratings.

According to a February study from Pew Research Center, 19% of adults had already received at least one dose of a vaccine, while another 50% said they would definitely or probably get vaccinated. Despite growing optimism toward vaccinations, those numbers differ when broken down by race and ethnicity.

When surveyed in November, 42% of Black adults said they would get vaccinated, compared to 63% of Hispanics and 61% of white adults. Now, about 61% of Black adults say they plan to get vaccinated or already have, while 70% of Hispanics and 69% of whites agree, according to Pew data.

While polling indicates growing trust toward getting vaccinated, there's no single reason why people are still hesitant, and in addition to race, other factors that result in higher levels of skepticism include politics (GOP affiliation), religion (white evangelicals) and geography (rural Americans). Seventy-two percent of respondents to the Pew study cited concerns about side effects; 67% expressed worry centered around the fast development and testing of the vaccines; while another 61% noted a lack of knowledge of how they work.

"We've been looking at how to tell stories about vaccine hesitancy, but it is not a monolithic one-idea problem," Baer says.

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Some of the distrust and skepticism toward vaccines and the medical system in the African-American community, for example,dates back to the infamous 20th century Tuskegee study on syphilis. In recent months, African-American medical associations and professionals have ramped up efforts on social media to promote the vaccine for a group that's been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic.

According to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Monitor Survey, about a quarter of Black adults said they are more likely to take a "wait and see" approach to getting vaccinated versus more than half who said that in December. For the Latino community, where language barriers and lack of trust in government have been factors, just 18% said they would "wait and see," down from 43%. Among white adults, those taking a wait and see approach dropped to 16%, down from 36%.

"There's still a chunk of hesitancy out there. About 10 -15% of Americans are pretty dead set against getting vaccinated and probably another 15% is pretty skeptical so we've got to work on that. In terms of herd immunity, there's no doubt that ... we probably need to be well above 70%, probably in the eighties or ninety percent," Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told CNBC's Meg Tirrell at the CNBC @Work Summit on March 30.

As of 6 a.m. Thursday 19.4% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated while about a third has received at least one dose, the CDC reports. Convincing more Americans across broad cross-sections of society to be vaccinated without pushing too hard is critical to herd immunity goals, according to public health experts.

"I think the best way to persuade people is to persuade people, it's not to necessarily mandate it, and again, there are a chunk of people who are skeptical, more in the wait and see category, and I think they can be encouraged," Jha said.

Technology companies are doing more to fight vaccine misinformation on social media, one of the primary contributors to vaccine concerns. Last month, Facebook announced it would label posts about Covid-19 vaccines and launched a nationwide tool to offer information and help users locate vaccines. The announcement came following harsh criticism from lawmakers for enabling the spread of vaccine conspiracies and misinformation on its platform. Twitter said in December it would mark and in some cases remove posts about vaccine misinformation.

Ongoing studies suggest that what audiences see on television informs their knowledge and attitudes, making it an effective platform to disseminate and relay public health information.

An early 2000s study from KFF, for example,found that integrating storylines related to emergency contraception and human papillomavirus on the hit show "ER" drastically increased awareness. The proportion of viewers who said they knew about HPV nearly doubled in the week after the episode aired, while those who could correctly define HPV and its link to cervical cancer tripled.

Major television networks during the 1980s are also credited with joining a nationwide Harvard School of Public Health designated driver campaign aimed at curbing drunk driving.

According to a recent survey conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, appealing to concerns about protecting loved ones could motivate some Covid-19 skeptics. The study, which interviewed 1,074 people nationwide about their attitudes toward the pandemic, found that those who see social distancing as a violation of their rights and freedoms responded more positively when it put a loved one at risk.

We are working as fast and furiously as we can to get the message out.

Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk

Refraining from controlling language like "you should" or "you better," respecting their concernsand affirming and "agreeing with them as much as possible," can also be an effective way to communicate reasons to get vaccinated with this group, says Ken Resnicow, one of the authors of the study.

Resnicow says vaccine skeptics generally break down into two groups, the "wait and see" group, which includes many minority communities including Blacks and is generally more responsive to new information, and the "hard no" group,populated by both white Republicans and evangelicals, who often view getting a vaccine or masking up as a threat to religious freedom.

"Information is not going to persuade them," Resnicow says. "That 'hard no' group won't be necessarily moved by efficacy or safety data because the fundamental objection is much more emotional," and built on ongoing views of government and religion.

Helping writers and television shows communicate persuasive messaging is the mission of Cultique, a company that advises the entertainment industry on cultural issues. Linda Ong, its CEO and founder, says one way to do that is by modeling behavior. The technique is as simple as explicitly depicting a character looking for more vaccine information or as subtle as showing a character elbow bumping or running inside for a mask, which can be an effective tool for those on the edge, Ong says.

Ong kickstarted the "Be a Protector" messaging campaign back in January aimed at encouraging industry professionals to help model safe Covid-19 behavior. Michigan, Yale, USC's HHS, The Ad Council and the Creative Coalition a nonprofit that works with actors, directors and entertainment industry workers to educate on social issues are among the groups that have already signed onto the program.

"Someone who hasn't studied science for twenty years would rather hear a story," says Sten Vermund, dean at the Yale University School of Public Health who is working with the group. "Those of us in science need to do much better with storytelling."

Arsenio Hall, left, Danny Trejo and Magic Johnson pose for a photo after they all got vaccine shots on the rooftop of parking structure at USC as a part of a vaccination awareness event at USC on March 24, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

Gina Ferazzi | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

The Creative Coalition is currently working with writers from shows like "New Amsterdam" and "Grey's Anatomy" to fight vaccine hesitancy, says the organization's CEO Robin Bronk. Much of the work disseminating information across, cable, digital and streaming channels involves briefings, Zoom meetings and providing raw data for writers to implement into storylines.

Some organizations are betting on publicity events with influential celebrities to rally support for the vaccines. In March, Dolly Parton turned her vaccine into a public service announcement when she received her first dose of the Moderna vaccine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and sang a vaccine song to the tune of "Jolene." BET, in an attempt to sway Black audiences, aired a half-hour TV special in January featuring actor and director Tyler Perry asking questions and receiving a vaccine.

The Creative Coalition, in conjunction with the Yale University School of Public Health, will debuted a series of short public service announcements in an attempt to sway public opinion, the first of which featured Morgan Freeman and aired April 5.

"It's abouthow you use the power of entertainment andarts for social good,"Bronk says. "We are working as fast and furiously as we can to get the message out."

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The Covid-19 vaccine script that TV shows are using to fight fear and misinformation - CNBC

Are some COVID-19 vaccines more effective than others?

Its hard to tell since they werent directly compared in studies. But experts say the vaccines are alike on what matters most: preventing hospitalizations and deaths.

Luckily, all these vaccines look like theyre protecting us from severe disease, said Dr. Monica Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco, citing study results for five vaccines used around the world and a sixth thats still in review.

And real-world evidence as millions of people receive the vaccines show theyre all working very well.

Still, people might wonder if one is better than another since studies conducted before the vaccines were rolled out found varying levels of effectiveness. The problem is they dont offer apples-to-apples comparisons.

Consider the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, found to be about 95% effective at preventing illness. Studies for those shots counted a COVID-19 case whether it was mild, moderate or severe and were conducted before worrisome mutated versions of the virus began circulating.

Then Johnson & Johnson tested a single-dose vaccine and didnt count mild illnesses. J&Js shot was 66% protective against moderate to severe illness in a large international study. In just the U.S., where theres less spread of variants, it was 72% effective. More importantly, once the vaccines effect kicked in it prevented hospitalization and death.

AstraZenecas two-dose vaccine used in many countries has faced questions about the exact degree of its effectiveness indicated by studies. But experts agree those shots, too, protect against the worst outcomes.

Around the world, hospitalizations are dropping in countries where vaccines have been rolling out including Israel, England and Scotland regardless of which shots are given. And the U.S. governments first look at real-world data among essential workers provided further evidence that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are highly protective -- 90% -- against infections whether there were symptoms or not.

___

The AP is answering your questions about the coronavirus in this series. Submit them at: FactCheck@AP.org. Read more here:

Can I take painkillers before or after a COVID-19 vaccine?

I got the COVID-19 vaccine. What can I safely do?

Will the coronavirus ever go away?

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Are some COVID-19 vaccines more effective than others? - Associated Press

WASHINGTON Useful Covid-19 information isnt reaching the Instagram generation.

Theres almost no messaging specifically tailored to them from federal or state public health officials. Theres hardly anything official on Tik Tok. And even the limited efforts to reach them where they are like Instagrams links to its Covid-19 information center arent working.

Just ask Kymon Palau, a 21-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M., who has over 18,000 followers on the site.

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If I am being honest with you, I probably clicked those tags once back in April of last year and never clicked them again its annoying, Palau said.

Palau isnt alone in interviews with more than half a dozen other young people around the country, nearly all said they werent opposed to vaccinations they just couldnt find information tailored to them.

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That lack of information is clearly having an impact. A recent STAT-Harris Poll finds that 21% of Generation Z defined in the survey as young adults aged 18 to 24 said they would not get vaccinated against Covid-19 and another 34% said they would wait awhile and see before getting vaccinated. The results come on the heels of an NBC-Morning Consult poll that found that 26% of Gen Z said they would not get the vaccine.

There isnt anything that is consumable and/or targeted at our demographic, said Gabrielle Kalisz, a 22-year-old who lives in Washington, D.C., and who has been vaccinated. All the messaging online isnt targeted toward our age group, it doesnt explain why, if youre a healthy 19-year-old, you should get this vaccine.

Numerous public health officials told STAT that the issue of growing vaccine reluctance among young people can be solved with a coordinated campaign of reliable, useful information that makes it both easy and enticing for young people to get vaccinated, even if they may not personally benefit much.

Those same officials acknowledged, however, that much of the groundwork for messaging to young people is yet to be done.

Time is running out: Unvaccinated young people are fueling an exponential uptick in Covid-19 cases in the Midwest, prompting fears of a fourth Covid-19 surge that could spread throughout the United States. Around the world, young people are also increasingly showing up in intensive care units with life-threatening symptoms. The uptick in cases, which experts believe is caused by the increased spread of the coronavirus variant known as B.1.1.7, has been so serious that it has prompted one Canadian province to go back into lockdown. Public health officials also fear that reopening universities this fall could fuel regional outbreaks in college towns around the country.

People keep referring to it as the race against time, but thats where we are, Michael Meit, a researcher who holds positions at the University of Chicago and East Tennessee State Universitys Center for Rural Health Research. We need to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible and in particular we need to get the people vaccinated who are the ones who are spreading the virus, and right now the people who are spreading the virus are those younger age groups.

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Round Dance Mighty Arrows

Catriona Fee, 19, from Washington, D.C., isnt getting vaccinated. Shes too worried about whether the Pfizer and Moderna shots will impact her ability to have a family down the line a concern that several other Gen Zers shared with STAT. (Early data has shown that the vaccines do not affect fertility, and leading medical associations still recommend vaccines for individuals who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.)

Fee maintains shed be open to getting vaccinated if more information was available about potential long-term impacts on fertility, but right now shes not convinced.

Gen Z they have to consider, is this going to impact my choices down the road? Fee said. For the vaccine, its, is this going to impact my ability to have children?

Young people are also worried about whether vaccine side effects will keep them out of work or make it harder for them to finish their mountains of homework. While all three vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration have a tendency to hit young people harder with side effects, theres little information available about what they can expect.

People just dont have time to try to find an appointment, to take the time out of their day to go get the shot, and have two days where they feel awful, said Kyler Tipton, 24, of Conway, Ark., who wants to get vaccinated. I know nobody really has the time to leave work or take a couple off of days off because they got a vaccine, but for people my age, they might miss their rent.

Theyre also just less motivated than many older people.

The challenge in this age group is they know that the risk to them is pretty low from this virus we shouldnt be dishonest about that. Its helping them be motivated enough to protect others to overcome their own personal ambivalence, said Sarah Van Orman, division chief of college health at the University of Southern California.

The problem of vaccine hesitancy is even more pronounced in rural, conservative communities. Recent polling suggests between 20% and roughly 40% of rural Americans are unsure about getting vaccinated.

Tipton told STAT that young people in his community are weighing the modest benefits of getting vaccinated with the criticism they may receive from their community, from people who are themselves hesitant or opposed to the vaccines.

They just dont see it being more valuable than the social ostracism, and the sickness, explained Tipton, referring to the potential side effects of the vaccine.

Though public health officials havent launched any specific campaigns targeting young people, Gen Zers themselves are starting to organize to help their peers.

Palau, the Instagram influencer, largely credits his own change of heart on the vaccine to his followers and fellow influencers particularly people of color on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Palau, who is Indigenous, was hesitant for months because of the long history of exploitation and medical experimentation on Native communities, he said, even though he lost several family members to Covid-19.

We were treated like lab rats to be forcibly tested on, he said. Of course that history is going to cross our minds.

Eventually he made his own TikTok videos urging other Native young people to get vaccinated. His video is part of a campaign dubbed See Friends Again, a small campaign stood up by Bigtent Creative, an advocacy organization focused on mobilizing young people on channels like TikTok and Snapchat. The campaign focuses on contracting with young people of color who are micro influencers to share vaccine positive messages on their social media accounts.

Jordan Tralins, a 19-year-old from St. Petersburg, Fla., started the Covid Campus Coalition at her college, Cornell University. The campaign, which shares eye-catching, university-themed infographics answering common vaccine questions, piggybacks on the growing trend of Instagram infographic activism. More than 20 universities have now joined the coalition, including Ohio State and Notre Dame.

I hadnt seen any type of campaign targeted toward people my age and thats how the idea came to be, explained Tralins. I definitely dont think the information was in my face. It was not in my Instagram feed anywhere. Anything that was on Facebook or TikTok that I saw was false information.

Kaelin Connor, a 21-year-old from Belton, Texas, wrote an op-ed in her college newspaper debunking common vaccine myths. Kalisz, the 22-year-old from Washington, D.C., meanwhile, said she was pushing her friends to come to her for help.

We went into the group chat and said what are your questions about the vaccine? What can I explain for you? What resources can I get to you? Can I help you find where to get vaccinated? explained Kalisz. A lot of it was just pushing a topic that maybe some kids didnt even want to talk about, so that at least it was out there and we could have the conversation.

Those kinds of personal conversations between trusted friends can make a big impact in changing peoples minds. Alison Buttenheim, an associate professor of nursing and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania who researches strategies to increase vaccine acceptance, described the impact of these conversations as huge, huge, huge, huge.

The Biden administration has promised that its about to get much more involved in drumming up demand for vaccines and young people are one of its primary targets.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a $3 billion initiative aimed at increasing vaccine acceptance. The administration also launched a sweeping public relations campaign, which includes a new Covid community corps, a coalition of several hundred groups that will work with the White House to spread vaccine positive messages.

Both individuals and groups can join the community corps, which will provide participating groups with resources like fact sheets and social media posts to share, although its not yet clear how central a role the community corp will play in the overall vaccine rollout.

NextGen America, a nonprofit that typically focuses on registering and mobilizing young voters, is a member of the new corps. The group is planning to send text alerts and emails to its some 10 million young people, both to help them figure out where to be vaccinated and to answer basic questions.

We are hearing from folks that they are not worried about the vaccine, or its more important for their grandparents to get vaccinated, or they dont know where to get vaccinated, they dont know when theyll be able to get vaccinated, said Justin Atkins, the groups national politics manager. We have young folks that still believe they cant get vaccinated because its something thats reserved only for the elderly in areas where they can get vaccinated.

The community corps model concept makes sense, argued Buttenheim, the vaccine acceptance expert.

This really seems to me like the sweet spot, she said, adding that community-based efforts, like a recent ad promoting vaccination in New Orleans, just land in a way that Dr. [Jill] Biden smiling and saying we should all get vaccinated probably wouldnt. (Buttenheim added that Biden should continue to do those, too.)

She just wishes it started sooner.

Easy for me to say: It feels a little late, Buttenheim said. But thats OK.

It was not in my Instagram feed anywhere. Anything that was on Facebook or TikTok that I saw was false information.

Jordan Tralins, a 19-year-old from St. Petersburg, Fla.

A number of public health officials told STAT that the reopening of college campuses may be, paradoxically, a boon for controlling Covid-19 because campuses have a leg up in helping vaccinate their populations.

We know where people live, we know their email addresses, and we also know a lot about them. We know how to reach different parts of our students with the messages they need, explained Van Orman, the USC professor.

Already a handful of college campuses, including Rutgers University and Cornell University, have also mandated students get vaccinated, and others are likely to follow.

The optimism may be misplaced, especially if most universities dont mandate the vaccine. Flu vaccination on college campuses rates typically hover between 8% and 39% far short of the 70% recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The problem is even more pressing for the roughly one-third of college-aged people who arent enrolled in college. While colleges can bombard their students with vaccine positive messages, create vaccine sites all over campus, and even mandate vaccines none of that exists for those who dont enroll in higher education.

We have all the factors that we have in college students without the role of the institution helping to mitigate them, said Van Orman. I worry much more about our young adults that are not associated with institutions of higher education.

Some public health officials are already lamenting their lack of planning, and worrying about the future.

Im not entirely sure how well-prepared everybody is to start communicating, getting key messages tailored to the younger generations out there. Everybodys been so preoccupied they really havent had a chance to think two or three moves ahead, said William Schaffner, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University. We have a lot of work to do.

Others, however, are still hopeful they have to be.

Using messages and strategies and approaches that are rooted in the research and that we know work will get us where we need to be, said Ann Christiano, the director of the University of Floridas Center for Public Interest Communications. If I didnt believe that, I wouldnt be able to get out of bed in the morning.

Ed Silverman contributed to this report.

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In the Covid-19 vaccine push, no one is speaking Gen Z's language - STAT

TAMP, Fla. (WFLA) Floridians as young as 16 can now get the COVID-19 vaccine, and trials are underway to get shots into the arms of children as young as six months.

But 8 On Your Side found some Tampa Bay area parents who dont want this vaccine getting near their children.

Tami Spicer is not an anti-vaxxer.Like many parents, she always made sure her girls received required vaccinations.But not this time.

Why? Tami, like some others believe, the drug companies rushed the COVID-19 vaccines. Tami fears an unknown danger lurks out there.

I wear my mask. I socially distance. I use my hand sanitizer, she explained.

The Pasco County mom knows coronavirus is deadly. She and her girls follow CDC guidelines but she wants answers before she allows anyone in her household to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

I just, I dont want anything to happen to me, said Tami. I love them and I just, I want to be here.

Tami worries researchers, drug makers and the government rushed development and approval of the vaccines.

Is it going to mess my daughter up? Is she going to be able to have kids? said Tami. I felt like people like me mothers, and people who are worried need to have some answers.

While 100,000 people, some as young as 16, were in the initial trials last summer, drug makers are only now starting to test the vaccine on pre-teens, toddlers and babies. Last week, Pfizer wrapped up a study involving approximately 2,000 in the 12 to 15 age bracket.

Dr. Charlie Sand, an emergency physician at St. Josephs Hospital-turned COVID-19 advisor for Hillsborough County and the state, explained the findings.

Kids down to 12 not only were they 100% protected, there were no side effects, other than maybe sore arm, Dr. Sand said.

Those initial results, according to Dr. Sand, hold great promise.

Would you let your teenage children get vaccinated? Investigative Reporter Mahsa Saeidi asked.

I would let my child of any age get vaccinated, he said. Id be comfortable going down to six months old.

Theres a lot of misinformation out there like the vaccine has the live COVID-19 virus, the shot alters your DNA or the vaccine tracks you with a microchip.

All of this is false, according to scientists.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines basically give instructions to your cell to manufacture a protein found on the outside of the virus. Your immune system makes antibodies to fight off this protein, which means, if COVID-19 shows up, youll fight it too.

Johnson and Johnsons shot, a viral vector vaccine, works in a similar way.

According to Dr. Sand, getting vaccinated is safer than risking infection. But Tami wonders about complications three, five and even 10 years down the road from now.

How can you say that will not happen? asked Saeidi.

Cant. We cant But what we can say is, so far, we havent seen it in nine months, said Dr. Sand. Pretty much most the majority of bad side effects from a vaccine happen in the first six weeks historically. And weve made it to nine months.

How dangerous is coronavirus for our youth?

State records show 571 kids age 4 and under were hospitalized and one died.

In the 5 to 14 age group, 563 were hospitalized and five died.

In the age bracket tracking those 15 to 24 years old, more than 2,150 were hospitalized and 44 died.

My decision [about vaccinating] could change if there was enough information, said Tami.

We know the short-term side effects of the vaccine for adults: sore arm, fever and nausea. Sixteen and 17-year-olds are now getting shots too but data regarding their side effects is not yet available.

While Dr. Sand says theres no evidence this vaccine causes issues long-term, COVID-19 does. So-called long-haulers experience problems like stroke, kidney failure and memory loss.

Pediatric studies will be completed later this year.

Read more:

COVID-19 vaccines and kids: What parents should know - WFLA

The study is looking for unvaccinated participants, but space is extremely limited.

SEATTLE Its the next step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Tia Babu from the University of Washington is heading up a local study looking at the long-term effectiveness of the vaccine.

The primary endpoint, we will be looking at safety and tolerability of the vaccine, but we will also be looking at immune response, said Babu.

We don't know how long people have immunity after vaccination, Babu continued. We don't know, over time, will that immunity wane?" We do know that some of the vaccines are less effective against different variants.

UW Medicine is among four health groups participating in the study, which is expected to last just over a year. They're looking for people who have not yet been vaccinated to participate in the early phase of the study.

We're looking for people who don't have a lot of medical diagnoses, who don't have any risk for severe COVID, and for people who don't have a severe allergy profile as well, explained Babu.

The study is small, so only a limited number of spots are available. To inquire, you can contact the UW Virology Research Clinic via email at gritstone@uw.edu or by phone at 206-520-4340.

Babu said the study is important to address future vaccine effectiveness against the mutating variants of the virus.

We do want to see if we can elicit a broader immune response, she said.

The study will be in two phases. During the first phase, participants will be given two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In the second stage of our study, we will be enrolling participants and we will be administering two other vaccines," said Babu. "These vaccines will actually have proteins for coronavirus that include the spike protein but will also have additional COVID proteins. So, we are hoping in the stage two portion of our city that we will be able to elicit a broader immune response, which may cover some of the variants which people might be familiar with mutations in the spike protein in coronavirus.

See the original post:

UW researchers to study COVID-19 vaccines' long-term effectiveness - KING5.com

Last spring, Covid-19 brought into sharp focus the abhorrent conditions in our overcrowded jails and prisons. There was hope that we might finally begin to decarcerate, sending home people for whom there is no good public safety reason to be locked up. That unfortunately did not happen, despite hundreds of thousands of infections and thousands of deaths among incarcerated people.

After reaching historical lows in the middle of 2020, by November, many jail populations across the country returned to their pre-pandemic levels. The result is a severe and urgent danger to both everyone behind bars and the surrounding communities, and it is a public health necessity to vaccinate everyone in jails as soon as possible.

People who are incarcerated have been largely left out of the vaccine eligibility process. A New York judge recently ruled that the state must immediately begin to offer the vaccine to all incarcerated people in the states prisons and jails after they had been arbitrarily left out. Now, some or all people in prison are vaccine-eligible in 37 states plus DC, while 21 states and DC have similar rules for people in local jails.

One year ago this week, Michael Tyson was the first person incarcerated at New York Citys Rikers Island to die from Covid-19. Since then, virtually nothing has changed for those behind bars. There are still too many people like Tyson held in jails for noncriminal technical violations of parole, like missing a drug treatment class. As of February, more than 1,100 people were still in New Yorks jails for such reasons.

Jails are a central locus of infection and spread, not only because of poor conditions, but because of the enormous churn of people through their doors. Social distancing is nearly impossible. Individuals sleep dozens to a room, share bathrooms and showers, and often receive inadequate medical care. Outbreaks in jails have fueled further community spread, as people detained for short periods of time, staff who work there, and visitors and volunteers carry the virus beyond the jail walls.

In June 2020, the situation looked somewhat promising. Thanks to pressure from families and advocates, local officials made efforts to flatten the curve and reduce jail populations. A coalition of at least 30 elected prosecutors called for their peers to release people deemed nonthreatening to society. Others followed Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosbys lead, who in mid-March announced that her office would dismiss pending charges against anyone arrested for a number of low-level offenses. And by mid-April, Chicagos Cook County Jail had released 1,300 people roughly 25 percent of its population when prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the sheriff agreed to release some pretrial detainees.

Many wondered if these actions would stick. But populations in four of the nations biggest jail systems Houston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are now either higher or just as high as they were prior to the pandemic. This has been primarily driven by the steep increase in the number of people held pretrial, often because they are unable to pay bail.

Although national statistics describing the full scope of Covid-19 infection in jails are hard to come by, some jurisdictions shed light on the current scale of the problem. In Los Angeles, nearly 4,300 people in jail and nearly 3,000 staff have tested positive since the inception of the pandemic. In Maricopa County, Arizona; Orange County, California; Philadelphia; Chicago; and New York, cumulative cases among incarcerated people total nearly 9,000, according to UCLAs Covid Behind Bars project.

To be sure, violent or gun-related crime has risen in some places over the last year, and so too has the proportion of people held for more serious charges a population that was excluded from early 2020 efforts to decarcerate. Researchers have speculated that this rise was due to a perfect storm of factors, including economic decline and increases in unemployment, a surge in firearm ownership, and mental health effects such as isolation, hopelessness, and loss. More needs to be done to understand the root causes of this rise, and interventions beyond punitive criminal justice responses must target these drivers.

The dangers posed by Covid-19 could have accelerated efforts to unwind mass incarceration. But the threat of the virus to people in jail, the staff who work there, and the communities both return to endures. Whats more, the pandemic further exacerbates existing racial and ethnic disparities in both the criminal justice and healthcare systems, requiring more radical approaches to ensure that these disparities do not persist. This makes vaccination efforts in jail facilities all the more urgent.

Read the original post:

Governors Should Prioritize the Covid-19 Vaccine for Everyone in Jail - brennancenter.org

Northwest Michigan Health Services announced Wednesday they had a surplus of vaccines that needed to be claimed by Saturday.

Its an issue becoming more common in rural areas, while other parts of the state dont have nearly enough.

As part of the state of Michigans initiative to get doses into rural parts of the state, Northwest Michigan Health Services was given 1,000 doses to spread across five mobile clinics.

But unlike other parts of the state like Southeast Michigan where theres such a high demand and not enough supply, NMHSI had more supply than demand. It has been a struggle for them to make sure to get enough people, from the area, to get the shots in arms and not let them go to waste.

It hasnt been a significant problem, said Kerry Ebersole-Singh of the Protect Michigan Commission, But its definitely something we are mindful of.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer says amidst spiking cases, that more restrictions arent the way forward, vaccines are.

When local health departments are close to throwing surplus doses away because they cant find arms to put them in, it raises concerns.

We are actually reaching out to patients within NMHSI, calling those patients, letting them know, said Alicia Harmon of NMHSI, That we do have some vaccines that are available if theyre willing to come in.

NMHSI will find the arms and not waste a dose but they say their biggest issue is people finding them.

Unfortunately its not a centralized system in terms of registering and getting scheduled, said Ebersole-Singh.

The states first move to fill these demand gaps was to expand eligibility.

Which we hope will again increase and infuse demand for vaccines, said Ebersole-Singh.

As some parts struggle to keep up, allotment schedules may shift. Away from rural areas to urban areas unless more Northern Michiganders step up for their shots.

We know where every dose has been allocated in the state of Michigan, said Ebersole-Singh, Where its allocated, when its scheduled and when it gets into an arm.

View original post here:

State Focusing On Shifting COVID-19 Vaccine Allotments With Demand - 9 & 10 News - 9&10 News

The Arkansas Department of Health reports African Americans make up only 10.6% of people vaccinated in Arkansas

by: Crystal Martinez

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) The Arkansas Department of Health reports African Americans make up only 10.6% of people vaccinated in Arkansas but the census shows they make up almost 16% of the total population.

Lindsey Leverett-Higgins and Quinton Green are with the NWA Dr. MLK council. They say this disproportion shines a light on racial disparities in health care.

Systematic racism, they feel that when they are working with a healthcare professional that often times their concerns are not heard and their concerns are not taken seriously, Leverett-Higgins said.

For example, when you talk about the 1940s or 1950s because of those earlier experiences that have transpired throughout generation after generation after generation, Green said.

President Biden has designated health centers to receive shipments of the vaccine to reach vulnerable populations.

A recent study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows the majority of people who got their first shot from these centers were people of color. One health center thats in our area is Community Clinic.

There are groups that have had less access to quality information and we need to change that and so I think recognition is the first step, Dr. Gary Berner said.

Now the council is working with other organizations and the community clinic to get more people vaccinated with a mass vaccination event.

Ensuring that we are partnering with those key organizations that target the African American community to really help to educate our community and to encourage them to seek opportunities to get vaccinated, Leverett-Higgins said.

I think also we have to have more minorities at the decision-making table, Green said. You cant make decisions if you dont have those that are impacted at the table.

They all say this vaccine clinic is just one of many they hope to put on for the community.

The community COVID-19 vaccination clinic is scheduled for Tuesday, April 13 at the Rogers Convention Center from 10 AM to 6 PM. You can sign up by clicking on the registration link.

Read the original:

Racial disparities and the COVID-19 vaccine rollout - KNWA