Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Driver Glenn Blackburn assists Joseph Barry, 83, into a transport van after Barry received the first Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during an appointment at Oak Street Health on Feb. 2, 2021, in Chicago. The medical clinic offers senior citizen patients rides to make it easier for them to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

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What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine second dose - Chicago Tribune

As more residents nationwide begin to receive their first, and even second, dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, distribution of the game-changing vaccination is slowly expanding in San Diego.

Since first receiving doses of Modernas and Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccines, San Diego County has administered more than 300,000 doses of the shots. County-run sites, vaccination super stations and small clinics have all been tapped to serve as vaccine centers and more doses are being shipped to different locations in the city.

Mayor Todd Gloria announced the city was authorized to receive shipments of the vaccines and was given 1,200 doses. Currently, health care workers, long-term facility staff and residents, and individuals ages 65 or older qualify for the vaccine.

Under that guidance, eligible government employees were soon given the shots and the mayor said 100 doses would be given to qualifying homeless individuals who have been living in the shelter at the San Diego Convention Center.

In April 2020, with events being canceled and stay-at-home orders taking place, Americas Finest City turned the iconic convention center into a shelter for the citys homeless population as part of its Operation Shelter to Home program. Last month, the San Diego City Council unanimously voted to extend the initiative through March.

Gloria said local leaders are working to identify city-owned locations that could potentially serve as future vaccine sites. He added that the city will announce when residents could have more access to the vaccines, but that decision will be made based on eligibility and availability.

A Bankers Hill senior living facility held a festive, football-themed event as residents were given the COVID-19 vaccine. NBC 7s Audra Stafford speaks to residents who were given the shot.

SDSU said its formal request to administer COVID-19 vaccines to eligible members of its campus community was recently approved by the State of California, the university announced on Tuesday.

Three hundred Moderna vaccine doses arrived at the campus this week, allowing the university to administer the shots to faculty, staff, students and campus community members who fall within the currently eligible categories.

Those who qualify for the vaccination will be invited via phone call or email to sign up for an appointment with Student Health Services (SHS). Beginning Thursday, the center will administer the COVID-19 vaccine to eligible residents who have a confirmed appointment.

The shots will be administered at the Calpulli Center, according to SDSU.

UC San Diego was also cleared to administer the vaccine to its eligible community, it announced Tuesday.

Beginning Monday, UCSD Health patients and university staff, faculty and its community members who are qualified to receive the vaccine will be able to get it on the universitys main campus. Vaccinations will be administered at the Recreation, Intramural and Athletic Complex (RIMAC) seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The university said both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines will be used at its new site, depending on available supplies.

Eligible residents will get invitations to schedule an appointment for the vaccination.

More here:

San Diego Slowly Expanding Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccines - NBC San Diego

Posted: Feb 3, 2021 / 08:27 PM EST / Updated: Feb 3, 2021 / 08:27 PM EST

CHARLESTON, W.Va. West Virginia Governor Jim Justice told citizens, in order to make sure that theyre on the waiting list to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, to sign up using the state DHHRs web portal.

During our Vaccinate West Virginia town hall on Wednesday, Governor Justice assured West Virginians that they would not be taken off or moved down the list if they signed up through the states website, even if they had previously registered at the county level.

Justice also stressed that those waiting to receive their second dose of vaccine should not let the days go by, and contact the DHHR to help make sure nobody slips through the cracks.

Those experiencing any issues should call the DHHRs COVID-19 Vaccine Info Line for help at 1-833-734-0965.

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How do you confirm youre on the COVID-19 vaccine list? - WBOY.com

Doctor speaks out over COVID-19 vaccine and pregnancy safety concerns

Pregnancies present a number of challenges, and during the ongoing pandemic, there are concerns over whether the COVID-19 vaccines that are currently approved are safe for those who are pregnant. FOX 10's Danielle Miller reports.

PHOENIX - With pregnancy, there's a lot of unknowns, especially now during the pandemic, and one major question is whether current COVID-19 vaccines are safe for those who are pregnant.

Unfortunately, there is no clear right or wrong answer in this case quite yet, because there havent been nearly enough studies on pregnant women and the vaccine.

According to Dr. Cynthia Booth, OB/GYN and Chief Medical Officer for Banner Payson, pregnant women have been shown to be at higher risk of developing a more severe illness due to COVID-19.

"Whether thats the ICU, being on a ventilator or other assisted respiration, or even death," said Dr. Booth. "And of course, pregnant women can have additional things such as obesity and diabetes and that can increase their risk even further."

Dr. Booth says the World Health Organization officials were initially restrictive of the vaccine for pregnant women, due to the lack of studies. She says there are now some things to consider.

"Some things we can look towards though is the fact that the type of vaccine that it is," said Dr. Booth. "Its an mRNA vaccine, which is not a live vaccination, and it degrades quickly in the body, so we feel like this type of vaccine is safe in pregnancy."

Dr. Booth says some studies in terms of reproductive health are showing promise.

"Additionally, we are seeing some preliminary data from the dart studies, which is the developmental and reproductive toxicity studies, and there have been no what we call safety signals from those yet, and those are animal studies that help to guide us until we do have those studies in pregnancy," said Dr. Booth.

Pregnant women do fall under the high-risk category, and they will be in group 1C for vaccination.

As always, its best to talk with your doctor About any decision regarding getting the vaccination or not.

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Symptoms for coronavirus COVID-19 include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. These, of course, are similar to the common cold and flu.

Expect a common cold to start out with a sore or scratchy throat, cough, runny and/or stuffy nose. Flu symptoms are more intense and usually come on suddenly, and can include a high fever.

Symptoms of COVID-19 may appear more slowly. They usually include fever, a dry cough and noticeable shortness of breath, according to the World Health Organization. A minority of cases develop pneumonia, and the disease is especially worrisome for the elderly and those with other medical problems such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes or heart conditions.

RELATED: Is it the flu, a cold or COVID-19? Different viruses present similar symptoms

Social distancing is not only about preventing the illness itself, but rather, slowing the rate at which people get sick. 

CDC Website for COVID-19

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus

https://espanol.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html(In Spanish/En Espaol)

AZDHS Website for COVID-19

https://www.azdhs.gov/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/infectious-disease-epidemiology/index.php#novel-coronavirus-home

https://www.azdhs.gov/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/infectious-disease-epidemiology/es/covid-19/index.php#novel-coronavirus-home(In Spanish/En Espaol)

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What you need to know about COVID-19 vaccine and pregnancy - FOX 10 News Phoenix

Some of Americas biggest retailers are preparing to take a central role in administering Covid-19 shots, hoping to avoid logjams and other complications that have slowed the vaccine rollouts early days.

The U.S. fell far short of its initial goal of inoculating 20 million people by the end of 2020, with health departments, hospital systems and long-term-care facilities beset by supply-chain bottlenecks, vaccine hesitancy and confusing, scattershot systems for making appointments.

Not all Americans are eligible for the vaccines, and shots remain in short supply. But vaccines are becoming more broadly available in some states, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aims to make them available in local pharmacies beginning next month. There is no cost to receive the vaccine.

(Check the WSJs state-by-state guide.)

The job of vaccinating large swaths of the population will fall largely on retail pharmacies, with companies such as CVS Health Corp. , Walgreens -Boots Alliance Inc., Walmart Inc. and Kroger Co. saying they are prepared to give tens of millions of shots a month.

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Covid-19 Vaccines to Stress-Test Grocery Stores and Pharmacies - The Wall Street Journal

The city is getting about 20,000 doses of vaccine each week through the end of February. There are about 91,000 Philadelphians who are 75 and up. (Unlike surrounding counties, the city has not yet opened vaccination to healthy people aged 65 through 74.) The city is continuing to vaccinate police and fire personnel and will add teachers in a few weeks, so seniors should expect competition. As you can imagine, what happens is that every appointment gets taken, Johnson said.

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Pharmacies soon will offer COVID-19 vaccines to seniors in Philadelphia. No options yet for the homebound. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Monday, some teachers and staff in Youngstown received their first doses

by: Brooke Meenachan

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) Another week, another group of people ready to get vaccinated for COVID-19.

Monday, some teachers and staff in Youngstown received their first doses.

Locally, Most districts wont start vaccinating until the middle of the week, but some private schools in Youngstown already got the ball rolling.

The Youngstown City Health District is in charge of vaccinating the private schools in the city.On Monday, 71 employees were vaccinated at Potential Development and 33 at St. Christines.

We have two to four different schools a day. By Friday, well be done with all our schools. It totals to about 418 people that well be doing, said Youngstown City Heath Commissioner Erin Bishop.

Bishop says about 75 to 80 percent of staff want the vaccine. One of them is Amy Savich, who has been a kindergarten teacher at St. Christines for 20 years.

Im feeling great. The needle was a little bigger than I expected, but I did not feel a thing, Savich said. Were frontline workers. Were trying to keep the kids. They need to be in school. They need that one on one interaction.

Bishop says so far, everything has been running smoothly, even when Mondays snowstorm canceled classes.

It was so gracious of the teachers at both Potential as well as St. Christines that they came out on their snow day to come and be vaccinated, she said.

Bishop says it helps them immensely because things are still on schedule.

Youngstown City Health will wrap up the first round of doses on Friday. Second doses will be given starting March 1.

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Valley teachers begin COVID-19 vaccinations - WKBN.com

The goal of this vaccination strategy, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the Biden administration, is to achieve widespread or herd immunity by the fall of 2021, which would require vaccinating as many as 280 million people.

Read next: COVID-19 sparks unprecedented increase in telemedicine

One issue of great importance to the US business community, and something that every single company is grappling with at the moment, is the question of whether employers will have to, or will be able to, require their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine before theyre allowed to return to work in an office. Joan Woodward, president of the Travelers Institute and EVP of Public Policy at Travelers, discussed this in the institutes Wednesday With Woodward webinar on The Race to Distribute a COVID-19 Vaccine.

A lot of employers are very worried. We see it in our business of selling insurance to other businesses, she said. Woodward was joined in the discussion by former FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan, who currently serves as the Robert J. Margolis Professor of Business, Medicine, and Policy, and founding director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. When she asked whether the health policy expert thought employers would have to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations in order to fully reopen the economy, McClellan said he thinks the US can reach herd immunity without mandating vaccines in the short term.

To do the math for what its going to take, weve got close to 30 million Americans infected so far, and probably many more that havent had an official detection of their infection, said McClennan. I think most of the epidemiologic estimates now are maybe at 18-20% of the population thats actually been exposed. Given this horrible surge were in the midst of now, thats probably going to be 25% or more by the end of January.

If we can get another 40-50% of people to take the vaccine throughout our country - not just in certain areas, but broadly - thats a pathway to something like herd immunity, or certainly at least [a situation where] healthcare systems not being overburdened. You can see that happening by the end of the second quarter if things keep on track [] so we can get to a level of herd immunity if we do things right from here.

Read more: Lloyds to offer cover for COVID-19 vaccine delivery

McClellan, who is a former Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he does expect mandatory vaccinations to happen at some point over the coming months, especially in high-risk workplaces. But right now, there are very few places that do it.

At Duke University, weve made [the vaccination] available to all of our frontline health workers, he added. Some have said no, and thats OK for now. Weve got full precautions in place anyway - PPE, social distancing, etc. - and we have [] very good confidence that were containing spread within the workplace under these very modified conditions.

If you want to go to back to a workplace that is less modified, you need to be very confident that youve got high levels of immunity in your worker population to relax some of those measures. Thats probably not going to happen in the next few months because we need to keep these measures in place anyway, and because were still early on with the vaccines.

Both Pfizer and Moderna are very much on track, according to McClennan, toward completing their longer-term clinical studies and gaining full FDA approval (not just emergency approval) by the spring.

By the second half the year, there should be several vaccines that are not just emergency approved, but fully approved, with very good safety, track records, regulatory data and so forth, said McClennan. I think after that point is when youll start seeing more requirements for getting vaccinations when people really want to move forward with reducing some of the distancing measures and getting more groups back together and things like that. But I think its much easier when youre not dealing with emergency use, but youre dealing with normal FDA-approved vaccines.

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Will a COVID-19 vaccine be required to bring workers back to the office? - Insurance Business

Drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination site to open in The Villages this week : How to sign up  WFTV Orlando

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Drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination site to open in The Villages this week : How to sign up - WFTV Orlando

TDH estimates there are about 300,000 Tennesseans in the 70-74-year-old age group. Tennessee can expand COVID-19 vaccination access to this age group after an increase in the states allocation of COVID-19 vaccines. Tennessee is expecting about 93,000 doses of these vaccines this week, a 15 percent increase in the states previous weekly vaccine allocations.

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Tennesseeans age 70+ can sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine this week - FOX13 Memphis