Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

The former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Sunday warned that the U.S. strategy for administering the COVID-19 vaccine is not working and urged public health officials to develop a new strategy to speed up vaccinations across the country.

As the U.S. is experiencing a soaring number of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths, efforts to quickly get the critical COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of patients has lagged.

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So far, 22.1 million doses have been distributed across the country, with nearly9 million people receiving the first shot of the two-dose vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Late last year, health officials had projected that 20 million people would receive the shot before the start of 2021.

The lack of a federal plan for getting the vaccines to millions of patients has left state and local officials in charge of the crucial final step, creating a patchwork of different strategies across the country.

We really need to get this vaccine out more quickly because this is really our only tool, our only backstop against the spread of these new variants. If we can get a lot of people vaccinated quickly, we might be able to get enough protective immunity into the population that this stops spreading at the rate that it is, Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the FDA, said during an interview with CBS Face the Nation Sunday.

So, we need to acknowledge that its not working. We need to hit the reset and adopt a new strategy in trying to get out to patients, he said.

Gottlieb has suggested releasing all available supply of the vaccine and to make the shots more widely available to those ages 65 and up. The Trump administration has been holding back half of the available doses to make sure there is enough supply for everyone who is getting a first dose to later get the second dose as well.

You have 40 million [doses] on the shelf. You have 50 million Americans above the age of 65. So, we have supply to push it out to that population more aggressively, he said.

President-elect Joe Biden last week announced he would release more COVID-19 vaccine doses immediately to administer as many shots as possible once he assumes office on Jan. 20. The Biden transition said it is confident Pfizer and Moderna can supply the government with additional doses as the ones in storage are released.

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US COVID-19 vaccination plan is 'not working,' warns former FDA official | TheHill - The Hill

UW Health technician Nikolas Gardner puts COVID-19 vaccines into cold storage.(Photo: UW Heath, Madison handout)

Police and firefighters will be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine starting next week, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced Monday, marking the state's transition into the second phase of the vaccine rollout.

Wisconsin is in the midst of vaccinatingmore than half a million health care workers and long-term care residents as part of Phase 1A, with priority given to frontline hospital staff and skilled nursing facilities.

"Operationally, this is a seamless way to begin our movement into Phase 1B, since our police and fire departments are already working so closely with EMS and our local and tribal health departments across the state," DHS deputy directorJulie Willems Van Dijk said at a press briefing Monday.

Technically, the State Disaster Medical Advisory Committee, which oversees Wisconsin's vaccine distribution effort,has not yet finalized which groups of people will be included in the second round of vaccinations.

That process, which must include a public comment period and a committee vote, could take a few more weeks. As of Friday, the committee was looking to includepolice and firefighters, people who are 70 years old and up, teachers, incarcerated people, corrections workers and those in congregate living.

Willems Van Dijk said DHS still plans to reviewthe committee's advice for Phase 1B as well as the public comments, but moved forward with firefighters and police because it was highly likely they would be included anyway.The committee's recommendations are not binding.

"It's a balancing act between this important process and keeping the vaccine moving," Willem Van Dijk said.

Last week, some firefighters and paramedics said they were frustrated that they had not yet been able to access the vaccine. According to health officials, EMS personnel are considered part of Phase 1A because theirprimary job is medical response, but the majority of firefighters and police are not licensed as EMS.

Josh Morby, spokesman for the Wisconsin EMS Association, called the announcement "great news."

"The fact that DHS announced theyre already putting together a plan to move onto Phase 1B is good news for us, because it means they have enough vaccinations or have a line on enough vaccinations to address those in Phase 1A," hesaid.

As of Monday, the state health department reported administering 151,518vaccine doses, including more than 11,000 second doses. That's roughly half of the doses that have been shipped to Wisconsin or provided to pharmacies for long-term care facilities.

TheJournal Sentinel is tracking the progress of the vaccine rollout on its COVID-19 data page here.

When asked why the state hasn't used up all of its available doses, Willem Van Dijk said about two-thirds of the availabledoses are technically still in the shipping process and the rest are set tobe used this week.

She estimated vaccines will become available to the general public aroundlate spring to early summer.

"Its something well know better week by week as we move along," she said.

The announcement that Wisconsin was moving to the next phase of the vaccination program comes as the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths begin to rise again in the state.

The seven-day average for cases hit its lowest point in 3 months Dec. 26 after the fall spike, but has been rising since. The state reported 1,456 new cases Monday and five more deaths.

Gov. Tony Evers and state health officials have repeatedly said the state is limited by the supply of vaccine it is receiving from the federal government.

The state is currently administering around 70,000 doses per week, but needs 125,000 per week to reach President-elect Joe Biden's goal of 1 million doses per day, health officials said.

On Monday, Evers again calledon the federal government to increase the amount of doses in the states weekly allocations.For the first time since the rollout began, vaccinators in Wisconsinasked for more doses than the state had in supply, he said.

In a state where our statewide mitigation strategies have been struck down and challenged time and time again, it is absolutely critical that Wisconsin get additional doses of vaccine to meet demand and box in the virus," the governor said in a statement.

Evers was also part of a coalition of Midwest governors who sent a letter to the federal government asking for additional vaccine last week.

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Police and firefighters will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccine as Wisconsin announces transition into second phase - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MEMPHIS, Tenn. Shelby County once again has the COVID vaccine and will resume vaccinations as soon as Tuesday.

The state is giving the health department 8,900 doses of vaccine per week through the end of January. Itll be available to first responders, health care workers and other priority groups and by appointment only.

With more doses of the COVID vaccine on the way to Shelby County and vaccinations to resume Tuesday, there are still questions about wholl get it and when?

Dr. Steve Threlkeld is an Infectious Disease Specialist at Baptist Hospital in Memphis says health officials have their work cut out for them.

Of course its extremely critical. We still have those two arms of jobs in front of us, Threlkeld said. The first job right now I think is to get the vaccine going. Its taken over as a number one job. We got to get as many people the vaccine as we can. its the ultimate way out of this mess.

The health department will use the Pipkin Building at the Mid-South Fairgrounds to vaccinate those in phase one-a-one, and you must have an appointment. That group now includes funeral home, mortuary workers and people 75 years old and older.

The health department also says all appointments for the month of January have been filled as of January 9th.

Its a point for Shelby County, and its a point of encouragement that our folks have gotten all of the vaccine distributed that they had available to them. Kudos thats what we have to do everywhere in this country. It is a point against us all that we dont have more, Threlkeld said.

Whats still unknown is whats the status of those health care workers, first responders and other priority groups who are supposed to receive a second dose of the vaccine.

Should they receive it, or should it be given to another priority group?

So far, we should be on pace to give people that second vaccine, but I think we have a duty to those people who we vaccinated first to give them in fact their second vaccine. Thats why theres no question thats why with the production line we need to find out where the holdup is because it seems to be a little different in every state, Threlkeld said.

To get vaccinated, those with an appointment only must present an ID and proof of eligibility, including age, professional license, or a letter from an employer.

For more information you should visit the health departments website.

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COVID-19 vaccinations to resume by appointment only in Shelby County on Tuesday - WREG NewsChannel 3

Starting Monday, San Mateo County is offering a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination clinic for eligible health care workers and vulnerable residents.

The clinic -- which uses the Moderna vaccine -- begins at 1 p.m. at the San Mateo County Event Center at 1346 Saratoga Drive in San Mateo.

Vaccinations will be available to workers and residents eligible under Phase 1A of the state's vaccine distribution guidelines. That phase includes the following groups: those at risk of COVID-19 through work at health care or long-term care settings (including non-clinical staff), and residents of nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and long-term care settings for older or vulnerable individuals.

San Mateo County's Board of Supervisors president David Canepa announced the mass vaccination clinic in a statement Monday.

"This is the best news I've heard in a long time and shows that the dark days of winter will be over soon," Canepa said.

People interested in being vaccinated at the drive-thru site must complete an online form to confirm eligibility. Registration and appointment information will be available once eligibility is confirmed.

The clinic will open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday then from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

There are approximately 38,000 health care workers and 12,000 long-term care residents in the county. Bill Silverfarb, policy advisor to Canepa, said approximately 12,000 people have been vaccinated from the county's vaccine allocation of 22,000 so far. That does not include workers within medical systems like Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health, which have separate vaccine allocations.

Silverfarb said the clinic is expected to continue as long as there are vaccine doses available. The second vaccination dose will be available in four weeks via a similar clinic.

People in Phase 1A who have health plans through Kaiser Permanente may obtain the vaccine through their primary care provider at Kaiser.

For more information on Phase 1A vaccine eligibility, people can visit the San Mateo County health web page.

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Drive-Thru COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic Opens in San Mateo County - NBC Bay Area

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) -- Technology can sometimes get a bad rap when it comes to kids and too much screen time. But before unplugging, it's important to know about the benefits technology can offer.

Games, TV, social media. They can grab your child's attention in an instant, and it can oftentimes be hard to shut off.

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What questions do you have about the COVID-19 vaccine? - KELOLAND.com

Some teachers across Maryland question if the COVID-19 vaccine will be required  Fox Baltimore

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Some teachers across Maryland question if the COVID-19 vaccine will be required - Fox Baltimore

2 more COVID-19 vaccination open in Jacksonville on first come, first serve basis  ActionNewsJax.com

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2 more COVID-19 vaccination open in Jacksonville on first come, first serve basis - ActionNewsJax.com

FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis holds the weekly general audience at the Library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, December 23, 2020. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Saturday he planned to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as next week and urged everyone to get a shot, to protect not only their own lives but those of others.

I believe that ethically everyone should take the vaccine, the Pope said in an interview with TV station Canale 5. It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others.

Vatican City, the smallest independent county in the world, home to about 450 people including Pope Francis, has said it will shortly launch its own vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.

Next week, the Pope said, we will start doing it here, in the Vatican, and I have booked myself in. It must be done.

Pope Francis, 84, had part of one lung removed during an illness when he was a young man in his native Argentina, making him potentially vulnerable to the disease.

Vatican City last week said it expected to receive enough COVID-19 vaccine doses in the following days to inoculate all of its residents and its workers who live beyond its walls in Rome.

As part of its vaccination plan, the Vatican said it had bought an ultra-cold refrigerator to store doses, suggesting it will use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which must be stored at about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit).

As excerpts of the interview were released, the official Vatican News website reported that the popes personal doctor, Fabrizio Soccorsi, had died of complications from COVID-19.

Soccorsi, 78, was in hospital and was being treated for cancer. He had been the popes doctor since 2015.

Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Writing by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Peter Graff and Chizu Nomiyama

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Pope Francis to have COVID-19 vaccine, says it is the ethical choice for all - Reuters

When President Donald Trump paid a visit to the National Institutes of Health last March, the leads at the vaccine research center explained their life-saving mission. The key to that mission was a 34-year-old doctor named Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett.

"I was just there telling the task force about the work that we've been doing," Corbett told "CBS This Morning: Saturday" co-host Michelle Miller.

Two weeks after the visit, Corbett's team began the first stage of clinical trials. She said they took a lot of the knowledge they have gained in the last six years and applied it to a vaccine platform in collaboration with Moderna. The vaccine rolled out 10 months later.

"The vaccine teaches the body how to fend off a virus, because it teaches the body how to look for the virus by basically just showing the body the spike protein of the virus" she explained. "The body then says 'Oh, we've seen this protein before. Let's go fight against it.' That's how it works."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, credited Corbett during a webinar for her work.

"The vaccine you are going to be taking was developed by an African American woman and that is just a fact," Fauci said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 6.5 million Americans have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. That number is expected to grow daily, though it is well behind what public health experts were hoping to see.

Corbett's interest in science started from an early age, but she never knew the difference she would make.

"To be honest, I didn't realize the level of impact that my visibility might have... I do my work because I love my work," Corbett said.

One opportunity in her life made a key difference. She attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore, as a Meyerhoff Scholar, an aggressive program that mentors minorities and women in science. Graduates of the program include Surgeon General Jerome Adams.

Dr. Freeman Hrabowski has been president at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, for nearly 30 years. He said Corbett had a strong science background but the way she was able to talk to people separated her from the rest.

"She was definitely going to make it in life," Hrabowski said. "We need more scientists who can connect to people. She could do that when she was 17, easily What we do at UMBC is to support students of color, Black, but also students in general, to make sure they make it in science."

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 18% of all students graduate with a STEM degree, among 2% are black something Hrabowski believes needs to change.

"It's important for people to see people looking like them, like themselves, who can be involved. If it's about women, or if it's about Blacks because it shows that you've got people who understand what you've gone through."

Dr. Barney Graham and Corbett have worked together for over 15 years. Graham is not only her mentor. He's also Corbett's boss as deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center.

"When you recognize somebody has special qualities, you need to do things that can keep those other things out of the way and avoid some of the dismissiveness that often happens not only to minority people but to women," Graham said.

Historically that bias strikes not just professionals in the field but those they serve. In 1931, scientists conducted the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, a study by the Public Health Service and Tuskegee Institute. It examined the progression of syphilis by letting infected Black men go untreated, with no regard to the suffering it caused.

Another example often cited is the removal of special cells of Henretta Lacks, a Baltimore, Maryland, cancer patient. In 1951, a research team at Johns Hopkins University removed Lacks' cells without her permission and used them in medical research worth billions of dollars. Lacks died of cancer and her family was never compensated.

"There are many other examples of supposedly objective scientists who were caring about everyone, who valued people of color less... It's a painful truth," Hrabowski said.

Corbett's understanding of the socio-cultural issues and her knowledge of science has made her an influential person in the scientific community.

In a time where vaccine skepticism is high among African Americans, Corbett hopes Black people will put faith in the vaccine and faith in the scientists working behind the scenes to bring it to the American people.

"Number one is that I get it. And then number two is to really take advantage of the level of transparency that we are attempting... even I haven't even seen before, such as FDA hearings and briefings being broadcast online, and data coming out almost instantly," she said.

As for Dr. Hrabowski, he believes Corbett deserves all the visibility she can get.

"She cannot be a hidden figure," he said. "She needs to be in textbooks. Little girls need to see her of all races. This is what's possible."

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Meet the Black female scientist at the forefront of COVID-19 vaccine development - CBS News

Florida is expecting to receive an additional 250,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines within the next week, state officials said Saturday.

The state has already received more than 1.2 million doses to date, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said.

Florida's daily vaccine report released Saturday showed about 478,000 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination since the state started administering the vaccine in mid-December. About 35,800 have received the second booster shot.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is now averaging about 40,000 shots per day, and is prepared to increase that number when the state receives more supply from the federal government.

"Demand for the vaccine is high, and we know that there is no time to waste when it comes to getting shots in arms," DeSantis said in a taped statement released Saturday.

The state has been making vaccinations available to front-line healthcare workers, staff and residents at long-term care facilities and nursing homes, and seniors 65 and older.

"We have more than 4.5 million seniors in the state and prioritizing them for the vaccine is the most effective tool we have to battle the pandemic," DeSantis said.

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Florida Expects to Receive 250K More Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine in Next Week - NBC 6 South Florida