Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer is being unpacked Dec. 17, 2020 by the Oakland County Health Division.(Photo: Pam Tremble)

The excitement wasalmost electric.

Gloves! a Wayne County Public Health Division employee says.

Can somebody take my picture?I wanna picture of this, her partner says excitedly.

An insert is lifted out of a large box. Whatlooks like fog streams out.

And there it is, one employee says asshe peersinside. Thats the box.

An employee pulls out and opens a smaller box, removing a tray of the most precious cargo health department officials in Michigan have ever handled.

Their first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer that Oakland County Health Division received Dec. 17, 2020.(Photo: Pam Tremble)

Get a tray. We got two, one of the employees says in a nearly two-minute video of employees unpacking the vaccine Thursday. Were all very excited.

Do it! Yes! is heard as one of employeescarries the two trays of the Pfizer vaccine to a nearby ultra-cold freezer, saying in a sing-song voice: Im so excited. I love this so much!

She opens the freezer door and placesthe trays in the bottom compartment.

Vaccine. Vaccine, she says as she places each tray inside before closing the compartment door, then the larger outer freezer door.

Great job!" "Yeah! is heard in a backdrop of cheers and applause.

Health departments in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties received their first shipments of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, with at least two counties planning to give their first inoculations Friday.

Washtenaw County received 1,950 doses of the vaccine Thursday, said Susan

Ringler Cerniglia, health department spokeswoman.

The city of Detroit's Chief Operating Officer Hakim Berry said the city health department has not received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines. He said officials anticipate receiving that shipment before year's end and the vaccines will be distributed in accordance with the plan laid out by the state.

"The City has partnered with Henry Ford Health System, its occupation health provider, to administer the vaccine first to our medical first responders, which includes EMS and firefighters that are cross trained to take medical runs," Berry said. "We anticipate having these personnel scheduled within the next two weeks."

Officials said the vaccines the city will receive will beModerna, which is undergoing review andcould receive emergency use authorization very soon. The vaccineswill go directly to the health system, not the city, per se, since the health system will be doing the vaccinations, officials said.

More: COVID-19 vaccination stations in Macomb County set for those who get first dose

The county health departmentshipments arrived the same day that the state indicated it may be getting 24,000 fewer doses of the vaccine than originally expected. More than 11,200 people have died from the coronavirus in Michigan, which has recorded more than 450,000 positive cases.

The Wayne County Public Health Divisionreceived its shipment of 1,950 doses at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, said Bill Nowling, spokesman for County Executive Warren Evans. The Oakland County Health Division also received 1,950 doses.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said Monday thatofficials there were expecting about 1,950 doses as well.

Nowling said vaccinations will start Friday at the Health Administration Building in Wayne, in accordance with state guidelines to inoculate direct health care workers and emergency medical service personnel first.

Public health nurses with the Oakland County Health Division prepare supplies to administer the COVID-19 vaccine it received Dec. 17, 2020 in its first shipment from Pfizer.(Photo: Pam Tremble)

In Oakland County, initial vaccinations will begin by appointment only Friday in Waterford for EMS personnel who have indirect or direct exposure to patients.

In Washtenaw County, Cerniglia said "wewill start vaccinating our vaccinators and clinic staff as soon as possible. Clinics have been scheduled for (Friday), so we can likely keep that schedule. Then we will progress to health care providers not being vaccinated through a hospital or health systems and EMS."

Macomb County Deputy Executive Vicki Wolber said officials are working out the schedule there, but EMS workers will be the first to receive injections at the vaccination clinic set up at the VerKuilen Building in Clinton Township.

Stations are set up for the first doses of Pfizer vaccine to be administered for EMS workers at the VerKuilen Building in Mount Clemens on Monday, December 14, 2020.(Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)

"We're obviously glad, like everyone else, to have our first shipment in and to start solidifying our plans to get that out to our first priority groups;but obviously, it will be a process," she said.

Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said the health division is ready to assist in the vaccination of its residents "as we celebrate the remarkable science that got us to this turning point in defeating this dangerous pandemic.

"Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all our residents and workers," he said. "We remain determined to follow science and public health, share information on the safety of the vaccine and keep our guard up against the virus.

More: Beaumont Health, Michigan's largest hospital system, gets COVID-19 vaccine

Vaccinations for EMS workers will continue in the coming days at various locations in Oakland County. The health division is coordinating with EMS companies and fire departments to stagger doses among their employees.

It's also offering the vaccine to its public health nurses who will be vaccinating EMS workers and eventually other members of the public at the countys drive-thru testing locations when the vaccine becomes available to the general public. That's not expected until the late spring.

A public health nurse with the Oakland County Health Division reviews shipping and handling guidelines for the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer that the division received Dec. 17, 2020.(Photo: Pam Tremble)

This is the start of phase one of our vaccine distribution plan, which aligns with the requirements of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oakland County Health Officer Leigh-Anne Stafford said. This vaccine has been tested safely on tens of thousands of volunteers and has shown to be effective."

The Oakland County Health Division expects to receive its next round of doses sometime after the first of the year.

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.

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'We're all very excited' as health departments in metro Detroit get COVID-19 vaccine - Detroit Free Press

Gov. Inslee calls the reduction in its allocation of COVID-19 vaccines "disruptive and frustrating."

OLYMPIA, Wash. Calling it "disruptive and frustrating," Gov. Jay Inslee says Washington state's coronavirus vaccine allocation is being cut by 40% next week.

"We need accurate, predictable numbers to plan and ensure on-the-ground success," Inslee tweeted. He added, "No explanation was given."

According to Inslee, Washington officials were alerted to the cut by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All states are seeing similar cuts, according to Inslee.

Pfizer said in a statement Thursday it is not having production issues and that no shipments containing the vaccine are delayed.

"This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them," the Pfizer statement reads. "We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses."

During a Thursday news conference, Inslee said he hopes the cuts are due to a "communication glitch," since Pfizer was reportedly ready with vials.

"The good news is theres no indication of a systemic long-term problem," Inslee said.

Approximately 60,400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived this week.

Another 160,000 were expected by the end of the month. However, during the news conference, state Secretary of Health John Wiesman said the state wasn't able to confirm those doses through the end of the month anymore and moving forward would likely give estimates only for the following week.

Next week Washington is expected to receive 44,850 doses of the Pfizer vaccine with the reduction in place, according to Wiesman.

An FDA advisory panel gave the green light Thursday to a second COVID-19 vaccine by Moderna, and that vaccine is now awaiting FDA approval. Wiesman said the state anticipates 128,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine for the next week if it's approved.

The first group that will receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Washington will be high-risk health care workers and also folks in long-term care settings, said Wiesman.

See more here:

Washington state's supply of COVID-19 vaccine to be cut by 40% next week - KING5.com

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell obtained by POLITICO, Capitol Physician Brian Monahan wrote that Congress will receive "a specific number of COVID 19 vaccine doses to meet longstanding requirements for continuity of government operations."

"The small number of COVID 19 vaccines we will be provided reflects a fraction of the first tranche of vaccines as it is distributed throughout the country," Monahan added.

McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said in a statement Thursday he planned to take the vaccine in the coming days, but offered no other details.

Because of government continuity requirements, I have been informed by the Office of the Attending Physician that I am eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, which I will accept, he said.

Speculation had been rising in the Capitol this week as lawmakers many of whom are older and at higher risk await word of when they will receive vaccines as part of the nationwide effort. But even as lawmakers are poised to become the latest leg in a historic vaccination campaign, theres still little certainty about how and when the distribution process will work in a place as sprawling as the U.S. Congress.

Congressional leaders are only just beginning to tackle the complicated task of allocating doses among hundreds of lawmakers and essential building workers. The rollout is also fraught with political challenges amid the nationwide scramble to divvy up a limited supply of vaccines in a fair way, while also encouraging public figures to take the vaccine as a show of confidence.

The limited number of doses that will soon arrive on Capitol Hill is only the first round of potentially several. But the lack of a Hill distribution plan so far has frustrated some members, who say they have received zero guidance from leadership or the Capitol physician about when theyll receive the first round of doses let alone how many or who should get it first. Further complicating matters is that lawmakers, like anyone who receives the vaccine, will need two doses.

Some say they hope Congress doesnt drag its feet on a vaccination program like it did with implementing a widespread testing regime.

I hope we dont make the same mistake on vaccines that we made on testing, which is to wait until a number of people have needlessly had this before we decide whether or not were going to deal with this, said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership who chairs the Rules Committee.

During a closed-door briefing on Operation Warp Speed Thursday, the topic of how and when lawmakers would be vaccinated didnt come up at all, according to one member who attended the session.

Meanwhile, federal officials are racing to distribute vaccines to top government officials. Vice President Mike Pence and President-elect Joe Biden will both be getting vaccines within days.

The arrival of the vaccine on Capitol Hill where cases continue to climb could force lawmakers into a tricky political and personal dilemma. Members will want to avoid any perception that high-ranking government officials are getting special treatment. Just 16 percent of the public thinks elected officials should be among the first in line for the vaccines, according to a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.

But many lawmakers also recognize that they and their colleagues are at high-risk because of the nature of their jobs, which requires traveling back and forth to Washington each week. And top congressional officials say taking the vaccine would also send an important signal to the American people that its safe.

We do a lot, we see a lot of people, and we have to do business, said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. Its a difficult job. ... If the vaccine is there, I think we should take it.

I dont want to break the line, added Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the minority whip, while also noting that lawmakers travel more frequently than most Americans. And I think because of that vulnerability, it should be taken into consideration.

Its also an issue of the continuity of government: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are second and third in line to the presidency, behind the vice president. And Grassley, 87, was already briefly sidelined from the Senate after he contracted the virus last month, though he showed no symptoms.

Party leaders wrestled with concerns over optics earlier this year over implementing widespread coronavirus testing in the Capitol, which didnt arrive in the building until last month.

Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, has been pressing Pelosi to unveil an action plan for vaccines before they arrive on Capitol Hill particularly for front-line workers, which include police officers and custodians. But so far, his calls have gone unanswered.

Why in the world cant [Pelosi] and her team begin to develop a vaccine plan for the essential workers that make the House operational? Davis said. It was a failure to not address testing when it became more available. And if they follow the exact same process in regards to vaccinations, then yes, it will be a failure again until theyre forced to do it.

Yet Republicans continue to disparage House Democrats for holding virtual meetings and using proxy voting, a system designed to reduce physical interactions in the building.

Lawmakers, however, dont exactly have full control over when theyll get the vaccine. Much of that guidance will come from the Capitol physicians office, which has drawn some criticism from members and staff. The complaints, which have been made privately, center on a lack of transparency and slow response to adopting the kinds of stringent health rules like not attending large gatherings or dinners that much of the country had already adopted.

Many members are making it clear, however, that they will take the vaccine as soon as its offered to them even if they dont know exactly when that will be.

If they told me it was available two minutes from now down this hall, Id go down and take it, said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

Id take one right now. Ill take two right now, added Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) I hear a lot of Im not gonna take it, because I dont know whats in it. And you know what I tell them? Do you eat hot dogs? You dont know whats in hot dogs, but you eat them. Take the vaccine.

Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.

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Congress to receive first batch of Covid-19 vaccines but uncertainty lingers - POLITICO

The city is exploring vaccinating people experiencing homelessness living in places like shelters.

Denvers plan to roll out COVID-19 vaccines will prioritize healthcare and other frontline workers during the first phase before making vaccines available to the general public by next summer, the final phase.

The first doses of a vaccine arrived in Denver earlier this week.

The three phases for vaccine distribution, announced on Thursday by the city, largely mirror the states plan and will include a winter phase starting this month through early 2021. Those who will be vaccinated include healthcare workers who are considered high-risk, like staffers who are in direct contact with COVID-19 patients, and people who live and work in long-term care facilities. Moderate-risk first-responders, like health care workers with less contact with COVID-19 patients and those who work in other health or hospice settings, will also be vaccinated. Cops, correctional officers, firefighters, funeral service staff, paramedics and other first-responders will also get the vaccine in this stage.

Bob McDonald, executive director the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, and Mayor Michael Hancock stressed the vaccines safety and effectiveness during a press conference Thursday. Hancock talked about the hesitation some people of color may feel about taking the vaccine due to racist healthcare practices.

Its a real concern with some particular communities, particularly with the African-American community, Hancock said. The history is long and concerning, and one in which were going to have to work hard to validate those concerns and also encourage folks to take the vaccine against those concerns.

Dr. Connie Price, Chief Medical Officer for Denver Health, warned that while the vaccines are an important step, theyre not an immediate fix and people should keep taking precautions, like wearing face coverings and practicing social distancing. Price said the COVID-19 vaccines were administered to more than 75,000 people in clinical trails without any serious adverse side effects.

McDonald said people experiencing homelessness will be a priority in the second phase of the vaccine rollout, which is set to begin in early 2021 and run through March 2021. That phase will prioritize those who:

The citys plan calls for people aged 18 to 64 to get a vaccine by summer 2021. Hancock said he plans on getting the vaccine during this phase.

Emergency management coordinator Cali Zimmerman, who works for the citys public health department, said over text that the department is discussing how the city could provide vaccinations for people experiencing homelessness living in shelters.

Emergency management deputy director David Powell said Denver is still figuring out how much money the vaccination plan will cost to implement.

COVID-19 cases in Denver are trending downward, which McDonald credited to public health restrictions. The two-week cumulative case rate for the city is 762. That figure needs to be at 350 before Denver considers removing restrictions, most of which are set to expire Saturday.

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This is how Denver will prioritize who gets a COVID-19 vaccine - Denverite

Oregons COVID-19 vaccination doses down thousands from initial projections - OPB

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Oregon is receiving thousands of fewer doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this month from the federal government than originally indicated, public health officials acknowledged on Thursday.

Oregon received its first shipment this week and state leaders expect two more in the coming weeks from Pfizer-BioNTech. On Thursday, the Oregon Health Authority learned that next weeks shipment will total 25,350, down from the 40,950 it had previously been told to expect, said Dr. Paul Cieslak a public health physician with the OHA.

These things are changing frequently, and we just got news about this from the federal government today, he said during a Facebook Live event. They are subject to change. Theyre not written in stone.

Based on the latest projections, the state now expects to receive enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to administer the first injections to 100,000 front-line health care workers and vulnerable populations in long-term care facilities. Thats down from expectations in early December when officials planned to have enough doses to have administered the first-round shots to 147,000 people by late this month, with an additional 120,000 doses coming at the end of the month to provide the second doses needed to maximize the vaccinations effectiveness.

An FDA panel gave its endorsement to the Moderna vaccine on Thursday, and full FDA emergency approval is expected shortly. Oregons revised vaccine dose estimates include shipments of the Moderna vaccine.

Related: What you need to know about COVID-19 vaccine coming to Oregon

But as of Thursday, Oregon has received no estimates for shipments beyond December, said Rachael Banks, OHAs Public Health Division director.

We dont have all the info from the federal government about when well be getting the additional vaccines and how much, Banks said during the same Facebook Live event.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown tweeted about the reduced shipments, saying Oregon, like Washington and other states, was informed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that its Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine allocation for next week has been cut by 40%.

This was a federal decision, and I am seeking answers from the CDC about the reliability of the data we are receiving from week-to-week as Oregon builds our vaccine distribution plan, she tweeted.

Neither of the two OHA officials indicated concern that Oregon wouldnt ultimately be able to execute its vaccine strategy: getting front-line medical workers and most vulnerable populations vaccinated, followed by critical workers and others, then eventually making doses available to all Oregonians so that community immunity can be established.

We expect the supply to increase in the next several months, Cieslak said.

The states first vaccinations were administered on Wednesday after this weeks shipments of 4,875 doses went to four hospital systems: Kaiser-Permanente, Legacy Health and Oregon Health & Science University in the Portland/Willamette Valley region and St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Ontario, which serves much of Eastern Oregon.

Related: Oregons vaccine rollout met with cheers and questions

Banks said the arrival of vaccines represent a light at the end of the tunnel but repeated the message state leaders have been driving for weeks: Oregonians need to be confident in the 94% to 95% effectiveness rate for the first two vaccines, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as well as patient as doses are manufactured and shipped to the state. In the meantime, people must continue to practice social distancing, wear masks in public and avoid indoor gatherings outside of their immediate household.

Its going to be a long tunnel, and it might be one day at a time, and there could be potholes in there, Banks said.

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It's the next-to-last step for the vaccine developed by drugmaker Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. The panel of physicians and medical researchers is expected to endorse it, followed by the Food and Drug Administration's OK within hours or days.

Recipients of Oregon's first COVID-19 vaccine were emotional, but rollout was marred by questions about discrepancies in the number of vaccine doses received.

First doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in the Pacific Northwest. Doses of Moderna's vaccine, if authorized, should soon follow. But vaccine distribution won't be without logistical challenges, particularly in more rural areas. The chief clinical officer for the St. Alphonsus Health System, which operates in Idaho and Eastern Oregon, talks logistics behind how the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine there will work.

Marquis Companies will be the first to distribute the vaccines to long-term care facilities in Oregon.

Two days before a panel of experts is set to review Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine and advise the Food and Drug Administration, documents show the vaccine is 94% effective and well-tolerated.

Almost 2,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Oregon early Monday.

The largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history is underway with health workers getting the first shots.

Tags:Science & Environment, COVID-19, Vaccines, Health, Oregon Health Authority

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Oregon's COVID-19 vaccination doses down thousands from initial projections - OPB News

Messenger RNA (blue) directs cells ribosomes to make new proteins (red).

By Kelly ServickDec. 16, 2020 , 1:25 PM

The dramatic success of two COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trials last month marked a triumph for a previously unproven medical technology. The vaccines, one of which was authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week, rely on the genetic instructions known as messenger RNA (mRNA). It prompts cells to make a SARS-CoV-2 protein that trains the immune system to recognize the virus.

But long before the pandemic, mRNA tantalized pharma, promising a simple and flexible way to deliver both vaccines and drugs. One mRNA sequence might mend a damaged heart by producing a protein that stimulates blood vessel growth. Another might encode a missing enzyme to reverse a rare genetic disease. Now, the vaccine wins have created a tsunami of enthusiasm around the concept, says pharmaceutical scientist Gaurav Sahay of Oregon State University, Corvallis.

But mRNA medicinesespecially those that replace beneficial proteins for chronic diseasehave a tougher road to the clinic than vaccines. These drugs face the challenges of targeting mRNA to specific tissues and giving strong, lasting benefits without excessive side effects. Few have made it to clinical trials. Its not like you just put in another sequence and it will treat anything, says Heleen Dewitte, a pharmaceutical scientist at Ghent University. Tailoring an mRNA medicine to a disease often means tweaking the structures of both the mRNA itself and the protective bubble commonly used to ferry it through body, known as a lipid nanoparticle.

For vaccines and some mRNA drugs, administration is relatively simple. After a jab in the arm, muscle cells take up mRNA and crank out a viral protein. The immune system sees the protein as foreign and produces antibodies and T cells that arm the body against future invasion. Aside from SARS-CoV-2, mRNA vaccines against rabies, Zika, cytomegalovirus, influenza, and other viruses are advancing through clinical trials.

A local injectioninto muscle, under the skin, or into a tumorcan also deliver some mRNA-based therapies that harness the immune system to fight cancer. More than a dozen clinical trials are underway for such therapies, which encode tumor proteins or immune signaling molecules to help ramp up the bodys attack on cancer cells.

Although dozens of trials are testing messenger RNA to arm the immune system against viruses or cancer, only a few companies have launched small clinical trials of other therapiessuch as mRNA to replace missing or defective proteins. Here are some.

But many other mRNA medicines have to find their way to a specific site in the body via the bloodstream. In ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, for example, a missing enzyme causes a buildup of ammonia in the blood that can lead to seizures, coma, and death. To prevent this buildup, an mRNA drug must reach cells in the liver.

mRNA medicines company Arcturus Therapeutics, which aims to treat OTC deficiency, maximized the amount of its drug that ends up in the liver, in part by adjusting the size and electrical charge of its lipid nanoparticle, says company head Joseph Payne. Arcturus has completed an initial safety study in approximately 30 healthy volunteers, and this month it dosed the first of 12 planned participants who have the deficiency.

The company chose to focus on OTC deficiency in part because the liver naturally traps and accumulates particles from the bloodstreamincluding the therapeutic nanoparticles. Other tissues are even tougher to reach with mRNA, says James Dahlman, a biomedical engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Many teams are tweaking the structure of lipid nanoparticles or adorning them with molecules that route them to a certain organ or cell type.

Dahlmans lab and a company he co-founded, Guide Therapeutics, have developed a technique to track the trajectories of thousands of chemically unique nanoparticles in animals by tagging them with DNA barcodes. But figuring out the relationship between a lipid nanoparticles structure and its destination is going to take a decade, he says.

A second big difference between vaccines and mRNA therapeutics is that vaccines require just one or a few doses. Once the immune system is trained to attack the threat at hand, the protein produced from mRNA degrades and doesnt need replenishment. For the most part, the mRNA drugs that have advanced into clinical trials so far are ones where the effect of the drug outlasts the drug, Dahlman says. Thats also true for therapies that use mRNA to encode proteins such as the enzyme Cas9, which can slice the genome to make permanent edits. CRISPR editing company Intellia Therapeutics is advancing one such mRNA-based therapy for the inherited disease transthyretin amyloidosis. The company dosed its first clinical trial participant last month.

But when repeated doses of mRNA are needed to resupply a protein over a lifetime, side effectspotentially due to the buildup of lipid nanoparticles in the body or an inflammatory response to foreign RNAloom larger. People might accept a day or two of soreness and fever after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, says Ann Barbier, chief medical officer at the mRNA therapeutics company Translate Bio. But if you experience this every 3 weeks or so for the rest of your life, thats a different proposition.

To make repeated doses more tolerable, Translate Bio and others are designing mRNA to look as natural to the body as possible and delivering it in biodegradable nanoparticles. Translate Bios mRNA therapy for cystic fibrosis is now in clinical testing. A single dose of the therapy revealed no serious side effects; some patients experienced fever, muscle pain, or headaches, which were short-lived and manageable, the company reported. An ongoing trial is testing multiple doses.

Improving the amount of protein the body makes from a dose of mRNA would reduce the frequency and size of doses required. One approach, Sahay says, is to enhance lipid nanoparticles ability to escape from the membranous sacs that cells use to draw them in. That way, more of the nanoparticles mRNA cargo gets a chance to interact with the cells machinery for making proteins. His team reported in February that in tests in cells, swapping in naturally occurring chemical variants of the cholesterol in lipid nanoparticles made them into better escape artists.

The race for an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 hasnt solved the delivery and dosing issues mRNA therapies will face, but it may have smoothed their path in other ways. For one, vaccine producers have shown its possible to produce billions of nanoparticles and mRNA strands in short order. Sahays team is still puzzling out the best lipid nanoparticles to escort mRNA to the far reaches of the body. But the day someone figures that out, it will be transformative, he says, because the steps to getting mRNA to the clinic are so clearly in line now.

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Messenger RNA gave us a COVID-19 vaccine. Will it treat diseases, too? - Science Magazine

PROVIDENCE Rhode Island will receive 3,900 fewer doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine than it had expected next week an unexplained 36 percent reduction, Governor Gina M. Raimondo announced Thursday.

The state Department of Health learned on Wednesday that the states allocation of the Pfizer vaccine for the week beginning Dec. 21 has been slashed from 10,725 doses to 6,825 doses, she said.

We have heard accounts of similar reductions in other states, and no clear explanation has been provided by Operation Warp Speed, Raimondo said. We are calling on the Trump administration to honor its commitments and provide the full allocation to Rhode Island.

Meanwhile, the state will continuing distributing the vaccine to front-line healthcare workers, and officials will evaluate the impact of the reduction on its vaccine plans.

The states COVID-19 Vaccination Subcommittee is scheduled to meet at 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Raimondo is scheduled to provide her weekly update on the coronavirus at 1 p.m. Friday, and Dr. Philip A. Chan, an infectious disease doctor with the state Department of Health, will provide a detailed vaccine update.

On Monday, amid much fanfare, Dr. Christian Arbelaez became the first person in Rhode Island to receive Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine.

Lifespan which runs Rhode Island, Hasbro Childrens, The Miriam, Bradley, and Newport hospitals received 1,950 doses of Pfizers vaccine on Monday morning, several hours ahead of schedule. Shortly after Lifespan received the shipment, the Rhode Island COVID-19 Vaccine Subcommittee voted to recommend that hospitals begin vaccinating front-line hospital workers.

Hospital staff who have direct contact with COVID-positive patients or COVID-positive infectious fluids or materials are first in line for the vaccine, though some health experts have suggested that densely populated infection hotspots, like Central Falls, R.I., should be prioritized.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @FitzProv.

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Rhode Island getting far less COVID-19 vaccine doses than expected next week - The Boston Globe

Greene, who has a little less than 1,000 employees, said his nurses are eager to get the vaccine, while nursing assistants have more mixed feelings. Hes getting more comfortable with the vaccine as he sees hospitals using it, but has some concerns himself even though he has risk factors for serious COVID-19: Hes Black, male, and has Type 2 diabetes. He would probably get it if he worked directly with patients. He doesnt plan to pressure employees to be vaccinated.

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Home health workers are a top priority to get COVID-19 vaccines, but dont know when or where - The Philadelphia Inquirer

December 17, 2020 The first shipment to Whitman County of Covid-19 vaccine arrives at Washington State University, which is using its ultra-cold freezers to help store the states supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine prior to being administered for use throughout the community.

Whitman County has received the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine. Washington State University is storing the vaccine in ultra-cold freezers, which are capable of maintaining the -80 degrees Celsius temperature required for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine prior to being diluted and administered for use.

Having this vaccine will allow protection of both individuals involved in our healthcare systems and the most vulnerable members of our community, said Guy Palmer, professor of pathology and infectious diseases and one of the leaders of the WSUs COVID-19 task force. By doing those two things, we have a chance to really make a huge difference in a short period of time and reduce the potential of overwhelming our healthcare systems with hospitalizations from COVID-19.

The university was enlisted by Gov. Jay Inslee to assist in storing the states vaccine supplies because of the availability of the needed ultra-cold freezer equipment.

High-risk healthcare workers as well as staff and residents of long-term care facilities will be the first to receive vaccinations as part of the states distribution plan. More information on the first phase of the states plan isavailable online.

The vaccine is given in two doses 21 days apart, with clinical trials showing it is 95% effective at preventing COVID-19 inflection beginning seven days after the second dose.

Approximately 62,400 doses of the vaccine are being delivered across the state of Washington this week.

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WSU receives shipment of COVID-19 vaccine - WSU News

Kettering Health Network expects to receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine next week, and at that time, we will make the vaccine available to our employees and providers. We continue to collaborate with the Ohio Department of Health as plans are further developed. Kettering Health said in a statement.

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Kettering Health, Premier Health expected to receive COVID-19 vaccine next week - WHIO Radio