Vaccine Rollout - State starts out with an 'F' but much improved, Big Island gets B+

[kalianna]

Do you actually think that they paused the J&J because it wasn't making enough money?

[Durian Fiend]

"South African variant may evade protection from Pfizer vaccine, Israeli study says"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/sou...r-BB1fxbW5

"the research has not been peer reviewed"

"Eric Shawn: ‘Court packing’ could be back at the Supreme Court
Billionaires Jay-Z and Beyoncé's Net Worth Just Got Even Bigger

(Updates April 10 story with details on plans for a booster shot)


By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM, April 10 (Reuters) - The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa may evade the protection provided by Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is very low and the research has not been peer reviewed.

The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for COVID-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease.

It matched age and gender, among other characteristics.

The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1% of all the COVID-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel's largest healthcare provider, Clalit.

But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant's prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated - 5.4% versus 0.7%.

This suggests the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant, compared with the original coronavirus and a variant first identified in Britain that has come to comprise nearly all COVID-19 cases in Israel, the researchers said.

"We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine's protection," said Tel Aviv University's Adi Stern.

It’s a bit confusing. Some may read this as an indication that being vaccinated is worse than not for South African variant. In fact, it just means that in the relatively few breakthrough cases found in this small study a disproportionate number were of the S African variety. The suggestion is that this variant may not be disabled as well by the vaccine. Maybe so.

[terracore]

Do you actually think that they paused the J&J because it wasn't making enough money?

I'm not implying anything, but there has been speculation that Pfizer has politicians and policymakers in it's pocket.

Of note, all of the bleeding problems from the J&J vaccines have occurred in women.  Now the internet is abuzz with women reporting heavier, longer, and more painful periods after getting a covid vaccine, but it doesn't appear to be dependent on which vaccine they received.  Since this symptom wasn't a checkbox on the list of symptoms, they have only begun to study it in the last few days.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/9/223745...avy-survey

[Punaperson]

I had my second Moderna shot yesterday, at the drive-through in Hilo. Thanks to the National Guard and all the volunteers that made the process quick and smooth. I've got a minor sore arm ( no redness ) as the only after affect.

[kalakoa]

The vaccines are all basically experimental. Interesting that there's common symptoms between A-Z and J&J.

[Carey]

That sounds very lucrative.

"Pfizer expects to produce up to 2 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and make $15 billion in sales from the shot in 2021"

https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-v...021-2?op=1

Meanwhile, the "cheap" J&J jab is "paused".

I am surprised that someone as aware of the costs of production on things like goats milk would miss the fact that this Insider article actually states that Pfizer REVENUES will actually be $15billion, that is the total, not what Pfizer makes (kinda like the expenses a goat farmer must pay to get a gallon of goats milk, they do not MAKE the total of the price they charge!)So yah, they will be getting paid for the costs that it takes to make the vaccine....
Unless folks like you are willing to give away the products they produce, what do you see wrong with taking in revenues for a product???
BTW: this question is actually poised by someone volunteering days each week (ie giving away my time) to make sure folks in this county have access to these vaccines.... So I do see the reality of both sides.... Anytime anyone here wants to reduce the overall  costs of these vaccines to deploy into the arms of folks in our state, I have given the info on how to volunteer... amazing how few have stepped forward!!!!

---

Do you actually think that they paused the J&J because it wasn't making enough money?

I'm not implying anything, but there has been speculation that Pfizer has politicians and policymakers in it's pocket.

Of note, all of the bleeding problems from the J&J vaccines have occurred in women.  Now the internet is abuzz with women reporting heavier, longer, and more painful periods after getting a covid vaccine, but it doesn't appear to be dependent on which vaccine they received.  Since this symptom wasn't a checkbox on the list of symptoms, they have only begun to study it in the last few days.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/9/223745...avy-survey

I can only say that the FACTS ARE NOT IN to support any of what Terracore has stated here! (& yes, this is a worldwide experiment, but one should look at more than a meme to make decisions on vaccines, I would suggest EVERYONE with questions discuss this with their medical professionals & investigate any questions w/ pier-reviewed research, CDC & well reasoned investigative News outlets - some how "Blink and youʻll miss it" seems to be a rather flash-news based slogan!!!!!)

"Women are questioning whether the vaccine affects their menstrual cycle.
Some women say they have observed changes in the flow or timing of their period after getting vaccinated.
But so far this is purely anecdotal.
“It’s unlikely that the Covid vaccine would affect menstrual cycles, and there’s no plausible biological mechanism by which this would occur. However, there is little data on this topic,” Dr. Klipstein said"
"Periods can be affected by a multitude of factors, including stress, thyroid dysfunction, endometriosis or fibroids. If you have questions about your menstrual cycle, be sure to speak with your doctor."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/well/...ccine.html

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

It could be worse.
The vaccines could still be in development.
The vaccines could be required to undergo full FDA protocols, for years rather than release it now as an experimental treatment.
The Federal government could have botched vaccine development and distribution, as they did almost every other part of their COVID response in 2020.
Hawaii State government could have found a way to screw up, but they didn’t.
People could have continued dying and overtaxing hospitals at the same rate as last year, but they’re not.

By almost every measure the US & Hawaii have made the vaccine rollout and distribution an undeniable success, possibly the best in the world.  It has succeeded thanks to both those who get paid and those who volunteer their time and effort.


As the email I received today from the Hawaii Department of Health noted:

Four short months ago—on December 14, 2020—Dr. Lester Morehead of The Queen’s Medical Center received the very first COVID-19 vaccine in Hawai‘i.

 
And four months later—to the day—Hawai‘i surpassed the one million mark of doses administered across the state. 

[Justin]

Echo HOTPEs comments. Not sure the rollout and distribution better than, for example, Israel, but not going to quibble over whether Hawaii is top 10, top 5, top 3, etc. Just happy it's "top" something and not "bottom" something.

[macuu222]

A family member of ours from Alaska who received the Pfizer 2 shot vaccine in February and had a negative covid test before flying into Kona for a conference in late March (a month after the second shot) was diagnosed with covid upon return to Alaska last week. She's in her mid 40's and had light flu like symptoms. Now she's in quarantine at home in Alaska and has to list all the people she was in contact with both in Alaska and Hawaii. So while the vaccines may reduce symptoms of covid you can still get it and spread it.

[terracore]

The US military is using a new type of dialysis filter that removes pathogens, parasites, and toxins from the blood to treat COVID. It's approved by the FDA for treatment of COVID as an experimental treatment similar to the vaccines, but because it's development was funded by DARPA money most of the clinical trials have been at military hospitals, including Walter Reed where Trump was treated, though it's not public if they used it on him.

https://www.extheramedical.com/

In this study, still being conducted, the risk of blood clots from getting covid is suggested to be 10x higher than from a vaccine: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-04-15-ris...9-vaccines