Covid-19: Treatments, Cures, and Vaccines

Not sure if this has been posted and I didn't delve into the studies, but seems promising.

Study shows coronavirus immunity still strong in previously infected after 8 months

 

Also, people can dial back some of the sensationalizing of the normal mutations of viruses. One of the advantages, as I understood it, was that mRNA could easily be tweaked through out the evolution of the virus to account for future mutations. However, in this case, Pfizer seems confident from their on-going lab work that the vaccine is sufficiently robust against these new, TV sensationalized variants.

COVID-19 tracker: EU aims to buy 300M more Pfizer-BioNTech shots; Moderna shot wins U.K. approval

 

A Controlled study in Argentina finally demonstrates the benefits of convalescent plasma in mildly ill Covid patients in preventing sever Covid/respiratory distress, but only when given early on in the viral phase of the disease. Reviews from the US have been mixed, but that is because there was not good understanding of when treatment could be effective very early on.

This is a significant finding for people in poorer countries as convalescent plasma may not be as effective as monoclonal anti-body treatment, but it is significantly less expensive.

Blood Plasma Reduces Risk of Severe Covid-19 if Given Early

 

Very surprised that as much as DeSantis preached about seniors that there appears to be no plan or guidance for getting the vaccine to the nursing homes. Unless the management of where my mother is staying is incompetent...

 

It appears he’s just leaving it up to the counties. Great “warp speed”. I saw someone do the math in their reporting, at the rate they are going it will take 10 years! (though that was commentary on the national level, I don’t expect FL is much different).

Like the federal govt under Trump, it’s hard to see that there’s a coordinated plan at all run by the state. Some counties systems are flat out broken from what I’ve seen. They just get crashed by the demand, and the supply is just small batches of 3000 here or 2000 there with 100,000 trying to call in. I know hospitals that got their supply and did it smoothly. But otherwise the vaccine rollout to the public (just the elderly and broader health worker public) has underperformed badly.

So if your parents are in a nursing home it probably comes to how “connected” and well run it is, you’d think that’s where the nursing homes would deal directly with the state and all should have already been vaccinated or had an imminent plan in place.

 

Study: Ivermectin May Slash the Risk of Death for Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients by 80%

Good news hopefully.

 

As you can see, Florida is doing better than just about any other state when it comes to vaccinating the elderly. My mom got hers last week and the follow up at the end of Jan. More piling on DeSantis for no reason. Rip him for his handling of the unemployment website, but not this.

 

Not that I am in a position to argue with the former head of the FDA, but I have some doubts about getting an experimental vaccine at any place other than a medical facility. If you have a reaction at a high school gym vs at a doctor's office or hospital, the outcome could be very different.

Also, on a personal note, once again, CVS and Walgreens have called my mother several times to try and hire her to distribute vaccines at their store locations. This tells me a couple of things:

1. CVS and Walgreens are not fully set up around the country to handle this.
2. They are terribly short trained medical personnel to administer the shots.....my mom, God bless her, is an RN of now over 60 years experience who, at 83, only just retired this year due to Covid, as a Diabetic Educator. She was one of the first RNs to ever work in a specialized hospital wing for critically ill in New York, now commonly known as Intensive Care Units. She knows what she is doing and is mentally as sharp as a tack.....however, she is legally blind in one eye due to keratoconus and macular degeneration to the same eye, and is less and less mobile due to degenerative arthritis, including her manual dexterity.

My question is, do you really want the woman that I describe above, measuring out a critical dose of an experimental vaccine and sticking it in you at the local "minute clinic"?? I don't.

The U.S. vaccine rollout needs to ‘hit the reset,’ an ex-F.D.A. chief says.

 

Our county took appointments, then did first come first served. There were people waiting in line for hours after the doses for the day were gone. They didn't bother sending anyone down the line to tell everyone to go home. Imagine sitting in line for five hours only to finally get to the front and be told they ran out three hours ago.

 

Hopefully one of Biden's first actions is to mobilize the military to distribute the vaccine.

 

Lee county? I saw that on the local news. Horrible. They did go the “call center” route the second time, the first idea was mind boggling. I have family that are trying from Collier up through Sarasota, they will drive to any of them. All totally different systems, one thing in common: they are all totally overrun with demand and the systems basically crash immediately when they “release” appointment times.

Though the real issue at the moment seems to be they are still waiting for more vaccine. You can’t distribute what you don’t have. Each of these counties got batches of around 3000-5000 and are going through their first “public” distributions now (outside of hospitals). Not sure if any have announced their next waves yet, I just know the first couple releases pretty much crashed immediately.

 

I would have thought they would have systems to get it to all the nursing homes first then span out.

Heard stories of appointments scheduled yesterday then scrambling to find extra people. They are scheduled based on recommendation of 5 doses per vial, but many are getting 7. So good and bad...... if the 7 is dependable. Only good for 6 hrs once it is drawn and thawed.
Just say NY going to 24 hr centers which could be the new model given staff and product.

 

Preliminary results from the Phase 1/2 studies of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine candidate were published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. A summary of the findings is shown below. J&J still expects to release preliminary results from Phase 3 (45,000 participants) at the end of January.

A summary from CNBC is found in the first quote (citation below).

The full paper from the NEJM is found at the second link with a summary quoted.

J&J's one-shot Covid vaccine is safe and generates promising immune response in early trial

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2034201

 

Well this sucks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/15/trump-vaccine-reserve-used-up/

 

This is very concerning for people with elderly relatives or elderly relatives in poor health....

Norway Warns of Vaccination Risks for Sick Patients Over 80

 

Seems strange to vaccinate the terminally ill in the first place.

 

great, so lets not waste the vaccine on those folk and move on to phase 2

 

You guys do know they are the demographic that are actually dying from covid, right? Who do you think actually lives in nursing homes?

 

LOL, very concerning is quite the understatement.

 

nurses, duh