COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States (12 Mar, as of 06:00 AM ET)

CDC | 12 Mar 2021 | CDC

[BeauBo]

Total Vaccine Doses Delivered: 133,337,525 (3.7 million J&J)

People Vaccinated At Least One Dose: 65,965,305 (874,000 J&J)

Fully Vaccinated: 35,000,159

[David Chase]

To match your anti-vaxxer attitude perhaps consider changing your name to: “Iron Lung Lover”..........

Polio vaccine was 80-90% effective and that was enough to wipe out Polio.

Many generation X people don’t recall or lived when people were in tubes to be able to breath.

They don’t know how dangerous measles really were.
The Mumps? They think it wasn’t that bad, ask the men made sterile by the mumps.

Funny thing is, most if not all Anti-vaxxers have been vaccinated for all of the above and more.
And what do ya know? They’re still alive decades later to convince people not to take vaccines because they’re dangerous and kill people.

What a mess.......

[House Atreides]

“...The wisdom of taking an expirimental gene therapy vaccination for an illness that most people have already been exposed to with a survivability rate of well over 99% is ludicrous at best.”
*************************************************************************
“gene therapy”? Dude, you really need to educate yourself on the mechanism of the mRNA vaccines. Their mRNA goes to the cells’ RIBOSOMES. The ribosomes are NOT in the cell’s nucleus where the DNA and genes are located. The vaccines’ mRNA do not and CAN NOT get into the nucleus so there’s no possibility of interaction.

FReepers owe it to themselves and others to educate themselves on this important issue related to TRUMP’S VACCINES. Just sayin’.

[BeauBo]

Yes, Italy is taking it hard, again.

Culturally, they have a lot of physical interaction. Families live together, and old folks are kept at home (rather than in homes) more than here. Not as robust of a medical system as say, Germany, and lots of immigrants.

So far, it seems that people who are re-infected by COVID-19, have very little serious disease, and virtually no deaths. The projection is that once it works its way through the adult population (naturally or through vaccination), it will become like another endemic version of the cold - just a case of coughs that kids go through while growing up, with very low rates of hospitalization or death.

[fireman15]

Sorry pal you have bought into the false narrative hook line and sinker. Good job reciting something that you have ZERO actual understanding of! These are experimental vaccines with unknown risks that are being downplayed. I was a hazmat officer for many years and have most likely had ten times more vaccines in my life than most other people here. The difference is that the vaccines that I took were properly vetted. There are no shortcuts in this only a bunch of corner cutting. The complications (including death) that people are having are being actively suppressed. The doctors and researchers who are speaking out are having their careers destroyed.

[fireman15]

Funny thing is, most if not all Anti-vaxxers have been vaccinated for all of the above and more.
And what do ya know? They're still alive decades later to convince people not to take vaccines because they're dangerous and kill people.

You are right about this in some ways. I am certainly not an “anti-vaxxer”. As a long time professional Hazmat officer I have had ten times more vaccines than most others here. But guess what? Most of my buddies who are still working Hazmat are refusing to have either of these experimental vaccines. The same is true of a large percentage of medical professionals and military personnel. Why do you suppose that is? It is because people who have an understanding of how vaccines are developed and tested are aware that corners have been cut in the vetting of these vaccines, and the complications are being actively suppressed.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

The steep decline from the holidays wave is over. We’re returning to a baseline of new infections. Based on previous trends, we should expect the 7-day moving average to bottom out around 48,000-50,000 new cases per day. We may see a final small wave of new cases in April or May, but I don’t think it’ll be significant and I don’t think we’ll see a sizable increase in deaths thanks to the most vulnerable being vaccinated.

The continued decline in deaths is encouraging. On a 14-day lag, that decline should have plateaued 2-3 days ago. Hopefully it continues to decline. Looking at previous trends, I could see it declining into a new baseline of around 700-800 per day. If it drops significantly below that (e.g. <500), that’s very likely an impact of the vaccines beginning to show up in the data.

Either way, these are encouraging numbers. My math still puts us being done with this mess in July. That’s something to look forward to.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

there might be some blood clotting effect,

Is that risk only associated with AstraZeneca or the American ones on the market too?

[David Chase]

Always nice to converse with a brother.

I’m retired Detroit FD......was a FF early on went into EMS Div. and ALS.

Actually I agree with you in some ways.

I would be concerned if the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines contained a live virus (which isn’t typically done any longer).

Pfizer used 30,000 trial participants. So short term safety and effectiveness is there.

Of course I think the biggest concern is long term years down the road.
Which is why I advocate for for aged at risk people to get the vaccines. 70 plus year olds with cardiac, diabetic, or lung issues.
It is proven that Covid-19 causes death or long term serious disabilities with that group. Even at the present survival rate.

The rest of the population can decide for themselves.

Covid will burn out at some point. Noteworthy is that not one of the 30,000 test subjects have died within the 3 month study window.

I wonder how they’re doing today. I also wonder if they’re still benefitting from the vaccine.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

House Atreides is correct: the mRNA vaccines have no transport method into the nucleus. You being a hazmat officer provides no additional insight into how cellular transport mechanisms operate or how RNA translation works. You might as well tell us how you were an airline pilot. Great. We all have or had jobs. Unless your job was as a microbiologist or organic chemist, you likely have no expertise in messenger RNA, DNA, nucleic enzymatic function, etc.

Suffice it to say, there is no transport mechanism into the cell nucleus. Even if there were, it wouldn’t matter because mRNA has no method to unwind DNA. It has no method to cut DNA. It has no method to perform inserts. It has no method to repair DNA. It has no method to wind it after.

So do you have any explanation - supported by evidence - to show how mRNA is going to do all that stuff it can’t do?

[BeauBo]

Better treatment might also be bending the death curve down a bit more, beyond just what we would expect from fewer cases.

Better knowledge, more availability of better drugs (like antibody cocktails), and just less crowding, for more individual attention.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

"Of course I think the biggest concern is long term years down the road."

mRNA half-life is ~10 hours. If they put a hundred million pieces of mRNA into each shot (and I don't know exactly how many, but how many could there be?), they're gone inside of a week. The first recipients of the Moderna shots got them as part of the Phase 1 clinical trials about a year ago (March 16th) and they're still fine.

I'm not saying there's zero long term risk, but the risk is exceedingly small. This approach has been worked on by multiple pharmaceutical companies for decades. Moderna's sole mission since the company was founded just over ten years ago has been to develop medicines using the mRNA platform because it is so flexible and fast, and eventually will be the cheapest and most efficient available.

Everyone should 100% be making their own personal decisions about what's best for their own health, but the fact that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are a newer technology shouldn't be very scary for people. The list of components is incredibly small, and they're all very clear and simple. It's mRNA inside a lipid (fat) shell with some stabilizers for the lipids to keep them from immediately dissipating.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

Monoclonal antibody therapy (which is what President Trump received in the hospital) should definitely bend the curve down on deaths a bit. Unfortunately, it looks like a couple of the variants are causing more deaths, which may offset some of that.

But either way, if cases dwindle toward zero after July, nobody’s sick and nobody’s dying. So I’m not worried.

[BeauBo]

“there might be some blood clotting effect”

“Is that risk only associated with AstraZeneca or the American ones on the market too?”

I have only heard that recently for vaccine, and only about AstraZeneca in Europe. Italy is treating it like a bad batch problem, rather than an inherent problem with that vaccine.

It is however, a signature mechanism of the COVID-19 disease itself.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

So better those than the Johnson and Johnson?

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Thanks which vaccine would you take if given the choice ...

[David Chase]

Wow. Great information. Thanks!

10 hour half life!? So just a bit longer than some fine bourbon. LOL

[David Chase]

I believe J&J uses a fetal cell line. Pro life folks are staying away from that.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

I would say that the data on J&J is slightly less impressive than the data for Pfizer and Moderna, but J&J had a tougher environment (more variants) during their testing.

At the outset of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, the bar was set that we should be ready to accept vaccines that work >50% of the time until more effective vaccines could be developed. So if J&J is ~85% effective against severe COVID-19 disease and Pfizer/Moderna are ~95% effective, all of them are well beyond the goal for the first set of COVID-19 vaccines.

In terms of safety, for those with allergy concerns (e.g. people who have to carry an EpiPen with them everywhere they go), J&J is likely the best available option. The stabilizers used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines rarely cause a severe allergic reaction (about 1 in 90,000 for Pfizer and about 1 in 400,000 for Moderna). For me, personally, I was very happy to get the Moderna vaccine. But if you’re just trying to get vaccinated ASAP, any of the three authorized for use in the US are good.

The Oxford/Astrazeneva vaccine may receive authorization soon. They had a lot of issues in their clinical trials and I don’t find the evidence as compelling for them at this point. If/when that one becomes available in the US, I’d be more leery of it. The Russian one actually doesn’t look too bad. The Chinese vaccines appear to have <50% efficacy against the easiest of the variants. They’re borderline worthless. About what you’d expect from a Chinese product anyway.

[BeauBo]

The messenger RNA (mRNA) instructs the cells to do something right now (express some protein) It is like a work order for the ribosomes (the factories of the cell). mRNA is normally sent out from the DNA in the nucleus, to make things happen.

In the case of these vaccines, it has the ribosomes produce an identifying feature (spike protein) off the surface of the COVID-19 virus (not actual copies of the working virus, just a little piece, that can’t replicate, or do anything on its own). Those spike proteins circulate around, and become recognized by the immune system, to develop immunity to anything in the future with that identifying feature.

It is a clean way to use just a precisely defined minimal element required for immune recognition, and have just that developed right on site, without a lot of assorted carrier material. You get a high quantity of spike proteins (freshly made perfect, not degraded from storage or handling) for strong immune response (effectiveness), with a minimum amount of other stuff (such as the live, weakened or neutered virus carriers used in many traditional vaccines), which can have side effects (for safety).

[2aProtectsTheRest]

J&J -did- use fetal stem cells during their R&D and testing. There’s never any in the actual vaccine product itself (that would be pointless as there’s no function for stem cells in the product itself), but that’s a very valid issue for anyone who’s pro-life.

Catholics have somewhat of an out via the Vatican’s 2005 “MORAL REFLECTIONS ON VACCINES PREPARED FROM CELLS DERIVED FROM ABORTED HUMAN FOETUSES” and the 2020 statements saying that the current crop of vaccines are too important to preserving life to avoid.

However, looking back at the 2005 directive, I would point out that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were fully developed and tested without the use of fetal stem cells. Thus, the 2005 directive would tell Catholics they have a moral obligation to seek out those vaccines over the J&J vaccines wherever possible. If you aren’t given a choice (as pretty much no one is at this point), the Vatican says you’re still okay.

Some critics will point out that third-party testing was done on the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines using fetal stem cells. That testing was done after the products had been completed, tested, bottled, and ready to ship. So yes, a third party did testing using fetal stem cells, but claiming that somehow taints the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is like claiming that if a third party bought Tylenol from Walgreens and tested it on fetal stem cells, all Tylenol everywhere would suddenly be tainted by abortion. That’s ridiculous. The products are morally and ethically clean.