I was talking to my Aunt today (who is probably 86 - 87 years old and has a lung issue) and she said she wasn't sure if she wanted the COVID vaccine. She said she was concerned about unknown vaccine complications a year or two from now. She also said that she wasn't all that concerned about getting COVID because she was 86 and doesn't have all that long anyhow. She said this in consecutive sentences.

The timing and the tone of the change in plan is interesting. Maybe Biden can snap his fingers and make things happen.

To be fair, credit goes to the Brits for thinking outside the box. It's the UK option that Biden stole from who then Trump stole from.

If you were infected and recovered, you have at least 5+ months of protection and "unlikely you will develop severe infections".

I think this was my ongoing assumption but good to know there's been some studies done showing further evidence of this. It would be great if they can give a more precise measure than "at least 5 months".

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/healt...ntl/index.html

I wonder when that will be widely accepted and filter down. My daughter had it in November and recovered and will start testing again in February (college athletics requirement). I think 3 months has been the standard.

My guess/hope is once Biden's team starts holding productive & informational press briefings by credible scientists & researchers, we'll all be much better educated.

There will be stumbles so how about by Month 2.

Much as it pains me to say it, it was Tony Blair who first put the idea forward

This is from the government report:

Vaccine distributions do seem to be picking up a bit in the U.S. We're at about a million doses a day.

I was talking to a friend who works at Albertson's about their prepping for distribution, it really gave me the sense that things will pick up a lot once the grocery stores and the WalMarts can get a hold of it, and once the eligible groups aren't so limited. There's a whole process to distributing through eligible employers for employee distribution, but once it's, "everybody over 65 can make an appointment", things should ramp up. I think in a couple of months our biggest problem will be convincing more people to take it. Vaccine production and availability is an issue too, but, the U.S. seems very well positioned there relative to other countries at least.

We're at everyone over 65 and some other groups in NY and the problem around here now is that all the vaccine is gone. There's definitely more demand than supply at this point.

California moved to everyone over 65 can get the vaccine yesterday per Gov Newsome. Health providers are expected to start next week.

No idea how accurate or up to date it is, but link has a grid of all 50 states and territories on # doses and % used.

No surprised that CA is at the very bottom at 49th with 27.5%. A little surprised that GA is also there at 48th with 28%.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...serve-used-up/

It would not be the Trump Administration if he didn't leave by making a big empty promise that he knew it would be impossible to keep even as he made it.

Kemp is an idiot and made no plans. Each area has their own criteria/plans and have to request doses from the states. Dekalb county got 50% of the doses of the northeast county region, despite having probably double the population. Now some of that is because people in the country are dying at much higher rates (ITP there is like 92% survival of hospitalized patients, OTP is much worse further OTP). But also, goobers in Gilmer and Fannin and other places are refusing to take it.

I check that site a few times a day just to watch those numbers go up. It's interesting to see how the different states and countries are doing. West Virginia is consistently leading the way in % of population vaccinated.

I'm not sure what the allocation stats tell us. Every state got a certain allocation of dosages that they are currently working through. But I'm not sure where those unused dosages are, or whether the states have full immediate access to them. Obviously we're seeing some states with supply issues even though they're not halfway through their allocations. Where are those vaccines exactly? Are those states struggling to access allocated dosages, or struggling to distribute them?

Why weren't the states prepared? Because the feds wouldn't tell them how it was going to work.

On some deep level, I think that he suspected he was going to lose. He started burning shit down long before Nov 5th.

My county (Hamilton) went purple today coronaviruswise. But oh boy look at the bus...the wheels on the bus going round and round round and round round and round. The wheels on the bus drop off these kids. That aren't wearing a mask...

23 die in Norway after receiving Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

Well that's lovely

I registered today for my shot. Of course, my county has received no vaccines yet.

I think I'm more interested taking the Maderna vaccine. Do we have any of those yet?

Good speech. Didn't have all the details I wanted but assume that will be coming in the next couple weeks.

I like the idea of mobilizing National Guard to help with vaccination. Some states have done this already in Dec but others haven't (until maybe recently). I guess there is a rationale but beats me ... must be staying within budget is more important than lives.

FEMA sounds like a good idea also. I get Trump should have brought this up as an option but I can honestly say I did not read previously about using FEMA in MSM to help with inoculations.

Not sure I understand how we are somehow missing the "2nd dose we were saving for". If someone like Azar/current task force said it existed and it really never did exist, I'm okay if the Dems make examples of of him/them. Have to wait to better understand since it just broke.

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So an "interesting" thing happened with our Walmart pickup order today. Got home and the order was not ours. :( Call them and find our order still there waiting for us, and because of COVID, we couldn't return the order we did get,

Good news: Groceries we didn't have to pay for.
Bad news: It was all organic food-chicken breasts, eggs, and a LOT of veggies, some of which we don't eat. No snack or "bad" food at all.

I do like Cuomo getting creative here but I lean against letting states do this. And if a state did this, it probably should be CA since they are the worst off.

Similar thing happened early with the PPE where states were buying their own because of Federal incompetence.

One of those that I don't know if this is right (don't know) or ethical (probably not).

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/18/covi...om-pfizer.html

I do that from Paera's quick pickup shelf, except I don't place an order.

they had to do this with PPE too

So Publix has started to offer the COVID vaccine at (all?) of its locations. In South Carolina sadly all their appointments are booked. :( Here's the address for the South Carolina website-you will have to change it to the state you are looking for in the web address-you can only sign up for an appointment through the website:

COVID-19 Vaccine in South Carolina | Publix Super Markets

EDIT: Leave off the SouthCarolina part of the web address and you will go to a main page that shows the vaccine will be available in FL, SC, and GA

Publix is offering vaccinations in GA also. It's not my phase yet but went to look and it showed 2-3 weeks of "full".

This made me wonder if Publix & like are working overtime to get shots done? I don't know but if they are not, that is something State of GA should explore with Publix Corp about. From an earlier post, the bottom 3 in % vaccinated are AL, CA and GA.

yeah just changed my initial post to show GA,SC, and FL

A fitting legacy: topping 400k deaths on Trump's final day in office

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/healt...day/index.html

SI

A big question I've got is where is the vaccine not being administered? Cities seem to be running short, NYC for example will run out on Thursday. Where are the millions of doses delivered but not administered? Were we being fed inaccurate delivery numbers?

To be fair, excess deaths are likely over 1/2 million.

Not sure where you are getting your data but below link (updated as of 1/19 but who really knows) show NYC at 52% doses administered.

GA is at 41% and no longer in bottom 3 !!

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

The Mayor said today they would be out by Thursday.

KY shows 65% on that tracker but Beshear is asking the Feds to double the supply because they are running low. I don't know where the disconnect is there.

There was this disclaimer under that grid. Not sure if it explains the difference though.

Some sort of discrepancy going on.

States across the country say they're running low on coronavirus vaccine supply, with many officials insisting the vaccine delivery numbers reported by the Trump administration don't align with what they are seeing on the ground https://t.co/fEJTD3mFfD

— CNN (@CNN) January 20, 2021

Inslee was saying that for Washington the reported numbers you see on websites tend to lag a couple days or more behind. This week he made changes requiring sites administering the vaccine to report numbers within 24 hours, but it they expect it will take some time for everyone to get up to that standard. I'm sure other states are having similar issues.

There's been times that I've taken over a project in trouble. I always document what I view the problems are (e.g. not enough budget, wrong skill sets etc.) and make sure my leadership understand my concerns and what I need to get back on track. I don't always get what I want but I've got it officially documented somewhere. Admittedly, a CYA but needs to be done if you inherit someone else's mess.

I would strongly suggest Biden's team do the same thing by Week 2. Lay it out transparently.

First rule of being a government employee: Always say you are in short supply of everything.

That way you know you're going to be first in line when the next distribution of vaccines. If you say you have enough then you'll be in the back of the line.

It also helps if you kiss the President's ass publicly. Oh wait, that might not work as well starting tomorrow...

Timely reporting, just what we were talking about ...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/healt...-bn/index.html

From the news tonight, the issue in KY is forward-looking. They are vaccinating 30K+ more people a week than weekly doses we are receiving. So Beshear is asking for double the amount because in a matter of weeks, they'll have people sitting around unable to administer shots because they don't have enough. The surplus will be gone shortly.

My mom was really happy that she was able to get signed up for one. She's getting her first shot next week.

Are you pretty much guaranteed for a second shot (e.g. appt is made during the first shot) or do you have to wait, watch & signup again?

FWIW, I read an article that Israel (I think) said the first Pfizer shot alone had like 50% efficacy. Meaning, people really need to get the second shot for the 94-95% efficacy. Don't know if it's true.

The supply chain and just-in-time logistics must be horrendous.

I have no idea tbh. I thought that they were holding off on all the second doses until more people could get the first vaccine, but I have no idea.

My wife is a substitute teacher and our county already has their doses, so she should be going next week for her first shot.

Accidentally went to the first page of this thread when trying to do a reply. Oof... but not what I was here to talk about

SI

A family friend's 8yo got COVID two months ago to the day and then it went through their whole family. The mom had the brain fog and they all had the cough and a bit of lingering fatigue but basically felt "over it" about a month later. Today, the same 8yo was diagnosed with diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. In talking with the pediatrician who diagnosed this, anecdotally, it's something they've seen a significant uptick in with COVID patients .

There's a bit of literature starting to come out about this:
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
For instance, this article in August said there was an 80% increase in cases but it was also with the caveat "Data on new-onset type 1 diabetes during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, particularly in children, is limited" and, yes, with a small sample size.

So, just a reminder that this crap virus still has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. And that kids aren't immune from lifelong effects from it even while we pretend it won't hurt them.

SI

Looks like the Trump vaccine plan was:

1: Buy vaccine
2: ?

We'll probably never really know if it was incompetence or a desire by Trump and friends to punish Biden for winning.

Based on other petty actions in the last couple of days (China, trying to lift travel bans, etc) I think we know it’s the latter

The beauty of science is that you're supposed to hypothesize and it's ok to be proven wrong. It's ok to adjust your point of view and response as you learn more. It's when people can't seem to either accept that they were wrong, or yell at the science for being wrong (and force that erroneous pov), that things get so out of whack.

I didn't get to watch it live but purposely replayed the Fauci press conference.

Bravo Fauci, bravo.

I was able to follow him on the mutants, infection & death trend etc. He speaks well and clearly. If I'm him, I'm thinking about retiring to the speech circuit after this crisis is over, and start collecting moola (or getting a nice plum tenured job in an Ivy or at a Pharma).

I'm really okay with it, but IMO would have been a tad better for him to not comment on "past history", it just seemed off from the rest of the briefing. But can't blame the guy wanting to get a couple digs in.

Here's hoping that J&J has a great trial and high efficacy to report soon. These are one-shot inoculations so that will be great also.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/jj-p...mber-says.html

Yeah- it's not like "haha! you didn't know how bad a global pandemic could be" - none of us did. None of us have lived through one

But it's interesting how naive we were at the time in a lot of ways. Your post about flying half full flights was really interesting and should have been a warning to us.

SI

So, E484K variants are the first time I've been kindof worried about the virus itself for a few months.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/healt...ant/index.html

I mean, a lot of where we are today has been a societal failing and what we've known about the virus has been mostly static. I mean not entirely - for instance, my post about Diabetes on the last page and I think we're going to find out a lot more about bad long term side effects - but like how it's transmitted. Sure, early on there was a lot of concern about fomite transmission and there was some mixed messaging about masks (though arguably that was to keep supply up for first responders). But by May or June, we knew that it was airborne, that viral load was a huge factor, that masking and social distancing were really important to containing it, and that it was more of a blood illness than a respiratory one. That information hasn't moved much in 6 months.

So, the plan (such that it was or wasn't in the White House) was to get to a vaccine around winter time, get it out there by summer of this year, and possibly return to some semblance of normalcy for Q3 at best maybe early 2022, at worst.

This, on the other hand, has a chance to screw up a lot of the best laid plans.

(also new variants basics articles: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/healt...now/index.html)

SI

On Thu, Fauci did express concern about SA mutant but said even though efficacy was reduced, it doesn't mean it doesn't work. He did not venture to guess what the % reduction was though.

I do like how Fauci is getting more press time and "explaining" the virus and vaccines to us.

However, there needs to be updates on logistics & challenges re: production, distribution, inoculations rate etc. Fauci isn't the guy for that and have not heard if/when those logistical press briefings will occur.

Just to officially document in this thread for future reference, it does seem cases have been declining even before Biden ramps up his war plans.

So if this trend does continue, it did occur on Trump's tenure. TBF, the article also quotes this "could be a lull". So we shall see but still pretty.damn.good.news.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/u...s-decline.html

My guess is that we'll see another bump in the next couple of weeks. The big surges seem to follow about 6 weeks after major events and I think that was the Thanksgiving surge. I think we'll see a Christmas one, too. Then again, maybe it's so endemic now that the increased activity doesn't matter all that much and, yeah, perhaps we've seen the worst (fingers crossed).

SI

Depending on how many people have really had COVID, we could be approaching herd immunity in the U.S., or at least, will soon be benefitting from the defenses of partial herd immunity.

Some people have tested positive for COVID twice, though that's still pretty rare all these months in. And while the variants can throw a wrench into things, everybody seems to believe vaccines and having COVID already provides at least some defense against the variants, and maybe still a lot.

I've seen estimates of how many people actually had COVID v. how many tested positive as high as 12X. That's not hard to believe considering the number of mild cases or cases without symptoms, how hard it has been to even get a test at various times and places over the last year, peoples' resistance to get a test because of job or other implications, or fear of medical debt if they need treatment, the American tradition of avoiding medical care, etc.

If 10X as many people had it than had tested positive, we're already up to about 76% of the population in the U.S. Even if it's somewhat less than that, throw in the vaccines (we finally will reach 20 million reported dosages today), then we should be seeing even more of a significant decline pretty soon.

In Idaho, where we really have had a lack of testing (especially outside Boise), where mask usage is really iffy or non-existent except for downtown Boise, and where we've still had church and big family gatherings all along, that 10X number or even higher seems plausible. And our 7-day average of new cases is down about two-thirds from its peak in early December.

If the variants don't get a big foothold and introduce re-infections, we should be close to herd immunity by later this year: with a large chunk of the population vaccinated and the rest of it having been infected.

Of course that's a very big "if".

SI

I don't know how vaccine distribution to States is calculated ... is it proportional based on population, proportional based on hospitalizations and/or deaths etc.

But yeah, if it's "fair", then not allowing State purchases is probably best.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/24/whit...-directly.html

Miami Heat to use coronavirus-sniffing dogs to screen fans at games

Did not know COVID sniffing dogs was a thing.

Europe started using them last summer. Pretty cool.

If we were near herd immunity, that would put the mortality rate at 0.25% instead of the estimated 1%. For comparison, flu is ~0.1%. We're talking 200,000,000 (0.25%) already having been infected instead of 50,000,000 (1%) (which is double the current official worldometers number for the US of 25,000,000 positive).

I think the mortality rate seems to be around 0.2-0.5%... until the medical system is overwhelmed. Then it jumps to 3-5%

SI

And this is the crux of the problem.

Honestly, okay we can blame the Trump admin for this cluster but the Biden admin needs to get their act together soon also. How hard is it for Dr. Walensky to call the CEO/SVP of Pfizer, Moderna et. al and say to the effect ...

"We need to know when you plan to be shipping the next set of batches over the next 3 months, break it down for me in a report on date, where to shipped, and how many vials. And if you miss the targets, you need to give me a heads up so I can explain to Biden. We'll be transparent and reporting what you share with us on a website".

"Oh, here's an extra $10B each for your trouble".

This is a reasonable expectation that the vendor can provide basic details like this. And if they can't, explain why so it can be explained to the public. It doesn't seem that we understand the "root cause" other than "we don't know".

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/24/cdc-...he-us-has.html

Bad news Merck just canceled further development and canceled the February vaccines they were suppose to be releasing. Ugh I had hoped those would give us a bump in available vaccines. I like the optimism in this thread over the last few days but am not seeing it. I think we far from herd immunity. First off we going to getting to a point where people who were infected no longer have protection since the antibodies have diminished after a year or so. I am also not seeing when or where vaccines are coming from. This shit show is all on Trump and his incompetent fucking regime.

J&J should release their results in the next day or so. Interim evaluation showed 90-100% antibody conversion within 30-60 days. Assuming that holds for the older population they are finishing up their trial for, that would add another big player to the game and give people more options.

I mean, they've been on the job 4 whole days after not having any information available to them (unlike any normal transition) and can't confirm anyone to head major positions because of petty Senate politics so maybe have some realistic expectations

SI

I'm thinking they have 6 weeks. But they need to show progress even before then.

Look at it this way. Would you ever report to your manager "uh, I'm not sure what's going on" or would you say "uh, I'm not sure what's going on but this is what I'm doing to find out. Expect my next status report in a couple days".

I may have missed it but the article seems to indicate the former and not latter.

You are absolutely correct. The Biden administration needs to get their shit together soon. Full stop.

I am not sure why this is an example of them not doing that. She said she does not know how much of the vaccine the country has and all the issues that come from not knowing that piece of information. There is a timeframe by which they should have a handle on how much they have. Worst case scenario is that they have to start from scratch with the inventory count beginning with the shipments the Biden administration receives moving forward. As far as communication with the manufacturers and the procurement of the vaccine, the article said the following


I am not sure that us bribing them with $10B will get it down faster but I am not an expert in that area so I could be wrong.

Should she be able to tell us the exact number of units we should have by COB tomorrow? I mean sure if that is that standard. If they don't have it done, then we rap her knuckles for failing to meet that standard and continue to rap her knuckles every day until she has an answer. However based on that article and what she was addressing in that article, it seems like she is providing the sort of transparency that you are looking for. Is it a rosy picture? No. Is it the reality of where we are at? Yes.

It seems strange that you would feel this way given your desire to always give individuals the benefit of the doubt when it come to them doing the best they can in a tough spot.

No, I understand if she cannot tell us now. But she should be able to say this is what I'm doing to find out and expect an update soon with what we know.

Re: production will increase in the next 100 days doesn't really tell us much and not good enough. I would be surprised if Moderna & Pfizer cannot tell us what they are targeting in 2-4-6-8 etc. weeks with the appropriate assumptions. This is the information that States need to plan.

Only giving us a high-level estimate for 3+ months out is ridiculous for a modern company. Don't really know how good Moderna's supply chain system is but Pfizer doesn't have that excuse. The CEOs should be asking for this information (or we should be asking the CEOs to get us this information).

2 vaccines already FDA cleared by EUA and being manufactured + distributed.

J&J vaccine that will likely be FDA cleared by EUA in Feb. and manufactured + distributed shortly thereafter. This is a one-dose vaccine that can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures, so when the company states they can get 100M doses out by the end of April, that's hopefully a significant boost to how many will get vaccinated (not sure how many are promised to the US among those 100M).

Astrozeneca vaccine that will be cleared....sometime? They had some weird results and restarted a US clinical trial as a result, so they will likely submit for EUA in April, as long as their results are acceptable. There are 8-9 countries that have already approved them for emergency use, so chances are decent it will be cleared then.

These are just the ones that I'm aware of that are closest to being ready. There are other vaccine candidates out there as well.

RE: needing the count of vaccines for planning purposes: You both agree.


Yes, it would have probably been better if she actually said the words "I am going to do a nationwide inventory count to find out how many vaccines we currently have. Once that happens we will know how many to ship to each state etc." I am ASSuming that since she know that number is important to the operation, she is going to find that number out and it will be done by counting the number of vaccines available at a certain point in time. Seeing that the agency she runs had that capability taken away from it and given to a private company, I can understand why she did not have a date by which she would have that count completed on Sunday. I am willing to give her 10 days provided there is an accurate accounting of how many were shipped, how many have been distributed, how many were wasted which would leave us that final number of how many are left. I could see the argument for just going with rough estimates given the dire situation we are in and my belief that there is none of the accurate accounting I mentioned. I would be interested in the time frame you feel is appropriate to do that.

RE: the vaccine production. The reason I said that production will increase AFTER 100 days not over the next 100 days is because there seems to be consensus that the immediate supply of the vaccine is pretty much fixed due to current manufacturing capacity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/h...ne-supply.html


That last piece is the place where I feel their feet need to be held to the fire. The rest of the article I posted seems to address your other concerns regarding production of the vaccine after April. I guess they can give us the shipment breakdown in the time frames you outlined but unless I am missing something the United States does not have an issue getting the vaccine from Pfizer, Moderna or even Johnson & Johnson. The problem are getting them to the people doing the vaccinating and ultimately to the public without allowing them to expire before hand.

There is no doubt they were left with a cluster. 10 days is good with me but I'll also add it doesn't need to be 100% accurate but there does need to be something/target published with the appropriate caveats & assumptions. It would be unfathomable to me if their supply chain system cannot provide some sort of report to company leadership with estimates on X being produced in Y quantities by Z dates.

e.g. Assumptions like ... assuming we get the X, Y chemicals which are coming from China; assuming we get enough vials to fill; whatever ...


Earlier in the month, I pointed to CDC link that showed plenty of vaccines at States but that States actual inoculation % rates were low. AL, GA, CA at that time were lowest. This indicated it was a "last mile" (distribution) issue.

Then others here pointed out that lots of news about States saying this was not true. And that it may not have been the distribution but actual supply.

I honestly don't know where the problem is, probably a combination of both but wouldn't surprise me if the CDC data was old. Meaning it is not the "last mile" but actual supply. So yeah, it could be production or the shipping to the States.

I think you're talking about the exact problem we're seeing. The CDC and Biden administration don't know which numbers they can trust. And that could be anything from an ineptly designed system (possible - though you'd think they'd use the same one they use for flu vaccines), the numbers were ineptly entered to begin with (mortal lock), to even malicious manipulation of the numbers to make it look worse than it is (can't take this one off the table, considering how much last minute sabotage was done and the stuff with the vaccine reserves, etc).

I suspect it's a matter of trying to figure out what numbers to trust: where you need to start over from scratch and where you can work with what is there. It's going to take a little time to get some hands around it - like the 6 weeks you were talking about before, especially if a number of things have to be redone from scratch.

SI

How's high school basketball going you ask? Well let me tell you!

Mackenzie had Covid in November, developed complications and was delayed in getting to practice/play. The season was supposed to start right around Thanksgiving but got put off until January 4th. Mack missed the 1st 4 games, got cleared, played 1 game, then one of her teammates tested positive and they got shut down for 10 days. Saturday was their first game after quarantine and we found out this morning that one of the refs tested positive. Shut down for another 10 days. And we're 0-6!

yowza

To illustrate your point, who do you believe?

Florida has used only half of the vaccines it was sent, White House says

Can we pick any other state than the one that would appear atop the "states most likely to be fixing their COVID numbers" list?

SI

Pretty sure this is BS and non-starter. But did chuckle at his creativity.

Florida offers to host Olympics if Tokyo backs out: state official

Here's your chance to ask Fauci questions.

I'm more interested in asking the supply/distribution type questions. From the Mon press briefing, they plan to start 3-a-week coronavirus task force briefings starting on Wed.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/us/fi...rnd/index.html

FWIW, not sure if Biden's new 150M target is because he has a more confident view of future vaccine supply (and he can control/impact distribution with his office) OR if he felt MSM pressure (he shouldn't have) to commit to a higher number.

Hope its the former and not the latter. I would have been okay with him continue to say "100M is the baseline target but we will certainly aim for more".

Like other nations want to send their athletes to Super-spreader Florida.

This is from the New York Times article I linked above.


If the above is true, that means the Biden administration will have 200 million does by Day 70 of its administration. If the above is true, then the 150 million in 100 days seems a bit less daunting if the Biden administration come up with a functional distribution. For the third time if the above is true, the Biden administration will be held accountable for making sure those doses are distributed to the states AND making sure the states are actually vaccinating the people. Note I did not define what role he can/should play in that. States rights and all that jazz that you guys were discussing before. I don't think anyone really cares about that when it comes to the accountability. This is where the buck ultimately stops with the President.

‘Call the pros’: Chick-fil-A helps direct gridlocked traffic at S.C. drive-thru COVID-19 vaccine site

Mmm-hmm.

I think before long the U.S. will be criticized for hogging all of the vaccines, particularly when we approach the threshold where there are no longer enough willing people to snatch up every one that is available.

Edit: The U.S. has about 210 million adults. If 60% of them will get the vaccine as soon as they can, that's about 125 million people. We shouldn't be too many months away from that, we're close to 20% of that already after about a month of distribution where the perception is things have really limped along.

There have been criticisms about "vaccine nationalism" long before the covid vaccine was even created.

I think it'll take longer than a months but by this summer and probably before, I think you're right.

SI

We officially crossed the 100M mark for cases

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/world...ntl/index.html

Considering how spotty testing has been across many periods of this pandemic, I'm sure it's well north of this number, but this is the official milestone

SI

Study: Covid-19 could pose a “global threat� to male fertility

I thought I posted a similar study before but I can't find it. Of course just like everything else with COVID-19, it is too early to know for sure.

Not by me he won't. All manner of people often have unrealistic expectations of their leaders in various ways, but the only way in which I would hold him accountable is if he shows negligence - no sign of that yet - or for making a promise he couldn't keep. I won't say more than that in a nonpolitical thread.

I'm not sure this is a bad thing. Reducing the human population on this planet is the best way to combat global warming.

There are some interesting Venn diagram possibilities here.

If the manufacturers do what they are suppose to do, with this purchase America will have almost all the vaccine she needs.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bide..._live_hero_hed

Already the case. To be fair, neither did anybody expect differently nor are actors like the UK or EU acting any better here.

As an aside, in a first the drug maker Sanofi is now producing about 100 mio doses of Pfizer/BionTech vaccine until they can get their own developed vaccine market ready (if that ever gets there).

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN29V23Y

Liking Biden's press briefings. States will get more accurate estimates 3 weeks in advance supposedly. I guess someone called the CEOs for better estimates.

Wonder if Biden, Fauci etc. reads FOFC for ideas.

I agree that Biden has to think US first. However, IMO the US could do more to help.

A longshot option. China and India are huge manufacturers of pharmaceuticals. China may not be interested but I have to believe India would be interested in some sort of deal in reproducing/ramp-up the Moderna vaccine (storage is not as big of an issue) and subsidize India to "give/sell" the vaccines around the world.

(Admittedly, there may be supply chain challenges e.g. chemicals to make the vaccines).

A more practical option. China is providing their vaccine to many developing countries. It's got a lower efficacy (from 50%-70%) but US can give/loan money to developing countries to buy them from China.

And, of course, once the US has vaccinated everyone that wants to be vaccinated, they have a role to play to help the further-behind countries.

China's also trying to curry favor with their vaccine buying for poorer countries, continuing what they've been doing for decades now of trying to increase their influence. We should do the same in our own best interest

SI