Vaccines

[BlueandOG]

I read the Herald every day and they report the state numbers daily. Here is an example from October 26th. It was pretty consistently about a third all fall. Note (as I said before), given the very high vaccination rate in MA (over 90% of people over 12), this still shows that the vaccines are protective against hospitalization.

"Breakthrough hospitalizations have been accounting for 30% to 35% of current COVID-19 hospitalizations. Those who are unvaccinated are at a much higher risk for a severe case and hospitalization."

Massachusetts coronavirus breakthrough cases up 3,078, the lowest weekly count in months

More than 3,000 fully vaccinated people across the state tested positive for the coronavirus last week, a daily average of about 440 people as the rate of breakthrough infections dropped to the low…

www.bostonherald.com

Where is the link to support "...vaccination rate in MA (over 90% of people over 12)"? I live up here and work in a public school. This is news to me.

 

[shizzle787]

Link?

PolitiFact - Are 90% to 95% of those hospitalized for COVID-19 unvaccinated?

West Virginia University faculty members held a special meeting on Sept. 1 to begin consideration of a proposal to stren

www.politifact.com

From September-October

 

[HuskyHawk]

Where is the link to support "...vaccination rate in MA (over 90% of people over 12)"? I live up here and work in a public school. This is news to me.

It is by county, but the most populous counties are at or over 90%. Mine is Norfolk, at 94%. Slide 5. It all depends on how you want to look at the numbers, but slide 11 says 85% of all people (including ineligible kids) have at least one dose. Massachusetts has many faults, but it puts out pretty good data. Seems clear that most of the unvaccinated are in the 5-11 age bracket. as you'd expect.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/weekly-covid-19-vaccination-report-january-6-2022/download

 

[temery]

PolitiFact - Are 90% to 95% of those hospitalized for COVID-19 unvaccinated?

West Virginia University faculty members held a special meeting on Sept. 1 to begin consideration of a proposal to stren

www.politifact.com

From September-October

Exactly.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Hey now! Thank you! I work closely with a special education school similar to yours in Massachusetts. I know first hand how hard you work to support very needy students. Three cheers for Dream Jobbed 2.0 and colleagues!

Thank you sir.

22 staff out today on top of 10 vacancies. Making it work somehow?

I was the highest paid onene para of all time today!

 

[shizzle787]

Exactly.

You proved my point. The vaccines worked to some extent against delta. They are highly ineffective against omicron.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Digital phone based vaccine record now available in Massachusetts. Access My Immunization Records

 

[temery]

You proved my point. The vaccines worked to some extent against delta. They are highly ineffective against omicron.

That article doesn't say what you think it says.

 

[Chin Diesel]

You proved my point. The vaccines worked to some extent against delta. They are highly ineffective against omicron.

That article doesn't say what you think it says.

Depends if you are talking about just getting an infection or being seriously infected by the virus.

 

[Puppy Love]

Early Data Hints at Omicron’s Potential Toll Across America (Published 2022)

In the cities that were among the first to experience rapid rises in Covid cases due to Omicron, serious outcomes including I.C.U. stays and deaths are following case curves upward.

www.nytimes.com

View attachment 72351

The state of Connecticut puts out a similar graph. It drives me nuts. For a graph like this to have real meaning, it needs to be split out a little. It would be helpful to see the hospitalization numbers split between community residents and everyone else. Institutional residence (nursing homes, group homes, and prisons) presumably have higher risk simply based on the residential status. Nursing home residents are presumably in poorer health than the general population. Additionally, it should be split into age buckets as risk of serious illness increases with age. And finally for it to have true meaning, you need a reference point that tells what percent of each population group is vaccinated versus not vaccinated. I think in Connecticut, the total vaccinated population is maybe 75 or 80%. The percentage hospitalized number is leaning towards around 68% to 70% unvaccinated. So basically that says that 25% or 30% of the population is making ups perhaps 70% of the hospitalizations overall, but certainly not at each age bucket. I’d like to know if the risk is the same for an unvaccinated 30 year old as it is for an unvaccinated sixty year-old. The most helpful number would probably be an average stay in the hospital for vaccinated versus unvaccinated. It would give a pretty good indication of the differences and illnesses in those two groups if there are any.

 

[CL82]

Eventually everyone’s getting this thing. That was the notion before the really impressive development of vaccines in a fairly short amount period of time. The omicron variant has shown to be very prone to breakthrough in vaccinated people. (and in fact there are European and Canadian studies that show, counter intuitively, that OmiCron seems to be more likely to infect vaccinated people.) Fortuitously, it doesn’t seem to be as serious as the original strain or the Delta variant.

To the extent possible, though, people should try to avoid this thing over the next few weeks, as right now there are shortages in therapeutics. Additionally Pfizer‘s newly approved oral treatment should be more widely available by then.

 

[shizzle787]

Depends if you are talking about just getting an infection or being seriously infected by the virus.

Both actually. In the UK (hard to find data in the US), the % vaccinated mirrored the % hospitalized that were vaccinated (about 72% in both instances).

 

[ClifSpliffy]

'this round of the bug, as it expectedly devolves into the common cold, is concentrated in the naso-pharyngeal region as that area is the least effective (for good reasons) for intruder defense.'

and now,
“It’s fair to say that the idea of a disease that manifests itself primarily in the upper respiratory system is emerging,” said Roland Eils, a computational biologist at the Berlin Institute of Health, who has studied how coronaviruses infect the airway.'
Omicron Doesn't Infect the Lungs Very Well, Animal Studies Find

syrian hamsters never lie.

'syrian hamsters never lie.' 1/1/22

'"NIH-funded studies that are ongoing right now in both mouse and hamsters confirm the lesser virulence in the animal model. And studies here at the Vaccine Research Center at NIH, in the nonhuman primate model, are ongoing," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president's chief medical adviser, told reporters last week.'

COVID-19 symptoms and the Omicron variant: What the latest studies show

Some distinctive COVID-19 symptoms, like loss of taste and smell, now appear to be less common.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[HuskyHawk]

Eventually everyone’s getting this thing. That was the notion before the really impressive development of vaccines in a fairly short amount period of time. The omicron variant has shown to be very prone to breakthrough in vaccinated people. (and in fact there are European and Canadian studies that show, counter intuitively, that OmiCron seems to be more likely to infect vaccinated people.) Fortuitously, it doesn’t seem to be as serious as the original strain or the Delta variant.

To the extent possible, though, people should try to avoid this thing over the next few weeks, as right now there are shortages in therapeutics. Additionally Pfizer‘s newly approved oral treatment should be more widely available by then.

FDA really screwed up delaying the Pfizer and Merck (which came out first) therapeutics.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I’ve read that Fauci didn’t want to emphasize therapeutics because he thought it would be a disincentive to vaccination which was his preferred way to address the pandemic.

Same. Not just Fauci, the CDC/FDA/NIH as well. It seems quite obvious. It's also a massive policy failure that should cost them all their jobs.

 

[Cuse Socks]

Has anyone here received monoclonal antibody treatments and want to share their experience?

 

[CL82]

Same. Not just Fauci, the CDC/FDA/NIH as well. It seems quite obvious. It's also a massive policy failure that should cost them all their jobs.

I want to think about that, but I think it’s a fair observation. The way we addressed this pandemic needs to be carefully reviewed. There’s much that we did unbelievably well, the vaccines are an example of that, but there’s also a lot of deliberate disinformation and poor policy decisions that need to be reviewed and analyzed so they can be avoided in the future.

 

[Puppy Love]

Has anyone here received monoclonal antibody treatments and want to share their experience?

My daughter and her friend at work both got Covid at the same time. The friend qualified for monoclonal antibodies (based on risk status) but my daughter did not. The friend was fully recovered in about four days with very minor symptoms. My daughter was moderately ill for 10 days and very sick for three of them.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Latest news in Massachusetts, which I expect is similar to CT. 45% of those hospitalized are vaccinated. Still deaths way below the level we saw last winter. Have to wonder who those folks are. Dr. Walensky said 75% of those vaccinated and hospitalized have 4 or more comorbidities nationally. In other words, the same folks the flu would likely impact hard.

Now the good news. Around New Years, the wastewater tracker in MA hit a level 5X the highest level ever seen before. So we knew an unprecedented spike in cases was coming. And yes, it's here. But, as we saw in South Africa and are now seeing in the UK, it is now falling like a rock. "The latest data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s study to track wastewater for indicators of COVID shows the south of Boston region daily average is now 6,810 copies of viral RNA per milliliter. That tally is about a 41% drop from the peak level just last week — 11,446 copies of viral RNA per milliliter on Jan. 3." Cases should follow.

Boston-area coronavirus wastewater data takes a plunge: ‘An encouraging sign’ as COVID cases surge

The Boston-area COVID-19 wastewater tracker is now taking a major plunge after skyrocketing to record-high levels during the holidays.

www.bostonherald.com

 

[temery]

I said keep politics out of this.

 

[temery]

My bile rises as I’m asked to move my dying cancer patient out of ICU to make room for an unvaccinated man with Covid | Ranjana Srivastava

I understand that for a chance at survival, the Covid patient needs a ventilator, but in a career filled with ethical dilemmas, this one really tugs at me

www.theguardian.com

 

[Chin Diesel]

Not surprising at all. The science says the more people who get the shot up front, the better off it is for everyone. Trying to boost your way out of it while other areas of the world have no vaccinations is just going to lead to more variants.

Booster Red Flag: Getting Too Many Could Backfire

European health officials said Tuesday that administering booster shots of Covid-19 vaccines too regularly could impact their efficacy.

www.barrons.com

Global health authorities have been skeptical of boosters, pushing instead for a focus on low-income countries where few residents have been able to access first doses. In a statement on Tuesday, the World Health Organization’s technical advisory group on Covid-19 vaccine composition said that, while some countries are recommending booster doses, “the immediate priority for the world is accelerating access to the primary vaccination.”

What’s more, the technical advisory group said that “a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.”

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Latest news in Massachusetts, which I expect is similar to CT. 45% of those hospitalized are vaccinated. Still deaths way below the level we saw last winter. Have to wonder who those folks are. Dr. Walensky said 75% of those vaccinated and hospitalized have 4 or more comorbidities nationally. In other words, the same folks the flu would likely impact hard.

Now the good news. Around New Years, the wastewater tracker in MA hit a level 5X the highest level ever seen before. So we knew an unprecedented spike in cases was coming. And yes, it's here. But, as we saw in South Africa and are now seeing in the UK, it is now falling like a rock. "The latest data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s study to track wastewater for indicators of COVID shows the south of Boston region daily average is now 6,810 copies of viral RNA per milliliter. That tally is about a 41% drop from the peak level just last week — 11,446 copies of viral RNA per milliliter on Jan. 3." Cases should follow.

View attachment 72395

Boston-area coronavirus wastewater data takes a plunge: ‘An encouraging sign’ as COVID cases surge

The Boston-area COVID-19 wastewater tracker is now taking a major plunge after skyrocketing to record-high levels during the holidays.

www.bostonherald.com

How may of the vaccinated hospital patients were additionally boosted? One can be considered fully vaccinated without getting a booster.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

the last one was ez. expected, foreseen, and now, real.
this one is 'scientifically' troublesome.
Has Covid vaccine efficacy turned negative?

last week, tuesday, and talking to a fam friend, i learn that 'tomorrow' (wednesday) great gramms, she of tooling around in the chrysler fame, and getting up near 100, was getting a booster (1 j+j before, now mrna time). i knew she wasn't going to die from it, but i also knew that it was going to knock her on her keyster for, hopefully, just days.

last wednesday eve: ring ring, ring ring... what's new lady? how ya doin?
'terrible. i think im going down...'
'ur not going down! it's just the shot...'
'why didn't you tell me this? no one told me this!'
'i knew it wouldn't kill ya, ...'
'thanks, thanks a lot...'
speaking to her each day since, on thurs and friday she was still wheezing like an '85 pontiac, but by saturday i could hear clearing and a stronger voice. of course, the nights until around saturday were a nightmare for her. i had never heard her wheez before.
today? 8 days later? her shot arm still feels like it's going to fall off, but i told her to hang on for a bit longer, cuz she's old, and healing takes longer. she's a sometime shoveller, tho mostly lately just cleaning off the car. i told her that if she has an ounce of energy, to get outside and clean some of that snow we had, or just walk around and pretend that she is doing something useful, cuz it will be good therapy for what ails her. move the blood around an all that.
we're great pals, she and i.
there will be no more shots for her. period.

 

[uconn_jack]

Not surprising at all. The science says the more people who get the shot up front, the better off it is for everyone. Trying to boost your way out of it while other areas of the world have no vaccinations is just going to lead to more variants.

Booster Red Flag: Getting Too Many Could Backfire

European health officials said Tuesday that administering booster shots of Covid-19 vaccines too regularly could impact their efficacy.

www.barrons.com

Global health authorities have been skeptical of boosters, pushing instead for a focus on low-income countries where few residents have been able to access first doses. In a statement on Tuesday, the World Health Organization’s technical advisory group on Covid-19 vaccine composition said that, while some countries are recommending booster doses, “the immediate priority for the world is accelerating access to the primary vaccination.”

What’s more, the technical advisory group said that “a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.”

I am vaccinated and boosted, but I doubt I'll get any more boosters unless a particularly nasty variant shows up that memory immune cells can't handle and a tailored vaccine is necessary. I wasn't totally convinced a first booster was warranted, but decided to mix it up boosting with J&J after initial Pfizer series since it appears mixing the vaccine type (e.g., mRNA vs. virus vector) creates a more adaptable memory immune response. Frankly, I think catching omicron would contribute to a more robust immune system to future infection or variants than yet another dose of an mRNA vaccine.