Pyrrho wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 7:13 pm
So now I qualify for the Ohio Vax-A-Million drawing. :hyper:
She's a COVID Millionaire, and Can't Believe It (Newser)
Weird headline. Took me a moment to understand.
22-year-old girl from "suburban Cleveland". She currently live in Cincinnati though. There will be 4 more winners in the coming weeks though, so don't lose hope! :)
I don't really agree with it either, in principle. Getting protected from a potentially deadly or debilitating disease is its own reward, and so you shouldn't need to incentivize anyone. Being able to return to a normal lifestyle without worrying about it is another benefit. Protecting your loved ones is another perk.
I wonder if it's even doing what it's intended to do? Like are more people getting vaccinated because of the lottery who wouldn't have done it anyway?
Ohio is actually slightly below the national average for vaccine uptake, so it's not really clear that it's making a significant difference.
News is that it has resulted in an increase of vaccinations, unless I've read wrong. I guess giving away $5 million is cheaper than paying for advertising and bureaucratic paper shuffling. I dunno.
My main concern is that they're rescinding almost all public health orders and restrictions on June 2. The numbers are about the same as last year at this time, possibly higher. I think it would be prudent to wait until winter and see if there's a surge like last year. If not, then I'd have more confidence that the pandemic is diminishing. Vaccinated people can still contract and transmit the virus. I'll continue to wear a mask in group settings and I'll continue to follow social distancing and hygiene protocols. Ohio is telling citizens to "get back to work". I guess I'm a bit dubious.
Governor DeWine announced today that Ohio continues to see increased uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine following the announcement of the Ohio Vax-a-Million promotion.
From May 14 through May 19 as compared to May 7 through May 12, vaccinations in Ohio increased 94 percent among those 16 and 17 years old, 46 percent among those 18 and 19 years old, and 55 percent among those between 20 and 49 years old.
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is not significantly linked to COVID-19 vaccines or non-COVID vaccines in a large multi-state US health system
Abstract
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) has been reported in a small number of individuals who have received the mRNA vaccines1 or the adenoviral vector vaccines for COVID-19 in the US2 and Europe3. Continued pharmacovigilance is integral to mitigating the risk of rare adverse events that clinical trials are underpowered to detect, however, these anecdotal reports have led to the pause or withdrawal of some vaccines in many jurisdictions and exacerbated vaccine hesitancy at a critical moment in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the frequencies of CVST seen among individuals who received FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech (n = 94,818 doses), Moderna (n = 36,350 doses) and Johnson & Johnson - J&J (n = 1,745 doses), and among individuals receiving one of 10 FDA-approved non-COVID-19 vaccines (n = 771,805 doses). Comparing the incidence rates of CVST in 30-day time windows before and after vaccination, we found no statistically significant differences for the COVID-19 vaccines or any other vaccines studied in this population. In total, we observed 3 cases of CVST within the 30 days following Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination (2 females, 1 male; Ages (years): [79, 80, 84]), including one individual with a prior history of thrombosis and another individual with recent trauma in the past 30 days. We did not observe any cases of CVST among the patients receiving Moderna or J&J vaccines in this study population. We further found the baseline CVST incidence in the study population between 2017 and 2021 to be 45 to 98 per million patient years. Overall, this real-world evidence-based study highlights that CVST is rare and is not significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, there is a need for a concerted international effort to monitor EHR data across diverse patient populations and to investigate the underlying biological mechanisms leading to these rare clotting events.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 21255806v1 with link to the paper.
To make their vaccine, Novavax scientists first used a baculovirus to insert the gene for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into moth cells, which produced the spikes on their cell membranes. Scientists then harvested the spike proteins and mixed them with a synthetic soaplike particle in which the spikes embed. A compound derived from trees serves as an immune-boosting adjuvant.
Interpretation: In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, the monoclonal antibody combination of casirivimab and imdevimab (REGEN-COV) reduced 28-day mortality among patients who were seronegative at baseline.
Late on a Friday night in April 2020, Lexi Walls was alone in her laboratory at the University of Washington, waiting nervously for the results of the most important experiment of her life. Walls, a young structural biologist with expertise in coronaviruses, had spent the past three months working day and night to develop a new kind of vaccine against the pathogen ravaging the world. She hoped that her approach, if successful, might not only tame COVID but also revolutionize the field of vaccinology, putting us on a path to defeat infectious diseases from flu to HIV. Unlike any vaccine used before, the vaccine Walls was developing was not derived from components found in nature. It consisted of artificial microscopic proteins drawn up on a computer, and their creation marked the beginning of an extraordinary leap in our ability to redesign biology.
...
Walls and Veesler had an idea. What if, instead of a whole spike, the immune system were presented with just the RBD tip, which would not have any shield to hide behind? “We wanted to put the key component on display,” Walls says, “to say, ‘Hey, immune system, this is where you want to react!'
U.S. scientists said Wednesday that there was a “likely association” between mRNA Covid-19 vaccines and an elevated risk of heart issues in adolescents and young adults, the strongest statement yet on the link between the two.
The evidence presented Wednesday echoes what other experts and health officials in other countries have identified: that younger groups, particularly men under 30, have higher rates of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining around the heart) following vaccination with the shots from Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech. Most cases have occurred soon after the second shot of the two-dose regimens.
More than 350 doctors and medical workers in Indonesia who received a Chinese-made COVID vaccine have tested positive for the virus, Reuters reported.
Most are asymptomatic but dozens have been hospitalized with a high fever and other symptoms, Badai Ismoyo, head of the health office in the district of Kudus in central Java, told Reuters.
Health care workers in Indonesia were among the first to be vaccinated. Almost all of them were given the vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) told Reuters.
The number of infected medical workers raises questions about how well that vaccine works against the Delta variant, which is thought to be causing the recent surge in cases in Indonesia.
Short of developing a universal vaccine that protects against most SARS-CoV-2 variants, “we need to be prepared to make alterations in the existing [COVID-19] vaccines to deal with [variants] that emerge,” Goodman said.
Out of what they call an abundance of caution, manufacturers say they’re developing strategies to deal with the possibility of a variant that escapes coverage by first-generation vaccines.
At the February 26 FDA advisory committee meeting, Van Hoof said Janssen plans to launch a phase 1 trial of a SARS-CoV-2 variants vaccine by this summer.
Researchers already knew that COVID-19 vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca can sometimes cause the body to make antibodies that attach to a protein called platelet factor 4, or PF4, which then causes platelets to form clots (SN: 4/13/21; SN: 4/7/21; SN: 4/16/21). The vaccine-induced condition is similar to what happens with heparin, a blood thinner that can also attach to PF4. When heparin binds to the protein, some people’s immune systems then attack the bound molecules, a counterintuitive condition called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia also characterized by clotting.
Federal officials have identified roughly 100 suspected cases of Guillain-Barré disease among recipients of the Johnson & Johnson shot through a federal monitoring system that relies on patients and health care providers to report adverse effects of vaccines. The reports are considered preliminary. Most people who develop the condition recover.
To maybe, possibly, keep my late aunt alive--after she had already suffered for many days--the doctors would have had to amputate her legs and her forearms.
Norwegian Cruises Sues Florida Over Anti-Vaccination Law
Norwegian Cruise Line is challenging a new Florida law that prevents cruise companies from requiring passengers to show proof of vaccination against the COVID-19 virus.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Miami federal court, contends that the law jeopardizes safe operation of cruise ships by increasing risk of contracting the virus. Norwegian intends to restart cruises from Florida ports Aug. 15 with vaccinations required for all passengers.
Norwegian wants a judge to lift the ban by Aug. 6. The law imposes a fine of $5,000 each time a cruise line mandates that a passenger provide vaccination proof. Norwegian claims it violates federal law and several constitutional rights.
The company, officially known as Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings or NCLH, says it won’t be able to sail from Florida unless a judge acts to block the law.
“The result would be a devastating, unrecoverable loss for everyone — not only for NCLH’s business but also for tens of thousands of passengers, employees, and stakeholders who all benefit from NCLH resuming safe operations as planned,” the lawsuit says.
“The only way NCLH could maintain its protocols and operations as currently planned is by abandoning Florida altogether,” the lawsuit adds.
The lawsuit names as a defendant Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Scott Rivkees, who is head of the state Health Department. Rivkees is an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose spokeswoman said the cruise line’s policy discriminates against children under 12 and others who are not vaccinated.
DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw noted in an email that Florida recently won a lawsuit challenging several cruise industry regulations imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Studies have reported low seroconversion rates (58% after the second dose) in solid organ transplant recipients who received a messenger RNA (mRNA) SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.1,2 Based on this evidence, the French National Authority for Health issued a recommendation in April 2021 to administer a third vaccine dose in immunosuppressed patients who did not respond after 2 doses. We examined the antibody responses of kidney transplant recipients who did not respond to 2 doses and received a third dose (100 μg) of the mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna).
Another factor that reduced deaths in the third wave, is that many of the most frail and vulnerable had already died in the first and second waves. And another factor is that the medical profession had more experience of the most effective drugs and treatments to help prevent deaths - having gained these data during the earlier waves. The vaccine is the most important factor, but not the only one.
In Sweden, from 3 January 2020 to 5:11pm CEST, 23 July 2021, there have been 1,096,341 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 14,651 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 11 July 2021, a total of 9,319,618 vaccine doses have been administered.