Coronavirus positives in Bradenton and Hillsborough Counties (Sarasota, Fruitville: health insurance, grocer)

[wondermint2]

DeSantis: Teachers, police will be able to get vaccine at Florida’s federal sites

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.new...outputType=amp

Teachers and sworn law enforcement officers will soon be able to receive the coronavirus vaccine at Florida’s federal vaccine sites.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said the vaccines will likely be available to teachers, firefighters and law enforcement employees ages 50 and older. The sites are expected to open next week, DeSantis said.

“Our goal is to be able to get that as more vaccine becomes available and I think we’re going to have the ability to do that between these federally supported sites, and some of the new vaccine that may be coming online, very, very soon,” DeSantis said.

Four federally-supported vaccination stations are set to open in Florida next month.

DeSantis said as the vaccine supply increases and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine gets approved, even more people will be able to receive the vaccine in the coming months.

[wondermint2]

As vaccine supplies increase, City of Sarasota will hold vaccine clinic at Van Wezel this weekend

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...nd/4555021001/

The city of Sarasota will get 4,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and hold a pop-up vaccination clinic this weekend Mayor Hagen Brody said Tuesday.

Brody said the event will be held at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and the vaccine will be supplied by the Florida Department of Health Sarasota County.

The doses going to the Van Wezel, as well as those allotted to Sarasota and Manatee Counties this week, help restart a stalled vaccine rollout that was just starting to gain momentum before winter storms affecting much of the country led to massive disruption to the vaccine supply chain.

Brody said in a text to the Herald-Tribune and follow up conversation Tuesday that volunteers are being mobilized and that people in the county’s registration system will be notified later this week about appointments. The appointments will not be limited to people who live in the city.

[wondermint2]

Venice paramedics administer COVID-19 vaccines to homebound residents

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...ts/4556412001/

VENICE – Quietly over the past two weeks, paramedics with Venice Fire Rescue have been participating in a state pilot program to administer COVID-19 vaccines to homebound residents.

On Tuesday, Venice Fire Rescue Chief Shawn Carvey told the Venice City Council that paramedics have been administering between 10 and 20 doses per day.

“We’re the only department in this area that works under that program; we’re very fortunate to be part of that program,” Carvey said.

“We look for people who are physically unable to make it to a vaccination site,” Carvey said. “It may be because you’re wheelchair-bound or you’re severely immunocompromised so you can’t get there.”

He added that someone who simply doesn’t have a car would not qualify, since there are other ways to get to a vaccination site.

Also, “if somebody is homebound and they're under 65, they do qualify for this program,” Carvey said.

Now that Short has established a list of questions and criteria to determine whether someone is homebound, Carvey said individuals can call the main administration number at 941-480-3030 to be put on the list.

Currently, Venice paramedics are vaccinating only homebound people within the city limits.

[wondermint2]

California's coronavirus strain looks increasingly dangerous: 'The devil is already here'

https://news.yahoo.com/californias-c...130055544.html

A coronavirus variant that emerged in mid-2020 and surged to become the dominant strain in California not only spreads more readily than its predecessors, but also evades antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines or prior infection and is associated with severe illness and death, researchers said.

In a study that helps explain the state’s dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths — and portends further trouble ahead — scientists at UC San Francisco said the cluster of mutations that characterizes the homegrown strain should mark it as a “variant of concern” on par with those from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.

“The devil is already here,” said Dr. Charles Chiu, who led the UCSF team of geneticists, epidemiologists, statisticians and other scientists in a wide-ranging analysis of the new variant, which they call B.1.427/B.1.429. “I wish it were different. But the science is the science.”

Californians, along with the rest of the country, have been bracing for the rise of a more transmissible coronavirus variant from the U.K. known as B.1.1.7. But they should know that a rival strain that is probably just as worrisome has already settled in, and will probably account for 90% of the state’s infections by the end of next month, said Chiu, an infectious diseases researcher and physician.

[beach43ofus]

Is this a natural mutation, or is the planet under a bio-warfare attack from China?

[wondermint2]

It looks like the J&J Covid vaccine is going to be approved by the FDA for EUA very soon. Probably this weekend.

FDA review confirms safety and efficacy of single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, especially against severe cases

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...S&ceid=US%3Aen

A Food and Drug Administration review released Wednesday of the single-shot coronavirus vaccine made by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson found it was safe and effective and completely prevented hospitalizations and deaths in a large clinical trial.

The review sets the stage for a third coronavirus vaccine to be authorized as soon as this weekend, a point of hope in the middle of a pandemic that has killed more than a half-million people in the United States.

The review, although positive, was more nuanced than regulators’ assessments of the first two coronavirus vaccines, reflecting a pandemic that has entered a more complicated phase as variants capable of slipping by some aspects of immunity have emerged. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was more than 85 percent effective at preventing severe illness, including in a region dominated by a concerning variant, but only 66 percent protective overall when moderate cases were included.

The FDA scientists found that the “known benefits” of the vaccine included reducing the risk of symptomatic and severe cases of its disease, covid-19, at least two weeks after vaccination. The review found vaccine efficacy against severe covid-19 “was similarly high across the United States, South Africa, and Brazil.”

“We know this vaccine prevents 85 percent of the severe disease. . . . It was 100 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and deaths, and that’s really what’s important,” said Nancy M. Bennett, a professor of medicine and public health sciences at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. “Those facts are the most important thing to recognize.”

The vaccine was less effective in a subgroup of adults older than 60 who also had risk factors for severe illness, but regulators noted there were no deaths or cases requiring medical intervention a month after those older adults received vaccines.

[Variable]

Originally Posted by wondermint2

...The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was more than 85 percent effective at preventing severe illness, including in a region dominated by a concerning variant, but only 66 percent protective overall when moderate cases were included.

Any data about the percentage of mild cases J&J vaccine prevents?

[wondermint2]

Originally Posted by Variable

Any data about the percentage of mild cases J&J vaccine prevents?

I haven't seen this information mentioned anywhere. I did come across the following statement in an article from January 29th that covers the press release about the J&J Covid-19 study:

"it’s difficult to compare the J&J results to those from other trials, because the earlier trials counted cases of mild Covid-19 whereas the J&J study included only sicker ones."

https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/29/...nockout-punch/

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And then there's this. In a new article published by STAT from today they state:

"Johnson & Johnson also conducted an analysis in 2,650 volunteers looking at whether those who received the vaccine were less likely to test positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, without having symptoms. There were 50 such cases in the placebo group compared to 18 among those who received the vaccine, a 65.5% reduction."

https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/24/...inst-covid-19/

[wondermint2]

A third Pfizer dose? The Covid-19 vaccine maker is studying booster shots.

https://news.google.com/articles/CBM...S&ceid=US%3Aen

Despite the 95 percent effectiveness at preventing coronavirus infection after two doses of its vaccine, Pfizer is now seeing what a third dose might do.

The company announced Thursday that a booster dose is being studied among people who received their first doses of the vaccine more than six months ago.

In an interview with NBC News' Lester Holt, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the hope is that a third dose will boost the immune response even higher, offering better protection against variants.

"We believe that the third dose," Bourla said, "will raise the antibody response 10- to 20- fold."

Pfizer also plans to begin testing whether a modified version of the vaccine works well against the variant from South Africa.

Indeed, as SARS-CoV-2 changes, the vaccines may have to be tweaked. The Food and Drug Administration issued guidance Monday saying vaccine manufacturers may be able to ease away from lengthy clinical trials to prove safety and effectiveness for vaccines that have been tweaked to account for variants.

That's not unlike how the flu shot changes from year to year, accounting for the strains most likely to infect people.

"Every year, you need to go to get your flu vaccine," Bourla said. "It's going to be the same with Covid. In a year, you will have to go and get your annual shot for Covid to be protected."

That suggests that even when the pandemic ends, Covid-19 may be here to stay. Ongoing studies of re-engineered vaccines are necessary to understand when boosters may be needed, outside experts said.

[wondermint2]

Originally Posted by wondermint2

Overall the downward momentum seems to be losing a bit of steam - however the downtrend still remains intact.

After weeks of sharp declines, new Covid-19 cases are beginning to flatten

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/02/25/h...day/index.html

After six straight weeks of declines in new Covid-19 cases in the US, that number has started to plateau, even as hospitalizations and deaths continue to drop.

The 7-day average of daily new cases was just over 72,000 on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, a total that is relatively unchanged from last Thursday. Compare those numbers to the previous Thursday, February 11, when the US averaged about 102,000 new cases per day.

Experts say it is too soon to tell whether this one-week flattening represents a small blip or the beginning of a broader issue.

"I've been watching this and have been wondering the same thing," Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told CNN on Thursday. "We have not seen widespread increases, but there is that flattening. We'll have to monitor this closely. The other thing we have to track is how the new variant is doing and whether that's part of the reason."