Coronavirus positives in Bradenton and Hillsborough Counties (Miami, Miami Beach: mobile home, best)

[wondermint2]

CDC study finds nursing home residents who appear to have recovered from Covid were reinfected with an even worse case

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/cdc-...-of-covid.html

- A new CDC study published Thursday suggests some people may be susceptible to reinfection from the coronavirus and could have worse outcomes following their second infection.

- Reinfection means that a person was infected with the virus, recovered and then later became infected again, though it’s thought to be rare, according to the CDC.

- The new study found five nursing home residents tested positive during two separate outbreaks with multiple negative tests in between, suggesting they were reinfected with the virus.

[wondermint2]

Publix to offer COVID-19 vaccinations at all of its stores in Florida

https://www.bradenton.com/news/coron...249522555.html

Publix is opening its online reservation system for COVID 19 vaccination appointments at all 730 of its in-store Florida pharmacies, the company announced Thursday.

Appointment scheduling starts at 7 a.m. EST Friday.

Vaccinations are being provided to individuals ages 65 and older, while supplies last. Appointments are required and can be scheduled through Publix’s online reservation system at:

https://www.publix.com/covid-vaccine

Appointments cannot be made by calling Publix or the Publix Pharmacy.

The online reservation system typically opens every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning for vaccine appointments at Florida Publix pharmacies, as long as the company continues to receive vaccine doses from the state and federal governments and barring unforeseen circumstances. Appointments may not be available in every county during every scheduling opportunity.

[wondermint2]

Sarasota, Bradenton Winn-Dixie locations to offer COVID-19 vaccinations

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/othe...ns/ar-BB1e0Yt2

Two area Winn-Dixie pharmacies have been added to the list of stores to offer COVID-19 vaccinations.

The Winn-Dixie at 5800 Fruitville Road in Sarasota, and the store at 5802 14th St. W. in Bradenton, were added to the 43 stores in Florida already administering vaccinations, Southeastern Grocers, Inc., the parent company of Winn-Dixie, announced Thursday. “The grocer will continue to offer this latest round of free vaccines to health care workers, residents and staff of long-term care facilities and adults ages 65 and older in accordance with the Florida health authority guidelines, while supplies last,” a news release said.

Qualified individuals can visit:

https://www.winndixie.com/pharmacy/covid-vaccine

for timely updates including availability details, participating store locations and to schedule an appointment online, when available. The vaccines are free, with or without health insurance.

[wondermint2]

7,650 more people to get shots in Manatee County. The appointment system has changed

https://www.bradenton.com/news/coron...249539163.html

Manatee County will use a new automated telephone system beginning Friday, as it starts notifying another 7,650 seniors and healthcare workers of available appointments to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

Those who receive a notification will be scheduled for vaccinations on March 3-5 at Tom Bennett Park, 280 Kay Road, Bradenton. The appointments are in addition to the 5,100 people previously schedule to receive shots on March 1 and 2.

The new Everbridge notification system will call people already registered with the county’s standby pool.

The number that will appear on your phone is the same as it has been: 941-742-4300. When you answer, you will be given options to select to confirm or reject your appointment.

After a selection is made, a follow-up call, email or text will be sent with the appointment info.

The system will continue to chose people at random and those already registered in the stand-by pool will not need to re-register.

[wondermint2]

Available Vaccinations Rising Sharply in Sarasota & Manatee Counties

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...ek/6831659002/

Manatee is expected to vaccinate 12,750 next week, a sharp rise from previous weeks when the county averaged 5,100 doses.

The Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County vaccinated 2,000 people Tuesday and began setting 6,400 appointments for clinics Wednesday and Thursday.

That’s in addition to the 4,000 doses going to the city of Sarasota for a two-day vaccination clinic at the Van Wezel this weekend, and any additional pop-up clinics the state may put on.

All told, the total number of people expected to get the first dose of the COVID vaccine this week and into next week in Manatee and Sarasota is expected to top 30,000.

With the pending approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a commitment from President Joe Biden to boost production and distribution, the number of vaccine doses coming into the area are expected to skyrocket in coming weeks.

[wondermint2]

Why Americans shouldn't turn their noses up at Johnson & Johnson's vaccine

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

With Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine on the verge of being authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration, Americans are taking another look at the vaccine and it's data. And what they see might initially give them pause.

For several months, public health experts have praised the approximately 95% efficacy seen in vaccines by Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna. But the data surrounding the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, developed by the company's vaccine arm, Janssen, falls short of that figure.

But those comparisons aren't fair, experts say. They say the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an effective vaccine that offers good protection against severe forms of Covid-19. Anyone should take it if given the opportunity.

Dr. Wen said what really matters is a vaccine's ability to prevent severe disease, and beyond that, disease that's severe enough that leads to hospitalization or even death. She pointed to Johnson & Johnson's vaccine trial, in which there were no individuals who had a severe enough case of Covid-19 that they ended up in the hospital or on a ventilator or died.

While preventing infections would be great -- and there is evidence Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is effective against asymptomatic infection -- its avoiding severe cases that will save lives.

"My big concern here is that the Johnson & Johnson is being labeled as the inferior vaccine," said Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst and former Baltimore public health commissioner, "when that's not a fair assessment to make."

While it might be an easy point of reference, Wen said it's not correct to compare the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to its counterparts by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

"That's because the trials were not done head-to-head," she said. "It's not as if we had several groups of people -- one group got placebo, one group got Pfizer, one group got Moderna and one group got Johnson & Johnson. That's not how this was done."

The vaccines were also tested at different times, she said, and different types of strains were more prevalent than others depending on the location.

Notably, Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was tested in South Africa, where the dominant strain was the B.1.351 variant, which is believed to be more contagious. There, the vaccine showed a 64% efficacy rate.

Offering protection against the variant could give the Johnson & Johnson vaccine a "slight edge," Wen said, since neither Pfizer's nor Moderna's vaccine was tested in that environment.

[wondermint2]

If you think mask use is controversial - wait and see the uproar that vaccine passports will cause. IMO it might go over better in some other countries but the USA is well ... the USA...................

Covid vaccine passports are being considered. And health experts and rights groups are deeply concerned

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnb...concerned.html

- The U.S., U.K. and European Union are among those considering whether to introduce a digital passport that will allow citizens to show they have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

- It is thought some form of certificate system could help stimulate an economic recovery as countries prepare to relax public health measures over the coming weeks.

- Physicians and rights groups, however, are deeply concerned.

[wondermint2]

Vaccine pop-up clinics accused of favoritism draw strong community reaction

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...sm/6837430002/

The Palmer Ranch community in Sarasota County encompasses 9,000 acres in the developed portion west of Interstate 75, and more than 14,000 housing units.

It is one of the largest and best-known developments in the region, and well-established after nearly four decades in existence. It attracts national builders such as DiVosta, Pulte and Lennar.

Palmer Ranch developer Hugh Culverhouse estimates that around 30,000 people are living there, if you assume 2.2 people for every dwelling unit. The majority of residents probably are over age 65 and would qualify for the COVID-19 vaccine, he said.

But when Gov. Ron DeSantis looked to establish pop-up vaccine clinics at developments in Southwest Florida, Palmer Ranch didn’t make the list.

“DeSantis sure as hell didn’t call me,” Culverhouse said, and he has a theory why.

[wondermint2]

COVID-19 spreads easily in gyms, CDC finds. Here's how you can work out safely indoors.

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

If you're going to work out at an indoor gym, you — and everyone around you — needs to be wearing a mask. That's the message sent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week in two reports detailing outbreaks at workout facilities, both of which occurred due to lack of adequate protections.

The first transpired at a Chicago exercise facility, where 55 of 81 people who attended indoor high-intensity classes tested positive for COVID-19. The classes were held between Aug. 24 and Sept. 1 and although the facility mandated masks upon entry, patrons were allowed to remove the masks during class. The 55 cases were traced to two different individuals, both of whom attended classes while symptomatic.

The second outbreak involved 21 cases across three fitness studios in Hawaii, many of them linked to a single 37-year-old male fitness instructor who developed symptoms after teaching classes at two of the facilities. The Hawaii Department of Health investigated the cluster of cases and found that lack of mask-wearing and the instructor shouting for 60 minutes (during a spinning class) likely fueled the cases.

In the time of COVID-19, not every workout is created equal. Yahoo Life Medical Contributor Dr. Dara Kass says it's important to think about how easily the virus could spread based on the type of activity you're doing. "Doing static activity at a gym masked up and distanced is not the same risk profile as doing a high-intensity aerobics class without a mask," says Kass. "People need to look at ... how far those respiratory droplets will travel and what barriers they have themselves to inhaling somebody else's respiratory droplets."

In both places the CDC studied, high-intensity workouts without masks were key to the virus's spread. That's what Kass says to avoid. "When you think about certain indoor athletic classes and you turn the lights down and see all that spit flying, you probably don't want to be there," she says. "It's kind of gross to have to think about it like that but you have to think that way." She recommends considering things like yoga or barre class while masked, or lifting weights with a mask while distanced from others — all activities that she classifies as "low risk."

[wondermint2]

'There's a degree of mistrust': a third of US military personnel refuse Covid vaccine

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/th...ne/ar-BB1e4xfD

Reluctance to be vaccinated for Covid-19 is now rife in the US military, with about a third of troops on active duty or in the national guard refusing to be administered the vaccine.

Soldiers have previously been given approved vaccines on a mandatory basis but because the vaccines for the coronavirus have only been given an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, members of the military are able to opt out.

Many are choosing to do so, with military officials recently telling Congress that a third of service members have declined the shots, the New York Times reported. At the large Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina, acceptance rates for the vaccines are below 50%.