Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada announced during a press conference today that on April 5 all Nevadans 16-years-old and up will be able to schedule a vaccination for the coronavirus. Prior to that, on March 22 vaccine availability will open up to anyone 16 and older with underlying health conditions. Investigative news journalist David Charns reports Sisolak noted that appointments will be based on availability and doses received. The Silver State is currently receiving nearly 65,000 doses of vaccine a week.
#BREAKING: Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak says all Nevadans 16 and older can schedule a vaccine starting April 5. #8NN
#BREAKING: Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak says vaccine availability will open up to anyone 16 and older with underlying health conditions on March 22. @GovSisolak
Nevada is now receiving nearly 65,000 doses per week, @GovSisolak says. Much higher than 45,000 a few weeks ago and 17,000 in the first few weeks. #8NN
An independent pharmacist in Brooklyn came to the aid of LGBTQ seniors who were having difficulties trying to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Ambar Keluskar, a pharmacist who supervises Rossi Pharmacy in Brooklyn, found himself with hundreds of doses of vaccine he had “just sitting in the freezer.”
The state of New York allows pharmacies to dispense the vaccines, but with some limitations. Citing the lack of ability to verify the identity and occupation of some eligible candidates like essential workers, the state limits pharmacists to giving the vaccine to teachers, child care workers and people over the age of 60.
In January, Keluskar began making the shots available at his pharmacy. At first, he received 100 doses a week from the state, and then upped that to 200.
But by March, the number of eligible people signing up for vaccinations began to decline. Keluskar pointed to the opening of a mass vaccination site in the area for the lessening demand.
With state laws requiring him to notify the state if he hadn’t used all doses sent to him, Keluskar became worried state authorities would stop sending him doses.
So, he decided to look outside his pharmacy for eligible folks including taking to social media to make it known he had doses to spare.
To be clear. My pharmacy has never discarded a dose of vaccine. We always use everything drawn up. However, right now I'm not doing any vaccinating and my freezer has vaccine in it. All providers should be operating at max capacity.
— Ambar Keluskar, PharmD (@ambarkeluskar) March 3, 2021
Not a single dose of COVID vaccine will ever be wasted at my pharmacy. What is being wasted due to the 65+ rule is hours of operational capacity. We could've easily vaccinated 70 or more people today but instead, we could only find enough patients for one complete vial.
— Ambar Keluskar, PharmD (@ambarkeluskar) March 3, 2021
Thanks to an aide in the office of State Senator Jabari Brisport, Kelsukar got in touch with Stonewall House, New York City’s first LGBTQ-only senior housing building in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood.
It turns out most of the residents there, many homebound, had not been able to get their vaccination. With scheduling done primarily online, many seniors with limited income and/or poor internet access can find themselves left out of the process of signing up for vaccine appointments.
One resident, 78-year-old Emma DeJesus, told the New York Times, “I can’t handle the phone. Everything is on the computer now and I don’t have a computer.”
After weeks of unsuccessful attempts to schedule an appointment for a vaccine shot, DeJesus is now looking forward to receiving her second shot so she can visit her nieces in the Bronx.
Keluskar was able to deliver nearly 50 vaccinations in that first visit to Stonewall House. And since then, he’s had outreach from two city councilmen for additional pop-up visits.
This past Saturday, Keluskar vaccinated more than 150 more eligible candidates at Ingersoll Houses, a large public housing development in Fort Greene.
Keluskar told the New York Times he hopes restrictions on vaccine eligibility will be lifted soon, but until then, “we have to do everything can to stay in the program, and keep providing, keep vaccinating people.”
My team and I could be vaccinating people, instead we're spending time and money on things like advertising and cold calling.
— Ambar Keluskar, PharmD (@ambarkeluskar) March 4, 2021
Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson seemed a bit outraged in a recent screed when he demanded to know ‘how effective’ the approved COVID-19 vaccines are.
So, all of this should prompt some pretty tough questions for our public health experts in this country. And one of those questions is, “How effective is this coronavirus vaccine?” How necessary is it to take the vaccine?
Don’t dismiss those questions from anti-vaxxers, don’t kick people off social media for asking them, answer the questions — especially now. The administration would like you to take this vaccine, Joe Biden told you last week if you don’t, you can’t celebrate the Fourth of July.
But it turns out there are things we don’t know about the effects of this vaccine and all vaccines by the way — it’s always a trade-off. So, should this scare you? We don’t know, but the rest of us deserve an answer.
Well, Tucker, have you tried checking out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website? Have you checked out the FDA website? Both will tell you a study for the Pfizer vaccine involved 36,523 participants, 18,198 received the vaccine and 18,325 received saline placebo. The vaccine was 95 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 disease among these clinical trial participants. In the vaccine group, 8 developed cases of COVID-19 while there were 162 COVID-19 cases in the placebo group. Also from the FDA site – a similar study of the Moderna vaccine found it to be 94.1% effective in preventing serious cases of the coronavirus. This isn’t really hard, you know… And by the way, Joe Biden did not say if you don’t get the vaccine “you can’t celebrate the Fourth of July.” Biden said there was a “good chance” that friends and families would be able to safely gather together in small groups to celebrate July 4th if Americans would vaccinated and continue to follow health guidelines, such as mask-wearing. p.s. Tucker, your boss, Rupert Murdoch, got the shot almost the instant it was available. So, there’s that… One more thing: Fox News and conservatives are tying themselves in knots trying to give all the credit for the vaccines to Donald Trump. So, which is it? Is he to blame for a faulty vaccine or does he get credit for vaccines that are helping stave off the coronavirus?
The vaccines are hugely effective that’s why Rupert Murdoch got it as soon as he possibly could. You’ll remember Rupert Murdoch, he’s Tuckers boss.
Fox News' Tucker Carlson just sat in front of hundreds of thousands of Americans and asked "how effective is the vaccine?" as if the answer were some great mystery or government conspiracy. "Answer the question," he demanded. Literally the first thing that comes up in Google: pic.twitter.com/Ic4LIy9lmF
The latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, which surveyed 1,227 American adults, shows 49% of Republican men say they don’t plan on getting vaccinated against the coronavirus compared with just 6% of men who identify as Democrats. Overall, 67% say they either plan to get their shot or already have, while 30% say they will not be getting the vaccine. More from NPR:
Among those who responded to the survey, 73% of Black people and 70% of White people said that they either planned to get a coronavirus vaccine or had done so already; 25% of Black respondents and 28% of white respondents said they did not plan to get a shot.
Latino respondents were slightly more likely to say they would not get vaccinated at 37%, compared with 63% who either had or intended to get a vaccine.
Today marks one year to the day that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Axios looks at where we were then:
A year ago today, the U.S. had confirmed 1,000 coronavirus infections. Now, we’re approaching 30 million.
In those early days, Americans were terrified by White House projections — informed by well-respected modeling — that 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could die from the virus.
Many models thought the virus would peak last May — nowhere close. The deadliest month of the pandemic was January.
We now have 530,606 American deaths from COVID, but we do have vaccines. Vaccines that by all analysis are working. (p.s. yes, I’ve gotten my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine) President Biden will announce tonight that he will order all states to offer vaccinations against COVID to all adults by May 1. Currently, the U.S. is getting an average of 2 million shots in arms each day. Estimates says 25% of adults in the U.S. have gotten at least one shot. And – the federal government has now ordered an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine adding to the 300 million from Pfizer, 300 million from Moderna and previously ordered 100 million from J&J. #Forward
Former President George W. Bush Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and former First Ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Rosalynn Carter discuss the important role of COVID-19 vaccination in getting back to the moments we miss and love. Let me see, something seems to be missing… Nope. I’m wrong. To get the latest information on the COVID-19 vaccines, visit GetVaccineAnswers.org.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued guidance for those people who have been fully vaccinated (two weeks past your final shot) in regard to what is or isn’t safe to do. From the New York Times:
Fully vaccinated Americans may gather indoors in private homes with one another in small groups without masks or distancing.
Vaccinated people may gather in a private residence with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for developing severe disease if they contract the coronavirus, also without masks or distancing.
Vaccinated Americans need not quarantine or get tested if they have a known exposure to the virus, as long as they do not develop symptoms of infection. If they do develop symptoms, they must isolate themselves, get tested and speak with their doctor.
In public, vaccinated people must continue to wear masks and maintain social distance, and take other precautions, such as avoiding poorly ventilated spaces, covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands often and following any other protocols that are in place.
Vaccinated people should continue to avoid large and medium gatherings, though the agency did not specify the gathering size with numbers.
As I reported yesterday, over 90 million people in the U.S. have received at least one shot of vaccine. In related news, new polling shows 68% of Americans approve of President Biden’s handling of the COVID crisis. By comparison, the highest approval marks Donald Trump received during the COVID pandemic was 55% in mid-March 2020. The poll also showed a majority of Americans (56%) think face mask mandates are being lifted too soon.
According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday, 68% of Americans support President Joe Biden's pandemic response. https://t.co/4ADKSj6WyX
President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil (photo: Flickr/Isac Nóbrega – CC license) President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil told the people of his country they need to stop “fussing and whining” about the surging COVID-19 cases and move on. Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied the severity of the pandemic even as the country is seeing record cases of coronavirus. From Reuters:
Brazil has the world’s second-highest death toll over the past year, after the United States. While the U.S. outbreak is ebbing, Brazil is facing its worst phase of the epidemic yet, pushing its hospital system to the brink of collapse.
“Enough fussing and whining. How much longer will the crying go on?” Bolsonaro told a crowd at an event. “How much longer will you stay at home and close everything? No one can stand it anymore. We regret the deaths, again, but we need a solution.”
The Health Ministry registered 75,102 additional cases of coronavirus on Thursday, the most in a single day since July and the second-highest on record. Brazil also recorded 1,699, decreasing slightly from the previous two days of record deaths.
Reuters adds that only 3.5% of Brazil’s population has received even one shot of vaccine for the coronavirus. Read the full article here.
Dr. Anthony Fauci (screen capture) During an appearance on Meet The Press today, Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked about differences between the Moderna and Pfizer coronavirus vaccines versus the newly-approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The primary difference is the J&J vaccine is a single shot vaccination where the first two you have to return for a follow-up shot 3-4 weeks later. Also, the J&J vaccine can be shipped and stored at normal refrigerator temperatures compared to the other two which have to be stored frozen at ultra-cold temperatures. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines demonstrated higher efficacy rates in trials but Fauci says direct comparisons with the J&J vaccine is difficult because J&J’s was conducted as more contagious variants of the virus were circulating. According to the New York Times, the FDA approved the J&J version this weekend following presentations showing the vaccine was 85 percent protective against severe Covid-19 disease across all clinical trial sites and provided 100% protection against hospitalizations and deaths. “All three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that’s most available to them,” Fauci told NBC News host Chuck Todd. “If you go to a place and you have J&J, and that’s the one that’s available now, I would take it.”
EARLIER: With the approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Dr. Fauci tells @chucktodd that we now have three “really good vaccines.” #MTP#IfItsSunday
The FDA has announced the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine may be safely stored in conventional freezers which could help with the distribution and handling of the vaccine.
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it is allowing undiluted frozen vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to be transported and stored at conventional temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers for a period of up to two weeks.
This reflects an alternative to the preferred storage of the undiluted vials in an ultra-low temperature freezer between -80ºC to -60ºC (-112ºF to -76ºF). The change is being reflected in updates to the Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers Administering Vaccine (Vaccination Providers).
“Pfizer submitted data to the FDA to support this alternative temperature for transportation and storage. This alternative temperature for transportation and storage of the undiluted vials is significant and allows the vials to be transported and stored under more flexible conditions. The alternative temperature for transportation and storage will help ease the burden of procuring ultra-low cold storage equipment for vaccination sites and should help to get vaccine to more sites,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
In related news, a new study from the UK indicates a single dose of Pfizer’s vaccine cuts the number of asymptomatic infections and could significantly reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.
A single dose of Pfizer and BioNtech’s COVID-19 vaccine cuts the number of asymptomatic infections and could significantly reduce the risk of transmission of the virus, results of a UK study found https://t.co/EimflYm3Xx
Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada announced during a press conference today that on April 5 all Nevadans 16-years-old and up will be able to schedule a vaccination for the coronavirus. Prior to that, on March 22 vaccine availability will open up to anyone 16 and older with underlying health conditions. Investigative news journalist David Charns reports Sisolak noted that appointments will be based on availability and doses received. The Silver State is currently receiving nearly 65,000 doses of vaccine a week. 
