Bill Gates says that there could be 6 Covid-19 vaccines by spring 2021. In other reports, he’s said that things could be back to almost normal by summer of 2021.
CVS is using its distribution system that it has for flu shot to delver the Covid-19 vaccine as well. This article is from Connecticut but CVS is nationwide.
And we care what Bill Gates says because he’s in charge of putting the microchips into the vaccines?
Since turning his attention to the Gates Foundation, which has done a lot of work on disease prevention, Bill Gates has become something of an expert in this area. The Gates foundation is also a significant source of funding for COVID vaccines, especially for the 3rd world. I care what he thinks about it, because he knows more than most of us.
The foundation has committed more than $350 million to support the global response to COVID-19. This includes:
$250 million to improve detection, isolation, and treatment efforts; protect at-risk populations in Africa and South Asia; accelerate the development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics; and minimize the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. The foundation announced $100 million to the global response in February, and then increased this commitment by an additional $150 million in April.
$5 million to support the COVID-19 response in the Greater Seattle Area. This funding supported local public health efforts in Seattle & King County as well as six regional response funds that aim to meet the needs of those disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
$100 million to Gavi’s new COVID-19 Vaccine Advance Market Commitment, to support its future efforts to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries.
In addition to the more than $350 million committed, the foundation will also leverage a portion of its Strategic Investment Fund, which addresses market failures and helps make it attractive for private enterprise to develop affordable and accessible health products. For example, we are collaborating with Gavi and the Serum Institute of India to accelerate the manufacture and delivery of up to 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries. $150 million came from our Strategic Investment Fund.
Well, he didn’t really say anything of note in that article. I guess his foundation will be helping with vaccine roll out in some poorer countries.
I did too but it turns out to be very interesting. I honestly never thought about how air flows in a car with certain windows open. Thanks @susan!
Another tracking project. This one is for hospital utilization rates. It was down when I checked it because of heavy traffic to the site, so I don’t know much about it yet.
I don’t mean this to be a political ‘snipe’, just a comment to say that as much as I look forward to a Biden administration, if they can’t sell some form of expanded healthcare access (if nothing else major expansion in medicaid/medicare), then that would amount to legislative incompetence.
There has never been a better time to sell a no-frills public option than now, with everyone at risk of losing their employer-sponsored healthcare even if they haven’t lost it already.
You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Allow me to introduce you to Reality– not sure you’ve met.
This is not the place to discuss. I don’t want to get my second-ever warning.
Not moderating:
This is supposed to be a politics-free zone.
Funny. Despite appreciating his efforts, I kind of pictured Snowboarder Bo differently.
Abroad? Back in March my employer required me to work from home for 14 days after my vacation because I was returning from “overseas”; I was in Canada and traveled by train.
Moderator Note
It’s political commentary in general, not just sniping, that we want to keep out of this forum and especially this thread.
Colibri
QZ Moderator
Fair enough - my bad. I’ll refrain from further political comments.
This isn’t nationwide news or anything, but today I learned that of the 9 hospitals in the county in which I live (Montgomery Cty in PA), between 2 and 4 of them have been on divert for 4 hours or longer every day since this past Friday.
I get the NYTimes daily COVID newsletter. In the section about hospitals filling up, this gave me chills:
Rural counties can be particularly vulnerable. In the Big Bend region of Texas, for example, cases are soaring and hospital beds are quickly filling up. The region has just one hospital covering 12,000 square miles, and no heart or lung specialists to treat serious cases of Covid-19.
One hospital in TWELVE THOUSAND SQUARE MILES?? That give new meaning to the term “rural.”
There is a facility in Memphis that is set up for overflow cases. The problem is finding people to staff it.
They announced on the news here that Pima County Hospitals are at capacity.
More deaths today than on 9/11.
This is just as much a tragic day as that one.
More tragic, but less of a shock. What I really fear for, though, is the next couple of weeks, at the usual increased winter mortality runs up against hospitals and their staffs at capacity.
I keep seeing sporadic snapshot articles, but is there any good overview of the situation with US hospitals as a whole right now?
Well, there’s this New York Times article - paywalled, probably.
Hospitals serving more than 100 million Americans reported having fewer than 15 percent of intensive care beds still available as of last week, according to a Times analysis of data reported by hospitals and released by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Many areas are even worse off: One in 10 Americans — across a large swath of the Midwest, South and Southwest — lives in an area where intensive care beds are either completely full, or fewer than 5 percent of beds are available. At these levels, experts say maintaining existing standards of care for the sickest patients may be difficult or impossible.
Looks like the national average for hospital occupancy is 59%, and ICU occupancy is 72%