I think it makes a difference for the additional people who can get vaccinated. But I’m not really sure what point you’re trying to make.
My point is, don’t expect using the half empties to make any effect on the vaccine supply. The Pfizer vaccine’s delicacy and human nature will wipe it out. They put extra in vials to defend against human and production error. You can’t pretend those things don’t exist and think “oh, extra medicine!”
/s
It can, and will, partly offset those drags that you point out. Drags that, if the CDC still has half a brain, are already factored into the calcs of how many doses will end up in arms versus how many doses leave the factory.
It can’t, and won’t. First of all, you’re asking medical professionals to basically go off label instructions. Iffy. You’re also assuming there’s no problem using a partial vial with a drug that is now notoriously finicky.
The vials hold five doses each. “Partial vials” are supposed to be used.
The FDA OK’d it. I don’t blindly believe everything they say, but I’ll start with a bit more trust in them than someone’s kneejerk reaction on the internet.
ETA: I’ve used injectable medication before, and it’s usually overfilled – I assume to make sure no one receives too little of their medication.
This. As a rule, vaccine makers put a little more than the designated number of doses in a vial anyway (to account for small variances in filling the vials), but they discovered, in this case, that most of the vials, in fact, contain enough for six or seven doses.
74,534,581 total cases
1,655,230 dead
52,373,081 recovered
In the US:
17,392,618 total cases
314,577 dead
10,170,735 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
From Heather Cox Richardson.
I can’t copy from my phone, but this is a horrifying update about the administration’s statex intention to infect people. Richardson gives her cites in the first comment of each daily memo.
French President Macron tests positive for COVID-19.
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for COVID-19, the presidential Elysee Palace announced on Thursday.
It said the president took a test “as soon as the first symptoms appeared.” The brief statement did not say what symptoms Macron experienced.
one or two more and it’s a Chanukah miracle! 
Thanks for sharing this. I read her sometimes, but hadn’t seen this yet. The quotes at the beginning literally made me cry. The senselessness of all these deaths. Based on such literal non-sense.
(Except both can have low blood pressure.)
Latest states with all-time highest daily reported cases (seven-day averaged) on December 16
Maine
Tennessee
California
Louisiana
Texas
Only five states, but it’s shooting up exponentially in three of them.
I’d really like to see the uncooked books on FL. Sadly they don’t exist.
In the “what the actual fuck” department:
- Numerous states are reporting that they have been told to expect reductions in the number of Pfizer vaccine doses that they will be receiving over the next two weeks (typically in the range of 30-40% less).
- HHS and the Federal government are saying that it’s due to a shortage in how many doses will be available.
- Pfizer, OTOH, says that they have “millions of doses” waiting to go in their warehouses, but the Feds have yet to tell them where to ship them.
Panama hit a new high of 3,348 cases today, the first time it’s been over 3,000, and we’ve topped 300,000 total cases.
The government’s response to this has been to move the nightly curfew up from 9 PM to 7 PM, forbid people to go to the beach, and declare lockdowns from 5 PM on Christmas Day until 5 AM the following Monday, and 5 PM on New Year’s Day until 5 AM the following Monday.
This makes no sense at all to me. People are going to gather on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day, not on the weekend after. And there is already a curfew in the evening of Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
Moderna’s vaccine is getting the green light:
75,282,798 total cases
1,668,356 dead
52,852,602 recovered
In the US:
17,626,770 total cases
317,928 dead
10,291,057 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
The US is currently experiencing well over 3,000 covid deaths per day (which comes out to about 25% of all covid deaths for those days).
Do you recall a few days ago when Trump announced he was holding an Operation Warp Speed “summit”? Representatives from both Pfizer and Moderna declined to attend. They understood Trump was trying to take credit for the vaccine development and they didn’t wish to be a part of it.
Then the New York Times published a story under a headline that read something like, “Science Wins Despite Trump’s Obstacles.” That’s not exactly right, but I can’t find the piece now.
I am positive these two items of information taken together explain why these reductions are happening. And who is behind them.