In most places, the elderly and healthcare workers were the first targeted. Frontline workers* usually refers to public facing jobs in other “essential” services.
*I guess some lump healthcare with other frontline workers but most vaccine rollout plans I’ve seen list them separately. As it should be, istm.
Are doctors proactively calling their clients asking if they want a vaccine appointment? That’d be great, but this is the first time I’ve heard of that happening. I think most people have to search out vaccine appointments on their own.
Here in Colorado, Gov. Polis has been targeting people who were most likely to catch COVID and/or die from it, based on age, comorbities, and/or job. The effort is paying off.
With the bulk of Coloradans over 75 and residents of long-term care centers vaccinated, the number of cases and deaths among that group has dropped in recent weeks, state health department statistics show. . . . .
Rachel Herlihy, the state’s epidemiologist who spoke with Samet on Tuesday, pointed to data showing that cases among older Coloradans were falling at a faster rate than the state overall.
I’m a patient of the physicians’ practice associated with the UTHealth System (T being for Texas). I got an email directing me to a link where I signed up. When I went to get my first shot, there were hundreds of people there, and they were all patients in this group like me.
People I know who go to regular docs in private practice have, for the most part, NOT been reached out to like this. A couple have been told informally, but I’m not aware of any mass emailings. (Doesn’t mean there haven’t been any.) These people have been scrambling, following links given in the news media or just taking suggestions from friends.
I think this is very local. My state, Mississippi, just opened up to all adults on Tuesday, and I got a same-day appointment almost immediately, but it turns out that I could have waited; my county is showing 1,900 first-dose appointments available right now through the state website, and from what I’ve heard they’re also easy to get here at private providers like pharmacies. Meanwhile, the next county over (which skews wealthier and more educated) had one appointment available this morning and none right now. The area around Jackson, the only real urban area in the state, seems to be almost totally booked up, at least going by the state website, but other parts of the state have a ton of availability.
I just posted this in the AZ approval thread, but I guess it should go here as well:
EMA has concluded it’s preliminary review of AZ vaccine safety in re blood clots etc:
The Committee confirmed that:
- the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread threat of COVID-19 (which itself results in clotting problems and may be fatal) continue to outweigh the risk of side effects;
- the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots (thromboembolic events) in those who receive it;
- there is no evidence of a problem related to specific batches of the vaccine or to particular manufacturing sites;
The release goes on to discuss the possibility of a causal relationship between vaccination and two rare conditions (cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, CVST and disseminated intravascular coagulation, DIC) noting that no link has been established but that further investigation is merited.
j
Moderna is enrolling children as young as 6 months in a vaccine trial in hopes of securing approval for use in children. I think the article said the study could take 14 months, but they expect it to be done much sooner because parents are jumping at the chance to sign their kids up. They need around 6700 to have statistically significant results.
https://www.aappublications.org/news/2021/03/16/moderna-covid-trials-children-031621
The governor in my state has agreed to make all adults eligible by May 1. It sounds like they’ve been told there will be a doubling of vaccine supply. The governor has also said that she’s considering making people who would have had priority on or after May 1 eligible sooner. So it will potentially compress the staggered eligibility schedule between now and then.
WHO has identified wildlife farms in southern China as the likely source of the virus.
The full report is supposed to be released in the next two weeks. For now, they have highlighted some reasons for their conclusion:
122,376,706 total cases
2,703,252 dead
98,662,112 recovered
In the US:
30,358,880 total cases
552,470 dead
22,523,799 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
I hope that the US new cases are reflecting some state playing catch up as it’s not good otherwise. That’s almost 130,000 new cases since the prior day, which is about double what we had been averaging lately.
A sharp increase in deaths too.
The daily totals on the Worldometers site doesn’t match up with here, which means there was a correction or adjustment after Bo posted the previous day’s count. There wasn’t a sudden rise.
I want to get vaccinated. Ideally yesterday.
But I’m also happy to spend 5 minutes trying to get an appointment once a week when they open for the next 15 weeks until finally I get it. Within a couple months tops the vast moajority of folks who want it will have it and they’ll be begging for people to show up. Right now it’s everybody crushing the exits for the fire alarm that went off.
14 months in, I fail to see the need to stress about the last 2.
122,898,689 total cases
2,713,580 dead
99,047,812 recovered
In the US:
30,425,787 total cases
554,104 dead
22,610,325 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
I bet I spent an hour a day banging around trying for an appointment. Made it my goal in life for awhile. After getting my first scheduled, I began searching for my gf and got her signed up within a week, while she continued checking once a day.
I told my brother (in Michigan) how I approached the situation. He copied my approach and got his appointment in three days of constant checking, after going weeks with no joy.
Good on ya!
Around here I’ve learned that 3x/week at a particular time of day new appointments are on offer. So just like trying to get concert tickets when they go on sale, you camp out at that website just before the appointed hour banging on [refresh page]. If you get past “no appointments”, hurry up and fill out the form. Three minutes later they’re all gone, so give up and wait until the next day appointments open.
Not how I’d have designed the system if I was King of Vaccination IT.
And how I wish you were!
I guess this was to be expected. One hopes in vain that people won’t be stupid.
…
“As we hit the peak of the peak of spring break, we are quite simply overwhelmed,” City Manager Raul Aguila said.Crowds last night resembled those of a rock concert, according to officials.
“You couldn’t see pavement and you couldn’t see grass,” Aguila said.
…
Oh, I’ll bet you could see grass without looking too hard. 
I had to use the phone option because I got too frustrated online. First jab of Moderna is on the 23rd at USC.