"Montana and the Dakotas were hot spots. Until they weren’t" by Michael Wines New York Times, February 20, 2021
By those measures, as least 6 in 10 Dakotans — and most likely more — could have gained some immunity to the virus by the end of 2020, according to Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University professor of environmental health sciences who is modeling the future spread of the virus. In some places, he noted, the share could be even higher.....
Less than three months ago, the coronavirus had so ravaged South Dakota that its packed hospitals were flying patients to other states for treatment. An analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University had shown that the mortality rates from COVID-19 in North and South Dakota were the world’s highest. In one Montana county, the rate of hospitalization for the virus was 20 times the national average.
As in some earlier hot spots like Arizona and Florida, the surge mushroomed as most leaders and residents in these states resisted lockdowns and mask mandates for months. In South Dakota, no statewide mask mandate was ever issued.
The spike in these states was as brief as it was powerful. Today, their rates of new cases are back roughly to where they were last summer or early fall. In North Dakota, which mandated masks at the height of its surge in mid-November, the turnaround has been especially dramatic: The daily average deaths per person is now the country’s second lowest, according to a New York Times database.
The masks have nothing to do with it; the lawsuits against the PCR techniques to declare infection does.
Otherwise, cases would have dropped in California and risen in Florida, not the other way around.
Of course, the masking masquerade is literally made out of whole cloth so....
By some measures, the three-state hot spot’s trajectory has mirrored the nation’s. After the daily U.S. average for new cases peaked Jan. 9, it took 37 days — until last Monday — for the rate to drop by two-thirds.
That's FI9VE WEEKS AGO and that is NOT the impression I have gotten from my pre$$ in the interim!!
Deaths remain high nationally, because it can take weeks for COVID-19 patients to die. The country continues to average more than 2,000 deaths each day and is on pace to reach 500,000 deaths in the next week.
Even more so with the vaccines widely deployed.
Experts say the spikes in the northern Great Plains ebbed largely for the same reason that the U.S. caseload has been falling: People finally took steps to save themselves in the face of an out-of-control deadly disease.
“As things get worse, and friends and family members are in the hospital or dying, people start to adjust their behavior and cases go down,” said Meghan O’Connell, a public health researcher in South Dakota and an adviser on health issues to the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board, which represents Native American populations in the area. Native Americans, who represent from about 5% to almost 10% of the population of each of the three states, have been infected by the virus at far higher rates than the general population.
During the outbreak’s worst weeks, from early November to late December, mask use rose 10 to 20 percentage points in South Dakota and 20 to 30 percentage points in North Dakota, according to survey data from the University of Maryland.
Be sure to smile underneath it.
Since then, the U.S. vaccination drive has been gathering speed. North Dakota ranks fifth among states for giving its residents at least one shot; South Dakota is seventh, and Montana is 11th.
Some experts see the coronavirus’s race through these states as a rough test of the widely rejected idea that the pandemic should be allowed to run its course until the population gains herd immunity.
The problem here is as the pre$$ screams about undiagnosed cases and contagious variants it neglects the fact that the narrative contradicts their agenda and confirms that we HAVE HERD IMMUNITY NOW!
Sorry, but the PLANNED$CAMDEMIC is OVER!
While the region has not reached herd immunity, it may have come closer than anywhere else in the United States.
The outbreak in November vaulted the Dakotas to the top of the list in cases per person, where they remain, according to a New York Times database, with 13% of North Dakotans and 12.5% of South Dakotans known to have been infected. Montana, at about 9.2%, is close to the middle of the national pack.
Just over 8% of Americans — about 27.9 million — are known to have had the coronavirus, but for many reasons, including that asymptomatic infections can go undetected, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that the real rate is 4.6 times that.
Asymptomatic = noninfectious, sorry.
He's a 21st-century witch doctor!
link
Related:
They are taking their chances, and we have a winner:
"The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe scored a legal victory Friday when the US Interior Department withdrew a Trump administration appeal that aimed to revoke federal reservation designation for the tribe’s land in Massachusetts....."
He was “afraid to tell anybody, afraid to be ridiculed, and afraid of how people would think of him,” and that should all change under the new scoutmaster.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
This will try your patience:
"Clinical trials are moving out of the lab and into people’s homes" by Emily Anthes New York Times, February 18, 2021
When the pandemic hit last year, clinical trials took a hit. Universities closed, and hospitals turned their attention to battling the new disease. Many studies that required repeated, in-person visits with volunteers were delayed or scrapped, but some scientists found creative ways to continue their research even when face-to-face interaction was inherently risky. They mailed medications, performed exams over video chat, and asked patients to monitor their own vitals at home.
Many scientists say this shift toward virtual studies is long overdue. If these practices persist, they could make clinical trials cheaper, more efficient, and more equitable — offering state-of-the-art research opportunities to people who otherwise wouldn’t have the time or resources to take advantage of them.
“We’ve discovered that we can do things differently, and I don’t think we’ll go back to life as we used to know it,” said Dr. Mustafa Khasraw, a medical oncologist and clinical trial specialist at Duke University.
I'm sorry, say again?
Virtual trials are not a panacea. Researchers will have to ensure that they can thoroughly monitor volunteers’ health without in-person visits and, and in some cases, scientists still need to demonstrate that remote testing is reliable, and some treatments simply may not work as well at a distance.
You can cancel that "elective" surgery as telehealth is now the law and virtual medical appointments are here to stay so you will just have to grin and bear it before the home visit by your primary care team.
Still, the pandemic has demonstrated that there is room for reform. Dr. Deepak Bhatt, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, is part of a team starting a trial of an injectable blood thinner later this year. After the first, in-person medical visit, appointments will be virtual.
“I’m quite sure if COVID had not occurred, we would have done things the usual way,” he said. Sometimes, he added, “it takes a crisis to provoke change.”
Yup, CVID is looking more and more like a CONTRIVED CRISIS everyday!
So will this:
"State vaccine sign-up website crashes, dashing hopes of tens of thousands of newly eligible Massachusetts residents; Frustrated vaccine hunters infuriated by “vax insanity”" by Robert Weisman, Christina Prignano, Emily Sweeney and Travis Andersen Globe Staff, February 18, 2021
There is a mad dash for leftover doses(?) and people are willing to pay after the state curtailed vaccine distribution to hospitals while partnering with CVS and the federal government in speeding up COVID vaccinations(?).
What is with the gaslighting anyway?
You know, I don't mind the thrill of the hunt but just don't lie to me!
Tens of thousands of newly eligible Massachusetts residents eager to use the state’s vaxfinder tool to book COVID-19 shots Thursday encountered a maelstrom of website crashes, system errors, and notices telling them there were many available appointments — but they were out of reach.
The “vax insanity,” as infuriated vaccine hunters dubbed it, dashed the hopes of residents age 65 to 74 and those with two or more chronic health conditions who qualified for the vaccine as of Thursday morning. They thought they could be inoculated soon against a relentless coronavirus that has forced millions into virtual isolation for much of the past year.
The "virus" didn't do that: criminal politicians and public health "experts" did.
In another setback Thursday, state officials said their federal counterparts had notified them that part of this week’s scheduled vaccine shipment to Massachusetts was delayed and won’t arrive till Monday. The officials didn’t specify how many of the 139,000 committed doses will be coming late, but said the tie-up was due to weather conditions and staffing shortages at vaccine production plants.
The delay created further uncertainty for those struggling to secure shots. State officials had warned Wednesday, even before the shipment delay, that it could take more than a month before all newly eligible residents who want shots are able to book injection slots.
Turns out they lied about that, too.
Despite the balky website, the state reported Thursday night that 60,000 residents had managed to reserve appointments through sheer persistence or dumb luck, but many thousands more, who began refreshing their browsers in the hours before 8 a.m., when state officials had promised to post 70,000 new vaccine slots on their website, had given up, at least temporarily.
The breakdown, which a chastened Governor Charlie Baker vowed to fix, was the latest stumble in a state vaccine rollout marked by both supply constraints and increasingly vocal demands by segments of the population, from teachers to transit workers to meat packers, seeking faster access and complaining of being left behind.
“My hair’s on fire about the whole thing,” Baker said of the website fiasco during an afternoon interview on GBH radio. “I can’t even begin to tell you how pissed off I am, and people are working really hard to get it fixed, and we know how important it is for people to have it fixed and to be able to access all those new appointments that went up.”
Baker said he wanted to make clear he understood “the pain and the suffering and the tumult and the crisis that COVID and some of the decisions we had to make to deal with it has created for people.” He added that “the rockiness that those of us in public life might have to deal with feel like nothing by comparison.”
No one is feeling sorry for you.
Thursday’s problems threatened to overshadow signs of progress in the Massachusetts vaccination push.
The number of coronavirus vaccinations administered in Massachusetts rose by 57,648 to 1,267,262, state officials reported, but only 329,989 residents have received the required two vaccine doses need to get full immunity. The state goal is to fully immunize 4.1 million adults with both doses in the coming months.
In a letter to political supporters Wednesday, obtained by the Globe, the governor cited statistics showing the state’s rankings have recently improved in measures such as shots injected per capita. For months, it lagged most other states.
“While we can only move as fast as the federal government delivers the vaccines, rest assured we are doing everything we can to administer the doses as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Baker wrote to his backers in the letter.
With the state expanding its eligibility ranks, almost 1 million more residents qualified for shots Thursday. About 1.1 million had previously been eligible, including health workers, first responders, and long-term-care residents.
State Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders, who heads the COVID-19 Command Center, told lawmakers in a conference call there were nearly 2 million clicks on the state’s vaccine website in the morning, according to state Representative Maria Robinson of Framingham. Despite the malfunction, tens of thousands of posted slots were snapped up within an hour, the lawmakers were told.
Then why is Sudders being called to testify in front of a new legislative oversight panel this week?
I'm told it is the about the state’s shaky COVID-19 vaccine rollout, as Massachusetts officials spent another day drawing fire because COVID-19 testing remains a challenge and it could get worse as health care providers juggle vaccine rollouts and Baker defends the state rollout by adding sites and accelerating vaccinations for residents 65 and over while hundreds of thousands of doses sit unused.
That is frustrating seniors who are not giving him a pass so he is now making adjustments to the state’s vaccination plan because it has been one of the slowest rollouts in the country so far (behind even West Virginia, who is setting the pace) and people are struggling to get vaccination appointments even as Phase 2 begins, whereby the state is hoping to vaccinating almost everyone by the end of summer.
If there were any justice, the probe of the rollout would result in criminal charges for murder with no possibility of parole upon conviction (thank God not everyone is crazy) and no early release from prison for good behavior -- be they male or female.
If anything, they should receive the death penalty for what they have done rather than being rewarded and breathing the sweet air of freedom.
Of course, Massachusetts is not the only area to experience a problematic vaccine rollout. It happened in Philadelphia, too, and they will call you back if you are sick -- unlike Boston, where the campaign is sluggish and they are cutting doses in half due to an alarming resurgence of the often deadly virus in which case counts have soared to record heights.
I said since the fall, the state has seen an alarming resurgence of the deadly virus in which case counts have soared to record heights.
All while the $cientists debate new vaccination tactics as rollout falters, a heated debate over nationwide frustration that so few Americans have gotten their first dose — far below the number the Trump administration had hoped would be inoculated by the end of 2020, but some experts now argue that spreading vaccines more thinly across a population by concentrating on first doses might save more lives than making sure half as many individuals receive both doses on schedule -- a remarkable departure from the original plan because even though the coronavirus vaccine may end the pandemic at some point, vaccine distribution is one more hurdle for states as the virus spikes and as activists seek to get vaccines into the communities that most need it.
What is odd is that despite the parade of daily new deaths (some that go as far back as last year), the population is holding steady at around 6.8 million people despite the shootings and loss of steadfast friends who have done it all and bounced along into history as champions.
“Everyone’s extremely anxious to get appointments as soon as possible,” Robinson said Thursday, but, she added, “even if the website worked, there are many people over 65 who wouldn’t have been able to get appointments because of the supply.”
Many who tried to access vaxfinder.mass.gov before 8 a.m. received a message that “this application crashed.” Some took to social media to share their frustration with not being able to get to the site. Shortly before 10 a.m., the state website was back up and could be accessed intermittently.
Then, at 11:17 a.m., the state’s Twitter account said all slots at the mass vaccination sites in Springfield, Danvers, Natick, and Dartmouth had been booked for the next week.
State lawmakers said they wanted to get to the bottom of the mess. A new legislative oversight panel asked Baker and Sudders to answer questions about the vaccine rollout at a hearing next Thursday, though it was unclear if they would comply.
“Massachusetts residents are feeling frustration and anger on a day when we should be experiencing hope,” said Senate President Karen E. Spilka. “We expect answers from those responsible for this failure. The administration must deliver a better experience for our residents, who have already dealt with so much anxiety and disruption.”
The website problems also drew a reaction in Washington.
US Representative Katherine Clark, a Melrose Democrat who’s the fourth-ranking member of her party in the House, tweeted Thursday that the state needs to accommodate the level of demand for appointments.
“It’s no surprise #MA residents are eager to be vaccinated,” Clark’s tweet said. “What we need is a system that matches the volume. With a waitlist, residents wouldn’t have to flood a website every minute or hour, or be scrambling from link to link. We need to do better.”
Despite the website snafu, the mass vaccination sites at Gillette Stadiumand Fenway Park continued to operate Thursday, according to CIC Health, the company running the operation at both stadiums. Other injection sites also remained open through the day.
Thursday’s website issues were an unpleasant echo of a day of frustration only two weeks earlier. After Baker announced last month that residents 75 and older could book appointments Feb. 1, many seniors or their loved ones spent hours trying without success to find an available slot.
Monica Nelson of Newburyport, who recalled spending hours on her computer in the early hours of the morning then trying to secure an appointment for her husband, said in an e-mail that she was out of luck again when she tried to book an appointment for herself Thursday.
“At least we’re not doing this at 2 a.m., but unfortunately the results are the same,” she said.....
The Globe tells you why the website didn't work better:
"Why didn’t the Massachusetts vaccine website work better?; Baker acknowledged his administration didn’t prepare for the heavy traffic from opening vaccinations to people age 65 and older" by Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff, February 18, 2021
Massachusetts is a global leader in heavy-duty technology fields such as robotics and artificial intelligence, yet the state government continues to have a nightmarish time running a simple website to let residents easily book COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
The latest and most spectacular failure occurred Thursday morning. The state issued a statement Thursday evening from PrepMod, one of its vendors for the online appointments, in which the company took responsibility for the site crash. “As public health servants and your partner, we are sorry for not meeting expectations,’' the PrepMod statement said. “We accept full responsibility for the problem today.’' The company blamed the breakdown on “a sudden and unprecedented surge in traffic to the site. Unfortunately, the system did not scale fast enough to accommodate the increased volume.’'
Actually, the upgrade announcement came as the Baker administration and the software vendor behind the booking system traded blame over the crash of the state’s website (all it means is more $$$ to fix it, and WTF, Globe?), and what were they expecting?
Earlier in the day, computer specialists theorized several reasons for what went wrong. One is that the state system was cobbled together too quickly to permit adequate testing of software and servers, according to Stuart Madnick, director of the cybersecurity center at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “A new system is likely to have flaws in it,” Madnick said. “When you try to rush things out, that’s one of the likely outcomes.”
Another possible reason is that state officials simply may not have added enough computer capacity in anticipation of the sudden and large spike in traffic.....
Are you sick of the excu$es yet?
Yup, people are expressing frustration and disappointment and are taking it personally and want the National Guard to be called in because of vaccine resentment as Massachusetts is in the midst of a high-stakes campaign to vaccinate 4.1 million adults in an effort to bring an end to a pandemic that has sickened hundreds of thousands and caused more than 15,000 deaths in the state, and even as the state’s second surge appears to be on the wane, public officials are worried about a possible resurgence due to new coronavirus variants, and they’re asking people to continue taking precautions and to get vaccinated as soon as it’s their turn.
Now roll up your sleeve:
It will be her last after the shot, and you think she would have learned by now.
She named a white guy to be her $lave?
Doesn't Boston have any Pride anymore, or did that leave them with the New Year like in Springfield?
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Here is what the Globe found in the back yard underneath the dog shit:
"Short of vaccine, states find hidden stashes in their own backyards" by Sharon LaFraniere, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Abby Goodnough New York Times February 19, 2021
RICHMOND, Va. — When tiny glass vials of coronavirus vaccine began rolling off production lines late last year, federal health officials set aside a big stash for nursing homes being ravaged by the virus. Health providers around the country figured as well that it was prudent to squirrel away vials to ensure that everyone who got a first dose of vaccine got a second one.
Two months later, it is clear both strategies went overboard.
Millions of doses wound up trapped in logistical limbo, either set aside for nursing homes that did not need them or stockpiled while Americans clamored in vain for their first doses. Now a national effort is underway to pry those doses loose — and, with luck, give a significant boost to the national vaccination ramp-up.
In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has pushed the Biden administration to allow him to claw back 100,000 excess doses that were allocated to the federal program for long-term-care facilities. In Michigan, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the chief medical executive, is raiding nursing home doses that she said had been locked in a “piggy bank” controlled by CVS and Walgreens, the two pharmacy chains in charge of the federal initiative, and in Virginia, Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator, said he has been “wheeling and dealing like on a trading floor” to free up tens of thousands of doses for the general population.
Cuomo should be in a jail cell for the murder then cover-up of nursing home residents after he stuck infected patients in them.
Avula, a 42-year-old pediatrician and preventive medicine physician, came to the job in early January to find multitudes of Virginians languishing on vaccination waiting lists and less than half of the state’s vaccine allotment actually making it into arms. First he cut off the doses for nursing homes until stocks were exhausted. Then, in talks with six of the state’s hospital systems, he offered a deal: If they released the vials they were saving for second doses, they would be guaranteed two doses later for every vial they surrendered.
The get-tough approach in Virginia and other states has begun to pay off. The gap between the number of doses shipped to states and the number injected is narrowing: More than three-fourths of the doses delivered are now being used, compared with less than half in late January, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s data tracker.
The idea that doses are sitting in cold storage while millions of people languish on waiting lists has deeply frustrated government officials. The roots of the problem are twofold.
First, when the federal vaccination program for long-term-care facilities began late last year, the CDC based allotments on the number of beds, even though occupancy rates are the lowest in years. Then the CDC doubled that allotment to cover staff, but while four-fifths of long-term-care residents agreed to be vaccinated in the first month of the program, 63 percent of staff members refused, the agency reported.
Despite the lack of uptake, the pharmacy chains that administer the program continued tapping their allotments from the federal government. As “good, corporate, risk-averse companies,” Clark Mercer, the chief of staff to Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia, said, “if they can draw down, they are going to draw down.”
The White House has been urging states not to squirrel away second doses ahead of time.
Announcing Avula’s appointment, Northam warned hospitals, pharmacies, and health care providers of consequences if they did not pick up the pace.
“You use it or you lose it,” he said.
These mon$ters!
All over a "virus" that hasn't been proven to exist and which, if it does, 99.98% of people survive.
Avula put a 10-person team on “pounding the data,” and the state began rising in the national rankings.
Then he tackled stockpiles. Walgreens and CVS had already drawn down most of the quarter-million doses allotted to the state’s long-term-care program. On Jan. 25, with the CDC’s permission, Avula put the 62,000 doses that were left under state control.
Many other states are doing the same. At least 20 states said they had shifted or planned to shift doses that had been set aside for long-term-care facilities, according to a New York Times survey of all 50 states.....
They “ urgently want shots in arms,” and that is about all you need to know about their myopic, single-minded focus and insanity.
Also see:
I only post that because it turns out Harry had an adverse reaction to the lady in red, and speak of the devils:
"There are new all-stars at Fenway Park, carrying syringes of vaccine and doses of hope; The latest Fenway faithful want it now. They want it fast" by Thomas Farragher Globe Columnist, February 17, 2021
The beer taps are dry. There are no peanuts or pretzels, or Fenway Franks, but this much is familiar: There are long lines. There are determined faces, and, as ever, there is an abiding hope at the old ballpark.
The brief observation period after shots are administered was used to schedule second appointments. It also provided time for a photographic keepsake.
A quick selfie, and an exit.
The Globe says to cool it for a while.
It’s an exit unlike most of those who have rolled up their sleeves had been familiar with. After a walk-off home run, or after Bruce Springsteen’s last rousing curtain call.
That familiarity with this place, the special spot that Fenway Park has in the hearts and psyches of New Englanders, is hardly lost on those who run this operation, those now offering John Updike’s lyric little bandbox to a different team — to a squad of doctors and nurses and clinicians with needles.
Governor Charlie Baker, who has expressed his dissatisfaction with the state’s vaccine efforts, established a 500-person call center to help hasten the appointment process for those who have had trouble navigating the state’s website.
“Are things better today than they were yesterday? Yes, things are definitely better,” said Aaron Nemzer, site operations manager for CIC Health, one of the region’s largest vaccine logistics coordinators. “It’s super rewarding,” he said. “We’re helping people to return to that sense of normalcy. I’ve witnessed tears flowing from sons and daughters as that vaccine is being injected into their parent’s arm because it’s a big moment for everyone. It’s great to see.”
Tears. That’s nothing new for Fenway Park. They flow from parents who watch their little kids walk up the ramp to take in Fenway’s emerald lawn for the first time.
They flow from longtime fans, celebrating championships or enduring defeats that will be grist for hot-stove discussions down through the decades.
Cheers. They’ve erupted for Ruth and Williams. For Yastrzemski and Lonborg. For Ortiz and Martinez, and now, in smaller doses, those cheers are directed at people like Carol Hartling.
She politely excused herself the other day, flashed a victory smile, and walked off with these winning words worthy of a bullpen ace: “I’m going in now.”
She is the new centerfielder!
Still, it hasn’t all been hearts and flowers.....
That was a close shave, and there will be no Banana Boat celebrations this year, nor will there be the high school basketball tournaments I loved so much.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Beset by critics, Baker now stressing speed and scale in COVID-19 shots, but increasing reliance on mass vaccination sites carries its own risks" by Robert Weisman and Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, February 20, 2021
Stung by criticism it was moving too slowly, the Baker administration has overhauled its approach to delivering COVID-19 vaccines in just three weeks, increasingly relying on a network of massive facilities equipped to give more shots quickly as it expands the pool of eligible residents.
The rise of mass vaccination sites such as Boston’s Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium in Foxborough has helped to rapidly boost the state’s standing in national vaccine distribution. Its ranking shot up to 17th in per capita doses administered, according to the latest federal data. As recently as Feb. 1, Massachusetts ranked 34th among states.
With growing capacity to give shots assembly-line style, emboldened state officials doubled the number of residents who qualify for a vaccine literally overnight last week.
“The big message we got from the public was, ‘Vaccinate. Vaccinate,’” explained Governor Charlie Baker at a State House briefing on Wednesday, but the dramatic crash of the state vaccination website the very next day — freezing out tens of thousands of people — underscored the potential hazards of the more aggressive strategy. Ramping up the program quickly caused not only technology nightmares, but it’s also raised questions, not addressed by the state, about whether these so-called Mass Vax sites attract mostly wealthier white residents at the expense of the Baker administration’s stated goal to give people of color and other marginalized communities high priority.
Adding to the risk, state officials are raising public expectations by making many more people eligible while the vaccines remain in short supply. Last week, the federal government had promised a 28 percent increase in the state’s weekly allotment, but the first larger shipment was delayed by snowstorms, fueling worries about canceled appointments, before it ultimately arrived Friday.
Baker has warned it may take more than a month to schedule all the residents who now qualify for the vaccine and want shots unless the supply grows considerably.
Another reprieve.
Public health advocates are concerned about another risk in the shift to mass vaccination sites: people who could be left out, but the ramp-up has just begun.
I won't hold it against them.
A tipping point in the state’s effort to channel more people to mass vaccination sites may have come Feb. 11; however, a centralized approach, especially in densely populated areas, “makes good sense,” even if some residents can’t get shots right away, said John Carrier, a systems dynamics specialist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. “To get to herd immunity, an unfair system that moves quicker may be more fair than a fair system that’s six months late.”
Already got it!
To achieve maximum speed and productivity, CIC Health, which operates the high-profile Fenway and Gillette sites, has organized efficient flow lanes in and out of the stadiums, installed banks of freezers with cold storage capabilities for vaccines, and set up rows of safely distanced injection stations, steps that are more difficult in smaller sites.
Perhaps most important, CIC is using all the vaccine it gets right away rather than holding some in reserve to give people their second doses a few weeks later. That’s a striking contrast with the hospitals and pharmacy companies that gave most of the shots in the early going while stockpiling hundreds of thousands of doses to guarantee each person could get a second shot.
The game plan at CIC clearly gets more shots into arms, but depends on a consistent supply from the federal government. Any disruption threatens to delay or defer entirely the second dose for those residents.
It's the "journali$m" that is most sickening!
At the community level, the rapid change in the state’s vaccination approach is causing some whiplash. As state officials announced they were cutting off first doses to most small-scale community operations last Wednesday, they said they will continue to deploy vaccines to other locations beyond the mass vaccine sites.
Aka gaslighting.
State officials added that plans will evolve as the vaccine supply grows. The Baker administration has also pointed to a growing network of retail and pharmacy locations where people can be vaccinated closer to home.
Additionally, the state has told municipalities they can still receive vaccine supplies if they band together to form their own high-capacity sites. These so-called “regional collaboratives” must be open to the entire state and capable of vaccinating high numbers of people each day.
Such operations are already running in several areas, including in the Berkshires, Plymouth County, and on Cape Cod, but the collaborative model has so far not satisfied critics. On Cape Cod, state Senator Julian Cyr would prefer the state operate a mass system on the peninsula......
Their first vaccine against COVID-19 started arriving in cold white boxes after they paid in bitcoin.
The critics are vast:
"Lawmakers seek $25.2 billion for vaccine equity as part of budget plan, Markey says" by John Hilliard Globe Staff, February 20, 2021
Senator Edward Markey said Saturday that lawmakers are seeking $25.2 billion to address COVID-19 health disparities nationally and protect vulnerable populations hardest hit by the pandemic as part of President Biden’s stimulus package.
The funding package was discussed during a nearly hour-long livestream discussion regarding efforts to ensure equity in vaccine distribution as people of color are disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
That effort not only includes ongoing work to overcome skepticism of vaccines among some people of color, but to provide the funding and support for local, community-driven efforts to help people navigate the state’s phased vaccination rollout and help them secure appointments to get shots.
The Rev. Miniard Culpepper, who founded the COVID-19 Clergy Committee in Boston and participated in Saturday’s session, received his first vaccine shot last month as part of an effort to encourage people to get vaccinated.
“One of the things I think we really need to drill down on is helping folks understand exactly what the vaccine is, exactly what the vaccine does, who is eligible [and] at what point,” said Culpepper, who is senior pastor of the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church. “We need to come up with a strategy so we can narrow down [and] we can really focus on the folks that we really want to get the vaccine.”
Why?
It isn't even needed, so..... ??
Markey said the federal money — which lawmakers seek to include as part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package — would be focused on protecting communities of color and communities hit hard by the coronavirus. Black, Latinx, indigenous, and immigrant communities have suffered a disproportionate burden from COVID-19, Markey said, and they must be prioritized as the nation works to vaccinate millions across the country.
“They were the first to get the virus, the first to stay on the job, the first to die, but the last to get the relief and the care they need during this crisis,” Markey said. “Racial justice — and that means health care justice, environmental justice, and economic justice — must be our number one priority as we combat the ongoing pandemic.”
They can have mine.
On Saturday, the state Department of Public Health reported 1,822 new confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the state’s total to 538,328. The state also reported 53 new confirmed coronavirus deaths, bringing its total to 15,462. The department said 36,316 people were estimated to have active cases of the potentially deadly virus, and 970 confirmed coronavirus patients were in the hospital.
What weasel wording!
The $25.2 billion vaccine equity package would include $7.6 billion to support COVID-19 response efforts at community health centers; $1.8 billion for COVID-19 testing supplies, personal protective equipment, and vaccines for staff and people in congregate settings; and $3.3 billion for infrastructure technology for telehealth and electronic health records, urban Indian organizations, and other health services and costs, according to Markey’s office.
Looks like the Great Re$et to me, all on borrowed money.
It also would set aside $800 million to the National Health Service Corps to support primary health care clinicians in high-need areas and $331 million for Teaching Health Centers to expand the number of sites across the country. The Nurse Corps Loan Repayment program, which helps support nurses working in underserved areas, would receive $240 million.
There would also be a Medicaid state option for states to cover postpartum women for a year after giving birth to help address the maternal mortality crisis disproportionately affecting women of color, Markey’s office said. For incarcerated people, Medicaid coverage would be provided 30 days prior to their release to ensure continuity of care.
The vaccines will be tested in pregnant women, too, to ensure safety, and that's good news for pregnant woman, who until now have faced a difficult dilemma: They’re excluded from vaccine studies, yet are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19.
Alongside the $25.2 billion to address health disparities, lawmakers are asking for $7.5 billion that would be for US Centers for Disease Control vaccine distribution efforts and another $1 billion for vaccine awareness, Markey’s office said.
Representative Ayanna Pressley and Senator Elizabeth Warren, who were among those on the call with Markey and Culpepper, said they were working on the health disparities package.
“Our job over the next two weeks is to make sure what we are doing here doesn’t end up on the cutting-room floor,” Warren said.
Pressley said the key aspect of the $25.2 billion is “the nimbleness of the funds” — lawmakers must ensure this money can be used quickly and directly supports local communities’ responses to COVID-19.
Pressley has implored Governor Charlie Baker to focus on communities of color during the state’s vaccine rollout. On Saturday, Pressley said she, Markey, and Warren have been pushing the state to improve its collection of anonymized racial demographic data from vaccine recipients.
Pressley’s district spans Suffolk County, where concerns have been raised about the difficulties faced by Black and Latino residents seeking access to vaccines. On Tuesday, the Baker administration announced a Department of Public Health-led initiative focused on providing resources to communities with high “social vulnerability” and COVID-19 caseloads.
Pressley on Saturday criticized the Baker administration’s efforts to ensure equity in administering the vaccines.
“Right now, the administration is really failing those most impacted,” Pressley said. “The Massachusetts Seventh Congressional District is a diverse, vibrant, and dynamic district, and one of the hardest hit.”
It would be historic.
Kate Reilly, a spokeswoman for the state’s COVID-19 Response Command Center, in a statement Saturday night pointed to the plan announced by the administration Tuesday. Work in those communities will result in “targeted opportunities” for increased vaccine access and methods, such as mobile vaccine clinics and pop up clinics, according to Reilly.
”These municipalities will also be prioritized for the federal retail pharmacy program and federally qualified health centers are also prioritized for vaccines,” Reilly said.
Democratic state Representative Nika Elugardo, who represents parts of Boston and Brookline and was also on Saturday’s call, emphasized the importance of establishing trust in any outreach effort. That includes working directly with leaders in communities who already have the trust of residents, such as clergy and public health officials, she said.
“Without going to the trusted players, no people in our communities are going to trust government or the health care system,” Elugardo said.
Too late, because trust, once lost, is hard to restore and never is.
Michael Curry, president of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, emphasized the importance of local leaders in the vaccination effort.
“There is something inspirational about walking into a church, and seeing [somebody] being vaccinated with a smile on their face,” Curry said.
GOD HELP US ALL!
Related:
Local leaders are complaining that they have been left in the dark and community leaders are demanding Baker answer questions about the vaccine supply as the governor continues to act unilaterally in his actions regarding the rollout (where is a cop when you need one?), and civil rights and immigration activists have also piled on.
Also see:
"Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials reported. Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics nearly two years, according to preliminary estimates on Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is a huge decline,” said Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC. “You have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this.” Other health experts said it shows the profound impact of COVID-19, not just on deaths directly due to infection but also from heart disease, cancer, and other conditions. “What is really quite striking in these numbers is that they only reflect the first half of the year . . . I would expect that these numbers would only get worse,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a dean at the University of California San Francisco. This is the first time the CDC has reported on life expectancy from early, partial records; more death certificates from that period may yet come in. It’s already known that 2020 was the deadliest year in US history, with deaths topping 3 million for the first time. Life expectancy is how long a baby born today can expect to live, on average. In the first half of last year, it was 77.8 years for Americans overall, down one year from 78.8 in 2019. For males it was 75.1 years, and for females, 80.5 years."
If you put the puzzle pieces together at a deliberate speed, the wildfire of COVID-19 can be squelched.
