Quote for Today – 01.30.21

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

“In the event that you have the choice to get vaccinated, I’d encourage you to take the vaccine that you’re given,” John Brooks, the chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 response, said at a briefing Friday.

Additional Covid-19 vaccines bring choices — and complications — to the rollout — https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/29/additional-covid19-vaccines-bring-choices-and-complications-to-rollout/

Let’s get one thing clear: I am not a medical doctor nor is anything you read on this blog to be considered medical advice. Now that we have mutual understanding…

This is NO time to be picky. You can be picky about the brand of coffee you drink (or how it should be brewed). Or you can be picky about which vegan eatery serves up the best tofu in your town. Go ahead. Be picky on pretty much anything in your life.

But when it comes down to a vaccine for a virus that to the best of our knowledge we have no known natural immunity I suggest you take whatever vaccine is available.

Leave the debates about efficacy to experts who know what they’re talking about.

Rant over.

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties – Please Stand By

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

One question we see frequently – if you have a confirmation email, with a link taking you to a sign-up page, when all the appointments are full, should you expect an email telling you when they become available? The short answer, no.

Oklahoma Vaccine Portal problems persist as Oklahomans scramble to get a shot appointment — https://kfor.com/news/local/oklahoma-vaccine-portal-problems-persist-as-oklahomans-scramble-to-get-a-shot-appointment/

Officials with the Oklahoma State Department of Health said about 290,000 eligible Oklahomans are signed up on the scheduler portal. Plenty of people in the phase two distribution plan told 2 Works for You they are having issues scheduling a vaccination.

Senior citizens struggle with state COVID vaccine portal — https://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/senior-citizens-struggle-with-oklahoma-state-covid-vaccine-portal

Tulsa Health Department posted on Facebook saying, that due to technical difficulties, there is no way for eligible individuals in Tulsa County to sign up.

‘Technical difficulties’ halts OSDH’s vaccine scheduling portal in Tulsa — https://ktul.com/news/local/technical-difficulties-halts-osdhs-vaccine-scheduling-portal-in-tulsa

Friday 1/29

Today began like any other workday. Wake up, coffee, shower, get dressed, more coffee, make the bed, power up the computer. But this morning I did not turn my workstation on. I took the morning off to get my SARS-Cov-2 vaccination shot. Total estimated round trip drive time will be about 3 hours. We’re headed to a mall in Enid, OK (that’s nearly Kansas IMO). This is my vaccine story.

Like the rest of the world we’ve been pretty much cooped up for nearly a year. Getting out of the house for “essential” activities isn’t the same as getting out and doing things. The arrival of vaccines for this horrible virus was good news. This certainly doesn’t herald the end of The Great Pandemic but it’s a hell of a good start. Somehow I knew with governments at multiple points in the vaccination process you just know there will be problems. Keep this in mind and carry on.

The state of Oklahoma is presently in Phase 2 of a four phase rollout. When The Boss and I became eligible for a jab we started hearing nightmare stories about actually securing an appointment. I knew the hiccups at the beginning were due to vaccine supply. The supply side is still a problem but not nearly as big of a problem as the steps you must take to register and find some vaccine. OSDH (Oklahoma State Department of Health) is the agency that set up the state’s vaccine portal. A lifetime ago I managed technology for two different companies and I know what can go wrong with systems implementation. Here we had a website set up by a government agency rolled out to the public with zero instructions on how the process would work. What could go wrong?

Yup, “technical difficulties”.

After hearing horror stories of a crashed website and other “technical difficulties” I waited a few weeks before signing up on the site. When I signed up I immediately received an email telling me I was eligible to be vaccinated. The email contained a link to the appointment scheduler. And that’s when the fun began. No appointments. Nada. Zilch. The instructions on how to use the site were nowhere to be found. After some time clicking around I managed to figure out how the site worked. First come, first served. If you can’t get an appointment come back later and try again.

So I went back to work and left my personal computer up with the vaccine portal website up. Every now and then I turned around from my Day Job Workstation and checked to see if any appointment openings popped up. After several hours of intermittent checking a massive number of slots opened up at a single site, the Oakwood Mall in Enid Oklahoma. So I used the home office intercom and yelled rather loudly:

“Get on the site. It’s number 47. Take the 10:30 am slot and I’ll grab the 10:45. GO!!!”

We both got slots for shots on January 29th. I suspect our experience was a lot better and a lot more successful than for others around the country. In my next post I’ll describe a few of the reasons why Oklahoma is doing a decent job with their vaccine rollout. Decent not good. Keep this in mind too because we haven’t opened up the process to the general population yet.

PS. My worst side effect so far has been an illogical urge to buy a 12 string acoustic guitar. Strange but true.

Indian scientists divided over restricted use approval for Covaxin — Science Chronicle

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

While some scientists have raised concerns about granting restricted use approval to Covaxin even in the absence of efficacy data, four-dozen scientists have in a statement slammed them saying “reprehensible utterances are causing huge credibility crisis for the Indian scientific community”. Apparently, questioning the approval process by the Indian regulator is seen as being anti-Indian […]

Indian scientists divided over restricted use approval for Covaxin — Science Chronicle

India’s drug regulator approved two COVID-19 vaccines on 3 January, a decision Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed on Twitter as “a decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight!” against the pandemic and a testament to the Indian scientific community’s self reliance. But some scientists and patient advocates are sharply critical of the move—in particular, the decision to greenlight Covaxin, a vaccine developed in India by Bharat Biotech, without awaiting the results of a phase III trial to determine efficacy and safety…

Efficacy data from a challenge study in rhesus macaques and immune responses in a human phase II trial suggested the vaccine was likely to be very effective.

The approval of a vaccine without phase III data is “unconscionable,” says Vineeta Bal, an immunologist at India’s National Institute of Immunology.

Scientists criticize ‘rushed’ approval of Indian COVID-19 vaccine without efficacy data — https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/scientists-criticize-rushed-approval-indian-covid-19-vaccine-without-efficacy-data

It worked in monkeys so let’s just skip the Phase III trial.

See my earlier post I would not take Covaxin without efficacy data: Gagandeep Kang — Science Chronicle

Utter Chaos? No Just Your Normal Vaccine Rollout in a Pandemic

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

With the vaccine rollout left mostly up to states and counties, they have had to rapidly devise their own methods for distributing shots to their residents. Every state has its own priority system and way of scheduling appointments, which sometimes change week to week. The complicated logistics paired with inconsistent communication to the public has resulted in mass confusion. The result: People are spending hours seeking information and searching for coveted appointment slots.

‘Just utter chaos’: A Twitter thread offers a window into the frustrating search for Covid-19 shots — https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/28/just-utter-chaos-twitter-thread-offers-window-into-frustrating-search-for-covid19-shots/?utm_campaign=rss

Here in Oklahoma we’re in Phase 2 of the rollout and the process to get a Covid vaccination appointment in this state can best be described as incredibly difficult. We don’t have a huge number of residents here in flyover country and to be honest, that’s a good thing. I can’t imagine how difficult this process is in the more heavily populated areas of the country.

BTW I’m getting jabbed tomorrow.

Covid-19 Vaccine for Cats (not The Onion)

/ SupremeCmdr / 1 Comment

A feline vaccine for COVID-19 could be available by the end of the year. “We are also concerned with vaccinating people, but we believe that any reservoir of the virus is one to be concerned about,” says James Hayward, CEO of Applied DNA Sciences, which will soon begin clinical trials of the new feline vaccine in New York. The company is working in partnership with Italy-based Takis Biotech, and has manufactured the first doses of a DNA-based vaccine for the trial. “It has never been demonstrated that cats can transfer the virus to humans. But even having been vaccinated, I think I would not want sleeping at my feet a reservoir of SARS-CoV.”

Will your cat need a COVID-19 vaccine?

Does anyone other than myself suspect a profit motive here?

Midlife Crisis? Just Another U Shaped Curve

/ SupremeCmdr / 4 Comments

Subsequent research discovered that this age-related U-shape in job satisfaction is part of a much broader phenomenon. A similar midlife nadir is detectable in measures of people’s overall life satisfaction and has been found in more than 50 countries. On average, life satisfaction is high when people are young, then starts to decline in the early 30s, bottoming out between the mid-40s and mid-50s before increasing again to levels as high as during young adulthood. And this U-curve occurs across the entire socio-economic spectrum, hitting senior-level executives as well as blue-collar workers and stay-at-home parents. It affects childless couples as well as single people or parents of four. In short, a mid-career crisis does not discriminate.

Why So Many of Us Experience a Midlife Crisis Harvard Business Review Hannes Schwandt — https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-so-many-of-us-experience-a-midlife-crisis?utm_source=pocket-newtab

This post originally appeared on Harvard Business Review and was published April 20, 2015. A link popped up on my browser webpage.

U shaped curves are everywhere.

Immune system mounts a lasting defense after recovery from COVID-19

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

A closer look at the memory B cells revealed something surprising: these cells had gone through numerous rounds of mutation even after the infection resolved, and as a result the antibodies they produced were much more effective than the originals. Subsequent lab experiments showed this new set of antibodies were better able to latch on tightly to the virus and could recognize even mutated versions of it.

Rockefeller University. “Immune system mounts a lasting defense after recovery from COVID-19, researchers find.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210121131909.htm (accessed January 26, 2021).

Journal Reference – Evolution of antibody immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Nature, 2021; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03207-w

Vinay Prasad MD MPH is a Very Smart Person

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

For most people, once you get 14 days out of your second dose of vaccine, I believe you can ease up on masking or another restriction, such as visiting a loved one for lunch or having more than one person visit a nursing home at the same time, or a small gathering of vaccinated people for dinner without masks.

Op-Ed: Throw Away Your Mask After COVID Vaccination? — Op-Ed: Throw Away Your Mask After COVID Vaccination?

Dr. Prasad’s Op-Ed article is worth reading. Or if you’re a watch, listen and learn type check out the video.

BUT if you have an hour to spare the following podcast is downright entertaining.

More Than One Third of COVID-19 Infections Are Asymptomatic

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

In the current systematic review, the highest-quality evidence comes from large studies in England and Spain. The nationally representative evidence included serologic surveys from more than 365,000 people in England and more than 61,000 in Spain. When analyzed separately, about the same proportion of asymptomatic cases emerged: 32.4% in England and 33% in Spain. 

“It was really remarkable to find that nationwide antibody testing studies in England and Spain — including hundreds of thousands of people — produced nearly identical results: about one third of the SARS-CoV-2 infections were completely asymptomatic,” said Oran, a researcher at Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California.

Cite this: More Than One Third of COVID-19 Infections Are Asymptomatic: Review – Medscape – Jan 25, 2021. — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/944662?src=rss#vp_1

Flaming Lips Play the World’s First Space Bubble Concerts in OKC

/ SupremeCmdr / 5 Comments

“It does prevent that thing where people start to get drunk and the music is loud and they start screaming into each other’s face, which is the way that the COVID-19 is most spread. … Not screaming bad, but that’s just how conversations are when you’re at big gatherings,” Wayne Coyne said. “You can be in a Space Bubble with your friends that came to the show with you who you’ve been with your whole time and you know aren’t sick.”

In response to COVID, Flaming Lips on the verge of playing ‘the World’s First Space Bubble Concerts’ in OKC — https://oklahoman.com/article/5680749/in-response-to-covid-flaming-lips-on-the-verge-of-playing-the-worlds-first-space-bubble-concerts-in-okc

Two sold out shows this weekend. The video is from the “test” concert October 2020.

Watch the video and your opinion about Oklahoma will forever be changed.