Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

Israel has vaccinated just over 20% of its population leading the world in shots in arms as a percentage of population. Their over 65 cohort has reached a 40% level. The big question that everyone wants to know, "when will we start to see a reduction in deaths and new infections as vaccines are rolled out? The Israelis have studied this. The answer is that at the current level of vaccinations, new infections are dropping by about 1/3 - less than had been hoped for but still encouraging

For the study’s first 12 days, positive test rates remained identical between groups. On the 13th, the vaccinated group’s rate fell slightly. Then, on day 14, it dropped by a third. There has been some disappointment that this drop was not greater, but the vaccine in question, the Pfizer-BioNTech offering, is intended to be given in two doses, so the picture will not be clear until the second doses have been administered, and results from younger people have been included, too.

The early effect on hospital admissions of Israel’s mass vaccination campaign has been trickier to measure, because of two confounding variables: the country’s national lockdown, which tends to reduce the rate regardless of the effect of vaccines, and the spread of b.1.1.7, a variant of the virus first found in Britain, which is a lot more contagious and so tends to push the rate up.

A sign that vaccination is starting to give Israeli hospitals some breathing space emerged a fortnight after January 2nd, the day when the proportion of those over 60 who had been vaccinated reached 40%. The number critically ill with covid-19 in that age group grew by about 30% in the week before January 2nd, and also in the following week—but by just 7% in the week after that.

It's something even though, out of the gate it seems, vaccines are not going to be the be-all-end all. Scientist new this. The public has expectations for the vaccines that are probably unrealistic and should cause people to continue to act responsibly.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Finally, I'm carefully studying issues that affect vaccine production and whether or not what the Biden administration is saying about improving production of vaccines is actually happening. Its still the top of the 1st. Whatever steps are taken by the Biden administration through HHS and Defense Production Act will take a while to filter down into more vaccines being available.

I read two articles this morning, one discussing FL's roll-out and another discussing WV's. Both of these states have noteworthy achievements. In the case of WV, even though it has a relatively small population, their governor is praising the states capacity to deliver shots in arms and stating, loud and clear, if we had more vaccine we could do more. In FL, that state leads the nation in number of over 65's vaccinated. As a percentage of that cohort it is over 30%. From what I'm reading comparatively, FL has a very good vaccine distribution plan in place that engages retail pharmacies and grocery stores as well as large scale vaccination centers. But, same thing. Desantis says we need much more vaccine that the roughly 266K doses we are getting a week and too often less than that.

So, what's up? The link below is very comprehensive wrt the reasons for the limited number of vaccines being produced and distributed. Highlights (praphrased and clipped):

• Pfizer and Moderna have been building supply networks to shift from clinical to large-scale production. But each step in the manufacturing process requires raw materials that, before COVID, were only produced in the amounts needed for clinical research — not sustained production of billions of doses......
• Manufacturing plant personnel described challenges in obtaining reagents and certain chemicals, as well as glass vials, syringes and other hardware. They also cited a shortage of “fill and finish” facilities where vaccine doses are loaded into sterile containers. A dearth of workers with the specialized skills needed to run mRNA production processes is also a factor. Any of these alone or in combination can lead to production backlogs.
• Manufacturers need better access to a rare substance called vaccinia capping enzyme (VCE), which helps keep the mRNA from degrading. Making the 10 pounds of VCE needed to generate 100 million mRNA vaccine doses will overwhelm the limited capacity of bioreactors (containers used to carry out biochemical reactions) and cost $1.4 billion.

Man, I'm no expert and I can see right away that there are very specific steps that could be taken within weeks to rectify all of these issues. I'll be watching.... .waiting.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...al-and-labor1/

[iam416]

To quote Kevin Williamson’s First Law — “Everything is simple when you don’t understand the first thing about it.”

[Jeff Buchanan]

Although, saying 600,000 is inevitable and only targeting 1M shots per day are pretty inconsistent with Biden’s campaign promises. Talk about lowering expectations.

100%

I'm hearing responsible criticism coming from the MSM and sort-of- milk toast responses from Biden's new press secretary, Jen Psaki. "we're working on getting as much vaccine into our distribution network and plan as possible and collaborating with the states to get the available vaccine production into arms."

I don't expect to hear details from the president's press secretary. Proof's in the pudding. I watch FL's vaccine numbers closely. If Biden's campaign promise is 2-3X the low bar he's set of 100m shots in the first 100d, which it can and should be an attainable goal, I'll applaud it. If production doesn't improve over the next 90ds and we continue to see capacity to inoculate not met by vaccine availability, I'll start digging for answers as to why. For now, I'm sitting right behind home plate and watching if Biden and his people are throwing strikes or balls.

[iam416]

We should be on the upslope very soon. But, the bottom line is that production is the bottleneck. It ain’t distribution. I would hope we’re doing 3-5M shots per day by the end of March.

[lineygoblue]

My thought was that had DJT still been president, and told the press that "there's nothing we can do", there would be literal screaming on the networks today. I mean, for real, sound-piercing screaming. But Joe says it, and not one of the MSM networks that I saw was reporting it today. Maybe they'll get to it after they get finished talking about Larry King passing away.

I also thought about the 3,000 restaurants here in Michigan that have closed permanently, due to the business restrictions. And I thought about my friend Karl Manke, and how our Governor and her lead bully nearly ran him out of business, just because he wanted to cut hair. And yet, to this day, not one case of Covid has been traced to his shop. Not. One.

Multiply that by all the states, and all the business owners that have seen their business go under, due to Covid restrictions.

"Nothing we can do"

But, you can impeach a former president. That one is easy.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Talent, I dunno about that. We're still under that rate globally (2.9m/d). By Bloomberg's published counts there is a a lot of vaccines delivered to states in the US that aren't getting into arms.

I actually have a hard time reconciling that FL for example has only used 53.1% of what's been distributed. The governor attributes that to uneven distribution from the feds that makes it hard to align opening inoculation sites with the vaccine that's actually on the shelf ..... I see this every day. A FL site announces their making appointments but in an hour or two all the available appointments are filled. Then, the site, realizing it only got a third of what they thought they were going to get, has to contact people that signed up and cancel their appointments telling them to call back when the phone lines or website reopens. IOW, start over with that 24h effort that just snagged you an appointment. It's creating a lot of frustration among Floridians.

So if you mean by it aint distribution that's the bottle neck, I don't think that's entirely accurate.

This this site isn't pay-walled, for now. Lots of useful vaccine information and, like before, private data sources seem more robust than the CDCs even though the CDC has stepped up a bit.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/c...-distribution/

[Ghengis Jon]

If Amazon/UPS/Fed-X drivers could be taught to administer covid shots, the entire US would be vaccinated in a week.

[iam416]

Buchanan

The distribution channels aren’t overwhelmed. Distribution on a priority basis of a limited supply is difficult. If we had a shit-ton more then they wouldn’t have to waste as much time figuring out distribution.

I fully expect things to continue to improve. But, at bottom, the supply is the supply. Increase supply; increase distribution.

[lineygoblue]

If Amazon/UPS/Fed-X drivers could be taught to administer covid shots, the entire US would be vaccinated in a week.

They could even train some grumpy old retirees to help out ...

[lineygoblue]

The paranoid left is going to keep 5,000 National Guardsmen in DC thru mid-March.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/national-...ntil-mid-march

I hope someone is planning to take care of them properly, after all, this isn't some far-off land with no modern conveniences. First of all, give them some winter clothing. Then, see to it that they get at least one hot meal per day. MRE's are not total crap, but the soldiers deserve a good hot meal at least once per day.

At least give them cots to sleep on, and a INDOOR facility with HEAT to keep them warm and dry while they sleep. And also, give them adequate rest room facilities where they can shower, and take care of "business". Give them access to electricity, so they can plug in their smart phones, and communicate with their families. I'm sure AT&T can provide them with WIFI access. They've done it in Iraq and Afghanistan for years now.

If the new government wants to be paranoid, I guess that's okay. Its their country now. But at least, take care of the people who are protecting your ass.

Thank you.

[iam416]

That decision is completely on the Left. They have no credible cause.

[Ghengis Jon]

My thought was that had DJT still been president, and told the press that "there's nothing we can do", there would be literal screaming on the networks today. I mean, for real, sound-piercing screaming. But Joe says it, and not one of the MSM networks that I saw was reporting it today. Maybe they'll get to it after they get finished talking about Larry King passing away....

That's a line of absolute horseshit. Your president told the press (Bob Woodward) that yeah, the pandemic is far worse than what we're saying and we are intentionally lying to the American public. So what if Americans needlessly die of the disease. That's what your president said, on tape. Yes the press screamed about it. And what did the Trump supporters do? They instantly dropped to their knees and deepthroated Trump because they couldn't criticize their Dear Leader if their mouths were full. Trump said who cares, let 'em die, they're only Americans. And the Trumpsters nodded silently in agreement. Their president was listening to an xray technician he saw on Fox say herd immunity at any cost is okay. Mass negligent homicide promoted by Trump and lovingly approved by his cult.

Cry me a river. Should Biden have taken the Trump path and just knowingly lied through his teeth to the public? I guess after 4 straight years of daily lies makes you disappointed when the Prez doesn't lie. You want the press to scream bloody murder when the prez levels with you. Got it. Biden should be a lying, egotistical, foreign influenced, insurrectionist, press avoiding, grifter with the blood of thousands on his hands in order to gain the tacit support of those saintly, oppressed, and 'silenced' Trump supporters, is that it?

[iam416]

Biden’s Cock Holster in the house.

[lineygoblue]

Got it. Biden should be a lying, egotistical, foreign influenced, insurrectionist, press avoiding, grifter with the blood of thousands on his hands in order to gain the tacit support of those saintly, oppressed, and 'silenced' Trump supporters, is that it?

So, I guess this means that my offer to treat you to a round of golf at Mar-A-Lago is a no go?