Tag: vaccination

Russia’s Covid-19 Vaccine Is Embraced Abroad, Snubbed at Home

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-covid-19-vaccine-is-embraced-abroad-snubbed-at-home-11615200713

Excerpt:

Last summer, Russia was the first nation to announce its approval of a Covid-19 vaccine. Dozens of countries from Mexico to Iran have since ordered millions of doses of the shot, known as Sputnik V.

But at home, Russia’s vaccination campaign has sputtered in the midst of one of the world’s highest levels of vaccine hesitancy. While the vaccine is free and widely available, only 3.5% of Russians have received at least one shot, compared with 32.1% in the U.K., according to Our World in Data, a project based at Oxford University that tracks the global vaccine rollout. In the U.S., it’s about 18%. Recent surveys show that less than a third of Russians are willing to get the Sputnik V vaccine.

Behind the skepticism are lingering doubts about Sputnik V’s rapid development and an ingrained distrust of authority stemming from the country’s Soviet past. Polls show many Russians believe the coronavirus is a man-made biological weapon. At the same time, surveys indicate a strong current of Covid-19 disbelief in Russia.

Author(s): Georgi Kantchev

Publication Date: 8 March 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Keeping Workers Safe: What Do the Numbers Say?

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/keeping-workers-safe-what-do-the-numbers-say/?utm_source=kw_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-03-09

Excerpt:

Smith-McLallen: In a broad sense, what the nonessential business closure policy did was to create a situation that limited interpersonal contact for nonessential workers who were staying at home. But it also limited contact for essential workers who were perhaps commuting with fewer people, for example, and not necessarily exposed to all of the people who were staying at home. That secondary protective effect was very effective at reducing cases.

Another thing about that secondary protective effect is we might think that if there would have been no nonessential business closure — if the nonessential workers had gone out to work — their infection rates would have been the same as we observed among the essential workers. There would be no difference. That’s what the results of our study speak to. However, there is a real possibility that the rates for everyone would have been considerably higher, even higher than what we observed in the essential worker population, just because of the increased contact and exposure across the board.

What I think policymakers should take from this research is that with new strains of the virus being discovered, if we reach a point where we need to aggressively limit contact and transmission, nonessential business closure policies can be effective. And now we can quantify just how effective they can be.

Author(s): Hummy Song, Aaron Smith-McLallen

Publication Date: 9 March 2021

Publication Site: Knowledge @ Wharton

How Economic Recovery Hinges on the Vaccine Rollout

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-economic-recovery-hinges-on-the-vaccine-rollout/?utm_source=kw_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-03-09

Excerpt:

At the current pace of around 1.5 million doses per day, PWBM said it expects economic recovery “to continue but proceed gradually through the middle of year,” with employment rising to nearly 152 million in July and four-quarter real GDP growth of around 5% in the third quarter. Averaging over the full year of 2021, PWBM projected that raising the rate of daily vaccinations to 3 million or more would increase employment by nearly 1 million and real GDP growth by about a third of a percentage point.

The effects on the labor market that PWBM projected are largest in the summer, “which is when how quickly you’re able to vaccinate people makes the biggest difference,” said Arnon. At 2 million vaccinations a day, say, by the end of the year, most of the people who want it would have been vaccinated, he noted.

Author(s): Alex Arnon

Publication Date: 9 March 2021

Publication Site: Knowledge @ Wharton

Why an epidemiologist thinks Connecticut has its COVID vaccine priorities backwards

Mary Pat Campbell
Why an epidemiologist thinks Connecticut has its COVID vaccine priorities backwards

Excerpt:

But the state has its terms for success defined backward, said Saad Omer, Yale School of Public Health epidemiologist and the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health. “That’s a process metric,” he said. “It’s not an outcome metric.”

How important is speed in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout? To Connecticut, it’s an important enough consideration to partially justify bucking CDC guidance on prioritizing people with co-morbidities, though experts suggest that it is the best way to prevent deaths in younger populations.

But by rolling out vaccine through an age-based process, the state will effectively de-prioritize younger adults with co-morbidities that put them at higher risk of dying from COVID-19, Omer said, because in those younger age groups, those with existing health issues will be part of a much larger crowd of eligible residents.

Author(s): Kasturi Pananjady

Publication Date: 9 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

Detroit Mayor Is Wrong To Turn Down J&J COVID-19 Vaccines

Mary Pat Campbell
Detroit Mayor Is Wrong To Turn Down J&J COVID-19 Vaccines

Excerpt:

The Detroit Free Press reports that the mayor declined to accept a shipment of 6,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine. Why? At a press conference on Tuesday, the mayor asserted, “Johnson & Johnson is a very good vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer are the best. And I am going to do everything I can to make sure the residents of the city of Detroit get the best.”

What does the mayor mean by “best”? Duggan stated, “The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are 95% effective if you get two shots. Johnson & Johnson is one shot, which is nicer, but it’s about 67% effective.”

Actually, in the United States arm of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) clinical trial, the vaccine’s ability to prevent moderate to severe infection was 72 percent and it is 85 percent effective at preventing severe disease.In addition, the J&J vaccine has been shown to be effective against the new, more contagious COVID-19 variants that are now spreading across the country. And it is likely that many citizens would prefer the convenience of getting a one-and-done J&J shot as opposed to waiting nearly a month to get a second Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech shot.

Author(s): Ronald Bailey

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: Reason

Pandemic’s Racial Disparities Persist in Vaccine Rollout

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/05/us/vaccine-racial-disparities.html

Graphics:

Excerpt:

As of March 3, 38 states publicly shared race and ethnicity data for vaccinated people. The jurisdictions define race and ethnicity categories in slightly different ways, and with different levels of completeness — in some states as much as a third of vaccinations are missing race and ethnicity data.

Public health experts have said that despite these data limitations, the patterns emerging across states are clear.

“People of color are getting vaccinated at rates below their representation of the general population,” Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the chair of President Biden’s coronavirus equity task force, said at a recent forum on the vaccine. “This narrative can be changed. It must be changed.”

Author(s): Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Anjali Singhvi, Josh Holder, Robert Gebeloff, Yuriria Avila

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: New York Times

CDC Launches New COVID Vaccine Finder Tool

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://magazine.northeast.aaa.com/daily/life/health-fitness/cdc-covid-vaccine-finder-tool/

Excerpt:

With news that the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has met U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements, vaccination is once again front and center in many Americans’ minds.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a vaccine finder tool to help you locate vaccine distribution sites. The tool populates the name, address and phone number of pharmacies and stores within a one to 50-mile radius of your zip code.

At this time, users can search for the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and/or Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID vaccines and see whether specific locations are in or out of stock.

Author(s): DALLAS ERNST

Publication Date: 26 February 2021

Publication Site: AAA

Canada: An Official Strong Recommendation for First Doses First

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/03/canada-an-official-strong-recommendation-for-first-doses-first.html

Excerpt:

Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), a scientific advisory group to the government, has made a forceful and dramatic statement strongly favoring First Doses First (delay the second dose.) This is a very big deal for the entire world. Basically NACI have endorsed everything that Tyler and I have said on First Doses First since my first post tentatively raised the issue on December 8. I am going to quote this statement extensively since it’s an excellent summary. No indentation.

Author(s): Alex Tabarrok

Publication Date: 4 March 2021

Publication Site: Marginal Revolution

55% of Ontario’s nursing home workers opted for vaccine

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/55-per-cent-ontario-long-term-care-workers-vaccinated-fears-remain-1.5928220

Excerpt:

Despite the fact long-term care workers were the first in Ontario invited to get the COVID-19 vaccine last December, a little more than half of them have volunteered to get the shot.

As of this week, only 55,000 of 100,000 long-term care workers in Ontario have been inoculated, according to the province’s Ministry of Health.

Dr. Hugh Boyd, chair of the Ontario Medical Association’s section on long-term care and care of the elderly, said a lack of confidence in the vaccine and pervasive myths about the quick development and safety of the shot is at the root of the low numbers.

Author(s): Julie Ireton

Publication Date: 26 February 2021

Publication Site: CBC News

Dolly Parton gets first dose of COVID-19 vaccine she helped fund

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://abc11.com/10383614/

Excerpt:

Dolly Parton has received her first shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine she helped fund with a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University last year.

Parton chronicled the vaccination process in a video posted Tuesday to social media. In it, she sang a parody of her hit song “Jolene” with new lyrics imploring people to get vaccinated.

“Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine,” she sang in the famous tune. “I’m begging of you please don’t hesitate.”

Publication Date: 2 March 2021

Publication Site: ABC 11 Eyewitness News

Only One U.S. State Has Vaccinated 10% of Its Black Population: Covid-19 Tracker

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/us-vaccine-demographics.html

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Some of the disparities are a result of who has approval to get shots so far. The elderly are more likely to be White, while the Hispanic population skews young and is less likely to work in hospitals and nursing care, groups targeted in the earliest phases of vaccine distribution.

Other disparities are a result of lower uptake rates among certain groups. Some health-care settings have reported that it’s taking longer to build up trust with communities of color, particularly Black people, who are wary of a medical establishment that for centuries has ignored and mistreated them. Anti-vaxx misinformation campaigns are targeting the already hesitant, including women and Black people. In addition, those with fewer resources may not be able to navigate the notoriously buggy and overloaded online sign-up systems. Meanwhile, others with connections, time, and money can snap up open slots.

Publication Date: 24 February 2021 (last updated)

Publication Site: Bloomberg