Super Bowl LV will have 22,000 fans in attendance at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., including 7,500 vaccinated health care workers, the NFL announced Friday.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a news release that the health care workers will be guests of the league to thank them for their service during the coronavirus pandemic. The health care workers will come from hospitals in Tampa and other areas of Central Florida and will receive free tickets to the game.
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“These dedicated health care workers continue to put their own lives at risk to serve others, and we owe them our ongoing gratitude,” Goodell said. “We hope in a small way that this initiative will inspire our country and recognize these true American heroes. This is also an opportunity to promote the importance of vaccination and appropriate health practices, including wearing masks in public settings.”
There will be 14,500 additional fans allowed to attend the Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium. The NFL said the protocols for fans attending the game outdoors include mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing, podded seating, touchless concession stands and other security checkpoints.
SUPER BOWL LV TIME, DATE AND EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAME
“Florida is proud to host Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to crown the champion of an unprecedented NFL season,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
“On behalf of Floridians and football fans across the nation, I’d like to thank the many men and women who worked hard to make this game a reality, especially our frontline health care workers who have worked tirelessly over the past year to keep people safe. I look forward to the positive impact this game will have on the Tampa Bay area, and my family and I can’t wait for the big game.”
Several teams began hosting fans throughout the season. Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., and Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., will each have a limited number of fans in the stands for the conference championship games.
JOHANNESBURG—Three new laboratory studies are raising concerns that the immune response triggered by a Covid-19 infection or vaccination may be less effective at protecting against the new strain of the coronavirus that first emerged in South Africa.
The findings come from experiments done in the laboratory and only look at certain elements of a body’s immune response. Still, they reinforce the possibility that vaccine makers and regulators will need to update Covid-19 vaccines as the virus evolves.
A fourth study, conducted by scientists at BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. and published by the companies, showed that their vaccine successfully neutralized a variant that was initially detected in the U.K. That study didn’t include the South African strain.
The U.K. variant has already spread to many other countries, including the U.S.
More than a year into the pandemic, the discovery of new variants that appear to have made the virus more contagious is forcing researchers to adapt their understanding of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. One concern, researchers said, is that the new strains are emerging in countries where a significant percentage of people have already built up an immune response to earlier variants after getting Covid-19.
Gov. Henry McMaster said his administration is doing what it can to urge hospitals to speed up statewide administration of their COVID-19 vaccine supply after a visit to Greenville Thursday morning. “They get a first dose shipment one week and that same week they get a second dose shipment,” McMaster said of South Carolina hospitals. “Use them all up. Don’t keep any on the shelf. Get the people in as quickly as we can.” His message came as hundreds of Greenville County residents received their first doses of the vaccine at Prisma Health’s vaccination facility in Greenville at the old Kmart Thursday. Some people there said they never saw the parking lot so crowded. Lines grew into the afternoon, stretching outside along the front of the building. Right now, vaccinations are open to people age 70 and older. Prisma Health encourages appointments through VAMS. Gloria Duckett and her husband, of Greenville, scheduled their appointment for Thursday. They were done by the early afternoon. “I just thank God that my husband and I were able to get in and do it,” she said. “It ran smoothly. We were in and out in about 45 (minutes) to an hour and that wasn’t bad with all the people that are here,” she said. Prisma Health said if you’re having trouble registering, you can walk in to receive the vaccine without a scheduled appointment. That’s what Walt and Jean Miller did. Walt already received his vaccination, but he and Jean went together so she could have hers. They waited in line for about an hour Thursday morning. “We got through it pretty fast,” Walt said. “It was good. Everybody was pretty well staying separated and everybody wore their mask.” “I was trying to get it sooner to be closer to him and I did, so we’re fine,” Jean said. Prisma Health said it is maintaining social distancing and mask wearing for people while inside. People who went inside the building said chairs are also available to sit in while waiting. But outside, some people had concerns. “What I’m observing is that people seem to have totally forgotten about the separation,” said Dennis Anderson, of Greenville. “I’m looking at the large lines of people right close to each other, plus the huge number of people in the building. “There have to be affected people in that group,” he said. McMaster urged patience for all South Carolinians who haven’t yet been vaccinated. “I think that you’re gonna see some more progress in South Carolina, but eventually we need more vaccine and I’m confident that that’s coming, but probably won’t be until March or so,” he said. When asked, McMaster also said he doesn’t see any immediate major changes to vaccine distribution or supply with President Joe Biden’s administration.
GREENVILLE, S.C. —
Gov. Henry McMaster said his administration is doing what it can to urge hospitals to speed up statewide administration of their COVID-19 vaccine supply after a visit to Greenville Thursday morning.
“They get a first dose shipment one week and that same week they get a second dose shipment,” McMaster said of South Carolina hospitals. “Use them all up. Don’t keep any on the shelf. Get the people in as quickly as we can.”
His message came as hundreds of Greenville County residents received their first doses of the vaccine at Prisma Health’s vaccination facility in Greenville at the old Kmart Thursday.
Some people there said they never saw the parking lot so crowded.
Lines grew into the afternoon, stretching outside along the front of the building.
Right now, vaccinations are open to people age 70 and older. Prisma Health encourages appointments through VAMS.
Gloria Duckett and her husband, of Greenville, scheduled their appointment for Thursday. They were done by the early afternoon.
“I just thank God that my husband and I were able to get in and do it,” she said.
“It ran smoothly. We were in and out in about 45 (minutes) to an hour and that wasn’t bad with all the people that are here,” she said.
Prisma Health said if you’re having trouble registering, you can walk in to receive the vaccine without a scheduled appointment.
That’s what Walt and Jean Miller did.
Walt already received his vaccination, but he and Jean went together so she could have hers.
They waited in line for about an hour Thursday morning.
“We got through it pretty fast,” Walt said.
“It was good. Everybody was pretty well staying separated and everybody wore their mask.”
“I was trying to get it sooner to be closer to him and I did, so we’re fine,” Jean said.
Prisma Health said it is maintaining social distancing and mask wearing for people while inside.
People who went inside the building said chairs are also available to sit in while waiting.
But outside, some people had concerns.
“What I’m observing is that people seem to have totally forgotten about the separation,” said Dennis Anderson, of Greenville. “I’m looking at the large lines of people right close to each other, plus the huge number of people in the building.
“There have to be affected people in that group,” he said.
McMaster urged patience for all South Carolinians who haven’t yet been vaccinated.
“I think that you’re gonna see some more progress in South Carolina, but eventually we need more vaccine and I’m confident that that’s coming, but probably won’t be until March or so,” he said.
When asked, McMaster also said he doesn’t see any immediate major changes to vaccine distribution or supply with President Joe Biden’s administration.
Stock image. | Photo by Nature/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News
ST. GEORGE — The first weekend of COVID-19 vaccination appointments being opened up for local residents ages 70 and oldersaw all reservation slots for the rest of the month fill quickly. Due to technical glitches, some residents expressed frustration with trying to get inoculated against the virus that has infected 23,300 and killed 191 people locally since March, including a record-high five people announced Thursday.
Stock photo. | Photo by Arindam Ghosh/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News
The spokesman for the local health department said the problem has not been a lack of manpower or a lack of capabilities – it has been a lack of supply.
Spokesperson David Heaton said the Southwest Utah Public Health Department has been receiving 2,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. That supply is not just for the approximately 35,000 people locally who are 70 and older, but for school staff, first responders and non-hospital medical personnel who also qualify right now for the vaccine in Utah.
“At this rate, it would take two months to get people in this group vaccinated. So when the state asked us what help we need, there’s only one answer: We need more vaccines,” Heaton said, adding that the department has an abundance of manpower that could handle a large influx of vaccine supply on day one. “We have staff trained to handle this. We have the staff to do 2,000 a day.”
The wish for more vaccines may have been granted Thursday.
On the second day of his administration, President Joe Biden signed an emergency order Thursday to boost COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution. The order, announced on the one-year anniversary of when the first COVID-19 case was detected in the U. S., is part of a 200-page COVID-19 plan released by the White House.
The order activated the Defense Production Act – the same act used during World War II to boost wartime production – to drastically increase production of both the vaccines as well as the equipment like syringes to administer them.
In this May 2017 file photo, then former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. June 1, 2017 | Steven Senne/Associated Press/St. George News
The plan calls for 100 million Americans to receive their first dose of the vaccine by May 1. According to the Associated Press, 12.3 million Americans have been vaccinated since late December.
As of Thursday, the Utah Department of Health says 12,887 people in Southern Utah have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 487 people have received their second dose to be fully inoculated. There have 173,587 first doses in the state as a whole.
The more federally-based Biden strategy on COVID-19 vaccine distribution differs from the strategy of the administration of President Donald Trump, which focused on each state relying on its own vaccine policies and distribution. During the recording of the PBS Utah Monthly Governor’s Press Conference Thursday, Gov. Spencer Cox said he welcomed the federal initiative.
“We are excited about this announcement. I’ve just perused through it, but it’s a good thing,” Cox said. “They’re doing the same thing we’ve been doing here with our local health departments.”
Cox gave particular praise to the president’s change to provide 100% federal reimbursement for emergency COVID-19 supplies and the use of national guardsmen to administer COVID-19 tests and vaccines. Until now, the state has had to foot 25% of the bill.
Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox, right, arrives for a COVID-19 briefing at the Utah State Capitol. Jan. 8, 2021, Salt Lake City, Utah | Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News/Associated Press, St. George News
Cox defended his order earlier in the month that local health districts use up their vaccine supply within seven days. He said the only alternative to that was a slower rollout that would have left vaccine supply sitting in freezers and refrigerators.
“I had to choose between two problems. Either doses sitting on shelves or a crush of people,” Cox said, adding a slower approach would have left the possibility of vaccine sitting unused for too long and needing to be thrown away – something that has been experienced in other states. “I would rather be struck trying to get it than it being thrown away.”
Large vaccination clinic in the plans locally
Another part of the White House vaccine plan is for the creation of larger, mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics nationwide. Some cities are already utilizing stadiums and convention centers to inoculate large amounts of people at once.
A patient receives a flu vaccination from their car at an annual flu shootout, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of the Southwest Utah Public Health Department, St. George News
Heaton said the Southwest Utah Public Health Department already has a plan to have such a mass clinic and use last September’s flu vaccination “shootout” at the fairgrounds in Washington County Regional Park as a dry run.
“Our flu shootout was in preparation for the vaccine rollout, but the vaccine supply has been more of a trickle so that was scaled down to our offices,” Heaton said, adding that if the supply comes in, they have the staff to immediately move to much larger COVID-19 vaccination clinics. “We’re prepared to do that. We’ve never reached our limit.”
Until the federal reinforcement of vaccine supply arrives, there’s the matter of dealing with the present high-demand, low-supply status of getting people inoculated locally against the virus.
Heaton said Southern Utah has a unique problem compared to the rest of the state, which has a younger demographic.
“The fact is our older demographic is higher than other counties in the state, Heaton said.
A woman named Elizabeth receives COVID-19 vaccination shot from a nurse at the Southwest Utah Public Health Department offices in Cedar City, Utah, Jan. 12, 2021 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News
Heaton said one issue the department thinks it has fixed is its technical ones, which caused their website to go down several times during vaccination sign-ups earlier this week. The state has provided some aid in this matter.
“Our hosting service made some mistakes so that was confusing,” Heaton said. “We are now hosted by Utah state service which should be robust.”
The reservation slots – for at least the first week of February and possibly the second – are expected to go online through SignUpGenius at 9 a.m. Monday. At the same time, residents will also be able to utilize a hotline at 435-986-2549, though the department said it prefers that people try signing up online first.
“It will be a rush, but hopefully the website will be able to handle it a lot better,” Heaton said.
Second doses get their own place in line
While most Southern Utahns still await getting their first shot of the vaccine, the time is coming up for those that received the vaccine when it was first rolled out to receive the second of two COVID-19 vaccine shots.
Two of the COVID-19 vaccines are seen at Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, Utah, on Dec. 16, 2020. | Photo courtesy of Intermountain Healthcare, St. George News
On Thursday, the local health department announced they will not have to compete with the already high demand of others for reservation slots. The Southwest Utah Public Health Department will be holding separate second-shot clinics.
“We’re looking at doing second-dose clinics separately so people may be relieved that they won’t have to compete for slots with those getting their first shots,” Heaton said.
The move comes after the governor announced that like the first doses, the second-dose supply will need to be used within seven days by a local health department or it will go back into the vaccine supply chain.
Second-doses will utilize the same SignUpGenius online form as the first-injection clinics and are also going online Monday.
And like the first-dose clinics, reservation slots may go quicker than the hottest toy of the season on Black Friday. However, Heaton and other health experts say that while a person has to wait 28 days before their second dose, they don’t have to get that second injection on the 28th day.
“There’s not a maximum waiting period so if you can’t get it on the 28th day, you have some leeway,” he said.
Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine
Those who can currently get the vaccine: Everyone ages 70 and over. K-12 teachers and staff, those that work in nonhospital health care facilities (those in clinics, pharmacies, dentists or other medical offices) and first responders, including law enforcement, firefighters and EMTs.
Must register in advance online for an appointment time. Walk-ins will not be accepted.
Must have a personal ID, employment ID (if necessary) and wear a short-sleeve shirt at appointment.
Must get the vaccine in the county you reside in. Proof of residency is required. Part-time residents can get vaccinated with proof of residency.
Vaccines are free of charge.
Those without email addresses or unable to make reservations online can get help at a specialized hotline at 435-986-2549.
Washington County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department St. George office, 620 S 400 East, 2nd Floor Conference Room, St. George, 84770
When: First dose Jan. 29 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Feb. 4 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m; Second dose Feb. 1 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Feb. 3 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
First dose Jan. 29 click to register (opening up Monday)
First dose Feb. 4 click to register (opening up Monday)
Second dose Feb. 1 click to register (opening up Monday)
Second dose Feb. 3 click to register (opening up Monday)
Iron County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department Cedar City office, 260 DL Sargent Dr., Cedar City, 84721.
When: First dose Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (full), Feb. 2 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.; Second dose Feb. 3 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m; K-12 teachers and staff-only clinic Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (full).
First dose click to register (opening up Monday)
Second dose click to register (opening up Monday)
Kane County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department Kanab office, 445 N. Main St., Kanab 84741.
When: To be announced
Click to register
Garfield County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department Panguitch office, 601 Center St. Panguitch 84759.
When: To be announced
Click to register (opening up Monday)
Beaver County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department Beaver Office, 75 1175 North, Beaver 84713.
When: To be announced
(All slots full) Click to register
COVID-19 information resources
St. George News has made every effort to ensure the information in this story is accurate at the time it was written. However, as the situation and science surrounding the coronavirus continues to evolve, it’s possible that some data has changed.
Check the resources below for up-to-date information and resources.
Southern Utah coronavirus count (as of Jan. 15, 2020, seven-day average in parentheses)
Positive COVID-19 tests: 22,355 (199.1 new infections per day in seven days, falling since Jan. 14)
Washington County: 17,129 (135 per day, falling)
Iron County: 3,988 (53.6 per day, falling)
Kane County: 378 (3 per day, falling)
Garfield County: 378 (2.1 per day, falling)
Beaver County: 482 (5.2 per day, falling)
New infections for major Southern Utah cities (numbers released ahead of Southern Utah numbers):
St. George: 68 (falling)
Washington City: 23 (rising)
Hurricane/LaVerkin: 14 (rising)
Ivins City/Santa Clara: 11 (rising)
Cedar City: 40 (falling)
Deaths: 191 (2.9 per day, falling)
Washington County: 155 (11 new since last report: Hospitalized female 65-84, hospitalized male 65-84, long-term care female over 85, hospitalized female 65-84, hospitalized male 65-84, female 45-64 at home, hospitalized male 65-84, long-term care male over 84, long-term care female 65-84, long-term care male 65-84, long-term care male 65-84)
Iron County: 20 (1 new: Long-term care female 65-84)
Garfield County: 9 (2 new: Long-term care female over 85, long-term care male 65-84)
Number of initial vaccine injections in Southern Utah: 12,887
Number of fully vaccinated in Southern Utah: 487
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.
Chris Reed serves as weekend editor and reporter for St. George News. He has steadily moved east after growing up among the Valley girls of Southern California’s San Fernando Valley. He graduated from Cal State Northridge before spending a decade in Las Vegas. As a sports reporter and editor, he once compared shoe sizes with Shaq. As a news reporter and editor, he has covered parades, triumphs and tragedies. He also once got close to the stars doing publicity for a space module builder. He came to St. George for love and has grown to love the community. He is the proud father of two boys, his youngest a champion against both autism and Type 1 diabetes.
Previous studies had suggested that being physically fit could mitigate the negative effects of being overweight on heart health, but this is not the case, according to a new study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), published Thursday.
“One cannot be ‘fat but healthy.’ This was the first nationwide analysis to show that being regularly active is not likely to eliminate the detrimental health effects of excess body fat,” said study author Alejandro Lucia, a professor of exercise physiology at the European University of Madrid.
“Our findings refute the notion that a physically active lifestyle can completely negate the deleterious effects of overweight and obesity.”
Previous research provided some evidence that people who were “fat but fit” could have similar cardiovascular health to those who were “thin but unfit,” but Lucia said this has had unintended consequences.
“This has led to controversial proposals for health policies to prioritise physical activity and fitness above weight loss,” he said. “Our study sought to clarify the links between activity, body weight, and heart health.”
Researchers used data from 527,662 working adults from Spain insured by an occupational risk prevention company, with an average age of 42.
They were put into groups according to activity level and groups by body weight: 42% of participants were normal weight, with a body mass index (BMI) of 20-24.9; 41% were overweight, BMI 25-29.9; and 18% were obese, BMI 30 or above.
Then researchers looked at their cardiovascular health by categorizing them for diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, all of which are major risk factors for stroke and heart attack.
After investigating the associations between BMI, activity level and risk factors, researchers concluded that any level of activity meant it was less likely that an individual would have any of the three risk factors compared with no exercise, with the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes decreasing with increased activity levels.
“This tells us that everyone, irrespective of their body weight, should be physically active to safeguard their health,” Lucia said.
However, the study showed greater cardiovascular risk for overweight and obese participants compared with those of a normal weight, regardless of how much exercise they did.
Participants who were obese and active were twice as likely to have high cholesterol, four times as likely to have diabetes and five times as likely to have high blood pressure as those who were normal weight but inactive.
“Exercise does not seem to compensate for the negative effects of excess weight,” Lucia said. “This finding was also observed overall in both men and women when they were analysed separately.”
Lucia underlined that it is “equally important” to fight obesity and inactivity.
“Weight loss should remain a primary target for health policies together with promoting active lifestyles,” he said.
‘We don’t know what came first’
Questions remain, however, around the circumstances of those involved in the study.
“This is a cross sectional study — all we can talk about is associations, we cannot talk about causality,” Michael Pencina, vice dean for data science and information technology at Duke University School of Medicine, told CNN.
“Because it’s a cross sectional study, we don’t know what came first — what this study is not telling us is, did the person who is obese and active, did they become active when they realized they were obese, and their risk factors were high? Or were they active, and despite that, they became obese and their risk factors went up?” Pencina, who was not involved with the study, added.
“What we see is that the risk factor burden increases by weight category. Obese people have the highest burden of associated risk factors. That remains true according to the activity level,” he added.
The study adds to an extensive body of research on the topic.
Scientists at the University of Oxford released results of a large study on January 12. Physical exercise may be even more important for the prevention of cardiovascular disease than previously known — and the more activity the better, the report revealed.
And researchers at the Cleveland Clinic published a study in January 2019 showing a sedentary lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes or heart disease.
“While the controversy about the precise contribution of weight versus exercise to cardiovascular health will likely continue, to optimize health and minimize the risk of cardiovascular disease, patients should pay attention to both: maintaining a healthy weight and being physically active,” said Dr. Anthony Rosenzweig, chief of the cardiology division at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Public health experts Thursday blamed COVID-19 vaccine shortages around the U.S. in part on the Trump administration’s push to get states to vastly expand their vaccination drives to reach the nation’s estimated 54 million people age 65 and over.
The push that began over a week ago has not been accompanied by enough doses to meet demand, according to state and local officials, leading to frustration and confusion and limiting states’ ability to attack the outbreak that has killed over 400,000 Americans.
Over the past few days, authorities in California, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Hawaii warned that their supplies were running out. New York City began canceling or postponing shots or stopped making new appointments because of the shortages, which President Joe Biden has vowed to turn around. Florida’s top health official said the state would deal with the scarcity by restricting vaccines to state residents.
The vaccine rollout so far has been “a major disappointment,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
Problems started with the Trump administration’s “fatal mistake” of not ordering enough vaccine, which was then snapped up by other countries, Topol said. Then, opening the line to senior citizens set people up for disappointment because there wasn’t enough vaccine, he said. The Trump administration also left crucial planning to the states and didn’t provide the necessary funding.
“It doesn’t happen by fairy dust,” Topol said. “You need to put funds into that.”
Last week, before Biden took over as president, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department suggested that the frustration was the result of unrealistic expectations among the states as to how much vaccine was on the way.
But some public health experts said that the states have not been getting reliable information on vaccine deliveries and that the amounts they have been sent have been unpredictable. That, in turn, has made it difficult for them to plan how to inoculate people.
“It’s a bit of having to build it as we go,” said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “It’s a front-end supply issue, and unless we know how much vaccine is flowing down the pipe, it’s hard to get these things sized right, staffed, get people there, get them vaccinated and get them gone.”
State health secretaries have asked the Biden administration for earlier and more reliable predictions on vaccine deliveries, said Washington state Health Secretary Dr. Umair Shah.
Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials was also among those who said opening vaccinations to senior citizens was done too soon, before supply could catch up.
“We needed steady federal leadership on this early in the launch,” Plescia said. “That did not happen, and now that we are not prioritizing groups, there is going to be some lag for supply to catch up with demand.”
Supply will pick up over the next few weeks, he said. Deliveries go out to the states every week, and the government and drugmakers have given assurances large quantities are in the pipeline.
The rollout has proceeded at a disappointing pace. The U.S. government has delivered nearly 38 million doses of vaccine to the states, and about 17.5 million of those have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 2.4 million people have received the necessary two doses, by the CDC’s count — well short of the hundreds of millions who will have to be inoculated to vanquish the outbreak.
Biden, in one of his first orders of business, signed 10 executive orders to combat the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, including one broadening the use of the Defense Production Act to expand vaccine production. The 1950 Korean War-era law enables the government to direct the manufacture of critical goods.
He also mandated masks for travel, including in airports and on planes, ships, trains, buses and public transportation, and ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up vaccination centers and the CDC to make vaccines available through pharmacies starting next month.
Biden has vowed to dispense 100 million shots in his first 100 days.
“We’ll move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated for free,” he said.
Florida was one of the first states to open vaccine eligibility to members of the general public over 65. Now uncertainty over the vaccine supply has prompted the state surgeon general, Scott Rivkees, to advise counties to prioritize available doses for state residents, including so-called snowbirds who live there part-time. People seeking vaccination will have to provide a driver’s license or other document, such as rental leases and utility bills.
In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have been pleading for more doses. Appointments through Sunday for the first dose of the vaccine at 15 community vaccination hubs set up by the city health department were postponed to next week.
Vaccinations in New York haven’t stopped, but demand for the shots now far exceeds the number of doses available, the mayor said.
“It’s just tremendously sad that we have so many people who want the vaccine and so much ability to give the vaccine, what’s happening?” de Blasio said. “For lack of supply, we’re actually having to cancel appointments.”
Rosa Schneider had jumped at the chance to make a vaccination appointment once she heard that educators like her were eligible in New York. A high school English teacher who lives in New York City but works in New Jersey, she said that a day before she was to be vaccinated on Wednesday at a city-run hospital, she got a call saying the supply had run out and the appointment was canceled.
“I was concerned, and I was upset,” said Schneider, 32, but she is trying daily to book another appointment. She is hopeful availability will improve in the coming weeks.
___
Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report from New York.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A Harris County Public Health doctor is accused of stealing a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced.
According to a news release issued on Thursday afternoon, Dr. Hasan Gokal stole the vial that contained nine doses while working at the county vaccination site at Lyndsay Lyons Park in Humble on Dec. 29.
A week later, Gokal told a fellow Harris County Public Health employee, who then reported him to supervisors. Mishandling a vaccine can result in a loss of government funding to the county, according to Harris County Public Health officials, who first investigated the matter resulting in Gokal getting fired.
“He abused his position to place his friends and family in line in front of people who had gone through the lawful process to be there,” said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. “What he did was illegal and he’ll be held accountable under the law.”
Gokal is being prosecuted by the Public Corruption Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
He’s being charged with theft by a public servant. The Class A Misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
Eyewitness News reached out to Harris County Public Health for comment. A spokesperson issued the following statement:
“I can confirm all the details in the news release sent out by the DA’s office are accurate. Harris County Public Health took immediate action upon learning of improper handling of vaccines, to include alerting authorities. However, given that this is an ongoing investigation, we have to refer you back to the DA’s office for any comment or interviews.”
The variant was first spotted in South Africa in October and has now been found in more than a dozen countries.
In both studies, the work was done in the lab and not in people, so more research is needed to gauge the true threat of the new variant.
In the most recent study, which was small, researchers took antibodies from six people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 before the new variant was discovered. They found to varying degrees, that antibodies for all six of the survivors were unable to fully fight off the virus.
“I think the evidence is building that these mutations — and I think other mutations — will emerge across the globe — and are emerging already — that are escaping antibodies from previous infection,” Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, told CNN. “It’s concerning.”
It’s unclear whether this means someone would be vulnerable to the new variant if they’d already had Covid-19, or what this might mean for people who’ve been vaccinated.
Sigal’s findings were very similar to those of a study released Tuesday by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa.
“When you see two groups independently arriving at same basic answer, that good — there’s more consonance that they are correct,” said Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
A third study, also released Tuesday, showed that mutations in the new variant allowed them to evade some of the immunity induced by vaccination, but it was far from a complete escape.
That study looked at far fewer mutations in the variant than the South African studies examined.
None of the studies were peer reviewed or published in medical journals.
While scientists work out whether these variants are particularly dangerous — and studies are underway in several labs worldwide — one thing is clear: Get the vaccine if you can.
“I would for sure get it if I could,” Sigal said. “My father-in-law had the opportunity to fly to Israel and get it, and I was shooing him out of the house because you can’t get it here in South Africa.”
A trio of studies
In his research, Sigal found that antibodies from all six study subjects failed to fully fight off the new variant.
“One participant had a fairly good response, but nobody escaped unscathed,” he said.
The study was posted on the website for KRISP, the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innnovation and Sequencing Platform. The other two studies were posted on a pre-print server.
In the study that had similar findings, blood was drawn from 44 people in South Africa who’d had Covid-19. Nearly all of their cases were confirmed to have occurred prior to September, which is before the variant was spotted in South Africa.
The researchers then looked to see whether their antibodies would fight off the new variant.
For about half of the 44 people, their antibodies were powerless against the new variant. For the other half, the antibody response was weakened, but not totally knocked out.
In the third study, done at Rockefeller University, researchers looked at blood from 20 people who had received either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine. Different mutations in the viruses did allow some escape from some types of antibodies, but the volunteers’ immune systems threw an army of different types of antibodies at the viruses.
The Rockefeller study looked at fewer mutations than the two South African studies. It looked at three key mutations on the spikes that sit atop the coronavirus, since that’s the part of the virus targeted by the vaccines.
“That’s useful, but still not the complete story,” said John Moore, a vaccine researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine.
The South African studies, however, used the virus itself, or a model of it, which contained eight spike mutations.
