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Health

NC coronavirus update January 26: Durham set up to host COVID-19 vaccination clinic megasite

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RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Here are the latest updates about COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in North Carolina.

Have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine? Send them to us here

9 a.m.
Duke University’s COVID-19 testing continued last week, netting 82 positive results after testing 27,865 students and 2.716 faculty and staff.

There were 62 positive results among students, who recently started classes for the spring semester. Students are required to be tested before starting classes and on-campus activities. The total positivity rate is 0.27 percent.

More data about Duke’s testing can be found here.

8:45 a.m.
The Moderna company is reporting its supplied 30.4 million doses of its brand of the COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. government so far

In a release, Moderna said its trajectory of 100 million doses by the end of March is on target as well as its track to deliver 200 million doses to the government by the end of June. Around 10.1 million doses have been administered so far, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

TUESDAY MORNING STORYLINES

A newly-conceived mass vaccination site in Durham will be able to vaccinate as many as 45,000 people per week.

“We are delighted to report the state of North Carolina and Fidelity have reached an agreement as far as hosting a mass vaccination site,” Durham County Health Director Rodney Jenkins said at a county commissioners’ meeting on Monday night. Dr. Mandy Cohen requested the site be placed in Durham.

Jenkins told the county that he’ll work with the state and Durham Public Schools to scout out possible locations for the site. More details on the site are forthcoming.

The North Carolina Healthcare Association is calling on Gov. Roy Cooper to do more when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine in the state. The group wants more regular vaccine allocations to deal with the surge in demand. They feel the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services gave providers little to no advance notice when they decided to move forward with vaccinating adults 65 and older.

“At the end of the day, we’re taking directives, which in many cases is last minute, and we’re doing the best we can with it,” said Steve Lawler with the NCHA.

NCDHHS is giving an update on its effort Tuesday and asking providers to “aggressively provide opportunities” for vaccinations. NCDHHS said as of Sunday night, providers have administered 88% of all available doses. Meanwhile, suppliers are struggling with getting enough doses from the state.

The Governor said the state’s top priority is getting vaccines out quickly and equitably. Federal officials are being urged to make more vaccines available. There’s a drive-thru clinic at the Crown Expo Center today in Fayetteville, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A food drive is happening Tuesday in Raleigh at PNC Arena to help families put food on the table. The North Carolina Community Action Association is holding the event, which starts at 10 a.m. A box with food, drinks and home goods will be given away while supplies last.

Cape Fear Valley Health clinics will no longer be able to accommodate walk-in vaccines for first-dose vaccinations at any of its four clinics. Appointments can still be made online.

Vice President Kamala Harris will receive her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday. Harris will get the shot at the National Institutes of Health.

MONDAY

11 p.m.
Duke University has identified a cluster of COVID-19 cases at Berkshire Ninth Street apartment complex.

A “cluster” is defined by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as five or more related cases that are deemed to be in close proximity of time and location, such as a residential hall or apartment complex.

Duke said the five students in this cluster have been identified and are now isolating in a separate location.

6:19 p.m.

As of Monday, Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point (NHCCP) began vaccinating authorized TRICARE beneficiaries aged 75 years and older.

Beneficiaries aged 75 years and older should call the NHCCP Appointment Line at (252) 466-0921 (Option 3). The clinic will coordinate appointment times with command officials of active duty and frontline personnel who are eligible according the phase definition.

The Naval Clinic is NOT accepting patients for walk-in vaccinations at this time.

4:49 p.m.
For the third week in a row, the Orange County Health Department has not received any first dose allotment of COVID-19 vaccines from the NCDHHS. The lack of first dose allotment will not affect or delay the second vaccines for community members who have already received their first shot, the health department said. Anyone who has received their first vaccine from the Orange County Health Department will be contacted to make an appointment for their second dose by phone or email.

“As of January 24, 2021, all first doses of vaccine have been exhausted and it is not clear when we will be receiving more vaccine from the state.” said Orange County Health Director, Quintana Stewart. “Until the vaccine supply is significantly increased it will be weeks or perhaps months until we can complete vaccinations for Phases One and Two. We understand this must be frustrating for our community members to hear and we want let you know that we share in your frustration.”

The Health Department is scheduling health care workers, long-term care residents and staff and older adults ages 65 and older for appointments (Phase One and Two). There are 1.6 million people older than 65 in North Carolina. In Orange County there are approximately 22,000 people who are 65 years of age or older.

4:45 p.m.
In response to a letter the North Carolina Healthcare Association sent to Gov. Roy Cooper with several specific requests to improve the COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the state, the governor’s office responded, saying there’s simply not enough vaccine in the state to meet demands.

“The Governor’s top priority is getting vaccines out quickly and equitably,” the statement said. “The state has directed vaccines to all 100 counties and deployed high-throughput sites. Unused vaccine here could lead federal authorities to cut future allotments, so NCDHHS has pushed providers to exhaust North Carolina’s supply of first doses. However, the reality is that there is not enough vaccine here for those eligible and we need more. North Carolina providers have shown they can distribute more than double the state’s current weekly allotment and the Governor will continue to urge federal officials to make more vaccine available.”

READ THE FULL LETTER BELOW:

NCHA President Steve Lawler said the letter was a result of various conversations he’s had with Cooper and Cohen but didn’t want the concerns of hospitals and health systems he’s representing to get buried.

Among those issues expressed in the letter, Lawler called for more transparency and better communication.

“What we’ve asked, specifically is, one, involve us. Let us help you make good decisions because no one knows our patients and our communities as well as we do,” he said. “I think there’s a difference between providing directives and asking the people that are doing the work to participate in the design and development so that it’s done well. Because at the end of the day we’re taking directives- hospitals, health systems, community providers, health departments are taking this directive, which in many cases is last minute and we’re doing the best we can with it.”

4:45 p.m.
The Cumberland County Department of Public Health will be giving second doses only of the COVID-19 vaccine during a drive-thru clinic scheduled for Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be available and appointments are not needed for second doses. First and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine and second doses of the Moderna vaccine will be available at
clinics scheduled on Wednesday, and Friday at the Crown from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., while supplies last. People seeking second doses will be seen on a first-come, first-served basis or by appointment this week.

The Health Department will receive 975 first doses of Pfizer this week. Because of the limited supply of first doses and already scheduled first-dose appointments for the week, there will be reduced first-come, first-served opportunities on Wednesday and Friday.

Visit the County’s vaccine website for information on how to request an appointment block.

4:45 p.m.
A drive-thru COVID-19 testing event has been scheduled for next week in Moore County on January 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Morganton Road Sports Complex at 190 Fire Lane in Southern Pines.

The testing event is open to all residents of Moore County with no physician referral required. Testing is sponsored by the Moore County Health Department and Goshen Medical Center.

Everyone who wishes to participate in testing should register by calling (910) 267-2044.

There will be no out of pocket cost for testing.

All testing participants are instructed to remain in their vehicle throughout the testing.

4:20 p.m.
Lee County health officials announced six more COVID-19 deaths, bringing the county death total to 56 since March. The county said 253 more COVID-19 cases have been reported since last Monday, bringing the total to 4,682.

3:25 p.m.

NCDHHS launched a new online tool for North Carolinians to know when they are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Find My Vaccine asks a few questions to help determine what group you are in.

“Given the very limited supplies we currently have, there may be wait times, but every North Carolinian has a spot. A spot for accurate information. A spot in line. A spot to take their shot,” said NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy K. Cohen.

As of Sunday evening, 88 percent of all first doses have been reported as being administered, according to NCDHHS.

Providers reported administering more than 260,000 doses this past week. As of Monday, the CDC ranked North Carolina 10th in total vaccines administered and 29th in vaccines administered per 100,000 people.
Beginning on Jan. 27, North Carolina will have only 120,000 doses to allocate across the entire state. A large portion of those doses are committed to the large-scale events planned several weeks ago to address the backlog in vaccine. As a result, many providers are getting small or no allocations for the coming week. Through no fault of their own, they will be postponing appointments.

Answering your questions about when & where you can get a COVID-19 vaccine in NC

2:43 p.m.
Wake County is inviting health-care workers and anyone age 65 or older to join its COVID-19 vaccine waiting list. The county also is holding free, drive-thru COVID-19 testing events at Lake Benson Park through January 31.

1:47 p.m.
Because of a change in the number of COVID-19 vaccines that Cape Fear Valley Health has been allotted by the State of North Carolina, the health system has had to reconfigure the way in which it runs its COVID-19 vaccination clinics.

Effective Tuesday, the health system will no longer be able to accommodate walk-ins for first-dose vaccinations at any of the four vaccine clinics in operation at Cape Fear Valley Rehabilitation Center, Health Pavilion North, Hoke Hospital and Bladen County Hospital.

Appointments can be scheduled online to receive a first-dose vaccination. Appointments will be opened for a given week the Saturday before.

At this time, no appointment is required for the second dose, but this may change as supply levels fluctuate. Cape Fear asks that people return to the same location where they received their first dose to receive the second dose.

1:40 p.m.
The North Carolina Healthcare Association sent a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper with several specific requests to improve the COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the state.

The letter includes seven different bullet points that the group believes would help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the vaccine rollout.

READ THE FULL LETTER BELOW:

1:10 p.m.
Sampson County reports 16 new cases for a total of 6,076 positive cases.

There have been three additional deaths since Friday for a countywide total of 78.

12:53 p.m.
The Halifax County Health Department said that because of the limited allowance of vaccination from the state, it will vaccinate on Wednesday only this week. COVID 19 vaccinations will be offered at Halifax Community College Building 700 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. for group 1 and group 2 only.

If you are unable to walk, a health department worker will come and vaccinate you while you remain in your car.

Halifax County also reports 87 new cases and four additional deaths.

The county now has 4,058 total positive COVID 19 cases and 74 deaths.

Daily Lab Confirmed Cases
12:05 p.m.
Wake County Health Department reports it received less than 1,000 new doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week.

The department said it requested 3,000 doses, but instead only received one case of the Pfizer vaccine (975 doses).

Earlier today, UNC Health reported receiving just 10,000 doses of the vaccine, despite preparing for as many as 30,000.

ABC11 is working to see if other local agencies also received fewer vaccines than requested, and to get a comment from NCDHHS about the allocation decisions for this week.

12 p.m.
COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped yet again in Monday’s report–marking the lowest count of 2021.

The number of people hospitalized with the virus is listed at 3,287. That’s the lowest since Dec. 27.

The daily percent positive also decreased, falling to 10.2%. That number remains well above the state’s 5% goal, which we were achieving at times during the summer.

Since the start of the pandemic, 8,720 people have died from the virus in North Carolina. For a full look at the state’s latest numbers, click here.

10:50 a.m.
The Carolina Hurricanes have rescheduled another game due to COVID-19.

The Hurricanes’ home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning originally scheduled for Tuesday will now be played Feb. 22. Last week, Carolina postponed games against Nashville and Florida due to COVID-19 safety measures.

10:30 a.m.
UNC Health will get 10,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the state this week, with that number being less than half of what was expected.

The UNC Health system said it would not cancel or postpone any appointments based on the news. The lower allocation meant fewer appointments were scheduled.

“We understand the frustration and disappointment of not being able to get an appointment for a vaccination more quickly,” said Dr. Ian Buchanan, UNC Health President of Ambulatory and Post-Acute Care. “This is truly an issue of supply and demand. We are very aware of the angst this is causing everyone who is eligible now to receive a vaccine and cannot get an appointment or who spends hours online trying to get one.”

UNC Health asks that patients call the state’s COVID-19 at 1-877-490-6642 or look online to find a vaccination location. UNC has given out more than 75,000 shots since the vaccination program started in December.

10:20 a.m.
Wake County has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at an assisted living home in Cary, the second one at the facility since September.

Brookdale MacArthur Park, on MacArthur Drive, has had its second outbreak of the pandemic. An outbreak is defined as a situation where two or more people – residents or employees – tested positive. No other information about the residents or employees was disclosed.

10:15 a.m.
The state has rolled out a COVID-19 Community Readiness toolkit to help those with disabilities and mental health issues. The toolkit contains resources for parents helping their children through remote learning as well as family-based needs.

The toolkit can be found here.

“These are unprecedented, stressful times, and we know families and individuals are being faced with existing and new mental health challenges,” said Victor Armstrong, Director of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Substance Abuse Services. “We want to provide North Carolinians with this toolkit to give them all the support they need to navigate these difficult times to stay healthy physically and mentally.”

MONDAY MORNING STORYLINES

Three new COVID-19 testing sties will open in Wake County on Monday.

Jaycee Park and Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh along with Lake Benson Park in Garner will be open for testing. All sites are reachable by public transportation and begin at 11 a.m. You don’t need an appointment, insurance or ID to get tested.

For the full, up-to-date list of Wake County testing sites (including hours of operation), click here.

Sunday marked the fourth straight day of more than 100 COVID-19-related deaths in North Carolina. Over the weekend, the U.S. passed 25 million cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

In Chatham County, more than 400 people (healthcare workers and those over 65) are expected to get vaccinated at the Chatham County Agricultural and Conference Center on Monday.

President Joe Biden is expected to reinstate the COVID-19 travel restrictions on non-US citizens who have been in Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe

SUNDAY

6 p.m.
The grim numbers released over the weekend are cause for concern: 100 COVID-19 deaths for four days in a row. Wake County Health authorities recommend tests for anyone who notices signs of possible exposure.

“So if you have a fever, you develop a fever, you have nausea, you are vomiting, headache, and you lose sense of smell or taste. Those are typical signs of someone who may be symptomatic of COVID,” said Wake County Health testing clear Eugene Chalwe. “The county’s goal is to maintain six testing sites each week. So we are maintaining our three static sites, at Swinburne in Wake Forest at Departure Drive, and still doing a revolving three sites in each park.”

Wake County Health’s working with Raleigh and Garner to make those sites available on Monday: Jaycee Park and Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh along with Lake Benson Park in Garner. They’re located in areas that are reachable by public transportation.

“Because their positivity rates are still very high throughout the county,” Chalwe said. “So we want people to respond to this access that they have and know the focus has turned onto the vaccine. They still need to be tested if exposed. We only know what your status is if you test. So if you do not test, and you’ve been in close contact and you’ve been contacted by the case evaluators, you need to test.”

The tests are free and you don’t need, insurance or ID to get tested. Check here for the latest location of testing sites.

12:15 p.m.
North Carolina is reporting 6,096 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 718,812 statewide.

Throughout the state, there are 3,303 people hospitalized with COVID-19. That is down 113 from Saturday.

In North Carolina, 109 more people have died from COVID-19. That brings the total to 8,695. This is the fourth straight day where more than 100 people in North Carolina died from the virus.
The state’s daily percent positive test rate is 10.5%. That is down from Saturday’s 10.9%.

11:04 a.m.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been 25,003,695 COVID-19 in the United States.

COVID in US: 40% of Americans live in areas running out of ICU space

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Business

Merck ends its vaccine development; Google offers its offices for vaccination sites

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CVS completes first round of vaccination at 8,000 U.S. nursing homes

A CVS pharmacy manager prepares a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine dose at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, December 29, 2020.

Hoang ‘Leon’ Nguyen | The Republican | Pool | via Reuters

CVS Health completed administering the first round of Covid-19 vaccination at roughly 8,000 U.S. nursing facilities, Reuters reports.

Administration of second doses was underway and expected to be completed within four weeks.

CVS Pharmacy has administered nearly 2 million doses to date but has a capacity for 20 million to 25 million shots a month, the company told Reuters, adding that its long-term care vaccination effort remains on track.

—Terri Cullen

U.S. doesn’t know how much Covid vaccine it has, says CDC chief

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Sunday that the federal government doesn’t know how much coronavirus vaccine there is available to the country, adding yet another complication to the new administration’s efforts to mitigate the crisis, reports CNBC’s Amanda Macias.

“I can’t tell you how much vaccine we have, and if I can’t tell it to you then I can’t tell it to the governors and I can’t tell it to the state health officials,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told “Fox News Sunday.”

“If they don’t know how much vaccine they’re getting not just this week but next week and the week after they can’t plan. They can’t figure out how many sites to roll out, they can’t figure out how many vaccinators that they need, and they can’t figure out how many appointments to make for the public,” Walensky said.

President Joe Biden has set a goal for the country to administer 100 million vaccines in the president’s first 100 days.

—Fred Imbert

Merck ends its Covid vaccine program, citing inferior immune responses

A Merck sign in front of the company’s building in Summit, New Jersey.

Getty Images

Merck said it will end development of its two Covid-19 vaccines, Reuters reports.

In early trials, two of the company’s vaccines generated immune responses that were inferior to those seen in people who had recovered from Covid-19, as well as those reported for other Covid-19 vaccines, according to Reuters.

The drugmaker said it plans to focus its pandemic research on treatments, with initial efficacy data on an experimental oral antiviral expected by the end of March, the wire service said.

—Terri Cullen

Google to open vaccine sites at its U.S. offices

American multinational technology company Google logo seen at Googleplex, the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc.

Alex Tai | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

Google will make some of its own facilities available to open new coronavirus vaccination sites in the U.S.

The company said it has partnered with health clinic chain One Medical and public health authorities to open vaccine sites in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Kirkland, Washington; and New York City. The tech giant also plans to open vaccine centers abroad.

Google also committed $100 million in advertising grants to the CDC Foundation, World Health Organization and nonprofits, as well as a $50 million investment aimed at helping public health agencies reach underserved communities with vaccine information.

Google said it will start including Covid-19 vaccination locations in Google Search and Maps in the coming weeks, starting with Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The information will include details like whether an appointment or referral is required and if the location has a drive-thru.

—Ryan Browne

Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here:

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Health

Anti-vaccine activists peddle theories that Covid-19 shots are deadly, undermining vaccination

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“This is exactly what anti-vaccine groups do,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious diseases specialist and author of “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.”

Now, the same groups are blaming patients’ coincidental medical problems on covid shots, even when it’s clear that age or underlying health conditions are to blame, Hotez said. “They will sensationalize anything that happens after someone gets a vaccine and attribute it to the vaccine,” Hotez said.

As more seniors receive their first covid shots, many will inevitably suffer from unrelated heart attacks, strokes and other serious medical problems — not because of the vaccine but, rather, their age and declining health, said epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

For example, in a group of 10 million people, nearly 800 people ages 55 to 64 typically die of heart attacks or coronary disease in one week, Osterholm said. Public health officials “are not ready” for the onslaught of news and social media stories to come, he cautioned.

“The media will write a story that John Doe got his vaccine at 8 a.m. and at 4 p.m. he had a heart attack,” Osterholm said on his weekly podcast. “They will make assumptions that it’s cause and effect.”

Public health officials need to do a better job communicating the risks — real and imagined — from vaccines, said Osterholm, who served on President Joe Biden’s transition coronavirus advisory board.

“You get one chance to make a first impression,” Osterholm said. “Even if we come back later and say, “No, [the deaths] had nothing to do with vaccination, it was coronary artery disease,’ the damage has already been done.”

Anti-vaccine groups such as the National Vaccine Information Center and Children’s Health Defense, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are already inflaming fears about a handful of deaths — mostly in Europe — that have followed the worldwide rollout of immunizations.
In a blog post, Kennedy scoffed at autopsy results that concluded a Portuguese woman’s death was unrelated to a vaccine. He cast doubt on statements by medical authorities in Denmark who said the deaths of two people there after vaccination were due to old age and chronic lung disease. In an interview, Kennedy said the post-vaccination deaths of some very frail and terminally ill nursing home patients in Norway are a danger sign. Norwegian officials have said the elderly patients died of their underlying illnesses, not from the vaccine.

“Coincidence is turning out to be quite lethal to COVID vaccine recipients,” Kennedy wrote. Kennedy described the deaths as suspicious, accusing medical officials of following an “all-too-familiar vaccine propaganda playbook” and “strategic chicanery.”

Here in the U.S., vaccine opponents have pounced on the tragedy of Dr. Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old Florida obstetrician-gynecologist, to sow doubts about vaccine safety and government oversight. Michael died Jan. 5 after suffering a catastrophic drop in platelets — elements in the blood that control bleeding — suggesting he may have developed immune thrombocytopenia.
According to a Facebook post by his wife, Heidi Neckelmann, doctors tried a variety of treatments to save her husband, but none worked.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency is investigating Michael’s death, as it does for all suspected vaccine-related health problems.
California authorities had recommended pausing vaccinations with a particular batch of covid vaccines made by Moderna because of a high rate of allergic reactions. Following an investigation, vaccinations resumed a few days later.

“We’re going to see these events happen, and we have to follow up on every one of these cases,” Osterholm said. “I don’t want people to think that we’re sweeping them under the rug.”

Many Americans were already nervous about covid vaccines, with 27% saying they “probably or definitely” would not get a shot, even if the shots were free and deemed safe by scientists, according to a December survey by KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)
These people may be particularly susceptible to vaccine misinformation, said Rory Smith, research manager at First Draft, a nonprofit that reports on misinformation online.

A rare condition

Seven experts in blood disorders interviewed by KHN said there’s not enough information available to blame Michael’s decline on a vaccine and that the demonstrated benefits of covid vaccinations vastly outweigh any potential risk of bleeding. Even if investigators conclude that Michael’s vaccine caused his death, it would still be an incredibly rare event, given that more than 20 million doses have been administered.

“It shouldn’t give anyone pause about whether the vaccine is safe or not,” said Dr. James Zehnder, a hematologist and director of clinical pathology at Stanford Medicine.

Michael’s bleeding disorder could have been developing silently for some time, said Dr. Adam Cuker, director of the Penn Blood Disorders Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. It could be a coincidence that Michael started showing symptoms shortly after vaccination, he said. About 30 Americans are diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenia every day.

The timing of Michael’s illness suggests it had another cause, doctors said. According to his wife’s Facebook post, his bleeding problems began three days after his first covid shot. It takes the body 10 to 14 days after vaccination to generate antibodies, which would be needed to cause immune thrombocytopenia, said Dr. Cindy Neunert, a pediatric hematologist at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

In most cases, the cause of thrombocytopenia is never known, said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Immune thrombocytopenia is linked, rarely, to certain vaccines, with about 26 cases for every 1 million doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.
But it can also be caused by viruses themselves, including measles and the novel coronavirus, said Dr. Sven Olson, an assistant professor of hematology-medical oncology at Oregon Health & Science University’s school of medicine.

Many patients with immune thrombocytopenia are now wondering if they should be vaccinated against covid, Cuker said. Cuker said he urges nervous patients to be vaccinated, noting that any problems could be managed by closely monitoring their platelet levels and adjusting medication if needed.

Even in patients with underlying bleeding conditions, “it’s still safer to get vaccinated than to get covid,” Zehnder said.

“If you give a vaccine to a large enough number of people, there are going to be rare adverse events but there are also going to be coincidental events unrelated to the vaccine,” Cuker said. “If an anti-vaccine group uses a single case, where no link has been proven, to discourage people from vaccination, that’s terrible.”

Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, said her site provides balanced information from reputable news sources, including CNN, CBS and the Miami Herald, as well as Pfizer and the CDC.

In an interview with KHN, Kennedy said he questions why government officials have been so quick to dismiss connections between vaccinations and deaths. “How in the world do they know if it’s a vaccine injury or not?” he asked.

“We don’t discourage anybody from getting vaccinated,” Kennedy said. “All we’re doing is conveying the data, which is what the government should be doing. … We print the truth, which is what the medical agencies ought to do.”

Alternative facts?

Opponents of vaccination have belittled concerns about the novel coronavirus for months, opposing masks and fighting stay-at-home orders and contact tracing, said Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy and sociology at the University of California-Riverside.

“They have come out against every public health measure to control the pandemic,” Carpiano said. “They have said public health is public enemy No. 1.”

Recently, anti-vaccine activists have been so eager to discredit immunizations that they have blamed covid for the deaths of people who are very much alive.

Social media users selectively edited a video of a Tennessee nurse, Tiffany Dover to make it appear as if she dropped dead after being vaccinated, when in fact she simply fainted, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at the UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. Although Dover quickly recovered, social media users posted a fake death certificate and obituary. Anti-vaccine activists also harassed Dover and her family online, said Reiss, who chronicled Dover’s ordeal in a blog post.

Anti-vaccine activists are adept at manipulating video, Smith said.

“They are notorious for using videos and images purportedly showing the adverse effects of vaccines, such as autism in children and seizures in other vaccine recipients,” Smith said. “The more emotive and graphic the videos and images — irrespective of whether it’s actually linked at all to vaccines or not — the better.”

In December, multiple Facebook posts falsely claimed that an Alabama nurse died after receiving one of the state’s first covid vaccines. One Twitter user went so far as to identify the nurse as Jennifer McClung, who worked at Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield, Alabama. In fact, McClung died of covid. Social media posts spread so widely that Alabama health department officials contacted every hospital in the state to confirm that no vaccinated staff member had died.

Anti-vaccine groups often build fables around “a tiny, tiny grain of truth,” Smith said. “This is why misinformation, specifically vaccine misinformation, can be so convincing. … But this information is almost always taken completely out of context, creating claims that are either misleading or outright false.”

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity twisted a news story about the deaths of 24 people at an upstate New York nursing home, incorrectly blaming their deaths on covid vaccinations. The original article noted, however, that a covid outbreak at the nursing home began in late December, before residents received any vaccines. Covid vaccines, which require two doses for full protection, did not arrive in time to save the residents’ lives.
Kennedy repeated the misinformation — again incorrectly blaming the residents’ deaths on vaccines — in his blog, although he linked to a local news station that reported the information correctly.

Distorting facts to discourage vaccination, Cuker said, is “very irresponsible and damaging to public health.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.



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Health

Could an Israeli mutation undo Israel’s mass vaccination campaign?

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Israel’s mass vaccination campaign running in parallel with an active coronavirus outbreak may lead to “evolutionary pressure” on the virus, resulting in an Israeli variant that could be resistant to or have certain advantages over the vaccine.

So contended the Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center Saturday night in one paragraph of a nine-page report on mutations.

The result was a frenzy of headlines and panic.

Already, the world learned over the weekend that the British variant, which has spread like wildfire across Israel, could be more deadly than originally thought.

Moreover, the government and health officials have raised fears that variants that enter Israel through Ben-Gurion Airport could go against the country’s vaccination program and hurt its ability to surface from the crisis. This includes the South African variant, which was brought to Israel via South Africa and Dubai, and in a preliminary study has been shown to make some vaccines less effective.

However, to date, “there is no known meaningful Israeli mutation,” Head of Public Health Services Prof. Sharon Alroy-Preis told KAN News Sunday morning.

But she added that “wherever there is a virus, mutations can develop.”

“Viruses constantly acquire variants,” said Prof. Ephrat Levy-Lahad, director of the Medical Genetics Institute at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. She told The Jerusalem Post that these variants occur when a genome changes in some way during replication.

“Think about if you had to make handwritten copies of the genome – there is a very great likelihood of having a typographical error,” Prof. Jonathan Gershoni of the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at Tel Aviv University explained. “So, whereas in printing books or copying documents, typos are common and understandable, the same is true when replicating a genome. But we call those typos mutations, and the virus bearing those mutations is a mutant or variant.”

LEVY-LAHAD said that most of the changes are “silent” and have no effect on the virus proteins or anything else. But sometimes these “typos” can have a profound effect, Gershoni said. For example, “My wife is tough” vs “My life is tough” – the two phrases have one letter different but vastly different meanings.

Mutations could increase the ability of a virus to become more infectious, could render the virus more pathogenic or make it less susceptible to neutralizing antibodies stimulated or induced through vaccination, Gershoni said. On the other hand, he said that some mutations could make the virus less efficient and ultimately cause it to peter out.

Immunization could theoretically hasten the evolution of a virus, said Levy-Lahad.

“Until coronavirus, one of the major health issues was that many germs had become resistant to antibiotics because a lot had been given in the population, often unnecessarily, and germs found a way to become resistant to those antibiotics. Those germs that manage to achieve resistance become more predominant because they will prevail,” she explained.

“If someone who is immunized can still get some level of infection, then by chance there are going to be variants that can resist the antibodies you have thanks to the vaccination.”

She said that, “Basically, it is a numbers game. If you have a lot of sick people and a lot of people immunized – and if the immunization does not completely rule out infection – then simply because you have a lot of people than can transmit coronavirus and a lot of hosts in which it can evolve, the variant could be created.”

But she said that does not mean that this will happen.

THE KNOWLEDGE Center report warned that this hypothetical “Israeli mutation” could give the virus certain potential to evade the immune response elicited by vaccination. It might therefore spread faster within the population – especially in light of the fact that children are not getting the jab.

But Levy-Lahad said the situation is not so black-and-white – that this is not an “all-or-nothing phenomenon.”

“It could be, for example, that immunization does not completely eradicate infection, but it lowers the rate of severe disease from 2% [one in 50] to one in 1,000 – that is still going to have a huge impact,” she said.

She added that the influenza vaccine is an example of a vaccine that has to be updated because the virus mutates.

“I don’t know that anyone has shown this to be a result of the vaccination rate,” Levy-Lahad said.

However, she said that fear of mutations is an argument for following Health Ministry regulations and lowering infection.

Moreover, as Gershoni emphasized, whereas Israel has no control over how random mutations occur, the country does have control over how to reduce infectious rates.

“With regards to the uniqueness or not of Israel, one has to remember that of the countries with the highest number of vaccinees, we are fifth. The United States is leading with 21 million people vaccinated, an infectious rate of 77,000 people per million, and well over 150,000 total infections per day,” Gershoni said.

“The number of infections in Israel due to the lockdown is gradually dropping – and hopefully will continue to do so,” he said. “It is our responsibility to do what we can to prevent escape mutations while we increase the vaccination campaign to ensure the safety of our population.”

With replication, there is a direct relationship between how many copies are being made at a given time to the mutations that are going to be accumulated, Gershoni said. If the infection rate is low, then the number of mutations tends to be relatively small. Anytime the infection rate is enhanced, so will there be an increase in errors.

“What I really worry about when people come out with these announcements, like there is going to be an Israeli mutation, is that they play into the hands of those people who say there is no use in getting vaccinated or that it is really not necessary,” Levy-Lahad stressed.

“Vaccination is the best thing we have right now.”



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Major delays cause some to leave Delaware vaccination sites without shots

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Hundreds in phase 1B line up to receive COVID vaccine at Delaware City DMV Friday

Delaware News Journal

Bonnie and Bob Siley followed the instructions. They registered online to be vaccinated, filled out all the forms and waited for their time slot.

Bob, 83, has cancer and is a higher priority than his wife, so he was among the 11,500 older adults selected to be vaccinated through state-run events this weekend in Delaware City and Georgetown.

The Sileys received a response from the state that Bob was approved for an appointment, and they scheduled one for the 11 to 11:30 a.m. slot Saturday at the Delaware City Division of Motor Vehicles.

They left their suburban Wilmington home at 10:15 a.m. Saturday and returned just before 2 p.m. 

They never got close to entering the DMV’s grounds near where Route 1 meets Route 72 and Wrangle Hill Road.

“It was a nightmare,” said Bonnie, 80.

She said they moved about 150 feet while waiting for more than 1½ hours. With no idea how long it would take to get close to the DMV, they decided to leave.

“Thank God we got out of line,” Bonnie said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Bonnie said she spoke with another friend who had a scheduled time slot between 11:30 a.m. and noon who also left before being vaccinated.

So, too, did Evan Winslow’s grandfather.

Winslow said his father and grandfather also had an appointment in the 11:30 to noon time slot. He said they had heard from another person who was scheduled for 9 a.m. and didn’t reach the front of the line until 1:30 p.m.

Unsure how much longer it would take until they reached the front, they decided to leave, though they later returned.

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In a Facebook post after 2 p.m., the Department of Health and Social Services said: “If you have an appointment, you will receive a vaccine today, so please stay in line if you can. We apologize for the delay caused by technical issues.”

Division of Public Health spokeswoman Jen Brestel said in an email: “For those with appointments Saturday and Sunday, it is important that you fill out the medical history information in the VAMS account you created so it does not have to be added at the vaccination event. Please use the username and password you created to make the appointment to go back to VAMS and add the Medical History information before you reach the vaccination event.”

The state planned on vaccinating 11,500 older adults and 2,000 phase 1A health care workers this weekend in Delaware City and Georgetown. The vaccinations were by appointment only. Traffic near the Georgetown DMV was snarled in the area of Route 113 and North Bedford Street/Shortly Road, where long lines of people waited.

The Georgetown facility could hold about 400 cars on the DMV property, a Delaware Department of Transportation worker said. People at that facility were reporting wait times of three hours on Facebook.

Tens of thousands of Delawareans in phase 1B registered this week to be vaccinated through the state’s online system. From that group, 11,500 were selected based on priority for this weekend’s event. On Friday, 500 people were vaccinated at the Delaware City DMV, and thousands more were expected to be vaccinated Saturday and Sunday at both locations.

For some, the long wait was expected.

Elizabeth Monaghan, a former emergency medicine nurse, said she and her husband were expecting a long day getting vaccinated at the Georgetown site.

“We have friends like us in many other states who aren’t even hopeful for a vaccine soon,” she wrote in an email.

Monaghan said while “there is always room for improvement,” the people – volunteers, public health employees, first responders – should be commended. 

“Finally in the holding area for a short 15 minutes to wait out any immediate unexpected reaction… we looked at each other thankful that we were fortunate to have come to this point after 10 long months,” she said.

“What has to be remembered is that we are all in this mess together. Patience and understanding for the tasks at hand is required. Along with kindness – deep breaths help too –will get us all through this.”

Monaghan said the round-trip time was around three hours.

Others at Delaware City experienced longer waits.

Like the Sileys, another Hockessin couple left their house around 10 a.m. for their 11 a.m. appointment. The couple, who did not want to be named, spoke to Delaware Online/The News Journal by cell phone around 3 p.m. and said the car’s trip odometer had yet to hit 15 miles. They had been on Route 1 south sitting in traffic for around five hours.

“I’ve never, ever, seen traffic like this in Delaware,” said the man, 77. “This is absolutely abysmal.”

But unlike the Sileys, the couple said they were going to wait it out.

“We need these vaccines,” the man said, because his wife has underlying health issues.

They, too, had preregistered online and received appointment confirmations. 

“We did everything right,” said the woman, 73.

The couple had phoned police in an effort to get traffic controlled. They were concerned about some older adults not being able to wait in the long lines without access to a bathroom or food.

The photo gallery below is from the Friday evening event. The story continues after

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They later called The News Journal back after they were vaccinated at 5:15 p.m., seven hours after they left their Hockessin home. Once they got inside the DMV complex, they said it was much more organized.

“We heard these horror stores from Florida, but we never thought we were going to have this kind of thing in Delaware,” the man said.

What’s worse, Bonnie Siley said, is that the people being vaccinated this weekend have to get a second shot in a matter of weeks.

“Are you going to be back in this line like this?”

After leaving without her husband getting a shot, she said they would try to get vaccinated through a pharmacy instead.

“I’m just so frustrated and disappointed,” she said.

Shannon Marvel McNaught contributed to this story.

Contact Jeff Neiburg at jneiburg@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeff_Neiburg.

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Next Stage of COVID-19 Vaccination to Begin Monday | News

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January 22, 2021

UW Associate Professor Brant Schumaker, one of the leaders of the university’s COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts, receives the COVID-19 vaccine from Albany County Public Health nurse Claire Naylor at UW’s Mountain View Medical Park building. Schumaker is one of the more than 180 UW employees who’ve received the first dose of the vaccine. (UW Photo)

Initial administration of COVID-19 vaccine to individuals in high-risk job categories in Albany County and at the University of Wyoming is nearing completion, and the next stage is scheduled to begin next week.

Starting Monday, Jan. 25, Albany County Public Health, UW and Ivinson Memorial Hospital (IMH) are scheduled to begin administering vaccines to county residents who are in categories 1-3 of the Phase 1b priority schedule in the Wyoming Department of Health’s distribution guidelines. This includes people who are 70 years of age or older; however, due to limited vaccine availability, distribution efforts will focus first on individuals who are 80 or older.

UW employees who are in these subgroups — about 75 people — will be notified of their eligibility via email by the university. They and other county residents in those categories should sign up for My Health Connection, IMH’s patient portal, to be placed on the vaccination list. Individuals will be notified when it is time to schedule their vaccination appointments. Beginning Tuesday, Jan. 26, people in subgroups 1-3 can call (307) 766-8222 if they need assistance.

“Ivinson is excited to be partnering with public health and the university to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to our community,” IMH CEO Doug Faus says. “With My Health Connection, we will be able to streamline the sign-up, scheduling and check-in process for all those who wish to be vaccinated.”

Administration of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for people in Phase 1a of the state’s guidelines has been occurring over the past four weeks, with more than 180 UW employees and student workers receiving their first doses. This includes Student Health Service employees; those involved in UW’s COVID-19 testing program; clinical providers in the College of Health Sciences; UW Police Department employees; Student Affairs and UW Operations employees who work with students in quarantine and isolation; College of Health Sciences students starting clinical rotations; and athletics trainers.

Eventually, COVID-19 vaccinations are expected to be available to all employees and students, in accordance with the priorities established by the state Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). First, however, the vaccine will be made available to people in Phase 1b and other priority categories.

An estimated 3,000 people are age 70 and older in Albany County, so it’s expected to take several weeks to deliver those vaccinations. Phase 1b also includes K-12 educators; the university continues to advocate for UW educators teaching face to face to be included in Phase 1b, which has yet to be finalized. All individuals in Phase 1b, regardless of subgroup classification, are encouraged to sign up for My Health Connection to be notified when the vaccine is more readily available to them.

Additionally, all UW employees and students spending time on campus who receive the vaccine are still required to participate in the university’s surveillance testing program. That’s because, while the COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to be highly effective in preventing illness in recipients, it’s not known if those who receive the vaccine can still transmit the virus to others. And the vaccine will not cause recipients to test positive in UW’s testing program.

Preparing for Phase 1c

While the state has not yet released specifics on who may qualify during Phase 1c — such as certain high-risk individuals and people age 65 and older — UW’s Department of Human Resources has established an online platform for employees to notify the university that they are at high risk and desire to receive the vaccine when it becomes available.

All employees who are high risk for COVID-19, as defined by the CDC, are encouraged to self-identify in the university’s HCM system. Every active employee has been assigned a “Checklist Task” that steps them through the process of self-identifying. To find this task, employees should click on “Checklist Tasks” under “My Profile” in HCM, then “Current Tasks.” The system will then step employees through a few simple questions to identify how they fit the CDC’s high-risk definitions. Full instructions can be found in the “Self-Identify High Risk for COVID-19” Quick Reference Guide. If an employee is not high risk, no action is required with the assigned task.

All Albany County residents using My Health Connection can sign up to be notified when a vaccine is available. If residents currently have My Health Connection accounts, they will automatically receive updates regarding the vaccine. Those who don’t have My Health Connection accounts can create them by visiting IMH’s website.

For more information about Albany County’s vaccine distribution plan, visit www.ivinsonhospital.org/vaccine.

Questions about UW’s COVID-19 vaccination plans should be emailed to COVIDVX@uwyo.edu. A UW vaccine webpage has been established at www.uwyo.edu/campus-return/vaccination, and it will be updated as information becomes available.

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Hundreds receive vaccines at Prisma Health Greenville vaccination facility

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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.

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Orange County readies second mass vaccination site at Soka University, tweaks appointment system – Orange County Register

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Orange County staff and volunteers are gearing up for the opening of a mass vaccination center at Soka University in Aliso Viejo on Saturday.

It joins the first center the county opened last week at Disneyland that has been handling about 3,000 appointments a day.

“Bring your umbrellas, plan for rain, if you’re in a walker, you have to take those things into account,” county spokeswoman Molly Nichelson said. Staff and volunteers will be on hand to help visitors from the campus parking structure off Wood Canyon Drive to a gym nearby, where vaccines will take place.

The county has enough vaccines and staff on hand for a confident launch of the new Soka Super POD (point-of-distribution) this weekend, said spokeswoman Molly Nichelson. Officials have said they would not open new locations until volunteers and doses were available to make it worth it; five sites are ultimately expected.

But public health officials are tempering expectations and asking for patience after the Othena appointment system got off to a rocky start among its target users: seniors age 65 and older.

The Health Care Agency said this week the appointment process had been “simplified” to stop users from needing to constantly refresh Othena on their computers and phones in hopes of landing a slot.

For users who have completed registration, Othena will email eligible groups around 10 a.m. each day, alerting them an appointment is available to them.

Dr. Clayton Chau, Health Care Agency director and county health officer, said staff members are considering a person’s coronavirus risk while assigning appointments. Staff also will send patients to whichever super site is closest, he said.

But if users don’t respond through Othena within a few hours, they’ll be placed back in the virtual queue, Nichelson said.

“They really have to pay attention to those emails that come through,” she said.

The Health Care Agency has set up a hotline at 714-834-2000 to field questions about Othena, vaccine appointments and other related issues during weekday business hours.

At this point, people who qualify for a vaccine and want an appointment can’t call to set one up, but can call for help in registering on Othena.

“We view that this’ll be able to make a us more nimble,” she said.

Chau advised seniors having trouble with Othena to ask their doctor or staff at a local senior center for help.

And super sites aren’t the only option, Chau said. The Health Care Agency also is ramping up smaller-scale “mobile” vaccination clinics, which have parachuted in for a day at a couple of seniors centers with more in the works.

Meanwhile, the county is still striking a balance of marshaling vaccines, staff and volunteers to get doses into the arms of the county’s most exposed and vulnerable to COVID-19 efficiently and fairly.

During a virtual town hall Thursday with Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, Chau said Orange County still doesn’t have enough vaccines and repeated the need for letting older seniors get their shots first, particularly those with chronic health conditions that make the coronavirus more dangerous to them.

“We are asking the community to be patient, let us give the vaccine to those 75 and older and those 65 and older with chronic problems,” he said. “Let us protect them first, because they are the ones that if they get infected, they end up in hospitals more than others.”

On Thursday, Orange County gave vaccine administrators the go-ahead to resume using Moderna vaccine lot 41L20A, which was put on hold by the state Department of Public Health after a handful of allergic reactions in San Diego last week. About 5,000 people in Orange County received shots from that batch, but there were no known adverse effects, the Heath Care Agency said earlier this week.

After an investigation, state health officials said late Wednesday there was “no scientific basis to continue the pause.”

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Suburban Collection Showplace to be COVID-19 vaccination site Saturday

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The Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi will open as a COVID-19 vaccination site Saturday, with more than 300 Oakland County Health Division employees planning to inoculate about 3,000 people.

Those to be vaccinated will receive the Moderna shot. All of the appointment slots are full, the county said Thursday in a release.

More: Some Michigan counties grapple with vaccine switch, cancel clinics

The county health division received 7,200 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week, the most amount of vaccine doses it has received in any week since vaccines started to roll out in December.

The health division notified those eligible of their opportunity to make an appointment based on the state’s COVID-19 vaccination plan and the information they provided on the county’s “Save Your Spot” list in the order they were received.

More: Oakland Co. launches link to help ID those eligible, interested in COVID-19 vaccine

Vaccines will be administered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This is the first time the location is hosting one of the county’s vaccination clinics. The other clinics in Oakland County have been drive-thru sites at locations such as fire stations.

Suburban Collection Showplace previously was chosen as a site for a regional field hospital for COVID-19 patients.

More: Crews putting final touches on 250-bed hospital at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi

This is the largest venue being used in Oakland County for vaccinations.

In Detroit, the TCF Center garage is being used to inoculate eligible Detroit residents, with more than 1,000 people scheduled each day this week to be inoculated.

The Oakland County Health Division also will be vaccinating just over 500 people by appointment only Saturday at its drive-thru vaccination clinic in Southfield. Appointments at that location also are full, according to the county’s release.

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.

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