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Vaccine Production
It seems like currently the issue is as much or more so the vaccine availability than the vaccine distribution/dispensing. Is this true?
Also does anyone know what steps are being taking to increase vaccine production? Have they invoked any emergency powers to get more companies to produce vaccine, get existing companies to increase capabilities (at a minimum utilize their existing capabilities 24/7), etc.?
What's the latest with getting more vaccines approved? I thought I heard a bit ago that Johnson & Johnson was close, but lately I haven't heard anything about it. J&J's vaccine, supposedly is a one shot vaccine. Wouldn't that be great.
UPDATE - After I posted this I found the following article about the J&J vaccine.
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This morning Merck announced they are “halting development of its two COVID-19 vaccine candidates, saying that while the drugs seemed to be safe, they didn't generate enough of an immune response to effectively protect people against the coronavirus.”
There is plenty of vaccine being made, the trouble lies in the distribution. The new head of the CDC said this morning that they do not know the whereabouts of the already distributed vaccines ....isn’t that unbelievable!
Producing vaccines is extremely complicated and have also to be made in a special facility which are usually custom built. So it’s not so easy to demand any old company make them. I’m pretty sure the factories are running 24/7. Don’t forget Trump turned down Pfizer’s offer of 100 million doses a few months ago when he was banking on only the Moderna one.
Many years ago, as part of a perk for my job, a baby formula company invited midwives to visit their company ( They wanted us to promote their formula....a definite no no in my world) but anyway we all went as the factory was in the Lake District and they totally treated us like special visitors with lunch and lots of freebies. The point of my story is that baby formula factories have the same level of cleanliness and sterile areas as drug/ vaccine manufacturers. It was incredible. I believe food manufacturing is not as a high a standard. Of course I never promote baby formula and of course never used it with my kids...which I hope means they have strong immune systems.
Your definition of plenty and mine I believe are hugely different based on what I perceive as the need.
Being made or has been made. Vaccines 'being made' can't be distributed, vaccines that 'are made' can. If it has been made then it is a distribution/dispensing problem. If it is being made then it is a production problem. When we have more than 500M to 1 billion doses then I will say 'plenty' of vaccine has been produced.
All I know is the dispensing areas in Tucson say they aren't getting their expected distributions. Whether that is because not enough has been made yet, a production issue, or it isn't getting from the manufacturers to the dispensers, a distribution issue. I think it is likely both - We need to produce more/faster and once produced get it to the dispensers quickly.
Hi Sam, I don’t want to find I end up with a vaccine that has been produced in a substandard facility. I’ve been given medicines that have later been found to be contaminated. All new facilities have to be inspected. They may be in other countries which was the case with my medicine. Inspection records had been falsified.
When I talked about distribution, I meant that the drug companies delivered it to the Federal facilities and thing went south from there, that’s what news outlets have reported.
The entire situation is very frustrating all over the US. It's really a mess here in North Carolina. Many of the rural counties are getting shortchanged on vaccine deliveries as a good portion of the allotments are being redirected to large scale vaccination events in large cities like Charlotte and Raleigh. I just read today that a portion of the 120,000 doses that were allocated to our State will be redirected to Charlotte this coming week. They just vaccinated 16000 in Charlotte over the weekend and expect another 20,000 or so to be vaccinated in another upcoming mega event. One of the Health Systems in the Triad area had to cancel 10,400 appointments this week because of this. The county that I live in, which is rural, depleted their allocation of vaccine last week and will not receive anything this week due to the re-allocation to larger cities. I signed up on line almost 2 weeks ago , however, new appointments will not be made until they know they will be receiving more vaccine. There are currently 2800 people on the waiting list as of a few days ago for people 65 and over. In addition to this, North Carolina had to toss out 1300 doses as some of the doses were not used in a timely manner after being taken out of the freezer. I have a friend who tried 4 separate centers in her rural county to try to schedule a shot for her mother who is 81. She finally found one after making several calls and holding on line for several hours but even then she can't get an appointment until early March. North Carolina is now scheduling those over 65 plus health care workers. At this rate, there is no telling when I will be able to get an appointment. so I wait and try to be patient.
My appointment is MAY 27th
That is insane, British. There appears to be no consistent rules. It shouldn't be this hard. I really feel that many states and certain cities within those states are changing the rules and criteria every day to work towards their advantage. It's like a power grab. So sad.
British, not sure I understand what you’re saying. Do you think the drug companies have delivered all of the vaccines NEEDED to the Federal system and they just aren’t being distributed? If that’s the case it is strictly a distribution issue. I doubt we have the needed 500M vaccines in a Federal warehouse, so we still have a production/procurement problem. I’m suggesting we have to find ways to get the 500M vaccines produced/procured QUICKER!
I don't remember if I posted this or sent it to someone via msg, but things are AFU in eastern NC too! We live in Beaufort Cty, but since the health dept here was getting minimal allocations and I could never get an appt online, we ended up calling Pitt Cty HD to get on a waitlist, which I did last week. Then I learned this past Sunday people were calling and getting appts from Vidant Health, who just stood up a parallel ("competing?") scheduling and vac center. They called Sunday morning and got scheduled right away for Tuesday. According to the Pitt Cty HD person I spoke with, who was unable to tell me where we were on the HD waitlist, it seems Vidant had more workers and was able to do more, but they were not really working off the Pitt Cty waitlist first. After hearing that I called Vidant. It took two attempts but I was lucky to get through, and even luckier to get two appts for Tuesday (tomorrow)!!! Yippee!
Once again the "let's just leave it to the states to figure it out" non-plan strikes again.
Dont forget, Both Pfizer and Moderna can’t send more to the Federal storage areas than they have the correct freezers to store them in, so if federal storage is not sending out what they have, what can the Pharmaceuticals companies do, slowdown production because they will also only have a finite storage area. There is more to this than meets the eye to think about, but in the richest country in the world with so many college educated people, you would think they could figure it out.
After reading that more and more vaccine doses are having to be destroyed because they have been at warm temps for too long, I just had a wild thought. If they are having trouble getting people to vaccine sites and it looks like doses will go to waste, why not use the TV breaking news, the emergency broadcast system, weather, amber, silver, etc. radio and text alerts to announce shots are available for anyone and everyone who arrives within a given time. Announce on the radio and TV now how it will work so everyone knows if and when invoked it will be first come first served. Wouldn't that be better than wasting doses?!?!?!
There seems to be a mish mash of all kinds of experiences across the country. It seems we must have lucked out or a bit more thought may have been put into our distribution. Last week when we became eligible, we went on line and were able to schedule the first shot for this past Saturday. I was quite impressed with how it went. Based on stories I have seen on the news I was expecting long lines and confusion. Here is a short synopsis on how it went.
We got the Moderna vaccine and today I read that they are working on a new booster shot for Covid variants. Apparently the shot protects against the new UK variant but only offers some protection against the new South Africa variant.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/25/covid-vaccine-moderna-working-on-covid-booster-shots-for-south-african-strain.html
Hopefully this is all sorted out soon. We are booked on the Tauck South Africa tour for November 2021.
I think the operative word for this year will be "Stay Tuned".
This whole mess depends on what state you are in. Some states do anyone over65, others do a sort of walk in basis. In MA, people over 75 will get the shot next month...but we have no idea from who. My hospital and my MD have no clue.
British, I live in neighboring Delaware County to you and understand that there was a Rite Aid sign up where folks just signed in on line and traveled over to get their shot. I have no idea on how the booster works. The sign up for this is now closed, My wife and I are currently on the sign up list, but we are not holding our breath for any kind of response. The distribution in Pennsylvania is a total mess.
Maybe, we'll get our shots by Fall.
Clarification. We are on the county sign up list, not Rite Aid.
Yes, we are on our county sign up list. The appointment we got was at a local independent pharmacy but not until May. That’s where ours 38 year old daughter in law got her shot. She just told them she was a speech therapist but did not have to show proof. We are pleased for her but she has not set foot in a school since March. She doesn’t even live in our Montgomery county. This morning the Montgomery county had a new headline... they will no longer vaccinate people who don’t live in the county but will honor anyone out of the county who has an appointment. Who would think PA would be in this position and now We have lost Rachel Levine who I thought was awesome.
PF606590 - I'm also in Mass and will be eligible in Phase 3. It looks like our Governor just tweeted that following: "We also announced a change to our distribution timeline: Adults 65+ have been moved up within Phase 2, to the second priority group (after adults 75+). Phase 2 begins next month."
Me B continues to be a cool cat, he’s paranoid about taking precautions, his latest has us wearing a paper mask under our usual cloth masks. He says we are doing all we can to avoid Covid and refuses to get worked up about all this....he’ll live for ever purely because he keeps chill
We are in Illinois and are on a waiting list for the vaccine in our county. Our daughter-in-law works in the medical field and has received both the first and second doses of the vaccine. Don't know how long we will have to wait, but just being registered and on the waiting list makes me feel like we have taken a step forward.
Oh my gosh, you are telling me COVID is not a hoax? Who knew? Who could have predicted that?
As a companion to my post in another thread- some of the experiences mentioned here, including the positive one related by JohnS reminded me of today's (and other visits) to the post office. I was mailing registered letters to Daniel Mahar, Arthur Tauck, Jr, etc.. I had to fill out two forms for each letter and the postal clerk had to ask questions, enter data into a computer, scan bar codes (many, many steps) all at a numbingly slow speed, while others in line were cooling their heals and likely burning holes in my back with their eyes.
What about completing all that stuff online at leisure at home with software or APP, then showing up at the post office where all you would need to do is hand the postal clerk the envelopes to weigh and verify the address, confirm payment, with the info he received from scanning a QR code on your phone. In and out in 30 seconds.
Such a system could work at inoculation centers as well- arrive with completed symptom questionnaire and legal forms just lacking a signature. We'll see how it goes for us tomorrow afternoon.
Alan - It may have taken longer than necessary because you sent Registered rather than Certified. Registered is typically used for items of value (such as diamonds or precious metals, for example). Every postal employee who touches it has to sign for it so a chain of custody is maintained from start to finish. When sending something that you want proof of delivery, Certified is the way to go. It's a lot cheaper than Registered. You can fill out the green card (and return receipt, if desired) before you get to the window. Then the clerk simply applies the bar code, scans it, and charges you the fee.
The problem is the sociopath that occupied the White House until recently only cared about himself and his lemmings only cared about pleasing him. Hopefully, Biden's people with get things in order soon. His new CDC director commented yesterday that she has no idea how much vaccine was in inventory.
It was a way to deflect responsibility and blame- No plan, just shove the vaccine to the states in no organized manner, without guidance and without financial assistance to distribute further and vaccinate. Then when there were the inevitable problems, it must because of the states! Look at what has happened to the post office- we are still seeing and suffering from the effects of what DeJoy did!
It sure would have made things easier if the one and done vaccine came out first.
Nope certified with return receipt. I haven't sent one of those in a long time and I didn't remember what was involved. Anyway I had to complete the "sent to" name and address on the Certified mail receipt, though not sure why because it was given to me. I just needed the trking # which is also on cash register tape. I had forgotten about the post card. In any case it still took me less time to fill out that stuff than it did for the postal clerk to process it all (in slow motion.) I'm glad it wasn't a busy day and they had two stations open.
Let’s not forget accountability. Private business would fry workers who are not able to preform their jobs . Government?????
I sent a small package to England recently, I filled the form out first and it still took the guy ages pushing computer buttons.... but hey, my friend received it quite quickly. I’m still getting.Christmas cards delivered here.
I just can’t believe how many on the forum have managed to get the vaccine, I find it more amazing than when so many on the forum got the stimulus money 😀
But in all seriousness, PA, apart from Philadelphia city, just don’t seem to have any vaccine, or very little. When we registered with our county, it said we would be contacted by email.. in England, everyone gets sent an appointment, they do not have to spend hours and days on the phone trying to find an appointment. No lines. If there is any vaccine left over, they have a list of people they can call who can be there in minutes. My friend there is helping vaccinate in my old town.
My daughter who lives in the next county to ours, told me that a friend of hers, a guy with diabetes who was told by his doctors he would die if he got Covid, got a phone call to get the vaccine at his local hospital. Apparently he cried his eyes out with relief, he has young kids.
Let's hope that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine (a one and done, with a reasonable temperature storage requirement) gets approved in the next couple of weeks.
Seems like this vaccine would be the perfect candidate to distribute to the CVS, Walgreens, etc. (all the places that normally give flu shots). Once these locations start giving shots I can realistically see an end in sight. Please let's hope this is sooner rather than later.
This is the type of planning and implementation that's necessary (as long as supply is available):
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/01/25/covid-colorado-first-mass-vaccination-event-coors-field-denver/
Sam, have you been able to get an appointment?
All the CVS stores around here have such small parking lots and there are not many Walgreens. I use one CVS for one of my meds. I hate it, it takes for ever inside, they are so slow, so I tried the drive thru last time, there were six cars in front of me and I was in line for 40 minutes. We need more large vaccination centers with different stations to take patient details, then the next would be for a quick physical to check fitness for the vaccine. Give the vaccine, send to next station to receive your card and batch number details, then a waiting station in case of anaphylactic shock and a health care worker armed with an epicenter or whatever. None of this is rocket science, I just don’t think there are many rocket scientists left in this country any more, after all, they are stopping foreigners coming into the country and so many of them were foreigners like in the pharmaceutical industry...whoops too political.
BKMD - That site looks wonderful. However, I'm sure it's located in the Denver area. Not much value for the people in Grand Junction or Durango, especially in winter. We have a similar thing in Glendale at the Cardinals football stadium. That's great if you live in the Phoenix area. For us in the SE part of the state that's a 2.5 hour drive each way (assuming no traffic), plus the wait time at the facility.
Let's just get the darn stuff (please hurry up with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine) rolled out to the CVS's and Walgreens. Then it's as simple as getting a flu shot.