📍Whoa—Pfizer says Trump admin has stopped giving destinations for “millions more doses sitting in our warehouses”. Trump HHS is allowing #COVID19 vaccines to *just sit there* unused. Is this—
1) Incompetence/negligence? 2) Throttling for 2nd dose? 3) Hoarding for other reason?
2) Multiple states are reporting cuts to their promised vaccine allotments. Still unclear why. Florida says it’s production delays but no other states are citing that reasons for their huge cuts google.com/amp/s/www.ajc.…
3) the cuts are pretty severe - from 30-50% reductions to promised vaccine deliveries. Weird. google.com/amp/s/nymag.co…
4) meanwhile here are where vaccinations will be done in Italy.
7) Technically this is the priority ranking. But every state can modify this a bit at their state’s own discretion.
8) Update—now the govt saying it was a DOD system that had the wrong numbers from before, and hence it looks like “cuts” when CDC announced new data. Hmmm maybe.
2) The lower virus sensitivity of new South Africa 🇿🇦 to some antibodies mean that previously adapted antibodies may not be as effective against this new variant. These mutations were not seen in new variants in the UK and Australia.
3) We do not yet know the how it could affect vaccines. But in some ways, this is very troubling.
Mkhize (South Africa health ministers believes the already developed vaccines should still be effective against 501.V2, but though likely, that is not guaranteed just yet.
2) “Professor Whitty said there was "no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments", but work was under way to confirm this.”
3) @JeremyFarrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said that its existence was still "worrying and a real cause for concern. Research is ongoing to understand more, but acting urgently now is critical.”
➡️”There is **no part of the UK & globally that should not be concerned**.”
BREAKING—Faced w/ new #SARSCoV2 mutation w/ "significantly faster" transmission rates, Boris Johnson tightened #COVID19 restrictions. 🇬🇧 Chief medical officer Chris Whitty said scientists consider this new strain to *move more quickly between people*. 🧵 washingtonpost.com/world/europe/c…
2) “New mutation, or variants, was first detected in southeast England in September and is becoming more prevalent in new cases.”
But there is no evidence at this time to suggest the new strain is more deadly or able to elude vaccines designed to defeat it.
3) “We have alerted the World Health Organization and are continuing to analyze the available data to improve our understanding,”
Tragic—a mother lost **both** her sister and her 13 year old son Peyton to #COVID19. The bereaved mom took the bold step to publicly share the chilling images of her son’s blood-spattered hospital room in a bid to urge Americans to take COVID seriously. the-sun.com/news/1995186/s…
2) “Stephanie Franek, 44, watched as doctors battled to save her son Peyton Baumgarth's life as the treatment to oxygenate his blood failed.
The youngster passed away just 6 days after developing symptoms of infection when he became extremely fatigued & his nail beds turned blue.
3) The mom-of-two endured another Covid loss when her sister Cyndi Crawford, 57, died five weeks after Peyton in the ICU.
Stephanie, a nurse from St Louis, Missouri, said: "One loss would have been heartbreaking alone but these two have completely shattered our hearts."