"Certainly it's had a rocky beginning," @NIHDirector tells @washingtonpost Live of #covid19 vaccine rollout. "Maybe we shouldn't be too shocked that it didn't go like clockwork," but says "things are starting to pick up." Says 1M injections per day "is good benchmark to reach."
Collins declines to make a specific estimate for herd immunity, but says "let's go for 80-85%; that ought to be sufficient for achieving herd immunity."
"Talking in the neighborhood of 300M... getting immunized in the coming months."
(How do we do that w/o vaccinating kids?)
"There's a pretty clear path for getting where we need to be by summer," @NIHDirector tells #postlive of #covid19 vaccine rollout. Says processes are falling into place.
.@NIHDirector gives props to West Virginia for having the most initial success administering #covid19 vaccines in nursing homes.
.@NIHDirector: So far UK and South African variants don't appear "so different that the vaccines wouldn't work," or that "monoclonal antibodies wouldn't work against them." Though real experiments are ongoing to make sure that's the case, he says. #postlive
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.@NYGovCuomo : "If the UK spread catches on in NY, hospitalization rate goes up, hospital staff gets sick - then we have a real problem. Then we're at shutdown again."
The problem with capacity now is staff shortage, he says. "We have beds, we have equipment." Primarily nurses.
Cuomo: Very worried about UK strain. Still just 1 case confirmed in NY, but believe we have more. Notes spread in UK only took about 3 weeks.
Says this concern + staff shortages at hospitals is why such a push for faster vaccination of health-care workers.
Cuomo: "We have seen a dramatic increase" in performance of vaccinations.
CDC’s #ACIP just now reiterates OWS projections for #covid19 vaccine supply:
By end of Dec: enough for 20M people
End of Jan: enough for 30M more people
End of Feb: enough for 50M more people
(2 doses each)
We know Dec supply will stretch into 1st wk of Jan for administration
CDC’s #ACIP has not yet voted, but recs for groups next in line for #covid19 vaccines are people 75+ and frontline essential workers, including:
Firefighters, police
Teachers, support staff, daycare
Food & agriculture
Manufacturing
Corrections
Postal, public transit
Grocery store
CDC #ACIP’s considerations for next groups + how many in each for #covid19 vaccine prioritization (vote this afternoon):
Phase1a: healthcare workers, nursing home residents (24M)
1b: Frontline essential workers, 75+ (49M)
1c: 65-74, high-risk, other essential workers (129M)
.@NYGovCuomo asks Dr Fauci: When is 75-80% of population being vaccinated feasible?
Dr Fauci: Going to be entirely dependent on how well we do - how I do, you do - on getting message out about how important it is for people to get vaccinated. (1)
Dr Fauci to Cuomo on #covid19 vaccination timeline:
-By end of Dec, substantial proportion of health-care providers and people in nursing homes will be vaccinated
-By the time you get to beginning of April, you'll start to get people who have no high priority (2)
Dr Fauci: "In a full-court press," through April, May and June, by the time you get to the summer (w prime-boost doses & 7-10 days for immunity), by the "core of summer, end of summer, start of third quarter of 2021, we should be in good shape. That's what I'm hoping for." (3)
This appears to be an explainer of a change that happened in Pfizer's #covid19 vaccine supply expectations between Sept. 9 and Nov. 9, which flew under the radar because Pfizer reduced the 2020 supply expectation in the same release it reported 90% efficacy for the vaccine (1)
In Aug & Sept, Pfizer was forecasting up to 100m doses of its #covid19 vaccine by the end of 2020, and up to 1.3B doses by the end of 2021: (2)
Nov 9, when Pfizer reported its first phase 3 efficacy data, it included the new (reduced) forecast for supply: (Link here bc the dateline isn’t visible in this photo: pfizer.com/news/press-rel…) (3)
.@HallieJackson says Regeneron Chief Scientific Officer Dr George Yancopoulos coming up next with her on @MSNBC
@HallieJackson asks: What do you know about these 3 drugs together?
GDY: Our antibody cocktail essentially just mimics the normal immune system... theoretically there should not be any additional interactions with these other medications than you'd have with your own antibodies.
Yancopoulos also notes that bc Regeneron's antibody cocktail boosts the immune response, the concern about giving immunosuppressive dexamethasone earlier in course of disease may be lessened.