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Since the Biden administration has been in charge, we’ve seen a steady downturn in the number of new covid cases. Those trends have been due to increased restrictions, masking and of course vaccinations. However the CDC has recently noted that the case decreases have been stalling, and have warned that now is not the time to decrease restrictions. Many of us who are conscientious and trying to follow guides are so frustrated and ready for lockdown to be over. The good news is that vaccinations are coming for more of us. The Johnson and Johnson single dose vaccine was been approved by the FDA over the weekend for emergency use in the US! It requires only refrigeration and can more easily be shipped, stored and distributed. Here’s more on that from Reuters:
The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday authorized Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, beginning the rollout of millions of doses of a third effective vaccine that could reach Americans by early next week.
The announcement arrived at a critical moment, as the steep decline in coronavirus cases seems to have plateaued and millions of Americans are on waiting lists for shots.
Johnson & Johnson has pledged to provide the United States with 100 million doses by the end of June. When combined with the 600 million doses from the two-shot vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna slated to arrive by the end of July, there will be more than enough shots to cover any American adult who wants one.
But federal and state health officials are concerned that even with strong data to support it, some people may perceive Johnson & Johnson’s shot as an inferior option.
The new vaccine’s 72 percent efficacy rate in the U.S. clinical trial site — a number scientists have celebrated — falls short of the roughly 95 percent rate found in studies testing the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. Across all trial sites, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine also showed 85 percent efficacy against severe forms of Covid-19 and 100 percent efficacy against hospitalization and death.
The article goes on to quote Dr. Fauci, who said that we shouldn’t “get caught upon the number game, because it’s a really good vaccine, and what we need is as many good vaccines as possible.” Exactly. Also, it’s only one vaccination and it’s 100% effective against hospitalization and death. That’s amazing.
Kaiser sent me this tweet below by Nate Silver about the number of vaccines expected to be available soon. The numbers are looking good for vaccine availability and Biden will likely meet or exceed his promised goal of 100 million shots in 100 days. So far 14.6% of the population has received at least one dose. We need to reach 70 to 90 percent of the population to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity. It’s very hard to determine when that will happen given all the variables including restrictions lifting and the new variants. Experts also differ as to whether people who have been previously infected should count as immune.
We're really at an inflection point here.
Pfizer increasing deliveries to 14m/week by mid-March.
Moderna aiming to ramp up to 40m/month by April.
J&J (one dose) delivering 20m doses in March. https://t.co/RlOkFLsZVP
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 28, 2021
There is news that vaccines by AstraZeneca and Novavax will be coming up for approval in the US as well. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is currently available in Europe and was just approved for use in Canada. Novavax is expected to come up for approval as early as May. I will take whichever vaccine I can get the soonest, and would be so grateful to get the J&J vaccine. The more people we can get vaccinated and the more careful we take precautions the sooner we can get back to normal. I suspect it will be a different kind of normal, but I’m ok with that. Once I’m vaccinated and my friends are vaccinated I will stop wearing a mask one on one with people who are vaccinated whom I trust and with my family members. (Dr. Fauci says this is ok.) However I will still wear a mask to the store and to parties. I might not double mask and I won’t wear a visor too. Being vaccinated will afford me a level of protection that will allow me to relax in a way I haven’t in a while. I’m looking forward to so many things this year!
You can sign up to be notified when you’re eligible for a vaccine in your state through the tool on this page. You can find vaccines near you, depending on your eligibility, at vaccinefinder.org.
Photos credit: Avalon.red and Getty
I think the quote about Biden’s number of shots in 100 days may be a typo?
Agree. These days, NYC alone must deliver this number at a single vaccination site in a single day. ☺️
My husband is a teacher in Tennessee and got his first Pfizer vaccine on Sunday! So happy.
I got mine on Monday! Also a teacher! It was painless, then my arm was sore. I get shot number 2 in about 2 weeks. Can’t wait!
I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week and I feel so blessed that I was able to get it. I work in a daycare, which is a risk. I’m also 15 weeks pregnant with twins. I’ve gotten some side eyes about getting vaccinated while pregnant, but my OB recommended it and I trust the science.
my husband and I had our first pfizer shot last week. Doing as we are told!
I’ll take whatever shot I can get. I’m so excited to get the vaccine in general, lol. My parents are getting their second dose today and I’m so happy for them, but it was a total pain, my mom was spending hours a day on the computer and calling places to get the vaccines. Hopefully with the J&J that will make it a bit easier to get vaccines for people. I’m in group 3 so I’m way down the list, but I’m still excited about the prospect!
My husband and I qualify now through the state of Alabama under the transit workers and manufacturing and are getting ours in 2 weeks. We are both so excited.
While news about vaccines gives me hope, I am still fearful we will never get the virus under control.
So many people still go maskless. Just last night, I was at the laundromat. I wear a mask while inside and wait in my car while my clothes wash. I live in a state that has a mandate that masks must be worn inside businesses. Yet, there were several adults and children inside just hanging out without them.
I fear that even with vaccines, there will be sooo many variants, we may never get back to “normal”.
Sigh
I’m in a state that was hit very hard in the beginning, and still getting a couple thousand new cases a day. Two more people I know are recovering from it. And yesterday I saw people discussing where to hold parties, and someone saying they just threw their husband a big 40th birthday bash at a local hotel. WTF is wrong with people???
I got my first shot. I was scheduled for a few months out, but a bunch of local appointments opened up and I got one as they were rapidly booked. I feel a little guilty as I know there are still older people waiting, though I do have some risk factors. Fauci‘s advice has been if you can get it, get it, so I got it.
Around here I’ve heard if someone is very elderly or high risk, call Walmart pharmacies that are administering it, and they usually can get them in pretty quickly.
I haven’t seen my mom or stepdad since 2019, and they’re getting their second shots this week. They live in Florida. They haven’t been inside a *store* let alone a restaurant for a year, because half the population isn’t wearing masks at all. The relief I will feel is indescribable.
(My mom lost her older sister to cancer over Christmas & she just turned 60 last week — something her sister & I would have flown to FL to celebrate. It has been absolutely brutal to not be with her, and I am counting down to the day we’re all fully vaccinated. I’m also incredibly bitter about the people who have been traveling all along & the people who don’t think it’s their responsibility to get vaccinated. I know the failure is institutional, not individual, but I still take it so personally & I know some friendships are over for good.)
We couldn’t say goodbye to my aunt or be with each other after she died, and our story is just one of hundreds of thousands. Get. The. Vaccine.
One of my many jobs as a freelancer is to work with some very prominent doctors over zoom. One of the top surgeons in the US said that he’s done some covid lung transplants and they come out of the body like mush. If any celebitches are getting tired of this pandemic and getting lazy about precautions or are on the fence about the vaccine, keep that in the back of your head. For me hearing that was like a gut punch that we’ve got a long way to go and constant vigilance is still necessary. Be safe and get those shots when and where you can.
That’s terrifying.
An older woman told me the whole story of what covid did to her husband, and ultimately he died from kidney failure, and it was just brutal.
Woot! I’m in the J&J study! It’s an honor to contribute and incredibly gratifying to see this moment.
Im curious about the side effects from this one. I know it’s only one shot, and I would love to get it as I have POTS and the side effects can send me into a flare. Wondering if they are less since it’s only one shot?
I received the vaccine (not placebo) and I had arm soreness, fatigue, a low fever (100 F or so) and body aches. Sounds like a lot, big everything was really mild. The fatigue was the most severe of all symptoms — I slept like a baby!
I love this site and have learned so much coming here — particularly from the comments, like Chicken Tetrazzini’s above — but can we just cast our minds back to, say, 5 years ago when we came here for Hot Guy Fridays, and imagine telling ourselves that we’d be reading about vaccine updates here one day? So wild.
I’ve had both of mine from pfizer. I feel that in extremely lucky, I work at a pharmacy chain, we were sending pharmacists and techs to long term care facilities to give the vaccine, and at the end of the day, if they had any left over, was offered to us. Which I appreciate, because I am literally giving covid tests all day at work. I felt like hell after my second one, but it was only 2 days and better than dying from covid.