CDC Notifies States, Large Cities To Prepare For Vaccine Distribution As Soon As Late October

[Jonfw2]

My understanding is that they’re not participating in warp speed.

They didn't take a grant but they allowed the government to pre-pay for the vaccine to the tune of almost $2 billion. One could certainly argue that is participation.

 

[Jonfw2]

More good news...

Reduces hospitalization by 70%.

1 million doses this year, 88,000 being shipped right now.

Regeneron has also filed for EU for their similar drug.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fda-ap...monoclonal-antibody-drug-treatment-eli-lilly/

 

[godisney14]

They didn't take a grant but they allowed the government to pre-pay for the vaccine to the tune of almost $2 billion. One could certainly argue that is participation.

Who said the US government paid Pfizer $2 billion already?

Pfizer isn’t getting paid until the vaccine gets approval and the 100 million doses promised to the US are delivered.

 

[Jonfw2]

Who said the US government paid Pfizer $2 billion already?

Pfizer isn’t getting paid until the vaccine gets approval and the 100 million doses promised to the US are delivered.

You are correct- the money comes in after success, not upfront. Thank you for clarifying. My apologies.

 

[Suger Mag]

"The U.S. government will pay the companies $1.95 billion upon the receipt of the first 100 million doses, following FDA authorization or approval. The U.S. government also can acquire up to an additional 500 million doses. "

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-r...biontech-announce-agreement-us-government-600
in case anyone is curious...

 

[gwynne]

Who said the US government paid Pfizer $2 billion already?

Pfizer isn’t getting paid until the vaccine gets approval and the 100 million doses promised to the US are delivered.

Thank you for clarifying this. It's an important point.

 

[mousefan73]

So I have one comment and interesting news right now..
1. Not to get political but the US admin (regardless of who is in charge) had nothing to do with the development success of this vaccine.. Sure they supported it by committing to buying millions of doses, but we need to dig back YEARS to a certain German biotech company that was innovative, took risks AND got cash from the Germany government to develop this vaccine. This vaccine was years in the making ( started not as a Covid, but the technology was focused on other viruses). Pfizer only is responsible for production and distr... ( which is also a great task and responsibility- not demeaning them.).
2. Just learned the EU finally signed a contract with Pfizer for an initial 300 doses... the VERY VERY interesting point on why this contract just now got signed and took a while.. was one word LIABILITY, not COST. The EU was hung up on keeping their consumer protection laws.. that means if in the EU you get the vaccine and have severe adverse effects... You can sue. From my understanding this is not the case in the US.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

You can sue. From my understanding this is not the case in the US.

It's not so much that you can't sue, it's that with particular orders in place what you can sue for is very limited with very specific items laid out. With other vaccines there is a compensation fund federally funded for situations where you cannot sue but you qualify for compensation but I really don't know exactly how that will be folded in with COVID though it may very well already be accounted for.

 

[dvcgirl67]

My understanding is that they’re not participating in warp speed.

Correct.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Why is NOT participating in warp speed a big deal? Is it because of cost controls? As in, if a company is not a participating entity are they free to rake us over the coals? Is it a dig at the US? Can't quite figure out what the intended barb is for, but plainly there is intent of some kind because I wouldn't care enough to know if so much effort didn't go into it being said, it's weird.

 

[mom2rtk]

Why is NOT participating in warp speed a big deal? Is it because of cost controls? As in, if a company is not a participating entity are they free to rake us over the coals? Is it a dig at the US? Can't quite figure out what the intended barb is for, but plainly there is intent of some kind because I wouldn't care enough to know if so much effort didn't go into it being said, it's weird.

It has to do with who does (and who doesn't) get any credit for a potential success.

 

[dvcgirl67]

More good news...

Reduces hospitalization by 70%.

1 million doses this year, 88,000 being shipped right now.

Regeneron has also filed for EU for their similar drug.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fda-ap...monoclonal-antibody-drug-treatment-eli-lilly/

Hopefully they can get those 88K doses out *really* fast. Because Covid-19 is taking off at an exponential rate. We hit a record number of cases yesterday at 131K, and also hit record hospitalizations nationally at 61K. Some areas of the country are running out of ICU beds. We're heading into a dark period. II saw projections that we'll be at 200K cases a day and 2,000 deaths a day by early December. There's no national plan, never has been. We don't even hear from them on this anymore. Hopefully more states will do what is necessary to slow this down.

Here in NJ, we really spiked up yesterday to 3,800 cases a day which takes us back near the highs in the Spring. Hospitalizations are also beginning to take off in my state. Our Governor made a couple minor adjustments the other day.....no more bar seating inside restaurants, restaurants must close for indoor dining at 10pm....etc. But with these numbers taking off like that....if we don't do something now to slow this down, we're going to end up with overflowing ICUs and many more dead.

 

[Colleen27]

Pa has walk in testing without a doctors note, and has for some time now.

I think this is one of those things where there is what is officially announced and what actually happens. Because CA is supposed to be a really easy state in which to get tested but DD19 had a hard enough finding a testing site that she was feeling better and just didn't bother when she got sick in August (subsequent antibody testing via Red Cross blood donation points to it not being covid). For her, the problem was that they're relying heavily on drive thru testing in her area... and she doesn't have a car. The walk-in places she found wanted a doctor's referral.

And testing availability may also shift as infection patterns shift, because of availability concerns. For a while, it was really easy to get tested for any reason in my MI county. But since cases have soared past our spring peak, the bar to be tested just gets higher and higher - we're back to not testing asymptomatic people, even if they're a close primary contact of a confirmed positive. They're just told to self-quarantine for 14 days and seek testing if they develop symptoms. Right now, our school has a staff member in this position; her husband tested positive and is symptomatic, but she and her kids cannot get tested unless they develop symptoms, even though they all live under the same roof (which is the very definition of "close contact"). And I know she's concerned about coming back to school without being tested, because what if she contracts an asymptomatic case of the virus halfway through her quarantine? She could, theoretically, return to work while unknowingly contagious. But because we have so many cases in our area and because teachers and other ordinary people aren't high priority for testing resources, she can't get tested to rule out the possibility. We just have to have faith in the 14 day quarantine being good enough.

 

[North of Mouse]

The covid test is definitely free in NC - there's a drive through area not far from me with signs all over - not administered by a store. No prior registration - just drive through - so yes, it's actually happening.

 

[Jonfw2]

Why is NOT participating in warp speed a big deal? Is it because of cost controls? As in, if a company is not a participating entity are they free to rake us over the coals? Is it a dig at the US? Can't quite figure out what the intended barb is for, but plainly there is intent of some kind because I wouldn't care enough to know if so much effort didn't go into it being said, it's weird.

It's just to point out Trump didn't help them. That's it.

 

[Jonfw2]

New test appears far better at detecting past cases...this will be huge when it comes to determining who may not need the vaccine immediately...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/health/covid-new-test-t-cells/index.html

 

[sacall]

It's just to point out Trump didn't help them. That's it.

That was not the case at all, per the CEO, who was interviewed on Face the Nation in September. Here is a quote from that interview on why they didn't join Operation Warp Speed:

“The reason why I did it was because I wanted to liberate our scientists from any bureaucracy,” Bourla explained. “When you get money from someone that always comes with strings. They want to see how we are going to progress, what type of moves you are going to do. They want reports. I didn’t want to have any of that. I wanted them — basically I gave them an open checkbook so that they can worry only about scientific challenges, not anything else.”

“And also,” he added, “I wanted to keep Pfizer out of politics, by the way.”

 

[Jonfw2]

That was not the case at all, per the CEO, who was interviewed on Face the Nation in September. Here is a quote from that interview on why they didn't join Operation Warp Speed:

“The reason why I did it was because I wanted to liberate our scientists from any bureaucracy,” Bourla explained. “When you get money from someone that always comes with strings. They want to see how we are going to progress, what type of moves you are going to do. They want reports. I didn’t want to have any of that. I wanted them — basically I gave them an open checkbook so that they can worry only about scientific challenges, not anything else.”

“And also,” he added, “I wanted to keep Pfizer out of politics, by the way.”

That's fair- I was addressing more of the reason as to why people here have made it a major issue.

 

[NotUrsula]

FWIW, the good news about the Pfizer vaccine comes with a gotcha the size of a house: required storage temperature. For stable storage, the vaccine requires a freezer that can maintain at -80C. Those freezers are super-expensive and as rare as hen's teeth, and there are fewer than a dozen companies that have the capacity to make them. Distributing the vaccine safely and without excessive waste is going to be a huge challenge, especially since it is a 2-dose vaccine, and the second dose must be from the same mfr. as the first one. Pfizer has come up with a way to ship them in small batches, but the container is really small, requires dry ice (which has been difficult to source lately), and the countdown to spoilage starts the moment it goes into the container.

This article from about a month ago has a very good summary of the logistics problems inherent in distributing the vaccine: https://www.rollcall.com/2020/10/13/deep-freezers-and-dry-ice-for-pfizer-vaccine-may-face-shortages/
And this one: https://www.theguardian.com/busines...echs-vaccine-poses-global-logistics-challenge

It seems to me that what we will see is that getting vaccinated will require a set of appointments made well in advance, because every dose is going to need to be accounted for within a 5-10 day window between leaving the factory and entering the recipient's blood stream.

I think that even if you are in a priority category, actually getting this vaccine will be a lot like getting a ride time for ROTR: possible, but very difficult and time-consuming.

 

[Jonfw2]

FWIW, the good news about the Pfizer vaccine comes with a gotcha the size of a house: required storage temperature. For stable storage, the vaccine requires a freezer that can maintain at -80C. Those freezers are super-expensive and as rare as hen's teeth, and there are fewer than a dozen companies that have the capacity to make them. Distributing the vaccine safely and without excessive waste is going to be a huge challenge, especially since it is a 2-dose vaccine, and the second dose must be from the same mfr. as the first one. Pfizer has come up with a way to ship them in small batches, but the container is really small, requires dry ice (which has been difficult to source lately), and the countdown to spoilage starts the moment it goes into the container.

This article from about a month ago has a very good summary of the logistics problems inherent in distributing the vaccine: https://www.rollcall.com/2020/10/13/deep-freezers-and-dry-ice-for-pfizer-vaccine-may-face-shortages/
And this one: https://www.theguardian.com/busines...echs-vaccine-poses-global-logistics-challenge

It seems to me that what we will see is that getting vaccinated will require a set of appointments made well in advance, because every dose is going to need to be accounted for within a 5-10 day window between leaving the factory and entering the recipient's blood stream.

I think that even if you are in a priority category, actually getting this vaccine will be a lot like getting a ride time for ROTR: possible, but very difficult and time-consuming.

UPS and FedEx have both already said they have been building freezer facilities nationwide to prepare for this.