Vaccine week
I am currently in I Hate People mode--thank you, pandemic Christmas shopping--so let's talk about the week's good news: Not only has one vaccine started rolling out, but a second has been approved. Yay!
If my week hadn't been so mess-with-my-head-y, I probably would have mentioned this sooner. Vaccines started going out on Monday, and on Tuesday the first vaccines in Chicago were given at Loretto Hospital. If you've ever driven down the Eisenhower Expressway into the city, you've passed this hospital.
‘Historic Day': Chicago Gives First Coronavirus Vaccines to Health Care Workers
Published December 15, 2020 • Updated on December 15, 2020 at 1:21 pm
Five health care workers became the very first people in Chicago and across Illinois to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
Chicago administered the first doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to five health care workers on Tuesday in what city officials touted as an "historic" moment at Loretto Hospital on the city's West Side.
Dubbing the day "Vaccine Day" in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said "we have finally and at long last officially taken our first steps in our long road toward COVID vaccination."
Chicago's top doctor called it "the beginning of what will be the end of COVID-19 in Chicago."
"There is nothing I wanted more for Christmas than a vaccine that looked like this," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said after witnessing the first vaccinations.
She then highlighted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's evaluation process for the first vaccine from Pfizer, approved for emergency use last week, and noted that she felt "very confident in knowing that no steps for the safety process for approving a vaccine have been skipped."
City officials thanked both the workers who received the vaccine and those who administered it.
"They are forever now part of history in the city of Chicago and I think they recognize how important it is for them and for our city," Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot praised the first vaccinations but noted Tuesday that "widespread community distribution of the vaccine is still months away."
"While we can see light at the end of the tunnel, we are still in the tunnel," Lightfoot said, noting she was quoting an unnamed doctor. "We still have places in our city where this terrible virus is ravaging the body, mind and spirit of so many. We will be here unfortunately for months to come."
Hospitals in Chicago and across Illinois have been preparing to receive and administer the first doses to health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved emergency use of Pfizer's vaccine last week.
The first shipment of Pfizer's vaccine arrived in Illinois on Monday, with thousands of doses now being processed to go to hospitals across the state, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
Also Tuesday, the first doses to be administered outside of Chicago were given in Peoria, with Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike witnessing.
"This is a beginning for the state of Illinois," Pritzker said at the event.
Pritzker's office said the first shipment, delivered to the Illinois Strategic National Stockpile, contained approximately 43,000 doses of the vaccine.
Illinois officials said Chicago received a shipment from the federal government on Monday as well, one of five local health departments to receive direct shipments independent of the state.
The four others include: Cook County Department of Public Health, Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center, Madison County Health Department, and St. Clair County Health Department.
Arwady said the city expected to receive 23,400 doses of the vaccine this week and anticipated additional doses to be arriving over the next few days and continuing in the coming weeks. She also noted that the FDA was slated to review Moderna's vaccine in a few days, saying that she hoped approval of the second vaccine was less than a week away.
When it comes to who will get the vaccine first, Chicago and Illinois health officials have long said they would follow federal public health guidelines to first vaccinate health care workers on the frontlines of fighting the pandemic. The city has said there are roughly 400,000 health care workers in the city, including doctors, nurses and other hospital staff.
"We will shortly, just within the next couple of weeks, be expanding to long-term care facilities, both staff and residents there," Arwady said. "Then we're expecting by approximately the end of year late December, early January to start also moving into the space of outpatient health care providers."
After frontline health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities, the city says priority will be given to workers in essential and critical industries including emergency services personnel, people at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness due to underlying medical conditions and people ages 65 and older.
"We've already been at this for nearly a year and I think we're going to be at it for probably another year by the time we really get to the point where this is in the rearview mirror," Arwady said. "But it is within our power to keep this virus in control. You know the things that work - please continue to do them."
Why was Loretto Hospital chosen?
Chicago picks Loretto Hospital on West Side for ceremonial first COVID-19 vaccination
By Gregory Pratt and Stacy St. Clair
Chicago Tribune | Dec 14, 2020 at 1:56 PM
The Loretto Hospital, a 122-bed medical facility in the Austin community, will administer Chicago’s ceremonial first COVID-19 vaccination Tuesday, sources told the Tribune.
The community hospital, which treats all patients regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay, was chosen because of the care it has provided to communities hit hardest by the virus, sources familiar with the decision said.
Home to the first testing center on the West Side, Loretto staff have performed more than 18,000 tests, expanded an intensive care unit and created a 15-bed coronavirus ward to handle the onslaught of cases over the past 10 months.
Austin’s main ZIP code has among the highest death rates in the city, with 1 in every 468 residents killed by the virus, according to data maintained by the Chicago Department of Public Health. The neighborhood death rate is about 62% higher than that of the entire city, a reflection of the deadly consequences that underserved Black communities have endured for generations.
The hospital is at 92% capacity, with more than half of its ICU beds open.
[Article truncated]
On Friday, the vaccine came to what had been the epicenter of the US coronavirus universe back in January: Hoffman Estates, where the second-known US patient received care. (This is of interest to me because I knew the family of Dr. Jones from camp.)
Workers Who Cared for the First Identified Coronavirus Patient in Illinois Vaccinated
Published December 18, 2020 • Updated on December 18, 2020 at 6:18 pm
The doctor and nurses who cared for the very first identified COVID-19 patient in Illinois at the beginning of the pandemic were vaccinated against the coronavirus on Friday.
The vaccinations took place at 6:30 a.m. at AMITA Health St. Alexius Medical Center, the health care system said. Those who received the vaccine were infection disease specialist Dr. Lynwood Jones, who oversaw the first patient's treatment plans, as well as two nurses: Claire Antemann, who initially suspected the patient may have COVID-19, and Alyssa Miller, who assisted in caring for the patient.
“Last year we had a few patients here but now we have over 300-thousand deaths,” Lynwood said. So it’s a somber moment also it's a joy getting the vaccine.”
That first patient tested positive for coronavirus on Jan. 24 at AMITA Health St. Alexius Medical Center Hoffman Estates, becoming the first case to be identified in Illinois and the second in the U.S. That woman's spouse later became the first known person-to-person transmission of the virus in the nation.
“I mean back then we didn't have a lot of information it was very scary for the frontline workers as well as the general public,” said Antemann.
"The physicians, nurses, infection control specialists and other caregivers scrambled with the help of the CDC and IDPH to care for the patient and later her spouse," a statement from the hospital says. "Now, nearly a year later, these same caregivers are rolling up their sleeves to receive the COVID-19 vaccination so they can continue to practice what they’ve learned in treating COVID-19 positive patients."
Hospitals across the Chicago area, in Illinois and around the U.S. have been preparing to inoculate health care workers with Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for emergency use last week. The first doses of the vaccine were sent around the country beginning on Sunday, with shipments arriving at hospitals at staggered times throughout this week. The first vaccinations in the nation took place beginning Monday.
The first shipment of Pfizer's vaccine arrived in Illinois on Monday, with thousands of doses then processed to go to hospitals across the state, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
Pritzker's office said the first shipment, delivered to the Illinois Strategic National Stockpile, contained approximately 43,000 doses of the vaccine.
Chicago is slated to receive roughly 23,000 doses of the vaccine in the coming days, with more scheduled to arrive after the first wave. Those doses are part of the approximately 109,000 allotted to Illinois in the first round of shipments.
Pritzker said Wednesday that state and local health officials are preparing for smaller shipments of the coronavirus vaccine than previously anticipated in coming weeks, as federal officials have informed states that the original shipments of the treatment will be roughly cut in half.
Originally, an estimated 8.8 million coronavirus vaccine doses were set to be delivered to cities and states across the U.S., but that estimate has been cut in half for each of the next two weeks, Pritzker said.
“Per the direction of Operation Warp Speed’s General Perna, that estimate was tightened significantly down to 4.3 million doses shipped nationally next week. The following week, originally projected for another 8.8 million, is also now also scheduled to be 4.3 million,” Pritzker said.
As a result, the governor says that the move to cut the shipments in half will likely mean that the state and the city of Chicago will also see their own shipments halved as they begin the process of inoculating health care workers.
Pritzker and Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, say that the shipments of the vaccine will continue, but cautioned that projections on how much of the vaccine that the state can anticipate receiving will continue to fluctuate based on the latest information from the federal government.
As for questions about whether the distribution of the vaccine is on schedule, Pritzker emphasized that the state has worked with the Illinois Hospital Association and other groups on a schedule for the vaccine to be delivered to various areas, but that the four counties in the state that have already received the vaccine were shipped that treatment directly by the federal government.
“(The rollout) has been done in coordination with the Illinois Hospital Association and the local public health departments working with their hospitals,” Pritzker said. “The schedule has been set for some time now, and the deliveries have ensued.”
Ezike said that the vaccine is expected to be delivered to long-term care facilities for administration beginning on Dec. 28. Those vaccines will be administered through a partnership between Walgreens and CVS and the federal government.
Ezike did warn that decreased allocations could impact the rollout to skilled nursing facilities, but said that it is unclear at this time whether that impact will take place.
The first vaccinations in Chicago and in Illinois under the state's jurisdiction took place on Tuesday. Chicago administered the first doses of Pfizer's vaccine to five health care workers in what city officials touted as an "historic" moment at Loretto Hospital on the city's West Side.
The first doses to be administered outside of Chicago were given in Peoria, with Pritzker and Ezike witnessing the event that the governor called "a beginning" for the state.
Chicago and Illinois health officials have long said they would follow federal public health guidelines to first vaccinate health care workers on the frontlines of fighting the pandemic.
That's not to say everything has gone smoothly. There were reports of two people in Alaska who suffered adverse reactions to the vaccine, including one who had anaphylaxis. The second instance of adverse reactions that I'd heard happened in Libertyville yesterday, where four people were affected.
Suburban Hospital Temporarily Pauses Vaccinations ‘Out of Abundance of Caution' Following Adverse Reactions
By Becca Wood • Published December 18, 2020 • Updated on December 19, 2020 at 9:23 am
A suburban hospital temporarily suspended coronavirus vaccinations Friday after four team members experienced adverse reactions.
Since Thursday, Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville said four people who received the COVID-19 vaccine experienced tingling and elevated heartrate shortly after the injection.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we are temporarily pausing vaccinations at Condell, which will allow us time to better understand what may have caused these reactions," the health center said in a statement.
Advocate Aurora Health reminded that the four people who experienced the adverse reactions account for fewer than 0.15% of the approximately 3,000 individuals who have so far received vaccinations throughout their health system.
The health center said as of Friday, three team members are at home and "doing well," while one person is receiving additional treatment.
"Reactions are an expected side effect of vaccination. We are encouraged by our team members who are eager to get the vaccine to help protect themselves and others and bring an end to this pandemic," Advocate Aurora Health said.
Advocate Aurora Health has eight other vaccination locations in Illinois and three in Wisconsin, all of which are continuing vaccinations as planned.
The good news is that we now have a second approved vaccine, as the Moderna one was approved yesterday.
FDA Approves Second Covid Vaccine for Emergency Use as It Clears Moderna's for U.S. Distribution
By Berkeley Lovelace Jr., CNBC • Published December 18, 2020 • Updated on December 18, 2020 at 7:23 pm
--Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine is the second approved for use in the U.S.
--It will bolster the number of available doses, which states desperately need to fend off the pandemic.
--The U.S. plans to distribute roughly 5.9 million doses of Moderna's vaccine to 64 states, territories and major cities across the nation next week.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. The vaccine - the second approved for use in the U.S. behind Pfizer and BioNTech's - bolsters the U.S. supply of doses. The potentially lifesaving shots are desperately needed to fend off the pandemic that has taken more than 300,000 American lives and overwhelmed hospitals.
The FDA's emergency use authorization Friday approves the federal government's plan to distribute roughly 5.9 million doses of Moderna's vaccine to 64 states, territories and major cities across the nation next week.
"We likely will see shots in the arm by the very early part of next week, I would hope Monday or Tuesday," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on the "Today" show on Friday morning.
President Donald Trump said in a tweet: "Congratulations, the Moderna vaccine is now available!"
In addition to Moderna's vaccine, the U.S. also plans to send out 2 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine after 2.9 million doses were cleared for shipment this week, Gen. Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for the Operation Warp Speed vaccine project, said Monday. Both vaccines require two doses three to four weeks apart. Moderna's Covid vaccine is its first-ever FDA authorized product.
"With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day," FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement.
U.S. officials hope to vaccinate at least 20 million Americans - mostly front-line health-care workers and nursing home residents - by the end of the year. Initial doses will be limited as manufacturing ramps up, with officials predicting it will take months to immunize everyone in the U.S. who wants to be vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided states with an outline that recommends prioritizing health workers and nursing homes, but states can distribute the vaccine as they see fit.
Already, states are reporting confusion about vaccine plans. In recent days, state officials said they learned their second shipment of Pfizer's vaccine would be smaller than expected or delayed. In Florida, for example, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said the federal government told him the state would receive 205,000 Pfizer vaccine doses next week and 247,000 the following week. Those shipments are now on hold, DeSantis said at a press conference Tuesday, and it's unclear when they will arrive.
Moderna's vaccine, like Pfizer's, uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology. It's a new approach to vaccines that uses genetic material to provoke an immune response. Late-stage clinical trial data published last month shows Moderna's vaccine is more than 94% effective in preventing Covid, is safe and appears to fend off severe disease. To achieve maximum effectiveness, the vaccine requires two doses taken four weeks apart.
The FDA has indicated it would authorize a Covid-19 vaccine that's safe and at least 50% effective. The flu vaccine, by comparison, generally reduces people's risk of getting influenza by 40% to 60% compared with people who aren't inoculated, according to the CDC.
The FDA authorized Moderna's vaccine for people who are 18 years old and older. Such an authorization from the agency isn't the same as full approval, which requires more data and can typically take several months longer. Moderna has submitted only two months of follow-up safety data. The agency usually requires six months for full approval and can always revoke an EUA for a drug if it doesn't work as intended or proves to be unsafe. The FDA approved the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 in March, only to revoke it in June after additional data showed it provided "no evidence of benefit" in coronavirus patients.
The FDA's announcement comes after a key agency advisory panel on Thursday voted 20-0 with one abstention to recommend the vaccine for emergency use. The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee plays a key role in approving flu and other vaccines in the U.S., verifying the shots are safe for public use. While the FDA doesn't have to follow the advisory committee's recommendation, it often does.
Prior to the vote, some members of the committee stressed that their endorsement of Moderna's vaccine was not for a full FDA approval, reiterating that the agency will still need to review more data on safety and effectiveness.
At the meeting, outside medical experts asked the agency about allergic reactions reported in two Alaskan health-care workers who took Pfizer's vaccine. Doran Fink, deputy director of FDA's division of vaccines and related products applications, said the agency is looking into the issue.
"As we continue to investigate and evaluate the data, we will consider whether additional recommendations need to be made," he said. "At this point, we don't have enough data to make a definitive recommendation one way or the other."
Fatigue, headaches and muscle pain are the most common side effects from Moderna's vaccine, along with some rare symptoms such as intractable nausea or vomiting and facial swelling that are likely triggered by the shots, according to the FDA. Some side effects were hard to shake, though most resolved within a week, the FDA said.
The FDA said that, though it is not necessarily a side effect, it recommends monitoring people who get Pfizer's or Moderna's vaccine shots for possible cases of Bell's palsy, a condition that causes sudden freezing or weakness in facial muscles. The agency also noted a higher prevalence of lymphadenopathy, a disease that can produce swollen or enlarged lymph nodes, in Pfizer's and Moderna's trials in the vaccine group compared with the placebo groups.
Moderna has said its vaccine remains stable at 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a standard home or medical refrigerator, for up to 30 days. It can be stored for up to six months at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. By comparison, Pfizer's vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
The federal government announced last week that it will purchase an additional 100 million doses of Moderna's vaccine. The U.S. entered into an agreement with Moderna in August to acquire 100 million doses for about $1.5 billion. Moderna said that month it was charging $32 to $37 per dose for its vaccine for some customers, under cheaper "pandemic pricing." The company said it was in discussion for larger volume agreements that will have a lower price.
- CNBC's Noah Higgins-Dunn and Will Feuer contributed to this report.
Why is all of this big news? The US hit 300,000 deaths this week. As of this posting, here are the numbers from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center:
Global Confirmed: 76,205,370
Global Deaths: 1,683,967
U.S. Confirmed: 17,632,057
U.S. Deaths: 316,022
My dad watches a lot of CNN and MSNBC, and this morning one of them said it's possible we could reach 500,000 deaths by May. Now that we have two vaccines, perhaps this number will not happen.
If my week hadn't been so mess-with-my-head-y, I probably would have mentioned this sooner. Vaccines started going out on Monday, and on Tuesday the first vaccines in Chicago were given at Loretto Hospital. If you've ever driven down the Eisenhower Expressway into the city, you've passed this hospital.
‘Historic Day': Chicago Gives First Coronavirus Vaccines to Health Care Workers
Published December 15, 2020 • Updated on December 15, 2020 at 1:21 pm
Five health care workers became the very first people in Chicago and across Illinois to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
Chicago administered the first doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to five health care workers on Tuesday in what city officials touted as an "historic" moment at Loretto Hospital on the city's West Side.
Dubbing the day "Vaccine Day" in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said "we have finally and at long last officially taken our first steps in our long road toward COVID vaccination."
Chicago's top doctor called it "the beginning of what will be the end of COVID-19 in Chicago."
"There is nothing I wanted more for Christmas than a vaccine that looked like this," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said after witnessing the first vaccinations.
She then highlighted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's evaluation process for the first vaccine from Pfizer, approved for emergency use last week, and noted that she felt "very confident in knowing that no steps for the safety process for approving a vaccine have been skipped."
City officials thanked both the workers who received the vaccine and those who administered it.
"They are forever now part of history in the city of Chicago and I think they recognize how important it is for them and for our city," Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot praised the first vaccinations but noted Tuesday that "widespread community distribution of the vaccine is still months away."
"While we can see light at the end of the tunnel, we are still in the tunnel," Lightfoot said, noting she was quoting an unnamed doctor. "We still have places in our city where this terrible virus is ravaging the body, mind and spirit of so many. We will be here unfortunately for months to come."
Hospitals in Chicago and across Illinois have been preparing to receive and administer the first doses to health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved emergency use of Pfizer's vaccine last week.
The first shipment of Pfizer's vaccine arrived in Illinois on Monday, with thousands of doses now being processed to go to hospitals across the state, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
Also Tuesday, the first doses to be administered outside of Chicago were given in Peoria, with Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike witnessing.
"This is a beginning for the state of Illinois," Pritzker said at the event.
Pritzker's office said the first shipment, delivered to the Illinois Strategic National Stockpile, contained approximately 43,000 doses of the vaccine.
Illinois officials said Chicago received a shipment from the federal government on Monday as well, one of five local health departments to receive direct shipments independent of the state.
The four others include: Cook County Department of Public Health, Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center, Madison County Health Department, and St. Clair County Health Department.
Arwady said the city expected to receive 23,400 doses of the vaccine this week and anticipated additional doses to be arriving over the next few days and continuing in the coming weeks. She also noted that the FDA was slated to review Moderna's vaccine in a few days, saying that she hoped approval of the second vaccine was less than a week away.
When it comes to who will get the vaccine first, Chicago and Illinois health officials have long said they would follow federal public health guidelines to first vaccinate health care workers on the frontlines of fighting the pandemic. The city has said there are roughly 400,000 health care workers in the city, including doctors, nurses and other hospital staff.
"We will shortly, just within the next couple of weeks, be expanding to long-term care facilities, both staff and residents there," Arwady said. "Then we're expecting by approximately the end of year late December, early January to start also moving into the space of outpatient health care providers."
After frontline health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities, the city says priority will be given to workers in essential and critical industries including emergency services personnel, people at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness due to underlying medical conditions and people ages 65 and older.
"We've already been at this for nearly a year and I think we're going to be at it for probably another year by the time we really get to the point where this is in the rearview mirror," Arwady said. "But it is within our power to keep this virus in control. You know the things that work - please continue to do them."
Why was Loretto Hospital chosen?
Chicago picks Loretto Hospital on West Side for ceremonial first COVID-19 vaccination
By Gregory Pratt and Stacy St. Clair
Chicago Tribune | Dec 14, 2020 at 1:56 PM
The Loretto Hospital, a 122-bed medical facility in the Austin community, will administer Chicago’s ceremonial first COVID-19 vaccination Tuesday, sources told the Tribune.
The community hospital, which treats all patients regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay, was chosen because of the care it has provided to communities hit hardest by the virus, sources familiar with the decision said.
Home to the first testing center on the West Side, Loretto staff have performed more than 18,000 tests, expanded an intensive care unit and created a 15-bed coronavirus ward to handle the onslaught of cases over the past 10 months.
Austin’s main ZIP code has among the highest death rates in the city, with 1 in every 468 residents killed by the virus, according to data maintained by the Chicago Department of Public Health. The neighborhood death rate is about 62% higher than that of the entire city, a reflection of the deadly consequences that underserved Black communities have endured for generations.
The hospital is at 92% capacity, with more than half of its ICU beds open.
[Article truncated]
On Friday, the vaccine came to what had been the epicenter of the US coronavirus universe back in January: Hoffman Estates, where the second-known US patient received care. (This is of interest to me because I knew the family of Dr. Jones from camp.)
Workers Who Cared for the First Identified Coronavirus Patient in Illinois Vaccinated
Published December 18, 2020 • Updated on December 18, 2020 at 6:18 pm
The doctor and nurses who cared for the very first identified COVID-19 patient in Illinois at the beginning of the pandemic were vaccinated against the coronavirus on Friday.
The vaccinations took place at 6:30 a.m. at AMITA Health St. Alexius Medical Center, the health care system said. Those who received the vaccine were infection disease specialist Dr. Lynwood Jones, who oversaw the first patient's treatment plans, as well as two nurses: Claire Antemann, who initially suspected the patient may have COVID-19, and Alyssa Miller, who assisted in caring for the patient.
“Last year we had a few patients here but now we have over 300-thousand deaths,” Lynwood said. So it’s a somber moment also it's a joy getting the vaccine.”
That first patient tested positive for coronavirus on Jan. 24 at AMITA Health St. Alexius Medical Center Hoffman Estates, becoming the first case to be identified in Illinois and the second in the U.S. That woman's spouse later became the first known person-to-person transmission of the virus in the nation.
“I mean back then we didn't have a lot of information it was very scary for the frontline workers as well as the general public,” said Antemann.
"The physicians, nurses, infection control specialists and other caregivers scrambled with the help of the CDC and IDPH to care for the patient and later her spouse," a statement from the hospital says. "Now, nearly a year later, these same caregivers are rolling up their sleeves to receive the COVID-19 vaccination so they can continue to practice what they’ve learned in treating COVID-19 positive patients."
Hospitals across the Chicago area, in Illinois and around the U.S. have been preparing to inoculate health care workers with Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for emergency use last week. The first doses of the vaccine were sent around the country beginning on Sunday, with shipments arriving at hospitals at staggered times throughout this week. The first vaccinations in the nation took place beginning Monday.
The first shipment of Pfizer's vaccine arrived in Illinois on Monday, with thousands of doses then processed to go to hospitals across the state, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
Pritzker's office said the first shipment, delivered to the Illinois Strategic National Stockpile, contained approximately 43,000 doses of the vaccine.
Chicago is slated to receive roughly 23,000 doses of the vaccine in the coming days, with more scheduled to arrive after the first wave. Those doses are part of the approximately 109,000 allotted to Illinois in the first round of shipments.
Pritzker said Wednesday that state and local health officials are preparing for smaller shipments of the coronavirus vaccine than previously anticipated in coming weeks, as federal officials have informed states that the original shipments of the treatment will be roughly cut in half.
Originally, an estimated 8.8 million coronavirus vaccine doses were set to be delivered to cities and states across the U.S., but that estimate has been cut in half for each of the next two weeks, Pritzker said.
“Per the direction of Operation Warp Speed’s General Perna, that estimate was tightened significantly down to 4.3 million doses shipped nationally next week. The following week, originally projected for another 8.8 million, is also now also scheduled to be 4.3 million,” Pritzker said.
As a result, the governor says that the move to cut the shipments in half will likely mean that the state and the city of Chicago will also see their own shipments halved as they begin the process of inoculating health care workers.
Pritzker and Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, say that the shipments of the vaccine will continue, but cautioned that projections on how much of the vaccine that the state can anticipate receiving will continue to fluctuate based on the latest information from the federal government.
As for questions about whether the distribution of the vaccine is on schedule, Pritzker emphasized that the state has worked with the Illinois Hospital Association and other groups on a schedule for the vaccine to be delivered to various areas, but that the four counties in the state that have already received the vaccine were shipped that treatment directly by the federal government.
“(The rollout) has been done in coordination with the Illinois Hospital Association and the local public health departments working with their hospitals,” Pritzker said. “The schedule has been set for some time now, and the deliveries have ensued.”
Ezike said that the vaccine is expected to be delivered to long-term care facilities for administration beginning on Dec. 28. Those vaccines will be administered through a partnership between Walgreens and CVS and the federal government.
Ezike did warn that decreased allocations could impact the rollout to skilled nursing facilities, but said that it is unclear at this time whether that impact will take place.
The first vaccinations in Chicago and in Illinois under the state's jurisdiction took place on Tuesday. Chicago administered the first doses of Pfizer's vaccine to five health care workers in what city officials touted as an "historic" moment at Loretto Hospital on the city's West Side.
The first doses to be administered outside of Chicago were given in Peoria, with Pritzker and Ezike witnessing the event that the governor called "a beginning" for the state.
Chicago and Illinois health officials have long said they would follow federal public health guidelines to first vaccinate health care workers on the frontlines of fighting the pandemic.
That's not to say everything has gone smoothly. There were reports of two people in Alaska who suffered adverse reactions to the vaccine, including one who had anaphylaxis. The second instance of adverse reactions that I'd heard happened in Libertyville yesterday, where four people were affected.
Suburban Hospital Temporarily Pauses Vaccinations ‘Out of Abundance of Caution' Following Adverse Reactions
By Becca Wood • Published December 18, 2020 • Updated on December 19, 2020 at 9:23 am
A suburban hospital temporarily suspended coronavirus vaccinations Friday after four team members experienced adverse reactions.
Since Thursday, Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville said four people who received the COVID-19 vaccine experienced tingling and elevated heartrate shortly after the injection.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we are temporarily pausing vaccinations at Condell, which will allow us time to better understand what may have caused these reactions," the health center said in a statement.
Advocate Aurora Health reminded that the four people who experienced the adverse reactions account for fewer than 0.15% of the approximately 3,000 individuals who have so far received vaccinations throughout their health system.
The health center said as of Friday, three team members are at home and "doing well," while one person is receiving additional treatment.
"Reactions are an expected side effect of vaccination. We are encouraged by our team members who are eager to get the vaccine to help protect themselves and others and bring an end to this pandemic," Advocate Aurora Health said.
Advocate Aurora Health has eight other vaccination locations in Illinois and three in Wisconsin, all of which are continuing vaccinations as planned.
The good news is that we now have a second approved vaccine, as the Moderna one was approved yesterday.
FDA Approves Second Covid Vaccine for Emergency Use as It Clears Moderna's for U.S. Distribution
By Berkeley Lovelace Jr., CNBC • Published December 18, 2020 • Updated on December 18, 2020 at 7:23 pm
--Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine is the second approved for use in the U.S.
--It will bolster the number of available doses, which states desperately need to fend off the pandemic.
--The U.S. plans to distribute roughly 5.9 million doses of Moderna's vaccine to 64 states, territories and major cities across the nation next week.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. The vaccine - the second approved for use in the U.S. behind Pfizer and BioNTech's - bolsters the U.S. supply of doses. The potentially lifesaving shots are desperately needed to fend off the pandemic that has taken more than 300,000 American lives and overwhelmed hospitals.
The FDA's emergency use authorization Friday approves the federal government's plan to distribute roughly 5.9 million doses of Moderna's vaccine to 64 states, territories and major cities across the nation next week.
"We likely will see shots in the arm by the very early part of next week, I would hope Monday or Tuesday," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on the "Today" show on Friday morning.
President Donald Trump said in a tweet: "Congratulations, the Moderna vaccine is now available!"
In addition to Moderna's vaccine, the U.S. also plans to send out 2 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine after 2.9 million doses were cleared for shipment this week, Gen. Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for the Operation Warp Speed vaccine project, said Monday. Both vaccines require two doses three to four weeks apart. Moderna's Covid vaccine is its first-ever FDA authorized product.
"With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day," FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement.
U.S. officials hope to vaccinate at least 20 million Americans - mostly front-line health-care workers and nursing home residents - by the end of the year. Initial doses will be limited as manufacturing ramps up, with officials predicting it will take months to immunize everyone in the U.S. who wants to be vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided states with an outline that recommends prioritizing health workers and nursing homes, but states can distribute the vaccine as they see fit.
Already, states are reporting confusion about vaccine plans. In recent days, state officials said they learned their second shipment of Pfizer's vaccine would be smaller than expected or delayed. In Florida, for example, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said the federal government told him the state would receive 205,000 Pfizer vaccine doses next week and 247,000 the following week. Those shipments are now on hold, DeSantis said at a press conference Tuesday, and it's unclear when they will arrive.
Moderna's vaccine, like Pfizer's, uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology. It's a new approach to vaccines that uses genetic material to provoke an immune response. Late-stage clinical trial data published last month shows Moderna's vaccine is more than 94% effective in preventing Covid, is safe and appears to fend off severe disease. To achieve maximum effectiveness, the vaccine requires two doses taken four weeks apart.
The FDA has indicated it would authorize a Covid-19 vaccine that's safe and at least 50% effective. The flu vaccine, by comparison, generally reduces people's risk of getting influenza by 40% to 60% compared with people who aren't inoculated, according to the CDC.
The FDA authorized Moderna's vaccine for people who are 18 years old and older. Such an authorization from the agency isn't the same as full approval, which requires more data and can typically take several months longer. Moderna has submitted only two months of follow-up safety data. The agency usually requires six months for full approval and can always revoke an EUA for a drug if it doesn't work as intended or proves to be unsafe. The FDA approved the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 in March, only to revoke it in June after additional data showed it provided "no evidence of benefit" in coronavirus patients.
The FDA's announcement comes after a key agency advisory panel on Thursday voted 20-0 with one abstention to recommend the vaccine for emergency use. The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee plays a key role in approving flu and other vaccines in the U.S., verifying the shots are safe for public use. While the FDA doesn't have to follow the advisory committee's recommendation, it often does.
Prior to the vote, some members of the committee stressed that their endorsement of Moderna's vaccine was not for a full FDA approval, reiterating that the agency will still need to review more data on safety and effectiveness.
At the meeting, outside medical experts asked the agency about allergic reactions reported in two Alaskan health-care workers who took Pfizer's vaccine. Doran Fink, deputy director of FDA's division of vaccines and related products applications, said the agency is looking into the issue.
"As we continue to investigate and evaluate the data, we will consider whether additional recommendations need to be made," he said. "At this point, we don't have enough data to make a definitive recommendation one way or the other."
Fatigue, headaches and muscle pain are the most common side effects from Moderna's vaccine, along with some rare symptoms such as intractable nausea or vomiting and facial swelling that are likely triggered by the shots, according to the FDA. Some side effects were hard to shake, though most resolved within a week, the FDA said.
The FDA said that, though it is not necessarily a side effect, it recommends monitoring people who get Pfizer's or Moderna's vaccine shots for possible cases of Bell's palsy, a condition that causes sudden freezing or weakness in facial muscles. The agency also noted a higher prevalence of lymphadenopathy, a disease that can produce swollen or enlarged lymph nodes, in Pfizer's and Moderna's trials in the vaccine group compared with the placebo groups.
Moderna has said its vaccine remains stable at 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a standard home or medical refrigerator, for up to 30 days. It can be stored for up to six months at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. By comparison, Pfizer's vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
The federal government announced last week that it will purchase an additional 100 million doses of Moderna's vaccine. The U.S. entered into an agreement with Moderna in August to acquire 100 million doses for about $1.5 billion. Moderna said that month it was charging $32 to $37 per dose for its vaccine for some customers, under cheaper "pandemic pricing." The company said it was in discussion for larger volume agreements that will have a lower price.
- CNBC's Noah Higgins-Dunn and Will Feuer contributed to this report.
Why is all of this big news? The US hit 300,000 deaths this week. As of this posting, here are the numbers from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center:
Global Confirmed: 76,205,370
Global Deaths: 1,683,967
U.S. Confirmed: 17,632,057
U.S. Deaths: 316,022
My dad watches a lot of CNN and MSNBC, and this morning one of them said it's possible we could reach 500,000 deaths by May. Now that we have two vaccines, perhaps this number will not happen.