tvhasben Loc: Chattanooga, Tennessee

Here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, there are no shelter in place orders and while wearing a mask is mandated in our county, many pay no heed. I work at Lowe's and just as many unmasked as masked customers come through our doors. Our sales have been through the roof since back in March. Except for mask wearing, people gathering limitations and headlines in the paper about how many new cases and deaths from the virus you wouldn't know there is a pandemic here. We did start giving the vaccine to people over 75 this week at one site and there was an 8 - 10 hour wait and cars were backed up on the highway for 4 - 5 miles.

Canonuser Loc: UK and South Africa

The science actually supports this approach.

Garson Loc: Tampa, FL

I find the need to get out of the house, besides going to the supermarket. Florida winter is glorious for exploring local parks once or twice a week. Most of the museums in the Tampa Bay area also have safety protocols in place and only have a handful of visitors during the week when they open in the morning.

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Please provide some documentation of this.

Or read "Vaccinated but Sick with COVID-19" published online today here:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/90584?xid=nl_medpageexclusive_2021-01-08&eun=g12773d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MPTExclusives_010821&utm_term=NL_Gen_Int_InvestigateMD_Active

In case you can't access it, the short story is that a significant number of people have contracted Covid after receiving only the initial shot. The vaccine manufacturers, and the CDC, maintain that both doses are necessary.

There is no data that providing a single injection, with 50% efficacy, will adequately protect individuals or provide herd immunity.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

People carry this burden differently. One of many things to hate about all this is how we've sort of gotten used to it. When it gets back to normal, it will sure seem strange.

dancers Loc: melbourne.victoria, australia

all the shops here have santizer and wipes for trolley handles................we are SO careful............some shops even take one's temperature before admitting one.

Canisdirus

No sign that normal is coming back.
The virus continues to mutate.

ricardo00

I saw that in the news (I live in the US) and that the coffee they were carrying was considered "picnicking"! Lucky it looks like they may rescind these fines? I have been driving to places by myself to walk and photograph and so far haven't been bothered in the US. In fact, have felt very lucky that we have a number of nearby spots to go to and that my hobby, wildlife photography, seems to fit so well with the COVID isolation protocol.
PS. If the park I get to looks too crowded, I go on to another spot where I can walk by myself and enjoy the outdoors.

ricardo00

England has gone ahead and tried to immunized as many people as possible with the all the doses of vaccine that they have currently available. The hope is that a second dose (of either vaccine) will be produced in 3 to 6 weeks so people can get the second dose and maximum protection. So the question is, whether you are better off protecting say 1,000,000 people maximally (say by 95%) or 2,000,000 partially (say 50%)? And whether the companies will be able to get the second dose manufactured in time for the booster dose.
The MedPage article emphasizes that it takes time to get immunity and people need to still wear masks, wash their hands regularly etc even after one dose of vaccine.
Personally, I think it is better to get all the vaccine currently available out and injected into people then having it sit somewhere in the freezer though there is no documentation for such an approach and one could argue its merits. By sending it out to the states, it will leave it up to the states to make this decision.

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

One thing that has to be remembered is that the population density if car higher in the UK compared to the USA and we have had the vivid variant for longer than the US. Luckily we are rolling out two vaccines at the moment and soon to be free also we have NHS so our medical costs are zero compared to the US and the vaccine for us is free using know whether there is a cost for vaccination in the US

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

I understand your rationale. And assuming that 2 injections are 95% effective, and 1 injection is 50% effective, you could argue that 95% of 1 million definitely protected is greater than 50% of 2 million who are hopefully protected. But that assumes that a single injection is really protective.

My concern is that the "50% efficacy" after a single injection 1) is basically a coin toss as to whether or not an individual will develop antibodies; 2) if the antibodies that half those vaccinated develop are really protective (which the MedPageToday article brings into doubt); and 3) even if half the recipients get some protection, how long will it last. Long enough to contribute to herd immunity? There just is no data, only "educated guesses."

Add to this the logistical issues of procuring more doses and then connecting with people in a timely fashion to provide the second injection within the 21-28 day window in order for the vaccination sequence to work.

It looks like the UK has decided that delaying the second dose for 3 months is acceptable. It would be interesting to see the data to support this.

twhrider Loc: Indiana

My brother and sister in law had not left their house AT ALL since March until a few weeks ago. She became ill with a GI issue, so to try to take care of herself at home she consumed nothing but chicken broth for 3 weeks (and reportedly skimmed the fat from that, so basically just chicken flavored water). She became so weak she fell and couldn't get up. With her husband begging her to let him call an ambulance and her flat refusing for 24 hours because she was afraid if she left the house she'd get covid. He finally over ruled her and called 911. They were able to get her up and to a chair, and she refused to go to hospital. The paramedics kept telling her she seriously needed to go in. They finally put a glass of water on a table across the room and told her if she could get up and get it, they'd agree that she could stay home, otherwise she'd have to go in even against her will. She couldn't make it to the glass. She was in the hospital for a few days, IV fluids and support because she was so malnourished, I never have heard what the GI issue was...but at any rate she's doing better. But it just baffles me that she would have rather laid there and died on the floor of her home than risk covid by seeking medical attention. Perhaps we're not as careful as we could be...we mask and wash hands and distance, but we go out to dinner every week with dear friends of ours. We've gone on a few trips, but again try to avoid the more "peopley" areas.

ricardo00

The actual data on the protection from one dose of the Pfizer vaccine is in Fig. 3 of the published study of their vaccine:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577

In case this doesn't load for you, what they say is:

"Between the first dose and the second dose, 39 cases in the BNT162b2 group and 82 cases in the placebo group were observed, resulting in a vaccine efficacy of 52% (95% CI, 29.5 to 68.4) during this interval and indicating early protection by the vaccine, starting as soon as 12 days after the first dose"

We don't know how long protection lasts for the single dose but we also don't know how long the protection lasts after the two doses. We also don't know for sure how long it will take for the companies to scale up and get the second doses for those give the first shot. However, at least in California, things are pretty desperate, especially in Southern California. So without 100% certainty, one has to make the best guess of what to do. Luckily (maybe) we aren't the one's who will have to make this decision.

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Single dose vaccine efficacy of 52%.
Does this not mean that 52% of people given a single dose will have antibodies, and 48% will not? With the possibility that without the second dose, those 52% may have a shorter duration of protection?

So how does it make more sense to use 200M doses on 200M people knowing that at best only 100M will have antibodies, vs. using 200M on 100M people who nearly all will have optimal protection?

Like trying to halve the course of antibiotics just to say you gave medicine to more people. Seems political rather than scientific.

ricardo00

The 52% efficacy was calculated at a single time point, one could even argue that the protection will increase with time in the other half of individuals who only got the single dose. Some of the patients who got the vaccine may not have had a vigorous enough response. No one knows and it is impossible with the time constraints necessary to treat an ongoing pandemic to get more data. And again, the companies are ramping up production so it is even possible that there will be the second dose available by 3 to 6 weeks from the time the first dose was given. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is only a single dose and the original criteria for a successful vaccine was 50% efficacy, which is as good as many flu vaccines that are given and was achieved even with the single dose. And again, the 50% efficacy with a single shot of the Pfizer vaccine may be an underestimate since the immune response was first ramping up during this period (or it could be that it would be less). Since everyone in the study got the second dose at day 21, we don't know after 60 days what the efficacy would have been. To me, it is more a "calculated risk", not a political decision. But no data to support it.