All About Vaccines

[Phoenixx9]

All citizens 16 and older here in Pennsylvania will be eligible for the vaccine on April 19th.

Yes, but I thought I heard the city of Philadelphia had to wait until May 1st.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Yes, but I thought I heard the city of Philadelphia had to wait until May 1st.

I think that's in regard to restrictions when it comes to indoor dining and whatnot. Still, I might be mistaken about that.

[Tami]

All citizens 16 and older here in Pennsylvania will be eligible for the vaccine on April 19th.

Biden moves deadline for all US adults to be eligible for Covid vaccine to April 19

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Biden moves deadline for all US adults to be eligible for Covid vaccine to April 19

Thanks for the clarification, Tami.

[Phoenixx9]

Biden moves deadline for all US adults to be eligible for Covid vaccine to April 19

It was originally May 1 now moved to April 19. That is great news for the Country!

[Tami]

Thanks for the clarification, Tami.

Actually, Gov Murphy of NJ made this announcement for the state a day before Biden made his for the country. Murphy claims that Biden got the idea from him or something like that. Don't know if he was joking about it or not.

Other states had also started to open up the vaccine distribution earlier, so this was bound to happen, just glad Biden decided to make it a National Mandate.

[anyajenkins]

Yeah, a bunch of the states had already opened up to everyone (here, it was on April 1) or were already planning on it.

[Jim Kelly]

Scheduled to get the jab later today. Will report back here later, on how it went. Fingers crossed.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Scheduled to get the jab later today. Will report back here later, on how it went. Fingers crossed.

Good luck!

[CaptCleghorn]

Scheduled to get the jab later today. Will report back here later, on how it went. Fingers crossed.

I also wish you the best.

[babyblob]

Scheduled to get the jab later today. Will report back here later, on how it went. Fingers crossed.

Good luck friend

[mortari]

First Pfizer shot down

[Jim Kelly]

Thanks for all the well wishes.

Got my first tasting of Astra Zeneca's yummy yummy dish. I have to go back in some weeks for a second helping.

I was expecting it wouldn't be until May that I could possibly get my shot--that's what was indicated on the B.C. government website. But the government is now allowing people over 55 to try out the Astra special, because it seems to have bad results for younger folks. I gather they found themselves with an over supply of this vaccine and made it more available. So about two weeks ago, I was seeing in the news that people were getting this. Yet on the government website, it didn't indicate that was the case.

It took me a lot of searching online and in the real world to get any useful information. Finally yesterday I emailed a pharmacy close by and within hours they emailed me back about getting in today for the vaccine.

Now the B.C. government has updated its COVID website with more current info. But it seems to me that for people above 55--especially those living alone, who might not be conversant with all the latest apps and social media--that's exactly the population that's least equipped to know where to go and how to get it and yet some of the people who are most vulnerable.

After getting the vaccine, there can be symptoms. I had to wait fifteen minutes in the pharmacy after getting it in case I had an allergic reaction. But I never felt anything. Flu-like symptoms can develop later on. You don't have any immunity for the first two weeks and you have to do all the things to keep safe as before. After two weeks you should build up an immunity to the virus, but you still need to get a second shot.

It's definitely a weight off to have got it. One less thing to worry about.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Thanks for all the well wishes.

Got my first tasting of Astra Zeneca's yummy yummy dish. I have to go back in some weeks for a second helping.

I was expecting it wouldn't be until May that I could possibly get my shot--that's what was indicated on the B.C. government website. But the government is now allowing people over 55 to try out the Astra special, because it seems to have bad results for younger folks. I gather they found themselves with an over supply of this vaccine and made it more available. So about two weeks ago, I was seeing in the news that people were getting this. Yet on the government website, it didn't indicate that was the case.

It took me a lot of searching online and in the real world to get any useful information. Finally yesterday I emailed a pharmacy close by and within hours they emailed me back about getting in today for the vaccine.

Now the B.C. government has updated its COVID website with more current info. But it seems to me that for people above 55--especially those living alone, who might not be conversant with all the latest apps and social media--that's exactly the population that's least equipped to know where to go and how to get it and yet some of the people who are most vulnerable.

After getting the vaccine, there can be symptoms. I had to wait fifteen minutes in the pharmacy after getting it in case I had an allergic reaction. But I never felt anything. Flu-like symptoms can develop later on. You don't have any immunity for the first two weeks and you have to do all the things to keep safe as before. After two weeks you should build up an immunity to the virus, but you still need to get a second shot.

It's definitely a weight off to have got it. One less thing to worry about.

Good for you, Jim! I hope all goes well until you get that "second helping".

[Tami]

Kati Kariko Helped Shield the World From the Coronavirus

Now Katalin Kariko, 66, known to colleagues as Kati, has emerged as one of the heroes of Covid-19 vaccine development. Her work, with her close collaborator, Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania, laid the foundation for the stunningly successful vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

For her entire career, Dr. Kariko has focused on messenger RNA, or mRNA — the genetic script that carries DNA instructions to each cell’s protein-making machinery. She was convinced mRNA could be used to instruct cells to make their own medicines, including vaccines.

But for many years her career at the University of Pennsylvania was fragile. She migrated from lab to lab, relying on one senior scientist after another to take her in. She never made more than $60,000 a year.

By all accounts intense and single-minded, Dr. Kariko lives for “the bench” — the spot in the lab where she works. She cares little for fame. “The bench is there, the science is good,” she shrugged in a recent interview. “Who cares?”

Dr. Weissman and Dr. Kariko then showed they could induce an animal — a monkey — to make a protein they had selected. In this case, they injected monkeys with mRNA for erythropoietin, a protein that stimulates the body to make red blood cells. The animals’ red blood cell counts soared.

The scientists thought the same method could be used to prompt the body to make any protein drug, like insulin or other hormones or some of the new diabetes drugs. Crucially, mRNA also could be used to make vaccines unlike any seen before.

Instead of injecting a piece of a virus into the body, doctors could inject mRNA that would instruct cells to briefly make that part of the virus.

“We talked to pharmaceutical companies and venture capitalists. No one cared,” Dr. Weissman said. “We were screaming a lot, but no one would listen.”

Eventually, though, two biotech companies took notice of the work: Moderna, in the United States, and BioNTech, in Germany. Pfizer partnered with BioNTech, and the two now help fund Dr. Weissman’s lab.

Soon clinical trials of an mRNA flu vaccine were underway, and there were efforts to build new vaccines against cytomegalovirus and the Zika virus, among others. Then came the coronavirus.

Researchers had known for 20 years that the crucial feature of any coronavirus is the spike protein sitting on its surface, which allows the virus to inject itself into human cells. It was a fat target for an mRNA vaccine.

Chinese scientists posted the genetic sequence of the virus ravaging Wuhan in January 2020, and researchers everywhere went to work. BioNTech designed its mRNA vaccine in hours; Moderna designed its in two days.

The idea for both vaccines was to introduce mRNA into the body that would briefly instruct human cells to produce the coronavirus’s spike protein. The immune system would see the protein, recognize it as alien, and learn to attack the coronavirus if it ever appeared in the body.