All About Vaccines

[Amadeus Arkham]

Covid Rebounds in U.S. South, With Many Shunning Vaccines

Covid-19 transmission is accelerating in several poorly vaccinated states, primarily in the South plus Missouri and Utah, and more young people are turning up at hospitals. The data present the clearest sign of a rebound in the U.S. in months.

In Missouri, Arkansas and Utah, the seven-day average of hospital admissions with confirmed Covid-19 has increased more than 30% in the past two weeks, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. In Mississippi, the hospitalization rate is up 5% in the period.

The jump in hospitalization is particularly jarring among 18- to 29-year-olds in the outlier states.

Hospitalized Youth
Seven-day avg. new admissions with Covid-19 among 18-29

Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

An analysis by the genomics firm Helix suggests that the highly contagious delta variant in particular, which has prompted concern worldwide as it leads to new surges of Covid-19 across the globe, is spreading in undervaccinated pockets of the U.S.


Read more: Delta variant gains steam in undervaccinated U.S. counties


More from
U.S. to Miss Biden’s Target; Moderna Doses for EU: Virus Update
Covid-19 Cases Surge to Record in South African Economic Hub
U.K. Poised to Ease Travel Curbs for Fully Vaccinated in August
Biden Team Concedes Falling Short on July 4 Vaccine Target
The U.S. has made extraordinary progress in its vaccine push, giving at least one jab to more than 53% of the population. But all the states with mounting transmission trail the national average, and Mississippi has given a single jab to just 35%. Young people are less likely to be vaccinated than older groups.

In Arkansas, Missouri and Utah, reported Covid-19 cases mirror the concerning trends in hospitalizations. In other places -- namely, Mississippi -- they don’t. Testing has dropped off significantly, with the seven-day average nationwide plummeting 55% in the past three months, which makes case counts a less reliable indicator.

Most Covid-19 projections expect subdued transmission during the summer, thanks in part to the seasonal nature of the virus. But the so-called Sun Belt surge last year showed that many Southern states can remain vulnerable as hot summer days drive people indoors in search of air-conditioning.


Even for the worst-afflicted states, the situation is nowhere near as alarming as what residents survived as recently as February; absolute numbers of hospitalizations remain far lower. But the signs of an uptick come amid a jump in cases in the U.K. attributed to the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant.

[Tami]

People who weren't vaccinated account for nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., a study showed.

About 150 of 18,000+ COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people, about 0.8%: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said “nearly every death ... due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable.”

[WestPhillyPunisher]

People who weren't vaccinated account for nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., a study showed.

About 150 of 18,000+ COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people, about 0.8%: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said “nearly every death ... due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable.”

It blows my mind how people choose to take their chances with the virus rather than be vaccinated. Despite all the horror stories about victims who succumb to the virus, alone, separated from loved ones as life relentlessly ebbs away, and how even survivors are forever changed physically, emotionally and psychologically, and yet, people STILL refuse to get the shot. Okay, I can understand concern over the safety of the vaccine, but the virus is practically a death sentence, full stop.

[JackDaw]

It blows my mind how people choose to take their chances with the virus rather than be vaccinated. Despite all the horror stories about victims who succumb to the virus, alone, separated from loved ones as life relentlessly ebbs away, and how even survivors are forever changed physically, emotionally and psychologically, and yet, people STILL refuse to get the shot. Okay, I can understand concern over the safety of the vaccine, but the virus is practically a death sentence, full stop.

Yes.

I suppose no one gets out alive…but contracting the virus is a horrible way to go, fighting for breath.

There’s also a lot of evidence now that “long Covid” is a factor, even people who get fairly mild initial symptoms can have long term debilitating problems.

[Tami]

Yes.

I suppose no one gets out alive…but contracting the virus is a horrible way to go, fighting for breath.

There’s also a lot of evidence now that “long Covid” is a factor, even people who get fairly mild initial symptoms can have long term debilitating problems.

Some people, perhaps many people, are short-sighted with tunnel vision. They think in terms of what affects them personally and what affects them in the here and now. If they have been convinced that vaccines are 'dangerous 'unproven' 'racist/elitist or whatever, they won't believe in the danger of COVID and they won't believe that it will ever affect them.

Saw on the news this morning, a man who got COVID relatively recently/this year and within days needed a double lung transplant. He said that, prior to getting sick, he had the chance to get the vaccine but decided not to. Something he, obviously, now regrets. The only thing he can do is let others know that what happened to him could happen to others if they don't vaccinate.

Those states where vaccine hesitancy and denial are rampant, come, Autumn, they are going to see another wave of COVID hospitalizations and deaths.

[CTTT]

So, my wife and I have already been vaccinated. How does this Delta variant come into play with vaccinated vs. unvaccinated people? We are still wearing masks when we go out. But I'm starting to see a lot of places where people are not wearing masks. At the local pizza shop, everyone behind the counter are maskless. I'm not sure what to think at this point. Has there been progress de escalating the pandemic since the vaccine rollout or is it more like 2020? I'm hoping we see a little crack of light at the end of the tunnel

[Brian Cronin]

So, my wife and I have already been vaccinated. How does this Delta variant come into play with vaccinated vs. unvaccinated people? We are still wearing masks when we go out. But I'm starting to see a lot of places where people are not wearing masks. At the local pizza shop, everyone behind the counter are maskless. I'm not sure what to think at this point. Has there been progress de escalating the pandemic since the vaccine rollout or is it more like 2020? I'm hoping we see a little crack of light at the end of the tunnel

It's one of those things where it's hard to say DEFINITIVELY, but generally speaking, vaccinated people should handle the new variants well. So you'll most likely be fine. I'm not particularly worried about it myself, for instance, with my wife and I vaccinated.

[CTTT]

It's one of those things where it's hard to say DEFINITIVELY, but generally speaking, vaccinated people should handle the new variants well. So you'll most likely be fine. I'm not particularly worried about it myself, for instance, with my wife and I vaccinated.

Yeah and I was watching a Res game highlights and looked like the stadium was full with people

[JackDaw]

So, my wife and I have already been vaccinated. How does this Delta variant come into play with vaccinated vs. unvaccinated people? We are still wearing masks when we go out. But I'm starting to see a lot of places where people are not wearing masks. At the local pizza shop, everyone behind the counter are maskless. I'm not sure what to think at this point. Has there been progress de escalating the pandemic since the vaccine rollout or is it more like 2020? I'm hoping we see a little crack of light at the end of the tunnel

The figures quoted in UK tend to show for main vaccines we are using (Pfizer and Astra Zeneca) that they are effective against the Delta variant (indeed all variants identified so far), but you need both first and follow up injection for the level of protection to be really good.

Regs here in UK still require mask wearing for all adults (there are some exemptions for people with breathing disorders, etc). I think argument for doing this for fully vaccinated people is to protect other people. (A vaccinated person may contract virus, feel little or no ill effect, but still be a carrier for a short time. The “mantra” is “wear the mask to protect others”.)

[Tami]

As Parents Forbid Covid Shots, Defiant Teenagers Seek Ways to Get Them

Teenagers keep all sorts of secrets from their parents. Drinking. Sex. Lousy grades.

But the secret that Elizabeth, 17, a rising high-school senior from New York City, keeps from hers is new to the buffet of adolescent misdeeds. She doesn’t want her parents to know that she is vaccinated against Covid-19.

Her divorced parents have equal say over her health care. Although her mother strongly favors the vaccine, her father angrily opposes it and has threatened to sue her mother if Elizabeth gets the shot. Elizabeth is keeping her secret not only from her father, but also her mother, so her mom can have plausible deniability. (Elizabeth asked to be identified only by her middle name.)

The vaccination of children is crucial to achieving broad immunity to the coronavirus and returning to normal school and work routines. But though Covid vaccines have been authorized for children as young as 12, many parents, worried about side effects and frightened by the newness of the shots, have held off from permitting their children to get them.

A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only three in 10 parents of children between the ages of 12 through 17 intended to allow them to be vaccinated immediately. Many say they will wait for long-term safety data or the prod of a school mandate. But with many teenagers eager to get shots that they see as unlocking freedoms denied during the pandemic, tensions are crackling in homes in which parents are holding to a hard no.

Forty states require parental consent for vaccination of minors under 18, and Nebraska sets the age at 19. (Some states carve out exemptions for teenagers who are homeless or emancipated.) Now, because of the Covid crisis, some states and cities are seeking to relax medical consent rules, emulating statutes that permit minors to obtain the HPV vaccine, which prevents some cancers caused by a sexually transmitted virus.

Last fall, the District of Columbia Council voted to allow children as young as 11 to get recommended vaccines without parental consent. New Jersey and New York Legislatures have bills pending that would allow children as young as 14 to consent to vaccines; Minnesota has one that would permit some children as young as 12 to consent to Covid shots.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

As Parents Forbid Covid Shots, Defiant Teenagers Seek Ways to Get Them

You'd think parents would be more worried about the damn virus, NOT the vaccine. For parents willing to stop a bullet for their kids to refuse to get them vaccinated is beyond insane.

[Scott Taylor]

There is just a lot of misinformation and outright lies out there about the vaccines (and the virus, for that matter). To the point where many people won't mess with the vaccine, out of misplaced caution. Plus it became political somewhere along the way and people actually evangelize their own way of thinking about it.

Honestly I don't even know how to convince someone anymore. You can't use facts, people don't even try and think critically it seems. I know people who I care about who should really be getting the vaccine.

[Tami]

There is just a lot of misinformation and outright lies out there about the vaccines (and the virus, for that matter). To the point where many people won't mess with the vaccine, out of misplaced caution. Plus it became political somewhere along the way and people actually evangelize their own way of thinking about it.

Honestly I don't even know how to convince someone anymore. You can't use facts, people don't even try and think critically it seems. I know people who I care about who should really be getting the vaccine.

Starting today, if I ever find myself in a situation where I'm talking to an anti-masker/anti-vaxxer, I'll just tell them "Do what you want. You do know the risks, right?"

If they have any common sense, they will take that as a warning that they need to know the risks if they don't already. If they do, and they still won't protect themselves and their family, then there is nothing you can do.

[Amadeus Arkham]

Pfizer and Moderna Vaccines Likely to Produce Lasting Immunity, Study Finds

The vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna set off a persistent immune reaction in the body that may protect against the coronavirus for years, scientists reported on Monday.

The findings add to growing evidence that most people immunized with the mRNA vaccines may not need boosters, so long as the virus and its variants do not evolve much beyond their current forms — which is not guaranteed. People who recovered from Covid-19 before being vaccinated may not need boosters even if the virus does make a significant transformation.

“It’s a good sign for how durable our immunity is from this vaccine,” said Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature.

The study did not consider the coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, but Dr. Ellebedy said he expected the immune response to be less durable than that produced by mRNA

Dr. Ellebedy and his colleagues reported last month that in people who survived Covid-19, immune cells that recognize the virus lie quiescent in the bone marrow for at least eight months after infection. A study by another team indicated that so-called memory B cells continue to mature and strengthen for at least a year after infection.

Based on those findings, researchers suggested that immunity might last for years, possibly a lifetime, in people who were infected with the coronavirus and later vaccinated. But it was unclear whether vaccination alone might have a similarly long-lasting effect.

Dr. Ellebedy’s team sought to address that question by looking at the source of memory cells: the lymph nodes, where immune cells train to recognize and fight the virus.

After an infection or a vaccination, a specialized structure called the germinal center forms in lymph nodes. This structure is an elite school of sorts for B cells — a boot camp where they become increasingly sophisticated and learn to recognize a diverse set of viral genetic sequences.

That painstaking work makes this a “heroic study,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale. “This kind of careful time-course analysis in humans is very difficult to do.”

Dr. Ellebedy’s team found that 15 weeks after the first dose of vaccine, the germinal center was still highly active in all 14 of the participants, and that the number of memory cells that recognized the coronavirus had not declined.

“The fact that the reactions continued for almost four months after vaccination — that’s a very, very good sign,” Dr. Ellebedy said. Germinal centers typically peak one to two weeks after immunization, and then wane.

“Usually by four to six weeks, there’s not much left,” said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. But germinal centers stimulated by the mRNA vaccines are “still going, months into it, and not a lot of decline in most people.”

People who were infected with the coronavirus and then immunized see a major boost in their antibody levels, most likely because their memory B cells — which produce antibodies — had many months to evolve before vaccination.

The good news: A booster vaccine will probably have the same effect as prior infection in immunized people, Dr. Ellebedy said. “If you give them another chance to engage, they will have a massive response,” he said, referring to memory B cells.

In terms of bolstering the immune system, vaccination is “probably better” than recovering from the actual infection, he said. Other studies have suggested that the repertoire of memory B cells produced after vaccination is more diverse than that generated by infection, suggesting that the vaccines will protect better against variants than natural immunity alone.
Dr. Ellebedy said the results also suggested that these signs of persistent immune reaction might be caused by mRNA vaccines alone, as opposed to those made by more traditional means, like Johnson & Johnson’s.

There’s more to read in the link.

[Amadeus Arkham]