Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday voted to endorse Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine, clearing the way for FDA leaders to grant emergency use authorization amid the ongoing fight against COVID-19.

The vote was 22-0, with all committee members voting in favor of endorsing the jab for emergency use approval.

The vaccine candidate — derived from an adenovirus vector formula, unlike the vaccines created by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech which were created using mRNA technology — showed to be 66.9% effective against moderate-to-severe disease in a global trial two weeks post-vaccination, per the documents.

Source: FDA panel endorses Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine

Progress of COVID Inoculations

According to the coronavirus vaccine tracker, the U.S. has now administered 70.45 million vaccine doses with around 21.0% of the U.S. population vaccinated (with at least one dose). In the United States an average of 1.45 million doses were injected daily.

Globally 231.51 million vaccine doses have been given with the U.S., China and U.K. in the top three positions. India is slowly catching up. India is now administering nearly a half a million doses each day.

Source: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine 3rd to receive emergency use authorization

The Food and Drug Administration announced Saturday evening that it had issued an emergency use authorization for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, the third overall.

The FDA said tests on the Janssen Biotech Inc., vaccine was about 67% effective in preventing moderate to severe cases within 14 days after dosing and 66% effective against severe to critical cases after 28 days. Janssen is a pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine is also easier to store and has a longer shelf life at higher temperatures.

What Next????

As infections, hospitalizations and deaths decline across the country, people are clamoring to return to a life that resembles a modicum of normalcy, more specifically, pre-COVID normality.  

As we head into March, a third COVID-19 vaccine has received an Emergency Use Authorization and more than 40% of Americans over 65 years of age are vaccinated with at least one dose. Now is certainly the time to begin acknowledging our country is becoming less vulnerable to this pathogen. Because of such, we should determine mitigation strategies and risk of infection differently as more of the vulnerable become protected.

As Dr. Marty Makary, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, pointed out in a Wall Street Journal piece  recently, when you extrapolate documented COVID-19 infections with seroprevalence studies and other modeling, it is likely "about 55% of Americans have natural immunity."
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We should adapt public health measures to the background level of infection in the community. The percent of tests performed that are positive (percent positivity) is a critical measure illustrating how widespread transmission is in an area.   Most state re-openings were based on percent positivity levels beginning May 2020 after the World Health Organization  suggested  that if the percent positive remains below 5% for at least two weeks, reopening should occur. Fast forward to now, newly reported  Johns Hopkins  data shows the seven-day average percent positivity in the United States is 5.9%, with daily numbers dipping below 5%.   Currently over half of the U.S. states are reporting less than 5% positivity and soon many more are to follow. 

Once local percent positivity levels are consistently below 5%, mask mandates and indoor restrictions should be removed.  While we may see a small rise in cases following spring break, by May, the majority of the country should be below 5%.

The novel coronavirus that has been circulating the globe since January 2020 is likely to become endemic, meaning that it will be with us for years to come.  As with the flu and other endemic pathogens, we won’t get to an absolute zero risk reduction. The realistic goal is not to achieve an absolute, but rather to focus on mitigation efforts while moving forward. The more people who get vaccinated, the better positioned the country will be.

Source: Reaching immunity from coronavirus – here are things to watch as country moves forward

I believe, in general, the easier the access to tests, the lower the positivity percentage. But this is by no means absolute.

We had very restrictive access to tests in NYC before about mid-April. One had to actually have COVID symptoms, and fulfill at least 5 other criteria. The positivity rate in the NYC area in late March-early April was ABOVE 50%, AND CLOSE TO 75% in some areas.

Now, NYC administers about 100,000 tests a day, and has about a 4% positivity rate. It was close to 8% in early January, 2021, though.

Face Masks

A face mask is very important during the time of a Pandemic. But it must be the right face mask. In the case of the coronavirus COVID-19 it should be an N95. I wore an N95 for over a year during this pandemic. What it gave me was FREEDOM. The freedom to go where I wanted and do what I wanted away from home. This pandemic is primarily an indoor threat and not an outdoor threat. I would lump mass transit in the indoor category. I went shopping hundreds of times, spending the whole day shopping in most cases. I went to movie theaters many times and watched movies. I ate out at fine restaurants, except I only ate there if they had outdoor seating. So I was free as a bird and yet I did not contract the virus.

The main problem with this approach is after the pandemic materialized, N95s masks disappeared off store shelves and were not available for almost a years time.

Now that the pandemic is coming to a close, N95 mask are becoming available again. Even the one that I have my eye on called the Moldex 4200 N95 Airwave Respirator. One of the problems with wearing this type of face mask is that it restricts your airflow much more than most types of face masks such as surgical masks. N95s in general are basically hard to wear for any length of time. That is why I choose the Moldex 4200. By design it has a large surface area and is less restrictive.



So I just ordered 20 of these mask. Why? To store for the next Pandemic. There will always be a next Pandemic and the next one might even be nastier and scarier.

So I was caught with my pants down on this pandemic. Sure I had some N95s stored away. But I failed to store them properly. I stored them on a shelf in my garage for 10 years. They were so mildewed, my wife refused to wear them. Well that was on me. I spent a week reconditioning them in order to make them usable. How do you recondition a face mask. Well in my case I put a few drops of Tea Tree Oil in a plastic zip-lock bag and then inserted them into the bag and sealed it for a week. Then I removed the mask and stored them out in the sunlight for a couple days in the early spring.

The N95s are reusable provided you do not get them wet. I bought a UVC conditioning box that killed any surface biologicals after each use. As a result I was able to get over 2 months of intermittent use out of each of the N95s. And these masks gave me the FREEDOM to go where I wanted and do what I wanted. If I wanted to visit with my Grandkids, I visited with my grandkids.

Now this time I will not make the same mistake twice. I will store these new N95s properly. I will place them in a large mylar bag, put in an oxygen absorber and heat sealed them closed. As a result, they will be stored in an atmosphere of inert Nitrogen. Then I will place the bag in plastic 6 gallon bucket which will keep the rodents away. They should store easily for many decades and be readily available should I ever need them.

Opening Back Up

Thirty-five states have eased at least some restrictions -- such as restrictions on in-person learning and indoor dining -- since last year.

States who have rolled back some restrictions since 2020 include Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

Fifteen states, including Florida, Iowa and Missouri, have either lifted or never implemented statewide mask mandates, leaving it up to counties to implement the rules, with Montana being the latest state to do so.

Arkansas has lifted almost all of its restrictions, and a number of other states have already reopened completely, including Iowa, Missouri (with county-wide exceptions) and Florida.

Source: These are the states reopening, rolling back mask mandates amid coronavirus pandemic

Progress of COVID Inoculations

According to the coronavirus vaccine tracker, the U.S. has now administered 75.24 million vaccine doses with around 22.5% of the U.S. population vaccinated (with at least one dose). In the United States an average of 1.74 million doses were injected daily.

Globally 241.13 million vaccine doses have been given with the U.S., China and U.K. in the top three positions. India is slowly catching up. India is now administering nearly a half a million doses each day.

Source: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Progress of COVID Inoculations

According to the coronavirus vaccine tracker, the U.S. has now administered 82.57 million vaccine doses with around 24.7% of the U.S. population vaccinated (with at least one dose). In the United States an average of 2.04 million doses were injected daily.

Globally 279.87 million vaccine doses have been given with the U.S., China and U.K. in the top three positions. India will pass the U.K. in the next few days and enter third place. India is administering vaccines to almost twice as many people per day as the U.K.

Source: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Two Mask are Better than One?

Japanese supercomputer simulations showed that wearing two masks gave limited benefit in blocking viral spread compared with one properly fitted mask. The findings in part contradict recent recommendations from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that two masks were better than one at reducing a person's exposure to the coronavirus.

Researchers used the Fugaku supercomputer to model the flow of virus particles from people wearing different types and combinations of masks, according to a study released on Thursday by research giant Riken and Kobe University.

Using a single surgical-type mask, made of non-woven material, had 85% effectiveness in blocking particles when worn tightly around the nose and face. Adding a polyurethane mask on top boosted the effectiveness to just 89%.

Wearing two non-woven masks isn't useful because air resistance builds up and causes leakage around the edges. "The performance of double masking simply does not add up," wrote the researchers, led by Makoto Tsubokura. n general, professional grade N95 masks were the best in protecting against infection, followed by non-woven masks, cloth masks, and finally polyurethane types, the study showed.

Source: Japan supercomputer shows doubling masks offers little help preventing viral spread

Third wave here.

Excess deaths reached 100% at the peak of the second wave (country-wide), then stabilised at 50%. Awaiting more data.

Those Left Behind

In Kansas City, Missouri, 75-year-old Pat Brown knows she needs the vaccine because her asthma and diabetes put her at higher risk of serious COVID-19 complications. But Brown hasn’t attempted to schedule an appointment and didn’t even know if they were being offered in her area yet; she says she is too overwhelmed.

"I don’t have no car, and it’s hard for me to get around places. I just don’t like to go to clinics and have to wait because you have to wait so long," Brown said, adding that she is in constant pain because of spinal arthritis. "I couldn’t do it. My back would give out...and I don’t have the money to take a cab."

The pandemic has also closed senior centers, libraries and churches — all places where older Americans might remain visible in their communities and get information about the vaccine. And some public health departments at first relied on mass emails and text messages to alert residents they were eligible, thereby missing huge chunks of the senior population.

"Do you think everyone has internet access? Do you really think everyone has email?" Denise LaBuda, spokeswoman for the Council on Aging of Central Oregon, said. "We just don’t know where they all are. They have to raise their hand — and how do they raise their hand?"

Source: COVID-19 vaccine bypasses some older adults

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