Week 38 coronavirus update – vaccine distribution plans, antibodies, convalescent plasma, testing, and bear bile

The latest information on vaccine distribution

A quote from an article on MedPage Today:

The government has contracts for 100 million doses each of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, with the 200 million dose totals expected to be reached by spring of 2021.

That’s enough for the highest-risk groups including healthcare personnel, nursing home residents, essential workers, and the medically vulnerable — the “phase 1a/b/c” laid out by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

In those early months, the vaccines will be shipped to 64 jurisdictions — 50 states and the District of Columbia, eight territories, and five large urban health departments including New York City and Chicago, according to Jay Butler, MD, deputy director for infectious diseases at the CDC.

The allocation method will likely be pro rata based on the population of the jurisdiction, Butler said during the APHA/NAM briefing. Vaccination sites will vary widely, he said, but could include healthcare provider offices.

Essentially, it will take until the end of March, at the earliest, to finish vaccinating those high-priority groups, leaving some 200 million Americans still to be immunized, Corey said: “We need other vaccines for the rest of the population.”

According to the CDC’s phase 1a/b/c road map the order of groups getting the vaccines are:

1. healthcare workers and residents of long term care facilities then
2. essential workers
3. adults with high risk conditions and older adults

How each of those groups will be appropriated is still to be worked out.

It is thought that these 3 groups will consume all the available initial vaccine allocations. It is also anticipate that other vaccines will be available in the spring and summer of 2021 and will be used for lower risk groups.

Can you wait and chose which one you want? Initially there won’t be enough vaccine for everyone, so if you get a chance to get one and don’t, you will likely not have another chance until the other vaccine trials report their results and become available.

How long does immunity to the virus last after getting ill with COVID-19?

The most recent studies suggest that immunity in the vast number of people who have had COVID-19 will last years, if not decades. This was based on complex evaluations of 195 people’s blood who had proven COVID-19 over 6 months ago.

However another study of healthcare workers with mild COVID were shown to have their antibodies become undetectable as short as two months after their illness. However none of these individuals developed COVID-19 again.

Please remember these tests are about antibody levels and say nothing about whether these individuals become ill again with COVID-19.

I suspect as this kind of research evolves, we will get similar findings as we have from almost all infectious diseases. We know that the more ill you are with a certain infection, the more antibodies you develop and the longer they last. So those with milder COVID-19 illnesses may lose their detectible antibodies in a few months. This does not mean they will get COVID-19 again.

As I’ve stated before and as of this date, the number of people who became ill again with COVID-19 is tiny. Antibody testing and analysis is very interesting, but the real issue is “Will you get re-infected with SARS-CoV2 after you have had the illness.?” To date the answer is no.

Convalescent plasma appears not to be helpful in the first reported study

A study from Argentina showed that 170 people who received convalescent plasma fared no better than their peers who received the same treatment but no convalescent plasma.

This is the first evidence that convalescent plasma may not be of benefit in treating patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. It is a very common practice to get convalescent plasma if one becomes ill enough to require hospitalization.

This finding will need to be confirmed, and there are other studies underway that have yet to report their findings.

Where to go for testing?

Here is the Colorado Department of Health site for the locations available for testing.

https://covidtest.colorado.gov/map

Here is UC Health’s website for testing:

Testing for COVID-19

The latest bad product for treating COVID

The latest “bad product” is bear bile. Apparently this is used in traditional Asian medicine to treat liver and gallbladder problems and recently to treat COVID-19 and other respiratory infections. Fortunately it is banned from the US, but still found its way into some shops in Chinatown NY.

A simple Wikipedia search for “bear bile” will give you more information than you ever wanted.