States should be ready to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as late October, the CDC says in guidance sent to state and city officials.
www.cnn.com
Almost sounds too good to be true...
Yes, I first heard about this from Dr Joan Connell the ND field officer for the State Health department. They just got notified today to be prepared to be ready to vaccinate people November 1. This has thrown them into a tizzy. They have been told that they have to be prepared to receive vaccine and keep it at -80 C. This is probably not feasible in ND. Apparently they have to line up 100 subjects, as each batch has 100 doses, and then inject those hundred people promptly.
This is going to take much more planning than this. All this while the Republican Governor is going increasingly rogue. He has now fired three State Health officers in the last six months or so. Now he has appointed a lawyer as state health officer. They seem to enamored with that new lunatic neuro radiologist they have appointed to the White House task force, who is pushing for herd immunity as rapidly as possible. The governor is opening everything up and discouraging masks. Employers are denying sick time, and apparently people who are infected are not isolating. The cases are running wild, especially in Grand Forks since UND got back. Many hospitals are now full and on diversion. Bismark is almost out of beds. The doctors who spoke today sound at their wits end. I fear salvageable patients are soon to be sent home to die unattended. So we will see what a headlong rush to herd immunity looks like in ND pretty soon.
We now have 46 cases and one death linked to the Sturgis bike rally.
Meanwhile Health Partners here in the Twin Cities have been asked to enroll 1200 patients in a double blind study of the Oxford vaccine. They are particularly interested in subjects over 65 including with risk factors. So I filled in their form to volunteer. I passed the screening criteria, so I will wait and see if I get called.
My biggest fear is another mega Trump screw up with a roll out of a vaccine for political grandstanding. I fear really turbulent times ahead, and a huge number of unnecessary deaths in the next couple of months. If you are near or in a crazy state, be very, very careful.
All this while date gets more and more depressing, especially as regards, long term vascular damage and neurological injury. According to the infectious disease expert talking today, the Covid-19 virus can directly infect neuronal and glial cells in the brain with lasting injury. For some reason neurological injury has been a prominent feature of cases in ND. This trend continues. The more we know about this virus the more dangerous it seems.
My advice is to be very cautious and keep out of harms way, until you are vaccinated. You need to do everything you can to avoid catching this virus,