[Summit] Virus & Vaccine Updates from RI Health Dept, CVS, Walgreens and The N.Y. Times [Covid News no. 414]

Sat Jan 23 06:23:33 UTC 2021

   ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Dr. Philip Chan, RIDOH <communications at governor.ri.gov>To:Sent: Friday, January 22, 2021, 7:45:56 PM ESTSubject: Vaccine Update

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| Hi David,
I’m writing today to share an update on where we stand in our COVID-19 vaccination campaign. If you find this information helpful, please sign up for the Rhode Island Department of Health RIDOH’s weekly update that is dedicated to the COVID-19 vaccine.
As of this morning, 66,070 doses of vaccine had been administered in Rhode Island (52,925 first doses, and 13,145 second doses). We are working hard to distribute vaccine, but supply remains very limited. Right now, we're receiving enough first doses each week for about 1.5% of our population. While other states are in the same position, Rhode Island ranks among the top states nationally in terms of the rate of second doses administered.
We are currently in Phase 1 of our vaccination campaign. The aim of Phase 1 has been to ensure the stability of our healthcare system and to protect people in congregate living settings, as well as to start vaccinating in some of our hardest hit areas.
When it comes to older adults, we began vaccinating in nursing homes in December. This week, we started to vaccinate in assisted living facilities and other congregate living settings. By the middle of February, we expect the vaccine will be available for adults 75 and older. We have received a lot of questions about vaccination of older adults. In Rhode Island, there are 187,000 Rhode Islanders age 65 or older. Since we are only getting about 14,000 first doses of vaccine a week, we are taking a stepwise approach with this group as well.  |

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| Please note that there is no action that older adults need to take at this time to get a vaccine. When we are ready to start vaccinating this population, we will communicate with the public, healthcare providers, and community organizations to provide instructions. We will also continue to share updates through this newsletter and other outlets. 
While the vaccine rollout will take time, there is a lot you can do in the meantime to protect yourself and others from COVID-19. Testing is more available now than it has ever been in Rhode Island. If you go online right now to portal.ri.gov, you can make a same-day appointment to get tested at many sites throughout the state. If you test positive, Rhode Island also has a new doctor-recommended treatment. This fast, easy, and highly effective treatment helps keep you from getting sicker and being hospitalized. However, the earlier you start treatment, the more effective it is. If you test positive for COVID-19 and are 65 or older or have an underlying health condition, immediately call your healthcare provider and ask about treatment for COVID-19. You can find out more information about this treatment here. 
Lastly, I want to echo the sentiments shared by Dr. Alexander-Scott at yesterday’s COVID-19 press conference and thank everyone. It’s been a very long 10 months. I think we’ve all learned a lot. Crisis is a very powerful teacher. One thing that we’ve seen and learned time and time again is that we do so much better when we come together and support each other. Our goal is to offer a COVID-19 vaccine to everyone in Rhode Island as quickly as we can. We all want to be healthy and safe, to keep our loved ones healthy and safe, and to get COVID-19 behind us. We are getting there. Thank you for your patience and sacrifices to this point. We need to keep it going for a little while longer, and we need to remember that we’re all in this together. So please, let’s keep supporting each other.
We will continue to share regular updates as more information becomes available. You can find updates on vaccination planning and answers to frequently asked questions on RIDOH’s COVID-19 Vaccine page. 
Philip A. Chan, MD, MSConsultant Medical Director, RIDOH |

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|  Governor's Office | 82 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02903  |
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| Fri, Jan 22 at 3:24 PM 
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|   Stay informed with COVID-19 news and updates.   |

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  Sign In | Create Account 
Fri, Jan 22 at 12:55 PM   
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 Please note...

  This does not constitute medical advice and is not an endorsement or recommendation by Walgreens of any specific product or company.

Walgreens is delivering COVID-19 vaccinations safely in accordance with CDC guidelines. Vaccine distribution is based on state and local jurisdictions. Vaccines will be subject to availability. State-, age- and health-related restrictions may apply.

 The Vaccine Episode 3: The views, information and opinions expressed in this video are as of the time published. In the event of a discrepancy, please follow CDC's guidance. Individuals involved do not necessarily represent those of Walgreens and its employees. This video is meant for informational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified healthcare professional. Walgreens does not recommend or endorse any specific vaccine manufacturer. Vaccines will be subject to availability. State-, age- and health-related restrictions may apply.

Contactless drive-thru COVID-19 testing: Patients may be billed for the full price of the test if it is not covered by your insurance, voucher, or any state or federal programs. If you will be using insurance, you should contact your insurer before your visit for coverage details. When paying out of pocket, debit, credit, FSA and HSA cards are accepted.

 90-Day Rx: Talk to a pharmacist to see if your prescriptions qualify for 90-day refills. Other restrictions may apply.

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| Fri, Jan 22 at 6:36 AM

| View in browser|nytimes.com |
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January 22, 2021
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By David Leonhardt
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Good morning. The Biden administration has a huge amount of work to do to get the virus under control.
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| A highway billboard in Las Vegas.Ruth Fremson/The New York Times |

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‘Please do not enter without one!!’
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I took a 1,600-mile road trip this week that has left me even more amazed at how poorly the United States has handled the coronavirus — and more worried about how much work the Biden administration has to do to get it under control. I want to tell you that story this morning.
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The U.S. now faces two main virus problems. First, our efforts to minimize the virus’s spread remain halfhearted, with many Americans refusing to wear masks or practice social distancing. Second, the early stages of the mass vaccination campaign have been a mess, far behind schedule and full of frustration for people trying to get shots.
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The second of those problems was the reason for my road trip. I live in the Washington, D.C., area, where the vaccine rollout has been even slower than in most places.
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I hear maddening anecdotes from neighbors and friends all the time, and I imagine you’ve heard similar anecdotes. Many Americans who qualify to receive the vaccine — like people over 65 — don’t know what they are supposed to do to sign up. When they try, they often find that all the slots are filled.
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Millions of doses, unused
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My mom, who’s 74 and has been living with my family for the last few months, was one of the people trying to figure out how to get her shot. And it felt impossible. Fortunately, she had an alternative. She normally lives in Colorado, a state with a somewhat better vaccine rollout. By checking repeatedly online, she got an appointment in Colorado.
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So the two of us got in the car and spent a couple of days driving west (to spare her the risk of contracting the virus on a plane). My sister, who lives in Denver, drove east, and we met halfway, in St. Louis. I then drove back to Washington, and my sister and my mom drove to Denver. We are all grateful that she is about to receive her first shot.
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But it’s worth pausing to reflect on what an indictment of our society this story is. The world’s richest, most powerful country has almost 20 million vaccine doses that are sitting unused. Meanwhile, people are desperately trying to sign up — and often failing. Many families don’t have the resources or flexibility to make it a full-time project.
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For some, the consequences of the bungled rollout will be fatal. More than 3,000 Americans a day have been dying from Covid-19 recently. Some of them would not have contracted the virus if the Trump administration and state governments had kept the vaccination program anywhere close to on schedule.
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President Biden announced his plans yesterday for a “full-scale wartime effort” to speed things up — including the construction of mass-vaccination centers, the involvement of drugstores and an accelerated manufacturing program. You can read the details here, as explained by The Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg. How well Biden succeeds will help determine how many Americans survive this pandemic.
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| A store in Toledo, Ohio, in November.Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images |

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‘Required’ and ignored
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The other big factor will be how hard the country tries to reduce the virus’s spread while the vaccines are being rolled out. In the short term, masks and social distancing probably matter even more than vaccines. “The brutal truth is it’s going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated,” Biden said yesterday.
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But I came home from my trip shaken by what I had seen.
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Almost everywhere I stopped — gas stations, rest stops and hotels, across Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois — there was a sign on the door saying that people had to wear masks to enter. And almost everywhere, most people ignored the sign.
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At a Fairfield Inn in Ohio, a middle-aged couple sat unmasked on a lobby sofa for hours, drinking beers and scrolling through their phones. The hotel staff evidently did nothing about it. At a convenience store in Indiana, a hand-drawn sign on the door read: “Face masks are required. Please do not enter without one!!” Customers did anyway.
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Nationwide, about half of Americans are not wearing masks when in close contact with people outside their households, according to a survey released yesterday by the University of Southern California.
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Wearing a mask isn’t much fun. It’s hard to speak clearly, and if you wear glasses, the fogging is annoying. But the inconvenience sure seems worth the benefits.
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Study after study has shown that masks reduce the virus’s spread. Yet millions of Americans have decided they would prefer more Covid — for their communities and potentially for their families and themselves — to more masks.
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The persuasion problem
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The Biden plan to accelerate vaccinations looks promising, many experts say. But the new president does not yet have a cohesive plan for changing Americans’ minds about safe behavior in the meantime. Repeating the same pleas, like Biden’s request that people wear masks for his first 100 days, seems no more likely to work than the signs I saw on my road trip.
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What might work better? Perhaps a prime-time Oval Office address that’s light on policy and focused on a simple call to action. Or maybe the calls to action can come from a diverse array of celebrities, politicians and business executives. As behavioral psychologists often explain, the messenger can matter more than the message.
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For now, I feel like I just drove across a country that is losing a winnable fight.
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THE LATEST NEWS
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| THE VIRUS |

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   - The drug maker Eli Lilly said that a treatment usually used to fight Covid-19 symptoms also prevented healthy people in nursing homes from contracting the virus.
   - A more contagious variant of the virus is forcing Britain’s hospitals to ration oxygen. “We’re practicing medicine in a way we never have,” one nurse said.
   - Dr. Anthony Fauci said that working with the Biden administration was “a liberating feeling.”
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