Vaccine

Mass vaccinations and clinical trials are converging and challenging researchers. 

Dr. Anna Lok is the assistant dean for clinical research at Michigan Medicine. The health system is part of two COVID-19 vaccine trials: AstraZeneca's, and Johnson & Johnson's.

Lok says the two trials recruited about 400 patients. Then the Pfizer vaccine became available. Then came the phone calls and emails.

NEW: Friday evening the Elkhart County Health Dept. announced that all weekend plans for pop-up clinics have been canceled.  That impacts weekend plans aimed at vaccinating the Amish and it also impacts plans for next week's Tolson Center pop-up clinic vaccinations. 

ORIGINAL POST:

The Elkhart County Health Department will operate a mobile COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Clinton Frame Church in Goshen on Saturday, Jan. 23. 

At their weekly COVID-19 update, Berrien County health officials once again asked for patience as they work to vaccinate the nearly 40,000 county residents who are currently eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. 

County Health Officer Nicki Britten said the county’s vaccine allotment is based 75 percent on its population of adults age 65 and older, and 25 percent on its population of essential workers. 

As the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines unfolds in the U.S., numerous questions around distribution, supply, hesitancy and efficacy persist. The stakes are high, as numbers of deaths and cases break records. A panel of experts from Harvard and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tackles questions about COVID-19 vaccination. Live coverage is expected to begin at noon. 

The Trump administration’s failure to produce a national stockpile of the COVID-19 vaccine is preventing Indiana from moving its vaccine distribution plan further forward.

FRANKLIN, Ind. (AP) — A shipment of COVID-19 vaccines that arrived in a central Indiana county already thawed prompted officials to briefly offer the shots to people not yet eligible for the vaccine under state guidelines. The Johnson County Health Department and Johnson Memorial Hospital received 957 already thawed Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines last week. That vaccine can only be stored thawed for up to five days under U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidance.

A delivery of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine to Michigan has gone bad. The state says 21 shipments got too cold and will need to be replaced. Six other shipments were delayed for inspection. McKesson, which distributes Moderna’s vaccine, is investigating the issue while it repackages new vaccines for the state. Governor Gretchen Whitmer says the situation is disappointing.

NEW: 

Hoosiers age 70 and older can now begin scheduling appointments to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The high traffic on the state’s COVID-19 vaccination registration website has caused delays and crashes, according to state health officials. 

Today Gov. Whitmer announced that as of Monday people over the age of 65 will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination.  

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The University of Michigan’s Big House has been transformed into The Big Vaccine Clinic. A few hundred University of Michigan medical professionals and students who work in health care settings received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday at Michigan Stadium, one of the nation’s largest sporting venues. The on-campus stadium welcomed 100,000-plus maize-and-blue-clad fans on fall Saturdays before the pandemic. The university says its employees and students will receive a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose at the football stadium clinic.

Rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Indiana remains focused on frontline health care workers and nursing home residents. That’s even as some hospitals are reportedly vaccinating people much further down the priority list, like teachers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bureau of Prisons has started vaccinating staff members and some inmates at the federal prison complex where the Justice Department carries out federal executions, as officials work to contain a coronavirus outbreak at the facility. An agency spokesman tells The Associated Press that by Wednesday, doses of the coronavirus vaccine had been delivered to 19 prisons, including the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. They include some prisons that have been hit the hardest during the pandemic.

About 71,000 people have received the first of two rounds of coronavirus vaccinations in Michigan, where more than 480,000 virus cases have been confirmed. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have already been distributed to hospitals, local health departments and tribal health clinics. The state says residents and staff at skilled nursing homes began receiving the Moderna vaccine on Monday. Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services says it has received 231,075 doses of both vaccines.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana health officials are reporting 2,494 new coronavirus infections and 43 additional deaths. Also Monday, officials began administering a vaccine for nearly 1,000 long-term care facilities across the state. The Indiana State Department of Health says the newly confirmed deaths raised Indiana’s overall toll to 7,886, including both confirmed and presumed infections. Long-term care residents account for 50% of Indiana’s coronavirus deaths but make up less than 1% of Indiana's population.

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan’s chief justice wants judges and other court staff across the state to be among the second wave of people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, saying that doing so “will keep our court system running, safeguard rights, and slow the spread of the virus.” Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget McCormack made the request in a letter to Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state’s chief medical executive.

About 40,000 Hoosiers will have received the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of Tuesday.