Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of May 24

This Is the Wrong Way to Distribute Badly Needed Vaccines

[...] to be fair and successful, Covax must abandon its purely population-based distribution formula, developed by W.H.O., which has led to precious vaccine doses being destroyed or left sitting in freezers in countries without many cases or which lack the ability to distribute them effectively. Fair distribution of vaccines must be based primarily on need.

South Sudan, for instance, recently destroyed nearly 60,000 doses it received from Covax; Malawi destroyed 20,000. Neither was able to distribute its entire allotment before the vaccines expired. Ivory Coast similarly distributed less than a quarter of the over 500,000 doses it received in late February, raising fears that doses will expire before they are used. On the other hand, Kenya, with more than 50 million people, was able to administer about 877,000 doses by late April with the roughly one million doses it received from Covax in early March (and an additional 100,000 donated by India), according to the country’s health ministry. The problems are not confined to lower-income countries. More than 600,000 Covax-provided AstraZeneca vaccines sit in Canada at risk of spoilage while Canadians debate whether it is safe to use them. Vaccinations can begin to confer meaningful protection in under 14 days. Freed from freezers, these vaccines could have saved many lives in Peru, India or Brazil, where the pandemic is raging.

The Covax distribution plan calls for providing each country with enough vaccine doses for roughly 20 percent of the population. Only after that would countries’ health needs be considered.

True, every country needs vaccines in the pandemic. But those needs are not equally urgent. Distributing vaccines purely on the basis of population means some vaccines will fail to reach those whose actual current risk is highest.

The Onion: Coronavirus Variant Excited To Compete With World’s Top Mutations In Tokyo This Summer

California announces $116.5 million in vaccine incentives as demand dips

California on Thursday became the latest state to announce huge cash prizes to incentivize vaccination against the coronavirus, offering $116.5 million in giveaways — many smaller payments as well as a final drawing for 10 winners of $1.5 million each.

Vietnam detects highly contagious new coronavirus variant as infections surge

Vietnam’s Health Ministry announced Saturday that it had detected a highly transmissible new variant of the coronavirus that has helped fuel a recent wave of infections in the country.

Genetic sequencing indicated that the new variant was a mix of the coronavirus strains first detected in the United Kingdom and India, said Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, according to the VnExpress newspaper.

The minister said the new variant was particularly contagious via air and viral cultures have revealed it replicates extremely quickly, the newspaper reported.

Canadian Military officer facing mutiny charge after anti-vaccine speech

The Department of National Defence says a military officer is facing charges after allegedly urging other members of the Canadian Armed Forces not to help with the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Officer Cadet Ladislas Kenderesi has been charged with one count of persuading another person to join in a mutiny and one count of behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming of an officer.

The charges follow a speech at an anti-lockdown rally in Toronto in December in which a man appeared in full military uniform and spoke out against what he called "killer" vaccines.

The man, who is introduced as Kenderesi and is wearing a name tag with that surname in a video of the speech posted on YouTube, calls on other military members to disobey their orders and not distribute the vaccine.

The Defence Department says Kenderesi was relieved of his duties as a reserve cadet instructor in Borden, Ont., in December and charged by military police on May 12.

Defence officials say Kenderesi is the first service member charged with a mutiny-related offence in at least 20 years.

Researchers claim mystery of rare blood clots tied to COVID-19 vaccines solved, but experts urge caution

From the article:

The German researchers suggest the problem lies within the delivery system of these two similar vaccines, both of which use adenovirus vector technology to send genetic instructions into cells to produce the spike protein of the coronavirus.

[...]

The findings, which were published online on Wednesday and have not yet been peer reviewed, note this type of vaccine sends the DNA gene sequence of the spike protein directly into the nucleus of the cell, at which point certain parts of the spike protein DNA may become spliced, or broken apart.

The study, based on the team's own lab work involving experiments with the commonly-used HeLa human cell line, suggests these "undesirable" breakdowns can cause mutations to occur within the spike protein DNA, which could make it tougher for those proteins to bond to the cell, allowing them to secrete into the body and potentially trigger "inflammatory reactions" that can result in the rare blood clots.

US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says employers can mandate COVID-19 vaccination

The EEOC, in a statement posted on its website explaining its updated guidance, said employees can be required to be vaccinated as long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws.

In addition, employers may offer incentives to workers to be vaccinated, as long as they are not coercive, it said.

The vast majority of employers have been reluctant to require workers to be vaccinated. A survey by management-side law firm Fisher Phillips earlier this year found that only 9% of the more than 700 employers surveyed said they were considering mandating vaccines.

Vaccine inequality in India sends many falling through gaps

The main way [to get vaccinated] is to register through a government website. But it is in English — a language the 25-year-old Kumar and nearly 90% of Indians can’t speak, read or write — and his family has a single smartphone, with spotty internet service.

And even though his state of Uttar Pradesh gives free shots to those under 45, there is no vaccination site in his village, with the nearest hospital an hour away.

Amid those challenges, the federal government also changed its policy on who can get vaccines and who must pay for them. It allotted itself half of the shots in the country and said it would give free shots to front-line workers and those 45 and older.

Individual states and private hospitals could then negotiate deals with the country’s vaccine-makers for the other half of the shots, the government said. That effectively put the burden for inoculating everyone under 45 on states and the private sector, who often ask members of the public to pay as much as $20 for a shot.

The disparities already are showing in rich states where private hospitals tend to be concentrated.

The capital of New Delhi has given first shots to 20% of its residents, while Bihar state, one of the poorest, has only given shots to about 7.6% of its population. And even states that are providing free shots often can’t keep them in stock — both because of the shortage and competition with the private sector.

The national government is seeking to address some of the concerns. It has said the website to register for shots will soon be available in Hindi and other regional languages. Still, experts point out half the population lacks internet access, so the better solution would be easier, walk-in registrations for all.

The government also has said it will alleviate the vaccine shortages, insisting there will be about 2 billion doses available between June and December. Experts, however, say the government will likely miss that goal.

India’s health ministry did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Ohio announces 1st $1 million Vax-a-Million lottery winner

A southwestern Ohio woman won the state’s first $1 million Vax-a-Million vaccination incentive prize, while a Dayton-area teen was awarded the first full-ride college scholarship offered by the program, the state announced Wednesday night.

The winners were selected in a random drawing Monday and had their information confirmed before the formal announcement at the end of the Ohio Lottery’s Cash Explosion TV show.

The lottery announced that Abbigail Bugenske of Silverton near Cincinnati was the $1 million winner, while Joseph Costello of Englewood near Dayton was the college scholarship winner.

“We’re excited that this has inspired so many Ohioans to get vaccinated, and we’re thrilled to announce the winners of the first round of drawings,” said Gov. Mike DeWine.

More than 2.7 million adults signed up for the $1 million prize and more than 104,000 children ages 12 to 17 entered the drawing for the college scholarship, which includes tuition, room and board, and books. Four more $1 million and college scholarship winners will be announced each Wednesday for the next four weeks.

DeWine, a Republican, announced the program May 12 to boost lagging vaccination rates.