GoLocal Daily RI Vaccination Update: J&J’s Single Dose Moves Forward and Dr. Fine Warns of Spread

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

GoLocalProv News Team

 

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Tuesday’s GoLocal vaccination update provides the most up-to-date information and data on the Rhode Island vaccination program as well as emerging national and global developments.

 

1. Good News Emerging — Johnson & Johnson Single Dose Moves Forward

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Within just weeks Johnson & Johnson could seek emergency use authorization for its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, said President Joe Biden’s senior health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is now completing Phase 3 clinical trial.

The vaccine has significant advantages over the two approved vaccines Pfizer and Moderna as the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine does not require complex temperature controls and is a one-shot vaccine.

“I would think that no more than two weeks from now the data will be analyzed in a similar fashion, the way we analyzed it with the Moderna and the Pfizer candidate,” Fauci said on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC.

“That is an independent data and safety monitoring board will look at the data, determine if it’s ready … They can go to the FDA and ask to see if they can get an emergency use authorization. You know, I don’t want to get ahead of them, but I have to tell you, I would be surprised if it was any more than two weeks from now that the data will be analyzed and decisions would be made,” added Fauci.

 

2. Dr. Fine Warns RI Must Get Control of Virus Before Variants Spread

Former RI Health Director Dr. Michael Fine warns that Rhode Island simply has too much virus and if not immediately controlled, the state could be devastated with new cases as the new variants -- UK, South African and Brazilian -- hit Rhode Island.

Fine also warns that the state is not doing enough testing to determine if the new variants have already hit. WATCH INTERVIEW ON GOLOCAL LIVE BELOW

 

3. According to the CDC and updated on this weekend, RI has now:

Received 149,255 doses

Administered 63,249 doses (less than 3,000 administered in past 24-hours)

Of the vaccine doses received, RI has utilized 42% —a drop from 53%*

updated 1/24/2021

 

4. Disturbing News About Potentially Vaccine Resistant Brazilian Strain

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced late Monday that they have confirmed the first U.S. case of a highly transmissible variant that has been spreading in Brazil in recent weeks. 

Health experts are concerned that vaccines could be less effective against the so-called Brazil variant.

MDH said the case involved “a Minnesota resident with recent travel history to Brazil."

President Joe Biden on Monday extended a ban on travelers from Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and 26 other European countries that had been set to expire Tuesday.

MDH said its Public Health Laboratory found the variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus known as the Brazil P.1 variant in a specimen from a Minnesota resident with recent travel history to Brazil. While this variant is thought to be more transmissible than the initial strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, it is not yet known whether the variant causes more severe illness.

This case marks the first documented instance of the Brazil P.1 variant in the United States. The variant was found through the MDH’s variant surveillance program. Each week this program collects 50 random samples from the University of Minnesota clinical laboratories, Infinity Biologix Laboratory in Oakdale, and other testing partners and then conducts special testing using a process called whole genome sequencing. Through this program, the state develops a more accurate picture of what specific forms of COVID-19 are circulating in Minnesota.

Last week GoLocal reported that the new strain of the coronavirus emerging in Brazil is worrying public health experts because this strain may be reinfecting those that already suffered through and recovered from the virus.

 

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