RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam announced new actions to support the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution program and accelerate the pace of vaccinations across Virginia.
Governor Northam is taking the following steps to help providers increase the rate of vaccinations as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible:
- Vaccination goal. Governor Northam set an initial goal of vaccinating 25,000 Virginians each day when supply allows.
- ‘Use it or lose it’ model. Medical facilities will be required to put the vaccine they receive into arms as soon as possible, or risk having future vaccine allotments reduced.
- Danny T.K. Avula to lead vaccination efforts in Virginia. Governor Northam appointed Dr. Avula, who serves as director of the Richmond City and Henrico County Health Departments to coordinate work between state officials, local health departments, hospitals, and private providers.
- Expanded priority groups. Governor Northam announced that K-12 teachers and child care workers will be among the next priority groups to receive vaccinations after Group A, and outlined the populations that will be included in Groups B and C.
- Elevating the Virginia National Guard. As the Commonwealth receives more doses, the Virginia National Guard will provide logistical support and help local health departments will administering vaccines.
“Getting Virginians vaccinated against COVID-19 is the best way to end this pandemic, rebuild our economy, and move our Commonwealth forward,” said Governor Northam. “By setting clear goals and appointing Dr. Avula to spearhead our vaccination program, we will have a clear vision of how this effort—the largest public vaccination campaign in modern history—is progressing. I plan to get vaccinated when my turn comes, and I encourage Virginians to do the same.”
Governor Northam also announced the next priority populations to receive vaccinations, based in part on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and recommendations form the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The Virginia Department of Health is developing an online portal to help people understand how to register to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.
About the Author
I am 78, on oxygen and walk with a walker. I am not very trustworthy of where I stand for the shots in our wonderful state of VA.
I am 10 years behind you Rick. At our ages I would guess you’ve gotten many of the same vaccines I have over the years. Small pox, mumps, measles all of those shots so very many years ago. Back when needles were as big as a baseball bat. I never had a bad reaction. I hope you never did. No politician created this covid19 vaccine. One simply removed the government red tape so it could be produced quickly. It could have happened even quicker if China had allowed us the info and access to the origin of this disease. I’m gonna get the vaccine as soon as I can. I believe that the CDC and the manufacturers have done their job. Everybody will get virtually the same vaccine. Please have a little faith Sir. Please contact the medical center. They may miss you if you don’t stand up for yourself.
I’m going to be 75 and I don’t use a walker or oxygen, and I have no interest in the vaccine because I don’t trust something rushed into production like this stuff was, and if you study the situation, you note that because old people like you have what is called immunosenescence, which refers to the gradual deterioration of the immune system brought on by natural age advancement with the adaptive immune system being affected more than the innate immune system, the chances are the vaccine won’t do much for you on the one hand, and with you, it could unleash a cytokene storm.
But they need old people to take the **** as guinea pigs, so it might as well be you.
YPaul I think you might be able to approach this decision from a different angle. you have lost much faith and trust in our government. It’s obvious from many of your posts. Hey, it’s easily understandable. I know that some of your complaints have to do with the knowledge that our government is so incompetent that they never get around to accomplishing anything. It takes forever. Like the proverbial story of 6 guys leaning on shovels while 1 guy digs the hole. Yeah I get it. So this time we have a president who throws away those 6 wasted shovels, elliminates the red tape and produces the vaccine quickly, and because they get the job done properly for the first time in history you say they can’t be trusted because they were too damn efficient. You’re not leaning on a shovel while you make that decision are you ? I’m 68 and going for it a.s.a.p. Also, as far as being a guinea pig, perhaps you can take comfort in Uncle Ralph’s distribution decision. He’s decreed that prisoners will get the vaccine before the 65-75 group not in homes. So, who are the guinea pigs ? But seriously folks, there are tons of people getting the shot and an extremely few amounts of bad reactions. Just sayin…
MJM, God bless you, and seriously so.
You are out there actually working to keep America fed while parasites like Nancy Pelosi and her crowd eat us out of house and home, and you stand up and speak your mind, which is good.
But in all of your posts, I have never heard you claim to have any training in medicine, while I am a qualified associate level public health engineer.
So why on earth would I accept your word that this vaccine is “safe” because Trump did away with all the safeguards to keep it safe?
Why would I accept the word of a real estate developer/casino operator as to what is good for my health and well being?
Wouldn’t that be kind of stupid and idiotic on my part to believe that a real estate developer knows more about keeping me healthy than I do myself?
I was wounded in the head in VEET NAM and left for dead, and after, the doctors assured me that I would be dead by the time I was thirty or so.
If I had bought into that, I probably would be.
But I have learned in life that the farther one stays away from doctors, the healthier one can be, especially if one is not so stupid as to go and ask a real estate developer about how to stay alive after being wounded in the head and left for dead.
No offense intended, MJM, but I would sooner seek medical advice from “Devil Bill” Rockefeller than I would from Donald Trump, and his cutting corners on this vaccine.
What happened to my body my choice. Oh that only applies if you want to kill babies.
I’m 791/2 years old with lung problems, my husband is also 79 with A-fib and A flutter so we are in the 1b group I’ve called Fairfax health Dept. and was told they didn’t know when we can sign up to get the vaccine or where.
So how can I find out how to sign up for the vaccine? Information is very unreliable. The Governor needs to step up and get the sign up information to the people of VA.
According to NBC News this morning, the **** is making its way into the Black Market, not surprisingly, so your chances of scoring some there might be better than trying to score some off “Ol’ Blackface.”
I have gone to the Va. Dept. of Health website. Please do the same. Look around and with a few clicks they give you vague info that the shots will come from our local Drs. if we are not in a nursing home. They suggest that you contact your local Dr. or medical facility to discover the local response by our Drs. I am in 1C so I have yet to contact anyone. I know I have to wait. Be advised that many of us will not be happy when you visit the Health Dept. website. You will discover that the Shore’s favorite ? son, your uncle Ralph ? has stated that prisoners are in the 1b category as well. They will get it before 65-74 year old free and tax paying citizens of The Commonwealth of Va. Ain’t Ralph the best ?
His mentor, Andy Cuomo of New York, has mandated that drug addicts get it before old people not in a nursing home.
Gots to take care of the base, afterall, before anybody else.
Personally, I think they are using them as expendable guinea pigs.
Who the Hell would trust a Government that just stole an election to inject you with a vaccine?
CNBC
“Ohio researchers say they’ve identified two new Covid strains likely originating in the U.S.”
Will Feuer @WillFOIA
Published Wed, Jan 13 2021
Researchers in Ohio said Wednesday that they’ve discovered two new variants of the coronavirus that likely originated in the U.S. — one of which quickly became the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio, over a three-week period in late December and early January.
Like the strain first detected in the U.K., the U.S. mutations appear to make Covid-19 more contagious but do not seem like they will diminish the effectiveness of the vaccines, researchers said.
One of the new strains, found in just one patient in Ohio, contains a mutation identical to the now-dominant variant in the U.K., researchers said, noting that it “likely arose in a virus strain already present in the United States.”
However, the “Columbus strain,” which the researchers said in a press release has become dominant in the city, includes “three other gene mutations not previously seen together in SARS-CoV2.”
“This new Columbus strain has the same genetic backbone as earlier cases we’ve studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” Dr. Dan Jones, vice chair of the division of molecular pathology at Ohio State and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
“We know this shift didn’t come from the U.K. or South African branches of the virus.”
Researchers at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center have been sequencing the virus since March, but have since drastically scaled up their efforts to sequence hundreds of samples per week, Jones told reporters at a press briefing Wednesday.
“We are now in a period where the virus is changing quite substantially,” Jones said.
“This is the moment, as we’re starting to see changes, where vaccination is being introduced and where the virus has been in the human population for some months, where we do want to be looking out very carefully for the emergence of not just single mutations, but new strains that have multiple mutations.”
Jones added that it’s too early to determine how much more infectious the strain in Columbus might be, but researchers believe it’s likely more contagious just based on how quickly it’s spread over the past few weeks.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer of the Ohio Department of Health, said in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday that the department is “not surprised” that a new strain of the virus was found in the state.
“The arrival of this new strain in Ohio is always concerning because more contagious strains could lead to more people getting sick, more people getting hospitalized, and ultimately more people dying,” he said.
“No matter what strain of COVID-19, people can continue to protect themselves by wearing masks consistently, staying at least 6 feet apart, avoiding crowds, ventilating indoor spaces, and frequent hand washing.”
The White House Coronavirus Task Force warned states earlier this month that there may be a “USA variant” circulating.
Researchers have warned that as the virus spreads widely around the world, it has more opportunities to evolve, potentially becoming more infectious or rendering treatments and vaccines less effective.
Following the discovery of new strains in the U.K. and South Africa, the CDC has ramped up efforts to track the genetic sequence of the virus in the U.S.