135: Vaccine Trials

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Pandemic life is starting to get old, and I’d love to go back to normal as fast as possible. There’s good news on that front. Yesterday morning, one volunteer in Georgia got an injection that kicked off the first large-scale vaccine trial in the US. The study will test 30,000 healthy people at about 89 sites around the US to determine whether the vaccine (developed by Moderna) works.

Also, yesterday afternoon, Pfizer also announced that it will also begin a late-stage study of a vaccine, with the first shots to be given today (Tues). The trial will also include 30,000 people, from 39 states.

If all goes well and the vaccine is effective, Moderna said it should be able to deliver 500 million doses this year (2020), and up to a billion per year starting in 2021. I love the optimism. I had all but given up hope of anything happening in 2020.

An update about my Side-Effect statements: I talked with a pharma rep this weekend who stated that Stage 3 side effects in a drug trial is more akin to a bad headache than paralysis. Stage 4 means hospitalization, so it does encompass everything before before hospitalization but it usually means being under the weather. All that said, if there was a vaccine that knocked me out for a day – I’d be fine with that. I bet we all would.

Sports News

NBA Bubble

I’m super excited for NBA basketball to start back up. Right now, the NBA is in a bubble at Disney World and the players are tweeting up a storm. When they got there, they had to quarantine and just hang out, and so they started posting all day to social media.

Some filmed themselves training or shotgunning beers. Here’s a beer shotgun challenge. Miami’s Meyers Leonard shotgunned a Coors Light in record time, declaring himself “King of the Bubble.” Here’s JJ Reddick.

Giannis channeling his inner Eddie Murphy

Others got more serious and brought cameras and started official content platforms. A 76ers vlogged his trip from Philadelphia to the Orlando

Over the weekend Lou Williams escaped from the bubble and then went to an Atlanta strip club. He’s being fined and suspended. I can’t imagine he’ll be the last to try to break the rules.

Like I said, this stuff is just the kind of soap opera drama I’m looking for – and the games haven’t even started yet.

Random Sports

Poolball combines pool and soccer and looks awesome.

Objects are bigger than they may seem

Ballball Fiasco

In keeping with the sports theme of today’s newsletter, two Monday MLB games were postponed after 14 players on the Marlins tested positive for the virus. Apparently on Sunday their shortstop decided to keep playing after there was an outbreak. Good move, dude.

It’s a bad sign for baseball but also a bad sign for just about everything in our daily lives. It’s too bad things just can’t go back to normal. It’s also not a great omen for football as both the NFL and college football aren’t doing anything to protect against something like this happening.

Other Stuff

 

Corona Stuff

Nationally, 80% of coronavirus deaths have been among adults 65 and older, and 33% among those age 85 or older but it varies from state to state. For instance, in Idaho, 94% of all deaths are adults over 65 whereas in Wash DC it’s only 70%.

In Marin, cases are on their way down, which is great. Let’s keep that trend going. Here’s new cases since the beginning:

That’s it. Have a great day everyone

Only 64 more days to go

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