Today's Ohio COVID thread is up! I keep writing the same post almost everyday, and that's a good thing. Hospital census trends continue to improve...

This chart shows our week over week change rate for vaccine started. We've flattened out at ~2.5% recently...

The vaccination rate continues to slow in the 80+ group while the 70+ group continues to see the pace quicken (although the rate of change of slowing)...

Next week we'll be vaccinating 65 & up as well as teachers and Ohioans with disabilities. DeWine expects to hold vaccine exclusivity to that group for a few weeks, giving teachers and higher risks groups the opportunity to get vaccinated...

Good news on vaccine supply: @GovMikeDeWine said at his presser that Pfizer expects to increase vaccine shipments by 40% this month and Moderna will be increasing deliveries as well...

Hopefully that's followed by approval of the J&J vaccine in late February / early March. Hopefully federal officials remember that the AstraZeneca vaccine exists too. The trial data is good enough for our UK & EU allies, but apparently not good enough for the US...

A little curveball today. I was able to listen in on a call today with a university professor specializing in public health, epidemiology, and infectious disease, among other things that's plugged into the vaccine drive. I thought I’d share a few key takeaways…

Biden’s goal of 100 mil. doses in 100 days should be achievable. That’s back up by the run rate of where we’re at today. However, she’s happy that target wasn’t raised to 150 mil., as she felt it was less achievable…

Vaccine hesitancy is a major concern for her. Right now we have a supply problem, but in a couple of months it could turn into a demand problem. She cited specific countries, such as France, which have shown a high degree of hesitancy…

To that point, we could see similar things in the US. Certain states / localities could be more acceptant of the vaccine than others. She stressed the importance of communication to drive vaccine acceptance…

There is clear concern about the new variants and she acknowledged they have a potential to delay our return to normal. Obviously there’s a lot of unknowns there…

When asked when one could expect to me able to go to a dinner with other vaccinated people outside of your household without a mask, she mentioned August as a potential time frame…

Mutations could delay that timeline as could vaccine hesitancy. Further, mutations could raise the herd immunity threshold…

She also mentioned the possibility that due to vaccine hesitancy, we could be fighting localized outbreaks in late 2021 and beyond instead of fighting a national or global pandemic…

I didn't have a chance to listen in to DeWine's presser today, but @GeoffWSYX6 has a good thread if you're looking for a breakdown... https://twitter.com/GeoffWSYX6/status/1357403308638486533?s=20

That's it for today! Have a good evening