Hello and welcome to PBS39 and WLVT.

Community update on coronavirus.

It's presented by Capital Blue Cross and brought to you with help from our community partner Lehigh Valley Health Network.

We're coming to you live from the PPE Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Our guests today include a doctor who's been monitoring Covid-19 infections and vaccine delivery from the very start.

Also with us is a couple whose goodwill and whose car are helping in the effort to get more and more people Covid-19 shots.

Our guests will be with us in just a moment.

If you have a question, please give us a call.

The phone number four eight four eight two one zero zero zero eight.

We'll answer some of your questions live.

Plus for coronavirus updates, be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

You can do that at our website coronavirus Lehigh Valley.

Dog.

There you'll find helpful information in both English and Spanish.

Now let's take a look at today's top headlines.

The seven day moving average of cases in Pennsylvania is down 20% in the last week.

Welcome news after a series of upticks.

The average is at about 3500 now, a drop from nearly 4400.

A week ago today, Pennsylvania reported 3686 additional cases and 57 more deaths to date, more than 8.2 million vaccinations have been given with 48% of the eligible population receiving at least a first dose.

Pennsylvania has revised its mask mandates to bring it in line with new CDC recommendations issued yesterday under the guidance fully vaccinated people don't have to wear a mask outside any more unless or at a crowded event and unvaccinated people can do without face coverings in some cases, too.

We'll have much more on this and details on the recommendations about what's safest a little bit later in the show.

The Tokyo Olympics open in under three months and there are still more questions than answers today.

The president of the organizing body said there prepare for the possibility of holding the summer games without spectators.

A final decision is expected sometime in June.

The Olympics open July.

23rd and rigorous testing of athletes is part of the game plan.

It is time now to meet our guests for the day.

Dr Timothy Friel is chairman of the Department of Medicine at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

He's joining us on a day that LVHN is giving thousands more second doses.

A mass vaccine clinic at Dorney Park.

Also with us is Joe Jocketty and Shirley Lehnberg of Bloomsbury, New Jersey.

Josipovic gives free rides to people headed to their vaccination appointments.

We have a lot to get to today.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

Joe and Shirley will be with you in just a little bit.

We're going to begin today with Dr Frackville.

Dr., it's great to have you back on the show.

Thanks for having me.

Always a pleasure.

To have you.

Dr earlier this afternoon, I was out at Dorney Park getting my own second dose of the Moderna vaccine.

Lots of people out there are many people in a great mood.

I think the weather might have had something to do with that.

But what are you hearing from the field about the pace of vaccinations and people showing up to get them so, you know, to take the first part of the question, the mood is always great at all of our vaccine sites.

I think the staff that's doing this really does feel strongly that this is the most important thing that we've done since the start of the pandemic, getting our communities vaccinated.

It is taking us one step closer to finding our way out of the pandemic and a really big smiles under every mask, whether it's at Dorney Park or in any of the sites that are administering vaccines, we're still excited.

So it was great to have folks coming back all day.

We're at Dorne today, second doses.

So really, really important for But what we are starting to see, like many other parts of this country, like most of the state right now, there's a slowing of people signing up for vaccines.

So vaccine availability is now outpacing vaccine demand.

We knew this day would come and we certainly recognize it.

And I think it signals a shift for us as we move into the next part of our vaccination efforts.

Sure.

And as I mentioned, I got my second vaccine today.

So I wanted to ask you what should I be doing now that I got that second vaccine?

I've heard a lot of people say 12 to 24 hours later they're having some symptoms or just feeling really fatigued.

Is there anything we can do once we get the vaccine to kind of alleviate some of those symptoms?

That's a great question and a lot of people ask that.

We don't recommend that people take medications in advance.

You know, certainly if you develop any symptoms, aches, body aches of low rates, fevers, fatigue, etc, you can take things ibuprofen or other nonsteroidal or Tylenol or acetaminophen to help with those symptoms.

Those agents tend to work fairly quickly and readily.

What I do encourage people to do drink lots of fluids, make sure you're doing really, really well hydrated.

Don't overdo it today.

Whether it's exercise or at work, the symptoms, if people do develop them after the second dose, do tend to start anywhere between 12 to 18 hours after that first vaccination.

They can start as late as 24 hours or even a little bit longer.

But you know, Brittany, I remind people not everyone has side effects, not everyone has symptoms.

So I think you play by ear and listen to your body, especially tomorrow if you do develop symptoms, take it easy, get plenty of lots of fluids if you need to.

Great doctor, for real.

Thank you so much.

I've also been reading about some people skipping that second dose.

Is this something that you're seeing at LVHN and any reason do we know why they're doing this?

Why are people skipping that second dose?

So I think it is we're starting to see this a little more commonly.

We've been tracking since the start of the pandemic our no show rate, the percentage of individuals who sign up for vaccinations in their scheduled slots but failed to come.

And I would say during the first one to three weeks are no show rate was well, less than 1% of individuals.

What we've seen over the last several weeks is a bump by several percentage points each and every week.

This week we're at about 8%.

No show rate.

It's a little bit higher for second doses.

But we're also sometimes seeing it for Berks doses.

I think it reflects the fact for first doses that there are some people who are still uncertain.

They're perhaps on the fence about it and they make some last minute decisions to not.

And I still think they're debating whether or not they reschedule for some second doses.

I think there's been a perception by many that, hey, one shot is good enough.

We do know that there is some immunologic benefit after that first shot that persists for many, many weeks.

And that's great.

And I think some countries have said, hey, let's delay the second dose so so we can get more people vaccinated.

But all the studies to date for the two Moderna vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer really were based on this whole notion that you needed not just one shot but a second booster shot.

And like many other vaccines that we received, that booster is so important to helping our immune system establish memory such that Munce were even years down the line.

If we're ever re exposed or find ourselves in a situation where we're potentially in the presence of someone else with this illness that our immune systems will remember.

So I strongly encourage folks to return for that second shot.

And I know there are some who are worried that if you don't show up on day 21 for your Pfizer booster or 28 days after your Moderna booster, all is not lost and you really can and should get on the phone schedule.

Those appointments to get them.

You don't have to be perfect in the timeline.

We say that's the minimum amount of time we try as much as possible to get folks vaccinated with that second shot within those 42 days after the first shot.

But even if people slip out beyond that, we still encourage them because that booster shot is so vitally important.

And so what does that mean for access to apply?

What does that mean for those leftover shots Gamma I know I saw a headline.

I think it was the Philadelphia Convention Center by Thursday saw a couple thousand shots were going to expire.

What does that mean for all those extra shots?

Well, so it's a great question.

One of the things that we've been doing is we're really cautious about how many vaccines we're drawing up into vials and how many vials were following.

So we know our schedule for the day.

For example, Dorney Park today we're anticipating well over 4000 people coming for their booster shots today.

We are not necessarily calling or going into vials.

Every one of those shots we Hazleton throughout the day, we watch our notional rate.

We have a team that's constantly calculating about how many shots we'll need our goal at the end of the day is that we never have more than one vials worth of extra doses.

So for example, with Moderna you can get ten shots out of each while we open that last vial.

If one extra person comes in worst case, you never have more than nine left over shots at the end of the day.

So I think we've been we've gotten smart over the last several months of doing this and our team has been really, really good about predicting and making sure we're only drawing only thaung enough vaccine to get us through the day.

We do not want to be wasting that situation.

Philadelphia, I think was an unfortunate one where they enhanced paid at a much higher show rate and in that anticipation drew up more vials and they were going to go through and that puts yourself at jeopardy for losing doses.

And we don't want to ever find ourselves in that situation.

Show our nine left over.

At the end of the day, that sounds like a pretty good track record.

And even if there are nine left over, we will do our best.

Our teams sometimes have stuck around two, three hours after we've closed on the phone calling, for example, at our Whitehall spot.

We have there's a grocery store right next door.

They'll go to the grocery store and get people we haven't thrown away a dose from those sites, but after a long day, it is another hour, another two hours of trying to find folks.

It's tiring for our team.

So we try to minimize that as much as possible.

But this just shows you the efforts that our teams will go to to get shots, arms.

Sure.

And like I said, when I was out there today, everyone was in a great mood.

I do want to move on and talk about the new CDC guidelines.

Of course, yesterday the CDC coming out and saying that vaccinated people don't have to wear their mask outdoors.

So I wanted to ask you before we go through some of those guidelines, do you think that this is a push to get people vaccinated?

Do you think this will push people to get vaccinated?

Brittany Gamma I hope so.

I think for all of us, we wanted to know what Sugar Grove once we get vaccinated, I think people need to hear more of this is our path towards the old normalcy.

They want to know what can start to change in their world.

I really see this is very welcome.

New advice from the CDC and we also have more data.

Remember, we're learning every week, every month that goes by, we learn more about this illness and I think it's been now very, very clear from several studies that the likelihood of folks contracting Covid from outdoor exposure is so dramatically less than indoor exposures.

And I think it's this data and our growing understanding of the pandemic that is allowed the CDC to say, hey, when folks are fully vaccinated two weeks after their last shot in their vaccines areas that they can comfortably go about doing most of their outdoor activities without significant worries or concerns.

The exception of the CDC is kept on their list.

If you're going to be in a large outdoor situation with lots or lots of people, a concert, a sold out outdoor sporting event, then they still encourage the wearing of mask, largely based on the fact that we still are, not it.

We're just around 50% of adults now have at least one dose of vaccine.

There's still a higher amount of Covid circulating in our communities and we just don't know the status of everyone around it.

But for other things, running, jogging, going on a picnic, etc, you can take that mask off.

And I hope for folks that is a little a breath of fresh air to hear that.

Yeah, I just wanted to kind of lay this out for folks.

We have a graphic here to show people just to make it cut and dry here.

Some of the new CDC guidelines.

Here's a look right here.

Now this first graphic safety and outdoor activities as outlined under the new guidelines issued yesterday, it's safe for fully vaccinated people, as Dr Phil said, to gatherings, dine at a restaurant or bar all without masks, an outdoor restaurant or bar, I should say, not a safe for unvaccinated people as you can see on the left column.

Now, look at this one for indoor activities.

We didn't really talk much about them yet, but vaccinated people on the right wearing masks, safer vaccinated people to go to a barber hair salon, shop indoors, go to the movie theater or a Orefield church, go to a restaurant or bar indoors, go to the gym or an exercise class.

Now, the column on the left shows those activities are much riskier if you are not vaccinated.

Of course, this is from the CDC.

Look at the red on the left, much less safe if you're not vaccinated.

Dr Friel, there will be people who say this is just a scare tactic, a way for the CDC or the government to advance their agenda.

What would be your response to that?

So I'm hoping this is not something that scares folks.

I'm hoping that people see this as we're trying our best to educate people, to empower them to feel more comfortable doing some of the other things, but use the appropriate cautions in certain situations, indoor situations carry a still a higher risk for Covid-19, especially in the unvaccinated individuals.

This isn't meant to be a scare tactic.

It's just to help people really understand so they can be empowered to protect themselves and empowered to protect their loved ones.

Dr Freya, we do have a caller question is callers asking if they can be a candidate to give antibodies now that they are vaccinated.

It's a great question.

So typically what we have done in the past with those who've donated plasma, it's those who donated plasma follow the infection with Covid-19.

So it's one of the things depending upon where you're going to donate, whether it's at the Red Cross or other blood banks, Miller, Keystone Blood Bank, etc, you can ask them about what type of blood they are.

They are accepting from individuals.

We are still encouraging folks the best way, though, to prevent infection is to get vaccinated yourselves.

The other thing that we've seen over time is that our use of convalescent plasma has decreased significantly as we move deeper into the pandemic.

Other interventions such as the monoclonal antibodies and some of the other approved medicines like Remdesivir and dexamethasone and other steroids much more effective than the data suggests that convalescent plasma is.

So we're using much less of it.

I think it's a great question, but thankfully we're less reliant on it now than we were several months ago.

Dr Freya from Lehigh Valley Health Network, always a pleasure having you some great information to share today.

Thanks for being there.

Happy to be here.

All right.

We continue this community update on coronavirus PBS39.

Normally you can hear the rebroadcast on the radio at nine 30 on 91 three WLVT.

But tonight we'll be carrying President Biden's address to Congress at 9:00pm.

Now let's bring in our next guest, Joe Jocketty and Shirley Linberg.

Drive a Fiats, but theirs is unlike any you've seen before.

It has coronavirus protein sticking out all over its it's called Joe's Covid car and it's put on a lot of miles and Wuhan and Hunterdon County in New Jersey.

Joe and Shirley, thank you so much for joining us.

Welcome to the show.

Glad to be here.

Here's a look at that Fiat right there.

For the past several weeks, you've been giving free rides for people to get their vaccine appointments to get them on time and to get to them.

Overall, it sounds like it's become almost a full time job.

How did you start this?

Let's begin there.

Well, it started that we bought the Lehigh as just something to do during the pandemic to pass the time to do something interesting with the car.

And then early on I had a friend of mine passed away from Zoom call, which and then she and I both had several friends who got very sick from Covid.

So we started running Melsa that houses and we were in in Easton and Orwigsburg and Clinton.

We were just running Multa for a few weeks and eventually people got well and then we decided that we had to do something a little more substantial.

And Sean and I both realized that what we Hunterdon County public transportation is not readily available and so we decided that we were going to start giving rides to people who could not get to the vaccine sites.

And we were amazed how many people cannot get there for so many different reasons.

Absolutely.

And like I said, this seems like it's become a full time job just connecting people with their vaccine appointments, picking people up, as you said, public transport isn't available and not every vaccine appointment is right around the corner.

So what keeps you going?

Where do you find the time and the drive to do this?

About to retire?

Thankfully, and sometimes we may have to say we can't make an appointment, but the drive is just because we want to see an end to this pandemic.

And it's a little enlightened self-interest.

The more we can help, the more quickly we will get to an end to this pandemic and get to our old normal.

Sure, I hope we get back to some type of old normal.

Right.

I wanted to ask who are the people that you're offering or who are the people who are asking for a ride to their vaccine appointments Gamma Most of the people most of the people we've had so far are elderly or disabled people.

That's been about 75% of the people.

There are also a lot of other people who for one reason or another cannot get to a site.

It just may be too far for them or they only have one car and their husband needs to go to work and there's really a whole host of reasons.

And, you know, usually the reasons are all unique and they're all reasons that you can't get around.

And how do people reach out to you?

How do they connect with you?

If someone is interested and maybe they need a ride somewhere, how do they get in touch with you?

Mostly through Facebook and also email.

In fact, after the Washington Post article, gentleman from Washington, DC contacted Joe Biden email and asked if we could give a ride to his aunt who lives in Frenchtown, New Jersey, So we've had some Hellertown requests for Allentown people.

And how far have you traveled?

What's the farthest you've traveled a date?

Well, I think the furthest we're going to travel is going to be on on Friday.

We're going to be going out to Edison, New Jersey, and that's about an hour.

And that's it's really far from us.

But it's an elderly couple and they really need it.

And so Julie and I decided we were going to do it and we talked about it, but we'll do it.

And I want to ask here's a picture of the car here.

How did you create this?

I have to ask, how did you get those Covid proteins to stick to the car Gamma That's one of that's a very popular question.

Marcia Fudge.

Yeah, well, the proteins themselves are made from dry walls.

So those balls you put in to try to help you close this three of them together.

And I've used different kinds of Exalogic that he hopes to keep them together with a piece of pipe and then just take it to the car.

I use a combination of Aliant Hape and guerilla group.

OK, that's the magic.

That's the magic potion right.

But they fall off periodically.

We have to put them back on, you know, about five Pfizer we come off but we put it back on.

Yeah.

So we do check before we try to make sure everything that's on there is stable.

So, you know, and what's the reaction like when people see you out, the community?

What's the reaction been like Gamma Predominantly all smiles.

All smiles.

Yes.

Some people are a little bewildered.

The children all love it.

The kids get very excited.

They know what it is right away.

Teachers are teaching amazed that they know it's a coronavirus and the once people find out what the car is being used for, they're really thankful.

A lot of people sent that very fire.

So it's been an overall positive experience.

Sure.

But on the other hand, it really can't be cheap to do this.

I know the cost of gas just keeps going up.

So what keeps you motivated?

Why do you keep doing this?

Well, you know, Shirley and I have different reasons why we're doing this, but the one reason we have in common we were watching television during the going to pin down was raging and we just couldn't see all these people dying at all and showing how to do something about it.

And we felt we could do something about it, even something small that it can help.

And I'm a firm believer in that.

This is a grassroots effort and maybe someone else to say, hey, you know what, Joe and Shirley can do this on a shoestring budget.

Anyone can do this.

Sure.

And Shirley, what's your motivation?

I know Joe just said that you both have different reasons for doing this.

What's your motivation Gamma I'd like to encourage people to get the vaccine I've seen in my lifetime people who have illnesses that could have been prevented by vaccines.

Have they existed one of my friends had post polio syndrome that's been and I had mumps when I was a child that left me with a deaf ear and had the vaccine been invented, I probably be a pilot.

I love that traveling all over just a different form of transportation this time around.

Right now people want to help and get involved.

How can they do so?

They contact you the same way as if they need a vaccine.

And have you had anybody reach out and say, hey, you know, this can't be easy to do on your own?

Let me help you have people pitched in?

Absolutely.

We've had just today I was contacted by Privatbank and they donated about a hundred sanitized sanitizer to us and the sanitizer we kind of go through quickly because we have to sanitize the call before Leana Wen gets in the car.

But we also have a donation site on our Facebook page.

The Facebook page is Joe's Covid car was there.

OK, well, if you put everything look up Jena Scurry Candida Affa and there's a donation site, then people have been generous giving us donations and we really appreciate it because the money comes straight out of our pockets.

Sure.

So I search TROs Covid car on Facebook that will pop up.

They'll be able to reach out to you.

I want to ask before we let you go, are there any good stories that people have shared on those rides to get their vaccines?

Any heartfelt stories, any funny stories Gamma I'm sure I had a I had a woman that I took early on and she was a you middle aged old woman disabled and she was probably the funniest woman I've ever met in my life.

I picked her up in the car.

I left the entire drive to and from and she was the nicest know, at the end of the ride, she handed me a little piece of paper and it was something in that she says, Can you give this to Shirley Gamma And I didn't open it up, but I brought it back to Shirley and she opened up and it was six chocolate kisses in the and it was so sweet and it really touched me because the woman really needed the line.

And when the ride was over, she asked me.

She was in a very low voice.

She will you take me for my second shot and I was like, I will thank you because I have no doubt about it.

So we take it over and make for our second wonderful just an incredible thing.

The two of you are doing.

I wanted to make sure that we put up on the screen one more time a way for people to get involved whether they want to reach out with donations or if they are looking for a ride in that area.

Here is just Covid car.

The phone number is nine zero eight three two eight six seven three zero.

The email is Joseph Roy Kovik are at Gmail .com and as they mentioned, you can look up Joe's Covid car on Facebook as well.

I just want to commend the two of you for for just a wonderful effort in doing this.

It's an amazing thing you're doing for people connecting them with vaccines, appointments.

Any idea of how long you'll do this for as long as there's a need and we have energy.

Yes, that's really what we want.

They'll probably get less as time goes by.

But I think the car is going to be around for a while longer because I just have the feeling that's going to morph into something else down the road just from the phone calls we get.

OK, Joe, we'll keep us posted.

We want to see what it morphs into.

Joe and Shirley, thank you so much for joining us today.

It's been an honor.

Thank you.

And we want to thank our guests for being with us today and of course, you for joining us for community update on coronavirus.

We'll be here at 4:00pm each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on PBS39 and on the radio at nine 30 those same nights on WLVT News.

We'll be back Friday at four with a guest to explain how the pandemic prompted a risky career switch and the uncertainty that comes with that.

If you have a question, you can leave it at our website, PBS39.

Or on social media, you can also give us a call and leave it there.

The phone number is Fauci for eight two one zero zero zero eight four PBS39 and WLVT news.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Stacey.