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MONDAY January 25, 2021
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Vol. 150 Issue 27
Champaign County continues vaccine push BY ALIZA MAJID STAFF WRITER
RYAN ASH THE DAILY ILLINI
A senior Champaign County resident receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 12 at the I-Hotel. The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has recently expanded vaccinations to individuals who are 65 or older and have underlying health conditions.
COVID-19 vaccines have become available to the 1B group, the second pool of eligible individuals who have been authorized to receive the shot by the federal government. Phase 1B consists of individuals who are 65 or older and frontline essential workers including public transit workers and educators. The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has been administering COVID-19 vaccines for residents who were 75 or older but have expanded eligibility to individuals 65 or older with underlying health conditions. “The 1B group is a much larger population of people that need to be vaccinated,
New UI testing tools aid robotic processing BY MONA ALRAZZAQ STAFF WRITER
The University’s rapid saliva-based COVID-19 test has been altered to give students the option of using a straw or a funnel to assist them in filling a narrower test tube with saliva. Dr. Martin Burke, associate dean of research at Carle Illinois College of Medicine, said the switch from thicker test tubes to narrower test tubes occurred due to robotics and to make the testing process more efficient. A robot was invented at the University specifically to make the testing process more efficient by TEKMILL, a contract design and fabrication business located in the University of Illinois at Research Park. “Engineers came, they saw what we needed, and TEKMILL created these robots just for us,” Burke said. These two customdesigned robots take off the cap of the test tubes and place it into a rack. A second robot takes the sample out of the tube and places the sample in one of the 96 well plates. A third robot then takes four 96 well plates, combines them, and loads them
into the PCR machine. This robotic addition and switch in test tubes allowed the testing process to be more efficient, which will also assist the University in being able to expand testing to the outside community, according to Burke. In addition to speeding up the testing process, Burke said the smaller test tubes help eliminate the overall amount of waste collected as a result of testing, which makes them more environmentally friendly. When it comes to choosing between a straw and a funnel, Burke said he doesn’t think there is a significant difference in the environmental impact. The straws offered are chosen carefully in order to ensure that they are environmentally friendly. As University students adjust to the new way of testing, some are finding it difficult to fill the test tube with bubble-free saliva up to the marked black line. Anthony Erlinger, sophomore in LAS, said that his friend was once in the testing center for 30 minutes because he kept being turned away from sub-
SEE VACCINE | 5A
B117 lineage spreads 50% faster than other strains, may require annual vaccination RYAN ASH THE DAILY ILLINI
Pharmacist Katie Lampan prepares shots of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 12. Vaccine supplies are currently limited to older and at-risk citizens.
BY MATT TROHER STAFF WRITER
effects have been identified, with one of them having a 20 times greater binding affinity to our cells. “The reason why these new variants are of concern is due to the increase in binding affinity, meaning that it is easier for the virus to spread,” Procko said. On Wednesday, Chancellor Rober t Jones announced that the UI “expect(s) to see the highly contagious B117 variant enter our community. “This variant of the virus appears to spread 50% faster than any other strains,” Jones wrote. With reports from Africa and now also in the United States about new variants of the virus, it has been a concern to some whether the distributed vaccines in places like Carle Hospital are still effective. With vaccines being distributed after under a year of development and testing, many are worried if annual vaccination is necessary. “Each of the vaccines out there right now handles the virus differently and I doubt these mutations will make the virus completely resistant,” Procko said. As for annual testing, Procko explained how things are still a bit unclear as to whether or not that is necessary. The duration of COVID-19 antibodies have been reported differently across many scientific research studies, and it will take more trials and studies to be done before knowing whether it is needed to vaccinate just once or annually, similar to a flu shot.
BY ROYAL SHRESTHA STAFF WRITER
Vaccine explainer: When will students get their turn?
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are another high risk group that could potentially infect others and will have the opportunity to receive the vaccine. “Since I’m doing social work services in the school district that I’m a part of right now, support services are considered specialty work,” said Kevin Soto, graduate student in the School of Social Work. “I’m working with students in person and we were considered 1A.” Soto got his first shot of Moderna on Jan. 13. He hasn’t experienced any side effects, and he will receive his second dose of the vaccine in a month. Champaign County has administered more than 16,000 vaccines so far, with
UI expects UK COVID-19 variant to enter campus
The process of distributing vaccines to the eligible population is well underway in Champaign-Urbana despite transparency issues from the federal government. Brandon Meline is logistics chief at the ChampaignUrbana Public Health District, which oversees the community’s vaccine distribution program. Meline and his team have been successfully working to get the first doses of the vaccine out despite short notice and limSEE NEW TEST | 5A ited supplies. “The limited vaccine has been the biggest barrier to distribution right now, and the (lack of) transparency about knowing what we’ll be getting from week to week and being able to plan accordingly,” Meline said. “The transparency from the feds down to the state is pretty limited on the allotment. We’re not ramping up in volume as quickly as we thought Sports: Bielema we would. The limitations in rounds out staff, the planning and distribukeeps seniors tion are based on how many vaccine doses we get and PAGE 1B when we get them. We’re not able to really forecast out too
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and the state did not break it up into priorities within the group,” said Awais Vaid, the deputy administrator of CUPHD. “At the local level we have been subcategorizing within the groups to reach out to the most vulnerable groups first because the vaccine supply is very limited.” The number of vaccines administered depends on the number supplied by the government on a weekly basis. The categorization has been set up in order to prioritize those who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19 and have one of the highest rates of morality in the county. Individuals who are forced to have interactions where they’re unable to keep physical distance, such as daycare providers,
far in advance, we’re pretty much working week to week right now.” According to the CUPHD COVID-19 vaccinations homepage, of Champaign County’s eligible population, which includes all individuals over the age of 16, 9.8% have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 1.27% have received both doses as of Jan. 23. A major issue associated with vaccine distribution is deciding who gets the vaccine first. The Illinois Department of Public Health has divided the eligible population into three phases, with the first phase being divided into three sub-phases — 1A, 1B and 1C. The state is currently in phase 1B of the vaccination plan, which includes healthcare workers and those in long-term residential care such as nursing homes. The IDPH wanted to vaccinate as much of phase 1A as possible before moving onto the next phase. Although regions like Champaign County will have some autonomy during the later phases of the plan, Meline SEE STUDENTS | 5A
Over the last few months, vaccines have completed phase three of trials, and over 30.6 million doses have been distributed across the U.S.. However, just a few weeks ago, it was reported that new variants of the coronavirus have been detected in the U.K. and Africa, one of which the University expects to enter the community. It has been almost a year since COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic by the International World Health Organization. During this time, new mutations that were introduced to the virus caused it to be more infectious, including the infamous D614G variant, which now is in the genome of almost all the virus samples gathered from individuals. Erik Procko, assistant professor of biochemistry in MCB, explained how the coronavirus genome containing a single, long strand of RNA is one of the fastest mutating virus types. Like all viruses, including influenza, the coronavirus mutates to potentially gain new characteristics that will be beneficial for its survival and growth. The new variant in the U.K. is known as the B.1.1.7 lineage and there are over a royals2@dailyillini.com dozen random point mutations to the genome. Only two of these point mutation
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