Free beer for COVID-19 vaccination promotion popular in Buffalo; California bar owner arrested for selling bogus vaccination cards: Coronavirus update for May 11, 2021
CLEVELAND, Ohio – A promise of free beer for vaccinations prompted microbrewery patrons to get the jab in Buffalo, New York; and the owner of a north California bar was arrested after selling made-to-order counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards.
Cleveland.com is rounding up some of the most notable coronavirus news making headlines online. Here’s what you need to know for Tuesday, May 11.
Shot and a beer has new meaning during microbrewery vaccination promotion
“Free beer” proved to be the magic words that made a crowd line up for their first COVID-19 vaccinations at a microbrewery in Buffalo, N.Y., on Saturday. The “Shot and a Chaser” program, run in partnership with local health officials, was more popular than area first-dose clinics, according to press reports.
Saturday was the first day for the program, which offered individuals who got their first COVID-19 vaccine dose at the microbrewery a free pint glass and coupon for the vaccinated person’s drink of choice, according to press reports.
More than 100 people had been vaccinated at the microbrewery by mid-afternoon on the first day, including some restaurant customers who decided to get the jab on the spur of the moment.
“Given the world we live in right now, it’s not so weird,” a brewery spokesman told local media. “We’re going to do more people today at our first-dose clinics than most of our first-dose clinics in the last week combined.”
The Buffalo microbrewery’s free-beer-for-vaccines promotion is similar to one that Cleveland’s Market Garden Brewery announced for St. Patrick’s Day. Market Garden Brewery patrons were asked to sign up online, show proof that they were fully vaccinated, and get a craft beer for a dime. It recalled the infamous, raucous 10-cent beer night at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1974.
The free-beer-for-vaccines idea, with some variations, has been done in New Jersey, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C, the entire state of Washington, Connecticut and other locations. The promotions vary, based on state law.
Made-to-order fake COVID-19 vaccination cards lead to arrest
The owner of a north California bar was arrested after selling made-to-order counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards to undercover state agents for $20 each. It was thought to be the first foiled fake vaccination card operation nationally, according to press reports.
Agents who made the arrest said they were instructed to write their names and birthdates on Post-It notes, then watched as employees filled cards with identifying information and fake vaccination dates. The cards were then laminated.
“On the back where they put the two dates when you were vaccinated, they used two different color pens to make it look like it was two different times,” a supervising agent said in press reports. “So they went to some effort to make it look authentic.”
When agents returned to the bar last week, they found more completed and blank cards, a laminator and cutting device. The arrest was made at that time.
Ads for fake vaccination cards on social media prompted the California attorney general’s office to send cease-and-desist warnings to people selling counterfeit cards.
Biomarkers identified that can predict who gets severe COVID-19
Researchers have identified the first biomarkers that reliably predict which patients will develop severe COVID-19. The biomarkers could help improve treatment of severe cases at an early stage.
A team from the University of Zurich found that the number of natural killer T cells — a type of white blood cell — in the blood can be used to predict which patients will have a severe case of the illness. The prediction can be made on the patient’s first day in the hospital, researchers said.
The new biomarker test can help physicians decide when to transfer patients to the ICU and the type of treatment to be used. The study was recently published in the journal Immunity.
Mild COVID-19 unlikely to cause lasting heart damage
Most people who had COVID-19 had mild or no symptoms, and those mild infections are unlikely to cause lasting heart damage, suggests a new British study.
Severe COVID-19 is associated with heart damage, blood clots and inflammation of the heart. This new British study sought to find out if mild infections may cause similar complications. It is considered to be the largest and most detailed study to date into mild COVID-19 infection and its longer-term impact on the heart.
Scientists identified participants with mild COVID-19 from the COVIDsortium, a study in three London hospitals where health care workers had undergone weekly samples of blood, saliva and nasal swabs for 16 weeks.
Six months after mild infection, researchers analyzed heart MRI scans of 74 health care workers who recovered from mild COVID-19 and compared them to the scans of 75 healthy study participants — matched by age, sex and ethnicity — who had not previously been infected.
They found no difference in the size or amount of muscle of the left ventricle — the chamber of the heart that pumps blood through the body. The amount of scarring and inflammation in the heart, and the elasticity of the aorta — which is important for blood flow – were the same between the two groups.
Study results were recently published in the journal JACC Cardiovascular Imaging.
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