Vaccine now is better than waiting
Americans might have options as supply grows
If you get the choice, which COVID-19 vaccine should you choose?
For now, experts are clear: The best vaccine is the one about to go into your arm. But as the vaccine supply grows, Americans eventually might find someone asking, “Which vaccine do you want?”
The answer for most people will still be “Whatever’s available.” But there are differences that could play a role, though doctors are unanimous that all three authorized vaccines work extremely well to protect against severe disease, hospitalization and death.
A shot now is better than waiting for a different shot, said Dr. Kathryn Edwards, scientific director of the Vaccine Research Program at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine. It likely benefits the individual and society alike by lowering the overall spread of the disease.
Beyond that, there are small tradeoffs when it comes to the current vaccines. Pfizer-biontech and Moderna vaccines require two doses and are somewhat more effective. Johnson & Johnson requires one dose and is somewhat less likely to cause side effects.
J&J’S “one and done” aspect is a selling point for many.
Pedro Betancourt works at the airport in Miami and “can’t take chances,” he said. His choice would be “Johnson & Johnson due to a convenient one shot.” But he said he wasn’t picky because he and his wife had gotten COVID-19, which he described as “mild but scary.”
Right now, “I hope everyone takes the vaccinations seriously so that we can begin moving forward to normalcy,” he said.
Overall, Pfizer-biontech and Moderna had slightly higher efficacy rates in clinical trials than J&J.
That’s enough for Tom Cavanagh of Lexington Park, Maryland. Given the choice, he’d choose either of them but would be open to all.
“Having been in the U.S. military, I have gotten many vaccines without having a bit of knowledge, so I will take the vaccine that I can get and hope for the best,” he said.
One way to approach this could be deciding if you’re someone at high risk of getting very sick or dying from COVID-19 or if someone in your family is, said Hilda Bastian, a health scientist who writes on COVID-19 vaccines.
People in that group might choose the Pfizer-biontech or Moderna vaccines.
For someone who doesn’t have anyone at home at high risk, and isn’t at high risk themselves, that slightly better effectiveness wouldn’t matter as much. The ease of the one-shot J&J vaccine could be more important.
“They might think, ‘As long as I’m doing my bit for the community, if it’s enough for that, then that would be enough for me,’ ” Bastian said.
How quickly the vaccines’ protection kicks in and how long it lasts are still being worked out. No long-term data is available because none of the vaccines are more than a year old.
The vaccines don’t give immediate protection because there are biological
limitations at work, said Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine and associate chief of infectious diseases at UCLA’S David Geffen School of Medicine.
“It takes time for antibodies and T cells to build to adequate levels. Antibodies in particular also require ‘maturation.’ ” he said.
It might seem the one-shot J&J vaccine, would be faster but that’s not necessarily the case.
From published data on symptomatic infections, it appears the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines likely reach maximum protection from 14 to 28 days after both shots, said Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale.
The endpoint protection from symptomatic infection was measured two weeks after the second shot for Moderna, and one week after the second shot for Pfizer during the Phase 3 trials. That would be at 42 days for Moderna and 28 days for Pfizer.
That’s not so different from J&J. After 28 days, its protection from severe disease was 85% and after 49 days it was 100%, said Iwasaki.
She did acknowledge there’s no good head-to-head data.
“It is comparing apples and oranges though since the efficacy was measured differently, Moderna and Pfizer-biontech as symptomatic infections, Johnson & Johnson as moderate to severe disease,” she said.
How well the vaccines work against newly emerging coronavirus variants is another factor.
Scientists say it’s difficult to know whether any of the three work better against the variants as the vaccines were tested at different times when different variants were circulating. Even so, some Americans prefer J&J.
“If I could choose, I would go with Johnson & Johnson. The reason why is because this vaccine protects people from the variants. Pfizer-biontech and Moderna came out before the variants showed up,” said James Bock of Rockford, Illinois.
All three vaccines in use in the United States can cause short-term side effects in some people, including pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache and muscle and joint pain.
These are a sign the immune system is kicking into high gear and not a bad thing – they don’t mean the vaccines aren’t safe.
For Pfizer-biontech and Moderna, more than half of people who get them have chills and fever a few days afterward. If you haven’t had COVID-19, the reaction tends to be stronger after the second dose, said Vanderbilt’s Edwards.
“If you’ve had COVID before, you’ll get sicker with the first dose and less with the second,” she said.
These differences could matter for some people. For example, younger people tend to have stronger side effects because their immune systems overall are stronger.
“If I’m an older person, then maybe I’m not going to need a couple of days off work if I get one of the shots, so Pfizerbiontech or Moderna are fine,” said Bastian.
A younger person or someone for whom taking a day of work is difficult, might prefer the J&J vaccine, she said.
For people who aren’t thrilled with the idea of vaccines overall, J&J could be preferable because it’s just one shot.
“They might say, ‘That’s not too much to ask. I’ll do that,’ ” Bastian said.
Nearly eight months after the FBI arrested former Speaker Larry Householder in connection with a $60 million bribery scheme, House Republicans plan to debate whether he should remain in office.
The private meeting, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, will be the first time they've gathered as a group to discuss Householder since the General Assembly started Jan. 4.
How did this all start?
Federal prosecutors arrested the Perry County Republican in July 2020 on bribery and racketeering charges. They claimedhouseholder used money from Firstenergy and others to fuel his bid to lead the Ohio House, pass a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants and defend that law against a ballot initiative to block it. Householder pleaded not guilty. Republicans quickly removed him as their leader, but they let him remain in the Ohio House of Representatives. He has no committee assignments, doesn't speak during floor sessions and introduced just two legislative proposals so far.
How would expulsion work?
The state constitution permits each chamber (Ohio House and Senate) to "punish its members for disorderly conduct" and expel him or her with a twothirds majority vote. In the House, that's 66 votes.
This could happen in one of three ways: House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-lima, could bring a resolution directly to the floor. A House member could introduce a resolution that would go through the normal process of committee hearings and votes. Or a representative could try to make a motion from the floor.
Cupp's resolution would be the easiest and quickest option for Republicans hoping to avoid a long, drawn-out debate about Householder's future.
Are there enough votes?
House Republicans have 64 members – 63 if you take Householder out of the equation – which means at least three Democrats need to vote for expulsion.
That shouldn't be a problem. A spokesman for House Democrats said all 35 members would vote yes, so Republicans only need to bring 31 votes.
Several Republicans told the USA Today Network Ohio Bureau they had the votes to remove Householder if it ever came up for a vote. Cupp will want more than the bare minimum, though. Here's how Republicans are split. There's the "vote to expel" supporters like Rep. Brian Stewart, R-ashville.
"If a bank teller gets caught stealing, they don't get to handle the cash drawer while their case works through the courts," Stewart said in a tweet March 4 . "When a legislator is indicted for selling legislation, he shouldn't be left in a position to introduce bills."
There's the "let the court case play itself out" folks like Reps. Bill Seitz, Rgreen Township, and Tom Brinkman, R-mount Lookout.
Brinkman said Ohio lawmakers should follow the mechanism already in place: "When you are convicted of a felony, you are removed from office."
Householder's district knew about the allegations when they re-elected him in the fall. Removing him would be going against the will of the voters, he said.
"Anything beyond that is falling to cancel culture," Brinkman said. "I don't think that serves our state and our nation."
In between those two sides are representatives like Cupp, who would rather Householder "do the right thing" and resign, taking the onus off House Republicans to act.
"I think he should resign," said Rep. Adam Bird, R-new Richmond. "I think that the guilty pleas that the people that he hired to run the enterprise tells me that he was involved.”
What does Householder say?
The former speaker says he's innocent and plans to "vigorously" defend himself. In the meantime, he wants to stay put.
"Removal of a sitting House member is completely unprecedented in Ohio history," Householder said in a text message. "To take such unprecedented action would subvert the will of 31,000 local citizens that voted for me even knowing of these allegations. Members of the Ohio House do not elect representatives, the people they serve do."
What about Democrats?
They're tired of waiting for House Republicans to act.
"Quite frankly, if they don't do it soon, we probably will," Rep. Jeff Crossman, D-parma, said. "We've said (Householder) is their mess to clean up, but we're three months into the new General Assembly and they haven't moved."
Crossman also introduced a bill that would force state lawmakers to repay their salaries from their date of arrest if convicted of a crime.
Why wasn't he expelled last year?
The House voted 90-0 to take the speaker's gavel from Householder's hands a week after his arrest. But then most of those Republicans voted to table (not debate) a motion to expel Householder from office.
Cupp told reporters he wanted to wait until 2021 because of a quirk in the Ohio Constitution. It says a lawmaker can't be expelled a "second time for the same cause."
Basically, Cupp didn't want to remove Householder from the last few months of the 133rd General Assembly (which ended in December 2020) only to be stuck with him for the entire two years of the 134th.
But whenever reporters ask Cupp about expelling Householder these days, he gives the same answer: I'm consulting with the caucus.
MANSFIELD – Melinda Davis' sister said it was devastating to learn on Monday that her missing sister's body had been found late Sunday in the trunk of her car at an apartment complex near Galloway, Ohio.
It was not the outcome she nor Melinda's four children wanted.
“I never wanted to know something and not know something at the same time. It was a hard day and it's a hard day today,” Lisa Davis said Tuesday, after contacting Snyder Funeral Home on Lexington Avenue for funeral arrangements.
A tip from a citizen came in to Columbus police about Melinda Davis' car being spotted, Richland County Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon said during a Monday press conference.
Went missing on Feb. 25
Davis, 33, had not been seen or heard from since Feb. 25, when she was believed to have been headed to Mansfield to make contact with her ex-boyfriend John H. Mack Jr.
On her way to Mansfield she called a friend and said, “If you don't hear from me, call the police,” according to court documents.
Mack Jr., 43, of Cliffside Drive, was charged on Feb. 26 with kidnapping Davis and was arrested on March 4 in Mansfield, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
He remains in the Richland County Jail.
In addition to law-enforcement officials, family and friends and community members had organized daily search parties looking for Davis, the mother of four, and her car, a 2013 black Volkswagen Jetta with Ohio plates JGZ8921.
Tiffany Kyser, who lives in the Lehnert Green apartments where the Jetta was found on the far west side of Columbus, less than two miles from Galloway, said she had noticed the car because it didn't belong to anyone in the area that she knew. She said a video she took in the parking lot on Feb. 27 shows the Jetta in the background.
Lisa Davis said she and her youngest son C.J. Higgenbotham, 24, have temporary custody of Melinda's four children, ages, 10, 13, 15 and 17, and are seeking full custody.
Lisa Davis said she wished to thank everyone for the love they have shown the family and Melinda on social media.
Davis said she's been thinking about Melinda's life and how she was always so popular growing up, even when she was a youngster at school in Arizona.
“She was very popular everywhere she went. She was outgoing but not overwhelming. She was the life of the party,” she said. “It was her personality. Melinda just clicked with people,” Lisa Davis said. “She didn't care if people saw her flaws. She showed people them and she had a lot of love for her children and love for herself.”
Lisa Davis added that Melinda and Mack Jr. dated for three years and broke up in August. They each were dating other people.
Lisa Davis said Melinda's children will be taken to the funeral home to help make funeral arrangements for their mother.
Hopes the Lord will provide
Jessica Narcho, Melinda's niece, said she is hoping the Lord will provide for the family to bury Melinda in Mansfield where Melinda's and Lisa's brother Jason is buried.
“She really loved her children. She blew up their phones,” she said of Melinda.
Richland County Prosecutor Gary Bishop told media at the news conference Monday that Melinda's body was taken to Montgomery County for an autopsy. He declined to elaborate to media who asked if others were involved, how long the car had been at the location where it was found, or the motive, saying it was too premature.
Bishop said any new possible charges will be determined at a later date.
Asked what the underlying evidence of the kidnapping charge was, Bishop said “Primarily blood.”
Sheldon said information is very limited and now that Davis' body and car have been found, there is a “mountain of work to do.”
Mack Jr.'s son, Jaybyn Mack, 18, and Jabyn's wife, Alexandria Mack, 18, were arrested along with Mack Jr. on March 4
and charged with obstructing justice. They were released on $5,000 cash bond each, according to jail records.
Preliminary hearings scheduled
Preliminary hearings for all three Macks had been scheduled for 1 p.m. March 25 in Mansfield Municipal Court Judge Jerry Ault's courtroom, but Mack Jr.'s preliminary hearing has been waived.
In addition to being accused of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, Mack Jr. is also facing an unrelated charge of receiving stolen property.
While searching John Mack Jr.'s house at 592 Cliffside Drive on Feb. 27, authorities found $7,660.99 worth of merchandise in boxes, including a Sentinel safe, numerous computer monitors, a desktop computer, an ipad, three sewage pumps, a generator, four boxes of new clothing, wall shelves, a box of Bluetooth speakers, a microwave, seven pairs of muck boots, a hatchet, bolt cutters, four carpet runners, a box of car parts, and a robotic vacuum, according to a Richland County Sheriff 's Office report.
Mack Jr.’s criminal history
Mack Jr. has had previous run-ins with law enforcement, serving four stints in the Ohio penal system.
In January of 1997, three local residents including Mack Jr., then 19, were arrested in a Mansfield police investigation into break-ins of cars, according to News Journal archives.
Mansfield police Sgt. Jan Wendling said, “I'm sure this took a little bit of time to do. This (the thefts) has been going on for a while,” the newspaper reported at the time.
Police reported finding mounds of property they believed to be stolen at a South Adams Street home in 1997, including several sets of tires and rims, a number of car stereos and speakers, several tool boxes, a couple of VCRS, a couple of cell phones, stacks of compact discs, car seats, small television sets like those found in customized vans, and personal belongings.
In a separate incident, on Oct. 13, 2010, the News Journal reported local law enforcement authorities reported finding more than $100,000 in stolen tools, automobile parts and equipment at a residential property on Cloverdale Drive.
Then Shelby police Chief Charlie Roub said his office worked with Ashland police to search the property. Authorities were investigating burglaries at Buckeye Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Shelby in August and Donley Ford-lincoln Mercury of Ashland in September.
Shelby and Ashland police officers arrested John H. Mack Jr., 33, of 2250 Cloverdale Drive, without incident. Mack was charged with two counts of receiving stolen property and one count of having weapons under disability after authorities found a gun in a large tool box, Roub told the News Journal.
Richland County Sheriff's deputies helped load the equipment and tools onto vehicles. Members of the Mansfield post of the Ohio Highway Patrol also were on the scene.
The fenced-in back yard contained about 100 tires and wheels under tarps, Roub said.
Mack Jr.'s prison terms include nine months for receiving stolen property (June 26, 1977 to Dec. 3, 1997); four years on charges of receiving stolen property, theft, arson, and tampering with evidence (Feb. 20, 1998 to Nov. 11, 2001); a three-year prison sentence for tampering with evidence, serving seven months with judicial release (July 8, 2011 to Feb. 6, 2012), and a two-yearterm for possession of drugs (Jan. 17, 2014 to Nov. 3, 2015). All of his crimes were committed in Richland County, according to records from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections obtained by the News Journal. lwhitmir@gannett.com 419-521-7223
Twitter: @Lwhitmir