About 4 weeks ago, when I was trying to help my mom get signed up, there was one option - the Moderna one, given at our Health Department. Supposedly, two grocery chain pharmacies also had Moderna, but all appointments were filled. To get my mom in, my sisters and I flooded the website sign-up for two days starting at 7:00 am when I opened the queue. We each had at least 2 devices refreshing and none of us got all the way through. (One sister and I got through, but all appointments gone by the time you "checked out.") My mom was calling the health department line and she finally go through. Now, you go through the same process and sign up fairly easily, there is mass vaccination site with sign up, and the local hospital has vaccine sign-ups at two of the Doc-in-a-box sites. The first two are Moderna, and the last one is Pfizer. So, you can pretty much choose around here. I checked today at Noon and there appointment slots open for today. All appointment slots for tomorrow and Friday were available. Group 1B opens next week and Group 2 the week after, I think. I'm sure once those groups open, it'll be back to being hard to find a slot.
One thing about the J&J vaccine is its storage requirements and single dose are going to mean it's a much easier vaccine to give to under-served areas, especially internationally. I'm not sure that everyone understands what a race against time we're in. Viruses mutate. This one is already mutating. It's only a matter of time until one of the variants renders the vaccines dramatically less effective, or totally ineffective. It's not just about vaccinating our families, it's about suppressing the virus world-wide so that the variants stop raging, and a single dose vaccine is SO much easier to coordinate in poor locations with bad infrastructure. It's hard enough to set up vaccine clinics, let alone set up two of them a specified time apart and expect everyone to know when to show up One of the data points in the FDA's J&J panel hearing said (IIRC) that the UK variant currently represents 1-2% of cases in the US, and by the end of March they expect it to be the dominant strain. That's terrifying. Individually, it seems like J&J's is slightly less effective, especially with older patients with comorbidities, but a lot of that population is already getting dosed, and the more needles we get in arms, the more we reduce the chance for a variant to rampage through the population.
The UK strain was just found here in our county (Upstate NY). Meanwhile people are letting their guard down. This could be the perfect storm.
Asylum seekers with COVID released to travel. "Eva Orellana, 29, who is from Honduras and who tested positive, said she was going to take the bus to North Carolina with her 3-year-old daughter. "On the way, we were wearing a mask all the time, gel, washing our hands," she said. "Really, I don't feel anything."
I got my first dose of the Pfizer one today. This morning I checked the scheduling calendar again. Every single time slot was open. I got mine at Noon, and there was no one else in the large room. There were 2 people in the observation room afterwards that had about 25 empty chairs. It's wide open again tomorrow. There were four nurses at the table administering the shots. The one who actually stuck me was young and very pretty. She said "where do you want it?" I said, "what are my options? because I can drop my pants." The table snickered and she gave me a "you're hilarious nobody has said that before" look. I went with left arm. I asked if there was a possibility I would get any super powers afterwards, and one of the other nurses said "you might turn into Spider-man" and the admin lady behind me said, "or just a spider." I know they were bored to death as empty as it was.
I don’t care what vaccine I’m eligible for. Give me one laced with fentanyl for all I care. I’m tired of thinking about this shit.
Just go with the Andromeda Strain method: down sterno and aspirin until your blood is too acidic to host the infection.
So it appears the network of “covid is a hoax” and “just like the flu” is now concerned about it because it could be spread by dirty illegals. https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1367662801561341954?s=21
I have to say, it's impressive how quickly you guys have gotten your shit together. I still have no idea when I'm going to be vaccinated, but it's probably not going to be until mid/late summer, maybe longer.
Well, through my work, I’m able to submit names of friends and family who qualify for the vaccine so I hit up my brother in law who said “I’m not worried about it. Thanks.” Fucking dipshit.
Yep, that's a big factor for how we live life in the next year. There might be doses available but it doesn't mean everyone will take it. So we might socialize on a small basis with people we know for sure have been vaccinated but we won't be taking the kiddo to storytime or the store for awhile. The state signup system here is very poorly run and varies on a county by county basis. Tons of eligible people are having a difficult time or not able to sign up at all. The albertsons/safeway signup system is a lot better. I just tried to sign up and it seems like they have plenty of spots open and that you can choose which vaccine you want. So if they speed up the time table (currently my group isn't eligible til July) then me and hubs should be able an appointment with no trouble.
I just learned that part of my company's "return to the office" plan means that there will NOT be a requirement to have the vaccine... "it's a personal decision". I find that quite interesting... especially since the vaccine is not 100% effective. They seemed surprised when people asked "well, will we know who isn't vaccinated, and do we have the option to not return to the workplace if there are unvaccinated people there?"
Probably. I work in the schools and nobody is getting them there until at least April. I planned on at least September for them to become a walk-in deal around here. My plan is it comes when it comes, I’m certainly not going to step in front of somebody who needs it first.
I have a stupid question: if the individual is vaccinated, why would they care if others are or aren't? [This question is directed broadly, not at Nett's company specifically.] The whole point is that it's mostly effective, like all other vaccines, so if you yourself are inoculated it protects you from exposure. If I had the vaccine, I wouldn't care who else did or did not. Same as I didn't ask fellow travelers when I was touring the world if they had had a Hep A/B shot...I did, so *shrug.* Maybe that's naivete, if you get a proper dose of whichever brand you are signed up for, you should be mostly protected.