I had my second dose of the Moderna m-RNA vaccine yesterday. What comes next?
It takes three weeks to build immunity, and I don’t plan to change what I’ve been doing until then. I have been isolating rather thoroughly. I haven’t been inside a store since last October. I’m taking piano lessons via Zoom. I wear double masks held tight with a clip that pulls the ear loops to the back of my neck. I haven’t seen friends in person since sometime late last summer. My family is at distances that make a year’s separation not extraordinary.
The CDC has promised guidelines on what to do after you’ve had your vaccine, but they haven’t published them yet. Guidelines are difficult to develop because there are so many variables.
I look at it as a risk assessment problem. What risk are you willing to take? What risk do various situations present? Here’s my assessment for myself. Yours may differ.
The numbers change with new information. We’ve known this virus and its effects only a year now. So my risk assessment is qualitative rather than quantitative.
I see becoming ill with Covid-19 as an unacceptable risk. My age group is more likely than others to be hospitalized or die from Covid-19. Additionally, it can cause lasting effects as “Long Covid.” These risks are a lot more than for the flu. Unacceptable in my judgment.
My risk management strategy is aimed at never contracting the disease. The first Moderna shot is supposed to give 85% immunity, and the second, well over 95%. Nobody who has had the vaccinations has died from Covid and few have been hospitalized. Those are good numbers, but the second is three weeks away for me.
Besides what the vaccine does to protect me, I also consider the numbers of cases and whether they are increasing or decreasing. They have decreased rapidly for the past month or so, but they are now at the levels of last summer, which we thought then was pretty bad. The more cases around, the more likely I am to be exposed. Will a larger dose of virus still make me sick? We don’t know. Could I catch an asymptomatic case and spread virus? Possibly.
The first thing I will do in three weeks will be spend time with friends who have been vaccinated. We will probably stay outside, on my deck, with masks.
Sometime after that, if cases continue to decrease, I will start going to stores. I quit when cases were going up and people were not distancing properly. I’ll start with the Farmers’ Market, which is in a large building or outdoors. In three weeks, it should be at least partially outdoors. Then I’ll try Trader Joe’s, which was particularly crowded and people particularly rude, even during alleged senior hours. I do like their products, though. Costco was good before, and I’ll head back there.
I’m working down my stockpiles of cleaning products and frozen and nonperishable food that I acquired through spring and summer last year. That feels good.
Next week I have a dental hygiene appointment. My last one was in October. The dentist made their hallways one-way, added barriers, and increased ventilation. I felt pretty good about their safety then and better now.
After three weeks, I’ll contact my massage therapist to find out if she is working. She’s always been scrupulous about cleanliness, and I really really need a massage. That will be a great pleasure.
I’ve been cutting my own hair. It doesn’t look bad – curly hair is very forgiving. But I know there are things wrong with the haircut and am looking forward to having it corrected. I’ll let it grow out now so that my hair stylist has something to work with.
My piano teacher doesn’t have a date for her vaccination yet. I am looking forward to having in-person lessons but don’t know when that will be.
I will, of course, mask up when I go out in public. It looks like vaccination cuts down on virus transmission, but not entirely. Masks will be required at least through the summer. People in Santa Fe have been good about masking, although I saw one man yesterday with his nose sticking out. Since they didn’t tattoo my vaccination date on my forehead, nobody can tell that I’m vaccinated.
Restaurants? Movies? Not until at least 50% of the population is vaccinated and case numbers are well below last summer’s. That might come as soon as this summer.
Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner
David Anderson
Ice Cream
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Interesting information on the J&J vaccine here (thread)
Amir Khalid
Absent authoritative guidance, I would maintain all the usual precautions until new infections dropped to a negligible level.
Sebastian
What you should do IMHO is relax a little. It’s over Cheryl, it’s over. We are still in shock and stuck in survival mode but it’s over.
Hug a friend and have a cry. I’ll be right behind ya
Cheryl Rofer
@Sebastian: Thanks, Sebastian. I can do my own risk assessment and you can do yours. Deal?
Cameron
I get my first Pfizer jab on Saturday with a second one scheduled for 3/27. I’m going to continue same routine (mask, distance, hand washing, alcohol-mouthwash gargling, budesonide nasal spray) until at least mid-April. Only exception would be for GF, and she’s had both shots already.
JPL
My first hair cut in over a year was several days ago. The stylist received a hefty tip. I’m still hesitant to shop at times that are crowded, but I am fortunate that neither the Trader Joe’s or Fresh Market near me, are crowded when they first open. Once it warms up, I’m going to find a nice coffee shop with an outdoor patio.
I’m so glad that President Biden was able to work with Merck and have them produce their competitors vaccine.
patrick II
@Cheyrl: You aren’t dead yet? I was listening to the Hannity radio show Friday and he had some lady guest on who explained that “The Media isn’t telling people about how many people are getting ill and all of the deaths from getting the vaccine. And they are still hiding the truth about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. ”
Those fuckers just never give up. Why are they still doing that?
I just walked in the house after getting my second Pfizer shot. I was so happy I was going to go out and kiss a stranger — but after watching what is happening to Cuomo I thought better of it. I had no ill effects after the first one and it is too soon to tell for this one, but I am optimistic even if I don’t have hydroxychloroquine by my side.
Cheryl Rofer
I should add that toward evening yesterday my arm got achy and stiff. An Advil took care of that. This morning there’s a tiny bit of achy and stiff left over. I usually don’t have much reaction to immunizations. This one was a little worse than a flu shot.
dmsilev
Congratulations!
I’m due to get the first shot this week, second towards the end of the month. What will I do? Well, traveling to see my parents (both whom got their second doses last week) will become feasible. It’s been over a year since I’ve seen them except via Zoom/FaceTime/etc. Closer to home, I’ll feel comfortable doing outdoor dining (right now, my comfort level is thoroughly at “take-out”). I’ve been doing in-person grocery shopping throughout, so that won’t change. Still keep my mask collection of course.
narya
I really haven’t changed many behaviors. I still double-mask for grocery runs, I limit them as much as possible, I mask up when I run, I’ve been seeing basically ONE person in person, and when they’ve had a lot of exposure, I’ve made them quarantine before seeing me. However! downstairs neighbor has a first dose and I have both, so we will get together in person this week (and I can’t wait), maintaining space between us still. My anxiety at going to the store has reduced a bit. I don’t quarantine mail for as long, and I worry less about routine interactions with other folks who are also masked. In other words, as noted, I haven’t changed what I DO, only how I FEEL about it. There are a couple of events planned for the summer that are still a little dependent on whether my friend can get vaccinated (the Indy 500) or whether case rates have dropped (another race, in northern WI, in June). I’m willing to do my beer 5K runs in person this summer, but still masked; last year I just did everything virtually. At this point, I’m not just continuing to protect myself, I’m trying to model good behavior and continue to protect others. I very much want to see my parents, too . .
ETA, also looking forward to/contemplating a massage.
jonas
Had my second Moderna shot this weekend. Felt like shit for about 24 hours afterwards, but doing fine now. What am I looking forward to in a couple of weeks? Having other vaccinated friends over for drinks and dinner. Travelling to see family (once they’re vaccinated, too). But since vaccinated people can still theoretically pass on the virus, I’ll be masking up and distancing around anyone outside my household I’m not positive has also been fully vaccinated. Which means basically carrying on as I have the past year.
Al Z.
Masking may be a permanent part of my wardrobe well beyond this pandemic – at least during Cold-Covid and Flu season.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Operative word being “MAY”.
WaterGirl
@Sebastian: Sorry, but I think that is terrible advice.
patrick II
@dmsilev:
Now that I have my second shot, I will be traveling to see my 98-year-old mother in two weeks. She has had her shots for a few weeks now and so have other members of my family who are now spending time with her again. They played pinochle last night, which she loves, although her partner, my brother, miscounted trump and blew the last hand. She had been so lonely. It is wonderful to see her with family again.
It will be great for me to see her again too.
WaterGirl
@JPL: I’m with you on haircuts!
I keep buying gift certificates (for my future self) for haircuts because I want to make sure my hair person and the salon are there when this is behind us.
I’m at $750 worth, so I’m stopping there. In a couple of months I will go into redeeming mode rather than spending mode.
My hair is awful and is now long enough for me to wear in a pony tail, so at least it doesn’t make me crazy.
In my opinion, to do anything but to continue to be vigilant now would be foolish. Now is not the time to let up.
Phylllis
Just received an email that SC will move to Phase 1b next Monday and I’m in it, due to age (55 & up, I’m 58). I would love to get both my Fauci Ouchies by Spring Break; hubby and I are jonesing for a day trip to Charleston and lunch at Fleet Landing.
indycat32
I get my second Pfizer shot Friday, March 5, which will be exactly one year since I saw my sister. April 1 I’m going to the gym (masked and distanced). My two sisters and I are thinking July 4 will be safe for a get-together.
syphonblue
Maybe don’t go to Trader Joe’s
Sebastian
@Cheryl Rofer:
I did not mean it that way at all. I am sorry if it came across that way.
japa21
Mrs Japa and I also got our second Moderna yesterday. Other than soreness at the site no problems for me. She had a strange reaction to the first and is also having an unusual reaction to yesterday’s which we are monitoring.
As to what will change, nothing for a while. Since it is unknown yet to what degree we can still transmit the virus, masks will stay in place. Unlike Republicans, we still care about other people. We will still avoid crowded places, dining out, and all the rest. When we are around other people who have gotten their shots, we will be more laid back than we have been.
One of Mrs. Japa’s friends and someone who she worked with when she was still an active duty nurse kind of surprised us. This person is a nurse and should definitely know better. She posted on FB how Fauci said that being vaccinated does not mean you can do all the things you shouldn’t have been doing and that you still should avoid crowds, wear a mask and social distance. She was pissed off and feels he doesn’t know what he is talking about, etc, etc.
Of course she also believes Trump actually won the election.
Nelle
I’ve had my second Moderna shot and the clear message was two weeks, not three. Hmm…..
JPL
@syphonblue: Fortunately I don’t shop at that Trader Joe’s.
Noncarborundum
What comes next? Bill Gates gives you a hearty congratulatory pat on the back – from the inside.
Redshift
Nice write-up of risk assessment. I’ve been seeing more and more talk about how risk/reward is what’s really missing from our guidance. Andy Slavitt was on Preet Bharara’s podcast, and Preet told him that they took the kids to visit their grandparents after they’d been vaccinated (long enough after) and asked for his reaction. Slavitt said he couldn’t fault him for making that judgment, and talked about how one of the things we don’t talk enough about is not just risk, but whether the things we’re missing are important enough to be worth the risk.
Barbara
I would continue to wear a mask and distance because other people don’t know that you have been vaccinated or not, but I would stop being so circumspect about going out, for instance, I would not hesitate to go shopping or to the doctor. You can tell people (like your hairdresser) that you have been vaccinated if it seems appropriate.
My sister in law was a public health nurse, and it grated on me a lot that the only thing she ever focused on were risks, however infinitesimal. Yes, it’s good to be cautious but making it a fetish beyond what is reasonably necessary to protect yourself and others can be harmful.
Cheryl Rofer
@Nelle: All of these biological processes are continua with maxima. Two weeks is probably fine, and so is three weeks. Since we are not each having our blood tested every day for antigen production, we need some rough number to go by. The difference between two and three weeks is not large in terms of immunity.
kindness
Your second dose? The first thing you are going to do is to get over the reaction I and most the people I know had after our second dose. Body aches. Headache. Mild flu like symptoms. Mine hit me the day after my second shot and it was all gone the day after that. I did go home from work that second day though. Was back to work the next day.
JMG
I get my second Pfizer shot on March 19 and am genuinely unsure as to what I’ll do differently come early April. I will play golf, as I did last spring and summer. I will get a haircut more often than every six months. If it’s warm enough and my favorite restaurants have it, I will do outdoor dining, as I did last Sept.-Oct. on nice days/evenings. I’ll still wear a mask in public places, although not on the course. I will probably wear a mask in public every late fall and winter come what may, for the flu prevention effect if nothing else. Outdoor live music come summer. That’s about it, I guess. Would love to go to France to see my daughter, who I haven’t seen in over a year, but international travel looks like about the last thing that’ll be possible post-mass vaccination. France’s vaccine rollout is about 200 times worse than ours.
cain
I live in a good section of Hillsboro where everyone has been super respectful of social distancing and masking. Even on walks – people wear masks or they work to avoid each other on the sidewalks. So I generally feel safer.
Going to the grocery store I just wear my N95 paper mask. I worry about catching the disease because I seem to have an overactive immune system (it already attacked my thyroid) and so I heard that COVID will fuck people up with overactive immune systems. In any case, I look forward to my vaccine, but the slow roll out is really a bummer here in Oregon. I’m hoping that we up our supply so that we can get this taken care of.
Sebastian
@WaterGirl:
Sigh maybe I should have clarified that, once immune, she should visit a vaccinated friend. If that too is considered risky behavior then what’s the point in all of this?
Too early to be hung and quartered, I’m outta here but will leave y’all with this here. Ir’s a good read
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_603d18eec5b6829715023334
Rob
I’m happy for you but there is something annoyingly self congratulatory in this post. Must be nice to be able to self isolate. No such luck for us teachers and our students. My school has been hit hard. No relief in sight yet.
cain
Huh.. first time in 20 years that I get stuck in moderation for 3 posts.
ETA But only because I used Edge browser on Linux.. interesting. Works fine on firefox.
cope
My wife and I got our second Phizer shot on 1/30. I’m in my 70s, she’s a bit younger but a transplant recipient so both of us are at higher risk of bad things. We have essentially been in our house since last April. Curbside pickup of groceries, drive-by visits of our daughter’s family, no other real contact except my wife’s sister who is in our “bubble”.
In the past two weeks, though, I have gone into the grocery store a couple of times. Masked, during slow times, specific items in mind, no foraging. Everybody I have seen around here in a public place has been masked so no drama about that kind of thing. We even did take out from our local Rosati’s twice. My hair is longer even than it was when I was a long-haired freak in college. I have no plans to change that as mrs. cope likes it.
I had my first physical in a year and a half with a new doc. I have to go get blood work and have a referral to a cardiologist. I plan to follow through on those appointments if I feel safe at those places.
I really, REALLY need new specs and it’s been almost 4 years since I visited the dentist. I plan on going to those places some time in the next two months.
Our daughter’s family visited for about 2 hours but it was a porch visit. No hugging, sadly.
It’s not like it was but it’s better than it has been and we’re hopeful it gets better than it is.
We have made our own risk assessments (my wife was an RN for 30 years) and feel reasonably safe. I like that feeling.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
My wife had her last of two shots (Pfizer) a little over three weeks ago (healthcare worker). Her reaction was similar to Cheryl’s from the sounds of it – quite mild. We’ve both had Shingrix (shingles two-shot vax) and she said that was much worse.
I call it her “superpower”. She’s traveling to see her parents, who she hasn’t seen for well over a year. They also have the superpower.
Barbara
@Cheryl Rofer: Since it was the second shot, I don’t know that you need to wait at all. Evidence shows that the first shot is enough to produce strong immunity, the only issue is how long it lasts. Once you have the second shot, you are just locking in the immunity that was conferred by the first shot. Again, it’s not wrong to be cautious but I don’t think it’s right to magnify small risks out of proportion. This is in fact the exact mindset that anti-vaxxers have been cultivating for decades, in which a tiny sometimes nonexistent risk is elevated out of all proportion to immunity from a dread disease.
Scout211
Our second Moderna shot is next Monday. Then my husband has cataract and glaucoma surgeries. We put off the surgeries until after the second shot. But next month we may be ready to leave our little bubble.
We haven’t seen our kids our our grandkids in person for over a year. I like to see them but I am feeling too worried about leaving the bubble. Fly? No. Drive for 14 hours and stay overnight in a motel? No.
We will be able to drive to one daughter who lives 1.5 hours away and has a nice outside deck. We can stay a couple of hours but we are not ready to drive further than that and then have to stay anywhere overnight. I wish we could, though. Sigh
We may just have to wait until more people (friends and family) are vaccinated to take that kind of risk.
catclub
@japa21:
are antlers considered strange? also glossalalia?
Barbara
@Sebastian: Nope. It is exactly the right question. I have been sitting in my house for almost a year, making very limited stops at various places, always masked, always respectful of maintaining distances. But I intensely dislike the virtue signaling that comes with being cautious to the point of hysteria. Public health officials are rotten at public messaging on the impact of vaccination and it is leading more than a few to wonder what the point of getting vaccinated actually is.
Cheryl Rofer
@Barbara: I’m accustomed to my routine, and I was hardly a social butterfly before a year ago. I’m fine with three more weeks of what I’ve been doing and preparing for what comes next. And there are things like my piano lesson that can’t change until my teacher gets her vaccination
ETA: I don’t think I sound hysterical or virtue signaling. Those are certainly not my intent. But YMMV.
StringOnAStick
I’m 62 and Oregon will start the 65+ group next Monday I think, so we are still at least a month off. I haven’t had a haircut since last August so I’m really looking forward to that though we have no established contacts since we moved here in late October, so that means finding a new person to do it. I don’t wear makeup and I don’t color, so for me the trick is finding someone who doesn’t do the “oh gawd, another old hippie” eyeroll. I’m sure they’re around since this is an outdoorsy place. I’ve been cutting my husband’s hair and I think he needs a pro at some post vaccination point, but he doesn’t!
I’m so looking forward to warm enough weather to be able to chat with neighbours outdoors again. There’s some very nice people in the neighbourhood were so welcoming and I’m getting a little desperate to make new friends here and be able to just casually talk with people again.
WaterGirl
@Rob: Gosh, I didn’t take Cheryl’s post that way at all.
Knowing Cheryl at least a little bit, I can’t imagine that she would be gloating or being self congratulatory.
Personally speaking, I have appreciated Cheryl taking us along on her thought process at the various steps along the way.
I am appalled that teachers being safe and vaccinated aren’t considered an absolutely key component to opening schools safely.
This pandemic has really laid bare so many inequities in our society. That may be the one good thing that comes from all this death and destruction
Just as Republicans are all “thank you for your service” while they clearly don’t give a shit about the well-being of military members and veterans, as a society we have “essential workers” who are also considered expendable.
I am sorry you and other teachers have to choose between your safety and your job. What a fucked up world we live in.
Barbara
@Cheryl Rofer: I am not criticizing you for being cautious, especially if you simply prefer the routine you have set for yourself. But that is different from suggesting that you will keep doing those because they are necessary to protect yourself or other people from the virus when they aren’t. And in the case of actually getting out and doing your own shopping or going to a cafe or a bakery, it’s a good thing that those businesses can increasingly receive patronage without creating a risk to the health of their employees or customers.
Cheryl Rofer
@Rob: It has seemed to me that teachers should be prioritized for vaccine, and it bothers me that they aren’t. The whole question of school is so fraught that I’ve avoided it because I don’t have a personal interest in it.
It’s clear that we, as a society have some big problems with thinking about school, and children more generally. I hope we can change that when we come out of the pandemic.
stinger
I get my second Pfizer two weeks from tomorrow — St. Patrick’s Day — and should be “ready to go” by early April. The first shot gave me a stiff arm for 36 hours, which is about my usual reaction to a shot. I am following President Biden’s request to mask up for his first 100 days, and like Cheryl will continue to mask and to socially distance for as long as the CDC recommends. Outdoor masked meetups with a single friend or sibling should be possible as soon as the weather allows. Then I can start setting up doctor, dentist, optometrist, hair, etc. appointments. The exception will be the vet, as all four critters need shots before the end of March. But the vet has been doing car-side pickup for the past year anyway.
It’s not “over”. Not by any means. But maybe with the advent of effective vaccines we are at the end of the beginning. One suggestion I’ve heard is to use Pfizer and Moderna for the highest-risk groups, and the one-shot J&J for the college-age cohort, who are the largest COVID spreaders and also are at the lowest risk for severe illness/hospitalization from the disease.
Formica
My doctors now believe that it is likely I am suffering from COVID-19 Long Haul Syndrome. I had a virus in late 2019 that, in retrospect, was bang-on for a mild to moderate case of SARS-CoV2. It’s too late to detect antibodies, so we’ll never know for sure, but the loss of/altered sense of smell, altered sense of taste, debilitating headaches, brain fog, shortness of breath, etc. could last the rest of my life. I don’t recommend the experience.
Barbara
@WaterGirl: As I have sometimes learned the hard way, the worst part of privilege is that it is usually invisible to the bearer. At least the state I am in is making a hard push to vaccinate teachers.
Baud
@Sebastian:
I suppose if I were a public health official, what I’d be concerned about is that vaccinated people start living their lives and the unvaccinated get even more impatient. Hopefully, with the expected ramp up in doses over the next two months, the problem will resolve itself.
Cheryl Rofer
@Barbara: I agree that the risks look small, but there’s a lot we still don’t know, and I am leaving room for that.
SFAW
@Noncarborundum:
Outstanding! I don’t know if it’s Intertubez-winning-capable, but it’s in the running.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Rob: I agree with you – teachers should be in the first groups.
My brother teaches at a reservation school and he got his first shot the other day, through the IHS (Indian Health Service, a federal agency that’s under HHS). He’s not a native american, just teaches at the school. I thought it was interesting that for once something good was happening on the reservation that isn’t happening elsewhere.
Barbara
@stinger: We should not stratify vaccines by population EXCEPT for trying to use the one shot vaccine for populations that are harder to reach and might be less likely to follow up. We don’t have nearly enough evidence to designate one as being better than the others and doing so based on statistics most of us barely understand can only enhance resentment, in this case for no good reason at all. It is folly to do anything other than get the vaccine you are offered.
fake irishman
Cheryl, so glad to hear you got your second shot!
I’m probably several decades younger (er, sorry, “less experienced”) than you and in a different family situation/living arrangement, yet our priorities are strikingly similar: get teeth cleaned and long for a massage.
My spouse and I are in health care and are vaccinated (yes, we are very, very lucky and would like to pay higher taxes so others can be lucky too.) I’m starting to contemplate visiting my parents in a few months (they just got their first shots last week); they need to squeeze my toddler who has been having Zoom lunches with them for the last year.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m hoping there’s soon more data on whether we can transmit the disease after being fully vaccinated. We’ve both had both Moderna shots and our teacher DIL is getting her second one this week. Our son has no access at the moment. But if we can’t transmit to him, then we could visit them.
Immanentize
Great news for you! I just read this morning that the Brazil varient may be able to reinfect those who had the original version. Yearly boosters like the flu looks to be our future.
PsiFighter37
I have no issues going outside, going inside stores with masks on, or even going into the office and not wearing a mask once seated at my desk. However, because I am undoubtedly almost last in line for getting the vaccine (mid-30s, no preexisting conditions), I am resigned to the fact that I will be wearing a mask and not really able to go any meaningful social gatherings until probably the fall, when (one really hopes) that vaccination levels are to the point where we are just about at herd immunity. Another holiday season like this past one is going to be really tough to stomach from a mental standpoint. Being trapped inside, with nowhere to go, for months on end is very, very difficult.
Barbara
@Cheryl Rofer: And I do respect that, but I keep going back to my sister in law the epidemiologist who wouldn’t let her kids play in her rural backyard because there might be snakes. The elevation of “small risks” out of proportion to the benefits of other things, in this case, resuming more activities of normal living, is, IMHO, falling into the same kind of thinking that anti-vaxxers have been doing. But I will stop there because I have made the point enough for one thread.
StringOnAStick
@Cheryl Rofer: One of the reasons Oregon has been slow is they decided to switch to prioritizing teachers and then went back to 75+, a decision that I thought made sense. Reopening schools is a huge issue, and this was to address that. I don’t mind waiting longer so school personnel got vaccinated and schools reopened; I saw school buses making the rounds last week and it made me smile.
lee
My wife & I have a moral quandary with getting vaccinated.
She’s a veterinarian, there has been some push to make them 1b but nothing is official.
I’ll be in the very last group to be vaccinated (mid 50’s,no comorbidities, I’m 100% work from home since March of last year) .
There are a lot folks that we know are similar to us getting vaccinated. We have no idea if we should go ahead and get vaccinated or wait. We both feel like we should wait, but the appeal of getting it now is really strong.
Barbara
@PsiFighter37: That’s why I am going to keep wearing a mask indefinitely, even if I do get vaccinated soon (doubtful). Because I want to set an example and support people who can’t get vaccinated yet.
stinger
@Rob: Cheryl was talking about her situation, as I was about mine. Can you say more about yours? What state/city/county? How large is your family? What grade/subject do you teach?
As a former teacher, I really would like to know more about your situation. And I know how lucky I am to be able to self-isolate.
RandomMonster
The Germans love to craft new words. I’m feeling some Impfneid, or vaccination envy.
Baud
@Barbara:
Me too, especially on airplane and public transportation.
ETA: Protects against other diseases too.
WaterGirl
@Barbara: You have used several words – hysterical and virtue signaling, and the phrase “especially if you simply prefer the routine you have set for yourself” – that to me seem insulting and judgmental.
With the new variants and so much we still don’t know about COVID… until we have herd immunity, it doesn’t seem at all unreasonable to continue to be cautious.
cain
I’m grateful that Oregon is prioritizing teachers first and will start on the 65+ this week. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get my vaccinations before my birthday in early May so I can do some traveling. I really want to go back to hiking this year.
Cheryl Rofer
@Immanentize: Last week was a horror show for reporting on the variants. Reporters seem to want to find one that escapes the vaccines, and they were doing a competition. What I got out of all that was that the vaccines are much more effective than the reporters would like to believe. I’ll wait to see how it all goes before I conclude anything about boosters or whatever.
One of the epidemiologists I follow pointed out on Twitter that the flu virus has an entirely different mechanism for variation than does SARS-CoV-2. The flu virus has two interlocking parts that can get changed around, both internally and with each other, as the virus passes between humans, pigs, and birds. So it’s always changing. SARS-CoV-2 changes through mutation, and that’s rarer for it than for other RNA viruses.
So once we get the case numbers down, there will be fewer mutations and much less need to worry about vaccine escape.
Baud
@cain:
You still look extreme to me.
Barbara
@WaterGirl: Not trying to be judgmental, and those words are not being directed at Cheryl specifically, which I think I made clear in my subsequent comments. But ask yourself — what is the point of getting vaccinated if you don’t think it allows you to engage in a wider range of activities? What point exactly is there?
ETA: My point is that, thank heavens, increasingly this is a matter of personal comfort and not public health and we should increasingly temper criticism of others who don’t continue to be cautious in exactly the same way.
ColoradoGuy
About 10 days past Moderna #2. We had take-out a couple of days ago, wearing masks of course. Still having groceries delivered. Pretty strong reaction to #2, triggered what felt like arthritis in one knee. Mostly better now. Definitely wary that numbers are going up a bit locally, statewide, and nationally. Variants? Dunno.
brendancalling
Vermont opens up eligibility for the J&J vaccine to teachers, school staff, and child care workers on Monday, March 8. I will be signing up immediately.
Just in time too: I’m heading to Tucson to record later in the month, and might be gigging in Vegas.
Cheryl Rofer
@lee: If vaccine is offered to you, take it.
Getting case numbers down is a collective good. Unless you know that your dose will go to someone you feel is of higher priority, I say go for it.
JPL
OT I’m listening to the Wray testimony and it’s shocking how many republicans are trying to protect white supremacists.
Redshift
@PsiFighter37:
I’m also in the “general public” group, and I have to say it’s looking better than that. Biden has already announced that there are enough doses for every adult by July, and that was before the J&J approval.
One of the things I vaguely knew but learned for sure from listening to Andy Slavitt is that now that we have competent people in charge, they are making promises based only on what’s definite when they make them. So even if everyone expected the J&J vaccine to be approved, it wasn’t part of the announcement about when everyone would be vaccinated.
And since that timeline includes everyone, including people who say they’re not going to get vaccinated and will have to be pushed, people like you and me should get it well before July.
WaterGirl
@lee: I would feel much better about going to the vet if I knew my vet had been vaccinated.
Anyone who comes into contact with a lot of people because of their job is not just making themselves safer by getting vaccinated, but is also making all their clients/customers safer.
Personally, I think that live-in family members of frontline medical workers who are working with COVID patients should be early in the vaccine pipeline.
Hopefully, the vaccine train is speeding up so quickly that everyone who wants a vaccine should soon be able to get them.
Mike in NC
Wife got her #2 shot yesterday. I get mine in three weeks. Spoke to my brother and his wife in Boston last night and they don’t expect to get vaccines before June. We might plan some sort of get-together in Maine in the summer.
cain
@Baud:
The state rollout has been.. sllloowww.. so slow. I would have thought they could have vaccinated the teachers at least in the big cities by using the stadium. But I think we have a supply issue – no doubt thanks to the Orange menace who probably was feeling punitive.
Cheryl Rofer
@Barbara:
I think my post is clear that I will engage in a wider range of activities, just not today.
And there is another point that is too often forgotten: Even an imperfect vaccine slows down the spread of covid, which makes us all safer.
Zelma
I got my first shot (Moderna) today. I was elated when I got the notification and appointment. The light at the end of the tunnel! But I also recognize that I am still in the tunnel and will be until early April. My second shot is 3/30. I’ve been careful but less careful than Cheryl. I got my haircut when the salons were allowed to open. But just a cut, nothing else. I get my regular massages with a very careful therapist. I do quick grocery store runs but at this time of year, the stores are pretty empty here and I move fast and use the auto checkout. I’m really hoping that I feel comfortable enough to do church at Easter, especially if we can move the service outdoors again. And my vaccinated son is planning on a visit if the Senate isn’t too busy then.
I’m not planning to add anything to this routine even after I have my second shot, at least not until things are clearly much better. Fact is, we are now about where we were last summer and we thought it was bad last summer!
I have basically lost a year of my life and, at my age, this is a considerable loss. I don’t have that many left.
oatler.
Bunny Wailer RIP
MJS
I’d like some advice from the group. Out of curiosity, I went on the website that lets you know where available vaccines are. There appears to be plenty of vaccine in stock in multiple locations within 2 miles of my home. I entered all of the information requested honestly, and was informed I don’t qualify for the vaccine. Then I entered the same information, except I claimed to be a smoker (which I’m not), and was informed I could schedule my vaccine.
I am a rule follower by nature. When my son tested positive for Covid around the holidays, and I was trying to find someplace to get a test, I was told only if I had symptoms would I be scheduled for a test. I couldn’t bring myself to lie then, but I’m really tempted to either lie now, or go buy a pack of cigarettes and smoke them. The vaccine is literally sitting less than a mile from me, and if they have appointments available, that might mean that the demand isn’t there from real smokers and others who are eligible to get the vaccine. If I knew how long I would have to wait, I’d be more than happy to wait my turn, but the lack of a concrete time frame is really annoying.
PsiFighter37
@Redshift: I sure hope so. NY is pretty tight in terms of signing up; I know some people have gotten shots that would go expired due to cancelled appointments, but I don’t think NYC has a system in place for us to possibly take advantage of that.
Doc Sardonic
@Al Z.: I second that, but I am noticing an additional benefit to masking. When I am out and about wearing my mask my allergies are not as bad, puttering around the house and shop unmasked they are worse. Due to the COVID and masking when this year and last hasn’t been as bad, normally all year is not good but February through April are hell, so masks always now for me.
cain
It’s going to come down to how competent the states are in distribution. I’m hoping that the Feds will step in and at least do some mass vaccinations – of course we’re going to have about 35% anti-vaxxers.. assholes. But hey – it’s their choice.
raven
Here, argue about this
Barbara
@Cheryl Rofer:
Yes! This is why it is such a trade off to slow administration down to check for eligibility criteria. Eligibility limitations are justified when supply is low, but as supply ramps up, restrictions on eligibility should be lifted or at least be limited in duration.
japa21
@JPL: And saying Antifa is just as bad if not worse.
Doc Sardonic
@WaterGirl: My vet hasn’t done in person appointments since right before Fl locked down. They come get your pet at your parking space and then give you exam results over the phone while you wait. Only exceptions are the law enforcement K9s and euthanasia situation or the need to demonstrate at home procedures(these are rare) then masks gloves etc required. She is going nuts because she can’t see clients in person.
trollhattan
Scheduled for jab #2 this Wednesday. Nothing significanlty different following the first beyond being outdoors more due to a combination of spring weather and a restaurant sidewalk dinner on the occasion of a certain birthday. The forthcoming time change will mean even more time outdoors.
It does remove a good deal of the dread felt beginning December 2019 when stories of what would be called Covid emerged and knowing who was in charge of driving the bus.
But a workplace strategy of returning folks to the office beginning this month (25% then 50% before April) has me up in arms. They have no workplace testing, are not asking people about vaccine status, and cannot articulate any reason other than the magic of being around one another, which is exactly what I wish to avoid.
JPL
@raven: oh fk.. The pro-fetus folks strike again.
Scout211
@Barbara:
I am looking in my own mirror and seeing a scared woman, maybe even paranoid. But my husband has multiple underlying conditions that make him very vulnerable. I want him to stay safe and healthy. So I may remain cautious for many more months, even overly cautious. It does not feel virtuous to me, though, it feels necessary.
Another Scott
My J and I are still weeks/months away from getting a shot, unless availability ramps up faster than expected. Your plan is a good one, I think.
I’m expecting a bumpy path toward herd immunity in the USA because there’s still a huge amount of community spread even with the falling numbers. There’s still too much resistance to getting vaccinated (though I expect that to decrease over time, especially when the vaccines get full FDA approval and can be mandated by at least some employers (DoD, etc.)), there’s going to be more travel and international travel as cases drop and too much of the world isn’t close to getting their population vaccinated. There’s going to be too much pressure to avoid mandatory quarantines on traveling without proof of not being infected.
We still need cheap, accurate, in-home testing. We still need cheap, ubiquitous, well-fitting masks. We still need plans for fast contact-tracing.
I expect my workplace to be closer to normal (but still with a lot of teleworking) this summer/fall. But I still expect to be wearing a mask in 2022. I hope I’ll feel comfortable enough to get a haircut before I need braids…
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
@japa21: I’m not impressed with Wray and I am glad that Whitehouse called him because of the lack of transparency.
gvg
One aspect of vaccine pickiness is that I have read an article that made me think we may need to rotate which version we get for boosters when it becomes necessary. To increase effectiveness you would want a different one the next time. This is very tentative so far but it does look like we will need updated perhaps yearly shots. I don’t think we should be picky now, but do pay attention to which you get in case it makes a difference latter.
I am worried about the foolish impatient ones seeing people gathering and not knowing it is vaccinated people, demanding the same freedom. I kind of feel like people should wear badges if they have been vaccinated.
WaterGirl
@Doc Sardonic: My vet DOES do inpatient appointment and has since May or so. Because there was a lot going on with one of my pups, twice. I ended up inside at the vets for 60 minutes once and 90 minutes another time, and it did not make me happy.
Not every vet is doing curbside.
trollhattan
@raven:
And one in Texas has told their flock to avoid all three, because reasons, making them more Catholic than the pope, who has been vaccinated.
Old School
@MJS: I guess I’m like you. I’d feel uncomfortable getting a vaccine for myself using false information. But I can see how it would be tempting.
Redshift
@Barbara:
What is your source for all of these assertions? I agree that it would be a lot easier to convince people to be vaccinated if we could tell them it would get them back to normal. I see plenty of articles criticizing the “messaging” for not telling people this.
But what matters is whether the message is true, and only after that whether it’s effective. My understanding is that in terms of what we know, the reason right now to get vaccinated is the same as the reason to wear masks — to reduce the spread to the point it can be controlled — plus it keeps you from getting sick or dying, though not necessarily from getting infected altogether. And that proving it keeps you from spreading the virus is difficult, and may only be determined indirectly.
If you have a reliable source that says more than that, I would be very happy to know of it.
wvng
My wife and I got our second Moderna jabs last Wednesday. We were very fatigued the following day, then fine. Our daughter lives with us, and will not get her jab anytime soon, and the other household that is in our bubble has a forty something person who has not been vaccinated yet, so our plan is to just continue with our protective behaviors until either they have been vaccinated or until peer reviewed data and medical consensus tells us that we are very very unlikely to be asymptomatic carriers and can’t put our younger family and friends at risk. It makes the issue of having get togethers with other fully vaccinated people fraught. Living in interesting times isn’t as much fun as I thought it would be
This has ALWAYS been about protecting not just ourselves but also others, and not serving as vectors for this disease, contributing to the problem.
Doc Sardonic
@trollhattan: Sounds like the Pope needs to invite the Cardinals and the Bishops to a Zoom call from the Holy See for a holy bitch slapping.
rp
@raven: Human life is absolutely sacred unless it’s at risk of dying of COVID.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: My retired FBI agent friend is pissed about that, but she also thinks the bureau’s failure to predict the problem is not being recognized enough
Redshift
@MJS: I have heard plenty of stories that some vaccination locations will take whoever is waiting at the end of the day in order for doses not to go to waste (often involving waiting in line all day.) Don’t know if that might apply to your locations, or if there’s any way to check. That could be a way to get it without lying.
Doc Sardonic
@WaterGirl: We have several around my area that don’t do curbside at all, our veterinary ER for one. Have made 4 trips there and was inside masked the whole time but not really pleased about it.
jonas
That’s great news, of course. But the availability of doses does not necessarily = the ability of states and localities to get them in arms. If we’re going to have any hope of getting most adults inoculated by next fall, states are going to have to *massively* scale up their vaccination programs, which of course will take considerable investments in not only building out their online reservation capacity, but outreach to underserved communities. Things are certainly going a bit better than they were a month or two ago, with the feds now actually caring about delivering vaccines, but there’s a long, long way to go before this rollout can be called smooth.
Redshift
@raven: Weird how we always hear about how strictly hierarchical the Church is, and then these wingnut bishops and archbishops make moves that are contrary to what the Pope has explicitly said.
Jim Appleton
@japa21:
For strange reactions, consider reporting through CDC V-Safe.
On my phone so no link, but it’s easy to find and simple to register and report. Helps quantify side effects.
I reported my own SA’s through a local health dept to state. I felt pretty wiped out from about hour 36 to 48 after second Moderna.
VeniceRiley
Are you me? Only the piano is different. I am now 3+ weeks out, and have been to Costco twice, and got my hair repaired and colored. My wallet hates this vaccine, but I feel awesome.
Fiance still waiting her turn in England. Can’t wait to see her in person.
cain
@JPL: God save us from these morons. Everyone is determined for us to revert back to being hunter gatherer era but with nukes.
laura
I ache for the simplest pleasures in life. Just waiting and hoping and carrying on as best I can controlling what’s in my power to do so and trying and mostly failing to accept what is beyond my control. Please hurry vaccine. Please hurry.
lee
@WaterGirl: Thankfully they have been doing curbside drop-off since April of last year. Everyone is masked up the entire time they are working.
They had an employee test positive and it didn’t spread to anyone else in the clinic.
@Cheryl Rofer: My area of Texas has at least two huge vaccine sites. My understanding is once you sign up it is only 2-3 days before you get your notification of an appointment. We might just go ahead and sign up.
Barbara
@Redshift: What assertion? I get close to 10 specialty health publications on a daily basis. Most are such that I can’t even send links. There is mass confusion about what to tell people once they have been vaccinated, well-displayed on this thread. I would suggest you look at what the Bidens themselves are doing, which is engaging in a lot freer contact with the general public than they did even several weeks ago.
What I am suggesting is that we not use whatever our own circumstances and feelings tell us we ought to do as a kind of yardstick for judging others making other decisions once they have been vaccinated.
zhena gogolia
@Rob:
I was expecting some acknowledgement of gratitude in the post that this kind of isolation is possible for her. I am acutely aware every day that I am far more fortunate than many other people in having the CHOICE to isolate as much as I have. I hope things turn around soon for you and your school.
cain
Love how somehow taking a stem cell is some kind of sin based on a flimsy idea that abortions are anti-God – which is not backed up by anything in scripture. Religious twerks.
Baud
@raven: More vaccine for us!
cain
Like the Bible, the Pope is only useful as a prop fro wingnuts.
MisterForkbeard
My parents got their first jab last week, 2nd jab expected in 3 weeks or so.
I know they’re planning on waiting a bit and then going shopping at the grocery store. They may also want us to visit them – I’m not sure how we’d respond to that yet, since I think we’ll likely be putting our 6 year old back into school at about the same time if nothing changes.
Brachiator
Great post. I am finally scheduled for my first shot and appreciate tips on how to proceed.
One possible caution.
I like Trader Joe’s. A favorite place to shop. However, here in Southern California, they are smaller than a regular supermarket. Inherently more crowded and I wonder about the ventilation. There have been more cases of employees coming down with the virus than at other stores, from Los Angeles County health data.
In short, I will not be shopping there for a while. I still make a bi weekly trip to my local Vons. One of the few places I go out to.
dmsilev
@jonas: Where I am (LA County) the local public health folks announced yesterday that their current capacity to administer vaccines is roughly double the available supply (supply: 270k doses/week, capacity 500k/week, total adult population 8 million). Seems sensible; they can administer everything that the manufacturers can provide, there’s some headroom, and they can scale up distribution steadily over the next month or so to keep pace with increased production.
Scott
Here’s my personal risk assessment. Emphasis on the personal. Everybody has their personal evaluations of probability and consequence.
I’m 66, in decent health. Work at home. Unfortunately, my wife is a school counselor and has been in person since Aug. We are cautious.
Got my second Moderna last Thursday. No reaction, thank goodness. Shingrix was a lot worse.
All along, I’ve been cautious about grocery shopping etc. Less so about neighborhood. I know who I socialize with and their mitigation steps. I walk the dog daily without mask because I’m never within 30-40 feet of anybody. Neighborhood people are equally cautious.
Now I look forward to going to the gym again and am mostly concerned about transmitting to others so I’ll continue masking and distancing.
randy khan
Vaccination is still in the hypothetical future for me (I’m in the next group in Virginia, but there is no date for when my group will start yet), but I will continue to mask until the CDC says that masking isn’t necessary, just as a matter of maintaining the social compact.
As for other things (and this is just me, with my risk profile, so I don’t want it to come across as a suggestion for what others should do), once I reach the full immunity period I will be comfortable doing most everything, including traveling on airplanes and eating in restaurants. Part of that is knowing that a huge portion of the population already will be vaccinated by then, part of it is that so far the vaccines all seem to prevent severe cases even if you get COVID-19. And part of it is that my risk isn’t that high in the first place – I’m healthy and under 65. (I’m in the next vaccination group because of what I do, not because of any personal risk factors.)
My general opinion is that the well-educated cohort is going to be more cautious than necessary, and will take a while to start going back to normal. I see this with a lot of my friends, some of whom literally have not been in a store since last March even though they’re low risk and younger than me. They’re not wrong, in the sense that any contact with other human beings does increase your risk, but they essentially are taking the CDC guidelines and doubling down on them. I have no problem imagining that they will continue to be cautious for a while when the risk is essentially gone for them and even for society as a whole.
raven
@Baud: zacly
Kineslaw
I got my second Pfizer dose a week ago, and circumstances led me to have five weeks between doses, not three. I wouldn’t have done that on purpose, but I was pleased to stretch that out, based on the assumption that 21 days was chosen as the shortest effective interval, not the best interval.
One more week and I’ll feel more comfortable going to the apartment gym while masked. This might change if some of the variants start circulating more in my area.
The big question I am waiting to see answered is whether the vaccine prevents Long Covid. Part of that is predicated on how well the vaccine prevents even mild and moderate cases of Covid, and I don’t feel like we know enough about that yet. We also don’t know enough about how well the mRNA vaccines do against the Brazilian and SA variants in the wild, which leads to some hesitation on my part.
JPL
OT Josh Hawley and Mike Lee both appear to be very concerned about meta data and especially cell phone tower collections. hmmm
I’m still listening to Wray.
indycat32
For some reason Mike Lee and Josh Hawley are very concerned about the FBI scooping up cell phone data related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
ETA: And JPL was one minute faster.
Auntie Anne
My 86 year-old father got his second shot (Pfizer) this weekend, and is longing for a week at the beach this summer. I am tempted to make the reservations for late August – I am in the next cohort here in DE, and we’re doing a good job with the vaccinations through the state, so I expect to be fully vaccinated by the end of April.
I’m torn, to be honest. I think this will be his last trip to Chincoteague, and I’d love to take him. But how many others would we put at risk by making the trip?
JPL
@indycat32: ha I just posted that. What do you think about Wray? I was disappointed with his reaction to Blumenthal.
Barbara
@Scout211: Yeah, we have a few acquaintances in the same situation. My son’s friend’s parents had been super careful and he was breaking down over the complete isolation and they finally let him visit us when we went to our weekend house. His mother called us and said that her dad is an immuno-compromised cancer survivor who needs dialysis. We promised them that we would not allow anyone outside our immediate household to come in contact with him. We didn’t even make our normal stops at convenience stores along the way. They practically broke open champagne when her dad finally got vaccinated.
indycat32
@JPL: I think he’s a weasel.
JPL
@indycat32: You didn’t have to edit. I’m just pleased that someone is listening.
Wray seems to be handling Hawley okay.
Barbara
@Baud: Yep. That’s how I see it. At some point, someone is finally going to say the obvious — that we tolerate outlier or extreme religious doctrine in our midst because it mostly doesn’t inconvenience us. We don’t mind, we even admire, the Amish, but what would happen if they tried to dictate transportation policy to make cars illegal?
Chacal Charles Calthrop
“But ask yourself — what is the point of getting vaccinated if you don’t think it allows you to engage in a wider range of activities? What point exactly is there?”
This. If it weren’t for the fact that I think the vaccines are going to become easier to get, I’d say that all the (retired? independently wealthy? how do these people who are home 24/7 earn a living?) people who are living so very very cautiously that they can’t get covid and don’t intend to change at all once they get vaccinated should just give up their place in line to people who do need to go out to work who could actually benefit both themselves and others from not being vectors.
indycat32
@JPL: Maybe it’s just me, but Wray seemed “shocked!!” to discover that, for the past 4 years, information requested wasn’t being provided.
Dan B
@Cameron: I’m also getting my first jab Saturday, seven weeks after getting signed up. As far as I’m concerned Kaiser in WA has been a mess. My partner got his second a week and a half ago. He was able to sign up online at the Kaiser WA website (being redone, surprise /). O could not get on the website one day after my partner. I’m in 1B – tier 2 so should have gotten the vaccine a month ago. I had a long argument with a support rep this AM. I got an email about the vaccine appointment that had incorrect instructions. The rep was sure I was confused. Finally it became apparent that the email was misleading, therefore causing problems.
In the middle of the call it was mentioned that Kaiser had been contacting people on “the waiting list”. I inquired six weeks ago if there were any earlier appointments and was told there were not, even for 1B-tier2. There was no mention of a waiting list.
It’s hard to turn around an institution that delivers healthcare in a stable environment. Crises are a test for many American institutions. I hope there’s some learning, followed by improvements.
Barbara
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: Well, I avoid saying things like that, but my husband and I have agreed not to do anything to jump the line because we do have the luxury of self-isolating to whatever extent we want.
WaterGirl
@lee: Even with that setup, I would feel better knowing that the people handling my dog have been vaccinated.
Please sign up. It’s not selfish; it’s best for everyone to get the shot as soon as they can.
wenchacha
We aren’t much for gambling, the occasional scratch-off or quik-pik. That said, I think once my husband and I get our vax in NY, we are gonna roll the dice and fly to San Francisco. Our first, and likely only, grandchild is already four months old. We see him on Facetime. He may know our voices by now, but I doubt he will recognize us when we first meet.
We are still in our earlier 60s. We will double mask on the plane, be careful in the airport. Not clear yet if we quarantine upon arrival, or for how long. Our kids and their baby are still unvaxxed. We plan to be careful. Maybe the home rapid tests will be available by then, to allow for test results sooner.
We can visit outside for a few days, if need be. The last few days have really been tough for the two of us. We are doing well with each other, but the rest is exhausting.
What I would like, going forward, is for all to acknowledge the absolute difficulty of making it through this past year, for just about everybody. For all of us commoners, anyway.
I haven’t recovered from the former guy’s corrosion to our system. His last year in office was a nightmare. There was so much suffering, and we have to find ways to help everyone.
CaseyL
I checked in with my boss about what things look like in terms of WFH or back-in-the-office. UW Medicine had stated earlier that we’ll be WFH until July, with possible changes to that timeline depending on prevailing circumstances.
My boss says everyone will be back in the office as of July 1, with a possible option of WFH 1-2 days per week. She notes that dates and whatnot could change, but with more vaccines coming on-line and a competent national plan in place, I’m expecting work life to be status quo ante in July.
(I’m a bit ambivalent about that, though not due to any concerns about illness: I’ve loved WFH, going into the office once per week, and would happily keep on like that until I retire.)
ETA: I should note that I completed my vaccinations more than a month ago, along with most if not all UW Medicine employees.
patrick II
As I said earlier, I received my second Pfizer shot today, but I could not pass without saying how well organized the whole affair is. Here is Virginia Beach they are using the Convention center, so there is plenty of room for the 48 tables they have spaced over the floor. When you walk in the front door they check a card they for your appointment, and ID. I was using a cane so they asked if I would like a wheel chair. Since I have also experienced anaphylactic shock in the past (which they also asked), they put me in a chair. Down to another workstation, where they asked most of the same questions and took your temperature, then in line for 15 minutes, then to the table for a shot, where for the second time they checked your appointment on a laptop. There were a mix of volunteers and national guard. When you received your shot you also received a small piece of paper with a time to leave. Mine was an additional 30 minutes as opposed to 15 because of the idiopathic anaphylactic shock. They put you in a another larger room where you sat and waited and raised your hand when time was up. A person came and double checked the time, and then showed you the door out. The whole thing took less than an hour. One of the volunteers told me there would be over 2,000 people vaccinated today.This kind of organization works better when they exist in the context of a larger whole. Last night the governor of North Carolina visited (Ari or Chris) and said one important thing that has changed is that he is able to get a count of how many immunizations would be delivered three weeks ahead, which allowed him to use the amount he had on hand more quickly because he knew what was coming and could count on being able to give a second shot. This is in contrast, he said, to the two or three days from the Trump admin. And of course we remember the news story where the Trump admin could not even fulfill that projection.So, anyhow, competence counts. It was good to see.
CaseyL
Update on comment weirdness:
1. Need to write under the Text tab again.
2. Editing one’s comment eliminates paragraph breaks.
MacBook Pro 10.14.6, Firefox 86.
Redshift
@Barbara:
I’m glad you consider yourself well-informed, but if there isn’t something I can look at for myself, all that adds up to “I’m an anonymous person on the internet who claims to know more than you and is asking you to trust my judgment of what I’ve read.” It’s great that we’re part of the same community here, but it doesn’t change that reality.
For what it’s worth, I’m not as cautious as many here, and I think we should be careful about judging others for being either less or more cautious than we think is correct.
And whether you intended them that way or not, to me, these are assertions:
japa21
The point of getting the vaccine is so that you are safer. It does not make unvaccinated people around you safer from you. At least, we don’t know yet. You still keep your activity down and continue to follow guidelines until a sufficient percentage of the population gets vaccinated. Yes, the stress level is reduced and you can relax more, but, at this point, it still isn’t known the extent to which you could have the virus and transmit it.
scav
Personally, my anchors for masking and isolating are going to be based largely on factors having nothing to do with my personal vaccination state. Primarily, I’m looking at factors allied to what’s the local infection rate — and the local rate vaccination and let’s call it local masking / distancing behaviors play into that. How to explain it: What matters is more the herd and how I can contribute to that behavior. I’m not seeing the vaccine as a personal bullet-proof vest and license to individually relax into normal. I expect others will have different motivations and attain similar behaviors, but I find it helps to anchor on and incorporate the needs of the community when deciding what to do.
gbbalto
@JPL: Wray should tell them to relax – if they’re innocent, they have nothing to worry about.
e julius drivingstorm
I’m encouraged to see that virtually everyone here would responsibly continue to wear masks even after achieving fully developed immunity. If mask mandates are in effect in certain communities, you won’t have a problem complying,
The cumulative effect of the anti-maskers and the anti-vaxxers seems to lead to a conundrum, The anti-maskers risk exacerbating the pandemic now – risking unnecessary illness and death in the present but will also bring on herd immunity sooner with their foolishness. The anti-vaxxers will prolong the pandemic because they will stall off herd immunity with their foolishness.
We can’t force everyone to get the vaccine. But we can observe and enforce mask-wearing when appropriate until Dr. Fauci, WHO, CDC and science and evidence tells us it is no longer necessary.
Jackie
I got my 2nd vaccine appt scheduled for Fri! Our fairgrounds in Kennewick, WA just added more appts, so YAY ME!
lowtechcyclist
@raven:
Since last summer, I’ve basically regarded “pro-life” orgs, denominations, politicians, etc. as sincere if they were as up-in-arms about Trump’s active opposition to doing anything about the Covid deaths as they were about women having abortions.
And of course the answer is, none of them give a damn about life. Big surprise, I know.
Formica
@JPL: @indycat32: Got links to this pearl clutching vis a vis the Senators from Sturm und Drang being Very Concerned about the civil liberties of angry white men with mobile devices?
trollhattan
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
Just for myself, halfway to the vaccination goal line, because it’s framed as providing nearly 100% prevention of serious illness and hospitalization but somewhere short of that in preventing infection and potentially passing it to others, I need to avoid unnecessary exposure lest I bring it home.
Once we’re both vaccinated then we can “get out more.”
JPL
@Formica: CNN and MSNBC are carrying it. Fox is discussing Hop on Pop..
For highlights https://twitter.com/atrupar is excellent. Kennedy is up so you are not missing anything.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Got my first shot yesterday,with the second set for 3/29. Aside from mask use for the remainder of the summer, I’m resuming all of my prior life activity. Means travel, bars, restaurants, gatherings, festivals and concerts.
As far as people who refuse the vaccination may get it in some weird bit of spread, that’s on them.
VeniceRiley
I confess I think the main reason to wear a mask once fully dosed and 3 weeks out from that is that unvaccinated aholes will lie so they don’t have to wear a mask- and that will worsen the spread and more people will die unnecessarily. So I mask indoors all the time. I wouldn’t want the checkout lady to worry I was a anti-vax rona spreading Trumpista who was going to kill her. That’s not nice.
That, and this has absolutely wiped flu season off the map. What a triumph that is.
Waiting for my friends to get their jabs done so we can meet up.
Ruckus
@David Anderson:
LOL
rikyrah
What’s next?
Keep doing what you’re doing.
Me?
I will continue to double mask.
Grocery home delivery.
No dine-in anything.
Going to and work. And, outside of that, stay in the house.
The vaccine for me has always been..
going from certain death to a fighting chance, if I get it.
That’s all that’s changed.
Zelma
I have a vaccine related question. I take a maintenance dose of ibuprofen daily. I had heard that one should not take NSAIDs for 48 hours before the shot, so I didn’t. I am trying to figure out if and when I can resume taking them after the shot. Most of what I can find online refers to avoiding them to deal with symptoms from the shot since such symptoms are short-lived. (I have no symptoms.). But I can’t find info about when to resume taking them for other conditions, or at least no consistent info. Frankly, my knees are starting to hurt more than usual already so I wish I knew what to do.
Formica
@JPL: Thank you ?
Nora Lenderbee
Are we so traumatized from the last four years that we need to smack each other around about “virtue signaling”? There’s nothing wrong with being cautious.
Ben Cisco
OT: FBI Director Wray testifying in front of Senate panel.
It’s pretty disgusting that he gets to be questioned by seditionist Hawley. Jackass.
feebog
The wife and I received our second shots two weeks ago. But here is why you should get vaccinated ASAP; my wife gave blood yesterday and then stopped by the YMCA to give them our annual support check. On the way down the stairs she fell and got a nasty gash on the back of her head. seven hours at the ER later I was able to pick her up. During that time I’m sure she was exposed to some level of covid as the waiting room was full of people hacking and coughing. We have been very careful, but no matter how careful you are, shit happens.
rikyrah
The one thing that I am going to do – I’m finally going to get my satellite tv fixed.
I haven’t had anyone that I couldn’t account for in my house since last February.
I mentioned it a few months ago. I kept on chickening out with the technician appointment. I just couldn’t have anyone in my house.
Now, that I will be vaccinated, I’m willing to take the chance.
So, I’ll have cable back by the end of the month.
trollhattan
@Zelma:
IIUC you’re okay with resuming anti-inflams afterwards, just not as a prophylactic beforehnd. But: I am not a doctor and do not play one on the teevee machine, that’s just what I happened to read before getting mine.
Paradoxically, I have to take an antihistamine before every allergy shot.
Barbara
@Redshift: Sorry, but that is the mindset of anti-vaxxers — to elevate small risks out of all proportion the benefit conferred by immunity. It can be easy to slip into that pattern without realizing that’s what you are doing, partly because it is extremely difficult to understand statistical risks, and partly because of the illusion that something is less risky if you control it. If you can sit at home indefinitely without undue financial or emotional penalty you are going to weigh risk differently than if you are at risk of losing your house. But once you have been vaccinated the risk calculus should change, which does not require anyone to go outside if they don’t want to, but it does mean that it is more of a matter of choice than it was before. I don’t know why the CDC can’t put out some common sense guidelines about continued wearing of masks and social distancing, but at this point, I assume that the agency is totally scarred by what happened over the last year.
Nutmeg again
I’m, scheduled for my first Pfizer shot April 3. That’s OK, I think even though I’m, er, well upholstered.
And, was shocked to learn that my kid went to grade school with the Moderna folks’ kids … That town was a wormhole highway intersection for all kinds of academic + biz stuff. I had no idea that was the name of the company.
Ruckus
Week and a half since my second shot of Pfizer, I am going to stay masked up for quite a bit longer. I figure my risk is high and it just isn’t worth the risk. I have no immediate family, only one cousin within a reasonable drive, good friends farther away, so life really isn’t going to change much. I am planning my actual retirement within the next 4 months, 60 years is enough of a working life. I’ll see how that goes before I think about trying for some sort of normal life.
zeecube
@raven: My immediate reaction was “Oh, FFS!” My second reaction was the N.O. Diocese trying to change the subject. It declared bankruptcy due to all of the pedifile priest claims against it (I think their list is up to 70 clergymen-molesters, including a few who taught at my school). Yesterday was the deadline for filing claims against it. Which leads to my third reaction. Fuck their fucking morals.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
One outcome of being home
moreall the damn time is stuff breaks faster. We’ve had plumbers, appliance repair guys and laundry equipment installers march through the joint. Outside we have had sidewalk replacement, water main and meter installation and most recently, PG&E checking for gas leaks.None has been a jerk about masking, luckily. If your drain isn’t draining, your washer isn’t washing, your espresso maker not espressing, your fridge dumping water into the cellar, what are you gonna do?
Am more than ready for a nice, long dull period with nuttin’ repaired. And now I’ve cursed it.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I won’t be getting vaccinated anytime soon at the rate Maryland is going and given their F’ed up priority rankings. They’re about to enter phase 1C, tier 2 of which includes “adults 16-64 with certain comorbidities”…I’m 51 with no comorbidities which puts me in group 3 – the lowest priority group – despite the fact that my wife is a front line health care worker.
They are not tiering anything by age below 65 apparently. And some of the comorbidities are kind of ridiculous…a 20 year old with moderate asthma will be eligible to be vaccinated soon. Asthma or not, I’m sure someone my age is at higher risk of severe complications than the average asthmatic 20 year old. I mean, cancer treatment, HIV, autoimmune disorders, I get young people with that stuff deserve priority. But…hypertension, obesity, and asthma…come on. You’re really going to treat a 64 year old in renal failure the same as a hypertensive teenager? Or completely ignore that a 60 year old in good health is probably still at higher risk of severe Covid than someone a third their age with a low risk comorbidity?
I’m also livid that absolutely no priority is being given to live in family members of front line health care workers. We’ve been living with a higher risk of infection due to exposure once removed and nobody seems to care, at all, about helping us return to normal. We’ve been providing emotional support and companionship to our front line family members, and let me tell you, a lot of those front liners would have walked off the job months ago without our support. I don’t want to jump the line in front of high risk people but I’d like to be at least near the front of the line for people in my age/risk group. But that’s probably not going to happen either.
Anyway, I need to stop reading these threads where everyone brags about having gotten their shots because it’s giving me serious vaccine envy and I’m feeling kind of bitter about the situation. I realize that many of you may be in high risk age groups or essential workers but at 51 I feel like my risk is elevated compared to a lot of people who about to become eligible here in Maryland, and I’m not eligible and probably won’t be for months yet. My parents have both been vaccinated – they’re in their late 70s. I’d love to visit them for the first time in over a year but it’ll be a while before I’m vaxxed up so I just have to endure.
Ohio Mom
I find it mildly amusing that all of us have his/her own unique set of very specific safeguards and criteria for potentially relaxing them.
But we are all more alike than different in that we believe Covid is real, and that each of us needs to do what we can to keep ourselves and others healthy.
You might even say, ironically, that we believe in personal responsibility, and a conservative approach to risk-taking.
Soprano2
Yep, 1,000% this. I figure they’re doing it because they’re absolutely TERRIFIED that someone is going to relax something too soon, but when you’re saying that even if everyone in your group is fully vaccinated you should still distance and wear masks and all that when you’re together, and OH MY GOD DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING AT ALL, then what the hell is the point of even being vaccinated? Most people don’t think “Well, today I could die”, so the prevention of death thing isn’t perceived as a real benefit by most people (it’s of course a huge benefit, but it’s not perceived that way.) Benefits are things like now I can see my also-fully-vaccinated parents, who can also see their grandchildren. Now I can get a haircut without being terrified of getting sick. Now I can go to the store, things like that. They need to be honest about the risk/benefit analysis rather than just saying don’t change anything, we aren’t ready for you to do that yet.
I think a lot of people are going to feel extremely scarred by this experience for awhile. I think for some it will be extremely hard for awhile to be around people again, even after every authority says it’s safe to do so. Of course, not everyone could mostly stay at home for the past year.
Bobby Thomson
Fixed. Some of the worst, most oblivious, least self-aware people in the world there.
burnspbesq
I’m scheduled for Shot 2 (Pfizer) on 3/19, spouse on 3/22.
I know what she wants when it’s safe to do it: stick her toes in the sand in Port Aransas. We may have a frank exchange of views about when that might be.
I’m not planning to change much of anything for several months. For someone with my risk profile, there’s no such thing as a mild case.
JDM
We just got our first doses of Moderna yesterday. The whole process here, at a rural fire district in Oregon, took about 15 minutes, which was mostly trying to fill out the form while not wearing my glasses. I had no reactions, normal for me with vaccinations. My gf, who is over 80 but was brought up vegetarian and rather “crunchy” for that era, had never had a shot and was nervous, but was put at ease by the guys joking. One showed her the syringe (actually a horse syringe) they were “using”, and she thought it was actually it. Then he got down to the real thing, and after a bit, after asking her “are you ready?” and she said okay, he let her know her he’d already jabbed her. She was surprised. Hardly any reaction then, and after a few hours she just had a somewhat sore arm and slightly sore side overnight. Today, I’m normal (or what passes) and she’s just a touch tired.
WaterGirl
@Zelma: The instructions I got by email, and that I have seen from the CDC, say you CAN take them AFTER the shot, just don’t take them before.
So if you’ve had the shot, what I have seen in that you can safely take them as needed.
James E Powell
@JPL:
They’re both just “asking for a friend.”
burnspbesq
I’ve lived without Trader Joe’s for a year. I can manage another year.
Bobby Thomson
@JPL: If you don’t want to be arrested for directing a violent insurrection of the government, you shouldn’t direct a violent insurrection of the government.
Based on the statement of “too dumb to include” Tuberville, seems obvious Lee was working hand in glove with Trump on this.
Dan B
@Redshift: When we bought the house 11 years ago I designed a tool shed to replace the relic of a large shed. My partner turned it into a poolhouse (large rectangular water storage pond), playhouse (red boudoir curtains surrounding large window / divider screen + twinkle lights!?!?), and Covid safe semi-outdoor social site. We’ve been having a couple of our most cautious friends over for fun and gab. It’s enough fun we’re likely to keep it with the woodstove and parabolic heatlamp after the pandemic.
Miki
@raven: Jfc – They’re more worried about getting cooties than Covid.
Ohio Mom
Zelma:
The younger me would say, “Ask your doctor,” but now that I am old and decrepit enough to have (stops to count) four of them regularly following different parts of me, I know they all give different answers. And the one who is the smartest with just the right-sized dash of cynicism left for a fancier job in another city.
rikyrah
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I have read about Maryland. Do you have the misfortune of living near the big city?
Or, are you out in the hinterlands.
Are you sure you don’t have any of the stuff that makes you a walking underlying condition?
WaterGirl
@JPL: Is there a video of that? I would like to watch them squirm.
NotMax
Both time frames overly optimistic, IMHO.
Gretchen
Our Trader Joe’s is the store I feel most comfortable about. They have a staff member outside, enforcing masking and letting one person in when one leaves so it never gets very crowded, with a distanced line outside. Everyone inside is pretty good about keeping apart.
I can’t wait for a massage, haircut and yoga class. I might do the first two when I am vaccinated, but I think I will wait until cases go down before going back to yoga. I’m gettin so stiff, though!
Barbara
@WaterGirl: I wasn’t watching, but apparently they are just shocked that private companies that own cell phone towers have been turning over data. I try not to be overly cynical, but it really is true that when people bellow about law and order they are never referring to themselves and their fellow travelers.
matted foxes
It’ll be important to wear a mask until we achieve herd immunity simply as proper behavior. If people start dropping their masks when vaccinated then more unvaccinated will do the same.
Dopey-o
1. Not infecting and killing other people.
2. Protecting oneself against reckless non-maskers.
rikyrah
@Barbara:
Going from certain death to a fighting chance if I catch COVID.
It’s that simple for me.
Barbara
@Dopey-o: Nice try, but you can do those things without being vaccinated, by socially isolating yourself, as many of us have been doing.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
This weekend marked one full year since my last haircut. Despite not being a real fan of having ludicrously long hair, haircuts are pretty low on my priority list.
We have been the hosts for family Thansgiving for the last 10 years or so. There was none in 2020. If we’re all vaccinated by fall, I’m going to float the idea of having one in 2021. But I’m not 100% sure how I feel about it. I think it depends on the general infectivity situation around us in our various states.
We had a European trip planned in 2020. That was obviously cancelled. I am very fortunate that I made the decision to book through Icelandair. With very little hassle we cancelled and received a voucher good for three years. I expect I’ll feel like taking that trip in 2022. I’m not sure if I’ll feel like going anywhere before then, but it’s possible we may do a weekend or two this fall. I’m at least open to the possibility.
In general I expect I’m going to be wearing a mask for the rest of the year and I’m not sure how much “normal” I’m going to do this year. The decision is not just based on my personal vaccination status but the whole picture of what’s going on around the state and the country, and what the anti-vaxxers and mask idiots are doing.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
Kentucky opened 1C yesterday – there had been a fantastic effort on 1A and 1B, with Louisville getting the benefit of running thousands of bodies daily through a show arena drive through facility. Wife got hers after volunteering 24 hours (was supposed to be 40) to do observation of the newly vaccinated, 4 hours per shift – one day, she did 12 straight hours. One ugly, sleety night, it was learned that a tranche of emails hadn’t gone out to folks to be vaccinated so they had 60 doses left – they just started jabbing volunteer arms of everyone 50 and up.
Governor included “legal” in 1C, but the trick was to find a site (mine was an exurban drugstore 20 minutes outside Louisville boundaries). Some went as far as 3 1/2 hours away into the hinterlands – plenty of doses there, as the rednecks don’t want no Bill Gates microchip.
zeecube
We live in a deep red Parish in South Louisiana. Since last March we have been scrupulously following CDC guidelines, and our jobs allow us to work remotely about 80% of the time, We have not gone out on a date night since. Still quarantine mail and dry goods before storage or use. But there are times where I have to attend to a matter in enclosed public spaces / potential covid spreader events. I also run all household errands and pick up take out (when home delivery is not possible). At first, I felt this was risky because only half the populous around here were wearing masks, and the other did not care. Now it’s more like 95% are masking. I do not leave home without my N95 mask and sanitizer. I socially distance. I never take my mask off outside of home. I do not linger when shopping. I have had 2 known covid exposures, one from a co-worker, the other a friend, but luck is still with me, I guess. We get our second Moderna shot this Saturday.
When CDC releases their post-vaccination guidelines, we’ll follow those. But I am going to relax some home protocols in a couple of weeks. Not going to quarantine mail or groceries. Weather is warming up, so I visualize sitting at a restaurant patio sipping a Pisco sour in a few weeks. Still plan to wear mask in public and social distance. Mrs. ZC is visualizing a professional manicure. (She still wants me to remain as her hair colorist/stylist. Says it saves a lot of money and I do a better job – go figure.)
And we have travel plans. Late last year I had JetBlue credit we needed to spend before it expired. I asked Mrs. ZC where JetBlue flew that she wanted to visit. So we booked tickets to Charleston, SC as far out as possible (August). At the time, I did not think we would be fully vaccinated until late Spring or early Summer. Now, I may try to move up the flights to May. I have no qualms about flying by then. If reporting is accurate, once vaccinated, Covid is not going to kill you.
satby
@Zelma: The CDC had information on this on it’s website under “after your vaccination” that I linked to in yesterday’s covid update thread. Short answer, take medications you normally take.
A Good Woman
@raven:
Bunch of illiterates. The Vatican cleared use of that vaccine
Technocrat
Here in Western PA getting vaccinated is a theoretical possibility, at best. The state page takes you to a Google Maps widget full of locations that might offer the vaccine. Most of those sites will tell you that they can’t schedule appointments, and to go to the state page, etc. My wife and I are resigned to another six months of sheltering, minimum.
I actually miss movie theatres more than any other social activity, but I’m not really sure if or when they’ll bounce back, post-vaccine.
StringOnAStick
@Formica: I am sorry you are dealing with this. A close friend’s boss is in your shoes; he went from being a serious aerobic athlete in the +60 category to not being able to climb a flight of stairs and needing oxygen to sleep at night. He caught it in January last year on a trip to Austria to participate in a citizens cross country ski race. He’s slowly getting better but it is a long, long process. Peace and better outcomes to you.
Xavier
Anyone who is less careful than me is a moron, and anyone who is more careful than me is hysterical. There.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@rikyrah: I’m in MoCo, (Montgomery County which borders on DC) so not in “the city” but we’re more or less having the same issues with getting our fair share of vaccine doses as far as I can tell. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I think we have it better than PG County and Baltimore but worse than the rest of the State. I can’t prove any of that of course.
I looked through the list of comorbidities…maybe I could rage out over the screw up-edness of our vaccine situation, and have my wife take my BP and document hypertension? I have never in a normal doctor’s visit, had a BP reading in the hypertensive range. I don’t have asthma, or diabetes, and my BMI is in the normal range.
I just had labs done for a physical and my total cholesterol was 150 with no other conditions that qualify, or really any other conditions period. So far as I know I don’t have cancer…I’m a little overdue for a colonoscopy – I was just trying to see what I needed to do to get my “turned 50” one done when this all hit and figured I’d just wait and see how vaccines developed. At this point maybe I’ll schedule one for late summer and hope I am vaccinated by then.
I mean this in all seriousness though…Maryland has to get its act together if it wants to stay a blue State. I mean, the government here epically failed to develop an Obamacare website, we have construction projects that go FUBAR, and now our vaccine rollout is pretty much for shit. If you are going to charge blue state tax rates we expect efficient, competent services. Otherwise what the fuck is the point of paying through the nose? I can be crapped all over for a lot cheaper in nearby WV and actually they’ve done far better with vaccine rollout so it’s debatable that they’re even being crapped all over.
CarolPW
@Jackie: Got my second shot there last Friday and it only took about 17 minutes (including the 15 minute wait). Very smooth!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
What county and how is your county Health Dept? I’m at the eastern end of the state in Delaware County and we don’t have one. Neighboring Chester County is handling the waiting list, which I’ve put us on. But their website doesn’t seem to know about the locations in our county.
So I’m not sure how that’s actually going to work when we’re told we’re eligible.
geg6 is in the Pittsburgh area (Washington County?) and from what she’s written, it sounds like their health dept is even more messed up than ours.
There was a whole thread about movie theaters yesterday. We still go, or used to go pre-Covid. But a lot of BJers seem to have given up on them years ago.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’m in between. I went a few times a year pre-pandemic but not as often as I used to. I think Knives Out was the last film I saw in theaters. Or the one about WWI – the two guys crossing through no-man’s land with orders to stop a doomed assault on the German lines. I can’t remember the title of that one off the top of my head or if it was out December 2020 or 2019. If 2019 then Knives Out is probably the last one I saw in the theater – they may have been out at the same time but I didn’t see Knives Out until it hit second run status.
Barbara
@A Good Woman: I am sure the archbishop knows that, but the entire American church seems to have taken up the mantle of being more Catholic than the pope.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I mean 2019 vs. 2018. Anything that came out in December 2020 was a hard pass for seeing in the theater.
Brachiator
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I think a few states are deciding that if they have sufficient amounts of vaccine, they might just do age banding. So, after age 65 plus, age 50 to 65, age 40 to 50, etc.
It might be simpler and faster than trying to focus on occupations, etc.
Mel
@rikyrah: I hear that!!! I am so thankful every time I see that someone here has been able to get the vaccine. Seeing that good people are a step closer to being safe is a damn good thing, and keeps hope from flagging.
Meanwhile, in my state, despite being on immunosuppressive meds for two autoimmune vascular and connective tissue disorders, having two hypercoagulation disorders, being at risk of thyroid storm if I get an infection, and having a history of pneumonia with respiratory infections, I cannot get the vaccine.
AND, I have to have surgery next week. It’s a shitstorm. I am scared senseless, but the surgery is necessary, so what can you do?
I have been isolating b/c of the high risk, and haven’t even seen my friends, my sibling, or my little nieces and nephews face to face for a year, and then this. Damn.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@patrick II: My husband and I got our first shots (Pfizer) last Wednesday in our smallish N California town and the mass clinic was run very well by the local Adventist hospital. It was held in a gymnasium with plenty of distancing for all steps and the waiting afterward (we also had our release time on a small label) was outside on distanced chairs. They are having another clinic this Wednesday, again for people 65 this year and older, plus essential workers. So supplies seem to be flowing better, since I had been thinking it would be late March – April before we got shots. Much relieved for my husband especially. Haven’t changed our cautious lifestyle yet, of course. 2nd shot on 3/17.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@rikyrah: Wow, you are amazing. I can’t imagine going through this isolation without a working DirectTV, even though my husband and I are great readers. I’m so glad you will be getting your satellite fixed
ETA: I don’t know what your housing situation is. We live in the country and if our satellite went out, I wouldn’t really expect the tech to come inside, since the satellite itself is on the roof. The receiver went out several months ago, and they sent me a new one via UPS and I installed it myself. Only problem was the recorded shows on the DVR could not be transferred to the new receiver (sigh).
Ruckus
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I have no actual knowledge about vaccine distribution but with a federal government that is trying to keep us alive, rather than trying to kill us, and now a third vaccine, I’d bet things will get better soon, as far as getting inoculated goes.
J R in WV
@Cameron:
OK, so I follow everything you about your special procedures to avoid the plague… except the budesonide nasal spray — what does that do for your effort to remain uninfected?
J R in WV
@Al Z.:
Masking will remain part of our daily garb out and about away from our fairly remote home in the forested hillsides of WV.
We hope to feel up to visiting our AZ place as case numbersdrop and our vaccinations are completed. Hugs of close friends and neighbors!! I miss hugging people I have been close with for 30 or 40 years.
UncleEbeneezer
@rikyrah: Thank you!
Even if I still have to double-mask, social distance etc., vaccination means I can do that stuff with the risk being likely a couple days of a shitty cold, not dying alone in an ICU with a tube jammed down my throat. That will be a really big weight lifted off of my soul/anxiety, once it happens (knock on wood.).
rikyrah
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Not being a smartass, but, is there a way for you to get it done in DC or Virginia?
rikyrah
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
This particular error has happened a couple of times previously. And, each time, the technician was in my house for over an hour-90 minutes. During this time of COVID, I was just too terrified.
I am a tv junkie. This has hurt. It’s really hurt.
debbie
@David Anderson:
That was my first stop after my first jab.
Kayla Rudbek
@Auntie Anne: can you drive straight through to get there without stopping? Can you stay in a hotel or motel with individual HVAC units in each room? And are you able/willing to eat takeout or eat in your room for every meal?
J R in WV
@Barbara:
Well, two big points, less likely to be extremely ill or even die, and less likely to infect others even if your illness is quite mild. My next door neighbor is a field inspector for a large county health department, and was vaccinated very early, for obvious reasons.
She intends to wear a mask when in town or at work indefinitely, for the rest of her life. Which makes great sense to me, avoid the flu & colds, going forward.
Also! Who knows when the next pandemic will pop up, or where? Could be anywhere, any time… if you’re wearing a mask, you might not be in the group of people ill or dying before anyone even knows why folks are getting sick.
J R in WV
@JPL:
Shocking AND despicable, actually. A few years ago we went to a New Year’s eve party at a friend’s farm. HE runs a small construction company building pipelines.
I overheard one of his workers (probably a heavy equipment operator, so very well paid!) telling someone how much he hated African-Americans, and that was not the description he was using.
I have worked for and with people of all races from all over the world for my entire working life, more than 50 years now. This guy probably doesn’t even know any A-A folks. How does someone develop that kind of virulent hatred for a group of people he knows nothing about? He probably also hates Asians and Hispanics, but hadn’t gotten around to talking about them yet.
Sad and despicable.
No idea how to fix this kind of thing, either.
J R in WV
@MJS:
I think you should go for the vaccine ASAP. These distribution rules are poorly thought out and vary so much from place to place, it makes no sense.They’re punishing people who take care of their health in favor of those who don’t care about their health.
Go for it.
J R in WV
@raven:
So now the archbishop wants to kill people alive today, potentially suffering from a horrible disease, because of the death decades ago of fetuses that were aborted… that’s really pro-life, that is~!!!~ Insane, that it is, for sure.
J R in WV
@e julius drivingstorm:
Want to fly? Get Vaccinated!
Want to go to work? Get Vaccinated!
Want to go to school? Get Vaccinated!
Want to stay in a hotel? Get Vaccinated!
Want to go to the movies? Get Vaccinated!
Want to eat out at a restaurant? Get Vaccinated?
Want to go to the gym, get your hair done, mani-pedi? Get Vaccinated!
Am I getting through to you now?
Get vaccinated, or Stay Home~!!~
J R in WV
@burnspbesq:
Us too, Friday a couple of weeks yet. Don’t have a time appointment, hope they won’t ask us to be there at 8am~!~
SixStringFanatic
@Brachiator: This is what’s happening in Indiana and it seems to be going very well.
They did healthcare workers first, then just did everybody else by age groups. They started in late December with anyone age 80+; mid-January they opened it to anyone age 70+ (got my parents and my step-mom signed up – they’re all getting their second shots this week); first week of February, it was time for anyone age 65+; on February 23rd, they opened up the pool for those age 60+; today they began admitting those age 55+.
I’m 53; I expected to be able to register some time in mid-April and expected to get my first shot by the end of that month. Now it looks like I’ll be able to sign up in a week or two.
And this is a small, Reliably Republican state. I’m really impressed with how the state has handled this, which is a feeling I haven’t had in I can’t remember how long.
YY_Sima Qian
I think it is worth keeping mind that 95% efficacy numbers commonly quoted for Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines are for symptomatic disease, not infection. Moderna’s Phase III trial protocol triggered RT-PCR tests only with 2 COVID-19 symptoms, while the Pfizer/BioNTech Phase III trial protocol only required 1 symptom, so the 2 numbers are not apples-to-apples. There still aren’t any peer reviewed study, that I am aware of, on sterilization rates (prevention of infection) of any of the vaccines, though the data out of Israel is very encouraging for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (I think ~ 80% sterilization rate?). Getting the 2 doses of vaccines + another 2 – 3 weeks greatly reduces the risk to the vaccinated individual, essentially down to negligible levels. However, there is still the real possibility of vaccinated individual becoming infected, and being asymptomatic or mild, and spread to others. Yes, asymptomatic individuals are in general are less infectious that symptomatic ones.
Therefore, taking continued precautions after vaccination is more about protecting unvaccinated people around you, than protecting yourself. My assessment is that vaccinated individuals can form bubbles and resume normal activities within the bubble. More activities can resume outside of such bubbles, but precautions still need to be taken even after vaccination to minimize asymptomatic spread: wearing masks is really effective, continue to avoid risk situations like prolonged events with many people in small enclosed spaces with poor ventilation. If something like 70% of the population (and almost all of the vulnerable population) have developed immunity (either through infection or vaccination), then things can return to something like normal.
The complications are the strong anti-vaxx sentiments in the US and Europe, and the emerging variants with potential for immunity escape. Booster shot are likely required to address the new variations. So, keep an eye on local vaccination rate and the local prevalence of new variants when deciding how much precaution to take.
Technocrat
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Sorry for the late response! I’m in Pittsburgh also, so I think we’re all in waiting mode over here.
Sarah Nielsen
@Phylllis: Let me know if I can help with a reservation! We’re honored to be on your “to visit” list and are counting the days with you! Sarah from Fleet Landing :)