Vaccine

Pennsylvania is a total mess with distribution. The PA politicians like to say they aren’t getting enough vaccine but IMO I think the logistics of moving the vaccine, which has to be kept at like -90 deg F is the issue. Few if any places have the ability to keep things that cold. We see articles stating that the refrigerator is $15000. I know one private pharmacist who feels when the J&J and/or Novovax become available, likely late February, then the normal drug store chains like Walmart, RiteAid and Walgreens will pretty much unofficially control things. Both the J&J and Novovax only require normal refrigeration and the J&J as a bonus will be 1-shot.

Being in health care and having an office in a hospital that I need to be in on a regular basis, getting it wasn't a problem (in NY). I received the Pfizer vaccination. No side effects aside from the usual site soreness (very mild) and some hardness there as well. It was less violating than my flu shot. Part two is to be administered on or near Feb 1st.

I've been looking for sites that offer the vaccination in Georgia but haven't had any luck yet. My county has a program underway at a county park but the sign-up website shows no vacancies. The website suggests to check back after 5pm on Friday (today) to look for any open appointments.

I'm receiving my second Moderna shot on Sunday. I am older than dirt and live in CO.

I'll be getting my first dose this coming Tuesday and won't know until it arrives which of the two vaccines I'll be getting. Officially, next Monday is Day 1 for the age 65+ group along with grocery and transportation workers and possibly others. In my city, both Walgreens and CVS pharmacies receive and inject the vaccines to those in this group.

Got my first shot yesterday (Moderna.) County gov drive thru.

One trick that seems to be working here in PA, not that much is, is to show up near closing time. A friend recently went to a facility for his shot, his wife was out of the criteria, but the facility was faced with tossing some doses. She got the shot. At a local hospital, they were looking for people to get the shot late in the day. A wife of another friend that works the gift shot got her shot.

Signed up, waiting to hear from the county.

i will not be aa test subject for any vaccine. that is the way the lord wants to take me then he will take me..............

^^If the virus doesn't kill you, the vaccine might

There is no approved vaccine for Covid. It states it on the Moderna and Pfizer info sheets. It is not approved by the FDA. It also states it may not cure covid. You still have to wear masks and social distance. Right on their fact sheets.

Both the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines currently being administered to people in the United States have very extensive test results available. They are authorized by an FDA EUA. No, they won't "cure" the disease, but they do have a very high probability of preventing you from getting it in the first place. The balance of risks between taking the vaccine and not taking the vaccine are extremely much in favor of taking the vaccine so far as individual risk is concerned. Furthermore we may all regard ourselves as having a civic duty to help our fellow citizens by reducing the likelihood of spread. If the opportunity to get vaccinated comes to you, please do yourself and everybody else a favor and take it. In case you think I am talking through my hat, although an electrical engineer by training I actually took a course in epidemiology at the Harvard Medical School, and spent the late years of my engineering career doing large-scale data analysis.

My wife and I received our first shots yesterday. 2nd shot already scheduled for 19th of Feb. Drove up to Volusia county (Fl). Process was very well coordinated.

High demand, short supply.

It took me almost three weeks to get an appointment and then it is still two week out. Slowed us older people down when they pushed the teachers ahead.

It just amazes me how some people know better than the medical professionals and medical experts and will not take the vaccine shots!
The same thing applies to the yearly flu shots!

State is supposed to add a portal next week where you can sign up ... I am not optimistic, but we'll see.

I know got the covid AFTER getting vaccine.

Who amaze me are the parents that would rather homeschool their kids than have them vaccinated.

Phil

The -90 degrees F requirement for transport of the Pfizer vaccine is a challenge, but it is not really an insurmountable one. For decades the aviation industry has been shipping pharmaceuticals requiring really cold temperatures by packaging them in containers surrounded by dry ice, which can provide that temperature.

The new challenge with COVID is the vastly larger amounts that people want to carry, due to the pandemic. Heat transfer causes dry ice to change directly to gaseous carbon dioxide (a process called sublimation), and if that happens faster than the plane's air conditioning system can handle, the CO2 level in the aircraft can reach a hazardous level. Accordingly, the rate of change from solid to gas potentially limits how much dry ice can safely be carried on a given flight.

Pfizer uses packaging for their COVID vaccine that has a sublimation rate only about 40 percent of the best historical packaging, so we can carry a lot more dry ice/vaccine per flight than would have been done in the past. In addition, that lower rate of sublimation gives a much longer useful life for the dry ice. Pfizer is stating that the vaccine should be kept cold enough for at least a week if the shipping box is not opened until ready for use.

In addition, the shipping requirement for the Moderna vaccine only requires a temperature of -20 degrees C (-4 F). This is much easier to obtain and maintain than the -90 F requirement of the Pfizer vaccine.

Having said this, it appears that logistics IS a factor in the slow rate of vaccinations. (If the US were vaccinating at the same rate as Israel, over 100 million people of us would have had at least the first shot by now - not 5 million.) Pfizer complained publicly several weeks ago that they had millions of doses purchased by the federal government just sitting at the factory because they had not been given addresses to which the vaccine should be shipped.

That was hard to believe, but I saw in the news yesterday that the current administration said they would have to plan from scratch for vaccine distribution because the previous administration had NO distribution plan - which appears to match Pfizer's complaint in December.

- Tom -

That was likely not due to the vaccine. For example, say you have a birthday party in your home on Sunday and someone in attendance has CoVid, perhaps in an early stage or perhaps asymptomatic. You then get the vaccine on Monday. Symptoms for COVID can start as early as 2 days and as long as 14 days after you are exposed. So some of your birthday group may come down with CoVid as early as Tuesday, including you who got the shot on Monday.

There are also a lot of people who experience a sore arm, fevers, and headaches and think they may have gotten CoVid from the shot, but didn't.

Registered wife and myself at the Austin Public Health after that our regular health clinic emailed saying that they would not getting any more vaccine and instead get it where you can.

Then trying to schedule an appointment to get the shot was a weird one. Picking an early time slot gave the answer that it was all taken. Picking a later time slot gave a strange error message. Being a (former) programmer I figured it could be worth resubmitting the request and after about a dozen tries I lucked out, got a time slot for my wife for two days out. Then did the same for myself. After another eight tries I got the same time slot for me.

We both got our shots on Friday, Jan 22nd. It was in a big sports arena. It was organized pretty well.

Now we can't wait to get the second shot and after a few weeks we can venture outside a bit more.

/JCA

The CDC, Moderna, and Pfizer state you can still get Covid, you still have to wear a mask, and must also still social distance, and, of course be diligent in hand washing. It's billed that if you do get covid then it will not be as bad. Your choice. Just ask questions and do your research.

I'll wait for V2.0. People have had allergic reactions to it, and some have died, among other problems.

I'm not a lab rat, and I'm not scared to death. Just be smart.

in MD as well.

No appointments in my area in Texas. It is so limited. I will take it as soon as I can, but probably is months away. For those waiting for 2.0 I have not heard of any deaths definitely attributed to the vaccine. Two died in the control group taking the vaccine and four with the placebo. Only a few allergic reactions to the 10's of millions vaccinated worldwide.. All vaccines are and will always be a risk to benefit decision, but don't take it, means I can take it just that much sooner.

My wife and I were able to make appointments in late February through our local health organization for our first injection. I'm not sure how they know they will have vaccine available then though.

A month seems like a long time to wait but at least we are in the system. I'll continue to monitor their website for earlier appointments.

But there were/are deaths that occurred within weeks and days of people taking it all over the world. Also paralysis and anaphylaxis shock immediately following. You have to really wonder why right after receiving it.

.....there is a great amount of false information concerning the Covid Vaccine on our site!

So many people are reacting to and spreading misinformation they have heard. Talk to your Doctors and trained professionals....... not Social Media! I would not go to a Medical Journal to learn about adjusting settings on my GPS ..... Make sure your information is actually coming from a recognized source.

Stay Safe & Healthy everyone!!

Agree with SilverRhino to many people giving advise on hear say information

To the dismay of many, social media is not always a reliable source of info ..... try considering it as a starting point only......

i get mine this saturday then next week get the second, my wife isnt getting hers until she is done with her radation treatments which end in feburary because she is very weak and tired from treatments, she wants th gain a little strangth back first

Both producers say either 3 or 4 weeks between 1st & 2nd shots.

I get my first shot Wednesday and the second on Feb 24.

Despite what our governor said they aren't doing our age group yet. They're still working on the 75+ age group and we don't qualify. We went online and registered to be notified but I doubt it will happen soon.

It is sad to read how many people completely reject science and trust some bullshit they read on Facebook. Here is the REALITY of the situation (that no one is talking about yet.)

If 90% of the world's population get vaccinated, there is a good chance it can be eradicated in three years.

If 100% of the world's population get vaccinated, it will be eradicated in three years.

If 75% of the world's population gets vaccinated, then we will need to go through this whole vaccination thing every three years until governments run out of money. Once the money is gone, the virus comes back. If there is no more infrastructure and the power grid goes down, billions of people will die in three months. The few million left will be killing each other off for the last remaining scarps of food.

If you think this is pessimistic, who do you think is going to pay for a worldwide vaccination program every three years until all the science-deniers and anti-vaxxers die off? Personally, I NEVER want to go through life like this again, and certainly not every three years because 25% of the population makes stupid decisions.

I never met my older brother because he died of polio in the 1950s. His graveyard is full of headstones of children taken away at very early ages from polio. We managed to eradicate polio around the world; we can do the same with Covid if people are smart.

...who got their shots from the VA in Lexington, KY last weekend. Neither of them had any side effects other than a sore arm. As soon as my local VA offers the vaccine, I'll be standing in line. The Covid vaccine will give you Covid like the flu vaccine gives you the flu. Ain't gonna happen. As far as social media: Half of the people on there don't know what they are talking about; the other half are just repeating what the first half said. We all know that everything on social media is true. The best rule of thumb is to just stay off social media. You'll be a whole lot better off!

From the CDC:

"Based on evidence from clinical trials, the Moderna vaccine was 94.1% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people who received two doses who had no evidence of being previously infected."

After the second dose you should still be wearing mask and do the social distancing to protect others because you could spread the virus.

So I like 94.1% protection over zero %.

/JCA

I used to believe in the value of dialog between myself and those I didn’t agree with. For selfish reasons I wanted to understand what and why others thought as they did. I also hoped that they might learn something from me.

The Beginning Of The End
Early this century I held my last job before retiring for ~7 years. There was a group of people who (individually) were enthusiastic about dialog. The way I saw it though there wasn’t a two way dialog. They wanted to convert me and didn’t hear what I had to say. They all had pretty much the same talking points. It was still a learning experience for me. Just not what I anticipated.

The End Of The End
On another message board from this we had a Covid-19 discussion which was far afield from the message board’s topic. Someone (might have been me but I don’t remember and it isn’t important enough to look up) brought up the issue of the CDC or NSC (can’t remember which) shutting down their pandemic group about 2 years before Covid-19 came on the scene. Someone replied that that was a lie and provided a URL referencing an article that contradicted the reported shutdown of the pandemic group. It was written in the first person, “I was there and it didn’t happen” weren’t the exact words but convey the idea. I hadn’t ever heard of the periodical.

They thought that my facts were wrong. I thought theirs were wrong. Quoting Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”. I don’t know how to proceed.

There is almost certainly nothing to which someone is not going to react.

As an example, aspirin has been in common use for well over 100 years and is so benign that it is available everywhere without a prescription. Even so, there are a number of people every year who have severe - even life-threatening - reactions to it.

A very small percentage of the people who have had a vaccine shot have had any reaction to it other than a moderately sore arm - which I have had with some common inoculations over the years. Nothing in life is certain, but the statistics say that getting a vaccine shot for COVID is less likely to harm you than not getting a shot.

- Tom -

Thursday evening. Hope it goes well.

—

it’s the dog’s fault

LA is a Zoo

1.5- 3 million aged 65+

Lines are crazy at dodges stadium

Last week it looked bad - like we would never get an appointment.

Then my wife was online at 8:00 AM on the state website when a large number of appointments appeared less than a week away. We got two on the first week of February at a mass vaccine site.

We feel good! But we'll feel even better after the shot is in the arm.

In Wisconsin currently, all 65+ year olds are eligible, plus some other groups. I got #1 of Pfizer this past Thursday and am looking forward to #2 in about three weeks. I'm a cool happy camper.

Wife & I got the 1st Pfizer shot 3 days ago. No problem that day, next day our arm was sore to move but nothing like a flu shot, next day no sore arm nor any other problem.
If you don't get a vaccine then don't complain if you die from the virus.

Based on data from the web site that collects issues from vaccines the pfizer one seems to have less issues (deaths and reactions). https://vaers.hhs.gov/data.html

Got my first shot last Friday, 1/29/21 Moderna, very quick and easy no side affects. I am over 70 and in Tennessee, have the appointment for the second shot also. If I wait for FDA approval, I will probably be over 80.

Was going to schedule a time for my wife and I. Started making one appt. and then backed out to see if I could get her an appt. at the same time. The site then showed that there were no more vaccines available. I found that to be interesting. Apparently someone was making an appt. at the same time that I was and when I backed out, that appt. was given to the other person. On well, there's always next week.

We got very lucky in getting quickly scheduled when we signed up and got our first shot last week. Other people we know in the same priority category as us in other counties in our state were only offered appointments months from now.

Anyway the first shot was easier than a flu shot. Very mild arm soreness for 24 hours and no other side effects. Our second shot is already scheduled three weeks out. I know from the Shingrix vaccine that the second shot of two-dose vaccines can kick harder, but we'll hope for the best. No question in my mind that the risk of a strong or severe reaction to a Covid-19 vaccine is statistically much lower than the risk of strong or severe complications of the virus with our health profile.

As has been said, much conflicting information. Much of it from sources proven to have agendas. I'm getting the shots. First scheduled tomorrow. Second already scheduled in 4 weeks.

Got a flu shot this year. First one since about 1975 for the Swine flu. You can see that I don't put a lot of faith in them. This is different. Being quite "mature" in years, I have always been healthy. This vaccine is not merely for me. My wife is more likely to have issues from the virus because of other health problems. I'm getting the shot to protect her and other family and friends.
If you don't want to do yourself a favor by getting the shots, do it for others. They all deserve your consideration.