COVID-19 Vaccine

...of Pfizer vaccine yesterday. No problems with it so far. My son and daughter-in-law both have appointments this coming Tuesday. The Cintas Center in Cincinnati has 10,000 doses to be given out this week-end. The State of Ohio has dropped the eligibility to 40 and above starting today. It seems that more doses are getting into people's arms.

It was announced yesterday that the US will send 4 million doses of the Astrazenica vaccine to Canada and Mexico. A noble gesture indeed but it raises two questions:

1 - If the Astrazenica vaccine isn't approved for use in the US, why did we buy it in the first place?

2 - If there are future plans to approve it, why give it away when there are tens of thousands of US citizens in the 1A group who are unable to get vaccinated due to short supply?

the Wall Street Journal reports that the administration considers this a "loan".
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-plans-to-send-astrazeneca-v...

What are the chances Mexico will ever reciprocate? If and when they do, it is likely the US will be fully vaccinated by then with the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Is actually produced here in the US. In fact, there is a plant producing the vaccine about 20 miles from my house. I guess they figured that if it was not approved here in the States, they would send it to the north and south. Why that Astro hasn’t applied for use in the US is something that I don’t know. All I know is that Canada is happy to get it and the faster we get people vaccinated, the quicker we can get this behind us. Ohio opened up to 40 year olds today and in a couple of weeks, I understand 16 year olds and up will be eligible. Yesterday, I saw 30 year olds in line at a vaccine clinic in Kentucky.

Had my first shot March 15th, took 2 hours to get through, next appointment July 5th , quite a gap, lets hope there is still some vaccine around then.
Mine was the Astra Zeneca or Covishield as they call it in Canada, no side effects at all.

last weekend. I had to wait four days and got first Pfizer shot this week.

Not too bad, splitting headache and only vomited once. Doing better today after getting my arm out of the sling. And for those of you who read this paragraph...I was only joking!!!

Had no reaction to the shot at all. Not even any redness or tenderness at the injection site.

Not joking about the seriousness of COVID, just trying to lighten up and have a little fun with the vaccine stuff

I was going to reply you must be young as they say us older people don't have symptoms other than a sore arm.
But after getting to the end of the paragraph I see I don't need to ask if you are young or old.

Got Moderna #2 last Wednesday. My normal 20-30 minute afternoon catnap turned into 2 hours. Slept in an extra hour Thursday morning. Slightly soar injection site Wednesday evening, but gone by Thursday. Not sure if almost total lack of reaction is good or bad....

My wife got the JnJ on Saturday afternoon, felt run down yesterday said headache and achy, and fine today? It's that quick? I'd love to get that if I were eligible. She got it as teaching staff. Would have been ideal if it were 2 weeks prior to reopening, which is today. But it does seem they have shots available for all at the school, which is encouraging.

My mom got the Pfizer both shots last month. She was fine. A little drowsy after the first, but that was it.

I got my first shot of Moderna last Weds. Sore arm and sudden massive fatigue 2 hours after. Slept for 3 hours and then some waves of nausea. Similar on day 2. Woke up feeling fine and ready to go, got some things done, then another crash and several hour nap. Mild lethargy on day 3. And that was it. So fairly mild and felt similar to when I've experienced flu symptoms before. Seems similar to others in my age group who've received Moderna.

Not looking forward to the 2nd dose as most of my friends have reported much more unpleasant side effects from Moderna, but they only last a day or two. Several friends who had covid-19 report that it's still better than getting covid-19, and I believe them.
I was surprised though, I would think that if they had covid-19 they would have some antibodies built up so the vaccine wouldn't bother them as much. I'm not a medical professional or scientists, so there could be very valid reasons for this. On the other hand, my friends in the medical field report this virus breaks a lot of the "rules" anyway so there's that.
Regardless, I feel fortunate to have received a vaccine and am looking forward to spending time with other family and friends who are vaccinated.

~Angela

I've had both shots and only experienced mild arm soreness the next day, much like the seasonal flu shot. But I'm old, so...

antibodies in those that have had Covid. Your assumption regarding covid and having antibodies is being questioned by some medical research. Mainly, if you had covid you should have antibodies so why are we doing a vaccine also. Research continues. They are also questioning the 2nd dose. Their reasoning is that 1 dose is some where about 70 %. There are thoughts on everyone (that wants it) getting 1 shot and then going for the 2nd. This is so they can get everyone immunized and therefore get to herd immunity quicker.

Muell9k Wrote
My wife and I had the first shot of the Phizer vaccine on
March 16 no adverse effects on both of us. Scheduled to
receive the second shot on April 6th, we are both in the high risk group having underling conditions (early 70's.
Hopefully the 2nd shot will go smoothly. It's still difficult to get vaccine appointments in New York State facilities and they only Phizer as a choice.

For those still not vaccinated, check out the below site to compare the differences between Phizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson if you have a choice before making a appointment.

Check out the article the USA Today site, use your own judgement on the articles validity.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/03/16/covid-...

A major clinical trial conducted on USA participants of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine was just unblinded in the last day. The results regarding both safety and efficacy are very good.

The USA actually has a great many AstraZeneca doses under contract (Operation Warp Speed made such arrangements for about seven vaccines, seeking to assure early and high number access to whichever turned out to work). But any use here must await the pipeline of paperwork. AZ must submit an application, the US government must review both the application and the raw trial data, public comment is invited, and at least four layers of the US government must authorize it. So maybe sometime in May for this one to get added here.

No, not everyone here will be vaccinated by then, not even close. And there is a very great deal of the rest of the world. So this is good news.

Regarding the clotting matter--my current read on the available data is that more likely than not there is a real effect, with a really tiny rate of occurrence. Of over twenty million people who have gotten this shot already, quite possibly a single digit number have died of this effect. That is very small compared to the number of excess deaths from COVID-19 which would have happened had these shots not been given. Also, as the mechanism may get better understood, there is a higher chance of successful treatment of this very rare complication.

I heard some MDs on SiriusXM's "Doctor Radio" (who are credible NYU Langone med school faculty members and associates) saying there was some anecdotal evidence that people known to have the virus may react to the first dose of the vaccines more than people who have not. The reaction is suggested to be the immune system firing up in response to a threat it recognizes due to antibodies. It's possible you had a stronger response than your mom because you had the virus but were asymptomatic, or as others said, because younger people tend to have stronger immunity systems that generally react more to vaccines than their parents.

Even people who had the virus before and those who reacted to the first dose of the vaccine are strongly encouraged to get both doses for best immunity, as I know you understand. The second dose often is harder for people, but not always; you may not react as strongly as you did to the first dose.

Over 500,000 have died following the virus in the US. No one is known to have died because of the Covid-19 vaccines in the US. They have an excellent safety profile.

Paradoxically in light of what I posted above, that is not considered a bad sign. People who get both doses (or one of J&J) have proven to have excellent immunity even if they don't have a strong reaction to the vaccine.

The few people who coincidentally and later have gotten the virus even after vaccination (the shots are not 100% effective against all variants, of course) have not been winding up in the hospital with severe symptoms or dying. That along with helping bring about herd immunity so we can eventually get back to normal are the best reasons to get vaccinated. The few annoying symptoms of the vaccine are a small price for an act that is beneficial to all.

We get shot #2 of Moderna this Thursday. Many people have felt Covid like symptoms after it, so it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be a relief to get the second shot.

I have seen some comments that the reaction to the second shot occurs BECAUSE the body has started building up resistance after the first shot, and it is reacting to what it thinks is a massive attack by the real thing. I am not qualified to pass judgement on that theory, but at my level of knowledge it sounds plausible.

- Tom -

I have heard the same as Tom. I'm due to get my 2nd Moderna shot this Friday.

Have some Tylenol (or Acetaminophen) handy. In the case of both me and my wife we got our shots at about 2 PM. I had a very slight fever that same evening but about 20 to 22 hours later we both got slight chills. The worse part was, for both of us, our joints ached, really ached! I had been warned to have Tylenol on hand and it was good advice. By bedtime, I felt substantially better and the next morning fine.

across what I think to be a decent video. I like to try to understand....and even my mom was saying she would like one shot only (she got both Pfizer), but JnJ had a lower efficacy, she said 75% and the real number that she misused is 72%. The Detroit mayor made the same mistake.

It's ok in marketing imho, but not ok to misinform with something like this. For example, try to compare cargo capacity of the 2022 Grand Wagoneer, to a 2021 Tahoe. Former is bigger in every dimension. Latter has more cargo capacity. If you are the former, for those who care about this one criteria, marketers need to bury the number....

https://youtu.be/K3odScka55A

Took a while to get an appointment but finally got it.
The whole system for appointments was very frustrating.

after the second shot i was taking naps for a couple of hours a day then my joints started to ache, knees elbows, sholders, fingers,hips im 79 and that could have something to do with it. i made an appointment to see the doctor but its a month away seems doctors dont have apatient's any more they have clients for a corperation if you need something now go to the emergency room !

Free Krispy Kreme doughnuts, cash and even marijuana — businesses pile on the perks for getting vaccinated.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/here-are-a-few-of-the-freebi...

Donuts and weed among the freebies retailers offer to vaccinated Americans

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-freebies-donuts-c...

Here's what you can get for free in the Milwaukee area if you've received a COVID-19 vaccine

https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/2021/03/23/comp...

This COVID-19 vaccine survey is a scam | FOX43 Finds Out

https://www.fox43.com/mobile/article/money/consumer/fox43-fi...

Got Your Covid Vaccine? Cleveland Cinemas Will Give You a Free Popcorn

https://m.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2021/03/24...

A local clinic is charging patients $400 for a vaccination!

https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/wr...

The media picked up on this and now there is an investigation underway. It isn't clear how it will help the hundreds of people who were scammed though.

A local clinic is charging patients $400 for a vaccination!

https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/wr...

The media picked up on this and now there is an investigation underway. It isn't clear how it will help the hundreds of people who were scammed though.

has to admit it's getting harder even for a "normal" person to identify scams.

For example, what is the auto warranty scam about, press 1, press 2, call back, wait for a live operator, nothing happens. My hunch is it's documenting the response it got and somehow collectively sells a list?

My co. sent me a legit gift card via email, but I thought it was spam and I marked it, which notifies the sec dept. And it was actually legit.

I am doing business with a co. in another country, and they kept telling me we sent you an email, not sure why you're not getting them. Send to my personal gmail, and I got them. Turns out our co's enterprise security vendor blocked the emails even before they reached our co, meaning no other co. would get the emails either, but they were legit.

We have dual factor authentication for everything today, maybe needs to be tri and quad?

When I hear people "drove 2 hours" or to another state to get a shot, makes me wonder why, and if it were even real.

Some days, I just want to get in my 7 speed manual Corvette Z06 and go for a drive, except I don't have one.

I live in a town near the state line. We had a vaccination site capable of handling 1,500 vaccinations each day for 5 days a week. Our state list of eligible persons included school personnel; a neighboring state did not include them. Teachers in the other state called the clinic and were told they were welcome. Some drove two or more hours each way for the vaccine.

Ironically, our newspaper editor was not eligible to be vaccinated in our state but was vocationally eligible in the neighboring state. He and the teachers likely passed each other!

Edited to add link: https://tinyurl.com/yj3q7ag3

That I'm playing armchair quarterback, but in a perfect world....one has a physician who is a member of xyz health plan...that health plan contacts all it's members to find out their demographic, and then says if interested, schedule.

Oversimplification I know, but imho removes the shadiness.

My relatives live in Boston. And they drove 2 hours to get a shot. No way Boston is short on vaccines, they get the govt to build them a tunnel if they want that cost 8 bil and took 16 years to complete. Adjusted for inflation they exceeded the budget by 3 fold. My relatives should have been able to get vaccinated somewhere no more than 10 miles away if you ask me

Same here I'm also smiling

(my comments here are from when the Moderna vaccine was the only one being given in PA)

Here in PA, and I don't know if I mentioned this before, the process to get a shot was a disaster. There were a few different ways to sign up for a shot.

I found one via a Rite Aid scheduler app, but that took me two weeks of trying 8 hours or more a day, since I was laid off at the time. Rite Aid was given the vaccine from the Federal Govt.

I was also signed up at my local hospitals and the county gov't, none of which has gotten to me yet. They were supplied by the state.

PA has over 12 million people, more than half are currently eligible to receive a shot. Delaware County (DelCo) has near 600,000 people yet Delco was only given a few thousand doses a week. Turns out some of those were being given as first does but meant to be given to people who needed a second dose.

Then you had these 'fly by night' vaccine clinics pop up here and there, long lines to get a shot with no guarantee for your second.

Like I said, PA was horrible.

I got lucky, I found a Rite Aid about a mile from home. I'm due for my second shot tomorrow. I have a friend who lives nearby and he traveled 3 hours, one way, to get his, both times.

By the way, johnnatash4, did you know that insurance companies dictate who can give you a shot? I get the annual flu shot from my Doc. When I got the two shots for shingles (Shingrix) my Doc wasn't allowed, I had to get those at the pharmacy. Pneumococcal shot, back to the Doc.

I received my second shot this morning of the Moderna Covid vaccine and 10 hours later, just like the first, I have no symptoms or injection site discomfort.

If I hadn't seen the vaccine being drawn from the vial, I might have sworn I received a saline injection based on no side effects. I hope a delayed reaction is not in my future.

That was exactly my experience. My GP works for UCHealth, tied in some mysterious way to the University of Colorado and it's med school. When I let her (my GP) know that I had an early January appointment she explained that I won the lottery. A couple of months later she explained that the lottery was to make an adequate test to make ensure that they got the logistics right for mass production.

PA has one of the highest number of group 1A people in the country yet we rank 36 out of 50 for the number of first injections given!

Some states are already giving doses to group 1B and a few have opened it up to all!

Just how is national vaccine distribution calculated? If I were the PA governor, I would be on the phone daily with the feds asking JUST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON???

As others have said, my wife and I registered at 3 different clinics. We were notified 3 times about schedule openings and responded immediately but all were booked by the time we applied!

We were fortunate enough to be contacted directly by our health care organization and given our first dose. We are scheduled for our second next week. The down side is we have a 5 hour round trip to the clinic & back. We consider it well worth the time however.

From the beginning, for each week the allocation to each state has been proportional to the state population of people over age 18. Possibly that has changed lately, but I doubt it.

Second shot next Thursday

up PA and it's phase 1A, 65+.

I would have actually thought (stereotype) FLA would be behind, yet they're already open to 50 y.o.

One issue I think about government is there's no measurement of performance. It's like it's a game that billionaires play now, after they've made their fortune. It'd be fun to try and run a state. I think part of the fallacy is well I've done well in business, I can apply everything I've learned to public service. One thing about public service? The public. Another is empathy.

Iowa is primarily a rural state with most of its 99 counties very sparsely populated. I live in one of the more densely populated counties with a larger city. It has been difficult to secure a vaccine appointment where I live because the demand is much higher than the supply. Fortunately my wife and I were able to get appointments by getting up in the middle of he night to check on available appointments. We have both had both doses. But my daughter and son-in-law (in their 50's) had not been able to get appointments.

There has been some reporting that the rural counties which tend to be much more politically conservative than the higher population counties have a much higher percentage of their population who are "vaccine resistors". So on a whim, my son-in-law decided to contact a small town pharmacy in a neighboring rural county, and sure enough they were able to give appointments right away for both him and my daughter. So they drove to the neighboring county yesterday and got their first doses and are scheduled to return in 3 weeks for their second doses. I'm sure glad my son-in-law came up with that idea.

The shots should be more available where the locals choose to "die for the economy"...

I spoke too soon. I usually take a two-mile walk every day but this morning I felt too tired and achy so I punted on the walk.

My side effects increased during the day and I continued to feel more tired and achy. My temperature increased so I took a couple of Ibepoking tablets and I lay on the sofa for a couple of hours. That made a big difference in how I felt but I'm still running a mild temperature. I expect symptoms will go away in a day or two.

Got my 2nd Moderna shot yesterday. My arm is a little more sore than I remember the first shot being. Got a little drowsy about an hour later, otherwise, so far, so good.

The Fed may be distributing evenly to each state, but here in PA the state hasn't been. This quote from an early March article tells the story here in southeastern PA.

"According to the latest state data analyzed by 6abc, per every 1,000 residents, Delaware County (564,554 residents) has received 134 doses, Bucks County (626,806 residents) received 168 doses, Chester County (519,560 residents) received 171 doses and Montgomery County (823,823 residents) received 221 doses.

By comparison, the state reports having sent almost 45,000 doses to Montour County over the last three months. The county's population is only 18,259 people.

Four other smaller counties, Mifflin, Mercer, Clarion and Elk all received more than 500 doses for every 1,000 of their residents, according to state data."

https://6abc.com/pa-covid-vaccine-data-in-pennsylvania-delaw...

got in an argument with my best friend. And we talked for 3 hours the other day without mentioning politics and it was as if we were in grade school.

I said I happen to know PA 65+, MA is not 55+ until 4/5, and FLA is 50+, for the vaccine.

To make it simple, I know people in all 3 states say < 40 y.o. who got the shot.

He said they are line jumpers and should have declined.

Again, not front liners, not teachers, not medical related.

What I think? Anyone who has the vaccine, can do as they choose with extra. I know of a story where a pharmacist called his wife's friends and vaccinated them all (we're talking a handful, not dozens).

Seems every single topic we discuss today is intertwined with politics. But why can't we all agree that we want things to be done better?

The point I'm trying to illustrate is there is no drama, there's no huge amount of money that changed hands, it doesn't make for an expose. It's more or less these folks I know belonged to a healthcare or they must have somehow been around to get shot with extras. But likely there are folks in underserved areas who meet the age criteria who didn't. That's all I'm saying.

Although I will not take the vaccine because that is my choice, it is also other peoples choice to take it. That is not the argument here. The agencies giving the vaccine have to use the extra's by the expiration date or it gets thrown out. That is a fact! There are numerous reports of people calling these places in the middle of the night to get appointments and some get luck at the end of the day. I see nothing wrong with that because it gets people vaccinated and the vials don't get wasted.

It's not just you that you're protecting, it's your friends, family, workmates.

Wife & I booked for first shot April 1.

Keep wearing your mask after. Your body needs 2-3 weeks to develop the immunity. Also other people have no way of knowing if you've had it or not and you don't need the hassle.

Variants are much more contagious and dangerous, so protect yourself.

We took our second shot of Moderna last Thursday. Time will tell how effective the vaccine is.

Your position is totally reasonable! You personally don't want the vaccine, and at the same time, you don't think it should be wasted.

My buddy is in FLA and he said people can not only schedule a shot anywhere but they can even choose the brand, as supply > demand. Appointments galore. It's going to open up to 18+.

It's also going to open up in CT, but currently, even people 45+ cannot get it, although eligible.

The system is broken, how can we learn and do better? Maybe the system was never in existence for something of this magnitude, and we will get better. Why argue, right?

with no problems but a little sire at injection site. Supposedly if you're gonna have a reaction it usually happens after the 2nd one and women usually have more of a reaction than men do. We shall see in about 3 weeks.

My wife and I received our second vaccine last Thursday and everything went well, no reactions. The vaccine site had all registered nurses. We arrived 15 minutes early for our second appointment and they took us right away.
Our county was very slow on the roll-out so we registered in another county and traveled 35 miles to get there for both shots. It was worth it.

awaiting my first shot this Thursday.

have a friend who got the 2nd Pfizer one week ago today.

I checked in with him Friday--he said ZERO side effects.

That's promising. But I believe he's 40, and not sure if that means anything either. His wife being same age had bad effects from 2nd Moderna.