It was a little fraught with confusion–=nobody expected the 7:00 time to be PM—but it was. They had it moving pretty fast, and I exited with a card giving the batch number, etc. It was Moderna.
And yesterday the Gov lowered the age for the next batch, and Jane will get hers. Happy! We may be back to normal before the end of March.
I’m a little achy, a little unenergetic today, but no symptoms else. Jane and I are working again, and happy for that!
We REALLY want to go back to our favorite pub to do some of this, but before all’s done, we may be!
That is excellent news! Hawaii is starting to pass out the vaccine; I am in Tier 2 as an ‘essential worker’, but the process is fraught. One of the 2 vaccination points was at the local college, but you need a reservation to be vaccinated. The first day they were open, they closed down early because a lot of people just showed up without a reservation and they ran out. Some people who had a reservation got turned away until the next time 🙁
They made a mistake enforcing prioritization, especially when 40% of the Phase 1A health-care workers turned up “shy”. The fastest way do do it is in “parallel processes”. Do it at any hospital, pharmacy, Starbucks, Home Depot, pay retired nurses handsomly, but get needles working EVERYWHERE!
I still have to wait until Feb 15th to even ask! 🙁
The problem in many locations isn’t just the lack of appointments, but the lack of vaccines, period. You can’t jab what you don’t have. Myself, I will be continuing to do best anti-infection practices and wait until some of the initial craziness is done.
I’m seeing a lot of tourists assuming that since they are on vacation, they run no risk of infection. They are trundling about sans mask or other cautionary procedures. One showed up in line at the post office and steadfastly refused to wear a mask until actually in the building — “That’s just a suggestion.” They were on the receiving end of a lot of stink eye and pointed comments.
CommentBoth spouse and I are eligible; he was able to get an appointment in April, but I have not been able to find availability closer than about 6 hours away; we live in Westchester county, 20 miles from NYC. So NY is very very short of vaccines. Hope that will change soon. I can manage to keep quarantining indefinitely but am concerned that those who need to be out and about, like teachers, e.g., aren’t able to be vaccinated.
I’ll be getting my vaccination on Monday. I’m a bit trepidatious but hopeful at the same time. I usually just get a stiff shoulder and a little bit of soreness at the injection site. I hope that’s all that happens for me. But, being immunized and thus immune to the virus would be a great benefit.
They say for any vaccine it’s good to spend a few weeks prior getting a lot of rest (helps your immune system) in order to prep yourself. And I’d say drink some water as well. My mom’s usual fix for anything and I can’t find anything wrong with that. But def work on getting good sleep.
I emailed my PCP at the VA and reminded her how many risk groups I’m in and she had the nurse call me on Tues the 12th, to see if I could come in for the jab on the 14th. (I could.) I get my second jab on Feb 11. Instead of putting the shot in the meat of my arm like you’re supposed to, the yahoo that gave it to me purt’near injected it directly into my shoulder joint. Needless to say, my shoulder expressed its displeasure for about three days in terms that are unrepeatable in polite conversation, and it has been muttering under its breath periodically ever since. (That’s also the shoulder that had rotator cuff repair.)
Glad to hear you’ve been able to get the jab, CJ. Hopefully after Wednesday, rears will be gotten in gear and the vaccine distribution problems can be ironed out and it can be gotten to the people who need it.
Mom got hers the second week of Jan. (She got the Pfizer, I got the Moderna.) Mom turns 97 in September of this year (touch wood!) and is still active, alert, drives, lives independently alone, etc. So thankful for that!.
You’re fortunate. My VA area-Northern California-doesn’t have it’s act together at all. I’m 74 and had 2 life threatening infections and they can’t tell me even a month when I’ll get vaccinated. It seems my county will have vaccines before the VA.
Great to hear this news from CJ and everyone! Shoot ‘em up! I and my spouse aren’t until tier 3 (under 65, no co-morbidities), so likely not until April or so, but the more people that get vaccinated quickly, the better for all of our societies.
I wish my Mom, who is 84, wasn’t leery of the shots (she reads too many conspiracy emails and no standard news outlets) but it doesn’t look like New Hampshire has vaccines available in senior housing yet anyways (NosenDoze may know more). I’m relatively confident that my Mom will come around, especially if (hopefully) housing management start promoting it as she is also pretty law-abiding and conformist too.
ReadyGuy and I are registered but can’t get an appointment for vaccination because we don’t live in Phoenix where all the doses seem to be directed. We don’t want to drive 2.5 hours, sit in line 2 hours, spend a half hour waiting afterwards then drive home an additional 2.5 hours with all the additional exposures involved (if we even could get a guaranteed appointment). We will practice patience and solitude for another couple of months.
Y’all know this one? “Patience is a virtue that grows from practice.”
I was in the 1B group when my local doctor and health provider system was being sent vaccines for our county, but the governor suddenly changed course and cut vaccines to them off to the point they are scrambling to get 2nd doses for those who already got some. They cut vaccines off to the entire county for now and told us to sign up with the adjacent county that just happens to have millions more residents of their own. I filled out the new county online form and by their standards I’m not in 1B. As far as they’re concerned I’m fit as a horse. LOL…sigh.
Once scarcity is over now that the feds will be using their powers to speed up production and distribution this shouldn’t be a problem for long, but it did feel like one last passing shot.
7pm does seem like an odd time and easy to mistake. They really need to be doing this 24/7. I will set my alarm for a 3am shot if that’s what it takes. And at this point I don’t care which I get even. Glad things seem to be going smoother in your neck of the woods.
Wow! I’ve not visited the site for a while and to get the news that you had had cancer and now don’t have cancer, all in the space of 10 seconds messed with my brain a little! You are one of my favourite writers and I just thank the goddess we will still have you, and we will have more books. I just wish you were able to get to your pub; it’s a small enough aspiration and one I share. The local pub at the end of my road has a bowling green and I am fixated on the simple hope of sitting outside this summer with a glass of something cold with good friends watching people roll balls over grass. Strange what we miss isn’t it? Meantime, just take care CJ, of yourself and those you love.
Everyone, please keep in mind:
• You’re not fully immunized until two weeks after the second shot;
• At full immunization, you’re only 95% protected, 19 out of 20;
• They aren’t really sure how long the immunization lasts: it could be like a flu shot.
So, please, keep in mind the general level of the virus in your area, probably best measured by how stressed the hospitals are: “surveillance testing” is still a mess. Keep taking precautions until the general prevalence of the virus goes far down.
Don’t talk to people you don’t live with. Talking is as “good” a spreader of Covid as coughing:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2009324
If in doubt, discuss with your doctor. I’m not a medical professional!
Certainly, but generally our annual flu shots have been running 30%-50% effective, IIRC. We get the shots and go about our business. True, Covid is both more deadly and a “long haul” in some cases, if totally incognito in others, but the flu is also annual killer we tend to ignore, inappropriately I might add. I always make it a point to get my flu shot early.
One of the problems with the flu vaccine is the guesses they have to make with a long leadtime. One hopes this new technology will be able to shorten that time and allow more accurate flu vaccines.
The point isn’t that you definitely can’t catch it anymore, the point is that you seemingly are 100% protected from becoming seriously ill from it. Would be nice if you couldn’t catch or spread it but that’s more of a bonus from a vaccine point of view.
Good to hear you’ve got the vaccine, I’m young enough to be many months down the queue yet.
That’s exactly my point: you are not 100% protected! And so very many people are infected worldwide that the virus has already mutated into many strains. The current 1st generation vaccines so far seem to offer some protection to the new strains, but no one knows how much or anything about the next strain.
And while someone who’s taken the vaccine is safer, they may still be able to pass the virus, which will get more people sick so more strains develop. Some strains may make the vaccines less effective or ineffective. (Covid may well have been a harmless virus that mutated. We really don’t know: we just have theories.)
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-coronavirus-vaccine-845ef3fed4125ab271f6b5de641aae1a
Once of the things to come out already is that the US response was to toss the vaccine problem to Pfizer and Moderna, do nothing, then toss the vaccination problem to the States. They not only couldn’t organize a drinking party in a distillery, they didn’t try; the new administration tried to learn the plan, but no plan existed.
Personally, I’ll keep isolating. I’m not going to get into face-to-face no-mask social situations until the virus is down and out. Covid is far more dangerous than flu, but like flu, the vacination will wear off; we have only tested for two months, so we don’t know when. Besides, I’d feel foolish taken precautions this long just to get sick when the fight is finally getting organized.
We’ve all got pandemic fatigue. That’s no reason to risk death.
So, I have been accepted in a “Randomized, Observer-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Safety, and Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2 Recombinant Spike Protein Nanoparticle Vaccine (SARS-CoV-2rS) with Matrix-M1™ Adjuvant in Adult Participants ≥ 18 Years”
I had my first jab today and a horrible time giving enough blood for all the testing they’ll need. I can’t say anymore because of secrecy agreements, but I have a 1 in 3 chance of having had a placebo instead of the actual vaccination. Either way, I’ll get the opposite of what they injected me with in 3 months.
Sounds like what I read about volunteering for OHSU’s Oxford/Astra study. They never called back. I was very concerned about being blinded when doses of the Pfizer & Moderna vaccinations were available, but it would then be unblinded. Seemed to me to be the ethical thing to do.
Apropos of nothing else, being the first full day of the Biden Administration, the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century has been a day of remarkable felicitousness. But who’s “counting”?
The kabiuteru?
21 is 7 3s.
Most felicitous, one believes!
I’m having a bit of a go-round with a staffer, who apparently was/is a closeted Republican supporter (Hawaii is substantially Democrat) and is now feeling defensive now that a lot of her cherished belief system is proving incorrect or inadequate. I’m hoping I can get across to her that everyone is entitled to opinions and we have to be tolerant of each other to get along. It’s a 60/40 proposition, sometimes the 60% comes from you, sometimes it comes from me.
My spouse interrupted a Zoom conversation we and friends were having to announce that in a moment it would be [by Eastern North American time zone] the 21st minute of the 21st hour of the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century… so she was counting (but my did her non-sequitur confuse me).
I’ve been looking at the text of one President Biden’s first executive orders:
Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation
The first section is really good to read and inspiring.
Since at least Homo neanderthalensis, it’s clear people have observed things that demanded an understanding which was not obvious. Since we began grouping, we supported people whose particular contribution was understanding these phenomena. We label them shamans, generally taken as pejorative, but they were no dummies. People demanded understanding of which they were incapable, satisfied by appeasement of the gods, rituals, secret and otherwise, a good show, feathers, bear claw necklaces, cave paintings. Secrecy was the common attribute–never let the public know how tenuous understanding is–they demand reassurance.
Advance the clock well into modern history, into the common era and centuries immediately preceeding. It has now morphed into “gnosticism”, more secret knowledge. Through what we call “The Middle Ages”, the Western Church likewise used secrecy to preserve its power. Rituals were conducted in Latin, which nobody understood, and behind a screen.
Advance the clock to the 21st Century, with the understanding that this attribute of humanity is ancient, predating Homo sapiens, and now we have QAnon and various other conspiracy theorists. We’re never going to eliminate it. Education will help, but first we have to accept it for what it is, the demand of people for reassurance about that which is not obvious, and should be of no concern, to them. They WILL seek it out, any way they can, if they are ignored in their society.
p.s. Have you SEEN the size of a typical US budget book, back in the days when we actually produced a budget? Who can understand THAT?
Good to hear.
Over the pond we seem to have adopted the policy of giving people only the first dose and then going to wait three months for the second dose. Which means I might get out of lockdown by October.
As I understand the biology:
1. It is better to have 60% immunity quickly which will allow your body to fight off most strains, than to put off getting your first immunization until you are certain to get the second and then get around 95%.
2. Maximum and/or optimal amount of time between doses in a two dose regimen has not been determined and probably varies among people.
3. As quickly as the virus mutates it is better to reduce the likelihood of passing on any strain now rather than passing on a mutated strain later. Fewer strains circulating means less likelihood of passing on the mutated virus into a population with no defense.
4. If the vaccines are not capable of completely preventing serious illness, they are still likely to give us a little breathing room to develop vaccines that can be more effective. Much as influenza vaccines are tailored for the strains expected, the Covid vaccines will probably need to be administered yearly for evolving virus strains.
5. Getting through the first round of vaccinations will be the hardest part.
1. But you don’t have 60%(?) one-shot immunity as soon as the needle leaves your arm. The vaccine has to activate your immune system and your immune system has to have time to develop an immune response. Likewise to reach 95% after the second shot. The number I recall is two weeks after the shots.
. . Even then, 95% is not 100%; if you go into a crowded, noisy room, you could encounter that 1 in 20 chance very quickly; US surveillance monitoring still leaves much to be desired. So, “Woo-hoo! I’m immunized! Lets party!” is premature and dangerous.
. . Also, the UK variant B.1.1.7 spreads faster (so it may be most likely to be encountered in any period of interest and raises the herd immunity percentage) and it seems to be significantly deadlier.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/health/uk-variant-cdc-review/index.html
2. You’re right that optimum vaccine procedures have only been estimated by the clinical trials and that they do probably vary by person and co-morbidities. Nor do we know how often booster shots may be needed.
3. Absolutely, everyone should immunize as fast as possible, but until Covid is predominantly suppressed in our areas, we should not return to pre-pandemic behavior. Keep wearing masks; keep washing hands; keep minimizing interactions with strangers or people in high-risk or high-contact situations. Talking is nearly as dangerous as coughing; anyone for charades? (On the other hand, surfaces, fomites, are not as dangerous as initially estimated.)
4. Yes, however, the faster we suppress Covid, the fewer strains we’ll have to deal with. UC Irvine is working on an all-coronavirus vaccine, but it’s not clear to me when they expect a result.
5. Vaccinations may not be the hard part: if regions of sufficient size connected to us by transit do not immunize or otherwise suppress Covid, then we could have waves of Covid and variants until they all do, as we do with the flu or common cold. That would be miserable.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Dr. Fauci on vaccination:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2021/01/28/vaccine-immunity-travel-fauci-cnn-coronavirus-town-hall-sot-vpx.cnn
We had a septic system cleaned out recently. The technician said that they should be emptied every three to five years. We figure that every time we have a presidential election, we will definitely need to clean out the septic systems.
That is amusing, Tommie!
Scheduled my first covid vaccination for Wednesday. (My group becomes eligible on Monday.)
A quiet reminder that the 1918 pandemic wasn’t over until after 1920.
My Xmas present from me to me was a pair of cordless Bluetooth earbuds that work with my iPhone. Liked them so much I sprang for a second pair and Bluetoothed them to my desktop PC with a dongle that goes in a USB port on the tower. I have a list of internet radio stations that play my kind of music commercial free (oddly enough, I have an app for that) and good enough WiFi that I can wander all over the house with them. Previously, I was using a set of plug in earbuds. If I pulled my laprobe off before I took those earbuds out, our lack of humidity here ensured that I got a session of DIY ECT treatment. (Gets your attention, I can tell you!) Nature’s way of training me to take my earbuds out before I get up out of the chair and rip my ears off. Called operant conditioning, I b’leve.
Hope all are well. One thing about being on my end of the spectrum as well as largely nocturnal is that isolation for me is bidness as usual.
I figure we’ll be wearing masks at least the rest of this year, and maybe most of next. (Masks have killed this year’s flu season.) I don’t know when I’ll get the vaccine, so I stay inside most of the time.
Around here, it gets dry enough that I’ve been zapped a couple of times on house plants, and plumbing is a definite hazard.