Covid Vaccine Distribution

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I think it will be a bit much to expect privacy in what should be a mass vaccination effort. OTOH, nobody should be loudly talking about your health situation so that the next dozen people can clearly hear each word while they are listening to Led Zeppelin on their Air Pods.

My local military hospital thought it was "cute" to do initial contact triage in the ER from a podium in the center of the waiting room. STEP RIGHT UP AND ANNOUNCE YOUR PROBLEM! Young female soldier, you say youve been RAPED! or.. OH YOURE MISCARRYING RIGHT NOW !! or IT BURNS WHEN YOU PEE AND NOW THERES BLOOD!!! Outstanding! How wonderful, step right up and announce your issue to the base.

Yeah I submitted a nice comment card about this. It was changed shortly thereafter.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

And what's with the length of these needles?! I remember my flu shot, the needle was MAYBE 1/2" long. The ones shown on the TV look like it could pass clear through my arm or at least hit the bone. I notice the nurse is pinching the area to plump up a spot so they got enough meat to bottom out the needle without jabbing clean through.
I'm frightened......

Looks like flu and covid shots are both IM intramuscular. But theres kidn fo an array of choices on needle guage and length generally for IM shots based on where its going and who its going in i.e. kids arm muscle or leg muscle, obese person's butt muscle. Depends on how much fat that have to punch through to find the muscle. But yes they do look long in the pics, and yes I would let them put it in me. RNs feel free to chime in. But ive been given VERY different sized needles for the SAME type/drug/location of injection based on which nurse is handing them out. Vary by a half inch in length, unsure about gauge. some come already assembled, and some have needles you can change on the end to get the thickness and depth you need. I know right now where they are tyring to get 6 doses from a 5 dose vial they have been instructed (So ive read) to use 4 of one type syringe and 2 of another. Something about the waste left behind in the needle shaft even after the plunger is depressed fully.

My suggestion having been at the sharp end of many a needle, is to BLOW OUT. Shake your head that youre ready and then purse your lips into to form like a tiny O and give a hard long blow out as they do the deed. Will get your through alot of things in life. If they dont know how I work I always say, Im gonna blow out while you do this. I learned this from a friend whose little daughter had to have a catheter inserted at an excellent childrens hospital. and the nurses gave her a kazoo and told ehr to blow hard and long. They did some practice blows and then they let'er rip and the little girl did awesome. SO without my kazoo, i just kinda blow until theyre done or I black out. WHichever comes first lol. Above 2 inches and I start kind of long moaning to hype myself up LOL.

 

[Gumby]

Oh for goodness' sake, it's just a needle. And a pretty small one at that. Buck up!

 

[omni550]

FWIW, I didn't watch while he did the Covid inoculation, but the EMT guy was good and I literally didn't feel a thing other than a light squeeze of my upper arm muscle.

(I donate blood regularly and DO feel those needles, which are much larger in diameter.)


omni

 

[REWahoo]

My suggestion having been at the sharp end of many a needle, is to BLOW OUT. Shake your head that youre ready and then purse your lips into to form like a tiny O and give a hard long blow out as they do the deed. Will get your through alot of things in life. If they dont know how I work I always say, Im gonna blow out while you do this. I learned this from a friend whose little daughter had to have a catheter inserted at an excellent childrens hospital. and the nurses gave her a kazoo and told ehr to blow hard and long. They did some practice blows and then they let'er rip and the little girl did awesome. SO without my kazoo, i just kinda blow until theyre done or I black out. WHichever comes first lol.

Great info, thanks!

Think I'll use one of these when I get my shot. Those poor folks administering the vaccine could probably use a laugh.

 

[ivinsfan]

Gumby you will need to cut a hole in your mask first!

 

[Ronstar]

Our county is still vaccinating medical personnel and nursing home patients and personnel.
And it looks like our county is perplexed as to how to proceed from here.

Phase 1b, which will allow essential front-line workers (as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) and adults 65 or older to get vaccinated, may begin as early as February. Additional information will be made available in the coming weeks.

The health department is not keeping a list of community members interested in getting vaccinated, and the county does not have a system for the public to register for or request a vaccine.

 

[W2R]

Oh for goodness' sake, it's just a needle. And a pretty small one at that. Buck up!

+1

Look at it this way....

My father was a surgeon, and gave my brothers and me all of our shots while we were growing up (probably for LBYM reasons). As a little girl I knew my daddy would never, ever hurt me so shots were not a problem. He told me to look away, and that "this may pinch a little bit", but I never felt any pain beyond that. Probably that was because I trusted him implicitly. Now that I am grown (and he is gone) I still look away but I still don't mind shots. That trust is still there even though my father isn't here to do it any more.

So, I am thinking that for some people a big part of the pain involved in shots may be wrapped up in distrust of whoever is giving the shot? Worth considering anyway.

 

[Aerides]

If you're worried about the "pain" from a vaccine, you might want to take a look at treatments you'd face if you actually got sick enough from covid to be hospitalized...

 

[skipro33]

I get infusions twice a month with the needle in me for hours, blood draws once a month, bone marrow biopsy, (Now THAT'S a needle, they do a core bore for marrow!) surgery, PET scans with radioactive sugar injected, etc.
But watching that needle on the TV go into those arms still looks like over kill on their length to me and I hope I'm brave when I get my turn.

 

[harllee]

Maybe we should all quit watching so much TV.

 

[Brat]

Just notified by our local VA they are taking appointments for the shot. I know a couple of vets that called today and got appointments for tomorrow. Another for next Wednesday. As for me, no way, at least not for awhile. As I've said in a previous post I am 100% disabled from Agent Orange. (most of you probably don't know about the history of AO) I know that's probably not the same as the vaccine, but once you've been lied to, it makes me very reluctant to fall for something again. By the way it's just my personal opinion as I expect most vets to get the vaccine even if they are suffering from AO.

In Portland they are telling VA medical recipients that they are calling to set up appointments for vaccination.

 

[Boho]

I could attest to forcing air out under resistance lessening the pain, at least in the case of a back spasm. I did that about two years ago after lying in bed for 2-1/2 hours when my back went out. I bent my right leg a little and had the worst spasm for about 20 seconds. I breathed heavily with my teeth clenched and my core flexed, kind of reflexively. If I didn't have the energy for that and my muscles were relaxed for those 20 seconds... The pain was already a 10, so...

Oh, and I had to grunt as I exhaled.

 

[RetireBy90]

In Portland they are telling VA medical recipients that they are calling to set up appointments for vaccination.

My 90 YO neighbor got a robo call purporting to be the VA and told him to call to setup an appointment for his jab. I called the local VA at Ft Belvoir and they are not the source of the call. Scam alert

 

[REWahoo]

Back to the subject of vaccine distribution, the state just released the number of doses to be shipped to each county next week. Bexar County has a population of two million and will get 20,000 doses.

Disappointing how slowly this is progressing. I was expecting the volume to be better by now since we are five weeks into the roll out of the vaccine.

 

[eytonxav]

DW visited with her pulmonologist the other day and was told the Dr's practice has now been authorized to treat with monoclonal antibodies for Covid. I am not sure whether this would be an in office treatment or through the Dr's hospital affiliation. I have been puzzled why there has not been more widespread use of this therapeutic.

Edit: Mods please move to Covid vaccine thread.

 

[GenXguy]

And what's with the length of these needles?! I remember my flu shot, the needle was MAYBE 1/2" long. The ones shown on the TV look like it could pass clear through my arm or at least hit the bone. I notice the nurse is pinching the area to plump up a spot so they got enough meat to bottom out the needle without jabbing clean through.
I'm frightened......

I didn't pay attention to the needle, but it was minimal brief pain. Maybe more than a flu shot, which I barely feel. The soreness over the next couple days was worse than I've gotten with flu shots, but still pretty mild. I haven't had my second dose yet - over a week to go.

 

[Sunset]

Too bad they need refrigeration for the vaccine. Otherwise they could just mail them out and let me inject myself.

With the Feds holding back 1/2 the doses, and the State holding back 1/2 the doses (so they can do the second one). No wonder it's slower than molasses in Winter.

 

[GravitySucks]

Use an inch long 15 gauge needle if you want. Ask me any question you want. (I'm sure the guy behind me don't give a Rat$ A$$ about me.)
Just get me the darn shot.

 

[Calico]

When my turn comes (probably a few months from now, based on the rollout here) I will tell them anything they want to know, close my eyes, not look at the needle, and say "let her rip." I have spent the last 10 months self-isolating except for picking up groceries outside, picking up library books outside, and going to two medical appointments.

I don't care if the shot hurts, and I don't care if there are uncomfortable, short-term side effects. Just give it to me so I can begin to build immunity and begin to get my life back.

There is a lot of truth to that old expression "out of sight, out of mind." For the life of me, I just don't understand why, if people are even a little bit squeamish (and I am very squeamish), they would subject themselves over and over to watching needles go into anybody's arm. Just don't look!!

 

[harllee]

Calico and Gravity --totally agree with you. The darn shot is not going to hurt--AND I WANT IT. All of you squeamish people just wait and I will take your place in line for the vaccine.

This is not a root canal --it is just a vaccine! It does not hurt --just ask my 89 year old mother!

 

[Amethyst]

I'm not squeamish at all - have patched up way too many scrapes, wounds, rashes etc. I just don't care to look at gross things unless there is a good reason. Think of the people who are said to be fascinated by watching someone pop zits on TV! Who wants to see that?

For the life of me, I just don't understand why, if people are even a little bit squeamish (and I am very squeamish), they would subject themselves over and over to watching needles go into anybody's arm. Just don't look!!

 

[Telly]

Back to the subject of vaccine distribution, the state just released the number of doses to be shipped to each county next week. Bexar County has a population of two million and will get 20,000 doses.

Disappointing how slowly this is progressing. I was expecting the volume to be better by now since we are five weeks into the roll out of the vaccine.

It's even worse for my county. If this coming week is Week 4 in the state lingo, my county will only be getting 4900 doses. Zero for the county health department, which is the only place we have been able to sign up to so far. My county is smaller than yours, but is growing fast.

We too have been expecting it to improve, but it looks like the numbers have been sliding. The county health dept. got zero last week too. I'm even wondering if they are just divying up low numbers differently week to week. Maybe the vaccine equivalent of a rotating brownout.

 

[Telly]

Oh it's even better this morning in TX - Week 5 of the TX distribution (whichever calendar Week 5 is, they never say), has my county down to 1900 first-doses. None again for the county health department. At that 1900/week availability rate, and assuming a 75% take rate, it would take over 8 years to vax the folks ONCE. State page says this week diverting vaccines to "big events", but there are none in my county, and there aren't many "big events" listed.

Without a greatly increased supply of vaccine, or a plug found in the whole process that can be removed, I just don't see any salvation due to a vaccine here for maybe years at this rate. It's like the old single-frame cartoon many of us had pinned up in our offices in the 1980s, where a person was standing in front of a board with a long process drawn on it, and right before the due date, there is a large block labeled "Then a miracle occurs".

I really would like to see actual shipment data from Phizer and Moderna, the number of doses they are making and shipping week by week. Seems that info has to be available somewhere. Should be made public. Not marketing's projections, but real shipments.

 

[REWahoo]

Oh it's even better this morning in TX - Week 5 of the TX distribution (whichever calendar Week 5 is, they never say), has my county down to 1900 first-doses. None again for the county health department. At that 1900/week availability rate, and assuming a 75% take rate, it would take over 8 years to vax the folks ONCE. State page says this week diverting vaccines to "big events", but there are none in my county, and there aren't many "big events" listed.

Telly, the Week 5 distribution data is what I was commenting on in my post #1065 you quoted above. Looks like the state releases the upcoming week's planned distribution on Sunday, or at least they did so this week.

Yes, the number of doses being distributed is very disappointing.