Covid Vaccine Distribution

[GenXguy]

If anyone wants to know how I managed to get through to an appointment, this has been my life for the past week:

Good deal - your efforts paid off. My infection control nurse called me earlier to ask if I thought I was going to be able to make it in for my scheduled second dose appointment tomorrow because of the weather forecast. I said it was highly unlikely the weather would stop me regardless of the conditions. They want to make sure the doses will be used once they open the vial.

 

[ivinsfan]

If anyone wants to know how I managed to get through to an appointment, this has been my life for the past week:

In our case we can't get what they don't have!!! so still playing the waiting game. Will signup for the state lottery for the weekend doses tomorrow.

 

[5Miler]

Last Wednesday, I tried early in the day on our county Health Dept web site to get an appointment (age 67) but it still showed none available. Later in the afternoon I randomly tried the site again and saw they had opened up 5 days of appointments. After a lot of spinning icons on the screen and having to start all over again after watching it for 15 minutes, my appointment for shot #1 is this Friday afternoon. Sometimes luck carries the day.

 

[Ian S]

Again, thank God for these vaccines. They were the only real answer to ending this thing.

Yes, there were a lot of nay-sayers. I remember at least one expert claiming that it would be very difficult to develop a good vaccine for what is mostly a respiratory virus. And we were aiming for a 50-60% efficacy rate if we were lucky and it will take at least a couple of years to get a vaccine ready for the masses. But science and technology surprised pretty much everyone. Who would have thought last May that we would have two vaccines with 95% efficacy going into people's arms before the end of the year? Of course I don't think we were envisioning over 400,000 deaths and counting by now either. Still, we're in a good position to get control of this thing by summer especially if the booster shot concept can be worked out quickly.

 

[Nick12]

I lined up in a first come first serve location in 16 degree weather from 0330-0900. No bathroom in sight . I was the 19th on line outside. At 9am, when we entered at 25 people at a time, they took our temps. Mine read 88 degrees. The person behind me read 81 degrees. The 700 of us got our first Moderna shot. Our second is scheduled for Feb 18. The line of people was cut off at 7am once the line hit 700 people. Side effects I had were very sore right arm for two days and fatigued . On day three I was much better.

 

[MichaelB]

The local newspaper this morning reports that our South Florida county (PBC) will no longer do vaccinations and the Publix supermarket chain will take over. The county health dept previously announced it was the sole vaccine administrator and has about 150k people in a “waiting list” that was created late December. Publix will not use this database and will continue with its current system.

No mention of this on any of the County’s websites or twitter feeds.

 

[iloveyoga]

Based on the good info here, I went hunting on our county health department's Facebook page. That's where the info is! In Polk County Iowa it appears that you have to watch three separate websites to get an appointment. No availability right now, but I now know where to watch. My 80 year old Mom has her appointment this morning, but we have a foot of new snow on the ground and I assume she will have to reschedule. DH is 65 so he is eligible now too.

As always, thanks for the great info and tips.

 

[Dawg52]

Last Wednesday, I tried early in the day on our county Health Dept web site to get an appointment (age 67) but it still showed none available. Later in the afternoon I randomly tried the site again and saw they had opened up 5 days of appointments. After a lot of spinning icons on the screen and having to start all over again after watching it for 15 minutes, my appointment for shot #1 is this Friday afternoon. Sometimes luck carries the day.

That's pretty much how it worked for me in Mississippi. I got the spinning wheel and an error message at least 100 times before it finally went through. Luck and patience is key to this system. MS says the website is now improved and there shouldn't be as much of that going forward.

 

[audreyh1]

I lined up in a first come first serve location in 16 degree weather from 0330-0900. No bathroom in sight . I was the 19th on line outside. At 9am, when we entered at 25 people at a time, they took our temps. Mine read 88 degrees. The person behind me read 81 degrees. The 700 of us got our first Moderna shot. Our second is scheduled for Feb 18. The line of people was cut off at 7am once the line hit 700 people. Side effects I had were very sore right arm for two days and fatigued . On day three I was much better.

Reading your forehead temperature, I assume!

Wow!

 

[Chuckanut]

In Polk County Iowa it appears that you have to watch three separate websites to get an appointment. No availability right now, but I now know where to watch. .

Only three? You are lucky. I am up about watching six. And that does not cover all of the sites available within an hour's drive.

I heard on the news that some state has pulled back on vaccine distributions that were going to go to two of the Big-Chain pharmacy companies. They were taking to long to get rolling.

 

[sengsational]

I'm waiting for Publix to offer a gift card incentive, so I'm checking no web sites or Facebook pages. I wonder if will get to that stage (as it is for annual flu shots).

 

[Badger]

I lined up in a first come first serve location in 16 degree weather from 0330-0900. No bathroom in sight . I was the 19th on line outside. At 9am, when we entered at 25 people at a time, they took our temps. Mine read 88 degrees. The person behind me read 81 degrees. The 700 of us got our first Moderna shot. Our second is scheduled for Feb 18. The line of people was cut off at 7am once the line hit 700 people. Side effects I had were very sore right arm for two days and fatigued . On day three I was much better.

Glad you were able to get things started without too much discomfort.
With a forehead thermomter I'm not sure how you were still upright with a 88 degree body temp though. It sounds like the person behind you was on his way to room temperature.



Cheers!

 

[Chuckanut]

Yes, there were a lot of nay-sayers. I remember at least one expert claiming that it would be very difficult to develop a good vaccine for what is mostly a respiratory virus. And we were aiming for a 50-60% efficacy rate if we were lucky and it will take at least a couple of years to get a vaccine ready for the masses.

The press gives a lot of publicity to the nay-sayers and those who generally are alarmist. I believe such people were once called Nattering Nabobs of Negativity (Thanks, Spiro).

As far as corona virus 'experts' in the media go, the two who stand out in my mind are Dr. Fauci, whose warning predictions of 300-500 thousand deaths by this summer are sadly coming true. The other is Dr. Gottlieb whose prediction that ramping up production of the vaccines would be easy, is not coming true. The jury is still out on Dr. Osterholm. They all put their pants on one leg at a time. My 2¢. YMMV.

Oh the brighter side, I heard an interview with an Israeli newsman today. Apparently, about 50% of the adult population has been vaccinated, and the infection rate in Israel has taken a sharp tip down over the last week.

 

[Ian S]

The press gives a lot of publicity to the nay-sayers and those who generally are alarmist. I believe such people were once called Nattering Nabobs of Negativity (Thanks, Spiro).

There is an alternate explanation for the negativity on the part of scientists. Most are very conservative in what they are willing to claim without caveat. IMHO, at least some of that reticence arises from how advanced degree dissertations are picked apart and how the peer review process works once a scientist is out in the "real" academic world and trying to publish papers. Then there are the established scientists (i.e. experts) who get selected to be on peer review panels and are so used to questioning the validity of new claims and ideas that it becomes a kind of mindset that carries through to how they behave when consulted by the media. I believe such questioning is good for science but it makes for a lot of negativism in the general media.

 

[Aerides]

I lined up in a first come first serve location in 16 degree weather from 0330-0900....

Can you share where such locations exist for folks under 65, such as yourself? I would drive there, no matter how far...

 

[ivinsfan]

They are making this way too difficult. .closest statwide location is at least 75 minutes from here one way. Do shots Thursday, Friday and maybe Saturday. You have to enter the lottery. OK, go to the website and of course it is per one person. So maybe neither one of us gets picked, or one of us get picked or maybe we both picked get appt 8 hours apart or even a day apart and blah, blah blah,. There is no reason on earth this should be so fricking complicated..

 

[braumeister]

Just got back from getting shot #1 and I can't say enough about how superbly well organized it was. Cooperative operation by the four local county health departments. My site was in a large local church that was beautifully set up for social distancing.

Drove in exactly five minutes before our appointment and drove out exactly 30 minutes later. An impressive effort, and everyone was very friendly.

We're lucky that our state includes 70 year olds in group 1b, because the neighboring state only includes 80 year olds.

 

[ivinsfan]

Just got back from getting shot #1 and I can't say enough about how superbly well organized it was. Cooperative operation by the four local county health departments. My site was in a large local church that was beautifully set up for social distancing.

Drove in exactly five minutes before our appointment and drove out exactly 30 minutes later. An impressive effort, and everyone was very friendly.

We're lucky that our state includes 70 year olds in group 1b, because the neighboring state only includes 80 year olds.

What, the two of you managed to get done at the same time? Apparently in MN that's an impossibility.

The noonish update is that in the first 7 hours over 200K people entered the lottery for about 4K two dose appointments...should have well over 500K by the time they close the lottery. Pretty offensive odds for someone trying to protect themselves from Covid.

 

[Chuckanut]

There is an alternate explanation for the negativity on the part of scientists. Most are very conservative in what they are willing to claim without caveat. IMHO, at least some of that reticence arises from how advanced degree dissertations are picked apart and how the peer review process works once a scientist is out in the "real" academic world and trying to publish papers. Then there are the established scientists (i.e. experts) who get selected to be on peer review panels and are so used to questioning the validity of new claims and ideas that it becomes a kind of mindset that carries through to how they behave when consulted by the media. I believe such questioning is good for science but it makes for a lot of negativism in the general media.

You have made some good points. Especially that last one concerning how they view questioning the validity of new claims and ideas. As far as being conservative, I think some do that very well. Their answers are peppered with statements like "based upon what we know today, which could change as we learn more" blah, blah, blah... It's good to remind people that certainty is not guaranteed, even when smart people use the 'beat available science'.

 

[explanade]

Wonder what's happening with some of the ER members living in the UK.

They are relying more on AZ and the plan was to give as many people the first shot and wait as much as 12 weeks for the second shot.

 

[REWahoo]

Wonder what's happening with some of the ER members living in the UK.

Have you been reading Alan's posts?

 

[Alan]

Wonder what's happening with some of the ER members living in the UK.

They are relying more on AZ and the plan was to give as many people the first shot and wait as much as 12 weeks for the second shot.

See post 1312 for details

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f55/covid-vaccine-distribution-106812-66.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274

On schedule to give everyone in the first 4 groups their first jab by Feb 15. My wife and I are in group 5 (over age 75).

We now know quite a few folks who have received their first shots including my wife’s niece who is on dialysis and good friends here who are younger than us but are social care workers. Our nearest vaccination centre is a 10 minute walk away from our house and we expect to receive our first jab in March.

 

[braumeister]

With a forehead thermomter I'm not sure how you were still upright with a 88 degree body temp though.

Even though temps here were in the 40s today, when we went for our jabs this morning they were smart enough to ask us to roll our sleeves up to the elbow and they used the temperature gun on our forearms. We both read 97.0°F that way, which is pretty close to our actual normal temp taken with a thermometer. I think using a forehead scan in cold weather sounds kind of dumb.

 

[Nick12]

Can you share where such locations exist for folks under 65, such as yourself? I would drive there, no matter how far...

Paterson NJ International High School. Google Mayor Andre Sayegh. His plan to vaccinate weekly believing first come first serve are making Paterson residents and non residents to line up. Paterson is pretty much a congested immigrant city and parking is wherever you can find one since the gates to the high school are locked up. In the last few weeks 700 ppl who lined up and made the cut were vaccinated a few days a week . I think he made a recent plea to Washington to ask for more doses. If you call Paterson town hall 973 321 1600 someone could maybe give more info regarding future vaccinations. Good luck to you.

 

[Nick12]

Even though temps here were in the 40s today, when we went for our jabs this morning they were smart enough to ask us to roll our sleeves up to the elbow and they used the temperature gun on our forearms. We both read 97.0°F that way, which is pretty close to our actual normal temp taken with a thermometer. I think using a forehead scan in cold weather sounds kind of dumb.

The actual temp readings were on our foreheads when our groups immediately went inside the building when we entered in groups of 25 after standing outside for hours.