Covid Vaccine Distribution

[Amethyst]

Thanks!

YAH!! so glad for you Amethyst

 

[ivinsfan]

Thank you

Your Welcome, our governor announced the state MN will be getting double our current allotment starting March 28h. This lines up with J and J announcement they have more doses coming online.

 

[Amethyst]

Plenty! For one thing, the garden calls

Finally!!!, now what will you do all day?

 

[ncbill]

Got my first Pfizer dose this week...friend's company had 500 slots but only 300 signed up so I snuck in end of day to get one of the leftovers.

No immediate side effects, but the next morning was greeted with a cheery Bill Gates saying "Good morning!" in my head.

And I'm now more enthusiastic than ever about the entire Microsoft family of products.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Usually it's mentioned that the J&J vaccine is 65% effective, while both two-shot vaccines are 95% effective. Doesn't sound like a big difference, but what it means is that with the two-shot, compared to no vaccine you have a 5% chance of catching the bug, and with J&J a 35% chance.

This is 7 times as much! So looking at it from this angle, the two-shot versions do look great and keep you seven times safer (of course in the statistical average).

Last I read, all of the vaccines have been nearly 100% effective at preventing severe illness or death; so the difference may be less than we think. And as Dr Fauci has said, all of the studies were conducted at different times and places, so different variants of the virus to deal with, different populations, and conducted slightly differently.

DW and I got our second doses of Pfizer a month ago and that's the one we wanted. But it will take a while, perhaps a long while, to get good comparisons.

 

[explanade]

J&J is being tested for 2-shots, to see if it would be more effective.

They're also likely going to have a booster shot or you can take a different one for booster.

This winter we may go through this again if one variant really takes off.

 

[gayl]

J&J is being tested for 2-shots, to see if it would be more effective.

They're also likely going to have a booster shot or you can take a different one for booster.

This winter we may go through this again if one variant really takes off.

yes but Iceland accepts and EU is leaning towards accepting 1-dose Janssen to travel there. So 1 shot & wheels up [emoji574]

 

[homestead]

Got my first Pfizer dose this week...friend's company had 500 slots but only 300 signed up so I snuck in end of day to get one of the leftovers.

No immediate side effects, but the next morning was greeted with a cheery Bill Gates saying "Good morning!" in my head.

And I'm now more enthusiastic than ever about the entire Microsoft family of products.

Ahh, the nanobots have been busy.

 

[ABQ2015]

Florida just announced, lowering eligibility age to 50+ starting Monday.

This is good for areas of excess, not so good for areas where the vaccine is scarce still.

New Mexico made a similar announcement today as 60% of those currently eligible in 1A and 1B have their first shot and therefore the state opened up vaccines to the 1C group of healthy 60-74 age group and essential workers. But only 25% of by far the largest subgroup currently eligible, those with chronic conditions, have their first vaccination. One news report hinted that the change was made "recognizing that vaccine providers in many parts of the state are no longer able to find eligible New Mexicans to fill appointments in their area." Of course the one large metropolitan area in the state has no problem finding eligible persons to vaccinate but our centralized registration system makes it impossible for them to get appointments in outlying areas.

I agree, it has been very frustrating. The shortcomings of the current enrollment and distribution (in Florida) process are well known but the steps taken in response don't really address them. Also frustrating is the reliance on internet based information and enrollment, a real disadvantage for seniors that are not tech savvy or with limited access.

My state's centralized registration system is less complicated and time consuming but randomly texts out more invites to eligible persons than available appointments. Unless you are very quick to log into your account upon receiving the text notification (which can come at any time of day), all the appointments will be full. This is a big issue for seniors. Our local newspaper reported that out of 465K text notifications, only half resulted in an appointment. About a third of seniors 75+ (and 40% of those with chronic conditions) have not registered yet so have little or no chance of being vaccinated, hopefully not for lack of having access to a computer or smartphone.

I feel very fortunate to be one of the few persons in my state with chronic conditions (and age group 60-74) to be fully vaccinated as of today.

 

[USGrant1962]

Florida just announced, lowering eligibility age to 50+ starting Monday.

This is good for areas of excess, not so good for areas where the vaccine is scarce still.

New Mexico made a similar announcement today as 60% of those currently eligible in 1A and 1B have their first shot and therefore the state opened up vaccines to the 1C group of healthy 60-74 age group and essential workers.
...

For better or worse, thanks to the Administration's May 1 announcement-commitment-talking point, everyone will be eligible come May 1 regardless of vaccine supply or vaccination capacity.

Maryland just published its new plan:

• Group 2A: 60+ next week
• Group 2B: Everyone with underlying conditions the week after
• Group 2C: 55+ and a bunch more categories of essential workers April 13
• Group 3: Everyone April 27

Not a hint on how they are going to accommodate the massive increase in demand for shots. I'm afraid that is going to be the case everywhere.

Then again, I feel like I'm one of the very few people in my circle of family and friends that hasn't either had Covid or had a vaccine. And DW and I might have even had it in the last week of Feb 2020. I caught a "cold" at a national conference in mid Feb, then DW caught it from me. Mine was a routine cold, but she had slight fever and a deep chest cough for a few days. There were plenty of people from Washington and California at the conference. Hmm.

 

[Ready]

I remember a time at the beginning of the pandemic when it was virtually impossible to find hand sanitizer. And if you did find it, the price gouging was outrageous. Now, I go to Costco and see pallets of hand sanitizer for $8.00/gallon and nobody is buying it.

I can’t help but think that the vaccine will follow a similar pattern. In a fairly short time we will go from it being very difficult to get an appointment to a point where you can walk up to any pharmacy and get a shot on the spot with no wait. And I don’t think we are more than a couple of months away from that happening.

 

[Chuckanut]

I understand that but antibodies work before the virus infects cells and commandeer them to replicate.

T cells can only kill those infected cells and it’s a delayed response, during which the virus may have infected a lot of cells.

Would that not be true for most vaccines? Including the very successful ones such as for measles, polio, whooping cough, etc? It seems that the body's defenses when primed by the proper vaccine work rather well.

 

[stepford]

I've tried and tried. I have turned down for Moderna time slots. I could have Pfizer tomorrow. But all J&J seems to be in LA which is 360 miles away. (Although its supposed to be up here too)

I see a number of people really looking for the J&J vaccine rather than the others. I'm just curious if this is strictly for the convenience "one and done" aspect or is there some other particularly desirable characteristic. My interest is purely academic as I've already boarded the Moderna train at this point, but I would have been entirely happy with any of the ones available.

 

[Sunset]

I see a number of people really looking for the J&J vaccine rather than the others. I'm just curious if this is strictly for the convenience "one and done" aspect or is there some other particularly desirable characteristic. My interest is purely academic as I've already boarded the Moderna train at this point, but I would have been entirely happy with any of the ones available.

My limited understanding is the J&J one was created the old fashioned way, a slower tried an true method.
The other 2 are done a new way, where the tech/concept is only about 50 yrs old, but has mostly been in the labs and not used for a vaccine that made it to the public until now. It is faster to create and modify, which is why this new way is so exciting.

Some people are more trusting of the tried and true method.

 

[teejayevans]

Florida just announced, lowering eligibility age to 50+ starting Monday.

This is good for areas of excess, not so good for areas where the vaccine is scarce still.

I went this week after FL lowered age to 60. I think demand is tapering off, I was easily able to get a CVS appointment. They stopped the mass vaccination events as well.
The woman giving me my shot does not believe in vaccines?

 

[harllee]

I see a number of people really looking for the J&J vaccine rather than the others. I'm just curious if this is strictly for the convenience "one and done" aspect or is there some other particularly desirable characteristic. My interest is purely academic as I've already boarded the Moderna train at this point, but I would have been entirely happy with any of the ones available.

I think Gayl has said she hates shots and only wants to get one instead of two. Maybe some of the reason for people wanting J&J is shot phobia.

 

[JoeWras]

North Carolina is officially only up to Group 4.1, which includes anyone with health morbidities and a few select work groups. The governor expects April 7 will open to all of Group 4, which includes more workers. Still no word on Group 5 which is everyone (he's probably trying to align with Joe for May 1).

But here's the thing. A very large county that includes Fayetteville, NC, just announced they are giving it to everyone, hence ignoring the Governor! They said that demand dropped significantly this week, so they are ready for one and all so they can keep their allotment.

I guess the point is FL isn't the only place with county imbalance.

 

[athena53]

The premise of the J&J is that it's the 'old school' technology and your body has a broader range of what it will fight off rather than the rather specific mRNA style vaccine. Meaning the J&J is likely to cover mutations of CV-19. J&J is actually made from a variant of the common cold virus and is speculated to keep someone's immune system up to avoid colds as well.

Don't quote me on this, just stuff I've read to understand the science behind the different versions. I'm much more comfortable thinking that the J&J technology is more of a tried-n-true method of prevention than mRNA, but that's only because of the way I can comprehend the explanations of how it works.

Thanks for this- I need to work on DS, age 35, who's skeptical about the vaccine because it was rushed out so quickly. It's not a political or an anti-vax thing- it was a weighing of the risks of COVID vs. the risks of the vaccine. If he's worried about short-term effects he'll have seen enough doses and so few severe reactions that I think he'll be OK. If he's worried that 20 years down the line they'll find you're at higher risk for something unrelated, maybe the J&J version will be less intimidating. He's got a dependent wife and 3 children (DDIL seems to be leaning towards vaccination) and enjoys excellent health so I hope he changes his mind.

 

[iloveyoga]

Yesterday I took my 53 year old sis for her first shot, yay! My closest bubble people have all had at least one shot. I can't wait for my turn, 62 with no health issues. Iowa is doing this on the honor system, but I am going to wait until my group opens up. This is projected for April 5.

 

[sengsational]

My limited understanding is the J&J one was created the old fashioned way, a slower tried an true method.
The other 2 are done a new way, where the tech/concept is only about 50 yrs old, but has mostly been in the labs and not used for a vaccine that made it to the public until now. It is faster to create and modify, which is why this new way is so exciting.

Some people are more trusting of the tried and true method.

Neither AstraZenica nor J&J are "old school". Obviously Pfizer and Moderna are not old school. All 4 are made with genetic engineering techniques that load the recipe for some portion of the spike protein into "a thing", then that thing utilizes the machinery of your living human cells to manufacture spikes. Bits of those spikes are presented on the surface of the cell, and that triggers immune response. So J&J might have got lucky or smart and picked genetic sequences that are a better match for the variants, but it works the same way as the rest. The "thing" (vector) is in two cases, a lipid nano particle, and in the other two cases, a genetically engineered adenovirus. The vector, dose size and regimen, will cause differences, but these 4 are all pretty similar in that they expect the cell's machinery to build spikes. Novavax isn't available yet, but that one is different...it builds the spikes in the factory. And the killed virus types, which are true "old school", also, the spikes are built outside the body, in culture.

 

[RunningBum]

I think Gayl has said she hates shots and only wants to get one instead of two. Maybe some of the reason for people wanting J&J is shot phobia.

I can understand that. But I literally did not feel the shot I got yesterday. Later in the day I could feel a little soreness, and last night it wasn't comfortable to lay on that side. When I walked out of there I was almost worried for a few minutes that the pharmacist put a syringe with no needle to my arm, though I did see the needle before he stuck me.

 

[JoeWras]

Neither AstraZenica nor J&J are "old school". Obviously Pfizer and Moderna are not old school.

Old school to me would be cuddling up with a bat with a fever hoping you get inoculated. Kind of like milk maids and cow pox.

All the COVID-19 vaccines are most definitely new world and the future of our medicine. And of course, this freaks out people like my sister and older cousin who sent me all kinds of crap links about why I should never get a COVID vaccine. I never even watched a second of them, just trashed the texts.

 

[braumeister]

I can understand that. But I literally did not feel the shot I got yesterday.

Same here. I too was wondering if perhaps I didn't actually get the jab, although the next day it was obvious that I did. I assume they're using an incredibly fine needle, because there was absolutely no sensation of it going in.

 

[Amethyst]

For people whose eyes glaze over at even a layman's discussions of scientific things, it must be impossible to distinguish the scary nonsense from the reasonable cautions. Especially if they also don't trust their government or The Media. For such people, "do nothing" feels like the safest course.

I do not pretend to understand the underlying biochemistry, but am fascinated by the notion of genetically programming a virus, just as if one were creating a computer program, only using organic materials instead of electronics. Must admit, though, that it was reassuring to read that the technology for Pfizer, etc. is not something new, but has been around for a long time.

There were real problems with the polio shot, out of the gate. I wonder how many parents hesitated fearfully between their kids' risk of polio, and the risk of the kids' getting the shot? I would have, if I'd been a mom in the early days of it. But by my day, it was just a sugar cube all the kids lined up in school to eat.

All the COVID-19 vaccines are most definitely new world and the future of our medicine. And of course, this freaks out people like my sister and older cousin who sent me all kinds of crap links about why I should never get a COVID vaccine. I never even watched a second of them, just trashed the texts.

 

[gayl]

I see a number of people really looking for the J&J vaccine rather than the others. I'm just curious if this is strictly for the convenience "one and done" aspect or is there some other particularly desirable characteristic. My interest is purely academic as I've already boarded the Moderna train at this point, but I would have been entirely happy with any of the ones available.

I don't like shots which is why I don't get any of those regular flu ones. But then I haven't had the flu either. Might have had something back when I started at the county as I was knocked out for a few days. I also cut my cholesterol med in 1/2 but that seems to be enough. I also don't like blood draws but have to do that once a year. No choice, I have a choice here