First Shot Of the Covid Vaccine Today

[gordo12]

If any of you are wondering about the experience, sans the paperwork, it was simple.

The bottle with the vaccine is so small, maybe half the size of a thimble, yet it contains 4-5 doses. There isn't much that goes into you, and the needles are small. I never felt a thing. No after effects, although I have to wait 48 hours to be sure.

The group was maybe 200 people and no one had any adverse reaction.

All in all, very simple. Easy. And I can't tell you how relieved it made me knowing there was some progress being made toward a normal life again.

 

[SisterJezabel]

Good to know. Thre is talk of starting a vaccine rollout in Australia from next month. To see how quickly the scientific community has moved to create a vaccine for SARS-CoV2 has me optimistic about hep C and HIV vaccines (PREP is a start, but does not produce antibodies).

 

[gordo12]

I should mention it was the Pfizer vaccine.

 

[NotWise]

Good to know. Thre is talk of starting a vaccine rollout in Australia from next month. To see how quickly the scientific community has moved to create a vaccine for SARS-CoV2 has me optimistic about hep C and HIV vaccines (PREP is a start, but does not produce antibodies).

The mRNA vaccines look promising.

My wife has an appointment on Tuesday to get her second shot of the Pfizer vaccine. Her first shot was just like any other shot; she had a little stiffness in her arm. She thinks that the second shot is more likely to produce a reaction.

I should get in the line for the vaccine. For us, it's a fairly simple on-line registration. I'm too healthy to qualify for the next stage of shots, but age alone will qualify me for the stage after that, and that should come this spring.

 

[Hypoxia]

Our rural county contains ~40k residents of whom ~8k are in the state prison.

Our county health department has received 200 doses.

We won't be shot anytime soon.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I got the first shot of the Moderna vax Thursday. It stung going in, and my arm hurt for about 24 hours. But no other reaction.

I really hope distribution speeds up for everyone.

 

[AlexBailey]

My wife got the Moderna vax yesterday, it messed her up with lethargy and flu-like aches and pains. I'd say it would not be safe for her to drive. She's still glad to have had it -- she works with the homeless community.

 

[gordo12]

https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/covid-vaccine-jokes-fb32-png__700__700.jpg

A little humour:

 

[stickygirl]

It remains to be seen how quickly the govt/nhs gets their act together in the UK. I think around 1.3 million done so far. As much as anything it's getting vaccine batches tested before they can be distributed, which is taking 4 or 5 days and causing delays.

I may get one in June or July because of my age but older folks, health workers and vulnerable ones are head of the line as it should be.

The UK variant looks to be extremely infectious, causing a huge rise in infections and then hospitalisations. It isn't any worse but creating a huge problem. An even better reason to avoid us Brits

 

[soulhouse]

The UK variant looks to be extremely infectious, causing a huge rise in infections and then hospitalisations. It isn't any worse but creating a huge problem. An even better reason to avoid us Brits

In spite of its dreadful record overall in dealing with the virus, the UK is doing an excellent job of tracking mutations of COVID-19. It is doing vastly more genome sequencing of infections than any other country, in total about 50% of the entire world's efforts. In one week recently, for instance, Wales (population one million) did more genome sequencing than France has done since the beginning of the pandemic.

Consequently, there's a much better picture of virus mutation here than anywhere else. The UK variant has already been detected in other countries, and it's possible it is more widespread than realised. Last I read, it hadn't even been established that the UK was its ground zero, although that may have changed by now.

 

[stickygirl]

In spite of its dreadful record overall in dealing with the virus, the UK is doing an excellent job of tracking mutations of COVID-19. It is doing vastly more genome sequencing of infections than any other country, in total about 50% of the entire world's efforts. ~snip~
The UK variant has already been detected in other countries, and it's possible it is more widespread than realised. Last I read, it hadn't even been established that the UK was its ground zero, although that may have changed by now.

*curtsey* I don't do genetics so I don't know how likely it is that the same variant could simultaneously evolve in separate populations. One thing's for sure, the more people infected, the more variations will occur and there will plenty more to come.

If the mutations do sidestep the current vaccines, I gather it's "simple" to tweak the design, but presumably it then needs more months of testing before deemed safe for use.

 

[soulhouse]

I don't do genetics so I don't know how likely it is that the same variant could simultaneously evolve in separate populations. One thing's for sure, the more people infected, the more variations will occur and there will plenty more to come.

I'm no genetics expert either, but I assume it would be as good as impossible for the exact same mutation to occur more than once. However, in the case of the UK variant, since it has been detected in the Netherlands and Belgium, I think, it is possible it began there and spread to the UK, where it has taken off.

Given that it has an evolutionary advantage over other variants, in being more transmissible, presumably it would have spread widely in the Netherlands and elsewhere too, if it had begun there. My point about the genome sequencing, though, was that it might have spread there too, relatively undetected due to lack of sequencing.

 

[soulhouse]

If the mutations do sidestep the current vaccines, I gather it's "simple" to tweak the design, but presumably it then needs more months of testing before deemed safe for use.

It's fairly obvious, I suppose, but the problem with the UK and many other countries' policy of limiting the virus in the community, rather than striving for its eradication from the outset, as seen in New Zealand and a few other places, is that a large pool of infected people aids mutation.

The mRNA vaccines require just a "simple" tweak, I gather too, at least with certain types of mutation, but as to regulatory procedures, I've seen nothing. I'd assumed that, as with the flu vaccine that is altered every year, no extensive testing is required. I'm sure others here will know far more than I.

 

[NotWise]

My wife got her second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine yesterday. She had a stronger reaction to the second shot than the first, which is what she expected. The side effects, including fever, sore arm, and body aches, are supposed to last about thirty-six hours, so she should be good some time in the next ten hours.

 

[SimonDoom]

My wife got her second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine yesterday. She had a stronger reaction to the second shot than the first, which is what she expected. The side effects, including fever, sore arm, and body aches, are supposed to last about thirty-six hours, so she should be good some time in the next ten hours.

Best wishes to your wife, and you. I hope all goes well.

 

[JamesMiehoff]

Congratulations to all of you that have managed to score a shot or two.

My frustration is with the mechanics of the current rollout. The city I am in is designated to have two or three super-hubs. Based on the clinical definition, my wife and I are classified 1-B. The online registration for the hubs opens at 8am and they are full by 8:10am at the latest. According to the the local news they are taking 1-C registrants now because there aren't enough 1-A and 1-B applicants.

The reason they aren't seeing enough 1-A and 1-B applicants is that the web site doesn't screen the 1-C applicants out and they are flooding the system. Grrrrrr.

We have checked with our primary doctors and both of them have indicated that they may never get the vaccine in 2021. The hospital they hold credentials with apparently didn't pay enough in campaign funds because they are currently getting 10% of the vaccines they were allocated and can barely fulfill their own staff needs.

At the same time, pharmacies that have been getting allocations for nursing homes and care facilities are going out and holding on premise vaccine clinics for large condo complexes. When question on air they tried to say that these condos are mostly 65 year and older residents. Funny, the condo complex website says the average age of their residents is 45.

I am seriously hoping that this gets straightened out soon.

Sorry I will get off my soapbox.

As I said, if you have managed to get your first shot, congratulations and double congratulations if you have managed to get your second shot. I am happy for you.

James

 

[NotWise]

I am seriously hoping that this gets straightened out soon.

It sounds like your state is being pretty loose with the vaccine. Here, the state is keeping a pretty tight reign on it.

The hospital my wife works at got an allocation to cover their employees who have direct contact with covid-positive patients, and they handled that in-house. Other front-line hospitals probably did the same, but I'm not sure how the nursing home residents and staff were handled. The more general population has to go to large vaccination centers. The main center in town here is a large auditorium on the State Fair grounds where they're set up to do hundreds of vaccinations/minute.

To the best of my knowledge, there's been no distribution to pharmacies or private medical practices. That might happen when they open the program up to the general population.

I registered for the vaccine earlier this week. Registration involved filling out a form with your age, employment, and medical risk factors. They'll sort out who is qualified when, but I probably won't be at the front of the line until this spring some time.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Congratulations to all of you that have managed to score a shot or two.

As I said, if you have managed to get your first shot, congratulations and double congratulations if you have managed to get your second shot. I am happy for you.

James

I understand your frustration, especially since it seems that the screening process doesn't screen the way it's supposed to.
But, just so we're clear, I'm a frontline healthcare worker, NWs wife is a nurse in a hospital, and Gordo works in a healthcare setting too (a nursing home, I think). We're all 1A group, and all got our vaccines through our jobs. We "managed" to get the vaccine because we're in the group of people with higher chance of exposure, can't do our jobs from home, and also take care of people who need protecting.

I'm gonna stop now before I get ranty.

 

[NotWise]

I understand your frustration, especially since it seems that the screening process doesn't screen the way it's supposed to.

In our local process, you're given an ID number when you register for the shot. The state realized last week that some people were "jumping the line" by using someone else's ID number. They changed the ID process to stop that.

It's still possible for people to claim pre-existing conditions they don't have, but I bet there are ways to cross-check that, too.