Coronavirus 5: Let the Vaccination Begin

[LilMissMetaphor]

Here, we can't even be outside with anyone not in our own household, starting this weekend.  So I can't sit outside with my sister in our massive back yard, having a coffee, even distanced, even masked.

Meanwhile, my sister's husband is letting his teenage son's friend sleep over at their house on the weekends, because he "doesn't get along with his parents right now". 

Sigh.     

[Maggie Mae]

Apparently, starting June 1st, you can fly to Alaska and get a vaccine shot in the airport. It specifies that the vaccine is free, but is there any state that is actually charging people? 

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/04/16/alaska-will-offer-free-covid-19-vaccines-to-tourists-starting-june-1/

[Ozlsn]

8 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

Apparently, starting June 1st, you can fly to Alaska and get a vaccine shot in the airport. It specifies that the vaccine is free, but is there any state that is actually charging people? 

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/04/16/alaska-will-offer-free-covid-19-vaccines-to-tourists-starting-june-1/

If I had the money I would be so tempted to do that. Fly to Alaska, stay a month, come home quarantine for 14 days... More than I can afford right now unfortunately!

[EmmieJ]

I am a California Kaiser patient, late 50's and have been patiently waiting for Kaiser to open up the vaccine availability to my age group.  Got my first Moderna dose on April Fool's Day at the Petaluma Kaiser facility.  Very well organized.  To be on the campus, you have to have a mask on, so everyone in masks.  Temperature check on the way in, and required use of hand sanitizer.  Then show photo ID and Kaiser card at the reception desk, and they have the vaccination cards ready for each person signed up for that session.  I was handed my card and directed to a large room to get in line (6' distance between each person) to receive my shot.  The line moved right along, and everyone was in a chatty good mood, happy to be getting vaccinated.  

I got the shot in my left arm, and it was slightly sore that evening and the next day, but very minor.  I did feel tired later the day and took a long nap in the afternoon, then went to bed early and slept well.  My 2nd shot is late this month, on a Thursday, so if I do have some unpleasant side effects, I will have a 3-day week-end to hopefully be done with that.

Even after I am fully vaccinated, I will continue wearing a mask when around others.  I haven't had a cold in a year.  I don't find that my breathing is restricted by wearing a mask on my walks - the only negative is if my glasses fog up.  I figure, better safe than sorry.

[47of74]

Cedar Rapids just wrapped up a 24 hour clinic

Quote

A 24-hour vaccine clinic wraps up on Sunday morning in downtown Cedar Rapids, and the extended hours gave a chance for some people to get shots who had trouble fitting other clinics into their schedules.

One by one overnight, people filed into the Alliant Energy Power House to get their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Several people told KCRG-TV9 they had planned on getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and scrambled to get on this list when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put a pause on the vaccine.

Getting this shot at an unusual time of day is a must for many of these people who have other obligations, such as travel, school, or work.

That's good.  Not everyone can do an appointment between 8am and 5pm Monday through Friday which is when appointments up here were getting scheduled.  I picked mine because they could do an evening appointment after I was done with work.

Edited April 18, 2021 by 47of74

[thoughtful]

I got the second Moderna shot yesterday, and fatigue, chills, fever and a sore lumpy arm today.

It's not too bad - I managed to teach a remote piano lesson just now (teenage boy who chuckled whenever I yawned), and did two loads of laundry earlier today.

Other than that, I've been going back and forth between Richard Dawkins videos and catching up with Bro Gary's revival from last week - now there's a contrast!

I haven't actually fallen asleep in my chair. Yet. I'm just happy I didn't get the headache or nausea.

[OHFL2009]

It's so interesting to me how the side effects are so different person to person. Everyone I know that has had the Moderna, if they've had bad side effects, they have started overnight or the next day, like 12-18 hours after the shot. My husband got his first shot on Saturday and he was fine during the waiting period at the pharmacy, but by the time he got home 45 minutes after the shot he felt miserable. Achy, swollen lymph nodes, headache, no appetite. By the time he woke up yesterday morning his arm was slightly sore and nothing else. Completely the opposite of everyone else we know.

[thoughtful]

2 hours ago, OHFL2009 said:

It's so interesting to me how the side effects are so different person to person.

This is the kind of thing that always interests me, as well. We are all put together in roughly the same way, but individual differences in body chemistry seem never-ending sometimes.

I actually felt my fever break at 11:00 last night, like "boom - gone," an experience I don't ever remember having before.

 

[Alisamer]

On 4/16/2021 at 7:46 PM, indianabones said:

I just booked a trip to the Greek islands for June, because they're allowing vaccinated travelers in and I had $800 in airline credit that I need to use this year. The residents of the islands I'm going to will be all vaccinated by then, too. I'm excited! I'll probably end up getting my hepatitis vaccines since the CDC recommends it for travel to there...

Yay for traveling! All I have definitively scheduled is a trip to the beach in September, but we're planning ahead for possible future trips now.

Also I have had both hepatitis vaccines and those were easy-peasy for me. No side effects at all. (And I did the first one of both, plus yellow fever, plus tetanus all at once!)

On 4/17/2021 at 1:04 PM, EmmieJ said:

Even after I am fully vaccinated, I will continue wearing a mask when around others.  I haven't had a cold in a year.  I don't find that my breathing is restricted by wearing a mask on my walks - the only negative is if my glasses fog up.  I figure, better safe than sorry.

The Bespoke brand masks Kohls has have little extra triangle flaps at the nose (and a sturdy nose wire) that I think might help slightly with the glasses fogging up thing. Also they are cute. They are my current favorite masks.

[47of74]

10 hours ago, OHFL2009 said:

It's so interesting to me how the side effects are so different person to person. Everyone I know that has had the Moderna, if they've had bad side effects, they have started overnight or the next day, like 12-18 hours after the shot. My husband got his first shot on Saturday and he was fine during the waiting period at the pharmacy, but by the time he got home 45 minutes after the shot he felt miserable. Achy, swollen lymph nodes, headache, no appetite. By the time he woke up yesterday morning his arm was slightly sore and nothing else. Completely the opposite of everyone else we know.

Neither of my parents had serious side effects even after getting the second shot.  I know at least one of them was pfizer but the other might have been Moderna.  I guess I'll just need to see what happens on the 28th.  My arm was sore for a few days after Moderna part one and I'm hoping that it doesn't put me out too much. 

The local camera club is figuring on getting back to in person meetings in the next few months.  They figure by then everyone attending will have had shot #2 and will be fully vaccinated.

I also just asked my brother how down he would be with going over to Milwaukee in August when the Pirates are in town.  By then I'll be done with the bar exam.  Have to see where I am job wise though. 

[Smash!]

Guys I got a vaccination appointment!!! ??? I‘m so relieved I cried ?

My age group isn‘t eligible for at least two more months. I saw my GP last week and told him of my panic attacks because I have to go to work next week on site again. He told me I would be on the „Joker List“ to get called if someone cancels their vaccine appointment. I didn‘t get my hopes high up but here we are ?

[ADoyle90815]

It's now been 2 weeks since my last Moderna shot, so I'm now fully vaccinated. Even then, I plan to wear masks and social distance in public for as long as recommended. As for fogging glasses, what has worked are the ones with the nose wire, as I got a box of 50 black disposable ones with the wire from Amazon. I also have some cloth masks from Amazon that while they don't have the wire, the part that goes over the nose fits snugly enough that it doesn't fog up my glasses.

[47of74]

This story was in the paper today. 

Quote

More than 150 mourners celebrated Kathy Davis’s 64th birthday on Tuesday.

They prayed for her at church, sang at her gravesite and embraced at a supper club afterward as they reminisced over the details of her remarkable life.

The collective experience enabled some to let her rest, a sense of closure that had been denied by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kathy, of Dubuque, died on March 24, 2020, the first person in Iowa to succumb to COVID-19.

She was an academic advisor at NICC when I went there so she worked with me on class selection. 

Now that I think of it I wonder what she would’ve thought of me getting a JD all these years later.  

[AmazonGrace]

One of my children is covid positive. A bit tired and feeling off. I was supposed to get the vaccine next week but I suppose I can't now.

[Alisamer]

15 hours ago, ADoyle90815 said:

It's now been 2 weeks since my last Moderna shot, so I'm now fully vaccinated. Even then, I plan to wear masks and social distance in public for as long as recommended. As for fogging glasses, what has worked are the ones with the nose wire, as I got a box of 50 black disposable ones with the wire from Amazon. I also have some cloth masks from Amazon that while they don't have the wire, the part that goes over the nose fits snugly enough that it doesn't fog up my glasses.

2 weeks since Pfizer here for me, as of today! Which is good because I've had no less than three random people wandering around my office without giving me time to put on a mask - two with masks on and one with the mask over only his mouth. Oh well. I'll still wear masks in public, and at work when with clients assuming I'm given a minute to put mine on.

Also this is good because I've got to go to a store today after work - I'm trying to re-learn how to ride a bicycle and managed to completely faceplant yesterday. One knee is all road rash and bruises, but the biggest thing is I have one finger swollen up like a sausage. I can't tell if it's broken or jammed or sprained,  but my plan is to get a splint and keep it immobilized for a few days and then if it's still bad then go see a doctor. Chances are all they'll do is splint it or tape it to the next finger anyway. Luckily it's on my non-dominant hand!

Now that I'm officially fully vaccinated I'll feel a little less stressed every time I walk in a store or anywhere else.

[FiveAcres]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

Now that I'm officially fully vaccinated I'll feel a little less stressed every time I walk in a store or anywhere else.

I know, right? Tomorrow will be three weeks since I had my second vaccination. Today I had to pick up a prescription (drive through) and then I went to two craft stores. Everyone was fully masked (and was I) but I still felt a lot less worried than before second vaccination. Still keeping an eye on the Colorado numbers, especially the variants. 

[clueliss]

A bit of not good news.  BV-1 Variant.  (Brazos Valley)

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/22/new-covid-variant-detected-at-texas-am-lab-shows-signs-of-antibody-resistance-and-more-severe-illness-in-young-people.html

[Dandruff]

3 hours ago, Alisamer said:

Now that I'm officially fully vaccinated I'll feel a little less stressed every time I walk in a store or anywhere else.

I'm also feeling less stressed but, so far, have continued to double-mask while shopping.  I'm not changing my clothes, spraying my shoes down, and showering after each outing like I was doing before, though.

I'm finding it easy to take my mask off outside (finally!!) when I'm not around crowds or anyone who's coughing or sneezing.  Having a harder time breaking the habit of using a cleaning wipe on most purchases, especially if a cashier was involved in the transaction. 

6 minutes ago, clueliss said:

A bit of not good news.  BV-1 Variant.  (Brazos Valley)

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/22/new-covid-variant-detected-at-texas-am-lab-shows-signs-of-antibody-resistance-and-more-severe-illness-in-young-people.html

Hope a booster is available before these variants can cause major havoc.

[AmazonGrace]

It turns out our quarantine was due to a clerical error and got canceled the next day. My child's test result was negative after all.

But what a busload of trouble to dozens of people before they caught their error...

[mollysmom]

Just got my 2nd covid vaccine. And now we wait......hoping for minimal side effects but prepared for the worst. No matter what it's better than getting covid.

[Dandruff]

20 minutes ago, mollysmom said:

Just got my 2nd covid vaccine. And now we wait......hoping for minimal side effects but prepared for the worst. No matter what it's better than getting covid.

Congratulations on your 2nd shot!  I'm probably an exception, but I had less troublesome side effects after my 2nd shot than I did after the first, and they didn't last as long.  I was fine by the next night.

[mollysmom]

13 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

Congratulations on your 2nd shot!  I'm probably an exception, but I had less troublesome side effects after my 2nd shot than I did after the first, and they didn't last as long.  I was fine by the next night.

That's comforting to hear!! I'm glad yours went well! I don't want to jinx myself but so far my arm doesn't even hurt so that's good!

Wow I used ALOT of exclamation points! Spending too much time in the JRod threads haha

Edited April 23, 2021 by mollysmom

[keen23]

Two Pfizer shots completed, as of Wednesday, and zero side effects.

My husband also has had two Pfizer shots and zero side effects.

Teen children have had shot one, and will get shots two next week.

[Alisamer]

I spoke again today to yet another guy who hasn't got the vaccine yet, and isnt sure if he should - but his wife has both hers already. He said "should I?" and I said "YEAH. That's the only way we'll get through with this mess!!!" Then suggested two vaccination options convenient to his house.

WTF is up with people? These are intelligent people, and just... havent done it. It's mostly men, too. And even when men get the shot I've seen tons of them say they did it "because their wife made them." Many places in my state are taking walk-ins now. You can get it at Walmart or many pharmacies. There are mass vaccine sites frequently. Frankly it'll probably take less time to get the shot than to vote at this point! Everyone I know in my state who has made even minimal effort has had their first shot at least.

I don't care what happened in "I am Legend". (Yes, literally, this is a reason I've heard for hesitancy.)   I wish everyone who can would get their shots asap.

[mollysmom]

My ex husband is very anti covid vax and both times he said "oh I hope you don't die from it" ? Well guess what, if I had to choose between dying from covid or dying from the vaccine I'll take my chances with the vaccine. The number of people dying from covid is astounding. The number from the vaccine.....hardly any. Sheesh.