I worked in the country of Georgia and was speaking with one of my former colleagues. Financially he does very well and he mentioned that it will be sometime before they get a vaccine there and when they do it will be either the Chinese or Russian version most likely. His mom was a retired dr and she went back to work in a Covid hospital and caught Covid. Luckily she is fine…I think many here have little idea how fortunate we are…
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After weeks of relentless searching, I finally was able to schedule my elderly parents and my immunocompromised H today. Their appointments are 2-3 weeks from now at one of our state’s mega sites. Just so relieved to have it on the books, though until that shot is in the arm, we’re not counting our chickens. All depends on the site having doses then.
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I said from the beginning, just get military nurses to handle logistics. We could set up 1,000 bed units and get them up and running. We are well versed in logistics. A large area to deliver vaccines, intake, sanitation, etc. could be done.
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About 2 weeks ago, I received an email from the CT nurses association to see if I would like to come out of retirement and administer vaccines. They even posted a schedule that I could fill out. Haven’t heard anything since then.
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Heard somebody complaining yesterday about how workers in health care companies who never see patients (IT, HR, etc.) were getting shots ahead of others. My daughter happens to be in this category. I completely understand why this makes sense. For the hospital or health care facility if you vaccinate everybody that works for you, you are done. You can claim your entire builiding/facility is now protected and you are now protecting anybody who enters it.
On the other hand in NJ, there was a news story about a health care facility that was vaccinating the families of its tops $ donors ahead of others. This is obviously wrong!
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NJ Hospital Gave Early COVID Vaccines to Donors, Executives’ Relatives: Report – NBC New York indicates that Hunterdon Healthcare is claiming that “When additional Hunterdon Healthcare employees or physicians wanting the vaccine could not be located before a vaccine dose expired, we vaccinated volunteers who were easily contacted and immediately available, including family members of clinic staff, board members, community members, and family members of the leadership team,” although the article does say that the donors got the vaccine one day after the facility got it.
On the other hand, even if donors’ families were favored other than in the case of vaccines that would otherwise go to waste, wouldn’t it be like development admissions at colleges that seems to be widely favored here?
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Those back office workers do see doctors and nurses. We don’t know if vaccinated people can’t be carriers of the virus. It is very hard to draw the line. Some of those IT people may need to go to where patients are to fix computers.
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I’m so happy! I called the office at my son’s supported housing, and they said he filled out the paperwork and got the doctor’s permission necessary to get the vaccine next Thursday! 
I’m relieved because just today I read an article that stated people with schizophrenia are more at risk for severe complications. They took out factors such as obesity and other health factors. Schizophrenia alone is a huge risk factor and they’re not sure why.
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I think the hospitals should vaccinate all their employees who are on site, as they do interact with the doctors and nurses, check people in, pull files. The hospitals should do the vaccinations with their personnel.
I do object to those who work from home, work in corporate offices offsite, and are sent to pharmacies to get their shots. We had that in Colorado as anyone who is an employee of a nursing home or hospital is a ‘1b’ and those in the know scooped up all the appointments before it was even announced that 1b group could get the vaccines. The office 1b’s (working from home too) did, IMO, bump those like my mom who are in the 70+ group, also 1b.
My mother won the lottery (a literal lottery) and will get vaccinated this weekend at an event for seniors only -no extra vaccine for those in the car, no extra vaccine for spouses in the car even if they are also over 70, only for those who won the lottery.
In California there are lines forming at every vaccine site to hope for any extra at the end of every day. I think some of the providers are defrosting more vaccine than they know they’ll need, and that’s wrong (as is what I believe happened in the NJ hospital when they had to ‘call down’ some friends and family). Also, they said some of the people in the lines are over 70 or first responders. Why not pull those seniors to the front of the line? Why give it to the first person in line who might be 35 and working from home? The woman they interviewed admitted SHE had time to wait in line for 5 hours per day just for the chance, and felt bad for those who didn’t have time to do that, like front line grocery workers.
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Just heard this in FL also about going through Publix for vaccine appointments. Another scam.
LA did a good job initially vaccinating medical personnel and then bogged down. They can’t seem to get a new supply of first doses. The main private hospital system has had none for 3 weeks. It is also not centralized, so seniors over 75 are calling individual pharmacies trying to schedule shots. Big mess.
By comparison, MS is doing much better even though there are less limitations. They have drive through centers in large shopping mall parking lots around the state staffed by the MS National Guard. There is a central web site where you can see how many shots are at each location, and schedule an appointment. It is easy and transparent. MS is currently vaccinating those over 65 and 16-65 with certain medical conditions. The medical conditions are fairly broad, including obesity and smoking.
I quick thank you for all the advice I received regarding the MA COVID-19 vaccination process. It turns out a friend of my sister’s (my sister lives in MA) texted her at 5am to let her know she had just signed up her mother for a vaccine. Rather than calling me, my sister logged on to whatever website her friend told her about and was able to booked an appointment for our aunt. She will be getting her first shot on Saturday at Gillette Stadium. It works out well as my sister will be the one tasked with getting her to the site.
Thanks again and good luck to everyone still trying. It sounds like it’s all about being lucky.
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So, my county hasn’t even rolled out 1b yet, although other counties here in IL have and I was able to get my vaccine as part of 1b in another county. Not sure what the delay is in my county, but the portal is supposedly opening up for k-12 workers this weekend. I fortunately was also able to schedule my second dose and my parents so we’re taken care of. My husband who is 62 but fortunately no health issues, will just be at the back of the line.
Now here’s the odd thing. My daughter at UT-Austin today received some school email I believe about students or people there now being able to sign up as they’re now moving onto the general population. How that is possible, while my county here isn’t even on 1b is crazy. I know I have heard over and over how many medical personnel aren’t wanting the vaccine down there, but that’s definitely not all that. They have been vaccinating 16+ with medical conditions for awhile there so I guess students and general population are next. Just makes me shake my head. I also heard rumblings that my other daughter in college in NY may also be able to get it at school because they will have the vaccine there shortly. Whatever works I guess. All great news, but I can’t have my two men here (husband and 18 year old not vaccinated sadly, but the demand here is so high, which I guess is also a good thing).
Hope you all are able to get it soon and your availability numbers by you increase.
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They announced yesterday that teachers have been added to 1B (classified as 1B.2) and can begin getting the vaccine as of Feb 8 - IF their employers can locate a supply. One of the richer districts has teamed with a big insurance company. They have already done their nurses, security, and some staff who fell under other categories (medical, EMT, prison guards). Instead of moving to the next category, they just keep adding people to group 1B.
My doctor told me yesterday that when my group is 'called up I will receive a notice by email. I believe I’m in group 1B.3, so next after this group of 500,000 people! Unless they add more people to group 1B.2, then of course I move back again.
News yesterday said 2% of Coloradans have received two doses, and 7% have received one dose.
What’s the reason for this large variation, not only in counties in IL but also across the country? Uneven distribtution of the vaccines? Or stronger reluctance to be vaccinated in some areas than in others? Or something else?
Some states are more efficient at vaccination than others. Vaccine reluctance is unrelated when we are using percentage of population vaccinated as the standard. Using that, places like West
Virginia, Alaska, and Connecticut have performed very well in proving shots to close to or over 10% of their populations. Illinois, alas, is towards the bottom of the list of population vaccinated, so it makes sense they cant move to another level yet.
Maybe. But that doesn’t seem to explain the variation within the state of Illinois, does it?
It does if the distribution is left up to county governments to implement. Some states have used 87% of their vaccine allotment, (Wv) some only 48% (IL). Some large states have administered 2 million doses already(TX), some are still well under a million (CA). More efficient places, whether by statr or county,are going to move on to the next phase to maximize the useage of their allocation.
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Seems like some states are putting more restrictions on who can get it and what %age of that group needs to be vaccinated before moving on to the next group.
The long lines in FL looked difficult for the people clamoring to get a shot but it was more efficient in getting vaccines in arms, it seems. Was it equitable? I don’t know enough specifics to say.
I think this is one of those cases where having a strong central government would be helpful.
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