Well, I have asthma, although not horrible. @abasket, you could be right. It would be nice to know the reason.
I got it 2 days ago. Had no symptoms other than tender area where shot was given.
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Wonât make a difference. They will still need to be careful. This is just the beginning to all this. We will be wearing a masks for still a long time till this gets under some reasonable control.
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However, some health care workers in smaller practices may be harder to reach, especially with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine (because they are unlikely to have the necessary freezers).
@ucbalumnus not sure about your state, but ours is working with the hospitals to get those health care providers immunized (the ones in smaller practices). They arenât expecting smaller doctors offices to have freezers that can maintain a -70 degree temperature.
There is also a partnership with CVS and Walgreens. Where I am, they will be getting the necessary coolant to transport this vaccine to other places. This is what is happening at nursing homes here already. Nursing homes also donât have the low temp storage capabilities, but those immunizations are happening.
PlusâŠon the good news front, my understanding is the Moderna vaccine doesnât require this cold storage.
It will be interesting to see how each state rolls out these immunizations.
I am also seeing in my âmedical worldâ that docs not firmly associated/owned by a health system (so private practice) being left behind at the current moment- complaints of âhey donât forget about us who are practicing medicine and seeing patients but not tied to a health system who is doling out vaccines.
My nephew who is a med resident in LA got his vaccine on Friday. Donât know anyone else who got it among the MDs and dentists I know.
Iâm curious, does anyone know if there is a procedure for signing up? So say you are a grocery store worker, or say you have diabetes. How do you get informed when your group is at bat, and who do you have to prove it to that you are a member of that group, and do you sign up in advance (get pre-clearance)?
It might vary by state.
Also, if you have a regular primary physician, and the physician or medical group regularly sends you information by mail or email or online portal, then you may get information through them that way.
Iâm worried that as states move to vaccinating essential workers, how will they know who is and who isnât? Do you have to show a paystub from your grocery store job(good luck with that, most employers have gone paperless).
I have a young friend who works in our local grocery. Telling these folks to ask their primary care physician for information ignores the fact that most of them donât have a primary care physician because they canât afford to go to the dr because they have high deductible plans and that $179 visit will be all on them.
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I also did The NY Times calculator and came out behind 2.5 million young adults, 4 million children and 3.5 million âOthersâ. At first I thought that maybe those were the young adults and children with comorbidities. But there are about 2.5 million people between 18-25 and 4 million under 18 in NY state, so Iâm behind all of them, including the healthy.
In order to move up at all, I would have to be 65. At age 50, Iâm not overly worried about dying, but I would have about a 30% chance of being a Covid long-hauler. Therefore, I will continue to be as careful as I possibly can and reset my âlight at the end of the tunnelâ for May/June.
It would be good news for our kids to get vaccinated, but Iâm not sure I understand the logic of putting them before adults under 65 (who do not work in healthcare or essential jobs). We are at much higher risk for death than teens/children, and also higher risk of autoimmune issues stemming from Covid.
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I believe it may be arranged through employers, who have a vested interest in having their employees immunized. And itâs free.
Probably based on the current optimism (but not certainty) that the vaccine will probably reduce asymptomatic transmission, they want to give younger people the vaccines because they are more likely to be in in-person contact situations (school or in-person work) than middle age people. I.e. they are at higher risk of getting and spreading the virus if not vaccinated. Of course, such prioritization is controversial, unlike prioritization of health care workers.
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Youâre right, thatâs probably what theyâre thinking. However, elementary aged children do not seem to be good spreaders for this virus.
Also, I am assuming the vaccine wonât reduce transmission based on this:
My husband (infectious disease doc) has seen plenty of people get the virus for a second time. They took a group of repeat patients who had tested positive in March/April. When they tested positive again in November, docs used the cycle threshold (Ct) on PCR to measure the patientsâ viral loads. Viral loads were sky high.
These people fought off the virus once and have antibodies. Yet they contracted it again, had billions of viral particles in their nasal swabs, and were infectious. Many doctors/scientists feel we need to assume that the same thing will happen with people vaccinated for Covid. They wonât get sick if they contract it again, but theyâll be contagious. This would not be unusual (vaccinated people spread the flu).
I think it would be better to prioritize those with the highest risk of mortality and morbidity first. However, theyâre going to need much more efficient strategies for getting jabs in arms. So far, itâs been a week and theyâve vaccinated about 130,000 people. At this rate, it will take 70 years to vaccinate all Americans.
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Of course, sorting out all of the permutations of risk can be complicated, and any decision is likely to be seen as unfair by some of those not in the front of the queue. Who is at higher risk, a 60-year-old who works remotely from home, dashes in and out of the grocery store at 8am once every two Wednesdays, and only socializes with others outdoors at a 10+ foot distance with masks on, or the 25-year-old grocery store worker who is in regular close contact with random customers who may not otherwise be very careful, plus occasional mask protesters?
Also, within a given age group, men and racial/ethnic minorities have higher death rates. White women could theoretically be pushed to the back of the vaccine queue in their age group if that risk difference were used, but it probably will not due to the likely political backlash.
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Are you and and @conmama in the same state? The idea behind the younger ones getting vaccinated is that they are the spreaders. BUT if they get vaccinated first, there is still all that time for the older folks under 75 to get the disease. Doesnât seem right. Seems as if stopping disease for the people most likely to be affected should be a priority. Seems like those of us under 75 are societyâs throwaways!
So my practice is independent but I am on the staff but not active. But just being on staff I was on the list to be notified. Otherwise, Think I would just be in the regular grouping also. So the hospital systems are taking care of their own first and that makes sense for them. As of yesterday they stated that people had to get vaccinated by Monday morning since they had X amount already in the thawing stage. They actually opened it up to anyone that works in the hospital not to waste any. Think hospitals are organized to a point. When I went it was extremely organized.
Yes, Moderna doesnât need special refrigeration. From what I understand a regular fridge freezer should do. So their looking at more rural areas that donât have the special freezers to reach more areaâs. If course this changes all the time. The problem is getting higher quantities. Our hospital system is like 10 hospitals but only so much âPerâ each location. So I had to go to location 2 since location 1 ran out. Not really an issue at all. I am in the city of Chicago. At the suburban hospitals 6 seemed to have overage and were trying to get people to show up so the thawed vaccine didnât go to waste.
This is the first round. I am sure the next rounds will be smoother.
BTW - I was notified in an email blast like Thursday night at 10:00pm to get it this weekend and donât wait. The critical care teams were already done. Think they got their on Tuesday /Wednesday⊠So it was more last minute kinda thing since I am not sure when the hospitals really knew when their shipments were coming.
Based upon what @3SailAway reported from her H, this wonât stop the kids from spreading it. It will make them more dangerous because more (most) of them will be asymptomatic than without the vax making them not even realize theyâre sick. Itâs a recipe for trying to make things worse for the older folks.
If that was the plan, doctors need to spread what they know from those reinfected and get the plan changed quickly.
Yes! It is very concerning!