Vaccine reluctance & General COVID Discussion

I know pharmacies in Queens are asking for drivers license numbers because I was making appointments for others. I only had their name, DOB, address, phone # and email, so I had to abandon the appointment process. I used the NY State site instead. A drivers license number is not needed for the NYS site. You can also click that you don’t have insurance, but you have to say you don’t under penalty of law.

I do not have first hand experience with vaccine sites asking for social security numbers, but my Hispanic friend was asked at a CVS. They gave her a very hard time when she refused to give it. She is confident, speaks decent English, and knew that they shouldn’t be asking for this, so she was able to insist on seeing a manager and she got her vaccine. However, she was upset because not everyone is going to be that assertive.

Pharmacies are also turning people away in NY if they haven’t filled out insurance forms on line, printed them out and brought them to the appointment.

CVS administered the vaccine at my work. We filled out a form, but it did not ask for SS#. I get my prescriptions filled at CVS and noticed the vaccine was listed on my online profile. Pharmacies will often ask for SS# because they can use that to search for MediCare, MediCaid (MediCal in California) or other insurance coverage. It is usually included on the FACE sheet from the hospital when a patient is transferred.

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CVS in VA didn’t ask for FIL’s SSN. They asked for his insurance info though.

When we were vaccinated at a HMO which we don’t belong to in Jan/Feb, we filled out our info online. They have billed our insurer. There was an error for H as they didn’t ask fir his Medicare info at the time and billed his insurer (which is secondary since he retired 2012). We gave them his Medicare info on the phone and no problems—no copay since it’s fully covered by insurer (for me) and Medicare (for H and mom).

Generally when it’s a paper form that asks my ssn, I decline to provide. When it’s a computer screen, sometimes/often it won’t allow you to proceed unless you provide something. That makes it tougher. I might provide an obvious dummy # like 1234-56-7890

or all zeros. 000-00-0000

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My area news has been reporting that supply is higher than demand now. They have already been having walk up clinics and it’s easy to get a slot at the pharmacy type places.

The other day they only issued 1800 of 4000 available shots.

I’m glad outreach is working with the population you noted, but that’s a different group than I had in mind. The people I am thinking of are born here, speak English and could access one if they wanted it.

I just saw an article that military is opening distribution up to lower ranks earlier than expected due to number of higher ranks passing on getting it. These are people who get all kinds of vaccines most people never do, yet they are passing on getting this one. Article said service members can only be required to get a fully FDA approved vaccine.

My state has taken that position in general (cannot require an Emergency Authorization vaccine). IMHO it’s probably going to take full FDA approval and/or some additional options to move the needle. A lot of people aren’t comfortable with the MRNA concept, so were thinking okay fine J&J, but now with J&J having issues are back to not yet.

Some programs will reject all entries of the same digit. They are less inclined to reject something that is obviously fake but not quite as blatant in my experience.

Similarly, if they require an email but I don’t want to share, I say something like anyone@none.com or similar. Since it meets criteria of name@something.com it’s generally accepted and I don’t believe they bother anyone accidentally.

I wish these types of stories were shared more in the media. It reminds people that you can have lasting effects from Covid.

I just got off the phone with a friend. She told me that her MIL’s neighbor who is in her 50s just got back by ambulance from the hospital. She was in the hospital for Covid for a week. So was her girlfriend. Apparently six of them got it who gathered together. She now has oxygen at her house and never had a problem before. She had not had the vaccine.

Could you post a link to the article you saw? I’m always interested in these things.

I would be very sad if commissioned officers are passing on getting the vaccine. As I was hoping they would provide leadership to theIr enlisted service members.

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I agree that leaders are supposed to lead by example. My niece (podiatrist) who had a baby during covid was surprised when her workplace urged her to get the vaccine, since she wasn’t seeing patients since she was home with newborn. She was told she’d be a great example if she had it so she was happy to get vaccinated after being reassured she wasn’t taking the vaccine away from someone more deserving. Several staff members were convinced by her good example to get vaccinated.

The US DoD vaccine prioritization schema is shown here: https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Spotlight/2020/coronavirus/vaccine-availability/Schema-Mar-2021.pdf .

1a = health care workers
1b = “Critical National Capabilities, Personnel forward deployed to austere environments, Personel preparing to deploy to locations outside the United States, Authorized persons aged >= 75 years, Frontline essential workers”
1c = “Persons aged 65-74 years, Persons aged 16-64 with increased risk for severe illness as defined by CDC Personnel, Persons deployed/TDY for more than 30 days outside the U.S., Essential workers not previously included in Tiers 1a or 1b”
2 “Persons aged >= 16 year not previously identified for vaccination”

So when it says that higher ranks are passing the vaccine up so it opens up for lower ranks, that is talking about the priority of getting the vaccine? Not higher ranking military personnel over lower ranking personnel?

I think I was confused by the word rank! Put the context of military in there and I was completely mixed up!

Thanks!

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Here’s one report from the military. Seems they’ve been slow distributing the vax in Europe and J&J being paused didn’t help:

And here’s what the media is reporting showing a fair number of younger troops refusing the vax, but it definitely seems regional:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/politics/military-vaccine-rates/index.html

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Regarding Navy Pulls Way Ahead of the Other Military Services in Race to 100% Vaccination , summary of numbers from that page:

Population At least one dose Fully vaccinated
Air Force 34% 24%
Army 27% 15%
Marines 36% 25%
Navy >50% 35%
US military overall >33% but <39% 22%
US overall 39% 25%

The above rates for military branches include Reserves and National Guard.

Page mentions that “Defense Health Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place said Wednesday, however, that across the active component, nearly all combatant commands had vaccination rates that exceeded 50% of their military personnel and family members, with the exception of European Command, which has not reached the 50% mark.” (does not say whether this is the at-least-one-dose rate or the fully-vaccinated rate) That does suggest that active duty service members are getting vaccinated at higher rates (versus Reserves and/or National Guard).

Page also quotes Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Terry Adirim saying that many service members became eligible under Tier 2 just recently.

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Apparently the US doesn’t have all the Covid idiots (not meaning all who reject the vaccine are idiots, but this guy sure was and is likely anti-vax).

As we’ve found on our travels, there are good, bad, and ugly folks everywhere. Fortunately, the good seem to be more populous than the others everywhere. But the others make the news more.

Those attitudes were expected, but another hurdle has been surprisingly prevalent. A number of vaccine providers have canceled second-dose appointments because they ran out of supply or didn’t have the right brand in stock.

Seems like a fixable issue but it is concerning since there seems to be a lot more vaccine supply now.

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My second shot was canceled due to a big snowstorm in the the northeast in early February. There were not as many sites at the time, plus just about every single person scheduled that day in this area needed to reschedule. I sat at my computer on Sunday night and refreshed until I found a site during the same week.

I’m wondering if others weren’t as persistent.

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Is the military requiring vaccines at this point ?