Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

Oh never mind, didn't realize they still weren't allowing appointments in the future.

Note that I ended up having to clock out of work early...feel like I was hit by a bus. Going to lay in bed and read for the rest of the day

the "profile not updated" thing happened with me here in AZ, was able to get it, though the absolute panic I felt at (temporarily) not being able to book my vaccine appointment because their record of my gender was blank (I'm trans) was AWFUL

still, getting vaxxed on Sunday, wooooo!

Just scheduled Pfizer for Tuesday.

too much vaccine

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/us/biden-coronavirus-vaccine.html

Hooray for everyone getting vaxxed! Mr. Jaq and I are eligible on Wednesday, very excited!

Surely the US buying and giving away vaccine worldwide complete with freezer trucks and American flag stickers would be the diplomatic coup of the millennium. A lay-up.

whoa change of plans instead of 5 weeks from now i have an appointment tomorrow holy shit, what do i wear

barely enough time to figure out the nearest krispy kreme location

Go nekkid, more options for shots.

super happy to see this rollout response of people getting appointments here

Yep, going to sheepishly admit that my pessimism was proven incorrect. I snagged a first shot appointment for Wednesday through the massive Walgreen's drop.

Could have had one tomorrow, but I technically don't become eligible until Monday so I passed over that one.

Yay!

Also charge trump with crimes against the state for not doing what we're doing now starting in November

I was honestly stunned to see how many open appointments there were, all over the city. I've yet to see even close to that many options at once, something must have shaken loose in the supply.

Congrats John!

oh thank fucking god, jon

Or jon or jic sorry, anyway very happy for you!

I know you are all happy that I'm going to shut the fuck up about this. For the record, just want to acknowledge my privilege in having a job that will let me take off in the middle of the day and the ability to drive a little ways to get this and I hope that this supply increase is going to help people without those advantages also get more appts.

Bracing for what it will be like on Monday when they open up vaccines to everyone in TX, hopefully not a total clusterfuck, cautiously optimistic.

I find the whole Krispy Kreme controversy extremely silly because they give away free donuts every single day and have done so for as long as I can remember.

There are no Krispy Kreme outlets convenient to me. If they are only giving away free donuts to walk-ins, I demand they start delivering them, too!

It's OK for my teen to take an AP exam in person, right? It's going to be in a huge arena, lots of airspace, everyone masked obv. and I assume far apart. They offer it online but for the online exam you have to do the questions in order and you can't go back, it seems kinda bad.

My hospital's system is urging me to make a vax appt but I tried every day from now until the end of April and none were available. Hmmmm.

I feel like when I took AP tests the seating was already pandemic compliant, to cut down on cheating.

So, um...are they just like not doing anything at vax sites to confirm whether someone meets eligibility requirements? Several of our neighbors (who afaik are all in the same 'middle-aged adult with no mitigating health circumstances' tier as me) were all like 'we're going to the United Center to get jabbed!' and I was all like 'uhh, guys, they've been real specific about the Chicago-only zip codes they're accepting and our suburban zip code is not one of them, I hate to see y'all make that trip just to be disappointed'. Buuuut then they totally got their jabs. Are these 'requirements' just a total bullshit smokescreen?

I have absolutely no idea. I've seen reports saying that in some places absolutely no one asks, but I've also heard of people being turned away.

As far as the UC site goes, I was under the impression that all of that screening was done online when you signed up, so they could skip the whole screening process on site and speed things up. Sounds like they may have fudged the appointment sign up and no one asked on site, assuming they were all good if they made it that far.

I think the eligibility requirements are just to discourage people from going, and they don't want to put up barriers at the actual sites? I haven't heard of anyone being turned away once they get there.

Going from the 'burbs to the city for a shot seems much shadier than going from the city to outlying areas (where population density and demand is lower, and they're more likely to have a surplus).

In California it seems to be an honor system, except maybe for age. They don't ask for medical conditions as that may be seen as illegal, and for employment maybe it's too hard to prove (your pay stub may say XYZ Hospital, but you could be an IT/mailroom person there).

you have to fill out an online form in Austin, TX that includes answering a question about which qualifying conditions you have, but it isn't confirmed in any way

Are these 'requirements' just a total bullshit smokescreen?

This seems to yet another side effect of having a very decentralized system. States and localities are struggling to create mass vaccination plans on the fly and creating a mass verification system that recognizes any qualification more complicated than age is beyond their capacity.

I'm not sure any state has a system that doesn't rely heavily on the honor system for such qualifications as place of employment or co-morbidity. As soon as you introduce an enforcement mechanism you introduce a shitload of potential problems.

your pay stub may say XYZ Hospital, but you could be an IT/mailroom person there

From what I've seen, everyone at a health care site gets vaccinated anyway when they're doing it on-site, no matter the role (which is fine imo. as long as supplies aren't super limited)

hoo-rayy for jvc

aiui the Krispy Kreme "free donut and coffee on a Monday for five weeks" deal was something they already had going before the one-a-day vaccine offering, and just pointed antivaxxers to it so those folks can self-righteously march in once a week (or once), and not harass service staff every day.

I work for local government and was deemed (as all employees of the jurisdiction were) essential to continuity of government. I went to a mass vax site in Maryland and they didn’t ask for employment proof but I brought it anyway.

got a date for the first shot.
Tuesday morning

The only person I know that's been turned away by anyone is my kid, and that was only because they didn't have the Pfizer (she's 16). People are getting shots, it's ramping up super fast, pretty much just as predicted. In fact, it's still kind of amazing it's going as fast and well as it it. I was talking to my sister in law in Sydney the other night/morning and she said that the vax roll out there has been pretty bad, but since they've done a good job with covid there's less of a pressing concern. And my response was basically that is absolutely true, but your borders are still closed and travel/other stuff still pretty restricted. For example, the Uni where she sometimes works has had budget struggles because they lost so many international students (among other problems brought about by locking/pushing out visa holders). Last I saw they were predicting all Australia would be vaccinated by the end of December, by which point our own dumb country will have been done for months. Then again, seeing the US go from a trickle to a deluge shows that it's possible to turn things around pretty quickly.

My wife and I both suddenly got appointments tomorrow.

I had been angsting a little about how to show "primary caregiver to a disabled person," and whether it even was okay to play that card, and I dithered, and then... bing.

congrats to everyone

yeah i got an appointment for monday, i think by mistake? but i will take it and feel zero guilt!

bend over bitches!

Happy for everyone!

apologies if it is in poor taste to complain about this, but I am just so tired of people trying to tell me that I should bend the rules to say I qualify for the vaccine when I very clearly do not, and/or implying that I must not care about the virus if I'm not doing that

"didn't you have a lab once where your blood sugar was kinda close to the edge of the normal range? you should say you have diabetes!" like... no?

I think that implying you don't care about the virus is definitely not cool. Why would cutting ahead of people with actual medical conditions show that you care more? These people sound kind of messed up.

I do feel like people are getting peevish, which is funny because I also do feel like we're a month away from total vaccine free-for-all; today on FB one of my friends posted like 1000 words about how even though he's fat enough to be eligible he's waiting his turn until his age group gets called and that if vaccines are going unused, that's for systemic reasons and isn't justification for younger people to get vaccinated -- I don't really agree with him but I didn't post this to agree or disagree, just to register that he is clearly really MAD and presumably that's because other people in his life are getting mad at HIM for not getting vaccinated -- don't really know where I'm going with this, just registering that there's lots of "I'm cutting off my friendship with X because they got vaxxed too early" and "how dare you not get vaxxed when you clearly could," argh

I cannot for the life of me imagine getting mad at friends or family getting vaccinated at any point. I mean, they're my friends and family, I want them to be healthy and I want to be able to hang out with them safely.

But as for vaccine for all, tbf, a month away from first vaccine for all, right? So let's say that's the case. First shot let's say May 1. Second shot June 1, more or less predicted immunity mid-June. And that's if you get in on the first free-for-all wave. Vs first shot now, second shot May 1, immunity in time for the start of summer. Which doesn't seem much of a big deal/difference, but I do know a few folks for whom those differing time spans means the difference between attending a wedding or bar mitzvah or family reunion or staying home and missing it.

Its been a pretty bad pandemic for everyone sticking noses/opinions into what everyone else is doing but my understanding is that pandemics be like that

there's lots of "I'm cutting off my friendship with X because they got vaxxed too early" and "how dare you not get vaxxed when you clearly could," argh

Weird. I've not come across a single instance of either but then I don't know how it's being organized in the US.

well, are you familiar with The Hunger Games?

There was always going to be a point where prioritization costs more time to herd immunity than it's worth, in terms of preventing the most illness and death. I'm definitely not qualified to determine whether we're at that point yet, but if we aren't, we can't be very far off.

I genuinely think most people (and *everyone* on this thread) have only the best of intentions in their vaccine decisions and I have no desire to pass judgment. I just hope people remember that wasted time toward herd immunity isn't free. It will cost death and suffering, especially now that the political will to take other steps to stop the spread is evaporating (my state just made local mask ordinances *illegal*, ffs). To my mind, it's more important, practically and ethically, to prevent wasted appointments and doses than it is to make sure that everyone who got a shot truly deserved it on that day.

Agreed, there is no point in letting doses go to waste for any reason