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

most likely it will continue to be the same case for a while. Once I became eligible, I began stalking the various sites that provided appointments. The one that I had the most luck with was Walgreens, but it still required constant refreshing to finally stumble upon an opening.

Moderna #2 side effects lasted 24 hours for me, almost to the hour.

xpost Deniers and anti-vaxxers aside, that nonsense right there is what's gonna result in a lot of people not getting their jabs.

I have to say, I don't know that I could have predicted what a mass vaccination program in 2021 would have looked like but... this isn't what I would have imagined. I know, from this forum and other places online, that folks are going to mass vax site but there is not one single person in my friend or family circles in Illinois has gotten their shot from of them. It's about 85% Walgreen's/CVS/small pharmacies or events specifically set up at/through their work. I guess I would have anticipated the opposite, that more people would be processed through the mass vax sites than pharmacies.

OL - sending you good luck. Seems like the pattern recently has been more appointments opened up at the end of the work week, so maybe that's when places like Walgreen's and CVS get a better handle on the supply levels.

Iirc the places like Walgreens and CVS were just the first to get vaccines, the mass vax sites (at least in IL) seemed to come some time later. But I have family in Nebraska (well, my wife does), and they got their shots in a stadium several weeks ago. And that's Nebraska. So I think it's just a state by state thing, and variations therein.

I became eligible this past Monday and started scouring the web for appointments at midnight, and again for a couple hours in the morning, only to watch them get gobbled up before I could fill out the form. But I broke through and got a spot at a medical center here, then a text from the state saying I could make an appointment at a mass site. (Which I went with, it was a week earlier than the other one.) So, I was frustrated and bitter like a lot of others are, but in the end it was only a few hours of off-and-on screen refreshing and I was set, hopefully others will have the same experience, if not faster.

I know several people in Chicago who have gone to the United Center mass vax site. Almost all had positive accounts of the experience, with some snarkiness of other patients who were sick of waiting in line/waiting to leave reported.

MN state government is apparently opening a mass site at the state fairgrounds in St. Paul, which seems like an ideal location.

FWIW, I would be fine patiently waiting for something to open up when it opens up if not for the thing where every vaccinated/partially vaccinated person I know is all GET YOUR VAX YET HUH HUH DIDJA DIDJA WHATCHA WAITIN FOR HEY YOU VAXXED YET BRUH GETCHER VAX BRUH YOU GOTTA GET VAXXED.

I'm very happy for every one of you, truly. And I will get my vax at the earliest opportunity. I very much want to join your ranks, believe me. Now please back the entire effing eff off of me, please. My persistent low-level anxiety is positively spiking thanks to this barrage of well-meaning pokes in the side.

although going through a pharmacy website was the quickest path for me, it was really only a matter of a few extra days before opportunities to sign up through local county sites started to appear. At least in Texas, each county has it's own system, and some are better than others. It is probably worthwhile to check out not just your own county, but nearby counties as well, just in case it's administered more effectively there.

yeah but that’s no substitute for the real well-meaning poke in the side, the vaccine

sorry jk

xp

lol, too true.

Something is up with Walgreens atm, as the Vaxx Max site shows ZERO appointments available for the entire state of IL, which has not been the case at all before today (when there were lots and lots of appointments available, just in places that are like four hours away from me). So I'm crossing my fingers that it's because they're gearing up to make it rain real soon.

Re People nagging folks to get their vaccines, yeah, no shit, that drives me nuts. I have fully vaxxed friends who just got back from Belize, and they and another friend who went kayaking in Florida sent pics to our group chat, tagging it with something like make sure to get your vaccines, guys! And I almost wrote back, fuck you, Im vaccinated, but I'm not boasting about it with a picture of myself boating through another state or jetting off to coral reefs. Besides, some of us, unlike the kayaker in question, still have kids under 16 who can't be vaccinated, which does throw a few things into disarray.

Yeah, we've had two different friends invite us over for a BBQ and a game night, and both were surprised when we passed, "but we're vaccinated". Great, you are, we aren't. Our son isn't. Your kids aren't. Forgive us for not being quite ready to throw caution to the wind.

Gee, I wonder why new cases in IL are higher than they've been in two months...

I liked this, from the best Chapo

really liked this from @willmenaker on COVID scolds and the vaccines in subscriber-only newsletter today. (For more of his chat with @kath_krueger, sign up!) https://t.co/n13kIckidi pic.twitter.com/jmN0ZmH91y

— Jack Mirkinson (@jackmirkinson) April 5, 2021

xpost - Ha, two minutes after I posted that, said friends planning the BBQ just sent out an email scratching the idea, "based on the responses, seems like people aren't quite ready". Glad to know we weren't the only ones pushing back.

Yeah, we've had two different friends invite us over for a BBQ and a game night, and both were surprised when we passed, "but we're vaccinated". Great, you are, we aren't. Our son isn't. Your kids aren't. Forgive us for not being quite ready to throw caution to the wind.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, April 8, 2021 10:45 AM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Gee, I wonder why new cases in IL are higher than they've been in two months...

― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Thursday, April 8, 2021 10:51 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean, with all due respect, no. It's not because vaccinated people are having outdoor BBQs.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/outdoor-transmission-accounts-for-0-1-of-state-s-covid-19-cases-1.4529036

The BBQ is likely safe but ymmv

I'm def not saying anyone should have a BBQ who doesn't feel completely comfortable having one, just saying that is *really* not what is driving spread and clucking at people who do things like that is not productive.

I find that Menaker thing vaguely annoying, like he sees himself (or the person tweeting sees him) as taking a bold stand against "COVID scolds" while... scolding people who are vaccinated but not going to bars -- it's like he has a very very limited notion of what "our lives" might mean.

The issue with this particular BBQ is that they invited about 10 different families, most of which I didn't know at all, much less know enough about to be able to judge the comfort level with how safe I believe them to be. Had been just our vaccinated friends outdoors, I might have considered it.

I feel that if we've gained nothing else from this pandemic, we have at least all gotten much more in touch with and given voice to our inner moral scolds. It's a uniting experience, and if you disagree you should be ashamed of yourself. You should be ashamed. FEEL SHAME.

If anything, I've never felt so little guilt over my deep-rooted misanthropy.

issue with this particular BBQ is that they invited about 10 different families, most of which I didn't know at all, much less know enough about to be able to judge the comfort level with how safe I believe them to be. Had been just our vaccinated friends outdoors, I might have considered it.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), jueves 8 de abril de 2021 12:24 p.m. (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ah! That's different.

i’ve expressed this in this thread before but i got very tired of judging ppl and being implicitly brought into an in-crowd of ppl who were singling out others for their carelessness or moral indifference. everyone’s dealing with their own shit, i can just deal with mine

the menaker piece seems annoying but i’m mostly annoyed podcast patreon boy has a subscriber only newsletter, gotta pay to witness these good thoughts

believing that i don’t really have the moral high ground over anyone is an important personal philosophy to me tho

What, you think refusing to take the moral high ground makes you better than me

lol

yeah get back to us when you've realized you occupy the moral nadir

Sorry sorry, I forgot, #tongueincheek

I just feel like I know a lot of people who have taken very different approaches, and -- why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't each person's personal calculus of risk vs need land in a different place? I am not gonna tell people I think they're being reckless because they do things I'm not doing, or that they're giving up on life because they're not doings I am doing. They're them, I'm me.

(That said, obv. there are limits and I do not really have "it's just flu and I go into stores maskless just to show who's boss" friends, that's a different story!)

It doesn't help that there's been so little top-down guidance over the past year, and what little we've had has been contradictory (remember when Fauci was all 'masks? who needs 'em!?').

The problem being, of course, that it's well and good to approach life in a way where you don't judge others, but a pandemic reveals the pitfalls. When you are forced, particularly by something like a job, to be in regular or semi-close contact with others, it becomes hard not to judge when those people are talking about the approaches and decisions that are, by your own individual metric, much less safe. It becomes difficult to not judge others in those times, and I don't think it's worthwhile to feel guilty for doing so.

We know by now -- lord knows I've done it enough -- you can hang out with minimal risk outdoors with a small group of people you trust, with our without jabs. Once you get funky with the Cheez Whiz and ask strangers in, that's a different species of recklessness.

remember when Fauci was all 'masks? who needs 'em!?').

Fauci never struck this pose.

A facetious take but he did initially advise against masks early on when we thought there would be a shortage of PPE.

He did, yeah, but wasn't glib about it. I bet the CDC rue the day it happened; this empowered Lil Trumps like my governor.

Yeah, any quibble or shift from more authoritative voices has (naturally) added fuel to contrarians looking to actively muddy the waters.

This sounds like one occasion where a nationalized health service where you have absolutely no choice but to sit and wait your turn is preferable. Of course you could end up waiting a long time and I don't see that flying in the US - though that would be true whether there was a pandemic or not.

The problem being, of course, that it's well and good to approach life in a way where you don't judge others, but a pandemic reveals the pitfalls. When you are forced, particularly by something like a job, to be in regular or semi-close contact with others, it becomes hard not to judge when those people are talking about the approaches and decisions that are, by your own individual metric, much less safe. It becomes difficult to not judge others in those times, and I don't think it's worthwhile to feel guilty for doing so.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, April 8, 2021 12:36 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sure, but the corollary to this is that, when under that kind of stress, it becomes all too easy to misdirect your judgment.

Oh absolutely, my point was more just to say that it's both a) easy to understand why people who normally don't judge others might find themselves doing so in a pandemic, and b) reasonable to not beat ourselves up or feel guilty for slips into moral judgment or despair during the largest health crisis of our lifetimes.

it also seems very easy to participate in meta-shaming of others, apparently

I do think one major source of crossed wires is the huge chasm of experience, exposure risk-wise, between urban and suburban or rural areas. when a lot of people talk about hanging outside they mean getting in their car alone and traveling to a relatively secluded park. when a lot of other people talk about hanging outside they mean coming into very close contact with hundreds of people just in the act of transit, then going to a park that is not secluded at all. two very different experiences.

can't read the whole thing but (like a lot of chapo-related detritus) i think menaker is reacting to a very specific type of person you run into mainly on twitter, not just people presenting some over-cautiousness. "I think a certain kind of person has gotten addicted to a new kind of self-righteousness that they’re not going to want to give up so easily" - i don't think there is a statistically significant number of these people, but they exist. there are people who will create moral ideologies out of anything and covid restrictions provide a lot of ammo for that.

i've been more careful than most people and i'm in little rush to get back to "normal" cause i'm a natural shut-in anyway, but i do get annoyed at the "we should have been masking before covid and we should keep masking after covid (because some people in japan did/will)" crowd. if you wanna do it fine, but judging others for loosening their own restrictions strikes me as desperately clinging to a newfound moral angle they aren't ready to give up. i guess i don't buy into "masks are inherently good regardless of ongoing public health crises"

but again these people probably aren't that prevalent, not enough to write a whole thing about as 99% of americans will surely be acting like 2019 in a few months. twitter as a platform just makes everyone talk louder and scoldier than they actually are

xpost Yeah, seriously.

The pandemic has made me extremely jealous of people who have a yard.

yeah I'm aware this is a urban vs suburban vs exurban divide. When I mean "outdoors," I mean "someone's yard."

I appreciated a take recently about improving ventilation and HVAC systems...the point was, PPE is for when you CAN'T control or adjust the environment...but moving air and/or filtration is far and away the most protective thing we can do for shared spaces. I'm very grateful that the slight gamble we took last year, that outdoors was virtually low or no risk, has turned out to be accurate.

on the other hand it is not a great look, especially right now, to talk about how something that, pre-covid, was an asian cultural norm is insane or wrong

Of course you could end up waiting a long time

Australia yesterday cancelled their target of everyone getting a first jab by 2022.