KIP covid thread

otm, its powerful and i need to hold to it after all this

My dad got his second!

my mum got her first jab yesterday. Stepdad still waiting to hear about his second, a month on.

I heard an optimistic prediction from a (the?) Covid Tracking Project guy. While he stressed that he was speaking exclusively in a personal capacity, he made a prediction that things will be on the upswing here by April and more or less back to something close to "normal" by August. He absolutely also stressed that this does *not* mean the eradication of covid, or anything close to it, just that it will be more significantly under control due to a number of different factors. He also thinks there will be another seasonal spike next fall/winter, both naturally (as coronaviruses tend to behave) and also in groups that were either reluctant to vaccinate or unable to get vaccines, but by and large he expects a big hunk of the population (here) will be either immune or express enough immunity to keep it somewhat under control. It was definitely a more optimistic view, but I appreciated the optimism all the same.

This state has not been particularly adept at rolling out vaccines (ironically, as I understand it, at least partly because they've been keeping so many on deck for more vulnerable populations, those in the first tier, etc..). But they found that so many eligible jab-getters in places like nursing homes were refusing the vaccine that they released an extra hundred thousand or so doses this past week. Maybe flexibility like that explains why the entire staff at the food pantry I volunteer at was apparently able to get vaccinated this week, or our local high school is starting to roll out vaccinations for the entire faculty and staff next week. That sort of acceleration makes me happy.

One of my kids goes back to school today (sort of; it's a complicated hybrid system) for the first time since March. This morning we learned that someone sympathetic to their ongoing ordeal anonymously donated $15 Amazon gift cards to every kid in the district. That's 6000 kids!

Wow

Discovering that lockdown is the right vibe to finally churn thru scandidramas

my parents had their first jabs yesterday

my parents this morning!

I was having a socially distanced chat with two local blokes, all of us carrying a can and with our dogs earlier and they aren't inherently bad people but I think I'd have been much happier not to bump into them. If I'm honest I don't miss the being amongst people element of pre-covid society that much at all!

As a social worker I'm getting my jab in Wembley on Friday. I need to get a better mask!

step-mom (in Knoxville TN) gets her first tomorrow afternoon, after an anxious period waiting for the threshold to drop from age 75 to 70. 65 is apparently coming soon, so her young man about town will also soon be eligible!

awesome news!

Got my first shot of vaccine yesterday. Arm hurts, was p spaced out yesterday during a v stressful parenting day, but still feel a bit more positive about everything.

Totally spaced out too, but could be due to wearing three masks in the vaccination centre

Passed my modest FEMA-adjacent Medical Reserve Corps certification (just the basic level, as required), which means I get to volunteer at points of local vaccine dispensing, as they increasingly pop up, which should in turn entitle me to my own shots. More importantly, though, is the (again, modest) qualification to volunteer and help out with future emergencies as well. There are other online emergency preparedness certifications I think I'll go for, too, like the CERT/Community Emergency Response Team. Good stuff to learn, kind of like getting an adult Eagle Scout.

awesome news stevie!

Yesterday I delivered a signed consent form for our daughter to get her second dose of Pfizer vax on Monday. She took the first dose a bit hard so we expect more reaction this time around. Still no question, doubt, or hesitation in our minds about whether this is a good thing for her. It is.

Was it the effect of the actual virus that did it, or something in the vaccine?

Was it the effect of the actual virus that did it, or something in the vaccine?

Pfizer's neither a live-virus nor dead-virus vaccine. It uses mRNA to instruct the immune system how to create antibodies. Not many people react badly to the first shot, more do to the second one - I've heard about a quarter do. Stuff like headache, muscle aches, nausea, fatigue.

Our daughter is non-verbal and can't communicate about her health, but pain will often trigger her seizures. She had both vomiting and seizures a day and a half after her first shot. Both these are things she does intermittently anyway, but this was a rougher day than usual. Pegging it as a reaction to the vaccine is mostly guesswork, but almost everything about her care involves making guesses.

Wow. Good luck with dose two. How long do they have you wait in the office/place after administration?

She lives in a medical group home (she's 34 years old) and the second dose will be administered there. No transportation needed. She'll be closely observed for the requisite 15 minutes to catch any severe anaphylactic reaction, but she'll be monitored pretty frequently as a matter of routine. Her home has 24-hour staffing, with two or three staff around the clock for four residents (usually five, but one bed is currently unfilled due to a death). They are all very medically complex.

Getting her better protected from covid-19 will be a huge relief.

yay! me and the big kid have been booked in for a double jab sesh on thursday!

Mighty stuff

fantastic news!

I wasn't going to send him back to school until he's vaccinated despite him being young and healthy and statistically unlikely to get it bad, if he ends up in a hospital too much risk of DNR notice getting pinned to his bed. Some bloody disgraceful stealth eugenics going on in the NHS and not making the front pages.

but anyway keeping it pos, thanks!

my bro is getting his jab this week as he is celiac (auto-immune condition). so anyone in the uk who is a diagnosed wheat-dodger might want to look into this.

^ artful wheat-dodgers were in the previous phase

Appt for jab #1 three weeks from tomorrow.

nice

one advantage to gaining quarantine weight is that it looks like I will qualify for vaccination a month early, so don't ever let anyone tell you that getting fatter is bad

Mazel tov

My mother-in-law is getting her first jab tomorrow, which is great. Now to just get the other four parents an appointment and I'll breathe a lot easier.

i weigh 217 now. I weighed 135 pounds when I was like...24. stuff jiggles that never did before :/

lol yes I might quality for vax right now based on my BMI alone.

I felt a bit of vaccine guilt earlier after I got into taxi from the health centre and the driver was telling me he is in his late 50's and still waiting for his. I lied and told him I have diabetes and was wishing I'd replied no when asked me if I had just been vaccinated, but I guess the big "Covid Vaccines This Entrance" might have been a giveaway. It's just there is no point explaining that you are a carer in the UK. To most folk it's just shorthand for idle benefit scrounging twat!

my phone swipey keyboard doesn't know about 'covid', keeps correcting it to 'vivid', which is annoying but also pleasant

got the first shot yesterday, left arm is very sore but no other major side effects so far. once they opened appointments to people with underlying conditions, everything was very smooth - and this is new york we're talking about, so no mean feat there

having been on the kidney transplant list for the last year and dealing with all of that (unrelated to covid), actually being able to see the finish line, at least as far as my own susceptibility is concerned, gives me an immense sense of relief

Good luck with that, seems like such a scary scenario.

After weeks of frustrations (in Pennsylvania) my mom is finally getting her first shot on Wednesday (in Delaware). Coincidentally, my eligible daughter is getting her first shot on Wednesday, too, though for some reason they scheduled her second dose several hours before her first dose on the same day; we spent a couple of hours trying to clear things up, to no avail, which is I assume one reason places sometimes end up with extra doses. And as part of my local emergency medical corps training I'm now on some list, too, so things are looking up in my family.

both my parents now have had both their shots! BOOM

My dad got his second shot today, and my mom is getting her second one tomorrow. Thinking back to a year ago and how scared I was for my parents (and particularly my dad, who's in a lot of high-risk groups), this is such a huge relief, and despite all my frustration with the way the vaccine rollout is going, it's so amazing that this is even happening.

Also, Alaska (where I used to live and where I have a lot of extended family) is doing brilliantly with the vaccine and virtually everyone I know there has gotten it, which is very cool.

That's great. My parents are having a terrible time getting appointments, I can sense their frustration.

My dad logs on a couple of times a day and has, on multiple occasions, found an open appointment within 15 minutes, unfortunately he lives about 25 minutes from the nearest place he can get one.

My parents are also in PA and just got their first shots. Of course they had to drive to a Wegman's 2 hours away in Wilkes-Barre to get it but ok

loving the shot updates folks, keep it comin'

Dad, partner and her kid got first shots yday

dad got his first two weeks ago; mom getting hers tomorrow; my wiiiiiiiife is now able to get one thanks to self-reporting her (real) asthma on the 'do u qualify?' form

I had mixed feelings about trying to get a boost on the waitlist for being primary caregiver to a disabled person. Ultimately I went ahead and checked the box.

Of course I would rather "my" dose goes to someone in greater need. But in all honesty I won't say no if I get an invitation.

I have a good friend, now vaccinated, that went so far as to speak to a literal medical ethicist, who encouraged her to get the vaccine when she had the opportunity. Remember, the goal is for everybody to be vaccinated, and the more people who are vaccinated the fewer people get sick, and the fewer people get sick, the fewer people spread to others.

I'm scheduled to get Pfizered or Moderna'd (the MDHS site is no help on which I'm getting) on the 18th but if the J&J vax becomes widely available in the next 2 weeks and I'm not taking anybody's spot, I'll jump at the chance to get it.