Health 🏥 Coronavirus and other pandemics

[Veloise]

This week in one of our vaccine hunter groups, a seeker posted that she had just spent hours on the Rite Aid website trying to book an appointment. Since the way to get one from our county involves a phone call -- sitting on hold for a long time -- she was asking for help. She's non-verbal.
All kinds of poor readers chimed in telling her this and that and so forth. I referenced a couple of places to sign up that are digital, no calls.
Someone told her to place a call to ... nope, not gonna work.
Someone recommended a medical transcription device.
I turned off the comments and reached out to the county. No reply.
Yesterday the availability of the J&J vaccine suddenly increased: lots more green dots. On is a few blocks from my house! I called and left voicemails.
One rang me back this morning, and as I was booking my appointment, I messaged the seeker and asked if she'd like to drive to Muskegon on Monday. YES
It was amusing having her texting her info on FB messenger while I talked to the pharmacy on speaker.
She's very happy. So am I ... in the trial, I got the placebo, and they offered to vaccinate my cohort, but couldn't say when that might happen.
Two sleeps and a wake-up!


vaccinefinder.org

 

[TOFB]

The last thing I expected today was to get my first shot at my regular grocery store within 3 hours, thanks to my daughter.

 

[TOFB]

Our city of 3,000 looks to get $400,000

$40M here???

 

[Hink]

I just learned that I am able to get my fist shot later this afternoon. I am a little concerned about it given what happened with the wife but she is persistent that I get my shot as soon as possible because of my job role and because I have several hi-risk factors.

A news station in Philly put this together.

March 11, 2020: 6abc documentary looks at 'the day everything changed'

March 11, 2020: Philadelphia deals with its first case of COVID-19. The WHO declares coronavirus a pandemic. The NBA suspends its season. Tom Hanks announces he has contracted the virus. One year later, 6abc takes a look back at "the day everything changed."

6abc.com

On a side note, go back to page 1 of this thread... who knew that 13 months ago, we would have gone through everything that we have.

Did you get it? Hope everything is going okay.

 

[michaelskis]

Did you get it? Hope everything is going okay.

Yes... and it felt like every other vaccines that I have ever received. I was worried that it might be sore this morning but I still had a great workout.

 

[Faust_Motel]

Anybody having any luck with DrB? I don't even know if it's running in my state but signed up just to be sure.

 

[Veloise]

Anybody having any luck with DrB? I don't even know if it's running in my state but signed up just to be sure.

I'm now admin on all three of our groups, and not one person has posted that it worked for them.
Once it appeared in the NYT, and several people happily shared the article, I mentioned that.
One of my fellow admins went looking, and found a completely valid dataset of ... 2. Two people had mentioned that they'd gotten an alert and were able to act on it.

Your best bet: use vaccinefinder.org to locate J&J (it's a lot less hassle than the double shot ones). They tend to be smaller local Rx and clinics that don't have on-line appointments. Find some green dots ... if they aren't close enough, revise the search parameters (ZIP code) and more will appear. Call and make an appointment.

Rite Aid revised its website earlier this week, so the "appointments drop at 11:45 pm" trope didn't work. Lots of tired sad people posting about the spinning blue circle of doom. (I tagged such messages with a hurricane icon.)

 

[WSU MUP Student]

Michigan just announced that all adults will be eligible to get the vaccine starting April 5th. I'm sure there will be many many adults on the waitlist when that date rolls around but my wife and I are keeping our fingers crossed that she'll be able to get her shot(s) sooner rather than later.

 

[Salmissra]

I got the Moderna version.

Sore arm as was expected. Hopefully that's it.

 

[Super Amputee Cat]

Great, all we're going to hear about is this shit for the next month. People acting like total jackasses with DeSantis looking the other way. "The world bares it's teeth" they say

I really, really hate these people.

Miami Beach police disperse 'unruly' spring break crowd

 

[michaelskis]

Great, all we're going to hear about is this shit for the next month. People acting like total jackasses with DeSantis looking the other way. "The world bares it's teeth" they say

I really, really hate these people.

Miami Beach police disperse 'unruly' spring break crowd

This happened in the Czech Republic. All because the person being arrested in the video refused to wear a mask.


It is situations like this that make me appreciate our police departments response to COVID. However I agree people should still be wearing a mask.

We went out to get dinner in a popular bar district in the city. I was shocked by the number of people out without masks on.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

Today is the first day back to full-day in-person instruction for our school district, almost exactly a year to the day from when it ended (March 12, 2020 was the last full day).

We elected to send our daughter to in-person school instead of the all virtual option. They had enough kids return for in-person classes that our school had to add a third 5th grade class, but they did keep the class sizes smaller than in normal times. Fingers crossed that all goes well today and the rest of the school year.

 

[Planit]

I heard something about our schools going to 4 in-class days in April. Have not confirmed this.

 

[Bubba]

Have both doses scheduled now - getting the first one this Thursday morning.

 

[Planit]

The difference between March 2020 & March 2021 is WE HAVE TOILET PAPER

 

[Salmissra]

I got the Moderna version.

Sore arm as was expected. Hopefully that's it.

Well, that wasn't it. I also had fatigue the day after, and then a crappy night's sleep the 2nd night.

But, all in all, I'm happy that I got my shot.

 

[Whose Yur Planner]

I had no side effects from the second shot, except for a sore arm.

 

[michaelskis]

Well, it might be genetic... Wife's dad got the shot and a few days later he is in so much pain he can't really get out of bed. He has been to two different doctors and they say that his inflammation is of the charts.

However, her sister did not have any side effects, but it still makes me wonder about my kids if they will have any side effects.

 

[Doohickie]

My wife got her second dose of Moderna today. It's spring break for her so if she suffers any side affects she can take it easy.

I get my second dose a week from Saturday.

 

[Lowland]

Scheduled for my first dose later this week! After refreshing the page for most of the morning, the excitement I felt when the scheduling screen finally came up was the biggest boost of serotonin I've had in months.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

My neighbor is a veteran a few years younger than me and I know he was anxious to get his vaccine. He's a utility worker and considered essential but he just couldn't get one scheduled anywhere. I let him know that the VA in Ann Arbor was vaccinating any vets regardless of age so he called and had his file transferred from Detroit to Ann Arbor and was able to schedule an appointment the next day. So I'll take credit for helping get one more person vaccinated.


He told me he's on a massive group text chain with a bunch of people from Michigan that he served with so after he got his first shot he sent out a mass text to let them know they could go to Ann Arbor as well. He said he knows of at least 12 other guys from the group that immediately made appointments. Maybe I should take credit for those too.

 

[Gedunker]

We shut down a year ago today for non-essential employees. I came in on the 17th to get VPN on my personal laptop so that I could WFH unless called into the office as an essential employee. In some ways, it feels like a few weeks ago and not possibly a full year.

I will say this: I got myself into a full fledged panic attack one day shortly after we started our lockdown. I went for a long walk to try to calm myself down without any luck. Worried that I was actually infected (and the symptoms in those days were all over the place, so who could truly know?) the only way I found was to open my iPad and start a file entitled "Oh, shit! Dad's dead, now what?" It forced me to think about everything my very young adult kids would need to know in the event of the worst. (I'm pretty sure had I gotten infected early, with my other health issues, the result would most likely have been bad.) I have a will and other end-of-life legal documents, but I was thinking more about mundane stuff they would need to know, like account numbers, which bills are paid by check (get the hell off my lawn, youngster!) and which are electronic, passwords, and so on. This might seem petty (and probably is) but I didn't want my ex swooping into my business under the guise of helping the kids.

Many hours and edits later, I had produced a fairly comprehensive guide that would get them through the initial shock and keep them together until they could figure out what came next, and got my mind off the panic. It was comforting to me to know they had somewhere to turn, even as that, and later, lesser stresses passed in the previous year of covid-19. (Thinking about it, this is the essence of planning, no?)

 

[Veloise]

Got my J&J yesterday.
The small pharmacy told an interesting story. They weren't sure why they'd been sent vaccines. A wait list has developed (probably because I promoted them on our vaccine finder FB group). They said they would be getting more, so it's fine to send more folks their way.
Interestingly, it's a large free-standing health care place (beautiful architecture, faux lighthouse sign out front) and the pharmacy is located in the gift shop. So there's something to do while hanging out for the 15 minutes afterwards.
My charge, the non-verbal woman, arrived, we met, and ... she hugged me. (That's the second person with whom I've had contact since the last dance I attended, early March 2020.) She uses a communications app on her phone to type her sentences, and it has predictive text; she just swipes over "th" and out comes "the."
We left at the same time (she hugged me again!) and took our masks off outside. Exchanged huge happy grins.

So far no side effects other than a sore arm. If I do the Chicken Dance, I notice it.

-10-

 

[Dan]

I got an email from the county last night, announcing vaccine shot openings this week for group 1c I jumped on it, and now I'll be getting jabbed on Thursday morning here in town, not an hour away at the end of the month.

It's the same pop-up vaccination center where my wife got her shot in January -- the old Sears store in our nice-when-I moved-here-but-it's-now-dead mall Supposedly they're still using the Moderna vaccine, but I've seen a few reports that they're also using Pfizer.

 

[mendelman]

Ohio is dropping it's minimum age to 40 starting this Friday for non-risk people.

 

[Planit]

I heard something about our schools going to 4 in-class days in April. Have not confirmed this.

At last night's school board meeting, the board of education voted to bring our middle school and high school students back to school under Plan A (in person learning 4 days a week and remote learning on Fridays) beginning April 14th.

 

[Gedunker]

At last night's school board meeting, the board of education voted to bring our middle school and high school students back to school under Plan A (in person learning 4 days a week and remote learning on Fridays) beginning April 14th.

And school ends when? May 7? (Back in the Pleistocene era, I graduated in late-June, but kids start back so early nowadays...)

 

[Bubba]

Covid sniffing dogs, yo.

Service Dogs To Sniff Out COVID-19 at NASCAR Races

A similar process has been successfully utilized at Miami Heat basketball games this season.

www.autoweek.com

 

[Veloise]

-9-

 

[Hink]

Covid sniffing dogs, yo.

Service Dogs To Sniff Out COVID-19 at NASCAR Races

A similar process has been successfully utilized at Miami Heat basketball games this season.

www.autoweek.com

Where have they been all this time? I mean that would help a lot in public spaces....

 

[Planit]

Today @ 4:00 marks the 1-year anniversary Gov. Cooper closed down bars & restaurants (+ lots more). There's a restaurant/bar here that pulled all the St. Patty's merch out they had ready for last year for the celebration tonight & I ain't gonna be near there...on purpose.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

Where have they been all this time? I mean that would help a lot in public spaces....

They've been using the dogs at Miami Heat home games this season and I know some airports in Europe began using them earlier in the winter as well.

 

[kjel]

The 'Rona has invaded my household....

My little was sent home from school on Thursday with a runny/stuffy nose and told she could not return for 10 days. She said she felt ok but any cold-like symptoms will get children excluded from school. As a precautionary measure I had her tested the next day on Friday. The results were received on Sunday that she was positive for COVID-19. I contacted the principal and her teacher immediately and they placed 3rd grade on remote instruction for 2 weeks and notified the other students' families (there's only one classroom for each grade, it's a tiny school). My husband is an optician and notified his supervisor that a household member tested positive and he was told to remain home for 10 days and could return to work with a negative test and no symptoms.

I booked a test for myself, my husband, and older daughter on Monday. My older daughter and I tested negative, my husband tested positive. My older daughter and I are 3 & 4 weeks out from receiving the second dose of the vaccine. My husband is now two weeks out from receiving his 1st dose but was only a week out when my youngest was sent home from school. He landed in the unfortunate 50% not immune. Thankfully his symptoms have been fairly mild, two days of fatigue and intermittent fever, slight cough. My little has a stuffy/runny nose, one day of sore throat, no fever, no cough, but cannot smell anything.

We participated in the contact tracing and follow up with the health department but I personally feel the advice/guidance they are giving is inadequate and causing people to do their own thing which is leading to continuing cases.

 

[Doohickie]

My wife got her second dose of Moderna today. It's spring break for her so if she suffers any side affects she can take it easy.

I get my second dose a week from Saturday.

My wife had mild symptoms after the second shot. She said had it not been spring break week, she would have called in sick the next day but by the afternoon she was feeling better.

I've been a little worried for my neighbors who are elderly but I talked to him this week and they got the J&J shot so they're good. Once I get my second shot I should be able to talk to them without the theatrics of masks. Looking forward to a world where we can ease up on masks altogether.

 

[MD Planner]

In another 6-8 weeks I think we're going to be swimming in vaccine. The issue I think will be convincing a fairly large segment of the population to actually get the vaccine. I've personally heard so many people from across the socio-economic spectrum say they aren't getting it, using varying levels of logic.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

The 'Rona has invaded my household....

My little was sent home from school on Thursday with a runny/stuffy nose and told she could not return for 10 days. She said she felt ok but any cold-like symptoms will get children excluded from school. As a precautionary measure I had her tested the next day on Friday. The results were received on Sunday that she was positive for COVID-19. I contacted the principal and her teacher immediately and they placed 3rd grade on remote instruction for 2 weeks and notified the other students' families (there's only one classroom for each grade, it's a tiny school). My husband is an optician and notified his supervisor that a household member tested positive and he was told to remain home for 10 days and could return to work with a negative test and no symptoms.

I booked a test for myself, my husband, and older daughter on Monday. My older daughter and I tested negative, my husband tested positive. My older daughter and I are 3 & 4 weeks out from receiving the second dose of the vaccine. My husband is now two weeks out from receiving his 1st dose but was only a week out when my youngest was sent home from school. He landed in the unfortunate 50% not immune. Thankfully his symptoms have been fairly mild, two days of fatigue and intermittent fever, slight cough. My little has a stuffy/runny nose, one day of sore throat, no fever, no cough, but cannot smell anything.

We participated in the contact tracing and follow up with the health department but I personally feel the advice/guidance they are giving is inadequate and causing people to do their own thing which is leading to continuing cases.

KJel - very sorry to read that. Thankfully, it sounds like everybody's symptoms are mild and that your husbands half-a-dose is working to at least make his symptoms extra mild. Do you know if this will affect his opportunity to get his second dose?

Hopefully everybody makes a speedy and full recovery!

 

[WSU MUP Student]

In another 6-8 weeks I think we're going to be swimming in vaccine. The issue I think will be convincing a fairly large segment of the population to actually get the vaccine. I've personally heard so many people from across the socio-economic spectrum say they aren't getting it, using varying levels of logic.

Like you, I think there is going to be a glut of vaccines coming in a month+, especially as the J&J vaccine becomes more widely available. It's very possible that the hold-up for getting the vaccines into people's arms will soon become a lack of capacity in terms of personnel to actually administer the shots, especially for shots being given out at small pharmacy systems and local county health departments which are often very understaffed. I know our county health department has already begun to plan for this and is working to contract with a visiting nurse agency and a local university to bring in nursing students and 1st and 2nd year medical students to give shots at the pop-up clinics that are being set up. We are fortunate that this is a pretty populous area and there are a lot of people who are trained and have experience and can give shots. I wonder how this will playout in the more rural areas?

In related news: When Biden announced that he was going to instruct the CDC to allow more people to give the shots including folks like pharmacy techs, lab techs, and veterinarians, it reminded me that when I was little, all of our annual shots were given to us by the large animal vet who would visit us to check out the dairy cows every 6 months or so. He would give us our MMR, tetanus, flu, and whatever other shots we needed and send the vaccination records off to the county. I don't think I ever got a shot from a medical professional that was trained to work on people until I got to Parris Island as an 18-year-old!

 

[Whose Yur Planner]

Sorry to hear that k'jel. Hope the little one gets well fast.

 

[Dan]

I got Pfizered about 45 minutes ago! I'll report on any side effects here.

 

[Bubba]

I got Pfizered about 45 minutes ago! I'll report on any side effects here.

Ditto, got the Pfizer version this morning. I can feel in my arm where the injection was, but that's about it.

 

[Veloise]

In the vaccine hunter groups, the large Detroit-area one inspired a discussion about health care practices. The OP used the word "fiasco" so I added it as a post topic.

The prominent journalist from Crain's Detroit Business joined our group, and broke news with a tweet about CVS coming to the party.
A constant poster who calls out anything she thinks is the least bit incorrect questioned it. I referenced our state regional map and explained that we are not limited to the three or six counties at the base of the Thumb. (She could click on his name...)

It turns out that people are gaming the system. They'll make themselves an appointment in Ohio, then find one closer to home. "It's so hard" to cancel the first one.
Or worse, they'll sign up with the "vaccine angels" who stay up late working the pharmacy websites to make them an appointment ... then go ahead and find one on their own. Angel reaches out to advise "hey, here's the appointment I found for you" and they'll confess.
If everyone starts skimming and scamming two appointments, there will be a lot of vaccine going to waste, and a lot of folks who should have had their appointment already but were shut out of the system.


-5-

 

[TOFB]

I got Pfizered about 45 minutes ago! I'll report on any side effects here.

I had pretty much none.

 

[Gedunker]

I got Pfizered about 45 minutes ago! I'll report on any side effects here.

I wasn't going to do the chicken dance after my Pfizer #1 shot, but that was a good thing because I couldn't raise my arm above my shoulder without some notable discomfort. That only lasted about 48 hours and I had no other symptoms/problems. I get #2 on 28-3.

 

[Lowland]

Scheduled for my first dose later this week! After refreshing the page for most of the morning, the excitement I felt when the scheduling screen finally came up was the biggest boost of serotonin I've had in months.

Well, felt okay for the first few hours, then my arm got very sore. Started feeling fatigued and got the chills, and after a rough night of sleep I'm feeling a bit crummy today. No fever or anything, just body aches and fatigue. Probably going to leave work early and nap my way through this.

 

[Bubba]

Ditto, got the Pfizer version this morning. I can feel in my arm where the injection was, but that's about it.

23 hours later - a tiny bit of soreness when I raise my arm above my shoulder - that's it.

 

[Shellac And Vinyl VelocitY]

I got Pfizered about 45 minutes ago! I'll report on any side effects here.

I had pretty much none.

I got Pfizered last Sunday evening.
Same result as TOFB.

I wasn't going to do the chicken dance after my Pfizer #1 shot, but that was a good thing because I couldn't raise my arm above my shoulder without some notable discomfort. That only lasted about 48 hours and I had no other symptoms/problems. I get #2 on 28-3.

Who here is pain free-enough to join the virtual chicken dance with me?
Today is National Poultry Day!

 

[Veloise]

lol all y'all with the Chicken Dance references. It seemed like a good way to measure the sensitivity. (I spend mornings on a yoga mat with a set of 5# weights, and my arm was not too sore to continue that.)

Today: no pain at all, and still no side effects.

Dance it with us!



-3-

 

[michaelskis]

This is an interesting shift...

Updated CDC guidance says 3 feet of physical distancing is safe in schools

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday is updating its physical distancing guidelines for children in schools from 6 feet to 3 feet.

www.cnn.com

While this is in keeping with the direction as it pertains to school aged kids, I wonder if that is in response from concerns with not being able to meet the spacing requirements and there was pressure from the Feds to do this.

My kid's school has been mostly in-person since November and they have yet to have any cases that were tracked back to in-school exposure. Five of the 6 cases were teachers and all 6 were tracked to outside exposure.

 

[Dan]

Side effect: went to bed at 11:00 PM last night. Woke up at 11:00 AM today. Fortunately, I don't have to use sick time for anything related to the COVID-19 vaccine..

 

[JNA]

got my Second Shot.