Covid vaccine rollout in the US - who do you know that is getting the vaccine?

[rosarugosa]

I got my first dose of Moderna on 1/4/21, getting the second dose on Monday, 2/1. Only sore arm for me. I am a volunteer for the Sheriff search and rescue team, they said I was eligible so I jumped at the chance.

To those debunking the fake news about the vaccine, or anything else for that matter. I hope you have a lot of spare time to do that because it takes 10x as much effort to debunk than it does to create the nonsense. Brandolini's law in action here.

I googled Brandolini's law, and I really like it. Thank you.

For everyone's education: Brandolini's law, also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle, is an internet adage which emphasizes the difficulty of debunking bullshit: "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it."

I love this. 

[American GenX]

Got Moderna dose #2 9 hours ago!

No side effects at this point.  Didn't have an issue with the first dose 34 days ago, either.

Woohoo!  Glad to get this done.

48 hours after Moderna dose #2, all is good.  Mild arm soreness is even less today.

[shuffler]

Please stop with your misinformation.

It seems the misinformer has been stopped.  Poof.

[Catbert]

I got my first dose yesterday (over 65 retired) and DH got it the day before (over 70 retired).  Both got the Pfizer vaccine and minimal side effects (nothing for him, sore arm for me).

Looking forward to the second dose.

[Saffron]

30-something DoD civilian here. My office had an email go out mid month gathering info for people who want to be vaccinated. Radio silence since then. To do my job, I have to be at the office every day. I've been back working full time in my office since April doing my job (and that of others who are in high risk groups).

Meanwhile I'm starting to see teachers and other randos my age get vaccinated on Facebook. Uhh Natsec? Continuity of government? Starting to get a disillusioned with the lack of priorities and miserably mismanaged distribution.

[charis]

30-something DoD civilian here. My office had an email go out mid month gathering info for people who want to be vaccinated. Radio silence since then. To do my job, I have to be at the office every day. I've been back working full time in my office since April doing my job (and that of others who are in high risk groups).

Meanwhile I'm starting to see teachers and other randos my age get vaccinated on Facebook. Uhh Natsec? Continuity of government? Starting to get a disillusioned with the lack of priorities and miserably mismanaged distribution.

What's your issue with teachers getting vaccinated? They are currently eligible in the 1b phase in my state.

[Morning Glory]

30-something DoD civilian here. My office had an email go out mid month gathering info for people who want to be vaccinated. Radio silence since then. To do my job, I have to be at the office every day. I've been back working full time in my office since April doing my job (and that of others who are in high risk groups).

Meanwhile I'm starting to see teachers and other randos my age get vaccinated on Facebook. Uhh Natsec? Continuity of government? Starting to get a disillusioned with the lack of priorities and miserably mismanaged distribution.

What's your issue with teachers getting vaccinated? They are currently eligible in the 1b phase in my state.

Health professions teachers are 1a if they have hospital or LTC rotations. My state has community clinics for 1b including primary teachers, and they still haven't finished 1a. I will get it through my university once they get a supply, but I have no firm dates yet.  I'm not upset about it because I want teachers vaccinated so more kids can get back in school.

[charis]

30-something DoD civilian here. My office had an email go out mid month gathering info for people who want to be vaccinated. Radio silence since then. To do my job, I have to be at the office every day. I've been back working full time in my office since April doing my job (and that of others who are in high risk groups).

Meanwhile I'm starting to see teachers and other randos my age get vaccinated on Facebook. Uhh Natsec? Continuity of government? Starting to get a disillusioned with the lack of priorities and miserably mismanaged distribution.

What's your issue with teachers getting vaccinated? They are currently eligible in the 1b phase in my state.

Health professions teachers are 1a if they have hospital or LTC rotations. My state has community clinics for 1b including primary teachers, and they still haven't finished 1a. I will get it through my university once they get a supply, but I have no firm dates yet.  I'm not upset about it because I want teachers vaccinated so more kids can get back in school.

Agreed. Not to mention, the staff passes it amoung themselves at a much higher rate than any student transmission, so schools shut downs are more likely when staff are ill or have to quarantine.

[Michael in ABQ]

30-something DoD civilian here. My office had an email go out mid month gathering info for people who want to be vaccinated. Radio silence since then. To do my job, I have to be at the office every day. I've been back working full time in my office since April doing my job (and that of others who are in high risk groups).

Meanwhile I'm starting to see teachers and other randos my age get vaccinated on Facebook. Uhh Natsec? Continuity of government? Starting to get a disillusioned with the lack of priorities and miserably mismanaged distribution.

Similar situation but we had probably half the people in my department get the vaccine yesterday. Honestly surprised how quickly they had some available for people. I took a couple of days to respond to the email so I figure I might get mine in a couple of weeks. Then again, they may have prioritized people with comorbidities. One guy I was in a meeting with today said he has diabetes and the few others I know of that got it are mostly older (50+).

[erutio]

Help me, I'm blinded by my own medical work bubble.  What is the hold up still?
It's been a month and a half since Pfizer was available, and over a month since the Moderna one was available.   The rate-limiting step should be the production and distribution of the doses, not the administration of vaccine (putting people in tiers, training people to give the shots, setting up appointments, setting up infrastructure, etc) as has been going on.
Tiers should be removed, we should be having long lines of (spaced out) people waiting for vaccines, if you don't get it, come back the next day.  For as much as the federal government is paying for the vaccines, paying people to work overtime or hiring more people to administer the vaccines is a drop in the cost bucket. 
Sorry just venting, but I just don't understand.

[iluvzbeach]

+1 ^^^^^

Yes, absolutely. While states sit on hundreds of thousands (or millions) of doses, the virus is still being passed around. Let痴 stop letting perfect get in the way of getting the damn vaccine in arms. The more people who are vaccinated the better off we値l be.

[BikeFanatic]

I think the roll out was disorganized, and I agree we should have more vaccine available to workers who are out there teachers, grocery store and retail workers. On a good note My 78 YO mother,  is on a list to be vaccinated early next month Feb 5th at a stadium in a big east coast city. The Hospital she gets her Primary care out of, reached out via text message  to broker the appointment.

[Adventine]

Here's a fascinating resource I found today, about the number of people being vaccinated per country.

Wow, Israel.

[Michael in ABQ]

Help me, I'm blinded by my own medical work bubble.  What is the hold up still?
It's been a month and a half since Pfizer was available, and over a month since the Moderna one was available.   The rate-limiting step should be the production and distribution of the doses, not the administration of vaccine (putting people in tiers, training people to give the shots, setting up appointments, setting up infrastructure, etc) as has been going on.
Tiers should be removed, we should be having long lines of (spaced out) people waiting for vaccines, if you don't get it, come back the next day.  For as much as the federal government is paying for the vaccines, paying people to work overtime or hiring more people to administer the vaccines is a drop in the cost bucket. 
Sorry just venting, but I just don't understand.

It looks like this varies from state to state.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/

You have North Dakota and Wyoming that have used over 80% of their supply, while Kansas and Alabama are below 50%. Larger states like California, Texas, New York and Florida are in the middle around 55-60%. I'm pleasantly surprised that my state of New Mexico has been near the top in % of the population vaccinated, over 11 doses per 100 while the national average is about 8 per 100.

The states that are doing the best on a per-capita basis are generally lower population and more rural (ND, SD, NM, WV, ME, AK). The other end of the spectrum are across the board in terms of demographics (ID, AL, NV, IL, KS).

I did hear a new story the other day that West Virginia was the only state not to participate in a federal program related to distributing the vaccine in partnership with drug stores like CVS and Walgreens. They decided to do it on their own and also didn't hold back 50% for second doses - assuming that they would handle second doses with a later distribution of vaccine. Looks like it worked since they have consistently been in the top few states for % vaccinated.

[American GenX]

Thread topic:  Covid vaccine rollout in the US - who do you know that is getting the vaccine?

Got Moderna dose #2 9 hours ago!

No side effects at this point.  Didn't have an issue with the first dose 34 days ago, either.

Woohoo!  Glad to get this done.

48 hours after Moderna dose #2, all is good.  Mild arm soreness is even less today.

Dose #2 - 3 days later.  Things continue fine for me.  I have to poke or slap/bump my shoulder to feel any mild pain.  But a co-worker who got her second dose about the same time as me went home from work early yesterday and is still not feeling that well today.  She's younger than me.

[erutio]

I didn't feel anything when I got the Moderna dose #2 and didn't feel anything in my arm all day.  I joked with my wife that I thought the nurse must have missed on my shot, but that's impossible since my muscles were so big ;)
Anyways, my arm was sore for about 4 days.  I don't think that nurse missed.

[dougules]

Does anybody here have any guesses as to what percent of their doses on hand a state can give out before they run the risk of missing second doses for people?

[GuitarStv]

Does anybody here have any guesses as to what percent of their doses on hand a state can give out before they run the risk of missing second doses for people?

No guesses needed.  50%.  If there's a catastrophic supply chain disruption and they've handed out more than half the doses, they'll miss all the second doses.  Odds of that happening are vanishingly low though.

[HBFIRE]

Unfortunate.  The J&J efficacy isn't as good as I hoped.

[sui generis]

One limiting issue I've been hearing a lot about is lack of trained vaccine givers, most pertinently being able to pay them.  A friend of a friend is some kind of chief medical officer for one of CA's counties and said they are constantly getting volunteers from previously laid off health care workers (i.e. that worked in non-urgent care divisions like dermatology or podiatry or whatever) that they want to come in to help adminster the vaccine, but the CMO can't hire them because they have no money.  I'd love to volunteer to take a training course, but but then I guess I'd be a scab.  Why isn't money being made available for this?

[ixtap]

One limiting issue I've been hearing a lot about is lack of trained vaccine givers, most pertinently being able to pay them.  A friend of a friend is some kind of chief medical officer for one of CA's counties and said they are constantly getting volunteers from previously laid off health care workers (i.e. that worked in non-urgent care divisions like dermatology or podiatry or whatever) that they want to come in to help adminster the vaccine, but the CMO can't hire them because they have no money.  I'd love to volunteer to take a training course, but but then I guess I'd be a scab.  Why isn't money being made available for this?

The money for this and the actual vaccine distribution have not been coordinated. As such, they don't always end up in the same place at the right time.

[GuitarStv]

One limiting issue I've been hearing a lot about is lack of trained vaccine givers, most pertinently being able to pay them.  A friend of a friend is some kind of chief medical officer for one of CA's counties and said they are constantly getting volunteers from previously laid off health care workers (i.e. that worked in non-urgent care divisions like dermatology or podiatry or whatever) that they want to come in to help adminster the vaccine, but the CMO can't hire them because they have no money.  I'd love to volunteer to take a training course, but but then I guess I'd be a scab.  Why isn't money being made available for this?

I don't understand why this is an issue at all.  Sticking a needle in an arm and pressing the plunger is a pretty simple thing to do.  It's not like you've even got to find a vein.  What is the need for a 'trained professional' to be doing it?

[MudPuppy]

You also have to make sure you池e  in the right spot in the muscle and that you aren稚 in a blood vessel. Also the vaccine is a prescription drug.

[GuitarStv]

You also have to make sure you池e  in the right spot in the muscle and that you aren稚 in a blood vessel. Also the vaccine is a prescription drug.

Sure.  But we're in a crisis pandemic, and teaching someone to give an intramuscular injection is what . . . a 10 minute demonstration?  You don't need a bunch of years of medical school to give a shot.  People distributing it should not be a limiting factor.

[MudPuppy]

I wish it was that simple. It isn稚 just pushing the plunger when you give a medicine. There are pre and post assessments/observation that DO need some training/background. We can only let Joe Blow with his 10 minute class do so much.

[GuitarStv]

I wish it was that simple. It isn稚 just pushing the plunger when you give a medicine. There are pre and post assessments/observation that DO need some training/background. We can only let Joe Blow with his 10 minute class do so much.

We fast-tracked the vaccine testing and OK'd it with no real information about long term effects because it's important to get people vaccinated.  I feel as though we could probably bypass this safety pageantry too if it's preventing folks from getting their shot.

[Gin1984]

My mom got her first shot.  No side effects.

[MudPuppy]

It still went through all the clinical stages. I知 sorry you don稚 like the reality, but it is what it is. You can稚 have just anyone running vaccine sites.

[erutio]

You also have to make sure you池e  in the right spot in the muscle and that you aren稚 in a blood vessel. Also the vaccine is a prescription drug.

I wish it was that simple. It isn稚 just pushing the plunger when you give a medicine. There are pre and post assessments/observation that DO need some training/background. We can only let Joe Blow with his 10 minute class do so much.

It's not that simple, but it's really close.   You can't miss the deltoid, and you can hit any muscle really, there's no "right" spot.  You also cannot really hit a blood vessel in the deltoid.  If giving deltoid IM shots is really new to you, you will get over it by the end of the first hour you are doing this.  By hour 4, you would be an expert.
Regarding the assessments/observation, this can be done by students, no advanced degree needed.   

Either way, it shouldn't be the rate limiting step. 

[MudPuppy]

The students have to operate under someone痴 license. I知 currently running a vaccine clinic and have been since mid December. There are ways to cluster certain aspects of it, for sure. Every clinic I致e seen on the news seems to be operating under very similar procedures. I know we have a steady stream of people for 8-9 M-F and we have 7-10 vaccinators. I think last count we have done just shy of 7k.  No clinic today because we ran through our supply.

[erutio]

Wow, our vaccine clinic here is similar.  Vaccinated just under 7k through this week.   We are also administering these vaccines as we get them.   We had a little slow down this week as our allotment was a bit smaller than we expected.
At our peak we were vaccinating about 600 per day.  We've now worked out the kinks and have the capacity to significantly ramp up our efforts to match just about any amount of vaccine we receive.

[MudPuppy]

We池e only receiving 1k at a time. Next week is going to be rough because we池e only getting 800 in and no date for our next shipment.

How are you managing patient education? We tried to do it in groups of 5 so that we could speed things up, but we had issues with conspiracy theorists piping up and disrupting the groups and we had to return to one at a time.

[American GenX]

You also have to make sure you池e  in the right spot in the muscle and that you aren稚 in a blood vessel. Also the vaccine is a prescription drug.

I wish it was that simple. It isn稚 just pushing the plunger when you give a medicine. There are pre and post assessments/observation that DO need some training/background. We can only let Joe Blow with his 10 minute class do so much.

Exactly.  I've received both doses from professionals trained and experienced, and I wouldn't have had any trust if Joe Blow had been giving them.

[skp]

First vaccine went fine.  I just had a sore arm which was manageable with a couple tylenol. I had my second vaccine on Monday afternoon.  Tuesday I felt fine, didn't even need tylenol for slight arm pain.  But Wed am, I felt horrible, like you do before your getting a bad cold.  Wed afternoon, my back ache was so bad I had to lay in the tub in hot water and take some tylenol.  Thursday I felt better.  Today I only have a slight arm ache.
I really hope I don't have to go through this every year.

[Sandi_k]

My nearly-84 year old mom got her first vaccine yesterday. No ill effects noted as of last night, not even soreness at the injection site.

They also scheduled her for her second dose when she showed up to get the first - so no website roulette required.

[DizzyDaisies]

I received dose 2 of Moderna yesterday. I woke up this morning initially thinking I had escaped side effects. A few hours later, I became very sick. It was like a terrible flu. Body aches (especially back and hips), my skin felt prickly, fever, nausea, migraine, dizziness, etc. I feel much better now, but it was intense and awful.

[Taran Wanderer]

I received dose 2 of Moderna yesterday. I woke up this morning initially thinking I had escaped side effects. A few hours later, I became very sick. It was like a terrible flu. Body aches (especially back and hips), my skin felt prickly, fever, nausea, migraine, dizziness, etc. I feel much better now, but it was intense and awful.

That sounds like my experience of the actual disease, only there was more prelude (burning nose and throat) and then symptoms like hours for 5 to 6 days. The back and hip aches are the worst!

[GillyMack]

A neighbor just told me that she had volunteered for the Moderna study. Moderna told her last week that she had been given the placebo and gave her the first real shot.  She is 63 and not eligible in our state for the current vaccine distribution.  I thought that was pretty cool and deserving.

[Log]

Unfortunate.  The J&J efficacy isn't as good as I hoped.

It's about comparable to a yearly flu vaccine in terms of prevention, but also in the cases that did occur in the trial there were no deaths. Since it's a single dose and easier to store, this is phenomenal news. Keep Pfizer and Moderna distribution going from highest risk down, and start J&J from lower-risk people up, and spread can be reduced much faster. Since viral transmission is exponential, a 66% effective vaccine has the capacity to reduce transmission by much greater than 66%.

It only looks bad compared to how ridiculously effective these new mRNA vaccines are, which goes to show how big of a deal mRNA vaccines are for future medical developments. All great news (:

[MudPuppy]

Yeah, I知 happy with a vaccine that痴 only 5% less effective and is much more easily distributed

[Dollar Slice]

Unfortunate.  The J&J efficacy isn't as good as I hoped.

It's about comparable to a yearly flu vaccine in terms of prevention, but also in the cases that did occur in the trial there were no deaths. Since it's a single dose and easier to store, this is phenomenal news. Keep Pfizer and Moderna distribution going from highest risk down, and start J&J from lower-risk people up, and spread can be reduced much faster. Since viral transmission is exponential, a 66% effective vaccine has the capacity to reduce transmission by much greater than 66%.

Part of the issue is that the newer vaccines coming out of trials now are up against the variants (in part), and they're not as effective against those newer evolutions. Pfizer and Moderna got 95% doing trials before these variants broke out. If they did their trials now, it's almost a guarantee that the numbers would be a bit lower. If J&J had done their trial back when Pfizer and Moderna did, I bet it would have shown more like 75%-80%. As it is, they got 72% in the USA where there are relatively lower numbers of these variants. They had to average it with the much lower numbers in South Africa, where there is a very widespread and problematic variant.

[HBFIRE]

Unfortunate.  The J&J efficacy isn't as good as I hoped.

It's about comparable to a yearly flu vaccine in terms of prevention

Which isn't great

but also in the cases that did occur in the trial there were no deaths.

This one has to be taken with a grain of salt.  Statistically, ~ 0.5% of infections end in death.   I'm not sure how many cases there were during the J&J trial, but moderna and Pfizer each had less than 200 in total.  So just based on what we expect in terms of statistical death, not having a death during the trial phase is not abnormal.  For death to be an important metric to look at, I think they'd like to see a much higher statistical confidence.

Still, it is good news of course.  Any additional vaccine supply will help, and the one dose will definitely speed up vaccination   I was just hoping the efficacy would be in the same ballpark, guess that is a bit wishful.  85% reduction of serious disease of course is a great number.

[DizzyDaisies]

I received dose 2 of Moderna yesterday. I woke up this morning initially thinking I had escaped side effects. A few hours later, I became very sick. It was like a terrible flu. Body aches (especially back and hips), my skin felt prickly, fever, nausea, migraine, dizziness, etc. I feel much better now, but it was intense and awful.

That sounds like my experience of the actual disease, only there was more prelude (burning nose and throat) and then symptoms like hours for 5 to 6 days. The back and hip aches are the worst!

I知 starting to wonder if I might have the virus. I知 still having symptoms. I知 over 48 hours post vaccine and 36 hours since symptoms began. I知 also intermittently having a heavy chest and unable to get big breaths. My last time out of the house (other than to get the vaccine) was to get groceries last Saturday. No one else in my household feels sick. I知 very surprised at how extreme this feels.

[Log]

Unfortunate.  The J&J efficacy isn't as good as I hoped.

It's about comparable to a yearly flu vaccine in terms of prevention

Which isn't great

but also in the cases that did occur in the trial there were no deaths.

This one has to be taken with a grain of salt.  Statistically, ~ 0.5% of infections end in death.   I'm not sure how many cases there were during the J&J trial, but moderna and Pfizer each had less than 200 in total.  So just based on what we expect in terms of statistical death, not having a death during the trial phase is not abnormal.  For death to be an important metric to look at, I think they'd like to see a much higher statistical confidence.

Still, it is good news of course.  Any additional vaccine supply will help, and the one dose will definitely speed up vaccination   I was just hoping the efficacy would be in the same ballpark, guess that is a bit wishful.  85% reduction of serious disease of course is a great number.

As someone in basically the lowest-priority demographic for vaccination, I'm absolutely delighted by any remote possibility that my peers and I might get some form of vaccine in the Spring as opposed to mid to late Summer.

[Tick-Tock]

A neighbor just told me that she had volunteered for the Moderna study. Moderna told her last week that she had been given the placebo and gave her the first real shot.  She is 63 and not eligible in our state for the current vaccine distribution.  I thought that was pretty cool and deserving.

There was a similar story on the news about a local participant in the trials.  I think folks who volunteer for vaccine studies/trials are among the bravest people out there, and I'm glad that they were rewarded with earlier access to the real vaccine than they otherwise would have gotten.

[Villanelle]

I have a friend whose two kids are in a vaccine trial.  If I recall correctly, it's one of the two US-approved vaccines, but the tests are to get it approved for kids.  She has been told that when the test is over, her kids will be first (or early) in line to get the real vax if they had the placebo. 

[Dicey]

I received dose 2 of Moderna yesterday. I woke up this morning initially thinking I had escaped side effects. A few hours later, I became very sick. It was like a terrible flu. Body aches (especially back and hips), my skin felt prickly, fever, nausea, migraine, dizziness, etc. I feel much better now, but it was intense and awful.

That sounds like my experience of the actual disease, only there was more prelude (burning nose and throat) and then symptoms like hours for 5 to 6 days. The back and hip aches are the worst!

I知 starting to wonder if I might have the virus. I知 still having symptoms. I知 over 48 hours post vaccine and 36 hours since symptoms began. I知 also intermittently having a heavy chest and unable to get big breaths. My last time out of the house (other than to get the vaccine) was to get groceries last Saturday. No one else in my household feels sick. I知 very surprised at how extreme this feels.

Hope you're feeling better by tomorrow.

[LaineyAZ]

A 91 year old in my extended circle just got her first dose and will be getting her second dose this week.  She's doing fine so far.

The hardest part was setting up the appointment.  No appt. spots were available for the drive-up, so she had to schedule a walk-in appt. for both.  And also had to have help from her daughter on setting up the original appt. request online which included getting her medical insurance card scanned and attached. 
Sheesh, how many 91 year olds can handle the technology just to get on the schedule?  Don't know how she would have done so if her daughter hadn't been able to manage that for her.

[DizzyDaisies]

I received dose 2 of Moderna yesterday. I woke up this morning initially thinking I had escaped side effects. A few hours later, I became very sick. It was like a terrible flu. Body aches (especially back and hips), my skin felt prickly, fever, nausea, migraine, dizziness, etc. I feel much better now, but it was intense and awful.

That sounds like my experience of the actual disease, only there was more prelude (burning nose and throat) and then symptoms like hours for 5 to 6 days. The back and hip aches are the worst!

I知 starting to wonder if I might have the virus. I知 still having symptoms. I知 over 48 hours post vaccine and 36 hours since symptoms began. I知 also intermittently having a heavy chest and unable to get big breaths. My last time out of the house (other than to get the vaccine) was to get groceries last Saturday. No one else in my household feels sick. I知 very surprised at how extreme this feels.

Hope you're feeling better by tomorrow.

Thank you so much! I feel back to normal today.

[geekette]

My 85 year old mother got her first shot yesterday "all by herself".  Well, I signed her up, logged into her email remotely so I could walk her through making the appointment, and got her headed back in the right direction over the phone when she took a wrong turn going there, but that's how it goes.  How do people without family do it?  I'll find out myself in 25 years, I guess.

The state (NC) said your second appointment would be made when you got your first shot, but that didn't happen. The number they wrote down for her is disconnected.  Still not exactly seamless, but getting there.

She has no side effects as of this morning.