When it is ready, will you get the vaccine?

[Alistair]

Your State opened the vaccines to everyone on 29-Mar, so there should not be a wait. Most of the major retail pharmacies - RiteAid, CVS, Walgreens, etc are administering vaccines.

What I've been recommending to people is that if they can't get an appointment within a week, look in "red" areas in the suburbs and outside cities. There's a lot more available appointments in areas where vaccine skeptics live.

I signed up with Discount Drug Mart which at the time was the only one in the area that was doing it. I could have gotten into the mass vaccination center in Cleveland easy but I didn’t want to miss a days work and drive in. I’m going to check some other places.

 

[belamyi]

^ Perks of life into the woods against towards the city

 

[Alistair]

I just went through a bunch of places and found only 1 appointment tomorrow at 2. I took it.

 

[belamyi]

- - - Updated - - -

I just went through a bunch of places and found only 1 appointment tomorrow at 2.

What?! In the morning

They are really speeding the pace over there

 

[Araucaria]

I just got my first Pfizer injection this morning. Locally, they're administering the vaccine in a large tent at the fairgrounds. It was just a few minutes to go through the process and get the injection. The longest waits were getting into the parking lot, and the 15 minutes they require you to sit after the shot (they told me to wait 30 minutes because I told them I was allergic to fluoride-- dentists don't believe me). So far I've had no side effects whatsoever, but it's only been about 2 1/2 hours.

 

[DepravedMuscleFTL]

FINALLY got my covid vax today - Johnson - ONE AND DONE!

 

[frankfrank]

if they can't get an appointment within a week, look in "red" areas in the suburbs and outside cities. There's a lot more available appointments in areas where vaccine skeptics live.

Trying to get an appointment anywhere near Chicago in late January/first few days of February, was a total zoo. That continued deep into March - and even now, in April, I have a couple of friends STILL having trouble getting appointments in the metro area.

Kara, I deduced the VERY SAME advice you gave us here, and it required a little bit of "outside-the-box thinking." Chicago is very close to two other states (well within one hour from me): Wisconsin and Indiana. I decided to check and see if either of these states allowed people from Illinois to get vaccines.

I checked Wisconsin first, "just because"...both states are similarly easy to get to. In fact, Indiana is actually a little bit easier. HOWEVER, see the below...

Wisconsin's website seemed to be very confusing to me, so I decided to try Indiana. Besides, the convenient part of Wisconsin is still part of the Lake Michigan megalopolis, which stretches from northwest Indiana to the northern suburbs of Milwaukee, and cities seemed to be having the most problems.

Though Indiana is a tiny bit easier than Wisconsin to reach, the part that I decided to try (IF Wisconsin didn't work out) IS NOT. My reasoning was the same as yours, Kara: I felt that the two suburban counties, which are the nearest to me but also have a substantial suburban population density, might be having supply issues. If some Chicago-area people were trying to get vaccines in Indiana, they would ALWAYS try to find vaccines in Lake or perhaps Porter County, Indiana's two "suburban Chicago" counties.

I DIDN'T EVEN *TRY* THOSE. I immediately looked at Newton and Jasper Counties, which are south of those, and which are mostly RURAL (and quite "red" politically). I knew I'd need to travel at least 70 or 80 miles each way, but that didn't deter me. I thought there was a good chance they had a decent supply, partially because of their politics, and none of the "Chicago people" would be trying to go there.

After all, keep in mind that around 01 February, whatever distribution there was, was still happening mostly under distribution that was mostly influenced by Donald Trump and other Republicans, with Biden being way too "freshly" in office to have effected any real changes yet. Furthermore, the fact that Mike Pence comes from Indiana, told me that Indiana may be more fortunate. Assuming that "red" states/areas may have been favored in distribution may or may not have been faulty reasoning, but the fact is that I found an appointment in Jasper County [Rensselaer] and it WAS. SO. DAMNED. EASY.

10 March was my second [Moderna] jab. Both times there was no issue at all parking, NO queue the first time and only two people ahead of me the second time.

I have NO idea how many hours and hours I may have saved myself, and CERTAINLY a lot of frustration in feeling like I was trying to "score really good tickets to a Rolling Stones concert" - Illinois opens up appointments in first-come, first-served blocks which is brutal.

So, I entirely SECOND what KaraBulut says. It IS possible there were potential rural sources in Illinois, but they weren't much closer than those towns out past the Chicago exurbs, and the Illinois rollout was only ranked 47th (out of 50 U. S. states and District of Columbia), so that's doubtful.

I just went through a bunch of places and found only 1 appointment tomorrow at 2. I took it.

That is excellent news, Alistair! I was so hoping you could finally get in.

FINALLY got my covid vax today - Johnson - ONE AND DONE!

YAYYYY!! Rock on!

 

[frankfrank]

^ Correction:

So, I entirely SECOND what KaraBulut says. It IS possible there were potential rural sources in Illinois, but they weren't much closer than those towns out past the Chicago exurbs,

It IS possible there were potential rural sources in Illinois, but those rural places out past the Chicago exurbs aren't that much closer than where I tried in Indiana, anyway, and they're no easier to get to.

The place I went is about ninety miles away.

 

[GayCook]

I am currently waiting for my second dose which should be around the end of May since here in the UK we have 12 weeks between the first and seconds doses.

 

[belamyi]

^ You mean the AZ one?: that timing goes with the vaccine, not with the country's vaccination strategy.

 

[GayCook]

Nope all the vaccines over here are 12 weeks between doses. I had the Pfizer one.
The UK government made all the doses 12 weeks apart so they could get more people partially vaccinated instead of having less people fully vaccinated.

 

[belamyi]

^ Oh, I obviously knew about UK's more rational policy of having as many people as possible get a first jab, but had not stopped thinking about how might affect the sequentiation of the administration: I just assumed the UK had all the vaccines they wanted, and were following the usual timing.
So they have decided to set the same longer limit of the AZ one to all the rest. Over here the Pfizer one has been being distributed to the older population with a three-week gap between doses, and now the Janssen, targeted for people in their 70s, is finally expected to boost the rates of both spread and effectivity, since it needs only one shot, and reaches its maximum effectivity only two weeks after receiving the jab.
It still seems more "rational" to spread protection as much as possible, irrespective of the higher or lesser degree of its fullness.

 

[GayCook]

Initially when they were only vaccinating the older age groups they were doing them about 4 weeks apart but once they got to the younger groups they realised that they wouldn't have the doses to keep that up. So they decided to make them all 12 weeks apart.

We definitely don't have the number of doses we need since we rely mostly on India for our AZ supply and the EU for our Pfizer and soon to be Moderna supply. Even though the AZ one was developed here we don't have the production capacity to supply the country.

 

[belamyi]

we don't have the production capacity to supply the country.

Nobody has
For anything.

 

[GayCook]

The thing is it seems worse here since the past few years of all this brexit talk about how the UK doesn't need the EU/we will be fine as a truly independant nation BS gave some people the impression we would be fine if all relations broke down. Then covid comes along and suddenly we are reliant on the EU and other foreign contries like India for vital supplies and those same people refuse to accept they were lied to.

 

[KaraBulut]

Trying to get an appointment anywhere near Chicago in late January/first few days of February, was a total zoo. That continued deep into March - and even now, in April, I have a couple of friends STILL having trouble getting appointments in the metro area.

Some insight into what happened between Jan-Apr.

The prior Administration put focus on buying vaccine. They believed that the programs to vaccinate the public was the responsibility of the States and a few selected pharmacy chains.

Neither the State public health departments nor the pharmacy chains had existing systems for making appointments for large numbers of people. Because there was no planning and no funding for scheduling systems for mass vaccination, systems were quickly bought and thrown together at the last minute. There was no plan to address the needs of seniors- some of whom don't have computers or smartphones. That's why you heard stories about people sitting in front of computers hitting refresh for hours trying to get appointments.

It has gotten better in the past month. The new Administration has setup mass vaccination "hubs" which are often large healthcare systems who have the large scheduling and electronic health record systems that can handle the volume of people who need to be vaccinated. The Administration also passed legislation to get money to States so that they can buy systems to handle mass scheduling and so that they can do things like buy vans to use as mobile clinics that can go into neighborhoods that don't have a CVS or Walgreens.

I have NO idea how many hours and hours I may have saved myself, and CERTAINLY a lot of frustration in feeling like I was trying to "score really good tickets to a Rolling Stones concert" - Illinois opens up appointments in first-come, first-served blocks which is brutal.

So, I entirely SECOND what KaraBulut says. It IS possible there were potential rural sources in Illinois, but they weren't much closer than those towns out past the Chicago exurbs, and the Illinois rollout was only ranked 47th (out of 50 U. S. states and District of Columbia), so that's doubtful.

^Exactly this.

There is plenty of vaccine out there. There are plenty of places where you can get an appointment. Unfortunately, it does still take some searching and word-of-mouth networking to find out where they are and to get the first appointment. If you're in Chicago, look around for vaccine in the suburbs. In you're in a place like New Mexico that doesn't have their act together, look around in nearby places Colorado and Texas that have plenty of vaccine and plenty of vaccine skeptics who aren't taking the vaccine.

It does take some work and once your do find where to get an appointment, tell your friends so that they can get their appointment, too.

 

[belamyi]

The thing is it seems worse here since the past few years of all this brexit talk about how the UK doesn't need the EU/we will be fine as a truly independant nation BS gave some people the impression we would be fine if all relations broke down. Then covid comes along and suddenly we are reliant on the EU and other foreign contries like India for vital supplies and those same people refuse to accept they were lied to.

One can not be lied to when one is told perfect nonsense.

 

[ClubLevelVegan]

Just for some info, they are putting a pause on the J&J vaccine because of a rare severe type of blood clot.

U.S. recommends "pause" for Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine to review blood clot cases

 

[belamyi]

^ Yes, I saw that less than one hour ago, and I wonder how long will it take for Europe, Spain of course included, to start repeating the same AZ mess with that vaccine tomorrow was expected to start the Janssen vaccination in Spain

 

[GayCook]

Well they might do what a lot of countries are doing with the AZ one and restrict it to people over a certain age since most cases of blood clots have been in younger people.

It seems that vaccines based on inactivated andenovirus vectors might be causing rare immune responses to platelet factor IV that causes the issue.