Have you gotten a COVID vaccine?

[TXAKDisneyFan]

Yeah, and like no other state has had a supply and demand issue. And yet here we sit in dead last. I swear we are in one of the worst counties in the worst state.

It's ridiculous to base access on whether you had a preexisting relationship with a hospital.

Where I'm at in TX it's a real mixed bag.

As far as we know, a private hospital system with multiple large hospitals here has born the brunt of the covid admissions throughout the pandemic. Yet they received approx 1/4 of the vacc doses that the county hospital did. As a consequence, the county hospital had all of their employees scheduled for vaccination 5-7 days before initial vacc delivery in December, including those with little to no covid contact. But at the private hospital with the most cases, nurses in the covid ward had no timeline whatsoever for vaccination because they had to be much more frugal with their distribution.

We've since moved on to 1b (which includes anyone age 65+ and 16+ with certain medical conditions). Some hospitals were vaccinating employees (1a) and then moved to relatives of employees in group 1b. There is at least one large community vacc site. The county hosp is the only one I know of that requires vacc recipients to be prior patients at that hospital. (I know some clinics have been vaccinating their patients but on a much smaller scale.) I'm sure being a prior patient makes whatever paperwork that much faster, but obviously also presents a huge barrier to access for a lot of people. So many of us don't have primary care providers for whatever reason.

I think on that smaller clinic scale, limiting vacc to prior patients makes more sense. It's much more manageable for them to contact specific patients as they become eligible versus a hospital with thousands and thousands of patients, many of whom have only been seen once and by specialists who may not have their full histories. I'm glad for all the various locations that are able to vaccinate and help spread the workload, but I think it makes more sense for hospitals to not require a preexisting relationship.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

CA made the mistake of directing most(?) of their vaccines to the two big health care systems (Kaiser and Sutter), and it's created bottlenecks and inconsistency between counties.

Where did you get that information? According to Kaiser in SoCal, they're just one of 58 counties and 9 multi-county entities receiving the vaccine. They're only getting approximately 40,000 doses a week (for the whole Kaiser system). Since Kaiser/California has over 9 million members, 40,000 doses a week doesn't go very far.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Where did you get that information? According to Kaiser in SoCal, they're just one of 58 counties and 9 multi-county entities receiving the vaccine. They're only getting approximately 40,000 doses a week (for the whole Kaiser system). Since Kaiser/California has over 9 million members, 40,000 doses a week doesn't go very far.

That's why I said most with a question mark. I'm going off what has happen in the Bay Area, and basically the only place you could try to get vaccines in our area for the first month was Kaiser and Sutter. I think some of the other health care providers started to get them in the last two weeks, but basically that's it. No Safeways, no county fairs, no clinic etc. until today where they finally opened a pop up in Oakland. From friends I know in other Northern CA counties, it's the same. I think Stanford and UCSF were also available for people in those counties, but the Bay Area has been starved for non-Kaiser/Sutter choices. I was desperately trying to get my parents appointments and going through all the local county websites. Alameda County is still pathetic. https://covid-19.acgov.org/vaccines Stanford wasn't there when I was looking a couple weeks ago. They were only doing people in Santa Clara county at the time even though they have offices in the East Bay.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Interesting article on CA's vaccine problems: California’s early vaccine rollout was chaotic and filled with problems. Here’s what went wrong

(If the article is behind a paywall, try opening the link in a private window -- sometimes that works.)

 

[sasywtch]

That's why I said most with a question mark. I'm going off what has happen in the Bay Area, and basically the only place you could try to get vaccines in our area for the first month was Kaiser and Sutter. I think some of the other health care providers started to get them in the last two weeks, but basically that's it. No Safeways, no county fairs, no clinic etc. until today where they finally opened a pop up in Oakland. From friends I know in other Northern CA counties, it's the same. I think Stanford and UCSF were also available for people in those counties, but the Bay Area has been starved for non-Kaiser/Sutter choices. I was desperately trying to get my parents appointments and going through all the local county websites. Alameda County is still pathetic. https://covid-19.acgov.org/vaccines Stanford wasn't there when I was looking a couple weeks ago. They were only doing people in Santa Clara county at the time even though they have offices in the East Bay.

You are correct. The only way I got one as my daughter's care giver was that I was a Kaiser member. If I had had BC/BS I would not have had anywhere to go to get the vaccine even though i was in the home health aide group. (I'm in Sacramento). I did get a facebook message today that Sacramento County has now set up something at the Sacramento State Univ and UCD and Dignity Health also has it in addition to Sutter and kaiser. I still have no idea where my daughter will be able to get hers as she is straight medi-care but has Sutter home health nurses. I'm still thinking that since he is still going to do the homeless before those with numerous health issues, I'm pushing my daughter in her wheelchair to the homeless line.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm still thinking that since he is still going to do the homeless before those with numerous health issues, I'm pushing my daughter in her wheelchair to the homeless line

Can you maybe stop with your prejudice against homeless individuals? It's really starting to drag the thread, hate the game (the priority order) not the player (those experiencing homelessness), you seem much more hating the player.

 

[Gary M]

I received my first shot yesterday (Feb 2)

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

You are correct. The only way I got one as my daughter's care giver was that I was a Kaiser member. If I had had BC/BS I would not have had anywhere to go to get the vaccine even though i was in the home health aide group. (I'm in Sacramento). I did get a facebook message today that Sacramento County has now set up something at the Sacramento State Univ and UCD and Dignity Health also has it in addition to Sutter and kaiser. I still have no idea where my daughter will be able to get hers as she is straight medi-care but has Sutter home health nurses. I'm still thinking that since he is still going to do the homeless before those with numerous health issues, I'm pushing my daughter in her wheelchair to the homeless line.

I hope you find something soon! I just saw something about Sacramento County (might be behind a paywall?) https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article248881479.html that they are opening three "secret" mass sites--including one near the expo--that will hopefully at some point open to the general public. KCRA also had a recent story on it.

 

[Farro]

Got my second dose of Moderna about an hour ago.

I will say, the first dose hurt going in my arm, which was weird as vaccines don't normally bother me.
This time, I felt nothing! Must have been the difference in the person administering.

So I'll see how I feel. I'm one of those people that had a delayed rash at the injection site - showed up about 8 or 9 days later. I'll see if it happens again! They had me take a benadryl before and use opposite arm this time.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

for those who are compromised and under 55. How do you know if you fall into this. My wife has scleroderma and might be. Who makes this distinction and what do you need.

 

[JimMIA]

We've had pretty good distribution generally in the South Florida area, but I am aware of one hospital system issue.

Our very first distribution was directly to several hospital systems for the purpose of immunizing healthcare professionals with direct patient contact -- which was both sensible and well-managed. But once their staff had been vaccinated, they branched out a bit.

One hospital opened up to anyone over a certain age (at the time, I believe it was 75). That was not limited to their own patients and they soon ran out of their allotment. Another hospital (my greatly preferred system) started to offer it to their patients, but almost as soon as they did, they stopped and joined a county-run program instead.

The largest hospital, however, took a different approach -- only serving certain populations. This hospital is our county-owned public hospital -- Jackson Health System. They have chosen to vaccinate only members of one minority community who are over 65 (in a county which is heavily minority majority -- 70+% of our population are minority) and one "special" group. The "special" group is school board employees over 65 years of age. So despite being a county hospital, they are only offering vaccinations to two tiny groups of people now.

That said, we have two large vaccination sites run by the State of Florida and two others run by the county. Those are serving thousands more people than the micro-focused Jackson Health effort, and they also receive the lion's share of the vaccine.

 

[AussieFan8]

for those who are compromised and under 55. How do you know if you fall into this. My wife has scleroderma and might be. Who makes this distinction and what do you need.

I would suggest that she ask her doctor. I am under 55 and have an autoimmune disease. My doctor told me since it is not systemic, I would not meet the criteria for immunocompromised for the vaccine.

 

[lifesavacation]

Update on my two sons (25, 24) who got the Pfizer vaccine. It’s day 2 and their only side effect is a sore arm. I was a little concerned about one of them because he developed full body hives as a child once to a flu vaccine within 30 minutes of getting the shot, but he’s been totally fine.

 

[gillep]

I got my second Moderna vaccine yesterday at 9:30am. 13 minutes into my observation period I felt a full body flush and experienced blurred vision lasting about 5 seconds, it was quite alarming. For the next few hours I continued to experience flushes and felt very unsteady. I also experienced the worst brain fog of my life yesterday, I just could not think at all or process information.

Last night at 10:30 pm I started experiencing chills, joint pain, muscle pain, lower back pain, and headache. At some point last night I developed a fever of 100.4. I still have the headache this afternoon and feel 'off' but not too bad.

 

[lifesavacation]

I got my second Moderna vaccine yesterday at 9:30am. 13 minutes into my observation period I felt a full body flush and experienced blurred vision lasting about 5 seconds, it was quite alarming. For the next few hours I continued to experience flushes and felt very unsteady. I also experienced the worst brain fog of my life yesterday, I just could not think at all or process information.

Last night at 10:30 pm I started experiencing chills, joint pain, muscle pain, lower back pain, and headache. At some point last night I developed a fever of 100.4. I still have the headache this afternoon and feel 'off' but not too bad.

Do you have anxiety? I had the flushing to the Moderna shot as well. It hit within 1 minute and then my heart started racing. I assumed it was my anxiety and I wasn’t going to alert anyone unless I started having trouble breathing. I also had the flushing (I’ve always just labeled it as adrenaline) with my flu shot and never had an actual reaction. I’m still planning to get my 2nd shot. I’ll probably take a lorazepam before the appointment.

 

[gillep]

Do you have anxiety? I had the flushing to the Moderna shot as well. It hit within 1 minute and then my heart started racing. I assumed it was my anxiety and I wasn’t going to alert anyone unless I started having trouble breathing. I also had the flushing (I’ve always just labeled it as adrenaline) with my flu shot and never had an actual reaction. I’m still planning to get my 2nd shot. I’ll probably take a lorazepam before the appointment.

No, especially not medical anxiety. I work with a few physicians that I saw when I got back to the office from my appointment and they said it sounded like a mild histamine reaction and none were too concerned, especially as it had been over an hour post vaccine at that point and I looked good to them. It was just so strange because I was sitting there just thinking that my 15 min waiting period was about over, so I could leave in a couple minutes, and was just browsing Reddit when all of a sudden my vision blurred and my whole body flushed. A coworker also experienced the flushing and rapid heart rate with the Pfizer vaccine.

 

[lifesavacation]

No, especially not medical anxiety. I work with a few physicians that I saw when I got back to the office from my appointment and they said it sounded like a mild histamine reaction and none were too concerned, especially as it had been over an hour post vaccine at that point and I looked good to them. It was just so strange because I was sitting there just thinking that my 15 min waiting period was about over, so I could leave in a couple minutes, and was just browsing Reddit when all of a sudden my vision blurred and my whole body flushed. A coworker also experienced the flushing and rapid heart rate with the Pfizer vaccine.

Interesting. Well I’m glad it was nothing concerning and you are on your way to immunity. Now you just need to stay away from COVID for a couple of weeks

 

[gdrj]

for those who are compromised and under 55. How do you know if you fall into this. My wife has scleroderma and might be. Who makes this distinction and what do you need.

Each State and/or County may have different parameters. In my State I went online and it asks a series of questions as to if you are qualified to sign-up,

 

[Farro]

Second dose update - I feel like butt!

that is all.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Second dose update - I feel like butt!

that is all.

Hope you feel better soon.