Coronavirus

It's complex in the U.S. and each state is different.

I know someone in their 30s who received theirs because their BMI was 40. I know someone else in their 30s who got it because they have lymphoma.

I'm 36 and able to get it starting March 15th as they just announced my tier will be opened up then. It's because I work for an IT services organization.

I also know people who have gotten it by going to a Walgreens around closing time, at which point they open it up to anyone as they don't want to throw out doses that were scheduled that day but the people no showed.

It's so close, I am excited. California is fucking huge, so as a healthy, wealthy, 40-something, computer-based, work-from-home guy, I might actually be the last non-child to get the vaccine in this state. I am pretty sure all gorillas and some people's dogs get the vaccine ahead of me. But I am still fired up.

My wife was eligible based on an educator criteria loophole.

Since we'd already done the clinical trial back in January, she called to get unblinded from the trial. She discovered she got the real stuff, so she didn't need the loophole and it can go to someone else in line.

I had no doubt I didn't get the placebo, because the second shot kicked my ass bad enough that I took a sick day (and I work from home! just sitting at my desk was too much...). So that's us done.

Out of our collected three sets of parents, 5/6 have had at least one shot.

edit: Same category as Jeb (aside from California), I assumed I'd be last in line, which was a big motivator for trying to roll a 3+ with the clinical trial.

Shellhead wrote:

southernman wrote: So I haven't been keeping up with vaccinations in the US, has the US had a massive supply of vaccine shipped over the country in the last couple of months that is enabling under 40s to get jabbed now (I'm making the assumption that Hotseat is under 40) ? The UK is motoring through vaccinations (18m done out of population of around 66m) but we have only got down to first jabs for the over 60s recently, with all over 50s done by mid-April.

So far, only 14% of Americans have gotten at least one dose, and only 6% are fully vaccinated so far:

www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-hea...tributed%20to%20them .

There are some production bottlenecks, but distribution is also a big challenge, because we are handling this pandemic like 50 small countries instead of one big nation. Thousands of doses have been wasted, and many undeserving folks have jumped the line. My state has finally gotten somewhat organized within the last two weeks. People can sign up at the state department of health website to get notified when they are eligible for an available vaccination in their area, and the state will send a text message and email. Here is the current timeline, based on age and other factors:

scontent.ffcm1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/...71a01e56&oe=605EBBDC

This is exactly what is happening in Maryland. But I'll add that in my state there are 25 separate jurisdictions, so it isn't 50 small countries, more like 2500 tiny countries.

The state just announced that they're going to create a centralized location to book appointments.

The government had nine months lead time on this and did not use it to build this in advance. I have been asking at my workplace why no one was coming for data because we hold data that they need to do this. No one in the Executive branch of my state contacted us.

This did not sneak up on anyone.

Gary Sax wrote: No, but we have a system where people in certain professions go first depending on the state. That's why I got one, my state had educators quite high in priorities. There's been a lot of debate over whether this has been a good idea since it makes administration slightly more difficult than just an age criteria.

We are at 13-14% of the population, so not doing as well. But it makes sense since the NHS structure, regardless of its other merits or demerits, is kind of an ideal system administratively and practically to mass administer vaccine.

In the UK it was hospital and care home workers and the 80+ then 70+ first that has recently finished (1st jab), now the 60+ are under way plus seriously ill (diabetics etc...) and the final group, in this first rollout, 50+ done by mid-April (still talking 1st jabs).
The idea is to get the people most likely to die or be seriously ill in hospital 70% safe as it was our hospitals overflowing in late Dec and January (and this stopping all other healthcare in them) that was the main priority.
And co-incidentally today the medical/scientific advisors who advise the govt has said the next stage of the vaccination program will carry on with age group stages rather than vocational groups (i.e. teachers, police) following the same paradigm that it will save the most lives, so 40+ from April with the aim of all adults having the first jab by end of July.

And then we will just have to start living life again as normal as we can, COVID is not going away and we will have to accept people will die from it every year like the flu.

Sagrilarus wrote: The government had nine months lead time on this and did not use it to build this in advance. I have been asking at my workplace why no one was coming for data because we hold data that they need to do this. No one in the Executive branch of my state contacted us.

This did not sneak up on anyone.

Assuming that some folks in state governments aren't idiots (yeah, yeah, assumes facts not in evidence), the reason could have been a lack of knowledge on what the Federal government would look like. The states could be doing "Hunger Games - Covid Edition" to get a share of the vaccine when it showed up, or getting it could be "normal", who knows? After having seen a year of the Federal (and some states') response to Covid, if it were my job I'd have probably been scared to come up with a plan.

RobertB wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote: The government had nine months lead time on this and did not use it to build this in advance. I have been asking at my workplace why no one was coming for data because we hold data that they need to do this. No one in the Executive branch of my state contacted us.

This did not sneak up on anyone.

Assuming that some folks in state governments aren't idiots (yeah, yeah, assumes facts not in evidence), the reason could have been a lack of knowledge on what the Federal government would look like. The states could be doing "Hunger Games - Covid Edition" to get a share of the vaccine when it showed up, or getting it could be "normal", who knows? After having seen a year of the Federal (and some states') response to Covid, if it were my job I'd have probably been scared to come up with a plan.

This is the kind of thing you have contingency plans for. This is the kind of thing where you actively work to avoid the Type II error. The Governor’s actions early in this crisis make it pretty clear he knew he was not going to get Federal support.

The only thing that has saved the Governor’s office here is that there is so damn little vaccine to go around. The patchwork pieces aren’t being stressed, the majority of the population isn’t even signing up. When they open vaccination to the 18-65 crowd in the state they’ll have a problem on their hands. 3 million people are going to sign up on six waiting lists each. As it stands they’ve just announced they’re going to create a centralized scheduling system, 11 months after it occured to people like me and my friends.

Straight up — there are some big-ass projects going on in the state and they’re well managed. I know some of these people. Maryland can do this. For whatever reason this was not defined as a project and put into development this past summer. Truth be told, commercial software is available right now that can do this. I work with it. This is a failure of proper risk management.

My brother got his wife a shot by sitting in a 5500 person digital line for many, many hours hoping to get one of like 4500 shot appts in his city in TX for that I believe day. Insane.

Gary Sax wrote: My brother got his wife a shot by sitting in a 5500 person digital line for many, many hours hoping to get one of like 4500 shot appts in his city in TX for that I believe day. Insane.

My county of 575,000 people was allotted 4000 shots for the entire week.

Yeah, that checks out. This was I think for Travis county, which has 1.3 million people.

Before the approval of the single-dose J&J vaccine, I was expecting to vaccinated in late May or early June. But the J&J vaccine has been approved, because it meets the low target threshold of at least 51% efficacy in clinical trials, and soon there will be a lot of doses available. So, the good news is that should speed up the whole timetable for vaccine availability. But I don't want the J&J vaccine. They are downplaying it in the news right now because they want everybody vaccinated ASAP, but J&J's vaccine only had 66% efficacy in trials, with significant variations based on geography. 66% is pretty weak compared to the 95% efficacy of the two-dose vaccines. I realize that getting any vaccine is better than no vaccine, but 66% isn't good enough considering that my girlfriend has a compromised immune system from her cancer treatments. We are currently separated by this pandemic, and I don't think she would feel safe enough to be around me if I got a weak 66% vaccine. Especially if it made me ineligible to receive any other vaccines later.

Doesn't the J&J vaccine has a pretty good efficiency when it comes to the effects of the disease on you? I think I read somewhere that even though the chances of being infected was not as good, you were still pretty safe because it reduced the symptoms or whatever significantly.

Okay, so instead of trying to remember what I read I googled and found the article in question:
www.vox.com/22273502/covid-vaccines-pfiz...neca-efficacy-deaths

Mads, I've read that, too, that the J&J vaccine is at least highly effective at reducing the chance of hospitalization and death. On the other hand, I have also read that even asymptomatic survivors are experiencing long-term effects. Dr. Fauci is currently advocating for the J&J vaccine, saying that the most important thing is avoiding hospitalization and death, but I consider it very nearly as important to avoid catching even a mild case of the virus.

I had read that they are still studying what happens when you get two doses of the J&J vaccine. Hopefully that proves to increase its efficacy.