Seriously thoughtful The Covid Vaccination Poll

[Thasaidon]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'll be getting vaccinated as soon as I'm offered it, and I'm only 56.

Didn't realise you were such a youngster.

[Sirtel]

Not qualified (I'm not even 50 yet) and anyway I'm waiting to see how it goes. Not sure I'm going to get a vaccine even once it's available to those not in risk groups. I don't have any chronic illnesses (besides a bit of a blood pressure which is nicely under control with medication), I work from home, I don't travel and I don't socialize. So no particular reason to get vaccinated for me personally. I've never even done a flu vaccine, and flu is common here. (BTW, I'm not anti-vaccination in general; it's just that my personal lifestyle renders most vaccinations pretty pointless.)

My mother who is 83 and living in a nursing home has gotten the first shot and is scheduled for the second in February.

[Elektron]

I'm not qualified yet; only 12. We're waiting to see how the situation is by the time the vaccine is available to the general public... around fall.

[Victoria]

I’m not qualified yet either, but will get one as soon as it’s available. Vaccines are in short supply here in Nova Scotia. We just received a new shipment of 8000, so they can begin vaccinations for people 80 + in the general public. The first rounds went to nursing home residents and high risk health care workers. I hope we’ll have a better supply by late autumn.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by issybird

I know the distribution center nearest me is a drive-through, which presupposes being able to drive or having a relative or friend who’s willing to ferry you. I wonder if Uber’s doing a vaccination business? But for those with mobility issues the drive-through seems a lot more convenient and that’s in addition to the benefit of not being inside a facility with a lot of frustrated people.

It seems every state has its horror stories. I think I saw that it rolled out smoothly in West Virginia?

Some counties have a few drive through sites, but most of the sites are walk through. People have been standing in line for up to 11 hours in some cases then told to go home because they ran out of vaccines before they got to them. My county doesn't allow us to choose the site, if it is a county site, they select which one and the time and notify you a day or two ahead of time. We are allowed to go to non-county sites if we can find one, but most don’t have enough vaccines so we get turned down. Some sites, like my doctor's office, have never been able to get any vaccines even though they were approved to get them several months ago.

Basically, the Federal system decides how many vaccines a state gets and does the arrangements to ship them. The state then decides where and how many vaccines get distributed to counties/metro areas, and the state decides who qualifies for a vaccine. The local governments then decide where the vaccine will be administered and how. So every location (county/city) is unique, which makes it confusing. I live in the SW part of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro which is composed of 7.6 million people in six or more counties and dozens of cities. The local news media tries to give us directions, but they only know the directions for some counties and some cities. My city is too small to have a vaccine administering site, so I have to go through my county or find an independent site, and independent sites are virtually non-existent. I applied a few weeks ago and still have not heard back from the county. The counties and cities are simply too swamped to be efficient yet.

So for now I need to be patient and continue to stay at home as far from other people as possible. The first part is hard! The second is pretty much what I do anyway since I’m old and don't have family nearby nor much of a reason to get out in public except to get groceries, go to doctor visits, and a few things like that. The ones I feel sorry for or those who are at high risk and have no choice but to be around other people quite a bit.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Just on age, even if you're otherwise well, if you catch the virus you have a 1 in 200 chance of dying of it.

I'll tell you - it feels plenty weird for me to be the same age as old people. I don't get it.

[Gardenman]

In California. My first shot is scheduled. I am in the group who can get it 70+. My county says I cannot get it until the first week of March.

[Elektron]

I mean, I *do* want it, but it really depends on what the situation is when they decide that 12 year olds can be vaccinated...

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Victoria

I hope we’ll have a better supply by late autumn.

And I'm hoping you guys won't be so jealous of us Americans, with our undeserved earlier vaccine availability, to condemn my, by then, card-carrying, fully-vaccinated, family to a second summer of no Canadian vacation.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

And I'm hoping you guys won't be so jealous of us Americans, with our undeserved earlier vaccine availability, to condemn my, by then, card-carrying, fully-vaccinated, family to a second summer of no Canadian vacation.

The problem is that herd immunity requires mass vaccination. Any particular person, even if vaccinated, might still catch and pass on the disease. Allowing even vaccinated Americans into an unvaccinated Canadian population would be madness.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The problem is that herd immunity requires mass vaccination. Any particular person, even if vaccinated, might still catch and pass on the disease. Allowing even vaccinated Americans into an unvaccinated Canadian population would be madness.

Yep, because even if vaccinated, not all vaccinated develop the necessary antibodies. I had to have german measles vac titered and repeated several times because of that. Paul, I can't believe I'm older than you!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Elektron

I mean, I *do* want it, but it really depends on what the situation is when they decide that 12 year olds can be vaccinated...

You've got 4 to 6 years to wait. According to what I've seen, in Canada the minimum age for Pfizer-BioNTech is 16 years and Moderna is 18 years.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

And I'm hoping you guys won't be so jealous of us Americans, with our undeserved earlier vaccine availability, to condemn my, by then, card-carrying, fully-vaccinated, family to a second summer of no Canadian vacation.

Considering the number of Americans who have crossed the border into British Columbia claiming to be on their way to Alaska? Somehow, they seem to keep getting lost along the way. You mean Harrison Hot Springs isn't on the route to Alaska? You can't take a ferry from Victoria to Tok?

Admittedly, the number of Canadian snowbirds finding their way to Florida is equally ugly.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You've got 4 to 6 years to wait. According to what I've seen, in Canada the minimum age for Pfizer-BioNTech is 16 years and Moderna is 18 years.

Prediction in this area is so error-prone that I hesitate to say you are wrong. But there is work going on with the hope of getting pediatric vaccine authorization this year:

Pfizer fully enrolls pediatric COVID-19 vaccine trial with more than 2K kids

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You've got 4 to 6 years to wait. According to what I've seen, in Canada the minimum age for Pfizer-BioNTech is 16 years and Moderna is 18 years.

They are doing pediatric testing here in Minneapolis and other places. Don't know how long they do trials before approval though.