Neverending Covid-19 Coronavirus

After 3 weeks being after pre registering, I finally got the text that it's mine turn in the the line to book an appointment to get my first shot.

I got the text at 2:30 yesterday afternoon. I could have gotten the shot at 4:45pm yesterday, but it would have required a 2 and a half to 3 hour drive to the mass vaccination location in Western Massachusetts. Not likely to have been able to make that appointment do the long drive.

Most of the appointments available were in the western part of the state. Not surprised. Less population, and less demand due to a lot of republicans out that way.

I was able to find 3 available appointments only a 30 minute drive away on thursday night. So I booked one for Thursday night after dinner.
 
The situation in India is freaking scary. I have a coworker from there and she already has multiple family members and friends who have died of COVID. And it's only speeding up.

They are getting over 300k positive new tests A DAY, and that's with the crackdown on the release of proper information. The risk of further mutation nullifying the existing vaccines is a real danger.
 
On the news this morning was a report that 8% of people getting their first dose are now skipping their second dose and not getting it at all.

A lot of this has to do with having a reaction to the shot, such as a sore arm, headache or sweats and chills after having the first shot or hearing about others feeling sick after their second shot. This is suspected of scaring many of those 8% from getting their second dose. The other possible explanation is people are unable to get the time off from work to get their second dose.

The latest poll shows 1/5th of Americans are adamant that they will not get the shot whatsoever.


Outside of the 1/5th of Americans who refuse to get the shot, the biggest thing holding back the rest of Americans now from getting the vaccine is the ability to get time off from work. Getting time off from work is not an option for millions. And unless this issue is addressed, we will struggle to get enough people vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
The other possible explanation is people are unable to get the time off from work to get their second dose.
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Or that they don't want to have to take a day off for the side effects...so a day off for the shot and a day off for the side effects equals more than some people can make happen, unfortunately.

I'm not surprised by the number being 1/5 although I'm saddened by it. I know so many who have opted out. "Not enough research" is the main reason, but I have a couple "it's experimental gene therapy" people at my work.
 
Another reason listed during the 12:00 news hour as to why people are not getting there second dose is that some feel they are adequately protected after one dose and do not need to get the second.

8% is the number of people eligible to have received their second dose and their vaccine window has passed without them getting it. It's also noted that this percentage is growing.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Outside of the 1/5th of Americans who refuse to get the shot, the biggest thing holding back the rest of Americans now from getting the vaccine is the ability to get time off from work. Getting time off from work is not an option for millions. And unless this issue is addressed, we will struggle to get enough people vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
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So this is (sort of) my problem. Right now, we are in the middle of our busiest time of year. I am pulling a lot of late hours and every time I think it's easing up, I get another group that doesn't have someone assigned so they stick me with whatever orphaned group. It sucks, but it's an expected suck. I want to get vaccinated, but I'm concerned that it will make me sick and I'll have to take a day off. Any other time of the year, no big deal, but right now, I can't afford to be sick. In two weeks, my workload should be at the level where I can finally take off if I have an adverse reaction. But until then, I'm just avoiding people and wearing my mask.

This is a very real thing though. And it's not because people can't get off to get the shot, it's that people are concerned about how sick they could potentially be after the shot, and how they are going to deal with that and a work schedule that doesn't let people be sick.
 
nolalady said:
So this is (sort of) my problem. Right now, we are in the middle of our busiest time of year. I am pulling a lot of late hours and every time I think it's easing up, I get another group that doesn't have someone assigned so they stick me with whatever orphaned group. It sucks, but it's an expected suck. I want to get vaccinated, but I'm concerned that it will make me sick and I'll have to take a day off. Any other time of the year, no big deal, but right now, I can't afford to be sick. In two weeks, my workload should be at the level where I can finally take off if I have an adverse reaction. But until then, I'm just avoiding people and wearing my mask.

This is a very real thing though. And it's not because people can't get off to get the shot, it's that people are concerned about how sick they could potentially be after the shot, and how they are going to deal with that and a work schedule that doesn't let people be sick.
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I am in the same boat. I just got my second shot and I was very up-front with my boss(es) about how I was expecting to miss work tomorrow. Luckily most of them already have had their shots and are understanding because they had nasty reactions too. Although one of my bosses tried to shrug off my concerns because his reaction wasn't very bad.
 
All that is incredibly disappointing to me. This is so important... I feel like you should have some sort of legal defense for vaccination and a reasonable recovery period. If they can make it so that Jury Duty is legally protected, then protecting the population of the country should be as well.


Humanity is doomed. I need to buy more records.
 
Bill Gates is an asshole who only pretends to care about public health.

Bill Gates, one of the world's richest men and most powerful philanthropists, was the target of criticism from social justice campaigners on Sunday after arguing that lifting patent protections on COVID-19 vaccine technology and sharing recipes with the world to foster a massive ramp up in manufacturing and distribution — despite a growing international call to do exactly that — is a bad idea.

Directly asked during an interview with Sky News if he thought it "would be helpful" to have vaccine recipes be shared, Gates quickly answered: "No."

Asked to explain why not, Gates — whose massive fortune as founder of Microsoft relies largely on intellectual property laws that turned his software innovations into tens of billions of dollars in personal wealth — said: "Well, there's only so many vaccine factories in the world and people are very serious about the safety of vaccines. And so moving something that had never been done — moving a vaccine, say, from a [Johnson & Johnson] factory into a factory in India — it's novel — it's only because of our grants and expertise that that can happen at all."
www.salon.com

Bill Gates says no to sharing vaccine formulas with global poor to end pandemic

Health advocates blast Microsoft billionaire for saying patent protections on life-saving vaccines must remain
www.salon.com www.salon.com
 
gouis said:
The situation in India is freaking scary. I have a coworker from there and she already has multiple family members and friends who have died of COVID. And it's only speeding up.

They are getting over 300k positive new tests A DAY, and that's with the crackdown on the release of proper information. The risk of further mutation nullifying the existing vaccines is a real danger.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's getting really really bad. About half my team is in India and we've had a few people out because it, but I've heard that other teams have been absolutely decimated by members or their family getting covid. And it's getting worse seemingly by the hour. We're starting to have staffing problems because of it. One team who is in the middle of a high profile launch had to ask the client for extra time because they don't have the healthy developers to do the work.
 
One of the reports I heard on the Today Show this morning related to India was how this could be an emergency for us here in the United States soon. Not the covid cases, but the direct effects of what is going on in India.

4/5ths of prescriptions in the United States are generics. These generic drugs are widely manufactured in India. So if manufacturing shuts down due to the covid outbreak, we could have a prescription drug shortage here in the United States. People not able to get their prescriptions because they are either unavailable or their insurance won't cover a brand name drug manufactured right here in the United States.
 
nolalady said:
Bill Gates is an asshole who only pretends to care about public health.

Bill Gates, one of the world's richest men and most powerful philanthropists, was the target of criticism from social justice campaigners on Sunday after arguing that lifting patent protections on COVID-19 vaccine technology and sharing recipes with the world to foster a massive ramp up in manufacturing and distribution — despite a growing international call to do exactly that — is a bad idea.

Directly asked during an interview with Sky News if he thought it "would be helpful" to have vaccine recipes be shared, Gates quickly answered: "No."

Asked to explain why not, Gates — whose massive fortune as founder of Microsoft relies largely on intellectual property laws that turned his software innovations into tens of billions of dollars in personal wealth — said: "Well, there's only so many vaccine factories in the world and people are very serious about the safety of vaccines. And so moving something that had never been done — moving a vaccine, say, from a [Johnson & Johnson] factory into a factory in India — it's novel — it's only because of our grants and expertise that that can happen at all."
www.salon.com

Bill Gates says no to sharing vaccine formulas with global poor to end pandemic

Health advocates blast Microsoft billionaire for saying patent protections on life-saving vaccines must remain
www.salon.com www.salon.com
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Sounds like a colonialist. They are good enough to manufacture prescription drugs foor us but can't be trusted to produce vaccine for themselves
 
RenegadeMonster said:
One of the reports I heard on the Today Show this morning related to India was how this could be an emergency for us here in the United States soon. Not the covid cases, but the direct effects of what is going on in India.

4/5ths of prescriptions in the United States are generics. These generic drugs are widely manufactured in India. So if manufacturing shuts down due to the covid outbreak, we could have a prescription drug shortage here in the United States. People not able to get their prescriptions because they are either unavailable or their insurance won't cover a brand name drug manufactured right here in the United States.
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We rely on India and China for both active ingredient synthesis and drug manufacturing, with China edging out India on the active ingredient side of things. This is an article from 2019, and was already a known hole in our supply chain.

While the Department of Defense only purchases a small quantity of finished pharmaceuticals from China, about 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to make drugs in the United States are said to come from China and other countries like India. For example, the chemical starting material used to make doxycycline, the recommended treatment for anthrax exposure, comes from China. When an influential Chinese economist earlier this year suggested that Beijing curb its exports of raw materials for vitamins and antibiotics as a countermeasure in the trade war with the United States, the worries surrounding our API dependence to China seemed to be vindicated. Concern about a disruption in the supply chain could explain why the tariffs on Chinese products proposed by the United States Trade Representative in May 2019, worth approximately $300 billion, excludes “pharmaceuticals, certain pharmaceutical inputs, and select medical goods.”
www.cfr.org

U.S. Dependence on Pharmaceutical Products From China

Last month, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission held a hearing on the United States’ growing reliance on China's pharmaceutical products. The topic reminded me of a spirited discus…
www.cfr.org www.cfr.org
 
mdmost said:
I'm ready for my kids to eventually get the vaccine as Disneyland said out of staters like us can come in the future if we have been vaccinated. So maybe we'll just ditch the kids and do a parents trip. That's not weird is it?
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In all honesty. No. Not weird at all. My girlfriend and I went to Disney World for a week right before this all started, and it was the best trip we’ve ever been on. We don’t even have kids!! 🤣 It was just so much good food, drinks, and rides.
I do like that Disneyland has come out and said “if you’re fully vaxxed you’re welcome from out-of-state”. It’s the biggest entertainment company in the world. If this works, others will follow suit. We could be seeing Full Vax Concerts in the coming months and I am so down for that!
 
Skeletonframes said:
In all honesty. No. Not weird at all. My girlfriend and I went to Disney World for a week right before this all started, and it was the best trip we’ve ever been on. We don’t even have kids!! 🤣 It was just so much good food, drinks, and rides.
I do like that Disneyland has come out and said “if you’re fully vaxxed you’re welcome from out-of-state”. It’s the biggest entertainment company in the world. If this works, others will follow suit. We could be seeing Full Vax Concerts in the coming months and I am so down for that!
Click to expand...
I have never been to Disney with my kids, but I have been without them. I can say with certainty that going to Disney without kids is way more fun than going to Disney with kids.
 
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