Getting the vaccine??

[pinkytoe]

I am registered with my health care provider and will wait. Given the crazy winter weather, I wouldn't want to go out chasing other avenues.

[jp1]

Apparently Alaska has the highest vaccination rate of any state. Interesting article about the unique logistical hurdles faced in vaccinating people in a state without roads connecting everything. Sort of like Bae's county but with extra distance and cold weather thrown in to add excitement.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...e?srnd=citylab

One of Zink’s favorite things to do now is scroll through social media to read vaccination stories from across the state: Fairbanks locals biking to their drive-up appointment in sub-zero temperatures; community health aides snowshoeing door-to-door with serums; a Homer boat captain gamely offering to transport nurses through aggressive chop on Kachemak Bay after winter weather grounded their plane, so none of the drug goes to waste. In those posts, she finds words of gratitude and relief and acts of resilience and solidarity.

[Tybee]

We are signed up with the state and we wait and wait, no word. Both of us are eligible supposedly, but they are imposing another age cutoff and only vaccinating those 70 and over at this time. So right now, we are being passed over.

Honestly, I wish they would just do the teachers and the children and family members of children so they could get back to school. I think that's more important than vaccinating us.

[oldhat]

CT opened eligibility to 65s on Thursday. I got my first shot Friday morning.

I had some luck. None of the news media here has done a very good job of explaining exactly what to expect when you finally qualified, so I went online (very) early Thursday morning I learned that there were two systems to navigate. The local towns are mostly running their sites through the CDC "VAMS" system (stands for vaccine availability systems or something like that). However, some local hospitals are also running their own sites. I first went to my local hospital site but couldn't get an appointment until March 13. I then went to the VAMS site and scored another appointment at a mass vaccination site on Feb. 28.

I was ready to settle for that, but just for giggles that evening I went back to the local hospital website, and lo and behold, there were appointments available for the following morning!

I guess the moral of the story is to be persistent and not take anything for granted. Of course, I canceled my other two appointments, so they are now available for someone else who may already have settled for something later.

Second shot set for March 7

[Teacher Terry]

Tybee, I think after essential workers everyone 60 and above should be vaccinated because that’s the group with a high death rate from the virus. Our teachers are vaccinated. I kept looking at every site for a appointment as my younger friend did for her mom. Actually nothing was more important than getting the vaccine. My friend dying 2 months ago made that clear.

[Rogar]

Our state just started into the 65+ group. The majority of the places I've checked are still only taking appointments for the 70+ group. I'm getting the impression that I will need to make a project out of it to get an appointment in the near future. I'm sort of like IL, where I'm not feeling a big rush and things will get easier. I do have a slight concern that at some point people will start getting the less effective vaccines that are still in the approval process. So far it looks like you get what you get and there are no choices.

[Yppej]

My parents finally got an appointment for their first shots tomorrow 45 minutes from their house. I was hoping my brother who lives with them would go, help them navigate the process, and get a companion shot but he didn't. They didn't tell me in time so I could get off work. So now even after their second shot, assuming they are able to get one, I feel like I won't be able to visit them because I work among the public and could infect him. And he has some nutty ideas, one of them being a refusal to carry health insurance, so if he does get sick it could be serious for him.

[SteveinMN]

he has some nutty ideas, one of them being a refusal to carry health insurance, so if he does get sick it could be serious for him.

He's an adult and refuses (not "can't get" or "can't afford") health insurance? COVID-19 can be a medically serious condition for any number of people. But if brother's issue is not the possible severity of the illness but the expense of treating it without health insurance, that decision is on him.

If you want to be super kind and minimize his exposure to you when you visit, fine. But to not be able to visit your parents (they're parents to both of you) because he won't protect himself?

[Yppej]

Yes Steve, refuses. He is very left wing and does not like that a private company runs the state website where uninsured people go to find a policy.

[Teacher Terry]

I wouldn’t not visit my parents because my brother was a moron. You never know how long you will have them.