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Post by htmb on Jan 11, 2021 1:59:33 GMT
Our health department doesn’t seem to be terribly organized, but they took names/numbers (county residents only) a few weeks ago and have supposedly been phoning people to schedule appointments. They’re starting with the oldest applicants and working their way down the list. I have also been checking the big drug store websites because they’re supposed to begin scheduling once they’ve completed assisted living/nursing home vaccinations. Huckle, if you have relatively easy access to a CVS, Walgreens, or Publix, perhaps you can get an appointment with one of their pharmacies once they begin the scheduling process in your area.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 11, 2021 18:12:49 GMT
We've been told that the 4 most at risk groups, around 13/14 million people should have had at least their first vaccine by the end of February. Over 70s and adults who are at extreme risk due to underlying conditions (like Russell). Then they plan to offer the vaccine to adults over 50 hoping to get that done by April.
2/5 of the over 80s have had the vaccine and 1/4 of care home residents (the two populations not necessarily different).
Still lots of doom and gloom tho...they reckon it's going to get worse in the next couple of weeks because of the 'household mingling' allowed over Christmas.
One exciting development, the Health Minister said that it's imperative that England has a robust pharmaceutical industry capable of developing and manufacturing vaccines.
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Post by htmb on Jan 11, 2021 19:53:17 GMT
I just saw something I found very exciting as I drove through one of Florida’s very rural counties. Quite literally the middle of nowhere. I passed through a tiny little one-stoplight town that wouldn’t even need the stoplight if two little highways didn’t intersect. Then, about a mile outside of town, I encountered a long line of about thirty-five cars off to one side and three police cars between them and my highway. It almost looked like a school pickup, except I knew there wasn’t a school in the area, but rather an old convenience store that has had many lives over the years. Then I realized what it was......a rural county, drive-through covid vaccine location. It actually put a smile on my face.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 11, 2021 20:03:55 GMT
That’s really good to hear.
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Post by htmb on Jan 11, 2021 20:12:46 GMT
Knowing I was going to be near that county’s testing site, I had checked last week to see if I could an appointment. It’s through their County Health Department (health departments in Florida are controlled by the state, but have some leeway for operations). Info on their website said they had filled all appointments, but hoped to get more vaccine in the near future. Little by little.
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Post by spaceneedle on Jan 11, 2021 21:35:52 GMT
California's governor just announced vaccination sites at Dodger's Stadium, Padres Stadium and Cal Expo.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 11, 2021 22:35:23 GMT
Then I realized what it was......a rural county, drive-through covid vaccine location. It actually put a smile on my face. Yes ~ very heartening!
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Post by casimira on Jan 12, 2021 0:52:43 GMT
Good to hear HTMB. So far, NOLA seems to be on track with it's vaccination distribution protocols. At least four of my good friends in the 70 year old plus range have had their first shots and others scheduled for this week. T has an appointment for next week. I will obviously have to wait until my age range etc. is eligible but I feel fairly confident that it will happen in a timely fashion.
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Post by mossie on Jan 12, 2021 15:54:07 GMT
Still waiting for my vaccination, but at least I had a negative test.
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Post by htmb on Jan 12, 2021 16:07:54 GMT
Glad your test was negative, Mossie. Hope you’ll get scheduled for the vaccine ASAP!
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 12, 2021 16:21:18 GMT
We have our vaccinations booked for tomorrow!
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Post by tod2 on Jan 12, 2021 16:24:24 GMT
Last night we had yet another talking to by the pesident. All he could say about the vaccine is that the health care workers first. the military and police, then old age homes, then those over 65, then the rest but it would take more than a year. So locked up indefinitely I guess. Looks like we don't have any vaccine yet.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 12, 2021 18:20:24 GMT
Happy to hear that La. is on track, Casimira. And Mick, that is great news!
Mossie, are people in your area being routinely tested?
Not great news from SA, Tod.
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Post by whatagain on Jan 12, 2021 22:12:10 GMT
My wife is confident she will get a vaccine next month. For me, we will see.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 12, 2021 23:22:18 GMT
Yow! I would have thought your wife would have been among the first to be vaccinated.
You, young, non-medical person that you are, will be way down the line.
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Post by questa on Jan 14, 2021 11:53:27 GMT
I think whatagain with his wit and because he is a good chap should qualify as an essential service worker.
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Post by casimira on Jan 14, 2021 16:21:17 GMT
I think whatagain with his wit and because he is a good chap should qualify as an essential service worker. What about me?? (she said while pouting...)
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Post by questa on Jan 14, 2021 23:03:49 GMT
Don't pout, if the wind changes you will stay that way! Of course we are all deserving vaccinating...roll your sleeve up.
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Post by Biddy on Jan 15, 2021 1:19:05 GMT
I am scheduled to get the vaccine on 1/26. I was getting pretty despondent as our rollout here in California has been very slow.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 15, 2021 2:53:51 GMT
That is excellent news, Biddy! A friend of mine was in California visiting her daughter & hoping she could get the vaccine while there. She finally gave up and came back here. She was in LA. In what part of California are you, if you don't mind my asking?
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Post by Kimby on Jan 15, 2021 3:05:08 GMT
Mr. Kimby set himself to the task of getting us on somebody’s vaccination list after I struck out at three pharmacies and a hospital last week.
He started calling and leaving voicemails at the county health departments for the two counties that include the lake our cottage is on. No one answered the phones, but amazingly a nurse returned his call yesterday and we now both have appointments for 1/27 to get the Moderna vaccine shot #1.
Apparently small towns (Granite County has all of 3379 people) may have better access to the vaccine for regular people, while bigger towns like Missoula have lots more health care workers who take precedence. I suspect also that the rural counties may have more anti-vaxxers, leaving more doses for the rest of us.
We had even tried the county in Florida that our Sanibel place is in, but they have TERRIBLE mis management of their distribution of vaccines. The first batch of shots were given out first come first served, so people - old people - showed up at midnight the night before and slept in lawn chairs in the parking lot hoping to get a shot the next day. Many were turned away around 10am when all the doses were gone.
The next week’s tranche was given out by appointments taken by phone, but it was another free-for-all when the phone lines opened up, and people dialed and re-dialed dozens of times in hopes of getting connected to an automated reservation system that took your information, but also often dropped the call before you were done signing up, leaving one to wonder if it “took”. If it did, a health worker called you to set up an appointment the next week.
We tried this week to see if we could get appointments for while we are on Sanibel next month, but though we each had a phone and began calling the second the line opened, we got only busy signals for 10 minutes till all the appointment slots were given out. It only took 10 minutes to “sell out”. Crazy system. So bad that some of our Sanibel neighbors are signing up in other counties, and driving 190 miles for a shot while their spouse got an appointment in a county 1 hour away in the opposite direction. SMH.
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Post by whatagain on Jan 15, 2021 5:29:05 GMT
In Belgium all the doses first goes to elderly people in nursing homes. Then nurses in nursing homes - some are refusing... i would suggest they are kicked out... Then doctors. Then ? My Dad told me he could be vaccined in may ! He is 80. So i figure i have to find a way or wait till june.
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Post by bjd on Jan 15, 2021 7:15:29 GMT
I have no idea how vaccines are being distributed here in France. Like in Belgium, people in care homes and healthcare workers got priority. I also understand that starting on Monday, people over 75 who do not live in nursing homes can sign up for the first shot. But the reservation lines were overloaded and the site crashed with so many people trying to access it. I don't fit any of those categories.
I wonder whether we will get a notice from the social security system that we can get vaccinated, like we do for the flu vaccine. I had intended to get a flu vaccine for the first time but didn't go in time and they ran out at the local pharmacy by mid-November. As it turns out, fewer people have flu this year with the social distancing, masks, and general lack of socializing.
Meanwhile, we now have a national 6pm curfew for the next two weeks starting tomorrow.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 15, 2021 18:03:44 GMT
Then nurses in nursing homes - some are refusing... i would suggest they are kicked out... I heartily agree, Whatagain! How dare they endanger others because of their ignorance. It is routine in most, maybe all countries for children to present proof of various innoculations in order to attend school. What is different about this? I almost gnashed my teeth out of my head reading this article. People have to be bribed with waffles to save their own and other people's lives?! *fury* If you can't get past the paywall to the linked article, the full text is below. Just click on the headline: {Cash, Breakfasts and Firings: An All-Out Push to Vaccinate Wary Medical Workers}Some staff in hospitals and long-term care facilities don’t want to take the Covid-19 vaccine. Their employers are trying to change their minds.
By Rebecca Robbins, Sabrina Tavernise and Sharon Otterman Jan. 14, 2021 Anxious about taking a new vaccine and scarred by a history of being mistreated, many frontline workers at hospitals and nursing homes are balking at getting inoculated against Covid-19.
Anxious about their patients’ health and scarred by many thousands of deaths in the past year, hospitals and nursing homes are desperate to have their employees vaccinated.
Those opposing forces have spawned an unusual situation: In addition to educating their workers about the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccines, a growing number of employers are dangling incentives like cash, extra time off and even Waffle House gift cards for those who get inoculated, while in at least a few cases saying they will fire those who refuse.
Officials at two large long-term care chains, Juniper Communities and Atria Senior Living, said they were requiring their workers, with limited exceptions, to take the vaccine if they wanted to keep their jobs.
“For us, this was not a tough decision,” said Lynne Katzmann, Juniper’s chief executive. “Our goal is to do everything possible to protect our residents and our team members and their families.”
Critics say it is unethical to strong-arm low-paid workers into taking the vaccines, especially when there hasn’t been enough time to gather long-term safety data.
“This is a population of people who have been historically ignored, abused and mistreated,” said Dr. Mike Wasserman, a geriatrician and former president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine. “It is laziness on the part of anyone to force these folks to take a vaccine. I believe that we need to be putting all of our energy into respecting, honoring and valuing the work they do and educating them on the benefits to them and the folks they take care of in getting vaccinated.”
Workers at hospitals and nursing homes were among the first to become eligible to get inoculated against the coronavirus when the vaccines became available last month. Their hesitance has been one reason for the sluggish start to the U.S. vaccination drive. Only recently has the pace accelerated: Nearly half of the more than 10.3 million doses administered in the United States were given in the past week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At Jackson Health System in Miami, a survey of about 5,900 employees found that only half wanted to get a vaccine immediately, a hospital spokeswoman said. Most of the rest said they would consider taking it at some point in the future. But about 880 employees said they were not interested in getting vaccinated at all.
Henry Ford Health System, which runs six hospitals in Michigan, said that as of Wednesday morning, about 22 percent of its 33,000 employees had declined to be vaccinated. Seventy percent have been vaccinated, a spokesman said.
Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said last month that roughly 60 percent of nursing home staff members offered the vaccine in his state had declined it. In New York City, at least 30 percent of health care workers resisted getting a vaccine in the first round of inoculations, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.
At Long Island Jewish Hospital in Forest Hills, Queens, respiratory therapists who intubate critically ill coronavirus patients are among those at highest risk of contracting Covid-19. Yet only three of the 19 full-time staff members in the hospital’s respiratory therapy department had agreed to get vaccinated.
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Image A vial of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. A vial of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine.Credit...Cooper Neill for The New York Times The two vaccines being administered — one made by Pfizer, the other by Moderna — have undergone extensive testing on tens of thousands of people. Both have been found to be safe and highly effective. So why are so many hospital and long-term care workers reluctant to get inoculated?
DEBATABLE: The sharpest arguments on the most pressing issues of the week. Sign Up Some speak of concern about the newness of the vaccines. Others are worried about how the vaccine might affect their health, especially those who are pregnant, have allergies or have already survived Covid-19. Underlying the hesitancy is a lack of trust in authorities — the federal government, politicians, even their employers — that have failed for the past year to get the virus under control.
Sherry Perry, a certified nursing assistant who works in a long-term care facility near Memphis, said she had talked to many nursing assistants around the country who were skeptical. Ms. Perry, who said she would probably take the vaccine eventually, said the doubts were a rational response to the way health care workers like her had been treated for a long time.
“We are left behind in the dust — no one sticks up for us,” she said. When Ms. Perry was bedridden for weeks with a bad case of Covid-19, she said, she had to use vacation days to cover some of her time off, and a portion of her sick leave was completely unpaid.
Covid-19 Vaccines › Answers to Your Vaccine Questions
If I live in the U.S., when can I get the vaccine? While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, most will likely put medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities first. If you want to understand how this decision is getting made, this article will help.
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“I don’t want to hear what the government has to say about it — we don’t trust them anyway,” she said.
Kevin Boyd, 54, a janitor at NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, has been offered the vaccine by his hospital but is on the fence about taking it.
On one hand, Mr. Boyd is terrified of getting sick and vividly remembers the hospital’s morgue filled to capacity last year. As a diabetic, he recognizes he is at higher risk of becoming severely ill if he is infected with the coronavirus.
On the other hand, Mr. Boyd said he was generally skeptical of the federal government and wary of the speed with which the vaccines were brought to market. “I’m kind of waiting,” he said. “I’m not rushing to take it.”
The government is not requiring people to take Covid-19 vaccines, but it has a long history of permitting such mandates. In 1905, for example, the Supreme Court upheld the right of authorities to require smallpox vaccinations. Many hospitals require some staff to get vaccinated against the flu or hepatitis B. Children must get certain vaccines to be enrolled in school.
Last month, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance that allowed employers to require workers to get a Covid-19 vaccine. But the guidelines also highlighted thorny legal questions that could emerge, if workers request exceptions and employers struggle to provide them with workarounds.
Few employers, though, have imposed mandates. “They’re really reluctant to get out in front of this,” said David Grabowski, a nursing home researcher at Harvard Medical School.
Another concern about forcing workers to get vaccinated is that it could prompt hesitant employees to resign. That’s a particular worry in long-term care, where the pandemic has exacerbated a shortage of certified nursing assistants.
“We’re having a hard time filling those roles and those positions now, and if we lose more people, then our old people are going to suffer,” said Dane Henning, director of public affairs at the National Association of Health Care Assistants.
Some hospitals and long-term care facilities are taking a compromise approach: offering rewards to employees who agree to get vaccinated.
Georgia-based PruittHealth, which operates about 100 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the Southeast, said workers who got vaccinated would receive gift cards for a free breakfast at the Waffle House restaurant chain, also based in Georgia.
“If that doesn’t get you in line, I don’t know what will,” Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, said last month.
At Houston Methodist, a hospital system in Texas with 26,000 employees, workers who take the vaccine will be eligible for a $500 bonus. “Vaccination is not mandatory for our employees yet (but will be eventually),” Dr. Marc Boom, the hospital’s chief executive, wrote in an email to employees last month.
In an interview last week, Dr. Boom said the bonuses were “one of the many strategies to nudge people forward.” He added: “I do think we’ll get there. But I’m not naïve enough to think there aren’t people who are deeply resistant.”
At Norton Healthcare, a health system in Louisville, Ky., workers who refuse the vaccine and then catch Covid-19 will generally no longer be able to take advantage of the paid medical leave that Norton has been offering to infected employees since early in the pandemic. Instead, starting next month, unvaccinated workers will have to use their regular paid time off if they get sick with Covid-19, with limited exceptions.
Atlas Senior Living, which has 29 assisted living facilities and other communities across the Southeast, is offering workers up to four days of extra paid time off if they get vaccinated. (Some hourly workers at Atlas did not already have paid time off as part of their standard benefits.)
Atlas has sought to avoid “villainizing people that didn’t want to take it,” opting to focus on education and the reward of paid time off, said Scott Goldberg, Atlas’s co-chief executive.
Officials at Juniper and Atria said their decisions to require employees to get vaccinated were not driven by widespread hesitance among their staffs. Both chains will make exceptions for workers who are pregnant, are allergic to vaccine ingredients or have other compelling reasons to decline the vaccine.
Atria, which has about 170 assisted living facilities and other communities in 26 states, did not initially require its roughly 10,000 U.S. workers to get vaccinated; as vaccination started in its facilities last month, most took the vaccine voluntarily, said John Moore, Atria’s chief executive.
But Atria executives decided to make vaccinations compulsory anyway, concluding that it was “the responsible thing to do,” Mr. Moore said.
When Atria informed employees of the mandate last week, the response was “overwhelmingly positive,” Mr. Moore said.
At Juniper — which has 20 senior living communities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Colorado — officials have tried to educate workers about the safety and benefits of Covid-19 vaccines, including hosting a webinar with a registered nurse who was enrolled in a clinical trial of the Moderna vaccine. Officials told staff last month that vaccines would be mandatory.
“We didn’t know when we made this decision whether we would have large-scale numbers of people leaving, but we felt it was the right thing to do,” said Ms. Katzmann, the chief executive.
So far, 508 of Juniper’s roughly 1,500 employees have been offered the vaccine. Fifteen have resigned rather than take it.
Juliana Kim contributed reporting.
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Post by Biddy on Jan 15, 2021 18:24:36 GMT
Bixaorellana- I am in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am classified as an In Home Support person for my young adult son with autism - so I am considered a health worker. The vaccine rollout has been very slow here. There is alot on confusion over the various tiers as to who gets the vaccine next. Just yesterday 65 and older were added to the 'vaccinate now' list. Websites crashed and 'hold' time for Kaiserpermanente to get an appt., is currently 10 hours.
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Post by Kimby on Jan 15, 2021 18:33:01 GMT
On this date in 2020, Chinese officials said they “couldn’t rule out the possibility” that a new coronavirus in central China could spread between humans, though they said “the risk of transmission between humans appear(s) to be low”.
Today the world passed 2 milllion deaths due to COVID.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 15, 2021 21:48:21 GMT
I was reading of a problem with South Asian Muslims and Hindus of a conspiracy theory that the injection includes pork and beef extract so they won’t have it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 15, 2021 21:58:18 GMT
biddy, thanks -- I'll pass that on to my friend. She told me earlier today that her daughter has been trying repeatedly, but the website keeps crashing. Meanwhile, she says a cousin of hers in NY managed to get appointments for the cousin's parents, for another cousin, & for cousins-in-law. Go figure!
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Post by questa on Jan 15, 2021 23:14:36 GMT
Meanwhile in Australia...we have been told we shall not start vacces until March. Our tracing system is keeping things in control with "Health Hotels" being used for isolating anyone who might be carrying the bug.Thousands have been turning up for testing (brain-scraping!) and now they have apps on mobile phones to record where we all go and when. No phone? just fill in this form for every shop or place you visit.
The Army is now guarding the hotels as the security company tasked with protecting our health were "a randy bunch"(PM) and let the girls go clubbing in exchange for sexual favours.
I heard (ABC Aust) this morning an interview with leader of AMA, that they are not planning to vaccinate everyone, aim only at 60% and at the most vulnerable in that.
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Post by rikita on Jan 16, 2021 0:57:37 GMT
here they also start with people over 80 in nursing homes and medical staff - read somewhere that a large number of medical staff are refusing, though. my sister in law got her vaccination through her new employer, and my brother was also going to get vaccinated through work (they are both nurses), but then they wouldn't vaccinate him, because he once had an anaphylactic shock as a kid. not sure if he got any new information on this, yet ... read articles that in the plans on vaccination order, they forgot to make a plan for people with serious health issues who are not living in a facility - right now, they are supposed to get vaccinated along with their age group, so for a young person who has a high risk and thus is isolating completely since march, this is not a good situation (especially if they have privately organized assistants who don't get vaccinated either)
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