COVID vaccinations are so streamlined now. Arrived less than five minutes before appointment time, vaccination completed two minuted after appointment time, asked to wait five minutes to check for fainting or low blood pressure, then off.
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@david_chisnall I am no longer old enough to qualify for one!
@david_chisnall I remember the college they had converted into a vaccine site in April of 2021 when I got the first dose. Took everything I had to go into those doors after all I’d experienced from the previous March till then. The PTSD still with me, as well as the vaccine card I received with my first appointment. Access is still an issue for many, but at least we have updated vaccines at all.
My first one was in a spare unit in a shopping centre. I think we queued for two hours. You got an appointment for a time window and had to be in the queue for that window. The actual vaccination was quick.
The next two on the NHS were better. They had more places able to give the vaccinations then so individual locations weren’t overwhelmed (and people weren’t all trying to go at the same time). I think both of these had around 15 minutes of waiting but they were still concerned about side effects and so made people wait 10-15 minutes before leaving.
This one there was no queue (though mostly because they’re expensive now and most people can’t afford them, which is one of the stupidest public health policies I’ve seen). Turned up, one minute of quick questions, and then injected. I haven’t had any fainting or similar side effects from previous ones, so they only asked me to wait five minutes afterwards. I was gone by the time the next person came out.
I do wish they’d coordinate the flu and COVID ones better. If you book both on the same day, you can have both in the same appointment. But you can’t book an appointment for both.
@david_chisnall that was my experience 3 years ago. To be fair I stained longer because I have tendencies to blackout with needles.
shortly after the vax became available in NY, my son got priority status cause he worked for a hospital
now you have to recall the how terrified we all were, and the hysteria to gt this
I drive him to the site, and he comes back half an hour later:
50 people crammed into a small room
a guy from NY state says: you all got your email right ?
no one got an email
NY state guy pulls up some clunky software on his clunky laptop, and says everyone has to fill out the form and on the laptop it takes ten minutes and finally a senior doctor comes down and tells the NY state guy to take a hike
@david_chisnall I'm waiting a month, trying to time maximal effectiveness with maximum rate of infection. Same with flu shots
@PeterLudemann @david_chisnall og flu vaccine is good for 7-9 months depending on circulating variants match. Not sure about the newer stuff. I qualify for the new mRNA flu vaccine, but I’m not sure if it’s as effective for that long. The Covid vaccine is about as effective as the flu vaccine, but the virus is fundamentally different. Coronaviruses tend to be immune evasive & gather binding spike mutations far more easily. Binding mechanism also different.
I’ve read conflicting things about the COVID vaccines, with some reports suggesting efficiency starts to drop after two months. I wish we had official guidance on correct frequency rather than just ‘the pandemic is over now, you can spend £100 on a vaccine if you want’.
@david_chisnall @PeterLudemann I do believe these are the first coronavirus vaccines? Coronaviruses are incredibly tricky to nail down because an infection from two separate people can have two different potential mutations and if they combine in a third person then all of the sudden within a week or two, you have a brand new thing that your vaccine was not aimed at. Flu virus is way more stable as it requires 2 glycoproteins to successfully change vs 1 for the coronavirus etc etc.
@david_chisnall The last I had was like that too. Except the only place I could get an appointment at a reasonable date was an hour's bus drive away.
Mine was a short bike ride away and had appointments available two days after I looked.
But, in the UK, everywhere that offers them also charges £100 per shot, which means a lot of people don't get them (and so there's no chance of herd immunity given the short half life of the current vaccines).
