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Justmehere
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In my area, the primary care clinic serving low income folks had the most vaccine the quickest. (Kudos to my state for organizing things that way.) I qualified because of my job (and sadly, my income) to get a vaccine there and they fit me in when my own primary care and workplace had no vaccines. I got on the waitlist and when a spot opened up, I had to switch primaries for a day, but my doc, the clinic, and my insurance adamantly supported it and the clinic made it a smooth transition. (I'm high risk with a high risk job,)
Some parts of the US require proof of age, job, residency, and some require no proof of anything at all. It's my understanding insurance is not required and it's generally free with and without insurance in the US. If someone is selling the vaccine in the US, double check to make sure it's not a scam, as the scammers are bound to take advantage.
There is also much talk of a pending shortage in the US. My doc said get one now, otherwise it could be awhile. Older family members in a different state were told that if they get vaccinated next week as scheduled, they could end up not being able to get the second dose on time, but perhaps 1-3 months late. they decided it was worth it anyhow to get the first shot, and super early studies are showing delayed second shots don't appear to reduce long term efficacy, but possibly has increased efficacy. It just takes longer to get that full efficacy. For my older family members that keep burying other family members dying of covid, they felt some immunity is better than none.
Another heads up is that if you have a history of anaphylactic reactions to anything, you may get 1 of 2 responses:
1.) Requirements to wait for 30 minutes after instead of 15 before leaving after the shot.
2.) A detailed evaluation of risk, for which it helped me to have an epi pen and a note from my doc on hand. Without it, they would have refused the vaccine at any location other than a hospital for being too high risk for anaphylactic reactions. I think this is a fairly rare situation. I'm not allergic to a single ingredient in the vaccine, but have had anaphylaxis more than once before (which is much more than just an allergic reaction on par with itching and hives but a life threatening severe emergency.)
I had zero side effects or difficulty with the first dose of the vaccine. Some say the second is harder but it seems like most either have no reaction or they feel crappy for a day and then they are totally ok.
It's new, everyone is still figuring things out.
In the end, I think forced or even shaming people into vaccinations is a bad idea because of the reality of unstoppable global travel. If someone doesn't want it, let other people go ahead. We will not be rid of this virus in the next 10 years because there is no feasible way to vaccinate 70 percent of the worlds population or to eliminate enough travel. It will either continue to be a hellish situation, or, more likely, it will eventually become less deadly and easier to live with/prevent/treat.
I don't really focus on who brought what variant of the virus to what area in terms of blame, unless it was done due to nefarious biological terroristic intent, and that doesn't appear to be the case based on what we know now. It appears to be a "shit happens" situation. This could change as more data comes in... we'll see.
China massively screwed up its response along with just about every nation on the planet. Governments will always fail, and should be held accountable for those failings... while also not relying on government perfection as the solution. We'll be sorely disappointed and unprepared if we expect government alone to solve the pandemic. At least that's true for the US...
Even if every country tried to shut it's borders, not even North Korea has been able to achieve full cessation of travel. They have the most horrifically secure borders in the world... long before the virus was identified... and they very likely have covid there too because of travel that happened after other nations locked down. Coronavirus in North Korea: COVID-19 Tracker | NK PRO
It's all about reducing (not eliminating) risk and increasing treatments... and finding more ways to carry on with life again. I got the vaccine to reduce my risk and to better be able to navigate a world where many others won't get it and/or won't mask up or lock down their lives.
Some parts of the US require proof of age, job, residency, and some require no proof of anything at all. It's my understanding insurance is not required and it's generally free with and without insurance in the US. If someone is selling the vaccine in the US, double check to make sure it's not a scam, as the scammers are bound to take advantage.
There is also much talk of a pending shortage in the US. My doc said get one now, otherwise it could be awhile. Older family members in a different state were told that if they get vaccinated next week as scheduled, they could end up not being able to get the second dose on time, but perhaps 1-3 months late. they decided it was worth it anyhow to get the first shot, and super early studies are showing delayed second shots don't appear to reduce long term efficacy, but possibly has increased efficacy. It just takes longer to get that full efficacy. For my older family members that keep burying other family members dying of covid, they felt some immunity is better than none.
Another heads up is that if you have a history of anaphylactic reactions to anything, you may get 1 of 2 responses:
1.) Requirements to wait for 30 minutes after instead of 15 before leaving after the shot.
2.) A detailed evaluation of risk, for which it helped me to have an epi pen and a note from my doc on hand. Without it, they would have refused the vaccine at any location other than a hospital for being too high risk for anaphylactic reactions. I think this is a fairly rare situation. I'm not allergic to a single ingredient in the vaccine, but have had anaphylaxis more than once before (which is much more than just an allergic reaction on par with itching and hives but a life threatening severe emergency.)
I had zero side effects or difficulty with the first dose of the vaccine. Some say the second is harder but it seems like most either have no reaction or they feel crappy for a day and then they are totally ok.
It's new, everyone is still figuring things out.
In the end, I think forced or even shaming people into vaccinations is a bad idea because of the reality of unstoppable global travel. If someone doesn't want it, let other people go ahead. We will not be rid of this virus in the next 10 years because there is no feasible way to vaccinate 70 percent of the worlds population or to eliminate enough travel. It will either continue to be a hellish situation, or, more likely, it will eventually become less deadly and easier to live with/prevent/treat.
I don't really focus on who brought what variant of the virus to what area in terms of blame, unless it was done due to nefarious biological terroristic intent, and that doesn't appear to be the case based on what we know now. It appears to be a "shit happens" situation. This could change as more data comes in... we'll see.
China massively screwed up its response along with just about every nation on the planet. Governments will always fail, and should be held accountable for those failings... while also not relying on government perfection as the solution. We'll be sorely disappointed and unprepared if we expect government alone to solve the pandemic. At least that's true for the US...
Even if every country tried to shut it's borders, not even North Korea has been able to achieve full cessation of travel. They have the most horrifically secure borders in the world... long before the virus was identified... and they very likely have covid there too because of travel that happened after other nations locked down. Coronavirus in North Korea: COVID-19 Tracker | NK PRO
It's all about reducing (not eliminating) risk and increasing treatments... and finding more ways to carry on with life again. I got the vaccine to reduce my risk and to better be able to navigate a world where many others won't get it and/or won't mask up or lock down their lives.