People in government in the state of Florida just don't get it. They make it seem like they're making it easier for people to get the vaccine by making it 65 years of age rather than 75. Also by trying to expand the locations available to more places, even though we don't have enough for the places already open. Eventually we'll get it into drug stores and grocery stores, but right now we aren't there yet with vaccine supply. The media is failing miserably on an extremely important point right now. They keep talking about trying to have more places to get the vaccine and somehow seem to be surprised that there is a supply problem with the vaccine. Where have they been? I could have told anyone nearly a year ago that this roll out was going to be slow. But then we get the media at first criticizing Biden for being too optimistic about 100 million doses in his first 100 days and now serious criticism for that not being optimistic enough, even though he wants at least 100 million. Obviously he wants more. It's like they want to be lied to. Meanwhile, the media could be asking questions like, what is the delivery schedule from the manufacturers for the vaccine? How many doses are we going to get in this first roll out. The previous administration missed the opportunity to buy more of one of the vaccines, so how long do we have to wait after we get the initial allocation before we get more? Still around the summer? Will some people get a first dose of the vaccine and then find out that a second dose of that vaccine won't be available until the summer, so they'll have to take a chance and take another vaccine as the second shot? How much Moderna vaccine are we getting as I haven't heard as much about that?
I remain very concerned that after people get the first dose, when it comes to the second, there won't be any and the dose will have to be delayed. Canceling the first appointment to get a dose is bad enough for someone who works hard to get it, but doing that for the second dose would be unacceptable.
CDC today is talking about in some cases maybe 6 weeks between doses and maybe even mixing the type of vaccine you get in an emergency where there is none other available, yet doing this hasn't been determined to be safe and effective. We can't follow the U.K. in what they are, or at least were thinking about, doing.
I have so many questions and from the news I am watching, they aren't covering it. It seems to just be surprise that there isn't enough vaccine. We may be getting 1 million doses into people each day, with a better day today, but unless things have changed we aren't going to get a constant supply of vaccine for everyone. We bought some, but other countries are in line too. That's why we need to dramatically increase our vaccine production worldwide by spending a lot of money to build the production capacity. That is what the Defense Production Act should really be used for. That would be looking ahead to the future, maybe sometime this year, but really for the years to come too. Several billion doses a year isn't going to cut it, we need 10 to 15 billion doses each year for two dose vaccines. (assuming the vaccine lasts one year, which no one knows yet) At least we need to plan on that and plan accordingly or this is going to go on for years to come and the virus might mutate enough where we need to adjust the vaccines and while we will have made progress, we'll stretch out the length of this pandemic.
I know they are counting on other vaccines, but we need to plan for the worst case scenarios. The Oxford vaccine never did get a good trial completed yet in my opinion and I assume it will be awhile before we really know how effective that one is. (I haven't looked into that one lately.) We should get data from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in a few weeks, but we don't know how effective it is yet, assuming it is safe. A one shot vaccine would be good, but what if the effectiveness isn't around what Pfizer and Moderna's is? People won't want that one as much.
In regards to the Oxford vaccine, that one might be what is used in a lot of poorer countries around the world. There was a bit of a setback when a fire in India occurred at a building under construction that I think was going to help expand production. I am not sure about that. I heard that initially, and now I don't see that mentioned. That company, the Serum Institute of India, is apparently the largest vaccine manufacturer by volume. Apparently the fire won't impact current production of the COVID-19 vaccine and didn't destroy any doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, though may have destroyed some others vaccines. But it is an example of how things can go wrong.
My grandmother did get her first dose today. Out of everyone in the family, she's the one that everyone wanted to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Sometimes she's careful and sometimes she's less so, so it was important to get it started. And we have to make sure she understands she doesn't have the best protection until a few weeks after the second dose, and that even then it isn't 100% and she still needs to be very careful.
I don't know what to tell people who don't want it. Unless someone is pregnant (in which they should talk to a doctor), there is no reason not to get the vaccine. If someone has a history of allergic reactions to vaccines, or serious allergic reactions in general, they should make sure they get monitored after getting it, which has been done in the instances I have seen of family members getting the vaccine. (not because of a history of allergic reactions, just simply what they do for everyone in the instances of family members getting it in Florida and Tennessee) For some people I don't know what would work to convince them. Asking them how they feel about putting the people they care about at risk won't work for some people because they have been convinced that there is little to no risk of getting the coronavirus, so why get a vaccine? Or they've been convinced by social media that it isn't very deadly or that they should be afraid of vaccines. There might be one person in my family that doesn't like needles that might not want to get it. A family member I think is just going to get them an appointment and maybe then try to convince them, maybe guilt them into it. I don't think it has anything to do with conspiracies, just the fear of needles. My dad didn't feel the needle at all. When he took the band-aid off we joked he should make sure there was a needle mark. There was of course. His arm happened to be a little sore later that night, but that was it. The second shot seems likely to have a bit more side effects in some people, but that is nothing compared to what this disease is like. I guess you could send them links to some of the videos news crews have filmed in hospitals. People gasping for air for a week or two, or even worse symptoms, and then dying alone. How anyone can't take things like that seriously is something I will never understand. I know the behavior is cult like in their thinking, but you would think certain evidence, like video, would be rather convincing. But in reaction to some of the news reports being done, some people actually believe the video in hospitals are fake. You can only do so much to try to convince people. They have to somehow come to the realization. It's like some of these conspiracies regarding the election. Some people thought the previous guy was going to declare martial law, arrest everyone and remain in power. Then Biden got sworn in and some are questioning whether the conspiracies were all a lie. No one could convince them, they had to come to the realization. For some people regarding the coronavirus, it isn't until they have someone in their family get seriously ill before they might start taking it seriously, but even that is sometimes not enough as it has seemed for some in your family. You've done what you can. |