VACCINE AVAILABILITY

[KroozNut]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

I agree, while I understand the frustration it takes a while to make 600 million doses and get them distributed.  Ours probably won’t be until the spring, the curse of youth 😎😜

 

See, there is a least one 'advantage' to being older... possibly the only one..Lol

[USN59-79]

If any of you are retired military and receive your health care from Tricare, I just received a call from the Navy Hospital here that they are ready to give the shots to my wife and me.  I know they treated their doctors a couple of weeks ago, so that is a good sign that the wait is now shorter.

[Mary229]

Texas started updating their data on a daily basis.   Here is the tally as of today 

1,687,025

[wdw1972]

We just had our second pfizer dose today at work - around 60 more staff took their first dose.  We'll keep working on the rest 😉 

 

Sue/WDW1972

[kiwimum]

5 hours ago, USN59-79 said:

If any of you are retired military and receive your health care from Tricare, I just received a call from the Navy Hospital here that they are ready to give the shots to my wife and me.  I know they treated their doctors a couple of weeks ago, so that is a good sign that the wait is now shorter.

Definitely not in San Diego.  They have not finished vaccination of active duty.  

[St. Louis Sal]

On 1/10/2021 at 9:33 AM, StLouisCruisers said:

I live in Georgia and our District Health Dept. has set up vaccination sites in 4 nearby counties for this Tuesday the 12th.  We have appointments for our shots Tuesday morning at one of the locations.  They are asking for medical personnel, first responders, over 65 adults, and caregivers of over 65 individuals to be included at this time.  Not sure why we would be considered last in the nation on that NYT list, but I think all states have to get coordinated and sometimes a state will do a better job than another state.  It will get done!

You are very lucky not to be in St Louis now.  There is a huge waiting list for the vaccine and very little vaccine available.  Latest word is that they will use the junior colleges as the sites starting with Flo Valley, but no date as to when that will be.  Eventually they will offer Meramec and the South County Education Center (which is down the road from me). The only people I know who've gotten the vaccine so far are medical personnel, a few friends my age (72) living in outstate areas (like Cape Girardeau) and one friend here in the county who apparently must know somebody!  I am quite discouraged because I really want that vaccine! My husband is 81, leukemia survivor, severe coronary disease.  I have ALS. The ALS society says they talked to every state governor/health department about making ALS patients high priority.  I don't think talking to Governor Parson is worth the time and trouble.  Note, we are in last place in percentage of residents vaccinated and I am not surprised

[StLouisCruisers]

4 minutes ago, St. Louis Sal said:

You are very lucky not to be in St Louis now.  There is a huge waiting list for the vaccine and very little vaccine available.  Latest word is that they will use the junior colleges as the sites starting with Flo Valley, but no date as to when that will be.  Eventually they will offer Meramec and the South County Education Center (which is down the road from me). The only people I know who've gotten the vaccine so far are medical personnel, a few friends my age (72) living in outstate areas (like Cape Girardeau) and one friend here in the county who apparently must know somebody!  I am quite discouraged because I really want that vaccine! My husband is 81, leukemia survivor, severe coronary disease.  I have ALS. The ALS society says they talked to every state governor/health department about making ALS patients high priority.  I don't think talking to Governor Parson is worth the time and trouble.  Note, we are in last place in percentage of residents vaccinated and I am not surprised

 

The only person in our family in Missouri to get the two shots is my 94 year old MIL in a nursing facility.  And in between doses she tested positive for Covid.  She had only been around the facility's staff so guess who exposed her?  Nobody else in the family has gotten a dose yet.  I'm very happy to have gotten my first dose with the second scheduled for Feb. 9.  Be persistent in signing up and calling around.  I'm sorry to hear about your disease and your husband's health problems.  You definitely need to be protected. 

[St. Louis Sal]

On 1/27/2021 at 8:56 AM, Sea42 said:

We live in rural Wisconsin. Our county has about 15,000 people. Those 65 and older were just approved on Monday (statewide) to receive their first shots. My husband has an appointment for next Monday with the second shot schedule for 4 weeks later, at our closest hospital. Not too bad for the middle of nowhere!

I have to wait awhile until my age group is called but I'm hopeful by summer I will have received my vaccination.

 

Just a suggestion, may not work, but I know a couple in south Missouri, her husband had an appointment, she went with him, asked if she could be vaccinated also and they said yes.  Apparently some people do cancel or not show up and the locations have left over vaccine at the end of the day.  No guarantees, but it might be worth it for you.

 

St Louis Sal

[Sue from Canada]

17 hours ago, ABoatNerd said:

Canada has fallen from 10th to 20th place in vaccination progress. Under 300,000 people in the entire country have had the dual shot Pfizer. All vaccines "scheduled" for Canada originate in the EU and now there is apparently a potential hick up re: trade boundaries.

Picking up the pace big time is required if there is even a chance of an Alaska season since Canadians often make up 30% or more of cruisers on voyages.

 

I have no expectations of having a completed vaccine process any time in the near future.

I heard on the CTV news tonight that Canadians may well be into 2022 getting their shots!!!  I worried that I won't have my two shots before my Nov. 19, 2021 cruise.  Final payment is August 1st.  And Pfizer wants to add a new label to all vials for the Canadian market indicating the vial contains 6 shots instead of the usual 5.  By the time all Canadians who want a shot have received it, it will be useless with all the future variants in the pipeline.  This latter part was discussed on CNN last night by Dr. Sanja Gupta. 

[mcrcruiser]

My question to  all government levels : why is it so hard  to secure quantities sufficient  for each State & then why is it so hard for each state to properly distribute  the vaccine doses to each city or town   based on population   or give the vaccine to each county based on county population & then each county distribute the vaccine by City /town population . 

 

 If done right the states contract with those well known carriers to  ship  the vaccines from one central state where house set up to receive the vaccines  .Mt God it seems so simple to me but ,the government makes such a big deal of this & they only accomplish disappointments in our population  .The want this or that in the way og vaccinations but they fail to say how they plan to accomplish their goals

 

 Their is  no no rhyme  or reason why  government has people  SCRAMBLING  to get vaccinated  .The only real & logical reason imo is they fail  because they never set up workable plans in advance

Edited January 29, 2021 by mcrcruiser

[mcrcruiser]

59 minutes ago, Sue from Canada said:

I heard on the CTV news tonight that Canadians may well be into 2022 getting their shots!!!  I worried that I won't have my two shots before my Nov. 19, 2021 cruise.  Final payment is August 1st.  And Pfizer wants to add a new label to all vials for the Canadian market indicating the vial contains 6 shots instead of the usual 5.  By the time all Canadians who want a shot have received it, it will be useless with all the future variants in the pipeline.  This latter part was discussed on CNN last night by Dr. Sanja Gupta. 

 imo people in Canada need to make mass contacts  on their government heads  & demand acyion or tell them Canada will vote them out the next election  .no reason what so ever that  any country should be deprived of the  covid vaccines  in  a timely manner with at least 4 to 6 mgs going into top production 

[HappyInVan]

6 hours ago, Sue from Canada said:

By the time all Canadians who want a shot have received it, it will be useless with all the future variants in the pipeline.  

 

Sue,

 

Everyone who has been vax with the current formula will need to get an additional booster for the South African variant.

 

Seems that the Novavax vaccine is only 50% effective. So, expect Pfizer/Moderna etc to be similar.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/covid-vaccine-novavax-says-covid-vaccine-is-more-than-89percent-effective.html

 

As long as the epidemic rages in high risk countries, the disease will mutate new variants. Some will be different enough to require boosters. Our choice will be to quarantine the high risk areas, or keep vaccinating.

 

 

[KirkNC]

11 hours ago, St. Louis Sal said:

Just a suggestion, may not work, but I know a couple in south Missouri, her husband had an appointment, she went with him, asked if she could be vaccinated also and they said yes.  Apparently some people do cancel or not show up and the locations have left over vaccine at the end of the day.  No guarantees, but it might be worth it for you.

 

St Louis Sal

We have friends in Florida who had the same thing happened at a drive up appointment.  His wife went with him and got vaccinated without an appointment.

Edited January 29, 2021 by KirkNC

[Cruise NH]

It's been interesting reading through this thread and hearing experiences from around the US and Canada.  One thing that struck me is how expectations have changed.  At least mine have.  If you had asked me in December when I thought I would get my vaccine (age 65 no health problems) I would have said April or maybe March at the earliest...and that was fine but now our expectations have all changed.  That was fast...

 

We live in a small rural state.  They recently opened up vaccines to those 65 and over and people >65 with at least two serious health issues.  The state estimates there will be 300,000 people in that group. (that's probably the size of one apartment complex in LA😬)

 

They opened up appointments and I believe everyone who wanted one now has an appt but the dates stretch out to April.  If the state receives more vaccine they pledge to move up dates for the people at the backend of the list.  The appt software they're using is from the CDC so I'm surprised most states aren't doing the same thing.

 

Comparing NH to CA, NY, OH or FL is not even apples to oranges, there is no comparison.  My husband and I registered 1/22 and we have our first shot on Feb 2nd.

[KirkNC]

Just saw that he J&J vaccine is 66% effective in preventing symptoms, 85% preventing severe symptoms.  It’s a one shot vaccine that is much easier stored and transported.  While there is some positive here, am I the only one that would wait to get one of the 95% effective vaccines?  When I apply these numbers to cruising it doesn’t work if 15% of the passengers can get severe symptoms after getting vaccinated.

Edited January 29, 2021 by KirkNC

[Mary229]

21 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Just saw that he J&J vaccine is 66% effective in preventing symptoms, 85% preventing severe symptoms.  It’s a one shot vaccine that is much easier stored and transported.  While there is some positive here, am I the only one that would wait to get one of the 95% effective vaccines?  When I apply these numbers to cruising it doesn’t work if 15% of the passengers can get severe symptoms after getting vaccinated.

You are making the mistake of thinking it is all or none, thinking that 15% of the people will have no protection.  It doesn't mean that.  Everyone should have some level of protection.  The 95% is that there will be complete protection.  

[mcrcruiser]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

Just saw that he J&J vaccine is 66% effective in preventing symptoms, 85% preventing severe symptoms.  It’s a one shot vaccine that is much easier stored and transported.  While there is some positive here, am I the only one that would wait to get one of the 95% effective vaccines?  When I apply these numbers to cruising it doesn’t work if 15% of the passengers can get severe symptoms after getting vaccinated.

Can you apply a link here ?

[Cruise NH]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

Just saw that he J&J vaccine is 66% effective in preventing symptoms, 85% preventing severe symptoms.  It’s a one shot vaccine that is much easier stored and transported.  While there is some positive here, am I the only one that would wait to get one of the 95% effective vaccines?  When I apply these numbers to cruising it doesn’t work if 15% of the passengers can get severe symptoms after getting vaccinated.

 

I read that too.  Since none of the vaccines are 100% effective I think the more important thing is that it can prevent serious cases.  This virus will be with us forever, like others.  The difference is the number of people needing hospitalization and of course the number of people dying.  If those two things go down, we can live with it.  

[Cailey53]

18 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Can you apply a link here ?

https://apple.news/AMeqtVznVQciqiKZDbyo4gw

Here’s one link—many available if you do a Google search.

[KirkNC]

31 minutes ago, Cruise NH said:

 

I read that too.  Since none of the vaccines are 100% effective I think the more important thing is that it can prevent serious cases.  This virus will be with us forever, like others.  The difference is the number of people needing hospitalization and of course the number of people dying.  If those two things go down, we can live with it.  

Yes but can we cruise with it.  Big difference between 95% and 66% (or even 85%).  Apply that to 1,500 passengers and it means 75 versus 510 passengers get sick.  And what happens when people get sick?  So far, one case ends the cruise and it doesn't matter if the passenger is asymptomatic.

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by KirkNC

[mcrcruiser]

28 minutes ago, Cailey53 said:

https://apple.news/AMeqtVznVQciqiKZDbyo4gw

Here’s one link—many available if you do a Google search.

Thanks for the link . Seems to me that we who are in our 80s with underlying medical problems  will want the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines because of the protection levels   . Thr JnJ imo is insufficient protection for the elderly 

[mcrcruiser]

10 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Yes but can we cruise with it.  Big difference between 95% and 66% (or even 85%).  Apply that to 1,500 passengers and it means 75 versus 510 passengers get sick.  And what happens when people get sick?  So far, one case ends the cruise.

I agree .  Cruising in the  future still can be problematic  ,sad to say 

[CruiserBruce]

3 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

 

Sue,

 

Everyone who has been vax with the current formula will need to get an additional booster for the South African variant.

 

Seems that the Novavax vaccine is only 50% effective. So, expect Pfizer/Moderna etc to be similar.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/covid-vaccine-novavax-says-covid-vaccine-is-more-than-89percent-effective.html

 

As long as the epidemic rages in high risk countries, the disease will mutate new variants. Some will be different enough to require boosters. Our choice will be to quarantine the high risk areas, or keep vaccinating.

 

 

Novavax is is not MRNA technology...not sure how you can compare Pfizer/Moderna effectiveness against the variants to NovaVax.

[Cailey53]

36 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Thanks for the link . Seems to me that we who are in our 80s with underlying medical problems  will want the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines because of the protection levels   . Thr JnJ imo is insufficient protection for the elderly 

I agree--we are in our 60's and were fortunate to get the Moderna vaccine. They are already working on modifying the vaccine to address the variants and I suspect that sometime in the future will require a yearly "booster" shot similar to the flu vaccine. 

[CruiserBruce]

The FDA could require Johnson and Johnson to do a 2 dose regiment, or a later booster shot. The two dose regiment gives 85% effectiveness.