From my moles in the retirement-industrial complex (a.k.a. “Mom and Dad”)… Two CVS technicians showed up to their “independent living” retirement apartment building in Bethesda, Maryland yesterday with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. They started at 9:00 am. Each of the 250 residents came downstairs and proceeded through a waiting room, then to get stuck, then to a rest area with juice and cupcakes (because it is like giving blood?) for 15 minutes. CVS packed up and left at 1:00 pm (31 shots per hour per technician).
Mom and Dad report no side effects of any kind, not even soreness at the injection site.
There does not seem to be any effort made to track who is vaccinated. Maybe that’s impossible in a country without a national ID card system, as is conventional in Europe and Asia. My parents were supplied with paper cards inscribed with pencil and instructed to bring the cards back for the second shot (my Dad already lost his or maybe was never given one). (I am inferring that if there were some sort of tracking database that my parents wouldn’t have to bring the physical card to the second shot appointment.)
Related:
- doses/100 people in various countries (U.S. remains at #4)
- France injected 352 people in all of 2020 (i.e., if you include the staff, for whom CVS had stopped by the day before, about the same number of people got vaccinated in my parents’ building as in all of France for all of December)
That’s good to hear Phil! I hope your parents remain safe and healthy and the vaccine works.
Thanks, T.S. I’m a little worried, actually, that they don’t feel anything. Maybe it takes a while for the mRNA to kick in. With a regular vaccine, the soreness means that it is working because the body feels insulted and the immune system starts working, right?
(I recently had the Shingles vaccine and felt systemically bad (a public health emergency, I am informed) for a day and locally bad for 2-3 days.)
From what I hear from people who have had the vaccine you generally get the symptoms you describe after the second dose.
Wow, that’s great Phil! Finally, a process that worked. Of course, we all want to know if the cupcakes were gluten free 🤣😀.
They’re a little too old for gluten and nut allergies!
It’s a CCRC in the suburbs. Translation: Sysco institutional food.
Don’t sign up for this unless you’re not picky about food, or unless you’re non-ambulatory so require/desire 27 meals/month in the inclusive monthly fee. Supposedly Dr. Anthony Fauci & his wife reserved a unit at this particular CCRC back in 2018 or 2019. (Purchase can be deferred many years once a deposit has been placed.) Will they re-think group living in a pandemic era?
15 minutes to watch for allergic reactions (no idea on the juice and cupcakes) my 20 something nurse daughter reported mi or soreness post injection and just two days ago had the second dose with some mild flu like symptoms about 12 hours later.
Thanks for letting us all know your family’s experience with this. I have two older parents to vaccinate, one of whom does have a demonstrated susceptibility to anaphylaxis, but not food allergies or cosmetics, etc. She almost locked up over a bee sting, so I’m a bit concerned about it but her other vaccination history including influenza every year has been fine. Of course, this is the World’s First Time with PEG.
Glad to know your parents are doing well! And that the vaccination process went smoothly. If you haven’t seen it, I thought this vaccine tracker from Bloomberg was great and is being updated frequently with US data. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
Was curious about a couple of things:
1. is the vaccine is provided by the govt. (state/federal?) or is covered by the insurance?
2. do they ask for identification (identity proof etc.) before administering?
My Pfizer was paid for by government (stated as “free” on the info sheet), and I had to tell them my SSN but I didn’t have to show ID.