I can't wait to get vaccinated, but I do hope that people remember that after they get vaccinated, they should still wear masks and be careful, especially if you are high risk or around someone who is high risk.
There are still unanswered questions about the vaccine, for example, they do not know if you can still spread the virus to others, even after being vaccinated. At a minimum, you can still carry it in your nostrils and then sneeze it out.
Also, it takes ten days after the second dose before you get the immunity that has shown up in clinical trials.
Here is some information about why people should continue to be careful after being vaccinated.
As for trusting Johnson & Johnson, I can say the same for Pfizer, based on an experience I had with them in graduate school, and well, any pharmaceutical company. But this vaccine is being watched carefully and the study results are excellent.
In the field of anti-depressants, Glaxo SmithKline, the makers of Paxil hid the suicide risks of that drug until wrongful death lawsuits exposed them. In the 1970's Eli Lilly profited enormously from a drug, Darvon, that was less effective than aspirin. In America especially, the oversight of Pharmaceuticals is poor, compared to in Europe. I'd rather get the Moderna vaccine than the Pfizer counterpart, for that reason. But I'm going to take whatever I can get. I've read the clinical trial results and the results are good.
My mother and elderly uncle received their first vaccinations just this week. So far the side effects have been fairly mild - soreness at the injection site, mild body aches (“like I’m coming down with the flu, but not”), and a general feeling of tiredness - and went away after a couple days. Mum compared it to getting a flu shot with just a little more punch, but she’d much rather have 2-3 days feeling crappy from the vaccine than try to survive a COVID infection!
@jeanne-mayell So - I can tell you, my brother worked directly for Pfizer at one point and left because of things like that. He's worked at several companies before moving into a tangentially related field. What you describe above is every pharmaceutical company unfortunately, and it's why I'm in favor of more regulation in that field rather than less. But in this instance he's read all of the data that's been made available to him about the vaccines and he's 100% confident in it, warts and all, which for me, was enough to set aside my own reservations. That said, none of you know my brother, so I get it.
We received word on Monday, with an update today, that our health department is starting to schedule us in our area and that they think we'll all have our first doses in the next three weeks. I did the math, and if I'm at the tail end of things I'll have my two shots and my 10 extra days in enough time to take my wife and daughters to my mom's for part of spring break, which is wonderful news! (She's already had her first dose and goes in next week for her second) - The last time we spent any time with her was right before school began in August. We did a masked, distanced christmas lunch at the end of Christmas break when we'd had the ability to stay home for 10 days but it wasn't the same. My daughters want to ride the horses she has. My mom wants to binge some bad TV with us. She wants to cook for us. And more importantly, I want to be cooked FOR for a change :-). I'm on cloud nine knowing we'll be able to do it!
Second, third and fourth your statement on continuing to mask and distance even after the vaccine. That's going to be essential!
@jeanne-mayell I understand that completely!!! I had anaphylactic shock reaction to Pfizer's Celebrex. I had been taking it for a year for my psoriatic arthritis when I took it just before bed and in 20 minutes had to use my epi-pen and go to the ER... it was a really bad reaction. I have known of many episodes of unsavory behaviors and covering up on their part. I , too, prefer to take the Moderna version over the Pfizer version. TBS? I will take what I can get also. Being High Risk, the risks are worth it..only other alternative is I live in a bubble for the rest of my life. Big Pharma (all the big drug companies) has hidden a lot of information and caused a lot of harm with the ceasing of making some meds that were proven safe and efficacious no longer available to roll out more profitable and in some cases more perilous prescriptions all in the name of profit. The current Standard American Medicine model needs to shift from treating symptoms (and causing more problems than the symptom they are treating) creating an ever increasing cascade of dysfunction that makes patients their cash cows for life with ever larger numbers of prescriptions. They need to start creating wellness where there is dis-ease and get to the root causes and correct those.
That being said? Vaccines ARE important.. and.. they work. Overuse is an issue.. but.. not in the case of a deadly Pandemic. We need these vaccines for Covid-19. We truly do.
@dannyboy @maggieci I am going to get the vaccine. The results we have read are excellent.
And the alternative, i.e., getting covid, is not worth the risk.
Three people I know who have gotten seriously ill from Covid have said, you do not want this virus in your body. They are aged 32, 53, and 83.
They said it was the worst illness they had ever experienced. All three had been healthy, positive vibrant people, exercised, no priors, optimum weights and diets. The 83 year old was rushed to the hospital for dehydration, stayed overnight for days, and still can't eat a few weeks later. She is home now but still quite sick. I know people who have tested positive with few consequences. But the people I know who got hit hard, would have chosen the vaccine any day, if it had been available.
“We’re losing some of the tools that we have to control the epidemic,” said Tyra Grove Krause, scientific director of the institute, which has begun sequencing every positive coronavirus test to check for mutations.
Danish officials say daily coronavirus cases there could quadruple by the beginning of April. Charts from the public health institute project that in the worst-case contagion scenarios, even with a strict lockdown in effect, cases would skyrocket.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told people to imagine sitting in the top row of Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium, a soccer arena with a capacity of 38,000 people. A dripping tap is filling it up, one drop the first minute, two drops the second, four drops the third. At that rate, Frederiksen said, the park will be filled in 44 minutes. But it will seem almost empty for the first 42 minutes, she said.
“The point is that one only discovers that the water has risen when it is almost too late,” she wrote.
More at the link below.
Wow, that's quite the analogy. I have been ordering groceries online and going to pick them up outside the store. Husband and I are both retired and only go to the dog park. Our pharmacy has us on their list for vaccination. It can't come soon enough.
Sending good intentions for everyone's safety.
@saokymo Good to hear your family had no bad reactions. I will also share:
My mom (age 93) and sister (65+) both got vaxxed last week.
Mom became tired a few hours later and slept much of the rest of the day, but by evening she was perky and phoning everyone to share her experience. No other symptoms except for a sore arm. She got the Pfizer vax.
Sister had some tiredness in the afternoon, woke up in the middle of the night with chills, took a Tylenol, went back to sleep and felt fine in the morning except for a sore arm. She got the Moderna vax.
I am very relieved that they were able to get it.
I'll get vaccinated and would rather have the vax than Covid. IF I were to have a choice of vaccines I have always had a better intuitive feeling about the Moderna vs. the Pfizer one. However, I would even be more interested in the AstraZenica one that Oxford is working on.
I was watching Bill Maher this past Friday, and he had a couple of scientists on (Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein) who feel the Astrazenica one was the one THEY would prefer. Reason being, it uses the old style of using the virus (adino virus) that we have history with. The mrna one uses nano particles. They both target the virus the same way, it's just that one uses a system our bodies have been used to and studied for years. They both also feel strongly that this covid 19 virus was created in a lab in Wuhan doing gain of function research. The interview with these scientists is in the link below. There's also some info about the AstraZenica one in the NYTimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMGWLLDSA3c
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/astrazeneca-coronavirus-vaccine.html
I have not been able to participate here lately for many reasons, however I am circling back because I think it's important.
On Sunday my husband and I got our first COVID vaccines (Pfizer). We were able to do this by volunteering, which was our only choice because the tiers for vaccination in my county are very screwed up (people 50-64, even with risk factors, are next to last in line).
About the vaccine itself - this first shot was a minor thing - just a little arm soreness and fatigue the next day. We are bracing ourselves for a stronger reaction to the second one in a few weeks. It's a tiny dose - looked like .5mL to me.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines DO NOT CONTAIN ANY VIRUS whatsoever - not even dead virus. It consists of tiny clips of mRNA encased in fatty molecules, just of the spike of the virus. The AstraZeneca virus DOES contain some live and dead virus, so I would avoid that one for now.
Our volunteer job was in the post-vax monitoring area. We observed OVER 2000 people who got both Moderna and Pfizer versions, mostly first shots, a few second shots. Most had to wait 15 minutes, some 30 if they had a prior history of allergic reactions to vaccines or other medical issues.
NOT ONE OF THOSE 2000 PEOPLE WE OBSERVED HAD ANY BAD REACTION WHATSOEVER.
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