Getting My Rona Vaccine. Essex County

joan_crystal said:

I do not have a reliable source for this information. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable could verify. From what I have read on social media, when appointments first opened at Sears, they were open to everyone, first come, first served. This quickly changed and it is no longer possible to get a vaccine appointment there at this time unless you are classified as a health care worker.  

 I think there was a glitch on day 1 that was allowing everyone and anyone to sign up and they quickly "fixed" that so that now many people who should be able to sign up (group 1a) can't.

I signed up after JerseyJack mentioned it to me.  It went right through on the website, and gave me a date of Jan. 5, though no time slot. I am 65, though I thought it odd that nowhere did the questionnaire ask if I was disabled. I am, for more than 30 yrs, I received immunotherapy for years, and have a lung injury. Whatever. They didn’t ask. 

When I filled it out, I believe the 1A, 1B, 1C designations hadn’t been released. They responded with a text, then an email to confirm my email address a week ago. Nothing since then.

I’m not trying to jump the line, so if they postpone me until the first responders, medical workers and essential workers go first, that’s okay by me. I can hole up at home. If/when I hear again from the county, I’ll post it here. 

As for problems with the process, they’re starting from zero, with no help from the feds, setting up an operation to cope with millions of injections with mandatory follow ups, so we all need to exert a little  patience. 

jmitw said:

so you can get 1a designation by expecting to volunteer and get the vaccine before people who have to be at work or are high risk in the 1C group?  even if you are not actively volunteering?  It sounded like they said they only had 15K of the original 400K available for various health care workers in NJ this week.

 Not from what I was told today by someone who has already volunteered.  You volunteer and go and do your volunteer work and then you get your first shot at the end of the day you work, not ahead of time.  They provide significant PPE and lunch.  Apparently they did not get breakfast as previously indicated, so be warned about that possibility if you volunteer.  I have sent in my application to volunteer and got an email back to provide more (or mostly the same) info - contact info and availability.  But no further info yet on the volunteering.  But they will need a ton of volunteers if that is going to be their primary method of staffing, so I wouldn't avoid volunteering due to thinking they already have enough help.  

joan_crystal said:

I do not have a reliable source for this information. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable could verify. From what I have read on social media, when appointments first opened at Sears, they were open to everyone, first come, first served. This quickly changed and it is no longer possible to get a vaccine appointment there at this time unless you are classified as a health care worker.  

 This is incorrect.  Appointments were always healthcare workers first (group 1a). It was never first come, first served.

I saw something on line today questioning whether people really need a second dose of the Moderna vaccine given the effectiveness of the first dose in the trials, and suggesting that the second dose should be given to others.  If I knew I got a decent amount of antibodies from the first dose, I wouldn't necessarily be against that.   If the first dose gives you enough bang for the buck, getting shots out there more quickly to more people protects more of us, including me.  The problem is, this stuff came on line so fast that they don't really know.  They don't know how long the vaccine will be effective for.  They don't know how much of a boost you really get from the 2nd dose. We are in the middle of a grand experiment on ourselves.  

Yesterday, I spent the day volunteering at Sears in Livingston and here is the deal:

-Appointments for vaccines are only for healthcare workers, right now

-if you walk-in without an appointment, they cannot serve you

-the date of your appointment matters, but the time does not. The time is just to try to spread people out during the day, but it’s not enforced  

-They only have around 250 doses per day in each of the 4 sites in Essex County but that will be ramping up in the next few weeks.  As a result, the Sears is WAY under capacity and the place is practically empty. However, due to the limited number of doses, you have to have an appointment for that day 

-a lot of people aren’t showing up, so the site has been closing earlier than 6pm

-if you signup to volunteer, you can also get the vaccine at the end of your “shift”. Email the county directly at vaccinehelp@admin.essexcountynj.org with your contact info to signup. They got back to us the next business day. They need a ton of volunteers.

-they automatically book you for the 2nd follow-up shot 4 weeks later

-The overall process is very smooth (with appropriate safety and distancing)

To clarify, Jerseyjack never said “just show up” if you don’t have an appointment.  He said if you registered online and were given a time a lot but didn’t receive any additional information then he was told to “just show up.”  This is not semantics, he never said people were supposed to just walk in unannounced, this was information given to him by the people at the actual location and only applies to people who registered.

As far as him jumping the line, I don’t see any attempts at deception on his part, but rather a combination of the ambiguous information put out by the county combined with the lack of screening questions on the registration website led to this.

yahooyahoo said:

 This is incorrect.  Appointments were always healthcare workers first (group 1a). It was never first come, first served.

 Two above posters, neither of who is a health care worker (both are age 65+), applied early in the process and received vaccination appointments.  One received his shot today.  The other is scheduled for early next week. Therefore, it must have been possible to get the vaccine without being a health care worker.  As someone posted above, this was likely an early glitch which has since been corrected.

comment withdrawn.

yahooyahoo said:

 This is incorrect.  Appointments were always healthcare workers first (group 1a). It was never first come, first served.

 On Thursday, I applied. That was in response to Joe's phone blast. The application for vaccine included a questionnaire. If you fit the criteria (I did) you got an appointment. I did. I got it on the basis of my age.

Not begrudging FJJ his shot.  We need the nature photography.

This may answer some of the priority questions   https://covid19.nj.gov/faqs/nj-information/slowing-the-spread/how-will-new-jersey-distribute-a-covid-19-vaccine-is-there-a-plan?utm_campaign=20201230_nwsltr&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

I’m in group 1C, do I need a doctor’s note or will they be using the honor system when they eventually get to 1C?

Even with the bumps mentioned here in the thread, Essex County seems to be ahead organizationally. I asked 10ish people on a call today, all living in NJ or NY whether they knew where they will be getting their vaccine and they all looked at me as if I had three heads. I thought the post card from the county and emails from mayors were very informative. It's great to see the updates from volunteers and and anyone who already got the vaccine. Reading the vaccine updates takes the mind of the grim covid stats. 

zet said:

Even with the bumps mentioned here in the thread, Essex County seems to be ahead organizationally. I asked 10ish people on a call today, all living in NJ or NY whether they knew where they will be getting their vaccine and they all looked at me as if I had three heads. I thought the post card from the county and emails from mayors were very informative. It's great to see the updates from volunteers and and anyone who already got the vaccine. Reading the vaccine updates takes the mind of the grim covid stats. 

 This is true.  In Hunterdon I had to hunt on the county website to find any information on the vaccine campaign.  Essex County is actively pushing to get the information out. It might not be doing so accurately, but they’re trying to get the word out and trying to get people vaccinated.

Essex County appears to be so far ahead of Union County it’s laughable. Except it’s not funny...

spontaneous said:

 This is true.  In Hunterdon I had to hunt on the county website to find any information on the vaccine campaign.  Essex County is actively pushing to get the information out. It might not be doing so accurately, but they’re trying to get the word out and trying to get people vaccinated.

 Worth noting who is in charge in Hunterdon County!

Where did he get the 80% from? 

According to this story Pfizer said they have no idea how much one dose helps:

But in the case of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot that is already being given, the manufacturer said the shot had not been evaluated on dosing schedules different from the recommended 21 days.

After the British government’s announcement on Wednesday, Pfizer said it had no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose was sustained after 21 days.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-vaccines/british-family-doctors-criticise-change-of-plan-on-vaccine-boosters-idUSKBN2951H5

Its my experience that taking convenient short cuts leads to regrets.

spontaneous said:

zet said:

Even with the bumps mentioned here in the thread, Essex County seems to be ahead organizationally. I asked 10ish people on a call today, all living in NJ or NY whether they knew where they will be getting their vaccine and they all looked at me as if I had three heads. I thought the post card from the county and emails from mayors were very informative. It's great to see the updates from volunteers and and anyone who already got the vaccine. Reading the vaccine updates takes the mind of the grim covid stats. 

 This is true.  In Hunterdon I had to hunt on the county website to find any information on the vaccine campaign.  Essex County is actively pushing to get the information out. It might not be doing so accurately, but they’re trying to get the word out and trying to get people vaccinated.

Anecdotally, I agree with this.  A friend in Monmouth County has heard absolutely nothing about how, when, where to get the vaccination.  Even their primary care physician had no clue.

Floyd said:

Where did he get the 80% from? 

From the FDA analysis of Pfizer’s data:

The VE [vaccine efficacy] for the prevention of COVID-19 disease after Dose 1 is 82%, in the all-available efficacy population. Based on the number of cases accumulated after Dose 1 and before Dose 2, there does seem to be some protection against COVID-19 disease following one dose; however, these data do not provide information about longer term protection beyond 21 days after a single dose.

ETA: The Reuters article says “no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose was sustained after 21 days.”

They're gonna have to do some follow up antibody testing before they make a decision about this, I think.  

They are saying that even if you are vaccinated.....you can still pick up the virus and pass it on.  The vaccine only stops symptoms (95% of the time), not the virus itself.  So even if you do get the vaccine, you shouldn't expose yourself to others un necessarily.  You should still socially distance and limit prolonged interactions to limited people such as family and close friends.  Being something like a non essential volunteer is still too risky, especially if you will be around people, such as (new) hospital patients/their family that have not been vaccinated yet.  Even a nursing home where all the residents and staff were offered the vaccine......it is only about 95% effective....that means if there are 100 residents...and you are carrying the virus....you risk killing about 5 of them.

Also, remember, you still have about a 5% chance of getting sick yourself.....and the vaccine takes about 10 days to be effective...so you are not max protected until 10 days after the 2nd dose.  There have been a couple cases of medical providers being infected within a week of getting the vaccine...

so...volunteers(in places like nursing homes/hospitals who just do candy striper type work) that really aren't needed.....shouldn't have priority.......because they shouldn't be volunteering....at least until all people have had the opportunity  to get the vaccine....i'm not saying the service isn't valuable...but until covid is under control, the risk of that type of volunteering outweighs the benefit.

jmitw said:

They are saying that even if you are vaccinated.....you can still pick up the virus and pass it on.  The vaccine only stops symptoms (95% of the time), not the virus itself.

....

"they" are saying?

Who's they?

What you wrote makes no sense. That's not how vaccines work, or your immune system.

He's not far off, drummerboy. A vaccinated person is much less likely to become sick if they have contracted the virus (or whatever a particular vaccine is for). Their immune system has been primed to recognize and ramp up production of the means to get rid of it. Vaccines aren't an absolute guarantee but these COVID vaccines are showing some impressive efficacy numbers. Yes, you can still get actually sick with a COVID infection after getting the vaccine in rare cases. An actual infection, not just having the symptoms of an immune response to the vaccine. Again. Rarely. The vaccine might not work for you for some reason.

However, even in a person who has responded well to the vaccine and is considered immune to COVID, it's not like you're now some hot underground after-hours night club with some big burly antibodies standing at the door with a picture of the virus. You can still be exposed and get active virus particles into your system - and while your immune system is quickly kicking its **** you are just as likely to shed live virus for a little while until you've cleared it from your system. As I said, it's a very short time and it is a much lower amount of virus you will shed but it can happen. Because your immune system gets to work on it right away, the virus won't be able to hijack your cells and make more of itself like in an unvaccinated person or in someone who has never contracted it before.

So yeah, continue to wear masks and keep a safe distance even though your risk of spreading it is lower.

However, jmitw, a vaccine essentially gives your immune system a tutorial in how to recognize and kill/eradicate/destroy/root out/neutralize/[whatever other suitable word] the virus. That's the tl;dr version. Going any further into humoral and cellular immunity for you will incur tuition costs and perhaps put you to sleep out of boredom.

bikefixed said:

However, jmitw, a vaccine essentially gives your immune system a tutorial in how to recognize and kill/eradicate/destroy/root out/neutralize/[whatever other suitable word] the virus. That's the tl;dr version. Going any further into humoral and cellular immunity for you will incur tuition costs and perhaps put you to sleep out of boredom.

 that's what I was getting at, as to the purpose and functioning of a vaccine.. 

And I still want to know who "they" is.

At a minimum this is incorrect: "The vaccine only stops symptoms (95% of the time), not the virus itself." And have we already gotten so jaded about the performance of these 2 vaccines that we are using the word "only" to describe a 95% effectiveness rate?  

On whether you can still spread covid after being vaccinated, from what I've read the answer is "we don't know" and if you can, it would likely be via mucous and phlegm:

Even if a vaccine has trained your immune cells to kick the butt of any SARS-CoV-2 viruses they spot, they might not be able to neutralize the ones resting in your nose, on the other side of your mucous barriers. Those COVID-19 viruses wouldn’t hurt you, but they still might be able to replicate and shed — coughed back out of your nose and mouth and into the community, where they could encounter your unvaccinated friends and loved ones.

(Fivethirtyeight -- not just for polls!)

I wasn't interested in piling on a concerned person. He said good stuff in his post after those first couple of sentences, but go right ahead and dispense with everything else there. Thankey.