Just thinking...How do you think everyone will react when the vaccine for Covid is available? Who will they offer the vaccine to first?

Mid,

You have had more than your share of heartache! I certainly hope 2021 is better for all of us.

I am thinking of the Hepatitis C drug that cured my DH---AFTER he had had a liver transplant and done 84 weeks of a brutal chemotherapy. 12 weeks on Harvoni and then wait 12 weeks and he was cured. No symptoms on Harvoni, just, cured. Chemo almost killed him!

We KNEW when he was doing the first chemo, that it was just buying him time. To be on on the 'ground floor' of an amazing CURE rate of upwards of 90% was incredible with Harvoni.

I am a cancer survivor, DH is a diabetic transplant patient who had 2 heart attacks. Both of us are 1st line patients. Both of us will get the COVID vaccine as soon as it's available.

Our SIL is an MD/PhD with his PhD being in the field of vaccines. He HAD covid, so I asked him if I could get 'his' dose of Covid vaccine. He laughed and said "Won't work that way, but if I can pull ANY strings, you guys will be front of the pack".

And 40% of the population will NOT get vaccinated. That's just the way it rolls.

I hope 2021 brings about calm, peace and more love for everyone for their fellow man--and a cure for Covid. But worse than Covid, to me, is the unkindness and anger I see in our world. That, to me, is more heartbreaking than any virus.

202 for me was a sad, lost year. I had just clearead cancer and came down with shingles. 2 months of yuck--wasn't too bad, but sure wasn't fun...then COVID. I've been in isolation of some kind for almost 20 months. Can't take a lot more!

I had a few aches after getting my recent shingles vaccine. It’s a two part vaccine. I’m scheduled for the second one in December.

I think many people are excited about the COVID-19 vaccine and just as many are concerned about it being produced so quickly among other things.

He pretty much just told me the facts. Germany pretty much funded the vaccine, they had been working on it since last year. Testing started in April. The older you are, the less side effects to the vaccine. Lastly, other countries have stricter protocols on testing, development and distribution than the US does so he is comfortable taking it and giving it to his family.

Stacy,

That’s good news to hear.

Can you share a bit more details about the vaccine?

If you don’t feel it’s appropriate to share what your friend said, I understand.

I would take the Pfizer vaccine. I have a close friend who used to work there and due to our discussions, I would trust that. He works for a competitor now and if he has faith in that one over his current company's potential offering, I will go with that.

Send,

Good points. I am not a conspiracy theorist either.

I understand that our minds wonder in these stressful times. It feels like we are living in a sci-fi movie or novel.

Our generation hasn’t lived through a pandemic before so we are feeling new emotions.

I think the one thing we can all agree on is wanting it to be over.

I am completely shocked that some people don’t even believe COVID-19 is real. It boggles my mind that some assume it is a hoax.

Some are just thinking that the general public will be very surprised when they cannot fly, travel on public transportation, buy at stores, enter a government building, get a driver's license, deliver their baby, receive treatment in a hospital etc.
if they do not have proof of the vaccination.

It could get so insane that the authorities may try detaining people in a FEMA quarantine facility if they refuse to have the vaccine.

On the other side of the spectrum, the FDA is so used to being in control, profiting from 10 year delays to approve pharmaceuticals and vaccines, that a government delay of approval for vaccines will be experienced in 2021.

Of course, I do not believe these conspiracy theories, at all. Not one bit.
I am not a conspiracy theorist.

But I read what some people are thinking.

Not everyone will react the same, or in a civilized manner. imo.

Thanks, Elizabeth!

Pages 12 to 18
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/downloads/COVID-19-Vaccination-Program-Interim_Playbook.pdf

Freq,

I heard an article on NPR saying that doctors prefer the tried and true antibiotics, plus the cost is outrageous for new drugs to be developed.

Gacy,

Remember the sugar cubes? What was that one? Polio, maybe?

Where’s Alva. our nurse? Or any other nurses other that remembers the sugar cubes? Now I am curious.

I had mumps, measles and chicken pox as a kid. I remember mom making us eat and drink behind each other so we would all get it.

Plus the neighborhood moms would send their kid over to whosever house had a kid with mumps, measles or chicken pox so their kids would get it because childhood diseases are dangerous for some adults like pregnant women and so on.

When my daughter got her vaccinations before kindergarten my MIL couldn’t be around her because her oncologist said it was not good for her to be exposed to it having treatments for her non Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Medicine is fascinating!

Yes, I'll get any available vaccine. I've been blessed by not getting any disease I was vaccinated for and never had any reaction other than a sore arm. Pneumo, shigles, flu and others and some concoctions I had to get before going overseas. Of course I rec'd the MMR vaccine as a child.(Although I recall as a child I stayed home from school one day w/o my mom's OK to watch the world series and when I returned I told the school nurse I had the mumps. I also provided a very convincing, I thought, hand written forged note from mom. Didn't work! )

Vaccines out at warp speed? When one thinks back, it took Jonas Salk 2.5 years to develop the polio vaccine. The measles vaccine took two years to develop.

I am the type of person that if I need some medicine for whatever, give me the old tried and true meds that have been around for decades. Example, Dramamine has been on the market since 1949. This one kid, me, took it whenever my parents went on a road trip, which was quite often. There was always a museum somewhere in the U.S. that they hadn't seen :P

At this point in time, I will see what the scientists say after they have their covid vaccine shots, and see what my primary doctor recommends.

I'm thinking there will be some supply & demand concerns right off the bat with this - including the storage issues which others mentioned. In terms of certain people being mandated to take the vaccine whether they want it or not, I think there will be enough of a job to do if we first focus on those who know they want it. Makes sense that some are concerned that the vaccine was rushed to market and they don't want it or they would rather have the vaccine out in the community before they get it. Others are certain they want it and I think it will be hard enough at first to keep up with those numbers - both in terms of producing the vaccine and distributing it. Vaccines are a sensitive issue for many people and there are passionate arguments on both sides pro and con. I think there isn't time to argue with those who don't want it when there are people out there who definitely want it and would be glad to get it.

Grandma1954, good insights and observations.

In regard to the chip - what I can't figure out is why would anybody bother inventing such a thing when 90% of us are willingly carrying around phones that are tracking everything we do?

Cali,
My youngest daughter got that HPV vaccine. The pediatrician said she was giving it to her children.

I think my daughter was in junior high when she got it. It’s three shots over a stretch of time.

Cali,

Don’t they have to have all of their vaccines before they go to their university? I think they checked the medical records when attending LSU.

What about flying? I wonder about after my husband’s cancer treatments are over, we would like to go see our daughter in Denver.

Do you think restrictions will apply on airlines?

Could the vaccine become required to fly?

What’s going on with the airline industry? Do you think they will survive this financially? Will they receive a bailout if needed?

We don’t want to drive to Denver from New Orleans.

I suppose that would take four or five days with taking breaks. I can’t remember how long it took my daughter. She made one stop in Austin, TX to visit a friend, then another stop in New Mexico, then to Denver.

Lea,

I think we are all guinea pigs too!

Grandma,

I hope you’re right and another pandemic is 100 years away!

We will all be dead by then!

I agree about the antibiotics. My youngest daughter had strep throat when she was five and it took several rounds of antibiotics, reaching up to the strongest one before it went away.

CWillie I read it in the newspaper about two weeks ago so it’s still out there. I’ll probably take the vaccine. If someone wants to track me with a chip, they’re in for some serious boredom Following me around in my small town.

I myself will be first in line. My age puts me in the high risk category. One of the most frequent and long lasting emotions of a widow or widower is loneliness. Covid hasn't helped that situation. But I don't think a vaccine will eliminate the virus for good. I think it will be like the flu where we will have to get annual vaccines. I hope not. This pandemic has certainly changed lives and taken many lives. I hope we never get caught this off guard again. I'm anxious to get back into a movie theater, give friends and family hugs and get rid of this damn mask! So to all others in the forum, take precautions, be safe, and yes, wear the damn mask.

There will always be some pandemic. (roughly about 100 years apart)
Will we learn anything? NO. There was the same resistance to wearing masks just over 100 years ago with that Flu and we are dealing with the same resistance now.
In general people are REACTIVE not PROACTIVE.
Seems like there is just enough time between pandemics that the people that went though it are all gone and the stories are not carried to the following generations.

Another problem is the use of antibiotics has made more and more resistant strains. (this effects bacteria not virus though)

People are going to places and doing things for "adventure" that brings more exposure to more people. What once took Weeks or Months to travel around the globe now takes hours. The term Quarantine is an old maritime practice. During the Bubonic Plague ships were held out of port for "quaranta giorni" that is Italian for 40 days. This is no longer done, imagine the disruption to our lives if it were. But a ship that had already taken 2 weeks to get from point A to point B is now sitting for another 40 days just to make sure the people on board are not contagious.
And there will always be those that will not get a vaccine for any number of reasons from allergies to components, underlying conditions that make it impossible to those that have the Religious freedom to reject a medication, these are the ones that rely on "Herd Immunity"

Will I get the vaccine? Sure when it is available to me. Chances are by next year it will probably be incorporated into the yearly flu shot if they can figure a way to combine them in a cost effective way. Lets get the First Responders, and Health Care Workers first.

Personally I think 2021 is going to be like this year has been.
I hope you all have a Peaceful Thanksgiving.
Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay 6 feet apart

Maybe I'm crazy, but as soon as they tell me I'm eligible to get this vaccine, I will roll up my sleeve and get it.

I am so tired of every time I sneeze, wondering in the back of my mind if I've been exposed. I'm tired of living with this bunker mentality.

If the vaccine was discovered by "Billy Bob's Beer, Bait and Covid Vaccine" company, it would give me pause to think. If this had been rolled out a week before the election, it might make me think. But in my opinion (and this is only my opinion), Pfizer is a big drug company that has way more to lose than to gain by rolling out a dangerous vaccine.

I do get that the long term ramifications are unknown - but so are the long term ramifications of getting Covid, especially for myself and my family, all of whom have underlying health conditions.

I have gotten the flu shot multiple times with no ill effects, except a slightly sore arm. I have gotten other vaccines successfully, so I expect the same will happen with this one.

For those of you who are leery, I totally get it, and no judgement here from me, we all have to do what we think is safest for ourselves and our families. But in my case, I truly believe the benefits outweigh the risks.

OMG, I can't believe I'm seeing the Bill Gates chip theory again, I thought that would have died by now... seriously people, just because somebody says something doesn't make it real. There are people who have legitimate reasons for avoiding vaccines but IMO the most vocal of the anti-vaxers are not usually among that group.

I’ve heard the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at 90 degrees. The other vaccine (Medusa?) can be refrigerated. The Pfizer vaccine is a live virus (I believe), the other a dead virus which makes sense as to why it needs to be stored at a higher temp.

At my job as a RN now it is strongly suggested we get the Flu vaccine & have to sign a waiver if we don’t but none of us get fired because we refuse. I’m uncertain if I will take the SAR-COV-2 vaccine. I don’t want to get Covid, however so will have to weigh the pro’s and con’s as the vaccine becomes available.

I read the stuff about the chip awhile back when Bill and Melinda Gates were sponsoring vaccine research. I don’t remember their reasoning for wanting the chip, but I’m suspicious of tech people and their ideas about what is helpful to the public. I don’t do Facebook because I feel like it’s huge data collection agency.

We tell our employees when vaccines are available and we will pay, but they are not mandatory. I suspect facilities may be forced to require Covid. We are in the process of selling our privately owned facility to a corporate group. I hope the sale is final before they can force us with Covid vaccine mandatory. We supposed to close 12/15.

A word to the wise, never open an assisted living, skilled nursing or nursing home. No matter how hard you try, it’s a thankless, no profit, and constant in your face complaints business. My sons (a lawyer and a CPA) tell us to open a bar or Starbucks the next time.

Well I say, let those who want the vaccine have it. They can have me. I don’t want it, I don’t trust it. For the same reason I have decided my daughter will not get the HPV vaccine—we simply don’t know what the long term side effects is. We don’t know how truly safe it is. So no COVID vaccine no HPV vaccine (and we are a pro-vaccine family). And I don’t know if this is true or not but I just read something that says there is not a chip IN the vaccine, the chip will be on the needle. So they will inject us with a chip? Again I don’t know if that’s true but all the more reason not to get the vaccine IMO. This vaccine isn’t like others so.....I will politely decline one and they can give mine to someone else who wants it. The vaccine should be first come, first served. Voluntarily.

I have a strong suspicion health care workers will be forced to get the vaccine. Most hospitals have made the flu shot mandatory this year.

As far as mandatory COVID vaccines, in the US they have figured out ways to force it on you. Most states now require all children to be fully immunized otherwise they can’t go to school and many including California do not allow religious exemptions. I would not be surprised if employers start requiring it and absent a union contract, they can fire anyone who won’t get it. Ticketmaster announced a week or 2 ago that they would require proof of the vaccine in order to attend concerts. The backlash was so bad that they reversed course the next day. Now they say their promoters may require it. To that I say, good luck. Good luck getting enough people to comply. Good luck staying in business with such a policy. Time will tell how they try to force the vaccine on us.

Pam,

That’s stressful for the workers at your hospital.