COVID Vaccine FAQ

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bbchien said:
Well I finally managed to score by initial dose, on the 11th (Moderna). Arm no longer sore. That was "about it" for noticing the shot.
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2nd one is a little more exciting but I have yet to meet someone who regrets getting it. What was surprising to me was that even the healthcare providers who were saying this was no big deal all along are jumping at the opportunity to get vaccinated. I guess actions speak louder than words (this is not meant to imply you were in that category, just a general observation).

My wife and I are having a contest to see who can vaccinate the most people in 2021. She’ll probably win.
 
bbchien said:
Well I finally managed to score by initial dose, on the 11th (Moderna). Arm no longer sore. That was "about it" for noticing the shot.
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Wait until shot 2. I get my second on the 1st. Everyone I know who has gone ahead of me says it’s the second one that kicks her but for a couple days.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Wait until shot 2. I get my second on the 1st. Everyone I know who has gone ahead of me says it’s the second one that kicks her but for a couple days.
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True. After the second one back in Sept, it was painful to raise my arm above shoulder level for two days

Cheers
 
X3 Skier said:
True. After the second one back in Sept, it was painful to raise my arm above shoulder level for two days

Cheers
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I had a very mild reaction to the second shot. My wife gets her 2nd one on Monday so I took a couple of days off in case she doesn’t feel well afterwards. I was actually a little bummed I didn’t have a more dramatic response. My arm pain when away with a Tylenol.
 
PlasticCigar said:
My arm pain when away with a Tylenol.
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For those reading who may receive the vaccine, medications such as motrin/ibuprofin (more so) and tylenol (to a lesser degree) may interfere with the vaccines ability to create an immune response, and as such are not recommended to be taken before receiving the vaccination.
 
For those of you reading this thread, Tylenol and Motrin may also NOT cause significant difference in the COVID vaccine response so when you’re lying in bed with fevers, chills and rigors feel free to take a Tylenol. Or not. Some people are into needless suffering.

If the effect of this vaccine is significantly altered by a single 500 my Tylenol the next day then it’s a pretty crappy vaccine.

I had this same discussion with my son’s pediatrician over a decade ago when she told me to give him Tylenol before his immunizations. I even sent her an article suggesting Tylenol lessens the immune response. She wrote back essentially saying that she’s vaccinated thousands of children and never seen any lessened immunity with Tylenol so if I wanted to let him suffer that was my choice, but she gave all of her children Tylenol before their shots.

If you want to suffer because it makes you feel better, go ahead. If you have any peer reviewed evidence showing that either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine are less effective if you take 500 mg Tylenol the following day then please present it, otherwise please keep your maybes to yourself and not add confusion to what is already a confusing subject for people.

P.S. - I did a quick search to see if there has been any new evidence on this that I didn’t know about and came up with nothing. No one here was suggesting pre-medicating anyway, I just mentioned taking a Tylenol to help with the discomfort after receiving the vaccine and I found NO evidence to suggest this was in any way detrimental.

For those of you who didn’t actually look at the FAQ (which was the entire purpose of this thread):


Q: Should patients receiving the vaccine be pre-medicated with acetaminophen or an NSAID?

A: Routine prophylactic administration of these medications for the purpose of preventing post-vaccination symptoms is not currently recommended, as information on the impact of this is on both the immune response to the vaccine and on post-vaccine symptoms is not currently available.

Q: Is there any evidence base to avoid NSAIDs and preferentially use acetaminophen to treat vaccine associated local or systemic adverse effects?

A: CDC recommends that acetaminophen or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may be taken for the treatment of post-vaccination local or systemic symptoms. In those that are pregnant, acetaminophen is preferred.
 
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I had my second shot last week. I expected the worst after what I have heard, but really only had a little soreness in my arm. A tylenol (after the injection) and hand splitting 2 cords of oak took care of that.
 
Judging from what my friends and family who've taken the second shot, it depends on the person. My sister in law had body aches, chills, sweating, etc from the second shot. My buddy in NY had none of those symptoms - they both got the Pfizer vaccine. I get my second shot (Maderna) the first week of February.
 
Anecdotally, women seem to have stronger reactions than men to the second vaccine. I suggested it was proof than men tolerate discomfort better than women but then retracted that statement after some of the nurses at work suggested seeing how much discomfort I was able to tolerate.

That being said, even those who were miserable for a day after still said they would get the vaccine again.

My wife and I are volunteering for our first vaccination clinic together next week. Afferently our county has more vaccines than people who can administer them so hopefully this will help out.
 
And you guys should al give a silent vote of thanks to all the researchers who made this possible. Going from pandemic to vaccine in a year is nothing short of miraculous. It is because of the steady advance of Science, mostly paid for by you all.
 
PlasticCigar said:
Anecdotally, women seem to have stronger reactions than men to the second vaccine. I suggested it was proof than men tolerate discomfort better than women but then retracted that statement after some of the nurses at work suggested seeing how much discomfort I was able to tolerate.

That being said, even those who were miserable for a day after still said they would get the vaccine again.

My wife and I are volunteering for our first vaccination clinic together next week. Afferently our county has more vaccines than people who can administer them so hopefully this will help out.
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Looks like I live in the wrong place. Like everybody I have been monitoring the vaccine rollout - and wondering when it might be my turn. Due to the Group I am assigned to I had thought I wouldn't have to
wait too long. Guess again. I had been expecting to get the vaccination through the multi-specialty clinic where my PCP resides. Today I received an email to register for the appointment in question through
their "MyChart" portal - and did so. My appointment is - wait for it - May 21, 2021 at 1:40 PM. That is not a typo. I plan on holding my breath.

They did go on to say that appointments would probably be moved up as supplies and program delivery get up to speed - but any way you slice it that is totally unacceptable.

There are a couple of other avenues available -and I am pursuing both. However, I am not optimistic.

Dave
 
Some low grade temps and night-sweats with the second shot. Also some general muscle pains at that time. Not complaining.
 
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Moderna
My first shot was sore arm for Two days. Not bad

second shot- next day mid afternoon has such chill with muscle aches and pains that lasted about 8 hours and that was it. Plus the sore arm. For what I have seen in many of my pts- much better than covid
 
Colorado is so screwed up, no one knows what’s going on or when anyone other than 1a is getting shots.
 
murphey said:
Colorado is so screwed up, no one knows what’s going on or when anyone other than 1a is getting shots.
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I'll nominate NJ as having the worst response. They initially received over 600,000 doses, prioritizing assisted living facilities and healthcare workers first, but neglected to file the necessary paperwork with the Feds to acknowledge receipt and begin vaccinations, so the doses sat unused for a week and a half. Then they quietly bumped prisoners to the top of the list, which generated backlash, then they bumped smokers to the top of the list, but the rate at which they were vaccinating was so low that it barely made a dent in the inventory. So they decided to open three 'supercenters', which took time because no one thought to plan for that in advance. The 'supercenter' nearest me was, for the first couple of weeks at least, taking just 80 appointments a day, refusing walk-ins at the end of the day to take unused but thawed doses, and closing on weekends. I don't know if that has improved or not, but while the state was touting the supercenters as the answer to all of our problems, people who could do math noted that the supercenters were operating at a pace that would require something over 400 years to vaccinate all NJ residents. Almost a month after the initial shipment, 400,000 doses were still unused. We're only now getting to the point where there are spot shortages.

Oh, and the prioritization of healthcare workers, first responders, people with risk factors? It's all being done on the honor system. No one is checking credentials or medical records. The governor said he's relying on the good people of NJ to do the right thing. :rolleyes:
 
I have to give WV props for how they are doing this. The state used the local mom&pop pharmacies to get a rolling start on the vaccinations and there is no restriction on county of residence, you just have to prove state residency. When the vaccines came out, the county health departments pulled out of the testing which is now done by contractors. That way, the health department staff could concentrate on the vaccine rollout. Today, 8am the state consolidated all the county registration data into one database run by 'Everbridge' an outside contractor. They are chewing through the vaccine supply as it comes in from the feds, as of today 84.5% of the delivered doses have been administered.
 
weilke said:
I have to give WV props for how they are doing this. The state used the local mom&pop pharmacies to get a rolling start on the vaccinations and there is no restriction on county of residence, you just have to prove state residency. When the vaccines came out, the county health departments pulled out of the testing which is now done by contractors. That way, the health department staff could concentrate on the vaccine rollout. Today, 8am the state consolidated all the county registration data into one database run by 'Everbridge' an outside contractor. They are chewing through the vaccine supply as it comes in from the feds, as of today 84.5% of the delivered doses have been administered.
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Yep, WV is about the best in the nation in terms of delivery.

CA, on the other hand, is near the bottom with very tight rules and bureaucratic paralysis.

Virginia just decided that all doses would be shipped only to the county/regional health offices, and decided to stop sending to hospitals. This was done suddenly: one hospital has had to cancel thousands of appointments and the county health office said "well, we'll try to reaccomodate them sometime". Not exactly a great way to do things.
 
wsuffa said:
CA, on the other hand, is near the bottom with very tight rules and bureaucratic paralysis.
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Pretty sure CA is at the very bottom; 50 of 50. The counties never seem to know what they will get from the state. The only thing I know is what group I'm in, and that I'm sure it will be a long wait before they they get to it.
 
X3 Skier said:
True. After the second one back in Sept, it was painful to raise my arm above shoulder level for two days

Cheers
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Anything other than arm pain? Did you get symptoms, like a mild case of Covid? Same arm? Were you completely relaxed with arm hanging free on both?
 
wsuffa said:
Virginia just decided that all doses would be shipped only to the county/regional health offices, and decided to stop sending to hospitals. This was done suddenly: one hospital has had to cancel thousands of appointments and the county health office said "well, we'll try to reaccomodate them sometime". Not exactly a great way to do things.
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The idea as I understand it was to have the health departments then allocate vaccine to their respective hospitals. The person who made that decision is to nobodies suprise a county health director..... Because it always makes sense to add a layer of buerocracy into the process !

Hospitals are well suited to do vaccinations for the 1b and 1c tiers. They have the call-center, the facilities, the staff and most importantly, they already have the patients*. Easy enough to verify that someone has diabetes or lung disease if it prints right on the summary sheet that the call center operator has in front of her to make the appointment.




* We just have to restrict them from slapping a $1400 'facility' fee on the ten bucks you get for administering a vaccine.
 
It looks like Santa Barbara County has a partnership with local pharmacies to distribute the vaccine. Have you tried contacting the County?

cessna182b said:
Looks like I live in the wrong place. Like everybody I have been monitoring the vaccine rollout - and wondering when it might be my turn. Due to the Group I am assigned to I had thought I wouldn't have to
wait too long. Guess again. I had been expecting to get the vaccination through the multi-specialty clinic where my PCP resides. Today I received an email to register for the appointment in question through
their "MyChart" portal - and did so. My appointment is - wait for it - May 21, 2021 at 1:40 PM. That is not a typo. I plan on holding my breath.

They did go on to say that appointments would probably be moved up as supplies and program delivery get up to speed - but any way you slice it that is totally unacceptable.

There are a couple of other avenues available -and I am pursuing both. However, I am not optimistic.

Dave
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GaryM said:
The governor said he's relying on the good people of NJ to do the right thing. :rolleyes:
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Well, so far “relying on people to do the right thing” has worked pretty well during this pandemic so why not stick with the same winning plan? After all, it’s not like almost half a million Americans haven’t died from this.

Saw a kid with MIS-C last night. Pediatric Hospitalist said it’s the 3rd case they’ve had in 24 hours. Turns out “COVID doesn’t hurt kids” wasn’t entirely true either.
 
PlasticCigar said:
Saw a kid with MIS-C last night. Pediatric Hospitalist said it’s the 3rd case they’ve had in 24 hours. Turns out “COVID doesn’t hurt kids” wasn’t entirely true either.
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Yeah, but it only hits the kids who smoke and are overweight, right ?

We clearly need to open the schools, without any safety measures....
 
Please keep the thread on-topic, non-speculative, and non-judgmental, folks.
We are drifting towards political territory.
 
Does FAQ still mean what I think it means?

Because this thread has few questions, fewer answers, and a whole bunch of banworthy drivel that seems to only be okay because today it is.

Yippee!
 
It sometimes helps to understand the title of the thread if you read the first post. I know that’s asking a lot...

Ravioli said:
Does FAQ still mean what I think it means?

Because this thread has few questions, fewer answers, and a whole bunch of banworthy drivel that seems to only be okay because today it is.

Yippee!
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PlasticCigar said:
It sometimes helps to understand the title of the thread if you read the first post. I know that’s asking a lot...
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Do you ever have the ability to not be condescending? As a doctor I agree with your information, but as a person I repeatedly disagree with your delivery.
 
Well, I’m a person too and I tend to adjust the content and delivery of my message depending on who I’m addressing. I tried to start this as a very straightforward passing on of information from a reliable source to people who may not otherwise be aware of that information (see the first post).

When people don’t even bother to read the very first post in a thread and then complain about the content (or make authoritative statements that are clearly not true and covered in the first post) I get frustrated.

No one has to read this thread and no one has to comment on it, but if you take the time to comment on it common courtesy would suggest that you actually read it first.

I’m sorry, but my patience on this subject is a little thin. Almost half a million Americans dead and people are still trying to debate “facts” because they don’t agree with their preconceived “opinions.” Maybe next time you send a kid to the PICU for something that was completely avoidable because people made bad choices you’ll see why I have little patience for deliberate ignorance or misinformation on this subject.

Country Flier said:
Do you ever have the ability to not be condescending? As a doctor I agree with your information, but as a person I repeatedly disagree with your delivery.
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luvflyin said:
Anything other than arm pain? Did you get symptoms, like a mild case of Covid? Same arm? Were you completely relaxed with arm hanging free on both?
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i did feel a little tired the morning after the second shot but no clue if it had anything to do the vaccine since sometimes I am tired in the morning:D. No other reaction and in line with what I anticipated.

Both shots were in my left arm. If I restricted the movement of my arm to below my shoulder, no problem.

There are many different reactions to the vaccination and I have no data source as to what is most prevalent. For example, out of some five persons I know personally, two had the same reactions but in the exact opposite sequence of mine, two had only mild reactions to the first and none to the second and a third had almost no reaction.

Make what you will of this but, to me it is totally irrelevant since this minor inconvenience of some reaction is insignificant compared to getting control of the Pandemic.

Cheers
 
Some questions that I have no idea what the answers are. Maybe no one does ...

How long does the vaccine last after you get both shots?

Is this gonna be a yearly deal like the flu shot?

Truly curious ...
 
Daleandee said:
Some questions that I have no idea what the answers are. Maybe no one does ...

How long does the vaccine last after you get both shots?

Is this gonna be a yearly deal like the flu shot?

Truly curious ...
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You and everyone else, I don't think anyone really knows yet. I could freely speculate if you want.
 
ND is doing pretty good with vaccines and if things go well, I might be able to get one in next couple of weeks.

Does consuming obnoxious amount of rum for any pain whatsoever ( it works, try it) have any effect on the vaccine? Asking for a friend of course
 
NY is a mess. Probably won’t be able to get a shot until April. My mom and grandparents don’t even know when they can get their second dose. They received conflicting information on how and when to schedule
 
cowman said:
I could freely speculate if you want.
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No thanks.

I've already speculated it for myself and reached my own conclusions. It's pretty clear that a lot of this is still shooting in the dark ...
 
jordane93 said:
My mom and grandparents don’t even know when they can get their second dose. They received conflicting information on how and when to schedule
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If it’s anything like here, they’ll receive a text or phone call a week or two beforehand that directs them to the health department’s (or wherever they received it) website to schedule it. The process to get the second dose has been much more efficient than it was for the first one.
 
RyanB said:
If it’s anything like here, they’ll receive a text or phone call a week or two beforehand that directs them to the health department’s (or wherever they received it) website to schedule it. The process to get the second dose has been much more efficient than it was for the first one.
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When they got their first shot, before they left, my mom asked if she should schedule with them now and the person said no just go online and schedule the second shot. She did that and there were no available openings for when they needed the second dose so she called the place where she received the first dose and the person said she was supposed to schedule the second dose after the first doseo_O. She’s just going to show up when her second dose and due and hope for the best.
 
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