Vaccine-seeking, DISGRACEFUL

"I'm from the government and I am here to help"

I think there is too much helping going on, at least in MN, and more help will not solve the problem.

"We had people in charge who weren't...because they denied the problem and just didn't give a ****."
I'm not sure who you mean when you cite people who "were" in charge and who "denied the problem" and "didn't give a ***."
If you mean the previous administration, here we go getting needlessly political again, and frankly most of the people running the program now, the ones really driving it, are exactly the same people who have been there all along.
This "our people are better than your people" is absolutely tiresome and needs to just stop.
Even if the election had gone the other way, my money is that we'd be just about exactly where we are right now.

One shot is in the tank! Appointment made for Shot #2.

As it turns out I received an email yesterday from the state saying there were slots available at a megasite nearby TODAY, so my wife, myself, and my type 1 diabetic son all have the first dose and an appointment for dose #2 in 3 weeks.

In talking with the staff there they say they are now pushing more than 8,000 people a day through that site.You could see evidence of optimizations they made. For example, there were two queues to get from one area to the next instead of one big long queue. As you approached the vaccination area there was an announcement to remove your jacket, have your id and appointment id ready to immediately hand to the nurse so as to speed things along. I was in the chair for all of 1 minute and as soon as I stood up someone was wiping it down.

I have to tell you though as the nurse administered the vaccine I bowed my head and thanked God for everyone that made it possible for that colorless fluid being injected into my arm. From the loftiest Phd who sequenced the RNA, to the guy who was cleaning that chair, I thanked God for every last one of them.

Twice.

Mel you know Michigan is a loser state just like the Wolverine football team. Seriously my experience was similar (in Ohio). But our County had links to all providers. We learned to go on the Kroger website at midnight when they loaded new vaccine times. Also the County loads the following week at 6 pm Thursday. I just looked. Plenty of appointments still available. Bottom line: supply is catching up with demand for 65+. Guessing the mad scramble will start again when we go to 60 and then 55 etc.

We have 2 hospitals in our city of about 100,000. I know nothing about the other one (which I won’t use for a variety of reasons) but the other, which I do use, is doling out the doses by our governor’s planned stages. Right now it’s down to 70+ years old and those with other conditions. The only condition I have ever had is PCa and I’m in the 3rd year of undetectable PSA and would have to answer the cancer question in the negative.

Anyway, this hospital posted that while vaccine is free, they are charging an “administrative fee” of $27.77 for the first dose and $46.54 for the second. They say that insurance may cover that but be prepared to show coverage for bring the payment. OK, I get it, but how is the fee higher for the 2nd round?

GoBucks said:

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We learned to go on the Kroger website at midnight when they loaded new vaccine times. Also the County loads the following week at 6 pm Thursday. I just looked. Plenty of appointments still available. Bottom line: supply is catching up with demand for 65+. Guessing the mad scramble will start again when we go to 60 and then 55 etc.
??????????????????????????????????

WE learned? Maybe YOU learned it from that friend of the second cousin. Exactly my point.

Clock=="...are exactly the same people who have been there all along..."

Yep--like Fauci. Ask him what he thinks.
OK, I promise to refrain. It's hard to resist.

Mel

Clocknut - I'm with you -- I think the way Illinois has managed the whole operation is worthy of the "Annual Worst FusterCluck Award." There is NO organization between cities, counties and the state. Within all of those entities, there is no commonality among the retail providers. Every provider, be they public or private, does things a different way. There is NO sharing of information as to which sites replenish appointments when. (I think Jewel does different stores on different days of the week, at around midnight. You just have to check every store every day, etc.) As far as the state is concerned, their approach is "We put if out there somewhere. Go find it. Like a treasure hunt, isn't it?" And our governor is so proud of how well we are doing.

We are also finding that literally ALL of the public sites in the Chicago area are located in areas where it is not safe for non-minority folks to travel. With the huge number of carjackings and muggings here the last year or two, it just makes no sense for an elderly non-minority person in a nice car to go there.

In addition to that, the distribution of vaccine to hospital systems is anything but equitable. The hospitals in minority neighborhoods have excess vaccine and are sending people door to door to try to convince neighborhood residents to accept a vaccination. Hospital systems in the non-minority areas and suburbs are struggling to get enough vaccine to vaccinate their essential staff members. This is what happens when we let politicians decide how to do these things. Their voters get all, the others get none.

Add to all this the tactic used by all the hospital systems. They will only grant vaccination appointments to their patients of record. I have doctors at two hospitals. The major teaching hospital, which has lots of vaccine, will not accept me because my PCP is not there, only one specialist I see. The other hospital, a community hospital, where my PCP and other docs are, has so little vaccine they are directing us to try the county sites because they don't know when or if they will get enough vaccine for us. And, they are about the third largest hospital system in the area (but are in non-minority neighborhoods and suburbs).

I finally snagged an appointment at a third hospital about 10 miles from home, in a so/so area. I was only able to get booked there because a "nice" patient relations person was able to re-activate my patient record from when I had a single appointment with a specialist there 10 years ago.

I'll have to say, the situation here in Illinois would be worthy of a comedy movie if it wasn't so tragic.

Well, according to one website, PA is in the bottom 5 or 6 states with it's numbers of vaccine doses given per capita. Here in Bucks County (suburban Philly), they are STILL in group 1A, and are doing it based on when you signed up on the county health dept website. They opened it for group 1B on Feb 15...and are still taking care of those who signed up before that.

The county where I work in NJ, is getting 400 doses a day from the state. At that rate, it will be Christmas before they are done with group 1A.

My daughter (University faculty) in Western VA (she's 20 miles west of Roanoke) got her first dose today because she was volunteering at a clinic, and they offered it to their volunteers.

Happy to report that here in NH it's been simple and efficient for my wife, myself and many 65+ friends. Registration simple and quick. National Guard and EMTs at high volume drive thru sites. Sorry it's not working so smoothly elsewhere.

Wilderness

Paxton...the neighbor-hood's minority population that you speak of have the same concerns as the non-minorities...who live and visit there...words matter...Good Lord do I have to do every thing around here...subtle and annoying...the smallest minority is the one individual...the one with originality...the one who Is "different" the one whom the group always shuns and gaslight's...the one who is treated "differently" in both rewards and punishments(imposters both)....Oh yes there is one in every crowd... and deep within the soul of every one in that crowd the one individual exists...some lonely...most just fearful...Me?...I relish rejection(btw all writing is biography)....I Am...Therefore I Think...I Believe Therefore I Am... oh and to clarify points made elsewhere by my Self...Effect is the Cause and always in all ways is the initiate of both...catch it if you can...wisdom has a very fast half life...yet never diss's appears...now go have fun...it only takes...well it only takes ONE>>>>> PS look to the bottom left beneath the window....Submit or Cancel...dont need no steeking sig nature umm watch watch...time the sigh...screams in a vacuum...never herd...sighs felt as comfort...which a felt well made will always do,,,if..............

Then you are my reader...(only takes one} I appreciate that...I enjoy you and your posts are wacky and fun as well... a honest and innocent edge to your personality...you wear it well...regards...logo

We still are not even in line as the appointments continue to be taken immediately and our county continues to be shortchanged in supply. A couple of our doctors and our PhD scientist son have recommended we wait for the J&J version, which we will attempt to do.

So far, it doesn’t appear that people are given any choice, but I think that will loosen up as supply gets better in the near future. Also, many more places will be able to store and manage the J&J version as it doesn’t have the be kept at such low temps. Many clinics and Dr. offices that don’t have the mRNA versions will be able to have the J&J, as I understand.

logo - Sorry if I offend your sense of something or other. I just speak the truth from where I live. The way things are being done is not equitable, by a long way. It is being done in such a way as to favor those groups who support the elected politicians who decide how vaccines are distributed. Nothing new here in Chicago. Just now, it may be life-threatening rather than merely expensive. These things should not be decided by elected politicians, There are experts far more qualified for that, but that's not how politics works.

They are going door to door in minority neighborhoods, vaccinating everyone in the household who will accept a shot, WHETHER THEY QUALIFY UNDER THE CURRENT PHASING GUIDELINES OR NOT. Others of us, who qualified for the current or previous phases, are still out here scraping in the dirt looking for a spot. Then they go on the evening news, crowing about what a fine job the state is doing, while we are still searching for what we were qualified to receive weeks ago.

I won't even go near the question of how or why some states having smaller populations seem to receive more vaccine per capita than others with larger populations.

I don't really care if you agree with me or not. It is just the truth, from where I live. I'm glad that it is working so well in some areas, but I'm furious that it is such a mess here.