The White House said Thursday it would dedicate nearly $10 billion to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines for the high risk communities that have been struck hard by the pandemic, while also funneling resources into boosting vaccine confidence across the country.
The first thing they need to do is stop all the miscommunication. It happens at every level… Our Democratic governor (Wolf) in PA is talking up how well vaccination is going, and about opening up more groups to the vaccine, when it is impossible for some in 1a to get a vaccine in Lehigh county.
I got my first Pfizer at the Microsoft Conference Center across from the Executive Building in Redmond. My microchip is a freshie.
Sadly, it’s what comes of a process that has 53 different ways of going about things. States and possessions were left to their own devices as to how and when to vaccine who. It’s why so many of my friends in the east that were younger and less compromised were fully vaccinated before I could be in Wisconsin (I got my first one yesterday, finally!). Without a unified approach, it was a mess to start with.
Now that Biden has requested States open up to all on 1 May, which we are also doing here in WI, that’s a little more unified than what we’ve had to date.
Second to this is product availability. I got Moderna in WI; my husband got Moderna in MN. But my friends in Texas got J&J. There was also, allegedly (don’t ask me for a cite), where syringes to deliver the doses were in short supply. Those manufacturers are now also in the Defense Production Act program, so that’s getting resolved.
And yes, finally, the BS that the naysayers are putting up there gets far more airplay than the facts. Nothing short of shutting down social media and Faux and the others will stop that.
Maybe that microchip is why we all get sore arms the next day… LOL!!!
Slightly OT, but this XKCD strip has a pretty good–and offbeat, as usual–analogy/explanation for how the mRNA vaccines work.
Wow…fancy. I had to go down to New Holly for mine…it was the only place that was opened up. I have to say they were COMPLETELY geared up and the people were filing through. It was great.
Same at the place I went in NYC. Just a breeze through, no grief at all.
The soreness is from the chip embedding itself in your muscle before it starts transmission.
The chip has a microturbine that works in conjunction with your arm movements, eliminating the need for a significant battery and making it easier to conceal in the shot. Plus, it never runs out of power.
It is worse than that, in NC the majority of the vaccines are given through the County Health Boards and they have some ability to set priorities. In our county they decided to give school employees half of the doses before the 65+ group was done, which meant we got pushed back three weeks. Luckily, we were able to get Moderna shots from Wahlgren’s earlier than the shots scheduled with the county. Currently, there are 12,000 on the waiting list and they are getting 4000 doses/week so things are moving pretty fast. We got calls from several waiting lists the week after we got our first shot.
In contrast, as of last week, our Walgreens here in town wasn’t even on the list of available stores to get the vaccine. It was only until recently that our city hospital reduced their appointments to under 80. There was a two-week period where they didn’t even HAVE an vaccine to administer and had to cancel the appointments they had.
Yet across the other side of the State for Milwaukee and Madison there was an abundance of vaccine and the 21% of vaccinated population is almost entirely on one side of the State.
In Ontario our Con government went from over 80 to 60 and over on Monday. They announced it Friday.
I’m 67 with asthma. When I called around to book an appointment at any of the local pharmacies that were listed only one was actually taking appointments. I tried booking at that one (my usual pharmacy) on the weekend but they were already booked.
I’m all in but worried it won’t happen for quite a while. Our provincial government has already killed many by their stupidity on this and other related matters. It’s a long story.
There is variation in NC but the variation is on a county level basis and no one region appears to have an advantage.
phase 2
Interesting in that I also got my first one yesterday, SO on the other hand is still waiting for hers.
No doubt the intentions are righteous and noble … and certainly there are substantive things that will come from this investment - but Damn it Democrats! when you tout that you are spending $10 Billion - you have to give it some granularity you have to paint the picture of what tangible, sustainable societal benefit is going to be derived from this expenditure - this is real money -
“expand access to COVID-19 vaccines in underserved communities and $3 billion to strengthen vaccine confidence.” … what does that really mean?
When people think about the way that lots of bureaucracies work, this could be viewed like dumping 10 billion gallons of water in the Sahara desert - and a day later there would be nothing to show for it . There has to be some enumeration of the number of ongoing systemic problems that will be rectified by this spending -
There are other huge projects that will need to be given support - and the tangible impact & deliverables of these project are real - and can be readily comprehended - like refurbishing 110 year old tunnels & adding capacity where desperately needed … for example (and there are many more like this) -
Just do not think that it serves the cause to be vague & nebulous when talking about the results that can be anticipated from spending $10 billion - not when people are really wanting to know - concretely, what is going to be accomplished.
The Trump shot that is!
We’ve improved on vaccinations each week, and we’re getting closer to that supply inflection point.
Most states will open up eligibility to all ages in April. We’re going to need to do that to arrest spread and kill off this virus. Most of those who’ve been vaccinated thus far (me included) were not spreaders. Those folks mostly sheltered in place and masked up.
We’ve got to get to the younger, more mobile folks to stop spread. This was Israel’s experience. Biden has a good chance to ratchet down corona virus cases by May.
The issue will be anti-vaxxers/vaccine skeptics. I’ve met a few already. It will require some form of mandate (e.g., businesses requiring customers/employees to be vaccinated/can’t go to Disneyland unless you’ve been jabbed etc.) along with a PR campaign.
