I took my children to a clinic to have their first shot this weekend (they are in the 5-11 category). It was held in a school. The line snaked from outside, through a hall, into the gym, through another hall, and into the cafeteria. Nobody was distancing, and they actually took the straight line through the gym and compressed it into a wave in order to “fit more people in” o.O
We arrived shortly after it was scheduled to start, and stood in line for 2 1/2 hours. There were hundreds of people in line and only 3 people actually giving shots. Paperwork was a 3 stage process and involved 4 people. The person actually trained to give the jab was also filling out extensive paperwork. The whole thing was a mess and poorly handled. Scuttlebutt was that they had multiple volunteers not show up.
I should have walked when I got inside and saw how the line was being handled. We were trying to get them partially vaxxed ahead of a family Christmas gathering, but the risk they incurred standing in that line was almost certainly higher than anything they might have had from the family we are going to see.
My two 8-year-olds got their first shots yesterday. We used our health system’s drive through vaccine and testing center. We had to make an appointment. One kid got the shot while sitting in the car. The other one got panicky and I asked if we could get out so she could sit on my lap.
She’s always been scared of shots, but it’s seems like fully a phobia now. I was holding her hand, and one of the medical people was like, “hold her other hand,” to try to get me to hold her still while she was screaming “no, no, no!”. I didn’t want it to go like that. I kept talking to her, and was on the verge of saying we’d have to come back later, when suddenly she said, “OK, do it.” And it was over.
She had a slightly elevated temperature last night – not enough to count as a fever – and they both have sore arms. We were worried that they might have bad side effects due to having had covid 6-7 weeks ago, but so far, it seems pretty typical.
I’m glad they’ll have some extra protection as they and my spouse will be traveling to visit family after Christmas.
There’s a psychologist available at out pediatrician’s office who helps people overcome needle phobias. We are going to try to set up an appointment to get started with that. I want the second shots to be in 6 weeks, so maybe there’s time to make headway by then.
My daughter had a needle phobia. She wanted to get a piercing when she was ~14, but her fear was just too great. I took her to the tattoo shop where I knew everyone, and the piercer showed my daughter how piercings were done. After an hour or so of chatting, my daughter asked if she could hold my hand while her piercing was done and it all went smoothly.
Say, what’s with respectable news sites referring to the injection as a “jab”? See this from the BBC as an example:
Seems to me that it’s mostly respectable news organizations outside the US that do this. In the US, I’ve only seen it used by tabloids.
As an American, I think this is extremely informal usage, and really doesn’t belong in straight news coverage. The image it creates is of a mad scientist stabbing people without their consent.
We’ll need some British Dopers to confirm, but from what I can tell … “jab” in British English can be an unmarked** synonym for “injection by syringe” and by short extension, “vaccination”.
In American English, “jab” used to mean “vaccination” often belies some level of disrespect for the process.
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** "Unmarked" here meaning “neither pejorative nor complimentary”, “neutral in connotation”.
I see, that’s interesting. I had a feeling the word has a different connotation in the UK vs the US. To put it bluntly, in the US only an anti-vaxxer would refer to it as a jab.
Maybe it depends on where you live in the US. Most people I know use both expressions. In the MPSIMS, “get the jab” seems to be the more common one. I prefer “get the jab.” “Get the shot” sounds too much like a different sort of shot entirely.
I concur with the above posters. Very common to refer to the vaccine as “the jab” where I’m at (Chicago.) Doesn’t have any anti-vaxxer connotations that I’ve noticed.
Nothing to do with pro- or anti-vax in the UK. I’ll go with “quaint” colloquialism for injection, with quaint in quotes because it annoys the hell out of me, in part because its so pervasive that on bad days I’ll find myself using it.
It’s the stuff of lazy headlines in low end newspapers; but yes, pervasive - as you point out, the BBC are using it. It also connotes, to me at least, Britishness signalling (you might call it, modelling the phrase on “virtue signalling”). In the same way that someone might say “good old fish and chips” or “proper beer”.
To me, “jab” implies that someone is not using all due care, but just rams the needle home. I imagine it might raise the hairs on someone who is needle-phobic.
But it is understandable as a term for the fourth estate. After a saying ‘injection’ for several months, a reporter might welcome a one-syllable replacement. And short words are obviously preferred for headlines.
I hadn’t really thought about jab vs shot before. In my very pro-vax mind, jab is used for COVID shots and shots are used for flu, shingles, measles, etc.
I have no clue how that became cemented in my head, but there it is.
Yes, I have had some clients on the edge of being vaccinated who were too repulsed by “jab,” which to them sounds violent, and helped push them in the direction of not vaccinating. I also find it stabby terminology but I have mad cognitive-behavioral skillz to get me through.