If you’re willing to make the drive, you might check locations in St Lawrence County like Potsdam, Canton, Massena, Ogdensburg, or Gouverneur. They didn’t get booked up as quickly as the big cities.
Let me guess; you’ve seen a white deer or two.
No, I am not willing to make a two-day road trip to St. Lawrence County, potentially exposing myself en route every time I have to stop and piss.
I don’t feel like getting any more precise than I already have.
Second shot today. Was about an hour from walking into the site to leaving. No symptoms yet.
Really not sure what my new boundaries should be in this brave new world, both to protect my family and to be a good citizen. Obviously, mask stay on. But could I go to a restaurant? They are all open. What if I sat outside? I really have no idea. It feels weird.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/03/health/after-covid-19-vaccine-safety-wellness/index.html
Answers these questions (not paywalled):
Can I please stop wearing a face mask?
When can I hang out with friends and family?
When can I eat at an indoor restaurant or go to a concert or sporting event?
Can I travel if I’ve been vaccinated?
[quote] Can I please stop wearing a face mask?
Let’s “face” it: The answer is no.
Try to think of a face mask as your new best friend, one that you plan to cherish and appreciate for a good, long time. Here are five reasons why.
- It’s not 100% protection. Even the best of the currently available vaccines only offer up to 95% protection when you are fully immunized. That means there is a 5% chance you can catch the novel coronavirus at any time.
Think that sounds small? Let’s compare that risk to birth control: Pills, patches, vaginal rings and shots are 91% to 96% effective. Yet that translates to nine women becoming pregnant for every 100 women on each of those forms of birth control, according to the US Food and Drug Administration
[/quote]
Does anyone else think that was not the best analogy to use when many, many people find it extremely reasonable to have sex while using only one method of birth control (ie, find it an acceptable risk)?
Edit: sorry I can’t get quotes right
I agree with the answer, but not the reason.
As tested, the vaccines were fully effective against severe COVID, as I would define severe. They turn it into a normal illness no more severe than those I am willing to experience in the normal flow of life.
The vaccines also turn COVID into a rare disease. It is not my practice to worry about rare diseases.
However, my mask will be still needed because people looking at me in public won’t know it when I have been full vaccinated.
When they get a cold, people in polite Asian countries wear a mask so they are less likely to infect others. This is what we should transition to later this year. How to do that in a society with low social trust, I don’t know, but that’s the timetable.
My mom got her first shot on Wednesday, and my daughter got hers today. Both have appointments for the second shot.
I won’t be eligible for a while. Probably not until April. But it will be a relief when my mom and daughter are fully vaccinated, as they are a lot of my exposure, now. Of course, my mom HATES wearing a mask, and it’s going to be a hard sell for her to keep wearing one after the second shot has had time to settle in.
Thankfully, she didn’t have much reaction to the first shot, so she’s unlikely to refuse the second one.
@ThelmaLou’s post right above details out why needing to keep wearing a mask is important. I wish each and every vacc site was clearly and directly educating people about that. Keep ‘um happy and on their way will just prolong how long we have to do this unless or until better information comes about. It’s not “whee!! Everything is back to normal for me!”
On the other hand, what are the chances that @puzzlegal 's 80+ vaccinated mom is going to be a serious transmission threat. Close to zero, I bet.
I got the first dose (Pfizer) today. I work in logistics for a national lab company. I don’t have direct patient contact, and even though I handle specimens, in theory that doesn’t actually expose me (if I am exposed by the double- and triple-sealed specimens I handle, something has gone very wrong). But, I routinely go in and out of multiple medical facilities every day, including testing and treatment areas, and I have a lot of contact with a lot of people who have direct patient contact. If nothing else, I’m a very dangerous vector if I were infected.
My state (North Carolina) has reformulated its priority categories a couple of times, and nobody seems to have specifically thought about medical couriers. If you asked two county or state health officials what category we fell into, if we were Category 1 (front-line health care workers) or Category 3 (essential services) in the current re-re-revised priority categories, you’d get three opinions. Literally. And my company’s official position was pretty much literally “Don’t ask us.” We were “strongly encouraged” to get the vaccine as soon as it was available locally, but instructed to get further information and guidance from our local health officials.
Last week we finally got definitive guidance from higher up in our company that we should consider ourselves Category 1 frontline healthcare workers, and sign up for the vaccine. So I and most of my co-workers started trying to sign up.
My county health department and the local major hospital had their own separate vaccine programs. Both of them require you to subscribe to an email alert list. Then the send out an email alert once a week that appointments for that week are open. Then its a Darwinian race to get through jammed phone lines or log into an overwhelmed website to get a first-come, first-served appointment before they’re all gone.
The county sent out an alert Monday at 1:30. I was busy, and couldn’t check my email until 10 minutes later. I went to the county health department website, and there were still a couple of dozen slots available in half a dozen blocks. I clicked on one block with a half dozen open slots, filled out a brief online form, hit “Submit”, and then promptly got a message that all the slots were already filled and to try a different block. I went back a page, and now there was only one block open, with I think three slots. I clicked on it, filled out the form, hit “Submit”…and promptly got a message that all slots in that block were full and to try a different block. I went back a page and everything was filled up.
On Tuesday, my boss got an email alert from the hospital that appointments were open. We both called; I got a ring, which was a good sign, and finally got through to an appointment scheduler after letting the phone ring for over five minutes.
(The email alert was time-stamped 3:00 pm. My boss got the alert on his phone at 3:02 pm. I got it on my phone at 3:12 pm. A follow-up alert announcing all appointment slots were filled came through at 3:22 pm).
What about all the 80+ year olds who have died in nursing homes? Including some nuns?
Well, I would recommend that puzzlegal’s mom not visit that local Catholic nursing home.
Huh???
Well, it was weird that you brought up nuns, so that was a joke. But your post makes no sense as is. Were those people you’re talking about vaccinated? Did they transmit the disease to anyone before they passed?
Are you assuming that because she’s 80 she never goes anywhere or sees anybody?
I can assure you that I’ve known a number of people over 80 of whom that is most certainly not true.
I assumed the opposite, actually. I figured she wouldn’t be worried about her mom if she was a shutin without a mask.
Then why are you assuming she’s not a transmission threat?
Maybe the vaccinated aren’t a transmission threat; but we don’t know that yet. And in any case what would her being 80+ (which you specified) have to do with it?
Because she’ll be fully vaccinated and probably isn’t a big party goer.
– and she may not go to parties the same way some 20 year olds do, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she doesn’t go to gatherings.
Honestly, my mom is MY largest exposure right now. I am hiding at home. I work from home. I socialize over the internet. She doesn’t like zoom, doesn’t like using a computer at all, HATES wearing a mask, and is very gregarious. No, she doesn’t party as hard as my nephew. But my nephew doesn’t need my physical help on a regular basis.
So yes, I care about her as a vector.
If anyone knows a brand of surgical masks that are soft and comfy and currently available, please share. The ones I used to get were all of those, but with pandemic shortages, my most recent batch has a stiffer, rougher texture than the old ones, and probably does irritate her skin. And she didn’t like the “Stark’s Vaccuum” cloth ones I gave her, which I find comfy.
Oh – and her doctor was very clear to her about continuing to wear a mask. But I doubt she’ll do it. Maybe I can get her to wear one when I am around, but I wouldn’t bet on it.