I got the first Pfizer yesterday. Second one in 2 weeks.
I encourage everyone to get vaccinated and I assure you there aren’t mind-control chips or drugs in it.
However: I would be lying if I didn’t say there wasn’t something a little creepy and dystopian about streaming into a modern sports arena, with mostly-empty parking lots highlighting the bleak railroad infrastructure it was built around, staffed with uniformed Army medics with big signs announcing “Mass vaccination site, please follow instructions” on giant jumbotrons. It felt a bit like Blade Runner or something.
Again, get the vaccine, don’t get creeped out, but… sheesh. The venue gave me the shivers.
At least the Army guys weren’t wearing moon suits. I hope.
I got mine in a local grocery store’s pharmacy section. The pharm tech behind the counter was the usual perky college woman and the pharmacist who did the deed was a balding 50yo guy. The post-vax waiting area was a couple chairs nearby among the fresh produce.
I dunno. I think it’s just been a long time since we’ve had a super-focused vaccine event in this country. We’ve been able to squelch emerging viruses before they became too widespread in the past 50+ years, until now.
Like you, I went to a large venue (fairgrounds) for my first Pfizer a week and a half ago. We were all in cars, but it nonetheless reminded me of standing in what felt like an interminable line with dozens if not hundreds of other people, waiting for my Polio sugar cube.
I don’t even remember the last mass vaccine event. But to be clear, what made it weird is the combo of this ultra-modern futuristic stadium full of military people and high-tech screens and displays everywhere, with everybody just sort of streaming in.
It was purely an aesthetic thing. Had it been in the county fair next to the corn maze, I wouldn’t have batted an eye, but something about it tripped all of my “Blade Runner” receptors. Minus the grime. ATL Mercedes stadium is spotless, too spotless.
But I’m not complaining. Got my vaccine, 20 mins in and out, 100% of the wait was either getting processed or taking the long walk between processing stations.
I was told I would be invited to schedule my second Pfizer after 2 weeks, too. As a practical matter, I’ll probably receive Dose #2 about 17 days after Dose #1.
I can understand that. It’s funny the impressions we have of what we’re engaged in, given our varied backgrounds. To me, it was just the modern-day version of Polio vaccination. (Although I’d prefer another sugar cube!)
The way they do it at the mass vac sites here, you schedule the 2nd shot before you leave after getting shot 1. You get a link by email,* and the earliest option is 3 weeks out. I rescheduled my spouse’s 2nd shot because the earliest option for her was 4 weeks out, and the pharmacy I scheduled her at also wouldn’t allow an appointment earlier than 3 weeks out from the date of her 1st shot.
It makes sense to be invited to schedule after 2 weeks. It just doesn’t seem right to actually get it that soon, which is what it sounded like.
*They have folks with computers to help anyone who isn’t able to schedule on their own device.
Like you, I’m interested to see if they’ll let me schedule sooner than 3 weeks. When the guy advised me I’d be invited to schedule my next one after two, he noted my double-take and said, “Yes, it’s ok to get the second shot after only 2 weeks.”
So I’m somewhat hopeful it will be allowed. I’ll be sure to report back.
I did the mental math too quick, it’s not 2 weeks. In fact I just tried to respond to the 2nd booking email they just sent, and it advised me not to even book until 4/24 (18 days from my first shot)
Then in the routine fashion that I’m accustomed to expect from the State of Georgia’s top-notch online presence, it barfed 10 error dialogs and crashed my browser. So I don’t know if I was actually forbidden from booking too soon, or the website just shit the bed.
I got mine (1st Pfizer) last week. Was standing in line to check out at the grocery store, and the pharmacist walked up and asked if I had been vaccinated/did I want one. I guess they had 4 shots leftover after appointments that day and needed to use them. Guess I got lucky!
I was more out and about today. Everywhere I went the topic of conversations was vaccination. Where to go, have you been scheduled, what one did you get, that sort of thing.
I’m scheduled, but I have had the rug pulled out from under me before, as I get allergy shots scheduling is a bit tricker.
I’m 71. My most recent memory of a mass vaccination effort in the US was for H1N1 (swine) in 2009-2010. That one I worked as a nurse in public health departments mass clinics in Nebraska.
As a recipient I remember receiving polio vaccine on a sugar cube several times in the late ‘50s-early ‘60s. Lined up in school for those.
ETA: I also was a recipient of the H1N1 vaccine-the nurses vaccinated each other before we opened the doors to the public. About an hour before as I remember.
My mother said she lined up with a lot of mothers of girls to get me vaccinated when the german measles vaccine first came out, but I don’t remember it. This is my first mass vaccination event.
Mine was in a converted hotel ballroom, and it didn’t look at all like bladerunner, All sort of dingy and old-fashioned.
I remember, at age 5 or so (so, around 1970), getting some sort of vaccine (maybe an MMR) at a mass vaccination at a local grade school; that was the only time before now that I’ve been at a mass vaccine event. It was also the one and only time I’ve gotten a shot from one of those old jet injector guns.
Hey, guess what the Oregon Health Authority said today in their daily update?
Mild to moderate reactions to vaccines are not uncommon and are a sign your immune system is responding as it should. Common side effects for COVID-19 vaccines include:
Pain or swelling where you got the shot
Fever
Chills
Tiredness
Headache
In most cases, the side effects should go away in a few days. If you think you are having a severe reaction, seek immediate care by calling 911.
