Covid vaccination status?

[interstatefan990]

Does anyone know if there's a maximum recommended interval between first and second doses?

I think I remember Pfizer or Moderna saying that in emergency situations where there is short supply, an interval of up to six weeks between the first and second dose can be used.

[vdeane]

Call me crazy, but I don't like having a non-zero percent chance of killing people by avoiding doing something so simple.

Be sure to let us know when you've reached a zero chance of killing someone by airborne contagious disease, and then we can all check to see if Hell froze over.   



Does anyone know if there's a maximum recommended interval between first and second doses?

If we didn't have the urgency of a pandemic that was killing hundreds of thousands, there would have been a variety of clinical trials testing the vaccine under different conditions, such as lengthening the time before the second dose. Of course, due to the time crunch, they only had the one set of trials, so we don't really know how much effectiveness decreases as the interval increases.

We may not know this for our vaccines, but we can extrapolate from China's.  Their vaccine was originally tested with a one month gap and was only 50% effective.  Then they tried just 2-3 weeks and it increased - I think to somewhere in the 60-75% range.  As such, I wouldn't recommend waiting for that second dose.

[kphoger]

Thanks, guys.  I suppose that, since I still have no symptoms, and because Kansas opened the vaccine up to pretty much everyone, I might as well schedule my second shot soon.

Call me crazy, but I don't like having a non-zero percent chance of killing people by avoiding doing something so simple.

Be sure to let us know when you've reached a zero chance of killing someone by airborne contagious disease, and then we can all check to see if Hell froze over.   

I mean, I get it that shit happens, but a little bit of sacrifice on my end for this one massive pandemic doesn't seem like a large price to pay.  <shrug>

Oh, I know what you meant.  But "having a non-zero percent chance" is not an achievable goal.  It's like saying "one traffic fatality is too many".  No, actually, one traffic fatality would be freakin awesome.  You've never had a zero chance of killing someone without a mask, you never will, so don't kid yourself into thinking that's your goal.  There will be an eventual line you'll cross and ditch the mask, and that line is going to be rather fuzzy and arbitrarily chosen–just like for the rest of us.

[Rothman]

I was sicker with the first dose than the second with Pfizer (got second dose last Sunday).  No real side effects from second dose.  Wife got second dose today.

[kphoger]

I was sicker with the first dose than the second with Pfizer (got second dose last Sunday).  No real side effects from second dose.

I hear that's more rare.  I only recall one or two other members here saying the same, for example (might be forgetting some).

[GaryV]

I was sicker with the first dose than the second with Pfizer (got second dose last Sunday).  No real side effects from second dose.  Wife got second dose today.

That could mean that you previously had a case of Covid, perhaps without symptoms.  Your body remembered, and fought off the new "invaders".  I have heard some people that had it with more severe reactions to the first shot; others that had it had minimal reactions.

[Rothman]

My daughter became eligible in CT today and got an appointment for tomorrow.  We'll see what happens with the second appointment.

[Duke87]

My daughter became eligible in CT today and got an appointment for tomorrow.  We'll see what happens with the second appointment.

She was apparently one of 100,000 people to successfully do so today.

Of course, that's 100,000 people who successfully made an appointment out of 1.3 million who just became eligible. I am still in the other 1.2 million. Might take a bit to get out of that backlog...

[hbelkins]

Oh, I know what you meant.  But "having a non-zero percent chance" is not an achievable goal.  It's like saying "one traffic fatality is too many".  No, actually, one traffic fatality would be freakin awesome.  You've never had a zero chance of killing someone without a mask, you never will, so don't kid yourself into thinking that's your goal.  There will be an eventual line you'll cross and ditch the mask, and that line is going to be rather fuzzy and arbitrarily chosen–just like for the rest of us.

But that's exactly the line that highway safety people recite: Even one death from a car wreck is too many. But deep down they know that zero fatalities is unachievable, so the phrase they use now is "toward zero deaths."

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

[SectorZ]

Oh, I know what you meant.  But "having a non-zero percent chance" is not an achievable goal.  It's like saying "one traffic fatality is too many".  No, actually, one traffic fatality would be freakin awesome.  You've never had a zero chance of killing someone without a mask, you never will, so don't kid yourself into thinking that's your goal.  There will be an eventual line you'll cross and ditch the mask, and that line is going to be rather fuzzy and arbitrarily chosen–just like for the rest of us.

But that's exactly the line that highway safety people recite: Even one death from a car wreck is too many. But deep down they know that zero fatalities is unachievable, so the phrase they use now is "toward zero deaths."

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

A Rasmussen poll shows that 58% of people believe we should wear masks until everyone gets a vaccine. That was the wording. Not herd immunity, but 100%.

It takes a lot to overcome that ridiculous mindset.

[Rothman]

Oh, I know what you meant.  But "having a non-zero percent chance" is not an achievable goal.  It's like saying "one traffic fatality is too many".  No, actually, one traffic fatality would be freakin awesome.  You've never had a zero chance of killing someone without a mask, you never will, so don't kid yourself into thinking that's your goal.  There will be an eventual line you'll cross and ditch the mask, and that line is going to be rather fuzzy and arbitrarily chosen–just like for the rest of us.

But that's exactly the line that highway safety people recite: Even one death from a car wreck is too many. But deep down they know that zero fatalities is unachievable, so the phrase they use now is "toward zero deaths."

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

A Rasmussen poll shows that 58% of people believe we should wear masks until everyone gets a vaccine. That was the wording. Not herd immunity, but 100%.

It takes a lot to overcome that ridiculous mindset.

Oh, the mask is such oppression.

[MikeTheActuary]

My daughter became eligible in CT today and got an appointment for tomorrow.  We'll see what happens with the second appointment.

She was apparently one of 100,000 people to successfully do so today.

Of course, that's 100,000 people who successfully made an appointment out of 1.3 million who just became eligible. I am still in the other 1.2 million. Might take a bit to get out of that backlog...

FWIW, I was in the prior wave.  80k appointments were made that first weekend.

100k appointments in less than a day is an improvement.

[MikeTheActuary]

A Rasmussen poll shows that 58% of people believe we should wear masks until everyone gets a vaccine. That was the wording. Not herd immunity, but 100%.

It takes a lot to overcome that ridiculous mindset.

I'm actually in the minority of folks who would like to see the masks become a permanent part of life.  There are a few too many folks unwilling to self-isolate when they have "just a cold" or "a little flu", and I hate being exposed to their germs.

[bm7]

Oh, I know what you meant.  But "having a non-zero percent chance" is not an achievable goal.  It's like saying "one traffic fatality is too many".  No, actually, one traffic fatality would be freakin awesome.  You've never had a zero chance of killing someone without a mask, you never will, so don't kid yourself into thinking that's your goal.  There will be an eventual line you'll cross and ditch the mask, and that line is going to be rather fuzzy and arbitrarily chosen–just like for the rest of us.

But that's exactly the line that highway safety people recite: Even one death from a car wreck is too many. But deep down they know that zero fatalities is unachievable, so the phrase they use now is "toward zero deaths."

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

A Rasmussen poll shows that 58% of people believe we should wear masks until everyone gets a vaccine. That was the wording. Not herd immunity, but 100%.

It takes a lot to overcome that ridiculous mindset.

Well we'll never have 100% of people with the vaccine even if it was mandatory to get it, so I guess we should just wear them forever according to them...

[Duke87]

A Rasmussen poll shows that 58% of people believe we should wear masks until everyone gets a vaccine. That was the wording. Not herd immunity, but 100%.

It takes a lot to overcome that ridiculous mindset.

Well we'll never have 100% of people with the vaccine even if it was mandatory to get it, so I guess we should just wear them forever according to them...

I think you're interpreting what the poll says a bit too literally. Most people are not hyper-analytical and will answer yes to that question if their opinion is "masks until herd immunity", because they'll presume without examining it too closely that that was the general intent of the question, or will think "yes" better resembles their opinion than "no", which might imply that they think masks can be ditched already or were never necessary.

Really, this is a structural flaw with polling in general. Depending on how you word your questions you can skew the results a lot.

Or, you know...

[Scott5114]

A Rasmussen poll shows that 58% of people believe we should wear masks until everyone gets a vaccine. That was the wording. Not herd immunity, but 100%.

It takes a lot to overcome that ridiculous mindset.

I'm actually in the minority of folks who would like to see the masks become a permanent part of life.  There are a few too many folks unwilling to self-isolate when they have "just a cold" or "a little flu", and I hate being exposed to their germs.

Yeah, I think I'm going to keep my covid masks around and wear them when I have a cold from now on, simply as a courtesy to everyone else.

[kphoger]

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

Do the places you go not have their own mask policies, apart from state and local public health orders?  I mean, I'm no longer under any mask order where I live, but the grocery stores still require customers to wear them.



Also, allow me to thank everyone for keeping the conversation civil this time around.  This thread veers every so often away from the vaccination status topic, but it never gets out of hand the way the original coronavirus thread did on every other page of its existence.

[Duke87]

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

Do the places you go not have their own mask policies, apart from state and local public health orders?  I mean, I'm no longer under any mask order where I live, but the grocery stores still require customers to wear them.

Well, do they actually enforce this though? I've lost count of how many businesses I've walked into that have a sign on the door saying masks are required but inside the majority of customers and sometimes even staff members aren't wearing one. Tons of people ignore the signs and in the majority of the country no one will confront you for doing so.

That said, once you reach a critical mass of mask compliance you easily get to 100% because it simply becomes social expectation. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen an unmasked customer inside of a store around here since last May.

[Rothman]

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

Do the places you go not have their own mask policies, apart from state and local public health orders?  I mean, I'm no longer under any mask order where I live, but the grocery stores still require customers to wear them.

Well, do they actually enforce this though? I've lost count of how many businesses I've walked into that have a sign on the door saying masks are required but inside the majority of customers and sometimes even staff members aren't wearing one. Tons of people ignore the signs and in the majority of the country no one will confront you for doing so.

That said, once you reach a critical mass of mask compliance you easily get to 100% because it simply becomes social expectation. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen an unmasked customer inside of a store around here since last May.

Something seems contradictory about this post...

[hotdogPi]

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

Do the places you go not have their own mask policies, apart from state and local public health orders?  I mean, I'm no longer under any mask order where I live, but the grocery stores still require customers to wear them.

Well, do they actually enforce this though? I've lost count of how many businesses I've walked into that have a sign on the door saying masks are required but inside the majority of customers and sometimes even staff members aren't wearing one. Tons of people ignore the signs and in the majority of the country no one will confront you for doing so.

That said, once you reach a critical mass of mask compliance you easily get to 100% because it simply becomes social expectation. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen an unmasked customer inside of a store around here since last May.

Something seems contradictory about this post...

I interpreted it as everyone wearing a mask at home (i.e. Connecticut), but not everywhere in his travels.

[Scott5114]

It can also vary a lot by city or even the clientele that individual stores cater to. Here in Norman, pretty much everyone wears a mask, but anecdotal Internet postings from the adjoining city of Moore make it seem like it's 2019 up there. Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, Internet postings make it seem as if mask wearing is common in places like grocery stores but not in places like home-improvement stores.

[bandit957]

A convenience store near me has signs on the door requiring masks, but a clerk actually told me they don't enforce it. When I was in there that day, not a single customer or employee was wearing one.

Compliance is much higher but not 100% at the Kroger in Bellevue, which is mostly a blue-collar city. But I'm told that compliance is almost 100% at the Kroger stores in Cold Spring, a much more affluent suburb. I don't think Kroger really enforces it either, but they do play that annoying announcement once every few minutes.

Also, I'm told that masks are rare in very small towns just about anywhere in America - unless it's a ski resort town.

[1995hoo]

A Rasmussen poll shows that 58% of people believe we should wear masks until everyone gets a vaccine. That was the wording. Not herd immunity, but 100%.

It takes a lot to overcome that ridiculous mindset.

I'm actually in the minority of folks who would like to see the masks become a permanent part of life.  There are a few too many folks unwilling to self-isolate when they have "just a cold" or "a little flu", and I hate being exposed to their germs.

Yeah, I think I'm going to keep my covid masks around and wear them when I have a cold from now on, simply as a courtesy to everyone else.

I think that's an excellent idea. I'll do the same.

[Duke87]

I interpreted it as everyone wearing a mask at home (i.e. Connecticut), but not everywhere in his travels.

That is the correct interpretation.

[kphoger]

As for mask wearing, mine is coming off just as soon as the government lifts its restrictions. I've already been "cheating" and not wearing one if I'm the only one going in to the post office to check the mail, or by pulling it down off my nose if my glasses are fogging up or it's too hot to breathe comfortably.

Do the places you go not have their own mask policies, apart from state and local public health orders?  I mean, I'm no longer under any mask order where I live, but the grocery stores still require customers to wear them.

Well, do they actually enforce this though? I've lost count of how many businesses I've walked into that have a sign on the door saying masks are required but inside the majority of customers and sometimes even staff members aren't wearing one. Tons of people ignore the signs and in the majority of the country no one will confront you for doing so.

But my point is that the rescission of any state or local ordinance won't necessarily change any of that.  That is, the government lifting its restrictions won't necessarily make stores lift their policies, nor will it suddenly prompt stores to stop enforcing their policies, nor will it prompt people to stop confronting you about it.  I expect a lot of that to remain the same afterward as beforehand.  Exceptions will surely apply, of course, but, at the places I go, masks are still required regardless of government action.  Even at the office, nothing really changed:  only about a fourth of the employees were wearing their masks while there was still both a public health order and a company policy, and for the most part the same people are still wearing their masks and the same people are not after both the public health order and the company policy were voided.

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, Internet postings make it seem as if mask wearing is common in places like grocery stores but not in places like home-improvement stores.

That's been my experience this whole time here in Wichita.