C-19 Vaccine-I got one

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As you all know, I was in the Moderna study. I volunteered last July. My appointment was September 2nd and I had my first jab. Second jab was September 30th.

I convinced 2 of my friends to join the study. The conversation generally went something like this:

"You're getting the experimental vaccine?

Yep

I don't know if I'd do that. Being a lab rat

Someone has to do this if we're going to have a vaccine.

Do they pay you?

Some

How much?

They say up to $2000

SIGN ME UP!"
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So they joined and had appointments a little later than mine.

The study was to see how effective the vaccine could be. 30,000 volunteers. 20,000 receiving the vaccine and 10,000 receiving a placebo. Double blind study, so the researchers did not know who received the vaccine, nor the patients. In the end, Moderna was shown to be 94.5% effective. FDA approved it for emergency use in December and everyone is getting the shots.

Part of the "deal" was that if the vaccine was approved, we could request to be "unblinded". And if it turns out you had the placebo, you would be given the vaccine. And either way, you could continue in the study, since the second part is to study how long the anti-bodies last.

All three of us requested to be unblinded. Buddy #1 went to a different clinic and was unblinded last week. Vaccine. Myself and Buddy #2 went in on Monday to be unblinded, me at 8AM and him at 10AM.

A month back, I went ahead and had an antibody test and it came back negative. I read somewhere on the internet that the antibodies produced by the vaccine were different, so I blew off the test.

About 8:10AM, nurse walks in with her clipboard & computer. She pulls up my information.

Placebo. Placebo? PLACEBO!!!

I convinced 2 other guys to go in to the study. One of three of us was likely to get the placebo. And it was ME. Dang it all! Both of them had the real vaccine.

So going over the "reactions" we had, I had no arm pain and only felt tired and some slight muscle/joint pain. And I had a headache after second injection. The other two guys had significant injection site pain on the day of the injection and for a day or so after. And for the second injection, both felt like Crud the second day with fever.

10:27AM on Monday, they gave me the first real injection. And yes, I had arm pain. Crud, picking stuff up with my left arm hurt on Monday night. Best description is it felt like one of my high school buddies had punched me in the arm, like high school buddies do. Feel fine now. I'm scheduled to have injection #2 on February 19th.

Just thought I'd share my little adventure...
 
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NO WAY!!! Too funny! Well at least you know AND are getting the "real" shot now!

I had my second one today as did all of the residents at the resort. It went well! Not feeling it as much this time. Last time I was VERY tired. This time I am feeling a normal tired so it is all good!
 
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Had my 1st injection of Pfizer vaccine yesterday. It was through Fort Bend county in West Houston. I registered when I saw a news alert come across my phone. I then ask my wife if she changed her mind about the vaccine which she has and by time she tried to register it was already full. I have only minor ache in arm. Wife is still trying to get registered. When I arrived for my appointment, they were running 2 hrs behind in schedule but they assured everyone that they had sufficient vaccine. Total time from arrival to departure was 3 hrs of which most was waiting time. Time to check in and receive the vaccine was 30 mins.
They say the same process will be used for the 2nd injection. Lets see if they improve their process in 3 weeks.
 
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Glad to see progress and positive results. Our area is still on the 65+ group, however they define it. They've had a lot of information and graphs on vaccine distribution in TX and I just saw 5,000 vaccines were slotted to come to Brazos County. Also mention of a hub formed. All good news.
 
As far a I can see, in the greater Houston area, they have distributed about 50% of the phase 1A (Health workers) and 1B (Elderly and Sick) first doses. This represents about 15% of the total population that eventually can have the vaccine (Age 18+). Not bad for the first 6 weeks!

The numbers may slow down in the next month as the doses are split between new first vaccinations and the second dose. OTOH if/when Johnson and Johnson comes on-line, that could provide a LOT of people vaccine much more quickly. J&J can produce about a Billion doses per year, compared to about 100 million each for Pfizer and Moderna.

On the J&J efficacy: I'm reading deeper on the different studies and some interesting issues come up

1. The J&J is more effective in the US. They are not sure why. Speculation is either better continued mask/distancing or the virus strain mix.
2. The J&J is more than 80% effective in the US (over all). Again, everyone needs to remember that you have to keep doing everything for at least 28 days after the shot. It is "obvious" for the Pfizer and Moderna, since full effect comes after the second dose. I expect a of the J&J problem is people thinking they are immune immediately.
3. The Pfizer and Modera are better at the emerging viruses. But all of the developers are making "booster" shots to confront the new strains.
4. J&J, as well as the others, reduce your chance of being hospitalized or having severe symptoms, almost 100%.

Get whatever vaccine you can. You are better getting the J&J now than trying to wait for Moderna or Pfizer.

I expect this is going to become a "yearly" vaccine for at least the near future. Probably it will be a part of the Flu Vaccine...

One "side effect" of wearing an N95 for me has been a reduction is allergies. I may want to get the ones with a valve when this is over just to help on bad allergy days.
 
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Our area is 65+ also so I "lucked" out with them having left over to give to me. This last time they were going to run up to the CVS up the road to see if anyone there wanted the last 4 doses as everyone at my work got a shot that wanted one and they did NOT it to go to waste.
 
I got my 2nd round of the Moderna vaccine this past Monday. My arm was sore, just like my first shot But I woke up the next day felling a little flu-like; body aches, a little joint, pain, a headache - but no fever. Not bad enough to stay home, so I did go to work. A number of coworkers also felt pretty much the same. Only one person from the group called off, but he calls off if he gets a hangnail. :)
I felt fine on Wednesday, as did everyone else. I'm pretty grateful to have received it!
 
My son works at FUJI in College Station and they're contracted by the government to make the 'N' vaccine. I can't remember the name. Nov-a-something? His concern was condensing a 10 year incubation period into 2 months. The last time I talked to him he said they made the first batch.

I talked to our pharmacist when getting the second shingles shot. She said some of this covid vaccines have a short shelf life. Kept cold and then there's the logistics of transporting the vaccines under those conditions.

Curious. Are your vaccines free? Or filed with insurance?
 
Free here. We filled out a form with our info and the National Guard entered our data to the data base.

They brought our Pfiser in a cooler that was kept cool in the vehicle with the National Guard folks. It was kept cool but unfrozen until it went into the needle. I was told it would be good for 6 hours after being unfrozen but had to be kept cool for those 6 hours. They had a tight chain of command for the vaccine.
 
Sollace said:
Curious. Are your vaccines free? Or filed with insurance?
Click to expand...
Free. Mine was through Ft. Bend County in Texas (west Houston). They did request to see my insurance and took that info down but confirmed that they are NOT filing against insurance. It is to provide tracking info to the government. I also had to sign a form that HIPPA is valid for longer than 5 yrs regarding the vaccine.
 
From what I understand, they are allowed to charge your insurance, only for administering the shot, not for the vaccine. They are prohibited by law from charging the patient directly. The mass sites mostly don‘t even collect insurance information, and are funded through local, state or federal agencies. Once it’s the local corner drugstore giving the shots, I’m sure they will charge your insurance.
 

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