Everyone is focused on four years ago and the beginning of COVID, but on a better note, there was so much relief when this happened three years ago today.
I remember that they opened up scheduling every day at 2:00 am, but my spouse worked nights so we were able to get appointments quickly.
I will never understand how all that demand for a jab went away so quickly.
I managed to snag my first appointment at Javits only because there was a blizzard and a bunch of folks cancelled - I had previously only been able to get one out at the queens aqueduct, which I was absolutely planning on going to if I needed.
I was in CT at the time and they gated the vax by age there. Literally at midnight the day of my birthday I hit the CVS website to grab a spot. Had to drive an hour each way but I felt lucky even so.
I was ready to shlep to Staten Island to get a shot, then I got an appointment at City College. It was an hour round trip for me but worth every minute.
I think there was a real need to feel like we controlled *something* combined with the fact the rollout was the single most important policy of most of lives that lead to some, uh, back seat driving
My theory is that there's a certain type of liberal/leftist who absolutely love scarcity and seeks out opportunities where consumption may be rival to scold people about it
I totally had a vaccine buzz after I got mine.
In an example of absolute unfairness, though: I (a person with zero risk factors at the time) was eligible looong before my extremely high risk vulnerable spouse who was immuno*deficient* and had COPD. Bc I’m part of an “indispensable” workforce 🥴🙄
ps I’m a DoD civil servant and while I think the work I do is helpful, I’m not even remotely indispensable or mission critical by defense-centric logic
I remember my employer providing paperwork to every single employee, whatever their role, so they would officially be an educator and be in the first group (after the vulnerable and certain health workers) eligible to get vaccinated by the Guard (who, it turned out, weren't checking).
The reality that the vaccine does not prevent transmission or infection was a real letdown. When the jab meant freedom, people wanted it. Now we have the "freedom" of pretending the pandemic is over and the illness isn't serious, so fewer people think it's worth the bother.
I think many people were expecting a higher rate than they got. The study reported here seems to find a 54% effectiveness rate which is less impressive that the 97% for the more familiar measles vaccine. www.statnews.com/2024/02/01/u...
The vaccine really did prevent infection and transmission -- a far better result than we were hoping for! -- for the OG variant. Less true for Delta, much less true for Omicron, but it does still significantly reduce infection and transmission. And a *huge* reduction in danger. Let's celebrate that!
For all the effort spent on persuasion, there was a finite number of people who really really wanted to be immunized, and once you're through that group, welp
I remember having work email threads that would post when mew slots opened up. We also had site on campus that delivered a quarter million doses with a giant sign listing progress.
I got my first shot by accident! I was walking in front of the local senior center when a doctor stuck out his head and said "Sir! Would you like a COVID shot?" They had brought too many and needed to use them up. Naturally I went in and got one.
My brother was working at a restaurant packing to-go orders when the pharmacist from the drugstore next door started pounding on the windows because they had like 5 doses about to expire. Loved hearing those stories
I had to go all the way from south Brooklyn to the Bronx, only to wait for hours in a massive line outside a high school gym, get stabbed, and then spend a day feeling like crap. One of the best weeks of my life.
I decided that it would be a really good idea to finish cleaning out my office (we went hybrid and lost our individual offices) after getting my second jab because I would be in midtown already.
Such an extraordinary moment, coming back to some shred of normality. I remember taking my partner to go clean out her office after however many months of all remote work, and the strange melancholy of disposing of the dried-up houseplants.
Oh yes that was such a relief….and still gobsmacked that it started such an idiotic battle that persists today, despite the clear evidence of how well they’ve worked,
Yeah. There are people who will get all “it’s not as completely effective as originally thought” and I’m like “listen, I lived in NYC when they were storing dead bodies in trucks on the street because morgues ran out of room, and I’ll take “mostly effective” over literally nothing any day”.
I almost cried when. got the shot. I felt like hugging the nurse who administered it (which I obviously didn't because no one should be subjected to that at their workplace).
Waiting on line behind me were and older man and an older woman who were reminiscing about waiting on line as kids to get the polio vaccine when it was just developed.
I remember watching the first trucks leaving the Pfizer plant on a video clip and crying! It would be a while before I’d be eligible but I imagined that truck heading straight to my B.I.L, an ER doctor who was at risk every day.
For my first shot, more doses were delivered to the vax site than appointments. Staff member sent out to the park across the street to see if anyone wanted vaccinating. People RAN to get in line. Everybody got their shot and the tears of happiness all around was 😀
I volunteered at a CSUN drive-through vaccination site to monitor for adverse reactions (in exchange for a prioritized shot). The incredible achievement of it: the science, the logistics, the vast human effort to come together to save lives.
We can do great things together, when we choose to.
Weird how the folks who were screaming about 5G turning people into zombies were radicalized into risking their lives to avoid effective vaccines by social media they browse using... 5G.
They were so close!
I was so psyched. I claimed to be my mom’s caregiver (she did come over a lot) and lied about my kid’s age (by two months) to get our family vaccinated, and when we all had our shots we were like, we made it!
I volunteered at a drive-through vaccine clinic in the putting rain to be able to get mine earlier—I take immunosuppressants but was not on the priority list. I did the form intake so interacted with every person in line. Such happy happy day for everyone. And then 2 weeks later, another happy day
