When will you allow yourself to be vaccinated?

Got my first vaccine appointment, even without having to claim some aggrieved status. In my case using my local/state government resources found lots of regional sites that, while some showed availability, they were all booked if you actually tried to sign up.

In contrast, the major pharmacy chains websites had more locations and I found one there with plenty of available slots. I only realized it wasn’t on the government site when I tried to find out which vaccine type they’d be giving (which was listed by location on the govt site) only to find it wasn’t listed.

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Appreciate the post and went into action. There is a “chain” pharmacy (CVS), my sole option, only a bit less than twenty miles from my home. Went to their web page and, sure enough, they list tens of locations all across my state which are administering the vaccine.

But the location I need is not even listed. :cry:

I need to try this out of state. There are several chain pharmacies outside my state which are almost equally as close to me as that CVS. Thing is, am not sure they would inoculate an out of stater.

Xerty I want to express to you my heartfelt thanks. While I’ve always enjoyed my fragiledeal membership, never before have I benefited so markedly thanks to you and to your post, above.

After failing in state, I tried your idea at an out-of-state pharmacy. Frankly did not have a lot of hope.

I WAS SO WRONG!!

Easily was able to make an appointment to receive the J&J vaccine at a Rite Aid pharmacy scarcely twenty miles distant from my home. This is more than acceptable. There were MANY appointments open. I was so surprised.

The following is speculation on my part. I do not know if this is right and I could easily be in error:

It is possible that by going to Rite Aid I am tapping into “Federal” vaccine which is not limited to a specific state. The other vaccination providers hereabouts are using “state supplied” vaccines, mostly of the two-shot variety, and they are not offering shots nearby for people who live in such rural settings as mine.

I was 100% honest in my Rite Aid application. They know for certain I live outside their state. Apparently they quite simply do not care!

But, xerty, your idea to try pharmacies is gonna get me a shot. I am grateful. Thanks!!

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I want to add my thanks to xerty also.
He is a smart guy with many good suggestions on various topics.

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You’ll probably get your vaccine. Especially given your age, I’m almost certain of it. The pharmacy shots do indeed come from the federal stockpile, but those shots are subject to state distribution regulations.

Here’s the unofficial “official” position of each state on residency: Vaccine vacation: Shot-seekers head to other states in hope of appointment (news12.com)

One note for anyone else looking to do this - if you are ever in need of a vaccine passport, you’ll need to use the vaccine registry of the state you got the shot in to prove inoculation.

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I dunno. Based on what you posted I could have a problem.

It says residency is “required” to receive a shot in the state into which I will be traveling. And age apparently has nothing to do with it.

In my home state there is not a residency requirement, which is no shock (bunch of shmoos running things here).

Anyway, I was honest with Rite Aid about my state of residence and they did not raise a stink . . . . . . so far.

Something I learned when I was young is the wisdom of living nearby to a state border . . . . a triple or quadruple state border situation is even smarter. But at present I can operate easily in only just two states. Anyway, if they do refuse me vaccine because of my actual state of residence I can probably produce ID from their state. I did carry such ID routinely for a number of years, but it expired. However, I can fairly easily renew that out-of-state ID because I still have my PO Box in that state. To obtain vaccine I would even go the PBSA route if pressed to the absolute limit:

Guide to PBSA

Anyway, bottom line sullim4 I much appreciate the heads up. Thank you. Forewarned is forearmed. I do not like the notion of surprises when something as serious as vaccine is concerned. It is better to have a game plan in advance and be prepared for all contingencies.

Appreciate that confirmation. I was not sure.

Apparently the “powers that be” are sending J&J vaccine, which can be stored in a conventional refrigerator, to pharmacies. Meanwhile the two-shot vaccines, which have more stringent and demanding storage requirements, are heading for the more formal and intense mass vaccination venues.

This is true, although like I said, most providers are letting residency requirements slide due to the desire to inoculate as many people as possible. This is particularly true for “priority” groups, which you are a part of. Both my experience (at a mass site), as well as my wife’s (who got the shot at a grocery store) is that no ID is required or requested.

If you want some insurance in case they raise this as an issue, take a piece of mail addressed to your PO Box to the appointment. This satisfies the residency requirement in nearly every state I can think of. I have relatives that live in the Northern Tier of PA and they were able to get vaccinated in the Southern Tier of NYS, and they were asked for nothing. I believe they went to a CVS.

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In my area the pharmacies seem to be mostly getting PFE and MRNA. Not sure about JNJ, but broadly it’s a small fraction of all the supplies at this point.

Interesting. Guess I’m fortunate to have found some . . . thanks to you!

Anyway, stuff I’m reading says the CDC is frowning on vaccination denial based upon the patient not being in the right state. I dunno if that applies to all vaccination situations, only the “federal” vaccine supplies, or what. Am quite unclear regarding this federal vs. state vaccine thing.

My only counsel for others is this:

If you want a shot, cast a wide net. The most prominent and best publicized shot provider where you live might easily not be the sole provider of vaccinations. That is what happened to me.

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Those going the pharmacy vaccination route might wish to become aware of the following:

Pharmacies score customer data in vaccine effort. Some are crying foul.

I’m with Rite Aid and I appreciate that they did not require me to create a username and password in order to sign up for my shot. I did have to give them an email address, but I used one of my many “throw away” addresses. So no bigee on that one.

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AZN IS cursed. In India they’ve spaced apart to 8 weeks now :frowning:

Co-worker advised me last week that he was only asked for name & DOB. No other info.

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You definitely need local info on the out of state thing. For instance, Mississippi’s posted rules required that one live or work in the state, but it was never enforced on-site, even while using an out of state address. Most authorities don’t want to encourage out of staters, but may not actually stop you.

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in AZ it’s open to all… Pharmacy was announcing FCFS this PM

AZN clotting issues continue

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-astrazenec/german-vaccine-official-rare-clots-after-astrazeneca-shots-were-20-times-higher-idUSKBN2BU29V

European Medicines Agency and Britain’s medical regulator acknowledged a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine to very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low blood platelets,

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COVID vaccination site closes early after adverse reactions to Johnson & Johnson shot

I received my J&J shot two days ago. So far so good. But I knew there was a chance for trouble and hoped my vaccine did not come from a bad batch. Others might not have enjoyed my (thus far) good fortune:

More bad J&J vaccine? Stay tuned.

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I thought long and hard when it turned out my vaccine appointment was for JNJ rather than one of the mRNA ones and eventually cancelled it. Just saw that news 13/1700 adverse reactions on site that day, feeling a bit better about letting someone else take that spot. Just under 1% is a lot when it’s supposed to be 5 per million or so at least for the mRNA ones.

JNJ has had production / quality issues and that was certainly part of my decision. If I was at higher risk or exposure risk, I’d have taken it of course, but there’s gonna be tons of vaccines available in a few weeks and I’ve waited a year already… plus it looks like the mRNA ones fare better against the variants and those are more likely at this point than the original so they tell me (unclear, but very likely prospectively).

My best information on this might not be up to date. It’s a fast moving situation. However:

One of the things about J&J is that it scored lower than the two shot vaccines. However, it’s also true that the mRNA vaccines were tested earlier. J&J was a (relative) latecomer to testing. Hence:

The J&J tests encountered more of the variants, lowering J&J’s score when compared with the two shot vaccines. I had no problem with that. It made sense to me. However:

If there have been much more recent tests of the two shot vaccines, now that the variants have pretty much taken over everywhere, and if they performed as well as previously, then they are surely better than J&J. If this has happened I am unaware, so I went with the vaccine (J&J) which I thought had been evaluated most recently, encountering thereby the most variants.

Regardless seems to me a booster shot is in my future. When? I dunno. Hope it is just a single shot. Two shots for me means too much travel.

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Yes, that’s true but the US side JNJ results allowed a pretty clean comparison before the variants were a big factor here, unlike comparing their UK numbers to older trials before the variants had arisen. See my posts here where I looked into those details. It was 70-75% for JNJ efficacy vs 90-95% for the mRNA ones against the Wuhan Classic. Both expected to be lower of course vs new ones, but it’s looking like the higher ones are still higher against those (ie both maybe -10% vs UK strain).