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'Vaccine hunters' are getting their shots ahead of schedule - CNN

Muu

Muu

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,963
Fine by me. The real crime would happen if they tossed out unused shots.

It's not like you're scalping multiple uses, and once you get your shot you're done. I think it's great that people are being that eager to get it. Shame on CNN for making it sound like a bad thing.
 
Mivey

Mivey

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,820
You will NOT BELIEVE how these people make efficient use of the vaccines that would go to waste due to Trump admins lack of a vaccination strategy. are GAMING THE SYSTEM!!


Media can be dumb sometimes.
 
Nepenthe

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
20,681
While I'm medical and thus a phase 1 recipient anyway, I got my first dose only because someone at my pharmacy dropped out, and the pharmacist asked if I wanted it. I don't personally mind it, but it does suck that such doses aren't going to the high risk folks who need it before even I do.

We've also had a couple of creepers stalking our vaccination site waiting for that coveted drop out. Like, dude. C'mon.
 
bye

bye

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
8,419
Phoenix, AZ
How do second doses work with this lol?

it you're lucky enough to get a leftover vaccine do they sign you up for the followup shot still?
 
Nepenthe

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
20,681
bye said:
How do second doses work with this lol?
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Regardless of if you made an appointment or not, you still have to have that vaccine documented in the system of whatever pharmacy or hospital you've received it at. When you're due for your second dose, you get a call.
 
XMonkey

XMonkey

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,827
No issue at all if they're really going to go to waste. The goal is to vaccinate as many as possible as soon as possible.

PanzerKraken said:
Are doses being tossed and wasted though? They can't just keep them stored if the appt doesn't show up?
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Not sure on unopened vials and refreezing, but once they unseal a vial you've got a limited amount of time (hours I think) to use the multiple doses it contains. Moderna fits about 10 doses in a vial, Pfizer about 6.
 

darkazcura

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,885
We should have had sign ups for the vaccine for months now to allow for people to be called when doses were going to get thrown out. I can't really blame these people when the planning was so poor. Even creating something as simple as a pre-register list country wide since the fall would had made logistics 100x better right now.
 
Killthee

Killthee

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,169
Guess I'll be the dissenting voice here and say it's pretty gross to see all these privileged people jump the line ahead of seniors, people of color in areas with heavy community spread, and frontline workers risking their lives so they can have stores stocked for them. It's complete bullshit the the government is unable to setup a waiting list or that these places aren't able to outreach the people who were supposed to get priority.




"I think there are people who are so much more deserving than we are, and we just happened to find out," Brianna Bane, 23, who works in social media, said Thursday afternoon. She was summoned out of the standby line at Kedren Health and into the vaccination tent a few minutes later.
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The clinic is located in a part of South L.A. that is more than 97% Latino and Black, with a median income of $39,612. But many people who waited for long hours Thursday and Friday outside the clinic were white and came from beyond the surrounding neighborhood.

Early Friday morning, a woman in an Audi with a "Brentwood School" license-plate holder stopped to honk at people she knew as she circled for a parking space. Some people set up camping chairs, tapped away at laptops and read newspapers and iPads as they waited. A security guard occasionally walked down the block on Friday morning, whisking healthcare workers and those over 65 out of the general standby line to the front.

The majority of the "vaccine chasers," as one woman jokingly called her group, said they lived on the Westside or in the Valley, though others hailed from downtown, Los Feliz and Echo Park, and a few from Topanga and Malibu. They had all heard about the opportunity through word of mouth in their social and professional networks.
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Multiple people remarked on how starkly the demographics of the line diverged from those of the neighborhood and expressed discomfort about that.

"I do feel a little weird. ... I wish it was something more members of this community knew about," Caitlin, a 57-year-old actress from the Valley, said Friday as she noted the "array of expensive cars in the parking lot." Caitlin, who asked that her last name not be used, had been waiting with her college-age son since 4:45 a.m.
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Selda Hollander, 86, joined Balboa's standby line after having no success reaching anyone through the telephone appointment system.

She wasn't prepared for the long wait, though, and didn't bring a chair. She was instead seated in the grass, bracing herself against the cold.

"I can't figure out if it's worth it," she said, shivering slightly. "I'm waiting for the vaccine, but I can get sick because of the weather."

Meanwhile, Natasha Moini and Siena Deck, both 23, came ready. Parked on folding chairs, with sweaters on and towels blanketing their legs, they had snacks and were watching an episode of "How to Get Away with Murder" on an Apple laptop.

Moini's mother was the one who heard about the Balboa standby line from a friend. She was able to secure a shot last week.
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State after state is reporting that PoC are not getting a fair shot at getting their shot so it's infuriating to see these people jump the line for it in neighboring poorer communities instead of waiting their turns.



 
RastaMentality

RastaMentality

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,127
This was bound to happen. This country hasn't done a nationwide mass priority group operation in like forever. People were bound to jump the line.
 
DrScruffleton

DrScruffleton

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,537
Just getting an appointment is borderline impossible around me. It was legit harder to get an appointment for my elderly mom than it was to get a ps5. There is no way an average elderly person would have any idea how to do this. It sucks that there is not an easier way to get these directly to the people who desperately need them. But if they were indeed about to be trashed, then this is fine.
 
Beef Supreme

Beef Supreme

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,073
They're not taking anything away from the people that are supposed to get them first. So, I have zero problems with it. It's actually quite smart.
 
EggmaniMN

EggmaniMN

Banned
May 17, 2020
3,465
Fuck those people, just more privileged whites with too much time taking stuff meant for others. Here I am begging literally anyone to give me a vaccine as I spend day after day after day in public for work, no one can tell me anything and I couldn't take time off to go be like these people.

You want ethical? Go do this, get vaccinated, then go hunting for one and bring it to someone who still needs it afterwards or bring someone to go get done. Pass that shit on. If you're just going and getting yourself done so you can go get your hair did without a mask or go shopping, fuck you.
 
CrunchyFrog

CrunchyFrog

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,456
This is honestly probably the best case scenario when there are no-shows to appointments. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have less than 2 hours stability once they've been removed from cold storage and drawn into syringes, there's no time to try to find prioritized recipients over just finding the closest available unvaccinated arm. Only around way around it would be to maybe have a designated "waitlist" where they could have slightly more lax qulification criteria with the caveat that it's not a guarantee and you need to be a phone call/less than x minutes away at a specific time of day.

EDIT: To be clear though, a waitlist for these kinds of situations wouldn't really ameliorate the racial/economic disparity in vaccine distribution. In this scenario, you would NEED to be available at the tip of a hat, we're talking responding to an text alert/phone call and actively driving to the hospital within 10-20 minutes of notification. Unless you're in a job/living situation where that kind of availability is possible, you wouldn't be able to get it anyway, and bringing the leftover doses off site just would not be feasible.
 
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Saito

Saito

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,805
I'm just happy people are getting vaccinated. Beats the hell out of the groups fighting vaccines tooth and nail and in some cases actively preventing people from getting shots.
 
gcubed

gcubed

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,785
matrixman92 said:
Just getting an appointment is borderline impossible around me. It was legit harder to get an appointment for my elderly mom than it was to get a ps5. There is no way an average elderly person would have any idea how to do this. It sucks that there is not an easier way to get these directly to the people who desperately need them. But if they were indeed about to be trashed, then this is fine.
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Thats my biggest issue with this, and is ultimately an issue of the previous administration just tossing vials in the air and saying "Go get it!"

I'm 40, and navigating the myriad of websites and sign up's and questionnaires to put yourself on a list somewhere that you may get a call when its your turn or you have to basically F5 27 different websites of different pharmacies or clinics that release spots all the time is impossible in itself, but then to do that and tell people 65 and older... good luck, go get it! is criminal. We got my 75yo father in law with stage 4 cancer an appointment in Illinois because my wifes grade school teacher randomly reached out to her on facebook with a hidden-ish direct link to a scheduling page for the local medical system to reserve a slot.
 
RowdyReverb

RowdyReverb

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,928
Austin, TX
If stories like this serve to drum up demand due to perceived scarcity, in all for it. Call it the "Toilet Paper Effect". Better than people proudly proclaiming that they aren't going to be a Guinea pig
 

Deleted member 4614

Oct 25, 2017
6,345
Part of the vaccine allocation should go to the most recklessly social members of society who haven't gotten infected yet because they'll be "central nodes" in the graph and will block future disease spread
 
Kitsunebaby

Kitsunebaby

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,657
Annapolis, Maryland
If I could do it I would. I come into close contact with several hundred people a day where I work. Way more chances of exposure than a lot of the professions higher up on the list than me. I'm high risk, but worse I live with my mother who's extremely high risk. I would happily wait all day for a chance of a vaccine if it meant I didn't have to spend each day at work policing jackass customers who won't wear a mask properly, worrying if this is the day I unknowingly bring it home and infect my loved ones. But honestly, I'm too terrified to sit in pharmacy that long, especially when so many of them are poorly ventilated.
 
kc44135

kc44135

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,721
Ohio
Why is this process still so bad? My 70 year old father just became eligible here in Ohio, but it is basically impossible to get an appointment. There are no waiting lists to put him on, he essentially has to visit a bunch of different sites and just sit there pressing F5 on them all day in hopes a slot eventually opens up, or at least that is what I was told on the phone. I was also told by the local health department to use an app to schedule with them, only to find the app doesn't appear to be working properly, and going off the reviews on the play store, I'm not alone in this. I feel like I'm a "vaccine hunter" just trying to get my Dad an appointment, this is horrendous.
 
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