In the U.S. there have been 113 million covid-19 vaccinations to date, so after a slow start at the beginning of the year it’s really taken off. And based on projections from health officials and on the news, vaccination rates will accelerate even more so over the next couple of months. On social media lots of selfies or posts of arms and cards to show it. Everyone will have their own story to share. Here is mine in words. Selfie not included.
Phase 1 – Vaccinations for my age group opened up on March 5, but they said you could start applying over the week before that. So I set up an account on the second day that we were eligible and started doing searches for commercial pharmacies or mass sites right away.
For 2 weeks I saw nothing, and called the Hotline again last weekend. They suggested another provider, and said to just keep trying. I did that for a couple of days with no more success than before, so my son offered to assist as he’s on a break from his studies. Monday nothing. Tuesday morning nothing.
On Tuesday I saw on Facebook that friends here were getting in, so I asked one how he got in. Got a few tips and spend 90 minutes basically refreshing King Soopers and Safeway sites over and over. I got a hit! But as soon as I clicked a confirm button it disappeared. Then another. Same thing. Finally I got onto King Soopers and got a third chance! This time they gave me a 15 minute window to complete my form and to confirm a second appointment.
Stop!
No second appointments available at this time. Clock is ticking down. WTF? Talk about a catch-22. I called my son and showed him the screen. Nothing we could do, and time ran out. I spent another 10 or 15 minutes searching, but decided to give up for the morning and get back to work.
Bing! 15 minutes later a text. He got me an appointment in just a couple of hours. I did a quick workout showered, had a bite to eat and headed down for the appointment.
How did he do it??!! He said he got onto Twitter and Reddit which had posts that said you should have as many screens as you can and as many sites open and to just keep clicking and refreshing until something comes up. So he had two screens and 25 sites open for a couple of hours that morning. That’s what it takes.
Phase 2 – Once I got to the Safeway it all went fairly smoothly. Arrived at 1:50, 10 minutes ahead. There were already 4 waiting in line. We each checked in a few minutes before 2 and lined up again. By 2:15 I was in and out, instructed to hang around the store for 15 minutes–so what are you going to do? Shop of course (and my cynical side lets me think that’s why the system is so chaotic, that they are going the commercial route with most vaccinations so you’ll go into the store pharmacy and buy stuff). Good plan, I guess, but a centralized appointment system sure seems a lot better. This was the Wild West, or maybe digital Darwinism.
Phase 3 – What was my reaction? The shot stung a bit more than your average flu shot, and my arm was immediately sore, like if my wife had punched me a good one after I had been teasing her. By evening I was a little achey so I took a couple of Tylenol at about 8. I woke up at 2 feeling stiff and some aches in my joints and muscles. Tried to go back to sleep and barely did before our alarm went off at 5. So I was tired all day, and the aches persisted.
I did 30 minutes on the bike trainer in the morning and felt, decent at that. At 3:30 went for a run, and really felt it there. Legs were like lead the entire way. Starting out feeling stiff is normal now, and my first mile is often 9:00 or 9:30 before I can get rolling at low or sub 8s. On Wednesday I could go no faster than about 8:20, and that took some effort. I ran an hour (maybe should have stopped at 30 minutes)–so actually a pretty good day considering.
Still ached last night and took 2 Tylenol before bed. Again woke up at 2, and this time almost fell over, feeling woozy and off balance. I took 1 Tylenol and went back to bed, sleeping lightly until the alarm went off at 5, maybe getting another 10-15 minutes after that.
Otherwise, feel good today. No aches and I think my body is adjusting. Plan on a 1:30 to 1:45 run today, but will cut that short if I’m not feeling right.
Looking Ahead
Phase 4 in 3 weeks, appointment at 2 PM at the same Safeway. By the time I’m fully vaccinated and antibodies have had time to build immunity (April 20), I figure there will be at least 120 million fully vaccinated and more than 200 million with at least one dose. And by middle or end of May? Hopefully reaching herd immunity, despite some 30 million to 50 million refusing to get a vaccination.
rrunnin234 