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  2021-04-07

  Johnson and Johnson Vaccine Diary-Day 2

  DAY 2: 4/7/21 8:30am. I woke up feeling a bit better. My eyes were very sore and hurt, and my body was slightly sore. I definitely was not feeling 100%, but I managed to take an 9 am exam and attend two more classes right after that. My friend had asked if I wanted to study together and maybe go to the pool the day before. I told her that if my side effects weren't bad, I'd be down to study, but I was probably not able to swim that day. When I woke up, I was in the mood to swim, but was not feeling well enough. 4:00pm: I finished most of my work and got ready to go out. I went to Starbucks to grab a coffee and work outside with my friend. By then, I was feeling much better emotionally. 5:00pm: My friend asked if I wanted to go to her pool. I realized that I felt so much better, and accepted. By the time we got to her pool, I felt 100% better and was able to socialize with my regular energy. This concludes the end of my diary for my Johnson and Johnson Vaccine experience. I am writing this from Day 3, and I no longer have any symptoms. I have asked various people about their experiences, and the overall conclusion is that it depends on the person. Some people get symptoms the next day, some people's symptoms last more than 2 days, and some people don't get any side effects at all. My symptoms only lasted around 6 hours. Overall, my vaccine experience was nothing surprising and went smoothly. Although the side effects were not ideal, they are more of a minor inconvenience.
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  2021-01-12

  In push to get more vaccines into arms, officials recommend states give to anyone 65 and up

  States should expand access to Covid-19 vaccines to everyone 65 and older, as well as any adult with an underlying health condition that might raise the risk for complications of Covid-19, members of Operation Warp Speed recommended Tuesday. The guidelines are intended to prompt faster distribution of the vaccines by making more people immediately eligible for vaccination, as well as expanding the potential locations where people can receive it. Of the more than 25 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine that have been delivered nationwide, just under 9 million shots had been put into Americans' arms as of Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• 2021-02-03

  Vaccinated.

  Last night I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID. I feel like it should have been easier than this. I got my first dose of the vaccine at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, which we found out later was a county-run rather than a state-run location. Cardinals Stadium in Glendale is a state site. So the difference amounted to not getting the email about my second appointment for an anxiety-inducing long time. So when a new block opened up at the stadium, I signed up to get my second shot on the 21st day after my first, at the earliest opportunity. My husband’s appointment for his first dose is two days later. We arrived at the stadium, got my appointment number chalked on the windshield, and wove through a maze of cones and banners toward the check-in tents. When we pulled up, the lady checked my number and couldn’t find me. She searched for my birthday and couldn’t find me. She searched by my name and couldn’t find me. She took my ID and walked off to find a supervisor. I stared at my appointment confirmation email on my phone while she did all of this. The supervisor returns and, after asking to look at my email, handed me a clipboard. “We are going to sign you in as a walk-in, which doesn’t even exist right now. We can’t take walk-in rights right now because it’s possible that people with appointments won’t get their short today because our daily inventory is low.” That’s why my husband was not one of the lucky ones that we have heard stories about who got to get their dose early by coming along with someone who had an appointment sooner than them. I filled out the form, the lady made me a new appointment on her tablet, and the confirmation email for an appointment slot one hour before appeared. We turned the truck back on and moved through the second maze to the next set of tents, where they covered the same questions before sending us under the second tent where a younger man gloved up, came around to the passenger door, and quickly injected me. He must have seen that we were younger as we pulled up, even with our masks on, because he said to me, “Alright, I will give you this if when I do you scream, FUCK COVID,” which of course I agreed to. But if you have had the vaccine yet, you know it goes by so quickly that I barely got out the FU.. before he said, “okay, you’re good to go.” A third maze brought us to the line of cars waiting their 15 minutes to see if they have a bad reaction before pulling out and heading back home. I now had my second dose, and my husband has yet to get his first, so we didn’t need the help of the people milling between cars signing up people for second doses who had just gotten their first. We got to the front of the escape line and then were released, maybe a few minutes before the 15 were really up, but we were off. My COVID card is complete. When I got my first dose, the guidance was that 30 days after your second dose is your true “good to go” date because it has had time to take effect, but in the last three weeks, that has been shortened to two weeks. I don’t know if that is smart or accurate, or if, like everything, people want this to hurry along so things can go back to “normal” after we have been at this for a year. But vaccines are still hard to get, kids can’t get it, and we don’t know how long it will be effective, so maybe we shouldn’t get too excited.