COVID vaccine

[JustJoan]

This post is mostly to vent but comments are welcome.

I am encountering one of the many drawbacks to being full time. I am currently on Whidbey Island and will be returning to Oregon on 4/20. I am eligible to get the COVID vaccine in both states.

I was originally planning to wait until I returned to Oregon to get vaccinated. I found out that if I wanted to, I could make same day appointments up here at a local drug store. I reached out to the state of Oregon regarding how to arrange for my second shot when I returned. The answer was that I was on my own and that second shots were hard to find. Interesting statement since both doses are the same. I could just make an appointment for a first shot and hope they didn’t turn me away. I know I need to make an appointment for the same manufacturer.

So I am trying to decide if it is better to get the first shot here that gives me 80% immunity and take my chances on getting the second shot or do I wait till I return to Oregon to compete for appointments.

I realize that the majority of people are in the same location but I can’t imagine that there are not other exceptions.

To be honest, I find the response below annoying:

“It is very difficult to find extra 2nd doses therefore we suggest you choose wisely.”

My response:

“I will have to decide which is the wise choice, being 80% protected against covid and its variants running rampant in the country or wait another 4 weeks until I return to Oregon and compete with others to get an appointment.”

I am probably being unreasonable.

Joan

[Shirlv]

Joan, my two cents. I would wait until I got to Oregon to get both doses. I think it is very difficult to keep records if not in the same location. Karen lives in Oregon and went to a local pharmacy.

Another thought, Johnson and Johnson is one shot.

[JustJoan]

Joan, my two cents. I would wait until I got to Oregon to get both doses. I think it is very difficult to keep records if not in the same location. Karen lives in Oregon and went to a local pharmacy.

Thanks Shirl. I am probably making too much of this.

[PeggyinCT]

Hello JustJoan, is this your first post? I don’t think I have seen your name before, welcome. If you can get the J&J you would be “one and done”! If not, I would recommended getting both shots in the same state. Good luck. Peggy

[Bethers]

Joan, the hospital where I got mine assigns 2nd doses when you receive your first. If someone tells them they will not get their 2nd dose there, they call the next person on their waiting list. It would be really hit or miss to get in when you need the 2nd shot for the waiting list, but they would note that if an opening happened. Some of the pharmacies now administering might be a better bet, but they'd have to be administering the kind you received the first time. And that's why I stayed put. But now that the single dose vaccine is available, I'd try for that if I was you.

[JustJoan]

Thanks everyone. I think I will start looking for appointments in Oregon in a couple of weeks.

[Acadianmom]

They give the Pfizer shots 3 weeks apart. I don't know if they will tell you what shots they are giving in advance. It seems like here that the hospitals are the ones getting Pfizer.

Martha

[Colliemom]

Too bad you can’t hold up here in Michigan for a while as we have a clinics all over the place and if you can wait three weeks between them you probably could get an appointment someplace. Do not get the Johnson and Johnson shot if you can help it because they have just now put the brakes on it, because people are starting to get a reaction to it. Apparently they’re breaking out with a rash or something.