Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

The clowns running the FDA have proposed restricting access to covid vaccines, to people over 65 or who have certain medical conditions. There's a public docket for comments on the proposal.

Your Local Epidemiologist has a good post about the proposal, including that the people suggesting this know that nobody is going to do the placebo-controlled tests of new boosters they want to require.

Possible talking points include:

Families and caregivers wouldn't be eligible for the vaccine, even if they share a household, unlike the current UK recommendations.

Doctors, dentists, and other medical staff wouldn't be eligible either.

My own comment included that the reason I'd still be eligible for the vaccine is a lung problem caused by covid.

(cross-posting from thisfinecrew)

I have completed and uploaded a VAERS report about my wrist pain, just in case it's connected to the vaccine (vaccine dose was 1/17/22, and the pain started in late March or early April).

I don't think this is likely, but in the interests of thoroughness I mentioned it under "any new symptoms" for the V-Safe six-month check-in, and someone called the following day and urged me to report it via VAERS.

VAERS stands for Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System -- it's designed to collect lots of data, without filtering for accuracy or plausibility. The idea is to catch unusual but significant effects, and sort out later which are, or might be, related to a vaccine. It's not designed, at that stage, to figure out whether those events are more common in people who had a given vaccine -- if you have a vaccine and then something goes wrong, it's easy to assume that the two facts are connected. If people ask you, a week after a vaccine, "do you have any new or worsening symptoms?" you may mention something like a sore ankle without adding "I twisted my ankle two days ago."

If anyone decides my report of a sore wrist is worth investigating, one thing they'll probably do is ask me about accidents or wrist injuries. If I understand this correctly, they will also look at how many people reported wrist pain after the SpikeVax vaccine, compared to what's known about wrist pain in otherwise-similar people who didn't have the vaccine.

I had the injection in my left arm, because I'm right-handed, forgetting that I sleep on my left side. I did have soreness at the injection site from the first two (Moderna) vaccine doses. Then, I got the first dose in my left arm, and a month later remembered to have them use the right arm.

It's only a problem when there's pressure on that part of my arm, meaning I didn't notice it until I rolled onto my left side. So, I'm a bit short on sleep, and will be reporting that side effect to v-safe today.

There's a level on which I'm thinking that the side effect is evidence that my immune system is going in there and doing its thing, a refresher course in the relevant antibodies. But sleep is good.

• Massachusetts has opened sign-ups for the "VaxMillion" lottery. You can enter, for free, if you live in the state, and were vaccinated against COVID either in Massachusetts or at a VA facility. It's meant to encourage people to get vaccinated, but those of us who got our vaccines as soon as we could are also eligible. The cut-off dates are that you must have had your second dose (or your one J&J dose) before that week's drawing.
• I just got a call labeled as "scam likely," which I answered for no more reason than I hadn't put the phone down after trying to call my mother; it was someone from the CDC, following up on my most recent answers to the VSafe check-in text. I told her that I didn't think the symptoms I'd reported were a vaccine reaction, given the timing, but that I figured it's their job to decide what to do with all this data. She also offered to connect me to a different, non-covid-specific database, VAERS, which I declined.

I got the second dose of the (Moderna) Covid vaccine this morning.

I took transit to and from my doctor's office. This was my first subway trip this calendar year, and I think the third since the beginning of the pandemic. There were very few people on the red line, which under the circumstances is reassuring.

The MBTA website led me to allow more time for delays/missed trains than I needed. Since it was a nice sunny morning, so I sat for fifteen minutes on a wooden bench in Davis Square before walking to Caramel Patisserie, buying macarons, and going to my doctor's office.

It was a lot less crowded than when I was there for the first dose, which surprised me, since everyone who gets this vaccine is supposed to return in four weeks for the second dose. I noticed yesterday that my name was misspelled on my vaccination card; when I called, they said they'd be happy to fix it, so I took care of that before getting the injection.

Given the warning that Carmen gave me when I got the first dose of the vaccine, I am making no plans for tomorrow; I had almost no side effects from the first dose, but am told that most people have more of a reaction to the second dose than to the first.

ETA: about ten hours later, the injection site is sore. I was feeling chills earlier, but that happens to me randomly, as does feeling too warm (MS stuff), and may not be a vaccine side effect.

I just signed up with the CDC's V-safe site, which seems to be tracking vaccine side effects.

I told them I had mild pain at the injection site, and said yes to "joint pain" under other symptoms, even though it's chronic and probably unrelated.

A friend just pointed me at this site that matches people who want to be vaccinated with otherwise-unclaimed doses, and avoids the problem of people queuing outside in the cold for those doses.

They ask for your zip code*, date of birth, what industry you work in, and whether you have any of several medical conditions. The FAQ says I might hear from them, but only if I am in a group that is eligible for vaccination, and nobody who is higher priority, lives near me, and has signed up and is available.

The site is called Dr. B. Probably nothing will come of this, but it's free, and I see no reason not to sign up.

*Yes, it's US-only.

My mother has now had the COVID vaccine, and has an appointment for the second dose in three weeks.

She sent me articles from two UK Jewish publications, about her being almost certainly the first Holocaust survivor to receive the vaccine, both of which mention her work with the Holocaust Education Trust (which got the photo credit and presumably contacted the press):

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/shoah-survivor-89-among-first-to-be-given-covid-19-vaccine-1.509577

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/holocaust-survivor-eve-kugler-among-first-to-get-covid-vaccine/

ETA: I have sent some of these comments to my mother, and our family and her friends.