On Sat, 30 Jan 2021 12:00:21 -0800, Bob F wrote:

On 1/30/2021 7:11 AM, wrote:
On Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 9:57:45 AM UTC-5, Bob F wrote:
On 1/29/2021 11:32 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 29 Jan 2021 20:59:35 -0800, Bob F wrote:

On 1/29/2021 8:31 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 29 Jan 2021 07:39:24 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:

On Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 11:22:17 PM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/27/2021 8:33 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 27 Jan 2021 11:34:15 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 1/27/2021 8:15 AM, trader_4 wrote:

I got a call at 5:30 PM today, asking if I could come in earlier than my
9PM appointment for my first shot. I had it in my arm by 6:15. My second
appointment is for Feb 23. All legally done without difficulty. How nice
it is to live in a well run Democratic state.

You mean as opposed to a poorly run state, like NY? The roll out is a disaster
there, websites don't work, phones don't get answered despite remaining on
the line for four hours. And the over arching message is, "we don't have
enough vaccine"! Gee, really? It's been clear for months that supply won't
be up to demand for probably at least 6 months. Cuomo, de Blasio, geniuses
in charge. They spend more time arguing with each other than anything else.
Oh, Cuomo had time to write a book about how to manage Covid in the middle
of this. Maybe if last summer he had spent that time figuring out a uniform
approach, a website that works, etc they wouldn't be in chaos now.



Can't speak about NY but you have to look at the whole system. Here in
Florida people are complaining they had to hold on the phone or keep
dialing.

Think about it. One Florida county has over 200,000 eligible people.
Most are calling the minute it goes active. Even if half try, it is
100,000 people.

How big of a phone system do you have to build to handle 100,000 calls
in the first few hours? How many staff do you need to answer? From
interviews on the news it seems like most called immediately or in the
first couple of hours. If it was equally spread over 4 hours that is
25,000 calls per hour. At 2 minutes per call that is 50,000 minutes of
phone time per hour. So, you need about 800 operators to answer them.

My county has about half that but went to a different system where you
register and they call you when doses are available.

We can't all be first n line.

I am not even trying. The choke point is vaccine availability. They
can't make it fast enough There is plenty of infrastructure already in
place for distribution and injection, using pharmacies. When they get
the supply problems worked out I will go down to Publix and get my
shot while buying groceries ... just like the flu shot.

I am not getting in this Black Friday fiasco.
I wouldn't camp out in the rain for a chance to get a $99 PS/5 either.

If they had plenty of supply no appointment would be needed, just line
up. Most of the locations can handle 1000 to 2000 a day.

Say what now? Even with unlimited supply, there is limited ability to give
the shot. Which is why Biden is now turning to FEMA, the military, looking for
retired docs, nurses, etc. All that should have been done by Trump last summer.
Instead he ignored Covid and was holding death rallies.

What's wrong with all of the pharmacies in drug stores, grocery stores
and other big boxes? They manage to vaccinate 150-200 million people
every year who just walk up and get their shots. (Flu, Shingles,
Pneumonia, Hep A&B, HPV and a host of others).
Getting FEMA involved just adds another layer of bureaucracy and
incompetence.
We have dealt with them several times here after hurricanes. Walmart
and Publix are open selling us what we need the next day. It is a week
or two before FEMA shows up.
They are great about hauling away debris but it takes 2 months before
they get here.


How many of those pharmacies have the specialized super cold freezers
needed for one of the vaccines.

Every Publix I have ever been in sells dry ice. That cooler is plenty
cold enough and it is on wheels. They can roll it into the pharmacy
and lock it up. We don't need dry ice until hurricane season.

We don't have a hurricane season, or Publix, or dry ice at the drug
stores. I suspect that is true many places.

We don't have any of those things, but the grocery store where I shop
has both dry ice and a pharmacy.

The point is, the super-cold freezers are not all that specialized. I can't
quite recall where you live, or I'd google "dry ice near me" for you. I did
that for myself, and came up with the grocery chain where I shop, a bunch
of welding supply and ice wholesalers, and Washtenaw Dairy, which is
a local small-batch ice cream maker.

Cindy Hamilton


I strongly suspect that the "standard" dry ice freezer is well enough
regulated for long term storage of the vaccine. Too cold, or too warm
ruins it for both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

I was corrected here that the Moderna does not have that super freezer
requirement. That is just pfizer and the story they tell here is dry
ice works. The temps are pretty close. You probably want something
more sophisticated than a Good Humor truck but I doubt it is that
complicated.