It probably is..........maybe? I do know my 39 year-old stepbrother got the shot in Amarillo. Don't know if they got to everyone else already (there), not sure (he's actually my dad's girlfriend's son, but since they've been together so long, I say "stepbrother", but he and I live separate existences, so I can't call him and say, Good for you....but how...?)
It's sad that so many over 65 are having such a difficult time getting vaccinated because there really is no priority for them when this is happening.
I got my first vaccine yesterday at 7:25 in the morning at an HEB in Northwest Austin. My significant other got her first this afternoon, also at an HEB, except not far from our house in the Southwest side of town. Mine was a Moderna, she got the Pfizer. We each got a date for the second shot after we took the 1st one. They printed it out for us. Interestingly enough, the 2nd for the Moderna vaccine is after 28 days, same time, same place, but the Pfizer is only 21 days. Have no idea why. Apparently the two vaccines are different enough to have different intervals. I'm certainly old enough and also considered "high risk," and my S.O. meets the minimum age requirement. We'd been trying for weeks and weeks to get an appointment anywhere within 100 miles of Austin, emailing the "Hub" here multiple times a day that our stupid governor makes everyone do. I long ago lost count of how many times I'd attempted to get an appointment. Once we did, it was quick and easy. HEB is great. We each got appointments others had cancelled the day before for one reason or another. Pure luck, or Fate. I'll add that I didn't feel a thing until 10-12 hours after the shot. My upper arm got really sore, felt a bit swollen and warm, and I felt run down. No energy. My arm was little sore today, and I'm still feeling a bit out of it, but not much, to be honest. I'm always "a bit out of it" anyway. ;-) The girl at the pharmacy said that people usually feel worse after the second shot. Just an FYI. It's difficult to get an appointment. Very difficult, difficult all over Texas. You shouldn't expect the mayor or the county judge to help you out, @deb4rockets. They are swamped with requests like that, and dealing with the aftermath of a winter catastrophe it's not like they don't have other things to do. You have to go through the proper channels, whatever they are, and get lucky. Carrying on about "not ever voting for them again" over this is ridiculous, with all due respect. Want to get mad at someone? Get angry at Abbott and trump, who cocked up the response to the pandemic here in Texas. You're lucky to have those two as your mayor and county judge, in my opinion. Wish we did.
I was irritated that places like HEB or Walgreens, or even a community center or medical facility near me, on this side of town couldn't be used for vaccines. Oh, believe me, Trump takes my blame for the overall mess of this situation, and Abbott. Abbott isn't any better. But, when it comes to where the vaccines are distributed in Houston, if you look at a map on those sites, there is a huge difference on where they distribute them in a city as big and spread out as Houston. I would think Judge Hidalgo and the Mayer have input in that. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe they just let others decide that stuff. It's just frustrating to hear all my relatives getting their shots in Nebraska so easily far ahead of my Mom. It's also frustrating to hear how so many much younger people, who aren't listed under the categories of Abbott's priority phase have been vaccinated. How, I don't know, but have heard many who somehow got one. That all takes away the shots from those most in need, and makes trying to get one so much more difficult. When I see that 20 teachers at schools within 3 miles of me have Covid, I feel bad for them too. They aren't even on a priority list, yet many, especially in Special Ed have such close contact with students. Things will get better, I know, once we get more vaccines available. Thanks for your input on how you felt after the vaccine. I'm not sure which shot my mom will get. I drive her across town today. We're your wife's symptoms similar?
She ended up getting the Moderna vaccine too. The longest wait was the line for cars getting paperwork, and filling out forms, but we were in and out of there in 45 minutes. It was easier than I anticipated.
Deb, Bayou City Event Center is a HHD (Houston Health Dept) run site. Regarding the concern about location and age groups. Location is very dependent on what will accommodate a drive through site. CCISD Challenger Stadium would be the closest area to your area in Pearland. Harris County's jurisdiction is primarily outside of city of Houston, so something "in town" unfortunately is the focus of City of Houston or maybe even Pearland. Regarding the elderly not getting priority, they absolutely are getting the bulk of invitations to get vaccinated. The difficulty does seem to be the technological aspect needed to make mass vaccinations feasible. Of the thousands of invitations to elderly, if only 10-15% respond, we have to reach out to younger demographics to make sure we aren't just wasting vaccines. Honestly, the best way for elderly to get vaccinated is to sign up for waitlists on their behalf and schedule an appointment for them. If they can make it to the site themselves, great. If not, please assist them in getting to a site. Harris County does have smaller scale initiatives to go to closer locations to specifically target the elder population, but those can only do 100-200 people at a time, vs the 1000+ at the larger sites. Anyway, I'm glad you were able to help your mom. Teachers are starting to get some priority, so hopefully we'll start to see more of them get the vaccine as well. J&J is also a huge relief in terms of having more supply and easing logistics due to the one shot nature as well as storage. I imagine many of those will be the ones you see at local pharmacies. Hope this was helpful.
Actually, she didn't end up with a sore, warm upper arm (which didn't happen until a few hours after the shot, which didn't hurt at all) for a day or two, like I did. She also felt very tired and lethargic for a couple of days, however, so we reacted the same way in that regard. She had the Pfizer vaccine and I had the Moderna, like I mentioned earlier, but it could very well just be her body chemistry. She's allergic to cats and I'm not, so there you go. Had she been allergic to dogs we would have never hooked up. I had a truly amazing dog when I met her. That really could have been a deal breaker. ;-)
My mom just got her second dose. Has fatigue and flu like onset. Arm was also puffy like an allergic reaction. first shot she had no real symptoms
Almost everybody I know that had gotten the second dose had similar reactions. Apparently it is a couple days of having your ass kicked
