For the time being in Florida, I suspect it is much safer to not try to get vaccinated immediately than to go through the motions of trying to do so. Eventually the turn will come, as my doctor tells me, when I will get a call from his office. So I will just hunker down and hold tight until then. Afterall, there really is no pressing hurry as far as I am concerned.
OK, now having experienced actually getting my first shot (Moderna) in Florida I need to revise my assessment, for the better actually in some cases....
In Florida each County has their own way of doing things. Some (e.g. Lake) are really exceptionally bad, requiring people to show up and line up the previous night and such. Others like Brevard, where I am turned out to be remarkably good.
They are using Eventbrite to schedule appointments, and appointments are reserved only for the number of dozes that they have available. Facebook came in handy this time as Brevard Emergency Management posted the opening of the Eventbrite system on Facebook, Twitter and on their own SMS and email feeds. I was happily executing on my plan to sit around and watch until an opportunity comes up, when I chanced upon the notification on Facebook and immediately jumped on the site using my preexisting Eventbrite account, At that time it was wide open, and I chose a time slot (15 min time slots) on the 6th.
Leaving aside the misadventure on the side to get my Doctor's office to interact with DOH to provide them with some documentation they needed, which came through eventually, well ahead of time, I arrived about half an hour early. It was basically a drive through setup. They gave me a consent form to fill and then join one of two line. The lines advanced pretty quickly as they completed the documentation and stuck the entire package under my windshield.
When I advanced to the vaccination station, they took the package asked me a question about the doctor's note and then I got my ***. The nurse was very good. I did not really feel anything at all. There was a two sentence verbal instruction, and then because of a special condition the doctor had noted I was required to wait in a waiting lot for 30 mins (instead of the normal 15), before I was released to move to the next station, where the documentation package was taken and I was given a Vaccination Record card (a CDC document) with annotation about the vaccination I got that day plus an appointment 28 days out for the second shot. And that was that. I was on my way.
On the whole, things moved very smoothly and they were doing about 20-30 per hour it seemed with the number of cars that were parked for the post vaccination waiting period. Oh and the waiters were actively monitored by several nurses who were walking the lot. The entire process, from when I entered the DOH facility to when I left, including the half hour monitoring wait after vaccination, took almost exactly one hour.
So in Florida, if you are in a county with a competent DOH it is fine and safe to get vaccinated. In Brevard get yourself on the Emergency Management folk's SMS notification service to know when Eventbrite opens up again, or get in touch with Omni Health or Health First, who are getting an allocation too, for their regular patients. They might be able to spare a shot for those that are not, but quite unlikely.
In late Feb/early March Walgreens and Publix will start getting allocations too.
Now I have to go and plan a trip to New York in late February by when I should have as good an immunity as I will ever get from the Moderna shots.
One thing is, there is some uncertainty about what the residual level of immunity will be after 6-7 months. We learn as we go. The general consensus at present appears to be leaning towards annual booster shots, but yet to be confirmed based on real world experience from those that got the vaccine during the phase 3 and earlier trials.
It's every Couple for Themselves.
