29 Comments
Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

I totally agree. I won’t jump the line. I’m a 73 year old who has just started 30 days of radiation. I’m getting radiation right next to the room where Pfizer shots are being given, where I got mine in fact. It’s crossed my mind that it might be nice to have a little added protection. The hospital is calling people who are compromised and need the booster. If they call me, I’ll get one but not until then.

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We will hold you in our hearts throughout your radiation, and beyond.

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Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

What's good for the hive is good for the bee.

As long as I'm not cutting in line, I'll gladly take a booster when it's available. Improving my own chances of staying healthy (virus free) improves everyone's chances.

Between self-medicated sterilization and outright dying from the "hoax," the ignorant unvaccinated folks are doing a fine job of reducing their influence.

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They really are.

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Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

I certainly won't try to jump the line to hustle up with immunocompromised people.

On a global basis, I feel very strongly that everyone's priority should be getting vaccine to under-vaccinated countries, and I wish the people of the United States were not so overwhelmingly solipsistic. I write to my political representatives about that.

But I can't see that refusing a booster when my turn comes will help to get vaccination around the world.

It's frustrating.

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It is. I remember my grandmother telling me if I didn't eat what was on my plate, I should remember the children in Africa. Only once did I suggest we send my lunch to them. She didn't take the time to explain supply and demand.

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A smart mouth at the dinner table never ends well. When my dad did the “When Abe Lincoln was your age, he walked five miles to school each way”. I responded “When he was your age he was President”.

No dessert. No TV.

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Now transport cost. They never do.

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Sep 18, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

Bother. I meant "Nor transport cost."

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Believe me, if there was a way to allow editing on comments, I would. No worries.

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Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

I'd like to see my elderly mother get a booster because seniors were first vaccinated, so they'll be due for a booster soonest. I don't have any of the health risks and I trust that the first round will protect me for a while longer even if it's fading a bit, so I'll wait on mine. We have to think beyond our borders and get more of the rest of the world vaccinated first time around. Then I'll happily get my booster. What might be interesting to watch is the conflicting bull-headed stances of some of our fellow citizens--what's an anti-vaxxer America-firster xenophobe to do? ("No, I'm not getting the shot, but I'm darn well getting it before all those people in other countries!"

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Amen.

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Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

I agree with many here. I will get my booster when it’s time. I have several autoimmune issues and adult children living in other states that I want to see. That being said, my getting it does not take it away from someone in another country getting a shot. I feel for them but not for those in the US who refuse the shot for non medical reasons. I look forward to the shot passport when having to be near strangers and I think there may come a time when vaccinations play a role in the availability of medical treatment.

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That would be interesting to me, if that time came. I carry my vaccine card with me, though I'm not sure why. I am walking around with a nasty cold and sound like a frog, so I also have on my phone the results of my latest COVID test (which is how I knew it was a cold, or allergies). I think transparency may save us.

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Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

Same here. My wife and got the single shot J&J back in March. I know they are researching a booster shot. So we will wait until they let us know it's time.

BTW...the use of the word tack was correct.

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Yay! Score one for me!

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Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

My dad used that word a lot. He was an avid recreational sailor.

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Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

Sitting tight with you; the global need for vaccination and mixed messages on the need for boosters are compelling.

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founding
Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

When/if I qualify for a booster, I'll get it. It think the confusion stems from mixed public health goals: protect from spread, protection from severe illness/death, protection from symptomatic illness...

Depending on goal, it could yield difference public health policy guidelines.

I've been hearing my friend's story of COVID (contracted before vaccines were available) and how quickly it spread through extended family. I've heard what it felt like, what it was like to be hospitalized, what it was like to also have a loved one hospitalized, and what it's like to have long COVID symtoms that are being monitored months later.

I don't want to spread it. I don't want to get a breaktgru tgat coukd still produce long COVID. I'll get the shot when I qualify.

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Sep 17, 2021Liked by Susan Campbell

I'm not in any of those categories, either. I'll sit tight and wait for a clear signal that it's time for a booster.

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That's the tack I'm taking. Tact? One of those.

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I see this as a structural rather than individual issue. By way of analogy: There are many who face food insecurity but if I choose not to take the extra helping at dinner, this doesn't do anything to put more food on the tables of those who need it. Instead, I need to support institutions that are involved in fighting poverty and working for equitable food distribution. I don't know if my not getting a booster would mean that someone in Nigeria, for example, would get it. It is probably more likely it would expire and be thrown away, which, sadly, is happening in low vaccinated regions in the U.S. What we need to do is demand that organizations and governments collaborate on world wide distribution.

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I just saw that you and others made a similar argument, Susan. No plagiarism intended.

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No, you added to the conversation. It’s really more something to think about, unless we are in control of distribution or want to make time to tell the people who ARE in control…

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Given how supplies work I doubt there’s any real relationship between my not getting a booster and someone far away getting a shot as a result. The ethics are similar if maybe less critical than they were for the first shot. When I became eligible there were people at far greater risk than me without access but I got the shot anyway. If boosters are recommended I’m ready when it’s my turn. It would help if Pfizer and Moderna would loosen their proprietary grip and let others produce the vaccines.

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Right. We need to start sharing this, whatever that means and however that would work best.

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I too am awaiting greater clarity. Yet am simultaneously concerned that a global pandemic requires that many less affluent countries also need the means to offer vaccination to their citizens for the pandemic to end. Realistically it does appear COVID will become endemic.

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We aren’t protected until everyone is protected. There is no such thing as a no peeing zone at the pool.

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Bill's right. That's a structural issue, isn't it?

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