While saying “Muscles Are Required Intelligence Not Expected” is a fun piece if rivalry, it’s far from true.
FWIW, in their mind ARMY = “Ain’t Really Marines Yet”
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Would love to see a comparison with the study that was reported at the beginning of the month, because these conflicting reports are influencing people who are already hesitant:
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Well, this more recent study hasn’t been peer reviewed yet, so grains of salt should perhaps be applied.
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If only the press would consider that! We had a family Zoom call yesterday, and one of my cousins (who had been on the fence about vaccination) decided to avoid the Pfizer vaccine because of the recent news. She’s getting an appointment for the Moderna one instead. Still, it could’ve tipped her back into the mistrust and pro-vitamin woo woo after we’d spent months convincing her they were not good solutions.
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Or maybe just the most honest. Wait until we hear from the Air Force.
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Got my second shot of the Pfizer Sunday afternoon. So far, no significant reaction to it; just a really sore arm and a general feeling of tiredness.
I am somewhat surprised at the soreness; this is by far the most injection-site pain I’ve had with a vaccination. (The Shingrix second dose was close, but this one beat that one out.)
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There’s a similar reluctance among LA County firefighters, but the officials recently landed on a strategy that actually seems to make a big difference:
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Or like fibromyalgia in an ADHD/ADD person.
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I especially liked this:
“I think, generally, some of our employees are distrustful of authority, they’re distrustful of government,” Amith said. “And they elicit their information from social media outlets…”
Cal Fire is a government entity, funded by a combination of local, state, and federal dollars. 
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Which suggests that masks, goggles and other precautions work great. We are exposed at a much higher rate than the general population, yet do not show particularly increased infection risk. Hmmm, yeah, that sounds about right.
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In addition to @ChuckV 's caveats, these may be saying the same thing differently. If a vaccine has 95% effectiveness against one strain, and 85% against another, it is simultaneously “significantly less effective,” and “very effective.” Figures don’t lie, but liars figure. Just depends on how you want to spin it.
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I tried to get a vaccination appointment for an elderly relative with pre-existing conditions under constant medication who is also caregiver for my four-year old niece (who, as I mentioned more than once, is immunosuppressed after an organ transplant since her 4th month).
No vaccination appointment until the end of September via the online booking system.
Other people point out that this will change when more doses become available, that I should check daily, that we can try getting a Härtefallregelung or a vaccination through the family practitioners (who started vaccinating last week, finally).
That’s all true, but the fact remains that the person in question stays unvaccinated until further notice. And meanwhile, there is a huge push on communal and state level to ease restrictions. While the federal government announced that further measures would now be implemented via a federal law (for the first time, since most measures are up to now based in state legislation with communal implementation), states and communes push back, and nobody relevant seems to realise that the measures and indicators which are proposed are, in fact, weaker than what bought us the third wave.
We.
Are.
So.
Fucked.
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Have a college friend with a serious thing about needles. We worked in the same restaurant, and had to get hep shots one year because another employee had come down with it. I got mine, whatever. He noticed that the vial his was being drawn from had bubbles in it. “Huh, that’s weird,” said the nurse when this was pointed out. He got a different vial, but was pretty much incapacitated for the rest of the day. I expect it would be like me getting coerced into going parachuting and having to jump out of an airplane. Anyway, a lot of respect to everyone sucking that up.
Here’s how it works: if a person comes toward me with a needle, for any reason, my mind becomes decoupled from my body. It floats above, looking down.
Thus freed from natural human strictures, and possessed of a wild animal’s desperate desire to live, the body does everything it can to confound and evade any attempt to puncture it. Blood draws are this way, but also the administration of a life-giving - or, at any rate, life retaining - serum, and so when the needle approaches my arms begin to wave and swipe in wide arcs as though dispersing phantasmal insects. This is frustrating for the person trying to poke me, but it’s also frustrating for me, because it’s not something I’m in conscious control over. I will tell them this, and the look they give me is one that says, ”I don’t believe you.” I‘ll be, like, this is the time I’m not gonna do it. I‘m gonna hold my arms in a very specific way and they’ll be proud of me. I‘m thinking this while my left swipes toward the foe with a knife palm.
In truth, other than being tired, nothing really happened when I got the shot. Nothing bad, at least. I was tired, and I still am, although it’s difficult to discern if I’m tired because my body has become the newest front in our war with the Coronavirus or if it’s merely because I’m ancient beyond the counting of years. The worst side-effect, and I suggested something similar online, is that getting the shot makes you feel all the feelings you’ve suppressed and interred and calcified the last year all at once. That’s something you should know going in.
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