Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/13/flight-watch-fedex-flight-fdx884-carries-first-covid-19-vaccines-for-distribution.html
…
2 Likes
Crossing fingers that 2020 has no more surprises in store for us, like “volcano blows up, grounding FedEx planes”.
1 Like
Would you accept “raging blizzard grounds FedEx planes?”
2 Likes
How can that be the first in the world when people have already been vaccinated in England?
2 Likes
FDX884! That proves it!
8 is 1 less than 9, therefore inexorably 884 must mean 1984 = COVID-1984!
And when solving for the X of FDX when DF/Dt = lim(h–>0) F(t+h) - F(t) / h, and t = rothschild and h = Bill Gates, gives us X = s0r0s!
This message brought to you by Q, and by the Federal Independent Coalition of True Intellects of Our Nation
4 Likes
This is going to be a several-months long process that, at best, will mean no more medical staff will die taking care of a bunch of preventable illness cases. It doesn’t mean much in terms of the larger struggle to contain the pandemic. So the only surprise 2020 can throw at us in this case is that the entire stock of, or the process for making, vaccines has been compromised somehow.
It doesn’t say “first in the world,” just “the first” - which it is, in the US, where it’s being distributed.
These are made in Kalamazoo about five minutes from AZO in a former Upjohn facility. Heck, if it is the building I think it is, the property touches AZO’s property line. There is a small FedEx at the airport and it is big enough to deal with a few truck loads.
So why the hell add 60 more minute to get to GRR when the plane is going to Memphis anyway. </end rant of an annoyed former local>
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow will stop the vaccines from arriving.
Flight landed safely.
1 Like
Waiting for Trump to claim that he flew the plane himself.
4 Likes
Ensuring undiagnosed medical workers are not inadvertently spreading the virus is a non-trivial benefit too.
3 Likes
Let’s us all coordinate and ‘pew! pew!’ as one! 
1 Like
Given the unchecked spread of the virus in general, and the precautions medical staff take, that advantage is probably pretty negligible, unfortunately.
You’d be surprised. One of my sisters (a physician) just told me that her hospital won’t even authorize Covid tests for employees and medical workers who aren’t showing symptoms yet. Plus there’s always a few people in any profession who don’t follow the precautions they’re supposed to even if they ought to know better.
My sister thinks her hospital may be following a “WE CAN’T BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IF WE DIDN’T KNOW THEY WERE POSITIVE!” type of strategy.
3 Likes
Yeah, I’ve heard that a lot of hospitals aren’t testing staff. I was just thinking of all the medical professionals who pretty much behave as if they might have covid all the time, and that of all the population, medical professionals are most likely to be taking precautions that make them one of the least likely groups to be spreading the virus. (This now makes me wonder what profession is most likely to spread the virus… bartenders?)
But healthcare providers can’t take all the precautions that most of us can if they are actually doing their jobs effectively. For example, you can’t do an ear, nose or throat check from six feet away while insisting your patient keeps their mask on.
1 Like
Yeah, being able to take precautions for protecting themselves obviously not so much, but they are the group most likely to be taking precautions to prevent infecting others. Given that a good percentage of the population is still acting like there’s no pandemic, walking around coughing in strangers’ faces, that’s highly significant.
But if a responsible doctor knew they were carrying the virus they probably would take care to keep their distance from vulnerable patients, masks or no. That’s not possible for a doctor actually administering physical care.
1 Like
And sometimes they take risks to do their job.
Twice this year I’ve had nurses appear in gloves, but a fingertip cut off. They had to find a vein to take blood or do an IV, and my veins are hard to find. They need direct contact with my skin to find a vein.
I saw it as problem solving, and given all the blood tests I assume they know I have nothing dangerous. But protocol says to wear gloves, so they are stuck in between.
I’ve stayed in for 9 months (only a few medical appointments, and once to the library to collect a book) because I know what a burden being sick can be on nurses. Last year I couldn’t help being sick, this year I can avoid it. And it’s very specific nurses that I can picture. Why would they be nice to me, and yet they were.
After two months one nurse said she wass leaving tye next day, back to her final year of nursing school. I told her she already was a good nurse. And I told her my grandmother had been a nurse, and given a house in 1923. My mother was vague about details, but I told the nurse I figured my grandmother had done something extraordinary during the flu epidemic of 1918.
Who would have thought that 7 months later that nurse would face a pandemic of her own?
Until last year I saw nurses as assistants to doctors. But last year I saw they were way more independent, and they did things to solve problems. It was a great thing to get better, they didn’t stop doing their job any less, but they didn’t have as much work.
1 Like
I can’t get a non-stop flight from that airport(GRR) to New York, and now vaccines are being shipped all over the country from it. But hey, at least Michigan is in the news for something not involving domestic terrorists.
