Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

July 12, 2021: Second Vaccine Shot? Yes/No

·

Join us later today, Dark Matter fans, for our last Dark Matter Monday stream.  We’ll talk about those first three episodes of (our virtual) season 4 as well as what lies ahead.

https://twitter.com/nation_orville/status/1414622167040413700

Akemi: The stock is flat.  It’s flateaued.

Me: You mean plateaued.  There’s not such word as flateaued.

Akemi: WUT???

It pains me because her version does make more sense.  Like “Happy Delayted Birthday”.

Went to get my second vaccine today and showed up only to discover they were out of Pfizer and were offering the Moderna instead.  The CDC claims it’s perfectly safe to mix vaccines.  Now.  But about a month ago…

Cdc-mixing-vaccines

Did the science coincidentally change that fast around the same time certain places started running out of Pfizer vaccines?

I mean, this is the same CDC that was claiming there was no evidence of aerosolized transmission ((despite the anecdotal evidence) so they chose not to take action.  And before you trot out the ole “but science changes” argument, I would suggest their early stance was the equivalent of “Well, we have no proof that komodo dragons eat children so I’m just going to go ahead and let this komodo dragon babysit”.  This is also the same CDC of the “We don’t advise people wear masks because they’re too fucking stupid to know how to use them” school of thought.

The volunteer on site informed me that the Pfizer vaccines were in short supply and being redirected for vaccinating children.  My question is “What is it about the Moderna that has the experts so concerned they’re choosing to prioritize Pfizer over it?”

All great questions that I’m sure no one has the answer to.  In the meantime, I’ve rescheduled my appointment for Friday afternoon – at which time I will show up once again and they will no doubt inform me they’re out of Pfizer and, hey, how about some Moderna?

To be honest, if they had told me beforehand, I would have done the research and probably taken the Moderna, but the fact that they’re keeping people in the dark and springing the “You traveled all this way, so may as well…” strategy makes me inclined NOT to get it.

I’m more of an introvert anyway, so all good.

Today’s Yes/No…

Discover more from Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Podcast also available on PocketCasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and RSS.

9 responses

  1. gforce Avatar
    gforce

    I had the P/M combo and feel perfectly fine. The second did have a bit more of temporary side effects like a mild sore throat for a few hours and a sore shoulder, but they passed quickly. They are both mRNA vaccines and both provoke an immune response to the virus by targeting the same proteins. The only thing that is a possible issue is that the efficacy of the combination has not been long term tested. I realize this is strictly anecdotal, but NB has been using the combination approach for quite a few weeks now and despite opening the borders to other Canadians has seen zero new cases for the last week.

    I wouldn’t put too much stock in anything the volunteer on site said – I expect they get very scant detail on how vaccines are being allocated and what they do get is subject to their own interpretation and embellishment.

    Reply
  2. Colin Avatar
    Colin

    Kids (12 to 17) aren’t getting Moderna because Moderna hasn’t provided any testing data for kids. It’s probably just as safe as Pfizer but they need to prove it to get approved. That said I got my 2nd Pfizer today (because that’s what the nurse had in the syringe).

    Reply
  3. DP Avatar
    DP

    The Pfizer are the only ones approved for children, that’s why they’re being redirected to them. Why they would prioritize approving one over another? Welcome to my life.

    There are drugs that have been blocked from the U.S. market and the FDA’s reasoning doesn’t always hold up when there is a drug under patent that is way more expensive and not necessarily safer, sometimes plain not safer. One I could get (legally) if my gastroparesis made me morbidly ill first, then “compassionate use” could be applied for. I think compassion went out the window that they’d let me get morbidly ill first.

    That’s the norm for regulators for drugs that have been on the market for years. Heck – the FDA is trying to regulate a supplement called NAC now after over half a century of ignoring it, claiming it was originally – way back then – marketed as a drug. This happens to come up months after there are signals NAC could have some treatment value against COVID.

    Anyway, all possibilities are on the table for the FDA’s reasoning, who gets rich, who didn’t schmooze right, or maybe even a sincere effort to do the best they can approving things as quickly as possible.

    I believe the EU may have released some information about mixing vaccines, but that has to do with Astra-Zeneca (non-mrna) being the first one. So, it could be a good thing in that case or it could be political maneuvering we’re not privy to yet.

    If I were going to do two doses, I would mix the vaccines. That’s entirely a guess that it might be safer if the substances in the vaccines aren’t the same and, considering I’ve been developing allergies to new things lately, it would be better for me to not have my histamines perked up over the same substances.

    One possible reason to say that mixing is bad is so that they can treat everyone as a huge control group while they study a designated mixing population. Then they could change their reasoning based on science, but not telling us their reasoning wouldn’t be trust-building. Or, where they draw the line on how much antibodies produced is acceptable might be influenced by the shortage due to kids . One of the reasons they are claiming to have not wanted people to try a certain drug for Covid that I better not name lest it hurt your page rankings is they say they wanted to do transmissibility studies but are now claiming the studies have been hindered by so many people in the populations they usually experiment on having already taken the drug. I also don’t know if they even tried to do the studies. (I am on that drug, too, btw, for another condition, but I’m glad to have some protection against Covid as well.)

    Reply
  4. Kelly Avatar
    Kelly

    I looked it up and saw this post that might make you feel more at ease.
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/pfizer-moderna-mixing-vaccines-covid-19-canada-1.6075765

    Reply
  5. Ponytail Avatar
    Ponytail

    If you show up on Friday, and they do not have it again, THROW A HISSY FIT!! And no, don’t mix vaccines. I’m so glad you are an introvert. You may have to lay low for a while.

    Reply
  6. B Avatar
    B

    I took J&J so that there would be only one shot.

    Reply
  7. Colleen O'Shaughnessy Avatar
    Colleen O’Shaughnessy

    Both are mRNA vaccines based off of the same spike molecule. It seems to me that it would be better to get the second dose of the Moderna in a timely manner than to delay too long waiting for the Pfizer, which has the shorter second dose protocol. If it were me, I would take the Moderna. It may actually give you enhanced protection from some of the variants. I had been a die hard Pfizer fan until they announced last week that their variant protection was less than hoped for. I ended up getting the Moderna on that basis. It will be highly important to get the second dose within a week and the Moderna most likely won’t hurt you – at least there is no published data that I can find regarding harm from mixing those two mRNA vaccines. Too bad I can’t send you some Pfizer. They can’t give it away down here even without appointments. We have it in silly abundance!

    Reply
  8. FargateOne Avatar
    FargateOne

    2 Pfizer for me!

    Reply
  9. John Avatar
    John

    I got an Astra-Zeneca first shot and a Pfizer second shot and actually had less of a reacation from the Pfizer. I did a bit of reading on mixing two types of vaccines and it seemed okay. This was around the time the NACI seemed to think it was okay too. A lot of ‘seemed’, I know!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Latest episodes

Discover more from Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading