Well, shit

[olivermoss]

J&J vaccines are being 'paused' by the CDC. Possibly only for a few days while more data comes in, but that few days includes my appointment.

I woke up to lots of people on twitter being all 'dumb Americans being afraid of rare vaccines complications, wait until they hear about car safety!' type takes. But, guess what guys it's bad enough for CDC action. The government is pushing re-opening, they wouldn't do this without good reason. There is no political upside to slowing things down.

This stage of the pandemic winding down is such a mess. People are stressed out. Also, among those who want things to stay closed it's becoming very clear who the rational people were and what people have just fallen into abject paranoia. I am suddenly seeing a lot of 'you can be vaccinated and still die of covid, so everything should stay closed' takes on the local subreddits. I do think that things are opening faster than they should, but I am seeing a lot of takes on it driven by paranoia and stress rather than reasonable caution. And I am very into reasonable caution! I am STILL walking instead of taking mass transit.

Also, like, if you've got the vax go live your life. Seriously. Please wear a mask for now in stores, but don't let shouty people ruin shit for you. Go kiss people in bars or see how many people you can fit in a phone booth or whatever it is immune people do.

I am about ready to reply with this to everyone who thinks they can math better than the CDC. I mean, not really, I am going to ignore them not pick fights. There is no upside. But that is going to be playing in my head every time I look at social media. I need to figure out which Medlife Crisis video that clip is from.

Comments

[shipperslist]

...yeah. It's good that side-effects are taken seriously but... honestly, people. Common over-the-counter drugs have SO MUCH side-effects but because they're old and "trusted," no one cares. It's both hilarious and so, so stupid at the same time.

[olivermoss]

The pause is partially to investigate to see how much it's really happening and also because they are confident they can put in a treatment protocol to help people effected given a bit of lead time. The protocol wont help me, it wont help anyone who lives alone, but it will help some.

Once they know of a problem, they can get better data on it. This might be a nothingburger, but they are pausing to check. In the overall roll out this should be a tiny speed bump, but to me personally it's a big one.

Here in Oregon, in vaccine resistant areas people are ... or were ... more open to the J&J vaccine than the 2 dose options. So this might have a big effect on whether we can get needles in arms of the vaccine resistant.

[mistressofmuses]

The response has definitely been frustrating.

I *am* glad they're investigating. I know one of the mass-vax events here closed early due to the number of severe reactions to the J&J shot, even though it was within expected ranges. I'm sorry your date is impacted, though.

Part of me definitely would love to keep distancing and masking up (because I don't want strangers all up on me in the store, and masks cut down on small talk expectations). But there is DEFINITELY a sharp divide between people whose caution comes from genuine desire to take reasonable precautions vs. a paranoid apocalypse fantasy they can't let go of.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, one of the reasons why reactions are so rare is that people who are more likely to have reactions aren't being given the shot. Part of what is going on is checking to see if they can further refine that. That and a few other things.

Oh I can't wait to burn my mask, stand my ground and let guys walk into me because they so deeply expect me to give way to them and their bros taking up the entire sidewalk. No matter how long I am away, I an a New Yorker at heart. But, it would still be nice to have masks normalized for travel like they are in most of Asia.