Even Greener Pastures

Thanks Nikola and Sofia.
Happy Women's Day to you and other members who still take a look at this forum.

I got the Pfizer (Comirnaty) vaccine. This one was the first being in use here and most healthcare workers were vaccinated with it. My mother-in-law is after the first dose of Moderna. She was very well after getting it. My parents will probably get Moderna or Pfizer, because Astra-Zeneca is not registered for people over 70. Now they are giving Astra-Zeneca to teachers,  and probably they may give it to other high-risk staff not vaccinated yet (the rest of healthcare, other public services). I heard they deliberately prolonged the minimal time between doses to 42days now (because of the shortage of doses?). We will see.
I think the pope got one of these 2 (Pfizer/Moderna) as an elderly man. I'm not sure about the rest of Vatican staff, though I wouldn't be surprised if this small country has been vaccinated in 100% already  😉

I'm happy for you and your parents, Marcin.

Here, people over 70 can register now. That's my mum. My dad's 69 but has diabetes so should be able to get vaccinated at the same time as mum, I think. I wanted to help them book it online but they don't want to travel to one of the big vaccination points, they want to see if they could get it from the GP (GPs are now allowed to book you in but only some are actually doing it). Doesn't help that we're not allowed to travel between regions.

The school where I work part-time has received their unique code to register their first 30 staff. I was surprised when they announced that teaching staff could now start signing up because it was meant to be one stage later, as far as I know. It could be because Covid had been spreading a lot among pre-school and the younger school kids, who were the only ones allowed to come to school before everything finally closed a week ago.

I also was delighted that Biden won. What a relief not to have Trump as President anymore!!!

I can´t help thinking about our deceased former leader of this board and wondering whether he also would have changed his position on Trump. I like to think that he would have stopped his support of him if he had lived to see the pandemic. 

I was also pleased to read today that this week Biden declared his opposition to supporting Saudia Arabia in their war with Yemen.  This is a reversal not only of Trumps policy but a policy that started with Obama.  Hopefully now their peace process can begin.

Hi Susan, Glad to see you here. I was having some similar thoughts about the former administrator of this board. I am also wondering what Jerrie (or Seth) is feeling right now about his idol. Well Trump wasn’t impeached, but still the majority of the Senate voted yes, even if it wasn’t enough.

I hope that the war will end in Yemen. Not sure that Biden will be able to do a lot.

Great to see you, Susan!

Glad you've been able to get your two doses. Swimming pools and gyms are still closed here and the vaccination is going very slowly. They have given a lot fewer doses than they had originally planned. The situation is probably similar to Poland. So far, 2.38% of the population have received at least one dose, 0.85% have received two. Among those are some who jumped the queue, so to speak. It's quite demoralising for all the older people who are still waiting.

The only person I know who has been vaccinated is our family friend who is a doctor. My parents and their friends who are around 70 have not been asked to book a slot yet. Teachers are meant to be next once the 65+ group has been vaccinated, whenever that may be.

I haven´t checked in here for a long time but in the process of changing my email address decided to see if there was still activity.  I was delighted to see there is

I am fortunate to be considered a health care worker here and got my 2nd dose of the Moderna vaccine last Wednesday.  I felt achey and tired the first two days, but now I feel normal.  I have been avoiding the gym and hope to get back to swimming in about a week when my immunity should be up because this vaccine reportedly has been 100% effective in preventing severe cases of COVID so far, although obviously that could change with the new strains.  My husband is more social than I and has not been practicing social distancing as much as I have and he will also have to wait much longer to receive the vaccine.    Actually my husband has had three friends who come to our home regularly to play Dungeons & Dragons with him and two of the three have been tested and found they had the anti-bodies.  Both apparently had COVID mildly without being sure what they had.  My husband decided to get the anti-body test and he does not have the anti-bodies so apparently has not had COVID.

Kansas is one of the states with the slowest distribution in the U.S.  I saw a map last week that we were at a little over 6% vaccinated.  Health care workers, persons living in nursing homes, and persons considered essential to the distribution of the vaccine were the first to be eligible.  When I was getting my second dose, people 80 years and over were also getting their first dose.

The Baselang service that I use for Spanish lessons now has expanded to have teachers from many of the South and Central American countries.  It is sad to me that many countries are having a lot more difficulty acquiring and distributing the vaccine and many of my teachers will probably be waiting quite awhile for vaccine. I read that many of the poor countries probably won´t have people vaccinated until 2022.  I hope that is not true.