Covid-19 diary: Part 35

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
April 26, 2021

I received my second vaccination dose this morning. It came as a major relief: I will be considered fully immunized in two weeks, at which point my chances of becoming seriously ill with or dying from Covid-19 will be extremely low.

My immunity evidently won’t last forever; I may need a booster shot in six months to a year. And my immunity won’t be perfect. There is a possibility, however slim, that I still might develop serious symptoms or even die from the disease even while my vaccination is in effect. Notably, this item in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report identified up to 22 so-called “breakthrough infections” among fully vaccinated residents and employees of a Chicago-area nursing home, resulting in two hospitalizations and one death. That said, I’m much happier taking my chances with the vaccine than without.

My experience getting a second shot at the UNC Health vaccination clinic at the University of North Carolina’s Friday Center in Chapel Hill was much smoother than my first go-round at the clinic. I imagine this was mainly because I knew what to expect and I was already in the UNC Health medical records system.

Covid-19 diary: Part 34

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
April 15, 2021

UNC Health’s vaccination clinic was set up at the Friday Center for Continuing Education, a University of North Carolina facility that I’d visited once years ago for an event that has faded from memory. I left my house around 4 p.m. on Monday, April 5, and arrived a little after 4:20.

Because Stanford’s women’s baketball team had won the ‪NCAA‬ championship the night before, the team’s first title in 29 years, I was decked out in Cardinal gear when I went to get vaccinated that afternoon. I wore a polo shirt and a shiny cardinal polyester jacket with the words “Stanford basketball” embroidered in white over the left breast. Monday had already felt like a special day; being able to secure an immunization appointment after a great deal of futile telephoning enhanced that feeling.

Before I began walking through the parking lot, I donned two masks. This is my usual routine whenever I have to go inside a building: Surgical mask on first, then a cloth mask over that. Typically, as on this occasion, I secured the cloth face covering with a mask extender. I still find the extender awkward and somewhat uncomfortable to use, but it makes the mask fit tightly over my face, and I figure that increase my safety.

Covid-19 diary: Part 33

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
April 14, 2021

If you read my previous blog entry, then you know that I made obsessive efforts to reach the UNC Covid-19 vaccination clinic’s surplus dose hotline on Friday, March 26, and Tuesday, March 30. I was unsuccessful despite placing around 200 calls.

Then came Monday, April 5. The clinic sent out the following tweet that morning:

Good morning friends. For those interested in the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, please call 984-974-3111 now. We have a handful of doses on hand and would like to find arms for them. We will tweet out again when these are accounted for. J&J only for now. Thank you.

— uncstandbycovidvaccine (@uncstandbycovi1) April 5, 2021

I dialed the number at 10:05 a.m. (three times), 10:06, 10:07 (twice), 10:08, 10:09, 10:10, 10:11, 10:12 and 10:14. My phone lists “Canceled Call” and does not provide any call duration beside every log entry for these calls. I remember hanging up almost as soon as I heard the voicemail greeting, which was a sign that I had not succeeded in reaching a human. I guess my hangups came so soon after the UNC telephone system connected with my phone that my phone, or my wireless carrier, (or both!) didn’t treat this activity like normal calls.

Unfortunately, I was thoroughly discouraged at this point. I had now phoned the hotline more than 200 times on three seperate occasions and come up empty every time.

Covid-19 diary: Part 32

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
April 13, 2021

Toward the end of March, a Twitter post retweeted by someone I follow in this part of North Carolina called my attention to an account with the rather unwieldy handle uncstandbycovidvaccine, a.k.a. @uncstandbycovi1. The account’s purpose is stated bluntly in its biography:

End of day COVID vaccine standby account. Turn on notifications from this account. Guiding principle: Zero wasted doses

Thanks to my inability to find a certain specialty item — matzah, y’all — I was in between grocery store runs shortly after noon on Friday, March 26, when Twitter notified me of the following tweet from the UNC standby account:

The UNC Friday Center COVID19 Vaccine Clinic may have several end of day doses available TODAY Friday 3/26/21. If you can be within 20 minutes of the clinic call 984-974-3111 now for further instructions. This list has grown considerably. Please be patient.

— uncstandbycovidvaccine (@uncstandbycovi1) March 26, 2021

Reader, I called (984) 974-3111.

I called at 12:08, 12:09 and 12:10 p.m. and listened each time to a voicemail greeting message running about 43 seconds long.