Neverending Covid-19 Coronavirus

So, Florida's shitshow continues apace, right, no surprise there, and Governor Deathsantis has made it the law of the land that only 65+ and medical personnel or first responders get the vaccine until further notice. My (and Mrs') initial appointment at the one hospital that was giving vaccines for medically vulnerable people was initially set for Feb 20, but then cancelled on Jan 15th due to lack of actual doses for 2nd doses. In between then-and-now, state policy was changed to only-65+-and-medical-etc. Official policy is "everyone else, just sign up with your county's method of dealing with this (which varies from "check with a supermarket chain that donated to DeSantis" to "your county has no plan" to "your county has a website that is mostly not working" -- Miami-Dade is in the "mostly not working" category, but hey, we've got a site and some vague plan so I guess we're doing okish comparitively).

Anyway.

So I signed us up on the site, figuring they'd call us like, on the 3rd of Never but no! Lo and behold, we get an email last Monday: click here and sign up for your appointment. Fuckin' awesome, we do the clicky, we fill out web forms, there's a confirmation text and a follow-up email with a calendar appointment. Smooth, perhaps a bit back and forth but whatever. It works. Appointment was set for today, Feb 28, 930am, we drive up to the baseball stadium and you can feel the palpable despair and fear. One giant car-lane gets split into "testing" and "vaccine" lanes. Finally, I drive up to the national guardsman who promptly looks at us both and goes "uh....is she 65?" (because apparently with my salt and pepper beard, I look haggard and old and am the very spirit of Methuselah, but she's a spring chicken.) And so I confirm no, we're not 65, I'm not trying to lie my way into a vaccine, you guys called us and said come on down and so here we are, where is my shot young man and he basically does the world's fastest rendition of Can't Do Nuttin' For You Man and we are sent on our merry way.

So that was my Sunday morning, how was your weekend?
 
Got my first this morning. So far, no side effects and I’m hoping for minimal ones tonight/tomorrow.

Also got word that my wife is not eligible. Hoping to have a vaccinated home for the tiny baby.
 
I went on my work website to register for a vaccine appointment. Hoping to get it sometime soon. Only appointment is for today at 4PM!!! Not ready for that yet.
 
swamp jazz box set said:
Got my first this morning. So far, no side effects and I’m hoping for minimal ones tonight/tomorrow.

Also got word that my wife is not eligible. Hoping to have a vaccinated home for the tiny baby.
Click to expand...
I didn’t have any side effects really. Sore arm, but it went away quicker than I thought. Maybe I felt a little out of it at a point the next day, but that could also just be my nervous anxiety… today I woke up feeling great (I got my first dose Saturday morning).
 
The good news is that vaccine hesitancy has dropped remarkably to the point that we could achieve herd immunity. However, anti-vaccine holdouts are largely white and Republican.



By the numbers: 41% of Republicans say they don't plan to get a vaccine if it's available to them. Only 33% say they do plan to get vaccinated.

  • 70% of Democrats and a plurality of independents (47%) say they plan to get vaccinated.
  • White Americans are now less likely than Black and Latino Americans to say they plan to get the vaccine.
www.axios.com

Republicans are least likely to want the coronavirus vaccine

They're now the most vaccine-hesitant demographic group in the U.S.
www.axios.com www.axios.com
 
I haven't seen recent projections as to when I'll be able to get vaccinated here in Michigan, (the last estimate I saw was August) but my NYT morning email said Arizona is now vaccinating those 18 and over. That's a huge difference between these two states, as I personally know people over 65 that still can't find a way to get one around here.
 
nolalady said:
The good news is that vaccine hesitancy has dropped remarkably to the point that we could achieve herd immunity. However, anti-vaccine holdouts are largely white and Republican.



By the numbers: 41% of Republicans say they don't plan to get a vaccine if it's available to them. Only 33% say they do plan to get vaccinated.

  • 70% of Democrats and a plurality of independents (47%) say they plan to get vaccinated.
  • White Americans are now less likely than Black and Latino Americans to say they plan to get the vaccine.
www.axios.com

Republicans are least likely to want the coronavirus vaccine

They're now the most vaccine-hesitant demographic group in the U.S.
www.axios.com www.axios.com
Click to expand...


So basically a cross-section of the privileged and misinformed...
 


TL/DR or watch in this case.

Trump and his wife got the COVID-19 vaccination in secrecy back in January only being confirmed now. Experts said he should been public about it to reduce public hesitation and get his base more supported of getting the vaccine.
 
So our state is opening up vaccinations to over half the population on Monday. Seems that the government is too afraid to make difficult decisions, so lots of new groups will be eligible. My wife and I will both be eligible and will try to get appointments.

Not sure how I feel about the fact that kind of puts the guilt on me if I decide to continually try to get an appointment if some lung transplant patient who hasn't been trained by F5ing vinyl drops gets passed over. That isn't the way it should be.
 
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Insurance companies are supposed to cover COVID-19 tests and any test related to diagnosing COVID-19 as well as any co-pays associated with doctors office and urgent care enter visits under federal law.

But the surprise bills keep on coming.

www.nytimes.com

Coronavirus Tests Are Supposed to Be Free. The Surprise Bills Come Anyway. (Published 2020)

Congress sought to ensure that patients would not face costs connected to the virus. But rules are not always being followed.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

I too got charged a Co-pay for the visit to the Priority Care Center I visited for the test and my Covid test hit my deductible. I'm working on trying to fight it now. It's gone back to be reviewed again.


But based on that NY Times article from last September this is happening a lot. To hundreds of thousands of people.

Insurance companies billing systems are not keeping up with the changes of the law, or have limitations like no out-of-network coverage even though the law says they have to cover the test regardless, their billing systems do not allow for it and need to be individually modified per patient to current after each out-of-network billing situation.

Then there are the insurance companies trying to find the gray areas. Getting out of being fully on the hook and deciding that charge is not related to COVID. This has resulted in people where the Urgent Care center billed the visit separately then the COVID-Test, therefor the insurance companies stick you with the Co-pay. Or in the case of Texas where patients unknowingly also got a STD test done at the same time the COVID-19 test was done at one testing center, for the insurance to not cover the STD test. This also includes fees like a $49 after hours fee one urgent care center was charging, but that same urgent care center would only do covid tests at a designated time in the evening as to not expose other patients to Covid.
 
www.cnn.com

Some US bishops discourage Catholics from getting Johnson & Johnson vaccine if others are available

As officials and health experts race to get Americans vaccinated against Covid-19, some Catholic bishops have weighed in to discourage Church members from getting the latest, single-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson when alternatives are available.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as at least 6 other dioceses from across the country have released statements expressing "moral concerns" over the shot due to its use of lab-grown cells that descend from cells taken in the 1980s from the tissue of aborted fetuses.
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RenegadeMonster said:
Insurance companies are supposed to cover COVID-19 tests and any test related to diagnosing COVID-19 as well as any co-pays associated with doctors office and urgent care enter visits under federal law.

But the surprise bills keep on coming.

www.nytimes.com

Coronavirus Tests Are Supposed to Be Free. The Surprise Bills Come Anyway. (Published 2020)

Congress sought to ensure that patients would not face costs connected to the virus. But rules are not always being followed.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

I too got charged a Co-pay for the visit to the Priority Care Center I visited for the test and my Covid test hit my deductible. I'm working on trying to fight it now. It's gone back to be reviewed again.


But based on that NY Times article from last September this is happening a lot. To hundreds of thousands of people.

Insurance companies billing systems are not keeping up with the changes of the law, or have limitations like no out-of-network coverage even though the law says they have to cover the test regardless, their billing systems do not allow for it and need to be individually modified per patient to current after each out-of-network billing situation.

Then there are the insurance companies trying to find the gray areas. Getting out of being fully on the hook and deciding that charge is not related to COVID. This has resulted in people where the Urgent Care center billed the visit separately then the COVID-Test, therefor the insurance companies stick you with the Co-pay. Or in the case of Texas where patients unknowingly also got a STD test done at the same time the COVID-19 test was done at one testing center, for the insurance to not cover the STD test. This also includes fees like a $49 after hours fee one urgent care center was charging, but that same urgent care center would only do covid tests at a designated time in the evening as to not expose other patients to Covid.
Click to expand...
And expect there to be fees surrounding vaccination storage and administration, because that also could be a thing when you go get vaccinated.
 
Michigan just opened vaccinations to people over 50 with underlying health conditions. I don't think I qualify, although I do have an autoimmune issue. But, even if I don't qualify, they say by March 22nd it will be open for the rest of us half-centurians.
 
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