Get one anyway. There could still be an outbreak before then, especially with everyone screwing around and not getting vaccinated.
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Not all of them. And the ones that are booked add up to a few thousand people out of many millions. It’s like one out of every 5,000 people who need it.
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My entire extended family back home, even my fundamentalist uncle, are fully vaxed. It’s all Pfizer or Moderna, though. Another friend got AZ and he’s fine. His brother did too, and felt out of it for a couple days, but is fine now. Both are close to my age. I’ll be ready with a ice pack, blankets, acetaminophen, and water just in case I feel like crap.
My vaccination is next week, and it’ll be a relief. Covid scares the bejesus out of me, and I want to do my part in the effort to end the pandemic. I’ll report on my experience.
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Hello! Is there any woman under 50 who took the AZ here? In my country is suggested for people over 60. While I would like to get the vaccine, it’s difficult to stop the little scared voice in my mind haha. Especially since my paternal grandma had a thrombosis a few years ago.
Also, a lot of people I talked to said they are waiting for Moderna to arrive, but how do you think it’s going to work, as we won’t probably be able to choose which vaccine to get? And considering there are health care workers and other categories first?
Look upthread for @starla.986 and their posts - I believe they fit in that category. Here’s one of the posts:
https://tw.forumosa.com/t/coronavirus-vaccine-in-taiwan/202980/504?u=lostinasia
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Fact is, the risk of blood clot is rare, sure it’s there but seriously your risk of blood clots, permanent lung damage, death, etc. is much much higher if you catch COVID.
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Yes, I am and I took the vaccine. Some countries recommend it only for people over 65, some over 50 and some over 30. I was for sure pretty anxious, but in the end felt that the potential benefits outweighed any risk. and here they put a sticker on your NHI card that you’ve been vaccinated so i feel confident that if I have any issue, a doctor would know my vaccination status right away and would be able to take appropriate steps. Personally, I feel that it doesn’t make sense to wait for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. I’m in Taiwan, AZ was what was available, who knows if non priority groups will have access to other vaccines, and really, who knows which vaccine will prove to be most effective in the long term?
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I think part of the reason to bring your NHI card when getting vaccinated is so it’s on your record. Makes it easy to track it should they start having vaccine passports too.
Plus Taiwan can’t keep covid out forever, and it’s looking like it might come apart. So get vaccinated NOW.
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It doesn’t seem like it’s worth waiting for other vaccines to arrive unless you’re in a priority group. Taiwan appears to have purchased around 5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to arrive in May and June, so enough for 2.5 million people - I suspect a lot of those waiting for “the better vaccine” will be disappointed when they realize they’re not getting it for the time being.
Also, this made me chuckle:
Chen said the company had initially agreed to sell 5 million doses to Taiwan, but the CECC was able to negotiate an additional 50,000 doses.
An additional 50,000 doses on top of 5 million doses is basically a rounding error.
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50000 more is better than 0 more.
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Yep, I know several. One went together with me to get it.
AFAIK this “suggestion” is from politicians. The European experts (that politicians rarely listen to) still suggest AZ for everyone, because of benefits far outweighting the risks. Many countries supply it to under 60s, and millions already got it. Yes there are risks, and they are better understood now (especially the risk factor that leads to the famous blood clots).
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Obviously. But it’s 1% of the total, and hardly a massive deal.
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I’ve been struggling a lot with anxiety in the last two months because of some family issues, and I don’t know if it’s stupid but I’m more anxious about my anxiety than about the vaccine itself.
That’s what I’m afraid of. With local cases growing day by day, I think most people in the priority categories will not wait any longer
They probably don’t want to let go of their taiwan no.1 virus country status, another reason why the vaccine situation has been such a bust in taiwan.
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I was checking the availability on 3 hospitals as I was trying to make my mind up. Friday they were wide open. Lo and behold over the weekend my first choice was gone, the second one only had choices not convenient for me…had to settle for the last spot on the last day available of my third choice. Ain’t complaining.
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Taiwan’s priority list is pretty long… health care workers, police, customs agents … people aged 16-64 are pretty much at the bottom.
Europe’s version of the CDC bases approval on a drug company’s own analysis, while the U.S. goes over the raw data to come to it’s own conclusion. It sounds like the U.S. CDC is more thorough, and they’ve approved Pfizer and Moderna’s (mRNA) vaccines.
But the U.S. CDC hasn’t approved the AstraZenica vaccine. I initially liked the vaccine developed at Oxford and bought by AstraZenica … but the way they turn scientific fact into marketing disturbed me. You can’t retroactively split your stage III trials into two groups and pretend efficiency is as good as Pfizer’s.
Still, efficiency is overrated - it’s the chance of not getting Covid-19 at all. Far more important is preventing people from going to the hospital or dying, which all the vaccines are very good at so far.
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Seems the local infections (at this writing still confined to the Airline Cluster and people who live with them) has ended up motivating more people to get vaxed. A friend of mine got her first jab today. I get mine on Friday, and it’s the first time I’ve ever looked forward to having a needle in my arm.
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COVID vacs should be free which they are in Taiwan and it’s understandable to pay a small fee if one wanted to cut lines to get one
In the US they are free but you can’t cut lines to get one even if you pay
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I don’t think that’s right at all. Plus each country in Europe ultimately implemented their own guidelines.
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