I was all excited about an appointment this Thursday to get the J&J vaccine...

[Silent3]

...and to know I'd be fully vaccinated in just one shot. The New Hampshire vaccine website told me to pick a location in one of three cities if I specifically wanted Johnson & Johnson, so that's just what I did. And then I called to Walmart where I'd be getting my shot after making the appointment, just to make sure that J&J was indeed what they were administering.

Then, just a few minutes ago, I get an automated text message telling me my appointment has been moved. Same date and time, but closer to home. As far as I know, that means I'll probably get Pfizer. I don't have a way to double check at the moment.

I'd try to re-do my appointment again, but the appointment website "is down for maintenance".

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. It's really tough to make adjustments when you've made up your mind.

So I hope you can overcome your disappointment, even though this is hard to do.

Maybe it will be the same J&J vaccine.

Maybe not.

I'm sorry.

[CottonBear]

2. Get the Pfizer. Don't pick and choose. Just get it ASAP! NT

[soothsayer]

4. Pfizer is probably the best of the bunch, but all are good

[CottonBear]

6. I got my second Pfizer yesterday. It was the vaccine offered through my employer.

Dr.Fauci says don’t delay, just get whichever vaccination appointment you can ASAP.

Everyone needs to get vaccinated ASAP in order to combat variants and protect each other.

We’ll all be getting booster shots next year and, probably, every year thereafter.

[kcr]

27. Yep. I felt lucky that I got my first choice, which was Pfizer

but I was pretty happy I got anything because it was hard to get one.

[LisaL]

3. Pfizer is an excellent vaccine.

If they give you Pfizer, get it and be happy about it.

[MerryHolidays]

5. Take the first one you can get, and don't look back

Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J/Janssen are all fine. There are different issues, but they will almost assuredly keep vaccinated folks from being hospitalized or dying of COVID.

You may have side effects, so try to build in some down time if you can after each shot. Hopefully, all will be fine. In my case, I had J&J/Janssen, and I was really tired for several days, but no other side effects.

If you can choose without delay, that's fine. But do not let your choice of vaccine delay getting vaccinated!

[Ms. Toad]

7. Ignore the "just get any shot" crowd.

Vaccinations are no different than any other medical care, and making an informed decisions as to medical care is important.

If it doesn't matter to you, go ahead with your appointment. But if you had specific reasons for wanting J&J, find out what you are actually scheduled for and reschedule, if necessary.

I've been able to get an appointment for the vaccine of my choice within 24 hours of appointments opening up for each member of my family. Vaccines are opening up now, so it really shouldn't be a big deal to reschedule.

[JI7]

11. What if the specific reason is that you only want one shot ?

[littlemissmartypants]

13. The do what you think is best for you, period. Sometimes the best advice is no advice.

Too much advice can lead to indecision and missed opportunities. Follow your heart and gut.

IOW...

To thine own self be true.
~Shakespeare via Polonius

❤ pants

[LisaL]

14. If OP didn't want advice, he probably wouldn't be asking for it on DU.

NT

[littlemissmartypants]

16. Clearly. Consider mine the unadvice advice. Like an unbirthday or the uncola. NT

[Ms. Toad]

15. That's as valid as any other reason.

My advocacy is for people to make an informed decision, on whatever factors are important to them, and then seek out that vaccination. I get annoyed with people who treat this medical decision differently than all other medical decisions - and insist the decision shoud be driven by whatever happens to be available.

One valid reason to seek hypo-fractionated radiation as follow-up to surgery for breast cancer is that it requires 15-16 treatments, rather than 25-28. Since these are 5-day a week treatments, the convenience factor is significant - and the person making that choice (as I did) would be weighing the benefits of a shorter treatment against any loss in effectiveness.

You could have similar reasons for only wanting a single shot.

[LisaL]

18. I don't see how wanting a single shot rather than two shots justifies

searching for a vaccine that is about to become very limited because of US production issues, instead of actually getting vaccinated.

[Ms. Toad]

19. Making an informed choice about the vaccine you want is just as valid

as making an informed choice about any other aspect of your medical care. One aspect of choosing between two different medical options is nearly always convenience.

Personally - I would not have gotten the J&J, despite the inconvenience of needing two doses. But my balancing act doesn't invalidate someone else's decision which is different from my own. As far as I'm concerned, the imporant thing is that people make their own informed decisions.

It is perfectly valid, from a personal perspective, for a person to decide that they are willing to take any vaccine - BUT - it is also perfectly valid to choose which vaccine to get (as each member of our family did).

[LisaL]

21. The only way that argument would be valid if we were actually offered a choice-

vaccines were widely available, and we could decide which one to get.
It's not a situation right now.
Meanwhile variants are spreading.

[Ms. Toad]

22. There is a choice.

Vaccines don't jump out and bite you in the arm. You have to make an appointment at a specific location, which is giving a specific vaccine.

I chose the one I wanted, and consulted with my spouse and daughter to help them choose theirs. Each of us had the opportunity to be vaccinated, within 24 hours of being eligible within our state, with the vaccine of our choice. I delayed my vaccination to 48 hours after I was eligible to take advantage of a weekend, rather than a weekday appointment - but the other 2 were vaccinated within 24 hours of the eligibility window being open, with the vaccine of their choice

So - it is the situation now.

To the extent that you can't find the vaccine you want - what that means is that every shot is going into someone's arm, and it is still a personal choice that has no impact on public health and the growth of variants. Given that personal choice - had I not been able to get the vaccine of my choice I would have made the personal choice to wait (and someone else would have been vaccinated with "my" Moderna or J&J shot - with the exact same number of people being vaccinated - which is the public health concern).

[hamsterjill]

25. +1

n/t

[LisaL]

28. While someone is waiting they can get infected.

J&J is going to be really hard to find in upcoming weeks, because of manufacturing issue with the plant that contaminated millions of doses.
So either one can look for J&J in vain, or get vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna.
Choices don't mean making a stupid choice.
One dose versus two doses doesn't sound like a good reason to me.
Unless one is allergic to a specific vaccine, one really shouldn't be that picky during a pandemic. My first choice was Pfizer. I got Moderna because that was the one I could get the soonest.
There is a reason authorities are urging people to get what they can get the soonest.

[Ms. Toad]

31. You are correct - while someone is waiting they can be infected

And that is why it is a personal choice. What risk level are they willing to live with to get the vaccine they prefer?

Your premise is that there aren't enough shots for all those willing to receive the vaccine, which means that shots are not sitting around waiting for arms and the total vaccinated will be the same, so if I delay someone else will be vaccinated in my place. Making it purely a personal decision not a public health one. The only thing waiting does is shift who remains personally vulnerable. A dose in my neighbor's arm provides just as much community protection as a dose in my arm.

While I ultimately didn't have to, I was personally willing to live with a risk of delay in getting the vaccine. I've got a very good history of both knowing what precautions are necessary, and being able to take those precautions. So for me, personally, a delay of up to a month would have presented an acceptable risk to get the Pfizer vaccine (which offers significantly better protection) rather than J&J. I probably wouldn't have delayed more than a week to get Pfizer over Moderna - but I hadn't made a firm decision.

I'm not in a position to judge anyone else's personal evaluation of which vaccine is appropriate for them, or why. My advocacy is purely that each person should always be making medical decisions for themself. Your decision to get whatever vaccine is available is perfectly fine, as was mine to specifically seek out Pfizer (and be willing to delay vaccine to get that specific vaccine), as is that of the OP to try to reschedule to get J&J. My choice - and the choice of the OP - may not be the choice you would make. But that happens all the time in medicine. There are options, and different people choose different options - and what someone else decides about their body is not necessarily what I would decide for my own.

[LisaL]

32. OP is asking for advice.

My advice is not try to search for J&J and get either Pfizer or Moderna. J&J is going to be hard to find in upcoming weeks.
Ultimately OP will have to decide for himself or herself.

[Ms. Toad]

33. I don't read the OP that way.

They certainly didn't expressly ask for advice, and the final line of the OP was an assertion that they are going to try again for the J&J vaccine.

People, predictably, responded with a barrage of comments suggesting to the OP they would be acting irresponsibly if they did so.

[honest.abe]

23. The "just get any shot" crowd represents the vast majority of the medical community.

Somehow you think you are more informed than they are. I don’t get it.

[Ms. Toad]

24. Well, I have refused medical care when doctors were being idiots

(their idiocy was confirmed, by tests I insisted they run before I would consent to further treatment - their half-life calculations were not accurate for my body, I was dangerously over-heparinized, and they had refused to test before restarting heparin). I informed my daughter's gastroenterologist what rare disease I was pretty sure she had (PSC) and badgered him until he ran the appropriate test to confirm it (GGT, followed by an MRCP). And, more recently, I was persistent enough in following up with a suspicious spot that was first biopsied in 2014 (after I fired a doctor who initially refused to biopsy it, then later refused to provide a complete pathology report. The full pathology report (which I obtained by speaking directy with the pathologist) indicated the lesion fell into a very small class of presumptively benign lesions that are only masquerading as benign. On the 5th excision in the same location I was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Since soft tissue sarcomas are not usually considered until the tumor is golf-ball sized, it was only my persistence that resutled in it being diagnosed when it was kidney-bean sized. Just to name a few times being an active participant in my medical care - including challenging doctors - has been critical for me or members of my family.

So I take making informed medical decisions about my health care very seriously - and, as to the most serious health matters, each time I have disagreed with the doctors I have been ultimately been proven to be correct.

EVERYONE needs to make informed decisions, and to actively participate in their medical care rather than being a passive consumer. As to COVID vaccines that means deciding whether you care, evaluating which vaccine is appropriate for you (if you do care), and actively seeking out an appointment.

You want to be a medical sheep - fine. Be a sheep. I'd rather be actively involved and alive - and I'm only alive with two fully functional arms because I think for myself, and for my family.

And - FWIW - feel free to search my posts for the last year and see how accurate I've been as to COVID, specifically. I've been ahead of the curve as to predictions of exponential growth (made January 2020) - as well as to specific predictions for hitting milestome numbers masks (I was making and wearing masks when Fauci was still saying not to), main mode of transmission, frequency of Moderna side effects v. Pfizer, and the recent studies that demonstrate that the vaccines not only prevent severity of disease, but also prevent transmission.

[honest.abe]

26. I will stick with the recommendations of the vast majority of the medical community.

As should you and others,

[russiamommy]

8. I agree with all the others

Keep the appointment and take what you’re offered. They’re all good. My husband and I were originally both scheduled for Moderna but his appointment was the day before mine. He got Moderna. I got Pfizer. We were both thrilled. Both through the second shots, no major effects and we’re getting something that resembles a life back. Just go and do a little jig when you get it. We did.

[SheltieLover]

9. I've read much less J&J shipping, possibly due to 15 mill contaminated doses

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/09/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases

Johnson & Johnson Shots to Stay Scarce in U.S. Until Plant Is Approved, White House Official Says

Please, take whichever one you can get!

[riversedge]

10. Take the Pfizer. Given all the varients and folks not wearing masks, I would take any one of them

ASAP.

[dweller]

12. Get whatever you can

J&J is in shortage
https://democraticunderground.com/100215323379

✌🏻

[liberal_mama]

17. I got Pfizer. Get it if that's what's available

I know it's a pain to go back for a second dose, but it's best to take any that you can right now. In my area, cases are shooting up and the variants are here. I'm so glad I got vaccinated because my Trumper Covid-Denying Anti-Masker in-laws drove up from the South for a surprise visit yesterday! They aren't careful at all and burst into my house without masks. I'm a diabetic so I have been very careful during the whole pandemic. I was outraged! My husband is out with them now and they are probably in an indoor restaurant or drinking in a bar! I'm still angry and worried, but if I wasn't vaccinated right now, I would literally be losing my mind. You never know when a bad situation is going to occur so it's best to get it done as soon as possible.

[Silent3]

20. To all the replies I've gotten since I posted...

...yes, I fully intend to get whatever I can get, but I'll still try to get switched back to J&J if I can.

[Hortensis]

29. Sure. Hopefully J&J will still be available in your area.

[LisaL]

30. There is going to be a severe shortage of J&J in upcoming weeks, because

of that plant (Emergent) screwing up and contaminating millions of doses.
So far J&J was coming from Europe, but apparently Emergent was supposed to take over, and that didn't happen. Now they are testing remaining doses to see of those are also contaminated.
So there will be a lot less of J&J coming to states.