The thing about mixing vaccines appears to be untrue, may be down to an article in the NYT, which the BMJ is asking them to retract:
I think they are doing the same thing as many countries, they are “mixing” the jabs, in that they aren’t concentrating on one supplier, so they can get more shots more quickly, but each person will only get one type of jab.
That is certainly how Germany are doing it. They have ordered vaccines from multiple suppliers, but if you get the Biontech/Pfizer first jab, you will get that as the second jab as well. AstraZeneca 1 and AstraZeneca 2 etc.
ah, interesting, thanks @Clayton . Well, that’s good, if so. And is Germany doing the second jab after three weeks, or twelve, @big_D?
In Germany, they are still following the manufacturer’s recommendations, so 3 weeks. It hasn’t been certified for anything else.
Yeah. As I’ve said (though I’m calmer than I was 
), it seems like a very bad idea. Apart from the distress it’s causing to people who thought they were going to be fully vaccinated and now aren’t, I worry that they’ll do all this and then realise they haven’t really vaccinated anyone at all, because they did it wrong!
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I’ve found @JeffJarvis 's COVID Twitter list very useful with stuff like this. You get scientist’s views on things you see in the press or hear from politicians.
Now and again you get stuff like this to cheer you up 
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Ah yes, I’ve heard @JeffJarvis talk about it, that’s a good idea - off to look! And ha, yes, I loved that guitar pedal diagram. The world is mad, but sometimes amusingly so
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Certainly feeling it today, from half way around the globe. May calmer heads prevail. We had a similar situation a few months back, but today took things further. Hoping to wake up to better news. Godspeed!
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This thread has been a very collaborative support for all of you that have posted on it over the past year! I was encouraged and enlightened with everyone’s thoughts and methods of dealing with the threat of COVID-19 within their environment.
It has been just over a year now since the first case entered our state of Kentucky. I have been fortunate that no one in our family has had the awful virus. Getting my second vaccination today and my husband had his yesterday.
Certainly nice to share and vent our frustrations in a place where everyone can offer support and advice during difficult times! The best to all of you fine folks!
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At this point, I’ve just gotten used to it.
I got lucky and was able to schedule my first Covid shot last week. I think I just happened to get in while they were loading appointments. I’m actually feeling guilty about it. Yes, I qualify under the current rules (I have 2 of the listed co-morbidities qualifying me in Mass.), but as someone who works from home (even before the pandemic) my risk of catching is pretty low. I’m sure there is someone out there that could have used that shot more than I did. But, I took the opportunity presented and signed up. My wife can sign up under the same qualifications, as well as next week as a teacher, but has been unable to secure a slot.
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I think all you can do is be thankful you got the chance, @AaronK , and good luck to your wife in getting an appointment. Here in France (and across much of the EU, I think) it’s been slow to get started but they’re talking a good game now, so we’ll see.
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And don’t forget by taking the shot very likely you are helping people around you too.
We’ve both had our first shots now. 12 weeks to wait until the second AZ dose. Much of the wider family have had them too, either because of health issues or their jobs being high risk.
There was a guy here who queried why he was so high priority for a shot and found out there was a typo in his medical records so his body mass index was recorded as 28,000 
“Like most people, I’ve put on a few pounds in lockdown but I was surprised to have made it all the way to the clinically, morbidly-obese category,” he said.
“Although my mum wasn’t surprised by this. She said she’d noticed I’d put on a few and this was probably the wake-up call I needed.”
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This is a good point —- going by availability and opportunity regardless of age to get the vaccination is a good thing as you’re helping to protect others. I was just able to fortunately get an appointment several weeks ago — but now would be in the 1C essential workers group as I work in Applications/IT.
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Oh, I know I’m also helping people. But the guilt that someone else who could have used the shot sooner than I didn’t get it is still a thing.
Over here, it is being done in groups, I should be in the second or third wave (over 50, asthma). But some vaccination centres are starting to vaccinate teachers, police and health workers “out of turn”, if not enough people in the first wave turn up to their appointments. At the end of the day, if there are shots still available that the allowed group hasn’t used, key professions are contacted and can get themselves vaccinated, instead of disposing of the shots, because they can not be re-frozen.
I’d rather they did that than throw them away.
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Politicians are starting to feel the stress in Germany.
2 politicians from the CDU and CSU have resigned, because they took commission payments from companies that tendered to the government to supply masks during the pandemic.
All other politicians from the two parties had to sign a document this week, stating that they have not used the pandemic for personal gain.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that the British government is being held to the same standards. Despite several companies being incorporated days before being given government contracts and being owned by politicians or their friends or family, and the Serco fiasco that runs under the NHS Track and Trace, given to someone who has a track record of failure, but friends with politicians, was trusted with 37 billion pounds.
Indeed, the conservative party has been dealt some blows in two regional elections. Even if it’s not my club, it’s impressive and somewhat undeserved that they’ve done quite a good job for over a year and all it takes is two (and several half) bad apples to ruin otherwise an otherwise high-potential election result… In the end, a crisis is commonly the grounds for reelection, not for losing a vote.
Anyhow - aside from politics, we’re still among the slowest to vaccinate. I think our culture is simply not that dynamic or innovative to allow for a pandemic to be stopped dead quickly. Indeed - maybe that’s the true meaning of “stop dead”. Give us another ten or twenty years and we’ll have this one figured out.
On Thursday, I am visiting a project partner in Stuttgart, about 2 1/2 hour drive away. I’ve never felt as bold, self-indulgent and potentially overconfident about a regular business visit. It will be my first in six months… 
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I’m not a CDU/CSU supporter, but Merkel has done a fine job over the last year. But with her resignation, I don’t feel any of the candidates to replace her give me any confidence, the thought of Merz becoming Chancellor scares the willies out of me. Laschet, maybe. Söder has the charisma, but he seems happy to lord over his own kingdom of Bavaria, why would he want to go into foreign politics and rule Germany? 
But the idiots in the masks affair have done a fair amount of damage, unfortunately. Let’s hope the party can recover, they are better than many of the alternatives, at least. 
On a more positive note, my wife is getting vaccinated today - she works in child daycare, so is now a priority.
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Excellent - congrats! 
It’s always good to know one more is safe from the 'rona. That might be the greatest upside of vaccinating slowly: feels like you can count and speak a blessing on everyone, individually. Like the sloth from Zootopia. This could be our vaccination counter:
He’s been all elder-statesmanly lately. I think it’s his perfect wave - and I believe he thinks that, too.
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Or not… The vaccine centre called about an hour before the appointment. The German government had pulled the AstraZeneca vaccine from circulation and they don’t have an alternative in the centre…