I would totally do it, if I qualified. I would love to help our country on the road back to normal! I don’t think I would qualify for an efficacy study, though. I think in my area they were looking for people who might have a really good chance of being exposed (i.e. college students, teachers, etc.) Since I don’t work outside of the home, and I live in a little town with low numbers...I don’t think I’m the best candidate.

I've had an opportunity to hear the senior people at NIH, CDC, and NIAID speak to the board of my organization. Please people, talk to your doctors before you consider opting out of the vaccine - there may be some people who are well advised to wait, but please don't jump to that conclusion based on something you've seen on TV or social media. The vaccines have gone through a wider and more rigorous testing process than most medications - simply because this happened more quickly than usual does not mean that corners were cut, just the opposite. We are so incredibly lucky that these first vaccines have such a high degree of efficacy, but if there is widespread hesitancy (or worse, belief in conspiracy theories) the herd immunity we are all desperately waiting for in order to get back to "normal life" will be much longer and more painful in arriving. There's so much misinformation (and disinformation, deliberately misrepresentations) out there; make sure you're making decisions based on informed medical advice. Fwiw my kids have penicillin allergies and I don't believe that's a risk factor with these vaccines (our pediatrician has told us that most penicillin allergies are actually reactions to the dye used, not to the medicine itself.) Finally the use of Walgreens and CVS to distribute the vaccine is a deliberate choice - apparently some huge percentage of Americans live within 5 miles of one of these chain pharmacies. This is all part of the strategy to ensure that the vaccines can be made available to as many people as quickly as possible.

<There are reports of skin reactions over arms, trunk, abdomen, also showing up about 5-7 days; however, not published yet.> I had this reaction, including rashes on the tops of my feet, and they showed up about 3-5 days after my vaccination and lasted more than two weeks before subsiding. I mentioned this to the technician when I got my second shot, and she told me that this is a common reaction and that I should wait 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes after my shot before leaving the building. After my second shot, the rashes have gotten worse again, but not as bad as with the first round. I was told to take Benedryl for the rash. At first she told me to take Claritin, but I told her that I have an allergy to that. If I take Claritin for 5 days straight, I develop schizophrenic symptoms, with what would be paranoid delusions, except that I recognize them as delusions brought on by something I have taken. I get the same reaction to Erythromycin, and so I do not take that either.

Arkansas Girl, weeks later? Do you remember where you heard that? When I experienced some fatigue four days after my second shot I looked up delayed reaction, and the only thing I found was a reference to four or five days, especially for those who reacted with a rash. In my case it would have been about two weeks, and then the reaction lasting over a week. That seems unlikely, but thanks for the thought. Debby, it started about two weeks after the second shot but it's still going on a week later.