Personal Experience from the Vaccinate Lancaster Site
Getting this vaccine has been an experience like none other. This article will not delve into the personal decision of whether you should or shouldn’t get jabbed with one of three COVID-19 vaccination options, but if you’re curious about how to schedule an appointment or what these facilities look like, you’ve come to the right place!
Images are limited due to HIPAA laws — you are not allowed to take any pictures of someone being vaccinated or of anything that could infringe on their right to privacy.
Vaccine Options: What are the Major Differences?
In PA, there are three (3) vaccines to choose from.
Options available to Pennsylvanians right now are Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. All have been thoroughly tested, according to the CDC. Scientists were actually working on speeding up the process for developing vaccines for the common cold and flu, and due to similar genetic structures with COVID-19, they were able to apply these newfound methods to the vaccines we are able to get today. In short, we just ended up incredibly lucky to be able to vaccinate within a year of COVID-19 hitting PA.
Pfizer BioNTech Vaccine: Pfizer is an mRNA vaccine, which is a new type of vaccine that teaches our body to make a protein that fights COVID-19. Unlike vaccines created in the past, it does not contain the virus at all. It is “95% effective at preventing COVID-19 virus with symptoms” and is more “than 89% effective in preventing people with health conditions … from developing the COVID-19 virus with symptoms” (MayoClinic). This means that you can still get and transmit the virus, but you are unlikely to have symptoms or end up in the hospital.
Moderna: Moderna is also an mRNA vaccine, 94% effective at preventing COVID-19 with symptoms, and 90% effective at preventing people with health conditions from developing symptoms after contracting the virus (MayoClinic).
Both vaccines have high efficacy and will help ensure that COVID-19 doesn’t land you in the hospital if you do contract the virus. This was always a key part of the plan — keep people from dying or having to go to a hospital. The trend has been that if someone were to react to one of these vaccines, it’s typically the second time their body experiences COVID-19 or the vaccine. This is a normal response and actually shows that your body is doing a good job building immunity!
Janssen/Johnson & Johnson: This vaccine is a little different. It is not an mRNA vaccine — it’s actually what’s called a vector vaccine. It works a lot like vaccines we’ve seen in the past in the respect that it contains a dormant or dead version of the virus. This vaccine is “66% effective at preventing the COVID-19 virus with symptoms” and “85% effective at preventing COVID-19 with severe illness” (MayoClinic). While the efficacy is a lot lower than the other two (2) vaccines, it will still do the job and only requires one vaccine appointment. Both Moderna and Pfizer require two vaccines, three weeks apart, but the J&J vaccine is only one dose. This is the vaccine that was (and likely still is) allotted for teachers and other educational professionals.
I had registered through Vaccinate Lancaster, which is the county’s initiative to vaccinate as many people as possible. It’s located in the old BonTon department store at Park City Mall. Registering through their website only gets you on the waiting list — I hadn’t expected to land an appointment because I didn’t qualify until Phase 1C. I received an email on Monday notifying me that I could make an appointment, and I was able to schedule for Wednesday. When you schedule, you are able to pick the vaccine, dose (1 or 2), date, and time. It appears that people who qualify for earlier phases are prioritized and are able to schedule sooner, but the county is no longer making you wait for a specific phase or date in order to schedule.
Not going to lie, I was nervous. Aside from a few cautious outings, I’ve been quarantining this entire year and now they want me to get vaccinated at the busiest place in Lancaster?
The process was surprisingly pleasant and well-organized.
What to Expect
Even though I had an appointment, the line was super long. There were two lines, outside, that were both doubled back on each other. Only so many people were allowed in line (for distancing reasons) so you have to wait in the parking lot until enough space opens up.
They let one person into the building at a time, making sure there was enough room in the reception area. Once allowed in, I had to stand on a dot in the vestibule, was temperature checked, and had to answer the normal slew of COVID-19 screening questions. I passed, so they let me stand in another line where I waited for a check-in spot to open up. The person at this station was very nice — he had to scan my appointment QR code and verify my identity. He then explained everything super clearly, gave me an “A” sticker (to let other volunteers know this was my first vaccination), sent me an email to register for my second dose, and provided me with a packet detailing everything important about the vaccine I was getting.
I was then routed down the pathway you see in the featured image. All along the way, there were volunteers showing me where to go and nurses thanking me for getting vaccinated. They organize you into different “pods” (groups of people, just to help distance and organize) and you’re assigned a color to stand on.
The color corresponds with a set of vaccination spots, which are just chairs spaced 6 feet apart on either side of a really wide makeshift “hallway”. As a chair opened up in your color, it was cleaned and you were able to sit down. Down the middle of the “hallway” were nurses on mobile station carts that would visit each patient, scan their QR code (this tells them what vaccine to administer), ask questions, walk through what to expect with the vaccine, and vaccinate.
Once vaccinated, I was told to sit for 15 minutes to ensure I didn’t have an allergic reaction or any adverse effects. A couple of different nurses milled around and checked on people during this observation period — all super friendly. During this time I was able to use the appointment invite they had sent me earlier to schedule my second dose.
After 15 minutes passed, they let me leave. I took a selfie in front of their #GotMyShot board, and was on my way! The whole experience took maybe an hour.
While this article does show me as pro-vaccination, receiving a vaccination is each individual’s personal decision. I chose to be vaccinated due to at-risk family and my own anxieties. Vaccinations have been proven to help mitigate diseases and stop pandemics, but many hesitate due to a slew of conflicting information out in the world. Whatever your stance is, you are not alone.
