I spent the afternoon of April 19 in a very crowded stadium. Not your usual pre-pandemic entertainment, though—just bare arms, needles and precious doses of Pfizer.
When I arrived in France, I picked a few “missions” to keep busy and find meaning in these strange times. Getting my 90-year-old mamie vaccinated was at the top of the list. She was clearly eligible, it was a matter of logistics to book an appointment and take her to the doctor (harder than it sounds, she’s very stubborn).
I also embarked on a vaccine hunt for my 64-year-old mom who wasn’t yet in the right age group but meet several other criteria—pre-existing condition, front-line worker as a teacher and primary caregiver for my mamie.
And even though it would take weeks or months for my turn to come, I also started looking at options for me. It could make coming back to Canada easier or at the very least I wouldn’t have to worry about catching COVID during the mandatory stay in a shitty quarantine hotel (adding insult to injury…).
According to my siblings in Paris and various acquaintances in healthcare, if you showed up in the right place and at the right time, you could get vaccinated regardless of eligibility with leftovers from opened bottles that would otherwise end up in the trash.
I had time on my hands, so late March, I went to the closest vaccination centre, a tiny office in the former bus station in front of the hospital. “Healthcare workers only,” I was told, but I also learned major vaccine deliveries were expected in April and I left with the address of a much bigger vaccination centre just outside the downtown core.
I went there the next day. This time, I learned that looking for leftover dose was definitely a thing and that many, many people were showing up every evening hoping to score a dose, most of them in the 50-to-60-year-old age group. Holy shit, they were pushy. I wasn’t going to fight, I needed a better strategy.
I focused on booking an appointment for my mom who became eligible almost overnight when vaccination opened to 55+. I discovered vitemadose, an amazing one-stop vaccine appointment finder. It felt like trying to get tickets to a U2 concert—I finally found a spot one night, working late on an assignment. It had just been updated and presumably no one in France is looking for vaccine appointment at 3 a.m.….
As for me, I asked my mom’s doctor for advice. She shrugged. “Just go with your mom and explain the situation. It’s not that big of a deal, really… we’re all going to get vaccinated, anyway. Wait, let me call the vaccination centre doctor.”
She picked up the phone and one minute later, I got the green light. The motto seemed to be “show up, get vaccinated.” Doses had been delivered, lots of them.
So on April 19, my mom and I took the tramway to the mega vaccination centre in La Beaujoire. It felt like going to a major event with tons of people driving or walking to the stadium.
We joined a first queue—hand sanitizer at the entrance—then a second queue where appointments and paperwork were checked. Since I didn’t have a French health card and I didn’t meet eligibility criteria, I was sent to another makeshift office. Turned out eligibility wasn’t really an issue, lack of health card was but I was “somewhere in the system” because in a previous life as a French, I had been issued a health card.
We filled out a short pre-vaccination screening form and joined a third queue. It reminded me of the multi-step airport process where you spend your time queuing to check in, then to go through immigration, through security, etc.
After a final check, we each took a number and took a seat in a crowded makeshift “waiting room.” It was almost impossible to hear numbers being called because the guy wore a mask and the centre was very, very packed. Social distancing only worked for a month or two in France, by the way. It’s long gone.
Appointment time seemed to be pretty irrelevant, we waited for about 30 minutes. When we were called, we had to take a seat at the front of the room, then a healthcare professional took each of us to a booth.
The woman who stuck the needle in my arm was young and friendly. It only took a minute or so but I was almost emotional—this is it, the famous vaccine, the key to fight COVID!
I met my mom in another waiting room where we had to stay because of possible side effects and mostly to get a first-dose certificate. It took another hour and we were giggling like kids because we were all called one by one and the staff kept on butchering last names. “We don’t stand a chance with ‘Giannesini’”, my mom laughed.
We both felt like shit for about 24 hours—tired, sore muscles and cramps.
Then it went away.
Second dose coming up at the end of the month.
I can’t wait.
Yeah, happy for you! Ca ouvre vendredi pour les 35 ans et + au Québec!!
Oh, c’est cool de voir que ça progresse bien! Je suis perdue dans les restrictions et les éligibilités de vaccin entre l’Ontario, la France et les autres coins du Canada. Comment ça se passe? Vous réservez en ligne?
I am so so happy for you!!!!!
Trust me, I almost cried. The fine print is that even vaccinated, you still have to go through testing + hotel quarantine + home quarantine to go back to Canada… but I would have jumped on the opportunity to get vaccinated ASAP anyway.
Yoohoo!
I understand why there are prioritization depending of âge, health condition or work occupation, but being inflexible for other groups would be ridiculous. It’s a pandemic, not a line in Carrefour.
According to relatives and my personal experience, vaccination centres are more flexible than what the government claim. In places like Saint-Denis, for instance, you have a giant centre and plenty of doses but population is young, there’s just not enough demand if you go by official eligibility. So they just vaccinate regardless.
Vraiment heureuse pour toi! Au Québec, on s’enregistre en ligne dans un centre où il y a des places disponibles, et hop! On a un rendez-vous très rapidement, souvent en l’espace d’une semaine.
Le site: Clicsanté.ca
J’ai été vraiment heureuse de lire que tu avais été vaccinée, c’est toi qui m’a indirectement poussée à finir mon article sur le vaccin que j’avais commencé après avoir reçu ma dose! Ça me fais plaisir de voir que les choses avancent, et je crois que je ne suis pas la seule 🙂
Yay ! welcome to the Pfizer crew lol!
I got mine yesterday. Sore spot, no side effects so far.
Happy your next dose is so soon 🙂
How are you feeling now? I felt like shit for 24 hours, then it just went away. Nothing compared to COVID, obviously. It’s good you got vaccinated! What was the process like (i.e. how did you find a spot?)
I felt fine. No side effects at all. I made sure to rest on weekend just in case and it went well.
I was able to find a spot because Eastern Ontario unit open booking appointments with folks high risk and apparently high BMI was on it so i booked it (don’t get me started on ranting about high BMI while powerlifting….but i am not ungrateful i could get vaccine early). The place in Casselman was so organized and it went kinda fast, so pretty good experience.
The whole high BMI made me cringe. Same in France, spots opened up for, I quote, “obese people”. Good luck defining obese!
Exactly!
I am envious!! Still waiting to even be eligible here, but I did manage to get David an appointment for next week. You’ll probably be fully vaccinated before I even get my first shot!
It really sucks there’s three or four (?) months between both doses in Canada. That said, apparently just one shot of Pfizer is pretty efficient. Was it easy to find an appointment for David?
Waouh, super ! Ici, ils ont ouvert la vaccination aux plus de 16 ans depuis environ 2 semaines, les premiers jours le site où on pouvait prendre rendez-vous était complètement surchargé. Mais j’ai pu avoir mon rendez-vous, c’est pour le 10 juin 😉
À quoi vous vaccinez là-bas? En tout cas, super que tu aies pu prendre RDV pour bientôt. Ça va venir vite maintenant et c’est un truc positif!
Pfizer ou Moderna.
Mes parents ont déjà eu la première dose (ils n’étaient pas très pressés de se faire vacciner, je crois que j’ai toujours été plus stressée qu’eux par rapport à ça. Bon, ils sont encore relativement jeunes, 55 ma maman et 62 mon papa). Ils auront la deuxième la semaine prochaine si je ne me trompe pas.
Pour la plupart des gens autour de moi, même si certains n’ont pas trop confiance dans le vaccin, la perspective d’une vie normal l’emporte. Est-ce que vous avez eu l’épisode AstraZeneca chez vous? Ça a semé le doute chez bien des gens.
Non, le vaccin d’Astra Zeneca n’a jamais été autorisé en Suisse, plus par le hasard des commandes faites en 2020 qu’autre chose, je crois.
Il y a un type que j’ai comme “ami” sur Fb qui n’arrête pas de se plaindre des mesures covid, mais qui ne veut pas se faire vacciner, et qui trouve trop injuste qu’il doivent payer pour un test PCR s’il veut aller à un concert cet été, alors que les vaccins sont pris en charge par l’Etat… Y a des gens désespérants.
J’ai envie de hurler quand je tombe sur ce type de personness! Je peux comprendre tous les points de vue : ceux qui ont peur, ceux qui s’en foutent, ceux qui ont des craintes pour le vaccin… mais pas un mélange des genres, faut un minimum de cohérence dans ses idées, quoi. Ce qui m’insupporte ce sont les gens qui passent leur temps à blâmer les autres (“ils voient leur famille!” “ils voyagent!” “ils vont dans les magasins!”) et font de même, sauf que quand c’est eux, ben c’est différent. Ben voyons.