Here early distribution was county specific. You had to show you lived in the county. Once the pharmacies started to offer shots, they didn’t ask, hence the movement of people across the county lines. There is no question some counties in CA got a worse deal then others. It seems to me now we have caught up to other counties in terms of tiers, but availability is still more limited here than elsewhere. The worse I have heard is NC - they completely threw the sick under the bus favoring other categories of people instead. https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-carolina-news/terminally-ill-mom-tired-of-nc-pushing-back-cancer-patients-for-covid-19-vaccine-wants-action/

Yours is a smaller state? I can tell you here different counties were in different vaccination tiers, so you could qualify in a county north of me, but not in mine. Nuts. Things have improved but differences are still here. For example, I can get a shot with my HMO (doesn’t have clinics in my county) if I drive an hour, but can’t find an appointment locally even if I quality.

There are significant differences in availability in CA as well. You can’t get an appointment (all booked) in my county, but people are driving couple of hours to get them elsewhere with less trouble.

CA vaccination numbers have really jumped up. This is from LA Times tracker. those are daily vaccination numbers. +387,198 today +367,243 yesterday

That’s good news.

Our high school has classes where you just show up and discuss. Zero output requirement. Philosophy class is one of them.

Meanwhile news on mRNA based vaccines: mRNA vaccines spur lymph nodes for longer-term protection; COVID-19 test accuracy may vary by time of day https://news.yahoo.com/mrna-vaccines-spur-lymph-nodes-192417303.html

Oh yes. I am talking to friends and family in Europe amd nobody wants to even consider AstraZeneca now.

You would get the best advice on gifted forums. I bet you will find more people with similar profile. Even here on the accelerated board you might get more replies.

I saw that. In total 8 counties suspended. I hope they will resume at closer examination.

Maybe. I am just concerned that if we get all immunized here while everywhere else the virus is raging and mutating, our immunity will be no good anyway. We almost need to extinguish this everywhere simultaneously. Forget philanthropic reasons and look at selfish ones. I would love to see what production capacity looks like this year for various vaccines es to get a more global picture

We have Spanish immersion one here for elementary.

What do you hear? how is it different or similar to a more traditional school?

I don’t know a single person who attends either. It’s expensive. Well Russia had specialized schools for gifted kids in math/physics, music, and ballet (free of course). You had to pass an exam or an audition to get in. I attended the music one. It just made sense to provide specialized education for those who were ready for it and needed it.

I am just commenting of what I see around here not passing judgement on either situation. I think there is a big divide between certain urban area parents and what is happening in more rural areas, so this is why I think most aren’t as academically oriented as big cities would make us believe. Just to add, I would have had no problem putting mine through SOH 😉

Nothing. Most kids (again normal kids) aren’t. I would love to see gifted schools (like the math ones that existed in Russia), but for the normal school, doing math justice through calculus is a better goal.

no. 😢 We were the only ones who signed up. We were heartbroken.

It hits some parents. We are rural. Most bright kids here are going for UCs and honestly, I am seeing now who gets in where, and getting into a UC is not all that hard for a kid who did what he was told in school. A ton of kids end up at UCLA and UCB from the local high school and even more in other ones. Others are happily attending CSUs. I mean the level of crazy isn’t here. In fact it’s much more of a relaxed hippie vibe with most people believing CC is the best approach for the first two years. There is most certainly a group of parents with kids in top private schools here, super educated people who themselves have gone in to elite institutions and the likes, but overall the angst isn’t here. We have a tiny Asian and Indian population and people are horrified by what they are hearing from the Bay Area (suicide rates, pediatricians talking about depression in the Bay Area). Most parents are very happy we don’t have that here. Nobody wants to replicate Gunn High School. People who live in certain geographic localities or self select within certain groups are truly in a different world. And I am for advanced academics, but nobody needs modern algebra in high school. I mean we need solid math through calculus. I guess I would focus more on quality of our public schools in terms of teachers and what is being taught than speed. Vast majority of kids won’t (and shouldn’t) be ready for Modern Algebra in high school. I would rather place my efforts on quality math textbooks and math teachers and more solid reading lists (a la WTM).

Exactly. Just listen to discussions even among the academic homeschoolers. It’s all about credit for this or credit for that. Or get the college done early.... Do you even hear discussions about actual learnings? We constantly go back for more depth in areas of interest. Why? Because we believe in deep foundation, not a shallow one. What I see among even the academic homeschoolers is a ton of CC courses, often the type that are remedial doing they can show off “oh my kid has so many credits,” but nobody stops to ask what is exactly gained through it. What is the quality? What is the goal? It’s just not how people think.

That announcement would have been right last March.

Yes, so you see kids of academics, or very educated parents....

I think as homeschooling became mainstream, it more closely reflects the local population. We are rural and the feel here is very free range. We don’t speak of competition in our family not because we aren’t academic, but because that’s not our vibe. We like to learn deeply, but we don’t like the crowd we have seen in Bay Area (where those competitions are usually held and the feel is very tense and very “fast paced”). So maybe it’s the upbringing, or maybe it’s personalities, but I do think our surroundings have influence. I also think white parents are more likely to allow children to pursue their interests because the angst to crack into the society that is experienced by many immigrants and minorities just isn’t there (?). They have done somewhat well, so did their parents grandparents... see for them it works.

I guess the good news so far is you can’t get an appointment in my county for a vaccine. It’s good because people are signing up! The early fears that the population would refuse haven’t materialized so far. I personally managed to convert a number of crunchy family members. Hopefully more people get vaccinated, more others will follow suit. I am horrified about Europe’s third lockdown. Numbers are terrible in France, Italy, Hungary. I won’t even go into Brazil. Just heartbreaking. We need to get people vaccinating in poor countries to prevent more variants. Apparently the large number of immunosuppressed individuals (poorly managed HIV positive in the case of South Africa) just makes the virus worse because they can effectively mutate in these people. I say we give whatever vaccine we have and next year when production capacity is higher and demand lower, we do boosters.

I think they are shooting themselves in the foot. Now if they want to market J&J for younger people who already have a low risk of developing anything serious and entice them with a one shot deal, I could understand that. But for people who are fairly concerned for complications of this virus, we should continue to advocate a two shot vaccine. I mean if you are at risk of serious complications, J&J vaccine doesn’t give you much psychological relief if you ask me.

Apparently US is holding millions of vaccines from AstraZeneca and we don’t need them. Europe is asking for it. Why don’t we give it away? Frankly we have enough of Moderna and Pfizer for our entire adult population. And we have less sexy J&J. And we have Novavax with great numbers coming this summer. Can somebody explain to me why we are hoarding AstraZeneca?