UIHC covid-19 vaccines – Go Retire Psychiatrist

Comirnaty Misspelled by the Medical Community

This afternoon I just notified somebody at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC) that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine’s name is misspelled on several of their web pages. The new name for the vaccine is Comirnaty (pronounced koe-mir-na-tee). UIHC misspells it as “Comiranty.” And it has been that way for at least a week, probably since Pfizer publicly announced the name after the vaccine was fully licensed by the FDA. I found three instances of that although there could be more.

I found a news item that explains the name was deliberately chosen in order to remind us of the word “community” and the “mRNA” technology of the vaccine.

It actually reminded me of Foster Brooks whose comedy routine consisted of acting like he was drunk, slurring his speech in a parody of intoxication. The only way “Comirnaty” can make you think of “community” is if you’ve had a few too many.

On the other hand, “Comiranty” makes me think of the one Indiana Hoosier football player who was caught on camera with the word Indiana misspelled as “Indinia” on his jersey yesterday. By the way, Iowa beat Indinia 34-6 in the season opener. In all fairness, Indiana is not the only state that struggles with spelling.

Virtual Information Sessions on Covid-19 Vaccines

There will be three live, free, virtual information sessions on the COVID-19 vaccines starting today at 10:00 a.m. Guest speakers include Pat Winokur, MD, Executive Dean, Carver College of Medicine; Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS); Professor of Internal Medicine–Infectious Disease. The third session will be available in Spanish. The sessions are scheduled for April 17, 19, 24.

Addendum: The first presentation this morning was very informative and a recording of it will be available at the link above.

Addendum: The video recording of today’s event doesn’t start until about 8 minutes and 27 seconds after you click on the start play button, so you can scrub ahead to that point to avoid the wait.

Addendum: This afternoon around 3:00 PM when I looked at the video recording the lag time problem on startup had been fixed.

COVID-19 Vaccine Jab Today

Today I got my first COVID-19 vaccine shot and I’m scheduled for the second one. This was through the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC). It was a slick operation and a lot of people like me (in the 1b class) were getting vaccinated. There were very kind and efficient persons guiding me everywhere I needed to go, starting in the parking lot, all the way in the building, leading to the person who administered the vaccine. And from there, I was never at a loss for where to go next, which was to the waiting room for observation for 15-30 minutes. I got jabbed. I stuck around for at least 15 minutes as required and had no worrisome reaction symptoms. I was in and out in a half hour.

I requested the vaccine through MyChart about a week ago. I got notified to schedule yesterday through MyChart. I kept getting a message that there were no available openings. I was just going to check back periodically, but was pleasantly surprised this morning when they telephoned me inviting me to come in today.

I also found out from a news item this morning that the Iowa COVID vaccine provider portal may have a glitch in it. Some of the counties were not able to post accurate data. Some are listed as not having available vaccine providers when, in fact, they do. The list varies from day to day. For now, I removed the web link from the menu on my blog until they get it worked out, which I hope will be soon.

But UIHC definitely did not have a problem getting the vaccine into arms today. There are two ways to request the vaccine: through MyChart or a web-based request form. Hang in there and keep trying.

The UIHC COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic gets the Triple Whammy Shout-Out for kindness, safety, and a great job.

First UIHC COVID-19 Vaccinations!

UIHC Historic Moments

The first supply of the COVID-19 Vaccination vials arrived at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) this week. We couldn’t have wished for a better Christmas gift. As a recent UIHC physician retiree, I know first hand how hard everyone works there. They live the motto: We Stand Together. UIHC is making history—and they’ve been doing that for a long time.

You can find out more about the vaccine at the Iowa Department of Public Health web site.