👋 “Long COVID and its myriad manifestations … can literally happen across a lifespan…no demographic group [is] immune.”
🦠 ”COVID-19 is an #airborne virus…investment in #ventilation infrastructure would not only decrease the risk of COVID and other airborne illnesses, but also potential future viruses and pandemics.”
🚨“Staying up to date on vaccines and #boosters can dramatically reduce the likelihood of getting #longCOVID,”
Covid Booster Recovery: Had a rough, achy, wakeful hour or so around 3AM, but nothing ibuprofen couldn’t fix. This morning is slow moving. My partner put it well, “I feel like I was in a prize fight, but at least I won.”
I’ve had many a hangover worse than this. #covid#getvaccinated#boosters#moderna
Sooooo we were supposed to getto our #Covid#boosters last week. Early the day before we got texts that our appointments were canceled.
I called #Walgreens and the pharmacist said they ran out and were expecting ‘sometime’ tomorrow.
Yesterday we were picking up scrips and casually mentioned the cancellation. The pharmacist goes, “Oh, that was probably someone from Corporate. We’re about 5 days behind in our prescriptions so they just went in and cancelled a bunch.”
WTAF. Not only are the corporations squeezing every little bit of profit by overworking employees & overcharging customers but they willfully make handling medical issues difficult by placing as many hurdles as they can.
If you are getting your #flu and #covid#boosters in the US, please be kind to the staff running the stores.
The CVS and Walgreens around here are absolutely overrun with appointments and have very little staff.
It took until my third appointment to finally get my jabs right before closing last night. 80% of the people in line were absolute asshats the whole time.
Berating the staff doesn’t make it go any quicker, and overall just doesn’t make people want to do the job. Write their headquarters if you are pissed - don’t start a fucking revolt in the store.
The covid booster rollout in the US has been terrible, and it's making me think it's on purpose. I hope no one gets too discouraged. It's reminding me of the ways they discourage people to vote.
An example is the experience of a friend in southern New Hampshire. She and her husband tried to book appointments at CVS. They couldn't find any CVS pharmacies with any covid vaccine stocks at all in their town or surrounding towns, and had to travel a few towns over. And then they could only find Pfizer, no place had Moderna. Yesterday (Saturday Sept. 23rd) was the first appointment they could get, they had hoped for earlier in the week.
When they arrived, only her husband was in the system as having an appointment. He has Aetna insurance and she doesn't, and Aetna owns CVS, so maybe their system worked better for their own members. They took her too anyway. She said someone at the counter was needing to do manual work to get people's insurance coverage for the shots into their system, which brings the potential for typo's and resulting claim denials.
CVS is apparently booking multiple appointments for the same time slot. She said there were 4 people booked for her husband's appointed time, and the pharmacists told her that was corporate policy! She said the pharmacists were run ragged, no time for breaks, trying to get shots done for 4 people every 15 minutes, and of course not everyone arrives on time so there was a long queue and wait. This on top of the wait due to the manual insurance entry. The pharmacy was crowded with waiting people, most not masked.
I don't want to catch covid while waiting in queue to get my booster! Low stocks and overbooked appointments sounds like maybe they didn't expect so many people to want one, but other aspects of the rollout should have been expected.
Personally, I am waiting on Novavax approval. My reasoning is the specific protection it provides for FLip variants, which the mRNA vaccines do not. But we are in a wave now, so it might not make sense for everyone to wait. I have no kids and work from home, so I have less daily risk of exposure. Maybe in a week or two, these hiccups with appointments and insurance will clear up as well.
Contra Costa County Health Dept: “Sept. 11, 2023: We are currently not offering COVID vaccines at our immunization clinics and health centers as we are waiting for the updated booster formulation to arrive. We expect COVID vaccinations will resume around Sept. 18 - September 25, 2023. Please check back for updates.”
I’m thinking ahead about the new XBB Covid boosters that should be arriving next month. What is the current thinking on which one to get?
So far, I have had 4 Moderna shots. First 2 series in April & May 2021, booster in Nov 2021, bivalent booster in Oct 2022. I waited a year between boosters because I really wanted to get Novavax, but then it didn’t become available for me.
First 3 shots in left arm, but the first booster had an effect on my neck and shoulder lymph nodes; they were swollen and painful for 10 months. So I got the bivalent in the right arm, but then afterwards learned it would have been more effective to continue in the same arm as the first shots. But no lymph node issues with bivalent.
I thought I saw some real world data showing Novavax was not as good as hoped. Plus I would need to convince my doctor to give me a new 3-shot series. Is that all correct?
If I stick with mRNA, should I mix it up and get Pfizer this time?
Just trying to get prepared, so I can something as soon as they are ready. Any thoughts appreciated! What are you all planning to do?
It’s nice /s to know that people aged 50–65 are once more considered young enough to be able to ‘live with Covid’
Of course, without continuing to vaccinate almost everyone, the vaccination programme only protects those who are eligible – while SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses are free to continue evolving as they circulate freely among the general population 😖
And today the UK press are reporting that Covid-19 vaccinations may be made available privately for the first time, but probably not until next year! 😣