COVID boosters are still weeks away as cases surge in the U.S.
COVID boosters are still weeks away as cases surge in the U.S.
As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations creep up during a summer wave of heightened virus activity, updated vaccines are still likely weeks away.
Why it matters:
- Americans have largely tuned out COVID, but the latest COVID uptick is a reminder that the virus continues to circulate and mutate — though the threat is far below pandemic-era levels.
- Health officials face a challenge convincing a pandemic-fatigued public to get an updated COVID shot, as vaccine uptake has declined with each successive booster.
Honestly, the HHS needs to stop referring to this as a pandemic and call it an endemic and treat this like a flu and get a cadence going for biannual boosters and reminders of covid and flu seasons.
Like our or not but most scientists seem to agree that this sucker is going to be endemic and the faster we move to that reality, the better.
53We don't get flu shots biannually though, is there a reason to do COVID boosters that way? I was under the impression we need them annually, or is that just because of the quick evolution of new variants?
2
"The updated COVID shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are expected to become available in the third or fourth week of September, according to the most recent guidance from CDC director Mandy Cohen."
27They say that, but it likely won't be widely available till early October.
10I have a large gathering beginning October and a trip in December. Guess I'll be taking the currently available booster.
3Seems like these things should be coordinated with kids going back to school every year but idk, not a medical professional.
2It would complicate the messaging, but I'd like it if school kids got it in September to tamp down the natural wave caused by them spreading it throughout the community; and adults got it in October to protect them through most of the winter.
5
How do you get the booster without insurance? My old company threw us under the buss after the stole our 401ks.
20You go to a pharmacy and ask for a shot and pay cash. Fuck you for getting screwed over, ya know?
6How can a company steal your 401? It's already paid out to you
4It can't. It can avoid paying an unvested match, but that's it. That person might be confusing a 401K for a pension, but even pensions are pretty well protected.
4
In my county all COVID vaccines and boosters are free to residents and in most regions around me I know there are programs to get them for free if you can't afford them. I'm sure it's not that way everywhere, though, but it's certainly worth calling around and asking about.
4Just be rich and pay cash.
Seriously though, almost any vaccine distribution site was mandated to provide the shot to those without insurance including Walgreens, rite aid, etc., then the bill is sent to feds.
3
But covid hasn't tuned out Americans!
8There's little reason to believe the new shots will be highly protective against BA.2.86, so we'd better hope it gets outcompeted.
5First, it's a sub-variant of omicron, so the new shots should provide some protection against it.
Secondly, per the CDC, as of yesterday:
At least two cases have been identified in the United States. [...] It is also important to note that the current increase in hospitalizations in the United States is not likely driven by the BA.2.86 variant. This assessment may change as additional data become available.
6That's my thought as well, these shots are not going to be tuned for the variants we face today but the variants we faced months ago.
4
Fun fact: Corona is basically like the flu now. People die from the flu. People die from corona.
Do you make big news out of people not getting a flu shot?
It's a personal risk assessment.
-58COVID disables healthy people in a way the flu does not.
20In my experience, the symptoms of Covid were effectively mitigated by Tylenol (acetaminophen/paracetamol).
But when the drugs wore off and the symptoms flared up, it was awful. I had a fever of 101°F with headaches, muscle aches, nausea.
Then I'd pop some more Tylenol and get back to feeling mostly normal-ish.
But given how bad the symptoms were when it wasn't being managed, I can totally see how people die from it. It was awful.
1The flu absolutely kills healthy, young individuals.
I personally know an otherwise healthy 18 year old who died of the flu.
Edit: mine is a completely factual statement. I'm not sure what the issue is, but a later comment is making me think I should tell people to Google "long flu".
Some viruses are not so bad. Both COVID and the flu are bad. Hopefully, we can control this with something like a combined flu/COVID annual shot (and maybe we should start calling it that instead of a booster). Both are not the same as, e.g., smallpox where it's kinda "one and done".
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Not sure what point you're trying to get across here unless it's a veiled statement about you not getting vaccinated. People should get vaccinated for both especially since they're both easily transmittable and potentially deadly for certain demographics.
17I got the first few covid vaccines because you know, whatever. But I never got a flu shot, and will not really be taking covid shots now, unless we get in another pickle like we did before.
It's endemic, covid is here to stay. Being vaccinated doesn't make you totally sterile to the virus, you can still carry it and infect others.
That's also the way it's handled by my country (and has been for as long as I have been alive, for the flu) - Switzerland. People at risk get vaccinated, the general public usually doesn't
-7
I can get the flu shot before flu season occurs. The point of thr article is the slow ass speed of the newest booster rollout, combined of course with the premium price.
12So you have references I can read about long flu?
Since it's the same and all
9It's not the same disease.
It's the same kind of disease - an endemic seasonal virus.
We can agree on that, right?
The flu is dangerous, just look up studies, we've been researching this for decades.
Any viral disease can potentially turn into a 'long' disease. Long covid is just a meme at this point with a lot of people 'having' it with some unclear issues, and only a small subset of them actually having verifiable issues.
'I got the covid, and now I have brain fog!' - yes, or you might just have a psychosomatic issue because nocebo.
I do agree that there are people that actually get terrible symptoms over a long while.
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9Thing is, the vaccine doesn't protect you against infecting other people. This is a known fact, and common for vaccines. That is not the point of a vaccine. A vaccine prevents YOU from being majorly infected - in the way that your body can quickly deal with the infection, because it's used to it. It doesn't magically make you immune, and not able to infect anyone.
-13This argument has no bounds, and is the reason why we need to pass explicit constitutional protections against public health infringements
-20
We should honestly. Many lives would be saved if more people vaccinated for the flu. The vaccines for covid are safer than most vaccines last I checked, so taking it or not is less personal risk assessment and more doing a public disservice if one opts out. We should probably make access to participation in public life be contingent on taking safe, low risk, public health measures like getting vaccinated. Just like how food prepers are required to wash their hands to serve food, everyone should be required to take certain vaccines in order to take public transit or receive government funded Healthcare.
Covid has become like the flu in that it's seasonal, isn't going away, and is less fatal than other diseases, but that doesn't mean we should go back to business as usual. Covid was a warning shot from nature that disease is a major threat we were ignoring. We need to double down on making sure we're better prepared for the next one. Heaven forbid it's as deadly or scaring as polio, the plague, or smallpox. We frankly got a failing grade on how we handled covid, so we better study up.
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Hold on now! This kind of thinking just won’t do. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
Don’t you realize how scared you’re supposed to be?? It Covid version 2.1.1.2. This one will be worse and you simply must fear it. It’s the only way
-25No one said anything about being scared of COVID. That is in your imagination.
Being aware and prepared is not the same as being scared.
3