outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

I just got mine, plus the flu shot. Hanging at Target for my 15 minutes of fame.

huzzah!

waiting for the local walgreens to cop

When setting up an appointment at Walgreen's or CVS or some place like that, how does one know if the offered booster is the bivalent one, and not the same ol' formula they've been using for the last 2 years?

getting mine in october/november per CW for the recently infected https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/considerations-for-your-fall-booster

xp

.@Walgreens (left) gets an A for making it clear whether you're registering for an updated bivalent COVID booster or not. @cvspharmacy (right) gets an F for not even remotely specifying and leaving you to guess. Why are we still making the easy stuff so hard!?!? pic.twitter.com/1wCtSOgIJM

— Sandy Johnston 🚰 (@sandypsj) September 5, 2022

Yeah I logged off CVSs site and went to Walgreens for that reason.

Which is weird as usually it's the other way around w/ usability

good to know— i’m going to find an appt asap!

yeah, it looks pretty straightforward, which is nice

I had the same question, but Walgreens answered it for me xxxpost

tbf CVS is using the omicron boosters but has done a shitty job announcing it

https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/CVS-Walgreens-are-rolling-out-omicron-boosters-17416257.php

The websites have been super confusing; when I looked last week, Walgreens iirc had something like a dozen options, which I guess makes sense, given some people have never had a single shot. But when I went to Target (a CVS) this morning and asked to make sure I was getting the new bivalent, she told me they (CVS) are not allowed to give the old boosters anymore now that the new/updated ones are here.

yeah, the EUA got yanked for the original dose unless it's your first time.

OK, now I've got it, two years after everybody else had it. I started feeling a bit weary on Saturday but I'd been out drinking during the day so put it down to that. Felt worse on Sunday but thought it was just a heavy cold. Felt worse again on Monday so stayed off work. Stayed off again today but was feeling a bit more energetic so was thinking of going back to work tomorrow so thought I'd better test myself - I had to borrow a test kit. Tested positive. Still feels like a nasty cold more than anything, none of the loss of taste etc.

oh no! rest up Tom.

good luck, Tom!

I’m booked for the bivalent and flu shot on Friday at Walgreens, who apparently make you wait around?
I’ll rebook at the county health drive thru if they confirm it’s the new one. Last fall it was two jabs, zero wait, and then you do a fast and furious burnout and take off

I mean, just walk out. Who going to stop me???

In my case, the pharmacist had my vaccine card, and gave it back to me after the 15 minutes were up. So I guess I could have skedaddled but at the expense of my card. I did ask her if I could spend the 15 minutes shopping, but she said they're supposed to keep us in sight.

We had some leeway at all the vaccine clinics I worked at, but I suspect there is a legal/liability basis for the 15 minutes. People that had any sort of reaction to any vaccine before were often told to wait 30 minutes.

what's your objection to waiting 15 minutes? take a book!

(i heve never needed to, even though all the leaflets said i should. i even asked the first time and was shooed away)

thx for the Walgreens tip, y'all

Booked mine for next Monday. I was gonna go Friday but didn't wanna fuck my weekend up in case I get the soreness and jitters.

doing mine tomorrow. fuck it, getting out of way. mom is doing week after.

Since I live in semi-antivax-land I was able to schedule one this morning for this afternoon (our county only has about 65% with the OG doses and even fewer for the old boosters). Silver linings I guess.

Got mine last night. The local CVS still had appointments available (the one in Arcadia was taking walk-ins up to 9pm)

I was exposed on Monday... a friend tested positive yesterday, and while we were mostly outside, she did give me a ride home, maskless

I guess you need to wait a few days before testing, so I'm not gonna bother until Friday; just avoiding everyone

I mean, just walk out. Who going to stop me???

It was the cvs security person’s first day on the force

All vestiges of COVID have finally been scrubbed from my place of employment. Data tracking disappeared in May, any and all signage even hinting at the existence of COVID was pulled down in July, and just learned today (by trying to schedule one) that our free on campus testing has been quietly killed as well.

Sigh.

I mean, better not to know old chap. Blow your nose on the grindstone and all that.

Says a lot about the blowback they knew was going to come when they didn't send out a single announcement about the testing sites closing, despite nearly 18 months of weekly emails reminding us to take advantage of it as a resource.

Within like a week of school being back in session, (at least) two of the faculty with offices in our (tiny) building now have children with COVID.

Thank god COVID is over, though, amirite

The tacit acceptance and even encouragement that a lot of people are going to be coming to work COVID positive is quite a thing.

Especially when mask wearing is pretty much non-existent. Of the 9 people in my immediate open office area, I'm the only one left wearing one. My coworker who had been super diligent about wearing one as well got COVID about a month and and hasn't worn one since.

Btw, still catching up on other threads, glad you are feeling better tipsy.

In the public library now, I'm the only patron out of 27 (yes, I counted) masked; two out of nine visible employees are masked.

Maybe they're right! Chances are low that I'll catch it when the ceiling's so high and the nearest patron is 30 feet away. But still.

xpost thx! Got an actual fully negative test this morning, so I am cleared to rejoin society. If I want to ...

huzzah

tips, it sounds like you completed the textbook 10-day cycle.

My office has something like 150 people and there are usually less than 5 people masked.

I am currently negotiating an ADA accommodation request where I would work from home until we get back to test positivity 5% (or alternately, average daily cases per 100,000 5 or less). I don’t know if they’re going to approve it. I’m in my fifties and I’ve got conditions.

I was working from home on a don’t ask don’t tell basis (agreed to by my manager) for the last several weeks since the numbers escalated, but someone blew us up.

Ugh sorry to hear that, good luck with the request.

kid started kindergarten yesterday. Something like 1 out of 10 kids wearing a mask. She's never had it. My wife and I have never had it. A friend of mine just told me he's taking a year off work because his long covid symptoms are so bad. Getting booster 2 on sunday.

Got Bivalent booster and flu shot yesterday! (Yay!)

Found out shortly after that someone I spent hours with on Tuesday tested positive yesterday (Ugh!)

So of course now I have side effects from the vaccines and I have to figure out if it's that or actual VID!

Idk if it's inevitable that I get it. I had an exposure much later than that (day before positive test) and nobody got it.

But boy will I be mad if I got that close to avoiding it!

So far neg

My immediate coworker and I are, I believe, the only people still consistently masking up in the office. I'm the undergraduate liaison for the department, supporting (counts) at least 750 students as of the new academic year, and she works the graduate side (we're severely understaffed because our programs just exploded in popularity over the past year). If one or - god forbid - both of us get sick and are out of commission for basically any time at all, the department is sooooo fuuuuuucked.

But I can't imagine why that would ever happen. COVID? Pssh. gwb-missionaccomplished.jpg

For Alfred and others involved in academe— I am teaching two in-person seminars this semester, and I have found it near-impossible to keep a KN95 mask on for *3 hours* while doing a lot of talking. My voice becomes more hoarse and nobody can hear what the fuck I'm saying. Any suggestions?

xp - hope you stay neg, Neanderthal

pharmacist just told my wife NOT to get booster and flu shot at the same time. I did with the last booster and was planning on doing it again. Not sure why.

xp I have been wearing a KN95 for 2.5 hour sessions. Every once in a while I step away/aside as much as possible and pull the mask away for a couple of breaths, drinks of water, etc. My student group is small (12–15) so I don't have to speak very loud and I feel safer taking the mask off for a bit because there aren't that many others around. Prior to the erasure of my school's mask mandate I wore surgical masks instead of KNs, that was a lot better and I barely noticed it after a while.