outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

My wife and I got ours yesterday at a CVS. Didn’t hear about having to pay?

CVS didn't request my insurance.

I had covid in July. Some sources say wait two to three months. Some say five to six months. Some say if you're relatively young and healthy there's really no hurry at all. This is something I heard on NPR last week:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/09/13/1198803134/covid-boosters-updated-vaccines-fda-cdc

Anyway, I think I'm in the "no rush" category" and waiting until closer to December for the latest.

I wouldn't mix the serious and the tongue-in-cheek when it comes to COVID info. The CDC line is three months if you've gotten infected.

Doctors say they're finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish Covid from allergies or the common cold, even as hospitalizations tick up.

The illness' past hallmarks, such as a dry cough or the loss of sense of taste or smell, have become less common. Instead, doctors are observing milder disease, mostly concentrated in the upper respiratory tract.

"It isn’t the same typical symptoms that we were seeing before. It’s a lot of congestion, sometimes sneezing, usually a mild sore throat," said Dr. Erick Eiting, vice chair of operations for emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City.

The sore throat usually arrives first, he said, then congestion.

The Zoe COVID Symptom Study, which collects data on self-reported symptoms in the U.K. through smartphone apps, has documented the same trend. Its findings suggest that a sore throat became more common after the omicron variant grew dominant in late 2021. Loss of smell, by contrast, became less widespread, and the rate of hospital admissions declined compared to summer and fall 2021.

Doctors now describe a clearer, more consistent pattern of symptoms.

"Just about everyone who I've seen has had really mild symptoms," Eiting said of his urgent care patients, adding, "The only way that we knew that it was Covid was because we happened to be testing them."

And:

Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, attributed the mild symptoms that doctors are seeing to immunity from vaccines and previous infections.

"Overall, the severity of Covid is much lower than it was a year ago and two years ago. That’s not because the variants are less robust. It’s because the immune responses are higher," Barouch said.

Other doctors think that omicron itself also changed the presentation of Covid symptoms, since some studies have shown that early versions of it weren’t as good as previous variants at infecting the lungs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-symptoms-mild-follow-pattern-doctors-say-rcna105090

i am definitely coming down with something (two rapid tests negative so far) but i went ahead with flu and covid vaccination this morning. assuming tonight is going to be horrendous.

a friend got very sick recently, did multiple COVID tests, and yesterday was diagnosed with bird flu!

stay safe y'all

TIL that regular flu shots don't work on avian-transmitted varieties

holy shit, bird flu! omg :(

At our block party this past summer I was talking to my neighbor. I asked her where he husband was, and she said "oh, we have a trip coming up that requires a covid vaccine. He'd been putting it off because he's reacted so poorly to the past vaccines, but he finally got his shot today and is just kinda pushing through on the couch." Maybe an hour or so later he makes an appearance, and he seems kinda worse for the wear. He's wobbly and his color is off. "How's the vaccine going?" I ask him. "Oh, the vaccine is going OK," he says. "But I also took a bunch of mushrooms, so ... "

My wife and I got ours yesterday at a CVS. Didn’t hear about having to pay?

Here's the background:
https://www.timesunion.com/health/article/insurance-issues-lead-cvs-others-cancel-covid-18368441.php

As large retail pharmacies compete for market share in the latest COVID-19 vaccine roll out, it might be wise to hold off on making an appointment.

Chain stores like CVS and Walgreens ordered the new doses early, opening up vaccine appointments as early Saturday and Sunday. But by Thursday, many consumers in the Capital Region reported receiving calls from their pharmacists advising them to reschedule or risk paying $200 out-of-pocket for the immunizations.

A representative for CVS, which declined to make a pharmacist available for an interview, said some insurers are still updating their systems and may not yet be set up to cover the updated COVID-19 vaccines.

on a somewhat positive note, the latest wave, while still increasing in most regions, seems to have peaked/be on the decline in the South. Florida, for instance, has started to see hospitalizations decrease again, and the wastewater in the entire South has drastically declined.

hoping the other regions can get some relief soon, esp since more people inside due to the hot summer.

source: https://caitlinrivers.substack.com/p/this-week-in-outbreaks-september-4a5

xpost bureaucracy at its finest. I wondered how everything would run smoothly with such a short turnaround. answer: it didn't!

fwiw i got mine with an appointment at a CVS in NYC. they don't have and didn't ask for my insurance information and they didn't charge me.

a few walk-ins for flu shots asked if they could get it too while i was waiting, but were told CVS didn't have enough shots so they'd made it appointment-only until next week.

The updated covid vax is now available at many CVSs & Walgreens in NYC.

**These Rx chains are not supposed to charge you, regardless of insurance status.** They're in a federal program which covers those costs.

You can search for sites w/ no-cost vax at https://t.co/J6F9P3mf5Q pic.twitter.com/YX3hFteWKJ

— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) September 19, 2023

The federal program for no-cost vax is called "Bridge Access Program". You can select for this at https://t.co/J6F9P3lHgi and it will show you locations near you on the map.

— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) September 19, 2023

^most useful post today

yeah, like I said, the CVS website last week when I made my appointment asked for no insurance

I didn't pay anything at Walgreen but they asked for my insurance, which they hadn't previously, and they mentioned the new shot was more expensive. Don't know what the purpose of that was.

I was shocked (not shocked) to learn that the price of the vaccine is something like $150 with no insurance. That's some bullshit.

Eric Clapton performed at a fundraiser for presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a private estate in Brentwood near Los Angeles.

The event raised $2.2 million for Kennedy: $1 million for the campaign and $1.2 million for a PAC supporting the candidate.

“I am deeply grateful to Eric Clapton for bringing his musical artistry and rebellious spirit to my gathering in Los Angeles last night,” Kennedy said in a statement. “I sometimes think that in our divided society, it is music rather than any kind of intellectual agreement that has the most potential to bring us together again.”

The presidential candidate continued, “Eric sings from the depths of the human condition. If he sees in me the possibility of bringing unity to our country, it is only possible because artists like him invoke a buried faith in the limitless power of human beings to overcome any obstacle.”

Clapton joins a growing list of celebrities who have spoken out in support of Kennedy, including the candidate’s wife, Cheryl Hines, Rob Schneider and Alicia Silverstone. The Curb Your Enthusiasm actress posted a photo with Woody Harrelson on Kennedy’s Instagram in August, but the actor insisted in a statement to USA Today that the photo wasn’t necessarily an endorsement.

“Bobby is a personal friend,” he told the publication in a statement through his representative. “I don’t endorse candidates from either party because I’m an anarchist.”

Clapton, Kennedy and Harrelson have all been outspoken against COVID-19 vaccines. The “Wonderful Tonight” singer received the AstraZeneca vaccines and said he had “severe reactions” that made him worried he wouldn’t play the guitar again.

Me boosty.

I asked the pharmacist last week (flu shot) if she anticipated high demand and she said yes. Today in a line of 20+ people there were only two of us who had registered to get the shot and everyone else there was flabbergasted that there was *another* booster. There was a lot of “oh hell no” going on.

The “Wonderful Tonight” singer received the AstraZeneca vaccines and said he had “severe reactions” that made him worried he wouldn’t play the guitar again.

This would have been an incredible scientific achievement.

Locally (Seattle area) Kaiser is not scheduling appointments for the new vaccine until after October 3rd, so I'm booked at Walgreens on Friday.

Looks like more free tests are incoming

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/20/feds-mail-order-covid-test-00117133

i am definitely coming down with something (two rapid tests negative so far) but i went ahead with flu and covid vaccination this morning. assuming tonight is going to be horrendous.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, September 19, 2023 2:14 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

good grief. i feel like a superfund site.

And CDC site confirms, free orders starting Sept. 25

https://www.covid.gov/tests

Oh good. I had a whole bunch that I have since distributed to coworkers and neighbors in addition to using them in our house. I signed up for Test to Treat a couple weeks ago because it felt weird to have so few available in the supply shelf.

same here!

High five to our favorite nurse friend!

I just got shingles vaxx #1 today (another in 2-6 months).. the nurse warned me that this one is an asskicker and that I should NOT get a flu vaxx the same day

When I got home my bowels cried to be evacuated, immediately... she didn't warn me about that

I had no reaction to either shingles shot, besides a sore arm.

good to hear!

Yeah I got the shingrix vax and flu vax at the same time, similar soreness in each arm but the shingrix ache lingered longer.

So, Shingrix doubles as an effective laxative as well? Hmmmm...

the 1st shingles one fucked me up way more than any covid or flu vaccine I have had to date, ymmv

the 2nd shingles one was fine for me

Both shingles shots were definitely worse for me than any COVID shot. Glad I was able to zone for a couple of days afterward for each of them.

My second Covid shot fucked me up for a good 6 weeks, but no subsequent shot has.

Had been having trouble scheduling an appointment through CVS so I asked at the pharmacy when I picked up a prescription refill, as of Friday morning they still had not received any doses.

Even more fun, had dinner with a friend for their birthday Saturday night at their house. Got a call late last night that they tested positive. Ugh.

Yeah, Walgreens cancelled on me and hour before my appointment on Friday due to not having received their shipment. Bummed, but now I'll just wait for Kaiser. I've been able to not be around too many folks the past couple weeks, but Mr. Jaq, his sister, and his daughter are returning from the UK on Wednesday and I'm picking them up and feeling doomed.

the ease with which I was able to get the new vaccine is paradoxically making me worry that it’s a sign that they’re relatively evenly distributed, it’s just that no one else in my region is getting one

outside of the people working at the pharmacy, that is. they were gossiping about when they were scheduling theirs due to side effects, sore arms, etc

Speaking with two other coworkers this morning, they have also not yet been able to schedule appointments, anecdotally it seems very hit or miss around here.

Yeah, weird, I had dinner with an actual CVS pharmacy tech a week or so ago, and she said they were supposed to start rolling out last week.

Yeah, the pharmacist I spoke with told me they had heard the same thing, but nothing had showed up yet.

the sassy pharmacy tech with a tattoo inspired by disney's the little mermaid on his forearm assured me he'd juice me up with as many vaccines as I wanted

What the world needs now are more sassy pharmacy techs with tattoos inspired by The Little Mermaid.

Free ordering of more tests now live:

https://www.covid.gov/tests

Thanks Ned, ordered!

Done!

Thanx Nedbama