Coronavirus prep

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Replies

  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    I wish we had walk-in booster clinics here. We did have but with children now getting vaccinated as well, appointments are definitely necessary.
    So getting online and checking it all out is on my to-do list of the day.

    Can you not just go to a drugstore there? Here I could go to any CVS or Walgreens, which are all over.

    Yeah, I don't understand when people think there are hoops to jump through to get these vaccines - here the medical community is falling over itself to get shots in arms.

    Call your regular doctor's office, any doctor's office, or any hospital and ask. All the drug stores have it, so do all the big grocery stores (the ones with pharmacists) and there are multiple other sites set up by Public Health and they are all giving shots.

    A 24 hr pharmacy about 11 PM is a pretty good time to go without a wait.
  • ethelbonnie
    ethelbonnie Posts: 17 Member
    The drugstores in my area that are doing walk-ins are only doing one hour of walk-ins, mid-afternoon, weekdays only. I made an appointment last week, but the earliest I could get within 15 miles was December 30th. I am on the waitlist with my doctor's office and a couple other agencies. I am in King County, WA.
  • lokihen
    lokihen Posts: 382 Member
    When I did the walk-in there was an hour wait in the morning so I filled out the paperwork and said I'd be back in the afternoon. I only had to wait about 10 minutes. My sister in Texas called for an appointment but can't get in until next week.

    Mildly sore arm today.
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    Looks like boosters will be approved for my age group (50+) today. But I read that Moderna says they will have a booster tailored to Omicron variant by March. So not sure now whether to get the regular booster, or wait for that? My 6 months is up December 6.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,366 Member
    33gail33 wrote: »
    Looks like boosters will be approved for my age group (50+) today. But I read that Moderna says they will have a booster tailored to Omicron variant by March. So not sure now whether to get the regular booster, or wait for that? My 6 months is up December 6.

    Same age group. My 6 months date is January 17 so I have a bit more time to see how things pan out with omicron.

    I'm just a bit concerned that the threshold for "fully vaccinated" will move to 3 shots from 2 and I'll be scrambling at the last minute to meet the standard if I delay too long.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    At the very least, this whole Covid pandemic has created awkward and unexpected moments in our lives; giving us a new outlook on etiquette, etc. :( We didn't celebrate Christmas with anyone last year. :( This year we thought we'd invite a few people and keep it intimate(our adult children, my sister and her dd, and our niece and her bf). Well, we did. However, we probably should've stated vaccinations mandatory or some such thing because 2 of our relatives are not and will not. :( So, very awkwardly, we uninvited them. I'll have to talk with dh about it but maybe if we request masks and pre-Christmas negative test??? It just feels so awkward and impolite the whole way around. But with my ds coming who has diabetes, and my sister and I both working with elderly people, I just do NOT want to risk it ya know? I just assumed they were vaccinated and I'm not sure why. :( I *know* the vaccinated are not immune to this virus but after seeing what fear my sister went through by being exposed to a couple of her friends that she assumed had been vaccinated and were not, then a day after being together, her 2 friends came down with Covid. I felt her friends should've let her know they weren't vaccinated; my sister was working with them often for God's sake. :(

    Argh. IDK. Ready to crawl in a cave and hibernate with the bears.

    I am thinking about buying some of the rapid tests from the pharmacy that we can use the day of holiday gatherings. I should probably get them soon, though...my CVS has them right now, but I bet they sell out as the holidays get closer.

    I have been using these periodically as well. I plan to travel (by car) across the sputh east US in another week (TX to FL to TN to KY and back to TX... going through all states in between). So I'll be careful with that.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,717 Member
    I'm not in any way a virologist or other relevant expert, just a regular ignorant bozo, so I'll throw this speculation out there to see what others, especially those more knowledgeable, think:

    I'm thinking that if it turns out we do need a different vax because of Omicron, it would be surprising if they specified a loooong required interval between current booster and new formulation.

    Thought process:

    I haven't seen much that suggested getting vaccine doses "too close together" would be particularly injurious to healthy people (or to immune suppressed ones, for that matter), where "too close together" was less than the 6 months between second vax and booster, or even less than the X weeks between dose 1 and dose 2, if it wasn't like subsequent days or something really silly.

    What I've understood was more that close doses wouldn't be as effective in stimulating the immune system in the useful ways. Most other vaccines (of different types) don't seem to need long separations (like the Covid booster and flu, or flu and shingles, etc.).

    What is making y'all think that if one gets a booster now, there's a meaningful risk that you won't be able to get this speculative new vax when it comes out in March, given what you know at this point?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,717 Member
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    Maybe it's finally time to put out some PSAs about taking steps to improve one's health, lose weight, etc. to help improve outcomes when one gets Covid (which unfortunately most will) along with vaxing, masking, distancing, etc.

    Imagine the potential reduction of severe Covid issues if someone that was morbidly obese would have lost a pound a week since this all started.

    I'm coming around to that way of thinking, too, though for kind of cynical reasons.

    I still don't think it would be very effective, given the number of people who don't think they're fat (BMI lies, big boned, just too muscular from that 15 minutes trudging on the treadmill twice a week, whatever), think they're "too old" to get fitter, aren't going to let the gubmint or those corrupt medical people tell them what to do ("Mah FreeDumb!!") . . . or, more defensibly, literally don't know what to do with themselves under stress except stress eat, or are under extremes of financial or time-availability stress because of personal pandemic-induced circumstances.

    Still, if there's a way to do that with modest expenditure, without causing huge stupid public push-back, even a tiny dent in the so-called obesity crisis could be a good thing, for Covid mortality and other reasons.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    I'm not in any way a virologist or other relevant expert, just a regular ignorant bozo, so I'll throw this speculation out there to see what others, especially those more knowledgeable, think:

    I'm thinking that if it turns out we do need a different vax because of Omicron, it would be surprising if they specified a loooong required interval between current booster and new formulation.

    Thought process:

    I haven't seen much that suggested getting vaccine doses "too close together" would be particularly injurious to healthy people (or to immune suppressed ones, for that matter), where "too close together" was less than the 6 months between second vax and booster, or even less than the X weeks between dose 1 and dose 2, if it wasn't like subsequent days or something really silly.

    What I've understood was more that close doses wouldn't be as effective in stimulating the immune system in the useful ways. Most other vaccines (of different types) don't seem to need long separations (like the Covid booster and flu, or flu and shingles, etc.).

    What is making y'all think that if one gets a booster now, there's a meaningful risk that you won't be able to get this speculative new vax when it comes out in March, given what you know at this point?

    I think that what they're saying (because I have the same thought, with my booster due in a month) is that perhaps it's better to wait another 2 weeks or a month and get an OMICRON booster if that comes out and is recommended. Otherwise, you get your booster and then may have to get another one in a short time.

    However, from what the experts are saying here, the regular booster should be fine. Our OMICROM family is being tested and results will be out in 2 weeks. We'll see if there are other indications.