Cdc has it allowed for elevated risk. Majority of people qualify, either due to age, 25 or higher bmi (probably the largest objective health qualification group) , or living or working in elevated risk areas. There’s not many who don’t currently qualify if “checking that carefully”, because community spread has been so high and high risk working/ living conditions is somewhat subjective.
Maybe they’ll start moving some more of the categories from allowed to suggested soon, though. There is more data every day further demonstrating the safety and effectiveness.
Man, you’re in the wrong century or the wrong country … unless you’re a pregnant woman or an illegal immigrant.
No. For that, you would have to fill out a government form and submit it to the local health ministry. 100 days later, you might get a response asking that your doctor submit test results and fill out a government form. Your doctor, who won’t get paid more than $16 for this service, schedules you to get the tests in 2022. After you phone a couple of times, he will remember to get his receptionist to fill out the form which he signs. Six months after that, you get an official letter from the health ministry denying your request because a form wasn’t filled out properly.
Fortunately, by then, all government policies regarding vaccinations will have changed to “Wear a mask once a month, and you’re safe” … and effective.
I disagree. The Covid shot, just like lethal injections, is paid by U.S. taxpayers. At the current rate of spending, those taxpayers may not yet be born, but they will be the payers of this largesse, presuming their p̶a̶r̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ mothers are pro-life.
The panel’s recommendation would open up eligibility to everyone 18 and over in the U.S., but the group more strongly endorsed shots for older Americans by saying everyone 50 and over should get a booster. It previously said people over 65 and some other high-risk people should get a third shot.
Well to be fair, the MRNA boosters for non-immune compromised people are 50 µg, half the original vaccine which was two shots of 100 µg each. In contrast, the PFE shots, both original and booster, are 30 µg. This is suspected to be part of why the Moderna immunity seems to last longer but also why it seems to have more side effects in some people.
So the boosters they’re offering now are closer in size to the original PFE one so hopefully there won’t as many side effects for this round (and probably the people who got them last time won’t get this booster).
I’m definitely over 18 and had my second MRNA vaccination in March. So the booster shot is on my mind.
I’m happy to read that Moderna immunity last longer than others. But I’m still anxious about whether I really want/need the booster shot.
Also another thought of whether a booster shot is something that will turn out to be needed yearly?
Maybe I should just take the booster shot and forget about all the problems that might occur…. But for now I think I’m going to to do more readings on the issue.
Well, I will give you a data point on my third PFE shot. The side effects I experienced were a lot worse than either the first (which was nothing), or the second (which were mild), and hit about 10 hours after getting the shot. I was very achy, tired, had chills, and a headache. I tried to stick it out without ibuprofen, as I’m not sure what exactly that does to the vaccine’s efficacy, but after about 24 hours I popped a couple Advil. 30 minutes later, I was fine. After about 8 hours, the symptoms returned and so I took another two Advil before bed. I then woke up fine.
My parents, who are well into their 60s, had few to no side effects.
Overall, the data seems to point at waning effectiveness of the shot after 6 months or so. It still seems to be protective against severe disease, but not so much against mild infection. As I said upthread, we have travel planned over the next couple of months and I wanted this shot as an insurance policy against being marooned somewhere with a mild case of covid, unable to fly back home. It’s up to you to determine if the benefits outweigh any potential side effects.
Basically you’re more at risk when your immune system is in a low level state of alertness with respect to covid, and when you get a vaccine or a booster, it kicks it up into high alert for 3-4 months and then it reverts back to the lower state. If you get infected during the low state, some of your immune responses work right away but some take a day or two to ramp up, so you’re less protected than you might be in this period.
So in particular, your risk of getting symptoms or more severe outcomes depends not on how many boosters you’ve gotten, but how recently you got one.
Presumably exposure to the virus would similarly kick up your immune status as well. There is a 3-4 month period for your antibodies to start to drop off, so that, plus a bit longer for the slow decline of them after that period, is why they’re taking about getting boosters after 6 months. The UK for example, in response to the O variant, is allowing them as soon as 3 months after your last one.
Yet they are still recommending people getting their first 2 shots (mostly kids now), get them 3 weeks apart when it’s clearly better for them to get them 3 months apart. How wonderful.
My understanding (which could be incorrect) is that the mock-virus the vaccine exposes you to often fades away on it’s own before your immune system can “solve” it. Thus the two shots, one to start the process, the second to ensure your body has time to lock in the solution.
But after your body has the solution to that virus, it remembers it indefinitely - thus 3-6 months for a booster, since at that point it’s only purpose is to keep your body at high alert.
So if your immune system gets the answer after the first shot, then you are correct that the second shot after 3 months would be more productive. But that’s only true in around 50%(?) of people, if I’m recalling the reported efficacy numbers correctly.
So, does anyone have a clue as to which of the big pharma companies has the lead in researching a cure for immune systems which have been in a high state of alert for too long?
