7 votes

Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of October 25

This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!

16 comments

  1. [12]
    kfwyre
    (edited )
    Link
    Last week the US CDC recommended booster shots for all J&J vaccine recipients over 18 if they were more than 2 months out from their initial shot. The guidance also allowed for a “mix and match”...

    Last week the US CDC recommended booster shots for all J&J vaccine recipients over 18 if they were more than 2 months out from their initial shot. The guidance also allowed for a “mix and match” of vaccines which allows people to get a booster of a different type than their initial shot.

    Based on everything I’d read online, it looked like a J&J booster would be less beneficial than one from Pfizer/Moderna, but I am admittedly a layperson determining most of this from internet comments and threads on Twitter. Not wanting that to be the sole basis on which I made a medical decision, I reached out to my doctor to ask for his professional recommendation, and he said that current data shows that I would benefit most from either of the mRNA vaccines.

    As such, I scheduled a Moderna booster for this Friday — that way I have the weekend to stay in bed if it hits me hard. As someone who continues to be exposed to confirmed positive cases on the regular via my students, I’m very happy that this is now available to me. I’m not nearly as worried about COVID as I was last year, but my guard has never fully gone down — especially given what I’ve read about J&J’s reduced efficacy compared to the other vaccines.

    The booster should help give me a bit more peace of mind.

    8 votes
    1. [4]
      kfwyre
      Link Parent
      Update: Got the Moderna booster Friday afternoon. Felt fine through most of the evening -- maybe a little tired, but it's hard to tell if that was from the shot or from it being the end of the...

      Update: Got the Moderna booster Friday afternoon. Felt fine through most of the evening -- maybe a little tired, but it's hard to tell if that was from the shot or from it being the end of the workweek. On Saturday I was fatigued, a bit dizzy, and achy all day. My arm also hurt, but not too bad.

      Woke up this morning feeling fine, so I think I'm through it. All in all it wasn't too bad, and it was less than I felt after the first J&J shot, which gave me fever and chills and made me nearly non-functional the following day.

      10 votes
      1. [3]
        3_3_2_LA
        Link Parent
        Wait, are the boosters out? I guess I've been living under a rock!!

        Wait, are the boosters out? I guess I've been living under a rock!!

        3 votes
        1. [2]
          kfwyre
          Link Parent
          They are! Kind of. Assuming you live in the US, it depends on your profile and which vaccine you received initially: J&J vaccine recipients are eligible for boosters if they are over 18 years of...

          They are! Kind of. Assuming you live in the US, it depends on your profile and which vaccine you received initially:

          J&J vaccine recipients are eligible for boosters if they are over 18 years of age and 2+ months out from their last shot.

          Moderna and Pfizer vaccine recipients are eligible for boosters if they over 18 years of age, are 6+ months out from their second shot AND if they meet one of the following conditions:

          • 65 years or older
          • Live in long-term care settings
          • Have underlying medical conditions
          • Work or live in high-risk settings

          The "underlying medical conditions" and "high-risk settings" buckets have pretty wide pools, so a good number of people are eligible under them, but boosters are not technically fully available to anyone who wants one just yet.

          7 votes
          1. 3_3_2_LA
            Link Parent
            Oh wow, that's amazing news! Thanks for the information :))

            Oh wow, that's amazing news! Thanks for the information :))

            3 votes
    2. cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      That was the government of Canada's official recommendation too. If you received J&J or AZ for the first dose, they recommended getting either of the mRNA vaccines for the second dose. I wound up...

      he said that current data shows that I would benefit most from either of the mRNA vaccines.

      That was the government of Canada's official recommendation too. If you received J&J or AZ for the first dose, they recommended getting either of the mRNA vaccines for the second dose.

      I wound up getting AZ for both simply because I would have had to rescheduled my appt. to get an mRNA one, which could have taken another few months (something I didn't want to risk due to several immuno-compromised people in my familial circle). However for the next booster, I will likely seek out an mRNA one.

      5 votes
    3. Omnicrola
      Link Parent
      I'm also of the opinion that mixing with an mRNA is the best (I had a J&J in March). I have a Moderna booster scheduled for Nov 1.

      I'm also of the opinion that mixing with an mRNA is the best (I had a J&J in March). I have a Moderna booster scheduled for Nov 1.

      3 votes
    4. [5]
      HotPants
      Link Parent
      @kfwyre, are you comfortable sharing which state you got the Moderna booster in? My local site says "Only booster doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine are currently being offered to those who...

      @kfwyre, are you comfortable sharing which state you got the Moderna booster in? My local site says "Only booster doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine are currently being offered to those who completed the 2 dose series of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at least 6 months ago."

      2 votes
      1. [4]
        kfwyre
        Link Parent
        I’m mum about my location for privacy reasons, but hopefully I can still help: as far as I’m aware, each Walgreens store carries either Moderna or Pfizer but not both (for simplicity’s sake), and...

        I’m mum about my location for privacy reasons, but hopefully I can still help: as far as I’m aware, each Walgreens store carries either Moderna or Pfizer but not both (for simplicity’s sake), and I believe that holds true nationwide (I just tested this on their site with a zip code far from my own too, just to be closer to sure on that).

        If you sign up through Walgreens (assuming there’s one near you, and you’re comfortable getting your vaccine through them), when you go to make an appointment, it should give you a list of stores and show which booster each location is offering. That was how I specifically chose the Moderna booster — by picking a Walgreens near me that had it on offer.

        6 votes
        1. [3]
          HotPants
          Link Parent
          Thanks! You're a hero!

          Thanks! You're a hero!

          4 votes
          1. [2]
            kfwyre
            Link Parent
            No problem! Also, I checked with a coworker today who got his booster at CVS, and he said CVS has the same setup where each store only carries one of the types, and you can select which store to...

            No problem! Also, I checked with a coworker today who got his booster at CVS, and he said CVS has the same setup where each store only carries one of the types, and you can select which store to get yours from. Just letting you and anyone else reading this know that's an option as well.

            4 votes
            1. HotPants
              Link Parent
              I am booked! (Walgreens was too far away, CVS was perfect.)

              I am booked! (Walgreens was too far away, CVS was perfect.)

              3 votes
  2. cfabbro
    Link
    A bit of recent COVID related satire from the Beaverton: Misinformed horse uses COVID-19 vaccine to treat worm infestation “I’m not going to get vaccinated just to comply with arbitrary public...
    8 votes
  3. skybrian
    Link
    FDA authorizes Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11

    FDA authorizes Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11

    Before the vaccine becomes widely available, it will also need to be recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decision on that recommendation is made after a meeting of an expert committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. The CDC director must then approve ACIP’s recommendations. That committee is scheduled to meet on Nov. 2.

    6 votes
  4. skybrian
    Link
    Thousands of state workers are unvaccinated. California isn’t testing half of them for COVID as required […]

    Thousands of state workers are unvaccinated. California isn’t testing half of them for COVID as required

    At the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, for example, fewer than a third of employees have provided proof they are fully vaccinated, while 6,700 employees are either not vaccinated or have declined to provide their status. Cal Fire said it is testing just 75 employees.

    The Department of Motor Vehicles, where 59% of employees are fully vaccinated, has about 3,600 unvaccinated staffers working in offices across the state who are required to be tested weekly. But only 411 of them are being tested, a DMV spokeswoman said.

    Some departments have failed to report vaccination rates or testing information altogether, but the California Department of Human Resources said the data it has received show that roughly half of 59,000 unvaccinated state employees were tested as required during the first week of October.

    […]

    Ortega said that testing thousands of unvaccinated state workers is a massive undertaking and that the effort has been slowed by supply shortages. She said there is no hard deadline for when departments have to begin testing unvaccinated employees. So far, she said, 48 out of 152 state departments have testing up and running at some or all of their locations.

    4 votes
  5. kfwyre
    Link
    Who had COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases?

    Who had COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases?

    After a summer of reports of breakthrough coronavirus infections, when it seemed that everyone knew someone who tested positive after vaccination, recently released federal data sheds light on how common these cases really were, how severe they became and who was most at risk.

    2 votes