Covid-19 News and Information

[Canoe]

Just to keep the thread up to date the FDA approved the new vaccine on 9/11. If you are a person who boosts go ahead and head over and get your booster.

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/pres...ly-circulating

Note: because of timing issues the booster and approved based on the animal studies as the human trails are not available yet.

[BoulderSooner]

Just to keep the thread up to date the FDA approved the new vaccine on 9/11. If you are a person who boosts go ahead and head over and get your booster.

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/pres...ly-circulating

Note: because of timing issues the booster and approved based on the animal studies as the human trails are not available yet.

just for clarity the United States is one of the only advanced countries in the World recommending this booster to any one under 60 ..

Germany no one heathy under 60
https://www.bundesgesundheitsministe...ccination.html

Austrilia no one healthy under 75

https://www.health.gov.au/news/atagi...munocompromise.

France no covid shot unless you are not a normal healthy person

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/art...6136950_7.html

[FighttheGoodFight]

At this point (currently having covid) I dont think I'll get this booster for the fact I would need to wait 3 months anyway. Got the flu shot though, hope that helps this winter.

[Canoe]

Some interesting information came out of the September 12 CDC meeting related to the vaccine. Here is the PDF

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/me...Gelles-508.pdf

[TheTravellers]

Some interesting information came out of the September 12 CDC meeting related to the vaccine. Here is the PDF

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/me...Gelles-508.pdf

Seems like the "interesting information" that I gleaned from it is that the vaccines wane in effectiveness and if you haven't had all the vaccines, you'll have less protection. I just skimmed it, so may have missed something, but is that it? If so, we already knew that, but if not, please enlighten me on what new information there is...

[Canoe]

I had never seen statistics relating to young children. The CDC is still recommending that a 6 month old receive a course of this treatment while publishing this data.

[BoulderSooner]

I had never seen statistics relating to young children. The CDC is still recommending that a 6 month old receive a course of this treatment while publishing this data.

and the USA is now one of if not the only country in the world doing so ..

[Bunty]

More young, healthy people should be getting Paxlovid when they get Covid.
https://www.vox.com/health/2023/9/29...lvir-ritonavir

[Brett]

I signed up through vaccines.gov for my COVID vaccine. The process is easy to do as long as you have all your medical information at hand. What I liked about the site is you can pick the vaccine type (Pfizer or Moderna) and location (majority are CVS or Walgreens). Since I haven't had a COVID vaccination in awhile, I was completely wiped out the following day, I slept almost all day (I'm a cancer patient so I probably take it harder than most). I encourage all to get vaccinated. I know too many people who have died from COVID.

[Ginkasa]

Don't know if COVID's hitting harder this year or if my circle just happened be hit harder, but, well, my circle got hit pretty hard. Went to a comedy show a week and a half ago and my wife and I and seemingly half or more of the people in attendance plus cast all caught it. My mom just tested positive; we haven't been around her so guessing she got it from somewhere else.

Frustrated a bit because we stay on top of the vaccines and boosters, but no appointments were available and then we got the bug.

[OKCbyTRANSFER]

I just got over it, but my case was all gastro related, nothing respiratory. I went to urgent care for my gut acting up with severe cramping and they said sounds like COVID. I tested positive! It does to your GI tract what it does to your lungs, and I was quite miserable. Glad it's over. I did get my vaccine in early October.

[chssooner]

Thought I had Covid, got tested twice. Negative both times. Turns out, I have mono. It sucks.

[baralheia]

Don't know if COVID's hitting harder this year or if my circle just happened be hit harder, but, well, my circle got hit pretty hard. Went to a comedy show a week and a half ago and my wife and I and seemingly half or more of the people in attendance plus cast all caught it. My mom just tested positive; we haven't been around her so guessing she got it from somewhere else.

Frustrated a bit because we stay on top of the vaccines and boosters, but no appointments were available and then we got the bug.

The husband and I managed to completely avoid COVID all the way up until just before Halloween... and man it hit us both hard, even with Paxlovid. I was out of work for a solid week, and symptoms (especially fatigue and chest congestion) continued at a low level for another week after that. We hadn't been able to get in to get the updated booster either.

Wastewater monitoring (https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboar...2b1853c76ec589) for shed SARS-CoV-19 virus particles shows that while the overall statewide average is still low, the general trend in most regions is significantly upward with hotspots popping up across the state like Woodward and Yukon.

Since there are no other reliable metrics to keep track of infection rates right now, if you're at all concerned about COVID I'd strongly suggest keeping an eye on the wastewater numbers for your region and mask up where appropriate. The new strain, HV.1, is another variant of Omicron and is a descendant of EG.5; it's also slightly more transmissible than the previous strains. The good news is the current updated vaccines are still effective against HV.1, since the new strain is also in the Omicron family. If you are eligible for it and haven't gotten it yet, I'd highly recommend getting the new booster asap.

Additionally, the free at-home COVID test program was restarted - you can order 4 more tests completely free from here: https://www.covid.gov/tests

[CCOKC]

Both of my adult children tested positive this week. They went to an OU game together Saturday night and think that is where they got it.

[Martin]

the person who offices next to me tested positive on monday. i opted to get tested since i'm having to go back and forth visiting the hospital all week. fortunately, i came up negative.

[Bill Robertson]

I got the newest shot in late October. About the same time my wife went for her annual physical and got the flu shot then. She wanted to wait a couple weeks to get the new COVID shot. She's just that way. Well, I had been urging her since here and a couple other forums I've been reading of people getting it again. She went yesterday while I was out watching OU. She texted me a picture a couple hours after the shot. The right side of her tongue was swollen about twice normal size. I did some quick research and we decided that time and antihistamines were our first choice unless it got worse and we'd deal with that if need be. By evening it was going down and all was normal this morning. She says if that's the worst thing to happen the shots are well worth it. Especially since this round was our 6th or 7th each and this was the first side effect of any kind.

[Roger S]

She texted me a picture a couple hours after the shot. The right side of her tongue was swollen about twice normal size.

Got mine yesterday morning and fortunately just had the typical arm pain. It was gone when I woke up this morning.

One side of my tongue swelling would probably have me suffering my first ever anxiety attack though.

[Bill Robertson]

Got mine yesterday morning and fortunately just had the typical arm pain. It was gone when I woke up this morning.

One side of my tongue swelling would probably have me suffering my first ever anxiety attack though.

I was very proud of her. Ten+ years ago she would have been in an ER.

[TheTravellers]

Made appts at CVS for me and my wife tonight for boosters, and input our BCBS PPO info and the app said "fine, here are your appts". Wife got declined today hours before the appt, but I didn't. Tech said that BCBS didn't contract with CVS for the booster and it would be $190 each. **** that, it should be free for everybody everywhere, regardless of insurance or lack thereof, it's a public health situation....

[fortpatches]

Made appts at CVS for me and my wife tonight for boosters, and input our BCBS PPO info and the app said "fine, here are your appts". Wife got declined today hours before the appt, but I didn't. Tech said that BCBS didn't contract with CVS for the booster and it would be $190 each. **** that, it should be free for everybody everywhere, regardless of insurance or lack thereof, it's a public health situation....

On my BCBS plan at least, CVS is an out of network pharmacy.... Maybe that is what happened?

[Roger S]

On my BCBS plan at least, CVS is an out of network pharmacy.... Maybe that is what happened?

Yeah... I'm on BCBS and had to go to Walgreens

[chssooner]

Made appts at CVS for me and my wife tonight for boosters, and input our BCBS PPO info and the app said "fine, here are your appts". Wife got declined today hours before the appt, but I didn't. Tech said that BCBS didn't contract with CVS for the booster and it would be $190 each. **** that, it should be free for everybody everywhere, regardless of insurance or lack thereof, it's a public health situation....

But if it was downgraded by the current governmental regime, then is it still something where everything related to it should be free?

[PoliSciGuy]

But if it was downgraded by the current governmental regime, then is it still something where everything related to it should be free?

Flu shots are usually free, and Covid hasn't been downgraded below that, so not sure what you're arguing here

[Pete]

If you don't have insurance, the shot is free.

If you do have insurance, you need to go to a pharmacy that accepts your coverage.

It's a far more workable long-term plan if you think about it. This way insurance companies cover a lot of the shots instead of taxpayers having to foot the total bill.

[king183]

But if it was downgraded by the current governmental regime, then is it still something where everything related to it should be free?

What do you mean “it was downgraded”? The vaccines hasn’t been “downgraded” by the government. Insurance plans are required to pay for the vaccine at an in-network provider, with no out of pocket costs to the patient. That’s federal law. Those without insurance can access free vaccines through multiple sources as part of a federal program.