COVID boosters are still weeks away as cases surge in the U.S.

As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations creep up during a summer wave of heightened virus activity, updated vaccines are still likely weeks away.

Why it matters:

  • Americans have largely tuned out COVID, but the latest COVID uptick is a reminder that the virus continues to circulate and mutate — though the threat is far below pandemic-era levels.
  • Health officials face a challenge convincing a pandemic-fatigued public to get an updated COVID shot, as vaccine uptake has declined with each successive booster.
mesamunefire,

How do you get the booster without insurance? My old company threw us under the buss after the stole our 401ks.

lagomorphlecture,

You go to a pharmacy and ask for a shot and pay cash. Fuck you for getting screwed over, ya know?

Lev_Astov,
@Lev_Astov@lemmy.world avatar

In my county all COVID vaccines and boosters are free to residents and in most regions around me I know there are programs to get them for free if you can’t afford them. I’m sure it’s not that way everywhere, though, but it’s certainly worth calling around and asking about.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

COVID vaccines are free whether or not you have insurance.

The only difference is that if you don’t have insurance, the government covers the cost.

lagomorphlecture,

Is this outdated? Because it used to be true but I had to pay for my sister’s last shot. Or…we got flu shots at the same time maybe that’s what I paid for?

Kage520,

Probably the flu shot. As far as I know no one pays for covid shots yet.

IronSage,

How can a company steal your 401? It’s already paid out to you

elscallr,
@elscallr@lemmy.world avatar

It can’t. It can avoid paying an unvested match, but that’s it. That person might be confusing a 401K for a pension, but even pensions are pretty well protected.

pdxfed,

Just be rich and pay cash.

Seriously though, almost any vaccine distribution site was mandated to provide the shot to those without insurance including Walgreens, rite aid, etc., then the bill is sent to feds.

lettruthout,

“The updated COVID shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are expected to become available in the third or fourth week of September, according to the most recent guidance from CDC director Mandy Cohen.”

ComfortablyGlum,

They say that, but it likely won’t be widely available till early October.

TheDarkKnight,

Seems like these things should be coordinated with kids going back to school every year but idk, not a medical professional.

athos77,

It would complicate the messaging, but I'd like it if school kids got it in September to tamp down the natural wave caused by them spreading it throughout the community; and adults got it in October to protect them through most of the winter.

Mewtwo,
@Mewtwo@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I have a large gathering beginning October and a trip in December. Guess I’ll be taking the currently available booster.

Bipta,

There's little reason to believe the new shots will be highly protective against BA.2.86, so we'd better hope it gets outcompeted.

dethb0y,

That’s my thought as well, these shots are not going to be tuned for the variants we face today but the variants we faced months ago.

athos77,

First, it's a sub-variant of omicron, so the new shots should provide some protection against it.

Secondly, per the CDC, as of yesterday:

At least two cases have been identified in the United States. [...] It is also important to note that the current increase in hospitalizations in the United States is not likely driven by the BA.2.86 variant. This assessment may change as additional data become available.

uberrice,

Fun fact: Corona is basically like the flu now. People die from the flu. People die from corona.

Do you make big news out of people not getting a flu shot?

It’s a personal risk assessment.

TheCrispyDud,
@TheCrispyDud@kbin.social avatar

Not sure what point you're trying to get across here unless it's a veiled statement about you not getting vaccinated. People should get vaccinated for both especially since they're both easily transmittable and potentially deadly for certain demographics.

uberrice,

I got the first few covid vaccines because you know, whatever. But I never got a flu shot, and will not really be taking covid shots now, unless we get in another pickle like we did before.

It’s endemic, covid is here to stay. Being vaccinated doesn’t make you totally sterile to the virus, you can still carry it and infect others.

That’s also the way it’s handled by my country (and has been for as long as I have been alive, for the flu) - Switzerland. People at risk get vaccinated, the general public usually doesn’t

Ranman,

deleted_by_author

    •
    scytale,

    Yup, and it’s always news when vaccination rates go down due to dumb antivaxxers spreading misinformation.

    Bipta,

    COVID disables healthy people in a way the flu does not.

    PetDinosaurs, (edited )

    The flu absolutely kills healthy, young individuals.

    I personally know an otherwise healthy 18 year old who died of the flu.

    Edit: mine is a completely factual statement. I’m not sure what the issue is, but a later comment is making me think I should tell people to Google “long flu”.

    Some viruses are not so bad. Both COVID and the flu are bad. Hopefully, we can control this with something like a combined flu/COVID annual shot (and maybe we should start calling it that instead of a booster). Both are not the same as, e.g., smallpox where it’s kinda “one and done”.

    SauceBossSmokin,

    OP said “disables” not “kills” so your comment doesn’t actually address OP’s comment. Long COVID is way more common than any after effects from the flu.

    PetDinosaurs,

    And you think that a disease that kills healthy young people doesn’t also disable them?

    dorkian_gray,
    @dorkian_gray@lemmy.world avatar

    You do know we can spot non-sequiturs, and that they make you look stupid, right? You did that because you don’t have an answer, so you just twisted their words in a weak attempt to mock them.

    COVID causes long COVID. I’ve never heard of “long flu” because it doesn’t exist. As far as actual death goes, the flu killed 608 people in 2022. COVID killed OVER A QUARTER OF A MILLION in the same time period. Two hundred and sixty seven thousand of my countrymen. You fucking clown.

    PetDinosaurs,

    Are you fucking kidding me? Mock? Dude didn’t think the flu was dangerous. That’s (maybe almost) as dangerous as being a COVID vaccine denier and deserving of criticism.

    Next, I want you to apologize for not googling “long flu” before making this comment. Do that and get back to me. Consider thinking before posting. Everything I’ve said is completely factual.

    Now, no one is saying that COVID is not dangerous or that it killed millions, but the flu is also very dangerous. That’s why we get vaccinated for the flu every year and why we will (I think) have to do the same for COVID.

    COVID killed so many because it was completely novel. When the flu was/is introduced to unexposed populations, it kills terribly. I can’t say more or less bad than COVID. Nearly everyone has now been exposed to flu, similar to COVID, and now we can’t do the “more or less dangerous” science in a simple statistical manner.

    I’m not sure how to end this except to say, huh?

    freeindv,

    Post viral syndrome is not unique to covid, and is typically minor and short lived

    dorkian_gray,
    @dorkian_gray@lemmy.world avatar

    It is not short-lived or mild with COVID which is kind of the whole point here.

    JohnEdwa,
    @JohnEdwa@kbin.social avatar

    Both can kill, but only one has a rather high chance (some estimate 10-20%) of leaving you exhausted for months on end or worse - Physics Girl has been bedridden and at times hospitalized for the last year or so because of it.

    PetDinosaurs,

    See my edit earlier in the thread. “Long flu” is (of course) a thing. It’ll be different because there’re lots of differences between viruses (and, you know, everything)

    I do love science populizers and physics girl is a wonderful populizer. I really hope that she’s able to recover.

    KarmicSquish,

    Hold on now! This kind of thinking just won’t do. It doesn’t fit the narrative.

    Don’t you realize how scared you’re supposed to be?? It Covid version 2.1.1.2. This one will be worse and you simply must fear it. It’s the only way

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    No one said anything about being scared of COVID. That is in your imagination.

    Being aware and prepared is not the same as being scared.

    AeroLemming,

    It’s a personal risk assessment in the same way that following the speed limit is a personal risk assessment. After all, if it’s just your car going 80 in a 25, it couldn’t possibly affect other cars!

    freeindv,

    This argument has no bounds, and is the reason why we need to pass explicit constitutional protections against public health infringements

    uberrice,

    Thing is, the vaccine doesn’t protect you against infecting other people. This is a known fact, and common for vaccines. That is not the point of a vaccine. A vaccine prevents YOU from being majorly infected - in the way that your body can quickly deal with the infection, because it’s used to it. It doesn’t magically make you immune, and not able to infect anyone.

    AeroLemming,

    You are incorrect. Vaccinated individuals can be carriers of an infection, but vaccines do lower the spread of COVID-19. They can reduce the amount of time you are contagious or prevent you from being meaningfully infected whatsoever. Meaningful difference.

    cheesemonk,

    Yeah but it’s not 100% effective so I don’t think the commenter you’re replying to is able to comprehend. I’ve decided that the people who say that about the vaccine don’t understand risk as a percentage or chance at all.

    AeroLemming,

    Could be lol. Then you have stuff like the Monty Hall problem that even smart people can struggle to wrap their heads around. Probability is complicated.

    athos77,

    The vaccine absolutely does protect you from infecting others. It reduces your risk of getting the illness, so if you're not sick you're not a disease vector. It reduces your viral load, so when you're ill you shed less virus, so you're less likely to infect to other people. It reduces the length of time you're sick, so there's a smaller window when you can infect people.

    The vaccine absolutely does protect you from infecting others.

    Saneless,

    So you have references I can read about long flu?

    Since it’s the same and all

    uberrice,

    It’s not the same disease.

    It’s the same kind of disease - an endemic seasonal virus.

    We can agree on that, right?

    The flu is dangerous, just look up studies, we’ve been researching this for decades.

    Any viral disease can potentially turn into a ‘long’ disease. Long covid is just a meme at this point with a lot of people ‘having’ it with some unclear issues, and only a small subset of them actually having verifiable issues.

    ‘I got the covid, and now I have brain fog!’ - yes, or you might just have a psychosomatic issue because nocebo.

    I do agree that there are people that actually get terrible symptoms over a long while.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    And you got your medical degree from…?

    Demographics,

    There are loads of studies actively studying the vascular effects of covid over the long term while there are no such studies for the flu. This is because no one has the long flu. However, chronic issues from covid are observable and proven.

    You are playing down a serious health hazard.

    Franzia,

    I can get the flu shot before flu season occurs. The point of thr article is the slow ass speed of the newest booster rollout, combined of course with the premium price.

    TotallynotJessica,

    We should honestly. Many lives would be saved if more people vaccinated for the flu. The vaccines for covid are safer than most vaccines last I checked, so taking it or not is less personal risk assessment and more doing a public disservice if one opts out. We should probably make access to participation in public life be contingent on taking safe, low risk, public health measures like getting vaccinated. Just like how food prepers are required to wash their hands to serve food, everyone should be required to take certain vaccines in order to take public transit or receive government funded Healthcare.

    Covid has become like the flu in that it’s seasonal, isn’t going away, and is less fatal than other diseases, but that doesn’t mean we should go back to business as usual. Covid was a warning shot from nature that disease is a major threat we were ignoring. We need to double down on making sure we’re better prepared for the next one. Heaven forbid it’s as deadly or scaring as polio, the plague, or smallpox. We frankly got a failing grade on how we handled covid, so we better study up.

    inclementimmigrant,

    Honestly, the HHS needs to stop referring to this as a pandemic and call it an endemic and treat this like a flu and get a cadence going for biannual boosters and reminders of covid and flu seasons.

    Like our or not but most scientists seem to agree that this sucker is going to be endemic and the faster we move to that reality, the better.

    baked_tea,

    Bold of you to assume everyone will accept the reality

    PP_BOY_,
    @PP_BOY_@lemmy.world avatar

    Antivaxxers have literally been saying “itS nO worse tHaN the FLu!!” since day 1. If anything, they should be even more receptive to the idea.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    You know they constantly move the goalposts.

    There is no point in catering to crazy people.

    lagomorphlecture,

    We don’t get flu shots biannually though, is there a reason to do COVID boosters that way? I was under the impression we need them annually, or is that just because of the quick evolution of new variants?

    gornar,
    @gornar@lemmy.world avatar

    But covid hasn’t tuned out Americans!

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