@@@ October COVID @@@

[turbo]

Oct 14, 2022 7:33:18 GMT -5 hermione said:

Oct 13, 2022 21:07:42 GMT -5 formerlyak said:

Thanks for posting this. Just booked my 8yo for next Friday at Walgreens.

Walgreens for us also. I tried other chains and they would not schedule kids yet. We're all going to get it October 27th. i wish it was a bit earlier but we have a lot coming up that that we can't really miss and I never know how the shots will effect everyone. I've promised ice cream after.

You could check Costco. I just was able to get an appointment for Tuesday, and my kid has to have Pfizer (since he’s 5). They had a bunch of Moderna available and I’m in a pretty heavy vax area.

[heygrey]

We’ve had a good run, but H and I tested positive this morning after 3 and 1 day of symptoms respectively and multiple negative tests. So far DS (8) is symptom free and enjoying this unexpected time off school. I can’t decide if both of going down at once is good or bad. We’re still able to piece together the equivalent of 3/4 of a functioning adult and DS is easily entertained with unlimited screen time.

I ordered grocery delivery for the first time ever because of course we’re completely out of food. I wonder if they can recognize the covid orders? Cold medicine, ginger ale, bread, butter, apples, and a random collection of snacks.

[ssmjlm]

I got my booster and flu shot today and the pharmacist said this Walgreens doesn’t have the new kid ones in yet.

[hermione]

Oct 14, 2022 19:34:15 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

I got my booster and flu shot today and the pharmacist said this Walgreens doesn’t have the new kid ones in yet.

Aren’t they pulling from adult vials? I might be wrong but thought I read that.

[seeyalater52]

Oct 14, 2022 20:26:27 GMT -5 hermione said:

Oct 14, 2022 19:34:15 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

I got my booster and flu shot today and the pharmacist said this Walgreens doesn’t have the new kid ones in yet.

Aren’t they pulling from adult vials? I might be wrong but thought I read that.

Just Moderna. The bigger issue is that pharmacists are perpetually confused every time there is a new rollout and have no idea what’s going on.

[turbo]

My pharmacist friend just got Pfizer into her office this morning and texted me asking if I wanted to bring my DS over for his booster. I rushed out the house so fast I forgot to change out of slippers. 🤣 Got his booster done though!

[pinkpeony08]

Sharing my discovery from our local pharmacy! If a pharmacy is registered as a federal pharmacy, they are sent the doses immediately/the day they are released. I was chatting with the pharmacist at the pharmacy that has had the latest vaccine available immediately every time. My kids got their first vaccines there and just got omicron boosters there too.

If it's helpful, my kids felt terrible last night - about 6 hours after the vaccine. Exhausted, sore arms, cranky and begging to go to bed early. They are better this am except for sore arms. This is the most symptoms they have had from any of the vaccines yet. We did it on a Saturday so they could have a low key day today without plans.

[seeyalater52]

Oct 16, 2022 18:52:34 GMT -5 JayhawkGirl said:

Oct 13, 2022 21:07:42 GMT -5 formerlyak said:

Thanks for posting this. Just booked my 8yo for next Friday at Walgreens.

Well we got to Walgreen today for our 3 o’clock appointment and the pharmacist was perplexed as to why we were allowed to book the appointment, they don’t have doses and they don’t know when they are getting them. Thank goodness we are not vaccine hesitant, this now makes three doses between my two children that we have arrived at and been told never mind can’t do it. Two of those were with our actual pediatrician!!

I am dumbfounded. I booked her with CVS tomorrow, she will get Pfizer instead of Moderna

Walgreens has been a hot mess. Lots of reports of locations turning kids away because they “don’t have the vials” when they do indeed have Moderna bivalent in stock. It is the SAME vial, different dosing. It makes me really frustrated how confused pharmacists are about this and how much confusion it causes for families, to your point it is so damaging if people are already hesitant or mistrusting or even just tired of the extra errands and not likely to bother to reschedule. Such a shame.

[Bad Dingo]

Oct 16, 2022 21:27:12 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

Oct 16, 2022 18:52:34 GMT -5 JayhawkGirl said:

Well we got to Walgreen today for our 3 o’clock appointment and the pharmacist was perplexed as to why we were allowed to book the appointment, they don’t have doses and they don’t know when they are getting them. Thank goodness we are not vaccine hesitant, this now makes three doses between my two children that we have arrived at and been told never mind can’t do it. Two of those were with our actual pediatrician!!

I am dumbfounded. I booked her with CVS tomorrow, she will get Pfizer instead of Moderna

Walgreens has been a hot mess. Lots of reports of locations turning kids away because they “don’t have the vials” when they do indeed have Moderna bivalent in stock. It is the SAME vial, different dosing. It makes me really frustrated how confused pharmacists are about this and how much confusion it causes for families, to your point it is so damaging if people are already hesitant or mistrusting or even just tired of the extra errands and not likely to bother to reschedule. Such a shame.

I understand how bad things have been for Pharmacists and pharmacies but this is such an important part of their job, they really need to be on top of this.

[JayTea]

We were turned away on Friday for my 11 year old for Moderna. The tech told my husband that it wasn't approved yet.

I lit into the pharmacist (nicely) not because they didn't vaccinate him (going somewhere else today), or that they didn't know to pull from the adult dose, but because they are uninformed and uneducated on something so important during an ongoing public health emergency. Not to mention the fact they they let me schedule him there.

They also told me that they don't vaccinate under 12. Funny how he got his last 3 doses there.

[wanderingback]

This seems like a corporate problem and not an individual pharmacist problem if this is happening in so many places.
Corporate medicine these days is a hot mess.

Eta: my health department has been pretty good about updates and I see that we didn’t get notification till Friday evening (I just saw email today because I don’t work on Fridays) about the expansion for kids, so I’m not surprised that people working over the weekend weren’t quite up to date yet. I think corporate should have held off a couple days on allowing appointments to be scheduled to help mitigate this problem and get everyone up to speed.

[formerlyak]

Oct 17, 2022 7:54:23 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

This seems like a corporate problem and not an individual pharmacist problem if this is happening in so many places.
Corporate medicine these days is a hot mess.

Eta: my health department has been pretty good about updates and I see that we didn’t get notification till Friday evening (I just saw email today because I don’t work on Fridays) about the expansion for kids, so I’m not surprised that people working over the weekend weren’t quite up to date yet. I think corporate should have held off a couple days on allowing appointments to be scheduled to help mitigate this problem and get everyone up to speed.

Locally (Los Angeles area) I wasn’t able to schedule anything for my 8 year old until late this week, even at national chains like Walgreens and CVS. Wonder if it’s regional? Like I know Starbucks is a National chain but had regional management. Could Walgreens and CVS be like that?

[seeyalater52]

Oct 17, 2022 7:54:23 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

This seems like a corporate problem and not an individual pharmacist problem if this is happening in so many places.
Corporate medicine these days is a hot mess.

Eta: my health department has been pretty good about updates and I see that we didn’t get notification till Friday evening (I just saw email today because I don’t work on Fridays) about the expansion for kids, so I’m not surprised that people working over the weekend weren’t quite up to date yet. I think corporate should have held off a couple days on allowing appointments to be scheduled to help mitigate this problem and get everyone up to speed.

It’s both I think. Obviously corporate communication is terrible and there are corporate systems and policies that are contributing to the problem*, but the number of people I know who have been condescended to by the pharmacist about how the vaccines haven’t been approved yet (this is easily verifiable!) or told their kids don’t need covid vaccines etc is definitely on individual pharmacists as much as anyone.

*in this case it seems clear there is an issue with corporate allowing scheduling for vaccines they aren’t offering yet, and for whatever policy or miscommunication isn’t allowing pharmacies that have supply of Moderna to draw the smaller adolescent doses from the same vials. They say they’re waiting for shipments but these are often stores that have Moderna in stock for adults so it isn’t clear what is preventing them from using those vials as they’re the same ones.

[lo]

My five year old had her last shot in June. My 8 year old had her booster in May.

Is one or both eligible for the new booster??

I know my twins who are turning 3 in December will have to wait.

[seeyalater52]

Oct 17, 2022 9:49:58 GMT -5 lo said:

My five year old had her last shot in June. My 8 year old had her booster in May.

Is one or both eligible for the new booster??

I know my twins who are turning 3 in December will have to wait.

They are both eligible. Your 5 year old would need to get Pfizer as that’s the only bivalent booster option for her age currently (until Moderna’s 6m-6 year is approved … whenever that happens.) 8 year old could get either.

[hermione]

So many COVID cases around us. I moved our appointments up by a week to this Friday. CVS let us schedule our 9yo.

[nothingcontroversial]

I find it sort of interesting that several people on this board posted stuff that basically said, "I am holding off on getting myself and my family boosted because we have plans to travel for the holidays. I intend to time all of our boosters so that we get the maximum protection for our holiday travel."

I know that this board is a little bit of a bubble. However, I was wondering, what if there are lots of people out there who intend to "time" their Covid boosters (and / or also their flu shots) in order to have maximum protection at the holidays? What if they all intended to schedule their shots for the same week (or same two weeks or whatever)?


We might read a bunch of posts soon that all say "well, I tried to get boosted for my upcoming Thanksgiving vacation trip, but it turns out that nobody has any appointments anywhere, and now I am SOL."

[hermione]

Oct 17, 2022 11:53:08 GMT -5 nothingcontroversial said:

I find it sort of interesting that several people on this board posted stuff that basically said, "I am holding off on getting myself and my family boosted because we have plans to travel for the holidays. I intend to time all of our boosters so that we get the maximum protection for our holiday travel."

I know that this board is a little bit of a bubble. However, I was wondering, what if there are lots of people out there who intend to "time" their Covid boosters (and / or also their flu shots) in order to have maximum protection at the holidays? What if they all intended to schedule their shots for the same week (or same two weeks or whatever)?


We might read a bunch of posts soon that all say "well, I tried to get boosted for my upcoming Thanksgiving vacation trip, but it turns out that nobody has any appointments anywhere, and now I am SOL."

Given the actual percentage of overall people vaccinating in my state, I am not terribly worried.

[wesleycrusher]

DH and I are scheduled for this Thursday, and just got the kids scheduled for this Saturday. The CVS locations were much more limited for the kids than they were for us. We leave beginning of November for our vacation, so finger crossed we are able to all get boosted.

[wawa]

Oct 17, 2022 12:13:13 GMT -5 hermione said:

Oct 17, 2022 11:53:08 GMT -5 nothingcontroversial said:

I find it sort of interesting that several people on this board posted stuff that basically said, "I am holding off on getting myself and my family boosted because we have plans to travel for the holidays. I intend to time all of our boosters so that we get the maximum protection for our holiday travel."

I know that this board is a little bit of a bubble. However, I was wondering, what if there are lots of people out there who intend to "time" their Covid boosters (and / or also their flu shots) in order to have maximum protection at the holidays? What if they all intended to schedule their shots for the same week (or same two weeks or whatever)?


We might read a bunch of posts soon that all say "well, I tried to get boosted for my upcoming Thanksgiving vacation trip, but it turns out that nobody has any appointments anywhere, and now I am SOL."

Given the actual percentage of overall people vaccinating in my state, I am not terribly worried.

Even in a high vax place like where I live, the local independent pharmacy where I've been getting all our shots has been offering incentives like free ice cream for people who come get boosted.  So....yeah. Not concerned.  (I also didn't wait though)

[pixy0stix]

I really hope people aren't waiting on their flu shots. The prediction that it was going to hit early seems to be true - www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/health/flu-season-concern

[seeyalater52]

Oct 17, 2022 15:08:02 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I really hope people aren't waiting on their flu shots. The prediction that it was going to hit early seems to be true - www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/health/flu-season-concern

It is driving me CRAZY that so many people here and IRL are saying their providers/kid’s providers are recommending waiting since flu season came late last year. Firstly, it’s already trending to be a bad early flu year here, and second, we KNOW why flu season was delayed last year and this year is completely different in every way.

[abs]

Oct 17, 2022 15:08:02 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I really hope people aren't waiting on their flu shots. The prediction that it was going to hit early seems to be true - www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/health/flu-season-concern

www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm

Texas is bad and has been for awhile. South/southeast is starting to catch, too. Flu A is running rampant and has taken out at least half the kids I know. They are getting very, very sick. Seems like it is currently pushing out Covid as those numbers are very low. Going to be a very interesting season. Get your flu shots people if you haven’t.

[statgirl]

My kids and I got flu shots today—our state is still green on the CDC map, but I wanted them done. Only cost me $40-ish dollars in bribes! They started strategizing the bribes for the COVID boosters they are getting next. (We bought a RC truck and Exploding Kittens. I think I am on the hook for Pokémon cards and another truck next time).

[icedcoffee]

DS1 is getting his bivalent booster tomorrow. Hooray for convenient pedi vaccine clinic hours!

[gretchenindisguise]

Oct 17, 2022 15:08:02 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I really hope people aren't waiting on their flu shots. The prediction that it was going to hit early seems to be true - www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/health/flu-season-concern

Get your flu shots folks!!

L was diagnosed today. She and I got our shots last week, so close. Pretty sure A and H had it last week - they got their shots sooner and had really mild symptoms.

L got antivirals. I got prophylaxis- fingers crossed I can skip it.

Remember antivirals work for flu too and the fda just approved xofluza (treatment = 1 single dose) down to age 5 in August. For younger kids tamiflu is good. A had it around age 2 and he was feeling better so quickly afterwards.

Eta - and we are in SoCal. We usually do see flu late. It’s not. It’s all over.

[hermione]

Flu has been slowly taking down the other 4th grade class. It's only a matter of time until it crosses the hall. Super glad for the rec here to get the vaccine early. Fingers crossed it skips us!

[StrawberryBlondie]

Oct 17, 2022 18:26:42 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

DS1 is getting his bivalent booster tomorrow. Hooray for convenient pedi vaccine clinic hours!

I'm jealous. For flu and covid, our pediatrician's vax clinics have been weekdays between 10-3.

Because no kids have other places to be during that time apparently.

[noodleoo]

I want to schedule DD1's covid booster but I can't decide if I should get is asap or wait to get Moderna. CVS near us is all Pfizer, Walgreens has a few Moderna appts but they are all times we can't make. I have a feeling if I wait a week or 2 the availability will open up. But then I get anxious about waiting. MA has a vaccine finder website but it only lets you search by general booster, not booster for a specific age group so that's not particularly helpful.

[Bad Dingo]

Oct 18, 2022 8:47:28 GMT -5 hermione said:

Flu has been slowly taking down the other 4th grade class. It's only a matter of time until it crosses the hall. Super glad for the rec here to get the vaccine early. Fingers crossed it skips us!

For schools with a flu outbreak, is there any discussion that masks will help prevent spread?