September Covid @Content

[tacokick]

Sept 14, 2023 16:40:49 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Maybe a dumb question - there's no issue with getting the flu & covid vaccines a few days apart, is there? I just realized I scheduled myself for a COVID shot on a Sunday and flu shot that Wednesday.

I assume no since you can get them at the same time but just want to make sure I'm not overlooking anything.

You should be fine!

[breezy8407]

Sept 14, 2023 16:40:49 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Maybe a dumb question - there's no issue with getting the flu & covid vaccines a few days apart, is there? I just realized I scheduled myself for a COVID shot on a Sunday and flu shot that Wednesday.

I assume no since you can get them at the same time but just want to make sure I'm not overlooking anything.

I got my flu shot and covid booster last year around this time at the same appointment. I initially went in for just covid, but the pharmacist asked if I wanted flu also, so I said sure. 

[wanderingback]

Looks like CVS is scheduling starting on Wednesday and Walgreens starting on Tues. Our DOH website is currently down and says it'll update when all sites have the new version.

I just booked for my flu and covid vaccine for Tuesday. Was nice to be able to filter by brand. I'm just going to stick with Moderna since that's what I've had all along.

[formerlyak]

We had them scheduled at different times this weekend. I met the teen at CVS where his was and they didn’t get their shipment so he only got flu and is rescheduled for Covid for Wednesday. Then I got a text that I needed to reschedule mine that was later at a different location but I still went to get my flu shot and the pharmacist was like, “No I have your Covid dose.” So I got mine. DH has his appointment tomorrow at a third location. We shall see if he gets his or has to reschedule. My younger one is too young to schedule yet but he’s getting flu tomorrow. At the very least we will all have flu shots by the end of the weekend.

[RoxMonster]

I just booked DH and I for our Covid booster this coming Friday. Walgreens let me make a "group appointment" (can schedule for up to 4 people) so I didn't have to do separate back-to-back appts like last year.

I can get the flu shot through work in early Oct so I'm waiting to do that. I also prefer not having a shot in each arm at the same time just for comfort.

[hermione]

I moved our shots up to this Friday. It seems like everyone I know has COVID or is in the exposure protocol.

[imimahoney]

5 of my sophomores are positive. Just waiting for my turn 🤣😭

[Susie]

I just made a Pfizer appointment for myself for Thurs.  I'd have liked Moderna, but my scheduling options were way further/less convenient, so I'm just going to go with Pfizer.  I think getting it done ASAP is more important.

I was just looking at our vax cards, and I realized that while I am a year out from my last dose, my 4 yo is only 7 mo. out from his.  He got Moderna in July & Aug 2022, and then bivalent booster in Feb 2023.  So I feel like I have a little more breathing room to figure out his vax situation.  That's good.

My 7 yo got her last dose 11 months ago, so I need to prioritize hers as much as mine (if not more because of school exposures).

[missva]

Has anyone heard about reactions from this booster (i.e. similar to previous ones or not)? I have gotten pretty sick with all my boosters (48 hour fever) and it's so hard to schedule with that in mind!

[formerlyak]

Sept 17, 2023 14:19:23 GMT -5 missva said:

Has anyone heard about reactions from this booster (i.e. similar to previous ones or not)? I have gotten pretty sick with all my boosters (48 hour fever) and it's so hard to schedule with that in mind!

I’m almost 24 hours out from the Moderna shot I got yesterday. So far it’s been way more mild than previous doses. Little bit of a headache and I am tired. I had chills for like an hour while we were at lunch. That’s it. With past doses, I’ve had fever, chills and headaches by this point and needed to nap.

[rosiebear]

My sister (age 68) just got her booster yesterday (along with flu shot) and reports feeling only soreness in her arm.

[formerlyak]

I take it back. I feel crappy now. No pounding headache or aches like last time but chills and exhausted.

[curbsideprophet]

Sept 17, 2023 14:19:23 GMT -5 missva said:

Has anyone heard about reactions from this booster (i.e. similar to previous ones or not)? I have gotten pretty sick with all my boosters (48 hour fever) and it's so hard to schedule with that in mind!

I would wait at least few days and see if they approve Novavax for everyone. It supposedly has less side effects.

[formerlyak]

Final report. Almost exactly 24 hours after the shot, I crashed - chills and tired. I got a little headache. This all tracked with when side effects started after all previous doses for me. The 24 hour mark was 4:30. At around 7:30 I decided to take ibuprofen and lay down. I woke up at 10 to pee and actually felt fine. So side effects happened but they were more mild and very short lived. I had Moderna for every shot.

[emilyj]

Sept 11, 2023 12:31:00 GMT -5 @villainv said:

My university is no longer issuing excused absences for COVID, so I expect lots of students will show up to class sick, and that it will spread like wildfire.

My niece and nephew (in a different state) both got COVID over the holiday weekend and just kept on going about their business (school, work, being in public…probably unmasked) while sick. I think a lot of people just don’t GAF anymore, so I’m anticipating that it’s gonna get pretty bad.

I’m not sure what type of position you are in, but could you override the policy in your capacity? I have no idea what the policy at ours is. I, as a professor, tell my students if they are sick (with anything, even if they think it’s allergies) to miss class and I’ll just excuse it. If the university said we couldn’t issue excused absences for COVID, I would 100% ignore that and keep doing my own thing.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Why is insurance so dumb?

Our insurance has a vaccine in pharmacy program where you can get vaccinated in specific pharmacies/pharmacy chains. Walgreens is one of those pharmacies where it is allowed. CVS is not.

DH went to get his booster today at a Walgreens and they told him that insurance doesn't cover getting the vaccine there and he has to go to a clinic.

This is definitely, 100% false. But they didn't budge.

What does one do in this situation?

[chickadee77]

Sept 18, 2023 15:07:15 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Why is insurance so dumb?

Our insurance has a vaccine in pharmacy program where you can get vaccinated in specific pharmacies/pharmacy chains. Walgreens is one of those pharmacies where it is allowed. CVS is not.

DH went to get his booster today at a Walgreens and they told him that insurance doesn't cover getting the vaccine there and he has to go to a clinic.

This is definitely, 100% false. But they didn't budge.

What does one do in this situation?

Ugh, I had a similar experience prior to covid. I went to get a flu shot at CVS. They told me my insurance said I had to go to Walgreens. So I went there (just across street). They said, nope. Gotta go to CVS. WTF. Back to a (different, because I was out of time that day) CVS, and they groaned and said, "We can't give you a shot in the pharmacy. But you can step right over there to the Minute Clinic and they can do it for you."

[mcsangel2]

Sept 17, 2023 17:45:19 GMT -5 rosiebear said:

My sister (age 68) just got her booster yesterday (along with flu shot) and reports feeling only soreness in her arm.

Newest Covid shot is not a booster, it's a brand new vaccine.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Sept 18, 2023 15:24:19 GMT -5 chickadee77 said:

Sept 18, 2023 15:07:15 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Why is insurance so dumb?

Our insurance has a vaccine in pharmacy program where you can get vaccinated in specific pharmacies/pharmacy chains. Walgreens is one of those pharmacies where it is allowed. CVS is not.

DH went to get his booster today at a Walgreens and they told him that insurance doesn't cover getting the vaccine there and he has to go to a clinic.

This is definitely, 100% false. But they didn't budge.

What does one do in this situation?

Ugh, I had a similar experience prior to covid. I went to get a flu shot at CVS. They told me my insurance said I had to go to Walgreens. So I went there (just across street). They said, nope. Gotta go to CVS. WTF. Back to a (different, because I was out of time that day) CVS, and they groaned and said, "We can't give you a shot in the pharmacy. But you can step right over there to the Minute Clinic and they can do it for you."

This was our flu shot experience last year too. Which is strangely true. Our insurance doesn't cover CVS but it does MinuteClinic.

But it's absolutely, definitely not true that we can't get shots at Walgreens.

DH called insurance and was told he needs his primary care provider to approve him getting it before they'll cover it. Which is also undoubtedly not true.

I mean, it's important enough to me that I'll just pay OOP if I have to but there is no reason for this to be this hard.

[rosiebear]

Sept 18, 2023 15:42:06 GMT -5 mcsangel2 said:

Sept 17, 2023 17:45:19 GMT -5 rosiebear said:

My sister (age 68) just got her booster yesterday (along with flu shot) and reports feeling only soreness in her arm.

Newest Covid shot is not a booster, it's a brand new vaccine.

Thank you for the correction. It was the newest vaccine.

[pixy0stix]

Moderna appts are finally starting to pop up in October for the kid. Nowhere near me, of course. The closest is 30 miles away.

Vaccine related, but not covid, I received a notification from the school district that my kid is way behind his vaccinations. Which freaked me out, so I called his doc office to review. They're going to get back to me, but the explanation I got from the desk person is that they're seeing discrepancies between the state database and their own databases. The school is pulling from the state, and not going from the vaccine record I provided when DS was enrolled. It's a mess.

[kiminky]

Someone local to me posted on Twitter that 4 of the 5 people (including them) they were scheduled with at the pharmacy to get their Covid vaccine today weren't able to get it because health insurance companies had not added it to their coverage. Anyone else seeing this?

[chickadee77]

Question: I think my H and I may have had covid last week-ish. We tested several times at home; no positives. We are traveling next month and want to get updated prior. Is it considered safe to get the new vaccine prior to the recommended three month wait? What are the possible repercussions?

[funkmaster]

Sept 18, 2023 20:03:16 GMT -5 kiminky said:

Someone local to me posted on Twitter that 4 of the 5 people (including them) they were scheduled with at the pharmacy to get their Covid vaccine today weren't able to get it because health insurance companies had not added it to their coverage. Anyone else seeing this?

My H and I had this issue at a CVS. It gave a “rejection code”. We are going to follow up with our insurance and try again. OOP cost was $190 per shot.

[sillygoosegirl]

Blarg. Should I get my shots tomorrow? There's appointments available near me. But a member of my household is currently sick with an unknown respiratory illness. Definitely seems like it might be COVID (although they haven't managed to produce a positive test yet). I'm not sick... yet.

[seeyalater52]

Sept 18, 2023 15:42:06 GMT -5 mcsangel2 said:

Sept 17, 2023 17:45:19 GMT -5 rosiebear said:

My sister (age 68) just got her booster yesterday (along with flu shot) and reports feeling only soreness in her arm.

Newest Covid shot is not a booster, it's a brand new vaccine.

I think this is only part true. It is a new vaccine formulation, but for those previously vaccinated with a primary series, the latest single dose is considered a booster. It adds to and updates the existing protection offered by prior covid vaccines.

For those who aren’t vaccinated yet the updated vaccine formulation is what they need for a primary series (and a booster once eligible later.) So it serves both purposes even though it is a new/updated monovalent vaccine.

[seeyalater52]

Sept 18, 2023 20:39:32 GMT -5 chickadee77 said:

Question: I think my H and I may have had covid last week-ish. We tested several times at home; no positives. We are traveling next month and want to get updated prior. Is it considered safe to get the new vaccine prior to the recommended three month wait? What are the possible repercussions?

With travel coming up and not a confirmed case of covid I’d get it. The upside is you know you’ll have protection on your trip (protection you wouldn’t have if you didn’t actually have covid when you were sick) and the downside is that having covid and a booster spaced closely together means the booster will not be as effective or durable long term than if you had spaced it. Which is not ideal given that we have 1x a year vaccines at this point but depending on what other risks you know you’ll have in the coming year and the fact that cases are spiking now and may (likely) ebb after that.

There doesn’t appear to be any real risk to getting it prior to the 3 month wait. Lots of people have covid without even knowing and many of those people have surely been boosted without issue.

[seeyalater52]

Sept 18, 2023 21:21:57 GMT -5 funkmaster said:

Sept 18, 2023 20:03:16 GMT -5 kiminky said:

Someone local to me posted on Twitter that 4 of the 5 people (including them) they were scheduled with at the pharmacy to get their Covid vaccine today weren't able to get it because health insurance companies had not added it to their coverage. Anyone else seeing this?

My H and I had this issue at a CVS. It gave a “rejection code”. We are going to follow up with our insurance and try again. OOP cost was $190 per shot.

This is infuriating, and I’m guessing it is going to be a widespread problem. I’m scheduled for Fri so we will see what happens with my insurance.

[beerlover]

I just checked Rite Aid website to see if I could maybe schedule the new Covid vaccine and flu for one appt and get it over with soon, but it doesn't look like the Covid vaccine is available yet.

[curbsideprophet]

Sept 18, 2023 20:03:16 GMT -5 kiminky said:

Someone local to me posted on Twitter that 4 of the 5 people (including them) they were scheduled with at the pharmacy to get their Covid vaccine today weren't able to get it because health insurance companies had not added it to their coverage. Anyone else seeing this?

I am seeing various people talk about this on Twitter.