The spikevax tends to really run me down for a day or two. Phizer not much at all. Both are effective so fyi if you experience vax hangovers. I still choose the spikevax when I have a choice, hangover tells me it's working.
I have an over the top reaction to the Covid Vaccine, to the point that I schedule it when I can do nothing the following week, because the first one knocked me down for three days and the subsequent ones have varied from a few hours to a few days. But Covid itself, post-vaccine, knocked me down for weeks or months, and I never want it again. So when I can get the vaccine, I do. However, itβs increasingly difficult to get it and the flu for me - the doctorβs office doesnβt keep the Covid Vax, the drug store screws up the coding or the insurance blithely decides not to cover it, or the drug store decides I need to log in four times and canβt schedule nearby. So Iβm definitely behind this year. I do wonder how many people just donβt get it because of minor inconveniences triggering the memories of that desperate scrabble to get a Covid Shot at the beginning.
As an infectious disease researcher, I feel it's important to flag the big difference between seasonal vaccinations and being "ever vaccinated". For example, reasonable people can disagree on the evidence of benefits from otherwise healthy adults getting annual updates versus every few years (this is also *very* difficult to study in clinical trials). On the flip side, there is zero good-faith debate about autism and vaccines (or climate change, or lead paint, etc). Unfortunately, these positions can end up getting lumped together against "trust the science" arguments that don't necessarily understand the scientific process.
One interesting example of this is hand washing and COVID. Public messaging on this eas largely "security theater", presumably on the premise that it wouldn't hurt. But the populace quickly picks up that "trusting the scientists" (here, the CDC) with 6 ft separation and birthday song hand washing didn't *work*. Consequently, post-covid, I think we should have some compassion for people who are a bit confused about exactly who *can* be trusted.
Nuance is a huge challenge in public communication around vaccines, where the strength of evidence can be weak and personal risk profiles vary greatly between individuals. Influenza, for example, disproportionately harms children under 5 and the elderly, where immunity is suboptimal.
Thanks for the intel on Maher: I find him amorphously distasteful, but I wasn't aware of his recent "activities".
"But the populace quickly picks up that "trusting the scientists" (here, the CDC) with 6 ft separation and birthday song hand washing didn't *work*."
And what possible proof do you have that it didn't? The CDC never said "This will prevent infections" just this will help minimize spread.
Meanwhile people were ignoring masking, getting together in large numbers to sing in enclosed spaces, and generally ignoring what the CDC said anyway, so I'm unclear on how you determined that "people decided it didn't work"
There was abundant "security theatre" during the pandemic, like fogging streets with antiseptic, sanitizong your groceries, etc, but washing your hands is not 'security theatre', it's basic hygeine that people should have learned as children.
And this is before getting into the eugenicists of the "Great Barrington Resolution" to just let the disease "rip through the population, who cares if a few million people die just so the economy doesn't suffer" that should have landed those sociopaths in front of a tribunal instead of [checks notes] now being in charge of our pandemic readiness, vaccine approval, and the CDC, which should now be called the CDE "Centers for Disease Enablement".
There was, during the entire pandemic, deliberate and widespread pushback against any measures meant to help reduce the spread of the disease from a huge number of people outside the medical community. This is a major reason that over a million Americans died of covid; well outpacing our peer countries.
Not trusting the experts was just good old American idiocracy in action.
And now we're gonna learn it the hard way again. We have a massive uptick in measles, whooping cough, babies dying of tetanus, and eevn an uptick in in diptheria.
We're going to reverse all the work of the 20th century to battle disease:
Hand-washing was a major push of early covid communication from CDC and regional public health agencies. A century of public health evidence suggested that transmission by contact would play an minor/insignificant roles in population-level transmission of an aerosol disease like SARS. Consequently, a lot of time and energy was spent early on advocating for a minimally effective control strategy. And this is just one example. Early CDC handling of COVID testing was really, really problematic.
At the same time, the "herd immunity" / Barrington Declaration folks were not arguing based on sound evidence. Rather, they were using weak scientific arguments to mask economic policy preferences. But that doesn't mean the economic impacts weren't real.
Regarding shut-downs, it's still not clear what the "right" answer was, because these policies affect a lot of different things simultaneously. Take school closures, for example, which remains a source of intense debate. High and certain cost, unclear benefits.
Funny enough, we know masks are highly effective but we decided en masse to stop using them. Like, masks are plausibly more effective than seasonal vaccinations at preventing influenza transmission. But we can't be bothered, which says something...
I got both back in September. Since then, I've gotten the RSV vaccine, pneumonia vaccine, and because measles is back, I went ahead and got a new MMR vaccine booster because, fuck it, why not?
I happen to live in Southern California and am white as a ghost, so if necessary, I could probably hop over the border into Mexico, visit a pharmacy there and get a vaccine. Just really, really sucks that Fools... willfully foolish people... are running things. Makes me wonder how much will be left in another three years.
I live in Upstate SC, and had to get a prescription for the Covid jab. Luckily, a quick phone call to my doctor's office took care of that, and they sent it to Walmart, where I get my prescriptions filled. Got my flu jab as well, no problem, but next year may be a different matter - RFK the Lesser may decide that a prescription for the flu jab will be needed. Sigh.
Honestly I felt really bad after the first vaccine for a night but then nothing on subsequent boosters. As my policy is better living through chemicals having all the shots including shingles with us now possibly effective in slowing dementia. Knock wood I havenβt gotten Covid nor the flu not even a cold as my husband recently had. Because I listened to the science.
I'm 68 so I get a covid booster every 6 months. I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't get much of a reaction to it. Not even a sore arm!
I did get covid once, while visiting the Solomon Islands in March 2025. While I did get sick and had a day or two of chills, it wasn't too bad and I managed to enjoy my 3 week visit and reunite with friends there.
As usual, the worse thing was the equatorial heat, with the Solomons being only 10 degrees or so south of the equator.
I always get vaxxed up but I can't do anything about my hub's coworkers who think its all cool to come to work sick and cough all over. And then laugh about it. Three times I've gotten covid through him via his coworkers.
My wife and I are both in our 70s, and we have been sure to take every COVID vaccine each time it's been offered. We have never contracted COVID. I'm sure that RFK Jr. and Bill Maher would say that we're the exception that proves the rule...
I got Covid in March of 2020, before the vaccines. I was still recovering from a heart attack 4 months earlier, and I came down with cellulitis at the same time. Thought I was gonna die. Again. But since the vaccines, I haven't been sick with anything, let alone Covid.
Mengele-without-a-Medical Degree is probably going to have the highest death toll of all the Maladministration 2.0 figures. Because feelings > facts, and epistemic closure is one hell of a drug. So in their desire to destroy the minorities that they hate, a majority of voting Americans have ensured that we are completely defenseless for the next public health emergency.
RememberβMiasma, Pestilence, Calamity and Famine...the Republican Way!
βI took the vaccine and felt achy, then I caught COVID and it only felt like a sinus infection, so the vaccine doesnβt workββthis is the trash that Yale is graduating.
Great job, America. You put the idiots and psychopaths in charge. Now theyβll kill us all if they donβt trip over their own feet first.
Done. Iβm a 65 yo recent cancer survivor who lives in DC. In September I was told by CVS/Walgreens that a prescription was required, which I had, but they still wouldnβt administer the Covid jab. My gp and oncologist, both of whom practice with very large healthcare providers, didnβt have access to the jab as DC is under the thumb of the idiot in the WH. Thankfully I live a 10 minute ride from the enlightened state of Maryland. Popped over there for free, no prescription required, vaccinations. (My understanding is that the Covid jab is now readily available in DC but how many people just quit trying?)
πβππ π ππ’ππππππ π€πππ πππ π βππ₯πππππβ π€βππ‘βππ πβπππβπππ ππππ’πππ§ππ‘ππππ πππ πππ ππππ ππππ πππ πππππππππ πππ ππ’π‘πππππ’ππ πππ ππππππ .
Gosh golly, I wonder what their findings will be? π€π
The spikevax tends to really run me down for a day or two. Phizer not much at all. Both are effective so fyi if you experience vax hangovers. I still choose the spikevax when I have a choice, hangover tells me it's working.
I have an over the top reaction to the Covid Vaccine, to the point that I schedule it when I can do nothing the following week, because the first one knocked me down for three days and the subsequent ones have varied from a few hours to a few days. But Covid itself, post-vaccine, knocked me down for weeks or months, and I never want it again. So when I can get the vaccine, I do. However, itβs increasingly difficult to get it and the flu for me - the doctorβs office doesnβt keep the Covid Vax, the drug store screws up the coding or the insurance blithely decides not to cover it, or the drug store decides I need to log in four times and canβt schedule nearby. So Iβm definitely behind this year. I do wonder how many people just donβt get it because of minor inconveniences triggering the memories of that desperate scrabble to get a Covid Shot at the beginning.
As an infectious disease researcher, I feel it's important to flag the big difference between seasonal vaccinations and being "ever vaccinated". For example, reasonable people can disagree on the evidence of benefits from otherwise healthy adults getting annual updates versus every few years (this is also *very* difficult to study in clinical trials). On the flip side, there is zero good-faith debate about autism and vaccines (or climate change, or lead paint, etc). Unfortunately, these positions can end up getting lumped together against "trust the science" arguments that don't necessarily understand the scientific process.
One interesting example of this is hand washing and COVID. Public messaging on this eas largely "security theater", presumably on the premise that it wouldn't hurt. But the populace quickly picks up that "trusting the scientists" (here, the CDC) with 6 ft separation and birthday song hand washing didn't *work*. Consequently, post-covid, I think we should have some compassion for people who are a bit confused about exactly who *can* be trusted.
Nuance is a huge challenge in public communication around vaccines, where the strength of evidence can be weak and personal risk profiles vary greatly between individuals. Influenza, for example, disproportionately harms children under 5 and the elderly, where immunity is suboptimal.
Thanks for the intel on Maher: I find him amorphously distasteful, but I wasn't aware of his recent "activities".
"But the populace quickly picks up that "trusting the scientists" (here, the CDC) with 6 ft separation and birthday song hand washing didn't *work*."
And what possible proof do you have that it didn't? The CDC never said "This will prevent infections" just this will help minimize spread.
Meanwhile people were ignoring masking, getting together in large numbers to sing in enclosed spaces, and generally ignoring what the CDC said anyway, so I'm unclear on how you determined that "people decided it didn't work"
There was abundant "security theatre" during the pandemic, like fogging streets with antiseptic, sanitizong your groceries, etc, but washing your hands is not 'security theatre', it's basic hygeine that people should have learned as children.
And this is before getting into the eugenicists of the "Great Barrington Resolution" to just let the disease "rip through the population, who cares if a few million people die just so the economy doesn't suffer" that should have landed those sociopaths in front of a tribunal instead of [checks notes] now being in charge of our pandemic readiness, vaccine approval, and the CDC, which should now be called the CDE "Centers for Disease Enablement".
There was, during the entire pandemic, deliberate and widespread pushback against any measures meant to help reduce the spread of the disease from a huge number of people outside the medical community. This is a major reason that over a million Americans died of covid; well outpacing our peer countries.
Not trusting the experts was just good old American idiocracy in action.
And now we're gonna learn it the hard way again. We have a massive uptick in measles, whooping cough, babies dying of tetanus, and eevn an uptick in in diptheria.
We're going to reverse all the work of the 20th century to battle disease:
https://graphics.wsj.com/infectious-diseases-and-vaccines/
Yes, and...
Hand-washing was a major push of early covid communication from CDC and regional public health agencies. A century of public health evidence suggested that transmission by contact would play an minor/insignificant roles in population-level transmission of an aerosol disease like SARS. Consequently, a lot of time and energy was spent early on advocating for a minimally effective control strategy. And this is just one example. Early CDC handling of COVID testing was really, really problematic.
At the same time, the "herd immunity" / Barrington Declaration folks were not arguing based on sound evidence. Rather, they were using weak scientific arguments to mask economic policy preferences. But that doesn't mean the economic impacts weren't real.
Regarding shut-downs, it's still not clear what the "right" answer was, because these policies affect a lot of different things simultaneously. Take school closures, for example, which remains a source of intense debate. High and certain cost, unclear benefits.
Funny enough, we know masks are highly effective but we decided en masse to stop using them. Like, masks are plausibly more effective than seasonal vaccinations at preventing influenza transmission. But we can't be bothered, which says something...
I got both back in September. Since then, I've gotten the RSV vaccine, pneumonia vaccine, and because measles is back, I went ahead and got a new MMR vaccine booster because, fuck it, why not?
I happen to live in Southern California and am white as a ghost, so if necessary, I could probably hop over the border into Mexico, visit a pharmacy there and get a vaccine. Just really, really sucks that Fools... willfully foolish people... are running things. Makes me wonder how much will be left in another three years.
I live in Upstate SC, and had to get a prescription for the Covid jab. Luckily, a quick phone call to my doctor's office took care of that, and they sent it to Walmart, where I get my prescriptions filled. Got my flu jab as well, no problem, but next year may be a different matter - RFK the Lesser may decide that a prescription for the flu jab will be needed. Sigh.
Honestly I felt really bad after the first vaccine for a night but then nothing on subsequent boosters. As my policy is better living through chemicals having all the shots including shingles with us now possibly effective in slowing dementia. Knock wood I havenβt gotten Covid nor the flu not even a cold as my husband recently had. Because I listened to the science.
I'm 68 so I get a covid booster every 6 months. I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't get much of a reaction to it. Not even a sore arm!
I did get covid once, while visiting the Solomon Islands in March 2025. While I did get sick and had a day or two of chills, it wasn't too bad and I managed to enjoy my 3 week visit and reunite with friends there.
As usual, the worse thing was the equatorial heat, with the Solomons being only 10 degrees or so south of the equator.
Thanks for this PSA!
Gold Standard science.
I always get vaxxed up but I can't do anything about my hub's coworkers who think its all cool to come to work sick and cough all over. And then laugh about it. Three times I've gotten covid through him via his coworkers.
My wife and I are both in our 70s, and we have been sure to take every COVID vaccine each time it's been offered. We have never contracted COVID. I'm sure that RFK Jr. and Bill Maher would say that we're the exception that proves the rule...
I got Covid in March of 2020, before the vaccines. I was still recovering from a heart attack 4 months earlier, and I came down with cellulitis at the same time. Thought I was gonna die. Again. But since the vaccines, I haven't been sick with anything, let alone Covid.
Mengele-without-a-Medical Degree is probably going to have the highest death toll of all the Maladministration 2.0 figures. Because feelings > facts, and epistemic closure is one hell of a drug. So in their desire to destroy the minorities that they hate, a majority of voting Americans have ensured that we are completely defenseless for the next public health emergency.
RememberβMiasma, Pestilence, Calamity and Famine...the Republican Way!
Totally stealing Mengele-without-a-medical degree.
Gosh. I did not realize that uptake on the vaccine was so lowβ¦. Gonna need to be on the lookout for the covid dashboards again
βI took the vaccine and felt achy, then I caught COVID and it only felt like a sinus infection, so the vaccine doesnβt workββthis is the trash that Yale is graduating.
Great job, America. You put the idiots and psychopaths in charge. Now theyβll kill us all if they donβt trip over their own feet first.
The Republican Party's murder spree continues unchecked.
Done. Iβm a 65 yo recent cancer survivor who lives in DC. In September I was told by CVS/Walgreens that a prescription was required, which I had, but they still wouldnβt administer the Covid jab. My gp and oncologist, both of whom practice with very large healthcare providers, didnβt have access to the jab as DC is under the thumb of the idiot in the WH. Thankfully I live a 10 minute ride from the enlightened state of Maryland. Popped over there for free, no prescription required, vaccinations. (My understanding is that the Covid jab is now readily available in DC but how many people just quit trying?)