In Vaccine Thread 2021

[Lefty Specialist]

'Religious reasons' is grossly overused, because states have been lenient, not wanting to upset the 'faithful'. But states are starting to crack down, and I can see this becoming another Supreme Court 'religious freedom' case, where my religion trumps your laws, or common sense.

[Fman99]

I am categorized as having a compromised auto-immune system due to the medication I take for my psoriatic arthritis. Based on this, and the updated guidance from the FDA/CDC on Friday about a third shot booster, I went to my local Walmart Pharmacy and got a 3rd shot of the Moderna virus yesterday.

With the NY State Fair starting up this weekend, and my planning on attending, this will give me some ramped up immunity going in.

Aside from the same sore arm I got after shots 1 and 2, no other adverse effects noted. The process of getting shot #3 at Walmart was easy - two forms to complete and a jab. I was there for a total of 30-40 minutes, including the mandatory post-shot 15 minute wait to ensure I didn't get ill.

[TransMonk]

Nice!

Did you need to provide any sort of documentation about your condition to get the booster or were you just attesting to it on the forms you filled out?

[kcmets]

Is there a published time period for each of the available vaccines that one should/
must wait until getting a booster? We're pfizer'd here. I imagine my wife falls into the
compromised auto-immune system class for a variety of reasons. It might be a stretch,
but being a fanatic Mets fan probably lands me in that class as well?

[Fman99]

Nice!

Did you need to provide any sort of documentation about your condition to get the booster or were you just attesting to it on the forms you filled out?

The latter. I had researched it ahead of time and the publicly viewable information I had seen specifically indicated that vaccine providers would not ask for proof of autoimmune deficiencies. I did fill out a form attesting that I had such a condition.

[Fman99]

Is there a published time period for each of the available vaccines that one should/
must wait until getting a booster? We're pfizer'd here. I imagine my wife falls into the
compromised auto-immune system class for a variety of reasons. It might be a stretch,
but being a fanatic Mets fan probably lands me in that class as well?

The only recommendations are that you be at least four weeks past your most recent vaccination, and that you get a third dose of whichever vaccine you received previously if possible.

I tried Wegmans' pharm first but they had not yet gotten corporate guidance on how to handle those 3rd shot booster requests (they were also out of stock on Moderna). Walmart was stop #2 for me.

[kcmets]

Lack of corporate guidance sounds like corporate told them, 'tell customers you
have yet to receive corporate guidance.'

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

The retailers offering shots are walking a really thin line here.

They would desperately welcome the traffic another shot would bring them (pick up some beer & stuff while you're here and thanks btw for all the personal info you had to share just to get it. We totally won't misuse that!) but also they can't afford to look like they are even 1 second ahead or behind of the health recommendations lest they get a bad rep or a wrongful-death lawsuit, so they hafta follow CDC to a tee.

[kcmets]

Makes total biz-sense.

[Lefty Specialist]

I am categorized as having a compromised auto-immune system due to the medication I take for my psoriatic arthritis. Based on this, and the updated guidance from the FDA/CDC on Friday about a third shot booster, I went to my local Walmart Pharmacy and got a 3rd shot of the Moderna virus yesterday.

With the NY State Fair starting up this weekend, and my planning on attending, this will give me some ramped up immunity going in.

Aside from the same sore arm I got after shots 1 and 2, no other adverse effects noted. The process of getting shot #3 at Walmart was easy - two forms to complete and a jab. I was there for a total of 30-40 minutes, including the mandatory post-shot 15 minute wait to ensure I didn't get ill.

My wife will be talking to her doctor tomorrow to see if she can get jab #3.

[MFS62]

My wife will be talking to her doctor tomorrow to see if she can get jab #3.

So will I.
Later

[ashie62]

Jab 3 tomorrow at Walgreens.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I got my third shot yesterday. Right before the injection the girl who administered the shot called me a "little prick." 😕😠

[Willets Point]

Rude!

[Lefty Specialist]

Biden Administration is pushing for everybody to get the booster after 8 months. I'll be there as soon as they'll give it to me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... ronavirus/

[kcmets]

8 months would be New Year's Eve for me.

Has anyone seen a good list of conditions that would make persons qualify
for an earlier booster shot?

[MFS62]

Biden Administration is pushing for everybody to get the booster after 8 months. I'll be there as soon as they'll give it to me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... ronavirus/

My Doctor said to wait for the 8 months, too.
My Doctor just got back from maternity leave. She showed me a picture of her newborn daughter - wearing a Mets one-sey. I like my Doctor.

Has anyone seen a good list of conditions that would make persons qualify
for an earlier booster shot?

Currently treating Cancer, Immune deficiency (such as AIDS) and recently undergone a transplant are the three I've seen so far.
Later

[kcmets]

I thought it was a broader list for some reason, but what do I know...

[Benjamin Grimm]

There are many more reasons why you could be immunocompromised, including treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, multiple sclerosis, etc.

I have to confess that I got the shot even though I don't quite qualify under the current U.S. guidance, although I didn't realize that until after I had been jabbed. People who take steroids for asthma, as I do, are immunocompromised. But I later found out that this doesn't include those who get it through an inhaler. Oh well. I do qualify under the rules as laid out in Israel, so I'm trusting that if the shot would be safe if I was Israeli it will be safe for me. Two people with whom I have frequent contact, my son and my girlfriend, are immunocompromised, one because of IBD and the other because of MS. In truth, I got the shot more to protect them than to protect myself.

(In Israel, anyone over 50 can get the booster.)

[batmagadanleadoff]

Biden Administration is pushing for everybody to get the booster after 8 months. I'll be there as soon as they'll give it to me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... ronavirus/

Not everyone. Not J&J recipients. Not yet. Not enough data on the J&J's yet. As usual. What a shitshow because J&J vaccines are not as effective as Pfizer and Moderna and J&J recipients probably need a booster shot the most.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, they're still not sure about the mix-and-match thing, that someone who has a J&J can safely get the Pfizer or Moderna.

I agree, they're the ones who need it the most.

[kcmets]

Two people with whom I have frequent contact, my son and my girlfriend, are immunocompromised, one because of IBD and the other because of MS. In truth, I got the shot more to protect them than to protect myself.

Good on you, perfectly reasonable and responsible.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients are left in the dark on booster shots. They deserve better.

Federal health officials made an important decision last week to recommend that immunocompromised Americans receive an additional dose of the covid-19 vaccine. Unfortunately, they neglected to include a group that is increasingly left behind when it comes to coronavirus guidance: recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used two arguments to explain why their recommendation did not apply to J&J recipients. First, they cited lack of data. Second, they said the impact was limited because few of the immunocompromised got the J&J.

These are the same arguments being used to justify why the 13 million people inoculated with the single-dose J&J vaccine aren’t being advised to receive a booster. But this is increasingly unacceptable as infections surge and evidence accumulates that the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) are more effective against covid-19 than adenovirus vector vaccines (J&J and AstraZeneca). At the very least, I believe federal health officials should allow J&J recipients to receive one dose of an mRNA booster, regardless of whether they are immunocompromised.

This is a personal issue to me. I’m one of the 13 million who received the J&J vaccine. I was glad to have gotten the shot; at the time, vaccines were in short supply and initial studies showed that J&J protected well against severe disease.

The situation has changed. Now, there is a surplus of vaccines in the United States, with millions of doses soon to expire. In addition, while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines provide at least 90 percent protection against symptomatic disease, the J&J provides about 66 percent. Laboratory studies are inconclusive about whether the J&J vaccine is effective against the delta variant; a company-sponsored study found that it is, while an independent one did not.

Just this month, a South African trial showed that the J&J vaccine was 71 percent effective against hospitalization and 96 percent against death. This is encouraging from a global health standpoint; this vaccine, with its ease of storage and one-dose formulation, remains an excellent option for many countries in desperate need of vaccines. However, people fortunate to live where mRNA vaccines are plentiful are within their rights to ask whether they should seek a higher level of protection.

To that point, data are emerging that for people who received an initial adenovirus vector vaccine, a second dose with an mRNA vaccine would enhance immunity. While we don’t have results yet of mixing one dose of J&J with an mRNA vaccine or two doses of J&J, there are studies that examined mixing another adenovirus vector vaccine, AstraZeneca, with Pfizer. Interestingly, the mix-and-match approach elicited a stronger immune response than two doses of the same vaccine. In Germany and Britain, patients have been receiving the mixed regimen without major safety outcomes.

I believe clinicians have enough information to provide J&J recipients guidance as to whether they should get a booster. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all recommendation, but rather an individualized decision based on people’s medical circumstances and exposures. A healthy young person who is working from home and associating only with other vaccinated people could decide that the level of protection afforded by the J&J vaccine is sufficient. On the other hand, a person who is severely immunocompromised is likely not optimally protected by the J&J. The benefit of an additional mRNA dose is substantial, and though the risk is theoretically unknown since this exact combination is still being studied, it’s almost certainly lower than the risk of severe illness were they to contract covid-19.

I’d probably give similar advice to, say, an elderly patient who has serious underlying medical conditions, especially if that person lives with unvaccinated family members or has high-risk exposures. I myself have not sought out the additional dose yet, as I’m generally healthy and have already reduced my risk out of concern for my unvaccinated children, but it’s an option that I’d like to keep open. And when my patients and I do decide to seek a booster, we should be able to do so openly and easily without having to circumvent existing rules.

Two weeks ago, San Francisco’s health department became the first in the country to allow J&J recipients the option for a booster. This was the right call, and federal health officials need to take heed. The Biden administration is expected to announce its new booster policy soon. Even if it is not yet ready to say that the 13 million who received the J&J vaccine should receive another vaccine, they need to at least say that they can. After all, many people who received the J&J vaccine did so because they followed public health advice to get the first vaccine available to them. They shouldn’t be forgotten now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... leana-wen/

[Frayed Knot]

So Biden mentioned Sept 20th as the starting date for any adult to be eligible for their booster shot ... although it still needs to be 8 months after your last one which effectively
pushes this back to at least November and more like Dec/Jan for many folks.

[Lefty Specialist]

Pfizer gets approved by the FDA and within one hour NYC teachers and other school personnel are mandated to get it. Same for the military. And Murphy's just mandated it for all teachers in NJ too.

Good. And there'll be a lot more of this needed because we still have too many chuckleheads. I want it to be a mandate to fly, as we have a trip coming up next month and Mrs Lefty is getting increasingly nervous about it.