Covid -- Additional Booster?

In December the urgent care doctor said that if my Covid test (which ended up being negative) were positive, it was too late for paxlovid. In March (where I was positive) a different urgent care doctor was willing to prescribe for me / age 60 - excellent health… but his advise was to not take it based on his experiences with patients have rebound. Still the meds and abuterol inhaler he prescribed was helpful for the coughing, so it probably was good I went went.

Omg had the same issue! Husband messaged his doctor’s office. A nurse responded stating that they will not prescribe it because the drug was emergency authorized but the covid emergency is over! :scream: Pissed off husband messaged her back that her info was incorrect, the drug was fully approved, and here are the links to the FDA approval. Unbelievable! Thankfully, a nearby urgent care had an appointment, and he got his prescription. Shaking 🫨 my head.

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I’m going to wait for the newest formulation to get vaccine number 6–last one was almost a year ago.

However, because of the prevalence in my area (GD got it in day camp, and subsequently it seems every kid around, and their parents, have it), I’ve gone back to masking inside. Interestingly, at my primary doctor’s today, every staff member and most patients were masked. When I was at a dermatologist yesterday, no one was masked but me.

My husband almost got another booster before our trip to Europe last month but decided against it. We were there for 2 1/2 weeks and in a lot of crowds, indoors and out. We didn’t wear masks. Hardly anyone did. I guess we dodged a bullet, but neither one of us developed any symptoms. If either of us has had COVID yet, it’s been asymptomatic.

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In Los Angeles, wastewater surveillance shows that prevalence of COVID has been slowly increasing since mid June.

Edit: Sorry, I don’t know why this came through as a reply to Knowsstuff.

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I saw MSNBC’s go-to doc recommending—for those at risk or “old”–RSV now, and flu and new covid in late September.

Yes, Michael Osterhome recommends RSV now, covid booster when it’s available and flu shot when flu activity starts to pick up.

Don’t worry
People send me stuff about waste water all the time :joy::sweat_drops:

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Flashback 2020 - story from my school

We leave for Europe and S2’s wedding in Ukraine in less than two weeks. Have been wondering the same thing myself. I qualify because I’m on chemo, but have already had six shots plus two Evushelds. Have been wearing masks indoors at medical facilities and stores. Was planning to do so on the plane, too, though H says the airplane filtration is excellent. I need to be better about it at the synagogue. There have been a couple outbreaks at local houses of worship.

Not sure my PCP will prescribe paxlovid – he was concerned about rebound when H got covid 18 months ago.

For what is worth, rebounds happen without Paxlovid, as my personal experience also confirms. My husband felt very crappy and took Paxlovid which helped quickly and immensely; he did experienced a rebound, but his rebound was just sniffles and a positive test. He said that it was still worth it to take the drug. I’d ask for a prescription to take with you just in case if Paxlovid is compatible with your other medications.

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Yes, but school starting is going to increase the surge.

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My PCP told me a while ago that Paxlovid is overprescribed. The experts think it is UNDERprescribed. He is (was?) of the “let’s wait and see how the course of illness goes” before prescribing Paxlovid. He told me how the office kept in contact with an 80+ year old who had covid and he didn’t end up being prescribed Paxlovid. ?! However, he did tell me that he would prescribe Paxlovid if I insisted.

These generalist doctors know more than the infectious disease doctors and epidemiologists? I don’t think so!

I have had 6 doses of the covid vaccine – MMPPPP, with the last dose being in late May of this year. Interestingly, my doctor says to hold off on the RSV vaccine – he is not that impressed with it (thinks it should last longer). He had a timetable for when to get the flu shot and new covid booster. I am going to watch the trends to time those shots right. I don’t know about the RSV shot…I had already decided to wait and see about that one. Also, I don’t get the flu shot and covid shot together (my personal preference). Of the three (covid, flu, RSV), I am most concerned about covid. With my mitigation strategies for covid, I’m very protected from flu already. And as for RSV, I’m just not around people that much and I wash my hands well.

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From @abasket link above - in case behind a firewall

Expert views about, waiting for booster until a match for current virus circulating and by waiting for booster til end sept / Oct. more protections during upcoming peak months ,

“ Once you’re boosting with the variant that is closest to what’s actually circulating,” you will most likely regain some protection against infection, he said.

The second reason to wait a month or two for the new vaccine is that it will increase the odds that your defenses against the virus will be strongest when cases are expected to peak, historically between December and February. Antibodies wane over time, and protection is highest during the first three months following an infection or vaccination.

“Case numbers are increasing now, but they’re not at exceptionally high levels,” Dr. Sax said. “I can’t imagine, though, that they won’t go up again in November, December or January, as they did every single year in the past three years.”

If you’ve had Covid recently, experts suggest waiting a few additional months before getting the new shot. Your antibodies are already elevated because of the infection, and so the vaccine won’t provide you with much additional benefit during this time.”

Agree 100%. It’s an easy litmus test for me. Doctors’ substituting their judgement in the face of all the evidence boggles my mind. And tells you something about those doctors.

The first half of this article is on point:

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In preparation for a couple of trips – one to an extraordinary lodge in the Canadian Rockies where ShawWife and I both contracted Covid, we got the booster in early July, I think. ShawWife has respiratory issues and our NP daughter suggested we consider the vaccine before traveling. This past week, ShawWife came down with Covid. Our doc said that the booster we took does not give great protection from the current variant. So, perhaps we should have waited (not sure that was known in early July).

It was not nearly as bad for ShawWife as the previous bout had been, but she had to up asthma medication for a few days to keep breathing well. Our doc immediately gave her an antiviral. She’s now tested negative. We isolated to a large extent and I have not been symptomatic nor tested positive. But, I wonder if we will be able to take the revised booster when it arrives.

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Aim the air jet directly in front of your face in the airplane. But it may still not stop spread if you are sitting next to someone who is contagious.

By early July, it was known that the current circulating variants were XBB descendants, which are somewhat different from the BA.5 variant of last year’s booster.

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Surprised about the idea of waiting for Paxlovid. I was told you have to take it within a few days of they symptom starting (?). I opted to not take it (though did get to walk-in clinic in time), but the next month my husband with higher risk level had it prescribed.

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I don’t really know, but I guess my PCP thinks he can prescribe Paxlovid within the the window of effectiveness if he waits. But the sooner the better is what the experts say!

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Timing of covid outbreaks and infections is so weird. W and I went the entire pandemic without getting it and we live in a red state with minimal masking, and we spent 3 weeks in Europe + cruise ship in May without issue.

Then in July coming home from FL on a business trip I finally got it and gave it to W. W called her primary for paxlovid but they didn’t call back for a few days, so she did a virtual session with a random telemedicine doctor from our insurance and that doctor immediately called in the prescription.

Now the rest of the story - W had pretty much every side effect of paxlovid in a severe way. It was pretty horrible, and she stopped it after 24 hours. Then a couple days later her primary finally ended up calling in the prescription, so now we have 2 basically unused prescriptions for it.