Opti
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Post by Opti on May 7, 2022 13:19:52 GMT -5
www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/indoor-masking-recommended-again-in-northeast-counties/ar-AAX0hQP?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=f6ea58dc9bf3438aa5a335910ecc1bb2Across the New England and greater New York and New Jersey regions, infection rates are nearing their highest levels in three months. COVID-19 related hospitalizations are increasing too -- with daily admissions levels more than doubling in the last month.
"If we were still using the original CDC COVID-19 risk classification, the northeast would be bright red, indicating uncontrolled community spread. This part of the country has some of the highest vaccination and booster rates, yet infections are still increasing," Dr. Maureen Miller, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News.
Although Manhattan and the rest of New York City are still considered "medium" risk, transmission rates have increased by nearly 33% in the last 10 days. Much of upstate New York is also now colored in orange for "high" risk.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on May 8, 2022 8:26:59 GMT -5
Just looked at rates for my county. We've gone from moderate to high. I think I will stick to Zoom church then as its likely to get worse before it gets better.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 10, 2022 13:00:11 GMT -5
For those of you who are interested, risk of long Covid is decreased by vaccination if you get a breakthrough infection
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azucena
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Post by azucena on May 10, 2022 13:02:26 GMT -5
My company just released Q1 earnings - we paid $300M in excess life insurance claims due to covid. Claims reporting lags 3-4 months to get to us.
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anciana
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Post by anciana on May 10, 2022 16:43:58 GMT -5
My company just released Q1 earnings - we paid $300M in excess life insurance claims due to covid. Claims reporting lags 3-4 months to get to us. Thank you for that info, azucena, I was wondering how much is that when compared to pre-covid years
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on May 11, 2022 7:46:07 GMT -5
The county is giving out more free test kits to agencies to distribute. My boss rushed out to get MORE, nearly double our request last time - when we weren't sure if anyone would take any, since the prevailing opinion in March was "Covid is over."
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seriousthistime
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Post by seriousthistime on May 11, 2022 18:28:48 GMT -5
My company just released Q1 earnings - we paid $300M in excess life insurance claims due to covid. Claims reporting lags 3-4 months to get to us. And the federal government is paying families of those who died from COVID up to $9K for funeral expenses. It's costing us all in one way or another. I just returned home from a trip out of state. I flew both ways, 4 flights total. Masking in airports was very spotty. On the planes it was also spotty but once you're in the seat you can't really walk around and assess how many people are wearing masks. I wore masks all the time except when eating and drinking. I'm vaxxed x4.
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on May 11, 2022 21:31:24 GMT -5
The county is giving out more free test kits to agencies to distribute. My boss rushed out to get MORE, nearly double our request last time - when we weren't sure if anyone would take any, since the prevailing opinion in March was "Covid is over." Now we've doubled that again - someone from the firehall brought us ANOTHER big boxful today.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 12, 2022 3:08:56 GMT -5
My company just released Q1 earnings - we paid $300M in excess life insurance claims due to covid. Claims reporting lags 3-4 months to get to us. And the federal government is paying families of those who died from COVID up to $9K for funeral expenses. It's costing us all in one way or another. I just returned home from a trip out of state. I flew both ways, 4 flights total. Masking in airports was very spotty. On the planes it was also spotty but once you're in the seat you can't really walk around and assess how many people are wearing masks. I wore masks all the time except when eating and drinking. I'm vaxxed x4. We lost 2 couples on the Viking the first 2 days of the cruise. We tried to stay masked while on the flight and in airports and I suspect that’s where those couples picked it up. We were in AMS 3 days before boarding, and got tested the day before we boarded. Viking tests daily on cruises.
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on May 12, 2022 10:51:08 GMT -5
Now my boss tested positive; she thinks her SO brought it home from work, but entirely possible it's from me (was back to work Tue). She was supposed to be away this weekend, 2 out-of-town big family/friend events back to back.
And the other coworker was scheduled to be out next week w/ spouse surgery.
Programs are scheduled all over the place, too, and our system-wide annual dinner is Wed.
Oh, it's going to be a fun few days.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on May 13, 2022 8:10:43 GMT -5
Maybe a question for pulmonarymdSo I gave blood last Friday and just saw that my blood went into storage. I didn't know but they were doing antibody testing as well. Mine came back at reactive+, which the site says is high enough that your plasma may be used as convalescent plasma. I had two vaccines and a booster but not since last December. Are my antibody levels still that high from those shots or did I have COVID and not know?
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 8:24:08 GMT -5
Maybe a question for pulmonarymd So I gave blood last Friday and just saw that my blood went into storage. I didn't know but they were doing antibody testing as well. Mine came back at reactive+, which the site says is high enough that your plasma may be used as convalescent plasma. I had two vaccines and a booster but not since last December. Are my antibody levels still that high from those shots or did I have COVID and not know? Could be either one. Some people have really good immune systems. If any household or other close contacts recently had COVID you may have had an asymptomatic infection. Still a lot to learn about this disease. One thing everyone needs to understand: we do not routinely test asymptomatic individuals for diseases such as the flu, so how significant asymptomatic individuals spreading these diseases was not known. In addition, we did not have the capability to test for many viral infections in the past, but now that is changing. Just like the HIV pandemic lead to significant advances in our knowledge, COVID will do something similar
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on May 13, 2022 9:21:16 GMT -5
Maybe a question for pulmonarymd So I gave blood last Friday and just saw that my blood went into storage. I didn't know but they were doing antibody testing as well. Mine came back at reactive+, which the site says is high enough that your plasma may be used as convalescent plasma. I had two vaccines and a booster but not since last December. Are my antibody levels still that high from those shots or did I have COVID and not know? Could be either one. Some people have really good immune systems. If any household or other close contacts recently had COVID you may have had an asymptomatic infection. Still a lot to learn about this disease. One thing everyone needs to understand: we do not routinely test asymptomatic individuals for diseases such as the flu, so how significant asymptomatic individuals spreading these diseases was not known. In addition, we did not have the capability to test for many viral infections in the past, but now that is changing. Just like the HIV pandemic lead to significant advances in our knowledge, COVID will do something similar Great to know, thank you! Was just surprised as I didn't know they were even doing antibody testing for blood donations anymore.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 9:33:24 GMT -5
Could be either one. Some people have really good immune systems. If any household or other close contacts recently had COVID you may have had an asymptomatic infection. Still a lot to learn about this disease. One thing everyone needs to understand: we do not routinely test asymptomatic individuals for diseases such as the flu, so how significant asymptomatic individuals spreading these diseases was not known. In addition, we did not have the capability to test for many viral infections in the past, but now that is changing. Just like the HIV pandemic lead to significant advances in our knowledge, COVID will do something similar Great to know, thank you! Was just surprised as I didn't know they were even doing antibody testing for blood donations anymore. They have been testing blood donations to see extent of infections in different areas and for possible use for convalescent plasma
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 13, 2022 10:23:22 GMT -5
Great to know, thank you! Was just surprised as I didn't know they were even doing antibody testing for blood donations anymore. They have been testing blood donations to see extent of infections in different areas and for possible use for convalescent plasma It is a PITA to differentiate convalescent plasma from those immunized. I can’t imagine running western blots on blood bank plasmas to do this. Convalescent plasmas should have specific antibody to most viral proteins, including spike protein and immunized to just the spike protein.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 10:32:17 GMT -5
They have been testing blood donations to see extent of infections in different areas and for possible use for convalescent plasma It is a PITA to differentiate convalescent plasma from those immunized. I can’t imagine running western blots on blood bank plasmas to do this. Convalescent plasmas should have specific antibody to most viral proteins, including spike protein and immunized to just the spike protein. They did it recently so they could get an estimate of how many people were infected. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7117e3.htm?s_cid=mm7117e3_w
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 13, 2022 10:38:24 GMT -5
Got my 2nd booster last week - and was feverish sick for two days - enough to be in bed/attmepting to sleep for most of it - and then dragged ass for an additional 2 days. I always get "sick" after a Covid shot. And ibuprophen or fake tylenol barely takes the edge off it. At least my arm only hurt really bad for two days. Not sure why I have such a strong reaction - everyone else I know in real life who gets a covid shot gets a headache and a sore arm and maybe feels tired. I wind up in bed for day or two (feel too crappy to even watch TV the first day).
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on May 13, 2022 11:03:06 GMT -5
It is a PITA to differentiate convalescent plasma from those immunized. I can’t imagine running western blots on blood bank plasmas to do this. Convalescent plasmas should have specific antibody to most viral proteins, including spike protein and immunized to just the spike protein. They did it recently so they could get an estimate of how many people were infected. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7117e3.htm?s_cid=mm7117e3_wI hope they are continuing the data collection thru this iteration of new variants and the current surge. Every time I turn around, I'm hearing about someone who tested positive, after evading it for >2 years with vaccines and masking, just in the last month. This newest variant is much more transmissible, plus everything is open/back to normal. We've been trying to figure out the incubation period. DS4 can't figure out who he got it from, because he has so few contacts. The one odd contact he had a day, possibly 2 before he developed symptoms, claims DS4 gave it to *him*. If that's true, then DS4 was exposed days before, but how?
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 11:09:29 GMT -5
Contact tracing can be difficult. Wouldn't waste too much time on it, since the virus is everywhere. They continue to test the genetics of virus samples. The study quoted was looking at prevalence of infection, so a different type of study
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on May 13, 2022 11:38:13 GMT -5
Contact tracing is nonexistent.
That's not really what I'm asking. Timeline is more what I'm interested in. How many days back are you infected, from when you realize you are infected - develop symptoms, eventually test positive?
Everything I read says you are most contagious 1-2 days before symptoms, so before you can do anything about it. My tests did not show positive until 2 days after I had symptoms, but I already knew I'd been exposed by DS4, so quarantined as soon as symptoms appeared. DS5 and DH have never developed symptoms, and tests were not positive. They either never had it, or had asymptomatic cases that didn't trigger a positive test.
Two days after I returned to work (one week after last working), my boss tested positive. Could I have exposed her, or did she independently get exposed elsewhere (because the timeline doesn't fit - too short incubation period)?
I have a belief that the numbers of cases walking around RIGHT NOW are much higher than with delta, or the first omicron this winter, but there's no more widespread *official* testing and tracking of the positives now. If nearly everyone is self testing, and self quarantining, without involving the middleman statisticians, or worse - not bothering to test/quarantine because it's just a cold - we are underestimating the true positivity rate AND the risks of having zero mitigating controls.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 12:13:09 GMT -5
That is not practical, nor is it realistic at this stage. We cannot continue with significant restrictions. You are contagious before you show symptoms(leaving out asymptomatic cases which can infect others). As long as we expect to interact with others, we will have disease. We now have to learn to live with it. Vaccination has made the disease similar to influenza in most people. Deaths are down, hospitalizations are down despite removal of restrictions.
What you cite with COVID is the same as with influenza and other respiratory viruses. This is our new normal. What do you propose we do to keep infections down? How low do infections need to be before we no longer leave those restrictions in place. From what I see, we are "over" COVID. This is as good as it will be. We will see spikes in infections routinely. You are now responsible for avoiding infection because others won't, and government will not impose them again because how politicized it has become.
We test all admissions. We have plateaued at about 4%. We hit over 20% this winter. I feel comfortable saying that even though we are missing many infections, we are in a different phase right now.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on May 13, 2022 12:20:38 GMT -5
That is not practical, nor is it realistic at this stage. We cannot continue with significant restrictions. You are contagious before you show symptoms(leaving out asymptomatic cases which can infect others). As long as we expect to interact with others, we will have disease. We now have to learn to live with it. Vaccination has made the disease similar to influenza in most people. Deaths are down, hospitalizations are down despite removal of restrictions. What you cite with COVID is the same as with influenza and other respiratory viruses. This is our new normal. What do you propose we do to keep infections down? How low do infections need to be before we no longer leave those restrictions in place. From what I see, we are "over" COVID. This is as good as it will be. We will see spikes in infections routinely. You are now responsible for avoiding infection because others won't, and government will not impose them again because how politicized it has become. We test all admissions. We have plateaued at about 4%. We hit over 20% this winter. I feel comfortable saying that even though we are missing many infections, we are in a different phase right now. Do you think all of us will eventually get Covid unless we are naturally resistant?
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 12:33:17 GMT -5
Everyone will eventually get infected with it. There are already 4 human coronaviruses, just add another. Immunity to them is not durable, which is why you get reinfected. I believe this one will behave similarly. Hopefully, between vaccination, boosters, and infections, over time it will become more like a "normal" cold or flu and not be the third leading cause of death. We need to work towards accepting this reality. Worrying about infection rate is not what we should do. As long as people aren't having severe illness and dying, life can return to some semblance of "normal". I do not want to live like we have for the last 2 years any more than anyone else does.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on May 13, 2022 12:42:47 GMT -5
Everyone will eventually get infected with it. There are already 4 human coronaviruses, just add another. Immunity to them is not durable, which is why you get reinfected. I believe this one will behave similarly. Hopefully, between vaccination, boosters, and infections, over time it will become more like a "normal" cold or flu and not be the third leading cause of death. We need to work towards accepting this reality. Worrying about infection rate is not what we should do. As long as people aren't having severe illness and dying, life can return to some semblance of "normal". I do not want to live like we have for the last 2 years any more than anyone else does. When do you think people will work while having a mild case of Covid like they might with a mild case of flu? Right now having Covid is an impact to employment, especially those who don't have much time off allowed by their employer. I think we are down to 5 days required away from the workplace if you test positive?
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 12:55:05 GMT -5
I do not think symptomatic people with the flu or COVID should work, but that requires a change in culture. I also think this is why you will see masks use in healthcare settings, perhaps permanently. I do not think we should be testing asymptomatic people routinely. Prior to surgery and hospital admissions in order to prevent an outbreak at a hospital or nursing homes is the only time we should test asymptomatic people.
We need to be getting back to normal. If we avoid a repeat of the impact of the previous spikes with this current increase, I think we should return to more normal circumstances for the summer, then give everyone boosters this fall and cross our fingers.
With the widespread availability of vaccines, those who want to be protected have been, and the idiots that are not vaccinated can fend for themselves. If you do not want to protect yourself and your loved ones, why should I care. Unfortunately, immunocompromised people will need to protect themselves, but that was always going to be the case at some point as it is with other infectious diseases
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on May 13, 2022 13:01:09 GMT -5
Everything is local. My region's hospitalization is trending up, from a low of 2/100k on 4/1, now 15. The region right next door (where I shop and where several of my adult kids live) is double that at 30, halfway to the Jan peak highs. Yes, it's relatively mild for those of us vaxxed and healthy. But we still have a subset who are not both, or either. Thank you for that study you linked. It showed how rapidly the first omicron variant swept thru, pushing up the percentage of various age groups that had gotten Covid. It showed (not surprisingly) that the more unvaccinated groups saw the biggest jump in percentage, from roughly 45% to roughly 3/4 of kids. My age group went from 28% to almost 50%. But the oldest group went 19% to 33%. So, vaccines and other mitigation measures work - the 90% vaccinated group had the lowest infection rates, at least thru the Feb study end date. I'm seeing an explosion of new infections, in people who evaded it until now. If the trend in that study continues, with removal of all mitigation measures, return to normal circulation, AND a newer, fitter variant or two making the rounds - we will soon reach the point of saturation, everyone that hasn't had it to date will get it, including those weaker members of society that we've been trying to protect. But because "Covid is over", and *official* numbers are low, everyone feels free to go visit grandma and grandpa again! The threat is over! The talking heads said so. ETA: I now see more discussion has gone on while I was busy ranting. Please know I'm not arguing with you PulmonaryMD, I'm mostly ranting and frustrated that we are relying for policy on case numbers that are clearly highly diluted at this point. I think I know inherently that we are once again on our own for decision making, so I want better info to use in my decisions.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 13:32:58 GMT -5
Everything is local. My region's hospitalization is trending up, from a low of 2/100k on 4/1, now 15. The region right next door (where I shop and where several of my adult kids live) is double that at 30, halfway to the Jan peak highs. Yes, it's relatively mild for those of us vaxxed and healthy. But we still have a subset who are not both, or either. Thank you for that study you linked. It showed how rapidly the first omicron variant swept thru, pushing up the percentage of various age groups that had gotten Covid. It showed (not surprisingly) that the more unvaccinated groups saw the biggest jump in percentage, from roughly 45% to roughly 3/4 of kids. My age group went from 28% to almost 50%. But the oldest group went 19% to 33%. So, vaccines and other mitigation measures work - the 90% vaccinated group had the lowest infection rates, at least thru the Feb study end date. I'm seeing an explosion of new infections, in people who evaded it until now. If the trend in that study continues, with removal of all mitigation measures, return to normal circulation, AND a newer, fitter variant or two making the rounds - we will soon reach the point of saturation, everyone that hasn't had it to date will get it, including those weaker members of society that we've been trying to protect. But because "Covid is over", and *official* numbers are low, everyone feels free to go visit grandma and grandpa again! The threat is over! The talking heads said so. ETA: I now see more discussion has gone on while I was busy ranting. Please know I'm not arguing with you PulmonaryMD, I'm mostly ranting and frustrated that we are relying for policy on case numbers that are clearly highly diluted at this point. I think I know inherently that we are once again on our own for decision making, so I want better info to use in my decisions. My point is we need to evolve beyond case numbers are the decision point. It was a good, although imperfect, guide because we missed cases because we couldn't do testing, had too little supply, too much demand, and people who had it not getting tested. So I am not too concerned about us missing them now. I have always thought that hospitalizations were a far superior marker. Harder to miss, and harder to fudge. Infections and hospitalizations were always going to increase once restrictions were removed. The question was always how much. Even though numbers and positivity rates are higher, hospitalizations are increasing at a much slower pace than the previous spikes. We all need to accept a new reality. This virus is here to stay. Mitigating its consequences is the best we can hope for, but there will continue to be spikes in infections, much like we deal with when we have bad influenza years. What we do not know is what that would look like and what we have to do to keep it here. What has been unveiled, and not in a good way, is how selfish, uncaring, and basically assholish a large percentage of our population is. They are also those who have a higher risk. The medically frail among us will have to live with this new reality, but it is a matter of degree for them because they have always had this risk. The hard part is how far we go to protect them. From my vantage point, it appears we do not want too much inconvenience, so they will need to take appropriate precautions
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saveinla
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Post by saveinla on May 13, 2022 13:36:23 GMT -5
I went for a 6 month consultation with my pulmonary specialist yesterday - I have asthma but it is controlled and he told me to wait to get the second booster until we see more clear data on how its going wrt to case numbers and hospitalizations. Given that I work from home and do not go out too much, he said the risk is not high for me.
He thinks it will be better to wait until the fall unless numbers say otherwise. I was reading the CDC guidelines and they say the same, so we will be waiting.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 13, 2022 13:47:56 GMT -5
That s my thought too, unless you are immunosuppressed or medically fragile. I suspect the recommendation will ne for everyone to be boostered this fall, even if you get one now since we all expect rates to go up this winter
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Opti
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Post by Opti on May 13, 2022 13:50:45 GMT -5
That s my thought too, unless you are immunosuppressed or medically fragile. I suspect the recommendation will ne for everyone to be boostered this fall, even if you get one now since we all expect rates to go up this winter Do you know if they are working on a new formulation of the booster based on more recent variants?
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