It's the "within their 50%" wording that made me think she's talking about a range rather than a single number (and schools very often report their 25th-75th percentile score range). And it's true, he'd probably submit a 1500 no matter what (although pretty much any school where the average is over 1500 would be crapshoot territory for most any kid), so I guess my thinking on the topic changes depending on what score we're talking about.

It sounds like the math is. I’m taking “their 50%” to mean the 25-75th percentile range. ETA: although it sounds like other people are reading that differently. So I might well be wrong!

I'm surprised to see people saying she should submit them with a score under the 25th percentile. I've always figured my 11th grader won't submit his anywhere where he's below their average, but maybe I've been thinking about it wrong. Would the advice be different for a non-homeschooler?

I've read that it was a trade off between more complete data/human trials with the BA1 version vs. better match with newer strains (we hope) with the BA5.

It seems doomed to backfire, too....like it's very likely word will get out (if not this time then some other time when someone gets covid) and then parents are likely to be more upset about having the information withheld than about the actual covid. At any rate, hope you feel better soon!

My husband and I both did both together, but we've historically had pretty mild reactions to both, so we weren't too worried. Sore arm was the only side effect from either (interestingly, my covid arm hurt more but felt better faster; flu arm is still a little sore 3 days later)

You should ask those people why they still tout the vaccines; it might have to do with the death rate for the unvaccinated still being 6x as high as for the fully vaccinated even as protection against transmission has waned with the new variants. Anyway, my preference for not dying or being hospitalized is one of the big reasons I'm vaccinated, so wonder no more about me at least!

Yes--he and a couple of other anti-vax people on twitter are the only references I can find to it as well. That and the news from June that the INITIAL trial from Pfizer had 8 mice. To me "per group" implies the existence of more than one group.

Where are you getting 8 mice from? The only thing I could find is that Pfizer presented initial findings back in June based on 8 mice. Presumably there have been more since then and Moderna also did trials?

They're doing human trials now, but, yeah...there are no results from those yet. It's the same with the flu vaccine every year; there's no way to keep up with new variants and still do human trials before approval. From what I've read there are no safety concerns because the vaccines are so similar to the originals....but we don't have a ton of information yet about how effective they'll be (and, again, it's the same with flu vaccines every year; there's no way to know in advance how good of a match they'll be for that year's strains).

They're out now; I got one last night at cvs at the same time as my covid booster (TWO sore arms! but not too bad, particularly the flu arm)

My understanding is that the old boosters no longer have approval for people 12 and up (there's still the original 2 dose series or the J&J one shot for people who've never been vaccinated), so any boosters should be the bivalent. My husband and I and our 16 year old all got ours last night--we got Moderna (at a CVS) and my son got Pfizer (at a Walgreens). I just have a sore arm and maybe some fatigue; my 16 year old woke up with a sore throat and headache and just general crumminess, although it's gotten better as the day has gone on. He also just went to Dragon Con last weekend (but has had a bunch of negative covid tests since then) and has seasonal allergies (and ragweed's just getting going here)...so in this case I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he's having a worse vaccine reaction than he did for his other doses rather than covid.

Variations on "it goes by so fast!" said to people in the thick of parenting young children annoys me. It doesn't make things any easier, and it adds the layer of making you feel guilty for not cherishing every sleepless night and temper tantrum or creating enough priceless childhood memories before you run out of time!

yes; my 19 year old already got it, 3 more of us have appointments tomorrow. It's been nearly a year since my last booster (and no covid as far as I know), and my husband teaches high school, so there's never a time (except summer) when we can avoid a lot of exposure.

My understanding has always been that atheist=lack of belief in a deity and agnostic means you think it's impossible to know whether god exists or not. It seems to me that atheism could encompass a wide range of things; you can either firmly believe there is no god or just say that you don't personally believe in any particular god or gods but don't take a position on whether god/s exist. Whereas strictly speaking agnosticism isn't just saying that YOU don't believe in a deity but taking the position that whether deities exist is impossible for humans to know. I.e. you could feel strongly that people who insist there's definitely no god are as wrong as people who insist there is. But it seems like people generally use atheist to mean someone who believes there is no god and agnostic for people who aren't sure one way or the other.

complex geniuses are pretty much my favorite. Also presidents who sign the Civil Rights Act even when it's the hard thing to do.

My 19 year old just got one at a CVS in Nashville. I asked if he got a new card (he didn't have his with him, but there's no room for more on it anyway), and he said no. So maybe we're done with cards? Anyway, he's my kid who's majoring in clarinet performance, so really no way to avoid a ton of maskless exposure (uhh, not that his school is making any attempt at that anyway), so I'm glad that's done.

We tried another one, and they told us they had JUST gotten their shipment in, but it takes 12 hours (or 24?) to thaw them, so no shots until tomorrow. But I also made an appointment in Nashville for my son who's away at college, and we called to make sure, and they say they have them in stock. So it's just a crapshoot right now I guess. I made an appointment for Wednesday for us, and I'm hoping/assuming everyone should have them by then.

Well, got to CVS for my appointment only to find out they don't actually have the shots yet and "corporate jumped the gun." Oh well. I have a Pfizer appointment booked at a Walgreens for my 16 year old Wednesday....they only have Pfizer, and I'm trying to decide if I should book appointments for us grown ups, too, or hold out for Moderna. Maybe I'll book Pfizer appointments and then keep looking and cancel if I can find Moderna. Hard to know what to do with the new boosters since we don't really have much information on how effective either brand will be--at least the new part of it.

Mine did some before applying, but just the ones we were visiting that offered them. If it's a local alum interview they probably aren't available until he's applied.

Responding again because I booked an appointment for my 19 year old now, and his is Moderna, too, even though his 3 previous doses were all Pfizer. So it looks like they just give you whatever they have (I've only seen Moderna so far)

I don't think it asked me...I just checked and it will be Moderna, which is all we've had so far. But I don't know if that's because it's what we've had before or just because it's what they have.

Does anyone have experience getting a booster without a physical copy of your vaccine card? I forgot to send DS's with him to college, but he has a picture of it. Is the data any more centralized now than it used to be? ETA: I'm looking to schedule one for him at a CVS, and he had his last booster at a different CVS, so I'd think there'd be a record in their system anyway?

will do. we both had very mild reactions to the first 3 (4 in DH's case)--pretty much just a day of mild fatigue for me--so hoping for the same this time.

When I checked CVS's website a couple of days ago they had stopped scheduling boosters at all and just had an announcement up that they were waiting for instructions. The CDC recommendation happened yesterday and today it let me schedule boosters (I wasn't eligible for a second booster with the original ones, so it has to be the new ones...although I'll definitely ask and make sure before they poke me!)