So many of these rabid anti-vaxxers who have been spewing lies and propaganda since the pandemic began are suddenly sooo confused and upset when they find out the hard way that covid is not a hoax, that "I Have an Immune System" frame on their profile pic has not protected them, and it's too late to get a vaccine once you're hospitalized. The same pattern happens over and over: months of posting memes comparing mandates to the holocaust, calling Fauci a murderer, claiming vaccines are killing far more people than covid, doctors are killing patients to get the "government covid bonus," blah blah blah, and then comes the post saying "Damn, looks like I got the 'rona, but I'll be fine," followed a few days later by a hospital selfie saying "Whoa, this covid shit is no joke!" — after a year of posting memes they thought were hilarious while 660,000 other people died. All those posts about how they're "lions not sheep," all that bravado and bullshit about how they'd rather die free than submit to the tyranny of mask and vax mandates suddenly evaporates when they realize they are in fact about to "die free." Next comes the tearful prayer request as things go downhill, followed by a post from a spouse, sibling, or friend saying that so-&-so lost their battle with covid, and it was all so sudden and unexpected and unfair. Oh, and here's the GoFundMe because the wife and kids this "lion" left behind are gonna be broke and homeless soon. Some of these people remain unrepentant to the end, some realize too late that they've made a terrible mistake and want to warn others not to be stupid, and some are just really really confused. This one really got to me, because you can see the dawning realization that everything he believed was a lie, and there's no way to go back and do it over. He died a few days after this post.

I prefer an aisle seat, but if both kids are with me, or even just DS (6'7"), I'm usually stuck in the middle seat because he takes up a seat & a half so I sit next to him and put up the armrest and I get half a seat. But within the US we really only fly Southwest, so if it's just the two of us we're often able to get a row with no one in the middle. If all three of us are flying internationally, I try to book bulkhead seats in the same row and we all wear jackets with lots of pockets to hold phones, iPads, chargers, earbuds, snacks, etc., since you can keep a jacket on your lap but any bags have to go in the overhead.

Unvaccinated people ARE keeping us from being able to tamp covid down. I mean that is not even debatable — 85% of cases, 95% of hospitalizations, and 96% of deaths are unvaccinated. If everyone was vaccinated, then the case rate would be vastly lower and there would be very few covid patients clogging up hospitals and monopolizing resources. If everyone was vaccinated, then HCWs wouldn't be exhausted, angry, demoralized and quitting in droves, which is going to have severe consequences for the future of healthcare in this country. If everyone was vaccinated, then people who need those beds for other reasons wouldn't be dying in the ER or postponing critical surgery. If everyone was vaccinated, tens of thousands of children that have already lost, or will lose, one or both parents would not have their lives irreparably damaged. If everyone was vaccinated, schools wouldn't be shutting down for weeks at a time, with children sent home to quarantine and teachers dying. There was an AMA on reddit today with many HCWs who deal directly with covid patients. They talked about not being able to sleep at night because they hear the alarms in their dreams and it constantly wakes them up. They talked about being harassed and yelled at by patients who don't want to believe what's happening and by family members demanding that patients be given treatments they saw on Facebook. One nurse said they have lost a huge percentage of their staff because they are so traumatized they just can't take it anymore — she said they have ICU rooms being used for storage because they can't staff them. One nurse said she throws up every morning before she goes to work because it's like walking into a war zone. Another said they had 13 deaths last week, of which 12 were covid patients and 11 were unvaccinated. They talked about how it feels to look into the terrified eyes of a patient who's about to be intubated knowing the odds of coming off the vent alive are in the single digits, and the emotional toll it takes to hold cell phones and iPads while sobbing families say goodbye. The idea that refusing to vaccinate is a "personal choice" that doesn't affect anyone else is a bald-faced lie. It's a "choice" that is causing PTSD in thousands of HCWs and exacerbating shortages that will have repercussions for decades to come. It's traumatizing children whose lives are forever changed because their parent(s) decided that giving the government a you're-not-the-boss-of-me middle finger was more important than being there to see them grow up. It's costing billions of dollars to treat people whose hospitalizations and deaths were almost entirely preventable, and it's going to result in long-term health problems for a significant percentage of those who survive it. It's selfish, it's based on lies and misinformation, and it's causing irreparable damage that this country may never recover from. Damn right people are mad about it.

No this was just the recommendation of the FDA advisory panel. The CDC meets next Wednesday and Thursday, and then I think there will be an announcement about whether there will be an official EUA for boosters.

I really hope they word the recommendation in a way that allows the broadest possible interpretation, so pretty much anyone who wants a booster will be able to get one. Now that Pfizer has a full biologics license, I think doctors can legally use it off label for a third dose anyway (and luckily the booster dose is the same as the regular dose). Telling the people who are being careful, who are carrying the burden of this pandemic, and who want the additional protection, that they can't have it because it would be more useful if it were to be given it to someone who won't be getting it anyway, is just stupid.

The arguments against boosters aren't actually arguments against boosters — they are arguments that the doses used for boosters would be better used in other ways. But there is no reason to believe that withholding boosters will actually result in those shots going into the arms that people think should get them instead. (1) There's no question that, from a public health perspective, vaccinating the huge number of vaccine refusers in this country would be more effective than boosters — but those people have had access to vaccines for 6 months now and won't take them. Withholding boosters from people who do want to be protected will have zero effect on current anti-vaxxers. (2) The argument that recommending a 3rd dose will discourage those who are current unvaxxed from getting vaxxed is the dumbest argument of all. Like there are millions of people who have so far totally refused to get a shot who will say "oh, well, I would have gotten two shots but now that it's three, forget about it!" Like watching hundreds of thousands of people who did get vaccinated eventually get sick because of waning immunity is more likely to persuade them to get vaxxed??? (3) The US has already pledged to donate half a billion doses of Pfizer to other countries, the idea that withholding boosters from Americans means that the US will therefore donate an additional 200 million doses they would have used as boosters is naive. It's not gonna happen. Arguments in favor: (1) Increasing protection against infection, rather than settling for "good enough" protection against hospitalization and death, reduces transmission, helps protect unvaxxed children and the immunocompromised, and reduces the number of people who will get long covid and other potentially life-changing autoimmune diseases. There was an article linked here yesterday on the explosion of diabetes cases in children that doctors think may linked to covid. Their lives may be changed forever, but hey, at least they didn't die (yet). (2) Many people who are being careful, who got vaxxed, who wear masks, are not going to be comfortable going back to life as usual knowing their protection against disease is wearing off. Want the economy totally back on track? Then the people who want to stay safe need to feel safe. (3) There is more than whiff of privilege when a board of academics and government employees who have excellent health insurance and the ability to work from home decide that "probably not going to die" is good enough protection for everyone under retirement age. It ignores the millions of working Americans for whom 2-3 weeks of illness could be financially catastrophic, not to mention the possibility of long covid or other disabilities.

FDA: "OK, sure, we can see there are holes in the ship and we're taking on water, but it's only a little water, and there is no evidence to suggest that holes get bigger or that more water actually sinks the ships. But once the pumps can no longer keep up with the influx of water and the boat actually starts sinking and people are drowning, we may consider taking another look at the evidence in favor of plugging holes." At least Fauci is pointing out the obvious, that increased transmission hurts unvaccinated kids and the immunocompromised and can lead to long covid.

I've got one of those! Having her move out when she turned 18 has greatly improved our relationship. Sometimes people who think they know everything just have to learn the hard way how much they really don't know. It's painful to watch, but all I can really do is make sure she knows I'm here for her if it all falls apart.

I can be in and out of Trader Joe's or Whole Foods in 10 minutes if I stick to a list, or 15 if I'm browsing or looking at new products. But that's at 8:00 AM on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when there's no one else there. Costco would be 20 minutes, maybe more if they've moved everything around as they seem to do every few months. I really really hate giant grocery stores and never shop there unless I desperately need something I can't get anywhere else (like a specific kind of tea or flour or something) that TJs, WF, and Amazon are all out of, and even then I go straight to that item and get out as fast as possible. I think I've been inside a regular supermarket maybe 5 times in the seven years I've lived here.

I guess it depends on what you consider "rare." From the most recent CDC data (for June/July, after Delta was dominant), roughly 1 in 30 covid cases in unvaccinated people aged 18-49 ended up hospitalized. Certainly better than the 1/10 odds for unvaccinated 50-64 year olds and 1/5 for unvaccinated seniors over 65, but personally I don't consider 1 in 30 to be great odds. According to the CDC, 85% of covid cases, 95% of covid hospitalizations and 96% of covid deaths in ages 18-49 were unvaccinated. Raw numbers for that age group in the 4-week period from 6/20-7/17 = 2,666 unvaccinated hospitalizations vs 146 vaccinated hospitalizations, despite the fact that more people in that age group are vaccinated than unvaccinated. Even if we assume a 50/50 vaxed/unvaxed split in the population, that means unvaxed 18-49 year olds are 18x more likely to be hospitalized than vaxxed 18-49 year olds. If you include all age groups, including the elderly, the unvaxed are still 10x more likely to be hospitalized or die from Delta.

Plus in many cases there are likely to be shared lifestyle factors that lead to similar comorbidities, especially obesity with all the other issues (diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, low Vit D, etc.) that often go along with that. Odds of serious illness and death are much higher than 1/200 for people who are morbidly obese. And couples are more likely to share political views and be on the same page re: not getting vaxxed, which astronomically increases the odds of becoming severely ill or dying if they get it.

Some antigen tests look for antibodies to the nucleocapsid (N) protein rather than the spike (S) protein. If the blood donation place was specifically looking for evidence of infection, not vaccination, they may have purposely used an N protein test, in which case you might have super high levels of antibodies to the spike protein and it wouldn't show up at all on the test.

I also try to do any in person shopping midweek and I get there as soon as the store opens. That goes for Home Depot, plant nursery, Trader Joes, etc. If I think of something I want outside of those times & days, I either wait or get it delivered.

Well technically Moderna is not approved for boosters in anyone who does not meet fairly strict definitions for being immunocompromised, and the 3rd dose that is approved for immunocompromised under the existing EUA is a full 100 µg dose, not a 50 µg booster. If they are getting the full 100 µg dose and are not actually immunocompromised, then I would want to do as much as possible to minimize potential side effects (drink tons of water the day before, day of, and day after; move the arm as much as possible, etc.)

Since Pfizer now has a full biologics license, it can legally be used off-label, even if the FDA has not formally approved boosters.

If they are scheduled to get them on Monday, I assume they are getting Pfizer. The data Pfizer released last month showed an 11-fold increase in antibodies following the 3rd/booster dose in those over 55, which was shown to be highly effective against Delta. So I would definitely recommend they get it.

The Pfizer booster is exactly the same dose as the first two shots (30 µg), The Moderna booster will be half of the original two shots (50 µg vs 100).

Exactly. If everyone was vaccinated and masking, life would be normal right now. Vaccinated people with waning immunity aren't the ones overwhelming hospitals. Since we only have half the population fully vaxxed, we're about halfway back to normal — except that it's not evenly distributed, it's basically an average between the people who are living their lives as if the pandemic doesn't exist and the cautious people who are still significantly restricting activities. Why people who are still restricting activities would blame that on vaccine manufacturers or "the government" instead of the jerks who are refusing to get vaccinated or mask or take any other precautions makes no sense to me.

Huh? Are you saying that April 2021 does not count as "Spring 2021"? Because that's when Moderna and Pfizer formally announced that they believed boosters would be needed. People keep trying to explain the shades of gray in this issue and you keep insisting it's black and white — either there is clear evidence that EVERYONE needs a booster or there is clear evidence that NO ONE needs a booster, and the fact that experts are not in 100% agreement on this means something sketchy is going on. There is no question that boosters increase immune response; the trials clearly show that. Boosters will reduce the number of infections substantially, and will also reduce hospitalizations and deaths but to a lesser degree — because the first two doses still provide reasonable protection against those outcomes. HOW MANY preventable infections, hospitalizations, and deaths are acceptable, from a public health standpoint, without authorizing boosters is the debate. That is not a question with a yes/no answer. There is no clear line between what is "bad enough," as you put it, and what is "not bad enough" when it comes to illness and death. What counts as "bad enough" to authorize boosters is a question that involves social, economic, and political factors, not just medical ones. And one of those political factors is the WHO strongly pressuring the US to send all their doses to other countries instead of doing boosters (even though we are already donating half a billion doses whether we do boosters or not).

Those were just examples I pulled up in a 2-second search, demonstrating that health policy people have been discussing the likelihood of boosters since the vaccines were first rolled out. The fact that someone was not aware that boosters were being discussed since vaccines were first rolled out, and therefore assumed that 2 doses provided permanent immunity, doesn't mean they were "lied to." Surely you understand that "more like the flu than polio" does not mean "exactly like the flu in every possible way," right? Both Pfizer & Moderna are trialling boosters that are specific to Delta and other VOC. The data Pfizer released showed that a 3rd dose of the original vaccine produced much higher antibody levels than the original 2 doses, and this level was highly effective against Delta. It was also highly effective against Beta, and I have read that they felt boosting with the original vaccine would provide broader protection against multiple variants versus using a booster specifically targeted at Delta. Pfizer's booster trial was just completed a month ago, and they immediately released the data. I think you are just making stuff up here — what "highly convincing evidence" do you think they should have produced "long before" the actual trials concluded? The trials showed a 5-fold increase in antibodies compared to 2 doses for under 55s and an 11-fold increase in antibodies in over 55s. What more "accountability and transparency" should be expected of manufacturers beyond releasing data from RCTs as soon as the data is available? The question being debated by the CDC and FDA is not whether boosters will improve immunity and reduce infections and spread, the question is whether reducing infection and spread is a big enough deal to be worth pissing off the WHO by distributing boosters to Americans when other countries haven't had first doses yet, or whether the fact that the original two doses still generally protect against hospitalization and death is good enough. And that is a largely political decision that has nothing to do with the "transparency and accountability" of the manufacturers.

Here's a news story from January, less than month after the vaccines began rolling out in the US, in which an infectious disease specialist explicitly says that immunity "may last longer than a year, but it’s unlikely to be permanent the way two doses of measles vaccine is. So at some point, it’s likely that we will need to boost people, but we don’t know how frequently that will need to be.” https://www.abc4.com/coronavirus/will-i-need-to-get-the-covid-19-vaccine-annually-like-the-flu-shot/ Article from February stating that the NHS plans for annual covid boosters shots: https://www.ft.com/content/26b256d0-d021-46ac-ae3d-e3ea823c033d In April both Pfizer and Moderna stated explicitly that boosters would be needed: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla: "There are vaccines like polio that one dose is enough, there are vaccines like pneumococcal vaccine that one dose is enough for adults, and there are vaccines like flu that you need every year. The COVID virus looks more like the influenza virus than the polio virus." Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel: "I hope this summer to get the vaccine authorized for a boost so that we can help people getting boosted before the fall, so that we all have a normal fall and not a fall and winter like we just saw in the last 6 months." This information was out there and was widely covered in the media. "I wasn't aware of that" does not equal "I was lied to."

Phase 3 vaccine trials for both Pfizer and Moderna began at the end of July, and they started booster trials in late February (Pfizer) and early March (Moderna), roughly seven months from the start of the original trials. How could they have data on waning immunity before immunity started to wane? The possibility of needing boosters has been widely reported on since February.

From the Jerusalem Post: Leader of Israeli anti-vaxx movement, who claimed "there is no epidemic" and urged his followers not to take the "dangerous" vaccine, has died of covid while continuing to insist that he didn't have it. He told followers that police must have poisoned him and that if he died they should consider it an assassination.

Pfizer's Phase 3 RCT on boosters includes 10,000 participants from the original 2-dose trial who will get either a placebo or a 3rd dose 175 days or more after the 1st dose. The trial started in July and I assume they will have preliminary data at some point this fall, but the completion date is the end of September of 2022. The Phase 2 trial included ~300 people; that's where the data came from about the 3rd shot boosting neutralizing antibodies 5-11x against Delta and 15-21x against Beta.

They seem to be focusing exclusively on the data for hospitalization and death, and they say up front that that is what public health policy should be based on, not illness. Since the vast majority of the vaccinated do not (currently) end up hospitalized or dead, the US should be sending their doses to other countries rather than doing boosters. So it's not a scientific conclusion as much as it's a political opinion backed with selective data. They've also said that approving boosters might discourage those who aren't vaccinated yet, by making them think the vaccines aren't effective enough. Maybe these folks should stick to facts instead of trying to outguess and outmaneuver antivaxxers, which only ends up hurting the people that are trying to be safe (e.g. when they prematurely announced that vaxxed people didn't need masks in response to Tucker Carlson and social media ranting about how making vaxxed people mask means vaccines don't work). And it annoys the hell out of me that none of the pubic health people who have argued against boosters have said one word about long covid, which has the potential to impact millions of lives and cause huge health care problems down the road.