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please get your booster if you can (and you probably can)


ktgrok
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My sister was a couple of  weeks from getting her booster when she had a break through infection that has led to her having what may be permanent neurological damage. She can't work, needs help caring for kids, has aphasia, tremors, and balance issues. She will be in physical therapy 3 times a week as well as ongoing speech therapy. She's 43 yrs old. She wasn't sick enough to be hospitalized until the neuro stuff hit, at which point they admitted her to run tests looking for a brain bleed or other stroke. She did have a heavy viral exposure due to caring for her two kids who had covid - both too young to be vaccinated. She almost made it to when they could be vaccinated, and she could be boostered. So close. Now we have no idea what her long term prognosis is, and the long covid clinics in our state have a 6 month wait for an appointment. 

If you at all can, get your booster as soon as you are eligible. If you aren't sure if you qualify, ask here we can help you find out. (BMI over 25 counts, for starters, and most places are not being picky about who gets it)

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The minute Moderna releases/gets their approved, I plan to/hope to. 

I'm waiting on DS to be eligible (16, only one of us that had Pfizer, hasn't been 6 months yet and doesn't have pre-existing anything). 

I'm so sorry for your sister; I continue to pray for her full recovery. 

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If this ends up being functional neurological disorder, have her look into The Recovery project in Livonia, Michigan. We traveled there from out of state and it was life changing for my daughter. Our experience is that it is exceptionally difficult to find a PT familiar enough to deal adequately with the condition.

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37 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

 She did have a heavy viral exposure due to caring for her two kids who had covid - both too young to be vaccinated.

It seems worth them considering adding parents of kids too young to be vaccinated to the qualifications list. Literally every covid breakthrough I know of personally has been a parent who got it from their unvaccinated kid. It seems like the viral load in that situation makes it much higher risk than incidental encounters in public.

32 minutes ago, WildflowerMom said:

Do you still have to wait so long?   I’m due for mine in December.  Could I get it now?

At this point, the thought is that you don't want to do it too soon, because the immune response is stronger with more of a gap between doses. If you do it too soon, you may not have as good of long term protection as you would by waiting. I'm thinking it's likely worth being extra careful in that 4-6 month after period, while waiting for the booster, particularly for Pfizer recipients (Moderna looks to hold stronger at 6 months than Pfizer).

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2 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

The news on Moderna boosters isn’t good. I really wish they would let us mix the boosters.  

I haven't had a chance to look at the data yet, but from the little I've seen, I'm wondering if it's precisely because Moderna is still holding up well at 6 months that the data isn't there for them to recommend boosters yet at 6 months. I should probably go read the data before posting this, because maybe it will answer that for me, lol.

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41 minutes ago, WildflowerMom said:

Do you still have to wait so long?   I’m due for mine in December.  Could I get it now?

Still 6 months. I do think she'd have been able to hold out htat long if not such a high level of exposure with two sick kids laying on top of her, first one, then the other. So constant exposure all day for weeks. 

13 minutes ago, GoodGrief3 said:

If this ends up being functional neurological disorder, have her look into The Recovery project in Livonia, Michigan. We traveled there from out of state and it was life changing for my daughter. Our experience is that it is exceptionally difficult to find a PT familiar enough to deal adequately with the condition.

The neurologist really thinks it is from Covid - we just don't know if it is temporary from inflammation or permanent damage from infection/vascular issues from Covid. 

3 minutes ago, KSera said:

It seems worth them considering adding parents of kids too young to be vaccinated to the qualifications list. Literally every covid breakthrough I know of personally has been a parent who got it from their unvaccinated kid. It seems like the viral load in that situation makes it much higher risk than incidental encounters in public.

 

Yup. My sister got it from her kids, and my DS22 thinks he got it at an arcade filled with kids too young to be be vaccinated. 

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3 minutes ago, AmandaVT said:

I went w/ my mom to get her pfizer booster this weekend and tried to get them to give me a moderna booster while I was there. They refused. So I wait. I hope your sister feels better soon!

What my parents did to get a moderna 3rd dose is go via Publix (CVS is the same) where you just check a box on the online scheduling form, saying immune compromised. No one asked questions once they showed up. 

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This is the best summary of the Moderna booster developments today that I've found so far: FDA Staff Don’t Take Position on Moderna Covid-19 Booster (You can also look at the data Moderna submitted here: https://www.fda.gov/media/152953/download)

It will be interesting to see what happens. It sounds like the booster is shown to be safe and to work well, but because levels hadn't waned that much, particularly in under 65s, they narrowly missed the 4-fold increase in antibody levels required as an endpoint. Older people were much more likely to meet that endpoint than younger ones, because younger ones started with higher antibody levels. That makes me wonder if with Moderna they will stick with the 65 and over approval.

Quote

The staff said subjects who had lower neutralizing antibody levels before the booster were more likely to achieve at least a fourfold increase than those who had higher antibody levels pre-booster.

People younger than 65 years in the study had higher baseline antibody levels than those 65 and older, before getting the booster, according to the staff report. After the booster, the study found that a higher percentage of people 65 and older had a fourfold increase in antibody levels than those younger than 65.

Moderna said no new safety signals emerged with the booster doses in its clinical trial and said no cases of a heart-inflammatory condition known as myocarditis were observed.

 

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21 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

What my parents did to get a moderna 3rd dose is go via Publix (CVS is the same) where you just check a box on the online scheduling form, saying immune compromised. No one asked questions once they showed up. 

Interesting.  My husband is toying with the idea of just showing up with his Moderna card and seeing what happens.

 

I've only read the headlines today, but it sounds (?) like a bad news/good news scenario -- the Moderna booster wasn't given the go ahead because the Moderna vaccine is holding up well enough that a booster wasn't deemed necessary yet?  Is that more or less the take?

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I think I might just go for a full-dose Moderna shot after having J&J, which I can’t take again. I had the same water-running down the outside of my thigh sensation afterwards that I was told meant I couldn’t get another flu shot because I was at risk for Guillain Barre. DH sent me an article this morning about mixing shot types and even though there isn’t a large amount of data it appears taking J&J or the AZ shot first followed by an mRNA shot is more effective than the other way around. 

I hope your sister gets better soon @ktgrok

Edited by Katy
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11 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

Interesting.  My husband is toying with the idea of just showing up with his Moderna card and seeing what happens.

 

I've only read the headlines today, but it sounds (?) like a bad news/good news scenario -- the Moderna booster wasn't given the go ahead because the Moderna vaccine is holding up well enough that a booster wasn't deemed necessary yet?  Is that more or less the take?

that's how it seems to me, but I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on tv, so I could totally be wrong. 

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7 minutes ago, Katy said:

I think I might just go for a full-dose Moderna shot after having J&J, which I can’t take again. I had the same water-running down the outside of my thigh sensation afterwards that I was told meant I couldn’t get another flu shot because I was at risk for Guillain Barre. DH sent me an article this morning about mixing shot types and even though there isn’t a large amount of data it appears taking J&J or the AZ shot first followed by an mRNA shot is more effective than the other way around. 

I hope your sister gets better soon @ktgrok

What now?  I keep feeling like there's water dripping down my leg and I keep looking for water on my foot.   I had Pfizer months ago.  I've never heard of this.  

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We had moderna in April iirc so we are just waiting on booster info. I’m nervous about the booster. I just got over have a week-long respiratory thing that was not covid but still awful. And somewhere in the mix of stuff I need to schedule a flu shot. And I’d like to have them at least several weeks apart. And my second dose of moderna kicked my butt for at least 4 days.  I’m a bit nervous how I’ll handle a booster.

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54 minutes ago, hshibley said:

Do you have a link for that? Thanks I can’t find an update 

I believe it was the one linked in the post below yours - Wall Street Journal article.  I believe that there is concern it doesn’t provide enough “boost” to be much of a benefit. 

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11 minutes ago, kiwik said:

I only had my second Pfizer shot yesterday and my kids are having their second next week.  I don't think there has been any talk of boosters yet.

The Pfizer is authorized for boosters in the US if the patient is immunocompromized or high risk. I carry extra lbs. so I qualify.

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49 minutes ago, WildflowerMom said:

What now?  I keep feeling like there's water dripping down my leg and I keep looking for water on my foot.   I had Pfizer months ago.  I've never heard of this.  

I worked in nursing in the 2009 swine flu epidemic. I had two regular flu shots and one swine flu shot from August 15-October 3rd. After the second regular flu shot I kept feeling water run down the outside of my leg. I was having other autoimmune and neurological symptoms at the time so my neurologist ran a full MS panel.  Results normal. 

Ultimately I got a severe concussion from a patient who managed to kick me in the head.  That landed me with the head of neurology at the hospital I worked at (my neurologist was in a different hospital). He said my hospital got “a bad batch” of flu vaccine, that 1/3 of the nursing staff had similar bad neurological reactions, that symptoms would go away in a matter of months, but I should never get another flu shot because I was at risk for GB.

Oh yeah, and I was “too fat” and I should “just stop eating.” I never followed up to see if the advice still holds, I just learned that going forward I couldn’t take a flu shot and I’d have to wear an N95 mask in the hospital from July-May and took a job at an insurance company instead.

It’s possible that it is no longer considered a bad reaction. I know several people who have had that reaction to flu shots since. I know when I had tingly lips in reaction to the hep B shots that was considered a severe reaction, but by the time DH had the shots 10 years later it was listed along with a sore arm as common and mild. So these things do change over time with more data. 

I’ve never heard of anyone having that reaction to Pfizer.  I don’t think Pfizer increases risk for GB the way J&J does. If you have any additional symptoms I’d probably go to your doctor to be evaluated for MS. 

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Dh and I are scheduled to get our boosters next week. I should be able to easily do so due to my weight and we’re going to see if they question Dh on why or not. If they don’t, he will get his as well. There’s plenty of shots here and not so many people getting them anymore so I don’t feel bad at all trying.

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I'm going next Thursday - that will be 6 months after my second Pfizer shot...plus Friday and the weekend are slower days in case I have a severe reaction like I did to my second shot (please...no...I really don't want to go through that again).

If they question my eligibility, which I doubt they will, then I am ready to use the right words. "I care for young children." Granted, most of them are my own (unvaccinated) children, but I do provide childcare for an unrelated baby once a week.

Also, "I have an underlying medical condition." It is not officially listed, but the CDC acknowledges that theirs is not a comprehensive list and that there are other conditions that could exacerbate COVID.

Plus, my 10 year old son has moderate/severe asthma, and being his caregiver gave me priority in getting the vaccines the first go around. He still can't be vaccinated, so I have decided that now being his caregiver is another valid reason for me to get the booster.

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1 hour ago, KSera said:

That makes me wonder if with Moderna they will stick with the 65 and over approval.

Please, please allow healthcare workers too! Sigh.

I am six months out tomorrow and have my booster scheduled for the wrong day/time and need to change it, lol!

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13 hours ago, kbutton said:

Please, please allow healthcare workers too! Sigh.

I am six months out tomorrow and have my booster scheduled for the wrong day/time and need to change it, lol!

Healthcare care workers are one of the categories that the CDC lists as eligible:

Quote

Examples of workers who may get Pfizer-BioNTech booster[ 1 ] shots

  • First responders (e.g., healthcare workers, firefighters, police, congregate care staff)
  • Education staff (e.g., teachers, support staff, daycare workers)
  • Food and agriculture workers
  • Manufacturing workers
  • Corrections workers
  • U.S. Postal Service workers
  • Public transit workers
  • Grocery store workers

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html

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I'm sorry about your sister @ktgrok. That sounds awful. I hope the symptoms aren't permanent.

 

19 hours ago, TheReader said:

 

I'm waiting on DS to be eligible (16, only one of us that had Pfizer, hasn't been 6 months yet and doesn't have pre-existing anything). 

 

Ds 24 is eligible for a Pfizer booster if they just go by time. He's almost 8 months out from his second dose. He actually got his before dh and me even though we qualified by age because he was working in health care. Dss and ddil - firefighter/paramedic and nurse - already got their Pfizer boosters. They got their initial doses late 2020/early 2021. 

16 hours ago, Lecka said:

I need to find my card and see when I’m at 6 months.  I had Pfizer and I think I am close.  
 

Edit:  I just checked and October 21 will be 6 months since my second shot.  

I had Moderna and if a booster or third dose gets approved I'll be eligible Oct. 24th. I doubt the Moderna issue will be settled by then. Dh is about a month behind me.

I read some time ago that you can benefit from a Pfizer booster even if you got Moderna (not sure about J&J) but I haven't seen any info on that recently. 

23 minutes ago, happi duck said:

It's frustrating that many of us Moderna people are eager for a booster while so many won't even get their first dose and if everyone would get vaccinated maybe we wouldn't need to be quite so eager for a boost.

^^This^^ So much this.

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This is similar to what I saw regarding a different brand booster. I didn't expect to find such an article today; I was just reading several of my news sites and noticed this. Note that the study has yet to be peer reviewed but shows promise.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/mix-match-covid-vaccine-boosters-are-effective-nih-study-finds-rcna2974

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