Careful…you might be breaking the law!
Could sue your doctor though, I guess…
There is a non-zero chance of side effects if you take the new vaccine. 
Sure. But the materially greater effectiveness makes it a medically justifiable choice.
Hobson’s choice really.
given the option, i get the new one.
the weird thing is the old one vanishes monday and the new one enters the market friday. if i can only get a shot on wednesday, i’d be happy to get the old one. more effective than nothing, manageably risky etc.
The problem with the current covid vaccine process (vs say the flu) is that:
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Variant surveillance for covid is not as well established as the flu (Influenza). We have lots of blind spots all over the world as genomic surveillance requires funding, expertise, and technology.
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The process of predicting what variants may be dominant over the next 12 months is still not understood for covid (as its rate of transmission and mutation is far greater vs flu).
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Flu is reasonably seasonal, so you can therefore predict when the waves will occur. Covid does not appear to be seasonal (as much as the flu) so this also creates problems.
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The process of creating a vaccine for what is predicted to be the dominant variant from identification (genomic surveillance) to production (doses of vaccine) and distribution (US, UK, Canda, EU, globally etc) is still a bit of a shambles vs flu (which was created and smoothed over many years).
Join all of these things together and you can kind of understand why there are discontinuities & overlaps between the availability of a previous vaccine (for older variant) and the availability of the most recent vaccine (for newer variant) in the US.
I wonder if there is some sort of calculus that implies, for situations like yours, the risk of having one less week for a vaccine dose to take effect is still more effective than getting a formulation that is less likely to be effective due to mutation of the virus.
The CDC recommended the updated vaccines for everyone over 6 months.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/09/12/covid-booster-shots-2023-cdc/
It does look like shots will be available Friday. It’s just a weird glitch that there will be a few days without a vaccine.
I honestly think it’s just a bug in the logic, and one not important enough for anyone to have fixed.
It’s illegal to sell expired drugs in most states, too. Yeah, they get dumped in a landfill or something. It doesn’t mean that the new aspirin on the shelf is dangerous.
I am slightly surprised by this, as unlike the early days of COVID almost everyone in the US has either had COVID at this point or had at least one vaccination. As a result, I expected the guidance to be focused on at risk individuals.
There was a debate between those who felt it should be treated like the annual flu vaccine, and recommended to everyone, and those who thought that at-risk people would be more likely to get it if it was only recommended to them.
The vote was 13 to 1, though. It’s kinda hard to argue that we should restrict the covid vaccine when it works at least as well as the annual flu shot against a disease that’s more dangerous and more contagious.
They are only recommending one dose, except for those under 5 and the immune compromised, on the theory that everyone has prior exposure.
(Full vaccination for a novel antigen usually requires a few shots.)
Yes, I thought it would be treated more like the flu vaccine: everyone can get it, but strongly encouraged for higher risk individuals
You guys are lucky.
The UK is only allowing the over 65s to get the booster and is not allowing the under 65s to buy it privately (this is the part that makes me angry as long covid can cause damage even in healthy people under 65).
I basically have to fly to Brazil early next year to get the booster myself.
shot scheduled for Monday afternoon
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Probably should restrict it based on supply. That was the big issue with the first round. They make a billion doses? nah. They make only a million doses per day? Well, it will take a year.
Huh? Manufacturers have had lots of time to prepare. Unless the booster is vastly more popular than expected there will be plenty.
@The_Polymath , you can buy it here. The vaccine is about $130, plus whatever the pharmacy charges to administer it. Dunno how often you visit the US, but my experience is that pharmacies are happy to let you pay for a shot. And it will certainly be legal for you to get it.
Fyi, one of the reasons the CDC decided to recommend it to everyone is that private insurance has to pay for it for everyone the CDC recommends it to. So if they hadn’t, it would have been expensive for anyone who wasn’t covered by the recommendation.
Mine is scheduled for a week from Thursday. Taking Friday off in case it’s lousy (2/3 times it was pretty bad for 24 hours after). Already had it planned off anyway.
Canada has also approved an updated vaccine for everyone over 6 months.
I have no idea how easy it is for a non-Canadian to buy a vaccine there, but it’s going to be legal for you to get it. They are expecting to have shots available in October, i think.
I’m surprised to see that they’ve only authorized the Moderna vaccine.
The cdc recommends that everyone over 6 months get an annual flu shot, too.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/acip/summary/summary-recommendations.htm
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Wow. I have no idea as a canadian if I can get a nonprescribed shot. I’m guessing not.
Flu/covid shots here are.pretty simple. I walk into the pharmacy,.show my health insurance card,.get the shot. No pay, no real paperwork.