Getting vaccinated

[Long Run]

Now that is a whopper of a misleading headline. The real story is that the drug price is going from $20 to $110. The "reporter" attempts to manufacture outrage by looking at the cost to manufacture the drug, which in all cases for all drugs results in huge-sounding markups because the big cost is always in R&D, followed by marketing. The actual manufacturing of drugs is always miniscule. The percentage increase is not as relevant as the actual proposed cost of $110 which on its face does not seem ridiculously high, especially since nearly everyone will have some form of health plan cover the entire cost. That said, the U.S. government should have cut a better deal with Pfizer.

[BoSoxGal]

Big Pharma executives and boards and shareholders shouldn’t be the greedy scum they are - they let people die every single day by making lifesaving medicines unaffordable to most regular human beings. Nobody at any level of Pharma would have to starve to let dying people get medicine.

This subject makes me crazy angry, especially considering that the vast majority of the R&D that goes into lifesaving pharmaceuticals has already been paid for by the federal government via research grants or research at public facilities that later is transferred to private Pharma labs.

We should just let the federal government manufacture pharmaceuticals but that would be too SOCIALIST to contemplate. The truth is that most of our wealth goes to middle men who don’t give us the dollar value that other folks in other countries enjoy from taxpayer funded endeavors. At very least yes, we should be able to negotiate very low rates on medications like most other countries do.

[Gob]

Still be free in the UK.

[Long Run]

Still be free in the UK.

I assume you mean that it is provided at no cost to individuals who want the vaccine (but, of course, the public health system pays for the vaccines and the administration of the vaccine). That is and will be the same here despite the misleading article and BSG''s general rant against drug manufacturers.

[Gob]

Getting my autumn Covid booster and flu jabs (free) this coming Tuesday.

[Burning Petard]

There are already hints here in the USofA that after December 31, 2022, The feds will not be paying the load for Covid shots and Pharmacia has already decided to boost the price 4X. I wish this is fake news. But I remember what my basic training Sarge said about wishes -- Hold out two hands. . . . and see which hand fills first.

snailgate

[MajGenl.Meade]

snail - read about four/five posts below yours

[Joe Guy]

I thought I could get a quick appointment or walk-in for the the covid bivalent booster at a CVS nearby and went through the sign-up process online and the soonest I could get the shot from CVS would be November 14th and it would be at a CVS across the bay about 20 miles from here. So, I looked at Walgreens, Safeway, Stanford Health Care and a few other places and still couldn't find an appointment earlier than November 14th.

I ended up making an appointment at a Rite-Aid for 11/14/2022, which is a drug store I've never had the pleasure to visit. Given the time of year and the seriousness of the virus, I'm surprised at the difficulty to get the vaccine quickly. The only good thing is that it might mean an unexpectedly high amount of people are getting boosted. However, I'm more inclined to believe that the supply around here is currently limited.

Anyway, as an added precaution I'm going to attempt to hold my breath for the next two weeks.

[Econoline]

I signed up yesterday (Mon.) for vaccination appointments at CVS and my wife and I (plus a friend who also needed the booster) got our shots today (Tues.).

[Gob]

Got my booster (left arm,) and my flu jab, (right arm,) yesterday at my GP. No charge.

I asked if they were "offering the disinfectant jab, or the fish tank cleaner, that that nice Mr. Trump was promoting"? Luckily they saw I was joking.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I got my fifth shot (i.e., third booster) last week.

In a new (new to me, at any rate) twist on the tax/antivax debate, a baby in New Zealand urgently requires an operation which would involve a few pints of donated blood, and the family is denying permission for the operation to go ahead until they are guaranteed that 'unvaccinated' blood would be provided. Story here in NYT.. NZ, like most places in the civilized world, has a taxation supported 'free' health service. All the science seems to indicate that mRNA in vaccine has no effect on the utility or otherwise of good transfusions, and the NZ authorities are considering taking custody of the 4-month-old baby so that the operation can go ahead without delay. Apparently the sooner the better for the operation. NZ does not record the vaccination status of blood donors.

NZ like the US and other countries has a flourishing anti-vax community, and apparently sufficient anti-vaxxers have lined up to donate blood for the operation. It seems to me that the pragmatic approach would be to accept this blood and go ahead with the operation rather than waste time and money with some sort of court fight. I think the premise of the anti-vaxxers is daft - as far as I can make out, they are happy to accept the science and expertise behind the operation itself.

But sometimes the better course of valor is to do what is necessary rather than to do what is right.

[BoSoxGal]

Vaccine by product is gone from the blood within days of vaccination, so the status of the blood donator is irrelevant. The parents are both stupid and neglectful of their child who should be in the custody of the state.

[Bicycle Bill]

In a new (new to me, at any rate) twist on the tax/antivax debate, a baby in New Zealand urgently requires an operation which would involve a few pints of donated blood, and the family is denying permission for the operation to go ahead until they are guaranteed that 'unvaccinated' blood would be provided. Story here in NYT..

I wonder if the mother is also demanding that it be 'white' blood, too — no shvartzers need apply.

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

Better watch out for those hobbits though

[Big RR]

Vaccine by product is gone from the blood within days of vaccination, so the status of the blood donator is irrelevant. The parents are both stupid and neglectful of their child who should be in the custody of the state.

Well, to a point that is true, but then, the mRNA introduced causes the body to make spike proteins that trigger the immune response (I believe spike proteins are also in the vaccine). The mRNA doesn't last long in the body (which is why the vaccine myst be kept at very low temepratures before use), but the proteins should last longer. I haven't read any studies on how long the proteins last, but proteins ususally last on the order of a few weeks, so such proteins may be present in the blood. And the antibodies made should last even longer

That being said, transfused blood may contain a lot of things, from antibodies triggered by illness or vaccination to drugs the donor took, to any manner of things. I think it pretty ridiculous to wprry about the residue of a vaccine causing a problem. I'd bet an error in getting the wrong type blood (I think I read the chances were something like this to happen were something like 1 in 200,000) than focusing on the covid vaccine. Even if you believe the vaccine was rushed and not fully tested, we have seen its effects on probably one of the largest vaccinated populations ever with very little significant problems--there are far more things the mom should be concerned with than that.

[Burning Petard]

Iatrogenic. Look it up. 1 in 200,000 is still pretty significant. it is not like loosing $2 for a powerball ticket. In 1935 my mother was given a miss-matched blood transfusion (as part of a chain of very unfortunate events) that resulted in a out-of-court settlement that gave her father a nice farm in Nebraska and she got a year of college and the capital to own, with her new husband, a grocery store in Lincoln, Nebraska. And a lifetime of pain. By 1941 the store and the farm were gone. My grandfather was probably among the worst farmers in Nebraska, and the grocery store foundered under too many accounts payable.
At my father's funeral one person stood and said that box of accounts on credit had kept his family from starving.. He continued, that my parents never spoke of that debt to him or his family even though they remained living in the same neighborhood.

snailgate

[ex-khobar Andy]

Re that NZ baby - looks as if the courts have taken conservatorship of the kid and gone ahead with the surgery. Of course there is always the risk - this kid is very ill - that there will be other problems and of course the parents will argue that it's because of the vaccinated blood. Let's hope it all goes well .

[BoSoxGal]

Re that NZ baby - looks as if the courts have taken conservatorship of the kid and gone ahead with the surgery. Of course there is always the risk - this kid is very ill - that there will be other problems and of course the parents will argue that it's because of the vaccinated blood. Let's hope it all goes well .

Here’s an article about it: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ardianship

Noteworthy that despite saying they wouldn’t appeal and would support their baby in the process leading to surgery, the court then had to issue another order because they actively obstructed medical staff who were attempting to take blood for testing and various other procedures for surgical pre-op. They are clearly dickheads who don’t deserve this blessing and I feel sorry for this kid because even if it does well with surgery and recovery the next 18 years are probably going to suck with authoritarian morons for parents.

[TPFKA@W]

My husband and both tested positive for covid the other day. I have had right ear pain, a really sore throat, a minor temp with nasal drainage/congestion, diarrhea and some loss of taste. Husband has lung congestion, a day of aches and shivering plus an annoying cough. It is a mini version of issue of 2 years ago. The vaccine works.

[Joe Guy]

Sorry to hear this. You must be a covid host....hostess? Or something.

Or maybe you and your husband just have a life.

Are you taking Paxlovid?

Well, at the beginning of 2022 predicted that I'd get covid before the year ended but I was wrong. I'm still one of the dwindling number of people that wears a mask when going places and still try to avoid standing near strangers although strangers don't seem to care about keeping their distance.

I hope you both get well soon...