Boosting boosters
I just got my Pfizer booster shot this weekend. There’s a lot of confusion about who can get a booster, and I had to double-check to be sure if I could get it. If you’ve gotten your two shots of Pfizer already, and are eligible, I definitely urge you to get the booster.
Here are the official CDC guidelines. I qualify under the CDC’s guidelines both in terms of an underlying health condition I have. As of when I’m posting this, only Pfizer is approved for boosters, and in theory only people who qualify based on age, underlying health conditions, or working or living in high-risk settings.
Some people are being dishonest and either claiming to have a condition when they don’t, or saying their doctor told them to get the booster when they didn’t. I’ve heard of a number of people getting it who don’t qualify, and haven’t heard or read of anyone who’s been turned away (although I’m sure it either has or could happen). It’s on an honor system basis, possibly partly for the reason I discuss below.
When news was coming out that boosters might be approved, at first I was hesitant about getting one. There are literally billions of people in the world who don’t have access to get their first shot, much less their third.
Unless companies are forced to stand down on hoarding patents and technology, so that any country who wants to vaccine can make or purchase it, there will still be billions of unvaccinated people for years to come.
In the US, the problem is that we have so much supply and not enough people getting vaccinated. The way I see it (and the way I’ve seen other people describe it as well), I’m not taking anyone’s vaccine. No one is being turned away where I live (Memphis, TN). Appointments are even optional — I was just able to show up without an appointment and get one.
There are still cases of vaccines going unused in the US, sometimes getting thrown away because there weren’t enough people wanting to get vaccinated before it expired (although this is happening less than at the start of vaccinations, from what I’ve read). That’s actually how I got my first shot; they were about to throw out a batch of vaccines, so word got around that they were giving them away to anyone without an appointment regardless of whether or not you qualified because of a health condition or being in a high-risk job.
With the long-term efficacy of current vaccines in doubt, and since I have a still-unvaccinated young daughter, I think that getting the booster was the right thing to do. I did have a little more of a painful reaction in my arm this time from soreness, but that’s not uncommon and it’s already a lot better.
England’s cases are starting to rise again. Millions of kids in the US are unvaccinated and who are counting on adults to limit the spread. While delta is still the main variant by far in the US, there have been other variants popping up, and the more that happens, the more chances that we’ll get someone worse than delta spreading.
The pandemic is better in most places in the US, but it’s much too early to declare victory against covid.
Please wear a mask, get vaccinated if you haven’t yet, get a booster if you can. The more we do now, the less likely we’ll have another surge as bad, or worse, than before.
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