Today a friend asked me what was up with #COVID vaccines. Why haven't we been encouraged to get further boosters?
The short answer is that there's a new version coming this fall that targets the now-prevalent XBB.1.5 strain that was not included in previous formulations.
My guess is that this will be made available, but not necessarily recommended, to all US adults. I will be getting it if it is available to me.
@ct_bergstrom ooof... If the CDC doesn't recommend it, insurance is unlikely to cover it (unless governments get back in the business of buying doses)
Wish we were also focusing on inhaled vaccines in the US 😔
Just anecdotally, the bivalent booster didn't prevent me from getting COVID ~5 weeks later 😬
The way it was explained to me, the #COVID vaccine isn't a magic shield that stops the virus from spreading. It just makes it so if we get it, the effects are reduced and you have a better chance of avoiding hospitalization or death.
Every single person I know who got vaxxed and then caught it, lived. Some barely felt it. Others (like me) got our asses kicked by it for weeks, with varying side-effects.
But we all survived. The vaccine did its job.
@raminf @ct_bergstrom oh, yes, I'm well aware. Still glad I had the bivalent booster. I just suspect inhaled vaccines in addition might offer an initial layer of defense.
Mostly I am really hoping my friends who are still quarantining over three years later can start doing social things again without a big risk of them contracting it for the first time.
Carl T. Bergstrom
Karl
raminf