When to take and who needs to take a third shot booster against Covid-19?

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[OscarCP]

There has been recent discussion here, in the USA, on people getting a vaccine booster shot for Covid-19, with some US government health agencies, as cited below, recommending a third shot of the Covid-19 “mRNA” vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) so far, with others under study. While in other countries this has been discussed and in some, such as Israel, much of the population has been receiving a third shot already, to boost the immunity acquired after the two usual shots.

For my part, I am prepared to wait for more information on this. But not for too long: having already received the second shot of the vaccine Moderna in late May, and taking some guidance from what I see as being published by reputable news organizations, it looks like something between six and eight months after the second shot might not be too far from being right. In any case, again here in the USA, the coming, from late November through the 1st of January of 2022, of the Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Year gatherings and festivities are, I fully expect, to result in another series of big spikes of cases, same as happened last year. So if a boost shot does any good, then it better does it before then. So mid-November at the latest I’ll probably get that third shot. Others might have different ideas about this, and I’ll be thankful if they let me know what they would do to get a third shot.

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NOW A WORD OF WARNING: This is a thread in “The Junk Drawer”, not in “Rants”, that I am starting with the one and only purpose to exchange information on the timing and possible benefits of getting the Covid-19 vaccine a third time, by whom and when, as well as about any known, or becoming known, rare adverse side-effects. That is it. The whole topic. Anything not about that, is off-topic.

For example: Discussion of whether getting vaccinated is entirely a personal choice, why one may refuse it as a matter of principle and not of medical necessity, whether vaccination is good or is bad for most people because it is, or it is not founded on reliable science, or whether being told to get vaccinated is, or is not an affront to personal rights: none of this is on topic here and I hope the MVPs will spot and remove such content. If I spot any, I’ll mark it with a reply stating that this kind of commentary is off-topic, and I’ll then refuse to argue about this. I’ll be thankful to those who help out to keep this site informative and helpful to those who may want to clarify their understanding of this so far new and not yet quite fully researched, important practical issue. Those looking for polemics, and also trolls, please do it elsewhere.

Experts are moving as far as they can to sort this and much else related to Covid-19, while still putting together the airplane they are flying in. And we have no better choice, often enough, than to fly with them. So there is room for giving more information and voicing different polite opinions on what is best to do about a third vaccination, and on what is to know about that.

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About the third shot, when, why and for whom:

Some of the main recent announcements and news, in chronological order:

September 1 2021

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/01/1033474298/moderna-fda-covid-19-booster-shot

“A third dose of the Moderna vaccine — given six months after the initial two doses — significantly boosts immunity, according to data the company submitted to the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.

The data comes from 344 volunteers who got an additional dose of the vaccine as part of a clinical study. Antibodies had waned six months after vaccination, the company said, but the third shot boosted antibodies to an even higher point than was seen after the initial shots, even though the booster was just half the original dose. The increased protection was “achieved across age groups, notably in older adults (ages 65 and above),” the company said. ”

Moderna made the announcement in a press release, but the research has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Pfizer has also asked for authorization for a booster dose of the vaccine Pfizer-BioNTech. The FDA has scheduled a meeting for September 17th to discuss the need for boosters for the general population.”

September 2 2021

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/immuno.html

” What are the risks of vaccinating individuals with an additional dose?”

” There is limited information about the risks of receiving an additional dose of vaccine, and the safety, efficacy, and the benefit of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine for immune-compromised people continues to be evaluated. So far, reactions reported after the third mRNA dose were similar to that of the second dose: fatigue and pain at injection site were the most commonly reported side effects, and overall, most symptoms were mild to moderate.

However, as with the two-dose series, serious side effects are rare, but may occur. ”

September 24 2021

John’s Hopkins in its on-line vaccination guidance has this about who the government agencies are recommending, primarily, that get a third shot, that largely echoes those of the CDC:

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/booster-shots-and-third-doses-for-covid19-vaccines-what-you-need-to-know

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• This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by OscarCP.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by OscarCP.

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doriel

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I already took the third booster a month ago together with this year’s FLU vaccine.
There were no health effects and I feel fine.

Total COVID-19 death already surpassed 5 millions. COVID0-19 deaths in the last days are at rate of 8000 deaths per day or 5 deaths every minute.

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OscarCP

Alex, how many months after the second shot, which vaccine, and did you consult with some doctor, read, or heard somewhere when to do it?

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I’m in my late 70’s and got my first and second Pfizer shots in February as part of the first group (Medical Professional group 1a) because of my age being over 75. I’ve been closely following the situation in the USA so I was aware a few minutes after the FDA authorized a third booster for those over 75 (and certain other groups). I knew the CDC was expected to authorize a third booster for those 65 and older the next day. This was on a Wednesday and I immediately accessed my account at VAMS where I had registered originally to get the first and second shots.

VAMS offered me the third shot and I scheduled it for the next available appointment (two days away). I was a little perturbed when by the next morning I had not received the required questionnaire as that has to be completed before you can access your QR code to be printed or saved on your cell phone. I still had not received it by the next morning (day of the appointment). VAMS assured me though that I still had the appointment for that afternoon and that it was for the third shot at our local hospital and I was able to access my QR code.

I drove into town and up to the hospital that afternoon to the designated location for all Covid vaccinations. I presented my QR code but the workers then asked me an odd question – whether I was there for my first or second shot. I replied “For my third booster”. The replies were puzzled looks and “huh”? The upshot of it was that they were not even close to being ready to give the third shot to anyone! The reason being the paperwork…in particular the changes the hospital would need to make and the “information sheets” given to the patients would need to be made up and printed. I was told I was the TENTH PERSON to be turned away that day because the hospital was not ready to give out the third boosters! Also, evidently the tech side was not ready either as they didn’t realize that VAMS was taking appointments reservations for the third shot starting immediately after FDA approval two days earlier.

I was turned away not because they did not have sufficient supply of the vaccine to give out third shots to those seeking them who met the criteria to get them, but because they were not prepared with the paperwork! Geez…..I was advised to make another appointment via VAMS for no earlier than Oct 4 (ten days later) to give them enough time to get the paperwork together. I have an appointment for Oct 7. Given the high risk of death if I were to get Covid 19 (simply because of my age), I have always intended to get the vaccination and any boosters. I don’t see that we elders have a choice and I no longer (did earlier in the pandemic though) see that younger groups have a choice either because of the risk of breakthroughs for the elderly if the younger groups refuse this booster. The privileged nations futzed around earlier and waited too long and now there is no hope of “herd immunity” so we all need to get vaccinated and keep up with any boosters offered.

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wavy, Charlie, OscarCP

OscarCP wrote:

Alex, how many months after the second shot, which vaccine, and did you consult with some doctor, read, or heard somewhere when to do it?

All shots were pfizer. 6 months after the second shot. There was no need for consult as the boost has been approved by health authorities for everyone age 12+

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OscarCP

This pretty much sums up the current situation:

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

Officially, only those who have had 2 Pfizer shots qualify for the Pfizer booster.

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Charlie, OscarCP

Who should get the booster shot?
(In the good old Land of the Free and Home of Myself.)

Says the article linked by DrBonzo:

“Older adults and 50-64 year old people with medical conditions”

I am guessing that I am one of those “older adults”, as distinct from the 50 – 64 year olds and the rest.
For now the official recommendations here, in the USA, are for taking the Pfizer; I am waiting for as long as around Thanksgiving (November 25th), that should be less than a week short of six months since second shot and so OK, and not prepared to wait longer, for the reasons given at the very beginning of this thread. So I hope by then the list of “which vaccines” will include the Moderna among the already approved choices. And that a Moderna third shot does not turn one’s hear green, or just kills one. One practical question would be if one can walk to a pharmacy, show the arm and pointing say “here” and get the shot, or needs to prove something, for example how long ago one got the second shot. I am waiting to learn those things, sooner if possible, and that is my own selfish motive for starting this thread.

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wavy

The case for a Moderna booster shot is currently under review. At such time as it may be approved, that approval will likely come with a required wait time between the 2nd shot and the booster. A vaccine provider may refuse to give a booster to anyone who cannot provide credible evidence of which vaccine they received and when they received it.

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SueW, Charlie

DrBonzo: I really meant, and sorry for not being clearer about it, whether (as remains to be seen) one would be able to get the third shot, as it looks to me is possible to do at the moment, by making an appointment with a short waiting period, at any time, by just walking in a supermarket pharmacy and asking to have it scheduled, or making a phone call, or online. Unlike earlier times, when people kept checking online at all hours of day or night to see if they could find somewhere an open slot to make an appointment — and then considered themselves lucky if they actually did make one and, when went there, found that it had NOT been cancelled or postponed, as Mele20 tells us the sad story of an opposite outcome, in a previous comment.

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wavy

OscarCP wrote:

whether (as remains to be seen) one would be able to get the third shot, as it looks to me is possible to do at the moment, by making an appointment with a short waiting period, at any time, by just walking in a supermarket pharmacy and asking to have it scheduled, or making a phone call, or online.

For me, the answer is “yes”, but it is more than just asking to have it scheduled. In my case, there was a questionnaire to answer first.

My first two shots were Pfizer, the last one in early February, so more than 6 months have passed since then. I got them at one of the city’s mass vaccination sites, operated by one of the city’s major hospitals.

Locally, there are no mass vaccination sites any longer. According to my physician, one has to get the booster at a local grocery/pharmacy. I went to the http://www.kroger.com/vaccine site and answered a questionnaire there.

The questionnaire asked me what condition or category I was in (18 yrs+, 50yrs+, 65yrs+, pregnant, diabetes, healthcare worker), I could choose up to 3 vaccines from a list (COVID-19 first/second dose, COVID-19 third dose, flu, Hep A, Hep B, Td or Tdap, Meningitis, Pneunomina, Shingles, HPV, Measles/Mumps/Rubella, Chickenpox), and then from the COVID-19 third dose choice, I was asked birthdate, if I had a weakened immune system and if not whether I fell into the 4 categories of eligibility and if yes, had I received the 2nd dose and which product I had had (Pfizer was the only choice), and the date of my second dose. I was approved and scheduled an appointment, set for 2 days later, after selecting a location.

Notice that my 1st and 2nd doses were received at a mass vaccination site and not at a local pharmacy. I do not know whether the questionnaire algorithm is capable of searching some database to see what product I had actually received and if I actually received the 2nd dose on the date on which I said I did in order to calculate the time after the 2nd dose.

It seems to me that you could go to a pharmacy URL to register for the vaccine to see if you pass muster on the questionnaire.

When I arrived at the site, I voluntarily showed my vaccine card. I don’t know what would have happened, if I had no card to show.

My understanding from local news reports, quoting a hospital director on video, is that the 3rd shot Pfizer shot (the booster) is exactly the same formula as the 1st and 2nd shots, i.e., no difference among the 3 Pfizer shots.

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OscarCP

WCHS: ” … there was a questionnaire to answer first.”

Yes, the form is something that I filled in more than once, so I do remember it. The reason for doing it more than once was, same as Mele20’s: “paperwork.” I had my turn lost.

Then it turned out that to get registered anywhere on line (while self-isolating) one had to participate in what was a game of “shoot at the moving duckie.” So it took me over three months and some friend’s help to get mi first shot, the second then being scheduled right away and, actually, holding true all the way to my second shot.
And all that, while I was being classified as first in line, by age, to get my shots “a tempo subito, Maestro!”

This strange nightmare finally went away when vaccine started to be generally available (and it was not being poached so much by well-to do foreigners parachuting in to get shots they could not get at home). Now, instead, as you correctly point out, one goes to the neighborhood supermarket to say Hi! to the people one knows, and know you back there, and fill in and hand back the completed  formulaire, then a time for the shot is given, and then it is kept.

I hope this is still so and stays so at least until later this November, when I understand it *might* be long enough after my second shot, and so OK to get a third, unless my physician tells me otherwise, and preferably before the stratospheric infection peaks of, and for a while after, the merry season that starts with Thanksgiving rise high up into the skies above.

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OscarCP wrote:

as you correctly point out, one goes to the neighborhood supermarket to say Hi! to the people one knows, and know you back there, and fill in and hand back the completed formulaire, then a time for the shot is given, and then it is kept.

I actually answered the questionnaire and made the appointment at the chain grocery/pharmacy’s (Kroger) URL, i.e., online. No need to say ‘Hi’ to anyone. The grocery/pharmacy is so big that they don’t know me personally. I am only a birthdate to look up.

FYI from a lab scientist that did this testing.

When we first create an antibody to a foreign body we create a generic IgM antibody which the immune system refines over 9 – 12 weeks to better fit with the antigen.  When the IgM antibody matches the foreign antigen exactly, the immune system starts making the antibody in the IgG form.  The IgG form of the antibody is smaller, binds faster, and triggers the Compliment system of enzymes which is what actually kills the viral cell and prevents it from attaching to other cells (aka not transmitting an active virus).  If the amount of IgG antibodies drops below a infection threshold (amount of circulating antibody required to prevent infection) and no longer able to kill all the virus particles that comes with an exposure you can become infected and transmit the virus.  What the infection threshold is, how long the initial  antibody level will last is different for each disease and we had to learn what is was for Co-vid – 19.  The antibody level must be kept above the infection threshold level to provide immunity.  A similar thing happens with other immunizations such as tetanus.

The booster triggers what is called an amnestic response which produces way more antibody than the initial response.  The booster is more effective if given after the initial response is totally finish.  The initial response is totally finish when you see a drop in the IgG antibody levels, which for Coviod-19 appears to be on average about 16 weeks with some people reaching 20 weeks before the levels start dropping.  The CDC recommends 6 month (24 weeks)  to be sure your initial response is completed and you will get a maximum amnestic response with high level of the IgG antibody.  I suggest waiting at least 20 weeks before taking the booster.

Note: One ingredient the body uses to make all these antibodies is Vitamin C which cannot be stored in the body.  As your body makes antibodies it will be limited to the amount of vitamin C you have consumed in the last 24 hours.  After any immunization it is better to increase your vitamin C intake on a daily basis to provide your body adequate Vitamin C to make all the antibodies the rest of your immune system can make.

 

HTH, Dana:>>

HTH, Dana:))

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wavy, DrBonzo, OscarCP

Drcard:)) : Thanks for explaining this well.

There is something further to it, and that is knowing how long takes the decline in antibodies to get to the point when there is no longer sufficient protection from the acquired immunity, following either natural infection or vaccination, assuming this two can be lumped together, if not, let me stay just with the latter.

And for whom: in other words, what is the break-down by age, sex, condition (e.g., pregnant vs. non-pregnant, with some allergies … ), type of vaccine, etc., of when taking the third shot becomes a good idea. I suspect we are nowhere near to knowing that, because probably, so far, there is not enough data about the 3rd shot to make such an analysis with results of high enough significance.

So we’ll just have to go with what we happen to know, not with all that we wish to know.

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WCHS wrote:

My first two shots were Pfizer, the last one in early February, so more than 6 months have passed since then

After 6 months from second shot your COVID-19 immunity is down to 40%.

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OscarCP

My wife and I both got our second Pfizer vaccines in mid Feb. and are planning to get the Pfizer Booster at a supermarket close to where we live in about a week. We had no problem, didn’t need an appointment, and were told to just walk in preferably on a Tuesday.  We also just got our Flu shots over a week ago.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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DrBonzo, OscarCP, GoneToPlaid

Thanks, Charlie: “… didn’t need an appointment, and were told to just walk in preferably on a Tuesday.”

That has been my understanding of the present situation, but have not tried it in practice yet. I’ll make sure to ask the pharmacist next time at the supermarket. Then I would hope it stays so.

Good luck the two of you with the third shot.

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Charlie

I follow some virologists and epidemiologists on Twitter. Here are some Twitter threads which you all might be interested in reading:

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1436389153533464597

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1435580267603894279

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1432579722362376198

 

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OscarCP, DrBonzo

Well: what else can you expect, knowing that Moderna was funded to the tune of US$ 1000,000 and then cheered along all the way by no other than our very own National Treasure, Dolly Parton herself.

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Mele20

The skinny is that while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are extremely similar and are based on the same mRNA technology, the Pfizer shots contained less vaccine than the Moderna shots. This is why, at least for the time being, that there is a push to get Pfizer booster shots into the arms of all who received the Pfizer vaccine. There will have to be a booster shot for Moderna, yet Pfizer correctly is what needs to be done first.

Waning of vaccine effectiveness is seen in both vaccines 4 to 6 months after receiving the 2nd dose, yet is seen significantly more so with Pfizer since the Pfizer vaccine used smaller doses. On the bright side, initial studies indicate that a 3rd dose of Pfizer puts you way up there in terms of renewed protection, and possibly even better than your peak protection which your body achieved a few weeks after you received your 2nd shot.

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Mele20, wavy, DrBonzo, OscarCP, Charlie

GonetoPlaid: ” There will have to be a booster shot for Moderna, yet Pfizer correctly is what needs to be done first.

Waning of vaccine effectiveness is seen in both vaccines 4 to 6 months after receiving the 2nd dose, yet is seen significantly more so with Pfizer since the Pfizer vaccine used smaller doses.”

This explanation makes sense of why it is Pfizer first.

I wonder if a corollary might be that for those who took already twice the stronger Moderna, a third shot with Pfizer — that going by what you wrote, those with two shots of it already get a big immune response boost — may not work even better. Although probably taking Moderna for the third time wouldn’t hurt either. Of course, this all remains to be seen, being all new to science, so I hope and wait.

And this is why having this type of exchange of information is the reason I started this thread, as already stated, only in other words, at the beginning: to exchange Covid-19 vaccine sport cards.

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The thing we all have to keep in mind is that even some vaccinated people have gotten Covid.  They mostly don’t die or get severe cases but we can still get it. The booster will help a lot but there is a very good chance we will need additional booster shots, similar to the way we have to do with the Flu.

It would be great if we could wipe this Covid virus out, but it’s not looking like that’s going to happen very soon with things the way they are . . . I’ll leave it go at that.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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OscarCP

And that is why, regardless of how many shots, when, I might have received already, I’ll keep wearing a mask during significant infectious waves, while, as politely as possible, maintaining a certain distance from someone talking to me, or someone convulsing with a hacking cough in my presence. Or refrain from going to crowded fun places And to anyone who does not appreciate my choice of facial attire, or a certain physical standoffishness: it’s my own business.

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wavy, GoneToPlaid, Charlie

I continue to wear a mask no matter what.

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wavy

This whole tragic charade reminds me of when the spanish invaded central america centuries ago, inca’s killed defending their own, looted and the remaing left with disease as their localised immune systems could not fight the foreign bacteria. I’ll still be wearing a mask regardless of boosters.

Then there’s ye olde tale ‘beware the yellow pearl’, has it actually come to fruition without realization?

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wavy, OscarCP

What’s “beware the yellow pear”? Never heard of it. A search just now on the Web brought only annoyance, nothing relevant. Unless there is no “yellow pear” and this was just a tease? Or that saying refers, mistaking the fruit, to one apple from the garden of the Hesperides, that was yellow because it was made of solid gold, and that was used to make a lot of trouble by a resentful goddess prone to making trouble, so no one liked her — and such big trouble that took two books attributed to Homer to get over and done with it.

Be that as it may, infections diseases are no joke:

As it happened to the Incas, also, and rolled into one, so it was with the Mayas, the Aztecs, the millions of others in the humid plains of South America. And all that without those Conquistadores really trying.

So, lucky that a Pale Horse was riding along with them, because with all the fancy armored suits, swords, horses and tubes that spit fiery death, they were just a few and no match for the millions up in arms and willing to die, if necessary, to extirpate them from their lands. The one other thing they had going for them was their own cunning, that some of them used wilily to exploit the superstitious fears of their opponents.

Herd immunity was not around to be of much use until too late and over the course of centuries

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Search for ‘yellow pearl’, not ‘yellow pear’.

DrBonzo, thanks but … Found it and don’t get it about the connection with plagues past and third shots of covid vaccine now, etc.

See here what I mean: Phil Lynott, Yellow Perl ca. 1980:

We all must beware of the yellow pearl
The Yellow Pearl control, attack, attack, attack, attack
Yellow Pearl
It is foolish to venture into strange enchanted places
If they aren’t the places you want to be
Attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack
Is what we lack
We will arise
We will control
We will command
We will patrol
It is foolish under the guise of love and liberty
That we should capitalize and rob and fell
The poor for the socialistic tree
We will arise
We will control
Attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack

etc.,etc.

One view on this:

http://www.voices.pitt.edu/TeachersGuide/Unit9/Yellow%20Pearl.htm

So I do not get it: this song might mean anything one likes, besides some Asian-Americans’ own interpretation linked just above, that is probably correct, but not unique.
It is always so, at least for me, with these obscure, crypto-cryptic songs of that period.

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I don’t claim to get it either OscarCP!

The only connection I see veers off into a political realm making me hesitant to say much. But I’ll take a stab at it anyway. To me the lyrics imply an attempted takeover of “Western countries” by countries that have an eastern coast on the Pacific Ocean. Toss that in with some theories of where and how Covid 19 originated and one might assume one possible way the takeover might happen.

I see! Those darned Australians! I knew it! Mighty sneaky of them, if you asked me!

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

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My wife and I have Kaiser Permanente Senior Advantage (aka Medicare Part C); we had our Moderna 1st and 2nd shots Jan/Feb, and Mar/Apr. Kaiser has been excellent in keeping its members apprised of the changing stati.
This is snipped from an email Sep 24.

Hmm! 85 and older, eh PaulK? So they really don’t want to use a lot of Pfizer on the walker crowd? I am not entirely sure why, but I get that impression.

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Sorry, my mistake; resized it too much.

The key parameter for your descision would be, how many antibodes you actually have in your blood after privous vaccine/illness.

It can be damaging for you to get 3rd shot (high temperatures, muscle pain, headache), if your level of antibodes is still high. Your body can beat the illness itself, if you still have the antibodes. Test for antibodes costs approx 20 EUR here.

I went through covid, I still have the antibodes.

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OscarCP

It can be damaging for you to get 3rd shot, if your level of antibodes is still high.

How so?

The booster will stimulate you to make more antibodies and only increase your immunity.  There are no negative effects of having to much antibody (other than the demand on our bodies to make the antibodies)….we do it with all the other vaccines such as hepatis B vaccine.  Drop in antibody levels is due to lack of stimuli (exposure to the virus).  When no exposure appears for a long time period, the body does not see a need to keep making so much (antibodies are protein that live only days to a few weeks and must be constantly remade by your lymphocytes).  This “lack of need” causes the antibodies levels to drop.  Stimuli in the form of exposure to the virus or booster will convince the body that the antibody level must be kept up.

In the medical field: Personnel that do not have exposure to hepatis B often need booster shots while those personnel with exposure to hepatis B patients seldom need booster shots as their antibody level remains high.  Exposure keeps your antibody level higher.

Also, wearing the mask is to prevent the person wearing the mask from spreading the virus.  Only a special mask fitted on your face by someone trained to do so can prevent the virus from infecting you.  Also, anyone with facial hair can NOT be fitted to this special mask because you cannot make an air tight seal with the skin.

If you follow those infections of people with prior vaccination you will find that upon recovery from this milder infection they have some of the highest antibody levels seen.  Their body now understands to keep the antibody levels high.

 

HTH, Dana:>>

 

HTH, Dana:))

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wavy, OscarCP, doriel

My doctor said, that if you already have sufficient level of antibodes, it basically means, your body is able to fight the virus and its not possible for the virus to spread inside your body. If your level of antibodes is below this level, booster shot is usefull. Thats what are booster shots for – if you already have low level of antibodes – and for me, the doctor is who should decide.

If you inject weakened virus (or the part that stimulates the process of creation of antibodes) and you have sufficient level of antibodes, the body is not prepared for that. Its a situation, that your body is just not prepared for, its unnatural situation, because the virus should not be in your blood in this case. The process of creating antibodes and fighting virus costs your body energy, you are weakened durind the infection.

Wearing the mask can aslo lower your level of antibodes in the blood, because you are not exposed to small ammounts of the virus in the air. Immunity is stimuled if you are exposed to the virus.
Its a complicated case, but I believe what my doctor says and my level of antibodes is still high.
Stay safe and I wish solid health to all AW readers and contributors!

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? says:

Hong Kong flu, anyone?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_flu

or “yellow peril,”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril

what about the new red pill?

https://www.merck.com/news/merck-and-ridgebacks-investigational-oral-antiviral-molnupiravir-reduced-the-risk-of-hospitalization-or-death-by-approximately-50-percent-compared-to-placebo-for-patients-with-mild-or-moderat/

me, i’m just enjoying the beautiful morning…

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OscarCP

“Hong Kong Flu” Of Dear, it brings back a memory of my misspent youth!

I had just immigrated into Australia and caught it on my way there. I was in bad shape, but I needed to travel by train from Sydney, where I was, to the National Capital, Canberra, where a guy who was going to recommend me for an engineer job in Sydney with the local branch of ITT lived (he did, I got it). So I did it, following the famous injunction of Rear-Admiral Farragut in the Battle of Mobile Bay: “Full ahead and d**m the torpedoes!” (depending on whom you ask). So I just went there and did that and did not die, then got that job, then a whole lot of other things happened, good and not so good, and now I am here, writing this.

But that one flu certainly was no joke and I was lucky, because it was a killer and there were then no flu vaccines, or even antivirals that did you any good, if you were sick with it already — none whatsoever, then.

All told, I have had the flu five times, but none since I started, many years ago, to get my flu shot every October without fault, in what is nearly autumn here, where I live now. Including once in Japan and once in the UK, places where I was staying at the time. Or I might have had it, but it was so mild, thanks probably to the vaccine, that I just though it was a common cold and did not count it as a flu.

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The pill that cuts in half the chances of ill patients to die:

It seems to work, although I understand that more, independent testing is required to say for sure. But if it is what it is said to be, then I would say: about time!

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

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Moderator here:  My recommendation is to talk to your Doctor.

This really is not the venue for medical information so I ask that you kindly refrain from starting any new topics on this or related topics.

Thank you for your understanding.  Thread is now closed.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Mr. Austin