The US purchased 171 million bivalent BA.5 booster shots; less than 10% have been given.

[Celerity]

There's a new wave on]the way, fueled by BQ.1.1.
A booster is your best shot to add protection vs severe Covid

Link to tweet

Many Americans Ignore Covid Boosters as Winter, Variants Loom

https://www.wsj.com/articles/many-americans-ignore-covid-boosters-as-winter-variants-loom-11666004403?mod=Searchresults_pos4&page=1

[Elessar Zappa]

1. I got one.

I’m hoping this one lasts a year.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

2. I read some speculation that people are waiting

Due to having COVID over the summer and being told to wait 3 months. That's why I haven't gotten mine yet, I'll be getting it on Friday.

[Dorian Gray]

6. Epidemiologists

said that six months after infection is the sweet spot, but that's gaming the system, and if you're able to before then, do it. (My husband is waiting until November, as that will be six months after for him, and a month before the holidays.) Again, there is an element of gaming the system.

I get an annual flu shot, so I"m totally willing to get an annual this shot. But I think after this strain, we need to make it annual and not guess when we can get a booster every few months.

[Nay]

19. Agreed. I got the 3rd booster just because it was to target newer strains, but I don't plan

on getting a booster every few months for the rest of my life. If I have had COVID, it went entirely unnoticed by me, but I suspect I've been infected but was asymptomatic -- I had returned to the gym, eaten out in restaurants, etc., and have surely been near infected people. I still wear a mask to retail stores.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

3. "Fewer" than 10%.

I had my latest round (#5) on the very first day it was available to me.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. As a single quantity, "less."

Because it's understandable either way, it's really not that big a deal.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

10. No, it is "fewer than 10% of the shots."

Basic English grammar.

[Pinback]

17. Less than 30 percent of Americans know this.

Sorry, couldn’t resist!

I’m an advocate of accurate grammar and usage myself, so I always appreciate it when people pipe up about these things, even though some folks think we’re snobs.

Excuse me, my Volvo is almost at the coffee shop. I’ll be ordering my latte shortly.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

18. LOL

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. Fewer is used with countable things. Less is also used idiomatically with some countable things

that are treated as a single entity, such as a dollar amount: "It costs less than $500." Basic English usage.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

21. Yes, and shots are countable.

That's why it is correct to say "fewer" as opposed to "less."

Thank you for helping prove the point.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

22. Listing a percentage is not counting.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

23. A percentage of "shots."

[WhiskeyGrinder]

25. A percentage. Not a "number of."

[Just A Box Of Rain]

26. "of shots"

Shots are countable. Slots is plural.

[Sanity Claws]

4. Might also be due to waits for appointments

I have one scheduled for 11/10. It was hard for me to an appointment time next to a day off. I have had bad reactions to all previous shots and wanted to make sure that the next day was free for me.

[Dorian Gray]

5. They're really only giving them in pharmacies here

It's frustrating, but that's just the way it is. And a lot of the pharmacies require online booking (not accessible to a lot of the population. My 80+ year old parents don't know how to book that way, and they're the ones who are most in need of this.

I got mine a few weeks ago, and I told my mom I would set up an appointment for her. But she wants to wait to talk to her doctor to make sure he recommends it, and they're not offering it in his office. It's stupid.

I belong to One Medical in NYC. The only office offering shots is in SCARSDALE. None in NYC. I'd prefer her to get it at the doctor's office bc she's 12 and this is a bigger dosage than the earlier ones that she handled well. That's me being cautious. So I have to find a day off from school for her.

It's stupid.

The roll out has been terrible here.

[Sympthsical]

9. I saw that at my CVS

When I went in for my booster about two or so weeks ago, an older woman (late 70s-ish) was there picking up prescriptions for her and her husband. She saw the sign for the new boosters and asked about them and wanted to make an appointment. The tech said she had to do it online.

I thought that was weird and a hassle. I understand why they do it - you enter in all your info, insurance, etc - so it's just in and out more or less. But there needs to be an in-person option. I know asking my mom to do anything online that isn't bingo is just begging for disaster.

[Dorian Gray]

12. The people most vulnerable

are the least likely to utilize online booking. It stinks.

[albacore]

30. My pharmacy - a Safeway store - has walk-ins, too. I was there...

...shopping, and I saw the sign, got my shot, and finished shopping.
This shit is NOT going away.

[Irish_Dem]

11. Primary Care docs were left out of the covid vaccine loop.

The reasoning is that primary care offices did not have the required cold storage.

And they would not vaccinate a large number of patients so the vaccine would expire and go to waste.

[Dorian Gray]

13. I know, but they need to figure it out

because there are a lot of older people and parents of younger children who would like to get it done at a doctor's office. For a number of reasons.

It's the best shot at getting our older generations (most vulnerable) vaccinated. And clinics at rehab homes, old folks homes, community spaces (like houses of worship).

If pharmacies allowed walk ins, it would be different. But they aren't, and that isn't okay here.

[Irish_Dem]

27. Yes if PCPs could vaccinate, it would increase the number of those vaccinated.

My PCP told me that docs were not getting reimbursed for giving covid vaccines.
So they would be losing money.

So it seems like some sort of deal was cut with the pharmacies and insurance companies.

[DURHAM D]

7. For some reason local Walgreens has the vaccine but won't give it

unless you meet some criteria they have created that makes no sense. They say it is CDC guidelines. It is not. They made it up and it makes no sense. They should be charged with fraud.

The local Kroger related pharmacy does not have Moderna.

Had to get my 5th shot at the local county health department.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

16. There are Moderna shortages I believe

At least there were in Sept.

[W_HAMILTON]

14. I wish they would make them as easy to administer as flu shots.

My elderly mother has in-home visits for her healthcare now and while they can give her the flu shot, they can't give her a COVID booster (presumably due to the storage requirements). She's pretty much homebound and isn't in good enough shape to even leave the house right now, which means I can't get her to get her booster.

She fell and ended up in the emergency room one day and I tried to see if they could give her the hospital, but they said they couldn't.

We were recommended to our state's department of health that supposedly has a list of people they will visit to give the booster to, but they "only go around once the list gets long enough" and she's been on it for months now. I would hope a new booster would mean that more people would seek out the service so we could get her the booster, but apparently not. This is also a red state and from some other interactions I've had with various state agencies, I'm sure they are just fine not giving boosters out.

[MissB]

29. They could make it that easy

My employer does annual flu shot clinics, where you can schedule a time slot for yourself, spouse and kids (I think over 12?).

This year they added the bivalent Covid booster.

I walked in at my scheduled time, handed my forms to the check-in person and walked over to the first available nurse. She administered the flu vaccine and then I walked over to the next nurse who administered the Covid booster. Easy-peasy, out in less than a half hour.

[W_HAMILTON]

31. My guess is they have the cold storage set up on site.

You can't really do that if you are traveling from location to location throughout the day, though.

I'm certain it could be made easier, though, especially given the people that need this sort of service are the most vulnerable among us. They could have the cold storage set up at a central location and just go and pick up a dose as needed, etc. Unfortunately, it just seems like enough people are able to be served through the current means that no one seems to care much about the few that fall through the cracks...

[Bettie]

15. My doctor's office won't give me one

because they say if I've had the first two and then two boosters, I should never need any more.

I'm going to go to the pharmacy to get a bivalent. It does, however, make me feel even less confident about our local clinic.

[Elessar Zappa]

28. Yeah, you need a new doc.

What he/she told you is total bullshit.

[Bettie]

35. They also won't do flu and covid vaccines on the same day

but the next nearest primary care would be 40 minutes away.

[Chakaconcarne]

24. Have supplies of the vaccine have fully dispersed?

Not sure that they have.

[VGNonly]

32. I had the 5th shot

about 3 weeks back. I had Moderna for the 1st 4, Pfizer 5th.

[Chainfire]

34. My wife and I just walked in from our 5th shot.

All previous were Moderna, this one Pfizer. We also got a flu shot while we were at it.

I just hope that our Pfizer chip doesn't interfere with my Moderna Chips. We got ours at the grocery store pharmacy and both got $20.00 grocery gift certificates for getting the shots....go figure.

My wife has felt poorly the day after the other shots and boosters, we will see how this one goes. I have not had as much as a sore arm with any of them. I ran into an old high school friend, at the pharmacy, who was fully vaccinated, he said that some months ago he tested positively for Covid, but had had zero symptoms. Perhaps that liberal science works...

[Johonny]

36. I got mine

[ancianita]

37. Will get mine when my booster schedule says I can, which is November.

Otherwise, pharmacies turn me down. Thanks for your post.